Monday, April 19, 2010

Don't Mess With My Delusions Man

Seriously - hope this is "legal." I've mentioned Pearl? You can go to her site http://www.pearl-whyyoulittle.blogspot.com/ and read this, which depending on how lazy you are, may or may not happen or stay here and read it. She's getting ready to publish and I think she'll do well. She has a knack for summing up life's experiences. Which is what seperates the real writers from the rest of us - that intangible ability to articulate what the rest of us feel but can't express.

I graduated from high school in 1975. The Farm Boy thinks That 70's Show is horrible. I think it's hilarious. We weren't all the brightest stars (back in the day) and in so many of the episodes, I or one of my friends could have been the writers...sad but true. The only excuse I've got is...we were so much younger then.

And yes, Ted Nugent was a part of our life and I so identify with the following piece from Pearl. In fact, in a semi-related tangent, I had already told all my kids that I want them to be sure and marry someone outside of our little community. Because really, no matter what good points one has, after rubbing along together for 30 years there is little you don't know about your neighbors and invariably it is more information than you need to know!!! I want some fresh blood! I want to look at the new in-laws and pretend that that pleasant, polite, politically correct face they present at the wedding is the real them. I've never wanted to know about their warts and certainly don't need to worry about what that might do to the gene pool. A true child of the 70's I know that reality is not all that it's cracked up to be.

So with no further ado - take it away Pearl....

How I Miss The Nuge

I’ll admit it. Back in the day, I was a huge Ted Nugent fan. Stranglehold? Free For All (baby)? Takes me back to the 70s, a friend’s basement, sitting in a circle passing a joint, laughing and digging the music. A simple, silly, and supremely friendly time.


That was then, of course; and this is now, and we are left with our memories and the (mostly) clandestine and mischievous knowledge of having a slightly misspent youth and an almost stereotypical experience of the 70s.


The music was a trip: six- and seven-minute songs to groove to, drum solos, guitar solos, expansive jams, opportunities for musicians to climb out on to a musical limb and bring you along.


Music moved on, of course, as the arts must: to disco, to dance music, to the electronic drummer and synthesizers, to punk.


OK. I can handle that. I own quite a bit of it, as a matter of fact. Things change. People grow up, get jobs, pay taxes, throw real dinner parties, serve decent liquor and form opinions based not on what their friends think but what they think.


Which brings us back to The Nuge. Ted Nugent.


He had a reality show not long ago – and who knows what it was called. I had to look it up. It was just that forgettable – morons competing for some reason for something. Who cares? It stunk. Nothing I found out about him was anything I wanted to know about Mr. Great White Buffalo. In fact, I found out that he was a patriarchal ass. I could’ve done without that.


As we said in the 70s: Burn!


What’s my point?


That I miss my illusion. All I ever needed to know about Ted Nugent was that he was/is an excellent and rockin’ guitar player. He was my childhood, my teenage years, my rock-and-roll fantasy.


My apologies to The Nuge, but I never wanted to know the real him.


I just wanted to be in the room while he played.

Posted by Pearl at 7:00 AM

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