Day 14

• There have been many songs I first heard in a record store, playing over the PA.  Many of them led to purchases.  One of my favorites is featured on this first album, the self-titled sophomore album from Cashmere. During my trip to Loco this fateful day, a Monday no less, one of the guys slipped this album on the platter and dropped the needle on the first track.  The sound ping-ponged from speaker to speaker around the store as the opening keyboard stabs, synth bass and Art of Noise-y vocals of "Can I" rang out.  Instantly attracted to the sounds, I cruised by the check out counter to peek at the Now Playing woodblock that held the album cover. Cashmere by Cashemre.  Sold.  Pretty sure it was my first purchase on the Philly World Records label.
• At least three times in my life, I have become obsessed with or possessed by Mike Oldfield's epic Tubular Bells and none of those times have anything to do with The Exorcist, which I'll probably never watch anyway.  This period of obsession began when I saw this album sitting in the IMPORT section at a decidedly non-import price.  Hearing the familiar music played by an orchestra proved to be a gateway to an entire subgenre of rock classics played by either The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra or the London Symphony Orchestra, which for all I know may very well be the same entity a la Parliament/Funkadelic.  While most albums of the day conveniently fit on a 45 minute side of a TDK SA90, this one required a TDK SA60 with 30 minutes per side to accommodate each side of the album.
• I just mentioned "When The Rain Begins To Fall" in the previous post.  The song was recorded and released after the Jermaine Jackson album but was amended to later pressings.  Never saw the movie Voyage Of The Rock Aliens the song was featured in so I'm thankful for that.
• After his monster Let's Dance album in 1983, Bowie returned with more of the same though it was missing one essential ingredient: Nile Rodgers as guitarist and producer. Nevertheless, Tonight sounded pretty close to the previous album with lead single "Blue Jean"  sounding a lot like that album's title track.  As a devout fan of Brian Wilson's divine "God Only Knows", I give Bowie no points for taking all of the beauty out of the song with a lifeless arrangement and singing the sacred words in his creepiest  voice.
• Springsteen wrote and recorded "Because The Night" during sessions for his Darkness On The Edge Of Town album in 1977.  The Boss was not pleased with the track but his producer slipped the tape to Patti Smith, another artist he was producing in the neighboring studio and she recast it in her image and the rest is history.  I bought the album to fill a gaping hole in my collection.  Bruce's original studio version of the song finally saw the light of day in 2010 as part of The Promise.  A live version is included on the Live/1975-85 set from 1986, which also happens to be my first CD purchase.

Cashmere - Cashmere (1985)
The Orchestral Tubular Bells - The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Mike Oldfield (1975)
"When The Rain Begins To Fall" (12") - Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora (1985)
"Blue Jean" (12") - David Bowie (1984)
Easter - Patti Smith Group (1978)

Can't say why I was at Tucson Mall this day as it was miles and miles away from Loco or my home for that matter.  Still, I was able to score the 45 version of "Born To Be Alive" instead of always including the longer album version on mixtapes.  The single is part of Columbia's Hall Of Fame line of re-issued singles.

"Born to Be Alive" (7") - Patrick Hernandez (1979)

I was surprised not to find hide nor hair of The Orchestral Tubular Bells in my current collection though I still have two of those orchestral rock classic type albums on the vinyl shelf. The only vinyl of the bunch that still has a place in this space is the "Born to Be Alive" 45; the other two albums exist as CDs and each of the twelve inch singles have been saved to CD as well.

The TOTAL TALLY:

records bought: 61

    money spent: $330.59