So, what are you listening to?

   J-Lander Heather recently asked the question: Name some of your favorite music that you love to listen to... What was your musical influence growing up? She was just looking for answers on the message board, but I got a bit long winded for that. I need to deal with the second question first, or the answer to the first might not make any sense. A hint: as I write this, I am listening to Darby Mills and the Headpins. Turn it Loud!

  My earliest memories of listening to the radio are of 1050 CHUM-AM. It would have been mid-seventies sometime. I couldn't have been more than ten or eleven years old. CHUM had been playing top 40 rock and roll music since 1957. I can remember laying in my bed at night listening to songs like Fame, by David Bowie, Ballroom Blitz, by Sweet, Pinball Wizard, by Elton John; and more whimsical ditties, like Disco Duck, by Rick Dees, and Monster Mash by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett. And, because we were in Canada, there were homegrown hits, like Last Song, by Edward Bear, Takin' Care of Business, by Bachman Turner Overdrive, and Hot Child in the City, by Nick Gilder.
  I clearly remember listening one night to a statement read by one of the station personnel explaining why 1050 CHUM did not, and would never, play Disco. Unfortunately, the realities of running a business often trump the idealism of those on the front line, and less rock-like music gradually crept onto the air. The runaway success of Saturday Night Fever in 1978 put The Bee Gees at numbers one and two on that year's top 100 chart. From that moment on, the music on CHUM began to erode. While they didn't relinquish their claim to be a rock station immediately, the eighties saw music from bands like Spandua Ballet, Human League, and ABC in frequent rotation alongside more rocky artists, such as Joan Jett, John Cougar, and Van Halen.
  Long before the big hair eighties got underway, I had deserted CHUM-AM in search of a more consistent rock playlist, and found it in the same company. CHUM-FM, which had started out life as a classical music station, had been playing more progressive, album based rock since 1969, and by 1977 were an industry leader in the category. That year, however, found a new kid on the block: Q107.
  CILQ-FM, 107.1 on the dial, was an upstart challenging the legendary champion of North American album rock broadcasting. They knew their place, and played to it. If Canadian author William Gibson was describing them, he'd say they were "all edge." Their DJs were just a little bit cooler. Their music was just a little bit harder. To paraphrase Robert Duvall's character in  Days of Thunder, they were fast, loose, and on the edge of out of control. It was the beginning of the war.
  CHUM-FM and Q107 spent the better part of five years battling for the hearts, and ears of Toronto's rock and roll fans. It's funny how outside observers can always tell when these things are over long before the parties involved can. I think it was the Station IDs that first let us know that something was going to break. For years, CHUM had been Toronto's Rock. "You're listening to Toronto's Rock, CHUM-FM." Riffing on that, and just being obnoxious, Q107 started calling themselves Toronto's Best Rock. Around about the time CHUM scored the coup of simulcasting The Who's 1982 farewell concert from Maple Leaf Gardens, CHUM had upped the ante to "Toronto's Ultimate Rock!" Yes, ultimate. It was so patently ridiculous that everyone knew the end was near.
  My memory of the time span may be somewhat compressed, but it seems to me that the Who concert simulcast was the last thing CHUM-FM ever did that could be even remotely referred to as rock. Almost immediately after that event, they changed their format to Top40 pop/dance. Suddenly, Q107 was the only true Rock and Roll station in town, and quickly adopted the appropriate station ID: "Toronto's Only Rock."

   High school is a time of rapid social development for young people; A time when the question, "who am I?" is often answered by what clique or group one belongs to. Many of those groups are defined by the music they listen to. Sometimes, the music they listen to is dictated by image they want to project.
   At my high school, there were several distinct groups. In addition to the Jocks and Cheerleaders, and the Geeks and Cool Kids, there were the Rockers, the Discos, the New Wavers, and the Punkers. Now, in real life, the lines between those music genres are blurry, but in high school, they are drawn in black and white. A new song that combined elements of more than one musical style would quickly be claimed by one group or another, usually based on whatever genre the band was generally considered to fall into based on prior releases. Once claimed, by the New Wavers for example, a song must be vehemently derided by the Punkers and Rockers, regardless of how much they privately may have liked it.
   I was a Rocker. I wore faded blue jeans, and t-shirts, and tried to grow my hair long. I went to concerts, and always bought the obligatory long sleeved, black and white concert T, which then got put into heavy apparel rotation for the next several weeks. I hated Disco, because "Disco Sucks!" I considered New Wavers simply misguided, and thought I could show them the error of their ways. I generally ignored the Punkers. There were never enough of them to worry about, anyway.
   I do get a chuckle, however, whenever I see a young person walking down the street with an extreme mohawk haircut, too much black makeup, Doc Martens, and ripped, black fishnet stockings, or ripped black jeans. They think they are expressing their originality, but in reality, they are simply conforming to a fashion that has been around for almost thirty years.
   As an impressionable teen, the music I listened to was influenced by the other teens around me. A group of guys a year or two older were in a band, and were Led Zeppelin fanatics. Another buddy of mine was a huge Black Sabbath fan. A guy I worked with listened to Iron Maiden, and Def Leppard. Being Canadian, I was exposed to bands like April Wine, Rush, Triumph, and Saga on the radio. And don't forget The Beatles. A buddy and I used to spend nights in his basement with a guitar, and the Beatles Complete song book. Looking back, I'm surprised he could stand my singing. On the other hand, he's probably surprised I could stand his.
   Bands like Led Zeppelin led me to an interest in the old blues music that inspired them, like Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf. At the same time, my father was playing jazz records at home on his stereo; things like Ed Bickert, Al Hirt, and Larry Coryell. Somewhere along the line, I developed an interest in classical music as well. I suspect John Williams had something to do with that, as I practically wore out the grooves of my Star Wars soundtrack album. It wasn't until years later that I realised he'd basically ripped off Holst's ThePlanets for the whole thing.
   So there you have it; a quick run through of a small sampling of my musical influences. Now, to answer the first question, right now I am listening to a variety of things. Currently in my car are albums by Jethro Tull, Robert Plant, and Lucia Micarelli. I've already mentioned Skindred...and Big Sugar for that matter. When I'm listening to the radio in the car, it's "Classic Rock," Q-107. At home, on the satellite, it's either the Gold Rock station on Galaxie, or the Rock station on Max Trax. Or blues...or jazz...or classical... You get the picture.
  Oh yeah. Never forget ACTIVATE.