Xmas Musical Memories

[deviantdee]

For one reason or another (maybe it's because I become
quite mawkishly regressive during Xmas because they seemed
happier the younger I was), Xmas time reminds me, and
prompts me, to play the following ditties:

Whitesnake - Still Of The Night/'1987' (college days, house-
parties, lots of snogging. John Sykes' guitar production
is still ineffably compressed and amazing-sounding.)

Ratt - Out Of The Cellar (played a lot on headphones during
one snowy winter. Gloomy streets, gutters full of slush,
rain, grey skies - quite gloomy music, in some ways.)

Dan Reed Network - Slam (ditto, only a few years later. I think
I had Jet Silver-esque blond-but-after-a-few-dips-in-the-local-
overly-chlorined-public-swimming-baths-turned-silver hair ex-
tensions during this period. The album's full of gems, but
strangely enough, it's 'Cruise Together' which sounds the
most emotive thesedays.)

Toxik Toyz - Anything off 'Acoustic Jam' tape. (Happy days,
happy youth, just enough money to get by.)

Vain - No Respect (Again, college days... I was happy
internally, but hated my flat because its windows were
prone to the odd stone or two. Pricks.)

Duran Duran - Notorious (mostly because of 'Winter Marches
On' track - a windy, otherworldly sort of track which makes
one feel sort of otherworldly and disconnected.)

Rich Rags stuff is normally associated with summer months,
because that's when they seemed to usually tour, but this
winter is different: stuff like 'Kill Suburbia' and 'White
Punks on Dole' demos are spinning quite a lot, because
they need to be...


D.

<font color="#FF0000" size="1">[ December 17, 2004 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Deviant D ]</font>

[Carl I.]

I always remember Ozzy Ozbourne Diary Of A Madman and sitting in the basement of my Grandparents house on the floor in front of the stereo listening to it over and over and over again, all the while my uncles, cousins, Grandpa, and my Dad all stood around shooting pool. Grandpa seeing me sitting on the floor, and him saying "You know, this isn't really my style of music, but it does sound like some very good stuff". He always had a connection with me with music, as he loved the stuff, and I seemed to be the only one that was into it. One of his favorite things was my 12 string. The last time I saw him alive I had forgotten to play it for him, and he was upset about it. He died of cancer not too long after. I wrote a song for him that became a favorite for anybody that heard my band Fear And Loathing, and to this day was one of my best vocal performances.

Side tracked...sorry.

The other two:

Van Halen II: again at the grandparents house, I got it as a stocking stuffer, and my uncle was listening to it through my brand new Walkman! Sony had just come out with them. My Uncle and everybody kept going on and on "Can you believe the sound they get out of something so small???" LOL!!!

Del Fuegos Boston, Mass. - Another stocking stuffer. Listened to it the whole way up to my Grandparents house in the car. Great album.

Others include Foriegner Double Vision, which was the first really "cool" album I got for Christmas.

Queen Live Killers which I got for Christmas from Mom and Dad years ago, and which more than 20 years later, Mom bought on CD for me for another Christmas.

[deviantdee]

The memories these songs provoke are, in
retrospect, more important than the music itself?

[Andii Vamp]

Daz... do you have that Ratt-Out Of The Cellar still? If so, on CD? Only album i missing these days.

[deviantdee]

Nah, on tape, mate. I did do a search for it on
Limewire last night, but only found a few songs
off it - 'Back For More', 'Round and Round'
and 'Closer To My Heart'.

Now, if Invader Zim is your thing, Limewire's
full of it: I've managed to blag about 14
episodes (5 hours' worth) of Zim bollox so far.

D.

<font color="#FF0000" size="1">[ December 17, 2004 08:27 PM: Message edited by: Deviant D ]</font>

[Andii Vamp]

Invader Zim? What the hell is that all about? Never heard of it [img]tongue.gif[/img]

No probs on the Ratt, i have scoured the bloody earth so it seems in trying to track that album down again seeing as i lost mine years ago but no luck yet. I did however get that Sven Gali album the other day, never did get to hear that back in the day. Bloody good stuff [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#FF0000" size="1">[ December 18, 2004 02:18 AM: Message edited by: Andii Vamp ]</font>

[deviantdee]

Which Sven Gali is it? Apparently even the dodgy
grungy third CD is pretty good.

Invader Zim is ace! Very evil. Genuine
misanthropic anarchy. Pure genius, really.
It ran for a few seasons, at 7am, on Nickleodeon,
until they realised it's actually made for adults
- so they pulled it, and then Jhonen, the creator,
went on an anti-Nick campaign and it all went
horribly litigious, with lawsuits flying all over
the gaff.

Anyway, all 50/60 or so episodes are out on DVD
now.

I have about 15 or so here, in various states
of codec quality: phone me next Tuesday to remind
to buy a DVD to burn them for you before I cruise
down. Remind me to stick on the Ratpack video
I'm pissing about with at the moment, too.

Chrs,
D.

<font color="#FF0000" size="1">[ December 18, 2004 09:46 PM: Message edited by: Deviant D ]</font>

[Andii Vamp]

Daz, it's the Sven Gali CD with Tie Dyed Skies on mate. A great listen, but the second disc they released i haven't had... apparently that is totally different.(Grunge yes).

Yeah.. i never DID see all that Ratpack video... just bits here and there on a vid you once did [img]smile.gif[/img]

[deviantdee]

Well, I've discovered that all it's 'best' footage
can be squeezed into a 5 minute pop song. [img]smile.gif[/img]
It's looking really good, actually. If you want
the whole 30 mins thing on DVD, you're going have
to wait for that because it needs producing/
capturing in Final Cut Pro, because that's where
those ace codecs be; Adobe's fucking years behind
Apple in that respect, or Apple's just always
been years ahead. One or the other.

The one 3rd CD Gali video I saw didn't look/
sound too bad, as it goes.

It's freezing.

D.

<font color="#FF0000" size="1">[ December 18, 2004 10:46 PM: Message edited by: Deviant D ]</font>

[deviantdee]

Ignore my cobblers about a 3rd CD - I was suffering
temporal concussion or something. 'Inwire' was
the final thing they did.

I've only managed to find one track of off it,
'What You Give', and it's pretty cool. Groovy kind
of 'Tie Dyed Skies' verses.

Singer Wanless is now in some pub covers silliness
called Betty Ford Band... They've got three mp3s on
the site. Their live version of 'Sweet Child of
Mine' and 'Funky Music' is good, but only because
of Wanless belting it out like his arse is on
fire. "He's still got it," as they say.

http://www.thebettyfordband.com/music/

D.