Future Music

Neil Diamond's wife was my second grade teacher. This was around the time he wrote "Solitary Man". He would come to school during class hours. My Mother was the school Nurse. They were pals. Neil would come to class and talk to us and sing. I remember he had a tough look and long hair. He carried his guitar over the shoulder. He looked like a folksinger who would kick your ass. Once Neil brought a tape deck. I fucked with it and it discontinued to work..... No one was happy. Even then I could not keep my hands off the equipment. Neil Diamond has always had a profound impact on the music I choose to listen to and the music I choose to make... Neil Diamond is a folksinger who can kick your ass!!! In the late summer of 1969 I was exposed to "Pink Floyd", 'King Crimson' and 'The Amazing World Of Arthur Brown" in the same afternoon. You see, on Long Island the kids always take over the basement. It starts out scary when you're a little kid. You turn the light off and you can't run quick enough. But eventually it becomes your first hangout. It was easy to be ignored down there. I knew a lot of glue sniffers. Older siblings would appropriate a stereo for this environment once the takeover was complete. I grew up in a time when we "turned each other onto... " fill in the gaps. This included anything and everything. Yes, music......... I heard the Ramones in 1976 in a friend's Cadillac on Long Island. They were getting a lot of radio play at the time and all of my friends "got it". "Beat on the Brat". Tore down the walls for me. I felt like " Yeah... I can do that". Brought the message back to Tucson where I was living at the time. As I was turned on to them in New York I turned my friends on in AZ. Soon we consumed everything in sight. Dear friend Billy Sedelmyer ran a record store. He was a pop genius. He can still bring you to tears singing. The owner of this store trusted him and we would party and listen to records for hours on end, long after closing. What else was there to do in Tucson at this or any other time? We would go to the bars in Tucson and heckle the local rock bands. They hated seeing us and you could feel the tension. I saw the "Runaways" around then. No Cherie Currie. Joan Jet sang. Black Leather. There were maybe five people there. We didn't heckle them. We would go for the guys who were doing "Beatles" and "Foghat" covers while wearing disco clothes. They were all too good and fuck them anyway! Some friends had bands and we all started to play. .......