Joan Baez - Diamonds & Rust

Joan Baez: "...my poetry is lousy you said..."
Amy: "Yup."

So, good old Joan Baez. I don't know. I got tired of the 80s bullshit pile so I pulled one from the pile of Hippy stuff. I did not have high hopes for it. She is a good singer. The production values are good. I mean, yeah no. It's not for me. I'm gonna listen to this because I told myself I was going to listen to every record in this pile. But this is not one I'm gonna put a gold star on and play over and over. It's not awful, it's just also not really any good, for me. I'm sure there are people who love it. And I can even kind of tell why. I can hear in it, the things that are good about it. They just don't move me.

And shit, could Joan use more tremolo or vibrato or whatever it is you call it when they wiggle their voice around like that? It's like... I get it, lady. You can do that thing with your voice, the annoying thing that doesn't make your singing any better but shows just how good at it you are. Now stop it.

Oh, good Christ. Children And All That Jazz broke me. I can't listen to this whole thing. It's fucking awful.

The jacket was a wreck. Water damaged. After having tried listening to it, I have to assume some well-intentioned soul tried to drown it. But their effort was for naught, because tragically, the platter is fine. Barely needed cleaning.

[wikipedia]

John Cougar - American Fool

"Little ditty, 'bout..." SHUT THE FUCK UP. Oh my god, seriously? I don't hate this guy. But for me, this is music to roll your eyes to.

I... mean... god... damn...

Big teased hair, popped collar on your strategically worn out denim jacket... just... oh, 1980s, how you hurt me so.

Speaking of which! Story time!

Roberta Flack - Feel Like Makin' Love

Me: "This is really good."
Amy: "Who is it?"
Me: "Roberta Flack."
Amy: "Oh, yeah..."

This was really surprisingly good and not at all what I expected. I think maybe I expected some Billy Ocean bullshit. I'm sorry, mom. But Billy Ocean? Damn. I only had a vague idea that this was R&B. I had heard the name but didn't remember what this music was like. It was pretty awesome. It's chilled out music. It's make-out music. Come to think of it, I probably oughta leave this where I can find it easy...

Anyway, it's a good record. I had no idea who this woman was until I listened to it and looked her up. No idea that she performed the original version of Killing Me Softly, later covered by The Fugees. Didn't know any of that.

So it was in nearly pristine condition out of the sleeve. Dusted it a little. It plays great. Will listen to this one again.

[wikipedia]

Joan Armatrading - Secret Secrets

My mom used to be totally into Joan Armatrading. She waited for her new records to come out and bought them as soon as they did. I remembered being impressed by her voice even as a little kid. This record is in great shape and played just fine. I was pretty nonplussed by it. Not that it doesn't stand up to the test of time. It's just not my thing. I don't know. I am certain there will be specific Joan Armatrading songs that I will find while going through the stack that move me. None of them were on this record.

Anyway screw all that shit. Wanna hear an embarrassing story? Of course you do!

Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale

Nice album, but I don't have any particular connection to it. Boogie on Reggae Woman is good. The rest of the tracks, I don't even remember. Not a real fan of half-hearted, weakly-argued apologetics, so Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away is never gonna be one of my favorites. Here's the thing, Stevie Wonder is amazing. I put this record on, I heard the first few bars of Smile Please and I thought, "meh..." then he started singing and I thought, "whoah..." because he's fucking awesome. This album though? Eh. Doesn't do much for me.

Cleaned up. Plays nice. Some minor scratches that don't affect playability. I'll give this a more thorough listen some other day, and write something more about it. Today though, this was just the record I played while I cleaned.

[wikipedia]

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A.

Jesus Christ, wikipedia, "heartland rock"? Anyway, guess I lied about not being patriotic today. And yes, before my legions of imaginary readers get all up in my ass about it, I am aware that Born in the U.S.A. is not about what Ronald Reagan thought it was about.

What the fuck is heartland rock anyway? Springsteen is from Jersey. Not a whole lot of people I've met from Iowa consider Jersey the heartland.

Not a lot of people I've met from Iowa... fuck Iowa!

Various - Easy Rider (Soundtrack)

This is probably about as patriotic as I'm gonna get today, which is a damned shame because, spoiler alert (as if you need it for a movie that's nearly fifty years old)...

The Cars - Candy-O

Another Cars album. Think I only have the two. It's a good record. I didn't recognize any of the song titles but I remembered the songs when I heard them. I like the Cars okay. They aren't one of my favorite bands but they have a lot of good songs and they were on heavy rotation on MTV back before it started to suck. Record was in great shape. Plays great. Jacket's good. Probably the best all around condition of anything I've played so far which is a god damned shame considering I can't get Highway 61 to play. So. Moving right along.

[wikipedia]

The Band - The Band

Oh, man. What a great album. This is one of those records that, right from the first track, all the way through the end, is just awesome. This was one of my dad's favorite bands back in the day. Probably still is, even though he mostly listens to a lot of stuff from before he was born now. When you get old, you start to listen to old people music, apparently.

Guess that's kind of what I'm doing. Dammit...

Thompson Twins - Into The Gap

I played this the other night when Amy's friend Julie, who I've known long enough now that I can call her "our friend Julie," was visiting. I grabbed it at random out of the 80s bullshit pile. Amy, Julie and I were all surprised by how many of the songs we actually recognized. For such a totally 80s band (look at that hair...) I was surprised by how well it stood up. It was a fun listen. Probably didn't hurt that we were all drinking. Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor... uh... other stuff. Good stuff.

Jacket's in great shape, better than most. Record cleaned up just fine. Played great. I'd actually listen to this one again, so, win all around.

[wikipedia]