1976, ELO, A New World Record. I was eleven, and skateboarding in a park in Teheran when the single from that album came through the speakers. I damned-near wrecked -- the guitar just sounded amazing. As I wrote another time:
Quote:It wasn’t long after that that the same DJ, Ted Hawkins, played the song that was to change my life forever: “Do Ya” by the Electric Light Orchestra. In those days before Walkmans®, we carried our music around on what came to be called “ghetto blasters” or just “blasters”; and I was doing so one day in the park with our huge Sony, grinding my skateboard on the stair-rails when I heard this incredible sound pouring out of my speakers. I immediately stopped my riding, in fact, I almost fell, and I gave the radio the attention it commanded. The sound was unaccompanied electric guitar, three simple chords, and to this day it sends chills down my spine. It sounded like a thousand sheets of paper being ripped, in tune, like the fabric of the world itself being torn apart, this guitar did, punctuated by dead silence. It was the sound of my ears being yanked open.
That afternoon I made up my mind that I was going to take up guitar. I had to make that sound.
