All of my schoolmates listened to the radio. And if you weren't antisocial, you had friends and classmates who talked about music. They made tapes for you. You exchanged cassettes. When you went to others' homes, you watched MTV, put on a record, popped in a cassette. When you played sports, someone inevitably had a boombox. You toted a Walkman everywhere you went. Even if you were a wallflower, dances introduced new music. And of course, because there wasn't an Internet, we had to go to record stores. Said record stores also had magazines, from which we could glean a little more info about lesser-known acts. And then, if you were here in San Francisco, you waited for the "Pink Section" in the Sunday Chronicle. You flipped to the listings for the small clubs.

But none let us know about local underground shred act, Cacophony, featuring guitar whizzes, Marty Friedman and Jason Becker. You had to rely on word-of-mouth, and the cassette exchange.

Ah, the Fall '88 semester. One cloudy Saturday late morning, I went to my friend Skull's cramped Tenderloin apartment, just a couple blocks from Hyde Street Studios. Skull had already known about Cacophony, and had their album. So when Friedman came out with a solo album, Dragon's Kiss, Skull took a chance, and bought it from Tower Records. The album was actually recorded up in Cotati, which was midway between Petaluma and Santa Rosa.

At school, my friends often met up in the study hall. We'd plop our cassettes and CDs in the middle of a table, and have at 'em.

Via Walkman, a sophomore female friend and I were listening to "Jewel." It made us stop, put down our pens/pencils, look up at each other, and wait for the carbonation-like fizz in our brains dissipate. I can still see the band of her thin plastic headphones; her bangs; her suede-like light blue short-sleeve shirt over a white long-sleeve shirt; her small jade piece, on a silver necklace.

My fellow seniors, and especially the girls, would catch me & my "little friends ['cuz they were freshmen and sophomores]" in the corner of their eye. The seniors wondered what the "little friends" were listening to. In class, when I didn't have my "little friends" with me, the seniors could talk to me. And yes, just as I share music now, I shared music with them then.

I've been sharing "Jewel" with audiophiles since the 90s. All those years, you guys have enjoyed the combination of musicianship and emotion. But now you know where I got it from. As for my own Dragon's Kiss CD? One of you Inmates has it.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

• Jewel

 RE: Marty Friedman, "Jewel" - fantja 08:06:36 07/08/16 (2)
 "Forbidden City" - Luminator 18:29:23 07/08/16 (1)
 RE: "Forbidden City" - fantja 05:33:33 07/09/16 (0)

...

Show full thread outline!

 RE: Marty Friedman, "Jewel" - fantja 08:06:36 07/08/16 (2)
 "Forbidden City" - Luminator 18:29:23 07/08/16 (1)
 RE: "Forbidden City" - fantja 05:33:33 07/09/16 (0)

• Forbidden City