Bookended by Cats: October 2022

Friday, October 28, 2022

Friday 80s Flashback for October 28, 2022

[40 Years of Wind and Roses] -- Forty years ago this week, this very day, The Dream Syndicate released their first full-length record: The Days of Wine and Roses (October 28, 1982). The album title is lifted from a line in Ernest Dowson's 1896 poem, "Vitae Summa Brevis." The Dream Syndicate were the darker, more cynical outfit that came out of L.A.'s Paisley Underground scene. You can hear it in their aggressive guitar riffs, abrasive rhythms, and antagonistic lyrics. And this jangly, alternative album comes in at #99 on Blender's list of 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever (note: subscribers only post). As far as I can tell, there were no singles released from this album ... at least, none that charted. That tracks because, despite critical acclaim, The Dream Syndicate were largely a commercial failure. Somehow, I don't think that translates to failure in their minds. Anyway, in the absence of singles, may I suggest "Then She Remembers" and "Halloween" (tracks 4 and 5)?

Flashback: The Days of Wine and Roses (October 28, 1982)

That's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

I'll see you in seven!

Friday, October 21, 2022

Friday 80s Flashback for October 21, 2022

[Goodbye Mom - Redux] -- By Friday, October 20, 2017, I was more than two thirds of the way through writing a Flashback post, but I no longer wanted to use it. My sister had called me around 5pm the prior day and told me that our mother was gone, that she had unexpectedly died overnight. Sis had gone over to Mom's house to check on her, as per usual, but instead found ... well, she found that Mom never made it out of bed that day. Her memorial service was the following Wednesday, 10/25/2017.

So, instead of highlighting a record that turned 40 years old this week, I'm offering up a single flashback song for this weekend. And, just as I did five years ago this week, the song I'm sharing is in memory of my mother, gone too soon at age 71.

I'm also cribbing the write-up from a previous post, but hopefully you'll forgive me.

It is probably no surprise that I could reliably turn to Disney for a song that honors the very heart of motherhood. Well, I sort of turned to Disney. I turned to Hal Willner, an American music producer with several tribute albums and live events listed among his many credits. In 1988, Willner released his fourth tribute album, Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. Stay Awake featured new recordings of Disney tunes by a whole range of performing artists, from Sun Ra to Michael Stipe, and from Buster Poindexter to Ringo Starr. This is still one of my favorite CDs from the 80s. At the time, I loved it because it made a somewhat adult soundtrack out of songs originally created for kids. Over 30 years later, I still love it for the milestone in my life that it represents. The second track on Stay Awake pairs Bonnie Raitt with Was (Not Was) on "Baby Mine" from the 1941 film Dumbo.

And it never fails to make me think of my own mother.

R.I.P. Mom (August 1946 - October 2017).

"You're so precious to me | Cute as can be | Baby, you're mine."

Just one song, but that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

I'll see you in seven!

Friday, October 14, 2022

Friday 80s Flashback for October 14, 2022

[A Quartet of Decades] -- Intro.Forty years ago this week – on October 15, 1982 – Ultravox released their sixth studio album. For this outing, Ultravox dropped their longtime producer, Conny Plank, and instead opted to work with George Martin (yes, that George Martin who worked with The Beatles). While the album resulted in four singles that were top 20 hits in the UK, and the album peaked at #6 on the UK's album charts, there were (are?) detractors who felt the band was slipping into a safe and conservative space with this outing. Meanwhile, those four singles – "Reap the Wild Wind", "Hymn", "Visions in Blue" and "We Came to Dance" – remain some of my favorite songs in this band's catalog. Among the singles, I particularly love "Hymn" and "We Came to Dance." Of the non-single tracks, "Cut and Run" holds a special place in my heart.

The embedded YouTube playlist has all nine tracks from the 1982 release as well as the official music videos for "Reap the Wild Wind" and "We Came to Dance," so you get a total of 11 tracks this week.

Flashback: Quartet (October 15, 1982)

I'll see you in seven!

Friday, October 7, 2022

Friday 80s Flashback for October 7, 2022

[You Are 40] -- While reflecting that this month includes the fifth anniversary of my mother's passing, I'm struck by the knowledge that one of her favorite albums turned 40 this week. Well, it's a record that has some of her favorite radio hits; I don't know that she loved the whole album. But we'll celebrate the entire album here on the Flashback.

If you couldn't tell from the accompanying image, I'm talking about Lionel Richie's self-titled, solo debut. Released on 10/6/1982, Lionel Richie peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and launched three hit singles: "Truly," "You Are," and "My Love." Each one peaked within the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, with the first single, "Truly," reaching the #1 position. My mom loved the mid-tempo and brightness of "You Are," which she had to have on a cassette mix I recorded for her; it was a collection of high and mid-tempo tunes that she would listen to on her power walks. I later had to recreate some of that playlist for her iPod Nano.

Lionel Richie was still a member of the Commodores when this album was released. The record was intended to only be a side project, but Richie left the Commodores shortly after its release (or, perhaps, after he realized he could be a successful solo artist). Seems his voice was better suited for ballads and upbeat tunes than the funk and disco of his former band. He certainly had the songwriting chops, which he proved prior to this album's release by composing and singing the theme to Endless Love, which he recorded as a duet with Diana Ross. That tune, and his other laid backed compositions for the Commodores – "Easy" and "Three Times a Lady" – were something of a template for this record if not much of his career. Some find this style too cheesy, but he became a go-to balladeer in the 1980s, releasing a bunch of his own hits and writing songs for others. And it all started with this album.

Not what you'd expect from the preppie look featured in that cover photo, right?

Flashback: Lionel Richie (October 6, 1982)

And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

I'll see you in seven!