Category: Music

https://youtu.be/ati-mO2AAcE

Donna Summer: Live and More (1978)

Giorgio Moroder: E=mc² (1979)

Supposedly the first live electronic-to-digital recording.

https://youtu.be/dsaif2nA4Yg

Boston: Boston (1976)

I could've sworn this came out my senior year in high school, but I guess if the interwebs are to be believed, it actually came out after I'd graduated. Like so many others, I played the hell out of it.

I discovered The Acid by way of HBO's Sharp Objects and its use of some of their music in the soundtrack. Ambient, moody…it seems to be a perfect soundtrack for my life—and the entire country's for that matter—these days.

Madonna: Madonna (1983)

Gawd…she/we were so young.

https://youtu.be/30hr7DyAuAY

Giorgio Moroder: From Here To Eternity (1977)

22 years old…

Hooverphonic: 2 Wicky (1996)

No doubt before a lot of my readers were even born, but there was a lot of really good dance music that came out that year, and specifically that summer. Ironically it also marked the death of the genre called disco, only to have it go underground for a bit and be reborn even stronger as "dance music" in the 80s, defining the sound of the entire decade.

At least that's the way I remember it.

Sylvester: Step II (1978)

Of course I had to pull it out and give it a spin tonight! (One of the few pieces of my original vinyl collection to miraculously survive the purge in the late 80s.)

Madonna: True Blue (1986)

Along with Pet Shop Boys' Please, this was the soundtrack for our initial move to San Francisco that summer.

Chicago: Chicago X (1976)

This was the go-to soundtrack for my first semester of college. Of course, it didn't help that you couldn't go anywhere without hearing If You Leave Me Now.

Carpenters: A Song For You (1972)

https://youtu.be/OhrkuFw_R_g

Grace Jones: Fame (1978)

MAKE IT STOP! (Don't get me wrong—I love this song, but it's been on endless repeat in my head since yesterday afternoon!

Grace Jones: I'm Not Perfect (1986)

https://youtu.be/r3BzfM5K_oA

Sade: Stronger Than Pride (1988)

Alan Parsons Project: Eye In The Sky (1982)

I've never heard an Alan Parsons Project album I did not absolutely adore.

a-ha: Hunting High and Low (1985)

Roxy Music: Avalon (1982)

Another one of those albums whose recording quality took my breath away.

Elton John: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)

This was probably the most-anticipated album release of my youth, and has remained my all time favorite EJ album my entire life. The entire album is pure genius from beginning to end. My favorite song from the album, Better Off Dead, is posted above.

Produced by Gus Dudgeon, it was recorded at the Caribou Ranch in Nederland, CO from June – July 1974. After the successful Caribou album, the prolific musician returned to the Caribou Ranch recording studio in the Colorado Rockies to record his next release. The concept album is an autobiographical account of Elton John and Bernie Taupin and the struggles they faced at the beginning of their musical careers. The single Someone Saved My Life Tonight, is about John's half-hearted suicide attempt while he was engaged to a woman, faced with choosing her over his musical career (and still struggling with his sexual orientation at the time). His friend and former band mate Long John Baldry convinced him to break off the engagement (whom John's refers to in the song as "Sugar Bear"). The album also marks the last time that John recorded with drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray until the Too Low For Zero album in 1983. Captain Fantastic makes history when it becomes the first album to ever enter the Billboard Top 200 at number one. For the original LP release, a limited number of promotional copies are pressed on translucent brown vinyl, with each album jacket autographed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The album is remastered and reissued on CD in 1995 with the stand alone singles Philadelphia Freedom, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, and Elton's cover of the John Lennon penned One Day A Time (B-side of Lucy), added as bonus tracks. Out of print on vinyl since 1989, the album is remastered and reissued in 2017. Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy spends seven weeks (non-consecutive) at number one on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 3x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

A couple weeks ago I went to take this album for a spin and to my absolute horror realized that I did not have it in my collection! HOW COULD THIS BE? Well, thanks again to discogs.com, I was able to score a mint, unopened copy for a very reasonable price and was reminded of how much better it sounds on vinyl than on any digital medium.

I also perhaps need to revise my opinion that Nightclubbing was Miss Jones' greatest album. If you take a step back, you realize that like two sides of a single coin, Nightclubbing and Warm Leatherette are intimately connected. You can't have one without the other; if you were throw together into a double album you have an absolute masterpiece.

Carpenters Carpenters (1971)

This was the first (but not the last) Carpenters album I bought. My love of the Carpenters probably should've been a good hint for my parents, y'know…

Dad never cared for Karen's voice. I remember he once said, "She sounds like a cat in heat."

May seems to be a month where a lot of good music from days gone by was released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E38Ob5hut8&list=PLrpyDacBCh7BSproKDoZBGbLZGArqIF5s

Donna Summer: I Remember Yesterday (1977)

The summer when you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing I Feel Love. Good times.

Grace Jones: Nightclubbing (1981)

Her best, IMHO. And if you haven't, you really need to hear it on vinyl played through a good system.

What I still find amazing is how Pull Up To The Bumper—whose subject matter and lyrics, while certainly tame by today's standards and definitely not about parking a car—got as much mainstream airplay as it did.

Sade: Stronger Than Pride (1988)

Feel old yet?

Kraftwerk: Computer World (1981)

The Carpenters: Now and Then (1973)

Gawd, I'm old…

Grace Jones: Warm Leatherette (1980)
And the world was never the same.

As I wrote several days ago, I'm really grooving on Deep Dive Corp. right now. My favorite so far has to be Support Your Local Groover, and Back and Forth is my most-played cut from the album. Check it out!