The Day Some Of My Music Died

It’s 1991. I’ve recently graduated college for music & video business. I’m driving to Clearwater with my friend Bill to meet some girls. Bill has recently come home from the Guitar Institute in California. It’s a car full of music people listening to good tunes. What’s playing? Queen. We have found out that one of our favorite singers in one of our favorite bands has passed away this day. The tunes are cranked, the windows are down and we’re remembering how Freddy Mercury & Queen have influenced us.

For me, Queen’s album The Game was one of the first records I owned that didn’t have the KISS logo on it. From start to finish I played the hell out of that album. I learned every word, every beat and every air guitar solo as a kid. This album is on my “desert island” list. You know the lists, “if you were stranded on an island and could only have five albums, what would they be?” This of course is assuming our island has solar power for our electronic gadgets to make it seem more like home.

Growing up I’ve heard numerous Queen songs on the radio, but that was the first album of theirs that I owned. It has since graduated to CD because the album was no longer playable after all those years since 1980.

After Freddy’s passing I saw the tribute show and was extremely saddened at how we won’t be graced with his miraculous voice on our airwaves any longer. The most notable performance of that night was from George Michael. I dare anyone to dispute it. Why Queen hasn’t chosen to record with this man is beyond me. There must be some strange goings on somewhere to make this not happen.

While we’re driving the music stops on the radio and the announcer states that death has taken another rocker from us. Eric Carr of Kiss has passed away.

Bill & I are huge Kiss fans. We met on line for Kiss tickets for the Crazy Nights tour. We’ve been friends ever since. We’re floored. Not one, but two amazing musicians have been lost.

Kiss was it for me growing up. My first albums that I ever wanted for myself were Kiss albums. I had them all and had the cool parents to buy them for me growing up until I could save my allowance or paychecks to purchase my own as the years went by. There was a period where I quit listening to them because Ace Frehley was no longer in the band. Then I heard the song Heaven’s On Fire. That was it. I’m sold. I had the album the day it was released. From there I got Lick It Up and Creatures of the Night to get caught up on the years I was missing.

Both Bill and myself were completely taken by surprise and it affected us in a weird way at that age. Musicians we listened to just didn’t up and die like that. Sure we lost others, but usually due to accidents or drugs. But not like that, and not from bands that we grew up listening to.

Music is a powerful thing. A song can trigger an emotion or bring back a distant memory. It is one of the most important things in my life. Great rock music is timeless. As I write this, some of my favorite Queen songs have been playing in the background and I remember when I heard them on the radio in the back seat of my parent’s car going somewhere.

November 24^th, 1991. It has been eighteen years since we lost these two. Eighteen years and you still hear their music on radio stations. There’s a reason for that. They were and are great and they will never be forgotten.