To sound like a geezer for a moment ("Why, this was all swamp land before it
became a shopping mall!"), in those pre-Internet days when one had to have
the instincts of a private detective to ferret out those pockets of pop
bliss through the tiniest of ads in the back of certain select music
magazines, Greg Shaw was one of the true flag wavers.

His JUKE BOX JURY column in CREEM magazine during the 1970s turned me on to
Slade, Raspberries, Sweet, and a zillion other acts and incredible 45s that
would have been otherwise lost to the mists of time.

More importantly, as a wannabe musician/high school geek stuck in blue
collar Moline, his BRITISH INVASION issue of BOMP magazine literally defined
my musical life. I went through that periodical page by page, rock group by
rock group, until I owned albums by every artist listed. (I had never even
heard of The Easybeats but thanks to BOMP, I snagged a copy of their FRIDAY
ON MY MIND album from a friend's older brother's closet--pop bliss indeed!)

Shaw trumpeted the likes of the Flamin' Groovies and somewhere in my own
closet, I still have the copy of "You Tore Me Down" issued on the BOMP
label.

What more can I say? The cool guy at the local record shop who knew
everything is gone.

Brad Harvey