WILSON/WILDER VINYL INVENTORY

ABBA:
1) Greatest Hits, Vol I
2) Greatest Hits, Vol II

Accept:
3) Accept
4) I’m a Rebel
5) Breaker
6) Restless and Wild

AC/DC:
7) High Voltage
8) Dirt Deeds
9) Jailbreak
10) Let There Be Rock
11) Powerage
12) If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
13) Highway to Hell
14) Back in Black
15) For Those About to Rock

Adam and the Ants:
16) Kings of the Wild Frontier
17) Prince Charming

Bryan Adams:
18) Cuts Like a Knife

Aerosmith:
19) Aerosmith
20) Get Your Wings
21) Toys in the Attic
22) Rocks
23) Draw the Line
24) Live Bootleg
25) Night in the Ruts
26) Rock in a Hard Place
27) Done With Mirrors

The Alarm:
28) The Alarm

America:
29) America
30) Greatest Hits

Amon Duul:
31) Hijack
32) Made In Gerany

Angel:
33) Live Without a Net

Angel Witch:
34) Angel Witch

April Wine:
35) Nature of the Beast

Arctic Monkeys:
36) Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not

Average White Band:
37) Soul Searching

B52s:
38) B52s
39) Wild Planet
40) Mesopotamia
41) Whammy!

BTO:
42) Bachman Turner Overdrive II
43) Not Fragile

Bad Company:
44) Bad Co.
45) Straight Shooter
46) Running With the Pack
47) Burning Sky
48) Desolation Angels

Badfinger:
49) Straight Up

Erykah Badu:
50) New Amerykah 4th World War (Part I)

The Band:
51) Best Of, Rock of Ages


Bauhaus:
52) The Sky’s Gone Out
53) Burning From the Inside

Beastie Boys:
54) Paul’s Boutique
55) Solid Gold Hits

Beatles:
56) Meet the Beatles
57) Second Album
58) Hard Days Night
59) VI
60) ’65
61) Yesterday & Today
62) Rubber Soul
63) Rock n Roll Music
64) Help
65) Revolver
66) The Beatles (White Album)
67) Let it Be
68) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
69) Abbey Road
70) (red) 1962-66
71) (blue) 1967-70

Be Bop Deluxe:
72) Axe Victim
73) Futurama
74) Sunburst Finish
75) Modern Music
76) Live in the Air Age
77) Drastic Plastic

Bee Gees:
78) Bee Gees Gold Vol. 1
79) Trafalgar
80) Main Course
81) Best Of
82) Saturday Night Fever

Jeff Beck:
83) Early Anthology
84) Truth
85) Beck O-La
86) Blow By Blow
87) Wired
88) There and Back
89) Live (w/ Jan Hammer Group)

Beethoven:
90) 3rd Symphony
91) 5th Symphony

Pat Benetar:
92) In the Heat of the Night
93) Crimes of Passion
94) Get Nervous
95) Precious Time

Big Star:
96) #1 Record

Billion Dollar Babies:
97) Battle Axe

Blackfoot:
98) Strikes
99) Marauder
100) Tomcattin’
101) Siogo
102) Vertical Smiles

Black Oak Arkansas:
103) Rated X
104) High on the Hog
105) Ain’t Life Grand

Black Sabbath:
106) Paranoid
107) Master of Reality
108) Vol. 4
109) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
110) Sabotage
111) We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll
112) Never Say Die
113) Heaven and Hell
114) Mob Rules
115) Live Evil

Blind Faith:
116) Blind Faith
Blondie:
117) Eat to the Beat
118) Parallel Lines
119) Autoamerican

Blue Oyster Cult:
120) Blue Oyster Cult
121) Tyranny and Mutation
122) Secret Treaties
123) On Your Feet or on Your Knees
124) Agents of Fortune
125) Spectres
126) Some Enchanted Evening
127) Mirrors
128) Cultasaurus Erectus
129) Fire of an Unknown Origin
130) Extra Terrestrial Live

Tommy Bolin:
131) Private Eyes
132) Teaser

Booker T. and the MGs:
133) Green Onions

Boomtown Rats:
134) Tonic for the Troops
135) The Fine Art of Surfacing

Boston:
136) Boston
137) Don’t Look Back

David Bowie:
138) Space Oddity
139) The Man Who Sold the World (Cartoon Cover)
140) The Man Who Sold the World (B/W Bowie cover)
141) Hunky Dory
142) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
143) Aladdin Sane
144) Pin Ups
145) Diamond Dogs
146) Golden Years
147) David Live
148) Station to Station
149) Low
150) Heroes
151) Lodger
152) Scary Monsters
153) Let’s Dance
154) Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture Soundtrack
155) Tonight

Billy Bragg:
156) Help Save the Youth of Today
157) Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

Brahms:
158) Piano Concertos

British Lions:
159) British Lions

David Bromberg:
160) David Bromberg

The Brothers Johnson:
161) Lookin’ Out for # 1

Ruth Brown:
162) The Soul Survives

Jackson Brown:
163) Hold Out
164) The Pretender

Michael Bruce:
165) Rock Rolls On

The Buggles:
166) The Age of Plastic

The Buck Pets:
167) Mercurotones

Budgie:
168) Never Turn Your Back on a Friend

T Bone Burnett:
169) The Talking Animals


Kate Bush:
170) The Dreaming
171) Lionheart
172) Never Forever
173) Hounds of Love
174) The Whole Story
175) Rocket Man (12”)
176) Cloudbusting (12”)

The Byrds:
177) Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Butthole Surfers:
178) Locust Abortion Technician

Glen Campbell:
179) Galveston
180) By the Time I Get to Phoenix
181) Wichita Lineman

Camper Van Beethoven:
182) Key Lime Pie

Can:
183) Limited Edition

The Carpenters:
184) Close to You
185) Singles 74-78

The Cars:
186) The Cars
187) Candy O
188) Panorama
189) Shake it Up

Peter Case:
190) Peter Case

Johnny Cash:
191) Live From San Quentin

Cheap Trick:
192) Cheap Trick
193) In Color
194) Heaven Tonight
195) At Budokan
196) Dream Police
197) We Found All the Parts

Cheech and Chong:
198) Los Cochinos
199) Wedding Album
200) Cheech and Chong

Alex Chilton:
201) Feudalist Tarts

Chopin:
202) Greatest Hits

City Boy:
203) Heads Are Rolling
204) Dinner at the Ritz
205) The Day the Earth Caught Fire
206) Young Men Go West

Petula Clark:
207) Greatest Hits

The Clash:
208) The Clash
209) Give ‘em Enough Rope
210) London Calling
211) Black Market Clash
212) Sandanista

Billy Cobham:
213) Spectrum

Joe Cocker:
214) Greatest Hits

Eddie Cochran:
215) Greatest Hits

Phil Collins:
216) Face Value
217) Hello….I Must Be Going

Commodores:
218) All Their Greatest Hits
Coney Hatch:
219) Outta Hand

Ry Cooder:
220) Paradise and Lunch:

Alice Cooper:
221) Easy Action
222) Love It to Death
223) Killer
224) School’s Out
225) Billion Dollar Babies
226) Muscle of Love
227) Welcome to My Nightmare
228) Goes to Hell
229) Lace and Whiskey
230) The Alice Cooper Show
231) From the Inside
232) Flush the Fashion
233) Special Forces
234) Zipper Catches Skin
235) DaDa

Cop Shoot Cop:
236) Ask Questions Later

Elvis Costello:
237) My Aim Is True
238) This Years Model
239) Armed Forces
240) Taking Liberties
241) Punch the Clock

Sam Cooke:
242) The Man and His Music

Crack the Sky:
243) Animal Notes
244) Safety In Numbers

The Cramps:
245) A Date With Elvis

Robert Cray:
246) Strong Persuader

Creedence Clearwater Revival:
247) Creedence Clearwater Revival
248) Bayou Country
249) Willie and the Poor Boys
250) Cosmo’s Factory

Crosby, Stills and Nash (Young):
251) Crosby, Stills and Nash
252) Déjà vu
253) 4-Way Street

The Cult (Death Cult):
254) God’s Zoo (Death Cult)
255) Dreamtime
256) Love
257) Electric
258) Love Removal Machine (12”)
259) Sonic Temple

The Cure:
260) Pornography
261) The Top

Roger Daltrey:
262) Under a Raging Moon

The Damned:
263) Damned, Damned, Damned

Miles Davis:
264) The Complete Birth of Cool

Dead Kennedy’s:
265) Plastic Surgery Disasters
266) Too Drunk to Fuck (12”)

The Dead Milkmen:
267) Bucky Fellini
268) Smokin’ Banana Peels (12”)
269) Smokin’ Banana Peels (Dance Mixes by Davis and Don Was)

Deep Purple:
270) In Rock
271) Who Do We Think We Are
272) Fireball
273) Made In Japan
274) Burn
275) Stormbringer
276) Come Taste the Band
277) When We Rock, We Rock, and When We Roll, We Roll
278) Deepest Purple
279) Perfect Strangers

Def Leppard:
280) On Through the Night
281) High n’ Dry
282) Pyromania
283) Hysteria

Derek and the Dominos:
284) Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Rick Derringer/Derringer:
285) All American Boy
286) Spring Fever
287) Sweet Evil

Devo:
288) Duty Now For the Future
289) New Traditionalists
290) Freedom of Choice
291) Oh No! It’s Devo

Neil Diamond:
292) Classics: The Early Years

Dire Straits:
293) Making Movies
294) Twisting by the Pool
295) Love Over Gold

Dirty Tricks:
296) Hit and Run
297) Nightman

Dogs D’Amour:
298) In the Dynamite Jet Saloon
299) I Don’t want You To Go (12”)
300) King of Thieves

Donovan:
301) Donovan’s Greatest Hits
The Doobie Brothers:
302) Best Of

The Doors:
303) The Soft Parade
304) Morrison Hotel

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show:
305) Sloppy Seconds
306) Belly Up

Duran Duran:
307) Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Bob Dylan:
308) Bringing It All Back Home
309) New Morning
310) Greatest Hits Volume II
311) Blonde on Blonde
312) Dylan
313) Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
314) Blood on the Tracks
315) Desire
316) Highway 61 Revisited

Eagles:
317) Eagles
318) Desperado
319) On the Border
320) One of These Nights
321) Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975
322) The Long Run

Earth Wind and Fire:
323) Best Of

Dave Edmunds:
324) Repeat When Necessary

Electric Light Orchestra:
325) Face the Music
326) Eldorado (a Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra)
327) On the Third Day
328) Ole Elo
329) A New World Record
330) Out of the Blue

Electric Sun:
331) Earthquake
332) Fire Wind
333) Beyond the Astral Skies

Joe Ely:
334) Live Shots
335) Down on the Drag
336) Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
337) Hi-Res

Emerson, Lake and Palmer:
338) Emerson, lake and Palmer
339) Pictures at an Exhibition
340) Trilogy
341) Brain Salad Surgery
342) Best Of

Emperor:
343) Emperor

Brian Eno:
344) Here Come the Warm Jets
345) Before and After Science

Brian Eno/David Byrne:
346) My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Faces:
347) Long Player
348) Ooh La La

Donald Fagen:
349) Nightfly

Percy Faith:
350) Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet

Falco:
351) Rock Me Amadeus

Fastway:
352) Fastway

Michael Andre Fath:
353) Profile
Firefall:
354) Firefall

Fish:
355) A Gentleman’s Excuse Me

Fishbone:
356) It’s a Wonderful Life

Ella Fitzgerald:
357) The Cole Porter Song Book

The Fixx:
358) Shuttered Room
359) Reach the Beach
360) Built For the Future (12”)

Roberta Flack:
361) Featuring Donny Hathaway
362) Killing Me Softly

Fleetwood Mac:
363) Fleetwood Mac
364) Rumors

Focus:
365) Hocus Pocus
366) Focus III

Foghat:
367) Energized
368) Nighshift
369) Live
370) Stone Blue

Foreigner:
371) Foreigner
372) Double Vision

Peter Frampton:
373) Frampton Comes Alive

Frankie Goes to Hollywood:
374) Welcome to the Pleasuredome


Aretha Franklin:
375) Young, Gifted and Black

Robert Fripp:
376) Exposure

Robert Fripp/Andy Summers:
377) I Advance Masked

Frozen Concentrate:
378) Frozen Concentrate

Funkadelic:
379) Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow
380) One Nation Under a Groove

Peter Gabriel:
381) Peter Gabriel (Wet Car)
382) Peter Gabriel (Ripped Face)
383) Peter Gabriel (Melting Face)
384) Peter Gabriel (Security)
385) So

Rory Gallagher:
386) Irish Tour ‘74

Marvin Gaye:
387) What’s Going On
388) Let’s Get It On
389) Midnight Love
390) I Want You

J. Geils Band:
391) Best Of Two
392) Sanctuary
393) Bloodshot
394) Love Stinks
395) Freeze Frame

Gang of Four:
396) Entertainment
397) Songs of the Free

Gene Loves Jezebel:
398) The House of Dolls

Genesis:
399) Trespass
400) Foxtrot
301) Genesis Live
302) Selling England by the Pound
403) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
404) A Trick of the Tail
405) Wind & Wuthering
406) And Then There Were Three
407) Duke
408) Genesis


Georgia Satellites:
409) Ga. Satellites
410) Open All Night

David Gilmour:
411) David Gilmour
412) About Face

Girl:
413) Wasted Youth
414) Sheer Greed

The Godz:
415) The Godz
416) Nothing Is Sacred

Gong:
417) Shamal

Jerry Goodman:
418) Ariel

Grand Funk (Railroad):
419) Closer to Home
420) Survival
421) Live Album
422) We’re an American Band
423) All the Girls in the World Beware
424) Grand Funk Hits

The Mike Greene Band:
425) Pale Pale Moon

Grateful Dead:
426) Workingman’s Dead
427) American Beauty
428) Terrapin Station
429) Mars Hotel

Steve Hackett:
430) Spectral Mornings

Hanoi Rocks:
431) Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes

George Harrison:
432) Living in the Material World

Donny Hathaway:
433) Donny Hathaway

Isaac Hayes:
434) Black Moses
435) Shaft
436) Groove-A-Thon

Heart:
437) Dreamboat Annie
438) Little Queen
439) Magazine

Helix:
440) No Rest for the Wicked

Jimi Hendrix:
441) Smash Hits
442) Rainbow Bridge

Ken Hensley:
443) Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf

Highway Chile:
444) Rockarama

Roger Hodgson:
445) The Eye of the Storm


The Hollies:
446) Hollies
Buddy Holly:
447) 20 Golden Greats

Lena Horne:
448) The Lady and Her Music

House of Blondes:
449) House of Blondes

Humble Pie:
450) Rock On
451) Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore

Ian Hunter:
452) Ian Hunter
453) All American Boy
454) Overnight Angels
455) You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic
456) Welcome to the Club
457) Short Back and Sides

Steve Hunter:
458) Swept Away

Husker Du:
459) Flip Your Wig
460) Candy Apple Grey

Inspiral Carpets:
461) Cool As…..

Iron Butterfly:
462) In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Iron Maiden:
463) Iron Maiden
464) Killers
465) Maiden Japan
466) The Number of the Beast
467) Run to the Hills (12”)
468) Piece of Mind

The Isley Brothers:
469) Live It Up
470) Harvest for the World
471) Take It to the Next Phase (12”)

Joe Jackson:
472) I’m the man

Tommy James and the Shondells:
473) Best Of

James Gang:
474) Rides Again
475) Live In Concert
476) Best Of

Jason and the Scorchers:
477) Fervor

Jefferson Airplane:
478) Volunteers

Jefferson Starship:
479) Spitfire
480) Red Octopus
481) Freedom at Point Zero

Jethro Tull:
482) Benefit
483) Minstrel In the Gallery
484) Thick as a Brick
485) Aqualung
486) Warchild
487) Too Old To Rock and Roll/Too Young To Die
488) Repeat: Best Of Jethro Tull Volume II
489) Songs From the Wood

Joan Jett:
490) I Love Rock-n-Roll
491) Album
492) Up Your Alley

David Johansen:
493) Live It Up
494) In Style

Elton John:
495) Elton John
496) 11-17-70
497) Madman Across the water
498) Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player
499) Honky Chateau
500) Tumbleweed Connection
501) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
502) Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
503) Caribou
504) Greatest Hits
505) Greatest Hits Volume II


Journey:
506) Infinity
507) Escape
508) Frontiers

Joy Division:
509) Unknown Pleasures
510) Closer

Judas Priest:
511) Sad Wings of Destiny
512) Best Of
513) Sin After Sin
514) Stained Class
515) Hell Bent For Leather
516) Unleashed In the East
517) British Steel
518) Point of Entry
519) Screaming for Vengeance
520) Defenders of the faith

Kablamachunk:
521) Well….There It Is

Kansas:
522) Leftoverture
523) Point of Know Return

Killing Joke:
524) Killing Joke
525) What’s This For….
526) Revelations


B.B. King:
527) King Size

Carole King:
528) Tapestry

King Crimson:
529) In the Court of the Crimson King
530) In the Wake of Poseidon
531) Lark’s Tongue In Aspic
532) Starless and Bible Black
533) Discipline
534) Beat
535) Three of a Perfect Pair

The Kinks:
536) Muswell Hillbillies
537) Lola, Percy and the Apeman
538) You Really Got Me
539) Everybody’s a Star
540) Soap Opera
541) Second Time Around
542) Sleepwalker
543) Misfits
544) Low Budget
545) One More for the Road
546) Give the People What They Want
547) State of Confusion
548) Word of Mouth

Kiss:
549) Kiss
550) Hotter Than Hell
551) Dressed To Kill
552) Alive
553) Destroyer
554) Rock and Roll Over
555) Love Gun
556) Alive II
557) Double Platinum
558) Ace Frehley
559) Paul Stanley
560) Gene Simmons
561) Dynasty
562) Unmasked
563) The Elder
564) Creatures of the Night
565) Lick It Up

Kix:
566) Kix
567) Cool Kids
568) Midnite Dynamite
569) Blow My Fuse

Krokus:
570) Metal Rendez-Vous
571) Hardware
572) One Vice at a Time
573) Headhunter

Cyndi Lauper:
574) She’s So Unusual

Leatherwolf:
575) Street Ready

Led Zeppelin:
576) Led Zeppelin
577) Led Zeppelin II
578) Led Zeppelin III
579) Physical Graffiti
580) Presence

John Lennon:
581) Plastic Ono Band
582) Imagine
583) Mind Games
584) Rock and Roll

Ramsey Lewis:
585) Tequila Mockingbird

Liquid Jesus:
586) Pour in the Sky

Little Feat:
587) Sailin’ Shoes
588) Waiting for Columbus

Lone Star:
589) Lone Star
590) Firing On All Six

Jean Loup Longnon:
591) And His New York Orchestra

Jeff Lorber:
592) In the Heat of the Night

The Lords of the New Church:
593) The Method To Our Madness
594) Is Nothing Sacred
595) Like a Virgin (12”)

Love:
596) Revisited

Love and Rockets:
597) Love and Rockets

Loverboy:
598) Get Lucky

Phil Lynott:
599) The Phillip Lynott Album

Lynyrd Skynyrd:
600) Nuthin’ Fancy
601) Gimme Back My Bullets
602) One More from the Road
603) Street Survivors

Mahavishnu Orchestra:
604) Birds of Fire
605) John McLaughlin Mahavishnu Carlos Santana

The Mamas & the Papas:
606) If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears

Henry Mancini:
607) The Versatile Henry Mancini

Mantovani:
608) Latin Rendezvous

Marillion:
609) Grendel/Three Boats Down from the Candy (Live Bootleg)
610) Script for Jester’s Tear
611) Fugazi
612) Real to Reel
613) Misplaced Childhood
614) Brief Encounter
615) Clutching at Straws

Bob Marley (and the Wailers):
616) Catch a Fire
617) Burnin’
618) Natty Dread
619) Rastaman Vibration
620) Live
621) Exodus
622) Babylon by Bus
623) Kaya

Steve Martin:
624) Wild and Crazy Guy
625) Let’s Get Small

Frank Marino (and Mahogany Rush):
626) Child of the Novelty
627) Tales of the Unexpected
628) What’s Next
629) The Power of Rock n’ Roll

Martini Ranch:
630) Holy Cow

Curtis Mayfield:
631) Super Fly

Gen. Douglas MacArthur:
632) Duty, Honor, Country

Van McCoy:
633) Disco Baby

Blind Willie McTell:
634) Trying to Get Home

Meatloaf:
635) Bat Out of Hell


John Mellencamp:
636) Scarecrow

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes:
637) Wake Up Everybody
638) Now Is the Time

Men at Work:
639) Business as Usual

The Meters:
640) Cabbage Alley

Pat Methaney & Lyle Mays:
641) As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls

Steve Miller Band:
642) The Joker
643) Book of Dreams
644) Greatest Hits

Missing Persons:
645) Spring Session M

Mission UK:
646) God’s Own Medicine

Joni Mitchell:
647) Ladies of the Canyon
648) Blue
649) The Hissing of Summer Lawns
650) Court & Spark

Molly Hatchet:
651) Molly Hatchet
652) Flirtin’ With Disaster

Eddie Money:
653) Eddie Money

The Monkees:
654) The Monkees
655) More of the Monkees
656) Headquarters
657) Greatest Hits

Montrose:
658) Montrose
659) Paper Money

Monty Python:
660) Matching Tie and Handkerchief
661) Live at City Center
662) Monty Python’s Previous Record

The Moody Blues:
663) This Is the Moody Blues

Gary Moore:
664) Corridors of Power
665) Victims of the Future

Van Morrison:
666) Astral Weeks
667) Moondance
668) Saint Dominic’s Preview

Mothers Finest:
669) Iron Age

Motley Crue:
670) Too Fast for Love
671) Shout at the Devil

Motorhead:
672) Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers (EP)
673) Overkill
674) Bomber
675) Golden Years (Live EP)
676) Ace of Spades
677) Iron Fist
678) Another Perfect Day
679) Motorhead/No Class (Live 12”)
680) No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith
681) From the Vaults

Mott the Hoople:
682) Mott the Hoople
683) Mad Shadows
684) Rock n’ Roll Queen
685) Brain Capers
686) All the Young Dudes
687) Mott
688) The Hoople
689) Live

Mountain:
690) Nantucket Sleighride

Mozart:
691) Greatest Hits

Eddie Murphy:
692) Comedian

Mussorgsky:
693) Night on Bald Mountain

Nas:
694) Illmatic

Nazareth:
695) Razamanazz
696) Rampant
697) Loud n’ Proud
698) Hair of the Dog
699) Playing the Game
700) Expect No Mercy
701) Hot Tracks
702) Greatest Hits
703) No Mean City
704) Malice In Wonderland
705) S’naz

Willie Nelson:
706) Stardust

New England:
707) New England

N.E.R.D.:
708) She Wants to Move (12”)

Randy Newman:
709) Little Criminals

New York Dolls:
710) New York Dolls
711) In Too Much Too Soon

Stevie Nicks:
712) Belladanna
713) The Wild Heart

Nightmares on Wax:
714) Though so….

Nightranger:
715) Man In Motion

Harry Nilson:
716) Nilson Schmilson

Mojo Nixon:
717) Root Hog or Die

Aldo Nova:
718) Subject

Ted Nugent (Amboy Dukes):
719) Call of the Wild
720) Ted Nugent
721) Free for All
722) Cat Scratch Fever
723) Double Live Gonzo
724) Weekend Warriors
725) State of Shock
726) Wango Tango

Gary Numan:
727) The Pleasure Principle

Ohio Players:
728) Gold

Mike Oldfield:
729) Tubular Bells

Outlaws:
730) Bring It Back Alive
731) Hurry Sundown

Ozzy Osbourne:
732) Blizzard of Ozz
733) Diary of a Madman
734) Speak of the Devil

Palas:
735) Arrive Alive
736) The Sentinel

Charlie Parker:
737) Bird at the Roost

Alan Parsons Project:
738) Pyramid

Gram Parsons:
739) Grievous Angels
740) GP

Joe Perry Project:
741) I’ve Got the Rock and Rolls Again
742) Once a Rocker Always a Rocker

Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers):
743) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
744) You’re Gonna Get It
745) Damn the Torpedoes
746) Hard Promises
747) Long After Dark
748) Southern Accents
749) Pack Up the Plantation
750) Let Me Up, I’ve Had Enough
751) Full Moon Fever
752) Wildflowers

Anthony Phillips:
753) Wise After the Event

Pink Floyd:
754) Ummagumma
755) Obscured by Clouds
756) Meddle
757) Dark Side of the Moon
758) Wish You Were Here
760) Animals
761) The Wall
762) A Collection of Great Dance Songs
763) The Final Cut
Poco:
764) Live

The Police:
765) Ghost In the Machine
766) Synchronicity

Carolyn Porter:
767) I Said It and I Meant It (12”)

Power Station:
768) Power Station

The Pretenders:
769) The Pretenders
770) The Pretenders II
771) Extended Play
772) Learning to Crawl

The Pretty Things:
773) Real Pretty

Prince:
774) 1999
775) Purple Rain

Prophet:
776) The Sound of a Breaking Heart (12”)

Richard Pryor:
777) That Nigger’s Crazy

PIL:
778) Album
779) 9

Queen:
780) Queen
781) Queen II
782) Sheer Heart Attack
784) A Night at the Opera
785) A Day at the Races
786) News of the World
787) Jazz
788) Live Killers
789) The Game
Quiet Riot:
790) Metal Health

Raconteurs:
791) Broken Boy Soldiers

Rainbow:
792) Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow
793) Rainbow Rising
794) Long Live Rock and Roll
795) On Stage
796) Down to Earth
797) Difficult to Cure

Ram Jam:
798) Ram Jam

Ramones:
799) Ramones
800) Leave Home
801) Rocket to Russia
802) Road to Ruin
803) End of the Century
804) Pleasant Dreams
805) Subterranean Jungle
806) Too Tough to Die

Herman Rarebell:
807) Nip in the Bud

Ratt:
808) Out of the Cellar

Raven:
809) Wiped Out
810) Crash Bang Wallop (EP)
811) Live at the Inferno
812) Born to be Wild (w/ Udo Dirkschneider 12”)

Red Hot Chili Peppers:
813) Red Hot Chili Peppers

Lou Reed:
814) Transformer
815) Berlin
816) Rock and Roll Animal
817) Live
818) Coney Island Baby
819) New Sensations
820) Best Of (Walk on the Wild Side)

REM:
821) Murmur
822) Reckoning
823) Fables of the Reconstruction
824) Dead Letter Office
825) Life’s Rich Pageant
826) Document
827) Green
828) Out of Time

Return to Forever:
829) Romantic Warrior

REO Speedwagon:
830) You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tune a Fish
831) Nine Lives
832) A Decade of Rock and Roll
833) High Infidelity

The Replacements:
834) Tim
835) Pleased to Meet Me
836) Don’t Tell a Soul

Cliff Richard:
837) Best Of

Keith Richards:
838) Talk Is Cheap

Riggs:
839) Riggs

Ringo Starr:
840) Ringo
841) Goodnight Vienna

Riot:
842) Rock City
843) Riot Live
844) Restless Breed
Riverdogs:
845) Riverdogs

Rockpile:
846) Seconds of Pleasure

The Rods:
847) Wild Dogs

The Rolling Stones:
848) England’s Newest Hitmakers
849) 12 x 5
850) Out of Their Heads
851) Got Live If You Want It
852) December’s Children (and Everybody’s)
853) Between the Buttons
854) Aftermath
855) Their Satanic Majesties Request
856) Big Hits (High Tides and Green Grass)
857) Sticky Fingers
858) Hot Rocks
859) More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies)
860) Some Girls
861) Through the Past Darkly
862) Flowers
863) Goats Head Soup
864) Beggars Banquet
865) Exile On Main Street
866) Love You Live
867) Let It Bleed
868) Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out
869) Jamming With Edward
870) Gimme Shelter
871) It’s Only Rock n’ Roll
872) Black and Blue
873) Sucking In the Seventies
874) Live at Earls Court, London 26/5/76 (Live Bootleg)
875) Emotional Rescue
876) Tattoo You
877) Dirty Work
878) Dirtiest Work (Bootleg)

Mick Ronson:
879) Slaughter on 10th Avenue


Linda Ronstadt:
880) Simple Dreams
881) Greatest Hits

Rose Tattoo:
882) Rock n’ Roll Outlaw
883) Assault & Battery
884) Scarred for Life

Diana Ross:
885) 20 Golden Greats

Roxy Music:
886) The First Roxy Music Album

Run DMC:
887) King of Rock

Todd Rundgren:
888) Something…Anything

Rush:
889) Fly By Night
890) Caress of Steel
891) 2112
892) All the World’s a Stage
893) Hemispheres
894) Permanent Waves
895) Moving Pictures
896) Exit….Stage Left
897) Power Windows

Leon Russell:
898) Leon Live
899) Carney

The Saints:
900) I’m Stranded

Salt n’ Pepa:
901) Hot, Cool and Vicious

Sam and Dave:
902) Best Of


Sade:
903) Diamond Life

Santana:
904) Abraxas

Saxon:
905) Saxon
906) Wheels of Steel
907) Strong Arm of the Law (white cover)
908) Strong Arm of the Law (blue cover)
909) Denim and Leather
910) The Eagle Has Landed
911) Power and the Glory

Boz Scaggs:
912) Silk Degrees

MSG:
913) Michael Schenker Group
914) Cry for the Nations (12”)
915) MSG
916) Assault Attack
917) Built to Destroy
918) Perfect Timing (McCauley Schenker Group)

Peter Schilling:
919) The Different Story

Scorpions:
920) Lonesome Crow
921) Fly to the Rainbow
922) In Trance
923) Virgin Killer
924) Taken by Force
925) Tokyo Tapes
926) Best Of
927) Best Of 2
928) Lovedrive (scorpion cover)
929) Lovedrive (gum cover)
930) Animal Magnetism
931) Blackout
932) Love at First Sting

Bob Seger:
933) Live Bullet
934) Stranger in Town

Sex Pistols:
935) Never Mind the Bullocks

Simon and Garfunkel:
936) The Graduate

Paul Simon:
937) Still Crazy After All These Years

Nina Simone:
938) Black is the Color
939) Silk and Soul

Sister Sledge:
940) We Are Family

Steve Slagle:
941) Rio Highlife

Smashed Gladys:
942) Social Intercourse

The Smithereens:
943) Beauty and Sadness

Patti Smith:
944) Easter

Souther Hillman Furray Band:
945) Trouble in Paradise

Spinal Tap:
946) This Is Spinal Tap

Bobby Lee Springfield:
947) All Fired Up

Dusty Springfield:
948) Dusty In Memphis

Bruce Springsteen:
949) Greetings from Asbury Park
950) The Wild, the Willing and the E Street Band
951) Born to Run
952) Darkness on the Edge of Town
953) Live 75-85

Squeeze:
954) Argybargy
955) East Side Story

Staples Singers:
956) Be What You Are
957) Unlock Your Mind

Starz:
958) Starz
959) Violation

Steely Dan:
960) Can’t Buy a Thrill
961) Pretzel Logic
962) Katy Lied
963) Royal Scam
964) Aja
965) Gaucho
966) Greatest Hits

Steppenwolf:
967) Early Steppenwolf

Cat Stevens:
968) Teaser and the Firecat
969) Greatest Hits

Rod Stewart:
970) Every Picture Tells a Story
971) A Night on the Town

Sting:
972) Nothing Like the Sun

Stooges (Iggy and the):
973) Funhouse
974) Raw Power

Straight Shooter:
975) My Time Your Time


Barbara Streisand:
976) What About Today
977) Guilty

Styx:
978) Pieces of Eight
979) Cornerstone
980) Grand Illusion
981) Paradise Theater

The Sugarcubes:
982) Life’s Too Good

Donna Summer:
983) On the Radio (Greatest Hits)

Supertramp:
984) Even in the Quietest Moments
985) Breakfast In America

Sweet (the):
986) Sweet Fanny Adams
987) Desolation Boulevard
988) Give Us a Wink
989) Off the Record
990) Level Headed
991) Cut Above the Rest

Taj Mahal:
992) The Natch’l Blues

Talas:
993) Sink Your Teeth Into That

Talking Heads:
994) ‘77
995) More Songs About Buildings and Food
996) Fear of Music
997) Remain in Light
998) Little Creatures

Andy Taylor:
999) Thunder

Roger Taylor:
1000) Fun in Space
James Taylor:
1001) Sweet Baby James

Tchankovsky:
1002) 1812 Overture
1003) Symphony No, 5
1004) Piano Concerto in B Flat Minor
1005) Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
1006) Nutcracker Suite
1007) Symphony No. 6

Television:
1008) Marquee Moon
1009) Adventure

10cc:
1010) Deceptive Bends
1011) Greatest Hits

Ten Years After:
1012) Shhh
1013) Stonehenge
1014) Positive Vibrations
1015) Recorded Live
1016) A Space in Time
1017) Cricklewood Green
1018) Rock and Roll Music to the World

George Thorogood:
1019) Maverick

Thin Lizzy:
1020) Remembering (Part 1)
1021) Night Life
1022) Jailbreak
1023) Johnny the Fox
1024) Bad Reputation
1025) Live and Dangerous
1026) Black Rose
1027) Chinatown
1028) Renegade
1029) Thunder and Lightning

Three Dog Night:
1030) Naturally
1031) Joy to the World (Greatest Hits)
Timbuk 3:
1032) Greetings From

The Time:
1033) Ice Cream Castle

Peter Tosh:
1034) Bush Doctor
1035) Equal Rights

Tom Tom Club:
1036) Sunshine and Ecstasy (12”)
1037) Pleasure of Love (12”)


Pete Townshend:
1038) Empty Glass

Traffic:
1039) Mr. Fantasy
1040) John Barleycorn Must Die
1041) The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

Pat Travers:
1042) Crash and Burn
1043) Go For What You Know
1044) Radio Active

T. Rex (Marc Bolan):
1045) T. Rex
1046) Electric Warrior
1047) The Slider
1048) Tanx
1049) In Concert
1050) Light of Love
1051) You Scare Me to Death

Trio:
1052) Trio and Error

Triumph:
1053) Progressions of Power

Robin Trower:
1054) Twice Removed From Yesterday
1055) Bridge of Sighs
1056) Live
1057) Caravan to Midnight

The Tubes:
1058) What Do You Want From Live

Tuff Darts:
1059) Tuff Darts

Ike and Tina Turner:
1060) Live at Carnegie Hall

Twisted Sister:
1061) Under the Blade

Tygers of Pan Tang:
1062) Wild Cat
1063) Crazy Nights
1064) The Cage

U.K.:
1065) U.K.

U2:
1066) Boy
1067) October
1068) War
1069) Under a Blood Red Sky
1070) Unforgettable Fire
1071) Wide Awake In America
1072) Joshua Tree

UFO:
1073) Best Of
1074) Phenomenon
1075) Force It
1076) No Heavy Petting
1077) Lights Out
1078) Obsession
1079) Strangers in the Night
1080) No Place to Run
1081) The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent
1082) Mechanix

Uriah Heep:
1083) Salisbury
1084) Look at Yourself
1085) Demons and Wizards
1086) Magician’s Birthday
1087) Best Of
1088) Live
1089) Sweet Freedom
1090) Wonderworld
1091) Firefly
1092) Fallen Angel
1093) High and Mighty
1094) Return to Fantasy
1095) Abominog
1096) Head First

Steve Vai:
1097) Flex Able

Van Halen:
1098) Van Halen
1099) Van Halen II
1100) Women and Children First
1101) Fair Warning
1102) Diver Down

Sarah Vaughan:
1103) After Hours

Stevie Ray Vaughan:
1104) Couldn’t Stand the Weather

Velvet Underground:
1105) White Light, White Heat

The Ventures:
1106) Play Guitar With the Ventures

Rick Wakeman:
1107) The Six Wives of Henry VIII
1108) Journey to the Center of the Earth

Joe Walsh:
1109) Barnstorm
1110) The Smoker You Drink the Player You Get
1111) So What
1112) But Seriously Now Folks
1113) There Goes the Neighborhood
1114) You Bought it, You Name It
1115) The Confessor
1116) Got Any Gum

War:
1117) Greatest Hits

Roger Waters:
1118) Radio K.A.O.S.

WASP:
1119) Animal (Fuck Like a Beast) (12”)

Waysted:
1120) Vices

Barry White:
1121) I’ve Got So Much To Give
1122) Let the Music Play
1123) Just Another Way to Say I Love You

Whitesnake:
1124) Ready an’ Willin’
1125) Live in the Heat of the City
1126) Slide It In

The Who:
1127) Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
1128) Live at Leeds
1129) Tommy
1130) Who’s Next
1131) Who by Numbers
1132) Who Are You
1133) Odds & Sods

Widowmaker:
1134) Widowmaker
1135) Too Late to Cry

Edgar Winter Group:
1136) They Only Come Out At Night
1137) Shock Treatment

Johnny Winter:
1138) Captured Live

Steve Winwood:
1139) Arc of a Diver

Paul McCartney:
1140) McCartney
1141) Ram
1142) Band on the Run
1143) Venus & Mars
1144) Wings Over America
1145) Wings at the Speed of Sound

Wishbone Ash:
1146) Argus
1147) Wishbone Four

Stevie Wonder:
1148) Talking Book
1149) Innervisions

Wonder Stuff:
1150) Sleep Alone (12”)
1151) Eight Legged Groove machine

World Party:
1152) Private Revolution

XTC:
1153) Drums and Wires
1154) Skylarking
1155) Black Sea
1156) Mummer

Y&T:
1157) Black Tiger
1158) Mean Streak

Weird Al Yankovic:
1159) 3-D
1160) Dare to be Stupid

Al Yankovic and his Yanks:
1161) Greatest Hits

Yes:
1162) The Yes Album
1163) Fragile
1164) Close to the Edge
1165) Tales of Topographic Oceans
1166) Relayer
1167) Going for the One
1168) Tormato
1169) Drama
1170) Yesterdays

Neil Young:
1171) Neil Young
1172) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
1173) After the Gold Rush
1174) Harvest
1175) Tonight’s the Night
1176) Zuma
1177) Decade
1178) Rust Never Sleeps
1179) Trans
1180) Freedom

Young Black Teenagers:
1181) Version 1 and 2 (12”)

Jay Z:
1182) Guilty Until Proven Innocent (12”)
1183) The Dynasty

Frank Zappa:
1184) Just Another Band From L.A. (Mothers of Invention)
1185) Fillmore East – June 1971 (The Mothers)
1186) Over-Nite Sensation
1187) Apostrophe
1188) One Size Fits All
1189) Zoot Allures
1190) Sheik Yerbouti
1191) Joe’s Garage
1192) Them or Us
1193) Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch
1194) The Man From Utopia

Zebra:
1195) Zebra

Warren Zevon:
1196) Warren Zevon
1197) Excitable Boy
1198) Bad Luck Streak at Dancing School
1199) Stand in the Fire
1200) The Envoy
1201) Sentimental Hygiene

ZZ Top:
1202) Tejas
1203) Tres Hombres
1204) Fandango
1205) Eliminator

SOUNDTRACKS

1206) Absolute Beginners
1207) Alice in Wonderland
1208) National Lampoon’s Lemmings
1209) Easy Rider
1210) Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1211) Heavy Metal
1212) The Incredible World of James Bond
1213) Jesus Christ Superstar (Original London Production)
1214) Midnight Cowboy
1215) Rocky Horror Picture Show
1216) Show Boat
1217) Slaughter on 10th Avenue
1218) West Side Story
1219) Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band (the movie)
1220) Camelot
1221) The King & I
1222) The Sound of Music
1223) My Fair Lady
1224) The Harder They Come

Conductors:
1225) Leonard Bernstein’s Greatest Hits
1226) Leonard Bernstein Conducts Great Marches
1227) Rimsky-Korsakoff – Scheherazade
1228) Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra – Richest Sounds on Earth

Collections, Concerts, and Collaborations:
1229) Showdown – Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Johnny Copeland
1230) Atlantic Blues – Guitars
1231) Atlantic Blues – Vocalists
1232) Chicago Blues Anthology
1233) Muddy & the Wolf
1234) The Blues Volume 1
1235) Reggae Gold 2006
1236) Monsters Of Rock – Castle Donnington
1237) Willie & Leon
1238) Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix
1239) California Jam 2
1240) Concert for Kampuchea
1241) The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (The Music)
1242) Live Stiffs
1243) Rock for Amnesty
1244) Sun City
1245) Vintage Rock
1246) 20 Original Happening Hits
1247) Pure Gold on EMI
1248) Motown Solo Stars - Top 10 With a Bullet
1249) 20 Star Tracks
1250) Old Gold – 60’s, Volume 1
1251) The Rock Machine Volume III
1252) Live and Heavy
1253) No Wave

Miscellaneous:
1254) You Are My God
1255) The Scots Guard
1256) Drei Lillen, Drei Lillen
1257) The World’s Most Beloved Music
1258) Hitler’s Inferno

Box Sets:
1259) Great Men of Music: Mozart
1260) The Best Loved Music of Tchaikovsky

THE M.P.s STRIKE BACK

All characters are based on actual participants. Much fictionalizing is happening. Stuff that never happened coupled with stuff that did. Combination of events and people. There's a story here that can be told through half-truths, exaggeration, embellishment, and some good old fashioned actuality for flavor. Sam, Ted, Bill, and both Pats. have pre-chosen alter egos, Savage and Diceman are obvious choices. They can be amended if so desired. Everybody else needs either to come up with their own character name, or one will be chosen, and it might just suck. The title 'M.P.s Strike Back' is the property of Sam Saldivar, and though I think it's a good fit, he has the say in that matter.

The basic plot: A love triangle set against a backdrop of injustice and dreams. Prejudice and redemption. Local politics and the antics of youth.

Scene One: Night. October. Windy and clear. The heavens are lousy with stars. A school playground, deserted. Voices rise out of the night as Bill (Billions), Max (Sam), Ted (Jackson), Pat W. (Milkyum), Savage, and Diceman assemble around the swings.

Savage: Yeah, well my new Explorer has better action than the V.

Billions: V's aren't known for great action.

Diceman: Hendrix played one, so does Schenker.

Savage: That's not the point, the point is my Explorer has better action than my V, so I'm gonna use the Explorer for my solos, dude.

Bill: Uh...

Milkyum: What solos Rob? (Milkyum and Jackson giggle, Jackson reaches into his jacket and produces a bag of weed.)

Savage: My GUITAR solos, which will be awesome, and chicks will freak out.

Max: Uh, guys, I mean, uh, why are we here. No. Better yet, why am I here? (Milkum and Billions suck breath, are suddenly distracted)

Savage: Yeah, uh (glances at Jackson) well, to talk about the band, y'know. There's shit to discuss, man.

Billions: We're changing the name.

Jackson: Good.

Savage: Yeah, uh, Diceman came up with a new name - NightRokker, with two k's, and one of those things with two dots.

Billions: Umlaut.

Savage: Yeah, umlaut. Anyway, I like it, NightRokker, it's kinda like Tygers of Pan Tang.

Jackson: Tygers of Pan Tang?

Savage: Yeah, y'know, 'Spellbound'....

Jackson: In what way?

Savage: In what way what?

Jackson: .....is it like Tygers of Pan Tang? How is NightRokker like Tygers of Pan Tang?

Savage: Y'know, man. Like they're like dark, vicious, wild, .....Hey, c'mon, I.....

Billions: I like it.

Milkyum: Yeah, okay, whatever, I mean it's better than 'Giant Gargoyle'.

Jackson: I'll say...

Billions: 'Giant Gargoyle' was your idea.

Jackson: Not a very good one......

Billions: You mean you don't like 'Giant Gargoyle'.

Jackson: No, not really.

Billions: T hen why did you suggest it?

Jackson: It sounded metal.

Savage: Guys.....Guys......There's more....

Billions: It does sound metal.

Milkyum: Not really, it's more rock if you think about it....gargoyles.......sculptures, stone, rock.......

Savage: Hey.....

Milkyum: It's more Prog than Metal.......

Savage: Hey.........

Diceman: The Stones suck....

Savage: Hey! Shut Up.............We want Max to be the singer.

Pregnant beat while everybody stares at Jackson who has directed his attention to finishing the joint has been rolling.

Savage: We uh......

Billions: Jackson......

Jackson: Yeah....

Billions: Are you listening?

Jackson: Yeah, Max is the singer........who's got a light? (proffers joint)


Scene Two: Setting the same, actually, it's the same scene really. Voices are heard.


Jackson: (hides joint in jacket) Somebody is coming.....

Savage: Hey man....

Tony (Pat P.) and Tara enter. A round of 'hey man's ensue. Jackson offers joint to Tony who declines as he waves Savage over for sidebar. Jackson lights the joint and passes to Max, who offers to Tara who accepts.

Tara: Sure. (Polite puff and pass back to Max, who takes a puff and passes to Diceman)

Diceman: What are they talking about? (indicating Tony and Savage)

Cut to Tony and Savage.

Savage: But you're not the one handling weight...

Tony: Yeah, I know, but they're all looking at me man. I'm their fucking whipping boy. They want me to take a fucking lie detector test.

Savage: So do it, man. You're clean, man. You haven't sold shit to anyone.... well, not much, and not lately.....

Tony: I don't know man, that polygraph shit is all about your pulse and shit. I might get nervous, no way man.

Savage: Yeah.....

Cut Back to group. Max is passing joint to Tara. There's a noticeable connection happening between the two. They don't address each other, but their eyes never leave each other.

Jackson: ..........so let's just call it 'Fred', like, and Fred is a point, right, and like, he's fluctuating, Fred is, he's constantly fluctuating, back and forth, across a line on a graph, and the line is the constant, the speed of light, man, and Fred is creating time, right, because he's constantly becoming everything and then nothing, back and forth, expanding infinitely, and then contracting back again. It's a pulse, which is time, man.....

Tony: (approaching group) Gotta go babe.

Jackson and Max: Where? (they eye each other, eyebrows rise and fall)

Tony: Ah, yeah........Well, there's a party at low point, but I don't think we're gonna go....

Max: Low point....

Tony: Yeah, Low point.....but, like....

Max: Let's go.

Tara: Yeah, c'mon Tony, let's go...

Tony: Ah jeez.....Baby, hold on a second, .....Later gents.........(leads Tara off).

A round of 'later's ensues.

Savage: They're not going to Low Point......

Diceman: But we could. I could use a couple a three beers or so.

Savage: Well don't look at me, I'm not driving to Low Point. The fucking M.P.s follow me wherever I go these days. No way man, I can't risk it.

A general round of 'fuckin pigs' ensues.


SCHOOL

PROVOST MARSHALL

HOMECOMING FIASCO WHERE SECRETS ARE REVEALED

RIOT NIGHT GIG/ BATTLE OF THE BANDS

IT'S A FAR, FAR BETTER THING THAT I DO/FIN

THE SECRETS OF THE STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

October 14, 1978. Chicago, International Amphitheater.

One would expect an amphitheater for a spectacle such as this. The links to ancient Greece are apparent, and that's where we begin. To understand ancient history, we always go through the Greeks. They are our link to the distant past, our collective history, and the story of UFO 'Strangers In The Night'.

Etymology is a great way to start. Let's start with Phil Mogg, vocalist, founding member, and the only person to have always been in UFO. There's never been a UFO without him, and you can't say that about any other band member.

Phil - Greek for friend
Philo - Greek for 'to love' ('Misty green and blue....')
Mogg - McGogheagan (Irish)

I did a lot of looking about on the web for the roots of 'Mogg', but other than it's possible Gaelic roots, the only other thing I found was that there are lots of Moggs in Surrey, and there happen to be quite a few U.F.O. sightings in Surrey. I've always thought that Mogg might be a Welsh surname. The Welsh, as well as the Cornish, the Scots, and the Irish are descended from Celts who were pushed out of England by the Angles and the Saxons. The Welsh are also the descendants of the Druids, who built Stonehenge, which is a fabulous Henge, and an astrological navigation device used by ancient astronauts. It is not located in Surrey, however.

Now let's take a look at mad genius guitar god, Michael Schenker.

Michael - Hebrew for 'who is like God' (ahem....). Michael is the only identified Archangel, the leader of heaven's armies.

Well, now we're getting somewhere. The divinity of Schenker. It is possible that Michael is related to Heinrich Schenker, influential music theorist of the early 1900's, who's Tonal Theory based on Triads is known as Schenkerian Analysis. Triads are groups of three, and three is a divine number in Christian faith. The magic of triads was certainly known to the Egyptians, notably Ramses II, renown worshipper of Osiris, the God of the Dead, a famous ancient astronaut.

Do you see? It's all so clear!

Michael's Flying V guitar, complete with yin/yang design, is a teeming nest of ancient symbolism. All guitars represent the phallus, but the Flying V is certainly the most obvious phallic symbol of the lot. The black vs. white motif is based on the common Asian yin/yang design. Black represents man, white represents woman. In the classic Korean symbol a small dot of the opposite value is located within the main body of each field. Michael achieves this same effect with his pick guard, which is an inverse of the main body of his guitar, thusly placing white within black and vice versa. What does this mean, the interlocking of values? Man and woman in harmony, which is the true state of divinity.

Links to our past fall through different ages, and thusly are informed by those times. As the western world moved into it's Christian era, it took on different names, and meanings.

Pete Way, bassist, has been a fan favorite because of his accessibility to the fans, and his 'human-ness'. It's no wonder:

Peter - Greek for stone (stoned?). Peter is The Rock.

Though Pete left the band for a spell in the mid to late eighties, in many ways he is the rock that UFO is founded on. An original member, he, along with Phil wrote many of the UFO classics. Pete also was a spandex pioneer in the 70's, sporting tight space age fabrics, his unitard was actually based on designs drawn up by ancient Egyptian space travelers. A jump/space suit if you will.

Andy Parker, drummer. Known to UFO fans as the quiet one, Andy is everyman, literally.

Andy - Andrew - Greek for 'of man'.

The rhythm section, therefore is Rock of Man. The symbolism is glaringly obvious.

Enter Paul Raymond, keyboardist, rhythm guitarist.

Paul - Latin for 'small or humble', associated with the Apostle and Saint, originally named Saul, who was christened 'Paul' after his conversion on the road to Damascus. A latecomer.

Indeed, Paul Raymond was the most recently 'converted', appearing in the UFO line-up in 1977, just a year prior to the events of October 14, 1978. Paul's diminutive stature has been well documented. His humbleness, leads us to the answers to the questions raised by 'Strangers in the Night'

In 1969 Mogg, Way, and Parker, along with guitarist Mick Bolton founded UFO, naming the band after a club in London which was ground zero for the late sixties psychedelic scene. Or so they said. From the beginning UFO was searching. Experiencing modest success, mostly in Germany, UFO recorded two studio records and a live album (UFO 1, Flying, UFO Live), but certain key pieces to the puzzle were missing. Mogg, Way, and Parker knew they were on to something, something big, bigger than us all; they continued searching.

In 1973 that search would bring them closer to the truth. Arriving in Germany to play some scheduled gigs, Mogg, Way and Parker found themselves without the services of Mick Bolton due to a hang up with his passport. On the bill with them that night was a German band by the name of the Scorpions, who's eighteen year old guitar wiz, Michael Schenker, was asked to fill in for the gig. A gig which turned into the rest of the scheduled German gigs, which led to Michael leaving his brother Rudy and the Scorpions to move to London and join UFO full-time.

For the entire time Michael was in UFO he was the outsider, the German, separated by the barrier of language, and the fact that Michael was just plain different. He was special, a blond guitar genius, who's prowess set UFO apart from the rest, and himself apart from his band. Besides, Mike is just a bit looney, really. It comes with the territory.

Over the next four years UFO released a string of classic albums. 1974's Phenomenon showed immediately that UFO was headed somewhere, and that somewhere was up. How high was anybody's guess, but the album art for Phenomenon should have informed those who still believed that UFO was named after a rock club. The cover features a typical suburban scene, a modest middle class dwelling, maybe in Surrey. Above the house, clear as day, hovers a space craft.

1975 saw Force It. Leo Lyons, of Ten Years After fame, who produced the first three Schenker/UFO albums would prove to be a major force behind finding the lone missing link, the link with destiny, and the stars. Leo introduced keyboards into the UFO sound. Initially on Phenomenon, and Force It, he employed Ten Years After keyboardist Muddy Pudding to help UFO develop the dynamics he knew they needed if they were going to fulfill their promise of destiny. By 1976 they knew they needed a full-time keyboard player, and asked Heavy Metal Kid Danny Peyronell to join the band. With No Heavy Petting everything was in place, but it wasn't right. Though Peyronell co-wrote some of NHP's best songs, despite his considerable talent, he didn't fit the suit. The chemistry wasn't right. When searching for the correct cosmic alignment to unleash the powerful forces of the Great Mother, one can't settle for what seems right, you need what is right, and what was right was Paul Raymond.

Nobody knows where Paul Raymond came from. He just materialized in the place of Peyronell on 1977's Lights Out. Paul is a small man with a large cranium, and big black eyes. Without a doubt, the results are conclusive, the proper formula was in place. The search was not over by any means, however.

The team was assembled, but nobody knew what the event was yet. The mission was set before them, they needed only continue, destiny would find them, as long as they kept searching. The tour for Lights Out nearly derailed the whole saga. Schenker, tired, misunderstood, drunk, and crazy, left the band mid-tour somewhere in America. Mogg, Way, Parker, and now Raymond, we're not going to lose momentum. Texas native Paul Chapman was brought into the band to replace Schenker for the tour. Chapman had briefly played with UFO in 1974 in a twin guitar line-up. They played a show at the Rainbow which has been recorded and it's too good. One guitar god too many. UFO coasted through the tour in Chapman's capable hands, but when the tour was done, UFO finally located Schenker, and lured him back. There was too much at stake, too much undone, and Schenker knew it. They were close now, it could be felt.

Obsession is the cumulative result of just that, an obsession. Everything they had learned, all that they were, they put into that album, and the result is nothing short of perfection. With the perfect album under their belts, they hit the road again, back to America, the promised land, God's Country. Fortunately Schenker stuck it out, and before quitting the band again after the tour, they managed to preside over a miracle - the events of October 14, 1978.

Every transmitter needs a receptor. The Helipolis Obelisk built by Ramses II is a transmitter, and it's receptor was the International Amphitheater in Chicago Illionois. Lying dormant all the ages, waiting, ever waiting, the magic of the ancients was brought to life that night. All that was needed was the chemistry, the right equation, the correct combination of human experience - a ritual. The priests who presided over that ritual that night were a band from North London with a German guitarist named, appropriately, UFO.

The result is a map, a key to the stars, to the answers to all the ancient mysteries - Strangers in the Night. The record is a codex, a puzzle who's solution lies within itself. It is apparently so, because of what we do know about the album.

After the tour, Schenker was out the door faster than you can say 'eine Paulaner bitte'. There would be none of the standard 'touching up' of the live tapes scheduled to be released as a double live album. There was nothing holding the rest of the band back from doing a few overdubs had they chosen, but they didn't do much. It's very interesting, and ultimately revealing to look into what wasn't fixed, for that is the clue they have left for us. Therein lies the solution to the codex.

Most of the clues relate to Paul Raymond. Raymond's success with UFO lies with his role as keyboardist, and guitarist, often switching back and forth between the two mid-song. It is those transitions that serve as markers - "Hey, look here!", they say to us. And what do we find? For instance, one of the more noticeable instances occurs during Light's Out, when moving from the chorus back to the verse. The verse is chugging rhythm in F major. If you apply Schenkerian Analysis, using a triad based in F major, you will come up with three notes, when you find the corresponding value of those notes in kilohertz, you have three numerical values, which give the astrological coordinates for the very planet where Osiris is waiting for us to join him.

I swear.

It's All Too True

1965 was a great year for cars (Mustang), music (Satisfaction), art (Warhol), and probably many other things, but most notably it was the year of my birth.

In gestation I was flown to West Germany (no longer there, don't look for it), and on the 30th of October of that fantastic year I was brought into the world by a Hispanic doctor in a little U.S. Army hospital in a small German town by the name of Muenchweiler am de Rodalb. "Feliz navidad, Eduardo", indeed. According to my father 'muench' refers to monks, and 'weiler' means hamlet, so apparently there was some sort of abbey, or monastery, there at one point in the distant past. Rodalb is the very small river, more of a creek, that the town is located upon. I have no memory of that place, or of the slightly larger Pirmasens where my father, then Lieutenant Colonel Robert Wilson, Uninted States Army, was stationed.

My fathers tour of duty in the former West germany took us to Ulm, and finally Frankfurt, but alas, again I have no recollection of those places either. During this time my father commanded a battalion of engineers. They practiced maneuvers, built bridges, and greatly impressed my brothers, Rod - the eldest, and Fred, one year his junior, with their dress uniforms and motorpools full of bulldozers and cranes.

After three blissful years - the photo's from that time depict a period of unending happiness and lederhosen, we all got on a gigantic boat, the U.S. United States, and sailed back to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

I like to think I remember that trip, the rain on the deck, a movie theater? Most likely those memories are largely figmental. Kinda like the eighties.

In 1968 my dad shipped off off to Vietnam. He was a staff officer at the U.S. Army HQ in Saigon. The rest of us lived in a house on Willard Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, mostly due to the proximity we would share with The Grandmothers. I think of this time as the Grandmother Time, as I spent a lot of time with them. Grandfathers were something I never had in any tangible sense. My father's father died before I could meet him. He was called Gramps, and he was a loved and respected man. My mother's father had been estranged from the family since before any of us came along. He wasn't around, and he wasn't discussed.

We got a dog, Mary. Named after the state of Maryland, this Shetland Sheepdog was a key factor in my development, I have had a lifelong love of dogs. Mary was a bit nuerotic.

This is the part where I actually start to have memories. I remember a blue bed. By the time that bed left my life, I had peeled off at least half of the paint.

My father's mother, Dorothy 'Dottie' Wilson, who we called Granny, lived on Yuma Street in NW DC. Nice digs. There are countless photos of me in Christopher Robin outfits climbing trees and posing on the stoop. I remember watching a lot of TV there, mostly Love American Style and The Partridge Family.

My mother's mother, Isabel Rehkopf Engeman, lived in Bethesda, Maryland, the same suburb of DC where my parents would move to many years later after my Father retired from the Army. Izzy spent a goodly amount of time with me that year. I have no doubt that three young boys are a bit much for any single parent in any age.

I had a nifty red wagon. There are a mess of photos with me and the wagon.

I remember my mother carrying me up the stairs.

I remember my brother Rod, age 8, accidentally sending me to the hospital with a gash in my chin from his experimental home made see-saw. I'm sure I could have been in the wrong place at the right time. I have often been so.

A year and a day after my father left for Vietnam he came home. The one extra day was a temporary stop-over in Hawaii on the way back so my father could tell Admiral McCain about some important stuff that he had been working on. My mother, however, did not think it was important enough to justify the delay.

All know was that I didn't remember him, and now I had to share my mother with this guy. I was four, and I couldn't recognize such facts as: he cared for us, provided for us, loved my mother, and served his country with honor and dignity.

Upon his return from Vietnam, my father was given a post at the Pentagon. I don't know much about what he did there, the war was still on, and I'm sure it was all very hush hush type stuff. At this time we moved to a different neighborhood on Redwing Lane in Bethesda. Highlights from that year include watching Ultra-Man on the tiny black and white TV in our kitchen, collecting cicadas in my Playschool barn, my brothers, Rod and Fred, attending catholic school at Little Flower (not a highlight for them), and a trip to the emergency room for Fred, the victim of a curtain-rod sword fighting accident.

One day my mother left the car in neutral without the parking brake on in my grandmother's driveway. The car rolled backwards, across the street with me in it. A tree took off the open driver's side door, and the car nearly rolled into a ravine. More than the incident itself, I remember my mother driving home without a door.

I seem to remeber the dangerous stuff.

The Army at that point, 1970, decided my dad was worth further investment and gave him the rank of Colonel. He was then sent off to the War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This would be my fifth move in as many years, another key factor in my development. Later in life I would get wanderlust if I stayed in one place too long. It has not seemed to have the same effect on my brothers, who received four to five years more of it than I did (respectively).

We had a really funky house in Carlisle. I seem to remember my mother complaining, retrospectively, about the quarters. I thought it was a neat house. That year I would develop an inexplicable passion for the San Francisco Forty-Niners, start kindergarten (thanks for bringing me the clean pair of pants, mom), learn to ride a bike (a tiny German model suitable for circus midgets), and sled down the hill in my backyard. Years later I would return to that neighborhood and look aghast at the tiny mound that I remembered as being much larger, barely the length of the sled itself. Carlisle has a big bulbous water tower. I dig water towers.

Around this time I started to notice that my parents had lots of friends, and loved to have, and attend parties. The military is a society, and they get pretty damn social. Booze was big. I'm sure it still is.

In Carlisle my dad was given the opportunity to 'go academic'. That is, he was encouraged by the Army to pursue a doctorate in engineering so they could post him at West Point as a professor. He accepted this opportunity and we all headed off to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania so my father could obtain his PHD at Lehigh University. Move number six. Age six.

We spent two years there in a ranch style house that had a huge half acre, biggest half acre ever, of a vegetable garden in the back yard. We had apple and peach trees as well. To this day I won't eat a peach in it's natural state. When a peach ripens and falls off the tree it becomes a mush that is very attractive to bees. One of my chores was to pick up the rotten peaches. For some reason I don't mind bees. In the garden we grew broccoli, giant pumpkins, tomatoes, and a plethora of other fruits and vegetables including grapes, whith which my father attemped to make wine. I can't comment on the results of his efforts, but knowing my father, if he was good at it, he'd still be doing it.

These were the free and easy days of riding bikes into mailboxes - Fred goes to the emergency room, cement blocks in the sandbox- Ted goes to the emergency room, and Rod finding a worm in his broccoli - no emergency room necessary.

There was my friend Jason Shackleford who lived across the street. His dad flew jets.

I was 'educated' at Asa Packer Elementary School. We lived close by so we would walk to school. I remember having to walk 'single file, against the wall' in the hallways. At Asa Packer I began my formal education, and was immediately screwed up by it. I started there at the first grade level, I was introduced to reading and writing by the ITA system. I'm not sure what ITA stands for, but 'It's Truly Asinine' fits.

The ITA system used separate symbols for compound phonetic sounds, such as; 'th', or 'ou'. They would blend the letters together to create a whole separate symbol for that sound.

Fuckin' hippies.

Thusly, when I arrived at West Point elementary two years later, I was one messed up kid. They thought I was writing gibberish or some kind of secret hieroglyphics I made up with an imaginary friend. Consequently I did two third grades.

The giant pumpkins were awesome. Good times were had in Bethlehem, despite being locked in the basement with 'the monster' by my brothers. I remember eating escargot on New Years eve with my family. I remember the newspaper saying that the Beatles had broken up, but that it was okay because the Stones still had Mick, and I remember the Leaning Tower of Pizza, who's zeal for delivering fresh out of the oven pizza culminated in another emergency room visit for yours truly. If for no other reason, I'm happy for my time spent there because I understood Billy Joel's 'Allentown' much better than the other kids in my high school (ooh aah).

Come summertime, usually in August, we would pack ourselves off for the annual Wilson family vacation. This invariably meant camping, visits to places of historic import, usually a battlefield, and plenty of consumee. My Dad has got a thing for consumee.

During a trip to Nags Head North Carolina we encountered hurricane Agnes, which sent us scurrying for the shelter of a Holiday Inn, and a visit to the Appamatox Court House; technically not a battlefield, but it still qualifies.

In 1977, we were on vacation on our way to Kingston, Ontario, when we passed a stadium in Utica advertising the up-coming Elvis Presley concert. The next day, in Kingston, the death of Elvis was everywhere on the news. All I could think was how pissed off those folks in Utica must have been.

In the summer of the year of our lord 1972, I was six going on seven, and we moved to West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy. My father was given the post of Assistant Dean of Cadets, while waiting for his future job, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, to become vacant, which it would within a year or so.

West Point is a great place to grow up, and I was fortunate to have had eleven years there to avoid doing just that. West Point is on the Hudson river, about fifty or so miles north of New York City, surrounded by woodland - revolutionary forts decaying not one hundred yards from my house. Michie Stadium, home of Army Football, lay a quarter mile away across tranquil Lusk Resevoir. How could a kid not be happy in this American Vatican. Much like the Church (I'll get into that later), the Army takes care of it's own. West Point is an island within. Everything you need, they supply. On post we had a grocery store (commissary) a department store (PX) a gas station, a movie theater, a concert hall, ski slope, golf course, you name it.

Our house was a mansion by any normal standard of living.

I made friends, some would move on; Bobby White, Doug Crissman, others would remain like Dave Anderson. I have known Dave for thirty-three years. His father Jim was stationed at West Point so long that his house on Partridge Place is still known as Jim Anderson's house years after he moved away.

Doug Crissman lived in Stony Lonesome, a housing area on top of the mountain that West Point leans upon as it holds to the bank of the Hudson river. Behind Doug's house in the woods was a tree fort that all the kids knew about. One day, Dave, Doug, and myself decided to climb the tree fort. I'm not sure if we ever made it up, all I know is that Dave came down with a thump and a broken arm, leg, and some internal injury. Dave recovered in due time, smelly cast and all. For years we would look in amazement at the foot long scar on his abdomen.

Sometime in the early seventies, I began to notice music. Somewhere between the last year in Bethlehem, and the first year at West Point I began to listen to the radio while playing with the G.I. Joe's. The first song I remember really digging is 'Little Willy' by The Sweet. The Sweet would be a seminal band in my musical development, but that would happen much later. From this time period, 72-76, my musical interface was AM radio, 77 WABC. I liked music. I had not begun to specialize. I didn't know about genre, and hence I was into 'Rubber Band Man' as much as 'The Night Chicago Died' or 'Billie Don't Be A Hero'. I loved story songs, 'Seasons In The Sun', 'The Cat's In The Cradle', and 'Bad Bad Leroy Brown'. There was one song that I really liked that I thought was called 'Sing Women'. That song turned out to be 'Dream On'.

Back in the seventies we had something known as winter. In winter you have a phenomenon called snow. Maybe it's me, but it just seemed to snow more back then, and the snow stayed on the ground longer as well. We had joyous days on end making snow forts, jumping into snow drifts, and generally enjoying life. I still long for those winter days, no school, and nothing to do but play, and play I did.

Ah, the 70's; Jaws, Star Wars, stupid synthetic clothing, and the Dallas Cowboys. I was a Dallas fan back then. Hey, I was twelve, what do you want from me. Staubach, Newhouse, Dorsett, Pearson, Pearson, Golden Richards, Too Tall Jones, Hollywood Henderson, the stuff of legend.

Before long however I drifted out of conventional sport. I tried baseball, I lasted two weeks, couldn't field or hit. Then I did hockey, which to my credit I was okay at, until one year everybody grew three inches and I did not, thus ending my hockey career. Basketball - one season, no baskets. So it was on to soccer, the last refuge of a failed sportsman. I wasn't bad and lasted a couple of seasons, but man, all that running, up and back, up and back, screw that. It's only natural then that I should set my sights on Cross Country, right? I did. I also signed up for a 10 kilometer run event. I finished, that's all I'll say, except that what kept me in it until the end was my neighbor Suzy who kept passing me every time I got winded, I couldn't let a girl that I knew, let alone a girl I had kissed, beat me. Thanks Suzy, I would have caved without you.

Seventh grade; I start getting more into Rock and Roll, and less into sports, with the exception of Skiing, which I was an absolute nut for, and still would be today if it wasn't so dammed expensive. West Point had it's own ski slope, and as small as it is, it was a great place to spend my afternoons back in those years when we actually had snow in the greater New York area and I used to kiss Suzy.

Music became my main thing. My brother Rod got me Abbey Road for Christmas 1976, and within six months I had managed to obtain Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper, and both the blue and red 'best of' collections. It would seem that the record collector deep inside me had been born.

Sometime in 1976 I had also gotten into KISS, and for those two years, 1977 and 1978, there was nothing else. I used to dress up in my hockey gear and pretend I was Gene Simmons, I was the God of Thunder, tennis racquet and all.

During this time both of my brothers would, along with my neighbor Brian Hutchison, try to bring some new music into my world. Fearing that a steady diet of Kiss wasn't healthy, I started getting into other hard rock acts of the day: Aerosmith, Van Halen, Ted Nugent, the standard Cal Jam fare. It was armed with such music, that I set off to Germany in the fall of 1979.

The ways of academia baffle me, as will prove to be evident later, but I know this; if a professor establishes himself at an institution, whether through publication, or diligence, they get tenured, which has nothing to do with the number ten, but amounts to job security. You gotta fuck up serious to get canned. A perk of tenure is sabaticle, or, some time off from the grind, usually a year, to take in, recharge, write, explore, whatever.

In '79, my father was due for sabaticle. He decided that he missed what he calls 'The Big Green Army', and took a post with the Army Corps of Engineers at the USAREUR HQ in Heidelberg, West Germany.

I was not all that thrilled about it. I was thirteen. A year away from the girls you're just starting to make some headway with (okay, so a lot of guys were making headway with Jenny Crapps), and a year away from the guys I'd lie about them with, was not, in my view, a good thing.

I've come to regret my negative attitude.

My Dad went over earlier during the summer of '79, my mother barely survived. He flew back at the end of August to gather up Mother and myself. My brothers would both be starting college that year, and hence not coming with us.

My brother Rod had attempted college the year before - a misguided enrollment at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He really didn't begin the college part, he just got a haircut, got yelled at for a few days, and then split. I was glad to see him, and tried not to laugh at his head. He spent the rest of that year renting recreational gear before attending the University of Bridgeport.

Fred went to MIT. I remember the trip to Boston when Fred was checking it out. We stayed out in the 'burbs with some friends of the folks. When we visited the campus, I bought the Gene Simmons solo record at the Student Union. Thusly I began a long association between college, music, and sleeping in my clothes.

When we landed in Frankfurt- we're back to Germany folks, I remember being tired and unsure of the black blur that whizzed by us as we drove down the Autobahn toward Heidelberg. "That was a Porsche." My Dad informed.

We drove on to our quarters on Brandywine Lane, Patrick Henry Village, just outside of Heidelberg proper, about an hour.

We dropped our bags, napped, got back in the family truckster (Chevy Malibu station wagon, not too conspicuous in Europe), and drove to some weekend engineer retreat my Dad had lined up at a resort in some wald or another northeast of Heidelberg. It wasn't very fancy, but Germany at large is not too fancy. Germany is clean, comfy, and alien.

The Germans do, after all, speak German. The clerk at the Gasthaus, however, spoke better English than I did. That only added to the otherworldlieness I was experiencing. There was a small game farm/petting zoo, which was cool. The Gasthaus toyed with being a resort with some outdoor sporting stuff, whatever the Germans have instead of tetherball, croquet, and mini golf. I was tired, and thirteen. The biggest impression made was that of the sheet/blanket comforter bedding, the duvet. I liked it very much.

So now I'm in Germany, starting eighth grade, and I know nobody. I was probably a bitch around the house those first few weeks, but through the Power of Rock and Roll I made friends relatively fast. I fell in with the tough crowd, the bad kids from the military version of the wrong side of the tracks - the kids from the 'stairwells', the non-com kids - sons of soldiers. I was a Colonel's kid, and the only things we had in common were the army, being thirteen, and Ted Nugent. I had some new releases - Aerosmith's Night In The Ruts' in particular, that hadn't made into the bins at the PX yet. They had Deep Purple, the Scorpions, AC/DC, and Motorhead.

I learned quite a bit from Andy, Kurt, and the gang. Sex went beyond kissing in this world. Drinking and smoking were commonplace, though I would not indulge myself with intoxicants for a couple of years yet. I was shocked, and extremely delighted. West Point was quite a repressive place in those respects, and I was experiencing a culture shock of a different sort. I remember one day after school; Andy had scored a bottle of Jack Daniels and we kicked around PHV while the guys got duly wasted. I then brought a gang of drunk thirteen year olds home to find my parents engaged in entertaining my aunt Anne and uncle Drake. For some reason, I didn't get in any trouble, most likely because I was sober. I was watching, and learning. I watched them do lots of things I wasn't ready for, but I was getting ready.

Over Christmas break, my brothers came for a vistit, and the promise of skiing in the Alps was ample attraction enough to keep Fred in Germany for a few weeks. We went to Garmisch, and Fred and I hit the slopes. I love skiing, and I love skiing fast. Fred gave me some proper lessons on downhill racing style which would come to haunt my fellow patrons of the ski slope back at West Point. Fred went on a couple of other U.S. Army sponsored ski trips during that winter break. He claims to have had a great time. Being that he was probably traveling and hanging out with the mothers and fathers of my school chums, I have no doubt of it.

I guess I was having a good time, because I got a 'D' in math, and was 'restricted' for a good third of the year. I dated two girls, not simultaneously, Dina Guzman, and Carol Lapponese. I got crushed by the untimely removal of Ms. Lapponese from my world, but such is Army life. One gets used to losing friends, and one gets good at making new ones.

I saw Boston and Rainbow, not simultaneously, at the hockey arena in Schwetzingen, missed Judas Priest and AC/DC (same bill) in Manheim, and basically got on as a normal eighth grader.

Except I got to see Europe (not the band).

Knowing that I may never return, and for ulterior self-motivated reasons I'm sure, my folks took me around the joint; Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, France, and, of course, Germany - East and West.

Right.

The sight of the Alps as they creep over the horizon while you're toolin' down the Autobahn (my Dad obeyed American speed limits in Germany - 55 to the bone) is one hell of a sight, probably much like toolin' through Colorado heading for the Rockies. ( I had never seen that, it would be some time before I got a chance to explore America west of the original thirteen colonies.) What's cooler is to wake up in the middle of the Alps, having arrived by cover of darkness, to majestic splendor.

What was becoming the biggest drag in my life was not school, but church. My mother raised her children Roman Catholic, my father stayed out of it. Sometime in the early seventies at West Point, I had been pressed into service as an altar boy. I have ambivalent feelings about that experience. I think it was my first taste of being on stage, which I liked, but it was boring as hell, and I definately felt goofy wearing a surplice. I had successfully removed myself from those duties by the time we reached Germany, but now I had to go to Mass with my mom every sunday and be duly punished for my various 'sins' with an aincient torture techique called boredom. What I did that year to pass the time while some guy blabbered on about God, what I did while everybody recited the Liturgy by rote - not even bothering to examine what they were even saying, - was read the Bible. I read the whole thing that year, one hour a week. I figured that I knew enough about both testaments, and that I could move on. My mother, however, disagreed, and continued to push church on me until I moved out of her home some years later. "Give it up to God" she'd day. God wants an hour a week aparently. Like probation.

I took in history virtually by osmosis, I was breathing it in, it was everywhere. In Italy I found a culture that was comfortable with both their glorious past, and their present rather lethargic state. They seemed to have given up worrying about the rest of the world, and were just getting on with their day. In Germany I found a sense of conscious effort to get over their recent history, there was always an elephant in every room, but both the elephant and the room were very clean. In Switzerland and Austria it seemed time barely moved.

When you're a fourteen yearl old wide eyed American male, don't tour Paris with yer mum. I was embarrased the entire time. Apparently, I picked up a love for pepper steak there. I went to the Louvre, and saw the Venus De Milo, and the Mona Lisa. It was weird actually. The Venus was kinda just plopped in a intersection on some stairs, and barely anybody really took it in as they hurried past to go see the Mona Lisa, which was behind so much glass and other people's heads that it was impossible to see anyway.

I began to read for pleasure. On the road with mom and pop one needs distraction. I was hooked on horror. I read all the books of movies I had seen, The Exorcist, The Omen, Amityville Horror, which led me to Stephen King, and a lifetime of readership.

While in Europe I furthered myself down the road of gastronomic exploration. My mom and Dad tell me that I ordered pepper steak (au poivre) everywhere we went. I think that was just France and Italy. I remember a healthy amount of schnitzel and spatzle that year.

Heidelberg itself was fantastic with a famous schloss. A quick bus ride, sometimes during school hours, took us downtown to Hauptstrasse, a pedestrian only main drag type deal with shops, and Konditorei.

Here was the real record store. The PX only had a limited selection of records. I remember seeing 'London Calling', 'Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar', and of course the Scorpions 'Lovedrive' - the greatest record cover of all time - lining the walls of that record store on Hauptstrasse. There was also a guitar shop, Salamander, and we'd go in there and drool over Les Pauls and Flying Vs. We'd go to the Konditorei and point at a pastry and use the only German we knew; "Eine mal bitte" (which really should have been; "Einmal bitte"), crude German for "can I have a piece of that?". We'd hand over our Deutsche Marks which we'd obtained at the currency exchange at Mark Twain Village, stuff our faces with gooey, creamy, breadthings, then get back on the bus to get home before anybody figured out our scam. Something would inevitably go wrong of course, and we'd get busted. Once, we thought we were busted by one of our teachers who saw us as he came out of a shop on Hauptstrasse, but as we looked up at the letters 'SEX' over the shop he had been patronizing, we figured we had enough on him to keep him quiet.

In the late winter the Germans celebrate Fashing. People dress up, have parades, and get drunk. My buddies and I went to Hauptstrasse for the event. I remember discovering that I did not find women with hairy pits unattractive. Years later Madonna would be much relieved.

I made a big deal of my misery while in Germany, but all the photos suggest I had a great time, and my memories have caused me to yearn a plenty. I had made friends,:Andy, Kurt, Bruno, Forrest, and even had a few girlfriends. I grew my hair, and saw life as it was for those who lived in the real world. It was time, however, to return to the American Vatican - West Point. My eyes had been opened, though, and I was about to start high school, which was to be a public school - James I. O'Neill in Highland Falls. The real world was waiting, and so were my friends, and something that was called the 'Pat Phillips Gang', but was becoming The Skateboard Gang.

Black Plastic.

I should start a band called Black Plastic.

This is where I need help. The summer I got back, 1980, and the summer after get confusing, largely because I was away most of both summers, but somebody was home.

Rod says:

"Summer of 1980 I came back to an empty house, got the Vega out of storage in a garage down by Wilson road, and worked as a bell boy at the hotel (Thayer). I had the house to myself most of the summer, but you guys (Mom, Dad, and myself) came back before it ended. Summer of 1981, Mom and Dad went on a two month trip around the country, you (me) went to Boston, I got Razz (cat) and put up the black plastic to keep your friends (most likely Pat, Sam, and Bill) from looking in the windows down stairs (basement). One summer I worked at the PX in the four seasons department, and one summer I sold hot dogs at Delafield. Maybe that was all in one summer, this is where I get confused."

Fred Says:

"I was reading the Rolling Stone Record Guide and going to Nuggets every day that summer (probably both) in Boston."

Pat Phillips Says:

"I hope for your mom's sake that the foreboding talk of the "Skateboard Gang" back at WP didn't cause too much concern for the soon to be returning Wilson family even though, thanks to your brother, your WP residence was the best kept secret den of iniquity sitting squarely in the belly of the beast amongst WP's Jr. level power brokers, that was truly a great summer! I recall asking a lot: Where the hell was Fred?"

Rod:

" She asked me if we played loud music and if this is why Colonel Tiller always sneered at her. I told her that the music wasn't any louder than when they were home, and Colonel Tiller probably didn't like all the people that were coming over to the house all the time."

Indeed, I bet he did not.

Some things had changed. I inheirited two new friends through Pat Wilson, whom I had met during the summer of 78. He was hanging out at North Pool with Damien Palladino one day. We had a mutual friend named Doug who had moved to Hawaii where Pat was coming to West Point from. That's the way it is in the military, every three years you trade up friends, and there's always somebody who knows somebody from somwhere else.

My two new friends were Bill Devine and Sam Saldivar. Sam was a filmaker, and Bill was a guitar player. I am pleased by the fact that over twenty-five years later I can still say the same about both of them.

Sam and Bill had built a mock-up of a spaceship in Sam's basement, where Sam and his brother Matt had built a small studio. Sam, Bill Pat, Matt, and I made films, radio shows, and played Dungeons and Dragons. I don't think we let Matt play D&D.

Bill Devine was already a good guitar player when I met him upon my return from Germany in 1980. Pat Wilson and I had been messing around with guitars prior to my departure, and during the year that I was away he had obtained a drum set by way of a cadet who needed a place to keep it. It was a Sonor kit, which was cool because Phil Rudd from AC/DC played Sonor drums. The music thing had developed into a more actual deal while I was away, and when I got back, I did my best to jump right in. I remember learning "My Best Friend's Girlfriend" with Pat from Jamie ‘Hey Hey’ Lagasse in somebody's attic, possibly Pat's. It was only natural that a band formed. Pat Phillips and some of the skate crew had been assembling a band, Head, and we were struck with idea of doing the same.Bill and Jamie played guitar. Bill had just gotten his Silverburst Les Paul, which is still his main guitar 28 years on, and Jamie had a D'Agostino Les Paul that was a brilliant piece of work. It was wine red, and played just like a Gibson. Pat played the Sonor drum kit previously mentioned. Bob Gosiki was the only bass player in town, so he was in. Bob was the son of a West Point Band member, and he had gear. He had a Gibson Grabber bass, a Kustom bass amp (that quilted sparkly blue plastic upholstered beast). Bob also had an amp he built, which was like twelve watts or something. We used it as the PA for my vocals. I remember two things about that amp: it had an AC/DC sticker on it, and it was so weak that you couldn't hear me above the band. I look back on the latter fact as a fortunate circumstance.I was bloody horrible. I could neither sing, nor remember the lyrics to the various Deep Purple and AC/DC songs we were doing. The distance I have from those days, and the things I have done since leads me to believe that I simply had no idea what I was doing, but at the same time I knew that cover tunes were not my bag. I didn’t know what my bag was yet, but I was looking for it.Although I wasn't interested in covers, they were, and are, where it starts. I ended up extemporizing, improvising, and fucking about over top of whatever song was being played. I didn't know it then and neither did anybody else, but what I was doing was writing songs. Bill had a riff that he called 'Center Of The Universe' which was an ode to another local guitar player and son of a West Point Band member, Bubba Dixon. Bubba was a natural musician, he could play, and he knew it. I gave the tune a rebirth under the more direct moniker, 'Bubba Is a Cock'. 'Bubba Is a Cock’ was quickly followed by 'Jill's A Bitch', and 'Donny Go Home' (to the tune of ‘Cocaine’), the subject matter of which, respectively, were the Teen Center manager/supervisor, and my neighbor, the late Donald Tillar.We played two gigs, I think. I remember one at the Teen Club, where ‘Jill’s a Bitch’ was born, and thanks to Sam Saldivar’s recent YouTube post, I was reminded of a show at the Golf Club House. The lack of sound on the 8mm footage was a blessing for me, but it would have been cool to hear the band. Mostly I got a kick from the milk crate light show, and Billy’s Molson t-shirt.Songs about people that I didn’t like couldn’t keep me in the line-up of Platinum Dragon for very long. Soon came the fateful night at the West Point Elementary School playground where I was relieved of my front man duties in favor of Sam Saldivar, who had bailed on NYMA, came to O’Neil, and got cool quick. I'm sure I wasn't happy about it, but I think I was relieved. I knew I wasn’t holding up my end. I was still enthusiastic about the band. I liked them, they were my friends. Very shortly after my dismissal, Platinum Dragon was transformed into Nightwolf.Jamie moved to Colorado. Rob ‘Savage’ Simpson, and his cool-ass siverburst Gibson Flying V replaced him. Bob Gosiki was sacked in favor of Chris Dice. I guess everybody had enough gear by then.I don’t remember a whole lot about Nightwolf. I remember a show at the Golf Club House. I remember the lyric:“I don’t really know nuthin’ about ya”They wrote songs. That was way ahead of the curve. A lot of the creativity must have come from Sam, who was certainly the most creative person we knew.At any rate, Nightwolf lacked legs. It ended all too soon.I think, at this point Rob Simpson joined Head. Bret Baugh, guitarist for Head, must have moved on as well. Bret was the most gifted musician in town. He had that ease of play, that effortless vibe that you see in guys like Hendrix or Clapton.Head, to my poor memory, at that point, consisted of Pat Phillips (vox), Dave Palmer (guitar), Savage (guitar), Hutch (drums). Did Dice play bass at this point?Head gigs were fairly memorable.The North Pool gig stands out. My mother, Peg, whose chocolate chip cookies were renown, loaded up the Wilson family Malibu Station Wagon with band gear for the event.There was something about the sound reverberating off the cement; it worked for War Pigs at least.Riot Night.Legend.Palmer doing ‘FX’ with the Memory Man. A proper show with lights………and a church…..How does that happen? Who let’s a bunch of teenagers loose in the basement of a church overnight, largely unsupervised, with sound gear, video gear, light gear, other gear…..?I remember spinning the first Schenker record before the show, and Chris Phillips suggested ‘Victim of Illusion’. The night ended with watching Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon?) on a big screen as the sun came up.Then they all graduated, but they weren’t done yet.Before all that though, we need to revisit our friends Pat Wilson and Billy ‘Guitar’ Devine. After Nightwolf they went underground for a bit, jamming in my basement, and Bill’s. Bill had moved next door to me in a weird magical confluence of circumstance. Pat played bass for a bit, but soon succumbed to the gravitational pull of the guitar.Around the same time a friendship had developed between our immediate crew and Brian Spears who was succumbing to the gravitational force of the drums.The base of operations moved to Brian’s basement in Highland Falls, and Talon was born.I suppose Diceman had been playing with Head, because initially there was no bass.I don’t think there was bass at the Talon gig when they played at the school rally for financial aid. I do remember the set. Okay, I remember two songs. An instrumental called ‘Backseat Overture’ featuring Pat’s phase pedal, and a cover of ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ featuring Lynn Maloney. Lynn could sing, and she had the Benetar look well in hand. I leant her my silver spandex pants, y’know, as you do. I got them back soiled. Sorry, Lynn, if this public outing upsets you, but posterity must be observed. Lynn decided panty lines could not be tolerated, and so she went commando in my spandex as she menstruated all up inside them shits.Eventually Chris Dice joined Talon and brought his singular showmanship to the band as well as the sorely needed bass. Chris was great to have in the band. His good nature and work ethic were commendable.Talon gigged a few times, at the obligatory Golf Club House, the 49er Lodge, and most notably a major show at the Fort Montgomery Elementary School. We pulled out all the stops for that one, which basically means me lighting off flash pots manually behind Brian. There was another female guest appearance. I forget her name. She was okay, she sang Frida’s ‘I Know What’s Going On’ while Pat hid behind his Carvin stack clearly wanting no part of it.Like most local bands at the time, Talon played mostly cover material, but there were some original compositions. The most memorable was, of course, ‘Take Up the Cross’, which featured a Brian penned lyric about the Children’s Crusade. Everybody was excited about the new tune, and when a chance to record it came up, the opportunity was leapt upon.Bill Walsh is a legend. He is a musical genius. He was also, at the time, a serious party machine. Bill was a West Point Band member as well as an audio engineer. He had the keys to West Point’s very sophisticated recording studio. Who knew?Bill took us in, skillfully ushered the band through the process, and produced a nice little demo featuring ‘Take Up the Cross’, a cover of Judas Priest’s ‘You Got Another Thing Coming’, and probably Sweet’s ‘Action’. I’m not sure if the band paid Bill for the session, but I do know Lagasse dropped by.At the end of that school year, ‘82/83, Talon played an outdoor show at the O’Neill High School Graduation where Bill and Brian received their diplomas. It was off to college for half of Talon, and thus, the end, almost……The Death of Talon was the title given by Pat of the video of their farewell gig. Bill and Brian came back for winter break, and we decorated the Ace in the Ground – Brian’s basement, and invited a bunch of friends.Talon went all out in preparation. Costumes, make-up, set design, oh yeah, and everybody took acid about an hour before the show. The latter was regrettable, especially considering the costumes, make-up, and set design. Hey, we didn’t know, really, we had no idea.The first few songs went well, then a fuse blew and all the power went out as they began ‘Mr. Crowley’. As unsettling as that was, by the time we got things running again, the effects of the LSD had begun to undermine the bands ability to perform. Brian, in his own words, got lost in his cymbals, and Pat seemed to have forgotten how to play. Thankfully somebody gave their guitar to Dave Palmer, and Talon officially died as a loose jam session evolved in the wake. I think the lawn doctor practiced his lurid craft on Brian’s front lawn that night. Pat and I giggled a lot.Back to Head. I know a few of them went out to LA for a stint, Palmer staying longer and coming back a shred-god. Before long they obtained the residence that gave them their name. The House In Newburg. Pat, Hutch, Palmer, Savage……who played bass? Diceman?It was a great house. The basement housed the rehearsal space as well as at least one bedroom. There was pinball, booze, and mayhem. That house prepared me for college much more than O’Neill did.Head wasn’t Head any more, but I don’t think they ever landed on another name, nor do I think they ever played out. They were The Band at the House, and they practiced Metal tunes, many of which were unsuitable for Pat’s bluesy gravel pit voice.In 1984 Metal cover bands could get paying gigs, and I guess that was the idea. I always thought they should have been writing their own material.Neither the band nor the house lasted very long as they began to be interested in their lives and soon went their separate ways. It turns out there wasn’t a surplus of dudes who could sing Maiden or Dio.Savage went to California to be an actor. Palmer went down south into academia. Hutch moved to San Francisco. Pat enrolled at the local Community College. I don’t know what Dice did, or if he was even a part of the scene at that point.1984 saw the end of the West Point Skateboard Gang bands in the proper sense. Many of us stayed involved with music, however. During breaks from school music was still being made.The Ace in the Hole gave us Danger Penguin. Ostensibly, at its inception, the Danger Penguin line-up was Brian (drums), Pat Wilson (guitar) and Mitch Turner (guitar). Soon Pat Phillips was showing up as well. The band never gigged, but it served as the spring board into the next era, the studio years.Pat Wilson obtained a multi-track console and tape machine. We all caught the bug. By 1986 Pat Phillips and Brian had converted Pat’s parent’s basement into the Coal Mine Studio.We recorded every chance we got. Mitch would come up from Georgia. Whoever was at the University of Maryland at the time would make the trip. We learned a craft.Eventually the Coal Mine closed its doors, and we all went off to our lives, but those of us who came out of the Coal Mine are all still involved with making music today. Pat Phillips has a studio in Atlanta. I have mine in Brooklyn. Mitch is a Doctor of Tunes at LaGrange College in Georgia. Pat Wilson still plays his white Les Paul, and Brian plays drums with Jesus.
I had trouble with chicks. I couldn't come from a strong place with a girl, I was very passive, and my relationships with girls seemed to follow the trend of unrequited love disguised as a close freindship. I had done well in Germany, and couldn't find a way to carry that over back home. My freshman and sophmore years were washouts romantically. My biggest problem was the fact that I always seemed to develop crushes on girls who were into Pat Wilson Girls he invariably treated shabbily. I was a shoulder for a good long while.

James I. O'Neill High School was a nutty place. O'Neill had students from West Point, Highland Falls, Fort Montgomery, and Garrison. Highland Falls is the town adjacent to West Point, and like many towns across the world, it basically existed to serve the needs of West Point. This underlying fact caused a divide, as it does, socially between it's populations. Fort Montgomery was an island of it's own, and Garrison was like a foriegn country located across the Bear Mountain Bridge.

1980 at O'Niell was still the 70's in many ways. Think Trans Am driving, Led Zepplin t-shirt wearing, football players. Hell, think Richard Linklater's 'Dazed and Confused'. That was the high school I entered in the fall of 1980. By 1984 we got the skinny ties and spiky hair, but we were a bit behind.