Perhaps I shouldn’t have captioned this picture that way… I sang excerpts from A Chorus Line back in my junior high chorus. Now I have “One” running through my head. I want to hop on my piano and start playing and singing, but it’s too early and I don’t want to wake the neighbors. I don’t think they’d be very pleased with me…

Anyway… A few entries ago, I had the idea of doing an entry about music and decided today was that day! I think it’s because of recent events… On one of my sites, I met a person calling themselves Beach Boys Fan. I’m a huge fan of theirs (I grew up listening to them) so I decided to check out this profile. Turns out it’s a teenage girl from Russia, I believe, who listed a lot of 70s artists as her favorites. I asked if she would like me to compile a list of good 70s tunes. She was so excited! Next I’m making an 80s list for her.

I’m a crazy music fanatic…

There’s very little music that I’m unfamiliar with, to be honest. I pretty much love all kinds from all eras. I even love classical, big band, opera… The only genres I’m not keen on are rap and country. Well… it depends on what type of country. In the 70s and 80s, a lot of it fit in with the pop charts and I do like that. I always say my dirty little secret is that I like John Denver (don’t spread that around). I even like a little modern music, but not much. It all sounds the same and very unoriginal. And, of course, I do like foreign music. As I said in an earlier post, I have a fetish for Japanese rock and pop. I also own this great CD by a French singer who is just wonderful! I also have some Korean and Filipino tunes, thanks to some friends.

I’ve also developed this nasty habit while listening to the radio…

More often than not, all I need to hear is one note or one drum beat and I’ll blurt out what the song is and who performed it. This is followed by whoever happens to be with me getting awe struck and frustrated at the same time and demanding, “How do you DO that?!?” I don’t know… I think it’s just because I’ve heard so much over the years. I’m constantly listening to music and, after a while, it’s just embedded in your head. Or maybe I’m just weird. Either way is good…

I have this odd talent for finding songs that I don’t know the title of or the artist.

Case in point, there was this song that I’d heard on a rerun of WKRP in Cincinnati years ago. I remembered hearing the song on the radio constantly and loved it, but I knew nothing about it. I listened very intently and, to me, it sounded a bit like The Grateful Dead. Now, this was years before the internet became a thing and Shazam was decades away. Instead, I went out and bought a few cassettes (CDs were still new and expensive) and came up empty. The next time I went to buy a cassette, it dawned on me. That episode was made around 1978, so I should look for a Grateful Dead album of the same year. I bought the one pictured above. When I got to the third song, bingo! It was the song I wanted! And did I feel stupid… The song and album have the same title, “Shakedown Street“…

Another WKRP song that was annoying as hell to me was a bit more challenging…

Paul McCartney has a distinctive voice, so that was easy enough to determine. And though I knew some of the lyrics, again, this was the days before the internet. If you wanted to find shit out, good fucking luck. All I had to go on were the lyrics, “Ooh babe, you couldn’t have done a worse thing to me, If you’d have taken an arrow and run it right through me.” Yeah, that was really not helpful in pre-internet days…

Thankfully, when it comes to music, I do have good fucking luck!

It was a boring day of channel surfing and I found this movie called Oh Heavenly Dog. It’s actually rather cute and funny. It really should be on a “much watch before you die” list. Yeah, it’s PG rated, it’s from 1980 and Benji is in it, but it’s definitely cute. User ratings on IMDB aren’t very good, but what the fuck do they know? People expect way too much from older movies…

Well, wouldn’t you know, I heard an instrumental version of the very song I was looking for! So I waited until the credits ran at the end of the movie and found the the song was titled “Arrow Through Me” by Wings (Paul McCartney’s solo group with his wife). I immediately went out and bought the cassette.

One of my favorite bands since I was a kid is Genesis.

It all began when the song “Misunderstanding“came out in 1980. The content is decidedly unhappy… Poor guy gets stood up by a girl, drives past her house and finds her with another guy. Ouch…

But there was something about the song that had me fixated on them from that day on.

I also had some help from a guy I had a few dates with. He was a huge music lover also, and when he learned Genesis was my favorite band, he gave me an LP he had, the Wind and Wuthering album. Of all their albums, this one is in the top 3 for my favorites. It’s really phenomenal!

And for those who have watched the movie American Psycho… Well… It’s not a movie you want to watch with me. I caught a lot of mistakes between the CD covers and the songs playing at the time (the songs weren’t on the CDs shown). I also tend to flip out on the TV every time he says that the Invisible Touch album was genius, the best Genesis ever produced and that anything before their album Duke was crap. I usually yell at the TV that Wind and Wuthering was genius and Invisible Touch was mid 80s fluff. I don’t know why I argue… Patrick is obviously a psychopath. What the fuck does he know about music…

Now, I know digital (or CDs) are the preferred method of listening to music. Personally, I prefer vinyl. That’s obvious to everyone who knows me. I own well over 700 45RPM records and as many LPs. If I see boxes of vinyl at a flea market, yard sale or see an ad in the paper, I’m there. I have a serious problem…

But, despite what others may tell you, vinyl has a very warm sound that you literally can’t capture digitally. Some argue this point, but I really do feel that vinyl has a warmer sound. The best example of this is the Chicago album pictured here (their 10th). I have this album (it’s mint) and I have a CD of their greatest hits. I’ve played “If You Leave Me Now” on both and the vinyl has a warmer, richer sound quality.

I’ve also conducted the same test with “Wishing You Were Here” (on their 9th album) and got the same results… Interesting factoid on this tune… The backup vocals were performed by Mike Love, Al Jardine and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys!

In any case… when it comes to my vinyl obsession, I can usually find some gems no matter where I go. But the other weekend, I found the ultimate rare gem!

When I was in high school and first met my best friend, she introduced me to this band I’d never hear of called Pickins… Apparently they were a local band back in the late 70s (the copyright is 1979) who played local bars. From what I was told, the only way you could get the only record they ever recorded was to either get it from the band themselves or win it from a radio contest. My friend’s mother had loved the band and gotten her copy the latter method…

The first time my friend played it for me, I fell in love with this album! I had her make me a copy on cassette and listened to it all the time!

When the day came that they made turntables that you could hook up to your computer to make digital copies, I borrowed the album from her mother and made 3 copies, one for each of us. I eventually had to make myself another copy because I wore mine out…

Now, outside of myself, my friend and her mom, I didn’t know anyone who had ever heard of these guys. I was beginning to think that the album I copied was the only one still in existence. Until I hit the flea market…

I was shocked into breathlessness when I saw this in the crate of albums (for only $2)! I immediately pulled it from the jacket and examined both sides… Oh, it was gorgeous! It’s mint, as if it’s never seen a needle! It’s a bit difficult to tell from a picture, but trust me, there isn’t a mark on it. To me, perfect vinyl is a thing of beauty that nothing compares to. It’s exciting when I find any record this perfect!

Sadly, it’s hard to find any information on them, let alone any of their songs. However, someone was kind enough to upload the songs to YouTube so I can spread the joy of Pickins…

I managed to find “Ain’t Never Coming Back“, “Musta’ Been Love“, “Time Can Only Move You On“, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Woman“, “Still In Love With You“, “It’s My Life” and “Down“, the entire album! Holy hell… I find that amazing!

I hope you guys enjoy Pickins as much as I do… For a local band that I had never heard of before, it seems more people know of them than I thought! So take a listen and, if you do, let me know what you think of them! Maybe I’ll create more Pickins fans!

So what types/genres of music do you, my dear readers, listen to? Are there any bands or songs you love so much and want to recommend? I’m always up for some great new music! Leave a comment, let me know!