My Musical Evolution – Page 32 – Mapping Influences Over Time

My Musical Evolution – Part 103 Academy Days Queen

Let me begin by saying that I have not yet purchased News Of The World as pictured here. My Columbia House cassettte was Queen’s Greatest Hits. I added this album cover because I wanted to take a moment to discuss album covers. As I rummaged through the racks of records and cassettes at local record shops or the Columbia House catalogs, I saw numerous album covers. Some seemed to stick out more than others. News Of The World seemed to be around a lot. Another one that I saw frequently was REO Speedwagon’s You Can Tune A Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish. I used to see that album everyewhere. I didn’t know who REO Speedwagon was then but I would shortly and soon after that, Tuna Fish would be my favorite REO album but we’re getting ahead of the story.

Mom had Bohemian Rhapsdoy [Bohemian Monstrosity] in the Scratchy 45 Days and I heard some other Queen songs along the way but it wasn’t until I began to play the Greatest Hits tape to death that I became a true Queen fan.

Queen is one of the bands where it bothers me that I’ve never seen them live. It seems odd to think that during the Academy Days the tragedy of Freddie Mercury hadn’t even begun. It was all just playing great music and not thinking about loss of life and all that stuff that laces the edges of Queen music for me now.

My Columbia House version of Queen’s Greatest Hits had a unique track listing that was different from the vinyl or Compact Disc versions that I’d eventually purchase. We’ll talk about that soon.

Another One Bites The Dust

Killer Queen

I always liked this one. Classic Brian May guitar.

Fat Bottomed Girls

Bicycle Race

I don’t know why but these last two songs remind me of sitting on my beanbag chair reading Conan The Barbarian Books.
You’re My Best Friend

Under Pressure

I can’t believe they copied that Vanilla Ice song!

Keep Yourself Alive

Like I’ve said numerous times in the past few weeks, I wish I had more time to crank up these old tunes. There were so many great songs. I wonder if I’ll feel that way when we reach the metal years which aren’t too far away.

My Musical Evolution – Part 102 Academy Days And Now For Something Completely Different…Again

You might recall that I became a Monty Python fan by accident back in the third grade. Here at the Academy, Monty Python resurfaced. It had been years since I had seen or heard anything regarding Monty Python. I don’t even know how it came up.

Somehow, a guy named Mark and I figured out the we both liked Monty Python. I had watched the TV show, he had some of their records on 8-Track. When he let me borrow them, it changed my appreciation of Monty Python and British humor in general. As we discussed earlier, it was the animation sequences that caught my attention early of an set the tone for a more visual appreciation of their work. Here on record, there wasn’t anything visual at all, just crazy dialogue, sound effects and songs. It was still completely brilliant.

In the fall Vermont Academy would put on this variety show type pf thing were students couls sign up and go perform something. Usually it was a song or dramatic reading. Mark and I would go on to do some Monty Python skits like The Undertaker.

The round of Monty Python came from my friend Tom who for some reason I feel compelled to mention that he is Canadian. Tom had the album Life Of Brian. It was full of the usual witty, nutty Monty Python stuff so of course I loved it. If you’ve never heard this album, it is basically the audio version of the movie. They take the best dialogue bits then string them together with some studio narration. There are of course some bits that don’t translate and some sound effects that are unexplained. Years later when I actually saw the film for the first time, I knew all the dialogue by heart and was fascinated by discovering finally what all those noises were about.

Rest assured, this won’t be the last of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Spam

Ethel The Prog

The People’s Front

Romanes Eunt Domus

Stoning

Although I didn’t include any songs in these samples, there were plenty of Monty Python songs on thse recordings. So I include Monty Python in My Musical Evolution just to be complete.

My Musical Evolution – Part 101 Academy Days Quarterflash

Going to school at Vermont Academy was an amazing experience. First off, the location, Saxtons River, a tiny hamlet in southeast Vermont. The town’s population falling under 700 people. Joe Walsh lived there while I was in school. I saw him at the village market one day. I was still a few months away from my first Eagles album and I had no idea who he was. To me he just looked like any of the bandana hat wearing, ear ringed bohemian type dude that seemed fairly common in that area.

The next amazing thing was the student population. not only were there kids from all over the country but all over the world. Sure the same kinds of clique-ery and social behaviours that you might find in a typical high school were present, it just seemed that campus life added something more akin to family. When you are living on campus and sharing all your meals and riding all those sports buses with the same people for so many years, you get closer to more people.

Third was the size. When I went there, the student population for all four grades was about 280. It really is possible to know everybody.

Why all the rambling about campus life? It is because I can’t remember how I ended up with Quarterflash. Having acquired a pretty sizable library of my own music, radio play fell by the wayside. It is possible that I heard Harden My Heart on the radio but it is far more likely that I heard it in one of the dorms or on the juke box. So all that so-called rambling was merely an attempt to paint the picture of the environment where these chance influences might happen.

Regardless, Quarterflash was yet another album that I played frequently. Williams Avenue being a favorite. There was something about that guitar solo that starts about 4 and a half minutes in. The sound and style was so different compared to some of the guitar work I had been listening to. It seemed more jazzy and grown up.

Harden My Heart

Find Another Fool

Valerie

Williams Avenue

My Musical Evolution – Part 100 Academy Days More Blondie

My Blondie 45’s weren’t needed long. I snapped The Best Of Blondie out of the Columbia House catalog. I had Heart Of Glass and The Tide Is High and a whole bunch more that would become beloved Blondie favorites.

Here again is a mystery. I really liked Blondie, why did I not have the urge to collect their previous albums. There doesn’t seem to be any driving logic on this. I must have forgotten some details. I can’t think why I’d be so hot to pick up anything Pat Benatar but yet be satisfied with this one Blondie album. As for longevity, over the past 30 years I would say that I listen to Blondie more frequently than Pat Benatar. Is that due to the nature of The Best Of? Now I have to pick up a couple of the early Blondie albums to check them out. I’ll let you know what happens. I would go on to purchase a couple later works. Wait until you hear Rapture Riders! We have to wait until the 21st century for that. Over 20 years. One of the things that keeps happening while I do this is my constant amazement with time and how it seems to slow down and speed up so much. I mean Vermont Academy for example. In some ways it feels like I was just there but it was 30 years ago.

Blondie will enter the picture a couple more times in My Musical Evolution but for now, let’s just focus on Blondie during the Academy Days.

Dreaming

In The Flesh

Sunday Girl

Debbie Harry sported several looks over the years. This was my favorite, Heart of Glass Debbie Harry. Pretty hot.
Rapture

I have always been more interested in the music than the lyrics. This is an example of listening to a song hundreds of times wihtout really paying attention to what she is saying. After 10 years of Rapture I finally heard what she was doing just prior to 24 hour shopping. Then of course, you can never un-hear it.
Call Me

Atomic

My Musical Evolution – Part 99 Academy Days In My Room Again

Back in the Scratchy 45 Days, Mom had the single In My Room. We liked it as kids but it was one of those songs that we like to make fun of. I don’t recall exactly now. It may have been the lyrics or the delivery. It was OK but not a dear to heart favorite like so many others.

One of my Columbia House picks was Best Of The Beach Boys. I can’t tell you why. Apart from In My Room I really wasn’t too familiar with The Beach Boys. Something had to trigger it. I can’t believe that I would take a chance based soley on the strength of In My Room. If you are a young person just beginning to collect your own music or you have young children who are just begining, I highly recommend that you keep some kind of Music Journal. It may sound stupid right now and it will take some effort to maintain and update but when you are approaching 50 and can look back at the details of each purchase including dates, places, prices, motivations favorites songs etc, it will be a wonderful resource that documents a portion of your own personal history.

So I can’t remember why I picked it but I do know that this was yet another album that I played frequently and grew very fond of the style and all of the songs. Of course I didn’t know it then but my fondness for the Beach Boys had a hand in The Rise And Fall Of ’84. Does everything happen for a reason?

Little Deuce Coupe

Fun, Fun Fun

Little Honda

Warmth Of The Sun

My Musical Evolution – Part 98 Academy Days Rage In The Cage

How could I have missed the J. Geils Band for all these years. I had no idea that the band started in 1967. When Freeze Frame blew it up they seemed to be a sudden sensation. The first J. Geils Band song that I heard was No Anchovies, Please. It seemed to make it on the radio once in a while but I had no idea that it was a (make air quotes here) song. Still I thought it was funny. I think my cousin actually picked up Love Stinks.

J Geils Band falls in that category with Kansas in that I really liked this album but yet never felt compelled to look into anything else they did. I shouldn’t say never. Fifteen years later I eventually bought Love Stinks just because I wanted the No Anchovies, Please song.

I have a hard time comprehending how Freeze Frame could be so good and yet nothing else they did caught fire like that. I thought it was a regional thing at first. They were from Massachusetts.

I don’t think that there is a bad track on this album. At the same time, for as much as I listened to this back then, when I put it away it was away for a long time. This was one of those cassettes that eventually got played to death and it would be a very long time before I got around to replacing it on Compact Disc. It is music like this that makes me wish there were more hours in a day to listening to music. I used to listen to music like this for hours each day. I need to make an effort to get back to that but somethings gotta give.

Freeze Frame

Rage In The Cage

Centerfold

Do You Remember When?

Insane, Insane Again

Flame Thrower

My Musical Evolution – Part 97 Academy Days Crimes For Christmas

A few posts back I told you about how my cousin Flavia would give me an album for Christmas every year. Pat Benatar’s Crimes Of Passion was one of those albums. I feel like I had never heard of Pat Benatar prior to that Christmas. I suppose I could have gotten to Hit Me With Your Best Shot and thought to myself “Oh, this is Pat Benatar.”

Again, I played it relentlessly and grew to love all the tracks on it. Hell Is For Children would have to be my least favorite with I’m Gonna Follow You and Wuthering Heights on the other end of the spectrum.

I likedCrimes Of Passionso much that I set out to acquire more Pat Benatar music. Like I did with KISS, I was on a mission to get all of the albums she had released. This behavior would repeat itself numerous times throughout My Musical Evolution .It is basically the exact opposite of downloading a single song from iTunes. Not only do I want all of the songs on an album, if I really like the artist, I want all of the albums.

Fortunately for my wallet, there was only one other at that point In The Heat Of The Night. I picked that one up but we’ll talk about it later.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

You Better Run

Although I would not experience MTV firsthand until the summer of 1983, I’m told that this was the 2nd video that aired. There’s some triva for you.
I’m Gonna Follow You

Wuthering Heights

Never Wanna Leave You

It seems that my favorite Pat Benatar songs are her softer, gentler songs. Does that mean something?

My Musical Evolution – Part 96 Academy Days Luring Disco Dollies To A Life Of Vice

I’m certain that I heard Tainted Love on the radio or the Rock-ola juke box in the student lounge. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody else that owned this album. I remember reading some scathing reviews on it that were so scathing that they were really funny.

Still for all of its talent and technical limitations. I still like it. Yes,Tainted Love drew me in but there is more to like here. Did they think they were edgy? For me, Soft Cell walked the line of music and humor kind of like an early 80’s version of Flight Of The Conchords. I think the band is just a drum machine and a Casio keyboard. I’ve listened to three of the tracks so far tonight and I’ll admit it, I’m having a good time. The music may not rise to the level of Kansas or Styx. It seems really simplistic and under produced but I’m enjoying it. I find the lyrics amusing. “Isn’t it nice, sugar and spice, luring disco dollies to a life of vice?” or “Experiment with cocaine, LSD and set a bad, bad example”

Even though I found Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret so entertaining, I never bothered to investigate Soft Cell and further. I don’t know anything about the group. Did they record anything else? Where are they now? I may not care to find out but I am glad to own Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.

Frustration

Tainted Love

Sex Dwarf

Chips On My Shoulder

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

All kidding aside, Say Hello, Wave Goodbye really is a pretty decent song. Soft Cell seems to be one of those groups that seems to sterotypically represent music in the early 1980’s.

My Musical Evolution – Part 95 Academy Days Candy-O

I’ve been writing about the Academy Days for a while now and I’m having that nagging format question pop up again. It seems that I’m just going through my Academy Days music album by album. Is that boring? Here’s what is happening behind the scenes. I’m at my computer with my Windows Media Player running. I have created several playlists that hold the music of my various eras. I’ve spent some time tagging my albums so that they fall into the proper lists. Right now i’m listening to the Candy-O album by The Cars. This was originally one of the factory cassettes of that time. I want to include a few tracks to give you the flavor of the music so that you can see how I hopped from stone to stone along the way. Is there a better way to share this with you? As was the case with nearly every cassette and album that I acquired while at the Academy, I played them over and over eventually becoming intimate with each song on the album. I can’t think of any song on any of these albums that I didn’t like. Granted some I like a lot less and some a lot more. As I listen to them now, I can’t help but feel that warm nostalgic sentamentalism for them as they remind me of some excellent moments in my life.

What you’re reading now is and has been 1st drafts. I don’t write and edit. I simply sit here and express myself with my poor typing skills trying to keep up. Occasionally I go back and fix horrendous spelling errors or clarify something grammatically. It isn’t like writing a novel. I’m not developing a story arc or evolving characters. I’m not reviewing music as a critic. I’m just trying to document what I was listenining to at the time and add details if I have any. After all the point is to try to understand how I got here in terms of my musical tastes.

As for Candy-O I can’t think of why I selected it from that Columbia House catalog. Maybe that is really the source of this feeling. Here is an album, my first Cars album and I have no idea why I should have it. Maybe it was the Alberto Vargas cover.

Let’s Go

It’s All I Can Do

Double Life

Candy-O

Got A Lot On My Head

Dangerous Type

My Musical Evolution – Part 94 Academy Days Star Trek

How could I have not mentioned Star Trek? My mind has been so focused on records, radio and other musical influences that Star Trek seems to have slipped my mind. I guess Star Trek may not seem like an obvious musical influence. Oddly enough, it was some cable channel surfing last night that reminded me. Star Trek – The Motion Picture was on one of the movie channels. Was it a coincidence that in My Musical Evolution the soundtrack to Star Trek The Motion Picture fits right here?

I feel like I have been fascinated with Star Trek my entire life. I was 19 months old when Star Trek first aired. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see it then. What I do remember was seeing at 3:30 or something weekdays, after school.

At first my mother was opposed to Star Trek based soley on Spock’s devilish appearance but she must have gotten over it because by the time I spent my first summer in Vermont, I had Star Trek action figures. Gotta give it up for the guy at the toy factory that decided to market dolls for boys as action figures.

I was at the Academy when Star Trek came out. Sure it may have been less than stellar critically. The uniforms might have been heavily influenced by the remnants of the disco era, but it was Star Trek. Even then I recognized that the long sweeping glory shots of the new Enterprise where there for the true fans of the series who hadn’t seen the Enterprise for a decade. Even now, that gratuitous flyby of the Enterprise in space dock is still something I like to watch.

In keeping with the pre-VCR days, I did the next best thing and bought the soundtrack. I was disapppoined that the original TV theme wasn’t included in some way. That being said, of all of the orchestral soundtrack recordings I have, this one is the one that I play most often. Track number 3 Cloud being my favorite. I mention that because that track has an ambient New Age feel to it that will be a big turning point in 10 years.

Main Title

Klingon Battle

Cloud

Enterprise

Ilia’s Theme