So last night I got a voice mail from my sister. She had a question about music. Lots of people do this to me – a song or a singer will pop into their head and they call me to ask what band it was or what the song is, etc etc. It’s one of few things I seem to be genuinely good at – I can remember lyrics, music and bands of all kinds, types and eras. Case in point: it must have been about 7th or 8th grade when my dad and I were on our way to hockey practice or a game or something and “When A Man Loves A Woman” came on the radio. Dad always had it on the oldies station. Anyway, I think he was trying to stump me or be clever, but when he knowingly asked me who it was and I immediately said “Percy Sledge,” well, he was dumbfounded. How do I remember these things? How do I remember these stories? I always thought that if I put that kind of effort into school as a youngster I’d already be retired and living on a beach. Another story for another time.
Anyway, back to my sister. She called me because she couldn’t remember The Firm, Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers band from the ’80s. Remember “Radioactive?” Oh, how I loved that band and that song. Of course, anything to do with Led Zeppelin at the time couldn’t possibly be bad. On a sidenote, Jimmy Page now looks like a California raisin.
OK, so I helped out my sister, all is good. We’re now (finally) getting to the point of today’s post. As I was talking to her, I remembered that I still had a notebook from 6th grade and I thought I remembered seeing a lot of doodling in it last time I looked at it a couple of years back. I made a mental note to check it out – and I found it. As a bonus, the notebook was in the exact place I thought it was, which is a rarity.
Anyway, this notebook is a trip. There are some doodlings, though not as many as I thought. There was a point in time – and I remember this clearly – where I was obsessed with drawing ALL of the logos of the 21 NHL teams in 1982-83. I wish I could find those drawings, because it was just pages and pages of hockey logos. I must have been really bored.
Anyway – back to this notebook. There’s some great school class notes, which are worth sharing at some point. Of course, there’s a bunch of music stuff, too, including this:
I saw this and I thought “hey, that’s not bad for a 6th grader!” There’s a couple more that I’ll share over the course of the next few days and weeks. I also came across a strange song/poem that I think I might have written. It’s called “An Ignorant Man” and it’s awfully crass for a 6th grader, so I’m not sure I wrote it or if I copied it. I kinda hope it’s just a song I copied from somewhere, because I’d sure be embarrassed to have written it as a 12 year old.
Anyway, this is gonna be fun.