This story isn’t about 1985. 1985 wasn’t a good year for me. 1984 had been okay, because even though we’d moved away from Florida, the first school I’d really liked and the first girl I’d ever kissed with full romantic intentions (little more than a…
Now it’s time to introduce you to one of the great loves of my life. Maybe not so much these days (I’m preoccupied by other things), and not in 1984 (I was too young), but somewhere maybe just after I hit puberty, the love hit…
I went to three different schools for third grade. One was in South Carolina, where I spent most of my early years; another in upstate New York, not far from where I’d end up going to middle school and high school; and then finally I…
If I’d grown up a decade earlier, I imagine I’d probably have had more achievable dreams as a kid. But my childhood, probably not unlike that of most American kids growing up in the 20th century, was filled with superheroes. So all I really wanted…
And so we arrive at the first entry in this project that discusses music I’m certain I heard in the year it was actually released. I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around Turned you into someone new I wasn’t working…
I was astonished the first time someone told me they liked Siouxsie and the Banshees better than the Cure. It had never occurred to me to question that the Cure were the more important band — the more serious, the more heartfelt, the more majestic….
XTC versus Adam Ant Content versus form Fighting for their place in rock and roll There is no right or wrong — They Might Be Giants, “XTC vs. Adam Ant” I see what they were driving at, but I think XTC do content and form…
Fade in on 1988, or thereabouts. I’ve checked out The Whole Story, Kate Bush’s singles compilation from 1986, from the library on LP. I spin it for the first time and get the strangest sense of familiarity. From the very first notes of the first…
David Byrne is the most famous person I’ve ever met outside of an autograph line. My girlfriend was Music Director at our college radio station, so we were meeting quite a few people who were famous (to us): Jill Sobule, who wrote and recorded the…
My favorite Bowie album varies depending on when you ask me. For a while it was Ziggy Stardust, then Hunky Dory took its place. Then I got hooked on Low, like everyone does, though my secret confession is that I admire the instrumentals more than…