High Fidelity Meets Rockwiz Meme

I don't know who or what Rockwiz is but I saw this on Blog Portion (and stole her title) and knew it would be fun to do.

1. Your first musical idol.
The Partridge Family. We (the kids on my street) would play their records in the garage and pretend to be them. Kristin always wanted to be Keith. My sister and Lori would fight over being Tracy but my sister had a tambourine so she usually won out. And, I was always the mom. Just call me Shirley.

2. Your biggest musical shame/embarassment.

While packing up my stuff to move a few years ago, I got into a huff and threw away some of my records, including all my Elton John albums. I still can't believe I did that. Tossing out that Loverboy LP is one thing but getting rid of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road? That's just wrong.

3. Your special musical talent.
When I worked at Starbucks about a decade ago, my manager used to throw out band names so I could name all their members. He always got a kick out of it and would even have me perform in front of customers. I guess all those years of pouring over liner notes made an impression. I still try to do this now when I hear songs on the radio or on my iPod but I often draw a blank. Good thing they invented Google.

4. A musical thing you wouldn't do in public.
Kareoke -- as much as I love to sing, my voice is horrible and I wouldn't want to cause anyone's ears to bleed.

5. The last band you saw live.
Oh, boy. It's been awhile. I would have check old ticket stubs. I think it was Elliott Smith and he passed away in 2003. Looks like it was PJ Harvey and Grant Lee Buffalo in 1998. Wow, it has been a long time since I went to a show.



6. Favorite live musical experience.
Every Replacements show I ever went to, and U2 at the Forum the Sports Arena on The Unforgettable Fire Tour. We had 16th row seats and we stood on them the entire time (I kept thinking I was going to fall off), and this was back in the day when you only had to pay a scalper $38 a ticket to get good seats. I know someone who described the show as a religious experience. I wouldn't go that far but it was pretty good. At one point, Bono climbed from the stage all the way to the upper level of seats. When they were finished the encore, they left the stage one by one. and the whole time. the audience was singing "40" and kept it up even after they were all gone.

7. If you could see any band/musician live tomorrow, who would it be?
Frank Sinatra but in his younger days.

Guess who my favorite band of all time is. These are just some of the ticket stubs I still have. And, yes there is one for a show in NYC. It was their final tour and I had the chance to fly across the country and go, so I did.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (almost)

Earlier this morning, it dawned on me that it was probably twenty years ago that I bought "Pleased To Meet Me" by the Replacements. It didn't seem possible it was that long ago but I checked the receipt and saw it was true. (Click it if you can't read it. And, yeah, I know I need to use a scanner next time. And yeah, I used to save record store receipts.)

I started thinking about the Replacements after I saw a link on Guava's blog to an article about Paul Westerberg. That got me to googling his name, which led me to his wife's blog, where I read he was 47 years old.

Excuse me? Did you say Paul Westerberg is 47? Are you sure? Dang. I don't even want to know how old Tommy Stinson is now. (He'll be 41 this year, according to Wikipedia. That can't be right. He was like 13 when he joined the band.)

It's not that I think 47 is old because I don't. It's just that I haven't been keeping up with Paul Westerberg the way I did with the Replacements, and I guess I forgot that people get older even if you aren't running to Tower Records every time they release a new record.

I once wrote the Replacements a fan letter. They sent back an application for the NKOTB fan club. Yeah, I saved it.

So, should I go clean my bathroom or take pictures of myself wearing my Replacements t-shirts?