![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jon_chaissontape brand: TDK D90--again, more than likely taping over something that was on it previously.
compilation made: Late summer 1988, probably July or August, given the release dates of most of the songs. Most of these were songs that had been played on WAMH, the Amherst College station I listened to incessantly at the time, and which was off the air for the summer. A greatest hits of '87-'88, if you will. If I'm not mistaken, this was made about the same time I worked at the local radio station. Probably the first decent real compilation I'd made after a few sketchy ones.
listened to: Sometimes on the way to and from school, but mostly in my bedroom. I was hiding in my room a lot by that time...bedframe taken down, mattress on the floor, a sparse light on rather than the overhead...very moody and cavelike. Thus the title "Listen In Silence".
mindset: Again, moody, due to h58 and that gang moving on and leaving me stuck in Athol for one more year. At the same time, starting to get introspective instead of whiny.
writing: A lot of lyrics and poetry, Belief in Fate.
SIDE ONE
1. Violent Femmes, "Blister in the Sun"
If I'm not mistaken, one of the first 'college rock' songs I'd heard on a college station back in late '85. I have a fond memory of listening to VF's first album while h58 and I drove with Ann P down to Worcester to buy tickets for an REM show later in the year, and all of us singing along loudly at 7am on a Saturday.
2. Midnight Oil, "The Dead Heart"
I always liked this song over 'Beds Are Burning'...again, 'AMH played this one a lot earlier in the year.
3. The Sex Pistols, "Holidays in the Sun"
Can you believe I bought this cassette at the local Mars Bargainland (think low-rent WalMart of its day)?? Yeah, blew my mind as well that they had that there. Felt stupidly nonconformist in a good way that I was the one to pick it up. I'd heard of the Sex Pistols but never got around to hearing them until then, and LOVED it.
4. The Replacements, "Alex Chilton"
I'd posted a week or so ago that I finally got around to listening to their Pleased to Meet Me album after ages, and it's still great. This was one of the big hits off it. I believe this was one of my Columbia House purchases, actually...
5. Dr. Calculus, "Full of Love"
AKA Stephen Duffy, this one from the She's Having a Baby soundtrack which I really should buy again, as it's got a lot of great tracks on it. Of course, this song won me over simply for the Three Stooges soundbites. ;)
6. REM, "Finest Worksong"
Man, I was SUCH an REM fan at that point. Not nearly as much as Wire at the time, but very close. A lot of the later Flying Bohemians stuff was heavily influenced by this band. As mentioned above, saw them live later on in the year (I think, could have been early '89) for their Green tour.
7. Big Pig, "Hungry Town"
Bonk was one of those surprisingly good albums that didn't nearly get enough promotion other than the "hey, we've got a band that has multiple drummers/percussionists, etc, and they all sing!" shtick. That, and using their hit "Breakaway" (see below) in a Bill & Ted movie. This one, I should add, was used in Young Einstein. ;)
8. The Sugarcubes, "Birthday"
This is kind of a disturbing song, if you think about it. The first crossover hit for them. Another album that got a lot of play from me.
9. Wire, "Kidney Bingos"
Their crossover hit, sort of...and the one that got me to buy the album in the first place. Big on 120 Minutes as well...
10. Pet Shop Boys, "Always On My Mind"
Okay, hands up, who else managed to see PSB's movie It Couldn't Happen Here? They showed it very late one night and I caught it...very weird, that one...
11. The Smiths, "Death of a Disco Dancer"
One of the tapes I got from Columbia House...this song just jumped out at me the first time, and I love its slinkiness and the frenzied ending.
12. The Cure, "Hey You!!!" Yeah, a filler song for the end of the side, but also the b-side to their "Hot Hot Hot!!!" single which had just recently been released.
SIDE TWO
1. The Church, "Under the Milky Way"
Ah, here we go. My all-time favorite song, and it's just a simply gorgeous tune. Riffing on the 'songs evoking images' thing I posted before, this one always evoked an end-of-year, end-of-era type feeling, and tied in with how I felt at the time. Living at the end of a street with the woods surrounding me--and yet hearing the sound of Route 2 traffic about a mile or so south of us--gave me that sort of stuck-in-one-place feeling, and this song not only captured that for me, but also reminded me that it was 'my turn' coming up soon--that is, time to leave Athol. The girl with the wood frame in the video always reminded me of my friend Kris.
2. Big Pig, "Breakaway"
This was the one that sold me on the band. They never got much airplay, but again--it's a great album of its time, well worth looking for.
3. Peter Murphy, "All Night Long"
Another great album of '88, Love Hysteria was definitely one of those "listen at 2am in the dark under the covers" albums of the time, and this song is perfect for it. HOWEVER--I remember being at Strawberries in Leominster and getting very close to buying this tape, but buying the Swinging Erudites instead. I felt like a complete goober when I realized just how BAD that album was...
4. Echo & the Bunnymen, "Bedbugs & Ballyhoo"
I really liked this album at the time, and I'm not sure what possessed me to get rid of it so quickly...though "Lips Like Sugar" was the hit from this album, this track was my favorite, just because of its jazziness and the fact that it's very much a Mad-Libs sort of lyric.
5. The Smiths, "How Soon Is Now?"
Yup, big-time Smiths fan at the time as well. I'd bought Hatful of Hollow the year previous at a record store in North Adams (my dad and I were scoping out the college there at the time--that one was on my shortlist), and loved it. Especially hearing the stereo effects on this song on headphones!
6. The Smithereens, "Only a Memory"
Green Thoughts was heavily played on my headphones in the spring of '88 (along with Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses and the Mighty Lemon Drops' World Without End), the trio of tapes that could always be found in one of the pockets of my ratty green trenchcoat that I wore all the time my senior year.
7. Sinead O'Connor, "Jerusalem"
Say what you will about her later 'craziness', but The Lion and the Cobra is a wonderfully intense album, and it was also in heavy rotation on my walkman. It always timed out that if I started the tape at my bus stop, it would get to this song's ending when the bus pulled into the school parking lot.
8. The Church, "Reptile"
The other big hit from the Starfish album, and one reason I wanted to buy a delay pedal, even though I didn't have a guitar at the time. Another heavy-rotation album.
9. Peter Murphy, "Time Has Got Nothing to Do With It"
This song never got play on the radio (unless I requested it on WAMH), but it's my other favorite from the Love Hysteria album. Really got me into the atmospheric sound.
10. Siouxsie & the Banshees, "Cities In Dust"
This was a song I knew from earlier 120 Minutes episodes, not to mention it being used in the Anthony Michael Hall movie Out of Bounds (the soundtrack of which I had on tape, and I think that's the source I used on the compilation). I'd always wondered how they got that weird boxy-twanging drum sound.
So all in all, this compilation, while a bit dodgy in sound quality (the tape had probably been used at least three or four times previous), got quite a bit of play on my radio and walkman, and thinking back, it's an excellent cross-section example of the alt.rock of the time that I still love to this day.
NOTE: I updated my previous compilation post to include video links like this one, if you're interested.
compilation made: Late summer 1988, probably July or August, given the release dates of most of the songs. Most of these were songs that had been played on WAMH, the Amherst College station I listened to incessantly at the time, and which was off the air for the summer. A greatest hits of '87-'88, if you will. If I'm not mistaken, this was made about the same time I worked at the local radio station. Probably the first decent real compilation I'd made after a few sketchy ones.
listened to: Sometimes on the way to and from school, but mostly in my bedroom. I was hiding in my room a lot by that time...bedframe taken down, mattress on the floor, a sparse light on rather than the overhead...very moody and cavelike. Thus the title "Listen In Silence".
mindset: Again, moody, due to h58 and that gang moving on and leaving me stuck in Athol for one more year. At the same time, starting to get introspective instead of whiny.
writing: A lot of lyrics and poetry, Belief in Fate.
SIDE ONE
1. Violent Femmes, "Blister in the Sun"
If I'm not mistaken, one of the first 'college rock' songs I'd heard on a college station back in late '85. I have a fond memory of listening to VF's first album while h58 and I drove with Ann P down to Worcester to buy tickets for an REM show later in the year, and all of us singing along loudly at 7am on a Saturday.
2. Midnight Oil, "The Dead Heart"
I always liked this song over 'Beds Are Burning'...again, 'AMH played this one a lot earlier in the year.
3. The Sex Pistols, "Holidays in the Sun"
Can you believe I bought this cassette at the local Mars Bargainland (think low-rent WalMart of its day)?? Yeah, blew my mind as well that they had that there. Felt stupidly nonconformist in a good way that I was the one to pick it up. I'd heard of the Sex Pistols but never got around to hearing them until then, and LOVED it.
4. The Replacements, "Alex Chilton"
I'd posted a week or so ago that I finally got around to listening to their Pleased to Meet Me album after ages, and it's still great. This was one of the big hits off it. I believe this was one of my Columbia House purchases, actually...
5. Dr. Calculus, "Full of Love"
AKA Stephen Duffy, this one from the She's Having a Baby soundtrack which I really should buy again, as it's got a lot of great tracks on it. Of course, this song won me over simply for the Three Stooges soundbites. ;)
6. REM, "Finest Worksong"
Man, I was SUCH an REM fan at that point. Not nearly as much as Wire at the time, but very close. A lot of the later Flying Bohemians stuff was heavily influenced by this band. As mentioned above, saw them live later on in the year (I think, could have been early '89) for their Green tour.
7. Big Pig, "Hungry Town"
Bonk was one of those surprisingly good albums that didn't nearly get enough promotion other than the "hey, we've got a band that has multiple drummers/percussionists, etc, and they all sing!" shtick. That, and using their hit "Breakaway" (see below) in a Bill & Ted movie. This one, I should add, was used in Young Einstein. ;)
8. The Sugarcubes, "Birthday"
This is kind of a disturbing song, if you think about it. The first crossover hit for them. Another album that got a lot of play from me.
9. Wire, "Kidney Bingos"
Their crossover hit, sort of...and the one that got me to buy the album in the first place. Big on 120 Minutes as well...
10. Pet Shop Boys, "Always On My Mind"
Okay, hands up, who else managed to see PSB's movie It Couldn't Happen Here? They showed it very late one night and I caught it...very weird, that one...
11. The Smiths, "Death of a Disco Dancer"
One of the tapes I got from Columbia House...this song just jumped out at me the first time, and I love its slinkiness and the frenzied ending.
12. The Cure, "Hey You!!!" Yeah, a filler song for the end of the side, but also the b-side to their "Hot Hot Hot!!!" single which had just recently been released.
SIDE TWO
1. The Church, "Under the Milky Way"
Ah, here we go. My all-time favorite song, and it's just a simply gorgeous tune. Riffing on the 'songs evoking images' thing I posted before, this one always evoked an end-of-year, end-of-era type feeling, and tied in with how I felt at the time. Living at the end of a street with the woods surrounding me--and yet hearing the sound of Route 2 traffic about a mile or so south of us--gave me that sort of stuck-in-one-place feeling, and this song not only captured that for me, but also reminded me that it was 'my turn' coming up soon--that is, time to leave Athol. The girl with the wood frame in the video always reminded me of my friend Kris.
2. Big Pig, "Breakaway"
This was the one that sold me on the band. They never got much airplay, but again--it's a great album of its time, well worth looking for.
3. Peter Murphy, "All Night Long"
Another great album of '88, Love Hysteria was definitely one of those "listen at 2am in the dark under the covers" albums of the time, and this song is perfect for it. HOWEVER--I remember being at Strawberries in Leominster and getting very close to buying this tape, but buying the Swinging Erudites instead. I felt like a complete goober when I realized just how BAD that album was...
4. Echo & the Bunnymen, "Bedbugs & Ballyhoo"
I really liked this album at the time, and I'm not sure what possessed me to get rid of it so quickly...though "Lips Like Sugar" was the hit from this album, this track was my favorite, just because of its jazziness and the fact that it's very much a Mad-Libs sort of lyric.
5. The Smiths, "How Soon Is Now?"
Yup, big-time Smiths fan at the time as well. I'd bought Hatful of Hollow the year previous at a record store in North Adams (my dad and I were scoping out the college there at the time--that one was on my shortlist), and loved it. Especially hearing the stereo effects on this song on headphones!
6. The Smithereens, "Only a Memory"
Green Thoughts was heavily played on my headphones in the spring of '88 (along with Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses and the Mighty Lemon Drops' World Without End), the trio of tapes that could always be found in one of the pockets of my ratty green trenchcoat that I wore all the time my senior year.
7. Sinead O'Connor, "Jerusalem"
Say what you will about her later 'craziness', but The Lion and the Cobra is a wonderfully intense album, and it was also in heavy rotation on my walkman. It always timed out that if I started the tape at my bus stop, it would get to this song's ending when the bus pulled into the school parking lot.
8. The Church, "Reptile"
The other big hit from the Starfish album, and one reason I wanted to buy a delay pedal, even though I didn't have a guitar at the time. Another heavy-rotation album.
9. Peter Murphy, "Time Has Got Nothing to Do With It"
This song never got play on the radio (unless I requested it on WAMH), but it's my other favorite from the Love Hysteria album. Really got me into the atmospheric sound.
10. Siouxsie & the Banshees, "Cities In Dust"
This was a song I knew from earlier 120 Minutes episodes, not to mention it being used in the Anthony Michael Hall movie Out of Bounds (the soundtrack of which I had on tape, and I think that's the source I used on the compilation). I'd always wondered how they got that weird boxy-twanging drum sound.
So all in all, this compilation, while a bit dodgy in sound quality (the tape had probably been used at least three or four times previous), got quite a bit of play on my radio and walkman, and thinking back, it's an excellent cross-section example of the alt.rock of the time that I still love to this day.
NOTE: I updated my previous compilation post to include video links like this one, if you're interested.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 02:22 am (UTC)