CLASSIC ROCK

It's hard for me to imagine the songs I've been listening to on the radio in the work truck on our various trips between job sites and the shop as classic rock...as in classic car...as in OLD.
I got turned on to the Ramones and the Pistols in that period between 1975 and 77 and because of this I pretty much abandoned what I had been listening to before then. Hard rock, heavy metal mainstays like Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple et al.
Who can forget the mania of "Speed King"? I can't. The list goes on and on...Thin Lizzy,UFO,Moxy,Rush,Grand Funk,Legs Diamond,CCR, and the god of them all, Hendrix. I could continue "band dropping" but I think you get my point.
Anyhow...I was in the long defunct Disc Records in Dobie Mall in 1976 when I spied the Sex Pistols single "Pretty Vacant b/w No Fun (by the Stooges, a band I wouldn't learn about for a decade).I bought it and my life was forever changed. I was all about the punk thing and immersed myself in it...I did my very best to be a punk,I already had the politics, I just needed the look.
I was marginally successful at the look off and on...my best period (IMOO)was the dyed black hair and goatee, clothes with devils on 'em and everything black down to my 3 hole Doc's in 1996. The black hair really set off my blue eyes and made me look, well...satanic. And if you do the conservative equation on punk, it goes something like this:
Rock-n-Roll + attitude - real talent X heart + soul = punk rock / Marilyn Manson + Joey = PUNK + black hair X black clothes = SATAN.
A CASE IN POINT:
I went to the bank once during this period, I was wearing a long sleeved Tshirt that had a devil on the pocket and the same devils running down the sleeves.My teller was a slight pale girl with that christian fish thing pinned on her collar as well as a charm on her necklace.
She looked at me and I could smell her synapses melting down...she was stunned. I just stood there as she came around and said "I'm sorry (pointing at the devil on my pocket) but you look just like him".
I said thanks and completed my transaction...I had arrived.
This coincided with the peak of our band...we were playing a lot and a citizens confirmation that I was truly scary like this made me play harder.
But I digress...This initiation into punk triggered an interest in all things guitar and music.
I can thank the Ramones and the pistols for turning me on to not only more obscure punk/industrial music, but the blues and jazz and bluegrass and folk and a renewed appreciation for that animal that is called "classic rock"...I've been singing along to them all and smiling.
A lot.