WTLX Mix Tapes: Side 1, Song 6

Note: This series originally appeared on Facebook in a slightly different form, Aug-Sept 16.

The W. T. Young Student Center opened at Transy in December 83. (A cassette of Fall 83 hits I recorded in the WTLX studio rests in the time capsule for the Young Center. I still have a copy of the playlist, but that’s a topic for another time.) Since these were pre-cable-in-dorm-room days, we visited the big-screen projection TV in the student center when we wanted our MTV. I spent many an hour in 84 and 85 hanging with, among others, James Kolasa and Warren Moore, lampooning many of the videos and commercials. Of course, we also saw plenty of songs that one or more of us actually liked. It was a major time sink but I look back on those days when they programmed only videos with quite a bit of fondness.

This is another song I learned about via MTV, though not at the time of its release. A cover by 10,000 Maniacs in their post-Natalie Merchant era was a moderate hit in 1997, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the original. The opening notes of the Roxy Music version are just so striking to me; it’s a mesmerizing tune.