The Rolling Stones and My Mom

Every time I hear the Rolling Stones I think of my mother.

As you can guess there's a story.

I was in college, home on summer break, and my Mom came in from parking her car in the garage and gave me a copy of Exile on Main Street. She said she had been in a record store and the song "Sweet Virginia" came on and everyone in the store started bopping their heads to it. They all sang the line, "Got to scrape the @$&* right off your shoes."

Loud.

She thought that was fun and fun-ee, bought the album, and the rest as they say is history.

That's why the Stones make me think of my mother.

It got me to thinking, what other artists make me think of my family?

The first time I ever heard of Emerson, Lake and Palmer was through my Dad. He had been traveling for his job and when he came home, he told me about hearing an album on the road that had a dove on the cover and featured an organ like he had heard in church.

ELP everybody and I have my Pop to thank for that.


KC and the Sunshine Band reminds me of one of my twins, Griffin.

When the boys were younger booty was a naughty word to them. They giggled every time they heard a certain song. I found out and the next time they were in the car, I was ready. Out of the car's stereo came, "shake, shake, shake... shake, shake, shake... shake your booty, shake your booty." I must have played that a thousand times and each time Griffin would squeal, "Again, Again!"

Earth, Wind and Fire makes me think, always, of the other twin, Miles. Every time the song "September" came on the radio, he would sing along to it. "Bah de yah, say do you remember, bah de yah, dancing in September."

Sweet tune.

He'll tell you it's one of his favorite songs and it's something to watch him move and groove to it.

On to the girls.

Jenna turned me on to Chris Brown. We were in her car and his song, "Don't Wake Me Up "was on her iPod. She had it plugged into her radio's speakers and when it came on I said, "Who is THAT?  She told me and now he's on my iPod.

Maya's fascination with Adele has been well documented but her love for Ed Sheeran has not. She was on to him way early, in fact she saw him in concert for 10 bucks.  She says, with pride, you'll never see him for that amount again.

And she's right.

Every time I hear him, he reminds me of her.

Ed's on my iPod, as well.

And the heavy metal band Anthrax reminds me of my opera singing sister.

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking...how did that happen? Here's the deal. I was at CBS covering The Grammys and since they were on our network I got two tickets. My older sister Leslie was my date. We sat in the audience with her next to, you guessed it, the band. She sat right next to the lead singer.

Can you say, "Trepidation?" I think you can.

I had to go do some work and worried the whole time about her. Shouldn't have. When I returned she and the singer of Anthrax were chatting like the best of friends.

Later she said with a smile, "I know how to mingle."




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