1985: Music defined by radio and siblings

105.7 WAPL - The Rockin Apple

I grew up with nothing around my house but cornfields. This area of the boondocks was called Darboy USA, a "suburb" of the city of Appleton. Appleton was a city of 66,000 at the time. One thing I could see from my yard was the radio antenna for 105.7 WAPL, The Rockin' Apple. "The best classic rock, the best new rock." When you are a child, you see this long radio antenna with flashing red lights. Being on the gullible side, I didn't have a frame of reference for size... it could have been an antenna or a tower! I had just assumed that EVERY song on the radio was being played LIVE inside that tower somewhere, hence the flashing lights - that's where the bands play! I don't know if I imagined the radio antenna was like a big elevator shaft, with rooms to perform going all the way up or what.

For example, if "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith was playing on the radio, I assumed Aerosmith was in town playing it live inside that radio antenna. It's funny because I don't remember anyone ever telling me this... it was just one of those early creative theories I had as a five year old that couldn't be further from the truth.

As I grew up, 105.7 WAPL wasn't as cool as I thought it was. It was just the coolest available. My gripe is this... they played a TON of Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Beatles, Grateful Dead and The Eagles constantly. Nothing against these bands, but I grew an distaste to them over time. Tommy and Mike even helped coin a saying "if Bruce is 'the Boss,' then I QUIT." Haha.

Nowadays, the only one I can really stomach of the bands I mentioned above is the Rolling Stones and some Springsteen. This overplaying of music was the first sign that radio stations can RUIN good bands for you. In these days of the mid 80's, they wouldn't play "heavy" music, even if it was popular. They wouldn't play Metallica during the day. If you called in to request it, they wouldn't even take that as a request until after 10:00pm. It was considered way too heavy for daytime airplay. The heaviest you could get during the day was probably Hendrix. Thank God for Jimi. To their credit, they played a lot of other good stuff too. This is where my musical tastes started to develop.

I was just really lucky to have an older sister and two older brothers. Being the youngest came with all sorts of perks. I wasn't "up to me" to seek and find what was cool. I was able to soak up what my siblings liked and usually that's what I liked to. I had my own identity since all kids a certain age like certain things... like He-Man and Star Wars and such. But when I was little, my older brothers had a rock cover band when they were in HighSchool. It was called Defiance.

Defiance

Their shows were often really elaborate with lots of speakers, pro sound, and stage lights... just crazy. They practiced in my basement and my mom & dad would buy Darboy Fried Chicken (not to be confused with KFC) and they'd stay for dinner. My dad helped out with a Keyboard, PA and other essential equipment... and supported them with funds to get started. The next thing you know they are playing bars all over... even opened for Ratt and Lita Ford at Green Bay's Brown Country Arena! My oldest Brother Tommy wielded this white Gibson Explorer, while Mike did lead vocals and played keyboards. That's the music.. how about the dress? We are talking about leather pants, bandanas, 80's sunglasses... the works. They covered all sorts of Bon Jovi, Ozzy, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Rush, Loverboy, Prince, etc. A great party band indeed.

Their guitar player was this kid named Michael Boyle from Appleton. I looked up to Michael Boyle quite a bit... all of them really. But I always wanted to play the guitar. He was a flashy player... had really puffy hair, and my brothers would jokingly call him Buckwheat after the Little Rascals. So that's what Tommy and Mike called him all the time. After HS, Defiance fizzled out... and I wouldn't see Boyle again for about ten or so years. So let's fast forward to 1994. He was working at my favorite guitar store when I was a teenager, Henri's Music in Appleton. I recognized him and said "Buckwheat!" You should have seen the look on his face. Saying that meant I was old school, but I looked too young to know him from that time. I'm Tommy & Mike Bongers' little brother. Being known as one of my "siblings' little brother" was usually a good thing, so it never bothered me one bit.

1984: Happy Rock Pt.2 - Bon Jovi

Ritchie Samboa and John Bon Jovi (still) have some of the best vocal harmonies in music (see Mtv Unplugged video at bottom.) "ooh She's a Little Run Away" was the first song I really heard from Bon Jovi. Wanted Dead or Alive was a great one too. These bands came out at a time where as a kid I never really SAW who did these songs. You would hear them on the radio. I was SO young I thought that all songs on the radio were performed live at the radio station. Didn't quite put it together that the radio stations were playing the same records we had in the basement. Somehow, the radio was just different.



Album covers didn't always have their faces on the artwork... and I was too young to pay that much attention. The advent of Mtv, rock magazines and advertising really put a FACE on rock and roll. Bon Jovi had one of the faces that smiled and was really inviting to his music.



Yeah, the "chicks" really dug Bon Jovi, but I didn't think about that stuff. I just thought he'd be a nice guy. And happy all the time. Again, rock with a smile! It was just a stray from the norm. Is the the start of "hair bands?" Or did Bon Jovi just perfect it?

Tommy and Mike's band Defiance covered "Runaway." The keyboards in it sort of remind me of "chopsticks" so I was able to recognize it quickly as a child. I got to see Defiance shows when I was little. I remember sitting on my dad's shoulders and watching them. It was really REALLY loud. There was a wall of speakers, spot lights, and a crazy rock show. It was seemingly the closest you could get to "big time" for high school kids. It really made me wish I was older so I could have been in the band too.

Another interesting thing to note as long as I'm talking about Bon Jovi, I can say that Mtv's inspiration for their Unplugged series came from this (below). There would be many defining moments with Mtv Unplugged... and one of best things Mtv ever did.

Van Halen... JUMP! 1984

In the early to mid 80's our house didn't have cable TV. Not even close. There we only three houses on our entire street. So even when cable TV was branching out to more areas, our street was a low priority for years. How my brothers lived without Mtv through highschool escapes me. Although, I'll get to this when I go through my H.S. years, how Mtv was in the 90's was vastly different than what you see it as today.

Back to my house growing up. A house without cable TV must greatly rely on VHS tapes, rented or self recorded. The label on a certain VHS tape was an orange post-it note with no adhesive, so it was Scotch taped to the video cassette. It was clearly labeled as the Van Halen Video for Jump! I figure one of my brother's friends taped it for one of them. I should probably ask to see if they remember.

I watched this video over and over. Eddie Van Halen played BOTH the guitar and keyboards in the song. I didn't think that was possible! They jumped in sync, it looked like they were having so much fun on stage. Everyone in the band was smiling. Happy rock!? I loved it!



My brothers in Defiance covered that song too. Mike taught me how to play the first five or so notes on his keyboard. I thought I was a rockstar at that point. Two fingers, not unlike "chopsticks" combined with the lowest key on the keyboard.

After Led Zeppelin broke up, people have said "there will never be another Led Zeppelin." I think Van Halen was the Led Zeppelin of the 80's. Flashy frontman, guitarist with pizzaz, killer drummer & bass player. I mean these guys were HUGE.

The album 1984 had WAY more hits on it than Jump. It also featured Panama, Hot For Teacher, and countless others. Everyone knows of record sales. Gold is a half million sales, platinum is for a million sales. Diamond is the 10 million mark. In 1999, VH's 1984 hit the diamond mark.

Eddie Van Halen single-handedly changed the guitar industry. Suddlenly old "vintage" guitars were worthless. Everyone wanted guitars with more frets and a huge Floyd Rose Whammy bar! Many lesser known guitar companies took advantage of this, while the big wig Fender and Gibson stagnated in quality and design. Word is you could pick up a 1950's Fender or Gibson for only a couple hundred dollars... in today's market those same guitars are worth hundreds of thousands. Thus started the "wanker-generation" of guitar players that wouldn't die until Kurt Cobain and Nirvana almost a decade later.

Love him or hate him, Eddie Van Halen is one of the best guitar players EVER. He revolutionized the way we play guitar, and expanded the possibilities of what can be done on a guitar. Don't believe me? Watch this. Custodians became in demand because of all the drool left behind to be mopped up at local concert stadiums!