Professional Disc Jockey

I had a visit from a DJ buddy from LA this last week- spent a couple of days at my house between Christmas and New Years- and we took a road trip up to Winslow where I grew up. We’ve become really good friends in the last 16 years since we met and he wanted to see if a visit to the place of my primary years could help him figure me out. Had a great chat on the drive up and back but I’m not sure he knows me any better than before. If you know pop culture or at least classic rock music, you know that Winslow, Arizona was immortalized in the Eagles song “Take it Easy.” I’m not sure the song writer ever actually stood here or anywhere else in Winslow but the town has declared this corner to be the place and provided a photo opportunity. This is just a brick wall- a remnant of a building that used to be there. An artist has painted the windows and the signage and everything. If you look at the window on the left, there is an eagle perched, two windows over are two lovers embracing, the lower window reflects the flat bed Ford (remember the lyric, “it’s a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.) Just click on the photo to study a larger version of it.

This picture is where the Whipple’s store used to be. The Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe railroad has an office on the left and Family Dollar is on the right but the two used to be the nicest department store in northern Arizona. Just out of the shot on the left- in the corner of the mall- was the corporate office for Whipple’s. It’s vacant now.

I’m standing on the spot that sparked my imagination and ignited my passion for the entertainment business. My DJ career started right here. It was a big retail promotion that my dad put on that was the biggest thing Northern Arizona had ever seen and probably hasn’t been matched since. There was a 45′ flatbed trailer parked on that spot for a stage and I got to introduce an appearance by Arizona TV legends, Wallace and Ladmo. There were about 1500 people there and I cracked a little joke and they laughed and when I told them to cheer, they cheered.

That moment changed my life.

The only thing that could have made that trip better would be if the Root Beer Stand had been open. I had a major hankerin’ for a Taco Tangle.

I did two weddings on New Years Eve but I was home at 11PM. Try to figure that one out. I had a brunch wedding out at Raven Verrado in Buckeye and then hustled out to Dobson Ranch Inn in Mesa for an early evening wedding reception.

This may be the cutest flowergirl in the history of cute flowergirls. She was the niece of the bride and probably believed all day that SHE was the bride. If she has any memories of this day I hope they are fond memories. She was really well behaved and charming and cute. She was wwwwWWWORKIN‘ my tambourine on the dance floor in this shot.
The bride knelt down beside the dancefloor while her new husband was dancing with his mom and the FGIQ (flower girl in question) laid down beside her to take a break. They had to be done by 4P because another New Years party was coming in to that room for that evening. The wedding had been on the lawn at 11AM and lunch was served at about 115 so wrapping up at 4 was just right.
This was the evening couple- a second marriage for both of them. They had been married in the Mormon Temple in Mesa that morning and participated in a religious service and then friends and family gathered for dinner that night at a nearby hotel restaurant. We had family introductions and a couple of speeches and a prayer and some dinner and dancing and when the evening was winding down, we did an arbitrary New Years countdown and lit some sparklers and sent them off on their honeymoon.

Had a corporate gig in Scottsdale a couple of weeks ago and shared the bill with a great magician. We had lunch together last week. The event was for an engineering firm. This was my 3rd Christmas event for them. There was an engineer type who came up during cocktail hour, sucking on a soda through a straw, wearing an ill-fitting, out-of-date jacket and he looked incredulously at me and my equipment and asked if I really make a living at this. I got really serious and lowered my voice and tilted my head downward to his, squinted my eyes so they pierced him and I said, “I make more than you…” It frightened him and he walked away. I bet I DO make more than him. He’s lucky I didn’t respond with, “Do you really make a living sitting around an office doodling?”

People often approach me, who may be somewhat interested in what I do or how I do it or how the equipment works and there also seems to be some romantic notions about the life of a travelling entertainer with the lights, the stage clothes and everything. I know that what they are saying is, “This is really cool, you must have a great life, and I want to be close to you for a minute.” But what comes out is, “Do you really make a living at this?” Or worse, they have to tear it down because it shines the light on their boring or otherwise out-of-control life and then what comes out is “When are you gonna play something we can dance to?” or “We can’t dance to this, what WE want is…” I look at the dancefloor filled with 75% of the attendees and wonder who elected them spokesperson for those who ARE dancing? I just try to remember that what they are trying to say is- “This is really cool.” I DO love my life and my chosen profession.

Since I’m on this subject. I have had two people in the last 2 weeks come up and request the very song that is playing. Are you even listening? They must have really thought it was cool and wanted any reason to come up and say hello.

Made a road trip to LA last month for a concert.

While in LA, had lunch with my son, Javin, he turned 20 this week, met his girlfriend, liked her.

I don’t mind what speed people go out in the desert, but I’d like them to maintain it fairly consistently. The left lane isn’t really called the fast lane- it’s the PASSING lane. If you aren’t passing, GET OUT OF MY WAY and let me pass! Don’t use the argument that you are going over the speed limit anyways and I should just deal with it. I don’t have cruise control in the DJ van but I can maintain a pace within about 2 MPH pretty well. I was in my car for this trip and used the cruise control and it was painfully obvious that people were more interested in texting and yakking than watching the speedometer.

Gary Numan sold out two nights at El Rey Theater and melted some faces! He played the entire Pleasure Principle album to celebrate 30 years since its release. It’s an important album because it was the first rock album devoid of electric guitars. They strapped on some guitars for the 2nd half of the show and played some current music and other fan faves from the catalogue. Steve Harris is an unknown treasure in the guitar world- a madman on stage and I almost took a guitar to the face more than once. A few years ago at a show in San Diego, he almost took a tumble off the stage but I caught him. He looks fairly normal here. He’s a specimen of manhood, the last time I saw him, he was shirtless and had a black line painted down his face and neck and chest like a zipper- pretty scary.

I had a backstage pass and I got to go to sound check and talk to Gary Numan. I pressed him about bringing the show to Phoenix in the spring when the new album comes out and he said he’ would have liked to come this time- they did have some interested promoters- but that he has kids now and doesn’t like to be away from them for so long. Next tour, he said he’d do the east coast and then spend some time with family and then hit a few more cities in the west than he did this time. He did thank me very genuinely for driving 6 hrs each way for the show and promised that he’d work hard to make it a a good one. It was.

I know he doesn’t particularly like meeting fans but he does it because it means a lot to fans. I just thanked him for the music, got an autograph on a DVD and I let him go. At the height of his stardom in the 80s, he received a live bullet in the mail from a “fan”- a bullet is really hard to get in Britain. The note said that the bullet had been in a handgun (even harder to get in Britain) that was snuck into Wembley Stadium and he had intended to kill him but had such a good time at the show that he decided not to…

There was a photographer with the local music press up in front of the barrier at the Numan show that was a fit and trim guy but still looked a bit like a nerd. He had a shaved head and there was a glaring, long, curly hair growing from the top of his ear. Not a spot on the side of his head where he mistakenly missed shaving, it was ON THE TOP OF HIS EAR. It would seem that a photographer would have good enough vision to have spotted that in the mirror each morning. The stage lights made it really shine.

The opening act sucked.

I have about 6 little cases of ear plugs in my desk in my home office. I always buy a set for each concert I attend because I always forget to bring the ones I have. I protect my hearing pretty religiously. The drug store a couple of blocks down Wilshire Blvd from the El Rey Theater sold me a case of about 10 pairs of ear plugs. A few fans in the front row with me were plugging their ears in the first couple of numbers from the sucky opening act and I offered them my extra plugs. At first, they thought I was offering drugs or something. I had to point to my ears with the purple ear plugs in them. They accepted my offer.

My buddy Scott from Orange County was going to try to buy a ticket after the start of the show when the ticket sellers may be a bit more desperate. Out front, he had offered to snap a pic under the marquee for a dad with two teenage daughters attending the show. He got down on his knee and really framed the pic nicely. For his gesture, he got a spare ticket intended for the mom who was sick. Scott is 6’4″ and he pressed/wrestled his way right down front anyway. You suck Scott!

Said hello to a fellow fan that I’ve seen at shows over the years… he’s now a she.

Talk show host, Craig Ferguson and U2 guitarist, The Edge were in attendance- both proclaim Numan fandom.

Gary Numan was supposed to have headlined the Coachella Music festival but was stranded in Britain because of the Iceland volcano last spring. Craig Ferguson had purchased a $270 ticket for the festival and ranted on and on in his opening monologue the next night about not getting to see his hero Gary Numan.

Did a corporate gig for CelllularONE at Hon-dah resort up in Pinetop last weekend. They ain’t never seen nothing like me up on the mountain. I sent ’em home in body bags. They had a singer for dinner hour and the hotel staff had man-handled a beautiful white Young Chang grand piano (rather expensive) into the space right beside me. I would have never climbed up there if it was in better condition but the hotel crew had no idea how to handle a piano and it was already pretty scratched up on each corner. It was the perfect platform for me to dance/rock out/do my Baptist preacher routine… They called me on Monday AM and booked me for next year.

The spouse of an attendee came up and told me that he’s a DJ too and made a couple of requests that were way out in left field from the format of the evening- THE SONGS I WAS HIRED TO PLAY- I always wonder how good a DJ is when he’s talking to me on a Saturday night and not working… Hmmm…. I think he was using cocaine too. I know I talk fast but this guy was going 100mph and couldn’t hold still for a second!

Picked some limes at Uncle Dave’s house in Pomona CA. Limeade for the last month or so. Juiced it all and made ice cubes out of it. They are in a freezer bag now.

That’s right, I said that and I’ll say it again because I’m controversial. I’m like Geraldo.

Here they are, the GREATEST Christmas songs ever:

10) Styx- All I want

• Most artists either cover an existing song from the 50s or 60s when most of the really good Christmas music was written or they do an overwrought, contrived and unimaginative “original” song about how “it’s Christmastime and the snow is falling down…” Falling down?!!???! As opposed to…? This one is a great original by a great band. My only complaint is that it uses sleigh bells. They are used very well mind you, but sleigh bells do not necessarily a Christmas song make and in the same way, merely declaring that it’s Christmastime in the first line or two does not make it a Christmas song. In light of the fact that it is an otherwise solid, well-crafted, arranged and performed song, I’ll slide it in at number 10.

9) Randy Travis- Jingle Bell Rock

• It’s been covered several times but the song just lends itself to a country treatment and there’s none better than the deep and smooth voice of Randy Travis.

8) Peter, Paul and Mary- Children, Go where I send thee

• A great song in the “Twelve days of Christmas” vein where you add an item with each verse and work your way down. You kinda should know your Christianity to get some of the references but if not, you have a reason to do some searching on who Paul and Silas are (in addition to other things) and why they are sung about together. I have a live performance of it and it is incredibly flawed compared to the quantized and overproduced music of today but that’s what gives it some life. The song really does live and breathe.

7) The Osmonds- Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells

• It’s just full of the joy of the season.

6) Jon Bon Jovi- Please come home for Christmas

• When Bon Jovi was on hiatus and Jon was doing some acting and other things in the 90s, he recorded this song and knocked it out of the park. It’s a great vocal performance that only takes 1/2 of the song but he sang what he needed to sing and got himself out. This version clocks in at only 2:53 the rest of it is filled with a respectable guitar solo but it could have just ended early and been fine.

5 1/2) Amy Grant-Breath of Heaven

• What a powerful song. There is nothing you could do to change it. The reverent and religious message itself causes the chord progression to be what it is. The dramatic pauses are brilliant and it’s kindof in a class by itself. It IS a Christmas song but not in the cutesy or secular-ish vein but it couldn’t not be on this list… and no, I don’t need no English lessons. Amy Grant nailed this one.

5) Dennis DeYoung- When I hear a Christmas song

• I already mentioned that all of the good Christmas music was already written and we just have the new artists rehashing what has already been done and done and done- this is really a new classic. Although it leans on the sleigh bells again, it’s an otherwise perfect Christmas love song.

4) The Chipmunks- Christmas don’t be late

• It’s a well-crafted song that used cutting edge technology for the time, but still sounds superior to the electronically treated voices used in the recent chipmunks movies and musically it still holds up pretty well. Alvin… uh Alvin… ALVIN!

3) Amy Grant- The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)

• This is another one that has been covered by several artists over the years. Ms. Grant’s version just captures the message of the song. It’s romantic, it’s spiritual and fun. It’s a great slow dance.

2) The Carpenters- Merry Christmas Darling

• Karen Carpenter was before my time but her voice is just perfect. It melts me and it should melt you too.

1) Andy Williams- The most wonderful time

• It’s ain’t Christmas until ANDY says it’s Christmas and he says it so well with this song.

I just celebrated 31 years as a DJ this last week. My first gig was on November 14th of 1979.

This is the earliest picture I have of me as a DJ. This was taken in 1983. I was 17 yrs old and already 3 years into what has become my career. I didn’t count myself a professional until about 5 years later when I did my first big budget event at one of the local country clubs in Riverside CA and I changed that event from a good event into a great event and that golf club became a regular customer for many years.
This is my current DJ rig. It can do about 20 times what that mess up there could do.
Here are some pictures from just this past weekend. I’m doing the Cha-cha slide with a young bridal party. I’ve got lots of new toys since that first gig back in 1979. This was at King Ben’s Pavilion at Golfland/Sunsplash on Friday night. I attracted 200 of the 350 in attendance and I had to compete with Lazer Tag, miniature golf, fried food, a major arcade and a lovely evening with a full moon. Once they discovered that I was there under the tent and I meant business, they packed that space and stayed and danced until the wee hours of the morning.

Other than business cards, I never spent a dime on advertising until early 2007 when I was the new guy in Phoenix.

People I’ve met during my DJ career: Explorer Jacques Cousteau, Rock singer Huey Lewis, President elect Bill Clinton, Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona, Governor Janet Napalitano of Arizona (now Homeland Security Secretary), Tommy Shaw, James Young and Dennis DeYoung of Styx, Teen idol Davy Jones of the Monkees, Electronic rock pioneer Gary Numan, Arizona TV Legends Wallace and Ladmo, DJ Kasey Casem, TV fashion expert Avril Graham, The Laker Girls, the San Diego Charger Girls, Guitarist Joe Satriani, British DJ/Producer Ade Fenton, Actor Paul Hogan, Director Steven Spielberg, French composer/musician Jean-Michel Jarre, Radio DJ Rick Dees, Teen idol Andy Gibb, Mormon Church leaders Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson, Fox Morning News host Alexis Delchiaro. Countless Mayors, political contenders, magicians, puppeteers, comedians, singers, jugglers, regional musical acts, special interest authors, school Principals and lots of other nice people who are out doing the things the world needs done whether it makes them famous or not.

Cool places I’ve played: Under the nose of Air Force One at the Ronald Reagan Library, Queen Mary, Disneyland, Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival, California School for the Deaf, The Boojum Tree, Huntington Beach- and I mean ON the beach, Bear Creek Inn, atop a San Francisco skyscraper with a perfectly framed view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Wrigley Mansion, The Sanctuary, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Tempe Center for the Performing Arts. I’ve worked at events in Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Florida, Illinois, Connecticut and Texas.

Interesting situations encountered: A groom was unfaithful with a bridesmaid on Thursday and the bride discovered the encounter on Friday and decided that she didn’t want to marry him on Saturday but she kept completely quiet and went ahead with the plans in order to embarrass him publicly at the wedding ceremony. When the officiant asked who thinks this couple shouldn’t be married, she let him have it!

Only two major equipment failures to speak of in 31 years- New Years Eve of 1983, power amp blew up with sparks and smoke and everything. A guitarist in attendance had an amp in his car and we made it work. 18 months in to digital DJ work, in about 1999 or 2000, my computer software froze. I’m not a computer whiz but witnessed a miracle as the software re-loaded at the moment when I was about to announce the bride and groom first dance. I have redundancies in place against that ever happening again. I did have a lighting rig collapse during set up and as one of the truss bars came down, it narrowly missed hitting me in the head but it brushed against the front of my chest and sliced my left nipple rather severely. I’m pretty religious about the safety latches and pins but this was during set up when some of them weren’t installed yet.

Prom at California School for the Deaf in 1993 and 1994. “Hearing” some of those songs in ASL was beautiful and moving.

A car entered a rural two-lane highway from a driveway and I crashed into the drivers door at about 50MPH and lots of DJ equipment came flying through my back window. I nearly careened down a ravine. Brought the truck to a stop safely several hundred feet down the road. The driver was injured and taken to a hospital for a couple of days. I was a mile away from a wedding venue and two hours from the ceremony start time. The venue operator dispatched someone to come and salvage the equipment from the back of the truck and went and set it in place as best they knew how. (it was a place that I worked regularly) Several road cases were destroyed but all the crucial equipment was intact or at least in working order. I showed up later and took care of the wedding. My truck was totalled. The wedding guests never knew anything was amiss.

Someone offered cocaine once and I refused and asked him to leave the stage because I was trying to work. He apologized but only thought I was upset that he was offering so openly so he offered again with his hand down by his hip and backwards- a bit more discreetly. I don’t do drugs.

The fathers of the bride and groom got into a fist fight in the foyer in sight of the reception hall. Both left in handcuffs.

Music: I can’t say that I’ve played Michael Jackson and the Beatles at every gig but I’ve played them at most gigs and I can’t think of a gig where a song or two wouldn’t fit in somewhere. I never tire of those songs and they always fill the dancefloor. I’m a huge Styx fan but I rarely play them. Not all that danceable. I do a pretty cool DJ mix thing with Lou Bega’s Mambo #5 and Styx’s Too Much Time on my Hands once in a while. First song I ever played as a DJ was Gary Numan’s Cars. Click here for my previously shared thoughts on the impact of that song on rock music. Thank you Michael and Paul and John for the music. I love you guys! Honorable mention to Van Morrison and Glenn Miller.

I love what I do because everybody is always dressed up, they are celebrating something meaningful to them. You’ve got the food, the music, the lights, the occasion, the anticipation, the color, the heritage, the fun, the electric conversations, the flirting, the dancing and I get to be the Pied Piper and help them release all that celebration inside of their hearts.

Normally people would say “Here’s to another 31 years!” when writing something like this. I don’t know if I have 31 more years in me- maybe this will be me in 31 years when I’m 76 years old, but I do love what I do and as long as there are customers who want me to do it I’ll keep doing it as best I know how or even improving it as new technology comes along. Thanks to all of you for the great life.

Had a great time at the Paul Mitchell School today. I go down there about once a quarter to have some fun. I barter for hair care and other products but it’s really just a part of my overall marketing efforts. I just try to get myself in front of people when I can. There are a bunch of twenty-somethings going to school there, about 120 of them, that will likely be getting married in the next few years… I’ve already booked several events from my appearances there over the months.

I made a nice little gobo to project right in front of the check-in desk that they all loved.
This is Terry, one of the faculty there. I think I liked her better last year as Lady Gaga…This guy works at the front desk. He’s dressed as 5-yr old “Stewart” from Mad TV. He’s got the voice and the moves and everything. I don’t know this student’s name but she slid all the way across the floor in her socks- a la Tom Cruise in Risky Business. She’s rockin‘ my guitar here.

This is student body president Stacy on the left of the shot and also various and sundry other students filling the rest of the shot. They were doing the Cupid Shuffle here.

I worked for a real sweetheart of a bride last month. She wept with joy most of the night and was completely comfortable doing so in front of everybody. It had been a pleasure to have her and her fiance in my home office a couple of times planning the music of the night. Congratulations Nic and Christine!

I purchased a new toy this year- I have a gobo projector system thingy that can project a monogram of the bride and groom or a corporate logo on the dancefloor or a wall. I had a very nice monogram for the new Mrs. deKeyser here with their wedding date and everything. She was nice enough to snap a pic with me using my logo on the dancefloor at the end of the night. I also did a retail promotion for Swarovski at Scottsdale Fashion Park a couple of weeks ago. Someone in the corporate office in New York did a Google search for local DJs and they found me even though I’m some distance down on any Internet search. They were looking for something specific and found me. That’s really cool. Any event on a weeknight- which is off-peak, is “found” money as far as I’m concerned.

The whole store is only 700 sq feet (there are hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry and home fashions for sale in that small space) but display counters, cabinets, cash register and storage closet take up probably 450 feet of that. With my lighting rig and full sound system and everything, I take 400 sq feet! We weren’t allowed to extend out in to the mall at all. I brought all of the stuff but ended up leaving most of it in the van. I took, two speakers, my DJ workstation console and one tripod to mount the gobo projector for a “Swarovski Autumn/Winter 2010” logo, which I actually projected through the store window out into the mall hallway. I don’t think there was anybody that walked by without it catching their eye. This is just a .jpg file of what becomes just white light where ever it is projected.
I was able to cram my stuff into about 22 or maybe 23 sq feet and make it work. A caterer brought a tray on wheels to help serve some hor d’oeuvres and drinks and that took about 30 sq feet. The remaining 100 feet of floor space was filled with about 70 customers sipping champagne. There was some corporate staff from LA, and the local Swarovski staff but they kinda stood outside the door (other than a cashier) to make more space. They were selling lots of jewelry that night too. I’m confident that my presence added energy and increased the sales.

This is Avril Graham. She’s a fashion expert that can be seen on the Today show occasionally. She was brought in from New York to narrate a fashion show. Even though we weren’t supposed to spill out into the mall traffic at all, the fashion show just couldn’t have taken place any other way. We were barely in the entryway of the store. You can kinda see my equipment in the window there, my left elbow is pointing at it.
Here are the two local models that took care of the fashion show. Not only are they stunningly beautiful, they are probably the most professional I’ve ever worked with. They really complimented the fashions and jewelry that they were hired to display. I sound like a heel saying this, I did ask their names and then repeated them a couple of times as I shook their hands, but I didn’t write them down and now that I’m writing this a few weeks later, I’ve forgotten. I apologize to both of you but it really was a pleasure to be on board for such a great event and to be surrounded by true professionals in each of our various crafts. I forgot to say thanks to Jeff Colling of Colling Photo for sending me a copy of the picture from the deKeyser wedding you see at the top of this post. Thanks Jeff, you ROCK!

I’m playing at a Class of ’65 reunion tomorrow night at one of the best resort hotels in this city- very POSH! I’ve been preparing my music for the event based on a music survey function that the class committee put on their website that would collect up the most requested songs to be played- if class mates would just take a minute to request a few while they checked for details of the various activities planned for the reunion weekend.

I compiled the list and noticed there wasn’t any music listed from Bob Dylan, The Doors, The Mamma’s and Papa’s, The Beatles or Elvis Presley yet they want music from the entire decade representing their high school and college years. I would have thought those artists would feature a little bit more prominently. There was one song by The Beach Boys and one listed from The Rolling Stones. I was born in 1965 and I was hardly a gleam in my fathers’ eye while these classmates were in high school, but I’ve been a DJ for nearly 31 years now and I think I know what to play for this occasion.

Does anyone ever notice that when there is a late night infomercial selling a Time-Life music collection of “The Definitive 70’s Collection” that there is no Queen or Aerosmith or Elton John included? Do you know why that is? It’s about licensing the rights to sell that song. Queen has no problem selling their body of work packaged any way they want it. If you want “Bohemian Rhapsody” you can buy one of the greatest hits packages or find it on A Night at the Opera and you’ll pay for the other songs on there whether you want them or not because they are Queen and “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a great song and they can do that! (you can steal it from various nefarious sources on the Internet)

Itunes is changing the landscape as the years go by but there are several artist who still won’t license their music to be sold that way. If Pepsi suddenly said, we are no longer selling single cans, you have to buy at least a 6 pack, there would be rioting in the streets. The music industry tried to hold on to that dream of only selling albums and full CDs for some time even alienating what should have been their next generation of customers who just wanted to buy one song. They fought it so long and hard that there is a whole generation of people who were teens in the 90s who still think that music is free.

I think the big Beatles remastered boxed set that came out a couple of years ago will be the last major CD release of any consequence and it kinda signalled the end of CDs. The Beatles only sell CDs and I think that the bulk of their audience would still purchase them that way. Strangely, there are several “tribute” bands that sell crappy cover versions of Beatles songs on Itunes. Kid Rock had a hit song a couple of years ago called “All Summer Long” and since he wouldn’t license it to Itunes, there was a horrible karaoke version of the song that went to number 1 on the Itunes chart for a few weeks. Itunes is the #1 retailer of music in the world now. There are teens discovering music now that have never known anything but their ipod or their iphone for music.

I haven’t used CDs in over a decade now. I use a music service for professional DJs so I can keep current with the music I need and find songs for occasions such as this if I don’t already have the requested songs. (I already had about 85% of their list)

I have a hunch that any classmates that took the survey probably did a google search for music of the 60s to jog their memory and several Time-Life collections came up along with some Amazon suggestions and people didn’t really search their memory to think of the songs that meant something to them or try to remember the theme song from their Senior Prom. They just accepted what was given as the truth and accepted that the list they saw really was the ” 16 Most Beloved Songs of the 60’s” or the “Most Requested Songs of the 60’s” when clearly the Beatles probably outsold every artist on those collections combined. If the Beatles didn’t, Elvis did.

15 years ago, my favorite act “Styx” went to put together a greatest hits package. Their first hit song Lady was with one record company called Wooden Nickel Records and then they had a dozen more top ten hits when they left Wooden Nickel for A&M Records. Upon creating the greatest hits package, A&M asked Wooden Nickel in 1995 if they could license the song Lady but Wooden Nickel refused. That was one of the few things they had of any value to sell. So Styx went and recorded a clone version of Lady using the same arrangement and instrumentation and called it Lady ’95. This version had the added bonus that Tommy Shaw was included in this recording when he hadn’t been on the original; he joined the band later and wrote several of the other hit songs.

I think that most music fans could spot the differences between the two versions and certainly the recording quality- 1995 technology had marched on substantially from when the original was recorded in the early 1970’s. I also have a hunch that most casual Styx fans would have purchased the Greatest Hits CD anyway- without Lady on it- and just enjoyed the other songs and would NOT have purchased Styx II that contained the original version of Lady. The gods of rock smiled on Styx as their music was featured in a popular Volkswagen TV commercial and in some Adam Sandler movies at the time and the Styx Greatest Hits package sold several thousand copies every week for almost 5 years. Wooden Nickel guessed wrong and they got nothing from those sales as they would have if the original recording of Lady had been included.

I know that retail sales and radio play and the impact of a given work on the art form or on society as a whole don’t always coincide with each other and that some songs may grow over a period of time, when we get some hindsight on them and can see their place in a larger whole even though maybe they didn’t mean as much at the time they were released. Journey’s Dont’ Stop Believin’ is bigger now than it was nearly 30 years ago when it came out. Come Sail Away by Styx is a good, solid song but it probably didn’t change the world. It arguably changed my life though.

So, congratulations Class of ’65! That’s a lot of years. I’m sure it will be great for you to see each other this weekend. It’s going to be a great night and we’ll dance to The Newbeats, The Dixie Cups, The Shangri-las, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five and maybe I’ll throw in some Herman’s Hermits for good measure.

I’m happy to take requests and I thank you for requesting a song you’d like to hear. Please know that I’ll make every effort to play it as soon as possible (often with in 3 or 4 songs) but keep the following in mind:

• In the old days, when carrying several road cases of vinyl or even CDs, it took a couple of minutes just to find your song. With my computerized DJ system, I can find any song in a few seconds but when you are asking as the current song is ending, it’s too late. The next song is already in the queue.

• Others may have requested songs ahead of you. Songs are 3 1/2 to 4 minutes each and if I’m beat mixing in and out of songs quickly, I still like to play at least 90 seconds of a song so that it has a chance to speak its message, its flavor, its groove. With 5 requests ahead of yours, it could possibly take 20 minutes to get to you.

• We may be at a place in the event where I have other things to do such as speeches, presentations, dinner service, toasts, garter toss and bouquet toss or cake cutting.

• I may have been specifically asked by my customer to NOT play that song.

• The song you are requesting may have profanity or overtly sexual content that doesn’t belong in mixed company.

• The song you are requesting may not fit in the format that I’ve been hired to do or fit the nature of the occasion. George Strait’s “All my exes live in Texas” doesn’t belong at a wedding. Styx’s “Come sail away” is one of the greats, and a personal favorite, and it may fit during cocktail hour at a Class of ’77 Reunion, but it isn’t danceable.

• Even if it fits the format of the event, it may not fit what is being played at that moment. If I’m in a set of Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Sean Kingston and Timbaland, a request for a George Strait song wouldn’t fit at that moment but I’ll get to it shortly. Maybe I could play Taylor Swift after Ke$ha and then move to a couple of country songs so it’s not so jarring.

• Lastly, please choose a song that a few people might know. An obscure song that you and your two college buddies used to sing karaoke to and… “we used to… Hahhahahahaaa… we stayed up way too late and Hmm… I guess you had to be there… man, those were good times… Can you play that one?” If it’s an inside joke, keep it inside with you and your buddies and allow me to try to appeal to the wider group.

Whenever possible, I always try to avoid setting up on a stage, I like to be on the floor where the people are. I can do a better job when I can feel the pulse of the room. When I’m on my game, when I’ve won the confidence of the dancefloor, people are hugging each other and getting into it, singing along with every word, dancing up a storm. I feel that energy, I dig down, crank it up, send a renewed energy back to them, and they feel it and nurture it and send it back to me and I feel it and I’m singing along and getting into it and I crank up some more energy and send it back to them and they are dancing and hugging and sweating and we have a rock and roll party going on!

I’m still happy to take requests, but the funny thing is, when I’m doing my thing, the requests just stop. The people trust me to take them on a ride and lead them through several waves of musical energy.