Category: Music

Pink Floyd: The Wall (1979)

Eurythmics: Touch (1983)

Chills upon hearing the first track. Just like 40 years ago after rushing home with the newly-released Equinoxe.

Once again I am twenty years old, skimming over a vast sea of golden dunes in my landspeeder under a double sun in a wheat-colored sky with the love of my life at my side.

In 1978 as the original Equinoxe was spinning on the turntable I called my friend and mentor Kent and after holding the receiver (yes, Virginia, it was a phone with a wire connected to the wall) up to the speaker I said, "Can you hear that? Landspeeders!" It's been a long time since a piece of music had me bouncing off the ceiling.

I won't say Infinity does this—and a lot of the same criticisms I had with Jarre's last sequel, Oxygene 3, apply here as well—but it's still a worthy followup to the original work.

Iconic.

Queen: A Night at the Opera (1975)

Of course I loved Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was 42 and The Prophet's Song that really fired my imagination.

Madonne: Like A Virgin (1984)

I remember this as being one of the most anticipated releases of 1994.

Chicago: Chicago IX – Greatest Hits (1975)

This remains one of my favorite albums.

Grace Jones: Living My Life (1982)

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasuredome (1984)

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

Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (1983)

Elton John: Blue Moves (1976)

Quarterflash: Quarterflash (1981)

Madonna: Erotica (1992)

26 years!? I own shirts older than this album!

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

Donna Summer: On The Radio (1979)

https://youtu.be/InjF8xj93LU

Fleetwood Mac: Tusk (1979)

Giorgio Moroder: Midnight Express (1978)

Feeling old yet?

Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

For years I thought he was singing, "She's got electric boobs."

Madonna: Bedtime Story (1994)

For the surrealism alone, quite possibly one of my favorite Madonna videos ever.

…gotten this at Streetlight Records when we were in L.A. this past July. I would've saved about ten bucks, but it popped up in my Discogs email a couple weeks ago and the price was reasonable, so I grabbed it.

…for once again showing me something I never knew existed and then making it so easy for me to spend money I really don't have.

I've known of Just Blue—and have owned a copy of the Casablanca pressing on black vinyl since it came out in '79 (one of those that survived the purge)—but I never knew there was also a blue vinyl pressing available on the Vogue label for the European market until a couple weeks ago. Damn you, discogs.com!

And if anyone cares, the music itself is early electronic Euro-disco…

Certain things burn into your memory. This is an ad that appeared in the February 25th, 1978 issue of Billboard magazine. At the time I had just recently purchased Romeo & Juliet and had no idea who Alec R. Costandinos was beyond that and his work with Love and Kisses. But I loved those records, so I was determined to "collect the entire set."

Even 40 years later I often found myself wondering if I had indeed succeeded in that endeavor. Finding this online I can confirm that yes, I have all of them in my collection—and then some—although when The Hunchback was finally released, it arrived with totally different artwork on the sleeve:

https://youtu.be/q6vOY8QLbK4

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (1975)

I'm not a huge Pink Floyd fan, but this is one of a half dozen or so I have in my collection and enjoy quite a bit.

Candy Girls feat. Sweet Pussy Pauline: Wham Bam (1996)

Candy Girls feat. Sweet Pussy Pauline: Fee Fi Fo Fum (1995)

Pet Shop Boys: Actually (1987)

Grace Jones: Muse (1979)

https://youtu.be/ati-mO2AAcE

Donna Summer: Live and More (1978)

Giorgio Moroder: E=mc² (1979)

Supposedly the first live electronic-to-digital recording.