Just like his dad before him, my dad could also often be found sitting in front of that same stereo, singing along to those same records, as well as with some of his own favourites: Elvis, The Edgar Winters Band, Rocky Burnett, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, The Stones, The J. Geils Band, The Knack, The Cars, Genesis, Queen, Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle, Helen Reddy, Bob Seger, and later, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner... and Prince's, "Around The World In a Day." I remember having him hook up a mic for me, so that I could sing through the speakers to "My Sharona," "The Gambler," "Delta Dawn," or "Freeze Frame" (ah, if only there were tapes made of that!!!).

My older brother was a huge influence over my taste in music at that time, too, and when we hit on a favourite, we played it to death. We often played "air band," with our red, orange and yellow shag rug as our stage. Of course, we were a 2-piece: a guitarist (tennis racket) and a drummer (stacks of throw-pillows). We took it rather seriously, and if I do say so myself, we pulled off some of the most rockin' air-performances of all time in that rec room on Victoria Street. Our set list looked something like this:

Geez, the memories! I gotta wrap this post up posthaste and go make an iTunes playlist already!