I never got into metal. In fact I didn't really develop a taste in music until the end of 1991 when, at age 15, new friends introduced me to a whole world of alternative bands that I'd never been exposed to. (Prior to that, most of the albums I owned were soundtracks to movies I liked, much in the same way that nearly every novel I owned was a novelization of a movie I liked. I liked movies).
So on this fine Metal Monday, I am reminded of my favourite song on one of the first albums I bought during this musical awakening. And it's not a metal song by any means, but it has the word "metal" in the title so I thought it was pretty apt. And the reason I remember it so well is because I was visiting my grandparents in Canberra over the 1991 Christmas holidays and my grandfather took me to the legendary Impact Records (which is still going strong) and I proudly bought Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque. On CASSETTE!
AND NOT ONLY THAT, when I got home and eagerly placed into my grandfather's stereo I was absolutely horrified to realise that the entire tape had been spooled on backwards and the stereo was shrieking (perhaps metalesque) devil music in tongues! And I was pretty pissed because a $20 investment was not insignificant to a 15-year-old in 1991.
So we went back to the store and my grandfather got all hardass and protective with the staff who were kind of incredulous and dubious that such a thing could even happen, and they opened up a new cassette and put it on a listening station for us to double-check. And my granddad listens and the first thing he hears are the Metal Baby lyrics, "Says she won't be forced/against her will/says she don't do drugs/but she does the pill/oh yeah!" and I remember vividly that he kind of frowns and says, "Well I guess it sounds slightly better than it did before".
Here's Metal Baby!
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