#907: Lake Listenin’

RECORD STORE TALES #907: Lake Listenin’

These days, I like playing music at the lake that takes me back in time.  Maybe that’s the curse of getting older.  Everything reminds me of something else.  Since that’s the case, I might as well make the most of it.  If I’m having a good time at the lake, there is nothing better than music that reminds me of having a good time at the lake.

I set the scene with a very relaxing drive, to the 80s tunes of Kim Mitchell’s self-titled EP, plus Shakin’ Like a Human Being, and The Sport of Kings by Triumph.  It was golden.

Instead of diving right into the nostalgia pool right away again upon arrival, I officially started the weekend with some music that is new to me:  Coney Hatch and Andy Curran.  My current favourite Coney Hatch tunes are “First Time For Everything” from Outa Hand, and “She’s Gone” & “Wrong Side of Town” from Friction.  Arriving Thursday night, these tunes, along with Curran’s “No Tattoos”, led our evening on the porch, watching the sun set.  Not only did the tunes get us psyched for the weekend, but also next week’s LeBrain Train.  Andy is our guest again, so I am preparing once more.

I closed the night studying up for the next day’s episode:  the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Judas Priest albums.  This “remastered” episode was an update on one that Harrison and I did on Facebook Live a year ago.  I re-watched the episode from the previous year, very much enjoying myself.  Harrison and I had a great time the first outing, though the second one surely topped it!

When I’m at the lake, I try to keep the volume to a reasonable level.  I like to take a walk to the end of the driveway and down the road and check the levels.  A little music at the end of the driveway is OK but I don’t want to hear myself down the road.  However, I said “to hell with that” for the rest of the weekend, when the neighbours had a loud party on the Friday night.

“I hope they enjoy ‘Detroit Rock City’ at 6:00 am,” I said.

So that’s how my Saturday began:  Destroyer, cranked.  Destroyer has never been my favourite Kiss album by a long shot, but for some reason it just clicked with me that morning.  The cool breeze coming off the lake, the birds and squirrels bickering over my head; and Kiss Destroyer on the speakers.  Things you don’t think would go together, but in my brain, actually do.  I would have played Destroyer at the lake as a kid — many times.  The difference was, now nobody was telling me to turn it down.  Apparently that “if it’s too loud, you’re too old” thing doesn’t apply.  As I get older, I love it loud.

After Destroyer came Rock and Roll Over, Dynasty, and the complete audio to the video Exposed.  This included all the studio tracks from the music videos, all the live tracks exclusive to the video, and even that little nugget of Paul and Gene harmonizing on “I’ll Be Back” by the Beatles.  As a kid, I made something similar on a cassette.  I recorded all the live stuff and “I’ll Be Back” from the VHS tape and made an album out of it.  I left off the music videos.  Today, I ripped all the music from the DVD directly to mp3 and made a double album out of it!  I sat there in wonder listening, imagining what my younger self would have thought of such an audio miracle.

That’s a lot of Kiss though; solid Kiss with no other bands breaking the streak.  When I did finally need an intermission from Kiss, I chose Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind.  I actually bought that album at the lake in the summer of ’85, at an old record store that used to exist on the main street.

As far as volume goes, keep in mind I’m blasting my music on a $24 pair of speakers from Amazon.  The guy partying across the street must have had something stronger because I could identify “The Impression That I Get” by the Bosstones easily from my seat on the porch.

“I hope they like Star Wars,” I said as I cued up The Empire Strikes Back on my Disney Plus.

I had another revelation while watching Empire.  Objectively, it could be the best Star Wars, but because nostalgia is my thing, I flashed back to 1980.  1981.  1982.  1983.  The golden era of Star Wars fandom.  For a long time, at that ripe age, we were left with two major cliffhangers.  What would happen to the frozen Han Solo, and was Darth Vader lying about being Luke’s father?  Hard to believe but we spent years — an eternity of a child’s age, a significant fraction of our lives — not knowing the answers.

We also had to spend this time making up things to do with our Han Solo figures.  He was frozen in carbonite at this time.  Sometimes I took my Solo figure and froze him in ice in the freezer.  We used our imaginations.  Empire was such a huge part of our childhood.  For me the Empire era ran from age seven to just before age eleven.  It was the Star Wars for which I had all the collector’s cards (first series), the soundtrack, the “story of” record, the comic, the novel, colouring books, and just about everything else you could buy.  The bedsheets — check.  Dixie cups — check.  Burger King glasses — also check.  We had a good chunk of Kenner figures from that era.  We had everything we could possibly get our hands on.

Except the movie itself.  That, we could not recreate on a whim.  We brought our toys, our comics and our cards to the lake so we could re-imagine the movie.  But we could not watch it.

That was a luxury that was not lost on me as I sat on the porch watching the Battle of Hoth.  I smiled ear to ear knowing this.  Something unimaginable during the actual Empire era.  Though, we did indeed see The Empire Strikes Back at the lake.  And it wasn’t the special editions.  We saw the original, at the drive-in.  It was in a double feature with a bicycling movie called Breaking Away, which we slept through.  My sister slept through most of Empire, too!  She was only three.

I took a break in the middle of The Empire Strikes Back to take a dip in the water.  But the Sooners had come.

“Sooners” is how my dad refers to the people who show up to go to the beach for day.  I wondered what “Sooners” meant so I looked it up.  He must have got it from one of his cowboy movies.  Sooner:  “a person settling on land in the early West before its official opening to settlement in order to gain the prior claim allowed by law to the first settler after official opening.”

I don’t see how that applies to the beachgoers, but the name stuck.

Anyway there were a bunch of Sooners at the beach.  There was Man-Bun and his two girlfriends, and a family of seven who parked their bikes right in front of our place.  I know my dad would have had a fit.  The bikes were well out of the way, but it’s no fun trying to back your car out of the driveway with any kind of obstruction, so I get it.

The Sooners weren’t as bad as the renters.  They had a huge dog — the size of a small pony — that kept going after Jen any time we walked down the path to the beach on our own property.  They’d scold the dog but not put him on a leash.  I say “him” because his name was clearly Frank.  Who names their dog Frank?  Seriously.

I don’t know who held the party that night.  The salvos of US-grade fireworks began when I was sleeping.  Jen says they were still going off at 1 am.  I say “US-grade” fireworks because I know the difference.  There are the kind you can buy in the convenience stores here, and there are the ones you can’t.  This was the stuff you can’t.  On and on and on it went.  It seemed to be coming from the renters’ place.  When I went down to the beach the following morning, their firepit was still smouldering.  Late night party fire?

What could I do?  I woke up and blasted Aerosmith.  I played them while packing the car, on the car system, doors open.  I hope you like Toys in the Attic.

Sooners and renters aside, summer has gotten off to a tremendous start.  Maybe next time, I’ll play all new albums and make some new memories.  It doesn’t particularly matter — the setting is conducive to to anything you want to listen to.  And now that I can bring my entire music collection with me in my pocket, I am limited only by my own whims.

I am a lucky guy.

51 comments

  2. “They’d scold the dog but not put him on a leash.”

    I hate those people, so deeply. Train your fucking dog!

    I wonder what your childhood would have been like if David Lynch had directed Return of the Jedi as originally planned? It probably would have given you nightmares.

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      1. I have no doubt Lucas would have reined him in some. But I also have no doubt he would have found a way to sneak in some disturbing surrealism somehow.

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        2. Not Eraserhead level nightmares, just some whispering, and a couple slow dreamy scene transitions. Enough to know he directed it without being distracting.

          I heard Cronenberg was considered too. That would have been awesome. Darth Vadar could blow up a dude’s head like in Scanners!

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        3. OK I could see dreamy transitions. Yes. That would work. But really, him and George would have clashed and George would have replaced him anyway. A Star Wars director didn’t really get to have their own vision until Rian Johnson fucked the pooch.

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        8. I saw it on cable a few months ago. It’s more clever than I remembered. Just light fun.

          “No! Communism was just a red herring!”

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        12. He was pretending to be gay so that Mr. Body would believe he had dirt on him, but he’s really an undercover FBI agent. So in the end the climax of the big reveal was him going home to sleep with his wife.

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        15. It was back in the pay TV days! We loved the game and my parents let us watch it. Didn’t go out of their way to explain why the straight-reveal was funny though! I just remember my mom thinking it was hilarious.

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  3. Nice Mike! So cool to have a place like that to get away to on the weekends. And so much great music to listen to as well even when coming from the neighbors. For some reason, your “too loud, too old” statement really resonated with me….I don’t know why.

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  4. We went to the beach for the first time yesterday, a quieter place where it’s easier to distance. The kids went nuts. So hot, though, like 33C and no shade.

    Don’t get me started on asshats and their dogs. We’re surrounded here at my place. There ought to be a license to own them, honestly. It’d weed out the “isn’t this puppy cute on Instagram” folks who don’t realize the amount of work and commitment it takes to properly train and own a dog. Asshats.

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    1. If I see that dog next time, I will not be nearly as tolerant. Jen was legit scared. It’s our property. She can walk that path any time she wants and shouldn’t be harassed by an unleashed dog. No More Mr. Nice Guy.

      My parents say their rentals ended Sunday but I guess we shall see. That cottage is, sadly, now just a rental. The owner needs to pay for an expensive divorce.

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      1. You could also alert whatever local by-law office that exists. Not that they need to come out (unless you want them to) but so it’s on record. Tell the owner about it, if you do. Everything above board, and maybe enough fear of problems would fix things.

        Unfortunately, with rentals some folks drive them like they stole them, so to speak. Maybe a further word with the owner if problems persist. Divorce or not, there needs to be control. Since they’re choosing the renters, they can choose better.

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        1. The owner is a dipshit and he’s never there. The renters have been told leashes are required. So if I have to call it in, my conscience is clear.

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        5. I’ve had comments from “report them” to “don’t be a Karen”. However if there is any problem next time I’m there, I am reporting it.

          They are lucky that Dr. Kathryn didn’t call it in. She’d been taking notes. She just needs a little push.

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        6. I don’t like the Karen thing, it’s dismissive. Probably made by people who can’t empathize with something not directly affecting their own loves. Disturbing the peace is not allowed. Done deal.

          I take notes on the dogs here, it’s required if things get pursued further. I have a spreadsheet. That doesn’t make me a Karen. That makes me prepared should it go to court.

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        7. I have given my friends shit when they use the Karen thing. I usually say something like “Well hold on, I would have complained about that too.” Like one lady who almost died on a screw she found in her Ice Capp. A buddy called her a Karen for going to the media. I said I would have complained as well.”

          Yeah I think my sister is more prepared for if she need to complain which she does not want to do! A last resort. She minds her own business and would prefer to keep doing so.

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      2. The “it’s our property” thing is the most infuriating to me. When dogs try to aggressively lay claim over what your property, it makes me inconsolable. Just blind rage.

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  5. Glad your digging on Coney and Curran dude. Like Andy told u nothing wrong with a late bloomer! Its real cool when music takes u back. Look at my 1991 posts. I think I’m stuck there lol

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  6. No joke, the neighbors behind our house named their dog Sarah. At least it is two syllables so the dog will understand it better than Frank, lol
    My Nono was an early riser whenever the cottage neighbors pulled an all-nighter he’d fire up the chainsaw at 6AM.

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