It’s an almost rainy Saturday afternoon and Bowie’s ‘ch-ch-ch-ch’ came to my mind. I just finished organizing my works-in-progress. What had happened was, I had an epiphany about creating a spreadsheet with all my current projects, their genres and wordcounts, titles, loglines, and info listed with their last ‘worked-on’ date. Sure, I have a folder with all these beauties but having this list will make a conversation with my future agent much easier. My space epic is nearing 40,000 words and I’ve almost reached the end of the first section. Two more like this by November and I’ll have completed…

It’s the 20th day and alas, we’ve reached the end of the road. For now. We’ve done jazz, gospel, industrial, instrumental, and more, which makes it difficult to come to the penultimate of such a journey. However, I think I have to give it to two of the greatest musicians of this or any other time to close out with a two-fer. Stevie Wonder, one of the most prolific writers in my lifetime, has to make it on my list. There are so many songs that come to mind, but there are three of his that mean the most. I…

I’ll have to stick with the ‘80s for today and yes, I’m doing it … It’s the 19th day of the series, so what better day to talk about Paul Hardcastle and his runaway hit, ‘19’? Please note that the video might not play, depending on your settings, because it comes with a viewing warning. I have to say that while I also played the grooves off the 12-inch version of ‘19’, it wasn’t my most favorite song by Mr. Hardcastle. It is likely ‘Rainforest’. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTQyyOYRCxY&w=560&h=315]

Figured I’d take it down a notch since we’re fast approaching the end of this 20-day musical journey. There was a late-70s(?) band called Japan, who were part of the UK androgynous New Romantic era sound. Lead singer David Sylvian went on to his own solo career and in the early 1980s, had several albums. In my radio station days, any cash I received that wasn’t earmarked for school-related things like bus fare (eventually gasoline for my car) or parking went to music. I went into extreme debt, shopping at Cheap Thrills Record Store (shout out to 382 George Street,…

Another group emerging from the industrial landscape of music is Laibach. They weren’t just identified as an industrial band, but were also labeled as neo-classical and were part of the then-emergent New Slovenian Art, a political-cultural movement. Two of the founding members of Laibach were in the Yugoslavian Army; their works have been said to be fascist, but they were poking at the totalitarian regime of their era by presenting themselves as even more so. Their songs such as Life is Life and Geburt einer Nation are likely best-known, Geburt specifically, because it is a Queen cover song (One Nation,…

Speaking of the 1980s, one can’t leave out industrial music. I don’t know what it was about the sound, but it grabbed me hard in my radio station days. I started my shows with Antagonism by Skinny Puppy nearly every week as I recall. What it was about them, specifically, I can’t tell you. I have a ton of their music on cassette and vinyl. The main guy, cEvin Key, seemed interesting to say the least … I chose this bit of art, since the cover of the album containing the song linked above may not be appropriate for some…

One name that emerged from Yellow Magic Orchestra in my musical archive is Ryuichi Sakamoto. I think of him like an Andy Warhol of music; he has many songs with one-word titles that sweep across the acoustic canvas like Mr. Warhol’s works — unique, quirky, and at times creepy — sweep across the painted canvas. For film buffs, Mr. Sakamoto might be familiar as the soundtrack composer for the film The Last Emperor. (photo: mydramalist.com) Mr. Sakamoto starred in the film as well. The soundtrack was amazing, of course.

Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’ came out in the early 1980s, but for me, the future arrived in 1978. To be an ‘urban’ R&B radio station, WDAS-FM out of Philadelphia was more progressive back then; I didn’t realize it until other stations, like WRTI-FM, which had been a major source of jazz, turned elsewhere with its sound. Similarly, DAS had to follow the dollars, I suppose, and became something else entirely. But in the 1970s, it was the go-to for songs like ‘Computer Game’ (starts at about 1:35 in the video below; this is a link to the full album, which may…

Who’d have thought it … we’ve now entered the future. There was a time that the future was much earlier; looking back on it now, it’s pretty funny. The personal computer age was a mile marker for a world many of us never imagined. I always wanted my own Jetson’s computerized home (to avoid chores, of course), but those early IBM’s and Tandys were a thing of amazement. Musicians also were about the future. I think I was addicted to Kraftwerk for several years. There was another group and artist, similarly unique (to me), that I played nearly as much,…

Happy 2020! Before we get into all the future-talk to come, I would be remiss to not begin (again) the musical journey with some seasonal sounds. It is a rare person who hasn’t heard the soundtrack for ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’, with all the amazing music therein. However, there’s more to be learned here, as Vince Guaraldi is an amazing pianist beyond these few songs. You can find an hour or so of his music here. Enjoy! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUY6Yq12vPI&w=560&h=315]