I will never forget the day my brother walked through the door with the Nevermind album. The year was 1992 and CD's were just starting to take hold. My moms boyfriend already had a nice collection of CD's but neither my brother or I had one of our very own. It was unique for us to even have a CD player at that time. It had been 6 years since the first tape my brother and I had bought at a yard sale that changed our lives musically. Licensed to Ill was the album that shaped the youth of my family. That tape was played morning, noon and night at my house. I even bought it on CD in high school and played it tirelessly. Buying music back then was not only expensive, but a big deal to accomplish. The parental advisor labels were taken very seriously. I remember trying to by an N.W.A. tape in 4th grade and being turn down at the record store for being to young. Within a few days we did however cop that tape. We would play it at night in the dark when we were supposed to be sleeping. This form of rap at the time was really unknown and certainly frowned upon.
Anyways, I just remember grabbing the Nirvana CD out of my brothers hands and staring at the album cover. I thought it was so bad ass that a naked baby was swimming after a dollar bill. I flipped through the album sleeve to see the artwork and hopefully find the lyrics to every song. The coolest part was my mom's boyfriend was stoked on the album and immediately popped it in for a listen. I thought for sure we would be hiding this from our parents. This was the beginning of music sharing with the adults in my life. I became obsessed with the fact that we shared the same music. This was also when I discovered Jimi Hendrix. From that moment forward I was going to learn to play the guitar. I knew just where to go to get the equipment I needed to start whaling. My spoiled rotten little rich neighbor had every toy known to man. He had a bright red Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, and amp to go along with it that I was sure he was ready to part ways with. I bought everything cool I ever owned as a child from him. from my Mongoose BMX bike to my first pair of Air Jordan's. This kid had it all. Within a few weeks I was ready to go. I had every parents nightmare going on in the basement. I cranked that amp up so loud and just crushed it. Their truly is nothing worse that a 10 year old trying to learn the guitar on his own.
Shortly after my mom and I were in search of a place to take lessons. I was convinced I didn't need lessons but my mother felt otherwise. We finally found a guy but he didn't have very many time slots available. Somehow I got lucky and got to leave school every friday 15 minutes early to go to my lesson. We would sit in this little room with no windows, that felt much like a prison cell and practice every friday afternoon. I remember the first song I ever learned was GLORIA by the Van Morrison, The Spectres, the Doors??? I'm not sure which version we were learning but I was familiar with the song. All I know is I was playing a song and it sounded damn good. I never did a whole lot of the practice exercises he taught me be but I was learning a few songs. Black Sabbath, Bruce Springstein, Rush, The Rolling Stones were all songs I was starting to play. Sort of....This lasted for about 6 months until that devastating friday. This day as I walked out to the car for lessons I was really excited. It was April and spring in Baltimore was rearing it's pretty little head. I turned on 98 Rock as I did every time I got in the car and immediately heard the news. Kurt Cobain was dead in alleged suicide at his home. I switched over 99.1 WHFS and the news was confirmed. When I got to the lesson we basically just ended up talking about what had happened and I was un-interested in playing that day. It wasn't but a few weeks later that I stopped taking lessons. The guitar soon moved to my little cousins new toy. I was over it. You see every teen drop in "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the song we requested the DJ to play. We literally would hear it 10 times every friday night. We would play it at home , we would hear it on the radio, and even on MTV. This song and the video along with it was the soundtrack to growing up. Head Banging as cliche as it sounds was something everyone was doing. I will never forget being in the gymnasium on a friday night and a few select bad boys and a girl or two would sit in a circle on their knees and shake their heads while the song would play in its entirety. This is the song we played when all these new and exciting grown up things were happening around us. People were starting to drink a few beers, smoke a little pot, make out with a few girls. We were becoming adults. Well at least that is what we thought at the time. We were discovering new things on our own and this song gave us the balls to do so.
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