I have it all. Really. Well, almost...
I have a job, a great family, wonderful wife, wonderful children. I have my health. I have most of my hair. I have a house. I have the majority of my brain cells. Still, something alludes me. Something that would make my life whole... The Band.
The Dream began somewhere around 1980. Dad had an old acoustic guitar sitting the in the basement gathering dust. Previous to this time I had dabbled in the rather pedestrian and "safe" rock music of Journey, Styx, smooth 70s AM pop - the usual gateway drugs to METAL. Anyway, I had just purchased my first Blue Oyster Cult live album, "On Your Feet or On Your Knees", and I just HAD to recreate the magic. So, I plunked away on that acoustic guitar doing my own rendition of such BOC hits as Cities on Flame, ME262, Astronomy. I sucked bad, but it felt so cool to play the guitar.
This went on for some time. I didn't really harbor any real dreams of rock stardom, and I wasn't really a METAL nerd... that was until 1982 when I saw the MTV video that would forever change my life. Judas Priest, You've Got Another Thing Coming
What is not to like about this vid? Dueling lead guitars, lasers, strobe lights, smoke, and someone being actually BLOWN UP by sheer volume. I have done my fair bit of traveling, but my travels will not be complete until I visit this very water treatment plant. I don't know where it is, and surely Rick Steves has not featured this site in any of his many volumes, Back Door or otherwise. It is my Mecca. I shall find it. Anyway, this set the hook.... for a lifetime of joy, exhilaration... and frustration.
After much whining, Dad bought me a guitar and an amp. Bob Walters, father to Carole's friends Lucas and Evan Rex Sole, hooked me up with a Sears Silvertone Twin Twelve. A genuine tube amplifier.
Oh, it was LOUD. It was raucous. I bought pedals, gizmos, cables, whatnots. I still sucked major league, but nothing in life could quite compare to a hot-ass tube amp running at 11. The walls shook, the floors shook, the 50 year old leaded glass windows in my parents' house shook (irreplaceable I'm told BTW). I just knew, that somehow, some way, I would climb to the highest peaks of rock stardom. It just HAD TO BE. I consumed every METAL album I could, read every article, bought everything that a dumb white kid living in Warrenton, Oregon could scrounge up. I went to concerts, I bought live videos, I spent countless hours cruising around Clatsop County blasting my eardrums out trying to, in my head, sort through and piece together what I was hearing. I wore out my turntable, continually lifting the stylus needle up, and putting it back to learn that lick I was hearing.
What I never bothered to do was to actually learn to play the damned thing.
My folks bought me lessons through the ever faithful Clatsop Community College. But, the hippie Lesbian Seagull teacher strummed away on his acoustic guitar, made googly eyes at the 30-something blonde chick in the class, and dammit he wasn't LOUD. I decided I need not be bothered by mundane topics such as notes, counting, keys, chords, chord changes and the like. These things would not get a young boy laid, much less make him a rock star.
I decided that what I needed was a LOUDER amp. When all else fails, crank it the F UP!! That's what I always say. So, I bought a LOUDER amp, with the result being that I still sucked, but just sucked louder.
Well, funny how life works. The summer of 1986 exposed me to the stupidest.... yet most influential movie that a rudderless, naive, completely gullible, yet hopelessly patriotic boy from the coast could ever want to see. Yes, the Tom Cruise Opus: Top Gun
Rock stardom would have to wait. There was a country needing defending, and by golly Pilgrim, I was the guy to do it. So, I proverbially put the guitar in it's case, flipped the amp to "standby", and didn't touch it again for another dozen or so years. Ol' Matty was joining the Navy, and cranking up his life!
Next: Making the Band Part II: Crackheads, Cat Piss, and Bong Builders
Crackheads? Cat piss? Bring on part two!
Posted by: Carole | March 29, 2008 at 11:41 PM