I assume that if you are reading this blog, you are a music lover and have musical memories that you draw on from time to time. I thought it would be fun to share a few of my musical memories this week. Not just any musical memory, because I have a ton, but those moments I remember that woke me up, shocked me, touched me or hell, slapped me in the face.
The year was 1977 and kids were wearing silk shirts and platform shoes and tight pants. They were also wearing gold chains and listening to disco. I was a sophomore in high school and like many other teens, trying to figure out where I fit in this crazy world. I wasn’t a good student or athlete so that wasn’t where my future was heading. So where would I go, what would I do?
I knew little but I knew one thing. Disco was ruining my life. How could I live in a world where even the music was against me? I had found David Bowie in 1973. I had found music that made me happy. Music that took my mind off of being a preteen with a much older brother and sister. Sure we still had Floyd and Zeppelin and the Stones, but I was growing tired of the repetitive nature of radio. And I was especially tired of Disco. EVERYTHING seemed to be Disco.
Then it happened — December 17, 1977, a Saturday night at approximately midnight. A geeky, glasses wearing dude with a guitar hit the first notes of a song I later learned was called “Watching the Detectives.” At that moment, I realized that music wasn’t all Disco. That somewhere, someone was playing music with passion. With a look and feel of someone who was saying “I don’t give a shit”. My eyes opened wide because, like Elvis Costello, I too didn’t give a shit. SLAP! Instead of seeing no future, I had a mission. I had to find out what else I was missing. But how?
It didn’t take me too long to find my answer. A year or so later on a Sunday night while trying to find something to listen to on my portable radio, I heard a sound through the static that sounded oddly like the musical style I heard from Elvis. I had found my education. I had found a show called “Yesterdays Now Music Today” on WXPN, a station out of the University of Pennsylvania.
Lee Paris shared music from artists I had never heard on commercial radio stations. That is where I first heard The Clash, The Sex Pistols, X, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, REM, The Dead Kennedys and countless others. This music was so far from Disco and what most of my peers were listening that it felt like it was mine. All mine. When I found people who listened to WXPN we instantly had a connection. THEY understood what I was feeling. They understood what REAL music was and how it could transform. They were my true friends. Even if we didn’t talk further or see each other again.
From that time forward my outlook on everything about life changed. Instead of taking things at face value or believing everything I read, heard or even saw, I became the type of person that asked questions and looked for solutions that weren’t obvious. If I didn’t like the music or the books or the television shows I’d search for something else. Something that makes me happy or causes me to seek out more information. I’m the same way now at work and play; it’s how I view every single day.
A musical SLAP in the face that changed my life. It brought me to a higher level of understanding of not only myself but of the world around me. So now I have a challenge for you. Add a musical moment that slapped you in the face. It could be the time you saw Zeppelin or went to Woodstock. It might be the day Jimi or Janice died. As long as it opened your eyes or stung you or touched you. It’s all fair game.