Twice as Hard

My mom bought me the Black Crowes’ debut album, Shake Your Money Maker for Christmas in 1990. She also got me ZZ Top’s* Recycler*. They were first two compact discs I owned, and she also bought me my first CD player, a small boombox that could play cassettes, too.

Which was good because at the time, all I the music I had were several Eagles albums on cassette, plus Aerosmith’s Pump and Don Henley’s* The End of the Innocence.* I also had some of my mom’s old records and a record player I had set up in my room.

I had turned 16 in September of 1990, and my first car was my mom’s old 1979 Mustang. The same car my brother and I used to ride in on the way to preschool listening to Queen on 8-track. At the dawn of the 90s, that car was now mine, except the 8-track didn’t work anymore. Instead, I just switched between the rock and classic rock stations on the old analog radio dial. There was a very narrow band of music I wanted to hear, and it lay between 101 KLOL (Rock) and 107.5 KZFX (Classic Rock).

The Black Crowes were just like all the classic rock bands I was listening to on the radio, except they were young and cool. Other kids at school liked them. Their videos were mainstays on MTV’s Top 20 Countdown. They were getting press in the music magazines I just was starting to read.

Getting into the Black Crowes felt like I had finally found a popular band that was mine. I wasn’t late to the party. I was in on the ground floor from their very first record. They were really the only modern rock band I liked in the first half of high school (along with Guns N’ Roses), and so they had huge impact on me. Seeing Axl and Chris Robinson on MTV made me want to be a rock singer. Before I could even play guitar I was practicing their moves and trying to sing like they did.

I even met some other kids at school who liked the Crowes and tried to start a band. I quickly realized just being a singer wasn’t gonna work, and that’s what got me started on guitar. The first guitar tablature I ever bought was the Black Crowes “Remedy” from their second record, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Eventually, trying to play guitar like Rich Robinson got me into open tunings and Nick Drake. Which is why I was listening to Pink Moon well before the famous Volkswagen commercial aired.

All of which is to say that when you’re young, just being super into one band or one album can have a huge effect on your life. Send you down all kinds of rabbit holes. And here I am typing in my office with seven guitars on my wall, still gloriously stuck in the dirt I started digging 34 years ago.

This morning, November 3, is my mom’s birthday. In a million ways, she’s the reason I started digging. Her 8 track cassettes. Her records. Waking me up at the Kenny Rogers show when I was five to make sure I heard my favorite song. Taking me to see Don Henley at the Woodlands Pavilion. Buying me my first CD and first CD player. Signing me up for my first Columbia House subscription. Paying for me to have guitar lessons at Rockin’ Robin. And it was her subscription to Entertainment Weekly that eventually turned me into the music editor for my high school newspaper.

One of my earliest memories was my mom rushing me home in time to see Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park on network TV in 1978. I didn’t know then what the movie was called then. I barely knew who Kiss was. I only knew Gene Simmons was my favorite and that his tongue was scary. And that the whole band looked frightening and insane. I was only four years old. But what I remember clearly is how harried and stressed out my mom was trying to make sure that I got home in time to see it.

Well, I got to see it. I don’t remember seeing it. But I remember you. Happy birthday, Mom. I miss you.

Fave lyrics:

Twice as Hard As it was the first time I said goodbye And no one ever want to’ know Love ain’t funny A crime in the wink of an eye