This is a fun if inconsequential ‘89 salute to early rock ‘n’ roll staples that has gone overlooked for so long, no one’s even bothered to rip a quality copy of the thing onto YouTube.
80s Vinyl
Soundtrack Sunday: Arthur
Some months back I picked this up for a penny under $4 at the wonderful downtown must-go treasure trove @lastbookstorela for two specific reasons:
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Greatest Hits’
Newbies, start here.
Yes, of course: Every quality collection ought to include Rumours. Bet yours already does. True devotees also would/should want pressings of the self-titled ‘75 LP, probably Tusk, either of the ‘80s titles or both, plus at least a representative platter for both the Bob Welch era (I vote Bare Trees) and the foundational Peter Green years (Then Play On is tops, although there’s a Greatest Hits for that phase as well, from ‘71).
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Christopher Cross’ ‘Back of My Mind’
From this 21st century vantage point it seems pretty obvious that Christopher Cross was never going to match the improbable success of his start.
Never mind additional hype heaped on him by Grammy voters, who in February ‘81 made him the first (and, until Billie Eilish in 2020, only) recording artist in history with a clean sweep of the top categories, taking home trophies for album, record and song of the year as well as best new artist. (No need to re-litigate past injustices over who or what he beat, like the Pretenders for that last crown or Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the LP prize. It’s well-known the Grammys were myopic and rock-averse back then.)
Christine McVie Deep Dive: ‘Tango in the Night’
Is this the last great Fleetwood Mac album or would that be the one before this, or even the one before that?
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Bonnie Raitt’s ‘Nine Lives’
All things considered — including her then-label’s rejection of an earlier version, a three-year delay and overhaul, virtually zero promotional support for a hodgepodge that would mark the end of her tenure at Warner Bros. — this is still a fairly solid Bonnie Raitt album.
Christine McVie Deep Dive: ‘A Fine Mess’
For this 38th (!) splash within my deep dive into Christine McVie’s complete catalog, only one song from the soundtrack to Blake Edwards’s largely forgotten comedy A Fine Mess matters: her straightforward yet lovely cover of the Elvis Presley classic ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love.’
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Ian McCorkle’s ‘McCriminal’
Time once more to play the vinyl community’s favorite new game, Who Among Us Remembers This Guy?
Full disclosure: I sure as hell don’t.
And I haven’t found out much about him, either.
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Robbie Patton’s ‘Orders from Headquarters’
I get why Robbie Patton didn’t make it big, though I also see why so many in his orbit really thought he would — not just Atlantic Records execs looking for a new star but particularly Christine McVie, who sings on (but did not produce, as erroneously stated elsewhere*) this third album of his after co-helming his second.
Christine McVie Deep Dive: Randy Newman’s ‘Trouble in Paradise’
This is a very fine Randy Newman record, perhaps not among his all-time greatest (that’s a tall order) yet teeming with cleverly caustic commentaries that rank among his best.
My mom got the cassette soon after it arrived in January ‘83 and it remained a constant for months, until I had every line of it memorized by the time she took me to see Newman live for the first time that April at Universal, when I was 14.