Chapter 14: Crazy Train

Medway High School Gymnasium

8:36pm, Friday, February 16, 1979

“ALL ABOARD!!Ah-Hahahahahahahaha!“ I cried out into my wireless microphone as I heard Mr. Feelt say, “So without fur... “

Soon after, Paul, Cathy, and Sam jumped in with their instruments on the intro notes to Ozzy’s appropriately titled, Crazy Train. Lynette was able to create those wonderful sound effects at the beginning of the song to really capture the full effect of this awesome intro. The thick burgundy curtains were slowly drawn back just as I ripped that killer guitar riff and started into the short guitar solo prior the beginning of this song’s amazing lyrics.

(Note: Crazy Train was written by Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley in 1980. It was the first single off Ozzy’s debut solo album, Blizzard of Oz. Rhoads’ guitar solo in this song was rated the ninth best by Guitar World magazine, and this was the highest rated ‘solo-artist’ song on VH1’s 2009 Greatest Hard Rock Songs, at number 23. As you may know, I am pilfering ‘future songs’ and using them in my 1979 story, when appropriate.)

8:34pm

When we heard the end of Journey’s Feeling That Way from Rob Connell’s turntable, Mr. Feelt took his microphone and announced, “I hope you’re having a good time here at our majorly altered Valentine’s Dance. We really appreciate you hanging around after what happened at the start of the evening. Also, I want to thank Rob Connell here for doing a great job spinning records on such short notice.” A small round of applause went up in response to Mr. Feelt’s praise for Rob’s work.

“Well, we’re really going to alter our plans once again for you, tonight. I’ve just put a few of our students in a semi-pressure filled spot right now, because I’ve asked them to be a surrogate band for you and they agreed. Please, remember that this is their first time...”

Just as Mr. Feelt was beginning to get into his description of what we were doing up here, I softly said into our wireless system, “Ready?” As expected, my words there came through everyone’s ear-monitors but not the stage speakers. After everyone gave me a thumb’s up or a smiling head nod, I grinned back at them, took a deep breath, and said, “Here we go, then.”

Our little five member band came together pretty well on our first foray into this challenging song. We all smiled and I thanked the Energists once more for providing that enhancement gift to me, and to my friends. Without it, the other four would still be above average high school musicians, but we were seeing the immediate fruits of that gift, right now on Medway’s stage.

Earlier as Rob DJ’ed, rarely did we see more than ten couples up dancing to the music. Most kids were sitting at their tables, just talking as best I could tell. Now with the curtain pulled back and our band rocking this awesome tune, nearly everyone was up on their feet shouting and singing along. A good number of students had moved up close to the edge of the stage and were bouncing around to the driving beat laid down by Cathy’s drums and Paul’s deep bass.

When I sang out, “I’m going off the rails on a Crazy Train!“ after the second verse, I looked over at Sam and mouthed, ‘You want this next part?’

She grinned and nodded at me. She then took a deep breath and jumped in with a nasally sounding, “I know that things are going wrong for me.” She then powerfully belted out, “You’ve got to listen to my words! YEAH, YEAH! Ahahahahah!“

Paul and I just grinned at each other as Sam nailed those short driving lyrics.

Another reason I wanted Sam to sing those lyrics was to act as a transitional lead into the upcoming killer guitar solo. I stepped up to the front of the stage and my fingers just flew over the strings as I the folks at the front of the stage screamed and shouted along. As my solo ended and Sam picked up the rhythm guitar part, I smiled back at her and mouthed, ‘Finish this out, will you?‘

By the look on her face, she was really enjoying this and she absolutely killed the ending lyrics to Ozzy’s song. As we neared its conclusion, I was wondering if I should toss in that “Bitch” line. However, when the time came for it Sam, Lynette and Cathy all simultaneously fired off a hearty, “Bitch!“ which caused one final uproar from within the audience.

Both Sam and I thanked the audience for their applause and shouts. I then looked over to the side of the gym and saw that Mr. Williamson was back from his disciplinary duties, and talking with Mr. St. George, Mr. Feelt and Ms. Sounders. The smile on his face told me he was good with what we just played, even with that ending ‘Bitch’ line.

After a moment to regroup, Sam called out, “One, two, three, four” and both Lynette and her began the intro to Heart’s futuristic song, Alone. Both that song and our version of the Eagles’ Life in the Fast Lane went off without a hitch.

At the conclusion of that Eagles’ song, Sam came over to Paul and me, and said, “My lord, that enhancement gift you received from those alien guys sure is kicking ass and taking no prisoners! I’d never played Life in the Fast Lane before, and we just synced up beautifully there on our guitars.” She then got up on her tippy-toes and gave both of us a quick peck on our cheeks.

Paul couldn’t wipe the grin off his face after Sam kissed him, and then he added, “That came together well, didn’t it?”

“That WAS damn good, wasn’t it,” I replied and gave her a hug. “Oh, I forgot to ask, but uh, can I use your 12-string guitar on this next song? I think Heaven Can Wait will sound better on it than on ole, Silverburst, here.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Sam replied as she pulled her Stratocaster from around her neck. I also took my Gibson off, and then put Samantha’s 12-string acoustic guitar strap over my head. As we did that, I saw Lynette move her mini-moog synthesizer around to the back of the Yamaha piano and my brother Patt slid behind that Baby-G.

“A couple of us are going to slow it down some for you now. I’m real happy to say that my brother Patt, Patt Nevins will be playing piano on this Meatloaf song. I hope y’all enjoy our version of Heaven Can Wait.”

Patt then began the introduction to this lovely song and Lynette easily picked her spots to beautify his piano sound on her synthesizer. As they were playing this soft introduction, I gently said, “This song is for a couple of folks out in the audience. I sure hope to see Brad and Elizabeth up dancing to it, as well as Stephanie and Will from Glencoe, if they are still here.”

“We’re still here!” I heard a female voice call out from the left side of the gym. We then saw that cute blonde from Glencoe pulling her boyfriend out into the dancing area of the gym. We also saw Brad escorting Elizabeth, as Heidi and Joanne added a small push from behind to make sure my friend made it out there with Liz.

Just before I began to sing the lyrics, I lightly strummed Sam’s 12-string and the inter-mix of our three instruments was wondrous. I stood behind my brother as he played the Yamaha, and softly sang out Jim Steinman’s lyrics. Just after I sang:

“Heaven can wait.

And all I got is time, until the end of time.

I won’t look back, I won’t look back.

Let the altars shine... “

at the end of the first verse, I rubbed my brother on the back and winked at Lynette as I stepped further off to the side.

My brother then took off with a killer piano solo, which had everyone standing as he gracefully tickled the ‘ebonies and ivories‘ for about forty-five seconds. I had heard him play this many times before, so I knew approximately when he was ready for the final verse of the song to begin. I stepped back up behind him and mouthed, ‘Here we go,’ to Lynette. We both smoothly reentered the song with our instruments and I sang:

“And I know that I’ve been released.

But I don’t know to where... “

It was beautiful to see all the couples dancing when the lyrics started again. Both Brad and Liz, and Stephanie and Will had moved up close to the front of the stage. I could see that both girls’ eyes were sparkling as the mirror ball cast tiny flecks of light all around them. I even saw Elizabeth mouth up to me, ‘Beautiful song, Mike, thank you.‘

I smiled back at her and mouthed, ‘For you, Brad, and your dad.’

Liz smiled back and I thought I saw her mouth, ‘Amen‘ before she rested her head back on Brad’s shoulder.

The three of us finished up, Heaven Can Wait and both Lynette and I deflected all the applause to my brother as he stood up and gave a slight bow of acknowledgement for the cheers coming our way. I gave him a hug as he started to walk off the stage and whispered in his ear, “Well done, my man. If you want, you can play that song with me, with us, anytime you’re available.”

“Thanks man, that was more fun than I thought it would be,” he replied and gave one final small wave to the audience. He then added, “I think this will still be my first and only performance with you, though.”

As my brother was moving off the stage, Paul, Cathy and Samantha returned to their spots, with Sam putting her 6-string acoustic guitar around her neck. I hurriedly replaced the 12-string guitar for my Silverburst electric beauty. I saw Lynette slide her mini-moog back over the keys of the Yamaha baby-grand before she nodded that she was ready.

When Cathy saw we were all set to go, she lightly rapped on her high-hat cymbal and led us into our version of You Make Loving Fun. I could tell by the look on Sammy’s face that she really appreciated this second chance at singing this song. The folks in the audience could tell an immediate difference in our version of the song as both Paul and Cathy kept up a solid pace compared to that miserable rendition from the Viking P’s. Lynette and I easily added the backing vocals to Sam’s sweet sounding lead.

I really enjoyed it when Sam came over alongside me with her acoustic guitar as I played Lindsey Buckingham’s tight little guitar riff. Paul, being Paul also came over and stuck his head between us, so all three of us guitar players were getting into the rhythm of the song on the right side of the stage.

When Sam started to sing the next verse, I walked over to where Lynette was standing as she played the keyboards. I moved slightly behind her and we shared a private little smile as Sam was front stage singing her heart out. Before we had to back up Sam’s vocals, I whispered in Lynette’s ear, “Do you know how to make lovin’ fun?”

She almost guffawed too loudly and nearly lost her timing of the song in response to my smart-aleck question. After she gave me the ‘evil-eye’, I kissed her cheek and pinched her on her gently swaying butt, which caused her to jump and shout out for real through the speakers.

Both Paul and Cathy saw that little pinch and smiled big time at us as Lynette blushed after that unexpected utterance. I simply acted like nothing happened as I moved back to the front of the stage beside Samantha, who gave me a quizzical smile.

When this song finished, Sam smiled and said to both the audience and to us, “Man ... that was a much better version of that song, huh!”

We all heard Cathy say through our earpieces, “Well done, Sammy, I just love your voice on it.”

We also heard a few “You rock, Sammy!” shouts from the audience, which set her to blushing as brightly as her flowing auburn locks.

After acknowledging those shouts of praise, she softly said, “Thank you, guys, but my new band mates deserve all the praise for their playing.” She then turned and gave a brief clapping action. We all had huge smiles on our faces as we saw the crowd applauding.

I turned back to look at my girlfriend and said, “You ready to play, We’ve Got Tonight?”

Lynette smiled and slowly started to play the piano introduction to that slow, but edgy Bob Seger song. I walked up to the front of the stage and easily sang the lyrics to the song. Part way through the first verse, I heard Cathy’s light cymbal taps and Paul’s low bass accompaniment.

The dance floor quickly filled up as I sang through the first verse of the song. I even saw Brad shuffling around the floor with Elizabeth near the front of the stage.

Off to the side, Samantha swapped out her Stratocaster for her 12-string acoustic guitar, and softly started to strum along with Lynette’s edgy piano sound at the start of the second verse. I found it somewhat hard to simply stand there and sing, so I simply closed my eyes and swayed to the music as I did my best to create a similar sound to that of the Motor City Bob.

I felt more comfortable when Cathy and Paul fired up their instruments after the second verse, and I could join in with my electric guitar for a chord or two. As we finished up this song, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the harmonies of the three ladies voices as they softly backed up my lead vocals. Even though we had never practiced this song, Cathy, Sam and Lynette easily developed a complimentary style of blending their strong but sweet voices together, which truly made my voice sound better than it was.

At the conclusion of We’ve Got Tonight, Lynette said to everyone through the sound system, “We’d like to finish our little set of songs, now, with a song that Mike wrote and we played earlier today for a class assignment. It’s called... Right Now.”

Lynette immediately began the keyboard introduction to this song. The rest of us joined in at the appropriate moments to create a rocking ending to our band’s first, albeit brief performance. I did a much better job of hitting my lyrics on the appropriate beat this time, and Cathy really raised the roof with a couple of her drumming sequences. As the song gently faded, we noticed that everyone in the gym was up on their feet and clapping or shouting out their appreciation for our impromptu performance.

All five of us walked to the front of the stage like we’d seen real bands do, and took a little bow. When I saw Mr. Feelt walk back over to the front of the stage, he turned on the hand-held microphone and said, “For a no-name band, these guys and gals did a pretty good job for their first time on stage. Well done! Because they never really introduced themselves to you, some of you may not know these young musicians.”

We all started to blush a little when we heard Mr. Feelt say to us and then the audience, “Stay up there, because I’m going to introduce them to you now.” After a moment’s time, we heard, “Playing a mean set of drums is Ms. Cathy McGregory. Her twin brother, Paul set a fine tempo for these songs on the bass guitar. The young redhead who sang and played guitar is Ms. Samantha Labatt. Oh yes, I just found out these guys just stole Samantha from our originally scheduled band. Smart move there, guys!” Lynette and I both gave Sam a hug as Mr. Feelt talked about her.

“The smiling blonde, who played piano and the synthesizer, is Lynette Robertson, and finally, the lead guitarist and vocalist of this ragtag band is Mike Nevins. Let’s give these youngsters another round of applause as they did a wonderful job here, on literally a few seconds notice.”

After the noise died down some and we were about to walk off the stage, Mr. Feelt stopped us dead in our tracks when he asked, “Do you ‘no-names’ have an encore ready to play after receiving a rousing ovation like that? Or do you just want to let DJ Rob play a few more songs before the evening finishes up?”

None of us expected that type of question, so we all stumbled around for words before Lynette smiled at us and eagerly said, “Do you want to try something else? I’d love to play Don’t Stop, if you think we can do it.”

I smiled at my girlfriend as I recalled her words from our private chat in the cafeteria today about this very song. When Cathy said, “I’m game,” I turned back to Mr. Feelt and said, “We’ve got one more for everyone. I’m sure you’ll recognize it, right away.”

We all hurried to our instruments and when Lynette saw that we were ready, she once again led us into this Fleetwood Mac’s song with her keyboard. We all quickly joined in and I easily lead off singing:

“If you wake up and don’t want to smile.

If it takes just a little while.

Open your eyes and look at the day,

And you’ll see things in a different way.“

I was somewhat surprised to hear Paul’s voice as we all sang the chorus. I walked over to him as we finished those lyrics and mouthed, ‘So you can sing?’ to which he just grinned and then turned away from me.

Lynette easily picked up the lead vocals on the second verse and her voice was every bit as sweet sounding as Christie McVie’s as she sang:

“Why not think about times to come?

And not about the things that you’ve done.

If your life was bad to you,

Just think what tomorrow will do.“

After we all sang the chorus again, Lynette, Samantha and Cathy did a masterful job harmonizing:

“All I want is to see you smile.

If it takes just a little while.

I know you don’t believe that it’s true.

I never meant any harm to you.“

As we all repeated the final few lines, “Don’t you look back,” I simply thought of how simple it was for me to ‘not look back‘.

However, if the line had been ‘don’t look to the future’ instead, I’m not sure I could have kept the smile, which was currently plastered on my face.

Mr. Feelt must have arranged for someone to draw the curtains closed as we played the last few lines of music. We ended the song just as they closed completely and we heard another pretty hearty round of applause from the students in the gym.

“You guys were awesome,” Samantha said as we all gathered round in a circle after turning off our instruments and sound system.

Just as Cathy started to say, “That was...” she was cut off by Rob Connell’s loud voice as he announced that we had time for about four or five more songs before the Valentine’s Dance would be called.

I raised an eyebrow at Lynette when we heard that and loudly said, “We can talk and pack this up afterwards. Let’s get out there for these last few songs, ‘K!”

Everyone smiled and we hustled out the backstage door. I made sure it was locked as I sure didn’t want anyone to sneak on stage and pilfer any of our instruments or our sound system.

As we approached the gym door, I heard Jackson Brown’s Running on Empty playing and didn’t give Lynette a chance to even think about sitting this song out. As we danced near the front of the stage, several of our friends moved in close to us and let us know that they thought we did a great job up there. It was tough trying to dance with the most beautiful girl in the world and be gracious at the same time to our friends and the other students, but we did our best to do both.

Before that song ended, I walked with Lynette over to Rob Connell and asked him if he had Elton John’s Crocodile Rock. Rob smiled at me and said he’d get it on after he played, Three Times a Lady by the Commodores. I thanked him and took Lynette’s hand and pulled her in tight as I heard Lionel Ritchie and the Tuskegee boys from LA (Lower Alabama) start to play that lovely slow song.

As we held each other tight and swayed to that lovely song, I gave Lynette a soft, short kiss on her cheek. She looked up into my eyes and said, “That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? I just never imagined the thrill I’d get from singing and playing in front of pretty good sized audience.”

“I know, I’m still flying pretty high myself,” I replied to my hot and slightly sweaty girlfriend. “Did you know that the Commodores were from a small town, Tuskegee, about two hours from where I taught in Tuscaloosa, Alabama?”

Lynette shook her blonde hair no at my question and asked, “Did you ever see them play in concert?”

I smiled down in her brown-green eyes and said, “I sure did. Unfortunately, Lionel Ritchie had quit the band by that time, and Walter Orange, the original drummer took over as the lead singer for them. They still put on an awesome concert, but once you’ve known that Lionel was the man, it was just tough to think about them without him singing some of their songs.”

“Dang, Mike, you just kill me with those little futuristic facts,” she said as she placed her head back on my shoulder and pressed her lower abdomen into my upper leg. As we continued to gently move to this Commodore classic, I was really enjoying how Lynette had glued herself to me on the dance floor.

That almost caused me to forget to ask, “Hey, Robber, would you mind if I asked Liz Morkings to dance to the Elton John song, I requested? I doubt she’s had a chance to really cut loose on the dance floor, and uh, well, if you don’t mind, I’d...”

“It’s okay, Mike,” Lynette said with a smile as she watched me fumble with how to ask her this favor. “I know who you’ll be getting a ride home with, tonight, and who Liz will be getting a ride home with, too. Come on, let’s go find them and I may ask that other stud to dance.”

“Who, Will?” I jokingly asked my girl.

“God, no!” she replied incredulously at me. She then smiled and said, “You know which stud I’m talking about.”

I gave Lynette a small kiss on the lips as she batted her big eyes at me and then pulled me over towards where Brad and Liz were sitting. Just as we got over to their table, we heard Rob Connell announce, “The lead singer of that UNKNOWN band just asked me to play this song, so if you don’t like it, be sure to blame him. It’s Elton John’s Crocodile Rock!”

A few folks gave me a few ‘oohs’ as I bent down and asked Liz if she’d like to dance. She quickly looked at Brad, and when he waved her on, she smiled, took my hand and followed me to the center of the gym. When I turned to Liz, I softly asked her, “How dangerous do you want to be, right now?”

She gave me a quizzical look after my question and replied, “What do you mean by dangerous?”

I smiled at her and softly said, “I know you can East Coast swing, so do you want to really show off some moves, or do you just want to take it easy?” Liz’s smile grew as she thought about what I had told her. Then she replied, “Let’s start slow and we’ll see how things go, okay?”

I took both of her hands and mine and we started with a few basic ‘triple step-triple step-rock steps’ to get the feeling of the music. Liz clearly saw I that I could keep up with that dance pattern, and she smiled her brightest smile at me. I took that smile as permission to lead her into a few simple ‘inside’ and ‘outside turn’ and free-spins. I noticed that the crowd around us was giving us a little more room as we both completed those turns and spins around the dance floor.

About half way through this Elton John song, Liz was smiling and laughing like the Liz I knew before her father’s death. I noticed she was also giving off of a sexy vibe with her subtle footwork and arm motions as she gained more confidence in my ability to lead and make her look good.

Elizabeth majorly surprised me near the end of the song when she spun around on her right foot, and raised her left leg straight and parallel to the ground, and had me catch it with my right arm and hand. She suddenly laid her torso back, parallel to the ground with her arms flexed high above her head during two complete swing measures. Her only support in this position was from my hand on her long, lean left calf. Elizabeth amazingly pulled her upper body upright on the next ‘triple step’ sequence. As I kept the rhythm with my feet, I felt her left calf being lifted from my firm grip on the following ‘rock-step’ beats.

A few, ‘Oh! My! Gods!’ and ‘Look at that!’ comments were raised as Elizabeth completed that incredible set of moves with a triple underarm spin as I held her hand over her spinning right shoulder. As we finished out the dance, I recalled seeing a glimpse of Liz’s white panties under her short skirt as her left leg and upper body formed a straight, tight line on her backward layout motion.

When I felt my footwork begin to lag behind her graceful swing moves, that gave me a key reason to focus my attention back on leading this gorgeous young lady, and away from that fleeting panty image. Liz’s confidence was sky high right now as she moved about with long graceful lines and surprisingly quick, fluid turns.

As the end of the Crocodile Rock neared, I slowly brought Liz’s grandioso movements down some, and on the last major musical passage, I spun her around with my left hand and lead her into a concluding graceful backward dip over my supportive right arm. When she opened her eyes as I held her in that dipped position for a second or two, she pulled hard with her stomach muscles and popped upright with enough force to immediately jump up into my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck and placed a light kiss on my forehead before she straightened out her bent knees and dropped back onto the floor.

As we walked her back towards our table, she was darn near out of breath but she still said, “That was the ma-most fun I’ve had da-dancing in, uh ... over a year or so. Tha-thanks for asking and leading me around like that, Mike. I really, really enjoyed it.”

“It was my pleasure, Ms. Morkings,” I replied as I passed her hand off to Brad. “We’ll have to do that again, sometime soon.” She just smiled up at me as she cozied on up against Brad’s strong body.

“That was beautiful,” I heard Brad say to his new girlfriend. “God! Liz! I never knew you could move like that! Man oh man! You were, you were amazing out there!”

As I walked around to the open seat beside Lynette, I saw an ambiguous look on her face as she had a smile, but also a slight squint in her face. Just as I was about to sit down, Rob Connell called out, ‘Last dance!’ over the speakers, and we heard the opening music to the classic dance ending song, Stairway to Heaven.

Without taking my eyes off Lynette, I reached out to her with my right hand, and smiled as she took my offered hand in her left hand. Lynette easily pulled herself up from her seat and moved gracefully alongside me as we walked to the dance floor. When I lifted her left hand up above her head and spun her around to face me, she finally cracked a real smile at me.

I decided to let her speak her mind first, so we slowly danced in silence for a few moments before Lynette softly said, “I wasn’t jealous of you and Liz when you first started to dance out there. But ... when the two of you picked up the pace, and I saw how you made her look absolutely elegant on the dance floor, oh, Mike, my blood ... it just started to boil. I wasn’t upset with you or Liz. I just ... I just so, so wanted to be her out there.”

I simply focused on Lynette’s eyes as she related how she felt while watching me dance with Elizabeth. When she finished speaking from the heart, I leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her slightly damp hairline. Lynette then smiled up at me with her big brown-green eyes, and she softly added, “I didn’t know you could dance like that. That must be a, ‘Future-Mike‘ skill, right?”

I smiled and pulled Lynette in tight to me for a few seconds before I loosen my hold on her and said, “I knew some of those things previously in high school, as my mom taught all us Nevins how to basically lead a lady around the floor. But you are right, I learned how to swing dance down in South Carolina as a graduate student, and continued on dancing after I moved to Alabama. Heck, it was the one thing my second ex-wife and I actually enjoyed doing together.”

Lynette’s smile grew as I continued to explain how I learned to swing-dance. When she expressed doubt about being able to dance like that, I shushed her and said, “I have no doubt that you can learn to dance like that, too. You have a wonderful natural rhythm and feel for music. Plus, you seem real nimble and light on your feet, which are the basic requirements needed to pick up the moves I was doing with Liz.”

Lynette then reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down slightly to give me a soft, gentle kiss on the lips before she said, “You really think I could learn to dance like that?”

“Sure do,” I replied to my girlfriend. “In all honesty, it’s the guy’s job to make his partner look good. All the girl has to do is keep the rhythm and let her partner control how she spins or where they move on the dance floor.” Lynette was totally engrossed in my words as we simply swayed to this Zeppelin song.

When she rested her head on my shoulder, I softly added, “Elizabeth added a good bit of stylization to those basic swing moves, which really added to the quality of the dance. She created long graceful lines with her arms and legs. However, being able to follow the man’s lead is the key to most dance routines.”