Track #34 - “Revelations” by Iron Maiden (1983)

From the album Piece of Mind

Music and lyrics by Bruce Dickinson

Performed by:

Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals

Dave Murray – lead & rhythm guitar

Adrian Smith – lead & rhythm guitar

Steve Harris – bass

Nicko McBrain - drums

Bind all of us together

Ablaze with hope and free

No storm or heavy weather

Will rock the boat you’ll see

The time has come to close your eyes

And still the wind and rain

For the one who will be king

Is the watcher in the ring

It is You, oh….It is You

There’s a vivid memory I have from the fall of 1981, of playing street hockey in the parking lot of Good Shepherd Church in Holbrook and listening to AC/DC. Well…I wasn’t really listening to them so much as hearing them. I was eleven years old and had just started sixth grade. There were probably ten or so boys down there, and someone had hauled down just one net, so that meant we’d be “clearing” the ball before playing offense. Pucks did not slide on asphalt so we played with a ball, a specially treated polyethylene plastic ball that didn’t bounce, and used sticks with plastic blades. I knew maybe two of these boys, and most of them were older, which meant they were in junior high, which put them on another social plane. The one kid I did know well was my neighbor Billy, who was a year older. I guess we were friends, but looking back, I’m not sure why he kept me around because the instant we were with other people, he gave me a hard time. One of these older kids had brought a boombox and some tapes. The boombox was set up way over by where our bicycles were parked, away from where it might get hit by an errant slapshot or hockey stick blade. And it was big, like you couldn’t miss this thing if you happened to be strolling through the parking lot. It was almost as big as a microwave oven; silver with two tape decks, two giant built-in speakers and an array of buttons and knobs. The kid who brought it carried it there on his bike, which is amazing when you think about it, but hey, that’s what we did back then. So, there’s two points I need to make here. The first is that this is a time when owning music and the devices you played it on meant something, especially if you were a kid without a job. It meant you saved your allowance, begged for rides to the record store, or you submitted a wish list to your parents for the albums you wanted. You went to the record store and flipped through the records or tapes, held them in your hands, and examined the song listings and admired the cover art. You were thoughtful about making that purchase because it might mean spending the last 10 bucks you had in your top drawer. The music held value in so many ways. It also meant you groveled to your parents, and maybe even your grandparents for a home stereo, or at least a radio with a tape deck. We’ve talked about this before, how the stereo was the centerpiece of your house. But if you left the house, you needed something to play your music on, which meant yet another purchase. No smartphones with 10,000 songs and a Bose speaker that fit in your pocket back then, kids. Enter the boombox, the portable stereo and party maker, but it was not for the faint of heart given its size. So, this kid had schlepped his boombox and at least a small portion of his tape collection down to a pickup hockey game where it could get run over, stomped on, or worse yet, stolen. In my estimation, this kid had some cojones when it came to his music collection. The second point is that this scene in 1980s Long Island was fairly typical, meaning we rode our bikes to places, and we hung out, or we played Wiffle ball, or street hockey or whatever. It could be a parking lot, a dead-end street, or an empty field; if we were out of the house and away from adults, it didn’t matter where we ended up. I quickly learned after moving to Long Island the year before that this is what kids did for fun: you jumped on your bike, and you went somewhere with your friends. So, back to the parking lot. I’m strapping on my white plastic shin guards when I start to hear music coming from the boombox; it’s a slow plodding guitar with what sounds like church bells in the background. Then the drums came in, the bells faded away, and the singer starts wailing: “My life is flashing across the sky…You’re only young but you’re gonna die…” Pretty cool, I guess, but a little darker than what I was used to. I didn’t dare pick up any of the cassettes lying on the asphalt to see what this was, so I asked the owner of the day’s entertainment, “Hey, who is this?” Without looking up, he replied, “It’s AC/DC, Back in Black…” And then looking up and at me, he added, “And kid, if you touch my radio, I will rip your fucking head off…” Laughter ensued, the color drained from my face, and by now these older kids were probably wondering who brought me and were looking forward to knocking me around once our pickup game started. But more important than that, they were probably laughing because I didn’t know the music they were listening to. You see when kids hung out in parking lots or fields and played Wiffle ball or street hockey on Long Island in the 1980s, and there was music playing, it usually wasn’t “Jessie’s Girl”, Glass Houses by Billy Joel or the latest K-Tel disco compilation; it was hard rock or heavy metal, or what I saw as “big kid” music. This louder and darker music scared me at first because the kids who listened to it scared me; they were older kids, stronger kids, bigger kids…all kids that might want to rip my fucking head off. And this moment was all before I heard Def Leppard at the sixth-grade graduation party, before I saw a shirtless Angus Young shredding his guitar in front of onstage cannon fire, and before the Judas Priest freight train and the video with the exploding head. My introduction to hard rock and metal was gradual, but once I was in, I was all in. And eventually, I was one of those older kids myself, and I had friends that listened to all that great music with me, and I knew every word and had all the records. And a band emerged that led the heavy metal charge, whose posters literally covered my walls, and whose records I bought the day they all came out, for a while anyway. When I finally got my hands on one of their tapes though, a tape I bought with my own money and played on my own stereo, I nearly missed out on the song that I think pushed me into total devotion. Why? Because cassette tapes are not meant to fast forward, rewind, fast forward, rewind…you get the picture. The ribbon will eventually ensnare itself in your tape deck and become somewhat unplayable; it’s like getting a scratch on a vinyl record. But if you grew up with cassettes like my generation did, you came up with a fix…if I handed you a cassette tape and pencil, would you know what to do??

Bassist Steve Harris was an avid footballer before he decided to pursue music full time, and he formed Iron Maiden in East London in 1975. Iron Maiden would emerge as part of what became known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) in the late 70s and early 80s. The UK in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a hotbed of heavy rock acts, and bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and the godfathers of metal, Black Sabbath, enjoyed huge international success. By the mid- to late 70s however, these bands found themselves in turmoil. Led Zeppelin cut back on touring and their legendary drummer John Bonham died in 1980, causing them to immediately disband. Black Sabbath fired their charismatic, but problematic lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore decided he wanted to take Deep Purple in a new musical direction, causing them to fracture. Suddenly there was a void for heavy rock acts in the UK. Bands like Motorhead, Judas Priest, Saxon and Def Leppard would form during this time and become hugely successful and influential. Other acts like Venom, Diamond Head and Raven would have less commercial success, but have a tremendous influence on the speed metal movement of the mid-1980s. Harris, who had grown up on Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple, as well as progressive rock acts Genesis and Jethro Tull, cycled through several members when his new band first started, but by 1978, he had a solid core of himself and three other players: guitarist Dave Murray (the only member besides Harris to play on every Maiden recording); drummer Doug Sampson, and vocalist Paul Di’Anno. In 1978, with almost no money, and knowing the studio would be empty on New Year’s Eve, the band scraped together 50 British pounds and recorded a four-song demo that became known as The Soundhouse Tapes, named for local rock club Bandwagon Soundhouse. Soundhouse DJ Neal Kay heard the demo and was so impressed, he immediately put it in heavy rotation at the club, and put one of the songs, “Prowler”, at #1 on the club’s play chart. That song, along with two others, “Iron Maiden” and “Strange World”, would end up on the band’s debut album in 1980. They eventually released The Soundhouse Tapes on their own record label, and quickly sold through the initial 5,000 copies that were pressed. In late 1979, the band would be signed to EMI records, and they added a second guitarist, Dennis Stratton, and a new drummer Clive Burr, before they entered the studio to record their major label debut, Iron Maiden. In 1981, guitarist Stratton was dismissed, and Adrian Smith joined in time to record the follow-up, Killers. While Killers is a fuller sounding album than Iron Maiden, both albums are aggressive and raw sounding, with more punk influences than metal. The speed and dark themes associated with metal are there, but some of the power that would be present on future Iron Maiden records is not heard yet. Nowhere is this more evident than in Di’Anno’s vocals. Di’Anno sings in a raspy tone that’s rougher and less melodic than what’s usually associated with metal music, but those first two Iron Maiden albums still hold up and contain tracks that are classics and live staples at concerts today. However, by the time Iron Maiden were ready to record their next album in 1982, Di’Anno’s substance abuse and behavior became too much for the band to handle, and his replacement was quickly found. The arrival of vocalist Bruce Dickinson was a watershed moment in the band’s history. Not only was Dickinson’s operatic vocal style more suited to the direction Harris wanted to take the band in, but he was also a better lyricist and possessed endless energy when he was onstage. As the band’s primary songwriter, Harris was able to expand the range and depth of his compositions now that he had a better vocalist. Dickinson also participated in the creative process, although he was unable to take any writing credits on his first album with Iron Maiden due to contract disputes with his former band, Samson. Iron Maiden and their new singer went into the studio in early 1982, and the result was The Number of the Beast, released in March. Besides the amazing title track, the album includes the Maiden classics “Run to the Hills”, (the first Maiden video I ever saw; more on that), “The Prisoner”, (based on the 1960s TV show), and what would become a showstopper at Iron Maiden shows, the seven-minute “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” The story of a condemned man in a prison cell and his thoughts as he’s led to the gallows quickly became one of Iron Maiden’s live standards, and is one of Bruce Dickinson’s favorite songs to perform; he maintains it’s like “narrating a movie to the audience.” The song also has some of Steve Harris’ most thoughtful lyrics, and it’s one of Clive Burr’s best drum tracks. The Number of the Beast has sold 20 million copies worldwide as of 2023, held the #1 album spot in the UK for two weeks in April 1982, and more importantly, appears on lists of the greatest metal albums ever, usually in the top five. Of course, in 1982, I knew none of this. Sure, I saw the metal heads at school, with their denim jackets and t-shirts with Iron Maiden band mascot Eddie on them; what was Eddie anyway? A demon? A ghoul? A zombie? All the above? But I didn’t actually hear any of this music until I was well into seventh grade; remember, I associated metal with the older kids. I still didn’t think I was “qualified” to listen or be a fan yet. It didn’t matter though, because I’m quite sure if I would have brought home anything that had Eddie or “Number of the Beast” on it that my parents would have been horrified and had me in confession, mumbling to themselves, “Two years removed from Catholic school, now this?!?” MTV would once again come through, because as I was idly watching one afternoon, I saw the video for “Run to the Hills”. What I remember most from that first view was Bruce Dickinson’s studded leather wristbands, the whining guitar and hi-hat rolls, and the black and white movie clips interspersed with the performance footage. The song is about the European settlers taking land from Native Americans; the lyrics explore both sides. And that movie footage…well, there’s white people in cars shooting at Native Americans on bicycles, and once in awhile the Native Americans hit the white people in the ass with arrows. It’s very tongue in cheek and meant to be funny, but I am quite sure that video would not get made today. But the video aside, the song was not bad. I liked the galloping beat, and the drum fills at the chorus breaks, and each guitarist had a solo. And the singer, wow, could he bellow and hit those high notes. I saw what all the fuss was about and maybe why there were so many Iron Maiden shirts and denim jacket patches around in school. So, when the videos were played on MTV, I watched…but I still didn’t buy any of the music. When the fall of 1983 arrived though, I was finally an eighth grader, and not as apprehensive of those older kids…now I was one of the older kids.

The follow up to The Number of the Beast was released in the spring of 1983. Entitled Piece of Mind, it’s the first album to feature Nicko McBrain on drums; he replaced Clive Burr, who was sacked after the Beast tour. (McBrain has been their drummer ever since; more on Burr later). Expectations were high given the success and acclaim received by The Number of the Beast, and the new album did not disappoint. I would only hear one song, “Flight of Icarus”, from seeing the video on MTV, but they did play it a lot. I remember seeing it dozens of times that summer, and it was a great song; in fact, I remember thinking at the time that it might even get played on the radio because it seemed tamer than the other Maiden songs I had heard (it didn’t). By the time 8th grade started in the fall, I had gotten friendly with a new kid that moved in over the summer two houses from ours. Mike was quiet, but he had a great nerdy sense of humor, a roomful of tapes and a giant stereo; he also had a huge bookshelf full of horror paperbacks. When I looked through his music collection I noticed a lot of heavy stuff: Ozzy, Dio, Judas Priest, Scorpions…and Iron Maiden. He owned the entire catalog; all four albums. And he had a giant Number of the Beast poster on his wall. The Piece of Mind cover was cool; band mascot Eddie in a padded room, wearing a straitjacket, looking pissed. I asked Mike how the new album was, and he sort of ridiculed me for not having it; in fact, he recommended I go buy the entire catalog immediately. (Notice he didn’t offer to lend me any tapes from his collection; smart.) I laughed it off and told him I would think about it, but he persisted and told me to at least get Piece of Mind for now and work my way back. I went home and evaluated my finances, which looked pretty good, so I decided next time I was near Record World, I would grab the Piece of Mind tape. What’s the big deal, it’s just metal music with a demon/zombie/ghoul on the cover in a straitjacket, right? And I did like “Flight of Icarus”; sounds like a radio song, not aggressive at all. So, a few weeks later, I bought it, and soon I was in my room, taking the cellophane off the cassette. The first song was called “Where Eagles Dare”; I was greeted with a huge, complex drum fill which launched right into the song…and the drums never stopped. The track was full of all these amazing drum fills and long instrumental breaks, with double guitar melodies and then solos. The lyrics told a story of a rescue in the Alps during a blizzard; “The cable car’s the only way in, it’s really impossible to fly…” Wow, fucking amazing; the song was controlled chaos. OK, next was “Revelations”, then “Flight of Icarus”; I really wanted to hear that one. Maybe I’ll just fast forward to it? “Revelations” was almost seven minutes long…so I fast forwarded to “Flight of Icarus”. I listened once; then I decided I wanted to listen again, so I rewound, and fast forwarded until I found the right spot…and played “Flight of Icarus” again. OK, then I let it go to the last song on side one, “Die With Your Boots On”; I liked this one. It really rocked and had a great swing to it. I flipped the tape to side two, which led off with “The Trooper”. This one was a banger, wow…”The Trooper” would become one of Iron Maiden’s most popular songs, and is easily one of their best. And then…the next song started, and I kind of lost interest for the moment, believe it or not. Besides, there was always tomorrow. So, for the next few days when I got home from school, I did exactly what I did that first time I played Piece of Mind: I would listen to the first song, and fast forward to “Flight of Icarus”, then depending on my mood, maybe I would do that a few times, finish side one and then listen to “The Trooper”. For some reason, I inexplicably kept skipping “Revelations”. And I wasn’t even trying to listen to the rest of side two when “The Trooper” was over. Finally, after several days of this, I decided I would just let side one play through…but not before rewinding “Flight of Icarus” one last time. As I was trying to find the beginning, I must have gone back and forth too many times because when the song started, there was a horrifying, muffled sound coming from my speakers, then a whine…then the tape stopped. I hit “STOP”, and then “EJECT”, in a panic that I may have broken my tape deck, knowing if I had broke it, I wouldn’t be able to afford another one until I was at least 27. I carefully removed the cassette, but to my horror, the tape ribbon remained inside the tape deck, wrapped around the mechanism at the bottom. I eased the whole mess out carefully, but the tape remained outside the plastic casing. What the fuck??!! I pulled myself together and called Mike down the block. I don’t know why, but somehow I figured he would have a solution.

“Dude my Iron Maiden tape exploded!!”, I said.

“What do you mean ‘exploded’?”, Mike replied.

“It all came unraveled!! How do I fix it?”

“No problem…OK, you got a pencil?”

What was he talking about? A pencil??

“Yeah, I got a pencil…now what?”

Very calmly, Mike said, “Now just put the pencil in one of the holes and turn it until the tape rewinds into the cassette.”

So, at first, I turned the wrong way, but eventually it worked, and it did exactly what Mike said it would do. It was slow going, but the tape was back in the cassette! Problem solved!

“Thanks, man! It worked! I thought I had to go buy a new tape!”

I hung up and put the tape back in the player. I still needed to rewind it to the beginning; I held my breath as it rewound, but it seemed to be OK. I decided I would just listen all the way through, no fast forwarding this time. The first song finished, and “Revelations” began. The first guitar chords rang out…then it was all warbled, like someone had a pillow over the speaker. I gave it a few seconds, but it didn’t stop…you’ve got to be kidding me! I fast forwarded…still warbled. I gave up and fast forwarded to where I thought “Flight of Icarus” began. I caught the end of “Revelations”; “It is you, oh…it is you…”, followed by a soft cymbal roll. Song over. I ejected the cassette. The tape was intact, but there was small kink, or wrinkle in it. I tried the pencil trick again, but the kink didn’t go away. After dinner, I tried listening again; “Revelations” was still warbled. I couldn’t believe it; and the song on the opposite side of the tape was also ruined, but just a few seconds of it. Still, I would have to go buy another one; the cassette was shot. And all because I was an idiot, fast forwarding and rewinding just to hear one song over and over. Why couldn’t I just listen all the way through like a normal person?? I didn’t want to give up on Piece of Mind, but maybe this was a sign; maybe I still wasn’t ready for metal, for older kids’ music. Who would be so careless that they would wreck a tape listening to one song over and over?

The next morning on the bus I told Mike what happened to the tape. I tried to impress upon him how grateful I was for his “pencil solution” and downplayed the “I was an idiot” part for wrecking the tape and the sound. He seemed unfazed by it all, as I remember. And then I told him there was a song I couldn’t even listen to, that “Revelations” was all but destroyed. Suddenly he started paying attention; “So you’re saying you haven’t heard ‘Revelations’ yet, like at all?” When I replied in the negative, his eyes widened and he said, “What?!? But that’s the best song on the whole album!”

Of course it’s the best song, because why would I destroy the tape on the worst song on the album?!?

“Don’t worry.” Mike said, “you can come over after school and I’ll play ‘Revelations’ for you.”

So, after school, I went straight from the bus to Mike’s house, upstairs to his room, and he dropped Piece of Mind into his tape deck. I had a momentary thought of just asking him to borrow it, but I knew what the answer would be. We sat through the first song, because of course Mike was not going to fast forward to “Revelations” and wreck his tape, but eventually we arrived at the song in question; I’d finally hear the song I mangled. Those first few guitar chords came blasting through the speakers again, like when they came through my speakers, but this time the song continued, no warbling or whining. Once it got going, the tempo was slow, and I found myself rocking my head back and forth to the rhythm of the twin guitars and the plodding drums. Then the vocals started; I grabbed the tape jacket and read along. Bruce Dickinson had lifted the first verse from a church hymnal: “Oh God of Earth and Altar, bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die…” This was good…I loved the religious imagery and how the words were from an actual church hymnal. Then the guitars played this melody together; one lead, and one underneath, picking individual notes. It almost sounded like classical music. The song sped up into the Iron Maiden gallop, then settled back down again, and then I heard the part that when I look back at hearing “Revelations” for the first time, made me love this band. The guitars started playing the same jangly part together, and Steve Harris began to play his bass almost as a lead instrument; it was unmistakably playing a melody and not just keeping time in the background. As much as I loved those dual guitars, my ear went to the bass playing those patient lead notes over the guitar, while the drums kept time behind the whole thing. This continued through the first verse, then the second verse; by the time guitarists Murray and Smith played their solos, I was mesmerized. Mike was right; this was by far the best song on the album, and maybe the best Iron Maiden song ever. I hadn’t heard the first two albums at that point, but how could anything top that? There was one more gallop, and then the last verse began with power chords underneath, and as the song went into the outro, as Dickinson sang, “It is you…oh, it is you…”, I heard those jangly chords again with the bass over top of it. Wow…simply amazing. It was much like the first time I heard Eddie Van Halen finger tapping in “Mean Street”; I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Mike broke the silence, and asked, “So what did you think?” I don’t even think I had words, but I’m pretty sure I told him I’d be scraping together whatever allowance I had so I could buy a new cassette. I had to have a complete copy of Piece of Mind. I had to hear “Revelations” again. You can guess the end of this; I had a new copy by the weekend, and I listened to Piece of Mind from beginning to end, until I knew every word, and I figured out a way to get the album poster on the wall above my bed before the end of 1983 without freaking my parents out. And that was the beginning of my obsession with Iron Maiden; it got way worse as my high school years progressed, but more on that down the road. Spoiler: there’s another Iron Maiden song on the playlist. 😊

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“Revelations” was never released as a single, so there’s no official video. But the band has played the song so often live that there is plenty of concert footage of it. Here’s my favorite version, recorded in Sydney, Australia in 2008 from their Flight 666 documentary. Enjoy! 😊

Next time…If you’ve lived on Long Island, this artist is in your DNA; you’re required to be a fan.

P.S.

Since we have more Iron Maiden to get to, I won’t add too much here. But here are a few thoughts for now…

If I had to convince someone to listen to Iron Maiden, “Revelations” is the song I would choose to have them listen to. No song features all the great things about them more than “Revelations”; the twin guitar harmonies, the time changes, the mystical lyrics that showcase Bruce Dickinson’s voice, the trademark Iron Maiden “gallop”, and the brilliance of Steve Harris on bass. Having said that, I know Iron Maiden and metal music in general is an acquired taste, so if it’s not your cup of tea, I get it. I sometimes wonder how I even got so into it back when I was a teenager, and how I still love to crank up this music now and I don’t have an explanation. But I can tell you it was all around me growing up in the 1980s and even though a lot of it didn’t make it onto the radio or the pop charts, it was a dominant genre of music so maybe that had an influence. Piece of Mind has sold about 12 million copies worldwide to date and is one of their bestselling albums in the US. I realize The Number of the Beast is a more influential and important record and is probably the one Iron Maiden is most known for, but in my opinion Piece of Mind is the beginning of their creative peak. We’ll talk more about this, but this began a run of albums that made them arguably the biggest metal act in the world.

As I mentioned, original drummer Clive Burr was fired before the recording of Piece of Mind and replaced by current drummer Nicko McBrain. There’s a lot written about why Burr was let go, and the reasons have ranged from substance abuse, to wanting a break from touring to personality conflicts with Steve Harris. After the initial shock of being dismissed Burr did end up remaining in contact with the band and they even rallied around Burr when he was diagnosed with MS in the late 1990s. Concerts were organized to raise money and the band set up a fund in Burr’s name to raise awareness of the disease. Burr died in his sleep in 2013 because of complications from his illness. Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson have maintained that Burr was the best drummer the band ever had; while they think current drummer McBrain is better technically, they have said that Burr had an “incredible feel” that added a steadiness to the first three albums.  I also mentioned the rawness of the first two Iron Maiden albums, and how they lacked the depth and power future albums would have, and how that was evident in the vocals. While I appreciate what Paul Di’Anno and the rest of the band were trying to do on the first two albums, it’s not even close when you compare his performance to what Bruce Dickinson added to the band when he arrived. Dickinson is on the “Mount Rushmore”, if you will, of metal vocalists along with Rob Halford, Ronnie James Dio and Ozzy Osbourne. Adding Dickinson really made them rise to the elite rock acts in the world and he added a completely new dimension to their sound. Plus, he’s an amazing frontman and performer, avid fencer, and licensed commercial airline pilot. Iron Maiden own their own jet named Ed Force One that the band uses to fly to gigs which Dickinson pilots himself. And he survived a battle with mouth and throat cancer in 2015. I’d recommend listening to him narrate his autobiography, What Does This Button Do?

And a final thought…when Iron Maiden toured to support The Number of the Beast there were protests and album burnings and general uproars in various cities in the US when the band arrived to play concerts because conservative groups deemed them Satanists. Nothing could be further from the truth. As biographer Mick Wall wrote in his book, Run to the Hills, The Authorized Biography, quoting Steve Harris, “They obviously hadn’t read the lyrics. They just wanted to believe all that rubbish about us being Satanists.” Yes, their lyrics are steeped in mysticism, science fiction, war, and other dark themes, but it’s nothing different from other mainstream metal from that era, or even now, and it certainly doesn’t mean they’re Satanists or speaking out against religion in general. It’s just not the kind of stuff that people talk about at wine tastings or PTA meetings, and that’s what makes people uncomfortable with it, which is fine; it’s not bouncy background music. This music is meant to be cranked up loud to release aggression in a positive way, to scream and play air guitar with, and to listen in awe to those dark, dreamlike lyrics. When Iron Maiden played a show in October 2022 at UBS Arena in New York (a show I sadly missed), I had friends posting on social media from the show and they had their children with them. My son Dan, who plays bass and listens to Iron Maiden has tried to imitate Steve Harris’ basslines, much to my delight. Would we let our kids listen to this music if we thought it was harmful? I have dozens of friends I grew up with, and my brother as well, who still listen to and talk about Iron Maiden’s music; we listened to those records over and over when we were kids and we turned out just fine. But…I also understand it’s not for everyone, and that’s OK…it just means more for us middle-aged metal heads. 😊

Oh, and using the pencil to fix the cassette thing does actually work but thank goodness for CD’s and streaming for us “song skippers.” Still, you kids have no idea what our generation has been through… :-)

See you next time…

JS

4/23/2024