Hey there. My fellow lefty drummer and all around groovy guy Andrew has given me the go ahead to write about my musical adventures going way back to 1975 so prepare for some self indulgence but hopefully a few interesting anecdotes. Possibly very few. Deep breath... here we go.
I have recently had the pleasure of interviewing fellow drummers about their oral histories - where they came from, how they got started, where they are going, etc... and a lot of them have said that they were influenced by a family member who played drums or their parents played the radio all the time or their mom was a HUGE Elvis fan. In most cases the influence has been close to home. I do not recall being influenced by any member of my family. I had a cousin, Tom, who played in a rock band but that is as much as I knew at the time and that may have been after I was already into music. I have a yellowing and fading Kodak picture of myself on Christmas day, 1975 playing what looks to be part of a kiddie drum set. The shells were some sort of spun metal (tin?) with thick paper heads. When the heads broke I would turn the drums over and play until those broke. When those broke then there was no more drum set. You couldn't replace the heads since there were no tuning rods on the drums. I do not even recall why I got the drums. I don't think I was tapping on pots and pans or anything like that so I must have just asked for a set of drums out of the Sears (or Montgomery Ward - anyone?) catalog. In 1975 I was 6 years old. I think I played the drums along with the radio to the best of my ability although since I grew up in northern New Hampshire I can only imagine what was playing on the radio.
One caveat growing up where I did was that my dad owned his own drug store. Being a pharmacist he bought the business and ran the daily operations. In addition to medicine, candy, and gifts the store had an "old fashioned" soda fountain complete with the stainless steel ice cream freezer, Coca Cola dispenser, hot peanut/nut display with a small scoop and paper bags to hold them, an old school Hamilton Beach shake mixer (we called the shakes frappes pronounced "fraps") and a big mirror behind the counter. In addition that bit of cool Americana old school set up he sold records and cassettes in the store. This was a constant source of music for me although my tastes more or less followed the Billboard Top 40 and what I could get on radio or learn about from older friends. My real music education would not take place until I got to college - such is the life growing up in a remote small town with no cable T.V. and spotty radio reception. The fact that Dad could get almost any record from the distributor will come into play later on in my life.
Dad loved music and mom liked to sing along with the radio and she had a pretty good voice as far as I knew. Dad sometimes could be very particular about his music - at the Colebrook House (a hotel/restaurant/bar owned by a family friend) Dad would show his distaste with certain selections on the juke box by approaching the offensive music box and with a stealthy kick he would skip the needle off the 45 and the next platter would begin. This was after he had a few belts in his system and was feeling feisty. I think when they sold the Colebrook House and had a farewell party my Dad was invited to kick the hell out of the jukebox. I'm sure he did.
Ahhh the jukebox... one of my favorite devices ever. Back when I was a kid you could get 3 play for a quarter. Since we were family friends with the proprietor at the Colebrook House we kids would hang around the bar; my brother getting high score on the table top Pac-Man and I would beg for quarters for the juke box. Stevie Wonder was one singer that stood out in my mind - "I Wish" and "Sir Duke" were the real popular hits on that box. That's probably why when I bought my first Stevie Wonder CD it was the incredible Songs In The Key Of Life. The jukebox was my glowing beacon in a rather boring upbringing. Even the local diner had individual juke boxes in each booth. Every once in while when I go to a Johnny Rockets I'll throw a nickel in and pick some winners. Play B-6, I love that song!
My chronology is out of order... but in second grade I received my first communion from Father Bellfay. That is not the correct spelling of his name but I cannot remember how to spell it. (Mom help me out here.) We wore our little robes and our wooden crosses on a string and had a big ol' party in the church basement. It was sort of weird - all the recipients sat at a long table and our parents swarmed around us taking pictures and whatnot. I do remember we had cake and we all had our picture in the local paper which I thought that was pretty cool. For my communion present from Mom and Dad I received a portable cassette player with some cassettes and they were all The Best of the following artists:
Elton John
The Carpenters
Roy Clark
An interesting combination but this was all music my Dad was probably into at the time. Nonetheless I now had my own music box I could take anywhere and play anytime. Soon thereafter my neighbor turned me onto "Convoy" by C.W. McCall which I thought was the greatest. I ended up with a C.W. McCall tape that contained the offending track and I played that tape over and over again. I did not realize at the time that I was listening to a version of country music; even the Roy Clark tape was music to my ears. His "Ghost Riders In The Sky" was some scary shit even instrumentally.
That same summer we went to Europe to visit my uncle Freeman and his family and I brought the tapes and cassette player with me. I sat in the way back of the car and played "Convoy" all throughout the first part of our trip until the batteries died. When I asked for some new batteries Mom and Dad came back with "Sorry there are no American batteries in Europe." That may or may not have been true but the family was probably glad to be rid of "Convoy" for a few weeks. So I tried to enjoy the rest of the trip without The Rubber Duck and C.W. Luckily something happened in Paris, something wonderful, that charted my course forever.
To be continued....
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