Musicalization

I understand the allure of Kiss, the masks of white-face, the characterization, the blood, the smoke the freak-out-the-squares thing, I get it! I was in the Army, I had the gun from Love Gun, I had the posters Spirit of ’76 anyone? I sang “God of Thunder” w/air guitar.  I can still stick my tongue out farther then most, I sat on my bed and did my best rendition of “Beth” in the mirror, and I get it. I remember tearing the plastic off of Alive II, the longest day in my life was waiting for Phantom of the Park to come on TV that night!

Even at age 11, I knew what was good T.V. CHiPs, Starsky & Hutch, And Grizzly Adams! Phantom was crap, Kiss thought so, though Gene now likes to compare it with “Plan 9”… “Oh yeah, we meant to make shit, somebody get me a Dr. Pepper!” so that 30 years from now people will think they were misunderstood geniuses! I hung in there with my band you can’t blame Kiss for this! T.V. just can’t handle their awesome powers, if it had been at the Pershing Theater it would have been kick ass! 

 I think Most of us have a musical breakthrough moment, mine was a result of creeping into no man’s land, the ultimate “stay the hell out or I’ll kick your ass” place, the coolest place in the entire world to an 11 year old. My brother’s room! Dark and dank, blankets and sheets covered the curtains, zero light every penetrated his room, when I was 11 he was 18/19 and cooler then cool to me, he once told me Kiss was shit, I said fuck you, he laughed….why would this super cool, jean jacket wearing, blue-eyed-bearded-longhair, Camaro driving, pot smoking, hot chick scoring hero of mine dislike the greatest band ever!!! I must find out.

I was in his room for one reason, why does my hero-brother not dig Kiss? I mean everyone likes Kiss he’d even seen them live!! He kept concert ticket stubs, 8 bucks to see Sabbath, Marino & Nugent…no Kiss…mmm? So careful not to disturb even the slightest thing, lest I be caught and flogged or caned or lord knows what… I slowing crept in leaving the door open just enough not to fall on my face and break something or worst land in a plate of leftover-leftovers. Smoking was strictly forbidden in my parents house neither of them smoked, yet his room reeked with a subtle sweetness, faint yet present, from nights jamming with his childhood buddies who seemed to all take up an instrument…one drums, three or four guitar and my brother the bass, he says he took it up cause everyone was a better guitar player then him, but I think it had more to do with the groove, drummers and bass players always seem to be the hidden talent cool and unassuming but always cool… JP Jones, Boz Burrell, Entwistle, Hamilton, Wyman, Glover and the overlord Terrance “Geezer” Butler just to name a few. 

I flipped through his albums, and the covers melted my mind, photos and drawings, paintings really brilliantly done, carefully selected pieces that said buy me and I will change your life forever! Judas Priest: Hell Bent for Leather, what the….a close up of a motorcycle dude with his goggles busted and on back longhaired dudes with dog collars on!  Aerosmith: Rocks not to flashy; five diamonds on the cover…but the record sleeve!! A caricature of the band on stage with the guitars twice as big as their bodies and Steven Tyler’s mouth four times the size with a collogue on the other side of the coolest looking dudes grinning and jamming! Black Sabbath Paranoid with the psychedelic swordsman, but it was the inside picture of four English cats longest hair ever big bells and big belt buckles! Ozzy standing by himself on the right side with his hands on the hips and that big ass cross, he seemed to say “lets go for a ride while we sit on the floor” cool, fucking cool, when I think Ozzy this is the one I see, young and strong a pied piper ready to guide you through the universe of your mind, the Iron Man, the Sherpa of the Planet Caravan, the Master of Reality, the man who smokes and trips so much he sees Fairies in Boots! No make up, no full body armor with eight inch heels. Just jeans, boots and the occasional BIG ASS CROSS!

Was this why Kiss was shit? Was this the result of my brother having his breakthrough?  Who was his Kiss? The Monkeys?  (I don’t know but I’ll ask…) He had seen the light and the light was dark and heavy and wanted to get you fucked up and drive to Juarez! It wanted to hangout in black lights and drink Schlitz Malt Liquor tallboys and Mickey’s by the case, it wanted to take you to places that never were and always are! It was Deep and Purple it was Storm Bringer and Burned it was Black and Paranoid, Bloody and Vol. 4, it was Rainbow Rising, Hell Bent and Sin after Sin it was Experienced and Mahogany it was Zig Zag and Top it was Marshalls and a P-bass, Flying Vs and SGs it was I, II, III, Zoso, Houses, Graffiti and Presence. It made you Get Your Wings, your Rocks and your Toys, it was Meddle and the Darkside, it was Running with the Pack and the Devil, Straight Shooter and Burnin’Sky, Free for All and Cat Scratch, a Caress of Steel and took you to 2112 and it was Lights Out… I became Obsessed …It was baggies and lighters, it was bowls, stems and seeds, it was posters…Farah, Borris or Frazetta, Page w/a violin bow… and cars that only played cool shit on their radios with big back tires and everything!

This stuff in my hands just seemed cooler, more real, more like my brother and his friends, dudes making music for music’s sake not blowing shit up or spitting blood, no this was something else and I had to listen. I had a record player, no strike that, a system of carefully selected pawn shop goodies my old man had scored over the years, a Garrard turn table, Panasonic amp, bad ass speakers that I can’t recall , but most important where the studio quality Sony headphones!  I choose a record (that I still have) Mahogany Rush IV , don’t know why, weird cover that looked like a bunch of disposable razor, I think I figured it was inconspicuous never be missed even though I intended to put it right back. I put it on and picked a track, it was “Dragonfly” seemed like a good title to start with… it was groovy and kinda funky, a head boppin’ beat and trippy backing vocal, but the guitar was solid it just had something to it that frankly was missing from Gene and the boys: I think it was honesty and dare I say musicianship. I went back for more and more, started keeping the records in my room, my brother busy with work, gigs and practices hardly noticed but when he did he gave me suggestions, check this out or listen to the bass line on here,  or the drum fills on this. I was utterly and totally engrossed within a few weeks. My breakthrough had begun, Kiss faded for me, oddly enough I never really got into Frank Marino in fact other then Van Halen and Aerosmith I’ve never got much into N. American bands in general…( the exceptions will be highlighted at a later date).

It was Zeppelin and Sabbath; it was supersonic power cords and tight leads or wandering bluesy solos that always come back to that confounded bridge! It was Bonham and Ward, Page and Iommi, Geezer and JPJ, Plant and Ozzy, it was pallet cleansing acoustic/bongo sets followed by War Pigs and Four Sticks and it was mine. I was 11! 

who do you wanna hang with???