Why can't you forget?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXyrCRd1ikw

   I heard "Creep" in the clubs in Okinawa, namingly NEO Manhattan, The Tunnel and The Apple House. It was tradition that on Fridays, paydays, the boys would drive up to Naha City and go to Tower Records. I'll tell you that from a young age, I was obsessed with records. Tapes. CDs. MP3s...is there something after that?

   Going to a record store was a hobby for me. Not outside honing my skills on the basketball court, soccer field, on a skateboard or playing a horn. It was digging for audial gold. Finding that one song that would take me away, take me to another place. Not here. Where the band wanted me to be. In their happiness or misery, I would connect with the songs, then the bands. In some cases these relationships have lasted decades, many more intimate than others.

   I went to Tower Records and my kinship with Radiohead began with the purchase of Pablo Honey. 20 years ago. Mind you we were into Pantera, Rage Against The Machine, Ministry, Metallica, Clutch...if it was heavy we were cranking it and LOUD. Yet, on weekend nights (and weekdays) we'd be weaving our way through every back alley and dive bar on the Rock. We found a home at NEO Manhattan and spent our evenings dancing to Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, with flavors of punk in Fugazi, NOFX, Green Day...and thankfully Radiohead.

   I distinctly remember a round table discussion that year in our room in the barracks on MCAS Futenma about the distinguished "CD of the Year". Clutch was mentioned. Pantera. Me, I said Radiohead and the boys erupted. What?? They said. Who??! I think back now, as The Bends came out, which I'm enjoying now for the first time in a long while right now, and their popularity grew and grew. By the time OK Computer came out they were rock gods.

   It's been very rewarding being on their journey with them. Hearing each album hundreds of times. Seeing them live just once, on a night I really can't remember but pieces of. I have Thom's solo stuff, I like Atoms for Peace, but it's in Radiohead that I've confided in for decades now. They have cured me of my ailments and been there with me when noone else was. Only a reach into the R's in the closet away from escaping.