PROLOGUE: WHAT'S UP WITH THESE GROOVES, ANYWAY?
By Andrew Charles, Amateur Popular-Culture Historian. Entire contents of this site copyright (c) 2005.
Greetings, fellow earthlings. Welcome to U.P. GROOVES! - my attempt to chronicle every commercially-released record, released on or before December 1986, with a connection to the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan. (Why the cut-off date? See the EPILOGUE page.)
If a record involved at least one U.P. native and/or resident in its making, or was recorded in the U.P., or mentions the U.P. in its lyrics or title, it qualifies for mention in U.P. GROOVES!
U.P. GROOVES! is an outgrowth of my being (a) a U.P. native and lifelong resident, and (b) a lifelong record collector. I first conceived the project in the mid-1980's, around the time Michigan was preparing to celebrate its sesquicentennial; it was originally going to be an album of records by U.P. rock bands - sort of a U.P. equivalent of "Nuggets" or "Pebbles." I soon discovered, however, that in order to even get started on the project, I'd have to do "primary research" - meaning, I'd have to go out there, track down all the people involved in making these records (at least the ones I could find), and interview them. I was willing, but I wasn't able - I had neither the funds nor the transportation to do all that, and the project went to sleep.
I still don't have the funds or the transportation to do all these interviews. But now I have somethng I never had back then - the internet. In 2000, I began using the 'net to track down some of the people I needed to talk to, and along the way discovered fellow collectors who knew even more about U.P. records than I did.
Now U.P. GROOVES! actually stands a chance of being more than just a "gleam in my eye." It has already expanded beyond its original rock-only focus, and now covers all genres of popular music. And its ultimate objective? First, once I've gotten enough info, I plan to write a series of articles for U.P. papers and magazines; if these go well, I'll expand the project into a book. But, of course, my ultimate goal is to see the info I gather used to create a legitimate CD (or CD series) re-releasing these tracks, or at least the very best of them.
The U.P. has always taken great pride in its artistic, popular-culture creations, especially when the "outside world" appreciates them - "Anatomy of a Murder," Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River," etc. Yet it's let its "native-born" records go unchronicled and unheralded - in this project, I hope to rectify that, and give the U.P. something else in which to take pride.
BUT BEFORE I GO MUCH FURTHER...
If you'd like some idea of what a U.P. GROOVES! book might be like, check out ROCK & ROLL GRAFFITI, the new book by Steve Seymour, owner of The Record Rack in Escanaba. It's full of of "music stories with a U.P. slant." It's currently available for $11.99 at Steve's store, and every bookstore in Escanaba and Gladstone. Contact steveseymour4005@sbcglobal.net for more info, and tell him I sent you.
AND...
There is now a blog version of this website; it contains most of the same info, plus some extra tidbits I've picked up, and like most blogs, it allows you to post comments. Check it out at http://upgrooves.blogspot.com.
Next: The Grooves I Have.
|
Come on in - the water's fine!