The first rock concert I had even been to was Elton John at Madison Square Garden in August 1976. It was a graduation present from my sister Annemarie. Annemarie was primarily responsible for my Elton mania back then. She saw Elton on Thanksgiving night in 1974, when John Lennon came out and sang 3 songs with Elton and the Boys.

She told me the next day and she was still so excited. I also think she had a thing for Dee Murray, Elton’s bassist. She even mentioned that the next time Elton John came to New York, she would take me. So one morning while getting ready for one of my last days of Eighth Grade, she told me she had gotten tickets. It didn’t really register.

I graduated and dated a girl named Donna Rinaldi. We broke up after about 2 weeks. We had nothing more than a chaste kiss. Which was fine by me because I didn’t want anything from her or anyone, including myself. Late blooming, I was.

She lived on the other side of town and it was just too much of a long distance relationship for two 13 year olds. It was an easy break up. I ran into Donna a few years later when she was working at the Medi-Mart by Bradlees in Saddle Brook. It was a while since I saw her and promptly lied about most everything in my life.

Then I went to my car and got in and felt horrible about lying. So I got out and walked back in to the store and told her that everything I said was a lie, and I didn’t know why I said it. We awkwardly looked at each other and then I left, never to see her again.

I didn’t feel that much better afterwards. But now, back to the show.

It was Annemarie, our brother Brian and his friend Eddie Austeri I think, in the car going to the city. As far as I can tell, we got in the car and then we were at our seats at the show watching Billy Connolly open up, singing ‘Half Stoned Cowboy’, while playing a guitar in big yellow banana boots. I can’t remember the drive to the Garden or walking to the show. But I’m sure it was all vibrant to a 13 year old’s eyes.

I did see someone smoking a bowl though.

‘I’ll never do that’ I said to myself….I read ‘Go Ask Alice’ I knew better.

Elton was this tiny little thing at the other side of the Garden. In a green Lurex jacket and orange hair which was the only way to see him, besides being the guy next to the piano. It’s funny, I think the Paul McCartney show I saw in October, had basically the same seats I had nearly 30 years earlier but better visuals through video.

It was a fantastic time. The only songs I remember were Hercules and Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting. I was on such a natural high, though the aromas in the Garden may have had a hand in my lightheadedness. I so desperately wanted to go again then next night. I knew Elton was playing maybe 3 or 4 nights. Annemarie was going to the Nassau Coliseum to see Jefferson Starship. Brian and Eddie Austeri weren’t going to take me.

I was stranded. I believe I had a slight nervous breakdown. Not from not being able to go to the show, but from the combined effects of the night before and encroaching puberty.

Punk Rock. New Wave. Lodi! No really. Ok, being out in the suburbs, a dozen or so miles from the epicenter of the underground rock and roll scene, it took a year or so to reach Lodi. Unless you went there. And being 14 or 15 in 1977 I wasn’t too keen on going to CBGB’s. I didn’t even know how to spell CBGB’s back then.

And I wasn’t that into the music at that time. I was still an Elton fan, and in 1977 I saw my second concert, Peter Frampton, touring behind the ‘I’m In You’ record. I was caught up in the mania about ol’ Pete. I owned Frampton Comes Alive and his earlier albums had been played by my brothers and sister. It was a concert and to a 15 year old it was a MAJOR event.

My brother Frank took me. We ran into some friends of his who were going to CBGB’s to see this band, AC/DC. Too many acronyms. Frank said no thanks. I said ‘Get out of the way! R2D2 is on stage with Peter Frampton!’

Elton ‘retired’ from music in 1977. He wasn’t doing anything. I was in limbo. My libido was also in limbo. I was listening to WPIX FM, which was the only station playing new wave type things. I heard a radio report of Elton wining an artist of the year award, and he turned it down, saying that he had retired and hadn’t done anything. The award, Elton felt, should go to Elvis Costello.

That guy who looked like Buddy Holly and Woody Allen’s offspring?

So I followed Elton’s lead and got My Aim is True. Loved it. Saw Elvis Costello and the Attractions on SNL. They were ‘dangerous’. I loved them! I started buying records put out by Stiff, Radar, Rough Trade etc. And NYC Indies too. I’m still looking online for ‘Singing In The Rain’ by Just Water, from Brooklyn.

Then one Saturday afternoon I bought ‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’ at Alexander’s in Paramus NJ. I already liked Take Me to the River, and I bought the single a week earlier. Now I wanted more, like the album. I knew nothing about Talking Heads. Thought the cover was amazing and when I read that it was a Polaroid mosaic, I was head over heels in love with them.

Then I heard the music and I was betrothed. Then I saw the band on SNL and thought they were one of the best bands I’d ever seen! And I was 14!

My brother Brian got into the band who gave me my motto for my high school senior yearbook, ‘Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!’ He saw them on SNL and thought they were a spoof. For some reason I missed that episode. But the buzz was tremendous and I heard Brian play Satisfaction and Uncontrollable Urge often enough that I knew he wouldn’t notice my eventual theft of the record when he got tired of it.

Elvis Costello was my main man for a long time. I snapped up every single, import whatever that I could find. Pictures sleeves a must. It was quite a time to get new music. I was buying records every week, and every week had something new and exciting released by someone somewhere. This was a possible future and not too many people new about it. But it was there, WPIX was playing it, my brother Frank had a small slot on his WFMU show called ‘My Brother’s Records’ where he’d play the latest things that I bought that he liked or I hyped up a lot.

Elvis Costello’s ‘Armed Forces’ made the top ten. Talking Heads were doing pretty good. Music for misfits. Who knew they were growing in number? I thought I was the only one.