Yeeeooow!

A few months ago an old friend posted on my Facebook wall. It wasn't really your typical post. It was "Yeeeooow!" First off I was slightly confused but then a song started playing in the back of my head. When I got him to clarify I found out it was indeed the song. Seems I Love Rock and Roll had just come on the radio and quite often when he hears that song he thinks of me. Yeeooow!

It's not surprising that he does. It came out while we were in middle school together and I sang it constantly. There was also Pat Benatar's Hit Me with your Best Shot and Billy Joel's You May be Right and It's Still Rock and Roll to Me. I was a walking talking singing juke box. Singing "should I try to be a straight A student? if you are then you think too much!" over and over and over while playing volleyball in PE. Made funnier by the fact that I was in fact a straight A student at the time and I do tend to think too much.

And to be fair if I hear AC/DC Big Balls or see an Iron Maiden t-shirt I think of him and his best friend Tony. Private Baptist school where rock at all was frowned upon so you can imagine the glee we all had in listening to Big Balls through headphones and giggling like the immature kids we were. And holy shit the scandal of Eddie on his t-shirt? I felt like a bad ass just standing near him when he was wearing it. And it totally lent some cred to my reputation when I started high school and saw someone sketching Eddie on a notebook and I called him by name. Chicks who like rock are hot. At least to boys who like rock. Even if I was only a slight fan of Iron Maiden, I knew enough to fake my way past the gates.

I've written about music and musical tastes before and how everyone has what they like and what they don't like. And the soundtrack of your youth sort of thing. But his post got me thinking, what does your music say to others? If I meet someone my age and we don't have touchstones in music I am always surprised. Sort of like TV, we had fewer options back then than we do now, so we all shared a few pieces. But there were those that "specialized" only listened to hard rock, only listened to New Wave, but for most of us it's a pretty big blend we listened to a little bit of everything and can find something in there that we both liked.

But there are definitely bands that make you think of other people. Like Paul and Tony and AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Jaden loved Loveboy. A deep red and black wearing love. When I see pictures of them I think of her. Ianna loved Culture Club. Would do her hair and make up like Boy George. Ianna and I did not get along, I wonder if her love of Boy George added to it or if her love of Boy George added to my dislike of him? Hmmm....which came first? I think the dislike of Culture Club was first and it just turned in to a "go figures" for her. See? What does your music say to others?

People are often shocked that I've seen Neil Diamond in concert. Three times. Or that my first concert was Charley Pride. Or that I've seen The Beach Boys twice. Know every word to every song on Bat out of Hell and also would fight you if you tried to take my Monkees Greatest Hits. Grew up in the 80s, wore and continue to wear a lot of black but don't like The Cure or The Smiths all that much...And one of my all time favorite songs is Walking on Sunshine. About as poppy as you can get.

And for Paul; Joan Jett makes him think of me.

And I'm okay with that. I still am drawn to black leather and studs and I could still rock the black eyeliner and a feather, you know...if I grew my hair back out and bought some hairspray...Yeeeooow!!