Rules

A plan was hatched between Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotti, Terri McGowan and me that would change the course of our lives. In yesterdays post Giorgio Moroder,I began to tell the story of my first meeting with record producer and father of disco, Giorgio Moroder, first introduced to me by my friend Pete Bellotti. Giorgio had a Moog synthesizer and a recording studio, the two things I wanted more than anything in the world. I was living in Munich Germany, after being drafted into the Army, and luckily was a rock and roll DJ for the Armed Forces Network (AFN) rather than an infantryman in Vietnam (which was raging at the time). My new friend Giorgio made his living recording top 40 knock offs called "covers". These were copies of popular American songs translated into German to be played on the local radio stations. Giorgio was actually doing quite well making these knock off covers but hated the work which involved no creativity or originality. He felt as if he were in a factory doing meniallabor (which wasn't far from the truth). I, on the other hand, was an engineer and not a musician and thought the idea of running a recording studio, making knock offs of top 40 covers would be the coolest thing I could imagine making a living at. Over time me, Giorgio and my new girl friend Terri (the future Mrs. McGowan), got together and hatched a plan to get all of us what we wanted: Giorgio the time and money to make "real music" and for Terri and me a chance to run a recording studio and hang out with musicians. It would be a match made in heaven but for one small detail. I already had a "job". The US Army has some pretty strict rules (go figure). One of those rules was indenturedservitude, the other a strict dress code. More on the dress code later. If you were in the service it was illegal to have another job. You worked for Uncle Sam and no one else. When our plan was taking shape I had about 1 year left in the Army before I could go home back to what we service men called "the world". Giorgio wanted to build another studio and wanted Terri and I to run it, make the covers he hated doing and let him pursue his dreams of real music in his studio called Musicland in the basement of the Arabella hotel in Munich Germany. We'd get a studio and a salary out of the deal. Giorgio was in a hurry to get moving and Terri and I were in a hurry to move with him. At the time there was an Army program called a European Out. This program was offered to soldiers stationed in Europe who had been good citizens of the Army and included a 6 month early release from duty and a one-way ticket back to the States, usable whenever the soldier wanted to go home. I applied for this program and got the ok from my commanding officer (who was probably happy to see me go). I would be released from the service in a few months and Giorgio, Terri and I went looking for a place to build our new studio. Timing was perfect, Giorgio would fund the entire enterprise, and life was looking really good. All I had to do was keep my nose clean for a few months. A model soldier I was not and at the time, keeping out of trouble wasn't the easiest of things for me, but I suppose one could say I would "soldier on" (sarcasm noted). I was still making weekly interviews with all the big rock stars and my friend Pete Bellotti had gotten me an exclusive interview with Elton John and a copy of the master tape of his Rocket Man track. I was able to be the first to play Rocket Man to the world over AFN, a real feather in the network's cap. I still have that tape to this day. Tomorrow we take a big turn in the road and travel to Germersheim Germany where we join 72,000 crazed, stoned rock fans in an open air festival and yes - it's all part of the story.