It’s around 10pm on a school night in mid 1978. I was 12 years old at the time and my parents had insisted that I go to bed over an hour earlier. Back then you didn’t dare question any of the elders within your family. If you did, there were sudden and immediate consequences which usually included seeing stars after a swift smack to the head. Due to this fact of life, I was trying to be as quiet as possible as I snuck my clock radio under my covers and kept the volume low. The radio dial was tuned into the King Biscuit Flower Hour on 95.5 WPLJ out of New York City. The familiar voice of our host Bill Minkin then enthusiastically announced: “On tonight’s broadcast, recorded live…. Alice Cooper!”
This was a common occurrence with me at the time. Like some sort of addiction, I couldn’t get enough. To put things in its proper perspective, allow me to give you some facts: I have 3 older sisters and 1 younger brother. Within four years my parents had 3 girls (1957-1960). Five years later to their surprise, 2 boys were born within two years (1965-1967). My mother came from a very strict Irish Catholic family. Due to the stern rules of the church during that period of time, one never knew when another mouth to feed would come along. Overall, I would say we were blessed. We were very well cared for and to this day all 5 of us siblings are often in touch and hold a strong family bond. (Pic: Byron Kids-1969 / Top L-R: Karen, Alison / Bottom L-R: Dianne, Jeff, Chris)
I was born in South Amboy, New Jersey in 1965 and lived in neighboring Sayreville, NJ for the first 3+ years of my life. Just months before my 4th birthday, our family moved to 26 Brook Street in Fairfield, NJ during the summer of 1969. I would spend the next 12 years of my childhood in this house and in this neighborhood consisting of mostly good, hard working Italian families. Amongst these families were lots of us smart-ass neighborhood kids getting into our own brand of trouble to occupy our time. The picture featured here is some of us at our school bus stop on the corner of Brook Street & Clinton Road. A perfect example of our Jersey attitude of the time. (Pic L-R: Jeff, Chris, Larry, Angela, Robin, Joanna)
Due to the fact that my sisters were between 5-8 years older than me, as a kid I naturally looked up to them. Before even knowing about the “King Biscuit Flower Hour”, I would go into the bedroom that my sisters shared and up against the wall there were crates upon crates full of LP records. I would borrow the albums, one or two at a time and eventually had listened to the entire collection on my cheap, crappy turntable. I discovered many great artists including Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, The Grateful Dead and of course any Jersey Kid’s required listening; Bruce Springsteen. At this young age, the music I was exposed to was either on daytime radio or what my sisters decided to purchase. Then in one moment, fate had something in store for me:
“Holy Badeebalee-Jeebalees … WTF is this?!!!”
On this fateful day, one of my sisters had just purchased the first two KISS LPs: “Kiss” and “Hotter Than Hell”. Evidently they didn’t like the albums much and decided to give them to me. I was pumped! KISS looked crazy in their make-up and when I spun the records for the first time at full volume I felt energized! “She looked good, she looked Hotter than Hell – All dressed in satins and lace – Hot, Hot, Hotter Than Hell”. At that age I didn’t even understand what the lyrics meant. It didn’t matter. It was the raw guitars, power vocals and the lack of production that sounded incredible to my virgin ears. Most of all, it was the defiant attitude it displayed. After that, there was no turning back. From time to time I still jokingly blame my sisters for my “career choices”. “If it wasn’t for those KISS records you gave me when I was 11…….”
I brought my new found enthusiasm to my little brother Jeff and we proceeded to buy or “aquire” (My apologies to Bradlees Dept store down the street) every KISS album ever recorded up to that point. We were obsessed; we even chipped in $2.50 each to get a single $5 membership to the KISS ARMY. Of course that wasn’t the end of it. I would go over to my best friend Larry’s house diagonally across the street and we would jam AC/DC featuring Bon Scott at full blast. Soon thereafter we discovered Led Zeppelin, The Who and one of my favorite bands of all time; Black Sabbath.
The youngest of my older sisters, Dianne, later had a boyfriend who worked in a record store. I think to impress her, he told me he could get any LPs I wanted for only $2 each. My eyes immediately got wide with the thought of this new opportunity. Within the next week I cut lawns, did odd jobs and collected as much money as I could. The next time he came to pick up my sister for a date, I handed him $20 and a list of my first 10 records to be ordered. He looked shocked; I don’t think he knew what he was getting into. To his credit, he did eventually come through but explained to my sister that he couldn’t do this anymore, that for obvious reasons he would get fired from his job. I can’t remember his name now but I thank him for bringing the first two Cars albums to my attention, great stuff… Let the Good Times Roll.
To truly grasp the culture of the time, you have to understand the atmosphere of the late 1970s, especially from a punk kid’s point of view. Musically, there was a culture war: Disco vs Rock. As silly as that sounds now, at that time and at that age, you had to make a choice. You either slicked your hair back or wrote all your favorite Rock bands on your school notebooks. All of us Brook Street kids loved our Rock & Roll. We jammed out to Van Halen or the like as we approached our High School years. We would all take turns sneaking alcohol away from our parents’ liquor closets and meet at the neighborhood park or at this tree house we built way out in the woods behind our homes. At one point I bought this monster Jam-Box and took it with me everywhere, which served as a musical backdrop to many of our juvenile misdeeds.
Side note: One time my father noticed that cans of Budweiser beer were missing from his fridge. He immediately suspected that his oldest son might have something to do with it. He trekked through the woods and found empty beer cans scattered all around our tree house. My mother warned me that Dad was on the warpath… “ah-oh”… immediately my anxiety set in. As soon as he saw me I got exactly what was expected: “whack!” to the back of the head. Then I was sent to my room without dinner. I learned later that he wasn’t really that upset about his 13 year old kid drinking. He was mostly angry that it was his beer I was drinking. Evidently he matched the empty beer can serial numbers with the ones still in the ice box…. Busted.
In the middle of this musical discovery, I came across a book authored by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman named “No One Here Gets Out Alive”. It’s a biography of Jim Morrison and the legendary Doors, coming from a very unique perspective. Great read if you get the chance. This book profoundly influenced my young mind at the time and most likely not for the better. I began believing that going to school was a complete waste of time and focused only on my guitar lessons, music and getting into trouble. While in 8th grade at West Essex Middle School, I was in the auditorium for some sort of Career Day assembly. They handed us students a form to fill out in order to help us reach our goals. The first question was: “Who is your greatest influence?” I wrote down “Jim Morrison”, spat a big spit-wad on the page and handed it in.
From that point forward I began to constantly cut school with like minded friends. We would go to the Willowbrook Mall, hang out and magically acquire new things via the five finger discount; mostly the latest Rock releases on cassette tape. By the time I was in 9th grade it was not uncommon for me to skip class for weeks at a time. The only real positive during this stage is that I was getting better on the guitar. I had hopes and plans of starting my own band someday. As you can tell from the latter part of this article; I was becoming a disrespectful, punk ass kid. This approach to life brought many exciting moments but due to my own misguided actions, it also set in motion plenty-o-trouble ahead…. to be continued….
ARTIST VIDEO SHOWCASE
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JP SOARS AND THE RED HOTS / South Bound I-95
JP SOARS AND THE RED HOTS: The inspiration for this video came from the band’s constant use of I-95 while on tour hitting stops from Florida to Maine and back. The rhythms are bluesy, the vocals are cool and the band is Rockin’!
Video filmed and produced by: Mark Moormann
If you’d like to catch these guys on tour or get more info on the band, check out the JP SOARS web site here: jpsoars.com
RICH MANGICARO / Burning Meadows
RICH MANGICARO: If you are ready for a moment of reflection and enjoy the smooth, beautiful sounds of the piano, you are in for a treat. “Burning Meadows” is Rich’s first video from his debut CD release entitled “Travels”. All the artwork within was created by his father; Dominic Mangicaro. This Father/Son collaboration seems to have made this production extremely personal and this feeling translates well within the music.
If you would like to purchase a copy of “Travels”, click here: Travels / CD
To get info and history on Rich, check out his web site: richmangicaro.com
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