1983. Sixth grade. Kings of Morgan Elementary. Hellooo, Alicia Schenk. Hellooo, Angel Blankenship. Wait, they like me? World-changing. Friday night, spin the bottle. Saturday night, Skateworld. Couples skate? No problem, I skate backward. Hellooo, Alicia and Angel. Hair parted in the middle, feathered, thanks to Mom and her curling iron. Hellooo, ladies. Also ... wiffle ball. Wall ball. Strat-O-Matic Baseball. Basketball at Stealey Park. Football at Stealey Park. Take a break, across the street, Aunt Jane's, best human ever, best house ever. Summer at Stealey Pool. Summer at Myrtle Beach.
1983. It's mostly a blur, other than semi-intact memories of a year when everything changed. One thing I'll never forget is walking to Stealey Park with Dave Wolfe, gigantic boom box in tow, cranking, cranking Quiet Riot's Metal Health. It gives me a nervous, exciting feeling of unlimited possibility to this day.
Godspeed, Kevin DuBrow. You made something once that was a soundtrack to a year in the life of a kid somewhere. And that really is something.
Monday, November 26, 2007
A Tribute
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15 comments:
Amen to that. This song, and Pour Some Sugar On Me, made my nights in Petersburg, at my uncle's roller skating rink, all the more memorable.
One of the Jukebox Zeros has theorized that he died from an overdose of hair extensions or some sort of wig allergy
A fitting tribute, Sleek........RIP, Kevin.
That was beautiful. Aah, the early 80s; back when hardcore rockers could still deliver a decent vocal.
1983... let's see. What was I listening to or should I say, what was I allowed to listen to in our conservative Christian household. I think Amy Grant was about as risque as it got... well, until she crossed over, turned her back on Jesus, and became a secular artist.
sleek: I can only imagine you in those days...
fleming: I was probably skating there at the same time!
IF: Holy crap! Amy Grant!
wow, Sleek, I just had a visual of us shooting BBall on the hoop facing closest to your house on some grayish fall day with QR rocking from someone's box. We climbed the fence by the Staunikers to get there.
couple's skate at Skateworld was where is was at. yeahhhh vavvy.
Boy sixth grade I had a small
cassette recorder and radio which I splice the little thing you stuck in your ear and hooked it to a larger speaker. I had Kansas, early stuff, and on Vinyl Kat Stephens Tea for the Tillerman and Led Zepplin my first albums...Oh yes my brother toilets was tormenting then as well.
fleming: I bet the rink in P-burg was always packed!
rob: If Zee had hair like Kevin DuBrow you guys would be playing Madison Square Garden.
clash: Thanks, pal.
teoh: Thanks! It was a time of rock indeed.
IF: And now, brothers and sisters, let us all gather unto the dark one and praise him with our chants of evilness --
"Every heartbeat bears your name,
Loud and clear they stake my claim
My red blood runs true blue
And every heartbeat belongs to you."
dm: You would have so wanted to skate with me. ;)
rd: My brother, my witness. Was Skateworld not the place to be for the happenin' sixth graders?
josh: You were a regular McGuyver! Even at just 12 years old you knew that all we are is dust in the wind.
i don't know what you guys are talking about. I never got any tail at Skateworld. Sure, Sleek had a different girl every week, and Raul frequented the quiet, dark corner across the rink with a lady every so often, but i didn't see much action.
I just chalked it up to what my mom told me. That I was special, and that I deserved a special girl. And all the girls that hung out there were tramps.
Are you guys basically saying that I was a loser? Cause, I wasn't. I was always pretty well known as a chick magnet. I mean, c'mon, I'm in a band...
Early Kansas I was not a fan of their later stuff, I do think dust in the wind was played at every prom in the midwest for a couple of years.
Josh--you were splicing shit together at 12? Thats some impressive moves. I remember finding a discarded elctric razor in someone's trash and trying to modify it into some sort of hi-tech weaponry. I just broke the fuckin' thing and put it back in the trash.
On Kevin Dubrow- I remember arguing with a guy who vehemently, vehemently insisted that the lyrics were "...girls fuck your boys.." He thought the FCC sensors just missed it.
eric: Ah, the quiet, dark corner. What a fine, fine spot. And, c'mon, back then you weren't in a band, you were in marching band. Still, how could anyone with the nickname "Score" be considered a loser?
josh: I discovered "Dust in the Wind" on a camp dance floor. Another fine, fine spot.
zee: Brilliant. When someone says something like that to me, I just want to say, "Dude, you're telling me the sun didn't come up today. That's what you're telling me."
Ah, misspent youth ;)
Incidentally, 1983 was the year of my birth. ha. But I know the feeling of having one of those years when everything changed. Mine was 1995. The soundtrack was different. More like Roll with it from Oasis.
Hello again, Devil Mood. I just felt a few more of my hairs go gray. Coincidentally, 1995 was another one of those years for me. One hell of a year, it was.
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