PenguinPolozza: A brief history of music in my life Part 2 College Life

(On the right hand column is a Playlist music player which has some of the songs I will mention in this series. Feel free to play them in the background as you read, for the very popular multimedia effect)

College and young adulthood brought me a tremendous diversity of sounds, so much music, so little time. There were a number of people in this period who introduced me to different sounds, styles and musicians that still are the face of the music I listen to today. Let me begin by saying that almost every musician or group I am going to name are well know and were getting radio air play at the time. When I say someone introduced some music to me, what I generally mean is that it was through their influence that I began to listen deeper, began to get to other album cuts, rather than just the stuff on the radio.

My first college roommate Kevin got me hooked on Todd Rundgren. A bit off beat, as was my roommate, many evenings and early mornings were spent with Kevin, Todd, Thoreau, and discussions about philosophy or religion or where we would be sometime in the future. He also introduced me to Cat Stevens, someone I had very little knowledge about at that time but ended up listening a lot to in the college years. I can remember the anticipation of waiting until the next Cat Stevens album got released.

Jim and Ron, college friends a couple years older than me, brought the counter-culture feel of music into my experience. Among the most prominent were Jethro Tull, George Harrison, and John Lennon. Tull was the hard rock I hadn’t listen to before. They were sex, drugs and rock-n-roll and I enjoyed every minute of them. I went to my first concerts with Jim and Ron, several Tull shows in NYC and Long Island, and each was a treat. As for the Harrison and Lennon connection, Jim and Ron showed me there was life after the Beatles and that it didn’t need to be the syrupy Paul stuff. Harrison had a unique sound and did causes while Lennon lived his life in the very public and condemning eye, and allowed his followers glimpses into the pain he experienced. Give peace a chance. Unfortunately there are no Lennon songs on Playlist, license issues. One final influence by these two guys was a Texas singer named Shawn Phillips. Again counter-culture, with long blond hair and a wild voice, I listened to him for hours and still play his stuff today. Not well known, he had the ability to hook you and bring you in.

Another college buddy, Billy got me started into Yes. At a time when most music was pretty straight forward, Yes was doing crazy things and again hours were spent listening to them What was remarkable to me now looking back at this is the fact that Yes music was so different from what you would have guessed Billy liked. He was always one to go off in a different direction than you would have expected.

A final college influencer was MHG, aka Mark. He was a big guy with bit thoughts, dreams and ideas. He was the planner of the 3 am trip to Nathan’s in Coney Island, a driving force behind the amateur shows we did in college and the planner of NY Times Sunday afternoons with bagels, coffee and good music. One of those musicians was Jackson Browne. First a side note; as a college freshman MHG offered a bunch of us a chance to go see some new guy at a local NYC club. I passed on seeing Jackson Browne that night and regretted it later. One other note; Kevin and I drove cross country after college graduation and stopped in Winslow, Arizona to stand on a corner to wait for a girl driving a pickup truck. Mission accomplished! MHG also introduce me to the various configurations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Such tone, harmony and musicianship there. Saw Stephen Stills and Neil Young in concerts – Young at MSG in NYC, Stills in a college auditorium on Long Island. 18,000 fans to maybe 1000. Very cool. MHG also introduced me to Monte Python but that's something completely different!