Bill Shakespeare
Shakespeare said in his play "Twelfth Night": "If Music be the food of Love, play on".

This section is about one of my great passions, Food. No, I mean Music. Note that Wikepedia's definition of Music "is an art form whose medium is sound organized in time". Again, a link, even music is linked to time -- and as I show a bit later -- space.

When I was a kid, I loved the folk, blues and rock music of my day. In the 60s in England (1960s -- not 1860s), music was changing everyone.

Marilyn I was 12 or 13 one Sunday night in late 1962 -- the year Marilyn had died, when my brother and I were shooting darts and listening to a radio program "Top of the Pops" I think.

Beatles - 1962
All of a sudden, they played "Love Me Do" by the Beatles -- my brother and I looked at each other and we were never the same (He went nuts and I got hungry). Seriously, all we had heard before was pablum of the 1950s. Never one to criticize musicians, it nevertheless, did not touch my soul. Especially english pablum. (Click on their photo to hear it).

The next 8-10 years was an amazing time for music, as it the industry was turned on its head. We had the Beatles, the Stones, Jimi Hendrix (he was english -- he might as well have been -- that's where he found acceptance).

Cream - 1968 And hundreds of other bands with roots in the British Folk scene -- Fairport Convention, and Steeleye Span. The Yardbirds (great name) leading to Cream.

Here is a Fairport Song that gives me goose bumps after 50 years

We had arguments with girls on the buses home from school as to who played best (boys) and who looked best (other boys).

An old Framus
I bought a guitar and took at least three years learning how to tune it, till a nerdy friend played for me, and I figured, if he could play, so could I. By the time I was 17 or 18, I was playing in folk clubs around London, completely oblivious of my talent. I think in retrospect, I was paid to leave. Nah, I wasn't that bad.





Radio Caroline's Second Ship
Even the radio of the day was bucking trends. We had a licensing system for music back then in the UK, and so "pirate ships" parked in international waters and broadcast the newest and bluest.

I'd go to bed with a transistor radio tucked under my pillow, listening to the beat of Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline, and Radio London. Naturally, that upset the government, which only made it more exciting.

For the record, (another bad pun), we had grown up in the despair of the shadow of World War II. Our parents were trying to rebuild their lives, people were trying to overcome that mass depression that follows all those years of war.

They did not know what to make of our generation. We were both oblivious and careless. We wanted our music and we wanted none of what had gone before.

Our music represented such a complete break with tradition and values, my own parents simply did not know what to make of it all, but to their credit, they let us explore it, and I think to some extent they lived vicariously through us. We, through our music, clothes, hair, represented the youth they had had stolen from them.

Once I came to America, other than missing decent radio (until i found Georgetown University's WGTB), I did find new groups, concerts, musicians. Once you cut through the undergrowth of the music industry (who I believe are responsible for most great plagues in world history), you find some amazing musicians.

So, I hope you enjoy this section, give me feedback (although I'm always right). Listen and see some great ones. They are your heritage.