There was a kid in my high school theater class that had an uncanny knack for shoplifting . Every school has one of those . Darryl would make the rounds to all of the girls that hung out in the school ’ s theater arts department and we would put our “ orders ” in . Then he ’ d hoof it over to the record store and somehow , shove several albums under his coat . He was never caught . That is how I acquired my King Crimson album . I found it quite romantic that this guy would risk the long arm of the law to present me with music … very “ hunter / gatherer ” in nature . But then , it occurred to me that he was doing this for all the girls . This non-exclusive scenario replayed for me during my dating career--and subsequent marriage ( s ) --with “ stealing albums for other females ” becoming “ sex with other women ” --but I ’ m not bitter . Anyway …
Some people stand on a busy intersection and hold up signs saying they ’ d “ work for food ”. Of course , I had higher standards . I would , in a sense , “ work for music ”. I would babysit to earn money to buy albums . In fact , one of the families I regularly babysat for had one of those combo TV / radio / record player furniture thingies . They also displayed a lava lamp and had a large bean bag chair--definitely heightening the babysitting experience . Their album collection consisted of Sonny and Cher , Otis Redding and The Mamas and the Papas . One night , while foraging through their cabinet , I found some “ contraband ” wedged between The Fifth Dimension and Herb Albert and The Tijuana Brass . It was an album entitled “ Music to Strip By ”. It changed my whole perception of them . But that is another story for another day . As I was saying …
I worked hard to build my music library , and as it was the 60 ’ s and 70 ’ s and the era of Catholic fertility , there was always a newborn baby from which whose parents were hankering to escape , thus , ample work to be had . I carefully cultivated my album collection . You see , an album gave you “ bragging rights ” and got you invited to the popular sleep-overs and parties . It would go something like …“ You have the Queen / Zeppelin / Aerosmith / Kiss album ? What are you doing Saturday night ? A group of us are getting together …” The only thing that ranked higher was having a fake I . D . or an older sibling that could buy liquor .
Albums were labelled CLEARLY with your name when consolidating for a party . And the parties were pretty epic ! How often it is that a certain moment in time comes flooding back with just the playing of a song . I
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