OFF: MTV generation

[Robert C. Mayo]

in Boston, circa 1974 and up, it was WRKO AM radio, and Creem/Circus/Hit
Parader... being drawn to the louder/edgier stuff that i heard, but being
limited to pretty much that station (top 40), and those magazines, i was an
AERO-KISS kid, for sure...buying 45's by BOSTON, BTO,  FOGHAT...then lps by
KISS (1st lp ever purchased: "Rock and Roll Over"), AEROSMITH, CHEAP
TRICK....

and then, completely by accident...
my dad had bought a new stereo, one with an 8-track player, and after fooling
with it one night and going to sleep, I awoke the next day to find the
8-track deck had been recording all night---WAAF in Worcester Ma had a Friday
night feature called the Friday Night 6-pack, where, overnight, they'd play 6
ENTIRE LPS (sounds crazy now, I know), usually new releases. I rewound the
tape and listened, thinking cool, I have maybe 6 new free albums, let's see
what i got... welp, i got VAN HALEN's debut.... 2 weeks before it's release.
OH
MY
GOD
did this record blow my mind
and change my world
(mind you, i was 14.)
In hindsight, they were the ramones of metal**. As Creem's concurrent 'is
metal dead?' issue was trumpeting the death of that particular dinosaur, VH's
lp was giving the tired and bloated carcass a huge boot in the ass. the
difficulty i had in finding ANY info on this band (for the two weeks prior to
its release and a lengthy period thereafter) convinced me that WRKO and those
rock mags didnt know everything; that i didnt need them telling me what i'd
like, which bands i should be a fan of... this entire experience was my first
exposure to the idea of 'underground' (i know its hard to conceive of VH as
ever being an underground band, but for about half-year, they were...) and
gave me the confidence to champion 'unknown' bands all throughout high
school: motorhead, ac/dc (well before bon's death and their breakthru), the
entire nwobhm, montrose, UFO...

mtv ruined everything; the 80's sucked. all of my fave bands sold out, one
after another... so i started my own.

the end

bobm

**high energy, comical/nonsense lyrics, genre-self-parody and minimalism,
3-minute songs, "finally, the right idea"...