Well, anyway, the metal stuff from that era (the most popular of it, at least) of course, was hair metal. Man, did I love that stuff! It occupied way too much of my time, I know! Of course I wanted to be a big rock star, and my "band" (made up solely of myself on drums and my cousin Chris on guitar, with the occasional addition of someone on bass and my best friend, Brandon, on another guitar) was gonna make it big - if we could just somehow get out of Washburn! Which we never did. I left for Fontbonne, Brandon went to SMSU (sorry, I will never take the "Southwest" away from that name!) for a year, and Chris stayed in Washburn. So much for "Stiletto".
I continued to hold on to the "rock star dream" for a long time - a tiny part of my still wants to be one. I'm just a lot more realistic now, plus I've seen what's happened to the music industry, and it ain't pretty!
In college, though, I was exposed to many, many other types of music - music I just never knew existed, because it wasn't down there in SW MO. Never got played on the radio, and definitely no one down there was into new wave, or punk, or this new "alternative", or "college rock" sound - bands like R.E.M., Husker Du, Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, etc. Oh, and the Replacements - how I learned to love the Replacements!
Anyway, I started getting into bands finally, and even though it was well after the demise of hair metal, I still clung to it, something that would make for some good laughs at my expense later on - I guess at the time I just didn't get that it was "uncool" in some circles to actually like Dokken! It also didn't help that I was playing a B.C. Rich Warlock guitar - not as some guy being hip and doing it as a joke, but as someone who simply knew no better. I didn't know the first thing about different guitars making different sounds, and having different tones. A guitar was a guitar to me. What can I say - I was green!
Years have gone by, and I have learned "what is hip", and "what 'good' music is". I do have an appreciation for all of that - it's turned me onto a whole other world of music that frankly most people just don't know about, since most of what they're exposed to is Top 40 stuff - whatever happens to be on the radio (and we all know how horrible radio's gotten in the last decade or so). I love that I've learned about Radiohead and Wilco and Elvis Costello, and so many more, but when I wanna feel better, I always go back to the hair metal!
Well, this whole bit of rambling on my part was inspired by a conversation I was having with my buddies Paul and Nick, both of whom are hair metal freaks like me. We started talking about the album "All Systems Go" by Vinnie Vincent Invasion, and that inspired my stroke today. My love for the Aqua-Net Set may be a guilty pleasure, but I make no apologies! Hell, I know it's cheezy, but I love it!
Your painting is coming along nicely! I love the blog too! Great stuff. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDelete