I guess it's only fair

I have been on rants lately so I thought I would give you a peek into a subject that means everything to me, music. As most of you know I have been playing bass since 1978 which means I have been doing this just as long as some of you have been alive. But my love of music really didn't start there, it started with my sisters and my friends when I was about 6 years old. Donna being the older sister love soul music. James brown, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Al Green etc... that was her thing and she loved it. Now Debbie being the middle child loved rock and roll, it's not like she didn't like soul she did she just preferred rock. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The whole British invasion thing etc, so i was introduced to various styles at a young age. When I was around the age of 7 I remember there were 3 radio stations you listened to, all AM station because Fm was main stream yet but soon would become. The stations were KFRC, KYA and KLIV. KLIV would play the top 40 all the time, and if there was a major hit single you heard it every 15 or 20 minutes. KFRC and KYA would play more Album oriented rock (AOR). So around the time I was 8 or 9 my friends and I took some pieces of wood, tacked some nails down and strung rubber bands across them. This was to be my first band, we would turn on a record player and pretend to play for neighborhood kids.

But I needed to find my own bands to like, my sisters bands were old and decrypted. Wait this is 1973 and there was a band that was unique to my generation they were called KISS!!!!! Damn right what else could electrify a kid more than guys in make up that scared your parents shitless. Fire breathing, blood, fireworks and guitars that smoked and lit up, cool stuff when your 10. So they were it, 24 hours a day 7 days a week for about 6 years, but then something happened, I got my bass, learned to play Kiss songs on it but, I wasn't happy musically and then I heard the bass sound I had always wanted to hear, it was by a gentleman by the name of Ross Valory and the band was Journey. Oh my god that voice, the smoothness of the guitar and the soothing bass behind it all, I need to do that I said!!!!! So for the rest of my time my style has always been like Mr. Valory's.

I write my own stuff now, not great but it makes me happy and I have written a song for my love Michelle and gave it to her for Christmas one year. It needs to be re-done I had a terrible sore throat when I tried to sing it so I will get it done.

I find myself liking all different styles of music these days but what I am not seeing is talent. If you listen to the singers of the 70's and compare them with today you can't. Good singers are a dime a dozen, great singers are a rare breed. Lately I have been following a gentleman by the name of Eli Mattson, if you haven't heard of him go to you-tube and type in his name, listen to his version of "Walking in Memphis", I cried the first time I heard it and it is still magical today. That is when I know a performer is great, when they touch me so deep tears just roll down my face. When was the last time someone made you do that? who was the artist?