Monday, June 2, 2008

My thing for Cleveland Rock!


Bruce and the boys at WMMS in 1976!

"Does anyone remember Jeff and Flash in the morning and their "Token Jokes of the Morning"?

"We've, got a, got a, got a, got a, got a, get down........Dammit!



As those of you who know me, know I love Rock and Roll....Especially rock from Cleveland......I did not realize how much I loved Rock until I left the Cleveland area.

Rock people you may not have known are from Cleveland:

Joe Walsh
Eric Carmen
Crissy Hind (Pretenders), although she is really from the Cuyahoga Falls Area (Woodridge High School)
Benjamin Orr of the Cars
Wild Cherry
Bobby Womack
Tracy Chapman
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, among others.....

Probably my favorites are:

Wild Horses (Of "Funky Poodle" fame)
Jonah Koslen (Of MSB, The Hero's and Breathless) The above CD was sent to me by a real close friend, she said it had all of my favorites except one, which Jonah did when he was a member of MSB ("Real Good Time")....

MSB or Michael Stanley Band......The band that produced music that we had sex too!!!!

Heartland, as seen above, cranked some great music that, as I have grown more "Mature", I realized I had those same experiences......StagePass is probably my most listened too MSB album....It was recorded live at the Cleveland Agora (The original that burned down)......

But my best memory of MSB was after I joined the military, and came home on leave while traveling to Alaska......My sister Becky and her boyfriend had purchased tickets to see MSB at the University of Toledo......They were general admission tickets (I think about $15), and we got there early.....Well, it did not matter.....What my friends back in Cleveland paid $40-$60 for "non front row tickets", We were not only front row, but as with everyone else that got there early, leaning on the stage, looking right up to the boys from MSB!!!! I was right in front of Rick Bell when he played the Sax on "He Cant Love You" and "Lover" just as good, if not better than Clearance Clemens (Of the E Street band) did on the album, Tommy Dobeck banging the drums and just to the left of Michael himself, singing with his deep voice and playing guitar with all of his passion! It was the best concert I had ever went too!

A couple years later, I was home and visiting with my Best Friend Kenny Ewsichek, we went to Blossom Music Center to see MSB, Wild Horses, The Motels, J. Giles and Heart! WHAT a time, and I also ran into a lot of my old friends that thought I was dead or in jail, but that is a whole nother story......

As a kid, here is how I got my start in Rock!

I remember driving to Cleveland on Fridays with my dad to see my mom when she was ill, and listening to WMMS, that was when they started their famous "The Weekend Never Ends, on WMMS, Cleveland" stint that had all of us in the Cleveland area for years, at 6pm bouncing our heads and screaming out three songs that defined the Cleveland Rock Scene......For the first few years of that, it started with Murray Saul doing his "Get Downs" followed by Bruce Springsteens "Born to Run" (The most played Bruce album of mine)....In later years, as the Cleveland Rock Scene grew, the Friday night lineup then featured "Born to Run", "Friday Night", and then Ian Hunters "Cleveland Rocks"!

Every trip I made home from the Military, was geared around arriving somewhere in the range of WMMS on Friday before 6pm, just so I could hear the Friday night kick off to the weekend!

My ex-wife thought I was an idiot, Patti Carter thought I was insane.....But hey, I blame my dad for my love of Rock and Roll!

Bob Seger, Aerosmith, AC/DC (Thanks to Kenny and Buddy), the Cars (Thanks Mike Kolk), Def Leopard (they played the "World Series of Rock" at old Cleveland Stadium before making it big!) the Rolling Stones, Foreigner (Thanks Chris Pirro)(I just saw them at the Laughlin River Run!!) they all played a part of my youth, and even now as a "mature adult"....

Living close to Reno and Lake Tahoe, I have a chance to go see some of the bands listed above, and more! I just missed John Fogerty.....

Where did this ranting all come from? Well, I heard The Guess Who's "American Woman" this morning on the radio, and it reminded of another time I was home on leave, and My Dad, Mom, Sisters, brother and now ex-wife saw them at "Portside" in Toledo.......FOR FREE!!!!!

God, I love Rock and Roll!

3 comments:

stalkermom said...

Ok WOW, that was quite the post! Great memories there though! I just heard my favorite Foreigner song in Meijer while shopping at lunch...I've Been Waiting. In the GROCERY STORE!

Spanner said...

Do you remember that MSB concert?

SheenV said...

Yep, I do remember WMMS! I grew up in NE Ohio and listened to WMMS all the time, especially in the mornings and at 5:55PM on Friday nights.