I Love Fred
Who is Fred, you ask? Fred is channel 44 on XM satellite radio and he rocks my world.
My friend Becca loves Fred so much that she wants to marry him. I love him, but I really just want to give him a little cuddle and a kiss.
The station is described as "classic alternative", otherwise known as the Soundtrack of Kay's Youth. It's the music of my high school and early college years.
In one listen you can go from Joe Jackson to New Order, XTC, Talking Heads, the English Beat, the Jam, Blondie, Human League (well beyond their hit "(Keep Feeling) Satisfaction") and much, much, much more. Most of what they play never got radio attention. But it got my attention.
Everytime I listen to Fred I'm taken back to some great memories of New Wave Night at Thirsty's (it's a sports bar now), dancing at The Grove (Denver's only 3.2 gay bar, back in the day) or at Pogo's in Boulder.
When I was 18, Denver still had "3.2 bars". These were bars that sold only 3.2% beer, not 6%. You could get in at 18 and it was the perfect solution for those of us who weren't yet 21 but wanted to dance. And we danced a lot. Later, when we were "legal", the party moved to Tracks or Rock Island (Oh! The toast room! Come, eat toast!)
Our weekends were filled going to any of these clubs--Pat, Jeff, David, Steven, Steve, Greg, Sean, Ann, and me--spent hours on the dance floor. Then, hot, sweaty, and exhausted, we'd go to Muddy Waters of the Platte coffeehouse nursing cups of strong coffee until the wee small hours. Muddy's closed at 4am on weekends and it was the perfect place to go when the 3.2 bars closed at midnight and you didn't have anywhere else to go and you certainly didn't want to go home. It was filled with smoke; mostly that of clove cigarettes or pot, and a thoroughly eclectic clientele.
The first time Greg (who thought his parents were aliens trying to brainwash him....) and Sean took me there, after seeing Gary Newman at the Rainbow Music Hall, I didn't know what to make of it but I knew I was in love. Muddy's closed in the late 80s as the neighborhood started to become gentrified and as Fourbucks started to take over the world, acting as if they invented coffee house culture. Hardly. This was the real deal.
Fred also takes me back to Pat's "music closet". He cleared out all of his clothes from his bedroom's walk-in closet, replacing them with his stereo (pre-CD, doncha know) and pillows. We spent hours in there listening to albums and extended dance remix over-sized singles by Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, early U2, and bands I can't even recall. Good times. Good times.
The soundtrack of these years is captured on Fred. I nearly drove off the road when I discovered it soon after we got XM. And Nigel loves it, too. He'll email me things like, "Heaven 17! They're playing "Geisha Boys & Temple Girls"!" It's the soundtrack of his youth, too, and we're both digging the hell out of it. I love Fred. And I love a man in a uniform.
My friend Becca loves Fred so much that she wants to marry him. I love him, but I really just want to give him a little cuddle and a kiss.
The station is described as "classic alternative", otherwise known as the Soundtrack of Kay's Youth. It's the music of my high school and early college years.
In one listen you can go from Joe Jackson to New Order, XTC, Talking Heads, the English Beat, the Jam, Blondie, Human League (well beyond their hit "(Keep Feeling) Satisfaction") and much, much, much more. Most of what they play never got radio attention. But it got my attention.
Everytime I listen to Fred I'm taken back to some great memories of New Wave Night at Thirsty's (it's a sports bar now), dancing at The Grove (Denver's only 3.2 gay bar, back in the day) or at Pogo's in Boulder.
When I was 18, Denver still had "3.2 bars". These were bars that sold only 3.2% beer, not 6%. You could get in at 18 and it was the perfect solution for those of us who weren't yet 21 but wanted to dance. And we danced a lot. Later, when we were "legal", the party moved to Tracks or Rock Island (Oh! The toast room! Come, eat toast!)
Our weekends were filled going to any of these clubs--Pat, Jeff, David, Steven, Steve, Greg, Sean, Ann, and me--spent hours on the dance floor. Then, hot, sweaty, and exhausted, we'd go to Muddy Waters of the Platte coffeehouse nursing cups of strong coffee until the wee small hours. Muddy's closed at 4am on weekends and it was the perfect place to go when the 3.2 bars closed at midnight and you didn't have anywhere else to go and you certainly didn't want to go home. It was filled with smoke; mostly that of clove cigarettes or pot, and a thoroughly eclectic clientele.
The first time Greg (who thought his parents were aliens trying to brainwash him....) and Sean took me there, after seeing Gary Newman at the Rainbow Music Hall, I didn't know what to make of it but I knew I was in love. Muddy's closed in the late 80s as the neighborhood started to become gentrified and as Fourbucks started to take over the world, acting as if they invented coffee house culture. Hardly. This was the real deal.
Fred also takes me back to Pat's "music closet". He cleared out all of his clothes from his bedroom's walk-in closet, replacing them with his stereo (pre-CD, doncha know) and pillows. We spent hours in there listening to albums and extended dance remix over-sized singles by Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, early U2, and bands I can't even recall. Good times. Good times.
The soundtrack of these years is captured on Fred. I nearly drove off the road when I discovered it soon after we got XM. And Nigel loves it, too. He'll email me things like, "Heaven 17! They're playing "Geisha Boys & Temple Girls"!" It's the soundtrack of his youth, too, and we're both digging the hell out of it. I love Fred. And I love a man in a uniform.
posted by Kay at
12:10 PM
3 Comments:
To have ambition is my ambition...
Ah, Kay, you knew I'd love this post, didn't you? Beautiful. A lovely tribute to the station and times that give/gave me the music that rocks my world. Every song is a lovely memory. Or a painful memory that I'm glad is over.
PS, hands off, Becca + Fred 4ever
Oh, I didn't get into the painful memories. We'll save that for another time! I was hoping you'd like my tribute to Our Fred.
I love love LOVE that music, but I don't have XM radio. Now I want it more than ever.
KP
(aka The chick with the curly hair who wanted to be one of the overmadeup straight haired Human League chicks instead)
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