reflections, ruminations, ramblings and rants on music, books, beer, politics, technology, media, family, etc, etc. from a retired old man, music collector, librarian, political observer, technology geek, veteran, history buff, beer enthusiast, sci-fi fan, obsessive mixtaper and former DJ. I've also gathered writings from the past several years posted in various social media platforms. This blog has become an editing tool for my writings and everything here is a work in progress.
The second mix in my Songs 1970 series of some of my favorite music from albums in my collection released that year. This is more of how I experienced that year.
The Doors - Roadhouse Blues (Morrison Hotel)
Joe Cocker - Cry Me A River (Mad Dogs and Englishmen)
Mountain - Missippi Queen (Climbing)
Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin III)
The Guess Who - No Time (American Woman)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend (Cosmo's Factory)
Rare Earth - Born To Wander (Ecology)
Ten Years After - Sugar The Road (Cricklewood Green)
Traffic - Freedom Rider (John Barleycorn Must Die)
Van Morrison - Caravan (Moondance)
Santana - Hope You're Feeling Better (Abraxas)
The Who - The Seeker (single, Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy)
Stephen Stills - Go Back Home (Stephen Stills)
Grand Funk Railroad - I'm Your Captain / Closer To Home (Closer To Home)
Jumping right into 1970. One of my favorite years for music. This is the first mix of my Songs 1970 series which focuses on some of my favorite songs from albums in my collection released that year.
All albums released in 1970.
The Band - The Shape I'm In (Stage Fright)
Buddy Miles Express - Them Changes (Them Changes)
Eric Burdon & War - Spill The Wine (Eric Burdon Declares "War")
Redbone - Maggie (Potlacth)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Through The Jungle (Cosmo's Factory)
The Kinks - Apeman (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One)
Seatrain - 13 Questions (Seatrain)
Elton John - Take Me To The Pilot (Elton John)
Badfinger - Come And Get It (Magic Christian Music)
Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knocking (Forms and Feelings)
The Beatles - Get Back (Let It Be)
Grateful Dead - Uncle John's Band (Workingman's Dead)
Cat Stevens - Wild World (Tea For The Tillerman)
Paul McCartney - Maybe I'm Amazed (McCartney)
George Harrison - I'd Have You Anytime (All Things Must Pass)
The third volume in the Monster Vision series. Evil is going on with more creepy songs about monsters, zombies, vampires and the devil himself (or herself in some of these stories). The set starts off with some acoustic ballads, adds some blues and rock before finishing with some guitar mayhem.
Rickie Lee Jones - Sympathy For The Devil (The Devil You Know, 2012)
Robyn Hitchcock - The Devil's Radio (Moss Elixier, 1996)
Roma di Luna - The Devil Walks (Find Your Way Home, 2007)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand (Let Love In, 1994)
Chris Whitley & The Bastard Club - I Go Evil (Reiter In, 2006)
Shelby Lynne - Evil Man (Identity Crises, 2003)
Seasick Steve & The Level Devils - Walkin' With The Devil (Cheap, 2004)
Alex Chilton - Walking Dead (Bach's Bottom, 1980)
The Cramps - Zombie Dance (Songs The Lord Taught Us, 1980)
Heliotropes - I Walked With A Zombie (A Constant Sea, 2013)
Dr. John - I Been Hoodood (In The Right Place, 1973)
Howlin' Wolf - Evil (Going On) (Moanin' In The Moonnight, 1959)
Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman (Face The Music, 1975)
Jonathan Richman - Vanpire Girl (You Must Ask The Heart, 1995)
Matthew Sweet - Devil With Green Eyes (Altered Beast, 1993)
Pixies - Evil Hearted You (Complet 'B' Sides, 2001)
Although titled as Seveneves it is pronounced as seven eves. I should start by saying that Neal Stephenson is one of my all time favorite authors and I always look forward to reading his novels.
This new book met all my expectations and then some. I was very happy to have him back to doing hard science fiction again and writing wonderfully in the first part of the book. This was a tech-thriller epic story of the end of the world, the human drama and then the process of world building. The second part of the book was speculative fiction of the highest form of epic journey. I loved this book.
Monster Vision series continues with a mix that veers off into alien and spaceman territory. There's plenty more where this came from. Loving the alien indeed.
Split Enz - Poor Boy (True Colours, 1980)
Damien Youth - Girl From Outer Space (Alchemy, 2006)
David Bowie - Loving The Alien (Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, 1980)
Ash - Girl From Mars (1977, 1996)
A Flock Of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song (A Flock Of Seagulls, 1982)
The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet (Special View, 1979)
The B-52's - Planet Claire (The B-52's, 1979)
Tom Tom Club - Booming And Zooming (Tom Tom Club, 1981)
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Error In The System, 1982)
Easy Star All-Stars - The Great Gig In The Sky (Dub Side Of The Moon, 2003)
Easy Star All-Stars - Paranoid Android (Radiodread, 2006)
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, 2002)
Here is the first mix of my Monster Vision series. These are songs about creatures, aliens, zombies, spacemen, vampires, witches, ghosts and assorted ghouls. The term monster vision comes from the old TNT TV show that featured horror and science fiction movies.
The Halloween holiday is approaching and this is a good time to revisit and update some of my horror and science fiction themed mixes.
The Cramps - Rockin' Bones (Psychedelic Jungle, 1981)
The Misfits - Ghouls Night Out (Misfits, 1986)
The Fabulous Poodles - Vampire Rock (Think Pink, 1979)
Imelda May - Zombie Girl (Tribal, 2014)
Dead Man's Bones - My Body's A Zombie For You (Dead Man's Bones, 2009)
Michael Jackson - Thriller (Thriller, 1982)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - The Jezebel Spirit (My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, 1981)
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (Scary Monsters, 1980)
Alan Vega & Alex Chilton - The Werewolf (Cubists Blues, 1996)
Gnarls Barkley - The Boogie Monster (St. Elsewhere, 2006)
Split Enz - Dirty Creature (Time and Tide, 1982)
Dave Edmunds - The Creature From The Black Lagoon (Repeat When Necessary, 1979)
Roky Erickson & The Explosives - I Walked With A Zombie (Holloween Live 1979-1981, 2008)
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bela Lugosi's Dead, 1979)
The second mix of songs from 1981 that were in my collection and that I experienced throughout the year. Once again these songs could be labeled New Wave. Not really chart busters like some of the songs in volume 1.
All albums released in 1981.
Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice (Season Of Grass)
Kim Wilde - Kids In America (Kim Wilde)
Duran Duran - Careless Memories (Duran Duran)
Was (Not Was) - Out Come The Freaks (Out Come The Freaks)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - America Is Waiting (My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts)
Coati Mundi - Que Pasa/Me No Pop I (Que Pasa / Me No Pop I)
ESG - Moody (ESG)
Pete Shelley - Homosapien (Homosapien)
Lene Lovich - New Toy (New Toy)
Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper (Nightclubbing)
Trio - Da Da Da (Trio)
New Order - Ceremony (Movement)
Heaven 17 - Play To Win (Penthouse and Pavement)
The Human League - Love Action (I Believe In Love) (Dare)
Flashing back to 1981. Here is a mix of songs from some of my favorite albums released that year. Lots of new wave hits on this one with some emphasis on synth pop but this collection is certainly not a best of the year or most popular songs of the year. There are a few chart toppers here and some with little or no airplay. This mix like all my Songs of Year mixes come from my personal collection and my personal experience of the music of the year.
Most of this stuff I still have on vinyl up on the third floor.
All albums released in 1981.
The Ramones - We Want The Airwaves (Pleasant Dreams)
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough (Speak & Spell)
The Human League - Don't You Want Me (Dare)
Soft Cell - Tainted Love (Non Stop Erotic Cabaret)
The Cure - Primary (Faith)
The Cars - Since You're Gone (Shake It Up)
Hall & Oates - Private Eyes (Private Eyes)
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes (Mistaken Identity)
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Make Believe (Bad Reputation)
Squeeze - Tempted (East Side Story)
Men At Work - Who Can It Be Now? (Business As Usual)
Garland Jeffreys - Ghost Of A Chance (Escape Artist)
The English Beat - Doors Of Your Heart (Wha'ppen?)
Split Enz - One Step Ahead (Waiata)
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Ghost In The Machine)
Pretenders - Day After Day (Pretenders II)
Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Who Invented Himself (Black Snake Diamond Role)
Gary Myrick & The Figures - I'm Not A Number (Living In A Movie)
A FB friend and fellow former AoTMer recently posted a comment after listening to The Beatles White Album where he pondered what it must have been like to hear that album for the first time back in 1968 when it was released. I’ve thought about that recently too and decided to share my experience.
The White Album was such a radical change from the previous two Beatle albums released in 1967. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came out in June and Magical Mystery Tour came out in November. We were constantly listening to new and astounding Beatle songs broadcasting over the airwaves all throughout the year. In early 1968 there were reports of another new Beatles album in the works and the anticipation grew throughout the year. I was a junior in high school during the early part of the year and a senior by the end. It was prime time music experience for me and I was buying lots of albums and singles. I was also going to lots of shows during this time.
In early 1968 the radio was still constantly playing the non-album singles released in 1967 such as Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, Hello Goodbye and I Am The Walrus. Lady Madonna was released in March so there was no lack of Beatle music. Also in 1968 we saw the beginning of the underground rock stations on the FM dial that would develop into progressive rock stations. In Philly, WMMR switched from “beautiful music” to a free form DJ format that emphasized album cuts. Listening to rock music on the radio suddenly changed drastically.
However, I was still carrying around a little transistor radio with no FM capacity and so part of the time I was still stuck listening to top 40 radio. In the summer of 1968 everyone was waiting for the expected new Beatle music and I remember an evening in August as I entered our neighborhood park the DJ announced a brand new Beatle song. I cranked up the radio as I made my way through the park to the group of benches where my friends were hanging out. It was about a three or four minute walk to the top of the hill. I arrived with the radio blaring and the Beatles song was still playing. I exclaimed to everyone that this was a new Beatles song and to our surprise it still kept going for several more minutes. It was Hey Jude and not only was it a very long single, it would go on to be the longest run at the top of the US charts at the time. I also went out and bought the record. The promotional performance video would air on The Smothers Brothers Show in October. This was more than a decade before MTV and it was very unusal to see a video of a band on TV that wasn't a live stage performance or lip synced mess.
So we waited for the new album to come out and then it was announced that it would be released on November 22nd. I had a part time job in 1968 working at a machine shop which gave me some money to spend on albums. I walked to the record store several blocks up the avenue and got the album the first Saturday after it was released. At first I was shocked at the plain white cover. It was such a change after having spent so much time examining the cover of Sgt. Pepper. It was amazing that they would go to the opposite extreme but of course this was The Beatles. I was excited that it was a double album with lots of music and then discovered there was a big poster inside, a lyric sheet and also individual photos of each Beatle.
My first impression was the album got off to a good rocking start with Back In The USSR and then followed with Dear Prudence which has turned out to be one of my all-time favorite Beatle songs. Then things got weird with the next few songs but the end of side one with While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Happiness Is A Warm Gun was awesome. Side two took a few listens to appreciate. This was all something so new for me and there were some songs I could have done without. I had a better first impression with side three where they rocked out again. Maybe I was really into the rock songs more than the introspective quirky acoustic stuff because after all I was a teenager then. I loved the sound of Yer Blues, Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey and of course Helter Skelter.
Side four started off with a slower version of Revolutionand then went on with a few more odd ball songs before getting to a more different radical version titled Revolution No. 9 that certainly sounded nothing like the song on the flip side of Hey Jude. You could definitely tell that Yoko Ono was in the studio. I really liked Cry Baby Cry.
Overall the White Album is not one of my favorite Beatles albums. Although it contains some of their best material it also has plenty of weird filler that is all worth a listen but I really don’t go back to it very often. I was certainly not disappointed the first time I heard it but it did make me stop to consider what I was listening to. That also occurred with Sgt. Pepper too.
Just for some fun and blasphemy here is my condensed single record version of the album:
Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I'm So Tired
Blackbird
Yer Blues
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey
Helter Skelter
Cry Baby Cry
Here is the original promotional video of Hey Jude that aired in October of 1968. I remember watching that Smothers Brothers show. It was an event.
I have also recently been making a series of mixes spotlighting my music experience of 1968.
Songs 1968 Vol. 1 - I Am The God Of Hell Fire - List
