Dr. K's Rock And Roll Page

As the resident musician here at 6TSix studios, I felt that it would be best for me to have a page that would express my interests in music, mainly rock and roll.  The following is a short history of my life with music as well as some of my views on bands people and music in general.

I hadn't really been a fan of any music as a youth.  Around the age of 14 I became interested in the music of the 80's.  The wide variety of music intrigued me.  There were bands that were heavy on the electronic sound, some were combinations of synth and the usual the rock and roll instruments, while others still were just the usual rock and roll instruments.  All these different forms of music coexisted in the same timeframe and all seemed to appeal to the same group of people.

As my interest in music progressed the tastes became a little older.  Eighties music still had appealed to me, but because of my interest in history I decided to find out what before the eighties.  I saw a performance of Joe Strummer and The Clash on Conan O'Brien playing "London Calling."  I had heard that song before, as it was in a Jaguar commercial I just didn't know who sang it.  I looked for other music by The Clash and just about everything I heard I enjoyed.  The Clash became the first group I would label as my favorite, but not my last.

One night my father was watching a Neil Diamond special on TV.  I really didn't want to but I still sat through it.  The music wasn't all that bad.  I once again looked for music from my new discovery and once again enjoyed what I heard.  I would receive Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits that Christmas from my parents.  New favorite group.

U2 slowly crept into my CD player and I gobbled up every bit of them I could, perhaps it was native pride being that I'm Irish, but I think it was mainly because they just make good music.  New favorite band.

Somewhere along the line I became interested in AC/DC.  I don't remember exactly why, but they became my new favorite group.  New favorite groups came and went for a short period of time:  Pink Floyd because of The Wall, Led Zepplin because of Kashmir and Stairway To Heaven, Aerosmith, Guns 'N' Roses, Jane's Addiction, and Rush for little if no reason at all.

One day at the library I was going through the CD's and grabbed ones from anyone that I've ever heard of.  Little was I to know that this day would lead to my discovery of my all-time favorite band, but I wouldn't know that until about four months later.

The CD was The Who's Greatest Hits.  I knew that The Who did Behind Blue Eyes, but that was about it before I listened to this album.  I wouldn't say that I was blown away by the music, but I liked it.  A few weeks later, I picked up My Generation: The Very Best Of The Who.  It was basically the same but with a few extras.  Flash forward about three months, to July.  I'm flipping through the channels and see that This Is Spinal Tap is on The Independent Film Channel.  That is one of my favorite movies.  Even though I own it, I had to watch it.  After the movie they have a commercial stating that this was the 20th anniversary of This is Spinal Tap, so they were having an Indy Films That Rocked Month.  This is Spinal Tap was on every Saturday night that month followed by a rock-doc, documentary on a rock group.  That night it was "The Filth And The Fury" about The Sex Pistols.  I really wanted to watch that one so I taped it but I forgot to set my clock back an hour so I only got an hour of it.  Next week was "The Kids Are Alright" about The Who.  I made sure I didn't miss that one.  I had never heard of the movie before then.  So Saturday night the family sits down to watch some TV and at 7 o'clock I turn on IFC.  After seeing The Who destroy their set on The Smothers Brothers I thought to myself that their destruction was really dumb because it didn't look like they were really into it, just doing it because they were on TV.  After the hour and 45 minute movie was over, I was a little disappointed.  Luckily I had taped the whole thing this time.  The next day I was bored so I watched it again.  My eyes were opened and I viewed the holy glory that is The Who.  Everything about these guys appealed to me.  Especially the bassist.  Throughout all the destruction and chaos there was one man left standing.  Full of confidence and unfazed by the happenings around him as if nothing was going on.  At first I thought that he was just a pompous ass, and was only still with the band because they were successful and he was making money, but I learned that this was all just part of the show too.  From the moment I saw that movie I had a man-crush on those four guys.  There was just something about them that attracted me to them.  It wasn't their destruction or really even their music.  It was the love for music and the passion that they showed on stage.  That passion even overflowed into the recording studio as was seen by the recordings of "Who Are You" and "Barbara Ann".  Ever since I've seen that movie I've been a Wholigan.  I'm not sure if anyone has used that word before or not, but if they haven't it's about darn time.  My new, and hopefully last, favorite band.

My love for The Who was my gateway drug to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.  Just as we three form the triumvirate of entertainment; The Who, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones form my triumvirate of rock and roll.

But like all things my interests have continued to evolve, the Who are still number one on my list but I have taken an interest into some new bands.  Even though they are from the same time period, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, and the Dave Clark Five are different.  For some reason I never hear The Who on my local Oldies station but I hear the rest of those guys.

My musical interests are still being refined, and probably will be until the day I die, but I feel the foundation has been laid solidly.  I never was much of a fan of the music of "now" and don't think I will be in the future.  At the rate that my musical interests are changing I should be liking big band soon and perhaps classical is not too far behind.  That doesn't worry me at all.  What does worry me though is that what do I do when I've explored music as far back in history as it goes?  Should I start over?  Should I try the music of today, whatever it will be.  Perhaps at that time, it will be my time to go.  Maybe then my next favorite kind of music will be angelic choirs.