Roots Continued

Roots (70's to the early 80's Part 2)

Other than my parents always having some sort of music playing in our house, and ive been thinking about this...

my brother had a HUGE impact on me musically as a kid.

My brother is a rocker (although he listens to country too...i wont hold it against him)...he introduced me to now CLASSIC albums such as "Diver Down" by Van Halen, "Dirty Deeds" by AC/DC, and most notably, "Destroyer" by KISS....and I vividly remember him listening to "Beth" over and over to learn the words....dont know if he was dating someone named Beth, of if he just really liked the song.

**side note**
Last year my wife and I saw KISS in concert (my first REAL rock concert...) and when they played Beth, everyone was on their feet singing along...including me...but I had to stop and sit down to compose myself, because hearing it brought me back to those early days of me and my brother sitting in his bedroom together listening to it, and i actually started getting emotional thinking about it.....even now while i type this and recall that memory, im getting a little choked up...what can I say...im sensitive. :)

so back to the story...1981....we had just gotten cable TV (WOW...30 channels!!!)...and i was MANUALLY turning the dial to see what I could find (no remote controls mind you)....MTV...ooh...whats this? (yes kiddies, MTV originally played nothing but music videos...can you believe it?)

The way I perceived music would be forever changed now that I can actually WATCH bands play rather than just listen.

I dont know how or why, but a couple weeks ago I was talking to my mom about my days as a drummer (more on that in a bit)

she told me, that as far back as she can remember, I would take 2 pencils and tap on the arm of our couch along with whatever song was playing, or what video was on at the time...

My mom loved her garage / yard sales..one saturday afternoon, I was with my mom on one of her excursions (seriously....she would have a map of our town and plan a route for as many sales as she could manage to get to) and at this particular house, there was this toy drum set...SUPER cheap made...the "heads" of the drums were paper for christ's sake...and I just sat there and just NEEDED to have it....well, she didnt have enough money to get it...and I was SUPER bummed...my dad was at his usual saturday watering hole, so we stopped in for a coke.

I told my dad what I had found, and that my mom didnt have enough money to get it...at first, he said no, but after some coaxing (ok...more begging / whining about it) he gave my mom the money and a drummer was born!!

I played the living hell out of those things and eventually got a hold of a REAL set...metallic brown Ludwig drums with some BEAT UP hi hats..no cymbals...no stand for the snare...I eventually enrolled in the marching band at my grade school, and my parents got me a decent cymbal, hi hats and a snare stand...YES!...and I played those drums dam near EVERY DAY for 3 years. (5th grade - 8th grade)

I had this little record player set up behind my drums so I could play along with stuff...ill have to find a picture (pre snare stand and all that)...i know there is one.

the stuff I was playing along with was stuff like "Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden, the surf rock song "Wipeout" and a bunch more that I cant recall right now 

I never expected what would come next..