If you read the article about the Dave Pirner Doll, you already know that as a teenager, I carried around a notebook in an attempt to be Les Claypool. You also know that at the time I was very interested in rock and roll. So today I would like to present another snippet from the so-called Classic Files of DragonAttack.
This entry is dated four days after the Dave Pirner Doll was created, but being written in the same week is the only thing they have in common. The Dave Pirner article I remember writing. I remember it very distinctly. This one, well, I have no idea what was going on in my mind.
12-17-91
The 15th was Carmine Appice's 45th birthday. His career hasn't been very good since that Vanilla Fudge thing.
On the one hand, I am delighted that in 1991, I was a teenaged girl who was familiar with the work of Carmine Appice. On the other hand, why was I being so hard on Carmine's career? I must have been a Rocksnob even then. Or at the very least, a Rocksnot. Either way, I guess I had a problem with Carmine Appice's post-Vanilla Fudge activities. But why? I didn't have anything against King Kobra. (Other than their outfits.) I approved of King Kobra because some of them went on to be in Bulletboys. And I was also a fan of Blue Murder.
So why the ragging on Carmine Appice? And, more importantly, why did I know it was his birthday? It makes me wonder what else I used to know that has long since been forgotten. How much Yngwie Malmsteen information left my mind as I memorized every fact about every member of Queen? I don't know, but the minute I find a journal entry on Yngwie, it will be posted post-haste.
Postscript: I was already kicking this article around in my mind when I saw that Vanilla Fudge was coming to town for a free show. (At the same event where I had the peculiar Blondie-Chubby Checker experience.) I was like, ahhh, teenaged me would laugh so delightedly at the fact that Carmine Appice is back touring with Vanilla Fudge. Ha! And then I saw Carmine at the Tommy Lee show wearing one dangly earring. (See Newsflash of 7/6.)
My friend Goatee was the one who pointed him out.
Goatee: "Check it out! It's Carmine Appice. Who did he play with again?"
Dragon: "Vanilla Fudge, King Kobra, Blue Murder."
Goatee: (in the style of Beavis and Butthead) "Yeah, yeah! Cool! You should go hip check him! Go bump into Carmine Appice! That would be cool!"
I refused on the grounds that Carmine was leaning on the balcony rail. Had he been just standing around, I would have bumped into him, thereby giving me and Goatee a Carmine Appice hip check story to tell and re-tell for the rest of time. But right now, CEB has the best brush-with-Carmine-Appice-story.
Apparently, after the Tommy Lee show, CEB was talking to someone about the work of Carmine Appice, and out of the corner of his eye, CEB could see that Carmine Appice was eavesdropping and looking pleased. So CEB is reeling off the bands Carmine Appice had been in, as I had done for Goatee, but he then finished up loudly with, "Oh yeah, he also co-wrote Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? with Rod Stewart." At which point Carmine edged away, looking embarrassed. Good one, CEB!
Maybe his career really hasn't been very good since that Vanilla Fudge thing.