friday flashback: the Supertones, Metallica, and a young Jeff and Sarah

The first rock band I ever got into was The O.C. Supertones (they may have been preceded had I been allowed to listen to rock sooner).  I remember sitting in the backseat of my parents car with my discman (or some generic rip off, most likely), my headphones, and "Adventures of the Orange County Supertones" and "Supertones Strike Back."  I couldn't get enough.  I couldn't even pause my CD player to ask my parents a question, which meant I would talk really loudly over the music without even realizing it, and that usually meant I'd get told to be quiet.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Supertones in concert 6 times.  If they ever came near where I was living, I was going.  I even went to their farewell tour.  Five years later, they are doing a reunion tour, but as they will not be coming within 11 ours of where I live, I will not be seeing them live this time around.

I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music growing up, so there was a trend I didn't pick up on.  In fact, I didn't even know about it till Grant told me I should listen to "Creeping Death," by Metallica.  The Supertones, on three occasions, used intros from Metallica songs for intros to their songs.

Supertones Strike Back was taken from Creeping Death.

Adonai was taken from Am I Evil.

And Fade Away was taken from Damage, Inc.

If I had learned this when I was a young pharisee, I would have been really let down.  When I found out yesterday, I was pretty happy about it.  The Supertones have been one of my favorite bands for almost 15 years.  Metallica is climbing my Top 40 chart quickly.  Even though one is heavy metal and the other is ska, I have learned that they have much in common.

Over/Under on negative comments about Metallica: 3.  What do you think?

Happy Friday.  Go see the A-Team today.  And I hope you enjoy this picture.  It wouldn't be a flashback without a picture of me and Sarah in our Supertones shirts.  The picture was taken on May 5, 2000, just over ten years ago.