Saturday, December 31, 2011

I Feel Love - Songs 1977

More songs from 1977. Part 2 of 4. Continues where Part 1 left off and starts off with that incredible Donna Summer single with it's euro style electonica followed by Kraftwerk. Both these songs would go on to have a tremendous impact on music in the years and decades to come. After a bit of pure funk the mix gets into some reggae because in my world 1977 was full of those rastaman vibrations. Reggae had a lot of influence on punk back in that day especially with the Clash. The mix ends with some more disco from Saturday Night Fever and I guess you had to be there as they say but 1977 was all about the beat.

1.   Donna Summer - I Feel Love (I Remember Yesterday)
2.   Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express (Trans-Europe Express)
3.   Parliament - Flash Light (Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome)
4.   Bob Marley & The Wailers - Jamming (Exodus)
5.   Third World - 1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) (96 Degrees in the Shade)
6.   The Congos - At The Feast (Heart of the Congos)
7.   The Heptones - Mr. President (Party Time)
8.   The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (The Clash)
9.   Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero (My Aim Is True)
10. The Jam - In The City (In The City)
11. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Quit This Town (Life On The Line)
12. The Stranglers - No More Heroes (No More Heroes)
13. Blonde - Detroit 442 (Parallel Lines)
14. Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (Rocket To Russia)
15. Heatwave - Boogie Nights (Saturday Night Fever)
16. Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing (Saturday Night Fever)
17. The Trammps - Disco Inferno (Saturday Night Fever)
18. K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Keep It Comin' Love (I Like To Do It)

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Readings 2011 - Fiction

My favorite fiction book that I read in 2011 was a Nick Hornby novel from 2009. I've read several of his books and always enjoy them. This one was particularly fun and when I scanned my reading list for the year it quickly rose to the top. Last year my favorite novel was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell so this year I went back and read an earlier novel and also his latest book which made my number 2.  The Passage was my favorite thriller for the year.

Overall I usually don't read a lot of series based on one or group of characters although over the course of several decades I've read a few. However, this year I read a lot more than usual. Last year I read several Philip Kerr books about a Berlin detective/private investigator that takes place in the 1930s to 1950s and I continued reading a couple more this year. They keep getting better and a new one has just been published so I'll have a least one more for next year's list. I also started reading another detective series but this was based in Bangkok. I read all four in the series and I think there has been a little drop off in quality but the characters and locale are very fascinating.

I also read all three books in the Swedish Millennium series. They were great reads but in need of an editor. I also saw all three of the Swedish films and look forward to seeing the Hollywood version although I think it would be very hard to top the original films. I read another Swedish novel, Let Me In, that also had two very good films based on the book but the book was much more intense than either film. A very creepy read.

And then there is the Song of Ice and Fire. I really don't like reading modern fantasy series and especially if they have anything to do with dragons. I read some articles about these books before embarking on the ride. I found that I really enjoyed the story and the characters in this strange world. I went through the first three books very quickly. The fourth book plodded along somewhat and by the time I got to the fifth book I was getting bored. After all the time and effort of getting through these books I started losing interest. I think Martin has lost his way and is just making it up as he goes along. I'm really not in any hurry to pick up another one of those books again although I would like to see the TV series sometime but certainly not enough to get HBO.

  1. Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby, 2009
  2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell, 2010
  3. The Passage - James Cronin, 2010
  4. Field Grey - Philip Kerr, 2010
  5. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson, 2005
  6. Let Me In - John Ajvide Lindovist, 2008
  7. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin, 1996
  8. Bangkok 8 - John Burdett, 2003
  9. Homer and Langley - E. L. Doctorow, 2009
  10. The One Form The Other - Philip Kerr, 2006
  11. Ghostwritten - David Mitchell, 2000
  12. The Firl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson, 2006
  13. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson, 2010
  14. A Quiet Flame - Philip Kerr, 2008
  15. Empty Mile - Matthew Stokoe, 2010
  16. Bangkok Tattoo - John Burdett, 2006
  17. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin, 1998
  18. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin, 2000
  19. Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett, 2008
  20. If The Dead Rise Not - Philip Kerr, 2009
  21. A Feast For Crows - George R. R. Martin, 2005
  22. The Godfather of Katmandu - John Burdett, 2011
  23. A Dance With Dragons - George R. R. Martin, 2011
  24. Zero History - William Gibson, 2010


Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Readings 2011 - Nonfiction

This is my list of nonfiction books that I read in 2011, however, only one of these books were published in 2011.  This is not a best or favorites list for the year but rather a snapshot of some of my reading habits of the year. Actually I read more fiction this year but that is another list. It also doesn't count books I might have read for work or the many Drupal manuals I spent so many hours with this year.

Compiling this list is very easy because I've been keeping track of my readings for decades. I initially used notebooks but later in word processor documents to maintain lists of my readings. The lists contains the book title, author, date of publication and the month I completed reading it all separated by years. All fiction books are in italics to distinguish them from non-fiction at a glance. So it's easy to compile lists
.
1493 was a wonderful eye-opening look at how the world changed after the discovery of the New World and the resulting globalization that started then and continues today. It was a fascinating exploration of our world and contains an enormous amount of facts, insights, provocative arguments, great storytelling and mind boggling details. I had previously read Mann's 1491 which was a description of the New World before Columbus. I also thoroughly enjoyed Atlantic which I read right before 1493 and was what could be called a biography of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a book of history, geography, science and literature.

I'm always up for a good political tirade and Naomi Klein certainly provided one in The Shock Doctrine. The book was published in 2007 but it was very pertinent to the events happening while I was reading it in 2011 with the Republicans creating a fake disaster over the debt ceiling. This is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the motivation of the GOP as a control mechanism for the corporatist elite.


  1. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created - Charles Mann, 2011
  2. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein, 2007
  3. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin, 2008
  4. John Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, 2007
  5. A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage and the Quest for the Color of Desire - Amy Butler Greenfield, 2005
  6. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories - Simon Winchester, 2010
  7. God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215 - David Levering Lewis, 2010
  8. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Timothy Snyder, 2010

I only have 8 books listed here which is an usually small number of non-fiction books I usually read during a year. There is also only one biography but it was a good one. That one was the third biography of John Coltrane that I've read but the one that concentrated the most on his music. I got a couple of Coltrane box sets as a result.

I always enjoy reading history and this year's list as usual had a few. Bloodlands was the incredible story of suffering of Central Europe stuck between the genocidal policies of Hitler and Stalin. A different perspective on a war we think we know about. Sort of the same with God's Crucible which was a balanced perspective of Europe in the "Dark Ages" and the Islamic culture of the Iberian peninsula.  A Perfect Red is another one of the books I love to read that takes a simple thing or idea and exams all the historical and cultural possibilities. In this case the subject is red dye.

The Nine was a real eye opener. The Supreme Court certainly has it's share of political hacks. Scalia and Thomas most of all. I always felt that George Bush stole the election and now I know for sure that it was done. Activist judges indeed.

A post of my fiction readings for the year coming up with 25 books on that list.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

What The Hell Is Wrong With Me - Songs 1977

Songs from 1977. An incredible year for music. This is Part 1 of a long mix of 60 songs that includes some of my favorite songs across many genres that make up this personal point of view.

These are songs from my collection but not everything here was pounding out of my stereo in 1977 although much of it was and all of it would be in a few years.

Many of these albums and bands would be the foundations of my collection for years to come and several of my all time artists are represented here such as The Clash, Talking Heads, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Television, and David Bowie. Many more will be in Parts 2 and 3. It was a year of punk, new wave, disco, funk, reggae and just plain great rock. This is a mix of some of the music that made 1977 a fun year in music.  We were in college and there were lots of house parties. Some of the art school dance parties exposed us to some cutting edge punk, disco and reggae sounds. 


1.   The Clash - What's My Name (The Clash)
2.   Ramones - Cretin Hop (Rocket To Russia)
3.   The Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant (Never Mind The Bollocks)
4.   Television - Friction (Marquee Moon)
5.   Talking Heads - New Feeling (Talking Heads: 77)
6.   Brian Eno - King's Lead Hat (Before and After Science)
7.   David Bowie - Sound and Vision (Low)
8.   Iggy Pop - The Passenger (Lust For Life)
9.   Elvis Costello - Watching The Detectives (My Aim Is True)
10. Wire - Strange (Pink Flag)
11.  Suicide - Rocket USA (Suicide)
12.  Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me (In Color)
13.  The Damned - New Rose (Damned Damned Damned)
14.  Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock & Roll) (Get It)
15.  Tom Waits - I Never Talk To Strangers (Foreign Affairs)
16.  Steely Dan - Josie (Aja)
17.  Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way (Rumours)
18.  Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy (All 'n' All)
19.  ABBA - Dancing Queen (Arrival)
20.  Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (Saturday Night Fever)




Monday, December 26, 2011

Crazy Conservative Uncle


Everyone has a crazy conservative uncle. Sometimes more than one. Could be an aunt too. As a kid I remember having some crazy conservative uncles around but things were different back then because you really only had to hear their crazy rants or have to put up with their obnoxious pontificating at occasional family gatherings. Things are different now because they have our email addresses.

I'm talking about the constant flow of forwarded right wing rants, racists blather, and general hatred for fellow Americans that regularly appear in my mailbox from relatives that are trying to educate (brainwash?) the younger generation in conservative values. These things really took off during the 2008 presidential campaign in my family. All throughout that time period anyone with an email address was subjected to the newly discovered Internet by some of our elderly relatives who were on a mission to avoid what they thought would be the end of their world if Barack Obama was elected president. There has been a steady flow of forwarded emails on a large variety of topics usually describing urban myths, computer viruses and political conspiracy theories along with the usual outright lies about President Obama. Occasionally I would respond with the documented description of the falsehood from Scopes or another fact checking website. Sometimes one of my cousins' children would respond with a spirited denouncement of the obvious lie or misinterpretation of fact. However, the thing that bothered me the most about these emails was the mailing list of young people. People in my extended family that should be looking to their elders for wisdom but finding their email boxes filled with lies and hate.

Did I say Tea Party yet? The picture here is a typical tea party folks gathering to attack the government and complain about government spending. The crazy conservative uncle is a tea party person collecting Social Security and Medicare.

I've decided to devote a part of my blog to responding to these emails. Yes, every time I get one of those obnoxious emails I will post it here and comment on it. I was already going to be commenting on politics as part of my 60@60 blog but now there will be a section specifically called "Crazy Conservative Uncle" and I will invite all those who receive the emails to come here and read my response.

I just got another email about Soros funding Snopes. I'm going to have fun with this one but that will be for later.



60 Albums 2011

My personal favorite albums from my collection for 2011. These selections are based on my listening habits for the year and the higher ranked albums were the ones that I kept coming back to over and over.

Once again I couldn't stop at 60 but forced myself to end the list at 120. Bon Iver tops the list which also topped many people's end of the year list of favorite albums. I can't stop listening to it. I loved his first album but this one moved way beyond the song into pure sound. The War on Drugs was a close second for me. It sounded like so much that has gone before it but also utterly unique.  Fleet Foxes and Wilco both put out wonderful albums this year. I really liked the Jesse Sykes album which was very different than the previous album. This one sounded very California psychedelic retro... sort of like Moby Grape with a female singer. The California sound from the 70s is all over this list but especially the new Dawes album. The Radiohead album was another surprise that I kept on repeated play. The more I played it the higher it rose on the list. Most of this stuff is fairly mellow but... I'm 60 now.


  1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
  2. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
  3. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
  4. Wilco - The Whole Love
  5. Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Marble Son
  6. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
  7. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
  8. Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
  9. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
  10. Atlas Sound - Parallax 
  11. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
  12. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Holo
  13. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
  14. The Antlers - Burst Apart
  15. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
  16. Peaking Lights - 936
  17. Middle Brother - Middle Brother
  18. The Black Keys - El Camino
  19. The Horrors - Skying
  20. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
  21. Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
  22. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
  23. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
  24. Sigur Ros - Inni
  25. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
  26. Washed Out - Within and Without
  27. CANT - Dreams Come True
  28. My Morning Jacket - Circuital 
  29. The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
  30. Tune-Yards - Whokill
  31. Panda Bear - Tomboy
  32. Anthony Hamilton - Back to Love
  33. Destroyer - Kaputt
  34. James Blake - James Blake
  35. Yuck - Yuck
  36. The Stokes - Angles
  37. The Kills - Blood Pressures
  38. Adele - 21
  39. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
  40. A.A. Bondy - Believers
  41. Cults - Cults
  42. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
  43. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
  44. Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
  45. Joe Henry - Reverie
  46. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
  47. Vetiver - The Errant Charm
  48. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mind
  49. Yellowbirds - The Color
  50. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
  51. Lucinda Williams - Blessed
  52. Battles - Gloss Drop
  53. Over The Rhine - The Long Surrender
  54. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - A Corporate World
  55. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
  56. Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
  57. TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
  58. Real Estate - Days
  59. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
  60. Alexi Murdoch - Towards The Sun
  61. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO ( & Other American Stories)
  62. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
  63. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
  64. Death Cab For Cutie - Codes and Keys
  65. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'
  66. Joss Stone - LP1
  67. Wye Oak - Civilian
  68. Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
  69. Cavemen - CoCo Beware
  70. The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
  71. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
  72. Feist - Metals
  73. Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
  74. The Cave Singers - No Witch
  75. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
  76. Todd Snider - The Storyteller
  77. Paul Simon - So Beautiful So What
  78. Jolie Holland - Pint of Blood
  79. The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
  80. Matthew Sweet - Modern Art
  81. J. Mascis - Several Shades of Why
  82. Ry Cooder - Pick Up Some Dust and Sit Down
  83. John Hiatt - Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns
  84. Cass McCombs - Wit's End
  85. Steve Earle - I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
  86. Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
  87. Greg Brown - Freak Flag
  88. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
  89. Elbow - Build A Rocket  Boys
  90. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
  91. Robbie Robertson - How To Become A Clairvoyant
  92. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
  93. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
  94. Seryn - This Is Where We Are
  95. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
  96. Ben Harper - Give Till It's Gone
  97. Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
  98. Danger Mouse - Rome
  99. R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
  100. Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
  101. DeVotchKa - 100 Lovers
  102. David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
  103. Blitzen Trappen - American Goldwing
  104. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
  105. Radiohead - TKOL RMX 1234567
  106. Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour
  107. Charlotte Gainsbourg - Stage Wisper
  108. Release The Sunbird - Come Back To Us
  109. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
  110. Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces
  111. Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
  112. Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid
  113. Tyler Ramsey - The Valley Wind
  114. East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms
  115. Bjork - Biophilia
  116. Marketa Irglova - Anar
  117. Pieta Brown - Mercury
  118. Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow
  119. The Nightwatchman - World Wide Rebel Songs
  120. The Ettes - Wicked Will

There were some great collections this year too.








  1. The Beach Boys - Smile
  2. Rockpile - Live at Montreaux 1980
  3. Various Artists - Rave On Buddy Holly
  4. Various Artists - Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute To John Martyn
  5. Jimi Hendrix - Winterland
  6. Primal Scream & The MC5 - Black To Comm: Live at the Royal Festival
  7. Neil Young - A Treasure
  8. Various Artists - The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
  9. Iggy Pop - Roadkill Rising... The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009
  10. Etta James - Heart & Soul: A Retrospective
  11. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - The Singles Collection: 1992-2011
  12. The Hollies - Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years: The Complete Hollies 1963-1968
  13. The Radio Dept. - Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010
  14. Neil Diamond - The Bang Years 1966-1968
  15. Gorillaz - The Singles Collection: 2001-2011
  16. Ty Segall - Singles 2007-2010
  17. Ladytron - Best of Ladytron 2000-2010
  18. The Vagrants - I Can't Make A Friend 1965-1968
  19. Chicago - Live in 1975




Thursday, December 22, 2011

60 Albums 1976

I stepped back a year to 1976 which of course was very different than 1977. I was in college and living in the Germantown section of Philadelphia which at that time was all about the funk. Parliament and Funkadelic was happening and disco was already becoming too mainstream to be cool anymore although Saturday Night Fever was just around the corner. We also had the very beginnings of what we would know as punk and new wave with the first albums my Blondie, Ramones, Patti Smith and the classic Modern Lovers which was actually recorded in 1973. Little did we know where things were heading.

David Bowie was entering his Thin White Duke period and this album really blew me away. Was this my all time favorite Bowie album? Not hardly. He had many great albums and this is another one.

Reggae was becoming a big part of my collection and we were going down to South Street to regularly see live reggae acts perform at Grendel's Lair. I was also getting into dub and loved to play it at house parties. Freaked people out.

That Joan Armatrading continues to be one of my all time favorite albums.


  1. David Bowie - Station To Station
  2. Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading
  3. Bob Dylan - Desire
  4. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
  5. Ramones - Ramones
  6. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration
  7. Tom Waits - Small Change
  8. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
  9. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
  10. Blondie - Blondie
  11. Joni Mitchell - Hejira
  12. Marvin Gaye - I Want You
  13. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
  14. Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action
  15. Peter Tosh - Legalize It
  16. Average White Band - Person To Person
  17. Burning Spear - Garvey's Ghost
  18. Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia
  19. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
  20. Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions
  21. Jeff Beck - Wired
  22. Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstien
  23. The Wild Tchoupitoulas - The Wild Tchoupitoulas
  24. Jackson Browne - The Pretender
  25. The Heptones - Nightfood
  26. Funkadelic - Hardcore Jollies
  27. Toots & The Maytals - Reggae Got Soul
  28. Stomu Yamashta's Go - Go
  29. Hall & Oates - Bigger Than Both Of Us
  30. Jimmy Cliff - Follow My Mind
  31. The Mighty Diamonds - Right Time
  32. Bootsy's Rubber Band - Stretchin' Out In Bootsy's Rubber  Band
  33. Horslips - The Book of Invasions
  34. Miles Davis - Water Babies
  35. Bob Dylan - Hard Rain
  36. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Teenage Depression
  37. Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man
  38. Todd Rundgren - Faithful
  39. The Runaways - The Runaways
  40. Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
  41. Graham Parker - Howin' Wind
  42. Laura Nyro - Smile
  43. 801 - 801 Live
  44. Earth, Wind & Fire - Spirit
  45. John Martyn - Live at Leeds
  46. The Beach Boys - 15 Big Ones
  47. Ian Hunter - All American Boy
  48. Burning Spear - Man In The Hills
  49. The Rolling Stones -  Black and Blue
  50. Santana - Amigos
  51. Gary Burton - Dreams So Real
  52. Steve Goodman - Words We Can Dance To
  53. Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
  54. Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind
  55. Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
  56. Soft Machine - Softs
  57. Melanie - Photograph
  58. Bryan Ferry - Let's Stick Together
  59. J. Giles Band - Live: Blow Your Face Out
  60. Diana Ross - Diana Ross

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

60 Albums 1977


My favorite 60 albums from my collection released in 1977. A lot of people say it was one of the greatest years for rock music. I certainly had my favorites. I was in college at the time and spending a whole lot of my income on records but I still collected a lot that year.

It wasn't just about the emergence of punk and what would soon be known as New Wave. For me it was also a continuation of my exploration and emergence in reggae and jazz. This list probably has my largest number of reggae albums of any year. There are also many albums that one would see on other 1977 lists that don't appear here at all. Oh well. This is my list of favorites and I wasn't listening to Billy Joel and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Here are some mixes of songs from 1977:
  • Songs 1977 Vol. 1 - What The Hell Is Wrong With Me - List
  • Songs 1977 Vol. 2 - I Feel Love - List 
  • Songs 1977 Vol. 3 - Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll - List 
  • Songs 1977 Vol. 4 - Sun Is Shining In The Sky - List 

  1. The Clash - The Clash
  2. Television - Marquee Moon
  3. David Bowie - Heroes
  4. Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True 
  5. Ramones - Rocket To Russia
  6. Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77
  7. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
  8. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
  9. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
  10. Neil Young - Decade
  11. Wire - Pink Flag
  12. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks Here Are The Sex Pistols
  13. David Bowie - Low
  14. Van Morrison - A Period Of Transition
  15. Garland Jeffreys - Ghost Writer
  16. The Saints - (I'm) Stranded
  17. Joan Armatrading - Show Some Emotion
  18. Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
  19. Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs
  20. Steely Dan - Aja
  21. Parliament - Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome
  22. Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile
  23. John Martyn - One World
  24. Santana - Moon Flower
  25. The Congos - Heart of the Congos
  26. Dave Edmunds - Get It
  27. Third World - 96 Degrees in the Shade
  28. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
  29. Ramones - Leave Home
  30. Augustus Pablo - Augustus Pablo Meets King Tubby Uptown
  31. Mink DeVille - Cabretta
  32. Leonard Cohen - Death of a Ladies' Man
  33. Iggy Pop - The Idiot
  34. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Life On The Line
  35. Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
  36. Ornette Coleman - Dancing In Your Head
  37. The Jam - In The City
  38. Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue
  39. Burning Spear - Dry and Heavy
  40. Little Feat - Times Loves a Hero
  41. Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
  42. Jackson Browne - Running On Empty
  43. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Rock 'N' Roll With The Modern Lovers
  44. The Jam - This Is The Modern World
  45. Blondi - Plastic Letters
  46. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
  47. Robert Gordon - Robert Gordon with Link Wray
  48. Horace Andy - In The Light
  49. The Beach Boys - Love You
  50. The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus (IV)
  51. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.
  52. Culture - Two Sevens Clash
  53. Suicide - Suicide
  54. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
  55. Earth, Wind & Fire - All 'n' All
  56. The Heptones - Party Time
  57. The Damned - Damn Damn Damn
  58. Cheap Trick - In Color
  59. Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
  60. The Kinks - Sleepwalker
More...
  • The Rolling Stones - Love You Live
  • Cluster & Eno - Cluster & Eno
  • Neil Young - Decade
  • Miles Davis - Dark Magus
  • Charles Mingus - Three or Four Shades of Blue
  • Eric Clapton - Slowhand




Sunday, December 18, 2011

Spinning Out Gracefully - Songs 2011

The second mix of Songs 2011. Some favorite songs from some favorite albums of 2011. Another 60 minutes or so. It was a very good year for music.









1.   My Morning Jacket - Circuital (Circuital)
2.   Yellowbirds - Beneath The Reach Of Light (The Color)
3.   The War On Drugs - Come To The City (Slave Ambient)
4.   Over The Rhine - Rave On (The Long Surrender)
5.   Beck - Stormbringer (Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute To John Martyn)
6.   Kurt Vile - Baby's Arms (Smoke Ring For My Halo)
7.   James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream (James Blake)
8.   Charles Bradley - I Believe In Your Love (No Time For Dreaming)
9.   Adele - Rumor Has It (21)
10. The Black Keys - Gold On The Ceiling (El Camino)
11. The Kills - Satellite (Blood Pressures)
12. EMA - California (Past Life Martyred Saints)
13. The Antlers - French Exit (Burst Apart)
14. Cass McCombs - Love Thine Enemy (Humor Risk)
15. Wilco - I Might (The Whole Love)
16.  The Decemberists - Down By The Water (The King Is Dead)



Thursday, December 15, 2011

You Know What I Mean - Songs 2011


This is my fist mix featuring songs from my favorite albums of 2011. The 60 song mix didn't last very long and I changed this up to be multiple part mixes of about 60 minutes each so it's still 60@60.

This has been a good year and I have many songs and albums to highlight. Of course I started this off with a song from one of the great releases of the year... The Beach Boys' The Smile Sessions. It sets the tone for everything that follows but especially the first few songs.

This is the first 60 minutes of my Songs 2011 series. The songs are not ranked but are arranged to sound good together.

All albums released in 2011.


1.  The Beach Boys - Our Prayer (The Smile Sessions)
2.  Bon Iver - Holocene  (Bon Iver)
3.  Fleet Foxes - Lorelai (Helplessness Blues)
4.  Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter Here Comes Mary (Marble Son)
5.  Dawes - If I Wanted Someone (Nothing Is Wrong)
6.  The Civil Wars - I've Got This Friend (Barton Hollow)
7.  Middle Brother - Million Dollar Bill (Middle Brother)
8.  Atlas Sound - Angel is Broken (Parallax)
9.  Cults - You Know What I Mean (Cults)
10. Smith Westerns - Still New (Dye It Blond)
11. Girls - Honey Bunny (Father, Son, Holy Ghost)
12. Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes (Only In Dreams)
13. St. Vincent - Year Of The Tiger (Strange Mercy)
14. M83 - Midnight City (Hurry Up, We're Dreaming)
15. CANT - Too Late, Too Far (Dreams Come True)
16. Radiohead - Louts Flower (The King of Limbs)



Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

60 Artist on High Rotation

I looked at my Last.fm listing of artists that is based on my iTunes play and here is a listing of my most popular artists as determined by Last.fm and iTunes. I set this up in early 2008 and it only counts plays on selected devices like my iPod and computers. It doesn't count CDs played anywhere and of course I still play lots of CDs but it is something of a snapshot of this recently tuned 60 guy.

So here is my Top Artist list from the last 4 years as determined by the number of times I played a song from these artists. David Bowie wins this contest by a landslide.
  1. David Bowie
  2. Tom Waits
  3. The Brian Jonestown Massacre
  4. Yo La Tengo
  5. Bob Dylan
  6. Neil Young
  7. Jimi Hendrix
  8. The Kinks
  9. Robyn Hitchcock
  10. XTC
  11. Radiohead
  12. The Byrds
  13. Grizzly Bear
  14. The Beach Boys
  15. The Green Pajamas
  16. The Rolling Stones
  17. Julian Cope
  18. Tunng
  19. The Kingsbury Manx
  20. Miles Davis
  21. Fleet Foxes
  22. Wilco
  23. Blur
  24. My Morning Jacket
  25. Vic Chesnutt
  26. Big Star
  27. Eels
  28. The Jam
  29. The Clash
  30. T. Rex
  31. Damien Jurado
  32. Over the Rhine
  33. Alejandro Escovedo
  34. The Kills
  35. Otis Redding
  36. Richard Thompson
  37. Cream
  38. Akron/Family
  39. John Prine
  40. Field Music
  41. The Jesus and Mary Chain
  42. Los Lobos
  43. Brian Eno
  44. The Cure
  45. R.E.M.
  46. Elysian Fields
  47. The Besnard Lakes
  48. Robert Plant
  49. Six Organs of Admittance
  50. Charlotte Gainsbourg
  51. James Brown
  52. The Stone Roses
  53. Echo & The Bunnymen
  54. Holly Golightly
  55. Mavis Staples
  56. M. Ward
  57. The Detroit Cobras
  58. Talking Heads
  59. Joe Henry
  60. Leonard Cohen

Monday, December 12, 2011

60 Albums 1982

My favorite 60 albums from 1982. In general I have not agreed with the common perception expressed by some people that the 80's was a bad decade for music. Like every other decade there was plenty of great music and lots of trash. This list of 60 albums released in 1982 was a little more difficult putting together. There a plenty of great albums to make a short list but 60 was a challenge within my criteria for inclusion.

I was very much involved in the music in 1982. I worked as a DJ, booked local bands in a club, hung out in record stores and bought lots of albums. This is also the year that MTV and music videos in general started making a big impact on the music scene. It would be a few more years before we started getting cable and the only place we saw the new videos was in some bars. It's hard now to imagine that there were some bars that had TVs showing MTV over the bar.

I picked Marshall Crenshaw for the top spot because this first album of his has stood the test of time in my world. I saw him touring with this album and I have seen him touring recently. This album led me to be a lifelong fan and I have over a dozen of his albums. This particular album is timeless with a great collection of pop songs. I still listen to it.

I also often still listen to my number 2 which is another timeless album full of great songs as is the number 3.

  1. Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw
  2. Roxy Music - Avalon
  3. Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
  4. XTC - English Settlement
  5. Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
  6. The Clash - Combat Rock
  7. X - Under the Big Black Sun
  8. The English Beat - Special Beat Service
  9. Talking Heads - The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
  10. Prince - 1999
  11. Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay
  12. The Cure - Pornography
  13. The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses
  14. Midnight Oil - 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
  15. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
  16. Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
  17. Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love
  18. The Church - The Blurred Crusade
  19. The Jam - The Gift
  20. ABC - The Lexicon of Love
  21. Rank & File - Sundown
  22. Wall of Voodoo - Call of the West
  23. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
  24. Laurie Anderson - Big Science
  25. Squeeze - Singles: 45's and Under
  26. The Gun Club - Miami
  27. The Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
  28. Gang of Four - Songs of the Free
  29. Tom Verlaine - Words From the Front
  30. Squeeze - Sweets From a Stranger
  31. Robyn Hitchcock - Groovy Decay
  32. Grace Jones - Living My Life
  33. Defunkt - Thermonuclear Sweat
  34. Siouxsie & The Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse
  35. Material - One Down
  36. Yaz - Upstairs at Eric's
  37. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
  38. James Blood Ulmer - Black Rock
  39. Pigbag - Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive
  40. Split Enz - Time and Tide
  41. Kate Bush - The Dreaming
  42. King Crimson - Beat
  43. Roseanne Cash - Somewhere in the Stars
  44. Mission of Burma - Vs.
  45. Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us
  46. King Sunny Ade - Juju Music
  47. Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
  48. Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision
  49. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
  50. The Bongos - Drums Along the Hudson
  51. Ronald Shannon Jackson - Mandance
  52. Hunters & Collectors - Hunters & Collectors
  53. James White & The Blacks - Sax Maniac
  54. Various Artists - Eraserhead
  55. Hall & Oates - H2O
  56. Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
  57. Warren Zevon - The Envoy
  58. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message
  59. David Lindley - Win This Record
  60. A Flock of Seagulls - A Flock of Seagulls
  61. The Time - What Time Is It?
  62. Michael Jackson - Thriller
  63. The dB's - Repercussion
  64. The Stray Cats - Built For Speed
  65. Fun Boy Three - Fun Boy Three
  66. Depeche Mode - A Broken Frame
  67. INXS - Shabooh Shoobah
  68. Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
  69. The Associates - Sulk
  70. Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out
  71. Haircut 100 - Pelican West
  72. Kim Wilde - Select

The Blog Has Moved

This blog has evolved into something new...
60@60 Sounding Booth

See you there.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

60 what?

I said I was going to do mixes with 60 songs as part of my 60@60 theme and I just posted one. So now I'm having second thoughts. I still like the theme of 60@60 but the 60 songs thing is a little unwieldy. I really need to do something efficiently to make it work in my time restraints. Heck, I'm not retired yet.

Putting 60 songs together in a quality mix is very time consuming. I have several of them in various stages right now and I need to get them posted.

Here is the process. I choose the songs and place them in a carefully selected sequence. I move them to a different directory and run them through a program that equalizes the sound volume of the songs which are coming from a wide variety of sources with sometimes drastically different sound quality. I put each song into a sound editor program, blend the songs together and then save the results as an MP3 file. The file is then uploaded to Mixcloud and I fill out an online form with the song titles and artists. It includes a graphic and tags. I also post the mix to Zero to the mixing community and also to this blog. Maybe Facebook too.

So I'm looking for ways to streamline the process and I decided to go back to my standard approximately hour long mixes that I've been doing for years... decades. It's what I've been used to doing and it will still fit into my 60@60 theme. It will be 60 minutes of songs instead of 60 songs. Yeah. That works.

I can still make the larger collections but they will be broken down to parts like I just did with the House Party 1968 mix. Recently I had created these very large playlist on various themes that go on for hours. I can break them up and get them here soon. I will also continue to put together my 60 albums by year lists and I will be doing some single artists mixes too.

I will also be going back to my old blog and grabbing some lists and ramblings to post here. It's the end of the year with lots of those end of the year lists that I love and I'll be making my own and commenting on others. It's also an election year coming up and I'll have a lot to day about that mess. This is going to be fun.

Friday, December 9, 2011

House Party 1968

This is my first posting of an actual mix of 60 songs to this blog. This is a throwback mix to my very early days spinning records as a high school kid in Philadelphia. I was an obsessive collector starting in the mid 60s. I visited record stores and read everything I could find on new music. I had my first job in 1968 making decent money back then working in a machine shop shoveling the hot chips flying off the lathes. Most of my pay went for buying records and going to shows. During that summer I was checking out the West Coast bands playing at the original Electric Factory down on Arch Street, hanging out downtown at the head shops on Samson Street and groovin' at the Be-Ins in Fairmount Park. There were also many house parties in the neighborhood and I was the guy with the music so I got invited along with my box of 45s.


I had playlist of stuff that worked good at these parties but this was not some DJ setup that would evolve later on. There would just be a record player with a changer that would play a stack of singles in the order they were placed on the spindle.

So long before mixes were created on mp3 playlist, burned CDs and cassettes there was the carefully selected stack of 7" 45 rpm singles sitting on a record changer. The mix listed here is taken from my collection of 45s from 1968 which I still have. In fact I probably still have every single, album, tape and CD that I have be accumulating for about 46 years now. I've never sold or gotten rid of anything from my collection much to my wife's chagrin.

This mix here is a sample of our neighborhood party music. Lots of soul music and especially Motown. We also played lots of what would later be called Nuggets. People loved to dance so everything here had the house shaking. Not all the parties were non stop dancing and more and more albums of head music were getting played but that is another post and another mix.

So here it is. House party music from my stack of 45s in 1968.

  1. Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley
  2. Ain't Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations
  3. You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
  4. Too Many Fish In The Sea - The Marvelettes
  5. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Gladys Knight & The Pips
  6. I'll Be Doggone - Marvin Gaye
  7. This Old Heart Of Mine - The Isley Brothers
  8. There Is - The Dells
  9. Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
  10. I Thank You - Sam & Dave
  11. Land Of A Thousand Dances - Wilson Pickett
  12. Funky Broadway Pt. 1 - Dyke & The Blazers
  13. Boogaloo Down Broadway - The Fantastic Johnny C
  14. Ain't Nothin' But A House Party - The Showstoppers
  15. Mickey's Monkey - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
  16. (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave - Martha & The Vandallas
  17. Jenny Take A Ride - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
  18. I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles
  19. Twist and Shout - The Beatles
  20. Peppermint Twist - Joey Dee & The Starlighters
  21. You Can't Sit Down - The Dovells
  22. South Street - The Orlons
  23. Keep On Dancing - The Gentrys
  24. Dance Dance Dance - The Beach Boys
  25. Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
  26. Shake A Tail Feather - Five Du-Tones
  27. The 81 - Candy & The Kisses
  28. Get On Up - The Esquires
  29. Cool Jerk - The Capitols
  30. Some Kind Of Wonderful - Soul Brothers Six
  31. Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group
  32. Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
  33. Fire - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
  34. I Got The Feelin' - James Brown
  35. Think - Aretha Franklin
  36. Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops
  37. Needle In A Haystack - The Velvelettes
  38. Just A Little Misunderstanding - The Contours
  39. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
  40. Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder
  41. Shake and Fingerpop - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
  42. Expressway To Your Heart - The Soul Survivors
  43. I'm A Man - The Spencer Davis Group
  44. (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet - The Blues Magoos
  45. Mony Mony - Tommy James & The Shondells
  46. Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz
  47. Over Under Sideways Down - The Yardbirds
  48. Little Girl - Syndicate of Sound
  49. 96 Tears - ? & The Mysterians
  50. Suzie Q - Creedence Clearwater Revival
  51. Little Bit O' Soul - The Music Explosion
  52. Going To A Go-Go - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
  53. Dance To The Music - Sly & The Family Stone
  54. Devil With The Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
  55. Louie Louie - The Kingsmen
  56. Gloria - The Shadows of Knight
  57. I Can't Help Myself - The Four Tops
  58. Nowhere To Run - Martha & The Vandallas
  59. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
  60. Ooo Baby Baby - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Turned 60

Well, I've turned 60. Several people had been asking me what I was doing for my birthday since it was such a milestone. I had big parties at 30, 40 and 50 but I really didn't feel like a party. This birthday is different. Yes, it's a milestone but it is also the start of a new experience which is the approaching years of retirement and declining health. Best not to think about that. My health is pretty good right now and my accounts indicate that retirement is probably still a long way off. Oh well.

After a lot of thought and consideration I decided to mark my birthday and entrance into the decade of my 60's with this blog. I've had several previous blogs, personal websites and assorted online social media sites. I shut most everything down and I'm concentrating on this one blog which I'm calling 60@60. I added the Sounding Booth part because that was part of my last blog's title. The 60@60 came about because I decided to put together mixes and various other lists with 60 items. I've always been a great maker of lists and I have lots of resource material to draw from. I've also been a long time maker of mix tapes going back a few decades. I have literally hundreds of mix tapes stored in boxes and many more CD mixes shelved in my third floor music man cave.

So I thought I'd spend the year of 60 putting together various 60@60 lists. Most will be music oriented but there will also be lists of books, movies, etc. I'm also going to be continuing to make my rants and ramblings about politics. I started up this blog several weeks ago and began putting up some lists of 60 favorite albums from various years. This will continue for awhile. I will also be putting up playlists of 60 songs from a particular artist and theme mixes of 60 songs. There will be links to players that will allow you to listen to the mixes. I will also be creating more links and tweaking this site. This is where I'm going to document my experiencing the 60s's again.

I talked about the lists and the rankings in an earlier post here and I posted an intro to this blog here.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

60 Albums 1971

1971 was another Navy year and much of it was spent at sea. I didn't have the opportunity to keep and collect many new albums except when we occasionally arrived back in Norfolk and I got some leave time.

Most of what I have listed here I acquired later in the '70s but there are a few scattered throughout the list that accompanied me on my voyages. Most of my time at sea was in the Caribbean sailing on the USS Portland. We spend time in Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Aruba, Martinique, Curacao, Colombia, Venezuela and of course Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We made several cruises back and forth and also took a quick trip to the Mediterranean Sea for my first of several crossings of the Atlantic. During this time I got to appreciate the cassette player.

So I did have a few of these albums on the ship in 1971. We could actually buy some albums from the ship store but of course they sold out very quickly. Cigarettes were .25 cents a pack.

Several great albums top this list starting with the Stones' first album using their tongue & lips logo and the controversial Andy Warhol crotch cover which wasn't Mick Jagger. My second pick could very easily be first. It is one of the greatest soul albums of all time.
  1. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
  2. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
  3. T. Rex - Electric Warrior
  4. Sly & The Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On
  5. Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat
  6. Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
  7. The Who - Who's Next
  8. The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East
  9. America - America
  10. Yes - Fragile
  11. Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
  12. Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame
  13. John Lennon - Imagine
  14. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
  15. Elton John - Madmen Across the Water
  16. Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love
  17. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
  18. Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head
  19. Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
  20. Joni Mitchell - Blue
  21. Santana - Santana III
  22. Isaac Hayes - Shaft
  23. Carole King - Tapestry
  24. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
  25. War - All Day Music
  26. Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
  27. Laura Nyro & Labelle - Gonna Take a Miracle
  28. The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
  29. Janis Joplin - Pearl
  30. Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge
  31. Faces - A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse
  32. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
  33. The Doors - L.A. Woman
  34. Badfinger - Straight Up
  35. Can - Tago Mago
  36. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
  37. John Prine - John Prine
  38. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
  39. Frank Zappa - Fillmore East - June 1971
  40. Roy Harper - Stormcock
  41. Traffic - Welcome to the Canteen
  42. Pink Floyd - Meddle
  43. John Martyn - Bless the Weather
  44. Miles Davis - Live-Evil
  45. Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson
  46. Elton John - 17-11-70
  47. Bill Withers - Just as I Am
  48. David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
  49. Gene Clark - White Light
  50. Curtis Mayfield - Roots
  51. Mott the Hoople - Brain Capers
  52. Townes Van Zandt - Delta Momma Blues
  53. Hawkwind - In Search of Space
  54. Gong - Camembert Electrique
  55. The Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
  56. Alice Cooper - Love It To Death
  57. Groundhogs - Split
  58. Howlin' Wolf - The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions
  59. Judee Sill - Judee Sill
  60. Chicago - Chicago III

Monday, November 28, 2011

60 Albums 1986

1986 was the last year I spent any time working in bars as a DJ. The end of an era for me and time to spend more quality time with my little girl. I was growing tired and bored with the bar scene especially when you had to be there regardless of what was going on. It was a job. The year was not particularly a good one for music in my opinion and putting together 60 favorite albums was a little more harder for this year. Of course part of the reason was I was not buying lots of records for both family reasons and there wasn't a whole lot out there I was interested in at the time. But with that being said there is lots of great music on this list.

XTC has always been one of my favorite bands and this is probably my favorite album of theirs. These are also some of the last albums I bought on vinyl on a regular basis. Yes, I bought a CD player in 1986 and the first album I purchased was the Beatle's Rubber Soul. I'll need to think about what my first new album was on CD.

The BoDeans album here is one of the few times I bought an album for it's cover without knowing what it might sound like. It turns out this is a great album and they are a wonderful unique sounding band. At this time I was very interested in everything that T Bone Burnette was producing and I saw him listed in the credits so I took a chance. Of course it wasn't a big financial chance because this album, like so many on these list, were in the used record bin at Play It Again Sam's on Elmwood which maybe around that time became Home of the Hits. It's amazing how many albums I still have with those little colored dots in the corner.

  1. XTC - Skylarking
  2. Steve Earle - Guitar Town
  3. BoDeans - Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams
  4. R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant
  5. Crowded House - Crowded House
  6. World Party - Private Revolution
  7. The Smithereens - Especially For You
  8. Iggy Pop - Blah Blah Blah
  9. Elvis Costello - King of America
  10. Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat
  11. T Bone Burnett - T Bone Burnett
  12. Guadalcanal Diary - Jamboree
  13. Paul Kelly - Gossip
  14. New Order - Brotherhood
  15. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
  16. Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
  17. Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Element of Light
  18. The Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
  19. Billy Bragg - Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
  20. Bruce Springsteen - Live/1975-85
  21. Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey
  22. The The - Infected
  23. Pretenders - Get Close
  24. Lone Justice - Shelter
  25. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks
  26. Bad Brains - I Against I
  27. Elvis Costello - Blood and Chocolate
  28. Talking Heads - True Stories
  29. Paul Simon - Graceland
  30. Peter Gabriel - So
  31. Solomon Burke - A Change Is Gonna Come
  32. The Rainmakers - The Rainmakers
  33. Sonic Youth - EVOL
  34. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox
  35. Nanci Griffth - The Last of the True Believers
  36. This Mortal Coil - Filigree & Shadow
  37. Ennio Morricone - The Mission
  38. True West - Hand of Fate
  39. Let's Active - Big Plans for Everybody
  40. The Flaming Lips - Hear It Is
  41. The Del Lords - Johnny Comes Marching Home
  42. Rubber Rodeo - Heartbreak Highway
  43. Lyle Lovett - Lyle Lovett
  44. Roky Erickson - Don't Slander Me
  45. The Mekons - The Edge of the World
  46. Bob Dylan - Knocked Out Loaded
  47. Lyres - Lyres Lyres
  48. Bruck Cockburn - World of Wonders
  49. David & David - Boomtown
  50. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral... My Trial
  51. That Petrol Emotion - Manic Pop Thrill
  52. Van Morrison - No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
  53. Love Tractor - This Ain't No Outerspace Ship
  54. The Feelies - Good Earth
  55. Yo La Tengo - Ride the Tiger
  56. Arthur Russell - World of Echo
  57. The Beat Farmers - Van Go
  58. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
  59. John Fogerty - Eye of the Zombie
  60. The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff
  61. John Lennon - Live In New York City
  62. Lou Reed - Mistrial
  63. Prince - Parade
  64. The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
  65. The Triffids - In The Pines
  66. The Cure - Standing On The Beach
  67. Eurythmics - Revenge
  68. 54-40 - 54-40
  69. Kate Bush - The Whole Story
  70. Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring
  71. The Housemartins - London 0 Hull 4
  72. Chris Isaak - Chris Isaak


Friday, November 25, 2011

60 Albums 1990

Still not 60 yet but here is another list of 60 favorite albums from my collection released in 1990.

For me this was not a particular good year in music but of course I was also distracted with young kids. Sean was just a just a year old. I was still recovering from brain surgery and going to grad school. I wasn't going out to listen to a lot of music and buying tons of CDs. We didn't have the internet quite yet although I was going online for the first time back then and discovering some music forums. Many of the albums on this list I acquired later.

The top of my list was something that hit me right away. The La's album is one of my favorite all time albums and the song There She Goes is a stone classic. I recently got the deluxe version of this album with three differently produced versions of each song and of course I had to have the La's BBC sessions album too. An awful lot of product for a band with one album even if the leader was an obsessive perfectionist.

  1. The La's - The La's
  2. The House of Love - The House of Love
  3. Los Lobos - The Neighborhood
  4. John Hiatt - Stolen Moments
  5. Blue Rodeo - Casino
  6. Luka Bloom - Riverside
  7. World Party - Goodbye Jumbo
  8. Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly
  9. Sun Dial - Other Way Out
  10. The Cure - Mixed Up
  11. Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
  12. Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
  13. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
  14. Gang of Four - A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
  15. Squeeze - A Round and a Bout
  16. Ride - Nowhere
  17. Galaxie 500 - This Is Our Music
  18. Neil Young - Ragged Glory
  19. Pixies - Bossanova
  20. Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs for Drella
  21. Sonic Youth - Goo
  22. Robyn Hitchcock - Eye
  23. Yo La Tengo - Fakebook
  24. Iggy Pop - Brick By Brick
  25. Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining
  26. The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker
  27. Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Soundtrack
  28. Traveling Wilburys - Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3
  29. Roseanne Cash - Interiors
  30. The Flaming Lips - In a Priest-Driven Ambulance
  31. Marianne Faithful - Blazing Away
  32. Peter Murphy - Deep
  33. The Rembrandts - The Rembrandts
  34. Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches
  35. Deee-Lite - World Clique
  36. The Waterboys - Room to Roam
  37. The Goo Goo Dolls - Hold Me Up
  38. The Posies - Dear 23
  39. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
  40. Steve Earle - The Hard Way
  41. John Wesley Harding - Here Comes the Groom
  42. Hindu Love Gods - Hindu Love Gods
  43. The Replacements - All Shook Down
  44. The Breeders - Pod
  45. Jellyfish - Bellybutton
  46. Dread Zeppelin - Un-Led-Ed
  47. Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
  48. Bob Dylan - Under the Red Sky
  49. Spacemen 3 - Dreamweapon
  50. Cowboy Junkies - The Caution Horses
  51. The Chills - Submarine Bells
  52. The Charlatans - Some Friendly
  53. Paul Simon - The Rhythm of the Saints
  54. The Seers - Psych Out
  55. The Northern Pikes - Snow in June
  56. Ultra Vivid Scene - Joy 1967-1990
  57. Tom Russell - Poor Man's Drean
  58. Prefab Sprout - Jordan: The Comeback
  59. Enigma - MCMXC A.D.
  60. Indigo Girls - Nomads Indians Saints

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The GOP Clown Car

OK, here they are. I just have to say something about these clowns. This is it. This is the best they can do?

Watching these guys has been really scary and clearly illustrates the dumbing down of conservative America. I am especially amazed at the way these people attack science and their utter lack of knowledge about the world including economics, geography, history and diplomacy.

It's been pretty funny watching the conservatives scramble around looking for someone to latch on to that isn't a Mormon. It looks like they have a flavor of the month or is it week. Bachmann is on her way out and Perry doesn't look to good now either. Cain is riding high now but for how long with the sexual harassment accusations. There's Santorum and Newt waiting in the wings for their turns at the top of the Tea Party's anyone but Mitt campaign.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

60 Albums 1970

Here they are. My favorite albums from my collection released in 1970. I spent most of the year on one Navy base or another and there was always plenty of time (except for those months in boot camp) to listen to music and get albums. It was also a time when I was first getting cassette tapes which were newly available and becoming widespread. Some of the guys were buying reel to reel tape players and there were actually some albums available in that format.

I kept waiting to be shipped out to sea but that wasn't to happen until early '71. I also saw a lot of shows that year and many of them at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago when I was stationed nearby at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.

One of the great experiences of the year was my exposure to a variety of different kinds of music and in particular country and western. Back then they all called in that. Previously the closest I ever got to country music was the Byrds but I was sent to basic training in San Diego, California and I was only one of a couple of people from the East and definitely the only person from an Eastern city. Now I grew up in Philadelphia on Doo-Wop, Soul and Rock 'n Roll. I was shocked when the company commander pulled out a tiny radio for the entire barracks and we got to vote on the one channel that would be played in the evening during the hour we had to ourselves. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the country music station. I would have been happy with either a rock/pop or soul station but... not a chance. I was surrounded by Southern and Western boys. It was a real eye opener and most of that country music in 1970 sucked. I did get to like George Jones though.

Anyway... Neil Young was one of my favorites from that year and saw him in concert a couple of times. Once with Crosby, Stills and Nash in Chicago and once by himself. I think the George Harrison album was my first pre-recorded cassette album. It was a double one too.

A lot of these albums I heard at friends houses or down the shore while visiting on leave. I went on to get them for myself over the following few years.
  1. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
  2. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
  3. Derek and The Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
  4. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
  5. Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
  6. Van Morrison - Moondance
  7. Santana - Abraxas
  8. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu
  9. Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman
  10. The Who - Live at Leeds
  11. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
  12. Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen
  13. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
  14. Eric Clapton - Eric Clapton
  15. The Velvet Underground - Loaded
  16. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
  17. The Beatles - Let It Be
  18. Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys
  19. John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band
  20. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World
  21. The Moody Blues - A Question of Balance
  22. Jethro Tull - Benefit
  23. The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround (Part One)
  24. Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
  25. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
  26. Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills
  27. Dave Mason - Alone Together
  28. The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
  29. Paul McCartney - McCartney
  30. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
  31. Hot Tuna - Hot Tuna
  32. Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
  33. Curtis Mayfield - Curtis
  34. John McLaughlin - Devotion
  35. Funkadelic - Funkadelic
  36. John Cale - Vintage Violence
  37. Isaac Hayes - The Isaac Hayes Movement
  38. The Band - Stage Fright
  39. Jesse Winchester - Jesse Winchester
  40. Buddy Miles - Them Changes
  41. Eric Burdon and War - Eric Burdon Declares War
  42. Seatrain - Seatrain
  43. Little Feat - Little Feat
  44. Savoy Brown - Raw Sienna
  45. The Guess Who - American Woman
  46. The Doors - Morrison Hotel
  47. The Byrds - (Untitled)
  48. Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs
  49. The Pretty Things - Parachute
  50. The Stooges - Fun House
  51. Spirit - Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
  52. Pearls Before Swine - The Use of Ashes
  53. James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
  54. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
  55. Badfinger - Magic Christian Music
  56. Chicago - Chicago III
  57. Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley
  58. Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice - Jesus Christ Superstar
  59. Tim Buckley - Starsailor
  60. Captain Beefheart - Lick My Decals Off, Baby
  61. Sly & The Family Stone - Greatest Hits
  62. Exuma - Exuma II
  63. Soft Machine - Third
  64. Nico - Desertshore
  65. The Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South
  66. Aretha Franklin - Spirit in the Dark
  67. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
  68. Syd Barrett - Barrett
  69. Funkadelic - Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow
  70. Groundhogs - Thank Christ for the Bomb
  71. Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
  72. King Crimson - In the Wake of Poseidon
  73. Tyrannosaurus Rex - A Beard of Stars
  74. Elton John - Elton John
  75. Heron - Heron
  76. Van Morrison - His Band and the Street Choir
  77. Badfinger - No Dice
  78. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Pendulum
  79. Melanie - Candles in the Rain
  80. Delaney & Bonnie - Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on Tour with Eric Clapton
  81. Todd Rundgren - Runt
  82. Gil Scott-Heron - Small Talk at 125th and Lenox
  83. J.D. Blackfoot - The Ultimate Prophecy
  84. Booker T. & The M.G.'s - McLemore Avenue
  85. Mandrill - Mandrill
  86. The Incredible Stringband - U
  87. The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!
  88. James Brown - Sex Machine
  89. Bob Dylan - New Morning
  90. Alice Cooper - Easy Action
  91. Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk
  92. The J. Geils Band - The J. Geils Band
  93. Fleetwood Mac - Kiln House
  94. Shuggie Otis - Here Comes Shuggie Otis
  95. The Guess Who - Share the Land
  96. Poco - Poco
  97. Atomic Rooster - Atomic Rooster
  98. Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green
  99. Mountain - Climbing
  100. Bob Dylan - Self Portrait