"Time got excited..."

"...That's when we all got started."
- Once Upon a Time

Since I'm currently writing a series about the albums that have most affected me throughout my life, my first post of the new year will be ironically looking back a few years. Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have a great 2008! Now for the feature presentation...

Like most teens of the 1980's, I grew up on "Brat Pack" movies. One of my favorites was The Breakfast Club. Like many American teens of the time, the theme song from this movie was my first introduction to the Scottish band Simple Minds. I desperately wanted to hear more from them, so when their album Once Upon a Time was released, I snapped it up and started listening eagerly.


I was not disappointed. This album just doesn't seem to have a weak spot. I've read a review that called Once Upon a Time "the album that U2 wished they made." I quickly wore out my first copy of this album (on audio cassette) and had to purchase another. For about a year, I listened to this album almost every night before I went to sleep. Now, with the digitization of music, I have it on my ipod. While my wife thought it was good, but like listening to an 80's movie soundtrack, and many of the group's longtime fans considered this album a sell-out and an artistic compromise, I think the songs are excellent and have stood up well to the test of time. These eight songs combine to form an incredible album (yes, there are only 8 of them... it was definitely quality, not quantity). In fact, Simple Minds declined to include Don't You (Forget About Me) from The Breakfast Club because they felt it would detract from the production as a whole and because it was not written by the members of the band.

"You lift me up when I know you're around."
- Once Upon a Time

From the opening of the album, the almost conversationally written Once Upon a Time, I was hooked. Sure, it was all pop hooks and big production, but it was also pure poetry.

"Anywhere you go, you know I'll still be waiting."
- All the Things She Said

The album's second track, All the Things She Said, seems to echo the words of a wise departed mother, speaking hope to a frightened child. It continues the conversational style of the first track's dialogue, and alternating lines form more complete thoughts.

When I look into your eyes, I see a new day rising
Oh all the things she said, she said
Through the eyes of love, and never know what hate is
- All the Things She Said

The third song on the album is the socially aware Ghost Dancing.

"You talk about the Lebanon
You tell me 'bout the Dawn in Eden
You talk about South Africa
I tell you about the Irish children."
- Ghost Dancing

Strong social consciousness is a hallmark of 80's music. Things like Live Aid and Farm Aid showed us the crises of peoples far and near. We also saw the power of music to bring people together for a common cause. Bands like Simple Minds and U2 became more than musicians. They became spokespersons and activists. They sought to enlighten as many people as they could reach about the world's less fortunate and encourage us to be resonsible humans by recognizing that we are a part of the same people as these suffering multitudes. We became aware of massacres and mass starvation, government repression and suppression of human rights, and political indifference. Even an album that sounded so happy and filled with pop hooks could contain references to trouble spots around the globe.

"What you gonna do when things go wrong?
What you gonna do when it all cracks up?
What you gonna do when the Love burns down?
What you gonna do when the flames go up?
Who is gonna come and turn the tide?
What's it gonna take to make a dream survive?
Who's got the touch to calm the storm inside?
Who's gonna save you?"
- Alive and Kicking

The next track returns from the gloom of social crises and presents a more personal crisis. Alive and Kicking contrasts the joful highs of new love with the loss of those feelings of rapturous infatuation through a long relationship, but encourages the lover to wait it out. The promise is that those feelings return, the magic can come back and the love can be saved. Like the topics of Ghost Dancing, this is heady stuff for a teenager, but like the call to social awareness, many of us got it, or could at least tap our feet and sing along.

On my old audio cassette, this was the end of side one. Most albums always seemed to flag after the flip, but this one keeps going. Indeed, some of the best is yet to come.

"Boys are building up to be men."
- Oh Jungleland

The first song of side two is what I consider the best song on the album. Oh Jungleland is filled with captivating rhythms and just seemed to suck me in with its rhyming lyrics and hypnotic pulse. As a sort of coming of age story, it is filled with imagery I could relate to at that time in my life.

"Oh jungleland
They call you home sweet home
You make me feel so sad, to leave here all alone
But there's a kid called hope
And he's holding out his hand
He sees the northern lights
Above the highrise land."
- Oh Jungleland

The short chanted section has always been one of my favorite parts ("Blood is thicker than water"). This song still pulls me in every time.

Simple Minds was adept at couching darker subjects within their bright and airy sound. The dark, yet hopeful I Wish You Were Here continues this with lead singer Jim Kerr musing about the death of a loved one and asking the inevitable questions about the possibilities of a reunion after death.

"Footsteps, I can hear footsteps in the hall
I hear footsteps, seems like Ive been through this before
Some time has come now, some time has passed
But things still look the same
Is heaven all above, and paradise below
And the questions still remain
Ooh, can we see you?
Ooh, are we near you?
How could you disappear out of here?
I wish for something, I wish you were here

Footsteps, I can hear footsteps in the hall
I hear footsteps, it seems like Ive been through this before
Well we loved you then, I guess we always will
We love you still from here
Birds of a feather always stay together
And never separate, no fear
Ooh, can we see you?
Ooh, are we near you?
How could you disappear out of here?
I wish for something, I wish for something
I wish you were here, I wish you were here
I wish you well

Footsteps, I can hear footsteps in the hall
I hear footsteps, seems like Ive been through this before
If all the world was turning blue and gold
Like through your eyes so clear
The time has come to celebrate our past
And crystalize this sphere
Ooh, can we see you?
Ooh, are we near you?
How can you disappear out of here?
I wish for something
Ooh, can we see you?
Ooh, are we near you?
How can you disappear out of here?
I wish for something
I wish you were here, I wish you were here
I wish you well

There will come a day
Oh some day our day will come
Our day will come, our day will come..."
- I Wish You Were Here

This was pure poetry. Death was a scary topic to me then and it still is today, but the thought that "our day will come" was reassuring to my teenaged mind, and the rhythmic, almost ritualistic chanting at the end of the song forms a mantra of reassurance.

"You can pour back the love, sweeping down from above
Giving hope and making more chances
Well, I hope and I pray that maybe someday
You'll come back down here and show me the way."
- Sanctify Yourself

Though the entire albums contains undertones of belief in a higher power, Sanctify Yourself is the most openly religious tune. Faith is at the core of this song. Faith, wrapped in a catchy sparkling paper and delivered so that we barely even notice until we've listened and then listened deeper.

"Swing low, could be the last call for two of us
I said swing high, reach out and touch the sky
But dont cry yet, its not time yet..."
- Come a Long Way

Kerr and company, with the addition of the beautiful voice of Robin Clark, never let up. From start to finish, they hold us with every song. When this album ends, I always catch myself listening to the silence at the end and wishing for more. Come a Long Way is yet another great song, and yet somehow not enough, not final. It is an epilogue that leaves us wanting. That Simple Minds has failed to satisfy us with the eight songs of Once Upon a Time, has left us eternally wanting more, may be their, and the album's, greatest triumph.


"Dont look back, never look back."
- Oh Jungleland

"Tonight's the night we'll make history..."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (opening lines)

In the days of vinyl LP's, before the advent of the compact disc reduced album art to an eye-straining experience, listening to an album was a visual experience. In the early 1980's, I went on a trip to a local "hardware and variety store" and was browsing the album racks (yes, they sold LP's there) when an album cover caught my eye. As an eleven year old, I was already a fan of two of the songs on this album that had received significant radio play, as well as some of the band's previous work, so I plunked down the eight dollars and change and left with something new to spin on my turntable as I read the lyrics and pored over the stunning artowrk on the front and back covers. Little did I know that when I removed the disc from the sleeve, I would be greeted with an embossed disc bearing a holographic image that was a detail from the cover art. It was a stunning, multisensory experience.

As I listened to the album, with the sides labeled as "Act 1 and Act 2", I learned that the songs formed a loosely-connected theme. The story followed the fictionalized rise and fall of a real theater in Chicago, called...

Paradise Theater.

When I set the needle down onto the album, I was treated to the promise of hope in the album's opening lyrics and Dennis DeYoung's solitary voice on A.D. 1928.

"Tonight's the night we'll make history
As sure as dogs can fly
And I'll take any risk to tie back
The hands of time
And stay with you here tonight
So take your seats and don't be late
We need your spirits high
To turn on these theatre lights
And brighten the darkest skies
Here at the Paradise"
- A.D. 1928

Then, I was stunned by the abrupt segue into Rockin' the Paradise.

"So whatcha doin' tonight?
Have you heard that the world's gone crazy?
Young Americans listen when I say there's people puttin' us down
I know they're sayin' that we've gone lazy
To tell you the truth we've all seen better days."
- Rockin' the Paradise

This is one of the greatest rock songs of its time. In the early 1980's, it did seem like the world had gone crazy. We were just a short time removed from the oil shortages of the 1970's and the Iran hostage crisis. It looked like we were headed for something better.

"Well, I'm a jet fuel genius - I can solve the world's problems
Without even tryingI have dozens of friends and the fun never ends
That is, as long as I'm buying
Is it any wonder I'm not the president?"
- Too Much Time On My Hands

The next song, Tommy Shaw's Too Much Time On My Hands, seemed to say that any of us could do anything we wanted to... if only we really wanted to. This has always been one of my favorite songs on this great album. It is a catchy song, with that awesome whisper and alarm clock ending.

"You get up every morning and you go to work each day
Been doing the same damn job for ten long years this May
You've been working and saving for your Jamaican dream
Paradise is waiting across the sea
But when your plane lands Montego turns to Monsoon
You've got the Island Blues

'Cause, nothing ever goes as planned
It's a hell of a notion
Even Pharaohs turn to sand
Like a drop in the ocean
You're so together and you act so civilized
But every time that things go wrong you're still surprised
You've done your duty, you've paid a fortune in dues
Still got those Mother Nature's Blues."

- Nothing Ever Goes As Planned

Dennis DeYoung asks us once again what we're doing tonight in Nothing Ever Goes As Planned, an indication, mixed metaphors and all, that this dream of a grand future may not turn out exactly as we hoped. My father was always as blue collar as they come. He worked multiple jobs day in and day out to give our family the best life he could, yet my brother's illness and a multitude of other things always seemed to throw a huge monkey wrench into his plans of retiring at the beach and spending his days fishing. We had all paid a fortune in dues.

"Tonight's the night we'll make history, honey, you and I
And I'll take any risk to tie back the hands of time
And stay with you here tonight
I know you feel these are the worst of times
I do believe it's true
When people lock their doors and hide inside
Rumor has it it's the end of Paradise
But I know, if the world just passed us by
Baby I know, you wouldn't have to cry

The best of times are when I'm alone with you
Some rain some shine, we'll make this a world for two
Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime
We'll take the best, forget the rest
And someday we'll find these are the best of times
These are the best of times

The headlines read 'these are the worst of times'
I do believe it's true
I feel so helpless like a boat against the tide
I wish the summer winds could bring back Paradise
But I know, if the world turned upside down
Baby, I know you'd always be around

The best of times are when I'm alone with you
Some rain some shine, we'll make this a world for two
Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime
We'll take the best, forget the rest
And someday we'll find these are the best of times
These are the best of times

And so my friends we'll say goodnight For time has claimed it's prize
But tonight will always last
As long as we keep alive memories of Paradise..."

- The Best of Times

The final song on "Act 1", also the most commercially successful song on the album, seems to echo the words of Dickens, which I was familiar with, even at 11 (I have always been a prolific reader). DeYoung's The Best of Times was a statement masquerading as a simple love song pretending to make a statement (makes sense to me). This song links the opening and closing of this album. We know that Paradise is doomed, but we can also hold onto it through our memories of the greatest moments of our lives, even in the worst of times.


(The real Paradise Theater actually was built in 1928 on what is now Pulaski Road in Chicago's West Side. It failed due to poor acoustics blamed on its domed ceiling once "talkies" arrived and never recovered. The Paradise was closed in 1956 and what was supposed to be a six month demolition was completed in 1958.)

"The rain was hot, the streets were empty
As downtown closed her eyes
The movie house stood in silence as I said my last good-byes
Her silver screen was stained with memories
As Cagney shot them down
And as I watched I was that hero
In dreamlands lost and found."
- Lonely People

"Act 2" opens with the heckling of nearby residents trying to get the noisy kids out of their neighborhood. The Paradise is closed and all we have left are the memories. As an adult, this song reminds me that all those people that have been so hurtful to me, and to others, over the last few years, and throughout my life, and even history, are just scared, hurting, lonely people. They hurt others because they feel so much pain, fear, and loneliness. Loneliness is a disease from which we can all suffer.

"I worked hard to be the greatest lover
I wanted to be sure that I was her only one
That's how I thought it was done
But I went too far, assumed too much
The need to feel a younger one's touch
Seemed important then
Oh what a fool I've been

And still she treats me like a human
She says she'll still be there
I don't quite understand it, she's been too fair
'Cause somehow she cares

I guess that's the way it goes, the way that it goes
And nobody knows what compels her
She's seen my highs and lows and never let go."

- She Cares

The album continues with Tommy Shaw's love song, She Cares. I can definitely identify with the narrator, who is loved and cared for by another, even though he feels he doesn't deserve it.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall
The face you've shown me scares me so
I thought that I could call your bluff
But now the lines are clear enough
Life's not pretty even though
I've tried so hard to make it so
Mornings are such cold distress
How did I ever get into this mess?"
- Snowblind

James Young's Snowblind caused quite a controversy when the album was first released, with rumors of backwards Satanic messages being hidden in the song. Young has been making fun of these rumors in concert for years, with his evil sounding introduction and red lights.

This is a song about the devil within, particularly the devil of cocaine addiction. The narrator isn't even sure how he descended into this particular hell. He too is lonely and suffering. He sees his weakness and is unsure how to escape.

"Half penny, two penny, ashes to dust
The almighty dollar says 'In God we trust.'
Justice for money, how much more can I pay?
We all know it's the American Way."
- Half Penny, Two Penny

James Young's second song in a row on the album is a portrait of decadence and corruption. We see through this jaded view of our country, and of humanity, that hope is something for the wealthy and prestigious.

Finally, the album closes with the melancholy reprise of the opening melody, the familiar hook that brought us in with hope of a better future. This time, DeYoung is singing a requiem to Paradise. It is over. Memories are all we have left, but they are sweet as A.D. 1958 segues into State Street Sadie and brings us back to the jazz age that surrounded the opening of the Paradise and held such promise and hope for happiness. Just as the jazz age collapsed into the great depression, we are left with only this echo of a better time... perhaps even the best of times. As Dickens tells us, a time much like our own.

"And so, my friends, we'll say goodnight,
for time has claimed his prize,but tonight can always last,
as long as we keep alive, the memories of Paradise."
- A.D. 1958

"The boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay and the bells were ringing out for Christmas day."

(title quote: The Pogues, Fairytale of New York)

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I will continue with my album posts soon, but today I wanted to come here and wish all of my blog friends a joyous holiday. Thank you for your support this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!" - Charles Dickens

"Once there was a way to get back home...'

The first album on my list was recorded about a year before I was born and was released in the United States in October of 1969. I came into the world in April, 1970. My brother was already a huge fan of The Beatles by the time of my birth and imparted his love of their music to me when I was still a young child. During my childhood, my brother often taunted me that The Beatles broke up because I was born. This teasing sometimes left me in tears because I loved their music and couldn't stand the thought that their dissolution was my fault.

I don't remember the first time I heard this album, but I do remember that my first purchase of recorded "popular" music was at the age of six. I soon owned a growing collection of mostly British invasion rock, including The Who, Rod Stewart, Elton John and, of course, The Beatles.

While Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered to be their most significant album, it was Abbey Road that really caught my attention and has kept it to this day.

Even the album cover mystifies us with its supposed "Paul is dead" symbolism has always intrigued me. I can spend hours looking at the images on this cover and always find something new to look at. The songs on this album have meshed with memories of my life and gained even more significance as I have grown and gotten older.

"Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please."
- Come Together

From the cryptic opening lines of Come Together, I was hooked. I didn't understand it, but I knew it had to be something important.

"Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover."
- Something

From the minimal blues of Come Together, the listener is dropped into the sonic fog of George Harrison's Something. It is a simple, straightforward love song and a huge departure from the album's first song.

"Back in school again Maxwell plays the fool again
Teacher gets annoyed
Wishing to avoid an unpleasant scene
She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away
So he waits behind
Writing 50 times "I must not be so" oh oh oh
But when she turns her back on the boy
He creeps up from behind."
- Maxwell's Silver Hammer

One of the favorite songs of my childhood was the frivolous nursery rhyme that is Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Like many of the fables of our childhood, there is a sinister story lurking behind the childish nonsense rhymes and catchy melody. I imagine many young people were intrigued by the story of vengeance that is carried out on the authority figures in this story, from the girl who turned us down for a date to the teacher who kept us behind for detention and the judge who condemned us for our youthful misdeeds, everyone felt the "justice" of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Steve Martin's rendition for the big screen was painfully funny.

"When you told me you didn't need me anymore
Well you know I nearly broke down and cried!"
- Oh! Darling

Few emotional pleas have ever rung so poignantly on my youthful ears as Paul McCartney's Oh! Darling. His hoarse and plaintive cry to believe him was so authentic and honest that we couldn't help but believe. Never mind all that he had to go through to achieve that effect. It was pure musical magic.

"I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade."
- Octopus's Garden

When I was taking guitar lessons during third grade, I was still listening to Octopus's Garden. Going back to a sing-song nursery rhyme style after the emotionally charged pleas of Paul's breaking heart, Ringo Starr drew us right back in with his vivd imagery of this magical hideaway under the sea.

As a child, I Want You (She's So Heavy) came across to me as an eerie and vaguely threatening song. As an adult, it seems like the perfect stalker anthem. This song made me uneasy for some reason that I never could quite grasp and it still sets my nerves on edge, though I know think it is a great song with lots of atmosphere held within its broken chords.

"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say
It's all right."
- Here Comes the Sun

After the dark mood of the previous song, George Harrison brings light back to the album with Here Comes the Sun. I can remember my brother singing this song to me after particularly violent or prolongued rainstorms when I was a child. I would quickly join in and sing along and everything would indeed be all right.

From George's bright and happy sun images, Because brings the clouds back into the picture. This song will forever be coupled in my mind with the Orwellian imagery bestowed upon it in the movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Because was another song that just made me uneasy for some unknown reason.

"You never give me your money
You only give me your funny paper
And in the middle of negotiations
You break down."
- You Never Give Me Your Money

If The Beatles ever taught us anything through song, it was that "money can't buy me love." In You Never Give Me Your Money, it seems that love is also holding back on sharing the wealth. This song continues the melancholy descent into the second half of the album. It seems as if the rosy promise of youth isn't quite living up to our expectations. For some reason, this song has always made me a little sad and lonely.

I never bothered to translate the Italian lyrics to Sun King, and this song has never made much of an impact on me, but in that respect, it is definitely in the minority on this album.

"Mean Mister Mustard sleeps in the park..."
- Mean Mister Mustard

Part of the medley that is the second part of Abbey Road, Mean Mister Mustard tells the story of Mister Mustard and his "sister" Pam. Mustard is not a savory character, he's a "dirty old man." I grew up living across the street from a huge municipal park, and I knew that old men slept in the woods in the back of the park. I always wondered as a child if Mister Mustard was back there with them.

"Well you should see polythene pam
She's so good-looking but she looks like a man
Well you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag
Yes you should see polythene pam."
- Polythene Pam

After Mister Mustard, we are introduced to the drag queen Polythene Pam. I've always thought this was Mustard's "sister" in all "her" strangeness.

"And so I quit the police department
And got myself a steady job."
- She Came In Through the Bathroom Window

Since my father was a police officer (who also worked full-time at a local grocery) and my mother was a former beauty queen, I've always related to this song and attached my own personal significance to it.

"Once there was a way, to get back homeward,
Once there was a way, to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby
Golden slumbers fill your eyes, smilles awake you when you rise
Sleep little darling do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby."
- Golden Slumbers

After my brother's death, I attached a great deal of personal significance to Golden Slumbers. This song is one of the most beautiful lullabies ever written.

"Boy, you gotta carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time..."
- Carry That Weight

My brother carried with him the weight of mental illness throughout his short life. We all have weights that we carry with us for our whole lives. This song revisits the familiar melodic territory of You Never Give Me Your Money. Since my brother died on the Fourth of July, I do sometimes break down in the middle of the celebrations.

The "final" song on the album is a fitting epitaph to Abbey Road and to The Beatles' musical endeavors. I have always thought it an appropriate truism to end the album, discounting the miniscule and frivolous Her Majesty which serves as a sort of hidden track. I think the words of The End are a fitting place to stop for now.

"And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love
You make."
- The End

"The souls of men and women, impassioned all. Their voices climb and fall; battle trumpets call."

(Title quote: 10,000 Maniacs, Verdi Cries)

It has been quite an eventful week. There are big changes in store at my (main) workplace today. The changes are for the better, but are still scary, as most change seems to be. We are uneasy with the unfamiliar. I will relate more of these changes after they have occurred, since a story is easier to tell by far once the events have unfolded.

I am sure my last post was polarizing, if it was noticed at all. What I am working on currently is much more personal and much less controversial.

"I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality." - H.A. Overstreet

In writing something more personal, I realize that I risk writing something less accessible. I am okay with that. When something needs to be written, it will make that demand in the brain until it is on the page. This has been making its demand to be written for over a week now, so I must begin it.

"Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What will follow, in the next few days, is a series of posts (I'm not yet sure how many it will take... my original thought was to do it in a single post, but as I explored what I want to write, it grew into a series of posts, at least two, maybe more) in which I will share the albums which have affected me the most in my life.

I want to share the CD's in my collection that have captivated me and worked their magic on my soul. I will be sharing them in chronological order of when I discovered them. I have trimmed my list down to 10 albums. The earliest album on the list, I was introduced to at age six, and the latest, I discovered only about a month ago.

So, I will be working on these posts, sharing how this music affected, and still affects me, sharing a piece of my musical soul, if you will, and posting them over the next few days. I hope to finish the first of them sometime within the next 24 hours. I hope you enjoy my musical self-indulgence.

"Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought." - E.Y. Harburg