My Life's Soundtrack

As you all know music has always played a huge part of my life. I'm always on the lookout for new sounds and there can never be one absolute favorite band or song in my life. Take a walk with me through the music that's made me the Music Whore that I am.

In the late 70's two of our local channels used to play The Monkees and The Beatles cartoons. The Monkees were on WPGH and I think they were on at 4 o'clock. I was totally captivated by Davy Jones. So much so that I wanted to have my name changed to Jean so that Davy could be singing Daydream Believer about me! And if that wouldn't work, I wouldn't mind being his Cuddly Toy.

With the Beatles it was another tiny two minute song that got me. The song was I'll Follow The Sun. We were cleaning at one point and out of nowhere came a copy of Beatles '65 with that song on it. It was my brother's as I've said before. The sleeve is battered, but I still have it, don't plan on ever giving it back either. That's one of my favorite Beatles albums.

Being a child of the 80's there were a few bands/artists that I loved at that time. It wasn't always all about 60's music. Like every girl in the early 80's I wanted to be Olivia Newton John. Physical and Xanadu were my two favorite songs. I can recall clearly watching a concert of hers on HBO and falling in love with the song Heart Attack.

Then there was the matter of Culture Club. I blame Girl Scouts for that obsession. We were at a roller skating party and they played Karma Chameleon while I was out trying to keep balance and not brake any bones. Everyone loved that song including my mother. Mind you, my love for Culture Club was not popular among the kids at school who all love Michael Jackson (Ewww), Wham! and Duran Duran. I liked Wham! but never enough to really obsess and Duran Duran had to wait awhile for me to have more time to devote to liking them.

By the mid-80's the 60's were back. It was 20 years since Sgt Pepper. In 86' my first love, The Monkees were back on the scene and I got to see my first concert! I also picked up a love for Herman's Hermits because of that tour. I was particularly fond of Just A Little Bit Better. I have 2 original albums that I picked up at flea markets about that time. I've never fond a CD that had all the songs I loved on it, plus none of the actual albums are in print. Grrr at those bastards at the RIAA again.

In those two years George Harrison came out with Cloud 9 and another video captivated me. Cloud 9 was probably my most eagerly anticipated album of my life. Plus to my young ears, it was also the greatest thing I had ever heard. Plus this album catapulted my favorite Beatle into the spotlight. George was everywhere then. He even had a weekend on Vh-1 and I finally got to see the videos for Crackerbox Palace and This Song! I found a copy of 33 1/3 on vinyl at a local used record shop but the song Beautiful Girl skipped. Oddly all my copies of this album did that. I was glad when the Dark Horse albums got reissued.

Mtv was the channel to watch. The Monkees were on Nick at Nite along with shows like Laugh In which I still love even though they are so dated it's disgusting. And then this video for a little song called Your Wildest Dreams was being played. I wanted to be the girl in the video. I wasn't particularly attracted to any member of the band in question. (pun intended) That was my first exposure the Moodies and though they didn't really attach themselves to me like the bad fungus that they are, they would come back into my life again and again. (
Even if Justin's freaky hair from the video clip for Nights In White Satin did scare the hell out of me)

I picked up other bands in the coming years. In junior high, I succumbed to the hair metal bands that were so popular. Poison and Def Leppard were my two big favorites. Funny though that my favorite Lep tune isn't a rocker at all. It's Two Steps Behind. When I saw them a few years back, in the second row of the University of Pittsburgh gym, I was totally disappointed that they omitted that song.

My last years of high school were full of varying musical styles. I picked up on the 80's artists that I had ignored in their heyday. I fell in love with The Phantom Of The Opera. Oh and Paul McCartney forced me to listen to a snarky punk who wrote several songs with him during the late 80's.

There was a lot of musical love going on for me at the time. Cheap Trick released Lap Of Luxury and the single The Flame. I fell for Robin Zander instantly. Adam Ant did an album called Manners and Physique with the awesome single Room At The Top. God the list could go on. I had a love affair with XTC for awhile.

But as High School ended two bands dominated my life and would for quite some time.

Oingo Boingo and Duran Duran.

My last boyfriend in high school loved Boingo. He looked quite a bit like Danny Elfman too. I have too many favorites to really list them, but We Close Our Eyes is one song I can always listen to when I want to feel good.

I'm not really sure how I managed to get into Duran Duran. I really think the two huge singles from the Wedding Album were enough to make me try to buy up every Duran Duran thing I could find. I have vinyl and import CDs and posters and magazines. Why? All for the love of Simon Lebon and Nick Rhodes. I've seen them twice in concert and both experiences were lousy. Not the show, but the crap venues they've played in Pittsburgh. So I'll blame the obsession with Come Undone. I still buy their CDs as soon as I can. (Even when they suck, like Thank You)

My next musical obsessions are actually artists that I should have liked a lot more earlier on. Elvis Costello popped back into my life via an online friend. It helped that he released a great album, When I Was Cruel at the time. And everytime someone on the food channel makes a Tart, the song from that CD gets stuck in my head for weeks!

In early 2003 we finally succumbed to digital cable and I had Vh-1 Classic. That brought me the Moody Blues again, in the form of that video that still makes me cry. Suddenly a certain tall leggy blonde moody blue meanie seemed quite attractive to me. All the Core & moved into my collection as well as the rest of their back catalog and another obsession was born.

It's a shame the first album of "new" material that I was going to get excited over was a Christmas/holiday CD. I was angry at this at first. I wasn't the fan of Christmas tunes then that I am now. But Don't Need A Reindeer won me over. It's great live. I was lucky enough to hear them play it in Youngstown. I was lucky enough to get a Lodgey hug in Youngstown too.

Since the Moody Blues took over I haven't had many more bands that were real obsessions. Only two stand out to me right now; Grey Eye Glances and Cliff Richard.

GEG is the band I recommend to everyone. Go to CD Baby and look them up. Big Red Boat is my favorite song right now, from the album A Little Voodoo. To think, I never would have heard of them if I hadn't made a request at a live journal community for songs by great female vocalists.

As for Cliff Richard, I knew him through various duets he's done over the years, but damn Mistletoe and Wine! Damn Cliff at Christmas! Damn my love for cheesy pop music. Damn for me loving his last album and the song Somethin' Is Going On.

My life has been full of music. From Broadway show tunes to Punk, I've listened to almost anything once. Sure I didn't mention all my loves here. There are far too many of them for one post. But I've got to save room for whatever's to come, right?