Went to see Bob Seeger and J. Geils Saturday night.
Fucking amazing show. I will tell you all about it further on down the line.
Monday I'm driving to Hell at The Asylum, listening to sports talk radio on WEEI. I have been doing that lately to shake things up. Who the hell needs music?
They are having a debate about who's legacy is greater - Bob Seeger's or Meatloaf's. Because one of the hosts was at the concert.
I'm driving to Hell at The Asylum on Tuesday morning and these same guys are having a discussion about Mark Parenteau. He was a DJ on WBCN back in the day. Back in my day.
Parenteau was at the concert too. He is 64 and suffering with spinal stenosis. He felt this could be the last concert he ever attends. He made the effort because he claims he is the guy who introduced Bob Seeger to Peter Wolf in 1967. Wolf is the singer for the Geils band.
Neither Seeger nor Wolf made the effort to say hello to Parenteau.
Could be a story there or not. I was more interested in the fact that I heard references to the concert two days in a row.
I say that because the concert was huge. Much bigger, much more amazing than I expected. Ripples afterward made sense to me.
I loved Parenteau. He was the afternoon drive time guy. He lit the smoking lamp every afternoon at 5:00. We all knew what the smoking lamp signified.
He had a canned prelude to the official lighting of the smoking lamp with spoken snippets of this and snippets of that. Same thing every day and I loved it.
Part of the shtick was the "what we have hear is a failure to communicate" quote. Somehow he worked in a reference to "morons, psychopaths and mental defectives." I stole that phrase, I love it and I have used it all my life.
A horn went off after the prelude and it was officially smoking lamp time.
I dug the guy, I loved the station and I wish that kind of radio freedom and innovation still existed. BCN was considered one of the most progressive stations in the country for decades and many of their DJ's and other "on air" talent are famous.
I got nostalgic for Parenteau after hearing the pseudo jocks talk about him so I looked him up this morning.
And found this.
Mark Parenteau served three years in federal prison for sexually abusing a child. He had been indicted for sexual abuse of minors, prostitution and conspiracy. He pled guilty to a single charge of child sexual abuse.
Now he has spinal stenosis. Punishment? Karma?
That is not what I am focusing on.
I went digging with a warm feeling of nostalgia. With a sense of awe and contentment that I experienced the WBCN era and that I was smart enough to know what it was all about and to appreciate it.
And I end up stumbling over child sexual abuse and a debilitating disease.
Pure joy does not exist except in the relationship between parent and child. If you do it right.
I suppose it has always been this way. Humans are frail, weak and spiteful. We are an insult to the promise that we hold as "higher" life forms.
It's just that the way it is now, you can't get away from ugly reality. It is in your face every second of every day.
I am not saying I want to ignore Parenteau's failings as a human. I am saying that I wish just for once a dream, a memory, a feeling could be untainted.
Too much to ask.
For those who dug BCN, here is a list of names and references to spark you and bring some life back into your dullness:
Charles Laquidara
Oedipus
The Cosmic Muffin
Duane Ingalls Glasscock
Tank
Tami Heide
The Big Matrress
Carter Alan
J.J. Jackson
Cha-Chi
Danny Schechter The News Dissector
Ken Shelton
Billy West
Peter Wolf (yeah, he DJ'ed)
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