I have a strong memory of how it happened, the very day when my life was changed by music. It was 1977 and I was 12 years old and up until that day music for me was the jingly “hooray for everything” effervescence of the radio in our house witch was permanently stuck on an AM channel that projected either rainbows and happiness or maudlin sentimentality.
My brother’s friend was driving us to the local squash courts for our Friday night game, he slammed in an audio cassette and with no other introduction than “listen to this” he turned the knob to full volume. There was a loud hissing silence, a quiet guitar warm up then a full throated voice like none I had heard before.
Hey hey mama said the way you move,
Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove.
Ah-ah child way you shake that thing,
Gon' make you burn, gon' make you sting.
Wow, just wow, I was pinned to the back seat by the sheer force of the vocal and guitar. It was without a doubt the most exciting thing that I had encountered in my short life. …