Category: Music

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Saturday Afternoon Coffeehouse Tunes

Meute – Empor (2024)

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Thursday Night Soundtrack

Duncan Sisters: Duncan Sisters (1979)

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Afternoon Tunes

Yeah, that’s my newest Sony CD Walkman. I bought it labeled “untested – for parts or repair” to fill up my last shadow box and it’s one of those rare “untested” beasts that not only looks great but is actually completely functional. This one’s a keeper and will not end up under glass.

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Ah, Memories…

It was a simpler time. Groceries this week or five new CDs? Decisions, decisions! So…ramen it is! (I had my priorities, after all!)

(Yes, I tagged this in the Decline and Fall of Civilization category because as a society we lost something when music stores died.)

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Released 51 Years Ago Today

Sir Elton must be feeling old…as am I.

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

This was probably the most-anticipated release of my youth, and has remained my all time favorite EJ album my entire life. The entire recording 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 spent seven weeks (non-consecutive) at number one on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 3x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

The album was released on pretty much every format available, but there is one vinyl pressing that is rarer than rare: a brown vinyl edition that was limited to 2000 units, signed by both Elton and Bernie. Currently there is one—ONE—listing on Discogs, and it’s going for $2500 Australian.

 

And here I thought the pink vinyl version of Madonna’s Bedtime Stories, or the multi-disc, multi-color vinyl version of Pet Shop Boys’ Relentless was ridiculously expensive and forever out-of-reach!

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Why Did An Inveterate Disco Dolly Like Myself NOT Have These In My Collection?

Yeah, I have them on vinyl (of course), but while I thought I had replaced most of my collection of late 70s Cerrone goodness on CD, I went to play Cerrone’s Paradise the other day and realized that I had not. Sure, I had his seminal work, Love in C-Minor, and even a couple of his later releases (Supernature Symphony and Disco Symphony) on CD, but these two (along with The Golden Touch and Cerrone V) were absent. I opted to replace these two now and wait on the others.

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Spring 1986

Almost period-appropriate for the player this morning.

I remember the drummer Enrique “Kiki” Garcia always give me the tingles down there. It’s funny how I realize now that for the most part, all of the actors and musicians who had such a profound effect on me in my 20s and 30s were my peers in age.

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Released 41 Years Ago Today

Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (1985)

On May 13, 1985,  Dire Straits Released Their 5th Album, “Brothers in Arms.” It spent 9 weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart, and has sold over 30 Million copies worldwide. It was also the first album to sell over 1 Million copies in CD format.

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Released 46 Years Ago Today

Grace Jones: Warm Leatherette (1980)

My favorite—or maybe second favorite—Grace Jones album. I can never definitively say if this or Nightclubbing is my favorite, followed closely by Slave to the Rhythm in third place. Both Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing are so good they could easily have been released as a double LP.

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