When I, the young "Teddy," was seven years old my neighbor played for me a rock 'n' roll single called Classical Gas by Mason Williams. Listening to the music the young Teddy was at peace with himself, and he could let his mind wander freely.
As I got older, the teenage "Ted" discovered WPLJ FM, the premiere FM rock station in New York. The music hit me like a drug and made my daydreams scream. The harder the music rocked, the more my daydreams would scream. It was awesome.
Although I, the teenage "Ted," had a low-quality record player from Radio Shack, I had a high-quality record collection. I brought hundreds of records. At that early critical time in my development two albums stood out in my mind, The Who's Tommy and David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Both were concept albums, the Who rocked hard, and destroyed their instruments live on stage, David Bowie played other-worldly characters to crazed Oriental audiences in only a jock strap. Fuck yea! |
