Kilroy Was Here was the first cassette I ever bought, on the first date I ever had. Since this was Radnor in the early 80s, the date was a trip to the King of Prussia mall. Since we were in 7th grade, our parents drove us there. Also her best friend came. And I wore a really dorky hat.
Was it Sam Goody's or some other record store? I don't remember. But Sue Mao bought a tape of Kilroy Was Here, and so did her best friend Jen, and so of course I did too.
I thought the whole "concept album" was incredibly awesome. The whole thing told a story! There were tiny pictures in the liner notes that looked like stills from a movie. (I hadn't seen MTV yet.)
So how does the album hold up? It is incredibly cheesy. And not a cheese that ages well over several decades. Nostalgia helps but can't slice through the bombasticity of the cheese.
And then it occurs to me just what will bring this album back: anime. This would make the perfect soundtrack for an anime film. I mean it has revolution! Robots! A big brother preacher named Dr. Righteous! Styx, if you're out there, you need to pitch this to Viacom as a joint VH1 / Cartoon Network production. Please... don't let it end this way.
Boy, if we all want to get into first album confessions, I guess I need to fess up to joinging the Kiss Army in second grade and buying Destroyer with my hard-earned allowance (includes the Peter Criss ballad "Beth").
As to Styx, I always thought that, as concept albums go, the Paradise Theater LP that preceded Kilroy was much better, although I must qualify that with a hearty AT THE TIME, because nothing by these schlocky formula-followers holds up well over time. I was a devotee who owned every album of theirs BUT Kilroy, which tells you how much I was disappointed by the cheesy new direction they were taking (or perhaps how much my tastes were evolving as Styx kept on chugging along ...)
As to Sue Mao, that one takes me back. I remember being jealous that you had a girlfriend, and yet having a thorough case of "what does he see in her?" all at the same time. Was one of the first times I felt that way about a friend's choices, but certainly not the last.
And to think it all started with Kilroy ...
Comment #1 :: link :: November 21, 2007 11:16 AMWhat did I see in Sue? What I saw in pretty much every girlfriend I had up until -- gosh, college, and probably even until my junior year (!). She was interested in me. That was pretty much all it took, since by definition anyone I was interested in was unobtainable. My apologies to any former girlfriends reading this, but I did suffer from low self-esteem. What am I talking about? I was an adolescent, of course I suffered from low self-esteem. Duh.
I'm sorry, were we talking about Styx?
Comment #2 :: link :: November 21, 2007 12:22 PMFair enough - I guess you were just better at getting girls interested in you (or less oblivious to the fact that they were). Now, low self-esteem, that's a universal teenage experience, except for a few choice people that hung out in the "new cafeteria", but where are they now?
Comment #3 :: link :: November 26, 2007 12:42 PM
