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Cover Songs, Betrayal, and Me
How Shaun Cassidy and David Bowie laid my musical foundation
What starts anyone on their musical journey? A cool older sibling, neighbor, or record store employee? If you’re lucky. Random turn of the radio dial? Maybe.
What music set me on my journey?
The cool answer is “Scary Monsters” by David Bowie (or more realistically, “Let’s Dance”). But the real answer is decidedly Shaun Cassidy.
The real, real answer, though, is cover songs.
Digging the scene
All my friends in 1977–78 were ravenous for the Grease and Saturday Night Fever soundtracks. I lusted after them in a way that was quite frankly scary.
Confronted with my begging and these choices at the record store one afternoon, my parents put their collective foot down. I was not going to be allowed to listen to such “suggestive” music as a tender eight-year-old. I was told I could buy a record, but not either of those.
I wandered away from my mom, who was most likely flipping through the Christmas records to find something for me.
Down an aisle, I spied a familiar name. One that I saw regularly on the credits for the “Hardy Boys Mysteries.” One that I already had an attachment to. One that I had no idea existed here in the record store. And was about to take up residence in my bedroom, courtesy of the full-color poster included with the purchase of the record.
To play this record, the first that wasn’t a Peter Pan record or book-and-record set, the first that belonged only to me, I had to first commandeer my mom’s old record player. It was the coolest thing ever. The turntable and speakers folded up, and you buckled them shut; it looked like a small overnight case with a handle on top.
So ensconced in my bedroom with Shaun, I quickly picked up the lyrics for my favorite tracks. I say quickly, but I am reasonably sure my parents would remember it taking me dozens, if not hundreds, of repeated listenings for me to nail down every part. With every revolution, Shaun’s blandly handsome face beamed down at me from the wall and I was positive that he could somehow hear me practicing and would hire me to be a backup singer.
