TLDR: Pink Floyd concert at the Hollywood Bowl September 22nd 1972 ( Staying home to watch the rain concert)
When I was a child I had a fever,
my tonsils filled like two balloons,
my Mother rocked me in her arms, sang me lullaby's
I saw things, she swore were not there but they were there
Her music soothed the pain and kept me sane I can not explain
And I found Music was comfortably fun.
Ok a sad attempt to tie this to the PF song.
My Mom introduced me to music as a very sick ( constant tonsillitis, sore throats and high fevers) as a 2 and 3 year old.
Had em taken out at 3 in a veterinary hospital ( true story and explains a lot...woof!)
She had a great voice and made up songs and lullaby's and would rock me in her arms trough out the night
Born in 53 with 3 older sisters the youngest being 8 years older I grew up with the AM radio blaring KFWB channel 98.
Catholic school was very musically driven, the 3 sisters all sang like birds and would sometimes do 3 part harmonies ...kick ass
The middle sister was a beast with the accordion.... until her teacher realized she was playing by ear and not reading the music.
I was exposed to all of the emerging rock, surf and folk of the time Elvis, Chubby Checker, Little Richard, The Everly brothers, The Smothers Brothers, Leslie Gore, Jan and Dean, The Beach Boys etc. @ 11 years old them weirdos with the long hair from England arrived and the next thing I knew my now 19 year old youngest sister was a Beatle maniac. I mean her room was plastered in pictures of the Beatles. They were weird , she was weird but those damn catchy songs started catching me. It took me a year or so but I became a fan like everyone else at the time. Man growing up as a young teen when the summer of love came about was a trip. Rock music was exploding...The Doors, Hendrix, Janis, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Santana, Motown, poor Elvis...left in the dust, caught in a trap.
Other than trying drums in the school band as a freshman learning the basics and a few cadences, I never took up an instrument until I was 16. A friend of mine's parents owned the local Hammond Organ franchise. He hit me up to help him deliver pianos and organs for $5 to $10 cash for each delivery. Hell yeah being as minimum wage was $1.35 in 69, I was happy to heft those big old beast around. Young n dumb. Son you got a strong back and a weak mind my old man used to say to me.
Turned out he was an amazing player and surely one of the greatest rock Hammond players in the world of his age. At 15 he was pulling off Lee Michaels Stormy Monday like nothing.. doing all those Pop 3 dog night songs, Whiter shade of pale, Santana...at fricking 15. Dude was a prodigy. Kick ass B3 with two built 122 leslies...man the music studio screamed rock at night when the store closed. They had a drum set there and he let me sit at em and try and be his Frosty. For not ever playing a kit and never having a lesson I started getting an idea of how to emulate Frosty and the drummers of the aforementioned songs. Then he put a mic in front of me and the rest is misery... I was watching him play and he showed me a blues lick. At the time I had a pretty good memory and I repeated the riff very closely. He was surprised and showed me another...I banged it out pretty close again...he said shit man you pick this shit up fast you oughta try playing the keys. I did and was wowing my friends pretty quickly..it was fun. A few years later we went to the Hollywood Bowl on September 22nd 1972. We saw Pink Floyd in quad doing some of Uma Gumma, Meddle but most importantly test driving DSOTM pre it's release. Everyone at that concert was blown away, jaws on the floor...even the ancient 50 year old ushers
...the word was Wow as we all left that evening...we were all truly Dazed and Confused at what we had just witnessed. I went into the Hollywood Bowl that night with every intention of going to college and getting a law degree. I left that night thinking man I want to do that. Tour the world in a Rock Band and leaving em all going home saying Wow WTF did I just see.
Well that was my goal....I got my greasy fingers on that brass ring for a New York minute between 1975 and 1980. Only rocked LA but I got to rock with Eddie, Randy, Tommy Lee, Vince Neal, Mark Kendal and quite a few others that ended up "making it". Then I lost my grip and fell into that deep dark chasm of the woulda, coulda , shoulda been a contender club. Man what a long strange trip it's been. So grateful I got my 15 seconds. Probably would not be here alive today expounding upon it had we "made it". We were definitely on a spiral of rock n roll suicide.
Playing in a rock band and seeing the world is a lofty aspiration. flash forward 20 years I did get to see a lot of the world in my career selling man made stone "Quartz" which is a kind of "Rock". Just not the rock I had intended. In all of my travels wherever / when ever there is a piano or keyboard that I can sit at, be it at a hotel, restaurant or club, I bang out some music and sometimes get a wow...still a hoot.