Reclaiming rock and roll for my hometown.

When people ask where I’m from I say New York and it’s a lie, because it implies I grew up in the city. I didn’t. Instead I grew up 30 miles west of New York in a town called Copiague which despite it’s geographic proximity to the island of Manhattan is a million miles away in the mind. It was suburbia, albeit a ragged and dirty version of it in the heart of Long Island and it’s a town that was almost important once. I was born in the worst year ever in recorded music, the number one song that year was Benny and the Jets and number two was Grand Funk Railroad’s Loco Motion. It was a bad time that just missed being a good time. Here Come the Warm Jets was released at the end of 1973 and sold roughly 14 copies at the time. Blood on the Tracks came out in early 1975, either of these would have been enough to make the year respectable but they just missed. It gets worse tough because Long Island’s own Billy Joel was unfortunately not shot in the face (it only looked that way) and continued his assault on our ears and sensibilities throughout the year. (Side note : Look no one in the history of drinking has EVER ordered a tonic & gin, it’s gin & tonic, yet in the song Piano Man he gets it wrong. OK I feel better having said that)

I’ve probably stated in this forum many times already how my dislike for Mr. Joel gets me flack back home. Long Island is proud of Billy as it should be, he’s done good for himself and proved that no matter how bland and ugly you are you can make it big because lots of people are suckers when it comes to entertainment. It’s not fair though, Minneapolis has more than their fair share of legendary musicians, Athens, Georgia has the well known REM but also the lesser known Gang of Four. Those are great places but I’d take my home town over them in a fight any day. We got bitchin camaros, bad accents and big hair. Why not a better musical legacy? Well, actually we do but it never gets mentioned so I’d like to set the record straight on my hometown and point out that two things; first Public Enemy was formed on Long Island and as if that wasn’t enough three of the four members of the Velvet Underground also called it home. If you want to get technical all of the Ramones were from the island too but we’ll give Forest Hills the benefit of the doubt and call part of the city. Still I’ll take 3/4 of the Velvet Underground and Public Enemy and be happy. My Flavor Flav comemorative clock necklace says it’s getting close to my bedtime and now I can sleep easier having gotten this off of my chest.