99 - Toto

From 1979.  Another really nice rock/pop song from this era.  Toto went on to huge heights in the early 80s.  This song disappeared compared with Rosanna and Africa (the latter of which the instrumental part presages in a huge way).  But still highly listenable at this distance.
The D&D swords & rings imagery on Toto albums was always curious, since it didn't seem to have any referents in the songs (or at least the familiar ones).

Nostalgia

For some reason I was thinking of this today.  One time my Mom brought one of these Kingsway Florentine chess sets, not in great condition but still a good set, home from a rummage sale at our (then) church (she was working there and she picked it up before it went on sale).  It was very cool and my brothers and I played with it, although we may not have played any chess with it.  Feeling a lot of nostalgia about objects from my childhood these days.  ebay is a great place to see what this stuff actually was and look at it again.

Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

And of course, this classic pop song of its time seemed to disappear for the 80s and 90s.  But it never gets old and stands up to the test of time.  Still sounds great...

Steal Away - Robbie Dupree

Here's a song I would put in the same genre as the previous song, and from the same era (1980).  Really nice pop/rock.

Sweetheart - Franke and the Knockouts

From 1981.  Bought the 45 rpm vinyl single.  Very typical pop/soft rock sound of the time.  This, and their look, has not aged very well.  Definitely a piece of the period.

Uke stuff

Is still happening. Just no time to make vids these days. Hopefully some new ones before too long...

Power - Cassandra Complex

From 1987.  The late 80s is rich territory for keyboard driven gothic pop.  It wasn't virgin territory by that time, but from this distance, even the later bands into the movement bring back the time well.

One Story Town - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Great song from the Long After Dark album, my favorite of theirs.

Manna And Quail - Caterwaul

[link] One of the better goth-alt rock bands that came out of the late 80s.  Siouxsie influenced but tighter and more polished in production.  Need to listen to more of their stuff...

Who's Behind the Door? - Zebra

[link] New Orleans hard rock band that relocated to Long Island and may still be around.  I've seen their stickers on cars.  I really got into the first album (and one song on the 2nd album, "Bears") in the mid-late 80s.  It's got a lot more hooks than most hard rock/metal and the ballad parts are really nice, not cliched like the hair bands that were about to emerge a bit later.  Just enough of a prog component to be interesting.

Breakin the Law

Or the user agreement, at least.  I never give my birthdate to places like FaceBook.  And they of course want my real name and data. Now they are starting to ask people if they know whether friends of their are using their real names. They have a right to kick anyone off that they want to. They can claim me as a user, but they cannot claim my real name and data and keep me as a user.  That's the choice.

Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil

Speaking of driving songs, or at least driving videos.  Here's one.  Saw these guys live in the late 80s.  Excellent show.  The drummer had a section of culvert pipe behind him that had a mic in it.

Driver's Seat - Sniff 'N' The Tears

Great late 70s song.  The chord progression is a rel-minor, 5,4 (e.g. Cmin, Bb, Ab) which is a staple of mine.  It's the hookiest progression in pop/rock.  The use of keyboards/synthesizers and their fusion with the guitar track, so that both are vital but neither dominates, is adept.  The understated vocal and the effects on the vocal track combine with the rest to make for one very atmospheric rock song, as well as an excellent driving song, of course.

I Want Your Love - Chic

No one did disco better than Chic. The bass lines are the essense that disco pulled out of funk and the rhythm guitar, almost machine-like in its tightness, pulls everything together.  The brass part at the end also takes the best out of that element and smooths it right into the mix.  Nile Rodgers, the guitarist, still works and was one of the essential pop producers in the 80s.  Right up there with Prince and Michael Jackson in terms of prolific pop geniuses.

The pirate idiom

Pop culture is over pirate-ized right now for sure.  But One Piece and Pirates of the Caribbean are two examples of extreme creativity in the theme.

New Years Day - U2

Iconic song.  One of several from that time for U2.  In my opinion, their sound peaked with War, Boy, and October (i.e. all of the stuff that hit in the US during the first few years when they became known).  After The Unforgettable Fire (1984) their stuff became a lot less interesting.  But their popularity continued exponentially for a long time after that. Was a pretty easy learn and it gives me shivers to play it.

The three

Neil Diamond songs I mentioned earlier are in development (Cracklin' Rosie, September Morn, Forever in Blue Genes)_ They have pretty simple structures and limited number of chords for the most part.  Fun to play and people will like them. One problem is that the studio versions of these songs fade out.  Neil's TV appearances, which are the youtube videos I've been studying, also just fade to applause. So I have to figure out how to give them hard endings.  I'm still experimenting with all three of them...

an alternative dream job

One of my top dream jobs would be to be an independent paranormal investigator in a small town.  I don't believe in any of the phenomena but they are really cool as stories.  Especially UFO stuff.  Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster and stuff like that, also ghosts, are somewhat less interesting.  William Gibson's short story The Gernsback Continuum has an interesting treatment of paranormal sightings as pop-cultural semiotic ghosts.
I also am intrigued by political conspiracy theories.  These I find much more chilling because they are based on series of events and people that in many cases are real.  Many conspiracy theories, while not likely to be true or explanatory as wholes, have threads of true history running through them.  It's interesting to unravel these and think about why the theory developed.

The Flat Earth - Thomas Dolby

One of my favorite songs ever and one of his very best. Just realized watching The Two Towers tonight that the descending line of the orc/evil theme of the LOTR movies is very similar to the first phrase of the bass line of The Flat Earth.

Hyperactive! - Thomas Dolby

Dolby's version of funky dance pop. He brings his rich, bass-driven hooks and atmospherics to the song.  The transitions are really well done, even if the lyric quality kind of falls of toward the end (just before the flute solo).

No Rain - Blind Melon

Most of the instrumental jams of Megachild over the year ended up sounding something like this 1993 song.  Pretty simple song, with one of the most delightful videos ever.

Groovy Train - The Farm

A fun song from 1990.  Picked it up in iTunes some time ago.  Probably doesn't repay too many plays.  But sounds pretty good every once in a while.

Burning Down One Side - Robert Plant

The first song on his first solo album.  I really like his first four solo albums; kind of lost track after that.  It's a different sound than Led Zeppelin, but still very hard edged, both instrumentally and vocally.  This song got a lot of airplay on hard rock radio of the day.  The album (casette) was one of my first purchases after buying my first stereo.

E A D G

That's the tuning I settled down with the strings I have.  The high one is tight and goes flat quickly.  The others are loose, which means I need different strings for this tuning.  Sounds pretty sweet and is fun to play though.  Not as much sustain, but the percussive qualities are great of course.  Working on some known and new folk songs.  Such as Old Dan Tucker. Lew Dite's work has been an inspiration ever since Ru-Jun and I started watching him when she was less than 2.

woops

This arrived today.  Tried to use the strings it came with to do my B E A D tuning.  Broke the top string.  I have other strings in the office.  No big deal.  But I can't get it up to a B or even a C up top.  So for now I'll do a G C F Bb tuning and see how that goes (might be better for singing some songs; others will be worse).  I can probably work with the vendor I bought it from to get a set of strings for my unconventional tuning.  This is a beautiful instrument that is going to be very fun to play.

Hella Good - No Doubt

This song is indeed hella good.  Great mid tempo rock groove.  The empty space in the mix provides for great atmosphere.  Saw it first as a video, which strengthened the impression.

I Don't Remember - Peter Gabriel

From 1980. One of my favorites of his. Very driving, which overcomes the lack of contrast between chorus and verse. I had not heard this version before. Interesting but disturbing video.

key changes

Key changes in songs are interesting, but they're a bit of a pain when playing them on the uke (at least for me; they wouldn't be much of a problem for me on keyboards).
I was watching the video for Neil Diamond's Cracklin' Rosie (1971) and there was a lot of room noise so I couldn't really hear the key change.  So I googled "Does Cracklin' Rosie have a key change" and found several references confirming that it does.  One was an entire blog on songs with key changes.  Cool.

Forever in Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond

Another one I'm nostalgic about.  From 1979.

September Morn - Neil Diamond

From 1979.  I was 12 and still listening to a lot of top 40 on AM radio.  This song got played incessantly and it makes me pretty nostalgic hearing it now.  Top 40 was much different then.  Much more diverse.
Might take a stab at this song on the uke.  Could be a fun play...