Peter Steele V. Guru

It's actually a rare occasion when stars from "my generation" pass prematurely. There has been a lag since the last double -- and frankly this was almost a triple with that Athiest dude who flipped over to God at the very end.

But I had to do my own Run DMC / Aerosmith thing, only much darker. Let's start with Peter Steele from Type O Negative.

I had an extremely visceral experience shopping tor CDs back in the mid nineties. This was just when they were starting to put out "listening stations." I remember I spent a good 15 minutes with the Type O CD -- it had all the right ingredients:  dark lyrics, compelling cover art. For me, being able to listen to the music in advance sort of ruined the mysterious "advance" nature of buying an album unheard based on how it looks and makes you feel. I picked up "Felt" as a cassette no less -- and as an import -- and I just knew I would love it -- still do. But Type O? Not-so-much.

I passed on Type O that day, and never really followed them after that. The album was "Bloody Kisses," and I kind of want it now, but I went and bought the greatest hits like a weenie. On the day I heard I created a Type O channel on Pandora and enjoyed it very much. So, now I am excited about exploring the work of Type O and seeing how much it can be a part of my life. We'll see.

Guru, on the other hand. Well that's an entirely different music shopping story. Guru was primarily with the group "Gang Star," sort of a "rapper's rapper" troupe that always had much love and respect from the east coast community. The critics love these guys -- they were the biggest rap act you never heard of for a time there.

And you know how it came to me? Darn record clubs -- so how do you like that? I was trying to oblige my monthly purchase and saw something that puffed up the talents and skills of these "underground east coast" rappers.

So I said "What the heck? Why not?" I like progressive rap, so certainly if there is band that is pushing the limits of the hip hop format -- I will always give them a little time, Such was the case with Guru and Gang Star -- they came to me in cardboard. There was something nice about that -- how archaic and how inaccessible. But I think we all like opening things and discovering them -- for me, it's not so much at retail.

I know there's a lesson in there somewhere. Something about delayed gratification, I think. Either that, or the existence of God. One of the two.