“There was always something humbling about the power of music. When I think of my childhood studies of music, I think about growing up in East Brunswick, NJ asking my father (a drummer and connoisseur of music) to play me his records.”
“Our living room was an elevated middle tier part of the house. He had these huge “2001”-esque obelisk speakers that just thumped (they made their way with me years later to college too) I will never forget seeing his stack of vintage vinyl and being mesmerized watching him put the album onto the player and move the needle onto the record.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller jumps out to me. I would do the zombie dance and play Vincent Price’s narration and freak out my younger brother. I wasn’t trying to scare him too much on purpose, just inspire his baby soul with this brilliant song. I loved the combination of the horror genre and pop music. I was too young to understand how groundbreaking the album was but I knew I loved what I was hearing.
Around this time, say around 1986/87, I remember CDs being the rage. My parents built quite the library of them. I then became intrigued by the variety of sounds being played in our home and the 10 disc CD changer. The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Joel, The Rascals, Hall and Oates, The Eagles, Anita Baker, The Band, and many others.
Fast forwarding a few years to 1991, I got my first CD player. Between cassette tapes and CDs, I then started to build my army of albums. I remember going to The Wiz on Rt.18 and the Sam Goody in Brunswick Square Mall where I would purchase Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and II, Metallica’s Black Album, Nirvana’s Nevermind, U2’s Achtung Baby, Pearl Jam’s Ten, to name a select few. But the purchase that truly stood out was my first Led Zeppelin CD. Led Zeppelin III.
I remember putting the CD into the Sony single disc boom box. “Immigrant Song.” The initial static cues of the track….The F# riff is smoking hot. What the hell is this? A scream of a blonde haired Norse-man in the distance? Is this really happening? Yup. It happened. I was obsessed with ’90s rock and The Beatles but Led Zeppelin was the siren song for me. The band that stole my fanatic musical virginity. I was smitten.
Due to that occasion, the last 20 years has been an obsession of guitar tone and realizing I will never be as good, or as cool as Jimmy Page. I would watch The Song Remains the Same to imitate his rock star poses. I went to MSG to see Page and Plant live and lost my shit as a 15 year old when they opened with “The Wanton Song.” I have accepted my mortality and fate of being a man amongst the Gods of Rock. I am a mere child but a huge fan of the noises they have produced.
To listen to music is to truly be lucky to delve into one’s artistic soul. I am lucky to have listened to all of those records, tapes, and CDs. Still searching for that tone. I’m very happy to keep looking.
—Jamie DiTringo, Guitar/Bass/Vocals
