Mike Labay
» Location: San Antonio
» Favorite Album: Full Circle
Frank, I dunno if Texas has treated you respectfully, (I recall a Sunken Gardens show where we did not) but there are a few of us down here that really dig what you're about. In the 70's and 80's we had a DJ by the name of Joe Anthony who turned us on to the latest and greatest bands from Canada: Rush, Killer Dwarves, Budgie, Moxy, Triumph, April Wine, etc etc. at 99.5 KISS radio, in San Antonio, Tx.
I was only a freshman in high school, but I remember vividly how many of the upperclassmen would drive up screeching into the student parking lot each morning with your live tape BLASTING through Jensen Triaxial speakers (placed in bookcase enclosures and sitting on the rear decks) and JetSound amplifiers with the green or amber L.E.D. multi-segment indicators completely lit.
A couple of years later, I heard "Hang On" rip through my car stereo a few times. Holy Crap! Your voice! That blue note! You were just nailing it! Funny thing, I never obtained a copy of that song. So now, 20 years later, not remembering the title or the album or really anything about how it went, I just began to sift through some of the tunes from your earlier albums.
And then it just hits you. All those memories come flooding back as soon as you hear those notes played that certain way and in that certain order. The planets re-align. The brain begins to manufacture it's own natural dopamine/seratonin etc etc and the spirit rises.
That's rock and roll. It never leaves you; it helps you get through.
Thanks, Frank.
-Mike Labay, hangin' on.