10 Childhood favourite tracks!

[Charger]

Oh, good grief, I sometimes forget how young Charger is!!

Young? Hahah! That's not a word I hear a lot anymore these days! Quite the opposite!




Here's one that I still quite enjoy listening to. This came out in March of 1997 so I had just turned 14. This one I remember quite well actually as it was probably on the heavier side of stuff I was listening to. I bought the album right away as well. Still have it ofcourse. I do remember being bit disappointed with the rest of the album but this song seriously kicks ass...even after all these years.

Also I found her extremely attractive at the time...and I see that I still do.

Now that I think about it, this might have been my first true rock song that I liked. Not sure...it's all a bit of a blur those years....

[Vyn]

Yeah, Dueling Banjos doesn't hold the same sway over me as it did back in the day haha. As far as Bitch goes, I just heard that the other day driving in to work!

Here on out the music gets more...rock oriented, I guess. I recall hearing "Nights in White Satin," on the radio and then not hearing it for a long time. Then hearing it all the time lol. I still like it, but it definitely needs the right time and place.

[Zzzptm]

The mid to late 90s were when I first worked in IT, with radios or CDs spinning and stuff like Napster and LimeWire only beginning to open up digital music... but I remember that "Bitch" song, good times. But I was 29 at that time, so not a song of my youth.

Time for 1976... at the start of the year, I was in 2nd Grade and in 3rd Grade at the end. I'm in a crazy, whirling world of near-constant skate parties and bowling parties... Coke was everywhere, went great for washing down the cake... Those were the 70s for a kid, I guess. Lots of events where I put on totally different footwear for the occasion.

I liked the bowling and was terrible at skating - no balance due to a neural issue that wouldn't be diagnosed for decades. But both those places had pinball arcades, I just played the games more at the skating rinks after doing an obligatory, tortuous lap around the rink, dreading the portion without a handrail and only the gaps between the cinder blocks for my fingers to find desperate purchase for steadying me. After those laps, off went the blasted skates and zip went I to the games.

Sea Wolf, Breakout, and Tank Fight were my top three games, and I plowed a lot of quarters into them. As I played, the music at the roller rink or bowling center would pipe out the hits of the day, and there was one that really imprinted on me:

I had no idea what the title was and could barely make out the words over the sound of the places I heard it in. But I remembered that melody and just loved it every time it came up, which was about twice per visit to those places for a school field trip, day care activity, or birthday party.

And then the song faded from the public fancy and I didn't hear it for the longest time. And then, in the early 2010s, I was remembering that song I liked as a kid and all I could remember was that it had kind of a disco sound and that melody. And that "Shine the light" was a repeated phrase in the chorus. Armed with Google, I began my search. I found a lot of other disco songs mentioning lights and had fun with those, all the while wondering why I kept getting this Elton John song, "Philadelphia Freedom" in my search results...

... and then I clicked on the song just to see why it was being suggested. Turns out, it was the answer I'd been looking for. I play it every now and again, and remember that kid that was an ace at Sea Wolf, back in the day. And thankful that I don't do Coke anymore... that high fructose corn syrup stuff in the USA is just nasty.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Well there's 3 great choices. I remember Bitch, certainly don't remember her though!

Another bit of AOR from the mid-late 70s...

Tom Robinson Band - Too Good To Be True

I thought this was going to be a big hit single... then they did a live performance on Top of the Pops before it charted... I think the band was drunk, they were off key and lacklustre. The song didn't even break the top 75! Shame, but I still loved it.

[Zzzptm]

Have not heard Tom Robinson before, but I like this track (had to look it up since YouTube doesn't want UK people sharing videos with the USA and vice versa...).

He's got a great quote, "We've been fighting for tolerance for the last 20 years, and I've campaigned for people to be able to love whoever the hell they want. That's what we're talking about: tolerance and freedom and liberty—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So if somebody won't grant me the same tolerance I've been fighting for for them, hey, they've got a problem, not me."

Much respect for the cat, and he can play very well.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

4th pick


Tubeway Army - Are 'Friends' Electric

I was recently reminded of this song from 1979. I'm a fan of this song, but nothing else they (or Gary Numan) ever did interests me. It would have been a good candidate for the other topic we did a few months back regarding songs we like from bands wo don't care about!.

[Charger]

My 4th one is gonna be something bit different.

I was an avid gamer in the early 90s. Was lucky enough to get a computer rather early at around 1992 I think and by 1994 I was on my second one. I was playing all sorts of games that I got for free either from shareware floppy discs or copied from school buddies. One of the BEST games of the time (and scariest I might add) was ofcourse DOOM II Hell On Earth. And a biiiiiiiiiig part of it was the music. I could listen to the music (which if I remember correctly was possible in the menu) all day long. Brilliant music.

And this song was probably one of my favourites and what makes this even more special (which ofcourse I did not know at the time) was actually inspired by a song by Black Sabbath and even more specially from the very first album I would eventually get few years later DEHUMANIZER.
It is strange how things sometimes go...Doom 2 was my favourite game and eventually Black Sabbath would become my favourite band and there was a connection that I never knew about at the time.

Level #10 THE REFUELLING BASE = After All (The Dead)

There is a story behind this which I learned years and years later that Game designer John Romero was a huge Black Sabbath fan and wanted to use songs from the Dehumanizer album as music for the game but Tony Iommi and the record company did not allow that for what ever reason Romero went on and just used the intro of the song After All (The Dead) for the basis of the music for this level...

[Zzzptm]

My Gary Numan fix was "Cars". Was mad about it when it came out and it became a hit in the USA. Good times.

***

When I was around the 4th grade, I got permission to BE VERY CAREFUL and to use the record player and go through my parents' albums.

So I start giving them a spin, letting the jammers play through and sampled the boring stuff, never to go there again. This is when I got to hear the sides of albums that they hadn't played before and my mom lectured me about mature content and how I shouldn't go singing certain tunes around the house or neighborhood and why. Thanks very much for that, by the way, mom.

My mom had played pretty much ONLY side 2 with tracks like "Wowie Zowie" and "You're Probably Wondering Why We're Here" from Frank Zappa's Freak Out album, none of the other 3 sides. So one brave day, I fired up side one...

(Hungry Freaks, Daddy by Frank Zappa)

... and the guitar work in it blew my mind. Most of what I'd heard before was vocal heavy with only things like a melody or a bass line standing out. This was my first real guitar solo. It was also pretty heavy stuff, of which I found more of on "Helter Skelter" from The Beatles' White Album. It would be like one track on a whole album that I'd really get into for the heaviness and then the rest would be either good or passable. "Trouble Everywhere" from Freak Out was a bonus heavy track that I really dug.

Side four was way too experimental, so I gave that a hard pass after one or two listens.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

DOOM... a life changer when it was release (December 10th 1993 if I remember). I'd already been a fan of Castle Wolfenstein and this just blew that game out of the water!! Quake was a little bit of a let down but the music was better. It wasn't until Half Life that I felt Doom had a genuine successor.

[Charger]

DOOM... a life changer when it was release (December 10th 1993 if I remember). I'd already been a fan of Castle Wolfenstein and this just blew that game out of the water!! Quake was a little bit of a let down but the music was better. It wasn't until Half Life that I felt Doom had a genuine successor.

Indeed. I had Wolfenstein (as it was called here) as well and enjoyed it a lot too. Another one that came bit later that I felt was a really good one was Rise Of The Triad which had a lot of good things.
I never really liked Quake either although the multiplayer was great against bots. Half Life was SUBERB.

[Vyn]

I said earlier that my selections would be more in the rock vein moving forward. That was before I recalled this song lol. I really liked this when it was hot, and liked the Helen Reddy version much better than the Tanya Tucker rendition. Had never heard the Bette Midler version, still haven't, and don't plan on it either

Delta Dawn. God help us all.

[Charger]

For my number 5 I'll go with an obvious one.

I was in the 6th grade when this came out. It was huge. And it was around the time I started listening to more music...not just stuff on the radio but on MTV and a music show we had here called Jyrki and this one ofcourse was all over the place. And it hit a sweet spot for young Charger...And eventhough this isn't my favourite Spice Girls track this one still probably has the most meaning.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Your choice reminded me of this...

Sadly I didn't share a hotel with them!

[Zzzptm]

Ah yes, WANNABE!!! I was working in IT when that came out, so I got it from people playing their music at work AND from my 7-year-old daughter and her friends singing that during soccer practice. Good times.

Delta Dawn is a 70s Country Song, and there's a certain charm in that. It's Nashburg Muck, as my mom would call it, but still something I'd be able to catch on the Hee Haw show when performers rolled around. Waylon Jennings also did that song.

***

We moved to a new house in the summer before 5th grade and I got a radio - yay! Had fun with that, playing the rock stations and all. When 5th Grade started, I had Mr. Wiese as my teacher, and he was a great, kindly guy that made everyone want to be like him when we grew up. He would play records in the class as we did work, mostly popular soundtracks of the day, the day being 1978-ish. Shaft, Grease, and Saturday Night Fever were heavy spinners. And although the gym class did aerobics to some of those tracks, first place I heard the deep funk of The Trammps was in Mr. Wiese's class...

Disco Inferno - The Trammps

That's a Tom Moulton Mix there, I would later learn. But the textures, sounds, the whole package - that set me up for my love for House EDM decades later. This wasn't flyaway copycat disco that didn't know the rules. These cats knew to keep it funky, to keep the blues-based chord progressions and intervals.

I later picked up a copy of the SNF soundtrack for a buck and side 4 with Disco Inferno was the one I played most. I came for the BeeGees, I stayed for The Trammps. And Tavares, too...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Pick 5 (Parts 1 and 2!)

Yes I know it's cheating but I couldn't decide which to go with!

Part 1: The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

Part 2: The Boomtown Rats - Like Clockwork

Ok, so in 1978 it's a fair chance that The Boomtown Rats were my favourite band. Their earlier songs like Looking After No.1 and Mary of the 4th Form were more punky but they quickly matured and Like Clockwork was their first Top 10 hit and Rat Trap was their first No. 1. They followed that up with another No.1 - I Don't Like Mondays - but I lost interest quickly after that as The Jam (and others) then became my favourites.

Obviously this is Bob Geldof in his pre-Saintly Saviour days and the ripping up of a photo of John Travolta on Top of the Pops was just a dig as they had just knocked Summer Nights from Grease off the No.1 spot after 7 weeks!