A Place for My Stuff

Daddy's Junky Music, 1972-2011

This is late news, but I just found out about it as I was trying to check up on some of my lingering receipts (see previous post).

Daddy's Junky Music was a big chain of stores that bought and sold used musical instruments.  They were based in New England.  Like many musicians from New England, my first instruments were bought at a Daddy's store, and I'd traded and bought countless other things from them ever since.  In fact it was to Daddy's where I traded in a ton of extra musical stuff I was no longer using, sometime in the last year or two (I tried searching for a link to where I might have blogged about it, but I can't find it). 

Sadly, Daddy's abruptly closed their doors back in October 2011.

In a way, I'm not really too surprised.  The clerks at all these places were typically dicks.  Like most music store clerks, they were once-aspiring-and-failed rock stars, bitterly sitting behind a counter and always busy with something or somebody else.  The staff at other stores like Guitar Center have almost always been, at least in my experience, more attentive and sometimes more knowledgeable. 

Of course, I know that's not the main reason why Daddy's closed.  The main reason they closed is the same reason why a lot of brick-and-mortar ("B&M") specialty stores close: not being able to compete with the internet.  Even before the internet became a house-hold thing, I knew that if you wanted to buy or especially sell an instrument, it was always better financially to go through the want-ads.  If you wanted to sell something, Daddy's would give you next to nothing for it.  As my lucrative guitar-trading uncle had always said, "Daddy's is a rip-off".  The only reason I sold a bunch of stuff to them that summer was to get rid of the stuff once and for all, instead of having to place a dozen different ads to Craigslist and follow up on all of them.

But the internet had hurt Daddy's in more ways than just providing a forum to buy and sell things 1-on-1.  A lot of warehouse places like MusiciansFriend.com can sell you brand new instruments for cheaper than Daddy's and other stores can compete with. 

What's the advantage of having a B&M musical instrument store?  The first and most obvious one is that get a chance to play something before you buy it.  A second advantage is that you get to talk to people who are knowledgeable about the various models of various instruments and can make suggestions for you.  Some of them also host clinics, which is when a well-known musician will give a lecture and do Q&A afterwards.  Then there's just the joy of not knowing what you'll find when you walk into a used music store.

Unfortunately, it's all too easy for somebody to try out an instrument in a store, get free advice from a clerk, then walk out the door and order the same instrument on-line, without a penny going to the B&M store.  Hell, lots of people can whip out their smartphone to go check prices and buy the item on-line, BEFORE even leaving the store!

So while it's sad to see Daddy's go, again I'm not too surprised.  As one of the articles below mentions "If you can't make it with a music store across the street from Berklee, you’re pretty much sunk".  It does make me wonder how rare used musical instrument brick-and-mortar stores are going to be in the future.  There's only so much a teenager can learn by flipping around YouTube.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111027/NEWS02/710279965&source=RSS

http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-05/ae/30364212_1_berklee-college-music-school-instrument

http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x717137553/Daddys-Junky-Music-closes-all-12-stores

Another "30 Day Song Challenge" Indulgence

The 30 Days are already over, but I'll throw in a few more of these.  Go here if you don't know what I'm talking about.

"A song that describes you"?  Well I suppose I should go for something about clutter or being a pack rat, but nothing comes to mind right now.  A different song that does come to mind though is "Bananas" by Deep Purple.  Besides earning the nickname "Bananas" due in part to the "Banana" episodes I did for my radio show, I especially like the lyrics "Don't help me, I'll help myself" and "Now my life is richer than rich, 'cause I studied mathematics".

 

Next on the list is "a song that you used to love but now hate".  I guess that would include songs that I used to like, but heard them so many times that I got sick of them.  Pretty much anything from Metallica's self-titled album comes to mind.  I was already sick of it entering college in 1993, and EVERY person in my dorm either had that CD or had a room mate who had the CD.  And the damn thing got played every day.  I will go so far as to say that it is the most overplayed heavy metal album of all time.  I'm not even going to bother posting a clip here.

Then there's "A song that you hear often on the radio".  Well, I listen to Sirius XM radio these days, not FM/AM.  I find this song showing up a lot on the stations I listen to:

 

And finally (for this installment anyway) "A song that you wish you heard on the radio".  If there was a song I wanted to hear, then chances are good that I've already long since bought the album and can listen to it whenever I want.  Though as Alice Cooper pointed out, classic rock stations seem to select from the same 100 songs.  It's nice to get into the deeper tracks.  In fact, there's one XM radio station specifically built on this idea.  How about...ANY song from The Residents?

 

The concept of "Guilty Pleasure"

So the next song in the list of the 30 Day Song Challenge is to give an example of a song that's a "guilty pleasure".

Honestly, that term has never been part of my vocabularly.  The concept just makes no sense to me.  I have never, ever, taken any shame in the things that I like.  This has especially been the case with regard to music.  Are there people who are really ashamed to be caught by their friends or their family listening to a certain piece of music?  Really?  Sorry, but that just strikes me as pathetic.  If I like something, then I really don't give a shit if you don't, and if I don't like something, I avoid listening to it.  I guess this attitude of mine is more foreign than I thought.

I most certainly listen to music that would repulse certain demographics of people.  No matter what your age or your clique, I'm sure you'll find something in my music collection that makes you gag, whether it's my complete Journey collection, The Residents, the few hip-hop tracks I've purchased, or something else.  But these are not "guilty" pleasures for me because, again, I have no shame in liking what I like.  So I simply can't give an example this time around.

This brings us to the next item in the list, "A song that no one would expect you to love".  OK, well that makes a little more sense.  Here's a band I suppose people who haven't listened to my radio show but did read my previous post, might assume I wouldn't love:

  

More of that shamelessly self-indulgent "song challenge"

The next installment of the (so-called) 30 Day Song Challenge:

"A song that you know all the words to".  Well there are plenty to choose from here, especially after doing karaoke and singing in bands before.  Here's one I made an effort to know cold:

 

What I find funny about this song is that so many would hear me perform it and love it, but have no clue what the song was about.  Then when I told them, they usually felt embarrassed.  A "Hook" is musical term for a catchy part of a song that gets repeated.  If you pay attention to the lyrics, you'll see that the actually message of the song is "This song doesn't really mean anything; it's just catchy."

Next is "A song that you can dance to".  Well, I think you can "dance" to just about any song, even if it's not meant for that.  I started dancing when I was in college, and still a teetotaler.  After sitting on the couch through a few parties I realized "If I'm going to get laid, I'm either going to have to start drinking or dancing.  And drinking costs money and makes you puke."  I came to realize that dancing essentially just comes down to 1) moving in rhythm to the song, and 2) not looking like a complete idiot while doing so.

In any case, here's the first song that popped in my mind.  Love this themed performance too.  The song kicks in at around 30 seconds.

 

Next, "A song that makes you fall asleep".  I'd have to say just about any song from Steely Dan or Donald Fagen. It's not that I terribly dislike them.  But something about their style just makes me want to fall asleep.  Beavis and Butthead would concur:

 

And finally, "A song from your favorite band".  Well that's pretty easy.  I'll pick the one from them that really caught my ear and eventually made me a fan.

 

We're Stars! Ronnie James Dio Tribute.

My friend Big Jim was a close and personal friend of Ronnie James Dio.  In fact, it was all thanks to Jim that I got to meet Ronnie for the first time in 1996, and many times after that.  Jim plays in a couple of different bands in the New Haven area.  When I found out his band was doing an all-Dio set, and that his band and the others were going to get together to do the song Stars, I knew I had to drive down through 2 states to see the show.

What's "Stars" all about?  Well let me explain.

Back in the 1980s, there were lots of enormous one-time pop groups thrown together to record a song for some sort of charity.  There was USA For Africa, Band Aid, Artists United Against Apartheid, etc.  There was also a heavy metal one called Hear n' Aid, organized by Ronnie James Dio.  It featured members of Dio, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, Dokken, Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, Queensrÿche, Blue Öyster Cult, Vanilla Fudge, Y&T, Journey, W.A.S.P., Night Ranger, Iron Maiden, and a few more that I'm sure I'm forgetting.  The song they recorded was called "Stars".

So now fast forward to 2010.  Big Jim and a whole host of other local musicians perform "Stars" as part of a Ronnie James Tribute night.  Frankly, I was impressed.  It's really hard to get over a dozen musicians on one stage all properly mixed, let alone have them all doing the song OK.  But somebody managed to get it on video and upload it.

Here's an article on the event.

And no, I have no idea what the deal is with the kid in the wheelchair at center stage.

Rock on...to the trash!

Some other musical oddities I found along with the PMRC stickers:

• The backing board to the ZZ Top key chain I bought at their concert, almost 20 years ago.  I still have the key chain.  So why did I hang on to this?  I guess it's because you don't see an off-the-rack package like this with the band logo on it.  Or maybe I was going to cut it out and stick it in the case of a mix.  Maybe it was because it was their "Recycler" tour.  Maybe my Head's In Mississippi.  Who the hell knows. 

• Band flier.  Yes kids, back in the days before every home had the internet (let alone before people all knew how to use network sites), being on a band's "mailing list" meant a physical mailing list.  This was a letter from such a band.  I probably signed up for them just because like everybody else, I wanted to talk to the lady who was holding the clipboard.  And I probably hung on to it with the idea that it would be worth a lot of money if the band got famous.  Dumb on both accounts.

• Photocopied tape covers.  As I've said before, it was convenient growing up in a house that had a photocopier.  I'd often copy tape covers like this, to do with the dubs I'd make.  Of course, there's no need to have these around now, when I can find an print the thing in color with a tiny bit of internet searching.  I do remember returning these two tapes, back when you could do so.  I need the money.

• "Meat Bob" ad.  No, they weren't a band.  This was an add for an album from comedian Bobcat Goldthwait.  What was it doing in a metal magazine?  I don't know, but that's where they placed it, in Circus magazine.  Actually, this ad itself wasn't the clutter.  It was from a small stack of other metal magazines I had saved from the 80s.  My girlfriend, being a fan of the genre, immediately took them and has since been searching through them.  I didn't argue.  They were out of my junk pile now.

• Zoomed photocopies of the cover to Iron Maiden's "Piece of Mind" album.  This was BEFORE we had the luxury of a home photocopier.  This was at my Dad's office.  I was there that day for some reason, and decided to have fun photocopying the cover to the tape I had with me, and playing with the zoomed sizes.  I think that's where I learned first hand that zooming in decreases the quality.  Who knows how much of his toner I wasted that day.

Thoughts back on the PMRC

"What's the PMRC?" my young girlfriend asked as she looked though the box of saved clutter.  I didn't have to look over my shoulder to know what she had found.  My friend Frank made dozens of these stickers and plenty of variations of them.  They're irrelevant now, and probably wouldn't stick to anything anyway.  But I can at least bring up the topic before throwing them away.

The Parents Music Resource Center was a group started by Tipper Gore and the "Washington Wives".  It all started when Tipper overheard her daughter listening to Prince's Purple Rain album, particularly one line from one track ("Darling Nikki") about "masturbating with a magazine".  When Frank made these stickers, this was back in the late 80s when talk had been going around about another kind of sticker: official "Parental Advisory" sticker to be stuck on albums that offended white parents. Despite myself and other hopeful teens getting signatures and petitions against this, obviously the "Parental Advisory" stickers won in the end.

So back in those days, the fears of course were that if you listened to an album from the likes of Prince or Iron Maiden, you'd grow up to be a deviant, drug-taking, devil-worshiping, commie-loving, evil entity.  And there were supposedly all those subliminal messages to deal with too.  Then later the rap genre got its share of bashing too with the whole 2 Live Crew incident.  I think the absurdity reached a climax with the Judas Priest trials.  Some time after that we went into the Gulf War, which became the new distraction and scapegoat for the world's problems, and hype over the music subsided.

But back in the mid 80s there were the PMRC hearings.  Standing up against them were Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, and John Denver (yes, John Denver, who got a lot of unfair shit in his day for his song "Rocky Mountain High").  You can find lots of clips on YouTube of the PMRC hearings, but here's one summary segment from a heavy metal documentary.

Thanks for the memory, clutter.  Now you stickers can join the PMRC itself, in my trash can.

Ronnie James Dio, RIP

I'm still in shock over hearing the news that my favorite rock star has passed away.

First I got a text message at 2:00 AM, who said there were rumors on the internet.  I didn't want to believe anything unless I heard it from an official source.  The rumors were finally put to rest from an official source.  But then an official source confirmed that Ronnie James Dio did in fact pass away around 10:45 AM PST today.  I called a friend of mine who is a reliable source (he knows Ronnie personally; they've been close friends for years) and he confirmed it too.

When people say that they like certain entertainers or celebrities, what they really mean is that they like their work. They're in love with the character that the entertainer has created. There's nothing wrong with that. I do absolutely love the work of Ronnie James Dio, which many don't realize spans 50 years. And I do love the commanding stage character that he made for himself. But I do feel I can say that I met Ronnie enough times to really like him as a person. Unlike countless other rock stars I could mention, Ronnie would always be sober, intelligently spoken, and very down-to-earth. He cared a lot about his fans, and didn't leave until he finished signing every autograph.

I got to meet a lot of other fans though alt.music.dio (that's a newsgroup, for those of you who don't remember the internet before graphical web browsers). We networked and even made some very lasting friendships together. I first got to meet Ronnie on the night before Thanksgiving, 1996. That kicked off a number of years of die-hard Dioship, as a groups of us would follow him around on every east coast show, if not every show in the country and beyond.

I can't say I have many regrets though. I'm so glad that I made the effort to see him live and meet him in person so many times. I'll have many, many great memories of seeing him from the front rows of a concert, whether it was in a tiny club or in an arena.  I'm beyond happy that he reunited with Black Sabbath (a dream come true, since I didn't get to see them in 1992) and they put out at least one album. To me, he will always be that "Man on the Silver Mountain".

 

Dio Fights the Dragon of Cancer

GO DIO!!! 

Starstruck in Mansfield, no matter how many times I've met the man.

Peter Steele 1962-2010

I'm sure some of you have already seen dozens of blog entries from other people on Peter Steele, who passed away on the 14th.  Well, here's one more.

Like a lot of people, I first heard Type-O-Negative around 1993 with the album Bloody Kisses.  Songs like "Black No. 1" and "Christian Woman" got a lot of airplay.  I was a freshman in college and pledging a fraternity.  I remember standing in the kitchen of the fraternity house while the radio was playing, huddled around the big wooden table.  It was a common gathering point to hang out and talk for hours.  One night as "Black No. 1" was playing, Jimmy halted the conversation to point out the ending witty refrain coming from the radio, "Loving you, was like loving the dead."

The thing I loved the most about Type-O-Negative was their sense of humor.  Most other "goth" or "gothic rock" bands were pretty much defined on their own complete lack of humor.  This band, on the other hand, had an even corny sense of humor.  They didn't take themselves overly seriously.

Being both a singer and a bass player myself, I did enjoy Steele's role in the band.  The guy was so enormous, he could (and did) play an upright bass over his knee.  And of course his vocal range was so incredibly low and deep.  When warming up my voice I've typically always tried singing a few of the choruses of "Christian Woman" to hit as low as I could go.  I'm also glad I got a chance to see the band play live in concert a few times over the years.  I remember the first show I went to in Providence, and it seemed like Steele was drinking bottles of red wine by the whole bottle, then tossing them out to the crowd when finished.  "Anybody want a sip?" he asked.  "Don't worry, I don't have AIDS.  I do, however, have rabies."

In a way I'm not too surprised over his death.  He's always struck me as self-abusive, not to mention self-loathing.  That seems to be a common combination in rock stars.  Though at least he left behind a lot of great music.