Welcome back, music lovers. It is hard to believe the 40 years have passed since songs like this one were released:
Wire were on the verge of their first breakup when this one came out. The bandmates would release some solo LPs, or duo LPs, and then reform in the mid-1980s, break up again in the early 1990s, and then get back together for good (apparently) at the start of this century). One great thing about Wire is that they aren’t just a legacy band. There are others who fit that description as well.
While this blog is still a thing, I think I want to devote a series of diaries to 1979 and 1989 (40th and 30th anniversaries respectively) as they are not only bookends of a sort (between adolescence and when I really started adulting), but were major historical moments as well. The music seems to reflect that we were just beginning to stare into the abyss.
More to come as time permits. Cheers.
Another tune from around the same time. Wire had a pretty good handle on how jacked the music industry was even then.
Technically a 1978 tune, but I wouldn’t get the Parallel Lines until early 1979.
Kate Bush from around the same time. Back then a young artist, but one who had already sussed out the music industry.
I think I am recycling this one. Fripp did one version of “Exposure” as the title track for an end of the 1970s LP. Peter Gabriel recorded a version that was slightly less experimental, but arguably more menacing. Even Daryl Hall got into the act and recorded a very soulful version of the same song (worth seeking out if you are a Hall and Oates fan). Regardless of the version, this is a track I can easily play over and over.
A lot of what I have included in these diaries comes from a particular period of time that has long since passed. As much as I love the music and some other pop culture artifacts from the end of the 1970s, I can say in no uncertain terms that it was a lousy period to grow up in or to be alive in generally. The music at the time was an outlet – sometimes an escape, sometimes a reminder that somewhere someone understood how f*cked everything was. Regrettably, the same musical aesthetic has become relevant once more as we seem doomed to another cycle of threats of fascism and impending existential doom. This too is a lousy period to be alive. And yet, somehow, we must persist – hoping that someone, somewhere will understand. It’s why I do what I do.
Tomorrow is California Strawberry Day, so I’m featuring strawberry drink recipes from Tipsy Bartender all week.* I begin with what could be the oldest video on the channel, How to make a Strawberry Daiquiri.
“There you have it” shows up, but “let’s make this drink” hasn’t yet made an appearance; that’s how old this video is.
*Today is the Vernal Equinox, but I already used up my spring recipe last year.
I remember the OC used to have a good strawberry festival each spring. Been too many years now. I think the festival used to coincide with the Miss Garden Grove pageant. I once knew people involved with that, even if that sort of thing has never quite been my flavor.
Again working my way from the oldest strawberry drink recipe on Tipsy Bartender’s channel to the most recent, the next video I’m featuring is How to make Strawberry Banana Jello Shots.
Skyy and Emma return in today’s feature, How to make Strawberry Mango Mojito Bubbles. Science!
Bob Marley a couple years before his untimely passing.
I would hear this a year or so later thanks to my parents’ regret at getting an ECM sampler 2xLP. This track was my intro to Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, and Collin Walcott – all three no longer with us (Vasconcelos passed earlier this decade). This track seemed to capture the ethos of this combo so well. They produced three beautiful albums.
The opening track to Bowie’s final LP in the Low/Heroes/Lodger trilogy.
Just for the bass line alone I would have loved this song. Jah Wobble is still a formidable solo artist. I’ve featured some his work post-PiL in earlier diaries. Probably should feature some of Martin Atkins’ other work as a drummer at some point.
Not jazz and not funk, but definitely industrial. Throbbing Gristle were definitely an acquired taste. I probably tended to enjoy Chris & Cosey’s post-TG work more than the others (Psychic TV never did much for me, personally). But at this stage in their careers, they were at a peak.
Bauhaus released their first single in 1979.
My favorite cover of that song is by Nouvelle Vague, although the one by CHVRCHES comes in a close second.
This was an early Cab Voltaire single, marking their increased prominence in post-punk circles. They’d have some legitimate club hits before they imploded. This old Seeds cover is one of my favorites.