First ...
"From The Beginning ..."

The early to mid 1970's - and perhaps PARTICULARLY 1972 - were a phenomenal time in American and British rock music. This was the age of the "supergroups" - and believe me - they made quite an impression on me. Everyone had already begun to hear of Emerson, Lake and Palmer - of Yes - of Pink Floyd - bands which were carrying "experimental" rock to VERY NEW heights ...

And bands such as Queen, Styx, and Kansas were soon to come onto the music soundscape of those times, too.

As far as ELP goes, everyone had heard of "Lucky Man" already - and perhaps if you were already a little more into them, you'd heard "Tarkus," other stuff off of "Pictures At An Exhibition," etc.

Maybe at least some of how I felt about the music of that year - and of how I remember its influence being - came from the fact that I was exiting "grammar" school and entering High school. Guess I really can't say. Anyhow, ELP released their "Trilogy" album in 1972, with the gem "From The Beginning." I have to say that this song IMMEDIATELY blew me away the very first time I heard it. And at my first opportunity to hear the rest of the album, I immediately had a new "favorite band." And I also knew what I wanted to do in life - I never thought that I would EVER be able to play like Keith Emerson - or as fantastic as Rick Wakeman (from YES) but I sure as hell wanted to try and learn.

Needless to say, ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" the following year was a real foray into the mindscape, too. "Karn Evil 9" is on it, you know "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends ..."
I mean, who the hell ELSE writes stuff like that - plays with that ability ...???!!!

Just SOME OF the work released in 1972

I don't recall exactly, but I suppose that I kept pestering my parents and they finally bought a brand new organ for inside the house and a beat up old upright piano for out in the garage. I still have that piano - although there's all kinds of crap piled in front of it at the moment - out in my garage here at my house now - almost 3 DECADES later. Anyhow, I don't know why or how - but I wrote some of the most interesting material EVER on that piano - way back when.

In any case, bands like these "progressive rock" acts were the ones who made me want to become a musician. The marriage of a kick-assed HEAVY beat with the complexities - the dynamics and nuances which they were writing into their music just blew me away. Make no mistake about it - I still liked (as I do today) MANY other kinds of music (although primarily all rock-oriented) but this whole progressive thing REALLY grabbed my attention.

Then I saw Yes during their "Relayer" tour, in December of 1974, and then Pink Floyd in June of 1975. Enough said? Their unbelieveable stage shows incredibly fascinated me. Again, the MARRIAGE of the lighting effects with the music - the incredible stage props they used ...

(Yeah - just about anyone and everyone has a fantastic light show TODAY. One has to consider that at THAT TIME, there were no "computerized" lighting systems. These guys were DECADES ahead of everyone in their stage presentations.)

I remember the first time I heard Yes, too - "I've Seen All Good People." My immediate impression was - well, it's different, that's for sure ... And maybe I loved it because of that. It wasn't until a year or so later that I found out who they were. Someone brought the album to a birthday party for a school friend, Pam Westgate, which I went to. When the song started playing, I went over to the stereo to see who the artist was - because I still hadn't known who they were. The girl who owned the album, Cheryl Wanner, was standing right there at the stereo and she told me quite a bit about them. Actually, I ended up dating her for a while after that night. If anything, she was wicked quiet and sweet and innocent in high school. I saw her a few years later in Boston. I was in a band up there, Nightwing, and we all happened to go out that night together. Her PUNK band was playing in the club we ended up at. I couldn't BELIEVE her transformation - REALLY "punked out..." But it was really kewl, too. She played guitar and piano and had quite a few wonderful compositions herself, the most captivating I remember, being one called "Camelot."

It wasn't too much longer after this that I met a kid named Jimmy Cote in a study hall at the old Taunton High School. He VERY MUCH introduced me to the remainder of Yes' catalog and I was immediately taken in. I've been pretty much obsessed with them ever since, and have seen them in concert countless times.

Another performer who blew me away was Alice Cooper during his "Welcome To My Nightmare" tour. UNBELIEVABLE stage show - theatrics, lighting, dancers ... Cooper has an incredibly RAW sound live in concert - but it works. My friend Pete Cote and I went to this concert. The following day, we both had black and blue marks all over our legs from jumping up and down on the folding chairs and banging our legs up in there, because every other jump they would fold up. Like we cared at 16 and "on" Haffenreffer "green giants" - and only God recalls what else at that time, on that night ...

But we had EXCELLENT floor seats - right up front.

You used to be able to get those if you were there when the tickets went on sale. I did it frequently back then. Nowadays I guess the a$$holes control the ticket sales - because I've yet to see any good seats available - right from the start of the sales - in the last 15 years, at LEAST. Yeah, "ticket master" allright - friggin corporate whoremaster is more like it. That's another thing I feel sorry for the kids today about.

MANY TIMES, we got GREAT seats ...

Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking masterpieces, "Tubular Bells," "Ommadawn" and "Hergest Ridge" definitely inspired me to want to be a musician, too - especially the fact that he played almost every instrument on them himself.

The original American-released
(October 1970 - brown and gold cover)
album "Jesus Christ Superstar" also definitely inspired me - especially the vocal work by Ian Gillan (who played Jesus) whose awesome work with Deep Purple was already inspiring me, and the vocals of Murray Head (who played Judas).

and definitely, without question ...

Earliest Influences ...

(I'm going to be rearranging these, but for now I just wanted to get all of the links up here. They are NOT in order of influence right now ...)

undoubtedly, these were influencing me right along ...

The Beatles; Badfinger; The Rolling Stones; Chicago;
Creedence Clearwater Revival; Three Dog Night;
The Animals; The Guess Who; Blood, Sweat and Tears;
Janis Joplin; Jimi Hendrix; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young;
Grand Funk (Railroad); Rod Stewart / Faces; Led Zeppelin;
The Who; The Doors; Procol Harum; The Moody Blues;
Savoy Brown; Steve Howe; Carly Simon; Carole King;
George Harrison; John Lennon; Paul McCartney;
Simon and Garfunkel; Steppenwolf; Uriah Heep;
The James Gang; Joe Walsh; Rare Earth; Rick Wakeman;
Neil Young; Stephen Stills; Graham Nash; David Crosby;
but, then i heard the likes of ...

Aerosmith; Deep Purple; Styx; Queen; Jethro Tull;
Emerson Lake & Palmer;

Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)

Pink Floyd; Santana; Kansas; Heart; David Bowie;
Harry Nilsson; Mike Oldfield;

and realized that this "progressive/ art" rock was something kewl - something big and impressive ...

but still, others had important influence, too ...

Alice Cooper; Black Sabbath; Elton John; Argent;
Mott The Hoople; James Taylor; Ten Years After;
The Grass Roots; Eric Burden and War; America;
The Allman Brothers Band; Todd Rundgren;
The Doobie Brothers; Jackson Browne; The Eagles; Cat Stevens;

some who came to my attention a bit later ...

Rush; Supertramp; Al Kooper; Chick Corea; Al Jarreau;
Ted Nugent; Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band;
Bad Company; Jeff Beck; Jon Anderson; Blue Oyster Cult;
Boston; The Cars; Cheap Trick; Rainbow; Dio; Pat Benatar; Asia;
AC/DC; Bryan Adams; Foreigner; Peter Frampton;
Foghat; Fleetwood Mac; Genesis; Sammy Hagar; Wings;
Iron Maiden; Starship; Journey; Judas Priest; King Crimson;
Krokus; Meat Loaf; Rick Derringer; Ronnie Montrose;
Ozzy Osbourne; Stevie Wonder; Jimmy Page; Robert Plant;
Patti Smith Group; The Police; Queensryche; Quiet Riot;
Trevor Rabin; Randy Rhoads; Ritchie Blackmore; Scorpions;
Survivor; Thin Lizzie; Triumph; Robin Trower; Van Halen;
Whitesnake; Z.Z. Top;
 

- and many others ...

...For a more PERSONAL PROFILE of Al's life, click here...
Darien3's (Al's) Home Page
...Also has a lot more music links...






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"Reach Out"
recorded at Twin Studios, North Carver, Massachusetts
early Autumn 1989
by