RECORD STORE TALES #1226: The Wayne’s World Drumsticks

They weren’t my drum sticks, but like many things that belonged to my sister, I claimed them as “ours” not “hers”.  It was she that got Wayne’s World on VHS.  The tape came with a free pair of Wayne’s World drumsticks.  They were cheap and warped (a common issue), but they were not meant to be played.  They were intended to be a collectible for fans of Wayne Campbell and his drumming friend, Garth Algar.

Wayne’s World was a worldwide phenomenon when it was released to cinemas in early 1992.  I myself went to see it twice in the space of 24 hours.  When it was released on VHS just in time for Christmas, it was everywhere.  You could buy it at the grocery store if you wanted to.  Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s loveable metalhead characters had become cultural icons in a very short span of time, with “Not!” and “Yeah, right!” becoming immediately popular punchlines in youth culture.  Myers has a knack for that kind of impact.  He did it again in the late 90’s with Austin Powers and “Oh, behave!”

Drums were always an instrument I was fascinated by.  I would sit on the edge of my bed and play air-drums to my favourite songs.  When Kathryn acquired the VHS tape/drum stick bundle for Christmas, I upped my air drum game.

I set up some pillows on my bed and practised smacking them with my…her sticks.  It looked and sounded stupid, but it was physically fun to do!

Switching gears a moment, when final exams rolled around, I spent a lot of time studying.  It is a tedious task, but I had a proven method.  I would comb through my class notebooks, and make a set of point-form notes on all the key subjects and sub-subjects.  Then I would reduce those notes to a list of keywords.  I would then memorize the list of keywords.  It was very mechanical but it worked.  If I could remember that list of keywords, I could trigger the memory of what I wrote in my point-form notes, and retain enough of the facts and figures to  pass the exam.

Memorising a list of words and phrases is a tedious, mechanical task.  It lent itself well to rhythm.  So, eventually I would get to the point where I would be in my room reciting this memorized list, pounding out the words to the beat of the Wayne’s World drum sticks.  Pillows on the bed, notes scattered about, and me saying seemingly random words like, “Max rebellion”, “Francs”, “Rhine/Rhone”, and other phrases designed to trigger a memory of a series of historical events.  Pounding out the words with the drum sticks hitting the pillows in little thuds.  Eventually I drove all those words into my head, in order!

That’s the true story of how a pair of warped Wayne’s World drumsticks that weren’t even mine helped me pass my Ancient History classes.