Letters

I had recently received my first rock-n-roll vinyl album, Grand Funk Railroad Live, given to me by a friend�s older brother who had grown tired of it. One day I was talking with a new neighbor, whom was slightly older than I, when he brought up the idea of trading albums. It didn�t matter to me, as long as I was getting two for two, as my album was a double live album. He agreed, and went inside his house and returned with another double live album. That�s where the similarities would end however� Alive! was nothing like my first album. It felt different, smelled different, looked different, and God did it ever SOUND different. I would never be the same from the moment I put that album on my brother�s turntable (I didn�t have my own yet). Add to this the first time I saw the �Gods of Thunder�, on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. I can still remember my parents saying the world had officially gone to Hell, as I inched closer and closer to the TV screen. They were like nothing I, or anyone else had ever seen, and I simply couldn�t get enough. There are those who say their lives changed the first time they heard The Beatles, and while I can completely understand the meaning of the statement, I personally find it grossly over-exaggerated. The �Fab Four� I�m talking about chewed-up, partially digested, and spit out the �mop-topped Brits�. The Demon, Starchild, Spaceman, and Cat were full-blown, real-life super heroes. A visual spectacle, and audio bombastic symphony to be matched by no one. It was 1979 when I first witnessed them live. In what can only be described as an out-of-body experience, I pushed my 14 year-old body to the 2nd row of Tingley Coliseum (Albuquerque, NM), with no regard for life or limb. There, I came face-to-face with the �Demon� himself and welcomed the bloody shower that spewed from his seven-inch tongue. An �Unholy� experience of Biblical proportions to be sure, as I was baptized into what I refer to as a �KISS Life�. Once you�re in, truly in, you�ll never be out.