Love and Life Are Deep

This Week We Celebrate a Musical Milestone

Early in 1981, I was a lost soul - my mother was terminally ill, my dad had basically checked out to care for her and I was winging (badly) freshman year of high school with few friends and poor grades, all the while waging an internal war against waves of depression that I had no tools to defend against.

That time was a low point for me.

Then on February 11, 43 years ago this week, something happened. One of my favorite bands released an album that changed my life. Really! I know how dramatic that sounds, but I needed something to hold on to right at that moment, something undefinable.

Moving Pictures by Rush gave that to me. A life line.

There weren’t previews and teasers back then, no constant barrage of digital entertainment news. MTV was a baby at the time and I remember there being some mention of them working on a new album, but Rush wasn’t what the cool kids were listening to anyway. “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang was at the top of the charts when Moving Pictures landed.

So, the album just… was.

I rode my bike down to the mall record shop and bought it. The first two songs were “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight.” And they were mine. The album was literary and filled with warnings about modern society, and poetic. The chords and tempo changes were progressive and impossible to dance to. That music - in the place where I was at the time - felt important. It felt worth sticking around for.

I did a quick check to see what else dropped around that time period and the list is startling: Elvis Costello (Trust), Rolling Stones (Tattoo You), Squeeze (East Side Story), J. Geils Band (Freeze Frame) and Billy Squire (Don’t Say No).

Incidentally, despite its placement now-a-days in the upper pantheon of rock and roll, “Tom Sawyer” never even broke into the top 40 single charts when it was released, though the album catapulted the band into rock royalty.

I write a lot about music these days, what with Little Bean’s exploding interest in rock and metal and how excited I am at the prospect of some upcoming road trips with her to see some newer bands (and maybe some older ones as well.)

I no longer NEED the music like I once did, but now I want it. I want it because she may need it at some point, just like I did. But this time, I hope, I’ll be there with her.

What music affected you as a young adult? What music saved you?

At any rate, if you need it or if you want it, or maybe a bit of both, go and like what you like - listen to what moves you, listen to what makes you smile, and listen to it loudly. Oh, and rock on!

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Housekeeping: Friends, big, big news on the book front! We are very close to launching the new book in the Rocks That Rock series! Stay tuned, we’ll have some dates and a schedule for that tomorrow I hope!

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Come back tomorrow, it’s going to be a big day!