The Boys Club near Water Street and George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” were a start, music-wise; but it was when we moved out of the town of Crawfordsville and into a split-level house out in the country that I got my first real taste of the music the rest of the world was hearing.
Living way out on a country road meant that we needed to start riding a bus to school. From 1971 through 1976, this I did. And that bus had an AM radio, tuned to the 50,000-watt powerhouse station to the north of us – 89 WLS Chicago, the greatest rock radio station in the Midwest.
I’d died and gone to Heaven.
There I was, just turned 10 with just snippets of pop and rock in my head – and suddenly I was being treated to a 25-minute bus ride twice a day, five days a week, hearing joyous things I’d never heard before – glorious, exciting music! I had loved the Power & Light Company for their tremendous style, and now I could see where it was coming from.
Rod Stewart! Carole King! The Rolling Stones! Three Dog Night! Seals and Crofts! Bread!
“Day After Day”. “Tiny Dancer”. “Colour My World”. “Me and Bobby McGee”. “One Tin Soldier”. “Love the One You’re With”.
This was almost more than I could stand. And, of course, it just got better and better, year after year. “American Pie”. “A Horse with No Name”. “Roundabout”. “Rocket Man”. “Song Sung Blue”. “Brandy”. “Join Together”. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. “Layla”!!!
Harry Nilsson. Elton John. Carly Simon. The Doobie Brothers. CSN. Steely Dan.
All of this was served up by the greatest DJs who ever lived: Larry Lujack. Bob Sirott. And at night, listening to my transistor radio through an earpiece, John Records Landecker, the greatest of the great.15 I came to think of them as friends.
Then came junior high school – a much longer bus ride! Now I had more time for Wings and “Band on the Run”16, the Moody Blues and ”I’m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band” and ”The Right Thing to Do” and ”Reelin’ in the Years” and Jim Croce and the Stones’ ”Angie” and ”Daniel” and ”Ramblin’ Man” and ”Frankenstein” and ”We’re an American Band”17 and ”Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”.
And with junior high came... a juke box. Yes, there was an up-to-date, fully-stocked juke box at Darlington Junior High School, and you didn’t need to put money in it. During lunchtime, we could punch in any songs we pleased; I could play the rock songs I loved over and over!
And I did. While the other guys were punching in “Black Dog” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and Thin Lizzy and David Bowie, and the girls were dredging up the Carpenters and Helen Reddy and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Let Me Be There” and “Just You ‘N Me”, I was having me some Steve Miller and Deep Purple and “Bungle in the Jungle” and “Candle in the Wind” and “China Grove” and “Jet” and “Shambala”...
Somewhere in there, I decided that this was something I wanted. Jep had encouraged me to stick with the guitar, which I’d done; this would all be music I would someday play, hellfire and brimstone notwithstanding.
In 1993, I flew from Louisville to Chicago on business, and I tuned my rental car radio to 89 AM.
It was all talk radio. I almost cried.
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