"Well I never been to England..."

"Here I come again now baby, like a dog in heat" At the age of 3, I knew I loved that song. Somewhere there's an old box of Polaroids with a picture of me, having built a very rudimentary ladder. The purpose of the ladder was to gain access to my sisters turn table. Once I made it up there, the idea was to scratch up my sisters self titled Ted Nugent album until I found that riff once again. My sister was furious at all the scratch marks on the record but I eventually found the song and that's all that mattered to me at the time. That was the first time a sibling made the mistake of making me listen to something, but not the last.

The reason I recall that story so well is not because of the photographic proof, it's because that's my first music related memory. I was absolutely hooked in music from that point on and it's been a long, crazy, enjoyable trip thus far. The first album I can remember purchasing was "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden", I made my selection because Elvis looked like a super hero on the cover. Sure, I had a mom that was into Elvis Presley as many of my generation did, but I honestly don't recall listening to any of his material prior to owning that record.

What struck me about that record after a couple spins was that I had made a wise choice; Elvis looked like a super hero on the cover but he sounded like a super hero as well. Once you get past the rushed "That's All Right" and uncomfortable rendering of "Proud Mary" soon enough you're hit with a man on fire. Being passionate about everything to do with what he loved; performing live music. Believe it or not, that record pretty much set my bar for what I want to hear even at such a young age. As I mentioned, I could tell that the first two cuts were either not being performed with any emotion or worse being performed by someone who couldn't care less about the song.

But then I got to soul stirring renditions of songs like "Never Been To Spain" and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" and I knew the man meant business. I once heard a member of Elvis' band say "with Elvis, you could see the lyrics go through his brain, through his heart, then out his mouth". And that was 100% true of the sound that was coming out of the speakers to me. At one point or another, I may get around to doing a full "review" of that record, but that remains to be seen.

My son's mother mentioned the idea of starting a music blog to me years ago and I didn't really know what to write. Then the other night, while furiously convincing two friends that they should hurry up and purchase tickets to the upcoming Roger Waters The Wall 2010 show here in Detroit, both of them mentioned the idea to me. When I used the same argument I had before, one of them said something that made me feel really good. He said "Yeah, but you do though. The way you orate the way you feel about music is really cool. And if nothing else, you should log some of these random thoughts". That compliment stuck and away we go!

I have also asked two friends to contribute to this blog. One being from here in Detroit and the other being from Chicago. Both of whom are similar to myself in that they like what they like, but they give everything a chance and they've ALWAYS got an opinion. For now, I decided to just write that little intro above as a way to explain a little about me from the start. This blog has no set direction, there may be album reviews, band retrospectives, concert reviews or just general opinions on whatever is going on or has gone on in music.

I appreciate anyone and everyone who may take their time to read it.

-Russ Robinson