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3.23.2007

it’s only rock and roll and i like it

I was never a rocker, but I still have fond memories of listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon at various friends’ houses deep into the night, preferably when their parents weren’t home, and of driving along the Merritt Parkway considerably above the speed limit with Steely Dan’s Reeling in the Years blasting from the radio. As eclectic as my sweeps tastes go, today's is something of a departure from my usual bent: Hard Rock Café’s Ambassador of Rock sweeps, with a three-night trip to London, to see Peter Gabriel and Aerosmith (Aerosmith!) in separate concerts at Hyde Park this June, plus tickets to a bunch of other cities, like Caracas, Dubai, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Tokyo.

Does that not rock?

Flashback: When I was home from college one summer, I got lassoed into chaperoning my youngest brother and a friend or two to an Aerosmith concert on Long Island. I remember being appalled that my baby brother was hearing such graphic lyrics. So much sex! Another time, my sister won tickets to a Fleetwood Mac at Madison Square Garden, by being the sixth (or thereabouts) caller to some New York radio station. We didn’t get to hear her name announced on the radio because she was afraid my mother would be mad about the long distance call. She didn’t tell us until after her name had gone out over the tri-state-area's airwaves. I went to the concert with her. It was just the two of us. She was too young to go alone with a friend. It was New York City, skyscrapers and everything, Times Square was all peep shows and degenerates, in other words, not yet square. Who would have thought I would ever be nostalgic for that? Stevie Nicks was so stoned, she teetered in very high heels through the entire concert. I was certain she would fall.

Clearly, I am so not a rocker! But it would rock to win this one.

Note: The London concerts are on June 23 and 24, so you’d have to be available to travel around those dates.

To enter, click HERE. Daily entry through May 29.