After lunching with some friends who live on the far west side of the valley (i.e. Sun City) yesterday, on our way home we decided to check out a couple Goodwill stores since I’d heard they’re good places to pick up CDs for cheap.  Because you know, “dead people shit” and Sun City is commonly referred to as “God’s Waiting Room.” Twenty years ago I wouldn’t have expected to find anything that interested me, but now that I’m squarely in Sun City’s targeted demographic I figured I might find something of interest. No harm in looking…

I was surprised to see that all CDs were marked at 99 cents—regardless if it was a single disc or a box set. To be honest, the pickings were kind of slim (a lot of religious and country stuff) but there were a few hidden gems, among them these KKSF Samplers for AIDS Relief.

KKSF adopted the “New Age” format 1986 quite unexpectedly, shortly after we (we being my ex and I) arrived in San Francisco.  Prior to that I remember it being a generic rock/pop station and the go-to source of music for the architectural office I was working in at the time. One morning we turned it on and heard the likes of Suzanni Chiani and Andreas Vollenweider playing. My coworkers’ reaction was “WTF is this shit?” Having gotten into “this shit” a few years prior, I just quietly smiled and enjoyed it while it lasted before they changed it to some other innocuous Top 40 station. Meanwhile I went home that day set my tuner to 103.7 and kept it there until I left SF for the last time in 2002.

Over the years it became more smooth jazz and less new age, but I didn’t mind.  When I had the radio on (and even currently when I’m streaming Spotify in the other room) it’s just background music anyway unless something catches my attention and I investigate further.

KKSF was immensely involved in the community and in 1989 they released The KKSF Sampler for AIDS Relief, with 100% of the proceeds going to the SF AIDS Foundation.

I’d owned that initial disc since 1989 (I actually won it one evening by calling into the station – remember doing that?), but like so many others, it too was lost after the fire. I found a copy online a few months ago for a few bucks and added it back to my collection. To be honest, the first time I put it on after all these yeaers I was immediately transported back to my little apartment on 14th Street.

What I did not realize, however, is that KKSF released a total of 17 Samplers, the last one coming out in 2006, four years after I’d left The City.

I spotted Two, Seven, and Nine at Goodwill yesterday, and considering they were only 99 cents apiece, it was a no-brainer to bring them home. Listening to them makes me realize how much that music (very little of which I actually purchased) and had not heard in years wormed its way into my subconscious. I hear these tunes now and I immediately think San Francisco in the 90s.

Nostalgia, it’s a hell of a drug.

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Grace Jones: The Compass Point Sessions (1998)

I remember my mom got me this as a gift on my 41st birthday. Sadly, it was one of the “pry it from my cold dead hands” discs that I kept through multiple purges, but was ultimately lost along with all the rest of them after the fire. I haven’t replaced it yet, but it’s on my list.

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