Guitar Hero: The Encyclopedia of Rock
Way back in the early to mid-eighties, growing up in the western end of L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, if you were a burgeoning fan of music, there were very few outlets to find anything new (or at least new to you). Remember? Waaaay back before iTunes, iPods and Myspace? Can you remember back that far? In any case, for me, as a young’n hell-bent on finding something new, I came to depend on Cliff down the street at Blue Meenie Records. Cliff was way older than any of us… he was, like twenty-five… so he knew stuff. He’s the one that showed us the SST catalogs, introduced us to everything from The New York Dolls to Black Flag to this new L.A. band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers (“Oh my God! They’re naked except for socks over their bathing suit parts! That’s so hard-core!”). And he wouldn’t let us buy anything that he deemed “weak”. You couldn’t find an “Alan Parson’s Project” album in the store. Cliff was the best. He looked out for us.
