The Old Grey Cat

I’m not sure if my recent splurge of mixes is tied to Poser or the reverse. (Click ”view post” if you’re reading this on Facebook to see it.) In any event, here’s my last for the weekend, which stands at odds with the sunny day here in Philly land: Shades of Gray - songs for down days that are guaranteed to continue the down mood. Includes Neil Young, Steve Earle and Sandy Denny, among others.

And another 1970s Flashback, primarily AOR classics - Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc., etc.

1984 turned out not to live up to George Orwell’s vision - we’d have to wait a few years for that. But it was a fun year for music. Here’s a 25-song snapshot of the hits (and a few misses) from that election year. Among the featured acts: Prince & the Revolution; Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band; and R.E.M.

It was the year of the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis, the killer rabbit incident and John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd leaving Saturday Night Live, among other touchstone events. It was also the year of the Knack and disco, the MUSE Concerts at Madison Square Garden in NYC, highlighted by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea in London, which marked the last time Paul McCartney took to the stage with Wings.

The pop fodder at the top the charts was fun, if mostly mindless, as evidenced by this 1979 playlist, which collects the Top 25 hits of the year (as ranked by the music-industry publication Cashbox). There’s disco, of course, by way of Donna Summer, Amii Stewart and Anita Ward, but plenty more - a good time guaranteed for most. Did I mentioned the Knack?

Woke up with this in my head - from one of my favorite albums of last year, Rumer’s Seasons of My Soul. It’s yet to be released in the U.S., but is available from Amazon as an import. Well worth the extra $.

Years ago, when I worked at a new-fangled CD store, a few customers and I exchanged mixtapes like the mini-evangelists we were, orchestrating mini-suites of songs we liked and loved and wanted to share with the world - or, at least, fellow music fiends.

Technology has its place, but when it comes to music, some days I miss those days of cassettes and limited space, and the late-night sessions of mixing and matching melodies, rhythms and rhymes. Creating the modern equivalent, playlists, requires one to only point, click and save. There’s not even the need, anymore, to flip through CDs in search of the perfect follow-up song - chances are, most (if not all) of your music library exists within the confines of iTunes, Windows Media Player or whatever application you prefer to use.

All that said, playlists have their place, especially when – like those cassettes of yore – they can be shared. Such is what I plan to do here, beginning with two playlists I created years ago over at 8Tracks, War & Peace and Cool Covers.