Introductions to Music Part One - SeanGeek

Imagine this: Ronnie and Jeanne's house, some time in the 70's. A bunch of the cousins are playing along in the main area. The adults are chatting in the kitchen, having tea and coffee. The half-and-half French/English hybrid sing-song (and loud) chatter in the kitchen of the adults. The older cousin Randy was rarely seen. He would be in his bedroom, door closed. Kids are playing, laughing, playing, and carrying on. Then, a low rumble from Randy's room, slowly building, and then the music. Despite the door being closed, and all of the noise in the house, that sound cut through everything to me.

What was it? What was that sound.

I had been raised on a hell of a lot of Beatles and Ventures thanks to dad. Dad had an old tube amp record player stereo. He would plug in his bass to it and play along to those records for hours on end. I love the Beatles still to this day, and in later years would jam out more than my share of Ventures music.

But this sound--- I recognized the rumble of the bass, but the difference was this bass permeated. I could feel it in my toes and my calves. But mostly in my gut. It lived in the walls. And when the guitar came through and the drums. And the vocal. This was not the Beatles.

I had no idea what Randy was listening to, but I was definitely tuned in.

I was one of the younger cousins, so talking to Randy, who felt so much older than me was out of the question. I bid my time and waited for the perfect opportunity.

Randy was gone, out doing whatever older cousins did. Probably just being cool I imagined. I mean he did have his own stereo. There was enough distraction in the house that I went into his room and closed the door behind me. There it was: a stereo! I rummaged around and found his record collection. What could he have been listening to that had made those sounds so alien, so different? I looked at each of the record covers. I stopped at one, one I was sure had to be what he was listening to: Kiss Alive II. I flipped the album over. Oh. My. God. It had to be this. They looked aliens--- no, superheroes. And the blood dripping from that one's face--- I tried to figure out how to listen to it. I can't remember exactly how old I was, but not even close enough to figuring out how to make that black plastic thing play on that large imposing stereo.

I had eventually been lucky enough to be allowed into Randy's room and he played the record for me. Quite a few times.

Skip ahead to about 11 years old. I knew Kiss now. In fact I had even spent some allowance money and owned Kiss Dynasty now, which I bought at a flea market. I would eventually own Kiss Alive before eventually my folks would spring for that far less superior new technology called a cassette player stereo.

I was happy. I had my own Beatles now in Kiss. And dad seemed pretty happy I had found my band. Mom was less impressed. But at least it wasn't Anne Murray.

At the end of 1983 a little album was released that would take me one step closer to my musical emergence.

~SeanGeek