Confessions of St. Jaybee: My Cover Story

Dear Mike:

I have a confession.  I’ve committed the sin of lameness. (Eleventh Commandment, I believe). I’m telling you because I need dispensation.

What did I do, you ask? Well, I went to see a cover band.  

I told you it was lame.

But I have an excuse! The band was covering Television. Get that? A. Television. Cover. Band. I didn’t think such things existed either.

I’m aware of the many such bands that play at BB Kings all time. They imitate Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, U2, Led Zeppelin, etc. You name a classic rock band, and there’ll be a tribute band for them. We even took my son and nephew to a “Beatles Brunch” there, but I had an excuse: it was for the kids. Yeah, sure.

How did this come to pass, you might ask? No? I’ll tell you anyway.

I found out about it through my trusty skint email, which announced a “Classic Album Night” at the Brooklyn Bowl. I could have ignored it easily enough, but when it said that the first of the three albums to be featured would be Television’s Marquee Moon, I did a double take. The second would be the Police’s Synchronicity, which would get Mrs. Jaybee to come along. The third was something by Pat Benatar, which I couldn’t even bear to stay for, even if it meant getting to mock people - my favorite pastime.

So we headed for the Brooklyn Bowl, where you can eat, drink, bowl and listen to music all in one place, and simultaneously if you really try. But they don’t recommend it. The main dish is fried chicken, and I expect they’ve had their share of flying bowling balls due to greasy fingers.

I would never try such a thing myself, having trouble with even a single activity involving motor skills and heavy objects. Besides, the last time I was in a bowling alley, I was having a bite to eat with friends while waiting for a lane to open up. Good times. Beers, burgers and lively conversation. So lively in fact that, at one point, I got distracted and tried to drink from the ketchup bottle while pouring beer on my burger.

So Mrs. Jaybee advised sticking to the eating drinking and listening, and leaving the bowling to the experts..

There were some pathetic geezers there, too, who didn’t know any better than to stand alone on the dance floor in their sandals and socks. But mostly it was young-ish people. Though  band was old enough to talk about “flipping the record over” half way through the set.

And Little Johnny and the Jewels did all right.  They were a bit sloppy, and didn’t try to look or sing like Tom Verlaine, thank god.  And they played bitchin’ guitars.  What more could I ask?

Then came New York’s Finest (get it?) to cover the Police. Now, Mrs. Jaybee is a big Police fan, which was the only way she was going to go.  And me? Well, I have a blog post drafted - but never posted - entitled “F*ck the Police”.  Which may be an overreaction. I don’t hate them. I just never loved them.

And why not? They put out five good to excellent records. Their musicianship is impeccable. They have their own, instantly recognizable sound.  Sting is an excellent songwriter, a good singer, a humanitarian, and damned good-looking, too. Ask Mrs. Jaybee. (Ahh, I think we’re getting to the root of the problem now....)

Television, on the other hand, only managed two studio albums, and one live one before breaking up. Some fans don’t even care for the second album. The leader sings/looks weird, and was considered to be almost as big an asshole as Lou Reed.  

And yet I like Television more. Maybe I just like my bands ugly. That way, I don’t get jealous.

But New York’s Finest came roaring out of the gate! (Maybe “roaring” is the wrong word. The singer is clearly Sting’s illegitimate son, who inherited dad’s high voice.)

And while the band played (perfectly, by the way) song after excellent song (except Andy Summer’s hilarious “Mother”, maybe because it was so un Police-like? Hey what kind of commitment is that?  Is it a Classic Album Night or what?) I had to admit to really respecting Synchronicity. It was as good as I remembered.

But as good as that is, I still don’t love it. Like Led Zeppelin IV, it’s a record whose popularity is completely understandable, but one that I’ll never fully embrace.   

And why am I giving this so much thought, anyway? Doesn’t that just make the whole enterprise that much more pathetic?  After all, don’t I pride myself on being the one who was always trying to broaden his horizons?  And here I am spending my time and money on a simulated experience.

Me - the one who once scoffed at a bouncer who tried to get a $14 cover out of me because the band inside “sounded just like the Doors”, and who went to the bar half a block away, the one with no cover and perfectly good blues band playing?

Maybe it was the fourteen bucks...

So Mike, get back to me and tell me that it was just a lark, that you don’t get to see a Television cover band every day, and that we never got to see the real thing to begin with.

And most of all, as I approach my 55th birthday, that I’m not the pathetic geezer I’m beginning to suspect I am.

Your friend (and new AARP member),

Jaybee

Being and Nothingness, or Jaybee Sartre's Virtual Record Store Trip, or Something

One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to buy more digital music. My goal was to make 50% of my music purchases mp3s. I’d dipped my toe in the digital water the year before with tUnE-YarDs
W H O K I L L , which , coincidentally, was my top record of the year.

My only complaint so far is that, with no jewelry case cover to look at, the tiny picture of the cover, which looks like this:


reminds me of nothing so much as a Subway sandwich ad.  Just looking at it makes me hungry. (Someone please tell me what this is.)

But above and beyond my obsession with seeming cool to young people, there was the very practical possibility of literally running out of room in our house.

Most family members would like to be preferred over inanimate objects, so when a pile of one falls into a pile of the other, said family members prefer that I save them first. Daughter has stack of CDs fall on her, daughter prefers that father pull her out before checking if the CDs are scratched, etc. Quite reasonable if you’re normal.

Thus, another good reason to take advantage of the odd iTunes gift card and Amazon sales to get mp3s whenever possible.

I’d already resolved to get used instead of new CDs whenever possible. To be environmentally correct? Of course! The fact that they are cheaper never entered my mind...

So this would be another year of great music, just taking up less room and costing less. This is called Continuous Quality Improvement.

So how’m I doing?  Let’s see so far:


January:

First there was Radiohead’s Amnesiac and David Bowie’s Lodger. An of-the-moment record store link trip yielded these two kind-of-want-to-haves-and-at-$4.99-who-can-resists?

I thought that would be it for the month. Every year I have a standing Slow the F*ck Down With the Buying of the Music Resolution that rarely lasts the winter. And this year, not even January.

Thanks to Amazon’s monthly $5 mp3 sale.  And for January, instead of the usual 100 albums, they’ve got 1,000! Now, I’ve finally learned how to keep this kind of thing under control, and after writing up a list of 50 possible buys, I settle for two:  Essential Leonard Cohen and Wild Flag’s debut..

So, what was my score at the end of this first month of the year?

MP3: 2
Used: 0
Cheap: 2
Brand New: 0

So far, so good!


February:

So my son Michael mentions Television (a girl he knows brings them up - the Official Best Possible Reason to Talk About Music) which results in a major (at least 3 CDs worth) mp3 buy, and using a gift card no less! I’d call it a two-fer but it also resulted in a blog post.  

Another trip to the record store unearthed two jazz cheapies: Sidney Bechet Ken Burns’ Jazz and Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul

MP3: 5
Used: 0
Cheap: 7
Brand New: 0

Okay, not bad, but I can do better, right?


March:

Used record store Other Music strikes again.  This time with Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala.

MP3: 5
Used: 1
Cheap: 7
Brand New: 0

Meh.


May:

Cabin Fever motivated me to plan a trip to both record stores once the weather got better. This resulted in cheapies Beck Sea Change and Wu Tang Clan Enter the Wu Tang, and used Bright Eyes Lifted and the Best of Bush. In a fit of remorse, I realized I could have gotten Bush as an MP3 for even cheaper.  So I’m penalizing myself by marking it as New. Ouch!

MP3: 5
Used: 3
Cheap: 8
Brand New: 1

I appear to be succeeding on the cheapness front (lots of practice) I’m paying the price on the environmental one. (Except that I’m not buying something brand new and thus taking up new resources, thus my carbon footprint blah, blah, blah...)


June:

A surprise while on a visit to a friend’s art show - it’s taking place in a used CD store! Quick! Retreat! Ah, too late! Thus Liz Phair’s Whitechocolatespaceegg, the Hives Veni Vidi Viscious, the Soft Boys Underwater Moonlight and Wire’s Pink Flag.

But I try to make up for it by going to my iTunes card. (The old more-is-somehow-less argument.) and get
Eno’s Music for Airports.  

But at this point, like global warming, I hit my 350 and there was no going back for room on the CD shelf. May our children’s children forgive us! ( Well, me anyway.)

MP3: 6
Used: 3
Cheap: 13
Brand New: 1


July

Amazon comes to the rescue twice with Bob Marley’s Legend and Postal Service’s Give Up each on sale for $2.99

MP3: 8
Used: 3
Cheap: 15
Brand New: 1

Which is how it stands right now. All things considered this doesn't suck exactly, but I've got work to do.


But Steinski Asks What Does it All Mean?:

But I miss the thing-ness of the CD (just like I missed the size of the LP, with the possibility that the cover could be a thing of beauty. Maybe even framed.  (Well, no, I never actually framed an album cover, but that was for convenience sake.  I was too lazy to do it, and besides what if I wanted to hear the record?)

And I miss the CD covers. I miss the liner notes, even though I can’t read them anymore.

The more serious and unexpected side effect of this foray into mp3s is that I am beginning to lose track of what I actually have and don’t have.  When I got Postal Service, I also got some free song along with it.  Do I remember what song it is? No. Did I Even Listen to It? No.  Do I Care? No.

So when you get down to it, does it even matter whether I “have” it or not?

When you have a physical CD, you put it on. (This isn’t even getting into the area of If You Have It, You Can Burn It Right Onto Your PC So That When You Want to Play It, You Just Look It Up On Your Computer discussion.)

But if you only have the mp3 you look it up.

Aand if you don’t even “have” it, just search for it on Spotify or Youtube.  

What used to be the very solid demarcation line of ownership - you either have it or wait for it to get played on the radio - has virtually disappeared.

And when my PC’s hard disk dies, do I “lose” these albums? (Please let me know. I’m too lazy to find out.) And is it then pathetic of me to burn the album onto a blank CD that I then lose in my basement? I would have treated the official CD better.

And will we end up looking back on all this with embarrassment, like we do when we see 8 track tapes (which I’m still replacing)?

Well I never said I wasn’t getting old...

Driving Wheel, My Ass

Most of you know me as a man of many talents. Husband, father, writer (work emails and Facebook statuses, mostly), and avid eater of onion rings. But what many of you don’t know is that I’m also a musician.  

What instrument, you ask? The steering wheel, of course.

The one in our mini van.

Not familiar with that instrument, you say? Of course you are! You see a steering wheel every time you get into your car.  I understand that most people think it’s only use is for steering the car.  But I’ve discovered its true purpose.

The steering wheel is a multi-faceted instrument that can enhance whatever musical experience you are having in your vehicle. Whether it’s a song on the radio, a CD or a sing-along (group or solo), the steering wheel can make it better. I know. I’ve done it.

Who hasn’t tapped along on the odd inanimate (or animate, come to think of it) object, to simulated the drumming to a song on the radio?  Well, the steering wheel lends itself not only to that, but other instruments as well.  

Did you ever feel those little ridges on the wheel? Some people assume they’re there to give you a better grip while steering. Wrong! They’re there to simulate the frets on a guitar’s fretboard.  Or, if you like, the keys on a piano.

So you see, you’ve got an extremely versatile instrument there in your hands! (And guys, can you ever be told that too often?) Depending on the song, it can be used to play a bass, rhythm or lead guitar. Add to that keyboards or aforementioned drums (wind instruments are a bit of a stretch, but I’ve done it) and a synthesizer seems kind of lame (and doesn’t come standard with most vehicles).

During the course of a single song, you could play any or all of these instruments, but I frown on this practice. Unless it’s a great song, you should really stick to a single instrument. There are other musicians in the band, after all. It’s not all about you.

And doing solos while turning can be a little tricky.  But if you do it right, it’s can be quite thrilling.

We recently drove to D.C. (five hours on a good day, eight that day), which meant bringing the right CDs along for the trip.  And what better CD to bring (and to show the versatility of  the steering wheel) than the Beatles Abbey Road?

Here are just some of the parts you can play from that record:
Come Together - bass, drums
Something - lead guitar
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer - rhythm guitar, piano
Oh Darlin’ - rhythm guitar, piano
Octopus’s Garden - lead guitar
She’s So Heavy - lead, rhythm and bass guitar
Here Comes the Sun - acoustic guitar
Because - okay, you got me there, but harpsicord is doable
You Never Give Me Your Money - piano, lead guitar and bass
Sun King - rhythm and bass guitar
Mean Mr. Mustard - Rhythm guitar
Polythene Pam - Rhythm and lead
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - lead guitar
Golden Slumbers - piano
Carry That Weight - rhythm guitar
The End - drums and guitars
Her Majesty - acoustic guitar

And, if you’ll forgive me, I must confess that, on “The End”, I do drums and all the guitar parts.  I just can’t resist. It took four Beatles to play it, but I’m able to do it all on a single steering wheel.

So, as you can see, a steering wheel really can enhance a piece of music for everyone in the vehicle. Or you, at least.


Oh, and we made it to DC okay.. 

Now, at the time, the wife and kids weren’t as enthusiastic about this... well, it’s a calling, really.  
But now that they’ve grown up and have their own cars, they actively encourage me. They’ve even considered getting me a fretboard-shaped steering wheel for Christmas.

But I passed on it. I’m a steering wheel man, all the way.

Anyone can play guitar.

Listening Diary

Gone are the teenage days of the sitting in one’s room and letting a new album wash over you. Most people my age couldn’t do that now even if they wanted to.  Well, I do want to, and it’s damn near impossible.

But even back then, when other kids were listening to Pink Floyd lying on their beds stoned, I listening ot it, while sitting at my desk, doing homework. On a Friday night, I’d be reading a novel.

In other words, most of the time, I was rarely sitting there, just listening. In fact, it was a form of not listening. More like absorbing. Through my pores, I guess. And it worked, to an extent.  I still know every note to every solo on Allman Brothers at Fillmore East.

But I fear it’s had the overall effect of making me a slower listener, because it takes me forever to decide if I like something or not. (Meet the Beatles? The jury’s still out...)  Which is why I hate to dismiss music when I may simply have not given it the time it needs.  Like the Green Bay Packers - they never really lost a game, they just ran out of time.

And of course, as adults and parents, our opportunities to just listen are rare. Always “doing something else” is the story of our lives. If we’re lucky, we get to combine activities, like listening to music while surfing the web. I remember reading an article where Captain Beefheart advised his fans to put his record on, and then go mop the floor.  “Music to do something else to”, I guess.

But multi-tasking has been discredited, and neither thing gets done as well as it could have been if done alone. Including actively listening to music. So, these days I’ve got two obstacles to get over: finding the time to listen and finding the time to listen.



So here’s an old geezer’s attempt to listen to and judge new music I picked up on last trip to the record store.

Beck’s Sea Change (2002)
Why did I buy it?  Lots of mentions in my spreadsheet (don’t ask link), despite a mocking Robert Christgau review. And only $8.99!
First Listen – Late evening. I played it at the computer while I sat in the adjoining room. Mrs. Jaybee was at the computer, so she heard it better than me.  She passed on my playing it again for dinner the next night. Too depressing, she said. Me? I thought it was pretty. But then I was in the next room. (Time is bad enough. Space is a whole other blog...)  B+
Prediction: I’ll probably end up liking it a lot.

Bright Eyes Lifted (2002)
Why?: Only one mention, but I loved I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, and it was an allmusic pick.
First Listen– Late that same night.  More sprawling than Wide Awake. More noisy. More warbling. So far, less melody, too.  Not terrible, but not great either. B-
Prediction: I’ll end up loving it.

The Best of Blur (2000)
Why? I don’t know.  A Best of with a bonus CD, used at 8.99?
First Listen: No sooner did I put it on when I realized that the air conditioners needed to go in.  First song, okay. Second song confirmed to be that annoying one my son mentioned. Third is an old favorite. The little I heard of the rest was all right.  Didn’t care for the last song.  B-
Prediction: Disappointment. This is based on the fact that I ended up paying 8.99 for it when I could have gotten it from Amazon for $5. For that alone, I’ll project my self loathing on them and hate them, which is also what I do when I’m slightly disappointed.

Wu Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu Tang (1993)
Why? One of the most mentioned hip hop record.. Plus, that nice young man who helped me charge my car battery years ago in Newark, was wearing one of their tee shirts. First Listen: I kept trying to find the right time to play this.  I settled on a sunny afternoon in the backyard, while the neighbors were barbecueing. I took it off after about 7 seconds, when I heard the first line: “bring the f*cking ruckus!” Okay, maybe another time.  I finally settled on early in the morning before everyone is up, but with the volume low. (Hey, it worked for A Tribe Called Quest!) B
Prediction: Probably not a good bet for summer listening, but by winter I’m really going to like it.


Second Listen:


Beck’s tunes are right there so I almost have no choice but to enjoy them for now. B+
Bright Eyes gets interrupted.  It’s a loooonnng record. Such records make me feel bad. The artist works so hard to create it, and here I am, barely able to find the time to listen. But it’s growing on me. Sloooowly. B
I keep getting up to leave the room after putting on Blur.  This time to clean the grill.  Sounding better, though. B
Tried to listen to Wu Tang Clan again, but Mrs. Jaybee was working and asked me to turn it off.... B


Third:

Beck is sounding better and better. But it’ll peak soon, I fear... A-
Bright Eyes almost makes it thru the early morning, until Mrs. Jaybee wakes up. Incomplete
Blur almost makes it thru the late morning until I have to run some errands. And driving around, by the way, is no way to listen to new music. As if doing chores at home is.... Incomplete
Wu Tang benefitted from a beautiful evening when I’m home alone and everything sounded great. A-


Around this time, I got a few more CDs, which made this experiment even more half assed than it was when I started. But I try to soldier on....



Fourth:


Beck continues to maintain a very high level of pleasantness. A-
Bright Eyes gets an uninterrupted play again, and its rough edges are finally starting to smooth out. B
The Mrs. and I had an argument while listening to Blur in the van. I HATED it, and damn near threw it out the window. C-
A beautiful sunny day is not the best time to listen to Wu Tang Clan. The effect of the mayhem gets blunted when I’m lounging in my backyard. B-



Fifth:


Beck is doing just great, but I don’t feel like I really know anything about it except its surface. A-
I’m beginning to notice the individual songs on the Bright Eyes record. A critical development. B+
I no longer hate Blur, but I’m still kinda pissed at it. I will admit that the songs are beginning to become distinguishable. B
I’m enjoying the overall sound and energy of Wu Tang Clan, when Mrs. Jaybee confesses that she hates them. And all I can say is that that nice fellow who helped me start the car - who must now be about thirty-five - will be very disappointed. B+



Sixth:


Beck is in the lead, but I’m doubting his staying power, as I do with all pretty records. A-
Bright Eyes’ ambition and range are now getting clearer. That doesn’t mean that I love the record. If anything, it draws attention to the potential weaknesses. Now that I’m past the noise and conversations, I’m taking in the songs.  Will they turn out to be any good? There’s at least one great one, though. B+
I’m resisting Blur. I don’t quite believe they’re real. In other words, how could they be great if I didn’t know more about them? Unreasonable, I know, but considering what I was going to do with them on the fourth listen, it could be worse. The music, by the way, is in the good, not great, range. They may require good weather. B
Wu Tang is on sabbatical....



Seventh:


Beck continues to sound strong, as my resistance weakens. A-
Now I’m wondering what was so off-putting about Bright Eyes. It’s all hanging together pretty well. B+
Blur is also hanging together well, but it’s just not as compelling. B
Poor Wu Tang....



Eighth:


Beck comes crashing through. On a perfect quiet night for this sad record, both me and Mrs Jaybee love it. A
I’m hearing Bright Eyes now, and the three or so great songs are, well, great. But the length of the record renders the genre exercises a little annoying. B+
And a beautiful afternoon proves me correct about Blur. They’re a pop band, but the songs are stronger than I had hoped. And I like their guitar player.  B+,
Oh where oh where are thou Wu Tang?


And in Conclusion...

I’ll stop now. And here’s how they sound:
Beck:: A
Blur: A-
Bright Eyes: B+
Wu Tang: B+

And here’s how I predict they will sound to me at the end of the year:
Beck: I’ll see through all the beauty and find some flaw to harp on. A-
Blur: Obvious summer records tend to get put away during the cold weather. B+
Bright Eyes: His persistence will eventually win me over. A-
Wu Tang Clan: They’ve been relegated to early morning or late night when Mrs. Jaybee is asleep. But I may finally be getting this music. B+

In other words, despite my wishy washiness, I appear to be sticking to my original opinion. No, not about the music. About what my opinion will be.

Between then and now I hope to formulate a final judgement on Meet the Beatles...

Secret History: 1977

This may ultimately be the most important year of all, because things were happening and a lot of us were doing our best to deny it.  

Sadly, it’s the year when listeners were presented with a choice, but had long before already made the wrong one. Conditioned by increasingly diluted AOR-type rock music, but then suddenly confronted with punk - on the news instead of the radio - what was the average listener to do, but double down on some very lame music? Hence the complaints in letters to Rolling Stone about songs where “you couldn’t hear the words”, etc.

I was no better. I loved “rock music” and wished that it would get the respect it deserved.  So I wanted it to be serious, and found the, well, glamorous surface of glam rock and spectacle of arena rock excess a bit depressing.

On the one hand commercial success indicated a wider acceptance of rock music.  But sometimes it felt….icky.  Like when I saw Al Stewart on “In Concert” with a full orchestra.  And country rock bands accepting Grammys and American Music Awards wearing tuxes.

The whole point of the music is to not be respectable, and it was finally driven home to me at the time while in a village record store. As leather clad cashier was wearing a button that said “Help Keep Rock and Roll Sleazy”. (He was doing his part.) That was when I knew I was sitting on a fence that would have to collapse at some point.

I have an almost visceral reaction to the records I bought that year – not because they somehow changed my life - but because they didn’t, and as such represent a breaking off point.  The Before of the Before and After.  

I didn’t pick up on the records released this year until at least 1980. But in retrospect. It turns out to have been a hell of a year, with more to come after.

Well, of course, there's the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks.  You either take this road or you don't.  Well, I took it and I'm glad. This is some of the most powerful rock and roll ever made. And no, I have no love for Sid. I’m a Glen Matlock guy, no matter what John Lydon thinks.  Those tunes didn’t come from outer space. But it was Johnny’s snarl that put them over.

Television’s Marquee Moon has lots of guitar on it.  And lots of solos.  So in that way it’s not punk music at all.  As a matter of fact, it's the perfect record for bridging punk and jam music.  It's got all the speed, passion and harshness of punk, but with all the virtuosity of the Dead or the Allman Brothers. At least me and Roommate Mike thought so... 

By 1977 the Ramones had already made a lot of waves and had become the target of  ridicule from disc jockeys.  So just how did their seemingly simplistic formula result in a brilliant third album Rocket to Russia? I don’t know either. One of the greatest punk albums ever with classics such as  “Rockaway Beach”, “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”, and, my favorite “We're a Happy Family” ("Daddy likes men…")

I'm putting The Clash here because this is when the UK version came out, which I'm not totally familiar with.  In 1979 the American version would be released, which would contain much of the UK version, along with a number of singles they released since then.  I'm happy with the US version because there's so much on it.  Being a punk record, its sound isn't that great, but it contains some of the greatest rock songs ever, including what might be my favorite – “Complete Control”.

How can a record be punk and still be pretty? Because punk is an ethos not a genre. Anyway, aside from the occasionally weird hiccups in David Byrne's singing, and odd subject matter, Talking Heads 77  is very sweet. Especially "Psychokiller". jk

I was never one for cults, though, so don’t get the idea that once I fell for punk music, I’d never like anything else.

Back when I was even whiter teenager , I bought records by singer songwriter or the above-mentioned Allmans and Dead.  But while in the record store I couldn't help but notice the flamboyant record covers of bands like Funkadelic and Parliament.  Of course, I was a snob, and assumed such covers were needed to hide crappy music.

Little did I realize that Funkadelic was quite an ambitious outfit, with a damned good guitar player (the recently deceased Gary Shider). My first plunge was One Nation Under a Groove that has the greatest opening five seconds of any record ever recorded, but which then makes its way into the classic funk music of the era.  It's a bit more confident and sure of itself than I'm comfortable with, so I went back to Best of the Early Years, an early greatest hits record, which has more in common with the hard rock and Sly Stone records I was happy with.  An alien (to me) universe every bit as valid as the one I was inhabiting at the time.

Rough Mix is a misleading title.  It may be fun, but it's also pretty tight.  Pete Townsend joins up with Ronnie Lane (from the Small Faces).  They also have some friends join them, like Eric Clapton.  And against all expectations – they were all in decline by then - the result is wonderful.   “Heart to Hang Onto” is my favorite, but not by much.

If you find “Heroes” a bit harsh, so you might prefer David Bowie’s Low, which is  experimental and catchy at the same time. Great on vinyl, since the two sides are so different.  Side one for parties, and side two for late at night.

Just around the demise of Elvis I, the new one - Costello, that is - arises. You can fault My Aim is True for an dull production and sameness of some songs, but that’s about it.  This is the beginning of an explosion of songwriting (the best since 1970?) that would last for years.

“Being German” and “being into electronic music” aren’t the first two things I’d look for in a band, and Kraftwerk looked like a bunch of robots with all the soullessness that it implies.  But that's clearly untrue within the first minute Trans Europe Express. Sounds great in the summertime, of all things.

I’ll finish up with a record that is almost forgotten now. Karla Bonoff is a guilty pleasure. It’s  the epitome of LA studio hotshot smoothery.  Her voice resembles Linda Rondstadt, who actually did a few of these songs, too.  It's very middle of the road, and perhaps because it brings back some great memories I'm going easy on it.  Karla can really write a tune.  The one 1977 record I actually bought that year that’s worth remembering.

It’s embarrassing to admit how clueless I was about the things that would end up having such lasting value. But the next few years would be thrilling as I slowly caught up. In 1977, my musical world was cracked in half and I didn't even know it.