How I Became A Badfinger Fan
I first became aware of Badfinger in 1970 when they released the single 'Come And Get It'
by Paul McCartney. I was still (a Senior) in high school in Camillus, N.Y. Of course, my
main attraction was the McCartney (Beatle) connection. I had only recently become a
Beatles fan a year or two before. (Lady Madonna was the song that did it). I was a firm
Rolling Stones fan... you know, anti-Beatles! So anyway, I picked up the Badfinger 45
for the McCartney song of 'Come And Get It'. But I also flipped the 45 over and listened
to the 'B' side song...and I was hooked. That was the great song 'Rock Of All Ages'. I
said "Wow!", that's a 'B' side song...these guys are good!
Well, being a poor high school student (LP records cost $6.00 in those days - much too
expensive!), I didn't pick up my first Badfinger LP record until 'Straight Up'. By then I
was in my first year of college at Rochester Institute of Technology. Again I was blown
away by the acoustic sound of that great album. That was 1971 which was a great year for
music. Badfinger, The Who ('Who's Next'), Carly Simon, Lee Michaels ('You Know
What I Mean'). I was a little angry and confused when Badfinger appeared at 'The Concert
For Bangla Desh' and they didn't get to play any of their great songs. I thought that would
have been a great time to advertize a little.
By the time 'Ass' came out, I was stationed near Heidelberg, West Germany in the
U.S.Army, (last of the draft) printing topo maps for all the NATO forces. I never even
heard of the first Warner Brothers album 'Badfinger', that I found several years later. In
1974, 'Wish You Were Here' hit the PX and I snapped one up right away. Little did I
know about any of the problems that the band was having. I didn't even really catch on
from the words in the songs. The next time I heard anything about Badfinger was when
Rolling Stone magazine had a short blurb about Pete Ham being found hung in his garage.
I thought it was all over. (And in many ways it was....)
Of course, now we come to 1997, for me a banner year for a Badfinger fan. I finally got
on the Internet and found a few excellent sites about Badfinger. I also found that Badfinger
had most of their LPs in CD format. I discovered not only 'The Best of (I)' but also 'The
Best of (II)' with unreleased Badfinger material...Cool! And best of all, the Pete Ham CD
came out!!! The video, the book and probably lots more to come...GREAT!!! Well, that is
part of my story...what's yours?
Rick Kellogg