Listening to music on the car radio with my parents. Their favorite radio stations were set with push buttons to take you right to the station.
The first album you bought -
Elvis Golden Records
First concert-
My Dad, Mom, my brother Mike & myself went to see John Denver at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The year was 1978, I remember being incredibly excited because John was using the core of Elvis's touring band, (James Burton, Ronnie Tutt, Glen Hardin & Jerry Scheff).
Last concert attended-
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa, Florida just a couple weeks ago. My Dad & I had terrific seats. We've seen Alvin seven or eight times over the years and we saw Gilmore with The Flatlanders, (Butch Hancock & Joe Ely), but we've never seen the two of them together. It was an incredibly good show start to finish.
You just got off of a plane & are standing in your dream location, where are you? -
Mackinac Island, Michigan
Favorite memory -
Any Christmas Day growing up.
Bucket list goal -
To go to The New Orleans Jazz Festival with my Dad.
Finish this sentence-
"This time next year... I'll be one year older"
You're hosting a dinner with 3 living artists & 3 that have died. Who will be there?
Living - Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger & Paul McCartney
Dead - John Lennon, Freddie Mercury & Elvis Presley.
It's finally Friday and I have to tell ya', this has been a really rough week. I think by late Tuesday it felt like it had to be at least Thursday. So, I'm thrilled to see this one end and there is no better way to shut it down than with a disco classic. A Taste of Honey broke out during the summer of 1978 with "Boogie Oogie Oogie" and it was life changing. My Friday nights were spent at a local skating rink at the tale end of the disco era and this was one of those songs that got everyone up and out on the rink.
It's funny thinking back to how we would all gather on the "mushrooms" to sit and talk but there was a handful of songs like this (and anything by Chic, Patrice Rushen, Gloria Gaynor...) that made all of those conversations stop instantly. I'm not sure where this video was filmed but I'm kind of thinking that it might have been at The Soap Factory, an old Jersey club that filmed a weekly dance show. The Soap Factory used to be exactly that and I think I see a few bubbles floating around in this clip. Check it out!
There are so many misconceptions that go hand in hand with being a bonafide rockstar. One of the biggest is the notion that once you "make it" in the music industry and score a platinum record or some other oddly shaped trophy, you're set for life. You know, money just keeps on flowing while difficult doors are magically opened for decades on end. The real truth is that any end of the music industry is a really harsh place to exist, even on the best of days. You can be on the road playing sold-out gigs now and in six months time, you can be back to waiting tables with zero musical options. It's a scenario that Kip Winger knows well, as he went from riding the late 80's hard rock wave with his own band (Winger), to having his career all but buried by MTV- the same network that had made him a household name. The only solid guarantee in music is that you're going to hit bottom far more often than you strike gold and it takes talent, timing and unshakable determination to pull yourself back up again.
That sitting on the bottom feeling is something that Winger has dealt with on multiple occasions and it's likely a big part of what has helped to transform him into a man that is comfortable in his own skin, flaws and all. He carries with him a depth that only comes from a life that has been fully lived and transparency that is quite beautiful. While the rockstar days aren't totally behind him, composing symphonic music and simply striving to be better, is what captures the majority of Winger's attention these days.
I caught up with Kip Winger recently and quickly realized that he is the kind of man that carries with him a great deal of wisdom, the kind that can rub off if you're ready and willing.
Google the lyrics to any of the songs on some of Winger's solo albums like, "Songs from the Ocean Floor" or "This Conversation Seems Like a Dream" and half a verse into it you'll understand that his writing is deeper than most.
Kip Winger on writing rock, progressive and symphonic music:
“I'm a believer that if you want to be a good writer then you have to sit down and write every day. You can't just expect it to hit you on a sunny (or a cloudy) kind of day. I'm the kind of person that believes that you just sit down and make it happen. One day is good, one day is bad and one day you might get to an idea that you'll work on in a month. Organizational skills are key when it comes to inspiration because the inspiration will hit you and it'll leave you just as fast as it hits you. I have to have a recorder or something with you because the inspiration for music for me usually comes from my subconscious being almost in a state of a trance or I can be doing something like grocery shopping. I sit down and write every day when I'm home. I tour a lot and it's harder to do it when I'm on the road, but I do carry tools to write when I'm on the road. When I'm home I write every day and I try to keep the projects that I'm working on very organized. Now I have these big projects that take much longer than just sitting down to write an album, but even still an album will take me a year.”
Kip on his own personal writing style:
“I do a lot of stream of consciousness writing as well as pursuing specific ideas. I know what I like so I don't just meander around and hope to get struck by a great idea. I do get struck by great ideas and all of the best ideas are purely by accident. You can't just sit down and write a great idea and I challenge any artist in the world to say that their ideas came because they thought of them. It just doesn't happen like that. Those ideas come because you work, work, work and then the universe will show you something that you weren't seeing and it'll show it very clearly so that you think, 'Oh my god, that's amazing'. You spend a little time getting high on that feeling and then you try to develop it and realize you suck (laughing) because the idea alone was its' greatest fruition.
I don't think I'm different than many other artists and I think that my process is probably pretty similar to most people. I may just be more dedicated to it than most people and I'm probably less dedicated to it than some people. I'd say I'm in the more dedicated category and I know what it means to be an artist. Having that understanding is about all that I can hope for.”
Kip on what influences his solo work:
"Well in my solo stuff when you hear world music it's a direct descendant of Peter Gabriel. I never dug down into authentic world music, it all came from the generation of Peter Gabriel and other English artists that were introducing that stuff into their music. If you listen to a song like "Don't Let Go" off of This Conversation Seems Like a Dreamyou just have to know that I was heavily influenced by Peter Gabriel. There's no way around it and I'm proud of it because he is a towering genius among us, the guy is incredible.
Photo: Kip Winger & Robby Rothschild by Aline Narducci
Kip on the creation of "Sure Was a Wildflower", one of his favorite songs:
“I wrote that song for a movie. I read the script and I don't remember the name, but the movie came out and they didn't like my song (chuckling). I really like that song. I was working with a very well-known television composer named Dominic Frontiere, who did old school stuff like Outer Limits and The Flying Nun, plus he was a jazz guy. He was working on the film when we both lived in Santa Fe and so he asked me if I was up for writing a song for it. So, I wrote the song for the movie and they didn't like it so I put it on my album instead. The lyrics come right from reading the script and that's one of my favorite songs out of everything I've ever written."
Photo: Kip Winger- Official Facebook
Creative people generally aren't too quick to admit their fear of failure. Musicians and artists need to make money and admitting that you're insecure can prevent you from landing gigs, but that doesn't mean that the fear doesn't exist. In fact, it usually is just left unspoken, but festering beneath the surface. Making platinum records and earning Grammy nominations apparently won't chase these fears away either.
Kip on admitting his creative fears in spite of finding success:
“I mean it's terrifying, I'm not going to lie. I'm working on symphony number one for Nashville Symphony and I'm scared to death, it is terrifying. I don't think you ever get over that kind of fear. The only people that I know that have gotten over it are people with giant egos and those same people usually aren't the better artists. I don't think you can get over the fear if you know the difference, I mean, how can you? You've always got Beethoven looming over your head. In my case, there are great composers that I'm actually friends with now that crush me. I can call them up and ask what they did in bar nine million of their fifth symphony so I'm in a really strange situation. All you can do is one note after the next, or if you're a writer you put one word after the one before, after the one before that and pretty soon you've got a novel.”
If life is intended to be a journey then it's only fair that we would need some help along the way. Winger learned years ago that he is wise to watch and learn from the steps, and the missteps of others.
Kip on the importance of mentors:
“I actively seek out mentors. I grew up reading this book that my dad gave me, "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. In it, he talks about shadowing those who are doing what you want to successfully do, and so finding a mentor has always been a big thing for me. Even at the ripe old age of 57, I still have a couple people that I consider my mentors. I'll call them up and ask for advice on all sorts of things like how to get out of problems, or I'll ask them to look at my music, or I'll ask them why I suck (laughing).
I don't think that need for guidance should ever go away. I think that if you believe your own gospel too much and think that you’re all that, then you become a fraud or a parody of yourself. You have to have the humility to look around you to see and understand that people are as good or better than you. The people that I'm looking at are usually better than me and so I just keep trying. There's nothing else you can do but keep trying to get better. You can't not be you, that's the other part of the equation.”
He has spoken often about taking ballet in his teens and how it was the key to unlocking his love of classical music and yes, Winger does still dance.
Kip on the importance of dance class, even still:
“I like to stay in touch with dance because when I compose music, I consider dance even if it's not something that's going to end up being choreographed. My last ballet class was maybe nine months ago. I recently did a tango class and I'm kind of interested in that. That was just last week actually.”
Photo: Winger Promo Shot
Kip on that new Winger project:
“Reb (Beach) and I are going to start writing and we'll try to knock something out in August. He's out with Whitesnake now and I'm very busy, so we've got some time set aside in August for us to get together and try to do something. I don't know what we're going to do and I don't like to preplan it. I like to sit down with Reb and see what the mood of the day is. It's impossible for Reb and I not to sound like Winger because the combination of us is the sound of the band, no matter what song we do.”
Kip on why he can’t just coast on Winger’s early success:
“I think human beings, in general, tend to be lazy. A lot of people can find success at one thing and be like, okay I did it, I'm done and I can live off of that credential for the rest of my life. I don't even feel successful in many ways, all of that stuff sort of passed by me and it never sunk in. I'm not the kind of artist that can repeat myself and so I don't just sit around and think of the glory days. The glory days for me are still ahead of me, in terms of art. For me, it all comes from a very artistic point of view. I'm not interested in the commercial aspect of it, to my own detriment by the way, because I'm not a rich guy. I don't have tons of money but what I leave behind, that's the most important thing."
As if the rock and symphonic worlds aren't keeping him busy enough, Winger has teamed with Damien Gray to create a piece of musical theater. Kip on Get Jack, a Musical Thriller:
“The Get Jackconcept album is coming out in the next couple months and then we're hoping to do a lab later this year. We've got a great director, Kelly Divine, and we just signed a producer so it's moving along but it's a very heavy lift. Hamilton took ten years before it was up and successful. This has so many moving parts and the scheduling is difficult but it's moving forward and I'm happy with the progress given what we've been able to put together.”
It only makes sense that a man who values mentors to facilitate his future growth would still have a pretty impressive list of things to do.
Kip on what’s next:
“Honestly, more of what I'm doing but I need to try and make it better. I'm done seeking out new genres. I'm not going to do that anymore and I'm actually going to try and reduce all of the different directions. I'd like to reduce everything down into my solo records because that's a place where I can do it all. I know who I am and I know my limitations very well. I don't have any pretenses about who I am. I keep moving basically, and I adapt and overcome. I've experienced tons of obstacles. My big thing is time and I don't have enough time to do all of the things that I want to be doing. I'm comfortable with who I am but I'm not comfortable with my ability, especially with my orchestral writing, I'm just not good enough yet. I might do another musical and I'd like to write an opera. Yeah, I'd really like to write an opera.”
Earliest musical memory- Being in the studio with my dad at night during his live radio. Also, my dad spinning the 12" version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" nonstop at a Halloween party. I was maybe 7 & it was an adult party but they humored me with Cleopatra eyeliner and big hair while insisting I avoid the punch bowl and brownies. Not sure which one came first.
The first album you bought- Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion. Technically my dad bought it for me because he was trying to break me away from disco. The first album that I remember buying with my money was actually a compilation that had Flock of Seagulls, Kim Wilde, Foreigner & Bow Wow Wow on it.
First concert- I think it was 1988, it was Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith at a racetrack in PA. GNR was new and we couldn't wait to see them, even more than Aerosmith. The concert was fantastic and the night was really memorable because it had been pouring for days and everything was mud. We all lost our shoes & I remember there being a photo in the local paper a few days later of all the shoes left behind once the ground started to dry!
Last concert attended- Foreigner in a little room in a big casino outside of DC a few weeks ago. Sold out show and as always, they blew the roof off. Totally reminded me why I love them most of all.
You just got off of a plane & are standing in your dream location, where are you? France. Or a castle in Banff.
Favorite memory- So many & they usually include a really connected conversation with someone. Also, walking in NYC alone at night. That sounds strange but it is one of my favorite things on earth, just soaking up everything (especially the creativity) around me but not having to be "on".
Bucket list goal- I really want my pilot's license. Seriously.
Finish this sentence- "This time next year Boom Radio will be on multiple platforms & serve as a template for how to merge terrestrial radio with the digital age. Oh and my first book (now under contract) will be released!"
You're hosting a dinner with 3 living artists & 3 that have died. Who will be there? Living: David Coverdale (for the stories) Tom Gimbel (for the guaranteed humor) Tori Amos (I've interviewed her & um, she is interesting & a wildcard)
"Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)" was one of the best guilty pleasure songs of the late-80's. Samantha Fox firstburst onto the music scene with "Touch Me" back in 1986, raising many eyebrows. Lyrically she was the first chick to sing entire songs about sex in the bluntest way possible and there was something really ballsy about her doing that.
"Naughty Girls" quickly became an anthem of sorts in the summer of 1988 with the message being that everyone needs love, even when they think that they don't. Fox's videos were really slick and this one cut between a sexy bedroom scene and then her and her crew dancing in front of a graffiti wall. The video walked the line without ever going too far and the result kept Fox's music in heavy rotation both on the radio and MTV.
In between listening to a bunch of hair bands, I was definitely a big Samantha Fox fan. Even now, when one of her videos comes on I inevitably stop what I'm doing to watch in spite of already having seen it a million times.
What a sad week this has been. I have spent the last 36 hours working, doing radio interviews about Prince's death, the details as we know them now and what his true impact on pop culture was. I have cranked out details and connected with numerous people over this loss, with many asking why his death feels so different. It's a true gut punch for anyone raised in the '80s, isn't it? I suspect that since Prince has been there for the last 35 years it just kind of felt like he always would be somewhere creating music. I think many of us didn't really realize the impact that he had on us until we learned that he was gone.
I was in 7th grade during the summer of Purple Rain and I remember it well. It was that rated R movie that none of us were allowed to see so we absorbed every possible detail from television, MTV and magazine articles. Back in the '80s (you know, when everything wasn't just the click of a mouse away), we cut everything about our favorites out of the newspaper or any magazine that we could find. My friends and I were divided down the middle, either you loved Prince or you loved Michael Jackson- it couldn't be both. I was a Prince girl and built my magazine cut out scrapbook accordingly. And the music truly did directly influence everything back then. If you loved Prince then you represented with your purple on the daily. Most Prince fans loved Madonna equally, especially when they toured together so it was a mix of purple lace hair bows, crosses, and purple jelly bracelets all summer long.
That summer ended up being the very best one of my childhood and the Purple Rain was always part of the soundtrack. My friends and I spent hours at the kitchen table together glued to a boom box waiting for a chance to call into Q-102 (THE station to listen to) to try and win a copy of the soundtrack. None of us won a Prince album but we did score theBoss, Steve Perry, Chaka Khan, and a few others. Music was absolutely everything back then, especially when you were at the mercy of a DJ or MTV to play it for you.
It took me years to really understand that Prince was more than the freaky guy in purple with perfect eyeliner, that he was a musical genius. I had a friend absolutely obsessed with him and he spoon fed me various Prince facts while we worked together. By the time "Batdance" came along I understood what I was really listening to and came to expect nothing short of amazing-ness from him.
In the last 30 years, so many other artists have come and gone as my taste has shifted and changed over the years. I can honestly say that I like a little bit of everything (minus country) but so few bring to the table what Prince has. I mean, how many on Billboard's charts can play 27 instruments? Yeah, none. How many currently rocking in the top ten will be relevant in 30 years? Maybe 1 or 2 right, maybe? Or maybe none at all.
Today's artists aren't built for the kind of longevity like Prince, David Bowie or even Glenn Frey. They don't bring all of those elements to the table and that has only made the loss of these icons feel that much heavier on our hearts. Prince himself confirmed years ago that there really is a vault filled with his unreleased music. There are albums from Prince & the Revolution and also a few with The New Power Generation. Perhaps part of what makes him so iconic is the fact that he was thinking beyond his life here. He was not only making sure that he wouldn't be forgotten, but he left new music behind so that his presence would be felt in a new way after the fact.
If you manage to catch any of Prince's live performance videos on YouTube before they are pulled down, pay attention to the details. Every single second is choreographed and means something. Amazing how we notice all of the details after the fact, isn't it? Like the fact that there is a purple heart behind Prince on the cover of the Purple Rain album. I never noticed that before this week.
Chris is the host of My Rock & Roll Heaven heard Sundays 5-7pm EST on Boom Radio!
Where do you live- Markham, Ontario (part of the Greater Toronto Area)
Earliest musical memory- listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony with my dad’s giant headphones on (I have a pic somewhere!). I was probably 5 or so and I remember being absolutely blown away by how powerful the music was. My parents were big music lovers (especially classical) and we always had music playing in the house.
The first album you bought- First album I bought with my own money was Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger. It was one of 13 records I got for a penny when I joined Columbia House for the 1st time in 1983, but it was the 1st one I circled on the flyer that came in the Saturday newspaper. Great thing is I still have the record. It’s pretty beat up, I played it non-stop! I remember having to get my mom to sign for me and that the grand total including shipping was $1.86.
First concert - First concert was November 19th, 1988 in North Bay Ontario (where I grew up) and it was seeing my 1st favorite band, Honeymoon Suite! The venue was called the North Bay Arts Centre (it’s still there) and it’s about a 1,000 seat theatre with fantastic acoustics. I remember waiting in line before the box office opened (determined to get great seats), and ended up being one of the 1st people there! I managed to get 2nd row centre seats (4 in total) and rushed back to school afterwards to tell my buddies! Still have the ticket stub too.
Honeymoon Suite was fantastic, they were on the tour for their 3rd album Racing After Midnight and played a solid 2 hours. Great thing is that they are still together making new music and touring. I’ll be seeing them this summer J
Last concert attended- Billy Idol and Steve Stevens, March 25 2019 at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. I have been a massive Billy Idol fan for years and this was my first time seeing him live! This show was simply Billy and Steve on stage, playing acoustic and electric versions of his classic songs, with Billy telling us the history behind his music and how the songs came to be. Almost like a VH1 Storytellers/MTV Unplugged type show. Seeing Billy and Steve in such a small venue (it was about a 1,000 seater) and hearing him tell the story of his life while singing these songs was such a memorable experience and one I won’t soon forget.
You just got off of a plane & are standing in your dream location, where are you? Hmmm…. Tough to narrow it down to just one location but right now I’d have to say the Maldives.
Favorite memory- Wow, I have so many of them! I’ll go with a recent one though, which would be meeting my favorite band Def Leppard last summer. One of the best days of my life!
Bucket list goal- Travelling through Europe for an entire summer going from one rock festival to another!
Finish this sentence- "This time next year I hopefully will have won the lottery and I’m retired sitting on a beach somewhere with the rock and roll cranked up! ;) "
You're hosting a dinner with 3 living artists & 3 that have died. Who will be there? So many artists I would love to do this with!!! 3 living would be Joe Elliott, Nikki Sixx and Bryan Ferry. 3 that are no longer with us would be Freddie Mercury, Steve Clark and Bon Scott
Make sure you follow Chris on Twitter & Instagram for all kinds of rock content & daily posts. Here's a playlist of some of his favorite stuff!
I can remember being in high school and everyone loving Ozzy Osbourne. Black Sabbath seemed to be a group that all of my friends worshipped at the feet of and I simply just didn't get it. I couldn't exactly climb aboard the crazy train, until "Shot In The Dark" started playing on my local rock station. Yeah it was probably a little more pop-ish than most of Ozzy's stuff and maybe that's why it appealed to me. While 80% of me lived in headbanger heaven the other 20% was dancing their ass off to club hits.
Weird I know.
Even today, "Shot In The Dark" feels a bit different to me. Ozzy's hair is bigger, his clothes are a bit glitzier and he has this look on his face that tells me that in spite of the booze & the drugs, he knows exactly what he's doing. This song was intended to broaden his appeal so that his fan base would grow.
T-Bone Hosts T-Bone's Prime Cuts each Saturday afternoon from 1-3pm EST
Where do you live-
Just Northeast of Indianapolis, IN
Earliest musical memory-
I wasn't allowed to listen to "rock" music as a child...but I vividly remember being in 7th grade and all of my friends talking about KISS. I hadn't heard them, but I knew all of their names!
The first album you bought-
Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band - The Distance
First concert-
Billy Joel - April 4, 1984 - Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
My girlfriend at the time had bought tickets for her and her previous boyfriend before we had met. I told her I didn't want to go as I wasn't a fan. She asked if it would be okay if she went with her previous boyfriend... I WENT! lol Became a Billy Joel fan that night and I still am.
Last concert attended-
Hall & Oates - May 28, 2013 - Palace Theatre in Louisville, KY.
I was working for the band by this time (worked for them from 2008-18) but this was the first and only time seeing them live. I had been to a handful of John Oates shows, even attending his Songwriters Festival in Aspen, CO. (Where I was lucky to spend some alone time with Allen Toussaint!) Great show and I got to take some friends backstage, so it was fun!
You just got off of a plane & are standing in your dream location, where are you?
Scotland. I'm part Scottish and would love to visit someday.
Favorite memory-
Probably how happy I was to talk to one of my heroes on the phone - Robin Trower - and interview him in the early days of T-Bone's Prime Cuts. (May of 2011)
Bucket list goal-
To be happy.
Finish this sentence- "This time next year______"
I'll be walking and driving! (Had brain surgery and two strokes in 2018.)
You're hosting a dinner with 3 living artists & 3 that have died. Who will be there?
Living -
1. Steve Cropper (Stax, Booker T & the MGs, Otis Redding, etc.) I already know him and worked for him from 2008-18, but he has the BEST stories!
2. Tony Iommi
3. Frankie Miller
Died -
1. Ronnie James Dio
2. B.B. King
3. Donny Hathaway
Visit T-Bone's official site here. Also catch him on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. Here's a playlist of some of T-Bone's favorite stuff!
"Boy, there's no one home tonight The timing could be right To forget the rules We're out of school until tomorrow Now, if only you would stay There's so many games we'd play Why should we pretend to be just friends When we could be so much more"
I love when I'm reminded of a song that I've completely forgotten about. Regina's "Baby Love" was one of those. I was watching Totally 80's on Classic MTV the other day when this track came on and I instantly remembered it. "Baby Love" made me think of summer and when I looked it up my memory was right. It was a super popular track in the summer of 1986. One of those songs that were on the radio every couple of hours and you knew all of the lyrics to it even if you didn't like it.
This song peaked at number 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 and paved the way for Regina to have a string of hits on the dance charts in the mid-'80s.
A few lines in and I'm standing in my parents' very first apartment where my love of music all began. It's a few days before Halloween and my parents were throwing a party for all of their friends. The night before was my kiddie party in our basement. I wore a Wonder Woman costume that was so NOT a Wonder Woman costume because it had a skirt and no lasso. I remember a punch bowl and bobbing for apples and little else. But my parent's party, well that was the real deal. There was neat lighting, a table full of sweets that I was never allowed to have and all of our doorways had beads hanging from them that you were supposed to walk through.
I was 7 years old and beginning to develop my own taste and thanks to my dad's music obsession disco was a big part of it. When I was about five dad started to train as a DJ at a local radio station and his little record collection on a tiny cart with wheels suddenly took over a whole wall of our living room. Even in that small apartment dad's stereo was front and center. His love of music turned into an educated love of stereo equipment. He spent two hours without fail every night cranking out tunes, everything from Pink Floyd to Blue Oyster Cult to ABBA and all the while he was fiddling with levers on all sorts of boxes that were supposed to somehow enhance the sound. I didn't know if the “woofers and tweeters” did any good but the day that he played Chic's “Le Freak” my life immediately changed.
The last song of every evening was picked out by me and by the time 1978 rolled around I was choosing things like “Ring My Bell”, “The Hustle” and “Disco Inferno”. I also waited anxiously for Saturday afternoons to roll around because, thanks to cable television and WPIX in NYC I had discovered The Soap Factory, a weekly dance show. A few weeks before my parent's party we were all watching as Blondie performed a song called “Heart of Glass”. I was mesmerized by the lead singer'sblonde hair, bright lipstick and her turquoise pants suit. My dad always watched The Soap Factory with me, but this time even my mom stopped to check out Debbie Harry. I mean, how could you not?
My mom spent the next week or so in party planning mode. She would fill the bathroom sink with water and bubbles and I'd spend an hour in there playing with all of my Fisher Price Little People. I loved having them swim and ride in their boats every night after dinner and I can remember my mom on the phone in the next room on the phone night-after-night making plans for this bash. My dad was always the laid back one and seemed to have little involvement. She hung sparkly decorations, made food and spiked the punch all while dad was engrossed in his albums. Neither of us realized what he was actually up to and as it turned out, dad's involvement was actually monumental because he was preparing to put all of those newfound DJ skills to good use.
My mom had a surprise or two up her sleeve as well. The creativity was always flowing in that little apartment and so for the week leading up to the party when dad and his music was taking over the living room, mom was in her studio. It was a small room with her easel and mountain of art supplies on one side and her Singer sewing machine on the other. Beneath a window was a big cushion with built-in pillows to nap on. That was my spot to read or draw when mom was busy drawing advertisements for our local newspaper. Dad had thought that mom was working on extra assignments for art school when in fact she had been busy at her sewing machine making a turquoise satin pants suit, just like Debbie Harry's. She had decided to put her blonde wavy hair and 100-pound frame to good use and transform into his new favorite singer, gold cuff bracelet and all, for their Halloween party.
This one night, in particular, reminds me that at one point in time my parents really, truly were on the same page. They really did “get” each other. As mom shocked dad with her costume he was just getting the party started. Dad was the man, but his music collection was the true star of the evening. His friends were all on the floor in front of his racks of records, flipping through everything in amazement and helping him to decide what to play next. Dad's dedications were also a hit because the songs that he played weren't just for particular people but he also had hilarious reasons for his selections.
An hour or so into the party dad pulled out a surprise record that he was really excited about. It was Blondie's “Heart of Glass”, an extended dance mix that wasn't available in the states yet. When he ordered music for the station he would also add a few import records from the UK for his own collection and Blondie had just become available. It was a song that no one else knew until he played it that night but everyone loved it. Even the guys that had been downing their Michelob beer on the floor in front of the stereo all night were finally dancing. One spin of that record led to about 20 more before the night was over.
At first, I might have been the only one not in costume and that was because there was no way that I was going to put that fake Wonder Woman thing on again. My aunt (mom's younger sister) decided in the middle of what looked like a Soul Train line dance that I needed some makeup at least. She grabbed me and her purse and hauled us both into the bathroom. There Aunt Elaine pulled out her black eyeliner and within a few minutes had transformed me into “Cleopatra”. I wasn't sure exactly who that was but my eyes looked like I belonged on The Soap Factory so that kindasorta made me Debbie Harry for the night too, right?
Everyone left after midnight. I remember my dad explaining the concept of time to me and how the digital clock turning to 2:01 am meant that it was Sunday morning even though it still felt like Saturday night. Truth be told it was far later than that and somehow I was still awake. My mom tried to make me go to bed but when I begged for one more spin of “Heart of Glass” my dad put the record on before she could even bother to protest. My room needed to be cleaned up anyway because my bed was where everyone left their belongings upon arrival. They and their coats might have been gone but my toys were all over the place and my precious Little People were scattered all over the room.
I swore that I would help clean up if they let me stay up but instead I climbed into the green recliner that had been temporarily moved into my room during the party. The French doors to my room were open and I curled up there, watching as my parents dragged garbage bags around toclean up the wreckage. My mom told me that I had 5 minutes until she was putting me to bed and so I closed my eyes as Debbie Harry sang.
Who knew that nights like this one actually existed? If beaded doorways, little packs of M&M's and unexpected dance battles were what it meant to be an adult then I really couldn't wait to grow up. I closed my eyes tighter as I heard mom approaching and when she whispered to dad that I was asleep I stayed extra still until she went back to cleaning up. Eventually, I really did drift off to sleep in that chair and woke as dad was carrying me across the room to my bed. As mom tucked me in and kissed me goodnight she did the only thing that could have made this night any better, she took off her shiny cuff bracelet and put it on my arm.
