The Middle...

"I am a man who walks alone,

And when I'm walking a dark road,

At night or strolling through the park,

When the light begins to change,

I sometimes feel a little strange,

A little anxious when it's dark.

Fear of the dark,fear of the dark,

I have constant fear that something's always near.

Fear of the dark,fear of the dark,

I have a phobia that someone's always there."
--Bruce Dickerson, Iron Maiden from “Fear of the Dark,” 1992.

During my post-college years, I was busy establishing myself as an eighties “decent music” argument maker. There were great music by the likes of Costello, The Clash, Cheap Trick, The Ramones, and the like.

I was also playing stuff the kids gave me and became interested in grunge and alternative music.

Then eBay happened.

I started buying tons of discs to sell at garage sales and local pawn shops. I was good, very good; in knowing what was out-of-print and/or rare.

I also knew what sold.

Then I hit upon a few Goldmines. One was a guy who had a ton of Metal CD’s that he was unloading because his brother did not pay him rent. I snagged tons of CDs by such artists as Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, and Pantera. I started selling these at a small fortune—so I burned a few to play. I liked some Megadeth and all of the Metallica.

I also found a guy who had the rare Castle British Two-fers of the first six Iron Maidens CD’s for a mere price of $1.50 each. These were selling for $35.00 a pop on eBay. I also copied all of these.

I was never much of a fan of Iron Maiden—probably because I did not listen to it, but mostly because I had not heard any of it on the radio and the like and because I worked on a newspaper with an editor in college who was a big Maiden fan. I felt he was an idiot and anything he liked had to be just awful—so I avoided it. Call it self-motivated snobbery.

Anyway, I started playing and liking Maiden. Pam (the former wife) was into Guns ‘N’ Roses and Metallica. She also went into her, what I like to call, “Alternative/Metal” phase of playing the likes of Fuel, Staind, Godsmack, and their ilk. She went to a few concerts, on her own of these groups. I would have just felt out of place going—but she liked it. She played some, and I had to admit, Staind and Fuel had their moments, but Korn and Nine Inch Nails just were too loud and too obnoxious for me.

Anyway, after I made a small fortune on eBay and combing pawn shops for cheap metal, I met an eBay dealer who sold me tons of metal CD’s discounted. He must have owned a warehouse, and I started buying stuff just to own it. From these deals, I amassed the entire Nazareth, AC/DC, Van Halen, Scorpions, Kiss, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Slade (a bit more glam), Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Metallica, and Megadeth catalogs to name a few—I also snagged some nice Blue Oyster Cult early Aerosmith, and Motley Crue CD’s.

I went back and played these albums, nearly twenty years after many of their original releases and decided there was something of merit on them—and my snobbery was really not needed.

Taking some heat from friends who still knew me as a sophisticated “classic rock,” “punk rock,” “rockabilly,” “oldies,” and “blues” aficionado; I really began to reexamine my whole concept of Metal. Was this music “Metal” or “Hard Rock” and did it matter?

I think anyone would argue that Sabbath, Priest and Metallica was “metal,” but one could safely argue that AC/DC was more hard rock—as was Van Halen, Maiden, BOC, Scorpions, and Aerosmith.

I began reading about it, as this was a bother for me. Seriously, as trivial as it seemed, I wanted some direction. The “Heavy Metal” I knew as a kid had changed. There were now new divisions as there was Thrash Metal, Speed Metal, Power Metal, Classic Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal, Black Metal, and so many more classifications. Realistically, Thrash would never allow a keyboard that I might find in Deep Purple. High pitched voices like those used in Rush and Priest gave way to guttural growls. All of which still belonged in various sub-genres of Heavy Metal.

I thought the rebirth of Metal was nearly complete, but there was one final turn to take.

That part of the story in the next blog.