Dining in Vienna with a Stranger at an Italian Restaurant

Dining in Vienna with a Stranger at an Italian Restaurant

“Piano Man” was Billy Joel’s first Billboard top 40 hit in 1974 and despite its success, Billy Joel would remain a relatively unknown musician for another three years.  However, during this three year period he would tour as an opener with Yes, The Eagles, Seals and Croft, J. Geils Band, Chicago, and The Doobie Brothers just to name a few and gained a strong reputation as a talented songwriter and live performer.  In 1977, Billy Joel would record and release The Stranger and was propelled into superstardom almost overnight with the song “I Love You Just the Way You Are” reaching #3 on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart and would later win the Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.  The Stranger would eventually become the largest selling album on CBS records up to that point (passing Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel).  Billy Joel had created a very spectacular and magical album loved by many and The Stranger launched him to becoming one of the most successful musicians in history.

When I was a very little boy my mother stayed home and took care of me and my brothers.  At the time our family had a red mid 70’s Chevrolet Vega station wagon with an 8-track player.  My mother’s two most favorite 8-tracks when I was between 2 and 3 years old were Head First by The Babys and The Stranger by Billy Joel and she listened to these a lot.  I still have several vivid memories riding around with my mother in the Vega as she would run errands around Salt Lake City while The Stranger played in the car and she would always sing along with “I Love You Just the Way You Are” and “Vienna”.  I always enjoyed listening to this 8-track with my mother and the album left a very deep impression on me from as early as I can remember. 

As I grew up in the 80’s I really loved the music of Billy Joel.  My parents bought all of his albums from The Stranger onward and he was one of the very rare musicians that both of my parents enjoyed listening to.  Once 8-track players became obsolete and our family’s last 8-track player stopped working my parents bought LP’s of The Stranger, 52^nd Street, and Songs in the Attic very quickly.  Billy Joel is the perfect mix of melodic soft rock and straight up rock and roll in the musical style of New York City.  However, as time progressed through the 80’s, my parents both continued to buy more music for their collections and did not listen to Billy Joel as much.  At this time in the early 90’s Storm Front and River of Dreams are both very popular and getting very extensive airplay, but I was really starting to miss the Billy Joel of the 70’s and shortly after the release of River of Dreams in 1993 it had been so long since I had listened to The Stranger that I broke down and bought my own copy of it and once again I completely fell in love with The Stranger and several new memories of the album and it’s songs tie me into my high school years. 

My sophomore year of high school in September 1992 I was sitting in the auditorium of Hillcrest High School watching an assembly for the Homecoming Queen contest with all of the girls displaying their beauty and other various talents on stage.  By tradition at Hillcrest during this assembly the Student Body President and a few other guys serenaded the Homecoming Queen candidates by singing an extremely off key, finger nails scratching a chalkboard, wine glass shattering version of Billy Joel’s “I Love You Just the Way You Are”.  I had a cigarette lighter in my pocket and for fun I decided to light it up and wave it in the air (a very common practice at heavy metal concerts when a band would play a power ballad).  I did this strictly because I thought it would be funny and that my friends would have a good laugh, which they did.  Unfortunately, one of the teachers in the audience saw me and did not interpret this as innocent fun, rather he interpreted it as I wanted to set the auditorium on fire (by far the most ridiculous conclusion he could have possibly arrived at, but the one he chose to go with) and I was immediately escorted to the Vice Principal’s office.  The Vice Principal then asked me why I did it and I explained to her that it’s something people do at heavy metal concerts during the slow songs and she then said that would create one huge fire hazard and did not believe me as I was sitting in her office trying to defend myself from accusations of attempted arson.  She called the Fire Marshall and he drove over to Hillcrest to talk to me.  I then explained to the Fire Marshall the waiving a cigarette lighter in the air practice at heavy metal concerts to which he informed me that Neil Diamond fans also participate in this practice at his shows which ended up vindicating me and other than a stern ‘don’t do this again’ speech from my Vice Principal, my parents were not called and I did not receive any detention because my permanent record was beyond clean.  To my knowledge this may be the only time in history that “I Love You Just the Way You Are” inadvertently got someone sent to the Vice Principal’s office.

In December 1993 my Mom, my brothers, and I went to see Billy Joel together at the Delta Center and we were all very excited forgiving the fact that our tickets were in the upper bowl of the Delta Center, we were just happy that we were even able to land tickets.  The night of the show came and as we were getting settled in our seats there were two girls and a guy (ages ranging from 14 to 16 if I have to ballpark it) and one of their mother’s sitting in the seats directly in front of us.  These kids had come up with a dance routine for the song “River of Dreams” and were doing a dress rehearsal.  Then Billy Joel came on stage and everyone stood up and cheered and he sang the rocker “No Man’s Land”.  However, a Billy Joel concert is more of a sit down and enjoy it kind of concert, not a get up and rock concert.  The kids in front of us it was very clearly their first concert and even after everyone sat down after Billy finished performing “No Man’s Land” these kids were still standing and cheering like they were at a Beatles concert.  That’s one thing if you are on row 1 on the floor, but for the love of Jiminy, these were the cheap seats in the upper bowl at a Billy Joel concert, calm the hell down!  Eventually, someone a few rows behind us yelled “set your asses down” at the top of his voice and these kids finally sat down.  About 10 minutes later Billy Joel performed “River of Dreams” and these kids were standing right up doing the dance routine they had prepared for the show.  After “River of Dreams” ended several people yelled for them to sit down.  This was an ongoing battle throughout the concert and of course these people had to be sitting right in front of us, but eventually they learned to sit down and enjoy it. 

Forgiving the kids floor show on the row in front of us this was an awesome concert.  I still remember between songs Billy Joel looking over the audience and saying “I still remember the first time I played Salt Lake City.  Does anyone remember a place called The Terrace Ballroom?” and several people cheered really loud (my mom included).  Then Billy said “Man, that place was a dump!” and everyone had a really good laugh.  However, one of my favorite parts of the show is when he sang “An Innocent Band” and a girl from his backup band with an extremely amazing voice sang the really high notes and it just took my breath away.  Billy really put his heart and soul into “An Innocent Man” that night, little did I know at that time Billy’s marriage to Christie Brinkley was on the rocks which I think also put a lot of extra emotion into his performance of “An Innocent Man” that particular evening (“An Innocent Man” is in my top 5 most favorite Billy Joel songs).  Another favorite part of the show was when he performed “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” from The Stranger.  The audience sang along with every word with the same emotion and conviction as Billy sang it and it was truly a magical moment.  After the song the crowd cheered so loud I could feel it vibrate off my chest.  With no surprises the last song of the night was “Piano Man”.  Billy sang the verses the audience sang the chorus.  I was one amazing concert.  (Side note: The audience lit up their cigarette lighters and waived them in the air when Billy Joel performed “Piano Man”).

My senior year at Hillcrest High School from 1994 to 1995 I was in the Industrial Printing program.   There were only 10 of us and our teacher in this class and because we spent the first two class periods (about two hours) of every school day together we all got to know each other pretty well and had a lot of running jokes.  One day before school started I was listening to my cassette of The Stranger by Billy Joel and in the middle of “I Love You Just the Way You Are” I started to hear a muffling sound that always stuck terror in my heart.  I immediately hit stop and sure enough my Walkman was eating the cassette.  I very slowly and gently started to pull the film out of the player and despite my best efforts the film tore as I got the tape out of my player.  I immediately high tailed it to the print shop in hopes that I could save the cassette.  I walked into the shop and my teacher Mr. Bailey was surprised to see me early and immediately saw the cassette film all over a shop table.  True to Mr. Bailey’s dry and quirky sense of humor he said “why are you playing with the garbage?”  In my very sarcastic over the top soap opera doctor’s voice I said “I can save this patient!”  Mr. Bailey then noticed that The Stranger was the patient on the table Mr. Bailey then said “What’s Billy Joel doing here?  I thought you only listened to garbage?”  To which I said “You don’t know everything about me Mr. Bailey”.  He was very genuinely shocked that I was a fan of Billy Joel.  Before the final bell rang to start school I ended up taping up the cassette film with scotch tape and using an x-acto knife to trim the taped film to the appropriate size so it would roll back into the cassette and the operation was a success!  This is the greatest length I have ever gone to in order to save an eaten up cassette. 

After Mr. Bailey took roll my class entered the print shop and started working.  My friend Anthony had just landed a job at the new Albertson’s on 1300 East and Fort Union Boulevard and was pretty excited about it.  My friend Ben and I started singing “Anthony works in a grocery store, saving his pennies for someday” from Billy Joel’s “Moving Out” and had a good laugh.  This became Anthony’s theme song for the rest of the school year (mine was “Spray Paint the Walls” by Black Flag, but that’s a whole other blog for another day) and thankfully he embraced it.

The Stranger has gone down as one of Billy Joel’s most successful albums and I still hear 6 of its 9 songs on the radio fairly regularly even 35 years after its initial release.  My personal favorite song on the The Stranger is “The Stranger”.  Every time I listen to this song I literally imagine myself whistling the opening while walking down the streets of Manhattan after a really long and tiring day, and yet I don’t really feel like heading straight home.  Musically, the song is the perfect marriage of the soft and melodic with the intensity of hard rock and I love the lyrics.  I think “The Stranger” is one of the most unique songs Billy Joel has ever recorded and he simply does not have another song quite like it.

I have noticed throughout my life that Billy Joel is one of those very rare musicians that appeals to almost everyone regardless of their predisposed musical preferences, which in my opinion is one of his hugest accomplishments.  In just my high school printing class we had a metal heads, grungers, soft rockers, and mainstream pop fans and we all enjoyed Billy Joel’s music.  The Stranger still stands out as my favorite Billy Joel album and always sounds amazing to me regardless of what music is in my current rotation cycle.



Put On Your Plaid and Crank Up Nevermind!!!!!!



Put On Your Plaid and Crank Up Nevermind!!!!!!

Nevermind is the most influential album of the 90’s and at least for the generation I grew up with, whether you embraced Nirvana or not, everyone has an opinion about Nevermind.  Nirvana completely changed the dynamics of metal, modern rock, pop, and everything the rock and roll scene from 1991 onward.  On a personal note according to some of my metal friends embracing Nirvana caused me to musically go weird for about 15 years (I would not re-embrace the metal scene until 2007 when I discover Dream Theater 15 years after Images and Words), however, Nevermind has greatly influenced my musical direction ever since the first time I listened to it and for the very first time at age 14 I learned that a change in my musical direction is an extremely good thing.

Before I talk about Nirvana’s Nevermind, in the tradition of Dr. Heinz Doofinshmirtz I love to tell a good backstory leading up to the main event.  It’s kind of a long backstory, but I feel like I really need to tell it.  Specifically the general atmosphere of the metal scene from 1990 to 1991 and some of the events that I feel like really made the rise of Nirvana so monumental in my musical journey. 

1990 to 1991 were the last days of the mainstream popularity of heavy metal.  I was listening to a lot of Guns n’ Roses, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Queensryche, Van Halen, Rush, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Ozzy/Black Sabbath.  In many respects metal still very much ruled the music world and Billboard charts, however, at this point in time heavy metal bands were recording a lot of power ballads, several of which were becoming huge hits. 

The origin of what is truly the very first heavy metal power ballad is still widely debated.  The songs “I’m Eighteen”, “Desperado”, and “Only Women Bleed” by Alice Cooper I think are extremely influential and serve as the foundation in which heavy metal would perfect the power ballad craft.  In my opinion the first three power ballads heavy metal produced were recorded in 1978 and are the very obscure “Always Somewhere” and “Holiday” by the Scorpions and “Before the Dawn” by Judas Priest (ok, I’ll admit “Before the Dawn” is kind of a gray area.  It’s an acoustic power ballad.  The lyrics are about it taking an extremely long time to find that special someone, however, the special someone by the time you find them is very slowly dying.  It’s very bitter sweet, but mostly bitter.  It’s the closest thing Judas Priest has to a power ballad and I feel like many bands were influenced by it).  These songs are very amazing and showcase the amazing amount of musical depth of both Judas Priest and the Scorpions and are the primary standards by which I measure a good power ballad.   

Before you read the next paragraph I would like to make very clear that I don’t hate power ballads.  There are several that I really love.  It’s just in my opinion there is a very fine line between power ballads with substance versus power ballads that are just fluff.

During this time in the metal scene a lot of heavy metal bands felt like they had to do a power ballad.  Songs like “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi, “Love Bites” by Def Leppard, “Every Rose Has it’s Thorn” by Poison, and “Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crue had already been huge hits and many metal bands followed suit.  Some of the power ballads I absolutely love are “Phantom Rider” by Tora Tora, “Save Your Love” by Great White, “More Than Words” by Extreme, “Carrie” by Europe, “Love Walks In” by Van Halen, and “Don’t Cry” by Guns n’ Roses.  However, some power ballads that I absolutely can’t stand are “Love of a Lifetime” by Firehouse, “Something to Believe In” by Poison, “Heading for a Heartbreak” by Winger, “Heaven” by Warrant, “Love is on the Way” by Saigon Kick, “Living in Sin” by Bon Jovi and power ballads that were more in this neighborhood.  Where I especially got burned by the metal power ballad is the song “I’ll Never Let You Go” by Steelheart.  When this song was getting extensive airplay on KBER in Salt Lake City I loved it and I bought the first Steelheart album.  However, when I sat through the cassette other than “She’s Gone” and “I’ll Never Let You Go” I didn’t really like any of the other songs.  The album did not in my opinion have any substance to it and was fluff.  Ultimately, I was so disappointed with this album that ironically I did not even like “She’s Gone” and “I’ll Never Let You Go” anymore after a few listens.  What I learned was the power ballads that I really loved were by bands that had the musical substance, talent, and energy to back them up.  Even some of the non-power ballad metal of this period I just simply didn’t like because it just did not have the raw power and energy that the metal I loved had (I am extremely proud of the fact that AC/DC has never recorded a power ballad!  Yet another reason I just love that band). 

Through the period of 1990 to 1991 I was still very loyal to the metal bands I loved and grew up listening to, yet for better or for worse, heavy metal as a genre had found its sensitive side and the metal bands that were emerging were a lot more on the pop side.  At this point I was starting to experiment with Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth.  I have a soft spot for all four of these bands (Metallica being my favorite one).  However, I just couldn’t totally embrace speed metal.  It is awesome music, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to own 30 plus albums of it.

At this point in time Steve L. was one of my best friends.  What made Steve very unique to me is he was literally the only person I knew in my age bracket that was into music to the degree I was.  However, Steve’s tastes were very different from mine.  At this point he was listening to Depeche Mode, Ministry, New Order, Nine Inch Nails, The Pixies, Violent Femmes, The Sisters of Mercy, Concrete Blonde, The Cure, INXS, and Simple Minds to name a few.  Steve and I used to play the classic Nintendo and SEGA video games together at his house while listening to music from his collection.  Steve was not into metal and I was not really into his music either, but it was nice to hear some music outside of the realm of what I was listening to and for what it’s worth Steve was starting to rub off on me a little bit because his music was so different from what I was listening to, it was starting to sound good.  Thanks to Steve exposing me to several bands that would make it after Nirvana did as well as several bands I would embrace later in my life, I consider Steve to be a very great influence in introducing me to a lot of music that was outside of the realm of heavy metal and classic rock and I was ready to start exploring new musical paths…and now the stage is set for Nirvana to enter the picture.  (Behold…the grunge-inator!)

In September 1991 I was 14 years old and I had just started my 9^th grade year at Union Middle School.  I had an early morning paper route that I had to wake up at 4:30am every morning to do.  One particular morning it was 4:30am and my papers had not arrived yet for me to fold, so I went downstairs and was watching some MTV waiting for my papers to arrive.  After a commercial break the video “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana came on and I was completely floored.  It had an intense and hard hitting opening and immediately had my attention.  Nirvana was wearing regular beat up clothes, they were playing second hand instruments, they had a presence to them that was a full 180 from metal, and the song just freaking rocked!  When the song was over I had to shut off the TV.  I really could not believe what I had just heard for the first time and it took some time to sink in.  My newspapers finally arrived.  I folded them up and started doing my paper route.  I can’t really remember what cassette I was listening to while I was doing my paper route that morning, all I remember was “Smells Like Teen Spirit” played in my head the entire time I was throwing my paper route and I just wanted to hear it again! 

When I arrived at school that morning my friend Steve and I shared a locker together.  Steve had a very rare gift for discovering bands long before anyone knew about them and I figured if anyone knew what Nirvana was about it would be him.  The moment I saw Steve at our locker I asked him if he had heard of Nirvana, needless to say Steve did not disappoint.  Not only had he heard of Nirvana, he had already bought a copy of Nevermind and proceeded to tell me how great the album is.  Steve invited me over to his house the next day to play some video games, but in the meantime “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was stuck in my head.

The next morning once again MTV played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at 4:30am, I was still completely blown away and I thought this song was the most amazing song on planet earth!  It once again played in my head while I was throwing my paper route and through the entire day at school.  I’ve had several new songs that I thought were amazing from the get go and that played in my head for a while, but something was very different about Nirvana, they had something that no else in the music scene had and something that I wanted more of.

Finally, the next school day ended and I went over to my friend Steve’s house, we put the game Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA Genesis and Nirvana’s Nevermind on the CD player.  From the moment Steve pushed play on his CD player my musical world was about to change forever.  The CD began with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which was sounding completely amazing.  Next came “In Bloom” which as much I did not think it was possible that there could be another song as awesome as “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, there it was playing over the speakers.  Then “Come As You Are” started which was a little slower than the previous two songs, but I loved the bass line, Kurt’s vocals, and especially the very intense chorus.  As Steve and I kept playing Sonic I became instantly enthralled with Nevermind.  Every single song was just as awesome and as unique as “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.  Steve and I listened to Nevermind at least twice while we were playing video games that evening.  Nirvana was on my musical map and very quickly working their way through the ranks.

I had to have my own copy of Nevermind.  Unfortunately, at that time there was not a convenient record store, at least via bicycle, from my parents’ house in Sandy, UT.   I literally begged my older brother for three days to take me to Sound Off Records in Murray, UT.  He finally caved and took me to the record shop and I bought my cassette of Nevermind (my parents would give me Nirvana’s debut cassette Bleach for my 15^th birthday).  The next morning I folded up my papers in plastic bags (the weather looked it might turn into rain) and put Nirvana’s Nevermind into my Sony Walkman.  As much as I was already impressed and taken back by this album when I had listened to it for the first time with my friend Steve, being able to listen to a new album cranked up on my Walkman with no one else around, I could really absorb Nevermind.  From start to finish the album was a complete masterpiece and the very dark and starry atmosphere of my neighborhood during the wee small hours was the perfect setting to really enjoy Nevermind.  What I remember the most is it started to rain about half way through the song “Breed” and I was completely drenched by the time I finished my paper route.  However, there was not an album like this in my music collection or anywhere else in the world and I felt like I was really listening to something special.  To me Nevermind was more metal than what metal was in 1991.  The guitar work was intense and heavy, the bass was very deep, the drums were quick and simple, the lyrics were really different and were very much the antithesis of most heavy metal lyrics, Kurt’s vocals were very different and unique, but most of all there was absolutely no fluff in Nevermind.  It was straight up heavy rock. 

Many in the heavy metal community honestly feel like Nirvana’s Nevermind and the rise of the grunge scene and later alternative rock is what killed metal in the 90’s and I do agree with this point of view.  However, where my metal friends and I disagree is as much as I love heavy metal, metal in my opinion had it coming.  As much as there was still some quality heavy metal that would still emerge through the 90’s, sadly metal became a victim of its own success by being over commercialized and to significant degree it had lost some of its edge in the early 90’s.  While on the other hand, Nevermind was very hard, heavy, different, and had an edge to it that metal did not at that time.  I just instantly loved the music of Nirvana.   Nevermind was the spark that for better or worse ignited an entirely new and different music scene and inspired a new generation of musicians.  What Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and San Francisco’s Haight/Ashbury district were in the 60’s, Nevermind and Seattle was in the 90’s.

By the time “Come As You Are” was released as a single grunge had completely taken the music scene by storm and plaid was in high fashion at Union Middle School.  I wanted to see Nirvana in concert really bad, but the one and only time they performed in Utah was at the Golden Spike Arena in Ogden, UT, in 1992 and no one in my circle of friends could find anyone who was willing to drive us up to Ogden to see Nirvana and there was literally no way we could get up there.  So at least for me being able to see Nirvana live was not in the cards.

When Nirvana makes it big the attitude of many of my classmates at Union Middle School was metal is out, grunge is in, deal with it.  There were some of my friends that thought it was odd that I would be wearing my Seattle plaid, but still be wearing my Slaughter, AC/DC, or Kiss shirt underneath forgiving the fact that metal was on the outs.  In my mind, as much as Nirvana musically was very different from the metal I was into, it could still coexist in my musical universe with everything else I was into, and in my opinion they were just as good as AC/DC, Rush, Van Halen, Iron Maiden and everything else I was into. 

As the 90’s progressed it was a very unique and different decade for metal heads.  Most of my metal head friends did not like Nirvana at all and some hated them with a passion.  Their main criticisms were that they felt Kurt Cobain was not much of a guitarist, the lyrics were weird, they were more punk than metal and sounded more like a garage band.  I’ll be the first to admit that Kurt Cobain is not Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, Dave Mustaine, Dimebag Darrell, or Steve Vai.  However, a guitarists style to me is more than how fast they can play or how complicated their solos are.  Kurt Cobain’s style is simple, straightforward, and intense.  Kurt did not need to be a flashy guitarist to propel Nirvana’s music.  However, at this point the way I saw it there were two separate heavy metal camps emerging.  The first being the speed metal route that was at that time dominated by Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, and Pantera.  The other camp being what I saw as grunge/alternative rock inspired metal that was dominated by bands like Rage Against the Machine, Korn, and Tool.  I did not feel like where I was heading musically really fit into either metal camp.  While at the same time Def Leppard released Adrenalinize which I was not a fan of, Bruce Dickenson announced he was quitting Iron Maiden, Rob Halford announced he was quitting Judas Priest, and slowly the metal scene that I loved was starting to dry up with only a few of the bands hanging on for dear life.  Nirvana at this point became very much my favorite band in the world and I bought Incesticide and In Utero the day they came out.  Nirvana becomes very endearing to me especially since the dynamics of the current metal scene were really starting to change and I was starting to feel a little displaced. 

In 1992, my father gave me a bass guitar that he purchased from my Uncle David and my little brother Scott had taken an intro to guitar class at Union Middle School and started to play my father’s old acoustic guitar.  I was taking bass lessons and Scott was taking guitar lessons.  For both of us Nirvana was the top band we wanted to play like.  Scott one day at 7-11 found a Nirvana guitar magazine that have several of the songs from Nevermind and Bleach transcribed and we both learned the songs in this magazine together.  Some of my favorite memories of my high school years with my brother Scott are the times when my older brother Alan is on his LDS mission for two years and it was just the two of us at home for a time.  In 1994 when I’m 17 and my brother Scott is 15, my parents were on vacation in Las Vegas and Scott and I set up our guitar amps in the living room and ordered some pizza.  We put our Nirvana CD’s on the CD player, plugged in our instruments, and went to town playing along with Nirvana at maximum volume.  These are my most favorite jam sessions ever!

With music, just with almost anything life, when I have let something new enter my life, the flood gate opens with lots of new possibilities.  By embracing Nirvana to the degree I did a whole new world of music became open to me.  I got into Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, and The Offspring which I would not have gotten into without Nirvana.  In addition, I wanted to know and discover the music that had inspired Nirvana which led me to discovering punk bands like The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Rollins Band, The Ramones and The Misfits, plus the bands that influenced punk such as the New York Dolls, MC5, and The Stooges.  Thanks to my good friend Steve when Nirvana makes it I discover Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Weezer, and Smashing Pumpkins.  Nirvana also helped me uncover a lot of hidden gems in heavy metal partially because I was displaced from the current metal scene at the time I wanted to explore some of the heavy metal in the 80’s that I had never heard and I ended up buying a lot of old Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath CD’s when I got into Nirvana.  At the same time as weird as this may sound I rediscovered the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, and The Who, and for some odd reason I really got into ABBA and David Bowie.  These bands sound nothing like Nirvana, however, Nirvana had opened the flood gates of music exploration and it included many different musical genres.  This spirit of musical exploration is still very alive and well in my musical journey.

Another thing that made Nirvana unique when I started listening to them is they were the very first band I got into that my father didn’t really like all that much (my father has since grown to like and respect Nirvana, but it took a few years) and I feel like because Nirvana broke me away from some of the music I grew up listening to, that is why I started to explore a lot of music outside the realm of heavy metal and classic rock and my musical tastes started to expand rapidly.

On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain commits suicide and Nirvana ends with his death.  Kurt’s death is still very tragic to me.  I still remember walking into my LDS seminary class and my teacher greeting with “are you a Kurt Cobain fan Brent?”  I told him that I was and that Nirvana was one of my favorite bands and he was the first person to inform me that Kurt Cobain had committed suicide which was more than a little shocking to me.  He actually expressed sympathy and sorrow about Kurt’s untimely death and I was actually very touched by his words.  The world truly lost one of the most talented and brilliant songwriters/musicians in history.  I still feel very strongly that Nevermind was only the beginning of what Nirvana was going to accomplish.  However, Kurt Cobain has left behind a legacy of some of the very best music ever recorded and music that truly had an impact on multiple genres of rock and roll during the short period of time Nirvana existed as a band.

From a critical standpoint, In January 1992 Nevermind knocked out Dangerous by Michael Jackson to claim the #1 spot on the Billboard top 200 album chart.  Today Nevermind is ranked with Rolling Stone Magazines 500 greatest albums of all time, is considered by many critics to be the best album of the 90’s, as well as the flagship album of the grunge and alternative rock music scene of the 90’s. 

It has now been almost 21 years since I bought Nirvana’s Nevermind.  My cassette of Nevermind was so special to me that for years I refused to buy a CD of it.  I did not break down and buy a CD of Nevermind until I graduated college in 2005 because my beat up cassette of it had so much sentimental value.  Today I can play all of the songs on Nevermind on bass and on guitar.  If someone asks me to play a song for them on guitar 90% of the time I will play them “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, it’s an instant crowd pleaser.  I love every song on Nevermind, but if I had to narrow it down to one song “Drain You” is my very favorite.  Through my musical journey the influence of Nevermind by Nirvana I cannot understate.  It really changed my view and perception of music as a whole, it still sounds as amazing now as it did when I was 14 years old, and I am proud to be part of the musical legacy Nevermind created.



From the Ignition of Pyromania to Mass Hysteria

From the Ignition of Pyromania to Mass Hysteria

In November 1996 in the very tiny town of Grove City, PA, back when I was serving as an LDS Missionary in Western Pennsylvania it was transfer day and I was waiting at the Grove City apartment with another missionary named Marc to meet our new companions, and shortly after lunch Marc’s new companion Brian from Eugene, OR and my new companion Jeff from Sandy, UT walked through the door and we all met for the first time.  As much as Brian was not my new companion, both of us instantly hit it off and very quickly became good friends.  Inevitably, Brian and I started to talk about music and he enjoyed a lot of the metal and alternative rock bands I was into and the conversation transitioned to Def Leppard to which Brian said “now the greatest Def Leppard album is Hysteria!” to which I very tactically responded “I respectfully disagree with you, the best Leppard album is Pyromania!” and we had a pretty intense discussion about both albums.  Regardless of whether Pyromania or Hysteria is your favorite Def Leppard album, the influence of both albums on the metal scene is substantial and the memories I have associated with both albums I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Back in 1980, I don’t know how my Dad did it, but he knew about Def Leppard from the very get go and he bought On Through the Night when it first came out, however, he thought the album was ok, but not great.  However, about one year later my Dad heard the song “High n’ Dry” on the radio, it completely blew him away, and he very quickly bought the album High n’ Dry shortly after it was released.   High n’ Dry, unlike its predecessor completely took my Dad by surprise.  From “Let It Go” to “No No No” my Dad thought it was the one of the best heavy metal albums he had ever heard up to that point and High n’ Dry along with Back In Black by AC/DC, Fair Warning by Van Halen, and Blackout by The Scorpions were in heavy rotation on my Dad’s record player. 

Also, during this period of time my Dad was a huge fan of the heavy southern rock band Blackfoot and in 1981 my Dad saw Def Leppard open for Blackfoot at the Salt Palace Assembly Hall.  My Dad still remembers Def Leppard opening their show with “Let It Go”, that Pete Willis was wearing a cape and that he was playing a guitar that was bigger than he was.  But ultimately my Dad still remembers how tight, energetic, and awesome Def Leppard’s show was that night and that Blackfoot was just as amazing!  This show still ranks as one of the best concerts my father has ever attended.

When Pyromania was released in 1983 my father bought it the day it came out and just loved every second of it.  Def Leppard had caught lightning once again and this time the world came along for the ride.  At age 7 I thought Pyromania was amazing all the way.  One thing I know will sound weird to people that don’t know me personally is that Pyromania along with Back In Back and several other metal albums my Dad was into when I was growing up were very much my nursery rhymes and were the soundtrack of my life at a very young age.  When I was a kid I assumed that everyone listened to the awesome music that my Dad was into, but I learned very quickly when I started elementary school that most kids were still singing nursery rhymes and I was kind of different because no one was listening to the music I was into at all.  In turn, when I was 7 years old I thought it was really weird that the other 7 year olds weren’t listening to ‘real’ music.  Pyromania to this day brings back a lot of positive memories of my childhood and I used to crank my cassette of it as loud as I could when I would bicycle or rollerblade through my neighborhood growing up and “Rock! Rock! Till You Drop”, “Stagefright”, and “Coming Under Fire” rank as my favorites from Pyromania.

Between Pyromania and Hysteria Def Leppard’s drummer Rick Allen was in a car accident and lost his left arm and it was uncertain if Def Leppard would continue on for a time.  But Rick Allen was resilient and thanks to a custom built drum kit with electronic foot pedals which simulated the drum sounds he used to play with his left arm, Def Leppard went to work on Hysteria and were in the studio on and off for almost three years to complete the record.  Little did they know what lay ahead when Hysteria would be released in August 1987.

Once again my father was big time looking forward to the release of Hysteria and bought it the day it came out.  My father gave the album a couple of listens and as much as he did not feel like it quite stacked up to Pyromania, however, my father thought the album was pretty cool and went to see Def Leppard at the Salt Palace with Tesla opening in December 1987.  Just as they had when they opened for Blackfoot in 1981, Def Leppard put on a high energy and spectacular live show, my father had a great time, and it was the live show that sold my Dad on Hysteria. 

The funny thing about Hysteria because the album would eventually go so huge, the fact is that Hysteria was not a hit right out of the box and it took about six month for the album to gain momentum.   “Women” did not hit the Billboard top 40.  However, once “Pour Some Sugar On Me” is released as a single the world turned upside down and Hysteria take off with fury.  As much as at this point in my life I had been listening to heavy metal for a pretty long time, thanks to MTV as well as extensive airplay in Salt Lake City, many of my friends were introduced to metal via Def Leppard for the very first time.  What made Hysteria appealing to so many is that the album was not as heavy and did not have a stigma like Appetite for Destruction by Guns n’ Roses, yet it’s not the metal pop of Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi.  Hysteria is truly the perfect mix of heavy metal guitars with pop melodies that still remain very true to their metal roots.  I love every song on Hysteria, but “Run Riot”, “Rocket”, “Hysteria”, and “Love and Affection” still rank as my favorites and the album still sounds amazing even today.

By the time I start sixth grade Def Leppard with L.A. Guns opening was coming to Salt Lake City for two sold out shows at the Salt Palace in October 1988 and my Dad got tickets!  Even better, both of my brothers and I were going to the show with him.  Then the day of the show finally came and I was so excited I could not sleep the night before and I was the envy of the 6^th grade of Midvalley Elementary School (surprisingly my first crush was also at the show, however, having the fact that we were both fans of Def Leppard in common did not earn me any brownie points with her).  I still remember the lights going down at the Salt Palace, Def Leppard taking the stage and opening their show with “Rock! Rock! Till You Drop!” and let’s just say their music videos do not close to do justice for how great they are live.  The laser show on the stage was the first one I had ever seen and the show was just amazing all the way around.  What I remember the most about this show is the set list was every song on Hysteria, every song on Pyromania, and the songs “High n’ Dry”, “Bringing on the Heartache”, and “Me and My Wine”, which made the show even more special to me as well as having the time of my life with my Dad and my brothers.  I did not want the night to end.  The next day at school I showed up wearing the Hysteria tour shirt I had bought at the show and for the first and only time in my life, I was the fashion envy for the 6^th grade.  Everyone wanted that shirt and for that matter everyone wished they were at the show.  I have now seen Def Leppard three times and their show is always amazing, but the Hysteria concert in 1988 has gone down as one of the best and most memorable concerts I have ever been to.

Back in the day Pyromania and Hysteria both peaked at #2 on the Billboard top 200 album chart and were both kept out of the #1 spot by Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Bad and both albums are considered two of the best albums of the 80’s and of the genre of heavy metal.  Looking back at Pyromania and Hysteria in retrospective brings back a lot of fond memories.  Pyromania is still my favorite Def Leppard album.  In many respects it is the peak of Def Leppard the heavy metal band in the purest sense.  However, Hysteria took Def Leppard to the next level and showed the world how amazing this band really is and is considered to be their magnum opus.  Whenever I talk music with anyone my age, a couple of years older or younger, Hysteria holds a very near and dear place to them and it is one of the albums we all have in common and love regardless of where our musical tastes would lead us.  Whether Pyromania, Hysteria, or perhaps both are your favorite Def Leppard album, the commercial peak of Def Leppard are days to be remembered!



Iron Maiden Gives You a Piece of Their Mind!

Iron Maiden Gives You a Piece of Their Mind!

There are several philosophic arguments in music that I don’t believe will ever be conclusively settled, such as: Are there actually two types of people in the world, those who like Neil Diamond and those who don’t?  Is rap, techno, and other machine generated music actually music? Does the music of Beethoven belong in the baroque era, classical era, or both? Is the song “Feelings” by Morris Albert intentionally bad or unintentionally brilliant? And lastly the argument I would like to pose, are Iron Maiden fans or Metallica fans the most serious and passionate of all heavy metal fans?  I am a fan of both bands and have seen both bands perform live, but in my opinion the fans of Iron Maiden win the gold medal (or should I say gold metal)!

When I was growing up in my preteen years in the late 80’s in Sandy, UT, Iron Maiden got absolutely no airplay in Salt Lake City, were very rarely seen on MTV during the day (MTV’s Headbangers Ball was on after my bedtime and it was very rare that I was able to watch it), and at least at age 11 I did not know anybody who was into this band.  However, they have a band name you simply can’t forget and the imagery of Eddie on Iron Maiden’s albums and shirts was extremely hard to miss (if you’re not a fan of Iron Maiden, Eddie is the skeletal character that appears on all of Iron Maiden’s album covers and he is more or less the official mascot of heavy metal).

Back in 1984 my father was a fan of the band Twisted Sister and loved their album Stay Hungry.  He bought a ticket see Twisted Sister open for Iron Maiden in February of 1985.  Finally the night of the concert came and my Dad was way excited.  He arrived at the Salt Palace at about 6:00pm and stood in line to get into the show during a snow storm.  8:00pm came around and the doors had not opened yet and Salt Palace staff announced that Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister were caught in the snow storm in Wyoming and were on their way.  At about 9:30pm the bands finally arrived at the Salt Palace and 12,000 fans standing in the cold cheered!  However, for safety reasons the Salt Palace would not let the fans in while the stage and lights were being set up and at about 11:00pm the Salt Palace finally opened the doors and my father could finally warm up.  Twisted Sister took the stage at 11:30pm and put on a spectacular show that made up for my Dad standing in the cold for five hours.  My father still ranks Twisted Sister as one of the best opening bands he has ever seen.  Then at about 12:30am Iron Maiden came on.  My father enjoyed what he saw of their show, but he had to be at work in the morning and could only stay for about an hour of Iron Maiden.  My father’s favorite Iron Maiden song at that point was “Flight of Icarus” and he bought the Iron Maiden album Piece of Mind, but he never listened to it much and the album gathered dust in his record collection.

My father had a very massive record collection and I used to thumb through his collection all the time in search of new music to check out.  I remember thumbing past Piece of Mind by Iron Maiden several times, giving the album a long look, and moving on.  Eventually, when I was 11 years old once again Piece of Mind caught my eye.  At this time in 1988 I honestly had no idea what this band sounded like because they got no airplay in Salt Lake City.  My curiosity finally got the better of me and I put Piece of Mind on the turntable for the very first time.  Iron Maiden was a much heavier band compared to what I was listening to at that point and I was a little taken back when I sat through the song “Where Eagles Dare” for the first time.  Then the second song “Revelations” came on, which was just as heavy as “Where Eagles Dare”, but it had some slower tempo instrumental interludes between verses which really set a mood before the song immediately goes back into high gear!  I had never heard a metal song quite like it and at this point the album had already won me over just two songs into it.  Then the song “Flight of Icarus” came on.  Through my life at school and in other settings the analogy of Icarus flying to close to the sun had been referenced, but I had never actually read the story of Icarus in Greek Mythology and the first time I ever heard the actual story was in the song “Flight of Icarus”.  Besides that the song “Flight of Icarus” really rocks the song sets a great atmosphere to retell the myth.  Side 2 of the album begins with the Iron Maiden classic “The Trooper” which I thought was the most awesome heavy metal song I had ever heard up to that point and the album from start to finish just never lets up.  I was beyond taken back by Piece of Mind and I would listen to it almost every evening before I went to bed for about a month. 

From this point on I embraced Iron Maiden pretty quickly, they became one of my favorite bands and I started to buy their albums.  When I started at Union Middle School in 1989, unlike when I was in elementary school, there were a few other metal heads and there were maybe two or three other people besides myself that were into Iron Maiden.  At this point Metallica started to emerge and because of Iron Maiden I was ready for Metallica.  At this point in time most Metallica fans were also Iron Maiden fans.

In 1991, Metallica puts out their self-titled release (aka The Black Album) and with it speed metal gains mainstream success for the very first time.  Thanks to my rocker friends I was introduced to Metallica when And Justice For All was released with it I was introduced to the first four Metallica albums which were some favorites of mine at that point.  For that matter I loved “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven” when they were first released as singles.  I will not criticize The Black Album.  It is one of the best heavy metal albums ever made and I think it is a great album.  However, as much it does make me happy when bands I love have commercial success, where I had a hard time with Metallica making it as huge as they did is a lot of kids I grew up with that used to go out of their way to tell me that metal was crap and were somewhat mean about it, all of the sudden they are into Metallica.  Unfortunately, as much as I was a huge Metallica fan at that point, the surge of airplay in Salt Lake City and video play on MTV, as well as a lot of Metallica fans that weren’t really metal fans ruined Metallica for me for a little while.  Forgiving the fact that Iron Maiden has an extremely loyal following, in my end of the world in 1991-1992 there were a ton of Metallica fans, but Iron Maiden fans were few and far between.  In a way, this made Iron Maiden more endearing to me.

From a more critical perspective one thing that makes Piece of Mind stick out amongst other Iron Maiden albums is that Iron Maiden starts to shift their musical direction with Piece of Mind.  Specifically, at this point Iron Maiden lyrically incorporates themes of mythology, literature, history, and even science fiction into their music from the books the band members were reading when the album was recorded.  For instance, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden was a huge fan of the Dune series by Frank Herbert and it inspired him write the song “Dune”.  However, Iron Maiden was denied permission by Frank Herbert to call the song “Dune”.  The lyrics remained unchanged and the song “Dune” became “To Tame a Land”.  Musically, the song was Iron Maiden’s first experiment with more complex story telling as well as creating a more musically complicated song by incorporating in the influences of progressive rock (Steve Harris was influenced by the bands Genesis and Yes) and would set a foundation for songs like “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”, “Alexander the Great”, and later their conceptual album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son as well as influence the future progressive metal scene.  Iron Maiden’s first three albums firmly establish them as one of the greatest heavy metal bands ever, but Piece of Mind establishes, influences, and greatly shapes their music for the rest of their career and in many respects Iron Maiden really becomes who they are musically with Piece of Mind.

One of my favorite memories and unfortunately one of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened while I was listening to Piece of Mind by Iron Maiden.  While I was attending Utah State University I needed to lose some weight and I went to the gym almost religiously and lost a substantial amount of weight when I was in college.  One particular evening in 2004 I was at the Field House at Utah State University running on a treadmill with my cassette of Piece of Mind cranked up.  I had the speed of the treadmill fairly high and I was just way into it.  I flipped my cassette over to side 2 and when “The Trooper” started to play my adrenaline kicked in a little more and with it the speed of the treadmill.  I was in the zone and feeling freaking amazing!  However, I was so into the treadmill that night that I did not realize my body was starting to shift to the left and eventually my left leg landed an inch off the treadmill track, my right leg landed on the speeding track and I flew off the treadmill like I had been fired out of a cannon and one my roommates and a couple of cute girls from the apartment next door were on the treadmills next to me saw the whole thing and had a huge laugh as well as most of the gym, but my roommate helped me up.  Then right before I got back on the treadmill to add insult to injury a really cute girl I worked with named Karen that I kind of had a crush on saw it happen and asked me if I was OK.  I was horribly embarrassed.  Forgiving the fact that both of my ankles hurt, I did not want my friends to lose respect for me so I got right back the treadmill and finished listening to Piece of Mind and my workout.  Where this really became especially embarrassing is a few days later I called my best friend Jeremy to catch up and then he says “Carrie was telling about your treadmill accident the other day” and he started laughing.  Carrie is my best friends sister and I’ve known her most of my life, she was also roommates with Karen, and I came to find out she was also there when I flew off of the treadmill which again added more to my embarrassment.  I still have not lived down this incident from my time at Utah State University.

Iron Maiden fans are some of the most serious of all heavy metal fans.  As I have personally witnessed at their live show, the crowd sings along with every song, and Iron Maiden’s show is top notch every single time!   Iron Maiden has earned a place at the very top of the heap in the heavy metal scene and their albums The Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind are ranked as two of the best heavy metal albums ever made.  Piece of Mind gave me the perfect introduction to Iron Maiden.