Damn Rascal Music History : Rock Music Oblivion

It’s hard for me to remember exactly which compact disc (CD) I purchased first. But I know damn well which cassette tape poked the most formative holes in my sheltered musical bubble : Classic Queen. This small and unassuming musical collection was comprised of 12 magical songs, one of which was a little tune called Bohemian Rhapsody.

I couldn’t understand why everyone in our little rag tag band was so excited by this new sheet music. Their excitement at the prospect of learning this song made me curious…curious enough to approach my dear mother about possibly acquiring a copy of it. I did so, when she seemed in a good mood, mentioning that we were learning new music and it would be great if I could hear the original version for myself. “Of course this is purely for research purposes”, I added. And it honestly was, because I literally had no idea what the song was or who the band was. I just new the name of the song and that we were supposed to learn it in hopes of performing it at a band competition in the Spring. Armed with that information and the clear mission to see her child succeed in this endeavor, my dear mother paid a visit to the local music store (Sound Warehouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma) and after school a few days later, I was presented with a copy of “Classic Queen”.

I’m sure it helped my cause that there were no strange pictures or “long haired hippies” (as my dad used to say) on the front cover. The band’s name, “Queen”, certainly didn’t raise any devil rock music alarms. And none of the song titles were outrageously alarming. But inside that little package, recorded onto the innards of the plastic and the tape, was a whole new world for me…one with loud guitars, big drum sounds, and a voice that I could only define as angry and angelic, all at the same time. I honestly don’t remember the first time I listened to Bohemian Rhapsody. I just remember that I listened to the whole cassette tape again and again and again and so on. And like anything that you start to enjoy, you begin to want more of it. So it was with music.

Bohemian Rhapsody as it turns out, was a sad, interesting and captivating song. The words seemed to tell a story about a troubled boy. I could immediately relate to that story line. But what was most intriguing, was how everything changed so much within the song itself. The Beach Boys were never this interesting. That cassette tape became my gateway into, what would become my lifelong interest and obsession with listening to and making music. Needless to say that by the time our band competition rolled around, I knew full well why it was such a big deal to be playing this song in a band competition. Of course, the judges, firmly rooted in their classical music traditions, didn’t take kindly to our adventurous choice in song selection. They had either never heard of the song before or they knew full well what we were playing and failed to appreciate the uniqueness of our choice. Regardless, their sentiments were reflected full well in our lackluster competition scores. Still, we had managed to hold it together and our band teacher’s simple act of bravery had inadvertently unlocked a new world of music for one of his students. And down the musical rabbit hole I went…