Peter and the Wolf |
I recall an autumn day when my class joined thousands of others at a concert hall at the University to listen to an orchestra
play "Peter and the Wolf". I can bring up images of the darken building and the musical instruments for each charcter. But what I really remember most clearly was the bus rides. What a bunch of idiots - singing "100 bottle of beers on the wall", or should I say, screaming... |
Bongos |
Steve Newstrom and I jammed with his friend Terry Zimmerman (Bob Dylan's cousin). Zim played guitar and I was on my bongos.
Steve sang. I think the only song we ever did was "House of the Rising Sun" over and over and that's why I can't stand it. |
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Guitar |
Bought me an electric guitar with amplifier in 1966 for $75 and I was in with a group in Apple Valley. I bought Gary's microphone with stand for $50. I played rhythm. The songs I remember doing are:
"Midnight Hour", "Louie Louie", "Empty Heart" and "Satisfaction". Even though we practiced in a basement you could call us a garage band. |
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Drums |
Fiji - staff put a group together. Dave on bass, Peter on rhythm, Jo on lead and I drummed. I made sticks out of bamboo and brushes out of coconut fronds.
We only had one performance - at the Independence Day party on 10th October 1970. |
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R-R |
May 22, 1971. Not "Rock n Roll", but Reel-to-Reel tape recorder. It took about a year but filled the first tape on this day with 522 songs. |
Lyrics |
I also was involved with a band, Lost Souls, which was a university group. I I was more like a roadie and I would get lyrics down for the songs they played.
I also wrote my own songs... |
| Jenny Kissed Me If I Were a Man Wild Weekend 8 Days a week |
poems that never made it to music: |
| No Letting Go You Know They Don't Live Forever Blue Christmas | Odes: TD KD |
| Kidnapped Something's Phoney Lisa Loving Kincy A First Class Frenzy | Odes: LT BB |
| More or Less Gus St James Song Without Tune Hey Night Owl |
| Love Wasted Bombing Around Break Down and Cry Kincy Joe |
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Beatles I |
I remember, exactly, where I was when I heard "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" for the first time. In our basement workshop one evening.
I knew it would be a big song; it made me feel so good. I imagine it was like someone doing a drug like P for the first time and being hooked forever, always wanting more. |
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Beatles II |
On their first US tour they stayed exclusively at Holiday Inns. I was on duty when the teletext came through saying that they wanted rooms for their Minneapolis concert at Metropolitan Stadium (we were near it and the airport).
I was elated and rushed the text to the Manager. He panicked and told me to reply that we were full that day. He didn't want mobs of girls destroying the place. |
Beatles III |
53 years later when I play a Beatles album I still anticipate what the following song will be, showing how many times I played them. |
Beatles IV |
1968. My roommate wanted to quit smoking. So I said if smoked he had to buy me two albums. He caved and and we compromised and that is how I got the Beatles White Album. |
KASSEM Casey |
American Top 40 Guy (Wikipedia). He answered two of my letters on air: (Listen to apr 10, 1977). And when I ran the school radio station I scored a copy of the July 4, 1976 broadcast. |
The Book I |
While in Fiji I discovered The Miles Chart of Hot 100 and I bought. Big sucker. It began in 1955 and I imagine ended around 1970 or so, since I bought it in 1972. It each song had a page with a graph plotting it position in the Top 100 for each week. |
The Book II |
Then I discovered Joel Whitburns Top Pop Singles 1955-1970 which was much better. Each year a supplement came out and I bought every one of them. And when a new all-inclusive was updated I would that and give the old copy to Doug. I did that until 1955-1999 when I decided I would not keep track anymore. I also book his Rhythm & Blues, Country Western and Easy listening books. I had my own data tracking with each new book I would spend days updating. I bought so many diffferent books. I think I had them all. Too many to list. I even bought top Albums book and I had no interest in albums. When we moved to Minnesota in 1980 I even wrote to Joel enquiring if I could work for him. |
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Thursdays I |
Apr 27, 1993. Doug came over for our first LP listening evening. We listened to my albums from A-Z while playing music trivia games. Sometimes Doug would bring an album. When albums were finsihed we did my 45's. We carried this on for 10 years until his death. On May 1, 1997 Doug beat me for the first time in RnR Scattergories. In 2003 we had these categories: keyboard players, single-named artist, same word three times in song title. |
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