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| From | "*Bill Holmes*" <bholmes_fm@msn.com> |
| Subject | Re: The Big Five |
| Date | Fri, 7 Feb 2003 07:41:05 -0500 |
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Bruce's original question asked about five BANDS that had that influence;
half of us are bending the rules and naming genres or periods of time! No
wonder survey results have a margin of error. He also said EARLIEST, so
while the Sex Pistols kicked my ass into gear (or "import punk singles" if I
want to cheat), that wasn't among the five EARLIEST. Nor would my jobs in
record stores, where I OWED money at the end of the work week. :)
Okay, the gloves are off - five THINGS...early things...life-changing things
* WMCA/WABC - dueling NYC AM radio stations who grabbed the whole pop music
thing by the horns and inserted themselves into it. "Top 20" countdowns
became one of the focal points of the week. And every night with that
cheesey little earplug coming out from the transistor radio under my pillow
so I could listen until I fell asleep...which I would fight madly, of
course. Started me buying 45s and I got my first personal record player.
* 16 Magazine - this was totally a teenage girl's magazine with floating
heads of Bobby Sherman or The Monkees and it wasn't anything close to
journalism, but t was the first magazine I found that wrote about musicians
and had interviews. I had to hide these like they were Penthouse or I'd have
a lot of explaining to do to my friends. Later when I found Rolling Stone
(it used to be so good...), Creem and others I found what I really wanted.
(I guess this started the voracious reading/mag buying part)
* TV! Shindig/Hullabaloo/Sullivan/American Bandstand would bring actual live
musicians into my house! Lit my Britpop fire which has yet to be quenched
all these years later. Made me wanna be a rock star. More records to buy.
More bands to research. It all started with the Ed Sullivan show, of course,
and continued through The Monkees and Don Kirschner's Rock Concert and
everything else.
* FM Radio - Alison Steele, The Nightbird. Vin Scelsa. DJs who not only were
passionate about their music and KNEW so much, but were informative and
would even take calls offline and chat with you if they sensed you were as
nuts as they were. Many recommendations for bands from thse chats besides
the myriad of talents that I was hearing for the first time - boy did this
widen my spectrum! Zappa...Pink Floyd...Cream.... I went to high school a
few towns away and had to take two buses home and found my first real record
shop in the town inbetween. Bin browsing...aaahhh!! (Flipping through CDs
will never be the same...you younger Auditeers missed something magical). I
still can't pass up a record store and actually plan visits in my
intineraries when I travel (as some of the Auditeers I have met over the
years can attest)
* Live rock and roll - My cousin started a band and played a basement gig, I
remember he did "Hang On Sloopy" and "Fever" and probably every other McCoys
cuts that existed (I love The McCoys!) It was sloppy and generic but it was
people I knew playing rock and roll. Then I went - by mistake - to see
Johnny Winter play in Florida. Didn't think this skinny albino liiked
anything at all like Jonathan Winters! My first rock concert is immortalized
on JOHNNY WINTER AND LIVE...still love Derringer.
still bleeding rock and roll
b
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