Life-in-Music: 1987-1988

This was a breakout year for my music palate. I distinctly remember that the first album someone was with me to buy (other than my mom I believe) was Def Leppard’s Hysteria. This someone happened to be none other than grandpa Tom. Grandpa Tom was an awesome man, whom I have many fond memories of. One such memory of him is when he almost wouldn’t let me buy this album because it was “stupid people’s music” because neither “deaf” nor “leopard” were spelled correctly. Then I pointed out I was using birthday money and he recanted and let me buy it. My kids are screwed, I would have picked that as a mountain to die on myself. I’m glad he didn’t, because it solidified my relationship with my best friend – who often recommended albums to listen to (for mostly good but sometimes for bad).

Gather round kiddies, let me tell you a secret. Come in close now. Closer.

I liked George Michael.

I know, I said it right here on the internets. I’m losing street cred by the minute so let me backpedal a little bit. Firstly, he’s not boygeorge, who people often confused him with. And Faith was a really excellent album. Yes, he’s a gay weirdo, but somehow he hasn’t managed to shake that moniker like Elton John has despite being much much stranger than George Michael.

Call it a little lie, or a big one, but I was often living in two different musical camps which made up my musical life. I really loved a lot of “80′s” music that included people like George Michael, Wham!, Culture Club, etc, but I also hung out with friend that purportedly only listened to “metal” music, be it glam, hair, death, whatever, metal. Rick Astley was a CD that I loved and definitely did not tell anyone about. He was not hardcore, and I wasn’t fessing up to liking it. I later learned that my best friend kinda liked this music too…

Guns n’ Roses has a definitive sound that hasn’t ever been emulated. Maybe it was Axl Rose, maybe it was slash, I’m not sure who was the person who made them sound like they did but it was brilliant. Appetite for Destruction was the first album that I had to seriously search for a specific version. The album had come out and my friends all had it. No problem, I thought, I will get it when I had earned the money. Then I hit a big glitch – The original cover (the one I linked to off of wikipedia) had NO parental discretion warning. But a ton of shops had sold out of the orignial version and were being replaced with newer versions that had the stickers-o-doom on them. I think the solution was to take the cellophane off and then buy it, but I don’t recall exactly how I skirted this issue, but skirted it I did. Despite being skanky and vitrolic, I thought Axl Rose was cool. But for me, Slash was by far the best part of this band. Understated and wearing a tophat with riffs that were amazing.