The Tracks Of My Years - Part 2
Age 5-10, 1976-1981
I moved from the UK to the US and listened to a lot of mid-to-late-70’s American radio rock, which really I liked. Whether it was discovering music myself for the first time, or the songs around in those days, but something switched my ears on. If you’re going to get your first taste of music, there are worse places to do it than in Philadelphia in 1976. Glam rock and progressive rock totally passed me by (being largely English phenomena), and instead the airwaves were filled with Simon & Garfunkle and Billy Joel, who really grabbed me. Yeah, I know he’s not cool now and fresh evidence indicates that he probably did start the fire, but The Stranger remains an album etched into my ears.
Rolling Stones playing Start Me Up stands out because they played a massive gig at JFK Stadium and everyone knew someone who knew someone who was there. Bruce Springsteen’s Hungry Heart reminds me of pizza parties and has a great live feel that makes it sound like the best house band in the world. I don’t think anyone eats more pizza than an eight year old kid from Philly. John Lennon’s Starting Over was something else I loved and my mum used to play a lot of Barry White. McFadden and Whitehead’s Ain’t No Stopping Us Now was everywhere because they came from the city and it was adopted by its baseball team as the song to accompany them on their march to win the World Series over the Kansas City Royals.
I would stay glued to WIFI 92 and soak up the J Giles Band, Devo, Blondie, maybe a little Earth Wind and Fire, and local popsters Hall and Oats. Daryl Hall signed a birthday card of a girl in school. The first album I ever bought was Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. I got it second hand at a garage sale and the first song damn near killed me. Quincy Jones’s arrangement of Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough was insane. Funky bass and guitar over disco strings and soul horns and this guy singing two octaves above anyone else - what’s not to like?