by Greg, Camp Hill, PA

As a kid in West Virginia in the 1970’s, my early musical foundation was built on my local AM pop music station and my parents’ modest vinyl record collection which included Ray Charles, Buck Owens, Patsy Cline and the Beach Boys along with a few Motown 45s. But finally, when I was about eleven years old, the fateful day came when I walked into my local record shop at liberty to buy the first vinyl LP of my very own.

After wandering the bins for a while I found one that just jumped out at me. Patti Smith’s Easter. I don’t know why I picked it. Maybe just because of the provocative cover art, or maybe I’d recently stayed up late and caught Patti (or at least Gilda Radner’s send up of her) on the old Saturday Night Live. I walked up to the sales counter with that record in hand and was taking my money out of my pocket when the long-haired freak behind the counter says, “Hold on, I can’t sell you this without your parents’ permission.” This was not the sort of thing an eleven year old expects to hear from a long-haired freak back in 1978. Shocked and too embarrassed to dare ask him “Why?”, I sheepishly put the record back in the bin and bought Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run instead. For me, Patti Smith was the rock-n-roll road not taken.

A few years later, I’m 14 years old, sitting at home listening to the radio and my local FM deejay plays this brand new bluesy rock song. The song just grabs me immediately and as it fades out, I’m listening intently when Mr. DeeJay says “That’s Groom Still Waiting at The Altar” a new song from Bob Dylan.”

Bob Dylan? I’m not even sure I knew Bob Dylan was still alive in 1981. But, at my next opportunity, there I was, back in that same old record store searching the bins for a Bob Dylan album that included the track “Groom Still Waiting”. But try as I might, I couldn’t find it. How was I to know there was no such album. “Groom” at that time was only available as a B-side to “Heart of Mine” 45 rpm single. Again, too embarrassed to ask the long-hair freak behind the counter for some help, I left the shop with no Bob Dylan at all. I wouldn’t really rediscover his music until years later. But imagine having had that experience of “discovering” Bob Dylan for myself via B-side played on my local radio station at the discretion of my local dee-jay.

The rise of M-TV and consolidation in the radio industry in the years that followed meant that real experience of discovery has become less and less available via the radio dial. XPN is one of the few outlets that still offers me a chance at that sort of experience with new music. And there’s one other particular debt I owe to XPN.

It was almost certainly from an XPN concert announcement that, in late 1995, I learned that Bob Dylan and Patti Smith were going to be appearing together for a few shows in Philly. When I heard that announcement, those old memories from the record shop just came flooding back. Nothing could have kept me away from that show. An amazing sense of closure swept over me that night when Bob and Patti duetted on ‘Dark Eyes’ . It was like some rift in space/time had been mended. Definitely, my presence at that show was my rock-n-roll high water mark and my favorite musical memory of Philadelphia.

Thanks XPN.