By Scott Coner
Singer, Songwriter
and Author
It’s funny
how so many of our current interests are carried over from our childhood. Like
I’ve already said several times, my interest has pretty much always been music,
and I started early. It’s just when you connect the dots to something from
years ago, it begins to make sense in different ways.
My first
exposure to a piece of music that I loved was a song called “Dizzy”. I don’t
remember specifics because I was somewhere around 5 years old, but I’m pretty
sure my mom may have given me the 45 when I learned how to make my bed by
myself. The song had cool breaks in it that utilized a snare drum, and it made
me pretty happy. I think the artist's name was Tommy Roe, but I’m not even sure about that. Things get pretty hazy
thinking that far back.
I remember
swinging in the glider on my swing-set singing “Dang Me” by Roger Miller with my big sister as loud
as I could. I remember listening to The Archies singing, “Sugar, Sugar” as I rode in our '63 Impala. I also
remember my aunt explaining to me that The Archies weren’t real and it was
actually some guy named Andy Kim. I
remember I didn’t like that.
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| Scott Coner performs at "Tunesmithing" in Nashville. (Photo by Cyndi Coner) |
There was a
weekday afternoon I remember sitting out front of my sister’s elementary school
in the same Impala. In those days, we didn’t wear seat belts, so I kind of
walked around the back seat in my Hush Puppies. That afternoon it was sunny
outside, and Sonny and Cher were
singing “I Got You Babe” on the radio. I was standing back there eating one of
those orange, crappy tasting, “marsh-mallowly” Circus Peanuts. Anyway, as I’m
back there rocking out, I witnessed an awesome blonde in a purple mini-skirt
walking down the sidewalk. This was an important day because this was the day
that I realized I would need a blonde just like that one when I got old enough
to tie my shoes. I wasn’t sure what I
would do with her when I got her, but I sure liked thinking about it as I sat
there in kindergarten eating my paste and thinking about the future. (I really
didn’t eat my paste, just trying to paint a picture here.)
Some years
later, I got stung by a bee at our family’s farm in Kentucky. I became very
sick from the sting, ended up in the hospital, and found out I was allergic to
bee stings. That summer was spent following my mom to yard sales on Wednesday
mornings instead of playing with my cousins because I needed to get my
resistance built up with weekly shots before I could be released again into the
wild. Mom gave me a $4 a week allowance and I spent it every week at the garage
sales. I either bought comic books or 45’s. I would take those records home and
listen to both sides. I had everything from The Everly Brothers' “Bird Dog” to Little Eva's “The Locomotion” (which I recorded myself later). I
had stacks and stacks of records, and I would sit in my room and imagine I was
a DJ playing really cool music for all of the people in the world that I didn’t
even know. We didn’t have digital music
back then or even walkmans, but it didn’t matter. By the time I got better from
the bee stings, I had every song I loved tattooed to my brain, and I listened
to them all the time. I’m listening to them now….
To learn more about Scott Coner or
to hear his music, visit http://www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, http://www.ScottConer.com
or http://www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.
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| Scott Coner works with sound engineer Logan Schlegal. (Photo by Cyndi Coner) |
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