It is Thursday, February 11, 2010. The cleanup begins. The cleanup after the Blizzard of 2010 that is. This unreal blizzard attacked the East Coast yesterday, with the great state of Pennsylvania directly in it’s angry path. I’ve seen some major winter storms in my life, this one was a monster in it’s own right. Upwards of nearly two feet of snow blanketed Pennsylvania after 24 hours of snow falling from the sky. Ah, the cleanup that will take place up and down the Eastern Seaboard today… patience shall be a virtue for us all.
As I listened to various music yesterday, I was thinking all along about picking out the perfect blizzard song, a winter song… alas, I was reminded of Angel – The Winter Song. This 1978 song sums it up best… about the spirit of Winter and looking upon this cold, stormy and sometimes isolated season in a different light. Once the holiday season comes to a close, the Winter season takes on it’s own ominous and elongated meaning unlike any other time of year. Still, Winter is here, the blizzards will come and life goes on. Winter, I have learned, is what you make of it. As long as I’m alive to experience this season despite the often times chaotic weather events it brings, I should just be happy that it’s a brand new day.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY UNMISTAKABLY LOYAL AND LOVING WIFE TODAY! 15 YEARS! IT’S THE OFFICIAL DAY! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO AND FOR WORKING SO HARD HONEY! THIS SONG IS FOR YOU TOO!
LONG LIVE ANGEL AND MY MARRIAGE!
If you feel like it, you can check out the post I wrote about Angel and their 1978 Angel album – White Hot, by clicking the header below. I wrote this post back on April 4, 2009.
Angel – Heavy Metal roots from 1978
On October 28, 1977, Queen – News Of The World was released. I was eleven years old, not interested very much at the time about owning this album. Sometime within the first year of this albums release, I ventured into the local Bradlees department store, took one look at the 45 rpm sleeve of the Queen – We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You, (double A single), the very large head of that somber, yet spooked out robot head had me hooked and intrigued. I was just as enthralled by the artwork of this robot head as I was the two songs on the 45 record. I treated this 45 record and sleeve like it was pure gold… staring into the eyes of this nightmarish robot head, becoming transfixed by this image. Of course, I listened to this 45 record like there was no tomorrow, as an eleven year old in 1978, just owning this stuff was bragging material at the Parochial School I was enrolled at. I no longer have this memorable 45 record with it’s alluring sleeve, I positively do not remember how I let it go. Fast forward to 2009, I now am the proud owner of two album copies of this incredible Hard Rock masterpiece, both copies are vinyl too, not CD. I have spent fifty cents on each album, for one dollar… two copies of the Queen album News Of The World. I will never buy the third copy of this album I find, I’d rather leave it to the next collector or fan of exceptional Hard Rock Music and/or Queen, to be just as thrilled as I am of it’s artistic and musical importance.
Gene Simmons, The Demon, bass guitarist for KISS, music producer and actor. (The many hats this legend has worn are numerous, quite the achiever is Gene Simmons, in my Metal opinion). Gene Simmons always seems to stay in the public eye, the limelight follows this Heavy Metal icon everywhere he goes… with “Celebrity Apprentice” and his very own family reality series “The Family Jewels” making his presence seen and known while KISS is idle. A short while back, I started writing about my favorite KISS solo albums, in preferential order, no less. Why am I doing this? First, I am celebrating the four original members of KISS, their solo albums being what I consider to be quite a historical achievement in Heavy Metal and Rock history. The quality across the board is apparent in the music that Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter created with their solo albums… my reminding and/or informing anyone who is interested in these great KISS solo albums makes for a fine Metal deed. For me to list in order, my favorite KISS solo albums, (it is not etched in Metal stone here), deciding the sequence of which album ranks 1 thru 4, is based on which album has given me the biggest Metal listening thrill over the decades.
On one of my recent Hard Rock/Heavy Metal hunts via the second hand route, I came across a true Classic Rock album that I grabbed ahold of within milliseconds of spotting it… Boston “Don’t Look Back”. As a Metal bonus, this great album is also – still factory sealed. That is so right, this vintage Boston album which was released on August 2, 1978, has still, it’s original plastic wrapping protecting it for thirty one years. I never owned “Don’t Look Back” on album before, finding a mint copy of it now, in 2009, is so fine. Sure, I have Boston on CD, yet landing one of my favorite Classic Rock bands on sealed vinyl, on a trip to a thrift store unleashes a cool high for me… every time. I realize this price always gets mentioned when I write about my vintage album finds, it is the truth when reveal it only cost fifty cents. Yikes, that is cheaper than most of the plastic prizes my daughters pay for at the (what I still call) bubble gum machines in front of the grocery stores.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
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