#625: B is NOT for Blake, Sexton, a.k.a. Sexton Blake

Because the band is named after a literary person, a fictional British detective, and not a real person, I’ve discovered I have misfiled Sexton Blake in the B’s. Needless to say, I did not listen to this record from Sexton Blake after finding the mistake, and filed Plays the Hits, a collection of 80’s cover tunes, post-haste,Continue reading “#625: B is NOT for Blake, Sexton, a.k.a. Sexton Blake”

#613: B is for the B-52s

One of the greatestnerd-rock bands ever, The B-52s arrived in 1979with this gem of a debut.They were not accomplished musicians, but these spirited performances completely overshadowed what they may have lacked in precision, or what the serious musicians might have called “chops.”I might have been one of those dismissive listeners. I can imagine myself sayingContinue reading “#613: B is for the B-52s”

#593: A is for A-ha

I I never leave the shrink wrap on an album I’ve purchased, but I left the plastic on this first A-ha album, purchased used within the last several years, because the original price tag was still there, $6.99 new at Tower Records, 1985.I did some thinking about thisrecently, about the price of a new recordContinue reading “#593: A is for A-ha”

On the Fifteenth Day of 2025…

. . .You decide to write about yourself in the second person. You realize that’s an odd thing to do, even though, as most things a writer can do, it’s been done before hundreds of times. You’re mostly curious about how it feels. You’ve tried the first and the third, the first being the mostContinue reading “On the Fifteenth Day of 2025…”

Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XIV–31 Years of Here Comes Everybody

Oh my. It’s been almost an entire year since the last time I added an installment to this series. Maybe I will make a New Year’s Resolution not to wait another year before the next one! I did not intend to write about my own music in this series, only tangentially as it related toContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XIV–31 Years of Here Comes Everybody”

Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume VI, Letter C

A wrench in the works for my project of listening to compact discs, one at a time, all the way through, touching at least once on every band or artist in my collection: I bought a new turntable for the basement listening lounge!  I have been distracted this week by vinyl and paused my project toContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume VI, Letter C”

Some Things that Sucked about Music in the 80’s

It’s time to make some pronouncements.  I have no authority, and I hate it when people who have no authority make pronouncements, but because I am a musician and can kind of claim to know something about music, and because I lived through, was actually a teenager and a young adult in this particular era,Continue reading “Some Things that Sucked about Music in the 80’s”