Category: Music

A few weeks ago I found myself wondering, "Was Billy Idol's White Wedding ever actually released on white vinyl?"

Which would only make sense, right?

A quick trip to Discogs answered that question, and $15 later it's in my collection.

Along the same, "I wonder if…" lines, the other day I was listening to The Peter Jacques Band's Fire Night Dance (all four cuts on the LP massive disco hits back in 1979) and started wondering if they'd done anything thereafter. Once again I headed over to Discogs, and discovered that indeed, they had a followup release in 1980 called Welcome Back. Were they gone?

Anyhow, the album cover looked familiar, so I either had it in my collection back in the day and somehow neglected to catalog it at the time, or it was one of those I'd heard in the clubs, saw in a record store, and decided it really wasn't worth spending $5.99 on.

I went over to Spotify, not really expecting to find it there, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it—along with a couple other releases that I'll explore at another time.

In tone and tempo, in a lot of ways it reminds me of Rice and Beans, another group from the era I only became acquainted with a few years ago. It has that definite not-disco but also not-quite-dance-music sound of the early 80s. It's not bad. It's not great. Welcome Back and Exotical L.Y. are catchy tunes. But I definitely understand why at the time I didn't add it to my collection—or if I did, it slipped under the radar when the time came to catalog it.

I found this lurking in some very old archives tonight; something that I created in Microsoft Front Page, of all things. The HTML doesn't translate well into WordPress, which is why the text isn't lining up with the top of the images. I've struggled with trying fix that for hours now, and frankly it's not worth messing with any more considering how few people actually ever look at this.

But these are still my favorite dance tunes of the era…

	Barbara Pennington: 24 Hours a Day (Ian Levin/D.R. Leake) 1977 / 9:22 United Artists UA-DW928-C, 33 rpm This was the first "disco single" I ever bought, after finally getting up enough nerve to go up to the DJ at Jekyll's and ask what he was playing.  It still conjures up memories of that particular Tucson watering hole and my first, fateful steps into coming out.
	Claudja Barry: Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes(M. Bjoerklund/J. Evers/Keith. Forsey 1979 / 7:52 Chrysalis CDS 2316, 33 rpm After twenty nearly 40 years, this song still rocks and has enough energy to propel itself well into the next century.  An absolute disco classic.
	Fun Fun: Color My Love(D. Raimondi/L. Pignagnoli/I. Spagna) 1984 / 7:40 TSR Records TSR836, 33 rpm A great, high-energy tune that has stood up to the test of time.
	Carrie Lucas: Dance With You (K. Gardner) 1979 / 6:26 Solar Records YD-11483, 33 rpm  Another absolute classic from the summer of 1979.
	Linda Clifford: Don't Come Cryin' To Me (M. Gore/D. Pitchford) 1981 / 6:38 Capitol Records 8531, 33 rpm A classic by an absolute Diva of Disco.  The memory which sticks in my mind the strongest about this song is looking down from the DJ booth at Hotbods during one of several photo shoots, seeing a sea of leathermen down below dancing to the beat.  A definite song with attitude.
	ABBA: Lay All Your Love On Me ("A Raul Dance Mix") (Andersson/Ulvaeus) 1980 / 7:50 Disconet Program Service Vol 4. Program 1, MWDN401A, 33 rpm The much sought-after infamous Disconet Remix of the ABBA original.  The only way I can describe this disk is to call it an aural orgasm.  I first heard it while dancing with a very hot blond-haired stud-muffin one night at Hotbods in the spring of 1981.  I was expecting the usual ABBA tune, when all of a sudden we get blown away with the Bang!Bang!Bang! of the remix.  The music, the lights, the crowd, the moment, all combined to make this an incredible record for me.
	D.C. LaRue: Let Them Dance (D.C. LaRue) 1978 / 9:15 Casablanca NBD20136DJ, 33 rpm An absolutely incredible remix.
	Front Page: Love Insurance (S. Plotnicki/E. Rubin) 1979 / 8:00 Panorama Records YD-11677, 33 rpm Another classic from the summer of 1979, probably the creative peak of the disco era.  It has it all: great orchestration, great female vocals, wonderful production values…in short, everything to earmark it as an all-time favorite!
	Magnifique: Magnifique (Monn/Ludemann/Dahmen) 1981 Siamese Records SIA-001, 33 rpm During the spring of 81 I was living in Tucson and making weekend pilgrimages back to Phoenix to go to Hotbods.  On several of those trips, Steve made tapes of his night's set which he gave to me.  On one of them was my first exposure to Magnifique.  I hadto have it in my collection.  It wasn't in any of the stores in Phoenix or Tucson, but I was able to locate it via a store in California.  This was to mark the beginning of a long—and expensive—relationship with Ron's Records in Los Angeles.
	Limahl: Never Ending Story (Giorgio Moroder/Keith Forsey) 1984 / 6:09 EMI America V-7854-1 A very hard-to-find record from the soundtrack of the film of the same name.  This piece of vinyl was difficult to find in 1984; fifteen years later next to impossible.  I have my friend Ken to thank for selling me his copy.
	Taka Boom: Red Hot If I ever find the actual released version of this record I can post the specifics, but for now we'll have to do with the fact this is a test pressing and I don't have credits, catalog numbers or times.   Apparently this isn't one of Taka's more popular records, although I do remember it filling the dance floor.  It was part of Steve's set the first night he was invited to be on a show called "Sunday with the Spinners" on KXTC "Disco 92" in Phoenix during the summer of 1979.
	Waterfront Home: Take A Chance On Me (Bobby Orlando) 1983 / 5:21 Bobcat Records AS1722, 33 rpm "You can put a chain on my heart…" Bouncy, upbeat, and very, very sexy, this song captured my heart the first time I heard it.  My only complaint with the original was that it was never long enough; I wanted a ten minute remix!  Someone must've felt the same way, because Hot Tracks did eventually put out a 9 minute version.
	Tamiko Jones: Can't Live Without Your Love (Randy Muller) 1979 / 7:13 Polydor 79NP4348, 33 rpm This is another one of those obscure records that I think only Steve and I shared a love for.  I initially heard it as part of his same set that included "Red Hot" (above).  It has a very strong Giorgio Moroder flavor, although his name appears nowhere on the label.  The disk itself stands out as being an excellent recording with incredible dynamic range and presence.
	Kat Mandu: The Break (Denis Lepage) 1979 / 8:44 T.K. Disco 155, 33 rpm Another classic from that wonderful summer of 1979.  Who would've guessed that disco would die the next year, just as it was reaching its peak of popularity and creativity?
	Paradise Express: We Are One (C. Armstrong/H. Jimmerson/T.Croghan) 1979 / 6:21 "I've wasted so much time, stumbling in the dark, trying to see you with my eyes instead of with my heart, I've been such a fool.  I've drifted far away, trying to be near, along the way I've found that you were always here, not just a part of me, but the heart of me…" A wonderful reacord that has very personal meaning to me.

	The Three Degrees: New Dimensions (Giorgio Moroder/Pete Bellotte) 1978 Ariola SW-50044 Giving Up, Giving In 6:07 Looking For Love 5:26 Falling In Love again 5:34 The Runner 6:18 Woman In Love 5:16 Magic In The Air 5:45   This is the review which appeared in Stereo Review magainze  when the LP originally came out, and frankly, I couldn't have said it better:  "This is my kind of disco.  Composers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte have again teamed up with the Munich-based engineer Jurgen Koppers to produce a dance, dance, dance record that is fun all the way.  The shift from the spacey ending in the album's first song, Giving Up, Giving In, to the flattened, up-front sound of the opening of the second song, Looking For Love, is what disco records are all about.  There's a complete change in mood, so you can move to a different kind of dancing, but there's absolutely no break in the dance beat itself.  Looking for Love is a dynamite song that's arranged like something from Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time album and is every bit as effective.  Listen to the second half, when the "Ooh, looking for love" refrain runs in counterpoint with a driving brass section.  Wow!  There's a lot more, too.  For Sunday tea-dances, there's the infectously happy, hard-driving Falling in Love Again;for some heavy action there's The Runner; for romance you can slow-bump through Women in Love.  Every song benefits from the well-planned, dense arrangements that mix big-band horn sections, close vocal harmonies, electronics and a never-flagging bat.  It's all done with the kind of musical imagination that's needed to keep disco lively.  Heats off to everybody concerned!"
	Ritchie Family: African Queens (Morali/Belolo/Hurtt) 1977 Marlin 2206 African Queens 4:35 Theme Of Nefertiti 1:30 Theme Of Cleopatra 1:30 Theme Of The Queen of Sheba 1:30 African Queens (reprise) 3:40 Summer Dance 5:28 Quiet village 5:45 Voodoo 5:35
	Carol Douglas: Midnight Love Affair (Davis/Levitt/Groscolas/Jourdan/ Flax/Rabin/Dahrouge) 1974 Midland International BKL1-1798 Carol's Theme I 0:35 Midnight Love Affair 6:12 Carol's Theme II 1:40 In The Morning 6:05 Lie To Me 3:35 Life Time Guarantee 4:04 Headline News 5:15 Crime Don't Pay 4:42
	Duncan Sisters: Duncan Sisters (Morrison/Ley/Azizollah/Cochran/Cook/ Morrison/Shand) 1979 Earmark EMLP 4001 Sadness In My Eyes 6:48 Outside Love 7:11 Rock Along Slowly 4:54 Boys Will Be Boys 7:16 Love Is On The Way 6:04 You Give Me Such A Feeling 4:12
	Giorgio Moroder: From Here to Eternity (Giorgio Moroder/Pete Bellotte) 1977 Casablanca NBLP 7065, 33 rpm From Here to Eternity 5:59 Faster Than The Speed of Love 1:54 Lost Angeles 2:44 Utopia – Me Giorgio 3:25 From Here to Eternity (reprise) 1:45 First Hand Experience in Second Hand Love 5:00 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone 5:05 Too Hot To Handle 4:49
	Cerrone: Love in C Minor (Cerrone/Alec R. Costandinos) 1976 Cotillion SD 9913, 33 rpm Love in C Minor 14:57 Black is Black 5:52 Midnight Lady 7:28
	Patrick Cowley: Megatron Man (Patrick Cowley) 1982 Megatone R1001 Megatron Man 9:12 Thank God For Music 5:17 Menergy 8:32 Get A Little 6:06 Lift Off 8:15 I Wanna Take You Home 7:39
	Donna Summer: Once Upon A Time (Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder/ Pete Bellotte) 1977 Casablanca NBLP 7078, 2 disk-set, 33 rpm Once Upon A Time 4:02 Faster and Faster to Nowhere 3:34 Fairy Tale High 4:25 Say Something Nice 4:44 Now I Need You 6:09 Working the Midnight Shift 5:07 Queen For A Day 5:59 If You Got It Flaunt It 4:43 A Man Like You 3:34 Sweet Romance 4:31 (Theme) Once Upon A Time 0:48 Dance Into My Life 4:10 Rumour Has It 4:57 I Love You 4;43 Happily Ever After 3:51 (Theme) Once Upon A Time 3:58 In my opinion, the absolute best effort from the undisputed "Queen of Disco".  Nothing like it had ever been done before—or after.
	Poussez: Poussez! (Alphonse Mouzon) 1979 Vanguard VSD 79412, 33 rpm Come On And Do It 7:38 Boogie With Me 7:54 You're All I Have 8:40 Never Gonna Say Goodbye 7:53
	Alec R. Costandinos: Romeo & Juliet (Alec R. Costandinos) 1978 Casablanca NBLP 7065, 33 rpm Romeo & Juliet Acts I & II 16:08 Romeo & Juliet Acts III, IV & V 17:25   Alec Costandinos was the first disco producer to utilize 48 track recording to its fullest, and Romeo & Juliet, what I would unabashedly call his "signature" record, makes total use of that recording technology.  Romeo & Juliet is a full orchestral suite set to a dance beat, something that was certainly groundbreaking and had never before been done in the genre.  It was the one record I would always take to stereo stores to try out equipment with, almost always blowing away the salespeople with its crystal-clear sound.  Acts I & II, comprising all of side 1, are the best part of this record, with a rich, lush sound that's curiously absent from the remainder of the LP.
	St. Tropez: Belle de Jour (Tate/McDermott/Jordan/Blue/Newton/ McKay/Findon/Myers/Lewis/Rinder/ Williams/Cervantes/Diamond/Taylor/Vail) 1979 Butterfly FLY-016, 33 rpm Fill My Life With Love 6:14 One More Minute 7:04 Hold On To Love 4:45 Think I'm Gonna Fall In Love with You 5:20 Belle de Jour 7:20 Most Of All 5:51 When You Are Gone 5:05 Butterfly  Records was a small, independent label, best known for its very upscale, "classy" disco sound and a penchant for releasing initial pressing runs on colored vinyl.  Belle de Jour, for me, perfectly sums up all that was good and wonderful in disco:  great orchestration, wonderful vocals, and a very danceable beat.  The third cut on side 1, "Hold On To Love", while not the chart buster that either "One More Minute" or "Belle de Jour" became, has become my favorite piece on this album; it playsme.   Doug Richardson's tenor saxophone work in the song is simply outstanding, and I count myself fortunate in having this now very hard-to-find LP in my collection.  (Amazingly, it was one of only about a half-dozen pieces of vinyl which I did not sell from my original collection.)
	Suzi Lane: Ooh La La (Faltermeyer/Bennett/Moroder) 1979 Elektra 6E-207-A Ooh, La La 7:38 Givin' It Up 3:33 No One Home In The City 5:27 Harmony 6:59 Morning, Noon And Night 4:52 Free Me 4:30
	USA-European Connection: Come Into My Heart (Midney/Pelullo) 1979 Marlin M2212, 33 rpm Come Into My Heart / Good Loving 14:28 Love's Coming / Baby Love 12:52
	Meco: The Wizard of Oz (Feist/Monardo/Bongiovi/Wheeler) 1978 Millennium MNLP 8009 Over the Rainbow 1:58 Cyclone 3:43 Munchkinland 1:19 Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead 2:00 Munchkinland (Again) 0:40 We're Off To See The Wizard (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz) 3:32 Poppies 1:12 The Spell 1:42 Optimistic Voices 1:31 The Merry Old Land Of Oz 1:14 The Haunted Forest 1:22 March Of The Winkies 1:20 Dorothy's Rescue 1:11 If I Were King Of The Forest );57 Over The Rainbow 1:05 The Reprise 3:17 Okay, so it's a bit of unabashedly high camp, but still a very fun record.
	Michael Zager: Life's a Party (Zager/Fields) 1978 Columbia JC 35771 Life's A Party 8:15 You Don't Know A Good Thing 5:55 I Wish You Would Make Up Your Mind 5:10 Love Love Love 4:15 Still Not Over 3:54 On And On 3:43 Using You 5:49 More well known for "Let's All Chant", Michael Zager was nonetheless a prolific composer and producer.  This set highlights his incredible talent.

Sometimes all it takes is a beautiful recording to get away from the madness…

My favorite Madonna video of all time.

I originally heard this 2-disk set at a friends' place back in 2002. I was housesitting for them at the time and started rummaging through their music collection—as I am wont to do when housesitting. This one caught my eye and the minute I popped it in their CD player I was transported. Over the next few years I looked into buying my own copy, but while I liked it, I didn't like it enough to justify the $30 price tag it seemed to always have attached.

I'd all but forgotten about it until last week when I stumbled upon From Russia With Love while on my journey down the YouTube rabbit hole, and on a whim, I looked it up on Discogs. There is was…a single copy available and for only $5. Needless to say, I jumped on it.

Many followed—Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis—but Giorgio Moroder remains the godfather of electronic dance music.

A longtime friend of mine said this is going to be his soundtrack for the next three and a half years.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Grace Jones…

Nightclubbing, the fifth studio album by Grace Jones, is released. Produced by Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin, it is recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, The Bahamas, in early 1981. Issued as the follow up to the critically acclaimed Warm Leatherette, it is the second album Jones records with a group of musicians that includes Sly Dunbar (drums), Robbie Shakespeare (bass), Wally Badarou (keyboards), and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson (percussion). Spinning off three singles including Demolition Man (written for Grace by Sting, with The Police recording their own version later in the year), I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango) and Pull Up To The Bumper (#5 R&B, #2 Club Play). It is her commercial breakthrough on a worldwide basis.

The album is also supported by the groundbreaking concept tour A One Man Show, which is filmed for a live concert video (released in 1982) and is nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Video. The album is remastered and reissued as a two CD Deluxe Edition in 2014, with the first disc containing the original nine song album. The second disc features 12-inch mixes and previously unreleased tracks from the recording sessions.

Nightclubbing peaks at number nine on the Billboard R&B album chart, and number thirty two on the Top 200.

"Bad Girls is the seventh studio album by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer, released in April 25, 1979 on Casablanca Records. Originally issued as a double album, it incorporates such musical styles as pop, disco, soul, rock, funk and country . Bad Girls became the best-selling album of Summer's career, achieving triple platinum sales certification in the United States, and selling over ten million copies worldwide."

I was sorely disappointed with this album when it first came out. I couldn't help but think, "She followed up Once Upon a Time with this?!" Even now, nearly four decades later, it fails to move me the way OUAT—or for that matter, even I Remember Yesterday or Four Seasons of Love does.

And then to have it followed only by the greatest hits album, On the Radio, which seemed like nothing more than a contractually-obligated release to end her relationship with Casablanca Records…

While Donna did put out a few very catchy, danceable songs afterward, IMHO there were never again any whole albums that spoke to me the way her mid-Casablanca releases did.

Yesterday morning while I was unloading the dishwasher, I was listening to Grace Jones' Nightclubbing on my phone that I'd connected to the stereo in the living room. I then realized I had this gem on vinyl, and promptly got it out and set it spinning.

Oh. My. God. The difference in sound quality was astounding. Have we really all become so enured to the compressed mp3 sound that we don't even realize what we're missing?

Anyway, this sent me off on a Grace binge. Nightclubbing wasn't near enough…

Sadly, I realized I do not yet have Warm Leatherette (probably my second favorite of her albums after Nightclubbing) back on vinyl yet. That will have to be rectified.

You can never have too much Grace in your life.

She's going to be 69 this year. 2017, don't you even think about it.

Grace Jones: Bullshit

…into YouTube's world of alternate-key music.

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And finally, this one seems especially appropos these days…

I was actually thinking of titling this post "Embarrassment."

I was tagged by TheLisp to put my iPod (or other musical device/app) on shuffle and to list the first 10 songs—although i did 15 just like he did. I'm not tagging anyone because this isn't 2006 and with only a few exceptions, I don't know who reads this thing with any regularity or if there even are any bloggers out there anymore still doing this sort of thing.

1. Rufus Wainwright – The Art Teacher (Want 2)
2. Vangelis – Movement 10 (Mythodia)
3. Helen Reddy – I Don't Know How To Love Him (I Am Woman)
4. Pink Floyd – When You're In (Obscured By Clouds)
5. Art of Noise – Moments In Love (Influence: The A Side – Singles, Hits, Soundtracks And Collaborations)
6. Chris Spheeris & Paul Voudouris – Love And Understanding (Enchantment)
7. Bette Midler – My One True Friend (Bathhouse Betty)
8. Original Broadway Cast – So Long, Farewell (The Sound of Music)
9. Cake – I Will Survive (Fashion Nugget)
10. Sarah Vaughan – Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe (Sarah for Lovers)
11. Dixie Chicks – Silent House (Taking The Long Way)
12. Peter Frampton – I'm In You (Entertainment Weekly Greatest Hits 1977)
13. Les Deux Love Orchestra – Cocktail Attire (Music From Les Deux Cafés)
14. James Blunt – 1973 (All The Lost Souls)
15. New Order – Round And Round (Technique)

So there you have it.

On this date in 1971, the group Chicago released Chicago III. Somehow I had missed this particular release, both back in the day and in my rediscovery of their music in the early 2000s. What struck me tonight however as I was listening to it via Spotify was one particular song and how timely it seemed:

When All The Laughter Dies In Sorrow

When all the laughter dies in sorrow
And the tears have risen to a flood
When all the wars have found a cause
In human wisdom and in blood
Do you think they'll cry in sadness
Do you think the eye will blink
Do you think they'll curse the madness
Do you even think they'll think
When all the great galactic systems
Sigh to a frozen halt in space
Do you think there will be some remnant
Of beauty of the human race
Do you think there will be a vestige
Or a sniffle or a cosmic tear
Do you think a greater thinking thing
Will give a damn that man was here?

It's finally here. The complete soundtrack for HBO's Westworld Season 1. And it is amazing.

After all the music-related losses visited upon us by 2016, this is a ray of light and a vehicle through which I can escape…if only for a couple hours at a time.

Now HBO, I have only one question. When will it be available on vinyl?

And the worst part of it is there isn't even anyone alive anymore whom I share this particular bit of musical history with to discuss that disappointment.

Today marks the 40th—fortieth!—anniversary of the release of Jean Michel Jarre's seminal Oxygene, and to mark that date, Jarre has released the third and final part of his musical trilogy, Oxygene 3.

As I wrote earlier, Oxygene and Equinoxe (stylistically more of an heir to the title of part two of the trilogy than Oxygene 7-13—informally known as Oxygene 2) often sent me skimming over a dune sea under a double sun in my personal landspeeder whenever I heard them, so when I first learned of this new release being in the works several months ago I have to admit my heart fluttered a bit with anticipation.

But I was sorely disappointed when I first heard it earlier today. It is supposedly Jean Michel's vision of what he would've done with the original album back in 1976 if he'd had today's technology to work with. If that's the case, I'm glad he didn't. 

And yet I've had it playing on a continuous loop on Spotify, hoping that something will eventually reach out and grab me the way Oxygene did those many years ago. To be honest, it's not a bad album as albums go, and after repeated listenings, there are a couple of tracks I actually rather like, but is not what I was expecting. There is very little of the cohesion or overall thematic consistency between cuts (or even that instantly recognizable Jarre sound) that made Oxygene, Equinoxe, Oxygene 2, or even Zoolook and Chronologie so amazing. Even Oxygene 2, released in the late 90s, shares more musical DNA with the first album than this one does.

A little bit of beauty amid the ugliness of the last two weeks.

Finally, something to put a smile on my face for the next couple days!

Okay, it's obviously not the complete soundtrack since we're only halfway through the season, but it is a taste, and most importantly if you've been jonesing for the heretofore unobtainable version of Paint It, Black that so prominently featured in the series premiere, you're in luck. It's here.

You can hear it on YouTube and Spotify, or buy it from iTunes.

39 years ago today Casablanca Records released what is—in my humble opinon—Donna Summer's masterpiece, Once Upon a Time. THIRTY NINE YEARS.

I feel so old sometimes.

If you haven't already read it, and you're interested, my story regarding the album is here.

I'd never heard of this group until the final episode of Mr. Robot. In what was probably one of the—if not the—greatest scenes in the series that was so perfectly paired with music, The Moth & The Flame plays as Agent DiPierro walks Darlene through FBI Headquarters after a particularly intense verbal interrogation wherein Darlene mistakenly thought she had the upper hand.

As I'm sure I've written here before, I've been a huge fan of Philip Glass since discovering his music via Koyaanisqatsi in 1986.

To this day there are parts of Akhnaten and Satyagraha that still send chills down my spine.

But in 1989 he released 1000 Airplanes On The Roof, a work that by all accounts I should've devoured, laying his music over a theme of UFOs and alien abduction (something I was way too much into at the time).

And yet, I hated it. I don't know if I was expecting to be blown away like I was with Akhnaten or if I perceived that his style had changed too much since Koyaanisqatsi, but I was not impressed.

When the CD was stolen from my collection in 1991, I didn't bother replacing it.

In the years since Airplanes, Glass' music has evolved and changed—as we all have—and I've loved pretty much everything I've heard of his in the interim.

So when I was looking over my recently found "List of Stolen CDs" and noticed that Airplanes was on it, I thought, what the hell—give it another listen.

And upon hearing it again, I don't understand why I hated it so. It doesn't give me chills, but it is quintessential Glass.

And so another journey down the back alleys of the internet has turned up something quite unexpected—and quite forgotten.

In the mid 1980s, right after I'd gotten my first CD player and replaced my mediocre Sony stereo equipment with some good gear (Yamaha, baby), I stumbled upon the Private Music record label. While their wares were eventually sold everywhere, it was at the audio salon (the venerable Jerry's Audio for my Arizona readers) where I purchased the aforementioned equipment that I initially discovered them, and many of the discs became the soundtrack of my life after my relocation to San Francisco.

I don't remember how I landed on that Wikipedia Page, but even before I'd read through the whole list of their releases, a name popped into my head—along with a song title: Eddie Jobson, Theme of Secrets.

I remembered the name and title, and was surprised when I did a search through my iTunes and came up empty. WTF? Why didn't I have this album in my collection? Was it one of the CDs that was stolen from my apartment in 1990 and never replaced? Did I get rid of it during my purge in 2013 without ripping a copy first? It turns out Secrets wasn't the only Private Music album curiously absent from my collection, but it was the one that proved the most difficult to find again.

When I did finally track it down and heard those notes playing, a tear came to my eye. Rediscovering once-loved-and-forgotten music really is like running into an old friend whom you haven't seen in years.

I know I've posted this video previously, but damn…after going through my News and Twitter feeds today, I need something fun to counteract all the stupid. And this never fails to put a smile on my face.

My only question is why is there no official extended dance mix? Four minutes just isn't long enough!

And since we're on the subject…