Re: Coming Out of Lurk

[Anna Mormack <carrieanne79@yahoo.com>]

<<

"It's probably a long story how I made the transition
from casual to 
hardcore fanand how I got into the group in the first
place, so I'll 
tell 
that story in a later message if anyone is
interested."

I am interested.>>

I've been into the music of the generation before mine
since I was a first grader; for my best friend and
myself, our first musical love was The Monkees, thru
the reruns on Nickelodeon.  I know they're often
bashed as not being a real band, but they did rebel
against their handlers and became a real band, and
even if you still don't agree they were a real band,
at least they were more of a real band, and more
enduring, than a lot of the boygroups around today. 
They were my favorite band until about April of '93.

I began listening to the oldies stations in my area
after seeing The Monkees on MTV, I think, that
January, in an attempt to get reacquainted with their
music, and ended up getting very into Sixties and
early Seventies music.  For about the next year, my
favorite band was The Four Seasons, which I now
consider only a very occasional guilty pleasure.  I
just got tired of hearing that cartoonishly high
castrato-like voice.

In April of '94, I officially declared that The
Beatles were my third musical love, and I had been
very much in love with them since the year before
anyway, and began listening to 'Breakfast with The
Beatles' on Sunday mornings in October, though the
program just vanished later that very April.  Up till
late last year The Beatles were my favorite band; I
rarely listen to them now, but I still love them in a
special way, esp. considering how I might have taken
my own life at 14 if I hadn't had their music.

I'm about 85% positive that the first Who song I heard
on the radio was "I Can See for Miles."  And I knew
that my dad had once had 'Tommy' on vinyl until he
never got it back from a guy he lent it to, and that
we had 'Quad' on vinyl, though we no longer had a
turntable for it.  I was very young and had no idea
what the thing was all about until I was 20 years old
and finally got it out again to read the
"autobiography" in the beginning and finally
understood what it was all about.  I remember getting
out the book 'Before I Get Old' by Dave Marsh in
December of '93 (though I never finished it) and
spending a lot of time reading it that February while
I was sick with the chicken pox, which I had finally
caught at age 14.  I think it was then that I really
began to like the band instead of just being
interested in them.

I chickened out several times last year before I
finally got my first Who album, eerily enough on the
7th of September, without my knowing the significance
of that date at the time.  I got 'Tommy' because it
was the only Who CD in that store, and it was the
original version that lists 21 tracks, without liner
notes and only giving lyrics.  I didn't have time to
play it all of the way through until the 9th, and it
took awhile for it to sink in, since it was so unlike
a Beatles' album.

I have since then gotten all of the studio albums,
'Who's Missing,' the boxed set, the BBC Sessions with
a recently acquired burned bonus disc, and on vinyl I
have 'Who's Last,' O&S, and MBB&B.  I don't have a
turntable yet, but I am trying to get one on Ebay.  I
only need a handful more to complete my album
collection, 'Two's Missing,' TKAA, and the IOW album
(I have the video already).
Anna
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