27 Comments
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Brad Kyle's avatar

Nice peek into your punk-riddled life thru the decades, Michael! You and your readers might enjoy my account of my night in The Ramones' Houston hotel room in 1978: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/keyless-entry-my-night-in-the-ramones

It's free!

I also have accounts of my "run-ins" with Johnny & Sid in January '78 at their San Antonio, TX Sex Pistols show, my 2 weeks spent with the New York Dolls in '73, and meeting Iggy Pop in '78! You and your SAW fam are welcome, anytime, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! Thanks for the space, Michael....and, we'd welcome your links if/when you visit FR&B!

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Facing Your Demons's avatar

Ohhhhh nice! Juicy stuff my friend!! 👍👍

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Brad Kyle's avatar

Glad you dig! In "real life," when I offer/present my biz card (with the ID pic you see to your left) to new friends/prospective readers, telling them I once spent an evening with The Ramones in their hotel room, I'll add, "Nothing lurid happened............................dammit!"😱

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MH's avatar

It's all so true right? How music marks time. How we can all hear a song and conjure up a memory at the same time. The day KFOG went silent was a sad day indeed. My age (59) takes me from records to cassettes to cds to iPods and now back to records. My husband, who has followed music his whole life (68) has a huge collection. He's introduced to me to so many artists fr meatloaf to Ella Fitzgerald. (No punk & no disco however) We still play records almost everyday.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Yes!! Music is so nostalgic.

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Helen B.'s avatar

Your best newsletter yet Michael, I'm going to put it in a special little file so I won't accidentally delete it. Your musical journey really resonated with me; we've all got one, but you stated yours so beautifully.

Helen, N.Z.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️

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J. M. Elliott's avatar

I always find it so fascinating how our musical tastes evolve throughout life, but some part of me thinks it's less about changing tastes and more about changing needs. My playlist is like my musical medicine chest...

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Musical medicine chest: I love this 🔥🔥🔥

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Eunice M. Flanders's avatar

This is a kind of assignment I have suggested students write. You have given me a model!

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Michael Mohr's avatar

❤️❤️

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Bowen Dwelle's avatar

Another example of how much we have in common—and also differ.

The brilliantly space-rending dark charge of the Misfits! I Turned Into a Martian!

the UK fucking SUBS!!! Emotional Blackmail! Party in Paris. I Live in a Car.

AC/DC. Television. Agent Orange. Sabbath. Motorhead. So many more.

And yet, I would never, could never, ever, ever, ever begin an essay with a paragraph including the Counting Crows. Of all the terrible, regrettable, shameful things. Fer fuck’s sake mate!

;)

Love this piece, nicely done.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

😂😂

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Tina Stolberg's avatar

You wrote a musical diary.

Funny, I just started reading a book called "This is what it sounds like:what the music you love says about you. https://www.thisiswhatitsoundslike.com/

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Nice!!

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Renee Faber's avatar

Getting to understand another through a musical list is genius! Thank you for sharing. I wish I had such a list!

To me, the 9th encapsulates the soul and the trauma into eventual freedom.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

❤️❤️

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Jim Geschke's avatar

Quite an extensive and eclectic list, Michael.

Interesting piece. It seems different forms of music were the soundtracks to your life as you lived it. That's not surprising. Music marks time and makes an indelible imprint on us, probably because it moves us emotionally.

Obviously it has had that effect on you. Me, too.

I'm older (67) and haven't made the evolutionary musical journey as you have. I am a child of the 60s and 70s. That period of rock-to-folk-to-pop-to-class rock was permanently injected into my DNA. Though I've expanded into classical in my senior years, classic rock still defines me.

Want to know the power of music? I can recite lyrics verbatim from songs released 50 years ago ... even the weird but wonderful Procol Harum track "Whiter Shade of Pale." (1967) Know why? It was the song to which I had my first slow dance with a girl.

Anyway, great piece.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Love this 👌👌

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Jody J. Sperling's avatar

I read this with great fascination. Sub punk for grunge, and our musical memoir syncs. Sun Cali for Colorado and our childhood syncs.

Though I’ve never shot heroin, I’ve use it, and though I’ve never smoked meth I’ve chased amphetamines.

I’m not sober still, but like my musical tastes, I gave up hard drugs for Kava, Kratom, and the occasional psychedelic.

And I can’t help but wonder, do you feel nostalgic for shit-coffee like I do, because every AA meeting serves it in giant metal percolator pots?

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Haha!! Believe it or not I quit coffee when I quit drinking in 2010!!

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Deb Hill's avatar

Hahaha. The kind that tastes like they strained it through used underwear lol.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

😂😂

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Jody J. Sperling's avatar

Exactly! Haha!

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David's avatar

Music is life

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Michael Mohr's avatar

That it is!

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Apr 25, 2023
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Michael Mohr's avatar

Sometimes I genuinely forget how much I love music. Even need it.

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