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| The Earth has one less awesome person as of last Wednesday. |
This past Friday while I was at a company lunch, my friend Kory texted me asking if I had heard that Ben died and if it was true. My first thought was.. nah... must be the Hoptown gossip wagon getting things mixed up. I replied that I had not heard anything and asked Kory to let me know if he found out anything more. Five minutes later he texted a link to Ben's obituary. I made it through the lunch and finished the day at work, somewhat distracted. When I got home I told Katie about the news and she asked if I wanted to talk about it and I said, no, not really. When I get news like that my first instinct is to be very logical about it. There's nothing I can do, right? Life keeps going for the rest of us, so lets just carry on.
Greif comes when it comes. My attempts to carry on as normal have not gone so well since Friday. Everything seems so much harder. It's like my emotional bucket is entirely full and anything beyond day-to-day tasks just completely overwhelms me. I couldn't bring myself to come to work yesterday as it all just seems so unimportant. After some meditative (with some crying sprinkled in) time this morning an idea was deposited into my consciousness of something I could do. Ben was an EPIC music lover. I could talk about some of the music he loved, to... honor him I guess. I think he would have enjoyed that. I know he loved music. Listening to it, talking about it, going to live shows, all of that. Ok, brother Ben, lets get into it!
Song: Panama
Artist: Van Halen
Album: 1984
Year: 1984
One of my earliest memories was when we moved from one side of Hopkinton to the other into a different house. I remember Dad was doing something with the floors in the new place. Maybe tearing up carpet or something. I remember the 1984 album playing while everyone was working on the new place and distinctly remember Ben being there. It makes sense because Dale was probably helping and brought the kids with him. The album must have been pretty new since I know we moved after my kindergarten year of school so it was likely the summer of '84.
I chose Panama because I think this song, and Van Halen in general, laid the foundation of most of the music both Ben and I ended up gravitating toward throughout our entire lives. Edward Van Halen's legendary guitar tone. Crunchy without losing clarity. Alex Van Halen's drumming. Not super flashy but so incredibly 'in the groove' at all times. I say not flashy but then remember the intro to Hot For Teacher. Epic. David Lee Roth's vocals. His style fits perfectly for the music. Lastly, not so much on Panama, but on the rest of the album, Edward plays a lot of keyboard. Looking back at those components, the vast majority of the music I like today has at least one, if not multiple, of those same characteristics.
Song: No More Tears
Artist: Ozzy Osbourne
Album: No More Tears
Year: 1991
I know Ben loved Ozzy. He took his kids to an Ozzy show a couple years ago. I love Ozzy too. I remember having the No More Tears cassette tape and listening to it a ton playing Nintendo in my bedroom. That time period also brings up memories of watching Iowa Hawkeye games with Ben and his family. Sometimes at our house, other times over at his. We were both raised on a steady diet of Hawkeyes and rock n roll. Wouldn't have wanted it any other way! No More Tears was Ozzy's second album with guitarist Zakk Wylde. Zakk's guitar sound on this song is still among my favorites of all time.
Song: Man Who Sold the World
Artist: Nirvana
Album: MTV Unplugged In New York
Year: 1994
In preparation for this article I went thru Ben's Facebook posts over the last year. 90% of them were songs he loved. One of those posts was about the 1994 MTV Unplugged album by Nirvana. He said this was one of the rare albums he could listen to in its entirety and loved every song. I chose Man Who Sold the World since it a Bowie song and I am pretty sure Ben was a Bowie fan as well. This entire album for me is somewhat hard to listen to. Not because it's bad, it's flippin great.... the songs on this album were played so much in 1994 and 1995 and I have trouble hearing the actual music because the music is so attached to that time period and all the memories. This was also one of the last things Nirvana released before Kurt died. Sorry to be a bit of a downer, but... I love that Ben loved this album so much. He loved his hard rock and metal but also had a very kind an gentle side to him. I mean, that tracks really.... metal heads are pretty kind people in general. ❤✌
Song: I'm Broken
Artist: Pantera
Album: Far Beyond Driven
Year: 1994
This was another song that Ben had posted on his Facebook page. Pantera was one of his favorite bands (well, among many). I am a big fan also. Far Beyond Driven was their 1994 release and I remember this album being played alot around the Hopkinton friend circles. I remember by buddy Conan was also really into this album in particular. I can picture it laying in the back seat of the Ford Fairmont. LOL. There are a ton of great songs on the album. One of my favorites is Five Minutes Alone. I also really like I'm Broken. Phil's voice is so good on it. It's intense but hooky. Good stuff!
Song: Surfacing
Artist: Slipknot
Album: Slipknot
Year: 1999
There are so many bands and songs we could discuss around this time period (1999-2001ish). This was when we were all graduating high school and trying to find jobs that we could actually stand going to. A lot of time was spent just hanging out, drinking beer, and listening to music. Like, a LOT of time. I feel like I saw Ben quite a bit during this time period as we had a pretty great group of Hopkinton guys who partied and hung out. What were our hobbies again? Oh yeah!... drinking beer and listening to music. We also tried to go to as many rock and metal shows as possible. I know Ben loved Slipknot. How could he not, they were a local band from Des Monies that became one of the biggest bands in metal history! The big hit off of their debut album was Wait and Bleed, but I chose Surfacing. I love that two note whistle guitar hook that runs thru most of the song. When it goes from ascending to descending on the second verse... I always look forward to that. It's a small thing but.... you never know the things that are going to stick with you. Oh, PS: how can you not love a song with the first lyrical line ... FUCK YOU ALLLLLLLLLLL! 💥😎🤘
Song: Buried Alive
Artist: Avenged Sevenfold
Album: Nightmare
Year: 2010
So far we have gone thru 80's rock (Van Halen), 90's grunge and metal (Nirvana and Ozzy and Pantera) and into the late 90's with Nu Metal (Slipknot, although many would argue they are not nu metal but, you get it). We have arrived at the 'modern era' of heavy music and Avenged Sevenfold are one of the pioneers of modern metal. I know Ben really liked them and remember having a couple back and forths on Facebook with him talking about the band. I chose Buried Alive as the song as it features various sides of their sound. It starts with melodic guitars and smooth vocals from M Shadows. Then, right at the 2 minute mark.... "HEY! I can't live in here another day." It bursts into heavy guitar at the same moment. Might be my favorite part of any A7X song, ever. They are still making music today and are not afraid to experiment and try different stuff. Heck, check out We Love You from their most recent album released in 2023, Life Is But A Dream...
We Love You has a little bit of everything but it ends with the line "we love you" and acoustic guitar with a slide solo. I feel thats the perfect way to end this post.
I know I speak for a crapload of people when I say... Ben... we love you. One of the posts I saw was the song You by Candlebox and you had shared as a tribute to Matt L who passed a few years ago. I like to think you two are getting to catch up now in whatever new dimension we move to when we leave this one.
Lastly, here are all the songs and artists Ben posted over the past year and I have had added videos from Alice In Chains, Korn, and Rob Zombie as we loved those bands together in our younger days and I know he enjoyed them very much. I will see you later, brother Ben. ✌❤🤘
Song: Junkhead (Live)
Artist: Alice In Chains
Year: 1992
Song: Ball Tongue
Artist: Korn
Year: 1994
Song: Superbeast
Artist: Rob Zombie
Year: 1998
Song: Space Lord (Uncut Unedited version)
Artist: Monster Magnet
Year: 1998
Song: Push It
Artist: Static-X
Year: 1999
Song: The Day That Never Comes
Artist: Metallica
Year: 2008
Song: Thunderkiss '65
Artist: White Zombie
Year: 1992
Song: Sick Of You
Artist: GWAR
Year: 1990
Song: Wynona's Big Brown Beaver
Artist: Primus
Year: 1995
Song: Mother
Artist: Danzig
Year: 1988 (became popular in 1993)
Bonus: Mother (parody)
Watching the Mother video reminded me of this ridiculous parody someone did years ago that always makes me laugh. Ridiculousness is a good thing... here ya go!
Song: Mother
Artist: Pink Floyd
Year: 1979
Song: Close Your Eyes Forever
Artist: Lita Ford w/ Ozzy Osbourne
Year: 1988
Song: Moving In Stereo (Live on Midnight Special)
Artist: Cars
Year: 1979
Song: Hey Hey My My (Live at Farm Aid)
Artist: Neil Young
Year: 1985
Song: Today
Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Year: 1993
Song: You Don't Know How It Feels
Artist: Tom Petty
Year: 1994
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