Dazed and Confused

I recently watched the movie “Dazed and Confused” for the first time. In case you are the other person who hasn’t seen the film, it is a set in a small Texas town on High School Graduation Day 1976, which is the year I graduated from High School in a small Pennsylvania town.

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The film opens with a GTO prowling the High School parking lot to “Sweet Emotion” and the last scene has a carload of kids at dawn heading to Houston to get Tickets for the summer's main event - an Aerosmith concert. It all feels so familiar. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the haircuts, the cars… it’s all perfect. There’s even a somewhat geeky character that has my hair and glasses from that era.

The soundtrack is often cranked, a full frontal assault of all that rocked in that era. In addition to Aerosmith, there's Foghat, Frampton, ZZ Top, Alice Cooper, Nazareth, Sabbath, Kiss, Deep Purple, Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer, Steve Miller, War, even Head East’s “Never Been any Reason” gets blasted in the foreground of this 70’s version of American Graffiti. Led Zeppelin, which is honored by the film's title is missing from the actual film, it must have been a rights issue…

So it was a cold splash on my warm fuzzy nostalgia when I received a terrible phone call with the news that one of my closest childhood friends and a fellow member of the Class of 1976 had died of a sudden massive Heart Attack. It has been years since I saw James Wendell Maudlin, but my memories of him, his energy, enthusiasm and spirit are forged in my brain along with the soundtrack of the times.

Jim was the first person to play numerous crucial records for me, including Sgt. Pepper, Deep Purple’s Machine Head, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick Spirit’s 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, and the first Eagles album. Then there was the Woodstock Soundtrack, I can vividly recall putting the speakers in the window and blasting the infamous “Fish Cheer” for the entire neighborhood to enjoy.

We built and raced Go-Carts, created treacherous sledding runs, explored caves, rode mini bikes and motorcycles, built tree forts, hell the guy taught me how to drive a car. We sat for hours behind the wheel of his Dad’s 1972 Triumph Spitfire going through the shift patterns and winning race after imaginary race… anxiously waiting for the day when we got our licenses.

The spirit of Dad’s Car Radio – Rock and Roll on the open road - was very much a part of the Jim Maudlin I knew. Think I’ll go entertain the neighbors in tribute…

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