August 1972 Through Labor Day 1972

When I wasn't walking around and checking things out again since I had returned home, there was one vital thing that I never forgot to do and that was to listen to a radio and get my fix of the charts. It was an intravenous feeding to my soul and my sense of imagination and possibility.

The Sony transistor radio I had had a black leather cover over a silver encased little piece of silver hardware that beame the most important item in my possession during my time at my Aunt & Uncle's while waiting for Mom and Dad to complete the sale of the Fir Acres house to the parents of a former classmate of mine at St. Paul's and come back down to start life on Camino Drive.

There were two primary places where I used to do my listening at this juncture. One being the top of my Aunt & Uncle's bed during the daytime on weekends and the other being the couch in the living room where I slept at night. Like any kid, I tried to pull a fast one on my Aunt & Uncle by trying to sneak very late-night listens when I decided I didn't want to sleep. It was really a case of me being so curious of what was being played at odd hours that fueled my attempting this manuever. I never really got into trouble for doing so, but it always backfired on me. There were two reasons for this. Since I was hearing impaired and tried listening to the radio even when I stuck it underneath a pillow in an attempt to muffle out the so so nobody would hear it, I was not realizing that I was still screwing up by turning the damned thing up too loud because impairment didn't allow me to properly gauge how to get away with listening to stuff at a low enough level. The other reason became all too apparent. While I was hearing impaired, my Aunt had the ears of a church mouse. She could hear a pin drop through a tornado. I tried this repeatedly and with no avail. She would always come down the stairs and I would always fake being asleep and she would reach under the pillow and turn the thing off.

I think I recall her telling my Mom about this on the phone a few times. I would love to have heard what Mom had to say to her.

During the times when I didn't have to hide anything, I would have that radio right up to my good left ear and listen away. So, what I search for? I remembered KFRC from back when I was on Franklin Street and that was the first station I went to. In hindsight, this turned out to be a very appropriate move. You see, back then, off all of the AM stations in the Bay Area, KFRC had the biggest and most urban sound of all of them. Why? The secret, I am convinced, was that KFRC had some added reverb to their overall sound that they gave to their listening audience. It boomed louder than KYA or KLIV.

The bigness in sound was to be symbolic of the bigness in my mind of the events that were about to unfold before me on that fateful day that Day 1 of 5th Grade started. That booming sound from KFRC would make this time period so easy for me to remember. It created a massive ripple in my head.

And so my dear classmates and readers, what was hitting me at this time? I was hearing Elton John's "Honkey Cat" and being aware of the irony of lyrics and of my being back in a huge metropolitan area and loving it. I was exposed to what I would likely choose as my favorite Bread single of all-time-"The Guitar Man". The playing by the late James Griffin was so dramatic to go with the music as it built up to the end of the song. That song was further making me realize that I was a guitar worshipper.

To go further with guitar playing, I got to hear one of the great power chord songs of all-time during this period of time. You want Power Pop at its best? You have needed to look no further than "Go All The Way" from The Raspberries. It was also planting something else in my mind-the idea of sexual urgency. Let me tell you. It worked. Eric Carmen's singing on that song is just so undeniable. It's as real as the day is long.

When I was listening to that little transistor, I was also still learning valuable lessons from my beloved Soul guys. A new group (to me) taught me that "Everybody Plays The Fool". Cuba Gooding Sr. was like an older friend who was putting an arm around me and telling me that I was going to go through this. Damn! He was right too. The Main Ingredient. I dearly love them.

A beautiful, mournful song hit the airwaves that I fell in love with. It was Gilbert O' Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)".

In anticipation of my upcoming schoolyear and the feeling that I was growing up at least a little bit, I really took to Three Dog Night's "Black and White". I felt like I was one of the children and one of the band at the same time. We were going to get through it together.

It was only appropriate, since I was back in the South Bay Area, that I would be placed historically to witness the release of the first big single for the San Jose band we would all come to know as The Doobie Brothers and "Listen To The Music".

I was being exposed to more variety too. I got to hear Wayne Newton's "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" as it came out while Sammy Davis Jr's hit from earlier in the year was still getting heavy airplay on KFRC with "The Candy Man". I would get to watch both of them during the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Telethon of Jerry Lewis at my Aunt and Uncle's.

I was still thinking of my brother Mike and how bummed out he was in moving back down whenever I heard Argent doing "Hold Your Head Up". I was to learn later on that I had been listening to single edit. I was to love the full-length album version so much more.

My dear Bill Withers was still having his "Lean On Me" single being played. It was ursurped by a song with a serious groove. It was "Use Me" and I really dug it. Plus, I was actually comprehending a bit what the song was really about.

Mac Davis gave us "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me". I know that a lot of people have despised this song over the years. I don't. That little radio was plugged into my ear and it was breathing life into me. I wasn't going to knock Mac for giving me a good hook and a lyric to remember.

I was to hear Michael Jackson stepping out of the shadows of his brothers by releasing "Rockin' Robin" and "Ben". "Rockin' Robin" may have been from earlier in the year, but I heard it more on KFRC than I did up in Eugene on KEED.

Michael's fellow Motown artists, The Four Tops had left the label and released the great "Keeper Of The Castle". Levi Stubb wasn't letting up one iota in the confidence and masculinty department while teaching some things about what was going on the world.

I got to hear The Isley Brothers, in all truthfulness, for the first time at this time. I might have heard "It's Your Thing" and their version of "Twist and Shout" at some point in my radio listening up to then, but it didn't sink in with me. The first song of theirs to have an impact on me was their great single "Work To Do". They would go on to top this even more later on when I was on Camino Drive.

Other than not realizing that Billy Preston had been playing for The Beatles on Let It Be and for George Harrison, my first exposure to hearing Billy's name associated with a song was for "Outa Space". He would go on to help out a little band I was taking notice of called The Rolling Stones.

I got to hear a great one-shot Soul single from Laura Lee called "Rip-Off". What I remember about this song (and it had to be a coincidence) is that I only remember hearing this played at night. I loved it. It was almost like it was taboo. Why? I'll never be able to figure out.

The one weird song I could never figure out (but went along with it) was Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part 2)". But it did sound very urban and very big to go with menacing as well. Little did we know of his personal and legal trouble decades later.

For some reason and I'll never know why, but on multiple weekends, KFRC loved to play the old Rascals hit "Groovin".

I got completely knocked out by two big ones from two Soul singles which were a big sign of things to come for the '70s. For starters, Stevie Wonder served notice that he was upping his game in a very big way with "Superstition" from his Talking Book album. I really dived into this song and it was going to serve me very well in the coming few weeks ahead. I was really boppin' to this one when I was walking around during my free time.

Now, my dear people, the next song I am about to remind you of is a song that has held everlasting meaning to me. This song was not only a foreshadowing clue of the power of the great combination of Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and what they brought to the table in the stable of artists they were about to unveil to the world at this time, this song was going to become an anthem to me for what was to come in a very short time. I got to hear the roaring opening piano line and then the guitar and it's reverb kicking in. Then the percussion and the orchestra kicks in. This baby was an urban song. This song was real. It was in my face tellin' me the truth. It would be a reinforcement of of a lesson I learned from