The following three bands are the most successful to come out of the area around my home town, which I think has a lot to say if you look at it from the perspective of “this was our cultural heyday.”

Blue Öyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper peaked at #12 on the Pop Singles chart, 1976.

Eric Bloom was one of the vocalists and infamous cowbell player for Blue Öyster Cult. He came up in the Geneva, New York music scene of which Hobart College was the epicenter.

Dio – Holy Diver Billboard 200 #56, 1983.

Ronnie James Dio has sang for many bands, “Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and his own band Dio.” He was raised just over the hill in Cortland, New York, were he actually started out playing Rockabilly in the late 50′s. You also may remember him in his roll as himself in the movie Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.

Manowar – Kings Of Metal 1988

Manowar are the hometown boys of Auburn, New York. Band leader Joey DeMaio worked with Ronnie James Dio in ELF and later when Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer of Black Sabbath, DeMaio toured as a bass tec and fireworks manager. There he met fellow New Yorker, Ross the Boss Friedman, a former member of influential proto-punk band The Dictators, and Manowar was soon formed. They have multiple gold records in Germany and tour to this day, as well as holding “the Guinness Book of World Records honour [sic] of ‘World’s loudest band’ being captured at a mind numbing 129.5 dB.”

Motorhead -No Voices in the Sky

Nobody gives a damn about anybody else,
Think everyone should feel the way they feel themselves.
Rich men think that happiness is a million dollar bills,
So how come half of them O.D. on sleeping pills?
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, you all know what I mean,
What’s the use of a cry for help, if no one hears the screams,
No one hears the scream…

No voices in the sky,
Confusion blinds the eye,
Can’t take it with you when you die,
No voices in the sky.

The ones who dedicate the flags to make you brave,
They also consecrate the headstone on your grave,
Ritual remembrance,
when no one knows your name,
Don’t help a single widow learn to fight the pain,
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, you all know what I mean,
What’s the use of a cry for help, if no one hears the screams,
No one hears the scream…

No voices in the sky,
Confusion blinds the eye,
Can’t take it with you when you die,
No voices in the sky.

Politicians kissing babies for good luck,
T.V. preachers sell salvation for a buck,
You don’t need no golden cross, to tell you wrong from right,
The world’s worst murderers were those who saw the light.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, you all know what I mean,
What’s the use of a cry for help, if no one hears the screams,
No one hears the scream…

No voices in the sky,
Confusion blinds the eye,
Can’t take it with you when you die,
No voices in the sky.