KRLA – Jimmy O’Neil – October 9, 1961 – Retro Radio Joe Collection –
Looking at that curious and distant picture now you wouldn’t suspect for a second the sheer insanity that gripped your 7th grade homeroom like an epidemic case of flu behind those awkwardly smiling faces. You turned 13 somewhere in there – so did everyone else. That’s when it happened. Funny feelings were staging marathon races all over your body – you started shaving. Hair was appearing in places no hair ever appeared before. You started having an imagination – the most unlikely girl in your class became the unbridled object of your attentions because she was acquiring a shape she never had before. She was quickly followed by others. Embarrassing things would happen to you when you were just standing still. You stopped tucking your shirt in. Concentrating was nowhere to be found. Your teacher kept calling on you. If there was any consolation to be had your friends were going exactly the same thing – you compared notes. You all had opinions and some of them were strange. Some claimed to have first hand knowledge. All of them were reading Playboy or the Sears Catalog. Everything that never interested you before became the most important thing on the planet now. You wanted to make discoveries, but you had no idea how to go about doing it – there was always at least one guy who had the whole ritual down and he became the sage giver of advice that, in retrospect if you took it, would have gotten you arrested. Lucky for you you had a terminal case of shyness. The best it was going to be for you during this October that was crawling by was to learn to dance, practice clever lines, start wearing aftershave and smile a lot. It was your only hope for survival – that, and a healthy dose of Miss June. It also helped that there was rock n’ roll. KRLA became one of your best friends. You needed all the confidence you could get.
And for a sample, here is Jimmy O’Neil as he held court on KRLA from October 9, 1961.
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