You wanted the best – you got the best! I have been selected many times over in the 10 Album Covers in 10 Days Challenge and my #SongfulNes has finally given in to all of my friends who care to know my soul. But, mine of course, comes with a twist. Instead of me tagging my poor friends to participate, my #WistfulNes makes me yearn to write about a person who was strategically involved in the music and the album and the memory. Y’all can just leave the covers there without words but I’ve been writing a lot in the hopes that you’ll be reading a lot so this is some #MusicalNes practice. Oh, and there will be a few more than 10 – because you deserve more…
1975 Kiss “Alive”
My cousin Nelson Escandela played 45s in his attic on Tyndale Road (right near Michael Ricigliano) and he is the original source of music in my life. He lives in Venezuela and is very dear to me. We were like brothers. Cher doing “Dark Lady.” Elton John. Ram Jam “Black Betty.” He was older and had albums. But his album cover already had been kinda worn when he gave me his prized possession and my obsession when I visited his house – this decadent beauty – and I took it home sometime and cranked it up on my mom’s brown wood console that previously only had Engelbert Humperdinck’s Greatest Hits, Bobby Vinton, a Andy Williams Christmas LP and some old 78s of jazz music that my Aunt Clara left behind. When the liner notes and inserts of the real blood of Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter showed up on Bank Street, shit changed quickly. It was right around 1977 and then Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, Alive II and the solo albums became my obsession in life that didn’t include Bert Jones or Mike Flanagan or Sixto Lezcano. I still sing “I Was Made For Loving You” the disco way. But I’m not sure what Mom Liz made of the opening lyrics:
“Get up
And get your grandma outta here…”
Of course, she would be camping out for AC/DC tickets five years later on the “For Those About To Rock” tour…
