Dave's records...

The soundtrack of my times is probably already out there in some cheesy K-Tel Super Hits compilations, the stressed out 10 song per side vinyl that squeezes together bubblegum-style pop and other "heavy hits" of the moment. We're talkin' Dennis Yost & Classic IV alongside Black Sabbath, Allman Brothers, Wild Cherry, Uriah Heap, and perhaps 1910 Fruitgum Company. Those records had everything and could sometimes save you from a bad buying decision if you only wanted the One Hit Wonders' one hit.

The first stereo album I can distinctly remember was one of those Wonders Of Stereo records that had Spanish guitars, drum solos, all mixed in with foghorns and train sounds and jet aircraft taking off. The album cover had a scantily clad lady with feathers in her costume and she sat astride a very fifties looking rocketship, her pose beckoning the new stereo listener to come and join the future. I came home from school one day and there was this enormous stereophonic system with a huge detached speaker, I mean, this was furniture that dominated a living room. It was cranked, and I remember being totally surprised to find my mom home in the middle of the afternoon and...this Spanish guitar stuff, I'm pretty much guessing it was 1962.

Before that we actually had a machine that could make records, I know it sounds crazy but there still exists recordings of my brother and sister, and neighborhood children and sometimes my mom and dad doing spoken word craziness with the odd song mixed in here and there. This machine must have been broken by the time I was two or three because I have only rare cameos on the records and for all I know I may have been the one that broke it. So for three to four years there must have been some Hi Fi vacuum. I do remember little suitcase record players and up until that time my sister Nancy played top 40 45's like The Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball and whoever did Take Good Care Of My Baby.

The new stereo, the changing times, and two dollar LP's all added up to a vast melange of musical stylings in my young life. My mom was all into Sinatra, Belafonte, Peggy Lee, Andy Williams. My sister was buying everything, Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Beach Boys, Chad & Jeremy, The Animals, The Stones, Peter & Gordon, Leslie Gore...She had really good taste in music, our living room was the epicenter of this...musical explosion that shaped my life in a very profound way. Somehow, all of her good taste didn't immediately rub off on me as my first ever album purchase on my own was a Three Dog Night album. They did a few covers, Mama Told Me Not To Come from Randy Newman and Your Song from Elton John. I remember thinking in a smug way that Your Song was done much better by Three Dog Night and possibly even labored under the delusion that they wrote it.

I still had that suitcase record player when I was a freshman in high school, I played Eric Burdons Spill The Wine over and over and over and over. Back to back to back. I guess when you hear something at that age that really grabs you you can't help it.

I helped a guy deliver newspapers to vending machines one summer, probably 1967 or maybe '68. Innagaddadavida was huge that summer, he had it on four track tape and we listened to it over and over while we drove around and used tokens to open the machines and stuff papers in. He hated The Beatles, had none of their four tracks and that was what I was really interested in at the time. But still, Innagaddadavida was inescapable, as was Incense And Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock. I can still take myself back in time to warm summer days on the Hermosa Strand and hearing Sunshine Superman by Donovan and Buffalo Springfield doing For What It's Worth. There was so much coming out that it was impossible to keep up. The Doors, that first album was incredible compared to other things coming out at the same time. The Yardbirds captured Nancy's fancy probably sometime in '65 or '66, I think she was in love with Keith Relf their lead singer and I'm sure she saw them play in clubs on the Sunset Strip. As that group changed personal frequently she was able to see the guitar heroes Clapton, Beck, and Page in club settings over the course of just a couple of years. For Christmas in 1969 she gave me two albums, Led Zeppelin One and Led Zeppelin Two, she showed me on the liner notes that Jimmy Page had produced both albums and told me how rare that was, for an artist to produce his own stuff. Those two albums pushed me over the edge. it is important to remember that radio would not touch Led Zeppelin (except for a shortened version of Whole Lotta Love that was played with an offhand reluctance) until Led Zeppelin Four came out.

Even though I own a few records by this time, I'm not really a record collector, and then eight track tapes came out and with my first player I bought Santana's Abraxis and The Moody Blues A Question Of Balance. I was 15 and a sophmore at Torrance High School.

To be continued...

Hey, peeps. Send mail to mail@tiny-dog.com.