The Year was 1979.

 Some years, some months, some days stick with you. I was honored, I was blessed, and I know it. The year was 1979, and before  November of that year, I was 17. I have to say it, 17 may be the best year ever. It was the year I knew I knew what love was, and it was the year I knew it would slip away too.  I lived through it. I had a really, really good job, too; I worked for Concerts West. I was what we would call a "Go-For" today; someone who goes here goes there, does what they're told to do, and gets whatever done that needs to be done. I made food, ran for food, rejected food, drove people, drove equipment, drove myself crazy, and dated a few rock stars along the way.  Why not? I was 17!

    The thing is, I was still a virgin until I was 22, and actually, if I had to be really super honest about it, I didn't have to be. I chose to be. I knew then, as I know now, that celebrities can be some of the most insecure, rude, nasty, over-exposed, and under-behaved idiots to ever walk the face of the Earth. I wasn't really all that impressed with their tight pants or what they put in them to make people think they had more than what they had. Yeah, working in the background, you do see a few things. I had to laugh...and I did.

    Before I divorced in 1997, I had a collection of LPs (albums) that ranked right up there with all those people you wish you knew because they had all the songs, all the vinyl, and here I was with about 3,000 individual LPs, but no money in my pocket. I got that way later with horses, but yeah, I was just as stupid, I guess, thinking that music was the way to go. I thought Concerts West would lead me into a career in music production, actually, and it did in one way or the other. I still have a few connections (Hi Michael Givens!!) I worked a lot of concerts, more than 500 I know, and that was from 1979 to 1984, so in about five years I went to more than 500, so that's about 1 every three days, if you think about it. I mean, it was closer to 16-22 in a row, day and night after day and night. When you work for the unit or the promoter, you're not really going home at regular hours.

    I had my own private phone! Let me say that again, in 1979, before cell phones, I had my own landline. My mom actually answered it for me, so it seemed as if I had a secretary. I'm not kidding you. That was my schtick! I had people. She took messages, and I called people back. I took gigs I wanted to take, flew where I wanted to fly, drove where I could, and I had a freaking blast. Most of my jobs I got because I wasn't a drinker, I wasn't using drugs, I never stole from anyone, and no, I wouldn't sleep with the band or the roadies. I got called a lot!! They trusted me. That's not to say they didn't make fun of me; no, they absolutely made fun of me. I was branded with the name "Christian."   OK, if that's the worst you do, yeah, pay me to drive three long hairs to the drugstore so they can refill their Rx. I'm good. (That was before we could pick it up for them.)  Once, I was paid to call in an Rx for a drummer, and no, I won't say his name. I did it, too, I shouldn't have, but I did.

    Today, because I can, I popped open the new vintage-inspired Victrola and slapped on a few of the really good oldies. Funny, when I bought them originally, they weren't oldies....but yeah, Billy Joel's "52nd Street", the Bee Gees, "Children of the World," Van Halen's "1984" (which was recorded in 1983).  I'm living it. I'm loving it. I'm sitting here trying to ignore my daughter telling me to turn it down. Go away, Laura. Go away. I'm 17....well, ish. I may have to pull out the entire collection of artists I was privileged to work, help, assist, hang with, or just shake my head at, which were many. Before you ask, I wasn't with Van Halen when Sammy came on board. That was after I left the unit. A girl has to earn a living, and toward the end, it was all about drug running, "favors" and such. Nope. Not me. I don't regret the time I spent, but I do think I could have used better judgment in a few cases. I could have charged SO MUCH MORE than I did. 

    I will say this; by the middle of 1981, I was living most of the year at a mansion in Beverly Hills called Gray Hall at 1100 Carolyn Way, and that's where, in 1982, I met the famous and often misunderstood, certainly underappreciated Sir Michael Givens. Check him out at www.michaelgivens.com  filmmaker, artist, and an all-around great man. We worked on a film called "Love Scene," a Raleigh production. By today's standards, it was quite tame, but then...hot! I was standing around minding my own business (working) when the director decided he needed another warm female body in the party scene. Enter Jude Leigh. I was too embarrassed to use my real name. What if my mom found out?  LOL 

    It doesn't happen often, but sometimes I just have to slip away into the mental stages of my earlier years, before kids, before college, before bills, before I had a freakin' care. I mean, c'mon, I would buy a VW Bug from the paper, have my friend Kenny work it over, and drive it to Los Angeles in the evening hours, mostly as we all know a VW's radiator can blow in the desert heat!! (If you know, you know) I just preferred driving at night back then. I did this 11 separate times. As long as the thing ran, had great tires, had a great 8-track player, and the floor wasn't falling out from under me, I made it to L.A. in about 20 hours, resting either in Albuquerque at my uncle's or in Gallup with a friend. I'd buy the car for $500, have it worked over for another $400, but sell the damn thing for $3000 once I was ready to go home! No, I'm not kidding. I would put an ad in the paper, and it would be sold either that day or the next. (11 times!!)

    Damn.  I miss the young me sometimes. I graduated high school in 1979 (on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday, May 22) At least I know I can escape now and again with this time-sound machine.  (all I need are those really cool ice cream pop cycles that look like they come in a toilet paper roll, and you push them up...orange, remember?)

Photo Credit:  www.bringatrailer.com