Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.
I was given this CD and now I'm wondering why the previous owner wanted to pass it on:
they missed the word "Live" in the title and were expecting the familiar studio cuts, or
they enjoyed the HBO Special "Carly In Concert - Coming Around Again" (or subsequent home video release "Live From Martha's Vineyard") and mistakenly thought they wanted to hear it again.
Whatever the reason - their loss, my gain. Some hits are here, Carly is in fine voice, the recording is clean, and the band - including T-Bone Wolk, Hugh McCracken, Lani Groves, and Michael Brecker - are cookin'. My only complaints are the drums are way too hot in the mix, there's a dadgum (prerecorded?) children's choir on track 10, and the fake crowd noise throughout gets old very quickly. I've never been to any concert where there was half as much whistling as there is on this release. But those are minor quibbles.
Tracks and the Billboard chart peaks of the studio versions:
Nobody Does It Better (#2 pop, #1 AC, 1977)
You're So Vain (#1 pop, #1 AC, 1972)
It Happens Everyday (1983)
Anticipation (#10 pop, #3 AC, 1971)
The Right Thing To Do (#17 pop, #4 AC, 1973)
Do The Walls Come Down (1987)
You Belong To Me (#6 pop, #4 AC, 1978)
Two Hot Girls (On A Hot Summer Night) (1987)
All I Want Is You (#7 AC, 1987)
Coming Around Again/Itsy Bitsy Spider (#18 pop, #5 AC, 1986)
Never Been Gone (1979)
I'm glad Jesse didn't make the cut; I wouldn't have minded That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be, Mockingbird, or Haven't Got Time For The Pain on the disc, but I wasn't consulted. However, I understand that artists have to play new music and deep album cuts at their concerts because they realize the audience needs a chance to go buy merch and/or visit the concessions and restrooms.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When the hit song You're So Vain was popular, I thought the lyrics were "I had some dreams, they were grounds in my coffee." 😂 Since I was 6 years old at the time, I'm impressed I knew what coffee grounds were.
I'm not sure how Chuck got together with the legendary Thom Bell, one of the architects of Philly soul, but I guess the 'how' doesn't matter. The result of their collaboration is this album, Mangione's final release for Columbia and his last on any major label. Bell is listed as co-producer and co-arranger of the album along with Mangione. Of the seven tracks, Mangione wrote 3, while Bell wrote or co-wrote the remaining 4, including two tracks featuring vocals from Rob Mathes. It's not a very consistent album, but I enjoy most of the tracks anyway and I've got to say that saxophonist Chris Vadala has never sounded better. As one might guess, the Bell tracks are more soulful and the Mangione tracks are his usual Spanish-influenced jazz/pop. As the CashBox review states, there's "nothing new under this sun" but the thing is an easy listen and much better than Mangione's previous albums Disguise and Save Tonight For Me.
Reviews/ratings:
Billboard: "vet R&B boardmeister Bell frames Mangione's easy-going compositions well"
CashBox: "If Mangione's for you, this easy-on-the-ears album's for you"
The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★
Tracks: The opener, That's Nice, is a catchy earworm that is almost completely ruined by the loud, gated drums (hey, it was the '80s). With a track title like that, they're really asking for it, so please appreciate my restraint. I usually despise vocal tracks on otherwise instrumental jazz albums, but I kinda dig the two here: Do You Ever Think About Me and Freedom Song. Of those two, I give the edge to Do You Ever Think About Me. The Mangione tracks sound like Mangione tracks - there's just no other way to put it. One of the album's blander tracks, Long Hair Soulful, was edited and released as a single plus the album version was released as a 12" single. I can't find that either vocal track was released as a single. Sadly, Chuck and the singles charts haven't seen each other since 1980.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Thanks to long-time reader and friend o' the blog Dirk Digglinator for hipping me to this one via social media. After reading the post, I almost immediately ordered a used copy on eBay and when the CD was delivered, it felt so good to discover the autographs of Mangione and guitarist Mark Manetta inside the CD booklet. I don't know who Paddy is, but I'm glad he went to the trouble of getting the autographs, I'm guessing at a concert supporting the album.
A reissue grouping of three previously released albums, put together by the GSC Music label. In fact, it appears they just took the leftover, unsold CDs and put them in a bulky three-fer jewel case with minimal listings (below) and no liner note booklet. The 'traditional' part of title rings true even if the 'Christmas' part just misses: the newest tune in the compilation is Leroy Anderson's 1948 piece Sleigh Ride and that's a winter snow song not a Christmas song. The rest of the tunes are older - some several centuries older - and mostly feature somewhat yule-ish lyrics. Perfect for your next church choir Christmas party.
This appears to be a compilation CD and it's included in a compilation. The instrumental orchestral pieces lean a little too much toward Mantovanian/Muzak arrangements, but I nevertheless enjoy the mix of orchestras, chorus, church organs, and brass ensembles, especially highlights from The Messiah.
An odd pairing of timbres. Tracks alternate between choral and brass arrangements. With the exception of Silent Night, the choral work is mostly full throttle and that lack of subtley and variety gets old very quickly. In contrast, the brass arrangements are lively, tasteful, and quite enjoyable. And if you're looking for a track that has both brass and voice, fuggitaboutit.
Tracks:
A CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS (1988) 16 tracks, 52 minutes
This wild compilation is the best of the three discs. Orchestras, a capella choirs, brass quintets, even a jazzy trio of electric piano, acoustic guitar, and flute. Some big names here - Bernstein, Ormandy, Previn, Szell - alongside the likes of The Texas Boys Choir and Rita Ford's Music Boxes. I'm not a fan of operatic sopranos warbling carols atop dense orchestrations and there's a couple of those. But there's enough variety here to keep things interesting plus near the end we hear to Julie Andrews sing the seldom-heard French carol Patapan in a sixtieslicious arrangement, and that's a real treat. I'll even excuse the inclusion of The Hallelujah Chorus (I'm just nit-picking because that chorus closes the Easter section of the oratorio, but I understand the attraction as a stand alone piece as there's no denying it's a masterwork).
Tracks:
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: So many of these old hymns take me right back to my carefree school days; as much comfort can be found in those memories as is in these uplifting lyrics.
65 minute compilation of recordings from Marsalis's preceding five classical albums. As described in the liner notes:
With tour de force performances on both trumpet and cornet of music ranging from the Baroque, through the Classical era, and into the 20th century, this “Portrait” illustrates the extraordinary diversity of Wynton Marsalis’ classical repertory. Marsalis recorded each of these works between 1982 (when he was just 21 years old) and 1987. The 1982 recording of Hummel’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in E-flat Major comes from his first classical album, which won Marsalis a Grammy for Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist(s) with Orchestra.
Note: Marsalis would win the same Grammy award the following year for his Baroque Music for Trumpet album with Slovakian soprano Edita Gruberová. Numerous Grammy nominations would follow (as of this writing: 9 wins, 32 nominations).
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Peak on the Billboard Top Classical albums chart: #4
Tracks:
Tracks 1-3: Johann Hummel - Concerto For Trumpet & Orchestra In E-Flat Major Taken from the 1983 Trumpet Concertos album
Track 4: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov - The Flight Of The Bumblebee Taken from the 1987 Carnaval album
Track 14: Traditional Spiritual - Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child Taken from the 1987 Carnaval album
Tracks 15-17: Andre Jolivet - Concerto No. 2 For Trumpet (1954) Taken from the 1986 Tomasi/Jolivet concertos album
I purchased the Tomasi/Jolivet album on vinyl upon its release in 1986, but have yet to replace it with a CD simply because I don't think I listened to the album enough back in the '80s to warrant a re-purchase. All the other albums mentioned above are currently on my CD shelves.
Of these selections, my favorites are the Hummel, Vivaldi, and Fasch.
Note: this release was originally purchased as a CD which was either sold, stolen, traded or lost, then replaced by another CD.
I will gladly listen to any Sanborn collaboration with bassist/composer/producer Marcus Miller, but I think this album is the weakest of that bunch. Admittedly, I must be in the minority because the critics liked it and the album won the Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group Or Soloist). The aggressive synth drums forward in the mix really don't do much for me and have greatly dated the album, unfortunately. So the better tracks are the slower, laid back pieces with a real drummer as opposed to the upbeat funk-lite offerings.
Close-Up was Sanborn's only album released on the Reprise label.
Tracks: My picks are J.T., Lesley Ann, and a tasty cover of the Philly soul classic, You Are Everything. There's a definite lull in the middle of the album that includes a lackluster cover of Randy Newman's Same Girl. As mentioned in the above advertisement, Slam was the lead single. It is one of the aforementioned funk-lite tunes and peaked at #50 on the Billboard R&B singles chart.
Vince Clarke songs are so dang easy to listen to. And easy to dance to. And easy to sing along with. And I may be trying to do all three while typing this post.
This album was my first exposure to Erasure and it certainly made me a casual fan, picking up albums here and there but by no means their complete discography. Still, it took me a while to pick up this CD - mine is not the 2009 limited edition two CD/DVD set - and when it's all said and done, I'm exhausted from dancing and wondering why I didn't buy this sooner (and why didn't I go to the trouble of finding the 2009 set??).
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #49
Peak on the Rolling Stone chart: #45
Tracks: The big hit singles were A Little Respect (#14 pop, #2 dance) and Chains Of Love (#12 pop, #4 dance), but Phantom Bride, Heart Of Stone, Yahoo!, and Weight Of The World are all just as good. Hallowed Ground sounds a bit like they just slowed down the backing track to A Little Respect, but I like it anyway. For me, the only missteps here are the novelty pseudo-jive shuffle Sixty-Five Thousand and the waltz track, Witch In The Ditch - they just doesn't work here amongst the dance tracks.
The CD and cassette version included two bonus tracks: When I Needed You (Melancholic Mix) and River Deep Mountain High (Private Dance Mix). While I prefer the latter, the former is a welcome mid-tempo number. The Ike and Tina Turner version of River Deep Mountain High is perfect as is, but the cover here flips the thing on its head and turns an all-out Phil Spector wall-of-sound rock song into an all-out Erasure high-energy dance track. That chorus is some fantastic songwriting.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I remember riding around in my girlfriend's sweet black convertible (I'm pretty sure it was customized 1987 Camero Z28, but don't quote me on that) with this tape playing loudly as we danced and sang our way down state highway 183. She mainly played side one of the cassette because she didn't care for the classic River Deep, Mountain High. Go figure.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: My girlfriend at the time bought the cassingle of Beat Dis and immediately put it into heavy rotation in her convertible's tape deck. I probably went dancing in clubs more in the summer of 1988 than all my other years combined and this track was popular in the clubs we visited. The only club name I can remember is Sparx, but there were plenty around the DFW area.
Speaking of clubs and that girlfriend, we were at some dance club on upper Greenville Ave. in Dallas when she got hit on by another guy as I stepped away to get us drinks. She turned him down, but when I didn't get suitably unsettled by the other guy's actions and mere existence, she got upset with my inaction and that quickly ruined the remainder of the evening. I guess she wanted me to punch him and put him in his place for making an honest mistake? I'm a lover, not a fighter.
Previously revisited for the blog: None, but here's plenty more of cuts that quickly bring back memories of that summer:
I enjoy most of Brecker's solo work as well as his work with Brecker Bros. and Steps Ahead. I also enjoyed the 1987 self-titled album that immediately preceded Don't Try This At Home. I've spent some time with this album and ultimately decided it's just not for me. Rest assured it's the material, not the performances.
Reviews/ratings:
CashBox: "a gritty part-fusion, part-hard bop date with numerous heavyweight guests"
Billboard: "repertoire is versatile; all-star cast includes Herbie Hancock, Peter Erskine, Jack DeJohnette..."
The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★½
Note: this release was originally purchased as a CD which was either sold, stolen, traded or lost, then replaced by another CD.
I was hooked from the first time I heard The Valley Road and I still think it's Hornsby's best song with The Range. That hit single (#5 pop, #1 AC, #1 rock) has got to be the peppiest song and video ever made about the age-old tale of rich girl meets working-class hired hand, gets pregnant, and goes off to "live with her sister" for awhile. To the record label's delight, I liked the single so I bought the album and, while the rest of the album doesn't measure up, it's a somewhat enjoyable spin - even more impressive when you consider this was Hornsby's sophomore effort. Not sure why I bought this on CD instead of paying half the price for a prerecorded cassette tape because, at the time of purchase in early 1989, I was working part-time jobs so money was probably tight. But I was living with my parents so at least I had that going for me, which is nice.
I like that the technically-gifted Hornsby was not only choosing to play piano during the synth-rich '80s, but also how he often treated the piano as a percussion instrument (which it is, academically speaking). Lyrics are mainly about growing up in the small towns of the South, so your humble blogger, a small town southern boy himself, can mostly relate to the stereotypical storytelling. The only problem with this album, as mentioned in Stereo Review below, is that the album "comes up short on variety." There's a lot of mid-tempo tunes that run together after awhile. But the CD was worth the $2 I paid for it the second time around. I hope my neighbors like The Valley Road, because it seems to be playing a lot around here recently.
Press of the time:
Rolling Stone (★★★½): "the right mix of rock, country and jazz"
Robert Christgau (C): "try crossing vague Bruce with '80s Elton. Then run it through Firefall."
Stereo Review: "comes up short on variety and emotional charge."
Billboard: "underlines the formidable writing talents that his debut album promised."
Tracks: Also noteworthy besides The Valley Road are Look Out Any Window (#35 pop, #7 AC, #5 rock), The Old Playground, and Defenders Of The Flag (featuring Huey Lewis on blues harp and lyrics that, sadly, remain relevant). Jacob's Ladder is good, but not as good as Huey's earlier, chart-topping version. The rest, like I said, starts to run together.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: As mentioned above, in early 1989 I was living with my parents in a duplex in San Antonio (about a mile from my current location). I had graduated from college in December, 1988 and didn't really want to start a teaching job in the middle of the year - those positions are usually open for good reason. In the mornings, I tried to sell master antenna TV (MATV) systems to apartment complexes in town while the afternoons were spent downtown in the development office of the San Antonio Symphony. Both jobs paid minimum wage but the symphony job had an added benefit of free concert tickets, so I attended every classical concert during the spring season.
Two nights a week (maybe Monday and Thursday?), I drove from the symphony offices out I-10 to the University of Texas at San Antonio* for graduate classes. Courses were "MUS 5263 Music History: Classic Period" and "MUS 5583 Advanced Instrumental Techniques." I earned A's in both classes and actually enjoyed the history course, but after that I paused my graduate-level music education for about 20 years.
I proposed to a wonderful woman on March 31 and we were married 19 weeks later. However, we like to tell the little white lie that I proposed on April Fool's Day because, let's be honest, that's a much better story.
In addition to this Bruce Hornsby album, others remind me of those few months in San Antonio during the first half of 1989:
*The mascot of UTSA is the Roadrunner and the rally cry is "Birds Up!" which I find hysterical. No idea whether or not the cheerleaders encourage fans to "Give 'em the Birds!" during game day activities, but one can hope.
Today I'm in the mood for some JT; that's why I'm playing this thing, after all. Goes down like cotton candy: sweet and pleasant without much to it, but when you crave it, it's perfect. The older I get, the more I enjoy Taylor's songs, probably because middle-aged folks are the target audience for this soft rock. The quality of the material varies greatly and there's none of the usual cover tunes on this album, but it doesn't contain any of the (over-)production tropes of the times and even the occasional fiddle or slide guitar doesn't turn me away from Taylor's calm, relaxing voice that never sounds strained.
Given the 1988 release date and its #5 peak on both the Billboard and CashBox CD charts, I'd wager this one of the first CDs purchased by many consumers to play in their newfangled players.
Nothing against wolves, but I've always had trouble understanding the cover art on this one.
Tracks: Taylor's Top 40 days were behind him by this point, but three singles from this album charted on the Adult Contemporary chart: the title cut (#3), Baby Boom Baby (#16), and Sweet Potato Pie (#37). Along with Valentine's Day, Home By Another Way (a pop tune about the King Herod and the Magi?!), and First Of May, those three singles are among the better tracks. Sun On the Moon can't figure out what kind of song it is and Runaway Boy is a little too country-tinged for this guy. Still, I'll listen to the whole thing without skipping any tracks.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: After graduating college in December 1988, I moved back in with my parents, started grad school, and worked part-time for the San Antonio Symphony while searching for my first "real" job. To be honest, I spent more time watching VH1 than job hunting that spring. Videos from this album were in heavy rotation on that network around that time.
Regular readers of this blog expecting a 1988 Lost Summer of Mark story in this space will be sorely disappointed as I didn't have pick up this album until well after its release. In fact, this disc was 50¢ thrift store pick up within the last decade.
Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD. On said cassette, side one (tracks 1–6) was labelled as the 'Air' side and side two (tracks 7–11) as the 'Metal' side. No idea what any of that has to do with anything.
Lately I've been revisiting albums from the late '80s that I listened to non-stop when they were first released - so much so that once I moved on from them, I set them aside and never heard the complete album again for 30+ years (U2's The Joshua Tree immediately comes to mind as another example). This album certainly fits into those worthwhile, retrospective exercises. REM's Green was a consistent companion as I graduated college in December 1988 and had a 'gap semester' before getting married and landing my first teaching gig the following summer.
As I mentioned, I hadn't particularly thought about this album for many years, but earlier this year I heard Orange Crush as track 1 on Never Mind The Mainstream...The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes, Vol. 2 and was reminded of how much I liked Green, calling it "my third favorite REM album." I saw this in the used bin within a month of that reminder and here we are.
Gone were the jangly guitars, mumbled lyrics and college radio playlists of the band's origins earlier in the decade. Now REM were a full-fledged rock band. Overall, I think IRS REM > Warner Bros REM, but this thing sounds fantastic with pedal down, T-Tops off, volume up.
Press of the time:
High Fidelity: "Everything's changed, but everything's stayed the same."
Tracks: My favorites are the non-apologetic pop rockers: Pop Song 89, Get Up, Stand, Orange Crush, and Inside Out. Of the slower cuts, I dig the simple mandolin/organ chords of Hairshirt. I remember normally skipping I Remember California, so I could flip the tape over, rewind, and start the album again from the top. So I rarely heard the untitled track 11 - as I listen now, I have no memory of it and barely remembered there were 11 tracks.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: In the spring of 1989, I worked in the development office of the San Antonio Symphony. From my window, I could look across the San Antonio River and see the back of San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium. REM played a concert there in March of that year in support of this album. I walked over and watched the crew unload equipment into the hall, all the while kicking myself for not buying tickets to that concert. 10,000 Maniacs opened - I bet that was a helluva show.
So I'm sitting here minding my own business when I read the following post on another blog: Stereo Review In Review: September 1988. The blog post in question summarizes an article regarding CD Videos before posing the query "Wondering how many of these are in the hands of the folks over at the CD Project…"
Well, not only was the answer a big, fat zero; I had never even heard of such a disc until reading that post. But with a challenge like that, I simply had to possess a CDV of my own, post-haste. Regular readers of this blog are aware of my mild-to-moderate eBay addiction, plus Donald Fagen's LP The Nightfly is on my proverbial "desert island" album list, so it wasn't long until this CDV was ordered.
click to enlarge
Come to find out that a CDV is a 5" gold disc, basically half-laserdisc and half-regular CD; it plays the audio tracks (usually 2-4 songs) in a CD player and the video clip in an laserdisc player. Combo players were also manufactured briefly:
Adjusted for inflation, $1,300 in 1988 equals $2,856 in 2020
CDV had relatively short life span (ca. 1987-1991) and was eventually replaced by by the Video CD in 1993. Since the latter VCD discs are designed to deliver video only, I don't feel compelled to figuratively run out and buy one, but ya never know.
Tracks: As advertised, the two audio tracks readily play on all my CD players. Track 1 is listed as the 7" version at 4:24, but discogs doesn't list any 7" at that playing length. In any case, I previously didn't have any edit other than the album cut, so this CDV did more than simply appease my curiosity.
Soon after I saw the video for New Frontier on MTV, I owned The Nightfly LP and anyone who rode with me in my car in 1983 was subjected to this song (it was for their own good, really). Musically, it's a great piece with tight vocal harmonies, exotic chords (B9, F#6, C9+11, etc.), and great solos from Larry Carlton on guitar and Hugh McCracken on harmonica. Lyrically, the song takes us back to the Kennedy years and the beginnings of the Cold War. Not political at all, it simply uses that era as a backdrop as the lyrics tell the story of a teenage boy trying to lure his date down into a backyard fallout shelter for a night (or at least a few minutes) of passion. If I'd had a fallout shelter in my backyard in the early '80s, I'd have tried the same move.
Track 2 is Maxine, with vocal harmonies that echo those of The Four Freshmen and lyrics that capture the anxiousness of high school romance - big plans with no idea how to get there.
Track 3 is allegedly the video of New Frontier (now readily available on YouTube, below). None of my CD players acknowledge the track, but that's no surprise. My desktop computer's DVD drive didn't even recognize a video file, so I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to be able to access this 1988 technology in 2020 without buying a refurbished laserdisc machine (that ain't gonna happen, folks). I've got four more devices that will read 5" discs, so I might as well try those:
Nintendo Wii: ✘
Sony PS4: ✘
Microsoft Xbox One S: ✘
Sony BDPS3500 Blu-ray Player: ✘
0-for-4. Ah, well, it was worth a shot. Open to suggestions.
I guess CDV filled a small niche for fans back in the late '80s. At the time, CDVs would have provided the only way to view a specific music video on-demand other than on VHS or full-on laserdisc. A very small niche, indeed. I doubt I'll be purchasing more, but there's always a chance.
Question: since they were released in the late '80s in standard CD jewelboxes, were some CDVs packaged in longboxes or blister packs? Hmmm...
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see above. Also, I have specific memories of singing Maxine while working late nights at the Burger King drive-thru during the spring and summer of 1983. My co-workers must have loved that.
By request! (In this particular case, "by request" means that a reader actually sent me a CD - thanks)
I haven't heard this album in 32 years and that's assuming I even heard the whole thing back in '88. But I remember MTV having the video for Parents Just Don't Understand on "heavy rotation" (4 or 5 plays a day). I should note that, as a broke college student, I didn't have any money for an uptown cable package that included MTV, but I was able to bootleg it if I could rig some wiring up correctly - the picture was far from perfect, but you could mostly kinda tell what was going on. Granted, I was mainly trying to watch Kari Wuhrer on Remote Control, but would catch the occasional distorted video.
The album turned out to be a hit mainly because it made pop-rap accessible to the masses. It doesn't take itself too seriously and is okay with that. A 19 year old Will Smith is disarming but Jeff steals the show with his turntable pyrotechnics. This from a 2017 retro-review over at Pitchfork:
...no one’s idea of a revolutionary document. It’s proudly, cheerfully, purposefully corny: The first song is a Nightmare on Elm Street parody featuring the line, “He’s burned up like a weenie/And his name is Fred.” Listening to it often feels babysitting a room full of fourth graders for a few hours. And yet, it racked up a lot of “firsts”: It was the first hip-hop double album and the first rap album to win a Grammy; in fact, it was the first year the Grammys even acknowledged rap.
Spinning this CD today, I'm in full agreement, especially the babysitting part.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #4
Peak on Billboard R&B albums chart: #5
Tracks: I'll admit to enjoying hearing Parents Just Don't Understand again (and laughing at myself for remembering most of the lyrics). In typical late '80s style, there are no writing credits given for the tunes sampled on here (the stylist gets his/her due, however), but I recognize some Stevie Wonder, Bob James, Steve Miller, James Brown, Cheryl Lynn, and George Benson, among others. I'll confess that I needed to take a 5 minute coffee break about 11 tracks in and by track 14, I was ready to be done. These days, it all makes for an interesting time capsule, but not much more than that. There's some homophobic stuff on here, which was sadly commonplace in the '80s and definitely not condoned by this humble blogger.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: While I didn't own the album, a friend of mine had the pre-recorded cassette and he brought it with when we took two girls on an unfortunate trip to Matagorda Beach in the summer of 1988. The trip was such a disaster that I've tried to forget about it, and that's the reason why I don't remember if I've heard this thing before.
Scritti's Cupid & Psyche 85 is my favorite album of 1985, but for some reason (probably the three years between albums), I didn't pick this up in 1988 and I should have because it's more of the same: synth-dance music with funky rhythms, lots of drum programming, and granular production detail. There's no stand-out track and the choice to use Roger from Zapp on a talk box was an odd one, but the grooves are good and there's Marcus Miller on bass with a solo from Miles Davis, so I can dig it. Shuffle these tracks with those of Cupid and it's an enjoyable couple of hours of dance music that's very easy to listen to.
Press of the time:
Smash Hits (6½ out of 10): "extremely clever, dreamy, crisp songs"
Robert Christgau (C+): "a flighty funk of positively offensive banality"
CashBox: "takes a common synth-dance formula and invigorates it with spunky rhythms, insinuating vocals, literate lyrics and production detail."
Billboard: "subdued synth -pop notable for its tunefulness"
Stereo Review: "sweet, ethereal vocals and sharp, earthy rhythms"
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #113
Tracks: I'm tempted to call this "all filler, no killer," and while I wouldn't skip any tracks, there are admittedly some songs that have more hooks than others. Plus, this is one of those albums that gets better on each listen. The lead track, Boom! There She Was, was the third single released from this album and was the most successful in the US in terms of chart positions: #12 on the US Billboard Dance Songs chart and #53 on the Hot 100. The other two singles, First Boy In This Town (Lovesick) and Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy) a.k.a. "The One With Miles," are definitely catchier than the other tracks, so their choice as singles seems obvious, especially in retrospect.
Because it was the 80s, we're also treated to a couple of extended mixes/dubs of Oh Patti and Boom! as the final tracks.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None as it is a recent purchase. Even though this was released in June 1988, there's no memories attached to it from what I commonly call "The Lost Summer of Mark." Fortunately.
An early CD compilation from Priority Records. The track list looks like a playlist for your local classic rock station. 14 tracks in an hour, so there are a few noticeable truncations. No liner notes and the definition of "supergroup" here doesn't exactly jibe with my own, but that doesn't mean this isn't a great compilation. Heck, if I had seen it in sitting in a longbox (below) in 1988 with a list price of $14.98, I might have bought it for my burgeoning collection. Not a skippable track in the bunch.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks, including Billboard Hot 100 chart peak:
Title
Artist
Year
Pop
More Than A Feeling
Boston
1976
5
Evil Woman
ELO
1976
10
Come Sail Away
Styx
1977
8
Taking Care of Business [sic]
BTO
1974
12
American Woman
The Guess Who
1970
1
I Just Want to Celebrate
Rare Earth
1971
7
Black Magic Woman
Santana
1970
4
Never Been To Spain
Three Dog Night
1972
5
Green Eyed Lady
Sugarloaf
1970
3
We're an American Band
Grand Funk
1973
1
Lola*
The Kinks
1980
81
So Into You
Atlanta Rhythm Section
1977
7
Help Is On Its Way
Little River Band
1977
14
Dust in the Wind
Kansas
1978
6
*Live version from the album One For The Road included on this CD. Later issues of the CD removed this track altogether, substituting Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd (which is actually a better fit for this comp).
Let's play a game. Let me turn on the local classic rock station (KTKX, The Eagle, 106.7) and see how long we go before one of these songs plays (my money is on the Boston tune, but I can't in good conscience encourage wagering).
2:10 PM Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top (this is Texas, after all)
2:13 PM Call Me - Blondie
2:22 PM Angel - Aerosmith
2:27 PM Girls, Girls, Girls - Mötley Crüe (we seem to be trending '80s, so this may not have been a good idea)
2:31 PM Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
2:35 PM Jack and Diane - John Cougar
2:39 PM Separate Ways - Journey
2:44 PM TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS - BTO
2:55 PM Edge of Seventeen - Stevie Nicks (was hoping for two in a row, but now I'll just end this game here)
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Nothing specific, but I'm transported back to childhood in Odessa. I need to drive over to the west Texas desert for a dusty trip down nostalgia lane. Maybe this summer.
