What comes around goes around

This is a cross post from my Knoxville Trivia Blog:

"It's it's the Ballroom blitz, It's it's the Ballroom blitz, It's it's the Ballroom blitz, YEAH, it's the Ballroom blitz...da, da, da, da, da..." My son comes dance-running into the kitchen last night singing that song to the top of his lungs and playing an air guitar. "Oh dad, this song that is on Guitar Hero is so cool!" Suddenly I was transported back to 1974 when I was 8-years old. The rock band, Sweet, was topping the charts with that hit. Other big rock bands of that time period were, Queen, Styx, Little River Band, and Blondie, just to name a few.

My sister, Pam, and I would save up our allowance and buy 45-rpm records of all of our favorite songs. Of course we heard about them from the radio. Back then, WNOX, and WRJZ were playing top-40 music. (Learn more about Knoxville radio history here.) Pam and I would often trade records with each other.

Anyways, after I snapped out of my childhood memory coma, I smiled at my son and said, "boy, have I got a treat for you." I went into my bedroom and pulled out a small brown box. Crammed inside of this little box is 70 of my old 45-rpm records. I sorted through them and voila, pulled out Ballroom Blitz. I handed it to him and told him to go put it on the record player. He was so excited and couldn't believe that I would ever listen to anything that cool when I was his age. He asked me about some more music that I used to listen to and I played several of those old records for him. Guitar Hero has really opened up a lot of "new" music to today's kids. The music from the 70's and 80's was so much better than the slop that is being played nowadays.

This morning I continued digging around in those old records and my mind was just flooded with old memories. I can't help but think of all of the good times that I had with my big sister while she was still living. She loved music more than just about anything in the world. Her name is written on several of the them. We used to swap records with each other. Some has her name scratched out and my name in its place. I can still remember the day that I bought some of them. I thought I would just die if I couldn't get the latest Blondie record. There were 4 or 5 of them in the box.

I also stumbled across one record that really brought back some old memories. It was, "Put On Your Dancing Shoes," by Nigel Olsson from 1978. Pam had a friend named Gail. Slow dancing was the big craze back then but I didn't know how. So Gail offered to teach me how to dance. We dimmed the lights and placed the record on the turntable. The next thing I knew she had me in a full embrace and was slowly walking me around in a circle. Keep in mind that I was only 12-years old at the time and Gail was 16 or 17. I thought I had done died and woke up in older woman/slow dancing Heaven! Let's just say that I required numerous slow dancing lessons and just leave it at that... Perhaps we will revisit this time period on a different post.

While all video games are not good, at least Guitar Hero is helping to expand some young minds and teach them some new music. I had a Guitar Hero when I was growing up, but it wasn't a video game!

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Guitar Hero

In this day and age, video games are the number one toy that keeps kids occupied. One game that I have been hearing about over and over is called Guitar Hero. My son thinks he is going to “just die” if he doesn’t get one for Christmas this year. He has played his cousin’s game and quickly became addicted.

When I was growing up in the 70’s, I had a guitar hero. Nope, it wasn’t a video game. It was my dad.

Dad had an old 1953 Epiphone acoustic/electric guitar, and he played that thing every day and night. He would sit on the couch and pluck out a wide variety of music, including old Chuck Wagon Gang songs, Carter Family, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Michael Parks, and even Bob Dylan songs. The whole family would sit around the living room and listen and sing, as dad would play. My dad has one of the best tenor voices that you will never hear. He refuses to sing in a public place, however, at home, he sings to his heart’s content.

Dad taught me to play the guitar, and even handed-down the Epiphone to me. His old guitar mostly just sits on the stand and collects dust. Its tuners are pretty worn so it doesn’t hold a tune very well. When dad comes over to my house, he always picks up his old guitar and starts playing away. I’ve looked into getting it restored but the Gibson factory demands a hefty fee to restore it. If I had a little more time, I would attempt to do it myself, but I would hate to cause any damage to it.

Nowadays I have 2 other guitars that I frequently play. Both have a slightly different sound and feel, but both have the ability to transport me back in time to when I was just a little feller, sitting around the living room listening to my dad play. Gosh, I miss those days.

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