Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Mining for Gold...


When you think back on your life, you realize that there were important events, people and places that sent you down your unique path.  In my high school years, there were the Bon Jovi people, the Purple Rainer's and then there were the pinch rollers.  Just as I was finally about to remove the peach fuzz from my lip and leave Morris Day and the Time behind for good, there was a new sound luring me in.  The Gold Mine in New Orleans in the late 80's had indeed found gold.  On the radio like I said before there was Journey, Zeppelin, Freddie Jackson, Poison, Keith Sweat, Prince, but in this little hole in the wall bar in the French Quarter was a brand new sound.  It was more than a sound, more than music, more like religion.  It was a new path of discovery.  At such an impressionable time, especially being from the farm lands of Louisiana, a young mind is hungry for someone to follow or relate to.  The DJ was spinning all this music from England and we were overdosing on it weekly.  Though we all were from small towns, our imaginations were opening up to different places and people in the world all intertwined with the strangeness of the Quarter.  I remember hitting the road for the 45 minute drive playing Depeche Mode singles that I found at Tower Records.  Or the mix tape my friend Lance Grady made from his vinyl collection he scored at Octavia records Uptown.  It was really like digging for treasure.  We would hear songs and hound the DJ for the band name and the search was on.  Keep in mind there was no internet, so we'd have to find the record shops that were hip to it.  This music single handedly has led me on the creative path that I'm on.  It was the first voice to whisper the question, "what else is there inside of you, who are you"?



DM









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