Today, January 12, 2014, my buddy Fred was over. We were talking about our ringing ears. We were reminiscing about 1974, when Rock and Roll died - as far as my friends and I were concerned. This new "Soft Rock" was all over the FM radio. We used to think AM radio was for the cuter top ten and the FM night time album cuts were for us hard rockers. It seemed like an overnight catastrophe, suddenly "Rock" stars were popping up on magazine covers and TV show interviews. And we blamed it all on Elton John.
I was sixteen with a driver's license, a station wagon full of drums and a bad attitude. We practiced twice a week in a basement and an empty metal shop. Brick walls and cement floors. On Fridays we were off to some high school dance. I always placed my homemade monitor box speaker 3 feet from my left ear. All the guitars, the bass, and the singing were pumped so loud at me I could only hear my snare drum rim shots. The volume was deafening. No bass drum or cymbal crashes were heard, even by me sitting amongst the drum set.
1974 was a fun year. We went to a lot of concerts. Aerosmith, Humble Pie, J. Geils Band, Queen, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Uriah Heep, Joe Walsh, Savoy Brown, The Who, a new Canadian band called Rush which everyone thought was a stupid name, and countless warm up bands, not to mention a weekly onslaught of Cream wanna-be local bands at a dance or wedding reception. Yup, the classic rock bands were there for 5 and not more than 7 bucks a ticket. Ever see an "O.D. Tent?" A big tent with about 50 cots was always standing outside the concert. After the concert the tent would always be full. I wonder if those druggies have tinnitus like me. Most of their time was spent outside with cute girls wearing red cross arm bands feeding them orange juice.
The neighborhood dads didn't know exactly what to think of our brand of music but always had 5 words of wisdom for us, "You're going to go deaf." We wouldn't go deaf. That was something old people said.
I was in history class sleepily watching news about Watergate. Nixon this and Nixon that. The whole world was sick of hearing about it. It seemed Elton John and Richard Nixon were going to drive us all totally nuts. No more TV shows, only news, and no more rock music, only crooning. Thank God the early 70's hard rock was there to save us.
Drawing pictures of guitars and drums and amplifiers on the back of my history papers was my favorite way to pass time in that horribly boring class. I'll always remember looking at the clock, it was 10:10 am. You remember things like this. I heard a sound that I thought was coming from the TV. After a few twists of my head, I realized the sound was in me. I didn't know what tinnitus was. But I knew the loud music was changing me. I didn't like it. That was the end of Rock and Roll for me. Around 1980 after the ringing settled down to a hiss I went acoustic. But for the record, it wasn't John Denver or the Carpenters. Although I think I would have been safer with them.
I was sixteen with a driver's license, a station wagon full of drums and a bad attitude. We practiced twice a week in a basement and an empty metal shop. Brick walls and cement floors. On Fridays we were off to some high school dance. I always placed my homemade monitor box speaker 3 feet from my left ear. All the guitars, the bass, and the singing were pumped so loud at me I could only hear my snare drum rim shots. The volume was deafening. No bass drum or cymbal crashes were heard, even by me sitting amongst the drum set.
1974 was a fun year. We went to a lot of concerts. Aerosmith, Humble Pie, J. Geils Band, Queen, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Uriah Heep, Joe Walsh, Savoy Brown, The Who, a new Canadian band called Rush which everyone thought was a stupid name, and countless warm up bands, not to mention a weekly onslaught of Cream wanna-be local bands at a dance or wedding reception. Yup, the classic rock bands were there for 5 and not more than 7 bucks a ticket. Ever see an "O.D. Tent?" A big tent with about 50 cots was always standing outside the concert. After the concert the tent would always be full. I wonder if those druggies have tinnitus like me. Most of their time was spent outside with cute girls wearing red cross arm bands feeding them orange juice.
The neighborhood dads didn't know exactly what to think of our brand of music but always had 5 words of wisdom for us, "You're going to go deaf." We wouldn't go deaf. That was something old people said.
I was in history class sleepily watching news about Watergate. Nixon this and Nixon that. The whole world was sick of hearing about it. It seemed Elton John and Richard Nixon were going to drive us all totally nuts. No more TV shows, only news, and no more rock music, only crooning. Thank God the early 70's hard rock was there to save us.
Drawing pictures of guitars and drums and amplifiers on the back of my history papers was my favorite way to pass time in that horribly boring class. I'll always remember looking at the clock, it was 10:10 am. You remember things like this. I heard a sound that I thought was coming from the TV. After a few twists of my head, I realized the sound was in me. I didn't know what tinnitus was. But I knew the loud music was changing me. I didn't like it. That was the end of Rock and Roll for me. Around 1980 after the ringing settled down to a hiss I went acoustic. But for the record, it wasn't John Denver or the Carpenters. Although I think I would have been safer with them.
