Day 9

Have no idea why I was at the BX (Base Exchange) on this day.  It was never a destination when shopping for records yet I bought several albums there.  Growing up, around 1974-1980, going to the BX was a weekly Saturday trip with $2 allowance burning a hole in my Toughskins.  I usually picked up one or two 45s each time and still had a few cents to buy a comic or a couple packs of football cards, at least prior to 1978.  Most notably, in 1983, shortly after landing my first paying gig, I put this boombox on layaway at the BX:

Three or four weeks later, when I finally paid that bad boy off and took it home, I bought Undercover by the Rolling Stones to be the first record played.  It sounded gloriously loud and thumpy.  The boombox is still here but Undercover exists only as three separate CDs although I still have both twelve inch remixes from the album on vinyl.

I had heard "Why?" recently somewhere, maybe the New Music Test Department?, and had to have it in my collection.  Jimmy Sommerville's falsetto was a turn-off for some while Bronski Beat's openly gay lyrics were turn-offs for others.  I never had any issues with either of those things plus the music was so damn danceable (not that I danced).  The rest of the album contained a few more gems as well but Sommerville left the group before the year was out. The fact that this album was purchased on an United States military installation in one of the most conservative states in the Union just as AIDS, dismissively referred to as "the gay cancer", was bubbling up into mainstream consciousness is almost mind-blowin'. 

The Age Of Consent - Bronski Beat (1984)

One of the club jams that had been living in my head since Halloween 1984 finally made its way out when I picked up the parent album Jukebox on a quick trip to the mall.  How quick?  You could park near the door to the mall, walk in and be inside Zip's all in about two minutes. Someone had told me that Diamond Dave's EP had dropped this week and I didn't remember seeing it at the BX earlier in the day but there it was at Zip's, part of a huge display that greeted you as soon as you sat foot inside the store.  Dazz Band was on sale for $5.99 and Roth was $4.99 - for four tracks but what the hey?  Zip's in Park Place was a sentimental spot of sorts - it was the first record store we visited when we moved to town in August 1981 and one I frequented very often shortly after getting hitched and moving into a house across the street from the mall in March 1987. Don't exactly remember when they went out of the mall but it was at least 15-20 years ago.

Jukebox - Dazz Band (1984)

Crazy From The Heat - David Lee Roth (1985)

No longer have The Age Of Consent on vinyl but I have it on CD in two different configurations with scads of bonus tracks while both Jukebox and Crazy From The Heat exists in both formats here in the Archives.

The TOTAL TALLY:

records bought: 33

    money spent: $192.81