Month: August 2021

American Top 40 PastBlast, 8/28/82: Asia, “Only Time Will Tell”

When I was much younger, I made a few attempts at maintaining a diary, none of which ultimately took hold for all that long. The first began in the summer of 1975, at the tender age of 11–quite a bit of that focused on the status of my baseball card collection, with only a little devoted to what was going on inside me at the time. Two later efforts had a better mix of reporting on current events and looking inward (or at least I think so). One of those occurred at the midpoint of my junior year in college; I wrote about that a couple of years ago. The other had taken place (mostly) in August and September of 1982, just before and immediately after I’d flown the nest to begin life at Transy on 9/4. Those weeks are almost certainly the most closely chronicled of my life, though that hardly means they make for compelling reading. Nonetheless, you get a brief synopsis of some of what I elected to record for posterity at the end of that August.

–We had returned from a family vacation to Myrtle Beach on Sunday, the 22nd, and my sister started her senior year of high school just two days later. I visited my school (at least) twice between 8/24 and 8/31;

–I mentioned going shopping for stuff to take with me to college on four occasions, including the desk pad/calendar I wrote about last fall;

–“Making the rounds” to see high school friends one last time was a common refrain, and several close ones receive specific mention (and visits);

–I went golfing with Dad a couple of times–he was still scoring better than I was. A couple of bowling outings with my good friend Tony happened, too;

–What about my AT40 habit? Well, that got a shout-out, on 8/24. I wasn’t taking as much time to listen to the show at this point, relying on Recordland’s posting of the Hot 100 instead:

Funny thing is, I didn’t record those predictions on the 8/21 chart.

–A recurring theme is dithering over what to do about the girl I was kinda sorta dating at the time. We’d met at FBLA Leadership Camp the previous summer, and after a few weeks of calling her after school started back, I’d let things drop (she lived just a couple of counties over from me, which fortunately meant the calls were local). We’d reconnected at the Regional and State FBLA Conferences in the spring, and at the latter, I’d been there to offer some comfort after she lost the election for State Treasurer–she was a year behind me in school. The phone calls resumed, and we’d gone on a date or two over the summer.

But I was about to embark on a new adventure, and she would still be in high school sixty-plus miles away… At first I considered driving to see her over the last weekend of August to “talk it over,” then it got pushed back to the middle of the week, and finally…nothing happened. At one point I did consider how she might be feeling about things, how my apparent lack of interest in seeing her before I left might be playing.

—

The first encounter with the term “supergroup” I can recall came in the spring of 1982, when Asia blasted on the scene. Even if I wasn’t that into prog rock growing up, I certainly knew about King Crimson, Yes, and ELP (yeah, the Buggles, too). I’m virtually certain my sister had purchased Asia while “Heat of the Moment” was riding high on the charts, though I don’t remember it getting played much while I was around. By this final weekend before the start of my next phase, second single “Only Time Will Tell” had advanced to #24. It would be at its peak of #17 on my final chart in early October.

—

She and I exchanged a couple of letters after I got to college. In the last one I sent, probably in mid-to-late October, I made not-so-casual mention of my new female friend. The whole thing was clearly far from my finest moment. She was never anything but nice to me, and even if that hadn’t been the case, she was undeserving of shabby treatment. I guess I can only hope that she wasn’t as bitter as John Wetton.

Stereo Review In Review: August 1981

No articles this month, though Paul Kresh did fold a chat with George Rose, who starred as Major-General Stanley, into his review of The Pirates of Penzance soundtrack below. The reviewers were pretty liberal about granting the Recording of Special Merit designation this time around; I don’t know if this was a particularly good month, or if they collectively were deciding to use it more frequently.

Hard for me to say how many SR reviews really planted themselves in my head over the years–maybe 20? 30?–but one of them, that of Hard Promises, is in this issue.

Our reviewers this month are Chris Albertson, Irv Cohn, Noel Coppage, Phyl Garland, Paul Kresh, Peter Reilly, Steve Simels, and Joel Vance.

Best of the Month
–Leo Kottke, Guitar Music (JV) “…reveals him as once again confident, assured, and at the top of his form as both artist and producer.”
–Carole Bayer Sager, Sometimes Late at Night (PR) “What is startlingly apparent in this collection of Sager’s songs is that she has not only discovered her own identity, personally and artistically, but in the process has arrived at what amounts to a summation of the attitudes of the young women of her generation, a kind of rulebook for making life in the Eighties congenial.”

Recordings of Special Merit
Pop/Rock/Soul/Country:
–Terri Gibbs, Somebody’s Knocking (PR) “…all the tracks indicate an interesting performer with innate style.”
–Dan Hartman, It Hurts to Be in Love (IC) “These songs are elaborate productions…(t)hrough all that, though, something extraordinarily likable shines.”
–Junie, Junie 5 (PG) “It is good to hear an album in which the artist seems to be stretching some of the old formats to create fresh sounds.”
–Ben E. King, Street Tough (PG) “He sounds as good today as he ever did, his voice as rich and mellow as a fine cognac, and he handles phrasing like a master.”
–Mass Production, Turn Up the Music (IC) “As the name implies, Mass Production’s productions are big. They are also quirky, funky, and fun.”
–Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio, A Woman Needs Love (PG) “The careful mix of uptempo dance music with slower selections makes this an excellent party album.”
–Brenda Russell, Love Life (PG) “Her performance here is sweet and sassy, and the songs…are a fascinating amalgam of soul and rock with just enough barefoot-folk flavor from the Sixties to lend them an air of distinction.”
–Split Enz, S/T (JV) “All of the vocal material deals with the ups and downs of courtship—specifically, the fear of not being wanted or of not trusting the beloved—and it is an impressive display of writing craftsmanship.”
–Three Degrees, Three D (IC) “…the trio sings with power and grace, and Moroder provides balanced, energetic support.”
–Muddy Waters, King Bee (JV) “Waters, now in his sixties, has a combination of calm authority and frisky charm that makes you believe almost anything he says in his songs.”
–Robert Winters, Magic Man (CA) “…delivers his songs in a voice that is at times reminiscent of both Ray Charles and Al Green but has a wider range than either.”

Jazz:
–Count Basie, Kansas City Five (CA) “I hope the session here is representative of what is to follow and that we can expect the addition of a sympatico horn now and then.”
–Milt Jackson, Night Mist (CA) “The solos are good and plentiful…”
–Ellis Larkins, S/T (CA) “…provides lessons in subtlety, good taste, timing, and dynamics.”
–Jeff Lorber Fusion, Galaxian (IC) “For Lorber fans, the augmented orchestral sound of most of the album may take some getting used to, but this time more is simply more.”
–Modern Jazz Quartet, More from the Last Concert (CA) “…as fine a representation of the group’s artistry as you are likely to find.”
–Art Tatum, Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 10 (CA) “I would be hard put to recommend a better musical value.”

Featured Reviews
–Gary U.S. Bonds, Dedication (SS) “Its music is as heartfelt and spontaneous-sounding as you remember it from its first go-around, but it is also wise and knowing in a way it could not have been in 1961.”
–Brian Eno and David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts/Public Image Ltd., The Flowers of Romance (SS) “…it’s no surprise to me that both (albums) are archetypal hippie albums, vintage Sixties psychedelia from start to finish, or that both have been received as avant-garde.”
–Gilbert and Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance (PK) “…even though all of the fun of the energetic and inventive staging doesn’t come through on discs, the show sounds better on the album than it ever did in Central Park or it does at the Uris.”
–The Grateful Dead, Reckoning, Volume One (NC) This was the acoustic half of a two-part release from a concert at Radio City Music Hall. “Even if you have all the previous Grateful Dead albums, you don’t have these same songs played this way.”
–Shot in the Dark, S/T (NC) “I wouldn’t think you frivolous if you called it an Anglo-American answer to ABBA; it has that kind of lightweight charm and zest for melody and harmony.”
–Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Reach Up and Touch the Sky (JV) “This is one of those rare live albums that justify the genre: there’s something here that could never have been captured in the studio.” One of two acts that never really clicked nationally whose work I remember seeing trumpeted over and again in the pages of SR during my junior high and high school years–the other was Mink DeVille.
–Fats Waller, The Complete Fats Waller, Volume II, 1935 (CA) “There is simply no way to convey adequately in writing the wit and musicianship that oozes out at every turn of these records.”
–Glenn Yarbrough, Just a Little Love (PK) “When Glenn Yarbrough sings, every word comes through loud and clear, and every note glows with life.”

Other Disks Reviewed
–Jefferson Starship, Modern Times (NC) “It does no good to overrate the past, but if this album is a reflection of what the years have done to us—and it probably is—we really should be in a hurry to on to more interesting times.”
–Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, Imitation Life (JV) “The Chartbusters are sturdy musicians and Lane has a good voice, but the band tends to play safe and Lane tends to lecture.”
–Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hard Promises (SS) “…though this is clearly his weakest album, at least it’s an honest failure; he’s not pandering to anyone.”
–Santana, Zebop! (JV) “…the younger Santana was entertaining; the older one just seems to pound away trying to be ingratiating.”
–Sylvia, Drifter (NC) “…seems to opt for a style somewhere between cowgirl and countrypolitan…but the instrumentals do have a certain zing to them…Her voice is good enough to warrant careful handling.”
–Sarah Vaughan, Copacabana (PR) “The wonderful Vaughan sound, butterscotch mellow already, overpowers the bittersweet, delicate moods of the songs.”
–Joe Walsh, There Goes the Neighborhood (NC) “The instrumentals in general, a few guitar licks aside, get the same low-energy, lick-and-promise treatment as the songwriting.”
–Yellow Magic Orchestra, BGM (IC) “…too busy pushing at the frontiers of electronic rock to worry about accessibility.”

American Top 40 PastBlast, 8/16/86: The Blow Monkeys, “Digging Your Scene”

The vast majority of my college’s incoming class showed up Thursday morning to move in and begin being oriented to a whole new phase of their lives (first-years playing in fall sports such as football, soccer, and volleyball had trickled in over the past week or two). It’s been a few years since I’d pitched in to help new students and their families transport belongings from vehicle to dorm room, but two days ago I spent around 75 minutes in a steady rain doing just that. We have a very large group this year, possibly the biggest in the school’s history (certainly the largest out of the thirty groups who’ve entered during my time); an offer of free tuition to graduates from this county and three others is the reason behind our growth spurt this year and last. With the sudden uptick in enrollment will come a bit of a strain on resources, as many departments on campus have been downsized over the last decade after an almost as precipitous a drop in number of students hit us ten years ago. On the other hand, it’ll be great to use up excess capacity where it still exists, while on the other other hand, I know I’m glad we were able to hire a new mathematics faculty member for this year. Classes start Monday, and of course we’re doing it in-person again (masks required in indoor public spaces for at least the first three weeks). Sickness and quarantine among the student body will assuredly be a part of the landscape, but one can hope the percentage of vaccinated folks on campus trends upward quickly.

—

I’ve been on a college campus every fall since I was 18 years old, and seeing the new faces this time of year can make me think back to when I struck out from home. As it happens, this weekend and next, Premiere is featuring 80s shows from the two years I began new educational adventures. First up, a countdown from about a week or so before I departed for the math grad program at the University of Illinois. While I wasn’t the completely green 18-year-old of four years earlier, in some ways this was the bigger leap into the abyss–four or so hours away from the parental units, knowing absolutely no one in my new environs. I wasn’t scared, though looking back, I didn’t remotely understand how much I didn’t know about my chosen area of study or what it would take to succeed at the next level.

By August of 1986 I had begun a slow drift away from paying attention to the pop chart scene. There are a few songs on the 8/16/86 show I know now mainly from listening to these rebroadcasts: “Man Size Love” from Klymaxx, “One Step Closer to You,” by Gavin Christopher, and Madonna wannabe Regina’s “Baby Love.” But listening to the show this morning sure was a pleasant way to spend four hours, taking me back to that liminal period between my KY and IL early-20s lives.

—

Because I’m a list-maker at heart, I’m sharing what I think are the three best and three worst songs on this show. The lowlights come first.

#38. David Lee Roth, “Yankee Rose”
Possesses none of the joy or humor of DLR’s work with Van Halen or his EP Crazy from the Heat. And the intro to the video is cruel and awful in almost uncountably many ways.

#39. Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson, “Friends and Lovers”
My sister was a huge Days of Our Lives fan throughout the 80s, so I was well aware of Loring’s turn as Liz Chandler. Amy bought this single sometime over the summer, as well, giving me plenty of opportunity to loathe it. Just one of many 80s ballad duets that never did much for me.

#40. Peter Cetera, “Glory of Love”
Who knows why some (many) ballads turn me off? I disliked this one from the first listen. And yes, I did see The Karate Kid II that summer.

As for the good stuff…

#3. Belinda Carlisle, “Mad About You”
This placement may be in part residual from my Go-Go’s fandom, but I did pick the 45 up in real time. A classy, intelligent, upbeat love song.

#2. The Blow Monkeys, “Digging Your Scene”
I wouldn’t have placed this nearly so high 35 years ago, but “Digging Your Scene” has really grown on me in recent years–it just gets better with each listen. At the time it completely slipped by me that “So sad to see you fade away” and “I know I’ll die” were references to AIDS and its victims. This was its last week on the show, at #36, having reached #14 a couple of weeks earlier.

#1. Peter Gabriel, “Sledgehammer”
The song and video of that summer, possibly my top song for the entire year. I bought So on cassette then and listened to it quite a bit for a while.

—

The Blow Monkeys never made another impression on the U.S scene, though they tallied a dozen or so hits in their native UK over the course of the 80s. On this show, Casey mentioned that vocalist Dr. Robert says that if the whole music thing doesn’t work out in the end, he might just open a record store. I suppose that was never necessary; the band split between 1990 and 2007, but they’ve recorded regularly since getting back together.

I Don’t Know When I’ve Had A Better Friend

While I can’t know how folks really felt about Nanci Griffith, based on the portion of her career to which I was paying close attention, she sure seemed to have a lot of good friends and command the respect of folks in the business. The list of guest musicians on her 1994 album Flyer is amazing: Emmylou Harris, the Indigo Girls, members of the Chieftains, U2, and the BoDeans, Mark Knopfler, Adam Duritz…on and on it goes. She certainly had good taste, too: the songwriters whose work she chose to cover on her Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms include Dylan, Prine, Lightfoot, Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Townes van Zandt, Janis Ian, Kate Wolf, and Jerry Jeff Walker.

I’m probably not alone in first learning of Griffith in 1989, when VH-1 frequently played “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go.” I soon hit up the public libraries in Urbana and Champaign for Storms and a few of her earlier albums; my officemate Paul ripped them on cassette for me. I was charmed by her unique voice, and for a while (Storms through Flyer) I made sure to purchase new Griffith material when it came out. She was definitely a favorite during the first half of the 90s.

In the midst of my grief on Friday afternoon after saying goodbye to our family dog, news came over the wire about Griffith’s death. She never had that big hit song, but my social media feeds tell me how much her music meant to a lot of people. My two favorite albums of hers are Storms and Other Voices, Other Rooms, so I’ll toss out a couple of songs from each for your potential listening pleasure.

Always wondered if there was a semi-autobiographical element to this one.
From Austin City Limits; Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Indigo Girls are singing backup.
Yes, John Prine is singing along.
Written by Gordon Lightfoot; backup vocals by Iris DeMent.

Nanci’s final album was released in 2012, and it seems she’d kept a low profile in recent years. I do hope she understood how much her songs, her work, was appreciated. I know I’ll be getting those old cassettes out this week.

R.I.P. Buddy

He came into our lives in August, he left us in August.

Buddy was a gentle soul, a life changer. In the very early days of the blog, I recounted how we met him, but in brief: in 2013, one of our friends who worked with the local Humane Society brought some animals to a back-to-school function at our church. Twelve-year-old Ben, who’d grown up petrified of dogs, immediately bonded with this 60 lb. collie mix, and just over a week later, Buddy began his journey with us.

He was of unknown age when he moved in—probably between five and eight. Buddy wasn’t a cuddler or a lap dog; while some of that no doubt was nature, I always had a sense that in his earlier life he’d been disciplined not to get up on things. (I can’t complain at all that he didn’t want to climb into bed with us.) He needed a little time to get used to the new circumstance of his life—and vice versa—and a little training to learn not to bark at other dogs on walks. It wasn’t long before everyone adjusted, though, and he became an integral part of the family.

A couple years in, Buddy began losing fur and had trouble keeping steady. It took quite a while for the vet to determine that he had an atypical presentation of Addison’s disease (I guess his adrenal glands had atrophied, but the standard blood work couldn’t determine it). It was simple to fix—just a small, daily dose of prednisone—but until that determination, Martha and I had become more afraid as the weeks passed that we might lose him.

After that, life with Buddy went smoothly for a few years. He got in the habit of taking three walks each day—Martha would go on a long one with him most mornings, then there’d be one right before dinner, and another afterward. Martha particularly enjoyed the morning and evening walks, as she got to know neighbors (and the neighborhood) better; a dog makes a good starting point for conversation. As he aged, however, the walks first dropped down to twice a day, and eventually only the evening one remained.

The pandemic meant all three of us got to spend much more time at home with our dog, but that coincided with the beginnings of a slow but steady decline in Buddy’s mobility. The last walk in the neighborhood came this past April. Over the last year it’s been clear that dementia was setting in as well.

—

Here are a few favorite memories we have of Buddy:
–Trips to the dog park at Masterson Station Park in Lexington. It was great to give Buddy opportunities to run freely. He wasn’t much of a fetcher, but when other owners would throw something, he’d chase along with the dog going after it, barking all the way. He also tended to try to police matters when other pooches got into it with one another;
–Playing ‘sock’ in the back yard or basement. We did get Buddy to learn to go after a sock filled with a rubber ball here at the house. He was generally not very graceful—often when he would excitedly go after it, his front legs would splay out in odd directions. He regularly dropped the sock about halfway back, yet still expected the treat upon return;
–His energy when we returned home and let him out of the crate in the basement. Buddy could usually hear when we were back and would be standing in the crate by the time one of us got downstairs. He’d then bound up the stairs to the kitchen and drink deeply from his water bowl.
–Slinking into our walk-in closet during thunderstorms. Like so many dogs, Buddy hated thunder. Somehow he decided that closet was a safe place.
–Howling at sirens. I know the noise bothered him, but his mournful “A-roooooooo” became a part of the sonic landscape;
–Running home at the end of walks. We’d frequently let him off the leash near the top of our cul-de-sac, and he’d half-lope/half-dash toward our driveway. When Ben went along with us, they’d race. When our neighbor Mary was out, Buddy might peel off and head over to her instead, wiggling his butt furiously, ears down in a submissive manner and waiting for a head rub.

—

Over the last eighteen months or so, we’ve been missing how Buddy was; how he has been lately has been a challenge for everyone, Buddy included. Things finally came to a head around 3am Thursday morning. After dealing with the latest mess, Martha, Ben and I finally talked freely about stuff we’d been hinting at for the last 2-3 months. We worried that we were being selfish for considering letting Buddy go, yet we could also see that he wasn’t enjoying much about his life.

This morning, after a meal of boiled chicken breast, we took him to the vet one last time. On his most recent trips there, he’s been quite agitated, panting the entire way, pooping on the blanket in the car en route, pacing nervously once we got there. We had reason to be concerned that he’d be panic-stricken in his final moments.

Instead, he was surprisingly calm. No panting, no obvious display of nerves on the trip. (He did still poop in the car a little, I guess for old times’ sake.) We walked him into their euthanasia room, and he pretty easily laid still on his blanket. I guess he was ready to go; maybe he’d been ready well before we were.

Even toward the end, it may have been hard to tell from a distance about his issues. His coat was still in fine shape overall, and there were passing moments—even yesterday—when the old Buddy spark of life showed in his eyes. I took the picture at the top just this past Monday. The right-ear-up-left-ear-slightly floppy is (yes, was) a standard-issue Buddy pose.

—

This coming Tuesday marks the eight-year anniversary of Buddy entering and transforming Ben’s life. I don’t know—maybe it’ll be easier to observe that, celebrate it, knowing that he’s not suffering any more. I guess we’ll see.

Thank you, Buddy, for everything.

Forgotten Compilations: Just Say Anything

By the time Sire Records released the fifth volume in their Just Say… sampler series in July 1991, records, cassettes, and CDs had, as deemed necessary, been graced with some variant of the “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” warning label for almost six years. U.S. record companies chose to include the labels in late 1985 after the Parents Music Resource Center began raising a ruckus (which led to a Senate hearing on what the PMRC hailed as smutty and/or violent song lyrics). Needless to say, musicians weren’t happy about the PMRC’s efforts at the time, and nerves were still raw in the summer of 1991. Sire was by this time the home of the edgier acts in the Time Warner family, generally modern/college rock groups but also rappers. The liner notes for Just Say Anything have the included acts’ angry takes on censorship, both real and perceived.

Greg had purchased this CD shortly after we moved into our new apartment, and we listened to it a few times that fall. Quite a few highlights, so let’s get on it.

The disk kicks off with a duet by John Wesley Harding and the Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn, written especially for this compilation. “Warning Parental Advisory” imagines a world where it’s the mediocrities of the music biz that receive the dreaded black-and-white warning–you know, Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Heart (well, “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You” is pretty bad), L.A. Guns, Poison, etc., etc.

Next up is “Body Count,” from Ice-T’s O.G. Original Gangster, thus well earning the album’s own Advisory label.

After that, though, it’s mostly a parade of songs that wouldn’t have been completely out of place on last week’s Modern Rock Tracks recap (in fact, two of them were on that chart):

The JudyBats contributed “Don’t Drop the Baby,” a phrase which earned some good-natured fun poked in its direction from Greg and me.

Shoegaze legend Ride contributes the mesmerizing “Today.” Another band added to the get-to-know list.

One of the two actual reasons I wanted to put this post out is JSA‘s inclusion of the Throwing Muses’ “Not Too Soon.” Tonya Donelly really shines, pointing toward her upcoming departure from the Muses and the formation of Belly.

One of the classic late 70s British New Wave songs is the Only Ones’ “Another Girl, Another Planet.” This cover by the Mighty Lemon Drops is pretty straightforward, but I may just like it better than the original.

Not sure how I let Richard X. Heyman’s “Falling Away” escape my notice 30 years ago. A stone cold power pop gem, it could well be the best song on the CD; I put in my order for Hey Man last night.

The two songs this disk shared with the 8/3/91 Modern Rock Tracks chart are “Crazy,” by Seal, and the Farm’s “Groovy Train.” The latter was #17 on both the chart and the disk–I skipped over it last week, knowing I could catch up with it here. Peaked at the dreaded #41 spot on the pop chart in mid-November. Super infectious.

After a few spins in August and September, Just Say Anything got filed away, supplanted by newer discoveries. I did eventually pick up my own copy before I left Champaign-Urbana. While very much of its time, the high points make it worth the occasional listen still today.

Modern Rock Tracks, 8/3/91

Greg and Katie arrived in Champaign-Urbana in the fall of 1987 from Atlanta (he’d gone to Georgia Tech, she Emory). They’d been high school sweethearts in North Carolina. Greg was a year ahead of Katie in school, so he’d gotten a Masters from Tech while waiting for her to graduate. He came to Illinois for electrical engineering, while she was there for physics. Somewhere along the way, though, Katie realized she wasn’t on the right path. Not long after I met them in late 1989, she started taking math classes. When that turned out not to be wholly satisfactory either, she began looking for another school, and wound up deciding on the applied math program at the University of Maryland, beginning fall 1991. Greg still had a couple of years left on his Ph.D., and they made the very hard decision to live apart while he finished up. He and I had bonded over both the bridge table and shared musical interests, I’d been living by myself for the past year…it made decent sense to become roommates.

And so not long after my return from the bridge excursion to Las Vegas, we each moved about a quarter-mile (to the east for Greg, to the west for me) to my fifth and final home in IL. After a couple of weeks, Katie took off for College Park, and there he and I were, playing (and buying) lots and lots of music; I learned a lot that year. My old roomie John continued to drive down from Chicago to fulfill the duties of his teaching assistantship, crashing on the couch on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, just as he had in my apartment the previous year.

Rooming with a good friend has potential to ruin said friendship, but Greg and I got along just fine. I’m sure the situation was much tougher on him than I realized, but I had a great time over those last twelve months of being a grad student.

—

Some of the songs on this week’s Modern Rock Tracks chart were quite familiar at the time, others not at all. It can’t hurt to take a look, though…

27. O.M.D., “Pandora’s Box (It’s a Long, Long Way)”
Sugar Tax was the first O.M.D release without Paul Humphreys; Greg spun it a few times in the apartment that fall (Katie was a huge fan of theirs). This song was inspired by American actress Louise Brooks, who starred in the late 20s German silent film Pandora’s Box.

26. Ric Ocasek, “Rockaway”
Fun lead track from Ric’s third solo disk, Fireball Zone, co-produced by Nile Rodgers.

23. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, “Sex on Wheelz”
Cannot say I was much into the industrial scene, and this one’s not encouraging me to give it a longer look. From the LP Sexplosion! (Only partially-related aside: does anyone else think Errol Brown is really singing “It’s sextasy” toward the end of “You Sexy Thing”?)

22. Milltown Brothers, “Which Way Should I Jump?”
Lots and lots of British acts here–it’s where so much of the interesting stuff was happening at the time. Probably have noted this before, but maybe the best part of this series for me is uncovering great songs that eluded my attention thirty years ago. Love the snarl in the vocals and the exuberance of the guitar and drumming on this one; I’ll have to seek out more of Slinky.

20. James, “Sit Down”
The original version of this very catchy thing, released two years earlier, ran for over seven-and-a-half minutes. The lads re-recorded it after experiencing some success with their 1990 album Mother Gold (and included the new take on a re-issue of MG).

19. Richard Thompson, “I Feel So Good”
It felt like Record Service was playing Rumour and Sigh every time I was in the store during the summer of ’91. I didn’t know (but am hardly surprised) that “I Feel So Good” was a promoted cut. It’s a standout.

18. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, “Happy”
Greg and I jokingly called this British bunch Ned’s Atomic Bedpan, really much more playing with language than commenting on the music. I heard (and likely enjoyed) “Grey Cell Green” more back in the day, but “Happy” isn’t bad.

13. R.E.M., “Shiny Happy People”
Athens folks meeting in the crowd and taking it into town here, with Kate Pierson joining in on one of her two contributions to Out of Time. R.E.M.’s fourth and final Top 10 pop hit.

11. The Candyskins, “Submarine Song”
This driving number is solid enough, yet somehow it doesn’t leave all that much of an impression afterward.

10. Seal, “Crazy”
The relatively rare song to be high on the Modern Rock and Hot 100 charts simultaneously. “Crazy” had already topped out here, but was #18 pop and aiming toward a #7 peak. I’ll take this over “Kiss from a Rose” 10 times out of 10.

8. Erasure, “Chorus”
Andy Bell and Vince Clarke were having trouble duplicating the commercial success they’d enjoyed with The Innocents; this perfectly serviceable dance track, the title song of their new album, stalled out at #83 on the Hot 100.

7. Chapterhouse, “Pearl”
I’ve got to go online and add to my shoegaze collection. I don’t recall hearing “Pearl” thirty years ago–I have to think I would have been all over it if I had. While about half-way through it sounds as though that Chapterhouse is ripping off the song at #1 below, this blog post from four years ago claims that the riff was a standard offering on Roland synthesizers (the bands were working with the same producer, too).

5. Crowded House, “Chocolate Cake”
Neil Finn’s brother (and former Split Enz mate) Tim joined the band for Woodface, their third album. The boys from New Zealand were definitely not suffering fools (or at least Tammy Faye Bakker Messner–of course, they should have taken aim at her former husband instead) here.

4. Kirsty MacColl, “Walking Down Madison”
Probably not what I expected to hear from Kirsty after digging Kite so much for the previous year, but it’s utterly brilliant. Certainly the closest she came to having a hit stateside.

2. Big Audio Dynamite II, “Rush”
“The only important thing these days is rhythm…and melody.” Right?

1. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Kiss Them for Me”
They’d been making noise on the UK charts since 1978 and had enjoyed a little success on the Dance chart over here, but like many folks in the U.S., I didn’t give Siouxsie and company much mind until “Peek-a-Boo” (which, I’ve mentioned before, was #1 on the inaugural MRT chart in September 1988). This one actually cracked the Top 40, peaking at #23 in October. I’m a big fan, having included it on a mix tape almost three years after this.

A sea change begins with our next installment, in October.