"I'm a star, I'm a star, I'm a big bright shining star..."

After finding the second part of the Dazed and Confused soundtrack online (I had owned a "hard copy" before; my ex-wife apparently confiscated it), I got to thinking about the songs they left off both the soundtracks to Dazed and Boogie Nights. Then I thought about the fact that they took the songs out of chronological order from the movie. Which led to IMDB. Which led to watching movies to pick out, then make a list of the order of the songs. Which led to what you have before you now: what I call the "Master Editions" of both Dazed and Confused and Boogie Nights; every song played in the movie in the order in which it was played. I consider these to be anybody's basic Introduction to Rock (Dazed) and Disco/funk/wotaveyou (BN) in The 70's. Both contain over 30 songs (Dazed has some choice quotes from the film alongside the music), so go to IMDB to find the track listings.





Dazed and Confused (Master Edition) Part 1

Dazed and Confused (Master Edition) Part 2

Boogie Nights (Master Edition) part 1

Boogie Nights (Master Edition) part 2

Enjoy!

Kiki re-upped

Here's a re-up of the "Kiki's Delivery Service" with the missing song from the english version, "Soaring" by Sydney Forest (the song that plays during the opening credits).








"Kiki updated"

Enjoy!

The Song Remains the Same

I came to Led Zeppelin relativelly late in life, at the old age of 16 (old for a guy who was already becoming a (temporary) metalhead), due mainly to the conservative nature of my mother, who bought into the Christian propaganda that LZ was satanic, especially "Stairway to Heaven". Zoso, of course, was the first LZ album I bought, but when I found the '73 concert film from MSG buried behind a bunch of Duran Duran and Michael Jackson concert tapes in Video Depot in 1987, my life changed.

Funny, to think that many felt that this was not their best live work at all (Richard Cole even said so in his book, Hammer of the Gods) but until the creation of the internet and bootlegs that didn't cost $25 a freakin' CD but rather free thanx to filesharing and Torrents, this was the ONLY LZ concert I had access to, until Live at the BBC and How the West was Won was released. I still think the versions of "Since I've been Loving U", "No Quarter", and "The Rain Song" are the best I've heard so far. The funky visuals from the film, especially "Dazed and Confused", lend a lot as well.

This was grabbed from Utorrents as a FLAC file, which I converted to 320 kbps.








..."This is a song that takes in a manner our forefathers were very used to... The cosmic energy - everyone goes 'YEAH' - BASH!"

"I think this is a song of hope..."

Enjoy!

"...where were you when we were gettin' high?"

This didn't stick with me until later on, although, as everyone else in the U.S., I first heard of them with "Wonderwall". Like Rumours, I had to have something to be depressed about before songs such as "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" meant much to me. In 1996, I simply felt that they were a pretty decent Beatles homage (right down to the Lennon glasses Liam wears in the video). In the past few years, I enjoy them much more, at least the first 2 albums and their concerts from 95-96.








"...don't look back in anger, I heard ya say..."

Enjoy!

"Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?"

Pink Floyd The Wall meant a lot more to me when I was younger and more angst-ridden (rather than just plain ol' depressed). The album was better than the movie, although I've never seen the movie high like so many people have advised me to (I did listen to the album on a walkman whilst stoned to the gills on good weed in '92. Once was fucking enough. Trauma such as that only needs to happen once in a lifetime. I won't even listen to The Wall whilst drinking, much less under the influence of anything stronger).

This is the Official Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Ultradisc™ 24 KT Gold version. Although it claims to have superior sound, I guess I would have to have bought one of those $10,000 Technics or Harmon Kardon to really appreciate it, not a $90 Sony boombox from Wal-mart. But, hey, I could get what I could afford. At the time, this set cost about $40 at Slip Disc (our local independant record store at the time); now it runs up to $87 on Ebay. I got it for 4 bucks in 1991 from a friend who obviousily valued cigarettes more than music. Lucky me. Lucky you if this might be what you're looking for.

ripped at 320 kbps. If I knew how to rip in FLAC, I would, since this would probably sound better in lossless...





Disc 1





Disc 2

Enjoy!

The second best album of 1987...

I was aware of U2 before this album came out, or, specifically, before "With or Without You" first played on the radio; some friends of mine in marching band told me about them, around the time The Unforgettable Fire was out, but I didn't invest my lunch money into that record, then (that's how I bought much of my music from 10th grade until 12th; I saved up 7 days of lunch money and had enough to grab the tape on sale at Camelot. When the newest releases were on sale in 1987, they were usually $6.99-7.99).

It was the haunting "With..." that drew me in, plus "I Still haven't Found What I'm Looking For", which fit me to a T, with all the crushes I had going at the time. I got the tape on the Fourth of July, 1987, the same day my mother bought me a Corona electronic typewriter (the equivalent of a word processer in 1992 and Word for Windows nowadays) so I didn't have to write longhand all the time.

This remains my favorite U2 album, with Achtung Baby a fair-to-middlin' second. This is the expanded version that was released a year ago, with b-sides and other misc.





Disc 1





Disc 2

Enjoy!

"Number nine...number nine...number nine..."

It's hard to pinpoint just one Beatles album to call their greatest. Most magazines state that Sgt. Pepper is their best, while others name Revolver or Rubber Soul. To me, it's always been the White Album, their least cohesive of all, at least when it came to true collaboration (Paul even overdubbed Ringo's drums with his own playing on "Back in the USSR" because he was pissed about the initial take). Even with everyone basically using each other as a glorified studio band on their personal songs, the sheer scale of the work is monumental. I must just have a thing for the audacity of double-albums (See Sign O the Times, Kid A/Amnesiac, 1999, Mellon Collie, The Wall, etc., etc.)




LP 1

LP 2

Enjoy!

"Disarm you with a smile..."

Despite all the grunge hoopla in '92 and '93 (and I bought into it, just a bit; I never did the flannel shirt or unwashed hair thing and although I enjoyed the movie Singles, I appreciate it more as an artifact of the early '90's than any kind of Graduate or Breakfast Club generational statement), the band that came out of that time period that meant the most to me was the Smashing Pumpkins. Nirvana was great and Nine Inch Nails articulated a good bit of my angst (although, like the previous post, Rumours, I didn't truly appreciate Trent Reznor's lyrics until I was around 30, not 23), but the Pumpkins, at least with Dream and Mellon Collie, made me feel that this was the band that I would have founded, if I had learned how to play guitar or drums, write music, and convinced others to play in a band.

It was, in a nutshell, how someone felt when, after 4 or 5 years after escaping high school, they still haven't quite gotten over the trauma. I wasn't really picked on (I was 6'3" and about 220 in 11th grade; the principal was more mad about the fact that I wouldn't play football or basketball than he was about my long hair and suspect friends), nor did I not have any friends. I guess that I engaged in a internalized Theater of Class Warfare from seventh grade until I graduated from college. Whatever the ruling class was (Preppies, Jocks, Frat Boys, Bowheads (what My Crowd called sorority chicks in the early '90's, because they all wore color-coordinated ribbons tied in a bow in their hair), I hated it and refused to play the game. Not that they seemed to miss my company, anyway. I most certainily was not Klebold and Harris (although I did wear a black trenchcoat 10 years before they made it verboten to wear to school; however, my inspiration was Ralph Macchio from Teachers and Bender from The Breakfast Club, not mass murder or Sting from WCW), but I made sure that everyone knew that I hated the caste system in school.

Anyway, nevermind my hang-ups, here's the Pumpkins...






"Who wants that honey?"

"Thunder only happens when its raining..."

There are several albums that you can't really appreciate or even fully understand until you reach a certain age, or, at least, a certain level of maturity. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is definitely such an album for me. Like Beck's Sea Change, John Mellencamp's The Lonesome Jubilee, and several of Prince's songs, such as "If I was your Girlfriend", "Forever in My Life", and "Adore", certain music requires experience in living. Sure, I remember listening to "Dreams" or "Go Your Own Way" on the radio, both as a kid on 92J and as a teenager on Rock 99 (the 1st 'classic rock' station to come to central Alabama), but they were just great tunes, then. Sign O the Times has been my favorite album since it was released in 1987, but it took growing up and finding out what the Hell Prince meant in some of those songs to understand the music.

Now, after marriage and divorce, cancer and recovery, Rumours means more to me than it ever did when I first bought the album (for a whole dollar at a flea market, on vinyl). "Go Your Own Way"? That's exactly how I felt in 2001. "...When the rain washes you clean... you'll know." Boy, do I ever.





"...Players only love you when you're playing."

Enjoy!

Magic on the Sax

There's not much that I can say that someone hasn't already said about Coltrane, so here's all I'm gonna say. Although I had heard his name being dropped by Bono two or three times on Rattle and Hum, and a buddy who dallied in jazz had mentioned him, It wasn't until Spike Lee properly introduced me to Coltrane in Mo' Better Blues that True Love hit. Upon finding it at the Laser's Edge in Homewood, life has been a little bit better.

Also included, below the 1st link, is Coltrane's next best work, "Alabama", an abbreviated version from the Malcolm X soundtrack.









A Love Supreme

"Alabama"

Enjoy!

"I've got a tape I want to play."

Until about a year ago, I thought that Prince's 1987 concert film for his Sign O the Times tour was the best concert film ever made, although many critics at the time felt that either "The Last Waltz" or the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" was much better. I saw "Last Waltz" at a rather young age (14; before I could really develop a true taste for good music), so I wasn't as impressed (at the time) compared to the baby boomers who rave(d) over it.

"Stop Making Sense", however, was out of my grasp for a long time. As most people in Alabama, I was introduced to the Heads via "Burning Down the House". I then picked up True Stories, after reading about them in Rolling Stone (Don't laugh; in Northeast Alabama, Rolling Stone was more hip than reading Village Voice or NME in bigger cities; I was the only one at my high school who even read rock criticism. Everyone else read the metal mags). After buying Naked in 1989, I didn't think much about them until college when they released Sand in the Vaseline. Finally listening to their entire breadth of work (Little Creatures was even hard to find at Camelot, the best record store in the 5-county area; remember, this is 1991 in Alabama), I was floored.

Although I like R.E.M. and U2 better, as groups go, Talking Heads was beyond anything I had heard before, especially the early stuff. I read more about them, seeing that they came from the NY/CBGB scene, but, to me, as much as I like them as well, the Ramones and Television didn't have anything on them. Perhaps my love for Prince's music, and his dense sound, made the Heads more palpable to my ears.

I decided to give what I feel is the best of all possible worlds, the soundtrack to Stop Making Sense. In a town where the idea of a concert film on DVD or tape in a rental shop is Miley Cyrus or Toby Keith, I had to go the route of Utorrent for this one; Netflix is not in the cards since I've avoided credit cards like the plague ever since one of my closest friends got royally screwed up in college by overspending, so that leaves Netflix and even Amazon out of the question, unless they take money orders. If you haven't seen it yet, see it. Until then, enjoy the magic of the Heads.




"...Home is where i want to be, but i guess i'm already there..."

Enjoy!

The best band of the past 15 years

Most think they're too hyped, some would agree with me totally. Radiohead, in my humble opinion, is the best band to at least emerge in the past 15 years (I'm not counting R.E.M., U2, Talking Heads, etc. since they emerged well before 1993). OK Computer is a modern masterpiece, whilst Kid A/Amnesiac (I treat them as a double-album, in a way) redefined what music was supposed to be in the new century.

These have been uploaded countless times on the web, but here's those albums at 320 kbps, which I got off Utorrent.

"...hope that you choke, that you choke..."

"Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon..."

"Well of course Id like to sit around and chat..."

Enjoy!

The best Album ever...

...Sign O the Times and its two predecessors, The Crystal Ball and Dream Factory. Sign is easily the best of The Kid's grand career, but the funny thing about it is that, originally, as most Kid's fans know, there was a project with he and the Revolution called Dream Factory, then, after the dissolution of the Revolution, a 3-LP set named Crystal Ball (the whole story can be found at its Wiki page).

First up is Dream Factory:

"This is what it's like at the Dream Factory..."
"...Africa, Cap'n Crunch..."

Next, Crystal Ball... (the image is for the outtake album that came out in the late '90's, not for the '86 album)



LP 1
LP 2
LP 3


and finally, Sign O the Times...



"Shut Up, already...Damn!"
"Would you let me kiss you down there...you know, where it counts..."


Enjoy!

The Best Albums Ever...

...or, at least, my favorites. Let me start off with the fact that, thanks to the internet, I now own almost every single album that I've ever had or wanted over the past 37 years of my life. Since I started this blog, I've decided to forgo the ban on compleat albums and post the 20 or so of the ones that I feel are the best ever. Notice that there are no Led Zeppelin, Elton John or Elvis records here; that's because I consider their entire work to be wonderful and can't possibly break it down to one or two albums. Prince is the same way, after a fashion, but I can provide the two best, including what I feel to be the best albums of all time: Sign O the Times.

Since Prince is famous for having lawyers scan the internet for his work so as to delete it and/or sue, I'll simply refer to him as The Kid, after his nom de plume in Purple Rain.

But first, let me give the best two soundtracks for all time, or, at least for one, the soundtrack that has absolutely no filler. First, Vince Gualraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas, then Trent Reznor's Natural Born Killers. (Yes, this is one Hell of a pair - yen and yang- but it works)

"Christmastime is Here..."



"A moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers."

"Well, let's give that key lime pie a day in court, and a big old glass of non-fat milk, if you please."

More Miyazaki...

Here's the soundtracks for Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away...

Howl's

Spirited Away

Enjoy!

"You'd think they'd never seen a girl and a cat on a broom before."

Miyazaki's work has long been my favorite animated films
since my childhood, and just about the best (next to Spirited Away)
is Kiki's Delivery Service. A quaint tale about a 13-year-old witch
and her cat discovering a larger world outside of her childhood
home, in a Europe that might have existed if World War II had
never happened (a reoccurring theme in Miyazaki's work (see
Howl's Moving Castle, as well). This was the first of his films
that I saw, after Disney licensed his movies in the 90's, although
I had heard of My neighbor Totoro. My nephew and nieces at the
time loved it. The music was wonderful, also, and here's the sound-
track that I found on a Japanese social board. Also is included, on the
third track, the English song that played during the end credits, "I'm
gonna Fly" (I couldn't find "Soaring" anywhere at the moment).

Enjoy!


"I'm gonna Fly..."

Story of our Lives, Vol. 0.5, part the second

Here's the second part of the 80's collection, covering roughly from 1986 to early 1989.

(track listings are in comments)

81 Honda Civic ('86-89; named after the car that I was given permission to drive by my mother after I turned 16. This is mostly pop music with some club/dance that was played mostly on Q104)

John Lander's Hit Music USA ('87-88; named after a syndicated show that aired on Saturday nights on Q104)

Camelot Music ('87-89; stuff that wasn't played on the radio but was discovered when the best record store of my youth (before the arrival of Slip Disc in Saks) came to Gadsden Mall. A great hodge-podge of things)

R.I.P. Christy C. ('85-'88; the most personal of this collection. In tribute to a girl that I held a debilitating crush for about 3 years. The music in this file is still hard for me to listen to at times, although after I wrote her a letter telling her how much I liked her, the love-sickness died away. She was always dating someone else, anyway, and by the time I got around to writing her (I was too chicken-shit to tell here face-to-face), she was practically engaged to the man that she would stay married to until her untimely passing in a car accident a couple of years back. So, this is my Ultimate Mix-Tape to Christy)

Enjoy!

Story of our Lives, vol. 0.5, part the first

After reviving the old 'Story' series and trying to reconstruct it in mp3-cd format, I decided to search my memory (and some of my old tapes from junior high school) and recreate what I had recorded off of Q104, 92J, and I-95 (local radio stations) back in the day. Most were the usual hits: Prince, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Cyndi Lauper, etc. However, there were a few gems that might have been more familiar to someone living in a more "hip" town, but in backwoods Alabama, they might have been considered 'punk' (according to the conservative tastes of my peers) or 'strange': Baltimora's 'Tarzan Boy', Bronski Beat's 'Smalltown Boy', Adam Ant. Hell, even Prince was considered a freak at my high school, which had the highest levels of homophobia (which I was half-way part of, since I didn't know any better, and if anyone was gay at our school, they sure didn't tell anyone there) and teen auto fatalities.

Anyway, here's a few files for those who might want to hear what I was playing on my Sears boombox back in '84 and '85.

Night Tracks (late '83-'84; named after the TBS knockoff of MTV; I grew up in the only part of Calhoun County that didn't have cable, so I could watch this via a TV antenna booster on channel 17)

Avanti-Omni (1984; named after the cheap 3 for $1 tapes that I used to buy at Big B drugs before I learned about sound fidelity. At the time, all I cared about was getting the song on tape for my boombox and/or Walkman)

Sony-Nitetime (1984-85; moved up to Sony tapes in '85. Nitetime is named for certain songs that I remember being played on Q104 right before I went to sleep at night. With the lights out, the only illumination was the red led meter.)

Band Bus (these are much larger):
Frosh (1985-86; my freshman year and first year in the marching band. We played music when we went to away games and competitions and my boombox was the loudest we had, so I played DJ even when I was 14)

Soph (1986-1987; sophomore (and last) year in the band.

(track listings in comment section)

Enjoy! If any questions, just shoot a comment.

(I know the Frosh file is big - 226 megs - but if you download anything, grab that one first; the sheer breadth of pop music from '85 to '86 is worth it)

"Automatic for th' people"

Don't know if any of you have caught the '87 documentary about the Athens scene around the time of R.E.M. and the B-52's (titled "Athen, GA inside/out") or not, but here's the soundtrack, which features the bands that didn't crack the indie scene but might be familiar with those who lived in record stores in the mid-to-late '80's or had a cool cousin from Atlanta. If you have Dish Network and have the Documentary Channel, it might come on again one day; I was smart and recorded it on videotape, although Pink still has the tape and I can't think to get it back.

Athens, GA Inside/Out

"Do you remember the first time..."

In response to a request for a Pulp concert I had, here it is, Pulp at Glastonbury in June of '95.

Enjoy!

"Pretend you never went to school..."