Skeletons in The Closet

We all have skeletons in the closet. 

Some of us fear that someone who knew us long ago will try to blackmail us with our high school yearbook photos. For others, like me, it's being forced to reveal some of the cringe-worthy music I used to listen to. 

The cringe factor...

OK... I can look anyone straight in the eye and say, "Guess what? I found In Through The Out Door yesterday, while poking around my old bedroom. Isn't that cool?"

But I wouldn't add, "Yeah, it was sandwiched between Bad Company and Toto."

Why do I feel fine revealing that I used to listen to Led Zeppelin but ashamed to admit the same about Bad Company and Toto?  

I am in no hurry to come clean about the Judas Priest, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, or Lynyrd Skynyrd records I found.  But I'm happy to mention Grace Jones, The Replacements, Elvis Costello, and David Bowie. Why?

 I also found Decade by Neil Young, which I still love all these years later.  I am happy to hold up album covers by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, The Ramones, and The New York Dolls. But not ACDC, (yes, I am guilty of possessing Back in Black...)

Why value one set of records I owned in high school, while another causes me to hang my head in shame? 

Truth be told, I never really got "metal". It always seemed really loud and really stupid. I'm relieved to say that you'll never find Ratt, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Guns 'n' Roses, nor any one hit wonder hair band in the wreckage and refuse of my adolescence.

And I admit that I once really liked the Grateful Dead, who for me represent: Road trips down Highway 101, fields of violet wildflowers, the Oregon Country Fair, a marigold colored sun, painted VW microbuses, and Indian beaded anklets tinkling whenever you walk.  

But they also represent: Bad hygiene, like grimy white people with stanky dreadlocks (that I would think twice about touching without hand sanitizer), muddy hot springs reeking of sulfur, chokable amounts of patchouli, and Soysage. (blechh!)

Even when I realized, years later, how majorly out of tune Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Jerry Garcia always were, The Dead were never sent into my closet. 

Owning the album Skeletons in the Closet wasn't a type of foreshadowing, although their long aimless noodling and anemic guitar jams didn't add to The Dead's cache, but I still freely admit to once being a fan. 

So... Acceptance of one band and rejection of another has little to do with musicianship.

In high school I really dug Give it to Me Baby by Rick James. Whenever it came on the radio, my group of friends would pull over- day or night- fling the car doors open, crank the volume skyward, and literally get down in the  street, totally ignoring oncoming traffic. We felt free and bad ass dancing there in the middle of the road.

It was the era of Duran Duran and Wham, neon tights, bad shag haircuts, and shoulder pads. Not cool.

 But the Police were cool, especially the album Regatta de Blanc.  Prince was cool.  But the super group - Asia or REO Speedwagon?  Sent to the back of the closet with grandma's re-gifted sweaters.

Growing up suburban meant we spent a lot of time hanging out in cars listening to music.  I am pretty embarrassed about the muscle car I drove in high school (wincing now uncontrollably... yes... here it is...I actually had a bitchin' Camaro...white with a spoiler...)  It came with an 8-track tape converter so you could play cassette tapes. Frankly, I find that cooler than the Camaro.  Cringe worthy? You bet.

My recollections of high school are an amalgam of such cringe worthy flashbacks peppered by the occasional poignant one. Music is a way to involuntarily relive uncomfortable moments in one's life. Suffice to say, they were almost all uncomfortable moments.

But why is some music from adolescence still cool and others so very not?  What is the  key to looking back without shame?


Will kids 30 years from now watch youtube videos of Rapper Nelly, Katy Perry, Rihanna (et. al.) from a satellite on Mars and say, "look at that whack old school earth crap grandma used to like?" (hope for their sake the crap of 2042 is better than the crap of 2012).

I listen to a wide variety of music these days, though to be frank, I'm not that open minded.  Practically everything I listen to or perform falls under Jazz, Classical, or World, and occasionally Folk.  These aren't hard and fast rules, but I like what I like. It has nothing to do with cool and everything to do with what moves me. The deeper I began to explore the elements and rudiments of music, as a listener and a performer, my tastes have evolved. And continue their evolution.
 
Admitting you once listened to death metal for a New York minute - (I did own a Motorhead album and liked the song Ace of Spades) - can be cathartic.  

But what about the sensory memories we all have that are triggered by certain music?

Sometime in the late 70's, when I was a little kid, I recall sitting on the gold shag rug in our den (on which my little brother spilled calligraphy ink and I got in big trouble). I was huddled next to the air conditioner in a wet bathing suit, hoping my mom wouldn't notice. I can still see the Danish wood woven chairs and the folding black lacquer snack tables with Jackson Pollock-like swirls on the top. The Band was still popular (Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, et al... My cousin Grace was married to Rick Danko, the bass player).  

Whenever I hear The Weight, I remember this time and this room.

Stay tuned for more on music and sensory memories.

What music from your high school years do you still consider cool?  

Do you have any skeletons in your musical closet? 

It may be time to let them out.