Seeing Double Double, Double Vision ...

We jumped into the Oldsmobile station wagon. You know, the kind with two tones, one of them being "wood." If we begged enough, we could sit in the very back hidden seat and face the back window and watch the cars behind us. We didn't get to do that often.



Gene Simmons played bass and sang for KISS. Oh, wait, the former high school teacher still leads KISS, even though they've "retired" several times. They kicked off a new tour at Cobo Hall in Detroit LAST NIGHT.

It was back in the day of Burger Chef, KMart, and Kresge's. I suppose it was Drayton Plains, just a short drive from Clarkston. Our neighbor used to spend hours outside listening to music and riding up his skateboard ramp. This was 1978 and skateboards were "simple." Rock 'n' roll was still around, but disco and country and western were getting more radio play.

One song that played a lot was about a "fever of 103 ..." I didn't know the actual name of the song and never asked the neighbor, who was a teen-ager. So, we went to KMart to buy the song, but couldn't find the song. So we looked through many albums and found the song, "Burning Up With Fever" by Gene Simmons. We bought the album. I was in first grade. I think one other kid at Clarkston Elementary was allowed to be a KISS fan, but I was a KISS fan by "mistake."

The song actually was "Hot Blooded" by the band Foreigner. I eventually received Double Vision as a gift for Easter or something like that. I traded away the Gene Simmons album a few years later for an Emergency 51 life-saving kid (yea, they made 'em). But, eventually, I purchased the album again, but Double Vision ... I wore out one vinyl LP, bought another, then got it on CD, and eventually "bonus" CD with additional tracks. Great album.


One of the greatest albums ever. Foreigner recently prepped a new album. I haven't heard it yet, but some of these rock 'n' rollers hang on ... forever.

After Foreigner finished "Hot Blooded" at the Grand Traverse Resort Village concert in July '95, the drummer threw his drum stick into the crown and I dove about seven feet to catch it. It's still in my rock 'n' roll collection. (I'll have to tell you about the Liberty DeVitto drum stick sometime ... nobody believes the story).


I remember you could get a great burger there. But, nothing like the Big Mac you could get at the McDonald's in Clarkston. That's where my addiction began ...