just making a playlist of albums that really shaped me, albeit mostly musically but Im sure emotionally as well. Now I could list every Costello record but that would be unfair. Besides my love at first site and sound with Elvis was an 8 track of my aim is true my brother in law gave and his first appearance on Saturday Night Live. I wanted to list only the ones that I truly remember placing that needle down for the first time and then again and again that really became my core. Those needle to vinyl moments that i remember to this day; The one common thread of course is I can remember all the inside sleeves with the lyrics. Pulling out that sleeve looking and hoping for the lyrics was like dumping out the cracker jack box or opening the cereal box from the bottom to get the prize. I can remember decades of disappointments wen the artist didnt include the lyrics - no Internet back then. I have four older sisters so my first memories are of 45s. Red Rubber Ball, Windy and a Beatles song or two. I also remember hearing Helen Reddy and Carol King for the very first times. Not ashamed to say, Barry Manilow might have been my First and I can vividly remember the Pipin Soundtrack of all things really moving me. And then it hit, dont know where they came from, It was definitely pre- riding my bike 10 miles to the record store and long before my trips to the Village in NYC to buy records. But there on my bed, everyday was Meatloaf: Bat Out of Hell, Billy Joel; The Stranger and Glass Houses and Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town. This was my soundtrack for the first two awkward isolated years of high school. Then came This Years Model by Elvis Costello and the English Beat record Just Cant Stop, I would never be the same after that. All my peers were listening to bands I had never even heard of LOL Led Zep, Aerosmith, Even though in grammar school my walls in my bedroom were plastered casterd with ginormous KISS posters and I got sent to the principles office everyday for wearing makeup or doodling the foursome, they were short lived in my heart & soul. What did in bed itself in my spine was Kevin Rowland and Dexys Midnight Runners...no no not Come on Ilene, I picked the needle up from that song so many times its prolly still a pristine track on the original record as it sits in my sons Nathaniel Burts closet. Nope, the song Lets Make This Precious took me to a place i had never seen before and couldnt explain to anyone. Oh I tried, it got me stuck in lockers in high school, but obviously no one else could relate. Plan B, Show Them Now, Old...Like hearing Gospel for the first time. The next needle to vinyl moment I will never forget is ABC. The Lexicon of Love. Dear god what a combination of classical strings and baroque period french horns an angelic voice piercing my soul and lyrics to explain to MaryAnn Fatteross Hughes everything I couldnt say, things I didnt know the human heart could feel! And hidden underneath it all, unbeknownst to me, the great Trevor Horn, like the conducted hidden in the orchestra pit. And just when I thought I would never need another record to fill my holes. I put the needle to Phil Colins: Hello I must be Going. Starring Earth Wind and Fire horns. Now I KNOW that track if not that whole record is warped from me playing it over and over and over again. Like China slashed into me like lighting bolts and Dont Let Him Steal Your Heart Away is prolly the foundation of every sad song I write on the piano to this day. Finally I am able to sneak to NYC and shop for records. I remember buying the Lovers Speak album without ever hearing of them. Something about the artwork I remember was calling to me. I used to look for instruments, titles of songs and if it was recorded in England. Bought my House Martins record same way. Anyway needle to vinyl for the very first time on The Lovers Speak record absolutely attached itself like a musical parasite to my insides and is with me just as strong to this day. Cock Robin and the very first Everything But The Girl records were musical appendages that still stream from my current digital world and floods my mind and soul with memories of a simpler non immediate gratification time. Of course your wondering where my mentor, my personal Jesus, my professor, my vinyl step dad is through all of this, Mr Costello was there every beat, every note, every word...Trust is an album I will always hold dear. I remember every scratch and click . Every skip and every heartbeat of that record. And for some isolated reason all I remember of Blood & Chocolate was Hope Your Happy Now. Elvis taught me what that ache in my heart was. Bitterness. He taught me to use that to drown the sorrow of a broken heart. And Hope Your Happy Now is the epidemy of all things bitter. And well naturally after you learn bitterness you follow that up with self loathing, and Morrissey and Johnny Marr did just that. No better way to listen to The Smiths then with teenage angst and a 1980 record player. They say, who we are is where we have been and where we came from. My legacy cant be found on a map, my DNA cant be found under a microscope. But if you are looking for my lineage,put a little needle to the vinyl. Play anyone of the above mentioned records. You could skip the Helen Reddy : ) But your in depth look wouldnt be complete without The Cars first record, Eddie Moneys I Think Im in Love, Nick Lowes Cruel to Be Kind, Cheap Tricks Surrender and The Beach Boys, Wouldnt it Be Nice,
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:54:26 +0000
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