Night Owl Cards

  A little stuck for topics this week (as well as making time to write them) so here's another Match the Song Title post a little earlier in the rotation after the last one . I try to space these out every six months or so.   But this album deserves "Match the Song Title" treatment, I suppose. It's not only one of the biggest LPs of the 1980s, but this year marks its 40th anniversary . It is also one of the last LPs I bought before I went away to college.   This marked the end of an era. I think that this album, "Brothers and Arms" by Dire Straits and "Dream of the Blue Turtles" by Sting were the last LPs I purchased before moving away. Once I arrived at college, LP buys dwindled to almost nothing. Yes, I brought my turntable with me, but I don't know if I brought any albums. Cassettes and, later, CDs were much more portable for a college student with limited space. LPs just didn't make sense.   How things have changed. Not only are LPs nea...

   One of the interesting elements of returning to listening to current music over the last four or five years is the realization that bands from when I was young are still making music, albums even.   When I stopped keeping up on new releases I guess I just assumed all those '70s and '80s bands and singers stopped playing, too. But, yeah, some of them are still going -- like did you know Robin Trower just released another album? He's 80! Good for him.   Most recently, the band Styx has released an album , it's their 18th. (Two members from the '70s, Tommy Shaw and James Young, are still with the band). The physical copy is available to buy now from the band's website. But it won't hit streaming services and other online sites until next month. That's a cool nod to those who like to own physical media. I suppose a "dinosaur band" would be in tune with that.   My Styx phase was very brief. A few years in high school, that's it.  My introduct...

  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, readers. May this find you well and at least somewhat in the holiday spirit. Things are looking up for me, as I was once prepared for a quiet holiday with just the two of us but now it seems the youngster will be arriving with boyfriend in tow! I try to write a post on Christmas Eve every year and this is my gift for you this time -- a Match the Song Title post about an album titled "A Christmas Gift for You". This well-known Christmas album was originally issued in November 1963 and created by the since-disgraced (and deceased) Phil Spector. The CD pictured is from the 1989 re-release, which I bought probably in 1989 as one of the first Christmas CDs I ever owned. My girlfriend (now wife) loved this CD and many of the songs. 1960s music and pop culture was retro king in the late 1980s and as difficult it is to believe now there wasn't a ton of pop Christmas music piped into every store until the '80s. The re-re-re-re-release of ...

  It was the summer of 1986. I was working for my college's food services. I had gotten the key job of grilling hot dogs outside. It was just me and Kathy D., who would cash out customers, three times a week from 11 am.-2 p.m., serving up dogs under the sunshine. I was interested in Kathy D., the way I was interested in any college girl who said two words to me. But Talking Heads concert movie fan, Jason S., was interested in her, too. While we were working, he would stop by just to yammer at her. He'd riff on lyrics from the "Stop Making Sense" movie. I hadn't seen the movie, but I had the album that went along with it (the cassette actually). I mentioned that, and Jason S. said, "you need to watch the movie." I finally did and I'm glad I did. I've always been a music guy over being a movie guy. But this was a perfect blend of both. It's considered one of the greatest concert movies of all-time and so groundbreaking that the 40th anniversary...