Music, music, makes the people, come together (Part 5)....

 Musical Memories

I'm pretty sure I posted about this before, but not under this category.  So, here we go...

Every time I hear "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen, I'm immediately taken back to 7th Grade after Gym Class. 

This would be 1980 or so.  I started Middle School, and it was the first time we had locker rooms for gym class and had to take showers and all afterwards.  This was a traumatic time for me.  Naturally, as a good lil gay boy in training, I wanted to look at all the guys in their various states of undress, but as a good lil small town boy, I was also afraid of getting my ass kicked.  So when I did it, I did so only very VERY slowly. 

There was a guy I had gym class with who I thought was ALL that.  For the purposes of this post, we shall call him Ronny.  Ronny was a big guy then, he was shorter than me, but what really got me worked up was his hair.  He had the perfect, parted in the middle and feathered back hair that I had no hope of ever getting.  And if he grew it just a bit longer, he would have looked something like Leif Garrett (back in the day when he was hot, not how he looks now).  Also, Ronny had braces, which then was something of a turn-on to me.  Even now, braces can be hot on the right guy (ADULT guy, not 7th grader).  And in the locker room, I got to see his bare chest frequently, not defined really, but he was lean, not an ounce of fat.  And also, he wore tighty-whiteys that were perhaps a smidge too tight, if you know what I mean. 

Yeah, I KNOW I haven't mentioned music yet, bear with me, I'm almost there.  Our gym teacher had a speaker mounted in the locker room and after gym, while we showered and dried off and got ready for the next class, he'd turn on the radio and play it through the locker room.  There was a day when I was getting dressed and the radio playing, when the aforementioned Queen song, "Another One Bites The Dust" came blaring through the locker room.  

Ronny was walking back from the showers.  He was singing, or more like shouting, the song.  And during the chorus, he shouted even louder, "Another ones bites my NUTS!  Another one bits my NUTS!  And another one's down, another one's down, another one bites my NUTS!" 

People had stopped to watch him.  He had his towel in one hand swinging it above his head.  His other hand was wrapped around his....boys.  He had them pulled out a bit and was waving them back and forth as he sang.  He was high-step strutting through the locker room towards his locker, yelling at the top of this lungs, dancing and....waving.  And everyone was cracking up, cause it was so funny. 

And since EVERYone was watching him, I did too.  And I got quite a look at his....goods. I don't remember now what they looked like, but DID remember for quite a few years, cause I used that imagine well into high school to help me....take care of some things.  Usually at night, in bed, before I went to sleep.

And so, whenever I hear that song, I don't remember the specifics, but I still remember the general imagine.  And smile.  Cause really, ogling aside, it was pretty funny. 

POLT

Music, music makes the people, come together (Part 4)...

 Musical Memories

In the mid-90s, over a period of 5 or 6 years I went to a Halloween party thrown by friends of my good friend Amy.  The parties were in Harrisburg PA.  Amy and I (and sometimes someone with us) would get dressed up, pile in the car and drive up there on the Saturday before Halloween.  The party was a blast.  But that's a story for another time (see HERE). 

On at least 4 of those trips to Harrisburg, while Amy and/or I were driving, with the radio playing, somehow the same song came on each year!  It's crazy!  It wasn't even a current song at that time.  And we had, I'm sure, different stations on, at least one year we had to have had a different one on.

At any rate, any time I hear that song played now, I'm instantly back in the car, riding with Amy, in a cool October evening, on the way to Harrisburg.  

And that song?  "Blister In The Sun" by The Violent Femmes

PS, 

This song came out in 1983, well over a decade before our trips.  

PPS, 

This song also reminds of "My So-Called Life" where Angela dances around her room to it in her obligatory oversized flannel shirt.

POLT

Music, makes the people, come together (Part 3)...

 Music Memories

When I was a freshman in college, I lived in an apartment in the town my college was in.  I had a little TV and cable and up there, they had MTV.  Back home (where I returned each weekend to do laundry and hang with friends), we had cable too, but no MTV.  We wouldn't get that on our cable system here for another 3-4 years. 

Anyway, I LOVED watching MTV  up at college.  It was still a new and novel thing: hearing AND seeing music at the same time.  I watched it almost all the time I had the TV on. 

At that point, the biggest group in the world was U2.  And also, at that time, the video MTV replayed over and over and over again was "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".   I can still see most of that video in my head even now, I saw it so much back then. 

And even now, when I hear it, like in the car on the way to work today, I flash back to my room up there in that apartment in college and I'm more than 35 years younger, and loving MTV and U2.

POLT

Music, makes the people, come together (Part 2)...

 Musical Memories

So yesterday I had off work, and in the morning, before my dentist appointment I was flipping through the channels.  I came upon a rerun of Little House On The Prairie.  It wasn't the start of the show but the scene I happened on was playing the theme song.

And oh my GOD, it took my right back to fourth grade, in the late 70s, when this was on Monday nights and I watched it only because all the kids in my class did and they'd all talk about it Tuesday at school.  So I wanted to be able to join in the conversation. 

Ahhh, youth. 

POLT

Music, makes the people, come together (Part 1)....

 Musical Memories

Today, I'm starting a new, irregular series, showing some music, and a distinct memory I have about it.

For the first one, I've chosen, "She Talks To Angels" by the Black Crowes

This song, (that plays after the Goddamn unavoidable ad that YouTube, in it's asinine wisdom not plays before nearly every freakin' video)  was out an popular circa 1990 when I was working at CVS drugstore.  

While there, they hired this girl about my age, named Karen.  Karen grew up right outside DC but moved here with her family. But she still had the....cosmopolitan, bohemian aura about here even living in this small town I live in. 

Anyway, when I heard this song, it sounded like he could have been singing about Karen, and I told her so, and she laughed and said she loved that.  And one evening, when we both got off work at the same time, I walked her to her car, and she told to me to wait a minute.  She  started her car, and slipped a Casingle (remember those?), into the tape player, and then "She Talks To Angels" started blaring from her car.  

We laughed a bit, and then she started dancing, slowly, swaying, back and forth and in slow circles, singing the song.  She was wearing a long skirt, nearly to her ankles that swirled about and out and she moved,  and a vest over her shirt  and she always work a few bangles on her wrists and they were jingling as she dancing.  And I smiled, snapping, my fingers along with her.

And this is the memory I always get whenever I hear, "She Talks To Angels"

POLT