Chicago - III on a Quadraphonic double vinyl from 1974. Had to create a new Discogs entry for it and then had a quick spin through their back catalogue on Spotify. Yes they were sampled by The Bucketheads for 'The Bomb' ('Street Player' was the, very good, track in question) and yes, III has a really good funk\rock track on it by the name of 'Free' (check the break that comes in at 1:19 secs), but generally I have no idea how they managed to make the status of "biggest selling US band after The Beach Boys".
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required. It suddenly struck me on hearing 'Sussudio' how much it sounds like Prince's '1999'. But apparently I'm about 24 years too late in claiming credit for this observation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussudio). Other faves from my teenage youth were resurrected in the shape of 'Only You Know And I Know'. Also, 'Don't Lose My Number' (misheard lyrics: "shoe bid up, cube it up, d'you bid up" is actually, "you better, you better, you better"!) which accelerates swiftly into the rabble-rousing 'Who Said I Would', minus question mark. So it must be a statement. Or something.
Living In A Box. Plop. Good eponymous single; bad pony mouse album.
The Doobie Brothers - Best Of. Bought because I'd read that Michael McDonald, who we like ('Sweet Freedom', 'Behind The Mask' and the Steely Dan appearances: 'Peg', 'Gaucho', 'Katy Lied' etc) joined The Doobie Brothers as lead vocalist during their career. Hmm, Long Train Running aside, obviously, more plop.
Pat Benatar - Tropico. The cover has her in soft focus, crouching in a punky ball gown on a huge chess board releasing an owl. If that doesn't scream 80's soft rock I don't know what does! Has the classics 'We Belong' and 'Love Is A Battlefield' and is therefore immediately immune to ANY criticism whatsoever.I passed over 3 Toto albums. Then, after subsequently revisiting: 'Africa', 'Rosanna', 'Hold The Line', 'I Won't Hold Back' and 'Georgy Porgy' (more Michael McDonald), wish I'd bought them. The revisit to Africa unearthed some mis-heard lyrics 'hilarity' as well...
'Africa' - actual lyrics:
"Its gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
Theres nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)"
'Africa' - as I've known it since I were a small lad:
"Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do
I've guessed the ratings down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we've never had, to do"
I think I know which I prefer.
And finally, this observation:
My record collection is, in effect, a segmented and clothed black monolith of latent sound. Picture all the records out of their sleeves, but remaining in their filed and stacked positions, side-by-side as a huge block of black vinyl. Deeeeep maaan.
5 comments:
I'm not sure whether I should admit this publicly, but I currently have that Living in a Box album on my iPod.
Does that help tip the 'Scales of Justice' back in their favor somewhat?
It should do, because your joke made me smile :0) But I'm afraid Oxfam will be the ones to get the most amount of use out of it now.
Nostalgic factoid: I bought the CD single of Living In A Box on our first trip to London with Steve. I also bought Peter Gabriel's single Big Time as a cassingle that was packaged to look like a packet of 10 B+H :0)
That's right - I believe we found no less than the special limited edition set that came in packaging that you could convert into,... wait for it... yes, a box. We got it in a HMV a bit further up from the Kings Road, past the store where I purchased my BOY hat and T-shirt in honor of the Pet Shop Boys.
Of course, that was long before that brand was worn by Boy George and Elton John and became obviously gay.
Are you saying then that you preferred BOY when the gayness was more subtle?
Choose your reply wisely: remember that these comments are saved, duplicated and backed up in an underground datacentre in Idaho to be accessed and re-read by future generations of the millenia to come and also possible visiting aliens interested in the incremental decline of human intellect.
All I'll say is that I'm more receptive to subtle gayness.
Wait, that's not quite what I meant to say...
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