Vinyl Disc Three: Pat Benatar to Bill Bruford
As you recall, I am making a giant Spotify playlist with one song from every vinyl record I had. And I am writing about the playlist a cd’s worth at a time as I burn them. For the record, as of this writing, the complete Spotify list is complete through “O”, but the recording of discs has stalled out at “H”. The reason is simple. Many of the albums I had in vinyl I did not replace with cd. The library has a lot, but it takes a while to track down what you need. Anyway, I have a couple of holds that when they come in, I should be able to roll right through to “M” at least.
Pat Benatar
In the Heat of the Night (1979)
Heartbreaker
Don’t have a whole lot to say about Pat Benatar. Basically, just pop rock, but she had a certain energy. In some ways, she sort of accepted the rock girl baton from Linda Ronstadt. And saying there is one rock girl baton says a lot about the music industry. There are a lot of covers on this, her debut album, including a nice cover of Mellencamp’s “I Need a Lover” and Alan Parsons “Don’t Let it Show”.
Pat Benatar
Crimes of Passion (1980)
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
What became Benatar’s signature song. The crew that still went to concerts went to see her at Market Square Arena the following year during the “Precious Time” tour. She was short! Five feet max… on tiptoes.
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Cheap Thrills (1968)
Piece of My Heart
My brother Ray gave this to me for a birthday or Christmas one year, I don’t remember which. It definitely added to my street cred in Music Appreciation in freshman year at Cathedral, although I still got a D. Presumably, Brother Eugene did not care for me reading comics in class, which may have kept me from being valedictorian. Also, one of the greatest album covers of all time, by noted underground comix artist and possible crazy person, R. Crumb.
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult (1972)
Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll
This song was huge when I was in high school. In college, the guys across the hall were sort of proto-metalheads. They loved BÖC, KISS, UFO, etc. Never bought a single album of any of those bands until I had long since graduated.
David Bowie
Aladdin Sane (1973)
Panic in Detroit
This is the first in a line of quite a few Bowie songs. So if he’s not your cup of tea, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Actually the first Bowie album I ever heard was 1974’s “Diamond Dogs”, which WNAP played in its entirety one night at midnight, and I did my crappy mono cassette recording thing.
David Bowie
David Live (1974)
Rock and Roll Suicide
One of the great live albums of the 70’s, although critics at the time did not think so. Recorded in July 1974 at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, it showcases songs from “Diamond Dogs” and “Aladdin Sane”. It is notable for it’s inclusion of Bowie’s first official recording of “All the Young Dudes”, a song he originally wrote for Mott the Hoople.
David Bowie
Young Americans (1975)
Fame
Bowie changing it up again. He described the album as “plastic soul”. I do not think this album has aged particularly well. The title track remains solid, but the rest is pretty weak. John Lennon guests on this particular song, as well as Bowie’s version of “Across the Universe”.
David Bowie
Low (1977)
Sound and Vision
When I first bought this album, I was not a huge fan. But it has grown on me over the years and is now one of my favorite Bowie albums. The top for me is “Ziggy Stardust”, because it is chock full of gems.
David Bowie
“Heroes” (1977)
“Heroes”
This is the first album in the entire list that came to me from my brother Jack’s collection. Sometime in the 90’s, Cheryl and I were visiting Peggy in Park City, and I ended up packing up a box of albums and shipping them home. Jack had way more than one box worth, of course. A lot of his albums I already had, in part because I used to buy him copies of albums I liked. But as I mentioned in discussing Joan Baez, he kind of liked folk and country, and they are not really my cup of tea. And don’t get me started on the Grateful Dead.
David Bowie
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
Ashes to Ashes
What a great album! Starting with the ridiculously powerful “It’s No Game”, complete with Japanese lyrics and Robert Fripp guitar, and straight through to the hits “Ashes to Ashes” and “Fashion”. Bowie also showed he knew how to video. The video for “Ashes to Ashes” really set the mark at the time.
Giorgio Moroder & David Bowie
Cat People Soundtrack (1981)
Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
I had a number of albums that would normally be filed under “Various Artists” or “Soundtracks”. For the purposes of this extended playlist, I decided to put them with the performer I bought the album for in the first place. Arbitrary? Well, it’s my playlist. And only five people are going to read this anyway. Bowie originally intended to include this version on his “Let’s Dance” album but couldn’t get permission, so he re-recorded it in a much faster tempo with fantastic guitar work by Stevie Ray Vaughn. This version is much slower and has a very tribal sound.
Brand X
Unorthodox Behaviour (1976)
Nuclear Burn
Recall that I bought anything by Genesis members. So when Phil Collins joined a bunch of jazz musicians to form Brand X, I was all in. Pretty good jazz fusion album, fairly typical of the mid 70’s. Showcasing Phil’s drumming and Percy Jones’ fretless bass.
Brand X
Product (1979)
Soho
Collins had an on-again, off-again relationship with Brand X, because he was often otherwise engaged (as the frontman of the constantly recording and touring Genesis, duh). This song is almost like a lost Collins’ single. Very poppy.
Brand X
Is There Anything About? (1982)
Ipanaemia
Research tells me this was cobbled together from “Product” outtakes. Apparently not important enough to include in their Spotify discography, so it’s only on my cd version (after having converted the lp to mp3 years ago).
James Brown
20 All-Time Greatest Hits! (1991)
I Got You (I Feel Good)
Hard to believe I didn’t buy this until 1991. Just what it says on the cover. Full of hits by the Godfather of Soul.
Bill Bruford
Feels Good to Me (1978)
Beelzebub
A marvelous solo debut by the former Yes drummer. It is not a rock or prog rock album, though. It is jazz fusion, and it is delightful. This opening track is just nuts, with Allan Holdsworth just wailing away on the electric guitar. The album also features some beautiful vocal numbers, featuring singer and composer Annette Peacock.
Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz
Flags (1985)
Impromptu Too!
If you look for this today, you have to search under Patrick Moraz. Both Spotify and Amazon put the former Yes and Moody Blues keyboardist’s name first. But in record stores in the 80’s, they knew people would look under Bruford, and I always filed it there. Not a favorite album by any means, but definitely accomplished performances, as you might expect.
And that’s Disc Three