Blind Boscoe

A legend from my childhood died this week. At 12 years old, I was introduced to the world of Heavy Metal. My cousin was 2 1/2 years older than me and always knew what was cool before me. So, what he had was what I wanted. He had Candy-O by the Cars and Freedom of Choice by Devo. So, it would only follow that when the heavy metal craze hit in the early eighties, C would be right on board, and I would be tagging along.

As I look back on it, I was not fortunate enough to own any of the so-called truly cool heavy metal bands of the day, because they were a little too centered around Satan. I cannot remember if this was my choice or my Dad's. Or, if it was the influence my Dad had on me to make that kind of choice. I may have requested Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast or Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil as a birthday present, but I know that I did request Quiet Riot - Metal Health and got it. What a great album. It was total poser heavy metal. Wannabe heavy metal. Almost as bad as Christian Rock... but not that bad.

There were a few heavy metal bands at the time who qualified to be listenable, because they did not subscribe to such blatantly satanic themes. Quiet Riot seemed to be the king of these groups opting for the spotlight of popdom with Cum on Feel the Noize, a song spelled in a way which suggests sex instead of satanic influence. Way better for kids! The other groups were Def Leppard and Twisted Sister. Twisted Sister was a major one-hit wonder. Def Leppard never seemed that interesting to me. I would probably like them more if I listened to them now.

Quiet Riot's lead singer, Kevin Dubrow, died yesterday. He was only 52. I wonder what kind of life he actually lived. I heard a quote of his one time about how he wanted to live a life of a quiet riot. I think it was on one of those 80's Has Been shows. It was funny in his videos from the early 80's, Kevin's hair was really thinning, but in the photo on the news he had really long, curly hair with no sign of aging at all. Did he honestly wear a wig all these years? That just does not seem like what a true rocker would do... So maybe he wasn't.

Quiet Riot was important to me if for no other reason than that they were there for those early years when I was trying to fit in to a world which was full of cross-dressing, over-the-top, screaming-their-heads-off, big hair dudes. And now I wonder why I wanted to be a part of that...

I blame my cousin.