Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Someone mentioned Blancmange's "Living on the Ceiling" online earlier, and it got me thinking about another one of my compilations...this was an interesting one to make, and the first multiple-tape compilation that wasn't a year's end best-of. It's a curious mixture of old and new. The Untitled title was originally due to not being able to come up with a neat title like Listen/Walk in Silence, but it ended up fitting...it kind of reminded me of The Beatles in a way because of its length and randomness.

tape brand: Memorex dbs90. The brand was prevalent at most of the local stores that sold them, probably because they were relatively cheap and sold in bricks of five or six, if I'm not mistaken.
compilation made: Summer 1989, during my first tenure at the Athol DPW.
listened to: Pretty much everywhere. It got some serious listening while we made our rounds mowing the cemeteries in and around town.
mindset: I'd just graduated high school and was now biding my time, waiting to head off to college in Boston. Most of these tracks originated from stuff I'd taped off the radio (in particular, WAMH and WMDK), with a few tracks from sides C and D coming from episodes of 120 Minutes. A few tracks were borrowed from head58's collection, and the rest were from mine. In short, this was a mixture of a compilation, and stuff I wanted on one tape (or stuff I didn't otherwise own) that I'd be bringing along.
writing: Mainly Belief in Fate and a lot of poetry at this time...pretty much my introspective period.

SIDE A
1. Blue Clocks Green, "Hemingway"
Known as both a beloved and reviled song on college radio due to its low quality and goofiness. Heard extensively on WAMH in 1988-89.
2. Love And Rockets, "So Alive"
A great summer single and LnR's biggest hit in the US, hitting #3 on Billboard's Hot 100, and #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks. It predated the self-titled fourth album by two months, and got some serious airplay on a bunch of different rock stations.
3. The Damned, "Alone Again Or"
A great Damned track off a somewhat iffy album, it's a wonderful cover of a classic Love track. I'd gotten this from their Light at the End of the Tunnel compilation, but I believe it was also a single Chris and I had found at the radio station the year previous.
4. The Godfathers, "She Gives Me Love"
I loved the Godfathers back in the day, because they played an excellent mix of old-school punk and British psychedelia. This was the first single off the second album, More Songs About Love and Hate.
5. The Replacements, "Within Your Reach"
Taken from the Say Anything... soundtrack, another album that got heavy play on my walkman. I remember hearing this in the movie and wanting to write a song very much like it.
6. Public Image Ltd, "Warrior"
Say what you will about PiL's late 80s pop output, they had some great tracks like this one. I wasn't the biggest fan of 9 (I liked 1987's Happy? a lot more), but it had great singles. I'd actually heard this first on the Slaves of New York soundtrack.
7. Joy Division, "Day of the Lords"
I didn't get into Joy Division until 1988's Substance (mainly because their albums were hard to find for quite some time), and this track from Unknown Pleasures was one that stuck with me.
8. The Icicle Works, "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)"
Another old-school track, this one from 1984. I think this one got planted here because I'd found the album on cassette in a bargain bin around this time. One of those "oh yeah, I remember this song" tracks.
9. Tin Machine, "Under the God"
A lot of Bowie fans diss the Tin Machine era, though I'm not exactly sure why. Personally, I thought it was a great step for him, considering his last few albums had been pretty lightweight and uninspiring, even despite the hit singles. I quite enjoyed the video for this track, a mosh pit gone seriously out of hand.
10. Wire, "Eardrum Buzz"
Ah, Wire. After two great albums, they came out with a rather weird collection of singles and "live re-recordings" of previous tracks. It took me awhile to latch onto It's Beginning to and Back Again (a runner-up title for this comp, btw), but I did like this track. I remember one of my classmates asking me what the hell was up with this band and the earshirt.
11. Pixies, "Gigantic"
Grabbed this one off WAMH in 1988, this was the first Pixies track I'd heard. It got a lot of airplay out in the Valley, and rightly so, considering a few of them had gone to UMass Amherst just a few years previous.

SIDE B
1. Throwing Muses, "Santa Claus"
This was found at the radio station on a groovy promo album from Warner Brothers called Winter Warnerland, and I believe it was also the b-side to their recent single "Dizzy". One of the tracks that got me into the Muses, actually.
2. Ciccone Youth, "Tuff Titty Rap/Into the Groove(y)"
The odd-yet-makes-sense pairing of Mike Watt and Sonic Youth released exactly one album, which brought out this weird yet fun cover of a classic Madonna song. Another track heavily played by WAMH at the time.
3. Blancmange, "Living On the Ceiling"
Another retro track, I'd found it at our local library, of all places. They had a few hits in the UK and didn't do much here, but the video made the rounds back in 1983 on the fledgling MTV.
4. EBN OZN, "Aeiou Sometimes Y"
And while we're here, another retro track from the early MTV years! Chris had picked this album up in a dollar bin somewhere, so I couldn't pass it up. The album itself is pretty cheesy synthpop (including a twitch-inducing cover of "Rockin' Robin"!), but this one has risen to cult status.
5. Depeche Mode, "Everything Counts (Live)"
The lead single from the live 101 album and documentary. I believe I had a dub of the album from Chris until I finally ordered my own copy from Columbia House. You'd expect a synth band to be a bit flimsy live, but DM actually has a great live show, because they started out as a live band. It helped that Alan Wilder introduced them to the sampler in 1983, of course!
6. Fine Young Cannibals, "Suspicious Minds"
One of their first singles, and a great Elvis cover, complete with Jimmy Somerville doing backup vocals. I finally got to hear this one after buying their second album (The Raw and the Cooked, which had come out earlier in the year) and following up with the first one.
7. The Go-Betweens, "Was There Anything I Could Do?"
Not one of the prettiest bands out there at the time (although violinist Amanda Brown was kinda cute), but Grant McLennan and Robert Forster were brilliant songwriters, and 16 Lovers Lane from 1988 is an absolutely wonderful album worth owning. I wrote a song inspired by this track, although I've never recorded it.
8. Clan Of Xymox, "Muscoviet Musquito"
One of the tracks from 4AD's Lonely Is an Eyesore compilation from 1987, this was the first Xymox track I'd heard, and immediately loved their sound. They weren't quite goth, but weren't quite synthpop either. By the time their Twist of Shadows album came out later in 1989, I was a huge fan.
9. The Nails, "88 Lines About 44 Women"
A classic new wave track that everyone should know. I first heard this through Chris and a few others, who'd heard it on WAMH, and somehow managed to find a 12" promo of it. I always thought the last name (Amaranta) was spelled Ameranda for some reason and I liked how it sounded, so one of my Belief in Fate characters had that as a middle name. I linked to my favorite YouTube version, which interprets the the song as anime characters.
10. Bow Wow Wow, "I Want Candy"
Another retro/early days of MTV track that surfaced on a radio show on WAMH, so I included it here.
11. Sting, "Spread a Little Happiness"
Chris and I were quite amused by this track from the Brimstone & Treacle soundtrack, and I thought it would make a wonderful end track for side B. We played this song to an empty room the night of my senior prom, when he and I were cleaning it up, and proceeded to do a softshoe on the Town Hall floor.

SIDE C
1. Swans, "Saved"
Interesting track, this. Considering that their earlier output was loud, sludgy and brutal, their Burning World was a 180 into quiet, calm guitar work. Not their strongest song, but one of my favorites of theirs.
2. Morrissey, "Interesting Drug"
The second of his post-Viva Hate non-album singles, this one always seemed a bit of a throwaway, but it was catchy. I'm amused that the band line-up in the video is Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, and Craig Gannon--1986 Smiths minus Johnny Marr, basically. See if you can hear him sneezing just as the song fades out!
3. fIREHOSE, "Time With You"
One of my favorite tracks from Mike Watt, it's got a countrified groove and some killer riffs. This one I picked up straight from an episode of 120 Minutes.
4. Eurythmics, "Thorn In My Side"
I'd just recently gotten dubs of the earlier Eurythmics albums from a friend, and ended up really liking Revenge, the album just before Savage (which is my favorite of theirs). I think I picked this one off 120 as well, probably same episode.
5. The Darling Buds, "Let's Go Round There"
I thought this band was a bit of a Primitives knockoff at first, but they definitely grew on me, especially with their second album Crawdaddy. In retrospect, this kind of hints at the Britpop wave that would hit a year or so later.
6. Pixies, "Here Comes Your Man"
Another Pixies sighting! This was the second single from their sophomore album, and the track that pretty much put them on the popular alt.rock map. Even the band thought it was a bit of a sellout song, which is probably why the lipsyncing in the video is so hilarious.
7. The Wolfgang Press, "Raintime"
I knew about the Wolfgang Press from their track on Lonely Is an Eyesore, but this was the one that made me realize they were actually a pretty groovy band sometimes. Another track lifted off an episode of 120.
8. Husker Du, "Makes No Sense At All"
Probably their best known song, or at least the one non-fans know. They used to play this quite a bit on 120, which is where I got this one from. I love how the video is for both sides of the single--the b-side being a cover of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, as a nod to a fellow Minnesotan!
9. The Feelies, "Away"
I'd heard of the Feelies before but never really heard them until the Only Life album, which I bought from Columbia House soon after it came out, basically on this track alone. It's a great folksy, REM-like album with a lot of fun guitar work. The video was directed by Jonathan Demme, who used the band in multiple places, including the high school reunion band in Something Wild.
10. Julian Cope, "Charlotte Anne"
Julian Cope is a very strange chap, but My Nation Underground is a surprisingly pop-friendly album, and this is an irresistibly catchy song. Another song first heard on 120 but bought soon after.
11. Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, "Swirling"
Quite possibly my favorite Robyn Hitchcock song from my favorite album of his. It's an absolutely gorgeous track. It's funny how some tracks just hit you during a particular listening: I heard this on WRSI once when I was at an antiques store with my dad that summer, and it had just stopped raining. The cool post-rain breeze, the grayness of the sky, the darkness of the wet road, the colors of the trees across the way...everything just sort of fell into place, the song providing a perfect soundtrack of that moment.
12. The English Beat, "March of the Swivelheads"
You probably know this song from the link--it's used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Ferris is trying to beat Jeannie home at the end of the day. It's actually a remix of the band's "Rotating Head" and it's a great track. Lifted this from WAMH.

SIDE D
1. Aztec Camera, "Oblivious"
I think I first heard this track during the early days of MTV, but never got around to picking it up until much later. Their albums were notoriously hard to find, which is surprising considering they were released by Sire. Always a fun summery track.
2. China Crisis, "Arizona Sky"
WMDK and WRSI used to play this now and again, and I think it was the only place I'd ever heard it. China Crisis never did much here stateside, but they had some pretty neat jazz-pop tracks like this one.
3. Camper Van Beethoven, "Take the Skinheads Bowling"
Ah yes...a cult classic that makes no sense at all, and a lo-fi video to boot. Another band I didn't get into until much later, but I always liked this song, silly as it is.
4. Talk Talk, "Talk Talk"
Another retro track from the early 80s. I think a lot of people wrote this band off as they weren't as pretty and poppy as the other New Romantic bands out there, but in the long run, they came out with some shockingly intellectual and creative records and still have a following. I love the piano work in the middle eight in this track.
5. Wire, "Ambitious"
I'd known about Wire but didn't really hear them until I heard a few tracks on the Enigma Variations 2 album from 1987, which featured "Ahead" from The Ideal Copy. I bought that one soon after buying 1988's A Bell is a Cup.. and loved the crunchy alt.pop. This is another great track from Ideal that got a lot of plays on my walkman.
6. U2, "God Part II"
A great track from Rattle & Hum that doesn't get the props it deserves. It's sort of a follow-up to John Lennon's scathing "God" from his Plastic Ono Band album, and a great driving track. Of course, flanging drums is always a good thing, too.
7. Pixies, "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
The first single from Doolittle, I picked up the album within a few weeks of its release. I find this a stronger track than "Here Comes Your Man".
8. Underworld, "Underneath The Radar"
Post-Freur but pre-electronica, Underworld came out with 2 synthpop albums in the 80s that didn't quite go anywhere, though this track did feature on a few TV shows (including Miami Vice). They hid for a few years and surprised everyone when they became techno wizards.
9. Julian Cope, "World Shut Your Mouth"
Probably Cope's best-known song, it's lifted off his other pop-styled album Saint Julian, which got a lot of play on WRSI and WMDK.
10. The Pogues, "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah"
A great Pogues single-only track from late 1988 (I think I lifted it from the Lost Angels soundtrack, if I'm not mistaken), it's a great tribute to old-school Motown pop.
11. X, "Hungry Wolf"
The compilation version is the live take from Live at the Whisky a Go-Go album, but this is probably my favorite track of theirs, and a hell of a lot of fun to play on bass.
12. Easterhouse, "Come Out Fighting"
...and time to end a compilation on a positive note, I chose Easterhouse's biggest hit, which ended up getting some commercial airplay even here in the states. It's not really indicative of their earlier, more British working-class style, but it's a good song nonetheless.


This would end up being the last compilation I'd make before heading off to college, and in effect, the last compilation of my high school years. The sounds would change that autumn, as I'd be listening to the more commercial WFNX instead of the college and AOR stations, though I'd remain loyal to alternative rock for the most part. I think this is why I always think of 1989 as the end of the "college rock" era, at least from my perspective.

tape brand: Memorex dbs90--Like I said, I had a boatload of these kicking around. Most likely previously used as a tape that had albums on both sides. No clue what they were...
compilation made: I think early summer 1989, probably May, given the release dates of most of the songs. Again, most songs had been played on WAMH...in fact, I'm sure a good handful of these songs were copied from stuff I taped off the radio (said radio tapes being dubbed The Last Home Year Cassettes, being that i was heading to college in the fall). Note that there's a subtle theme in this one--Side A is nearly all loud and agressive, but Side B is more laid back and morose. The reason behind it is interesting--the first tracks on both sides were from my friend Kris' music collection, and I'd asked her to put the two tracks on separate sides, and I built up the comp from there.
listened to: Sometimes at home, but I distinctly remember listening to this during my tenure as a summer employee of the local Public Works Department. All I needed was a summer job, didn't matter what it was, as long as I saved up some money for college. At this point, the job entailed mowing the various cemeteries around town...so yeah, as you can well imagine, it was a thankless and sunburn-prone job, but it was one of my favorites in terms of "mindless but fun work" jobs.
mindset: In a much better mood, as A)I was heading to Emerson in the fall, B)I had a steady girlfriend, and C)I'd purged myself of a lot of pessimism, even though I'd kind of gotten used to, even enjoyed, being the moody creative bastard. Still a nonconformist in my own mind, of course.
writing: A lot of lyrics and poetry, Belief in Fate.

SIDE A
1. That Petrol Emotion, "Creeping to the Cross"
One of the songs that stuck out for me when I went to see them and Voice of the Beehive at UMass with Kris and h58.
2. Siouxsie & the Banshees, "The Killing Jar"
Second single from their Peepshow album and another great song. I think by this time I'd picked up the album either at Main Street in Noho or Al Bum's in Amherst, but got it cheap because it was a promo copy. Quickly became one of my favorite albums at that time.
3. The Cure, "Babble"
Unfortunately there's no video so you can sample the song, but one of the great Cure b-sides, this one from the then newly-released "Fascination Street" single. Played near the end of the semester quite a bit on WAMH. Very odd baby-crying samples on this one...
4. The Smiths, "The Queen Is Dead"
Title track to my favorite Smiths album at the time, it had an angry energy that the other albums didn't quite have. Also, I think I found myself finger-tapping that opening almost daily without thinking at that time.
5. Soul Asylum, "Sometime to Return"
I always thought of Soul Asylum, at least the 80s version, as sort of like the Replacements' little brother that could. Definitely that Minneapolis punk sound. This one was from Hang Time, a very underrated album that got a lot of plays that summer from me, and this (as well as "Cartoon") got a lot of play on 120 Minutes.
6. Love and Rockets, "Motorcycle"
After their psychedelic folksiness of 1987's Earth Sun Moon, they totally surprised us with this hard-hitting heavy blues single, which would feature on their self-titled album that came out at the end of the summer. Using a heavily distorted bass to sound like a motorcycle at the end? Brilliant move.
7. The Cure, "Fascination Street [extended mix]"
[The video is the single edit.] Released just before the brilliant Disintegration as a US-only single (they released "Lullaby" as the first single in the UK, which I happened to have on vinyl from Main Street Music). H58 and I made the mistake of playing this during my senior prom, effectively clearing the floor. We dropped it after about 30 seconds in, sheepishly apologized, and continued playing the annoying pop music of the day.
8. Voice of the Beehive, "Beat of Love"
As said, saw this band open for That Petrol Emotion. The two ladies were quite fetching in real life, and the blond was tall. Kris ran into her in the ladies' room after the show and she came running out with a look of OMGOMGOMG on her face. ;)
9. The Smiths, "Shoplifters of the World Unite"
My other favorite Smiths album at that time was Louder Than Bombs, which I'd gotten from Columbia House sometime in '88, and listened to quite liberally during my DPW job. Essentially a singles compilation, it has quite a few great tracks from them including this one.
10. Camouflage, "That Smiling Face"
First track off of 1988's Voices & Images, further proving that they weren't just a Depeche Mode knock-off. I just recently found this live version from a few years back, well worth checking out.

SIDE B
1. Guns n' Roses, "Patience"
Yeah, I know...odd song to have on a compilation, especially since I wasn't the big GnR fan. This was originally put on here by my friend Kris who had the GnR Lies album and I just wanted a copy of it.
2. Talk Talk, "Life's What You Make It"
This song ROCKS on so many levels...I believe the single was a leftover radio copy, and my interest in it was renewed when Elvis Costello hosted 120 Minutes once and played this video, which I'd never seen before (directed by Tim Pope, no less--he of the weird Cure videos). I just love how the video ends with the dawn breaking.
3. REM, "The One I Love"
Sure, Green was out, but I still really enjoyed Document as well. I've been looking for the acoustic version of this song for ages, which I know is a b-side somewhere...
4. Procol Harum, "Whiter Shade of Pale"
(Wow, there was a real promo for this? I never knew...) I know, another odd choice, but this was because h58, a few others and I had gone to see New York Stories earlier in the year and this song was in a key scene in the "Life Lessons" sequence.
5. Julian Cope, "Charlotte Anne"
This one got heavy play on 120 Minutes as well as on WMDK. I always liked this track, even though a lot of JC's stuff ends up being rather weird.
6. Ultra Vivid Scene, "Mercy Seat"
Mentioned this one in an earlier post...thought it fit the theme.
7. Love and Rockets, "I Feel Speed"
How do you follow up the heaviness of the above "Motorcycle"? By doing an extremely quiet version, of course. On the single (and later on the album) they follow one another and blend in so beautifully. I love this version as well.
8. The Cure, "Plainsong"
First track off Disintegration, and one of those great openings to an album. Kyle was right, it is the best album ever.
9. The Smiths, "Reel Around the Fountain"
First track on their first album, and kind of fitting that it's here, considering I was thinking of summer 1989 as the possibly last time I'd be living in Athol (how wrong I was there, but that's another story). My mindset was that I'd outgrown the town.
10. Joy Division, "Atmosphere"
Not the first or last appearance on one of my compilations, but again--a fitting song to the end of my childhood and teenage years in a small town.

tape 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.

AP had an interesting story on Yahoo! News about the good and the bad about Greatest Hits compilations the other day...it's a fun read, and brings up a lot of good points.

Bypassing the obvious point that online music sites have pretty much made compilations a moot point, the article does bring up a lot of interesting points about the why and the when of Greatest Hits compilations. One of the biggest points is whether or not a band should release one. Sure, it made sense way back in the day when some bands were primarily singles-based acts rather than album-oriented, but nowadays there are some bands who come out with compilations either a little too early in their career, or a little too often.


Best of ! Most of !
Satiate the need
Slip them into different sleeves !
Buy both, and feel deceived

Sometimes I wonder why some bands and performers come out with compilations so quickly. Some are obviously 'contractual obligation albums' (thanks to Monty Python for that phrase) made to have something out on the charts when the original slew of singles from the album has been bled dry. And it's frustrating when some bands come out with compilations that obviously have everything you already have. Understandable that these are mostly aimed at getting newer fans hooked on albums. But then there are bands and performers who come out with rendundant compilations, such as Britney Spears (how many albums did she come out with before then? Two? Three?), Aerosmith (O Yeah! in 2002 and Devil's Got a New Disguise in 2006--with only one new album in between, and that was of old blues covers), and the relentless repackaging with Sony's Essential series (great compilations themselves, but nothing we haven't seen before). Most of these types of compilations are put together by the labels rather than the bands themselves (they only give it the go-ahead), with maybe a rarity or a new song thrown in for good measure.


Re-issue ! Re-package ! Re-package !
Re-evaluate the songs
Double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)

The Beatles themselves were never fond of greatest hits compilations, releasing only the A Collection of Beatles Oldies only in the UK and featuring nearly all singles and UK rarities while they were together. It wasn't until they broke up that Capitol and Parlophone decided to fill the post-Beatle years with no less than eight different compilations between 1973 and 1982. Not to mention that when their contract with Apple ran out in 1975, John, George and Ringo all came out with compilations. Out of all of those post-band compilations, only Rarities and Live at the Hollywood Bowl had anything of note that fans didn't already have. And even with two more compilations in the 90s (Yellow Submarine Songtrack and 1) that did moderately well, it wasn't until 1995-96's Anthology series and last year's Love that we got something even remotely new. But...the Beatles being so famous and loved, we'll pick them up anyway. Or at least I do. ;)

And then there's The Cure...god love 'em, they're a great band, but during the 90s and early this decade they hardly put out anything new after 1989's Disintegration. Only three albums of new stuff--the great Wish in 1992, the underwhelming Wild Mood Swings in 1996, and the strained Bloodflowers in 2000--were surrounded with compilations and live albums: Mixed Up(1990), Show,Paris and the Sideshow EP in 1993/4, Galore in 1997 (a sort-of continuation of 1986's Standing on a Beach, but really showing how far downhill the band had gone in the 90s), Greatest Hits in 2001, and the Join the Dots box set of b-sides and rarities in 2004. The self-titled album of new stuff in 2004 was actually a great return (and finally a great new direction for them), but at this point the wait is just a bit too long.

A-list, playlist
"Please them , please them !"
"Please them !"
(sadly, THIS was your life)

Like I said, I understand the basic idea behind the greatest hits compilation--it's mostly to bring in new fans, especially the ones who don't want to go out of their way and pick up all the other albums by the band. I admit I've bought greatest hits for that very reason...Hatful of Hollow was my introduction to the Smiths, Standing on a Beach to the Cure, and Gold Mine Trash the obscure band Felt. And I've also picked up compilations that were just flat-out great, even though I have all their stuff already (Wire's The A-List, Depeche Mode's Singles 86>98, The Clash's The Story Of... and so on). And for bands that were not especially mainstream at the time, this made sense.

But when now-huge bands like Aerosmith, REM, U2 and The Cure and even Depeche Mode (last year's Best of) come out with such redundant compilations, it makes me wonder why they're doing such things. It also adds to my frustration of bands waiting at least two or three years between albums only to come out with filler like this. Sure, they're busy on tour and don't have time to come out with anything new, but then again, the Beatles put out two albums a year from 1963 to 1965 while they were touring. I'd rather see new albums than more of the same. Especially if they're going to tack on only one or two new songs.

I'd rather download the new song rather than buy the same songs for a third time, thank you very much. For the most part, I leave the compilations to the new fans...which sometimes does include myself. ;)

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(italicized lyrics from "Paint a Vulgar Picture" by The Smiths)