The Soundtrack of My Life - The 1990s

By the mid-1980s, once MTV had normalized their playlists and relegated much of non-mainstream rock/pop to specialty shows, like Headbanger's Ball and 120 Minutes, the second half of the 80s were pretty dull on MTV.  Only the BIG names maintained regular airplay in each genre.  Once Gun N Roses had upended most hard rock, stereotypical "hair bands" found moderate to no success mainstream.  Frankly, most of them ended up sounding silly.  Even bands that were fairly big just came across as mediocre after GnR changed things.  That edginess of GnR and Metallica would be what people wanted to hear.  Bands that had once ruled the hair scene, Dokken, Ratt, Poison, etc., became a joke at the turn of the decade.  

What was typically seen as an "LA" band really started to change too as 1990 approached.  Bands like Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers had opened the door for a different kind of aggressive rock that would begin to bury the "hair" bands permanently.  San Francisco began being seen as a unique market with Faith No More, Primus, and Flotsam and Jetsam riding the coattails of their other native son, Metallica.  At the same time, darker post-punk bands, like The Cure, released "Disintegration." Depeche Mode released "Violator."  Social awareness of groups like Public Enemy, NWA, U2, REM, all shoved the excess 80s bands and "cock rock" as far back in the rear view as possible.  The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Iran-Contra hearings, mistrust of Republican-led government, etc. were all causing a gloomier, more angst-driven sound, even in the bands that carried over from the 80s.  

The grit of GnR and the rise of Metallica are why 1991 was such an incredible year for albums.  Enormously anticipated new releases from both of them were about all that people cared about from that genre.  Otherwise, young adults (like me) were beginning to listen to early Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Concrete Blonde, etc.  The darker, more depressing, the more drug-induced, the angrier the sound, the more popular it became.  

I graduated high school in May, 1990.  I was 17, a late born kid who actually started college a couple of weeks after graduation at a small community college in Dallas.  My plan was to go there for a year, establish residency, then finish school at UT Austin seeking a law degree.  I didn't like it in Dallas, though. Not because of Dallas, but because I missed Monroe, wasn't ready to leave, and wasn't high on living with my dad for the first time since I was 11.  My mom had pretty much given me too much freedom for my nearly-adult self to voluntarily WANT to be in a situation where I was attempting to be parented.  I found it kind of silly and funny, actually.

No, after one summer session, I packed up and moved back to Monroe.  Like any flaky youngster, I didn't know what I wanted to do.  While law was always in the back of my mind, I was too into music and wanting to find a way to work in that field.  At the same time, I'd seen "Broadcast News" and fell in love with the job Holly Hunter had as an executive director of a network newscast.  So when I returned to Monroe, I entered the Radio/TV/Film department to see how difficult it would be to become a NEWS person.  The 1990 fall semester was only a couple of days old when I turned 18.  In fact, ON my 18th birthday, I attended the semester-starting meeting of those interested in joining the campus radio station, then KNLU.  The station played "alternative" or "college" music during the week, and jazz or lighter fare on the weekends.  I knew this already because I'd become a regular listener of KNLU while a junior and senior in high school, specifically the jazz on the weekends.  I'd fallen in love with Acoustic Alchemy, The Rippingtons, The Yellowjackets, Spyro Gyra, etc.  But I've always listened to so much, this wasn't unusual.

My first "training" session as a DJ on KNLU was later that weekend.  Typically, weekend listeners, specifically Sundays, weren't plentiful, so a perfect time to train.  I believe she was the Operations Manager at the time, Patricia Johnson (or Johnston?...can't remember) is the one who trained me.  I took to it quickly and easily, and since I already knew many of the jazz artists, it was natural.  Patricia didn't monitor me very long and soon I was handling it on my own.  At this time, I was working at Alfalfa Video and Music, which had recently opened, so I relegated my time at KNLU to the weekends only, except for days when I would come in and do a spot newscast, which was my main motivation.  If I was on campus, I would do a lunchtime newscast, or go by and hang out with the station staff during remotes and such, but for that first month or so, I infrequently saw station time.  Maybe a three hour shift and that was it.  It was all volunteer work. 

I was also taking my first R/TV/F class, which was Intro to R/TV/F.  Boooorrrring.  The KNLU academic sponsor was Joel Willer, and he also taught the Intro class.  One day, he pulled me aside and asked about my work on the weekend during the jazz shows and my interest in jazz, which I expressed.  He then asked if I'd have any interest in being the Jazz Music Director as their most recent one had left.  I enthusiastically said yes.  I didn't even think about it, which was a mistake.  I was losing focus.  I was getting a whole lot more into DJing, controlling music, etc.  This happened for the remainder of 1990/1991 freshman year at NLU.  At the end of the semester, though, my procrastination with my school work had caught up with me and, although my success at KNLU led to a Meritorious Service Award and the offer to be the full time Music Director for the whole station at 18 years old, I only did it for a couple of months until my grades made me academically ineligible to continue working a school job.  I was crushed, but it was my own lazy fault.  I was always a great worker (still am), but I didn't find school important enough, and it bit me. Once I returned from my July trip with friends to New Orleans to chill out, as well as interview Too Much Joy during their tour stop at Tipitina's, I was no longer Music Director.  

My lifeline, though, was that I'd branched out, working multiple jobs.  I'd continued working, albeit less often, at Alfalfa Video and Music.  I'd also begun doing weekend board-operations work at KMLB, a local talk radio station.  A REAL radio job.  I'd also become good friends with Mike Exinger, who was the station manager of KEDM, the local NPR affiliate he was constructing upstairs from KNLU on the NLU campus.  He was a jazz guy too, so he'd come down the KNLU studios and hang out with me, we'd talk jazz, food, women, etc.  It was great to befriend him, but he would put on his adult hat and be clear with me that I was too young and inexperienced, even in my success at KNLU, to consider coming up yet to work at KEDM.  However, the realities of Louisiana state budgets I believe got the best of him.  As KEDM got closer to launching in April 1991, Mike had me doing more and more with KEDM, such as the initial fund raising, working as a news reporter at the Angus Chemical plant explosion in Sterlington, which happened right as the station began, etc.  The minute I was without a role at KNLU (except volunteer DJ shifts), Mike made room for me at KEDM.  I was soon the evening Jazz show host from 7 PM to midnight Monday-Friday.  And I absolutely loved it.  Within months, Mike and our PD Jill, had made me Assistant Program Director.  1991-1993 was such an amazing period working with my friends and like-minded people in radio.  I was also able to, after the 1991 floods in Monroe,  report news and weather on KMLB and K-104, which was still my career goal.  I was living the dream (ha!).

But more on all that later...this is about music...

September 1991 came.  I was continuing to work in the music department of Alfalfa Video and Music, while also continuing my radio career and trying harder in school so that I didn't screw myself up again.  I was 19 by this point, and engaged to be married (like an idiot).  But my work in radio, the people I'd met, etc., it wasn't a difficult stretch to be working in a music department while also being in radio.  I'd missed being the Music Director at KNLU, but kept my finger on the pulse of things through Alfalfa.  In fact, James Arthur Payne, who is now a member of the band Better Than Ezra, was working at Matt's Music, a local music instrument store, and would bring me $100 a month to buy the "latest cool stuff" to play in the store.  I loved being considered for that kind of thing.  I was being trusted for my taste and view of the latest music.  I loved getting into conversations with people of all ages and recommending things for them to listen to.  The idea of a news career just kept slipping and slipping away.  

We would play a variety of music over the speakers at Alfalfa.  So when new stuff would come in, we would always take a copy of something and shove it in the CD changer to promote the latest stuff.  This is how I'd already been a fan of early Smashing Pumpkins, having played "Gish" when it was released.  Concrete Blonde's "Bloodletting" fell into this time period as well.  REM's "Out of Time," U2's "Achtung Baby," and Tom Petty & the Heartbreaker's "Into the Great Wide Open" were frequent spinners in the CD changer.  

As a GnR fan, I'd been anxiously awaiting Use Your Illusion I and II.  Metallica fans were also clamoring for the "Black Album".  By August, the number of albums that would become movers and shakers of the period, and classic albums, were released.  August 12, Metallica's "Black Album."  August 27, Pearl Jam's "Ten."  September 17, GnR's double albums.  September 24, Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" AND Nirvana's "Nevermind." "Diamonds and Pearls," a return to form for Prince, was October 1. "Badmotorfinger" from Soundgarden was October 8.  The list kept going, and going.  1991 was such an incredible year for music.  And I was able to enjoy the rock side of in radio for half the year, and more contemporary jazz and new age stuff the second half, like Enya's "Shepherd Moons."  I was in heaven.  

The enormous COMMERCIAL success of REM's "Out of Time" and U2's "Achtung Baby," as well as the backlash at hair bands leading to the darker, angst rock success of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and others, deemed 1991 the last major wave of change in music.  30+ years later and, while there have been small indentations in music, the change to Mp3 sharing, streaming, music services, etc. have made it virtually impossible for a 1991 to ever happen again.  I was at ground zero for it too, and it was a wonderful memory for me.

That being said, it was also the death of my keeping so closely in touch with music.  Without going into massive detail, I met my wife in 1992, started dating her in 1993 and, by 1994, had had enough of radio and wanted to make an actual living for my family.  So I switched majors to Business Administration - Information Systems Development to become a programmer.  The politics and very low pay of commercial radio (unless you're Howard Stern) had burned me out completely.  And my love for music had suffered, as a result.  In fact, from 1994 - 1998, I listened to and purchased very little.  I also had my first child and had been hit by a train and almost killed in that time, so other things were happening.  Plus, I was trying to finish college.  

So, unlike the 80s, where something big and new was happening seemingly every year, the 90s were a blur of mediocrity after the explosion of 1991.  Nirvana did a follow up, which was great, but led Kurt Cobain to kill himself.  Pearl Jam took over the spotlight and kept getting better and better.  Soundgarden and Alice in Chains too.  However, the whole alternative-became-mainstream period, brought on by REM and U2's success, was very hit and miss.  MTV, which had lost its influential status at this point, spent most of the 90s reverting to a reality TV toilet bowl, playing fewer and fewer music videos, which was its only reason for existing.  

Urban/R&B really blew up at this time as well, as an alternative to alternative.  MTV found itself also being a mixed bag of each, playing alt-rock, folk-rock, hip-hop and New Jack Swing/R&B.  The good thing was, there was a lot of it, but record companies and MTV were chasing trends, not setting them.  Some of the bands were great, but usually one-and-done.  The La's, Happy Mondays, Happyhead, The Farm, Lush, Supergrass, Ocean Blue, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and a million others were decent, but ultimately mediocre.  Radio and MTV simply got old and dull trying to locate the next Nirvana.  So, when that didn't happen, bands tried merging sounds together.  And that's where things fell off a cliff.  

As grunge started to go mainstream and eventually become watered down, rock went two ways.  Green Day and Weezer went the way of pop/rock chord-driven songs.  But the more bass-driven and complex music morphed into Nu Metal.  Being a fan of perfectly constructed pop songs, I was more interested in Weezer, The Rentals, Jimmy Eat World, Marvelous 3, Blink 182, etc. I was listening to remnants of the grunge era via Stone Temple Pilots, Foo Fighters, Bush, etc.  For the most part, though, Nu Metal started being the music younger fans were clamoring for, such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, Powerman 5000, Slipknot, Crazy Town, Papa Roach and System of a Down.  It's likely because I was an old fart by this point, but none of that music moved my needle at all.  Combined with the fatigue from radio, my interest in music was casual at best.  In fact, I listened to older stuff more often.

Finally, for those who were of age during the 90s and fans of music may wonder why I haven't said anything about Britpop.  Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Pulp, Suede, etc. This might be a controversial opinion, but while I have enjoyed some of their albums, I feel like the genre was too hit-and-miss to be given much press.  Oasis was the obvious winner from that group in terms of commercial popularity, and Radiohead was the critical darling.  Maybe it's my age, but, to me, when I think of well-written British pop-alt music, I think of The Smiths, The Cure, etc. Oasis, Blur, etc. seemed like hacks to me.  Don't get me wrong, I loved Noel Gallagher's first solo album, and The Bends and Ok Computer from Radiohead are absolutely phenomenal albums, but aside from occasional hits, most Britpop are misses for me.

While most important albums to me in the 90s are from the first few years, here they are:

• Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
• Depeche Mode - Violator
• Pearl Jam - Vs
• Alice in Chains - Dirt
• Morrissey - Bona Drag
• Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
• Weezer - Pinkerton
• Garbage - Version 2.0
• Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing
• Travis - The Man Who
• Prince - Graffiti Bridge
• Prince - The Symbol Album
• Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting
• Counting Crows - August and Everything After
• Christopher Franke - Pacific Coast Highway

The Soundtrack of My Life - The 1980s

The 80s were life changing. I think that may be why the last 30 years seem to have flown by to me. I got married, had kids, graduated college, started a new career, the internet became a thing, iPhones, etc. All of these changes in the last 30 years happened gradually over 3 decades.  The 80s seem like something huge happened every single year.  And the differences between 1980 and 1990 were paramount!  I'll write more about my life in the 1980s later.  This is about music.  And in no decade since The Beatles or Elvis were on Ed Sullivan, did music have such an enormous impact on a period of time.  

1980 saw the fallout of 1979's "Disco Demolition." Disco was dying.  Quickly.  At least as a "scene."  The same writers, producers, musicians were churning out hits well into the 80s.  Since I never had a vested interest in the "scene" of Disco, since I was a wee lad, I never could understand the concept of Disco dying.  I kept hearing Barry Gibb's stamp on songs like Barbra Streisand's "Guilty" and "Woman in Love," Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream" and Dionne Warwick's "Heartbreaker," for instance.  It didn't have colorful lights and dance floors with them, but the songs "sounded" the same, and that's what I picked up on.  It was during this time when I really began picking apart sounds and styles.  I developed a love for certain styles.  I loved perfect pop songs.  Melodies.  Harmonies.  

Early 1981, after my dad's graduation, we moved to Broken Arrow/Tulsa.  I keep track of the moves in my life by the grades I was in, and literally the soundtrack of what was going on in not only that time, but also the area.  Tulsa was COUNTRY.  Disco was never a "scene" in Texas or Louisiana, except for the sound on the radio, but HONKYTONKS in 1981 during the explosion of Urban Cowboy and country music crossover, those were certainly a thing.  Western wear stores and skating rink music kept us immersed in it.  "Elvira" from the Oak Ridge Boys, "Angel of the Morning" from Juice Newton, "Looking for Love" from Johnny Lee, Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, and, of course, "Tulsa Time" from Don Williams, were such a huge part of this period.  1980-1981 was intensely country. 

There was a huge discount department store chain in Tulsa called David's (ala K-Mart) where I was able to see a nice selection of albums and where I first took birthday and Christmas money to buy Urban Chipmunk (don't laugh) and the soundtrack to the 1978 Bee Gees/Peter Frampton movie version of Sgt Pepper's Hearts Club Band.  I loved the music, but the movie was pretty much the death knell for that era of music.  Enter Urban Cowboy.

But here is what I mean about the 1980s being a groundbreaking period of progress literally every year.  Everything I've talked about so far spelled the transition from Disco to a Pop Country fusion scene that itself faded away pretty quickly once August 1981 happened.  Our house in Broken Arrow, OK, had cable TV, which I loved.  And with that cable TV, I was able to watch so many movies that became a mainstay of my youth, like "Young Frankenstein," "Better Off Dead," "Gotcha!," "Zapped," "Revenge of the Nerds," etc.  It was also how I was able to watch the first day of MTV. 

"Video Killed the Radio Star."  WOW.  I didn't realize when I saw this crazy new sound and format for the first time, that it would immerse me even more deeply into music.  The Buggles were Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes.  That didn't mean anything to me in August 1981.  They'd join the band Yes. Geoff would branch out with the supergroup Asia, and Trevor would become one of the best producers for the next several decades with artists like ABC, the Pet Shop Boys, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Robbie Williams, Seal, Clannad and tons more.  He's brilliant. 

MTV played everything in the early days.  New Wave, Pop, Metal, Pop Country, Techno, R&B, etc.  The PERFECT incubation for young me.  It's why, to this day, I love just about every style (although I still can''t find myself being interested in Reggae). The Urban Cowboy era quickly died after MTV broke.  I vividly remember sitting in my mom's car (there are several situations like this as a kid) while she was in a Shepler's Western Wear store (or some kind of Western Wear store) in Tulsa getting something for her and my dad to go out "Honkytonking", when "Jessie's Girl" from Rick Springfield came on the radio.  I'd soon see the video for it on MTV.  

When you're a kid in 3rd and 4th grade, in 1981-1982, the roller skating rink was the place to be.  Sure, when I'm home alone, MTV was on.  But at the skating rink, or the pizza parlor, you were exposed to more of the radio favorites of the day.  "Love on the Rocks" from Neil Diamond, "Bette Davis Eyes" from Kim Carnes, Air Supply, Styx, Ronnie Milsap, Hall & Oates, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, etc.  There was a direct correlation between the rise of MTV and the fall of Urban Cowboy, though.  You saw less and less Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Anne Murray, etc., and more of the Rick Springfield, Styx, REO Speedwagon, etc. 

It was crazy, the progression. When I think of how the styles changed from 1978-1982, my mind is blown. And I was loving it all.  From the ashes of punk, you had New Wave, Ska and Post-Punk, like Madness,  Siouxsie and the Banshees, Modern English, XTC, Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Cure, etc., to American rock transitioning into the video world, like Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, John Mellencamp, Journey, REO Speedwagon, J. Geils, The Cars, Eddie Money, etc.  MTV played everything BUT the Urban Cowboy country pop.  Others couldn't make the transition from radio and died as a result. And just like that, an improvement in technology wiped out a generation of music and bore a new one.  People stopped buying records and 8-tracks, and had moved exclusively to cassettes.  

In 1981, I was buying LPs of Bee Gees, Andy Gibb and Captain & Tennille. By  mid-1982, I had moved to Ft. Lauderdale after a year in Tulsa and was exploring a mountain of new music, buying nothing really.  Just listening to the changing landscape on video and radio, really getting into The Pretenders, The Motels, Pat Benatar, The Cars, early Def Leppard, Journey, etc.  That's how fast things were changing.

Merely a year later, in mid-1983, I was crossing the country, moving from Ft. Lauderdale/Sunrise, FL to Los Angeles/Thousand Oaks, CA.  I was buying cassettes, relegating the record player I'd so desperately wanted 4 years prior, to the corner of the room.  Closed up and unused.  Thousand Oaks was the city I lived in where the era of hanging out at the mall had begun.  The Oaks Mall was my main haunt, and there were all kinds of music stores, music merch stores, arcades, food courts, etc. One could stay there all day! And many weekends, I did.  In LA, and specifically my age and grade in school, what was "cool" came quick and furiously.  Within a year, from mid-1983 to mid-1984, I had purchased or been gifted Quiet Riot's "Metal Health," Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil," multiple Duran Duran tapes, Iron Maiden's "Piece of Mind," Def Leppard's "High & Dry" and "Pyromania," Journey's "Escape" and "Frontiers." Such a dramatic change in styles, aggression.  The orchestral, R&B-centric funk/disco, or acoustic/electric melodies of Laurel Canyon were long gone.  It was all about synths, techno beats, distortion, and flashy outfits.  Because of video domination, the look was as important as the sound.  

And this is barely 4 years into the decade. It's difficult to properly explain the difference those 4 short years made to the entire industry. And that was just the popular stuff.  There was a tsunami of underground stuff coming.  Whether it was punk like Black Flag or The Misfits, budding thrash metal, like Metallica and Anthrax, pure pop/R&B like Madonna, Culture Club, and Prince, upcoming LA metal bands, like Ratt, Stryper, and WASP; to alternative bands like The B-52s, REM, Violent Femmes, The Talking Heads, and The Replacements.  Night and day from half a decade earlier.

The complete culmination of pop, style, attitude, videos, albums, movies, etc. came in 1984 with Prince's "Purple Rain" and in 1985 with Madonna's "Desperately Seeking Susan." All of the yuppie excesses of the 1980s, the desire for riches and fame, were all at peak form by 1985.  I was listening to it all, watching it all.  I was a kid, so I was influenced like every kid my age, by what was "popular."  That attitude in me changed in 1987, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  I was wrapping up junior high at this point, and about to enter high school.  I was still deeply into music, but also trying to weed through who I really liked compared to what was popular.  Enter, my aunt Carol and uncle Raymond.

Like the influence my uncle Lloyd's music in the car we borrowed from him in Newellton in the late 1970s, I loved talking music with my aunt Carol and uncle Raymond.  They were, of course, older than I was, but introduced me to a deeper understanding of Pink Floyd and early Whitesnake.  Through them, I started thinking of music again like I had in the 70s, not just a reflection of what was popular amongst my peers.  They both had renewed my view into the meaning behind lyrics and put me back in touch with what made me LISTEN to music.  I entered high school reading music periodicals and learning about producers, like George Martin, Phil Spector, Quincy Jones, Alan Parsons, and Trevor Horn. I looked into why albums from Prince and Madonna were consistently popular and full of great songs.  I learned about Prince producing all of his own stuff and Madonna's long relationship with Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard.  In fact, I conclude that Madonna has done very little worth listening to since "Like a Prayer" because she started working with Dallas Austin, Shep Pettibone (although I love "Vogue") and other "DJ"-driven production rather than focusing on making hit pop music.

This renewed view into music, and being friends with other like-minded music lovers, like Charles Boyett and Scott Greer, made it easy to hear music the way I always should have.  

By 1986, MTV had solidified itself as THE source for new music. There was no YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, SiriusXM, etc.  Just radio and MTV.  But radio was just playing what was popular on MTV, and MTV had more narrowly focused their core rotation and then had specialty shows, like 120 Minutes for more alternative selections.  Unfortunately, that meant those bands weren't being played regularly anymore.  MTV wasn't taking a lot of chances and throwing stuff against the wall to see what stuck.  In fact, they'd even begun a second station, VH-1, in 1985 to start running the more soft rock and adult contemporary music, relegating MTV to truly image-conscious popular music.  They'd lost their edge.  As a result, 1986 music was pretty generic and dull.  

To top it off, Compact Discs (CDs) began to really start making their way into retail options for music around 1986, into 1987.  For Christmas in 1987, my dad had purchased me a big wood-rack home stereo system.  My mom had purchased me a CD player that I could hook up to it.  I was awaiting the release of Def Leppard's "Hysteria" for my first CD (August 1987), but lost my patience and bought Great White's "Once Bitten" CD as my first (June 1987).  Guns N Roses' "Appetite for Destruction" came out in July 1987, and I'd read about how great it was going to be in Circus Magazine for about a year prior.  I piggy backed on Charles buying the vinyl version first, then soon bought the CD, followed quickly by Def Leppard's "Hysteria" and Whitesnake's self-titled 1987 CD.  All of these albums fed my desire to listen deeply to what made them unique and qualitative.  The quality of the sound coming from CDs were unlike anything I'd ever heard, especially cassettes.  I was "hearing" albums for the first time ever.

I'd noticed over the years that Def Leppard had a specific sound that I thoroughly enjoyed, prior to "Hysteria."  I'd picked up on during "Pyromania," but heard it even more prominently during "High & Dry."  hard rock, but groove-driven, primarily by the bass. And twin guitars bending the same notes, but at different octaves, in syncopation.  While it wasn't ground-breaking stuff, it made for taking a harder sound and commercializing it for radio.  This is something I found fascinating because Quiet Riot had done anthem-like Slade covers and achieved the same thing, but rarely got their own stuff to have the same reaction. Same with Motley Crue. While they had underground fame that had bubbled up to the surface with their harder stuff, when they tried to do something like "Too Young to Fall in Love," it pleased their fans and MTV, but it never got past #90 on Billboard's Top 100.  And absolutely nowhere near the Top 40.  

Conversely, "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" found the same success among hard rock fans and MTV, but crossed over, achieving #12 and #16 on the Top 40, respectively.  Why?  At first, I was thinking, "Well...maybe Motley was just too heavy." But...while "Hysteria" achieved a much more polished, radio-friendly sound for Def Leppard, "Pyromania" was every bit as heavy as "Shout at the Devil." In fact, when Motley's "Theatre of Pain" came out and they had the very radio-friendly "Home Sweet Home," while it achieved the same love among rock fans and MTV, it still sat in limbo at #89 in the Top 100. 

Now, of course, I wasn't aware of the impact of A&R people at the time, which absolutely could have played a part. However, I was deep into my study of production by this point and looked deeper into Mutt Lange, which wasn't easy considering the lack of Internet.  It took going to local drug stores and such to read Circus magazine, Metal Edge, RIP, etc. to learn as much as I could. And I did.  

I heard the same note-bending against the drive of the bass on AC/DC's "Back in Black" and "Highway to Hell" albums.  But these were different bands?? AC/DC was Australian. Def Leppard was British.  Nothing before "Highway to Hell" and nothing after "For Those About to Rock" in AC/DC's catalog had those note bends. Angus' guitar was more chord-driven before that.  And more riff driven since.  Those three albums had a different sound, while still being AC/DC-enough. Sure enough, Mutt produced them.

What else had Mutt produced?  Wait..."Heartbeat City" from The Cars?  Well, aside from it being the most popular Cars album, which matches Mutt's propensity for making hit albums, WHY???  It sounded nothing guitar-wise like Def Leppard or AC/DC.  Did he KNOW somebody?  Why did he have the Midas touch??? The songs were still written by Ric, so true Cars songs. But...hmm...those electronic drum machine triggers.  Those layered background vocals.  The Cars have never done that, and I hear those same drum triggers on Def Leppard's "Coming Under Fire" and "Billy's Got a Gun" on Pyromania (and a million times on "Hysteria"), as well as the vocals.  But why do those help make a song more popular??

Then I read somewhere that Mutt produced "Do You Believe in Love?" from Huey Lewis and the News.  A more un-Def Leppard or AC/DC like song there could not be.  Then it hit me.  It's the melody, the harmonies, the structure of the song, combined with the polished sound elements that made the songs more radio friendly.  THAT IS WHAT A PRODUCER DOES!  The producer takes the artist(s) sound and planned theme for how they want to write and record a new album and, using proven techniques, skills, equipment and guidance, steers their sound into a unified thematic sound based on the producer's vision of how to get the best (hopefully) out of the artist(s). 

I became. completely obsessed with this, as well other magical components like mixing, engineering, etc.  By the time I got into radio at 17 (actually ON my 18th birthday in 1990), I had access to, and spent an insane amount of time, IN the studio.  Learning.  Playing.  But more on that in the 1990s.

This brings me to 1987, which I mentioned earlier had me at a different place as a consumer of music.  The combination of more qualitative media, like CDs, more understanding of how albums are constructed, like how I mentioned above with Mutt, and a bit more maturity, I simply started hearing albums differently.  And considering what a phenomenal year 1987 was in the making of seminal albums, which hadn't been duplicated until 1991, and then never again, the timing for how I was listening to music, and the source material given to me to study, couldn't have been more perfect.

Instead of simply buying/listening to damn near everything that came out from specific genres I was enjoying, while listening took place via the nearly released Headbanger's Ball, as well as 120 Minutes, both of which encapsulated my taste at the time, I only purchased CDs of albums I'd already listened to and studied. Well, and liked.  One will notice that the albums I loved during this year are essentially albums I still listen to today.  My study and casual enjoyment of them has never waned.  Conversely, bands I was listening to before this change in me, ones that didn't meet my interest in its structure, production, lyrical content, etc., became bands I rarely, if ever, listened to again. Bands like Poison are a great example.  I listened to quite a bit of "Look What the Cat Dragged In" in 1986.  By this change in me in 1987, I rarely, if ever, listened to Poison again.  I realized how untalented, lyrically and musically, that band really was.  The sheer quality of music that came out in 1987 was a big help in taking that leap. 

Guns N Roses, of course, made the biggest impact in 1987's class.  They took the simplistic, pretty-boy nonsense of bands like Poison, Kik Tracee, Tigertailz, etc., etc., etc. and made everyone realize you could make quality blues-based, riff-based, non chord-driven pure rock albums (complete with cursing) and look like complete heroin-esque dog shit.  MTV would still play you and you can crossover. Heavier than anything Motley Crue had done, GnR hit #1 with "Sweet Child of Mine" and #7 with "Welcome to the Jungle."  This was an anomaly and, frankly, I don't even want to count them here because they were ahead of their time.  

As crappy as 1986 was, 1987 was NOT. Here are some of them:

• U2 - "The Joshua Tree"
• Heart - "Bad Animals"
• Whitesnake - "Whitesnake"
• George Michael - "Faith"
• Prince - "Sign O' the Times"
• Fleetwood Mac - "Tango in the Night"
• Michael Jackson - "Bad"
• Bruce Springsteen - "Tunnel of Love"
• Lou Gramm - "Ready or Not"
• Guns N Roses - "Appetite for Destruction"
• Aerosmith - "Permanent Vacation"
• Whitney Houston - "Whitney"
• Def Leppard - "Hysteria"
• The Smiths - "Strangeways Here We Come"
• The Smiths - "Louder Than Bombs"
• Depeche Mode - "Music for the Masses"
• REM - "Document"
• INXS - "Kick"
• The Cure - "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me"
• Dokken - "Back for the Attack"
• The Cult - "Electric"
• Pet Shop Boys - "Actually"
• Carly Simon - "Coming Around Again"
• Level 42 - "Running in the Family"

Crazy to think if we come out with one or two albums like this in a year, THAT is an accomplishment. 1987 was just incredible.  

Of those above albums, many of them were successes because of the producer.  Period.  Aerosmith used Bon Jovi's hit maker, Bruce Fairbairn.  Michael Jackson had Quincy Jones.  U2 had Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno.  The Cult's "Electric," which was groundbreaking for them, was really just a product of Rick Rubin encouraging them to play their songs in a raw manner, opposite from what they'd done with their previous albums.  That was enough to break them big, though they would go the way of Bob Rock with the next album to get more of that polished production back into their music, but it shows the impact of a producer.  

The 1980s wrapped up in 1988 and 1989 with a tidying up of all things music. Everything was CDs, as compared to vinyl and 8-track at the beginning of the decade.  Music had gone from full orchestral and funk/R&B-driven disco pop to synth/drum machine pop during this decade.  Music was fresh and new for the first half of the decade, and corporate/polished by the end of it.  After 1987's onslaught of great albums, 1988 and 1989 were filled with "Me Too" albums.  While some were good, most were just trying to capture the success of 1987.  For instance, Kingdom Come utilized producer Bob Rock, who also did 1989's masterpiece, "Blue Murder," to break them in the states with their self-titled Led Zeppelin clone.  Ironically, this led to a watered down group of albums that would have to have a paradigm shift in music to shake the room.  That would happen in 1991.  

Combined with me aging from 7-17 during the 1980s, it was also prime maturity progression for me.  In fact, watching shows like "Night Flight" on the weekends, I was exposed to a lot of contemporary jazz, which led me to want to explore that world, which would help me tremendously in radio. I would graduate high school in 1990 at 17, and on my 18th birthday, have my first meeting at KNLU, as I took my love of music to the next level.

During the 1980s, the most meaningful albums to me were:

• Prince - "Sign O' the Times"
• Prince - "Lovesexy"
• The Smiths - "Louder Than Bombs"
• Guns N Roses - "Appetite for Destruction"
• Blue Murder - "Blue Murder"
• Whitesnake - "Whitesnake"
• Mary My Hope - "Museum"
• Jane's Addiction - "Nothing's Shocking"
• The Pretenders - "The Pretenders"
• Def Leppard - "Pyromania"
• Madonna - "Like a Prayer"
• Pixies - "Doolittle"

The Soundtrack of My Life - the 1970s

Music means probably the most to me, other than my family, of course.  I've got hobbies and interests, but music has been my foundation forever.  It began extremely early for me, pushed me into a radio career right out of high school, and is enjoyed by me today through the 20-30 concerts per year that I attend, as well as my personal time just listening and sharing all kinds of my favorite stuff.  

Ironically, as important as it is to me, I never learned an instrument beyond some very minor piano and guitar capabilities.  5 or 6 chords, maybe.  I never had the dexterity or the ear to play, even though I had a keen ear when it came to artists, producers, sounds, etc.  I could name an artist or producer of a piece of music for decades.  I wish I had been able to translate that into actual playing, but after watching Prince at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," I pretty much came to the conclusion that, if I couldn't play like that, I didn't even want to try.  

I was born in 1972, but my earliest memory of liking a piece of music on the radio was "Magic" by Pilot. I LOVED it!  I was living in Wautauga or Hurst, TX.  The song came out in 1975, but this memory was on a strong rainy day and I sat in the car while my mom ran into a U-Tote-Em or a Stop-and-Go (like 7-11). I want to say it was 1978 or 1979. I was 6 or 7 years old. From there, I have memories of liking "One of These Nights" by the Eagles around this same time period.  Also a song from 1975, but I'm almost certain that I wasn't into this music THAT early.  I would have been 3, for God's sake.  But those memories stuck with me.  I had a friend in Hurst, Tony Lopez, who had a record player at his house that we would listen to after school, but he exclusively played KISS.  Specifically, the "Destroyer" album from 1976.  I didn't move to Hurst until 1978, though, so this is why I believe that is the year.  

This made me want a record player BADLY.

We moved to Newellton, LA in the fall of 1979.  While my memory isn't great, I believe I had begun second grade for a very short period of time in Hurst, then continued most of it in Miss Vosburg's class at Newellton Elementary.  During that fall, my budding interest in music had really blossomed as Saturday Night Fever had exploded, as had the Bee Gees, and while borrowing my uncle's car, I was exposed to "new" music, in the form of Neil Sedaka, Billy Joel, The Beatles, The Spinners, Queen, Linda Rondstadt and Jackson Browne. My desire for a record player had reached peak fever.  And for Christmas, 1979, "Santa" gave me what I'd craved: a record player and my first record, Bee Gees Gold Vol 1.  

Interestingly, I never asked my parents why "Santa" brought me Bee Gees Gold Vol 1, which was a best of compilation that covered their 1967-1972 era, prior to their disco explosion.  This was 1979, prime disco era!  Very strange. Yet, I listened to that album over, and over, and over.  "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and "Run to Me" were my favorites.  Little did I know it, but my "ear" for how these things were produced and the construct, melodies and harmonies of sadder songs, in specific, really started to take shape.

I consumed all that I could.  This is when I first listed to my dad's Sgt Pepper's album and fell in love with "A Day in the Life," my all-time favorite song.  One could tell that I leaned toward moody songs that had complex themes and were "weird."  The internet was just a private government network, so all I had were my own thoughts as to what in the hell "4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" meant.  My mom introduced me to The Doors, which had me mentally messed up as a 7 year old trying to figure out what in the hell a "Crystal Ship" was.  "The End" had me feeling loopy too.  But studying these themes was something to do in the nothingness that was Newellton.  In fact, I wonder if I had the friends and social life of Hurst while living in Newellton, would I have spent so much time alone in my room playing these records and become so obsessed with diving so deeply into how music and albums were constructed.

It was over the next year that I expanded my listening to The Beatles "White Album," "Revolver" and, my mom's favorite, "Rubber Soul." In addition, catching up on the Beatles-adjacent greatness of Ringo Starr's "Photograph," George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Paul McCartney & Wings' "Band on the Run" album and the recent release in Nov 1980 of John Lennon's "Double Fantasy."  Then, a month later in December 1980, John Lennon was assassinated.  Someone with whom I'd only recently become familiar, now dead.  It strongly impacted a young me.  I'd feel this way again when Andy Gibb would die of a drug overdose in 1988.  

I doubled down on my fascination with every type of music I could consume.  I'd go to garage sales, where I bought albums like Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" and my first 45s, like "Love is Thicker Than Water" with "Words and Music" as the B Side, by Andy Gibb.  I never had money for new stuff, so albums I wanted badly, like the soundtrack to "Grease" and "Urban Cowboy," the hot properties at the time, were always out of reach.  

My time in Newellton was wrapping up with my dad graduating from NLU, and our first of several annual moves began.  Not sticking around a city for any meaningful length of time kept me as a close friend to my love for music above everything else.  

During the 1970s, the most meaningful albums to me were:

• Bee Gees - Gold, Vol 1
• The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run
• Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
• Bee Gees - Here at Last...Live
• Billy Joel - The Stranger

Day One

 Blogs aren't really much of a thing anymore. The narcissistic behavior behind the concept of blogs, unless you're already famous, really made most bloggers realize no one was really reading them.  Who in the hell has time to read blogs anyway?

So...naturally, I began one...again.  

There is a point to this one, though.  And it has nothing to do with 99.999999999999% of the world.  This is for my kids, my family and anyone who knows/knew me who might give even an inkling of a shit. 

My mom put together a cool summary of her life in writing and pictures in a nice binder that I occasionally break out and thumb through.  I learn a little something more about her, or at least see a perspective as I age that maybe I didn't recognize when I was younger.  Now that she's gone, it's a nice thing for me to have.  

I want to do something similar for my kids/family, but in a 21st century kind of way.  In other words, I'm not going to use paper.  Plus, I can go update it when I need to without keeping a million versions that change over time.  So that's what I'll do here, at least for the writing part.  I post all my pics on Instagram and Facebook, and have an enormous Apple Photos library on my family account, which has all my photos and videos of my life's passings.  

I've had a couple of blogs in the past, but never did keep up with it.  I get a wild hair to communicate stuff, then get tired of it and think differently.  I realize how narcissistic it is and it makes me feel icky. 

This time, though, my point is different.  You see, I probably don't have a ton of time left.  I'm not saying that to be dramatic. I had a massive heart attack in December, 2021. A big one. 1/3 of my heart is dead.  Never to return. And living beyond 5 years after one of these kind of cardiac events is pretty average.  That puts me within a year and a half of average.  For the first couple of years, I think I was in denial about it, but after additional health issues, an implementation of a defibrillator and some other complications, I'm realizing my time is what it is.  

So, I'm going to capture some thoughts like my mom did and leave them for friends and family to thumb through if they ever feel the urge.  Other than that, I neither expect, nor care, if anyone else reads it.  Chances are, it's not for them anyway.

Peace