I don't recall my nineteenth birthday as anything special. But earlier in the day, I spent a rare Saturday down at the University where I was rapidly losing my academic scholarship. Within two years, I'd be married with a baby girl on the way. And buying CDs almost exclusively.
The guy that turned me on to the music of the Yellowjackets also turned me on to The Clash and Depeche Mode. His name was Mike and he did it all via cassettes I listened to on my Walkman during Drafting class. I made the cassette of the first Yellowjackets album last nearly four years but it finally broke in 1985, maybe a month before I found a vinyl promo copy of the album at PDQ.
Have you ever purchased two albums on the same day with "yellow" in the title? I have. My good friend Doug was/is a HUGE fan of Elton John's music and though his enthusiasm was contagious, we still disagree on this album: I love it while he feels it is "bloated and over-rated". I still can't understand how "Grey Seal", re-recorded for this album, wasn't one of John's biggest hits. (The original version, from three years prior, is shite, to be polite. Not a fan of The Band Perry's 2014 hicked-up cover either.)
- During the Summer of 1979, I saw the movie Animal House nearly 100 times as it was in heavy roatation on the Star Channel that came with my Texas Grandma's newly installed cable. Flash forward five years and one of the most requested songs during my brief tenure as a mixtape DJ was "Shout" by Otis Day & the Knights, as featured on the Animal House soundtrack. The song and fictitious group were so popular that a group was formed around the film's performer ("Otis Day") and they toured the country eventually signing to MCA Records and recording just one album, also titled Shout, produced by legendary funkateer George Clinton.
- Having purchased my first Steely Dan album earlier in the month, I picked up Gold to flesh out my collection as there was no overlap between the two compilations. In addition to featuring songs that came out after Greatest Hits in 1978, four older tracks that had been left off that album were included on Gold.
- Unless some brave soul pipes up in the Comments section below, I am on record as the only living male in the contiguous 48 states that likes Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is". I may also be the only person to buy the full-on gospel version, which was exclusively available as twelve inch single. The record was a Top 40 Black Single, Top 20 on the Hot Dance/Disco Sales chart while bubbling under the Hot 100 at #101.
Animal House (soundtrack) (1978)
Gold - Steely Dan (1982)
Two albums on the MCA label, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and the Animal House soundtrack, are the only two survivors on the Vinyl Wall.
The TOTAL TALLY:
records bought: 169
money spent: $881.08
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