Songs I have absolutely LOVED at one point in my life … songs I either have on cassette tape, for God’s sake, or don’t own at all … but now I can HAVE … Re-discovery!!!
They are (and this list is not exhaustive):
“Winter Kills” – Yaz
“Mama Told Me Not to Come” – 3 Dog Night
“Luck in my eyes” – k.d. lang
“Everybody Loves Me, Baby” – Don McLean
“The Kind of Love You Never Recover From” – Christine Lavin
“Man in the Mirror” – Michael Jackson
“Free Fallin” – Tom Petty
“Hell Is For Children” – Pat Benatar
“Big Time Sensuality” – Bjork
“Little Bird” – Annie Lennox
“If I Can Dream” – Elvis Presley
“Whole Lotta Lovin'” – Huey Lewis and the News
“Tell It Like It Ti-Is” – B-52s
“Lilac Wine” – Jeff Buckley
“Isolation” – Beth Hart
“Steamroller Blues” – James Taylor (the live version)
“Sixty Years On” – Elton John with, I think, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra behind him
“London Calling” – The Clash
“Working for the Weekend” – Loverboy
“If Love Is a Red Dress” – Maria McKee
“Joining a Fan Club” – Jellyfish
“Life By the Drop” – Stevie Ray Vaughn
“Red Hot and Blue Love” – Rick Springfield
“Christmas is the Time to say I Love You” – SR-71 (yes – I know Billy Squier did this – and I loved it soooooooo much when I was little – but this version of it? Off of one of those A Very Special Christmas albums?? It’s so damn kick-ass that … I can’t even talk about it further. I have been haunted by the memory of that version of the song for, uhm, years? I tracked it down. Now I have it.)
“Drop the Pilot” – Joan Armatrading
You’re not helping me Sheila…I have been afraid to jump into the itunes pool, because I know I will drown there…but I keep getting closer and closer to the edge…I will be diving in soon. I just know it. And then…well, the kids will just have to go out and get jobs if they want food and clothes, I guess…
I just LOVE Joan Armatrading. I used to listen to nothing but her on both of my one-hour commutes about 25 years ago. It was her “To The Limit” album and it had such a great progression from song to song, back in the day when THOUGHT was put into the order of songs on an album, in order to carry you through a story, to enthrall you with the connections BETWEEN songs, not just the songs themselves. Up, down, happy, sad, insight, blindness, desolation, love, conviction, desperation. Most albums rode up and down a predictable, mundane path. Armatrading’s album cut a fresh swath through the woods, and I followed that road with her day after day, twice a day, for over a year.
The songs were: Barefoot and Pregnant, Your Letter, Am I Blue for You, You Rope You Tie Me, Baby I, Bottom to the Top, Taking My Baby Up Town, What Do You Want, Wishing, Let it Last.
It’s worth listening to, track by track, for the relationships between the cuts as well as the cuts themselves.
I miss her. Somewhere in the 80’s I got off the Armatrading track. Thank you, Sheila, for reminding me to find her again.
Love is a red dress is a brilliant song, but then again Maria Mckee is a brilliant singer
Kevin – totally – I am amazed by the range and power of her voice.
Working for the weekend!!! aaaah roller skating memories. Hey- how about Hot in the City!! another Ocean Skate classic!
saw Loverboy at a “Classic Rock” festival here a couple of weeks ago… Peter Frampton, Styx, April Wine, Loverboy, Quiet Riot, Alice Cooper, Eddie Money… should have been renamed “Mullet-fest”
Mere – I had forgotten how AWESOME the beginning of “working for the weekend” is – I mean, the chorus is fine, and whatever – but the beginning is like a classic rock riff, and I’m not embarrassed to say it.
And yes – it TOTALLY reminds me of Friday night roller skating.
That and “You Should Hear How He Talks About You”!!
Holy crap: Jellyfish. Haven’t thought about them in a long time…
four words…
Soft Cell – Tainted Love
heh heh heh…Tainted Love.
Mere … hmmm – I’m thinking of you lip syncing that song to Dolores, wearing your mirrored sunglasses
Steve G – Jellyfish will always remind me of a very specific time and place – fall of 1993 – I listened to them then all the time – and then totally lost track of them.
Amazing the memories that came back when I heard the songs on that album again.
Or – wait – were you lip syncing it to me?? To get me out of my “grief”??
That’s exactly what i was thinking too. and I believe it was to Dolores…
Right, right – because Tainted Love would make sense in terms of the story. Todd is bitter about his tainted love to Tiffany. Tiffany keeps blowing him off – Todd keeps pursuing – it’s very tainted.
When Todd falls in love with Andrea – we had the sweet duet from Xanadu as accompaniment – which makes sense, because it’s always sweet when someone falls in love with a cleaver-wielding lunatic.
And, uhm, a tap dance?
In socks?
What?
hahahahahahaha!!! i forgot about the sock tap dancing!!!
And I’m in that Santa hat for NO APPARENT REASON.
you were probably hiding your cleaver under it! and besides….”the christmas should be celebrated ALL YEAR!”
Ka-ree-su-ma-su!
My hidden gem of the week from iTunes is Convoy by C.W. McCall. Relive the 70s in all it’s glory from the C.B. fad to Ali McGRaw’s lost career.
“This here’s the Rubber Duck…”
I remember Convoy!!! Cause we got a little convoy…rockin thru the night..yeah we got a little convoy..ain’t she a beautiful sight..
AAAAAGGGGHHHH
OH GOD- I’m late! I’m late to the cimments!!! My father used to wind/rewind James Taylor’s “Steam Roller Blues” to hear him sing “chicken chokin’ mother fuckin'” OVER and OVER ad nauseum when we were riding in the car, without my mother. It got to the point where my sister Meredith and I would have to say “Dad, it’s time to move on…”
Beth – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I remember you telling me that about your dad. That is hilarious!!!
i loooooove Lilac Wine, such a beautiful song. Do you have the whole Grace album? Not to encourage spending MORE money on itunes, but if you don’t have the rest of the Grace album, it’s on my list of Perfect Albums from the first to the last track, and you should really invest in the rest. Okay, that’s my music recommendation for the day.
Erik – Yeah, I love that whole album – it’s just that I never had it on CD – it was a cassette, so I kind of stopped listening to it.
I saw Jeff Buckley at a tiny club in Chicago right before he became famous – right before that album came out. I did a shot with him at the bar – he was a MESS – and definitely not famous enough to be separate from the crowd – but I had a feeling he was going to be huuuuuuuuge.
It’s a great story – I’ll write it someday. He was absolutely phenomenal live – even when wasted (which he was that night). Did you ever see him live??
That voice!
Such a loss.
wow, i cannot wait to hear the story of the night you saw Jeff Buckley perform and then did a shot with him at the bar! i never saw him live, i actually don’t think i discovered him until after he’d already died. yes, such a loss, yes. his voice just kills me. when i’m really down, i’ll listen to that album and it almost feels like it literally lifts me up. most of the songs are actually really sad, but his voice is just so beautiful that i can’t help but be kinda thrilled when i’m listening to it. i used to drive around LA at night at lot (i don’t take as many random 2am drives as i used to) and just listen to his album and wail along with him.