I went to a Record Show the other day, which is something I have always liked to do. Lately, they’ve been like having a mega Record Store all to yourself, but last Sunday was different. It was packed! The way it used to be in the early ’80s. [Which reminds me, if you have never been to one, and you go, don’t put your bag on a row of records and look through the one next to it. I know, there isn’t anywhere else to put your records, but I got tired of asking people to get their shit off the crate next to them.] That was good to see, and prices were still generally three bucks for the records I want anyway. Since Alive Naturalsound started reissuing The Nerves‘ and Breakaways‘ stuff, I’ve been getting more interested in Paul Collins‘ side of things. I always liked Peter Case, but didn’t really follow Paul at all. I found the first Beat album, and loved it. I found a more recent one, Ribbon of Gold, and I loved that, too. So I was kind of surprised to find the second Paul Collins Beat album, The Kids Are the Same at the show I was at, and I figured I had to grab it. I was expecting another good power pop kind of album, and I think it holds up well.
This came out in ’81 or ’82, which is about when I started raising a family on $4.50 an hour. Cable TV was something I did not even think of having, so I missed whatever MTV airplay Wikipedia said this album got. What I did have was a radio and we listened to it all night at work on the night shift. I can remember hearing this song, “On the Highway,” and it was one of those songs that I instantly loved and instantly thought was a perfect nighttime song, like “Marquee Moon.” The problem is, I knew who sang “Marquee Moon,” but back then college kids spent way more time playing records than telling you what they played, so I never knew who sang this, what album it was on, or anything about it. I put it on yesterday afternoon and was feeling pretty good about my purchase (nice clean record, not noisy, flat and sounds great) and this song that I loved came out of nowhere and was cranking out right there in my own living room!
Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened once or twice to me, but it’s been a long time. I think that’s like the best feeling of all in a Rock Music Nerd’s Life (or lack thereof). It happens so seldom, but I have a feeling it’s what keeps me digging through crates and reading about music instead of living a normal life. What song jumped off a record unexpectedly on you?
This happened to me a bunch of times when I was in my 20’s and I started buying 70’s R&B albums.
A little boring stuff about me: After going to a super-crunchy hippie school for 1st grade, my folks decided to send us to the local public school. My friend, Ian, and I, were the two white boys in the class, and we loved the Beatles. (Later, my mother told me that our teacher used to mistakenly call me Ian!)
We’d have these class parties – kids would bring in records and everybody would get a paper cup of fruit punch and a napkin of potato chips. Ian and I used to lobby to get our Beatles records played, but the only two albums I really remember kids playing were “Off The Wall” and “Hotter Than July.”
So I went through a phase where I was buying Stevie Wonder albums – Songs In The Key Of Life was way, way more familiar to me that I realized. I knew that there were a few songs on there I had heard many times, but other songs were lodged in my memory. The same is true for other Philly soul stuff I was buying, the O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, etc.
I suppose if you grew up in Philly in the 70’s, you’re bound to know some of that stuff.
The internet has destroyed a lot of that kind of mystery, I think. I suppose the instant gratification is good, but there’s something about not knowing and being surprised that is much more fulfilling.
Right on, cher, my phellow Philly brother in a proper TSOP upbringing! 2K, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy what you’ve written. I need some time to think of specific surprises along the lines of what you’ve just described, but I know what you’re talking about.
Super-crunchy! That’s funny! When I was a kid this happened all the time, but as I got older I think it was more like, “Oh, I didn’t know this was on the album I bought. I thought it was on another one.” This one just came out of nowhere. I had no idea who did it, and certainly didn’t expect it, and I don’t think I had heard it in years.
I think it was worth the price of every record I got, just for that first chord to come blasting out of my past.
Love is a Stranger on Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This). I was VERY happy to find out that song was on that album after i brought it home from the Record Exchange.
There was a brief snippet of a song from Jefferson Airplane played during the second party scene in Shampoo.
Being one of my favorite 70s films, I watched it over and over again, and every time I would be mesmerized by the descending chord meoldy and ghostly voice singing “If you wanna get to heaven.”
The song title was not in the film credits. I asked everybody I could think of. I researched the Internet. No avail.
Then, on my last night in Lawrence KS (before I took a teaching job in Rapid City, SD) I was in my friend’s car. Amazingly, the song was on a CD being played. I immediately asked my friend what the song was.
Turns out it was “Good Shepherd,” second song on Volunteers. Went out and bought the record. To this day, I get a kick out of hearing the opening to the song.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the moment was very profound for me, so (to me) it bears repeating:
My sister went to Univ. of Sussex for a year in the 80’s and brought back a lot of music, or more accurately, tapes of music she heard there. She had a tape of somebody’s Aztec Camera “Love,” but that person had taped over another tape so that the end had 2 mystery songs on it. For years, I wondered who did those songs, which I loved. I used to bring my tape to record stores and play it for the clerks to see if they could figure it out, and no one could. One guy thought maybe early James. Fast forward 20 years and I’m still looking for those f-ing songs. But now with the aid of the internet, I tracked them down: 2 early James songs, “If Things Were Perfect” and “Hymn for a Village.” My rosebuds…
I just remembered an example from my youthful record-buying days. I always liked hearing the minor ’60s hit “I Love You” on the radio, the one with the breakdown and the singer belting out “And I don’t know what to do!” at the end of some of the choruses. I’m not sure that the version I grew up liking as a kid is the one I finally attached a band to when I bought Time of the Zombies in high school (I think the hit version may have been by another band), but discovering it tucked away on The Zombies compiliation was a nice surprise.