Category: Music

Damn I feel old.

Chicago: Chicago IX (1975)

This was my first real exposure to Chicago. Oh sure, I was aware of the band (I mean you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing them), but this was the first album of theirs I actually bought. I remember putting the record on my turntable, plugging in my headphones and falling in love. From that point on I was a huge fan, and as recently as the 2000s I was still backfilling my catalog with the earlier albums I’d previously brushed off.

To be honest, however, I did lose interest in the majority of their work after Chicago X, the album that came out immediately after this one.

Grace Jones: Living My Life (1982)

Elton John: Madman Across the Water (1971)

Stevie Wonder: Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants (1979)

Much like the Brothers Johnson’s 12-inch red vinyl single for Strawberry Letter 23 smelling like strawberries when new, this 2-disk vinyl set smelled like orchids when first opened.

Prince: 1999 (1982)

Madonna: Bedtime Stories (1994)

Probably my favorite music video of all time.

The album itself is also available in a very limited edition 2-LP gatefold edition on pink vinyl. It is, of course, priced in the stratosphere and a completely unrealistic purchase on my salary. (And frankly, I’m not as hot to get it as I once was, learning that it’s on hot pink vinyl, not the powder-pink I feel it should’ve been.)

UPDATE: I had the date wrong on the release of this LP. It was actually October 25th, not the 5th.

https://youtu.be/U6fjqZArxjg

Culture Club: Waking Up With The House On Fire (1984)

One of those rare finds. Released in 1984 and still sealed in the original shrinkwrap.

Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (1983)

Elton John: Blue Moves (1976)

Like many others, when  Blue Moves first came out, and for many years later, I had a love/hate relationship with this album. The sound was so different from all of Elton’s previous work, and yet still so fresh. It also annoyed me no end back in the day that all four sides of the album wouldn’t fit on a standard 90 minute cassette tape, requiring that you buy a notoriously thin and prone to breakage and entanglement-in-the-player 120-minute cassette.

Now, of course, I think this collection is brilliant.

Favorite tracks: One Horse Town, Boogie Pilgrim, Crazy Water, Shoulder Holster, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, If There’s a God in Heaven (What’s He Waiting For?), and Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance).

Madonna: Erotica (1992)

Donna Summer: The Wanderer (1980)

Or as I like to call it, “The beginning of the end of her career.”

Quarterflash: Quarterflash (1981)

This is a playlist that I put together a few years ago and burned onto CD as a holiday gift for my surviving friends from the 80s with whom I shared these musical memories. These songs—mostly from the mid-to-late years of the decade—in addition to the pop hits of the day, comprised the soundtrack of our lives as we transitioned from life in Tucson to life in San Francisco. It puts me in a…strange…headspace, so I don’t listen to it very often, but sometimes it’s just what the doctor ordered to remind me that life has not always been the psychic clusterfuck we all currently find ourselves living through.

Donna Summer: On The Radio (1979)

Alec R. Costandinos: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1978)

Grace Jones: Bulletproof Heart (1989)

Fleetwood Mac: Tusk (1979)

Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

I still need to buy a replacement for this one.

Depeche Mode: Music for the Masses (1987)

Purple Disco Machine: Body Funk

Ben sent me a link to this song yesterday, knowing I’d probably love it. I do.

Sounds like a mashup of the Village People, Peter Jacques Band, and a little bit of Macho thrown in for good measure. Italian Eurodisco at its finest!

Pet Shop Boys: Actually (1987)

Since HBO took their sweet time issuing an official soundtrack from last year’s Sharp Objects—and then with only a meager assortment of the music used in the show—I decided to put my own together.

The task was made easier because Popsugar provided what was supposedly the definitive list of all the music used in the series’ eight episodes.

So between Popsugar, the official release playlist, YouTube, and the magic of Audio Hijack and Adobe Audition, I’ve created my own soundtrack.

Grace Jones: Muse (1979)

Matt Drey Presents DSP: From Russia With Love (1999) (2 disk EP)

● Original Mix
● Oliver Lieb Remix
● Solar Stone Red City Remix
● Solar Stone Blue Remix

Been in love with this one since I first heard it in the early 00’s on Ibiza Euphoria, but never thought to look for it on the original vinyl.

Donna Summer: Live and More (1978)

Giorgio Moroder: E=mc² (1979)

Donna Summer: Love To Love You Baby (1975)