In 1962, I was a paperboy, 13 turning 14... middle school angst, raging testosterone (although I didn't know
what that was, I knew how it felt)... but I had a little money in my pocket. My father was always funny with
his money and slow with his dough, mean with his green and strange with his change, said, "If I cain't
take it with me, I won't go..." So my "allowance" was always meager.
The money I earned delivering papers was MINE by thunder. And when I walked into a record shop
with my raging testosterone and my few dollars in my pocket, and I saw this album cover, I just grabbed
it and bought it.
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I always loved a song that told a story as a kid...
But seeing this album cover was irresistible... Cowboys, soldiers,
hobos, harem girls, sea captains, cave men, mad scientists.... hard to beat.
I was just learning to play guitar at that age, so played this album over
and over, like any kid. I learned every song on this record. *grins
...and I still know about three or four of them.
At the time I bought this record, pop music was in a strange place.
Payola was IN, which meant that the songs on the radio were not what
we (as teenie-boppers) would like, but what the men in silk shirts
decided we would buy, based on how much they got paid to put the
songs on the air.
Ain't life a bitch. The above album owed NOTHING to the pop music
payola culture, but was just music for its own sake. That's what the folkie
movement was all about anyway... just like the punk movement of later years,
and the metallic movement that came after. Men in silk shirts can get stuffed...
...they always do.
And I still feel this way.