{"id":23530,"date":"2020-05-04T10:44:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T14:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23530"},"modified":"2020-05-04T11:19:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T15:19:07","slug":"your-scenes-local-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/your-scenes-local-legends\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Scene&#8217;s Local Legend(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kenn Kweder &amp; The Secret Kids 1978\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qg4fj-H8JVk?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I just learned that a longtime Philadelphia music scene legend, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phawker.com\/2020\/05\/04\/the-colonel-remembers-me-keef-2\/?fbclid=IwAR295HO_CucShEG4qKMs6SHUUcmqr2ydGnrmLmGV45p2ep6lSP77aPwOWhg\"><strong>Tom Sheehy<\/strong>, who actually was known around town as &#8220;The Colonel&#8221; (as in Elvis Presley&#8217;s Colonel), has passed<\/a>. I didn&#8217;t know The Colonel well, but he was a fixture at almost any national or local show of note from the start of my club-going days, in the early 1980s, through whenever it was in the last 5 or 10 years, when I first noticed I didn&#8217;t see his gaunt face and gray, thinning shag-pompadour in the crowd. His standing as a local scene legend far preceded the time I first got to know him. I&#8217;m sure <strong>Townsman geo<\/strong>, who goes back further and played in one of <strong>Kenn Kweder<\/strong>&#8216;s lineups, which The Colonel managed and\/or did publicity for, can fill us in on details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was never sure exactly what The Colonel did, how he paid his bills, how he was tied to all local music-related media (ie, clubs, radio stations, record stores), etc, but as I mentioned him being at &#8220;almost any&#8230;show of note,&#8221; he seemed to help define what constituted &#8220;of note.&#8221; When we&#8217;d see him in the crowd at one of my band&#8217;s shows, for instance, my bandmates and I would note his presence and get a little jolt of pride at the &#8220;scene blessing&#8221; we&#8217;d been given. Who knew why this felt good? Tom seemed like a nice enough guy, in the few, brief words we exchanged, but why the hell did we care that he was in the crowd?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<p>It mattered, believe me. Just as it mattered when Kweder was at a show, or <strong>Michele Polizzi<\/strong>, another older generation guy who did overnight DJ shifts for college radio, rubbed elbows with international music-scene legends, and even had the materials to do a psychedelic light show. We hired Michele to do one for one of our record release shows. He had wild, tight curly hair and was French. Super nice guy, and his presence at a show held great weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If The Colonel was one of Philadelphia&#8217;s longtime music-scene legends, then Kenn Kweder, who&#8217;s thankfully still with us and still making music and mirth, is another. Kenn is one of those guys who, in the mid-1970s through early-1980s, was probably &#8220;on the verge&#8221; of getting signed and breaking out nationally. There must be an artist or two like this in all our local scenes, who have a wide draw and deep appeal in their hometown but never quite get to the next level of their aspirations. <strong>Willie &#8220;Loco&#8221; Alexander<\/strong>, from Boston, may be a better-known equivalent of an artist of Kweder&#8217;s unique standing. I imagine he had his own loyal version of The Colonel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Colonel was considered the Philly scene&#8217;s expert on all things Rolling Stones, just as another local musician and journalist who died a year or two ago, <strong>Peter Brown<\/strong>, was our scene&#8217;s resident expert on all things Dylan. I&#8217;m approaching &#8211; who am I kidding? &#8211; I HAVE LONG BEEN part of the older Philly scene. My generation has a resident expert on all things hardcore punk, a great guy named <strong>Chuck Meehan<\/strong>, one of our punk scene&#8217;s DIY promoters and my generation&#8217;s Punk Rock Mayor of Philadelphia. Generations younger than mine have their Tom Sheehy, their Kenn Kweder, their Michele Polizzi, their Peter Brown, their Chuck Meehan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who&#8217;s your scene&#8217;s local legend(s) &#8211; not artists and peripheral business\/media contributors who actually broke through (the first person who mentions Bill Graham as the San Francisco scene&#8217;s &#8220;local legend,&#8221; for instance, will be put in the penalty box), but local legends who butted right up against your scene&#8217;s glass ceiling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s raise a toast to our scenes&#8217; local legends!<\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/your-scenes-local-legends\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/your-scenes-local-legends\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a><\/nav>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just learned that a longtime Philadelphia music scene legend, Tom Sheehy, who actually was known around town as &#8220;The Colonel&#8221; (as in Elvis Presley&#8217;s Colonel), has passed. I didn&#8217;t know The Colonel well, but he was a fixture at almost any national or local show of note from the start of my club-going days, <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/your-scenes-local-legends\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}