Part II of my story.
This just about brings us to 79-80. That's when music really blew up for me. I discovered that the world was much larger than Kiss, Aerosmith, etc. Van Halen, ACDC, Judas Priest, these bands opened my eyes to a new heavier soundtrack to life. Punk rock also played a part. I remember when the Sex Pistols came to America. I was 10 and was completely amazed, how could these weird looking guys with the crazy clothes get away with all this shit! And the music, it was so violent and angry. I loved it from the first note! Getting to junior high was like opening this huge door to a room filled with musical discoveries. I learned how to be an individual, picked up on new music from the new friends I made. The NWOBHM was happening around tjis time, and I loved some of these bands. Def Leppard(who hate being included in this, apparently), Saxon, Iron Maiden, and Motorhead. I loved Motorhead, fast, violent, angry and totally different from any other band. Still do to this day. Those beginning riffs to "Ace of Spades", forgetaboutit! Still makes me get "the leg" going to this day!
Ozzy, The Scorpions, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, all these band were about to blow up. It was, in my opinion, the greatest time for music. Punk bands like Black Flag, The Germs, The Exploited, all were prominent as well. We had a large amount of punks at school, all turning me on to bands on a regular basis. Around this time I really got into playing. I got my first "real" drum set. Some piece of crap my parents picked up somewhere. Blue flake, mangled cymbals and hi hat, crappy pedal, but I didn't care. This was my way into that brotherhood of music, and I dove in headfirst. I never took lessons, or took band in school, which looking back, was a huge mistake. I never learned the basics. 100% self-taught. I had a friends teach me a paradiddle, which is kind of like a basic exercise in drumming. Other than that, I learned by putting on records (those black things that spin and music comes out of), and figuring out the beats, fills, etc. Judas Priest's album "British Steel" was the best learning tool. Very basic, so i got to learn simple beats and song structures. Living After Midnight was as basic as it gets for a drummer, but perfect to learn from. Got the basic 2's and 4's after a while and stretched out a little more, bit by bit. Such a great time for music, I miss the feeling of discovering a new band, or a new song.
Me and my friends were so into music, and each of us had certain things we got into first, and shared with the others. I loved the heavier stuff, and my best friend loved the more melodic side of music.Thin Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult. The next couple of years were cool. We'd go around the corner to a friends house, put some speakers out his bedroom window, and play baseball listening to music all day. We probably listened to ACDC's "Back in Black", 1000 times that summer. Radio in our area at that time just flat-out sucked! It was AOR, Top 40, Classic Rock hell. All that started to change in maybe '82 or so. You started to hear the stuff we loved every now and again. And then 1982-83 rolled around and changed the music business forever! This amazing string of albums came out, all in a year's time. Blackout, Screaming for Vengeance, Iron Fist, Breaking the Chains, Black Metal, Mercyful Fate, Metal on Metal, Scarred for Life, Vandenberg, Black Tiger, all in 1982. 1983 brought us Bark at the Moon, Holy Diver, Piece of Mind, Balls to the Walls, Melissa, Show No Mercy, All For One, Born Again(underrated album, in my opinion), Pyromania, Fastway(Still one of my favorite albums of all time!), Queensryche, Power and the Glory, Steeler, Never Surrender, At War With Satan, Mean Streak, and of course, the album that changed it all for me, Kill 'Em All! It still blows my mind to this day that all these great albums came out all around the same time, and I'm sure that there's plenty I'm leaving out as well. This was maybe the best time of my life, and the beginning of the end as well.....
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