“Okay you people – sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning, and if we’re not back by dawn? Call the president.” – Big Trouble in Little China
I hear that Rob Halford became an eastern monk, which I guess makes him a Buddhist Priest.
Back when I was in high school, I started a quest. It would probably be a trivial quest in today’s world with the Internet, and tens of millions of songs available all from a single search. However, back when I was in high school, the only people using the Internet were computer nerds at colleges or places like Los Alamos sharing nuclear bomb design info and ASCII porn.
Is this how Los Alamos beat the Soviets?
There was exactly one rock and roll radio station that reached the lofty heights of Wilder Mountain, and it was a good three-hour drive from where I lived. Heck, the nearest record store was a 45-minute drive. But I heard a song . . . and loved it.
I had no idea who the artist was. All I knew was that it had guitars that sounded like jet fighters coming in for an attack (metaphorically) and a heavy metal singer with pipes to growl low and also hit the high notes.
This was not helpful. My bumbling attempts to hum the song to the record store clerk probably sounded like a toddler attempting to instruct an Albanian goat herder on how to repair a Junkers Jumo-004 on an ME 262. My incoherent rambling eventually convinced the store owner that I could probably be sold a lot of records on my quest to find the goofy song.
What happens when a plane full of Leftist lands? The Jet turns off but the whining continues.
She was right. On one particular winter day, I bought two cassettes. Memo to the young: a cassette was an attempt to put a part of the Internet on a skinny magnetic tape and take it with you. Sort of like WIFI but with a really, really low transfer rate that cost over $7 for 42 megabytes.
I listened to one of the cassettes on my forty-minute drive to Stately Wilder Manor. I don’t recall what the first cassette was. It was okay. The song I was looking for, however, wasn’t on it.
When I got to Wilder Mountain, I decided to listen to the other cassette. Pa Wilder wasn’t home. It was November, and snow was falling gently across the valley, as I looked toward the volcanic cone that dominated the view above the mountains that surrounded the valley.
I put in the cassette. I hit play.
A single guitar hit an E note that crunched and then was followed by 41 seconds of guitar solo that made my brain implode. The first second was enough, the next 40? Pure passion. My father’s stereo, which before that day was primarily concerned with playing Dean Martin and Johnny Cash, must have been surprised.
I know I was. Then? Another driving song, this time about a sentient A.I. encased in an orbiting surveillance satellite.
The two satellite dishes on my house got married. The ceremony was awful, but the reception was amazing.
What? I was in heaven. The cassette was Judas Priest, the album? Screaming for Vengeance.
The theme of the music was unabashedly masculine. It was fueled by testosterone and optimism and defiance. It was, in short, everything I loved in life.
What was my ethos at that time? Full speed. Every moment in life. When I played football, I played football. Every ounce of my being was focused on the next play. The cleats digging into the turf, the snap as the center delivered the ball to the quarterback, my sudden sprint, and the exquisite feeling of my shoulder pads digging into that quarterback’s belly as I impacted him at full speed. Life was a game to be played at full speed. When a football game was over, win or lose, the idea that I would have left anything of myself or held back an ounce of myself? I never felt that after a single game.
Win or lose. Everything I had.
And that was the ethos. My focus was on doing everything that I could humanly do during the game. If we won? Excellent. If we lost? There was no room for regret since I had done every single thing I could for the team.
Amazingly, here that was, in music.
This music and most of the music I have loved since then was fueled by one concept – it was fueled by the idea that, in this life, there are winners, and there are losers. But there are no victims. I was responsible for my preparation. I was responsible for my effort. I was responsible for me.
If I won? Wonderful. If I lost? Yeah, it stung. But if I gave it my best, and lived up to my own values, I still won.
I took a survey of what soap people used in the shower. 95% of them told me to get out.
Again, winning was and is important. But a loss of a single day was nothing. Winning could and would come. And I would live my life, on my terms.
Have I been cheated? Yes. Have I been wronged? Yes. Did I stand toe to toe with my boss and tell him that I wouldn’t sell my honor and principles to him for any reason?
Yes. And did I pay a price?
Duh.
Do I regret it? Not for a minute. Not for a second.
There are moments in life, where honor and values will be tested.
Heck, that was in this music, too.
In this world we’re living’ in, we have our share of sorrow
Answer now is don’t give in, aim for a new tomorrow
Also in the music? Questions of deep philosophy. The eternal battle between Good and Evil. Oh, yeah, and hot chicks.
Eventually, this changed and fell out of fashion. I think it was Bush. Or maybe raising the drinking age to 21. Or maybe drugging generations with lithium and Adderall®. Or maybe the new “zero tolerance” lifestyle, where fighting for Good and being right still resulted in a suspension.
Or maybe all of that.
Kurt Cobain was depressed at 13. Guess that was his midlife crisis.
Music based on honor and testosterone and optimism eventually fell out of favor. I can even give you the date: September 21, 1991, when Nirvana launched Nevermind.
With the lights out, it’s less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
That abomination of learned helplessness replaced this from Judas Priest:
Thousand of cars and a million guitars
Screaming with power in the air
We’ve found the place where the decibels race
This army of rock will be there
To ram it down, ram it down
Straight through the heart of this town
Ram it down, ram it down
Razing the place to the ground
Ram it down
One of these makes me feel like slitting my wrists. The other? Fills me with the idea that none of us are alone. We have power. We are . . . going to win, no matter what the damn odds are. Judas Priest is still touring. Kurt Cobain? Not so much. I guess it proves that one person can handle only so much Courtney Love.
Fast and furious, we ride the universe
To carve a road for us, that slices every curve in sight
We accelerate, no time to hesitate
This load will detonate, whoever would contend its right
I refuse to accept defeat. The idea is against every fiber of being in my body. I realize that I will not win every battle. And I am going to listen to music, and I am going to take in media that tells me the truth, but I shall never, ever, despair no matter how dire the situation. My family? They come from heroes. So does yours. Never, ever, give up.
I always took a piece of paper to a wrestling match. That way I could beat The Rock.
I’m not going to stop until I stop breathing. And I won’t relinquish my honor to any man. And I am responsible for every aspect of my life and my situation.
Oh, I did find the song I was looking for, a year later:
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde, sing and cry
Valhalla, I am coming
But that’s another story, though the song remains the same.
Paraphrasing PJ O’Rourke: “everything went to hell when we changed from Free Alcohol! to Alcohol Free!”
Yup. And it doesn’t seem like it has made anyone happy . . .
Nice article John!
I was a big metal fan in HS too (class of 86) and started bicycling competitively then. Judas Priest (Screaming for Vengeance), Metallica (Kill ‘em all) and Led Zeppelin IV were the three cassettes I remember training to the most, whether it was on the road or on my indoor trainer. The fast rhythm was perfect for pacing myself. Thanks for the memories.
“I took a survey of what soap people used in the shower. 95% of them told me to get out.”…
The other 5% gave me the bar of soap…with Velocity added.
Funny story about the Led Zepplin Immigrant song, There I was in an Air Force Weather Forecasters Course with a rather unique Instructor who was demonstrating inertia and the Coriolis Force using a globe on a string and swinging it around his head. Until it impacted and the Instructor needed first aid to stop the bleeding.
I really appreciated the “ALL IN” Instructors who would go to extreme lengths to teach.
Which brings me back to the Immigrant Song, he was telling the story of a student who would come into class each day and open with the yell from that song, and then he yelled it…And he Nailed the tone the pitch, the rhythm and especially the volume.
Still remember that one every time I hear that song.
MSG Grumpy
And speaking of people who gave it their all, the day one, block one Instructor in this course, a grizzled Navy guy named Chief Rawlins.
(One of the more difficult courses in the Air Force before they went woke and made it easier because reading models meant cheaper training)
His opening statement to the class before we began the first Block (which was Physics),
He stated with a smile on his face:
I am here to wash out as many of you as I can, If you are going to fail, do it NOW and save yourself and the Service a lot of time and expense.
It woke me up and I did my best to make sure I succeeded.
I wish our Services will find the backbone to do the hard things again, before we as a nation are taught some very painful lessons about the World that is as opposed to the world the woke dream of….
Standing up for excellence is worth it, in the long run.
Good times! My singing is remarkable – people remark that they’d like me to stop.
Good times. The beer was colder, and the colors were sharper . . .
Good one/love it/you rock
Thank you, and back at ya!!
“Painkiller” is a great workout song.
It is.
Rock On!
And you, too!
John, a somewhat similar story: I do not remember precisely when I discovered “rock” out of the wash of Disco of the early ’70’s, but once I heard it on the radio, nothing was the same. In my case – that I can recall – it was either Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” or either Led Zepplin’s “Immigrant Song” or “Black Dog” (all songs I still love to this day).
And you are spot on: there was only, ever a sense of moving forward, of either victory or defeat but certainly no in-between. It fueled any number of drives, role-playing evenings, and the stupid sort of things that pre-teens and teens think are “good ideas at the time” – pretty harmless, but perhaps not the best thought out.
While there is some New Wave that enjoyed, music pretty much ended for me around 1986 or 1987 (The Ravishing Mrs. TB is of that era) and I was long gone from the current scene when Nirvana apparently laid waste to what was Rock. I have not ever bothered to try and sort through anything as to if it is “good” or not. Too much effort, not enough time – and I have around 12 years of music that I know, no matter what I pull up, will be amazing.
I’m still looking, and still find gems from time to time . . . the spirit is not dead.
Totally agree that 1991’s Nevermind was the funeral dirge for the spirit of rock, but that’s only half the story. 1991 is also when NWA (if you don’t know what that stands for, look it up) released their album Niggas4life and launched the moden hip-hop movement that has supplanted and reigned supreme over rock ever since.
Rock ended by turning a shotgun on itself.
Eversince, Hip Hop has routinely turned Glocks on others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggaz4Life
“The album debuted number 2 on the US Billboard Top LPs chart. It went on to top the Billboard 200, becoming the first album by a rap group to top the chart…Ranked #1 in The Source’s Top 15 Albums of 1991 list in 1991…
Ranked #7 in MTV’s Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time list in 2005…”
“The Source, the most prominent Hip Hop publication at the time, declared it one of their albums of the year but more “mainstream” publications like Rolling Stone condemned the album. In a two star review (out of five), Rolling Stone critic Arion Berger attacked Niggaz4Life as “so hateful toward women, and in such a pathetic and sleazy manner, that it’s simply tiresome.” ”
And so it came to be: “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”
Don’t forget – hip hop “artists” regularly kill each other, too.
“Is this how Los Alamos beat the Soviets?”
No, but it’s how weaponized autists defeat the NSA:
1: Break down that gif into individual screenshots.
2: Find an online PGP generator, and encrypt it.
3: Send the encrypted file to two like-minded right wing deplorables.
4. Tell them to encrypt it again, and then do the same thing.
5. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The smoke coming from Ft. Meade will be visible from space.
And JW, this vid is for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9jTonnpRo0
After you see it, you’ll never be able to unsee it.
Ha! I love it! Went to the creator’s website – they’ve done a *lot* of stuff.
American music may suck but there is a genre of music from Northern Europe that is worth listening to. It is called Symphonic Metal, and here are some bands who you can hear on utube. Nightwish, Epica, Within Temptation, and Therion are bands that have been around for over 20 years, and what you want to play is their live performances. A place to start would be Nightwish’s Wacken 2013 concert, Someone said that Symphonic Metal is like Metallica with an opera singer.
Nightwish’s “Once” is exceptional.
I would have a hard time picking a favorite from their catalog, though the second singer was average at best. The first and third singers are superb talents.
Amaranthe’. Beast in Black. Battle Beast.
Thanks to the youtube algorithm.
n
Yeah, there’s an awful lot of good bands in the genre, I just mentioned the biggest names. Try Xandria or Sirenia.
I’ll give the Wacken performance a look. Saw a few of their shows (on YT) and looks like quite a festival.
“There are moments in life, where honor and values will be tested.”
For America that moment is now.
It is.
Your closing was a perfect blindside, I howled with laughter. Thanks for the pep-up!
Thank you! That’s what Fridays are for!!!
Almost Anything on Bagpipes https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=goddesses+of+bagpipes
Mike and the Mechanics Silent Running
Take the children and yourself
And hide out in the cellar
By now the fighting will be close at hand
Don’t believe the church and state
And everything they tell you
Believe in me, I’m with the high command
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
There’s a gun and ammunition
Just inside the doorway
Use it only in emergency
Better you should pray to God
The Father and the Spirit
Will guide you and protect from up here
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Swear allegiance to the flag
Whatever flag they offer
Never hint at what you really feel
Teach the children quietly
For some day sons and daughters
Will rise up and fight while we stood still
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)
(Can you hear me) hear me calling you?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running babe?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running?
Calling you, calling you
Time is coming to defend your families. There are no non-combatants.
That’s one of The Mrs.’ favorite songs.
HANGAR 18 MEGADETH !!!!! Rob blew it
Megadeth – always worth a listen.
Hanging out by the airstrip with P-51 Mustangs waiting for the ME-262 to take off or land was the answer to that problem.
There is always a way around and if there isn’t then you make one.
Let the Long Marchers get arrogant and way overplay their hand.
They’ve got another think coming.
They do. And, yup, that was how they brought the 262s down.
Invasion – Conquered
For their fear is what we will now prey on
Sign of battle foretold is now here
As these ships roll sharply over raging waters
This planned invasion would soon be at hand
Counting down to the assault on the beach front
Ponder now blood mixed with sand
As we rush on into deadly gunfire
My comrades fall dead to the side
Artillery barrage kills the first 1000
Come along and join me on this death ride For their fear is what we will now prey on
Sign of battle foretold is today
Throw caution into the wind and be gone
Ready for assault
Be it our brigade
Cannons fire at point blank range
Tossing men about like straw
In this carnage no one can scream
One choice and that’s to scramble ashore
Bodies float in these frigid piercing waters
Slowly turning from blue to dark red
Ahead I spy a corpse with no limbs
Piece of shrapnel stuck in his head…
Conquered – Conquered – Conquered
For their fear is what we will now prey on
Sign of battle foretold is today…
Throw caution into the wind and be gone
Ready for assault
Be it our brigade
Movements made to end this bloody stalemate
Nothing left but the rifle in my hands
Forward I move into pitched battle
Now will conquer these war torn lands
Infantry now steams steadily onward
Raging hard with fire in their veins
To conquer all in this vast bloody onslaught
The remaining few have been driven insane
Conquered – Conquered – Conquered
©±® Warbastard, Phlegm, Crusader, 1999
I’ll have to give that one a listen!
“ASCII porn.” *
* “All models were 18+ at time and date of image capture”
Jello® then. Cottage Cheese+ now. Wide-Angle lens a necessity.
Much more interested in trying to uncover all of https://thefortyfive.blogspot.com/ Cheese-making posts.
Trying to obtain fresh, un-pasteurized milk locally?
EASIER to buy machine guns and Heroin/Crystal Meth.
ASCII porn is mainly symbolic.
https://youtu.be/LNyIhirtXUI Studio version. Loved It.
ANY ‘Live’ version?
You got another thing coming.
Too many concerts. Too many drugs. + Alcohol. A few were exceptional. In no particular order:
Pink Floyd, The Cars, Blue Oyster Cult, Rush, Bob Seer, Frampton, Molly hatchet, Etc, and many more that i never saw ‘live’. Prolly a good thing….’78 -’84…And then it was time to…https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1-Corinthians-13-11/
The Rest? ‘Commercialized’ Crap. In Real Life.
BOC is still touring.
LOL Aesop. My sig file on email still has a PGP server link cause I’ve never bothered to remove it. No idea if it’s still active, no idea at this point how to even use it anymore.