Despite the muddying presence of disco during this era, there was always rock music in my #MusicalNes life.
The kids in the alley played it. We had three dudes on my block who played in rock bar bands and had vans with equipment and I distinctly remember the first dozen chords of “Smoke on The Water” being played at a backyard party in 1975. And that made me wanna grab a guitar and get amplified.
My Pop signed us up for the Columbia House record “club” for one penny and, voila, music just showed up in the mailbox in a brown box. But here’s the funny part: I didn’t know what the term “jazz” meant and selected THAT as my preference. So every month a Herb Alpert 8-track would show up in the mailbox when I all I really wanted was Ted Nugent and Aerosmith or Peter Frampton. I also dabbled in Earth, Wind and Fire (shoutout to Stan Gibson) and Stevie Wonder Songs In The Key of Life.
My love for Boston began with the purchase of “More Than a Feeling” on 45. And this beautiful work of 70s album poster art didn’t seem so sexy in a three-inch printing on my first-ever 8-track tape but I wore that sucker out. Especially “Long Time.”
It was also among the first CDs I bought in 1984 when I got a player.
The album remains a masterpiece. It doesn’t have a bad note.
Jennifer Ford Aparicio absolutely loves their whole catalog and there is a never a bad time to play it even though it always totally bums us out about the suicide death of Brad Delp. #JennStrong gets very emotional.
I interviewed him at length once on the RTZ tour and we spent some time with him toward the end of his life backstage at a show in Orange County with Styx, REO Speedwagon and 38 Special. He lived near my wife’s family in New Hampshire and invited us to see his Beatles project.
