12-7-11
My First Two Years of High School
Roughly 1974 and 1975 – my brother got out of the U.S. Air Force, and came home to live – so I had someone to discuss music with, someone to take me to record stores in Los Angeles – someone other than my Dad!
There were no big events in these years – I don’t remember going to any concerts, just yet. That would start in 1976 or so! Maybe my first record collector swap meet @ Capitol Records parking lot in Hollywood?
I had two memorable high school girlfriends who kept my learning curve straight up! Rose liked Queen and Sparks, bands that I thought were “superfluous” (i.e, not serious enough, m-a-a-a-n) at that time. I saw Rose sing something in high school, and I remember liking her voice (even if I thought a song from “Godspell” was a bit ‘lite’). Teresa was younger than I, and I really only remember turning her onto Kayak. But she must’ve had other records! Maybe Cat Stevens, Elton John etc. Both of my high school girlfriends were church-going folks, but that didn’t stop the ongoing “hanky panky” that young people always seemed to get up to! Ah, the stories I could tell – but I want to keep my “safe” rating, for this blog!
I used to make cassettes of Henry Cow LP’s at home and bring them to school to listen to in the “Language Lab” – a classroom with desks that had cassette players in ‘em. I got out of Physical Education by agreeing to type tests for the Foreign Language Department; I was quite popular with the French, Spanish and German teachers! Hatfield & The North! German records! Achim Reichel!
“Frampton Comes Alive” was very popular at this time; incomprehensible to me. Why wasn’t everyone listening to Gong? I do also remember being quite fond of 1965 – 1970 Bob Dylan in the mid-70’s – smirking at young kids who thought that “Blood On The Tracks” was really something – f**k that, listen to “Blonde on Blonde”!
By 1975, I had been personally observing the arc of pop music for almost 10 years. Did it make sense? I was very aware that the records from the 60’s weren’t like the records from the 70’s – or the 50’s! With used LP’s being less expensive than new records, I got to hear all sorts of music become part of my coat of many colors. Oh, and they taught me to drive a car in high school – both in a ‘simulator’, and in a real car!
Once I met a guy (who I know to this day) in a record store who let me know that he could hire me as soon as I was “available” (i.e. out of high school) – I entered a dream world from which I would never emerge. I know what I’m going to do when I get outta here!
To my two sweet high school girlfriends: Thanks for sharing wonderful ‘teenage kicks’ with me. I’m so glad I got to do all that stuff when I was actually still a teenager!
Ronkanefiles's Blog 
Damn! I just need to buy those Neu! CDs! How much longer must I be aware of them and yet ignorant of them? Case in point: I was in a great store in Nashville last year and finally heard La Düsseldorf on the in-store! It was insane! It sounded magnificent to my ears, and yet it was their critically reviled “Individuellos” album!! Since buying it I’ve loved that CD so I must complete the Michael Rother/Klaus Dinger [r.i.p.] discography. Chances are, I’ll love it all unconditionally.
Don’t miss “Flammende Herzen” by Michael Rother; Bowie must’ve played his LP of it to death.
Eno and Bowie were hot to have Rother play on “Heroes.” The invite went out from Bowie, and Rother accepted. Later he got a call from someone at RCA saying that David had changed his mind, so it was called off. David Bowie swore 20 years later that RCA were interfering without his knowledge since they didn’t want this “weird German guy” taking him further down the experimental road which was making RCA very uncomfortable. Details here:
http://thequietus.com/articles/03128-michael-rother-of-neu-and-kraftwerk-interview