At the tender age of 8, my step father took me to Sam the Record Man and let me pick my own album. He thought I would pick out a kids' album but I ended up walking out of the store with Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy in my hands. I shared that story in 2011, so I won't get into details here.
But as soon as I became hooked on rock music, I wanted more: Genesis, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Yes. Over the years, I saved my allowance and as soon as I could afford some vinyl, I was back at the record store.
I also listened to the radio a lot, especially when my family moved from our Parkwood Hills neighbourhood to Kirk's Ferry, along the Gatineau River. Friends lived too far away to visit on foot, so I would spend a lot of free time, listening to AM radio, at home in my room.
I had an old tuner in my bedroom and the analog dial was set to CFGO 1440. Each week, the Argyle Avenue station would play its top 30 songs and I would make a list of my own favourites, which I would use for when my family and I made our trips into town and I could acquire another record album.
The station also allowed you to call in song requests and would sometimes even record you when you called in to place your song. I remember the first time I heard my voice on the radio: because I was young, between 10 and 12, my voice was high-pitched and squeaky as I asked for a song that was on the top 30 list.
That's probably why I hate to hear my voice in a recording to this date.
I asked the DJ to play "Pinball Wizard" and he duly granted that request, but when the song came over the airway, it was not what I expected.
You see, the "Pinball Wizard" that was on the charts was the cover that was performed by Elton John, but the DJ pulled up the original, from the soundtrack to the movie Tommy, performed by The Who.
I barely knew The Who. I was vaguely familiar with "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "My Generation," but this British band had never made my list of must-buy music.
And so, I was thrown for a loop when "Pinball Wizard" started slower than I expected, with more guitar and less piano. My initial reaction was to call CFGO again, to tell the DJ that he was playing the wrong song.
But then I listened to the song, and my disappointment turned to joy.
I loved the driving guitar, the power of Roger Daltrey's vocals, the rhythm of the bass and drums.
I decided to add Tommy to my list of vinyl but soon discovered that one of my friends was already a fan of The Who, and he introduced me to many other albums, which made their way to my own collection over the next few months: Who's Next and Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, as well as Quadrophenia. In the years that followed, I added Who Are You, Face Dances, and It's Hard.
I loved that band throughout the 70s and into the 80s, and even after I thought I had heard the last of of them. Not even being beaten to near unconsciousness at a Who concert made my love of the band waver. (I'll tell that story some day.)
To this day, countless Who tracks are on my smartphone. As a cousin once told me, years after I got him hooked on The Who, the songs that started with a synthesizer were the best.
And the number of Elton John albums in my collection? The number of songs on my playlist?
Zero.
It's not that Elton John isn't a musical genius in his own right, but for me, he was eclipsed by The Who on that day, in the mid 1970s, when I called CFGO and requested a song without including the name of the artist.
It was one of the best misunderstandings that I've ever had.
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