I am in a hotel room in New York at the moment. As I type this, I have a tremendous view of Citi-Field. I don't believe the law allows for someone to come to NY and sit in their hotel room working but I am without a choice at the moment. Tomorrow morning, I will move into my next NY Headquarters across from Rockefeller Center for a series of important meetings. My brain is racing trying to anticipate every scenario and the proper response. It is an impossible task! It is best to be centered with the knowledge that I prepared well, am focused, and capable. I simply dislike going into meetings that I am uncertain of the topic!
My parents and sisters lived in Brooklyn, until they moved down to Florida. I was conceived mere weeks after they had moved into their new house (the one I grew up in). I am sure they were in a celebatory mood to be so close to the beach! Having visited family and taken several business trips to New York and New Jersey, I often pondered what my life would have been like had I grown up here. I surely never would have had the freedom that I enjoyed in Daytona Beach, never learned to surf, play beach volleyball, soccer would have been doubtful, certainly no one would have hired me to fly stunt and hyper-kites on the beach right? Have I mentioned how much I enjoyed the thousands of Spring Break girls that were dropped off less then a block from my door every Saturday? Growing up in Florida certainly was the best fit for me but I am some how back in NY discussing opportunities.
The best part of this week is on Tuesday evening I will be attending the Big Audio Dynamite concert at the Roseland Ballroom. The Roseland is a historic NY venue. It was at the Roseland decades ago that my Mother and Father first laid eyes on each other. My Dad requested my Mother to indulge him in a dance and that was the beginning of it all and me!
I do not know the name of the first song that really caught my interest and made me more aware of music. I was very young, I can hear the song in my head and could probably name that tune if I were not so sleep deprived and sick. I then remember hearing and really liking The Sugar Hill Gang and Molly Hatchett. Not long after I heard, The Clash's version of "I Fought the Law" and that one hooked me. It stood out above the rest and took hold. However, I didn't know the name of the band and at that age probably not the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjQobv6ztF4&feature=fvwrel
I may not have the order correct but I remember being at my Aunt's house in Brooklyn and my cousins blaring Billy Joel. It was so loud and seemed to have the feel New York to a young kid. "Train in Vain" also by the Clash was the next song to really took hold of me. Joe Strummer sang "I Fought the Law" and Mick Jones sang "Train in Vain", I had no idea until years later that it was the same group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIx7k2gYT1I&feature=related
Every album was different! There were so many different styles of music on some of the albums it was amazing, if not overwhelming. This was a band that progressed and refused to be typecast. I learned from the Clash to avoid being categorized at all cost because it would limit what you could do and it was also a way for people to attempt to control and attack you. Strummer, Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon all took lead vocals on at least one song. If you follow the history of music you understand how vital the Clash was and still is to music. Bono and The Edge from U2, Tom Morrello from Rage Against the Machine, Damon Albarn, KT Tunstall, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beastie Boys, Billy Bragg and many others freely admit that the Clash (and the members post-Clash projects) were and are huge influence on them. "There never would have been a U2 without the Clash", said Bono.
I turned 10 in 1982. I'd been listening to bands like Quiet Riot and Men at Work but then Combat Rock came out and songs like "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah" were all over the radio and blaring out of every one's boom box (no IPODS and earphones back then) and car stereos. These songs went deep into my bones and became part of me. We didn't have MTV at the time but there was a Kasey Kasem TV show on Saturday's and a really good show on the USA Network that was the best thing that network has ever done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9r8LMU9bQ
Now I knew the name of the band, what they looked like (brilliant) and the name of the album and it would be mine. Seeing the Clash performing in their videos and live clips left me stunned. They looked, sounded, and moved fantastically!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trolcS3V7dY
The above video was filmed at Shea Stadium, it's replacement that sits on the same site fills up the large window of my hotel room as I type this. I had no intention of staying in Queens tonight but the connection is not lost on me.
My Dad took me to purchase the album one Saturday. I couldn't wait to play it! Finally, I could hear the songs as much as I wanted and whenever I wanted. The first song on Combat Rock is "Know Your Rights" and after the first few bars my Dad ejected the tape! I immediately pushed it back in and realized I was onto something special! My Dad would eventually learn to enjoy them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrtC8wP_bFI
The next few months were spent trying to obtain all of the Clash's albums. Especially going backwards, in order of release, and expecting to hear "Rock the Casbah" on each album I would get surprised and enlightened with each. I was speaking with an older girl at my Dojo and speaking of my love of the Clash. I thought I had all the albums but she informed me I was missing the first and gave it to me at the next class. My Father braced himself for the ride home when he saw what I was holding in my hands. The guitar fire power of Clash City Rockers did not disappoint.
I cried when the Clash broke up or fired Mick Jones and hired 2 new guitar players. Still even at my young age I could see the benefits of now having Mick Jones make an album and the Clash making another. Blown away was when I first heard Medicine Show, it threw me for a loss, so did most of the songs on there because I nor anyone else had ever heard music like this because no one had ever done it. I could easily pick out some of the movie dialogue in their songs. Big Audio Dynamite was the first group to ever sample on their songs. Mick Jones was just continuing to progress in all forms of music and advancing it however he deemed fit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXn32AztHBs&feature=related
It is certainly not hard to imagine songs like "The Bottom Line", "E=MC2", and "Sony" were songs Mick Jones was developing for the next Clash album until he was fired. The band would tour the world many times over and released four albums. Eventually Mick would split from the other four original members of Big Audio Dynamite. He soon replaced them with three new guys, Nick Hawkins, Gary Stonedge, and Chris Kavanagh and released "The Globe" album which featured hits like "Rush", "The Globe", and "Innocent Child". "Rush" would become the Top Modern Rock track by Billboard Magazine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKMKgL9jwWQ
I had started attending shows not long before this and when I learned Big Audio Dynamite was headlining The MTV 120 Minutes Tour and performing in Orlando, FL I knew I would be there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhkXQ96ZLR0
I couldn't stand Blind Melon who was the first act! Live was fantastic. Public Image Limited was good but highly turned off when John Lydon decided to moon the audience with his extremely pale British bum. Then Big Audio Dynamite took the stage and tour the roof off the place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKMKgL9jwWQ&feature=related
I'd never seen a show that was continous by this time they'd added DJ Schapps. He'd come out and start the show and from that time on until the show was over there was never a second without music. Mixed in between all the BAD songs were DJ sets where he'd spin parts of a record and then the band would play along to it or change it up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM4wCQvp558&feature=related
I would go on to see Big Audio Dynamite three more times in concert and be front row every time! Later Big Audio Dynamite would come to an end because when their contract was up with Sony they signed with their managers new record label called Radioactive records. I'd like to believe Mick Jones would not have made that mistake because there was a huge conflict of interest with Gary Kurfirst representing both band and label. I had the same feeling when the Clash split, when Havana 3am split, the first Big Audio Dynamite as I did then. If I could only speak with them I could put them all back together again. I have always envisioned myself running their careers because I have a talent for it and a love and devotion to them and their music that I share for no other band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPrPNpzLHIk&feature=related
I have come close, I managed Big Audio Dynamite guitarist Nick Hawkins and I managed Clash collaborator Mikey Dread. I had gone from being at the record store the minute it opened on the day the album came out to working up song ideas, booking shows, strategic planning, and having song ideas emailed or played for me as a work in progress and being asked for my input! It still gives me a laugh when I take a moment to reflect on it today. This shows you how powerful a tool for good or evil your will power and imagination can be. Blessed to have met Joe Strummer and struck up relationships with some of his band members, I know members of Havana 3am, Clash manager Tricia Ronane, and original and current Big Audio Dynamite drummer Greg Roberts. It made my heart warm watching Mick Jones and Paul Simonon tour together last year with the Gorillaz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIZW4SGVbhA
Tuesday night to see this band, where my Mom and Dad met, is going to beyond epic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD2kWCfTcaU
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