We had joy, we had fun…

Thank God, no “Seasons in the Sun.”

I am both relieved and oddly disappointed by the bulk of the tapes, as nothing too embarrassing is revealed. Sadly, no radio tapes turned up. It’s mostly stuff I recorded from my LP’s. (Yes, Michele, there’s Frampton in there for you.) I just wanna know how the hell The Knack got in there (much less being on the same tape with AC/DC)! And why do I recall hating REO Speedwagon so much? They ain’t so bad.

Gah. I am old.

(Check out the odd mix on Tape 20…)


Tape 3: “Behind Blue Eyes” (the Who), “Maybe I’m Amazed” (Paul McCartney), “Monday, Monday” (Mamas and Papas), “Rocket Man” (Elton John), “Something” (George Harrison live), “Please Be With Me” (Eric Clapton), “Sway” (Rolling Stones), “Crazy Love” (Van Morrison), “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (Joe Cocker), “Rhiannon” (Fleetwood Mac), “Norwegian Wood” (Beatles), “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” (Elton John), “As Tears Go By” (Rolling Stones), “Let It Be” (Beatles), “It Stoned Me” (Van Morrison)
Tape 4: Pat Benatar’s Crimes of Passion album.
Tape 5: Pat Benatar’s Precious Time
Tape 6: Foreigner’s Head Games and Double Vision
Tape 7: Byrds Greatest Hits and James Taylor’s Greatest Hits
Tape 8: Asia Heat of the Moment
Tape 9: “Mind Games” (John Lennon), “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin), “Dreamer” (Supertramp), “Blinded by the Light” (Bruce Springsteen), “Changes” (David Bowie), “One of These Nights” (Eagles), “Kashmir” (Led Zeppelin), “25 or 6 to 4” (Chicago), “Show Me the Way” (Peter Frampton), “Gotta Get A Meal Ticket” (Elton John), “Wooden Ships” (Crosby, Stills and Nash), “The Weight” (The Band), and the flip side is all Beatles.
Tape 10: “Feelin’ Blue” (CCR), “Horizontal Bop” (Bob Seger), “Strut” (Seger), tracks from The Knack’s Get the Knack, tracks from Highway to Hell (AC/DC)
Tape 11: Tracks from Blood On the Tracks and Desire (Bob Dylan) on side 1; Beatles on side 2
Tape 12: The Kinks One For the Road (Live)
Tape 13: various Bob Dylan songs
Tape 14: Blues Brothers Briefcase Full of Blues on side 1; tracks from Bob Seger’s Stranger in Town and Night Moves on side 2
Tape 15: Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits and Deep Purple Machine Head
Tape 16: Aerosmith Toys in the Attic and AC/DC Highway to Hell
Tape 17: CCR Chronicle (which got eaten by the player…bummer…)
Tape 18: “I Fought the Law” (Clash), Grand Funk Hits, and The Best of the Doors
Tape 19: Eagles Hotel California

Tape 20: “Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” (Bob Dylan), “Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye), “Don’t Be That Way” (Benny Goodman), “You Really Got Me” (Kinks), “Sail Away” (Randy Newman), “Mule Skinner Blues” (Jimmie Rodgers), “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones), “Dance to the Music” (Sly and the Family Stone), “You’re Sixteen” (Ringo Starr), “Band On the Run” (Wings), “Close to the Edge” (Yes)… the whole 18+ minutes of it, followed by something that sounds like George Benson’s Give Me the Night

Tape 21: ELO Greatest Hits, BTO’s Not Fragile, “Hold On” (Ian Gomm), “Renegade” (Styx)
Tape 22: “The Adultress” (Pretenders) obviously taped over Loverboy as I heard the opening strains of “The Kid is Hot Tonite”, then the rest of Pretenders II, The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta
Tape 23: Yet more ELO and the Eagles The Long Run album

Tape 24: This one is very, very bizarre. It starts out with a local oldies DJ introducing Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Twist Again” and veers quickly into snippets of “If You Wanna Be Happy” (Jimmy Soul), “Twist Again” (Chubby Checker), “Thank You” (Led Zeppelin), “Only the Lonely” (Roy Orbison), “I Get Around” (Beach Boys), something that sounds like Revolver trying to write a song… a very depressing song at that, followed by loud, obnoxious (I’m not just saying that for effect either) noise from us punks. Gah. It’s not even amusingly bad in that “oh weren’t we having fun” way. It’s just painful. That’s followed by the end of “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Something” by the Beatles, “Cocaine” (Eric Clapton), “Blues Power” (Clapton), “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night” (Kinks), “China Grove” (Doobie Brothers), “Son of a Poor Man,” “Breakaway,” “Time for Me to Fly,” and “Only the Strong Survive” (REO Speedwagon)…. then, ha! “The Kid is Hot Tonite,” “Turn Me Loose” and “Teenage Overdose” (Loverboy)

I’m going off to kill myself now.

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9 Responses to We had joy, we had fun…

  1. brandelion says:

    i’m ok with most if not all selections, save one: omg, Supertramp???

    …childhood trauma. parents. 8 tracks. waitress holding tray above head, orange polyester. driving. stuck in car. listening to supertramp FOREVER…

  2. Sherri says:

    I have (or had) a box of tapes like that. I DID tape off the radio (BJ105…oh lord) and I’m afraid to know what is on those tapes now. I also exchanged tapes with some penpals, so there are some odd bits in there. However, about 2 months ago, in a fit of cleaning frenzy, a load of them went to Good Will and I have no idea which thosewere. There is still a box on a shelf that I’m refusing to look at — I should dump them on YOUR doorstep.

  3. brandelion says:

    Shasta (see: http://shastahygiene.blogspot.com/) used to make what she called “travel tapes” — odd mixes of the most bizarre selections from all genres, complete with odd soundbytes and interjections — true works of art. i don’t have any of them, but i wonder if she still does… ???

    a sample might have been 30 seconds of Pearl Jam’s “Daughter” followed by a buzzer, then “What’s New, Buenos Aires?” from Evita (ORIGINAL BROADWAY: NOT MADONNA — VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE AS MADONNA VERSION IS SACRILEGE), followed up by ABBA, “Dancing Queen”, but only enough to give a taste before seguing into Murrayhead’s “One Night In Bangkok”, and then a bit of dead air followed by ten seconds of a Puccini opera, which would precede a fine recording of Bob Ross saying, “Happy Little Trees…”

    and so on.

    it was great stuff.

  4. brandelion says:

    also, we would listen to them while driving. hence, “travel tapes.”

    Shasta was known as “the weird girl” in high school. not super flattering. i was known as “the misery chick” — also not super flattering, but it did fit. i had a propensity toward full-on Goth Emo of the brightest shade of black, and i snarled at anyone who DARED enter my sacred circle of angst…

    how did i ever make friends? Shasta? why did you ever like me? (not that she can hear me asking these rhetorical questions…)

    heh. thanks for letting me reminisce in your comments, solly. you’re so *peachy*

  5. Ric The Schmuck says:

    That doesn’t sound very bad, Solly.

    Given that I know what you usually listened to during that time period, and how you used to catalog everything (and anything!) these tapes aren’t too surprising.

    Now, I would be truly embarrased if any of the old radio tapes that I used to make were to ever surface. Those tapes are what I think were the beginning of my becoming more musically aware, as when I brought some along with me on a bus trip (to a debate meet, if memory serves) Solly and the other cool kids kinda redirected me towards “better” stuff than what I had recorded off the radio.

    Good memories, though.

  6. Andy says:

    Foreigner?

    FOREIGNER??

  7. Susan says:

    Up till the last move, we actually displayed our tapes along with the cd’s and dvd’s… the cars, Bruce, Pat Benatar and so much more… they are now hidden in the basement.

  8. Mamacita says:

    Where’s “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero?”

    I mean, don’t be a fool with your life!

  9. domino says:

    I think I recorded Pretenders II for you…I recorded it for some one…maybe Steve Moor.

    I am suprised to see AC/DC, b/c I don’t think you EVER had a good thing to say about THAT group.

    I used to have a bunch of WTOS tapes…I might still have them. That was THE coolest radio station back in late 70’s early 80’s. I remember we used to alway listened to WTOS when we were on Teenage Menace Adventures

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