Homegrown harvest

Matt:>

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get information on the roster of the Home Grown LPs that were issued by KGB. I'm POSITIVE that you and your elves remember these records, but just in case you all are much younger than I thought you were, they were issued in the '70s and '80s and featured local talent. I think I purchased each as they came out, but just want to be sure that my collection is complete. I have the following editions: 1973, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '84, and the special "Greatest Hits" issued in '78. Were records issued in '80, '81, '82, or '83? Were there any others? And WHY did they stop?

-- John Sandy in Sandy Egg-oh

Calm down, John. Afraid you blanked out completely on the early '80s? POSITIVE you would have picked up an album in '80, '81, '82, and '83'-- so since you don't have them you must have been in a coma for four years? Like, maybe you even have old warrants? An ex-wife you don't remember? Kids who'll look you up later and ask for money? Calm down, John.

KGB-FM (101) was the R&R station to listen to in those years. (Please, no flaming from KPRI fans�.) Home Grown albums started as an annual competition for local bands to write songs about the county, submit them to the station, then have the best 10 or 12 recorded and sold (for $1.01) to support a selected charity. Imagine a rock and roll paens to Dulzura, Jamul�. DJs Jim McInnes and Ron Jacobs were the project's mainstays. Smart-ass kid Cameron Crowe wrote the liner notes for Home Grown II (1974). And the most enduring Home Grown story is about how Stephen Bishop submitted "Down in La Jolla" but made some technical screw-up in the recording, so it wasn't selected. He did later reap a heap o' dough with "On and On," ("Down in Jamaica�") the same tune.

Anyway, John, if your pulse rate is back to normal, please go to your extensive collection LPs. (Hey, kids, those are large, flat, circular, grooved, shiny, black things in cardboard sleeves�licorice pizzas�just in case you're younger than I think you are. John would worry.) Extract Home Grown '84. Flip it over. Read from the liner notes. "Seven original albums and one greatest hits LP later, Home Grown [little R in a circle copyright registration thingy] fell victim to the oil embargo. The price of vinyl was just too high to produce an album at a reasonable cost and make any contribution to a San Diego charity. Home Grown [little R in a circle�] returns for the Eighties with all new music�." This album dropped the requirement that the song have a local theme. The Beat Farmers, Dirk Debonaire, Four Eyes, Moving Targets, Darius and the Magnets, the Blitz Brothers, Frank Grubbs, Victim, Marty Eldridge, CJ Hutton, Average Citizen, and Modern Rhythm all sang Home Grown's swan songs. Your collection is complete, John.