Talking Heads -- Remain in Light
- Artist: Talking Heads
- Title: Remain in Light
- Year: 1980
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 10
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1980 – Probably some department store, or maybe as a gift.
- Keeper: Yes
Genius. All eight songs on “Remain in Light” are excellent, and decades later I’ve still haven’t heard anything as original and interesting. Of course, Adrian Belew and Brian Eno also played major parts in the making of this record.
This is one of the first records to be added to my collection. “Remain in Light” was also the first CD I bought. One tragic note here is that I liked the artwork on the album liner so much that I decided to make a book cover out of it. I know, I know. It was stupid, but I had the coolest book cover in my junior high for the week or two before it fell apart. Another unfortunate thing, my older friends had the earlier records and since I got to hear them all the time I never picked them up.
Making a list–Find the cost of opportunity
Doing it right–Facts are useless in emergencies
More about “Remain in Light”
More about Talking Heads
- Artist: The Saints
- Title: Monkey Puzzle
- Year: 1980
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 7
- Owner: Mary
- Acquired: ? Mary’s already asleep so who knows…
- Keeper: Yes
This is one record by The Saints that I’m just not that familiar with. I never bought “Monkey Puzzle”, but lucky for us Mary did. I remember liking it last week when I played it, but it’s been a long week people. Please mister mover man deliver my turntable and records tomorrow!
- Artist: Madness
- Title: Absolutely
- Year: 1980
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 10
- Owner: Mary
- Acquired: 1982 ? – Olsson’s in Georgetown, DC.
- Keeper: Yes
Yesterday the packing tornado ripped the turntable out of my sweaty hands and it’s about consume this keyboard. The moving truck comes tomorrow morning, and what’s not already in a box will be shortly. But, yes, I did in fact play the records I hope to log over the next week in flurry of rock and roll yesterday.
Today is an “M” day. Madness, the band, strikes again. They’re always popular at our house, no pun intended. This record, “Absolutely”, has the super-fun-hit-that-everybody-knows… “Baggy Trousers.” On matters of Madness I always defer to Mary.
Me: What would you rate this?
Mary: A 10.
Me: “Absolutely”?
Mary: It’s Madness!
Not sure I like it as much as “One Step Beyond”, but she has a point. It is Madness.
- Artist: Killing Joke
- Title: Killing Joke
- Year: 1980
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 10
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: Not sure when or where, just glad I have it.
- Keeper: Yes
I am ex-haus-ted. I stayed up way too late and then went to meet my friend Ollen Douglass for breakfast, at 8 AM! It’s a modern world; who gets up that early? On top of that today has been a packing frenzy, because tomorrow I’ll be useless. I’m getting surgery to remove a plate and eight screws from my clavicle. Fun!
This Killing Joke record is probably in my all-time top five. I can’t begin to describe how unique and just plain excting it is. They influenced way more bands than most people know. Metallica had the class to cover their song “The Wait” from this album. They have even been successfully plagerized. A lot has been written about how Nirvana stole the riff from a later Killing Joke song, “Eighties”, for their hit “Come As You Are.” Keyboards and heavy riffs together and it works beyond belief. Faith No More should’ve followed this example.
I highly recommend this article about Killing Joke at Wikipedia.
- Artist: Gang of Four
- Title: Yellow EP
- Year: 1980
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 9
- Owner: Tracy / Mary – We both had copies.
- Acquired: Not sure when or where. Early 1980s…
- Keeper: Yes
“Yellow EP” is the first Gang of Four record I’m logging, but it was their second release. I should’ve pulled “Entertainment” instead, but since we’ve packed all but a couple dozen records until we get to Asheville, “Yellow” it is.
Gang of Four is one of my all-time favorite bands. I was only 13 or 14 when this came out. Hanging out with my friend John Hurlock is probably how I first got into the band. His older brother Mike had a killer record collection and was into just about everything worth being into. This music is so edgy, political, minimalistic, and just plain arty it’s a wonder they were as popular and influential as they were. Sometimes music is just too good to be ignored, no matter how weird it is.
Tracks included here are: “Outside The Trains Don’t Run on Time”, “He’d Send in The Army”, “It’s Her Factory”, and my favorite “Armalite Rifle.”
Read all about them at Wikipedia.
