Rock ‘n’ Roll High School 51: The Jam, Fake IDs, and Pavlov’s Dog

Talk about worlds funnily bumping into each other.  When I began writing romance and women’s fiction, I never expected anyone from my former music biz life to crop up. Those circles seemed too disparate, no matter how hard I may have tried to bandage them together with my blog. Lo and behold, I discover that Megan Frampton, whom I first met when she was Editor at CMJ (College Music Journal) and I was lowly college radio promo girl, has long been hanging in this neck of the woods. She is author, online mega-guru, defender of Doc Martens and has my kind of taste in music, also known as awesome. Rock it, Megan…

Megan Frampton

Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, Cambridge, MA, Class of ’82, Currently: Community Manager for HeroesandHeartbreakers.com, Author

Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: The Jam—I first was into the Clash, of course, but found Paul Weller’s lower-class anger towards the ruling classes was closer to my own frustration and aspiration than the Clash’s broad socialism. Setting Sons was the album I listened to a lot.

Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Bauhaus tour poster from The Channel. I didn’t go to the show—too young (and no fake ID at the time!)—but it was a stark black and white poster with Peter Murphy’s skeletal form.

Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Led Zeppelin. I have since seen the error of my ways (thank you, Soundgarden!), but I didn’t get it at all.

Best show or concert you saw in high school: So many! I got a fake ID, plus had a dad who was a music journalist, so I saw Gang of Four many times, The Clash, The Jam, UB40 (didn’t know the singer was white until he walked on stage!), X, XTC, the Cars, Mission of Burma (many times—I was in the Boston area).

Best high school make-out song: See, I didn’t make out a lot during high school, so I can’t answer this myself. But my friend was trying to get her boyfriend to like something other than disco, so she played Cheap Trick’s Heaven Tonight, side a, whenever they made out. Sort of a Pavlov’s dog thing. So I guess “Heaven Tonight.”

Megan Frampton’s newest book, Vanity Fare, will be published by William Morrow December, 2012. You can learn more about Megan at meganframpton.com. Also, be sure to check out heroesandheartbreakers.com.