Left In The Dark

I suffer from insomnia.  I am not ashamed to admit it folks.  Hello, my name is Gary and I am an insomniac. (hold your applause and save your strength) It figures that after getting a half-way decent night of sleep last night, I would wake up this morning filled with energy and ready to tackle anything and the power goes out....FOR TWO FREAKIN' HOURS!!!!  I, of course, immediately called the electric company and varified that it was because of the weather and not my being late with my bill, which naturally I am.  Oh the joys of being unemployed.  Well, I can't even begin to tell how much this stresses me out! (the lack of electricity, not the being unemployed) I do have a big ole camping lantern that I bought the last time my electricity was out and I have an incredible tube shaped speaker/amplifier thingy about the size of a toilet paper roll that I can plug my flash drive loaded with music into, so I got through it.  Trust me, I cleaned everything in site and got a good work-out in. This is the one and only time you will see me extole the virtues of having a cell phone.  Having the ability to text my best bud Scott this morning kept me calm, so thank you Scott for being there.  WOW  I admitted a fear and said something good about cell phones all in one, very long paragraph. A sign of the apocolypse? Perhaps.

On to the music!!  I must admit one more thing (good lawd, somebody stop me) I did change out the 10th song in the line-up today.  You'll understand when you see what it is!  Anywho, here they are folks, Today's 10 Tunes......

(Click here to listen to clips of these songs)

1. Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant 3:47 (Portrait records) Blazin' synths!    "DOYEEE!" "We gonna rock down to....Electric Aven-you"   I love this song. Chair dancin' and groovin' here. My nieces love this song too.  In fact, last year, they sat on the floor of my living room and went through all of these singles with me until we finally found it.  They looked at every title and even helped me organize the cabinet that these records live in.  My nieces, Amanda and Melissa, are THE best!  I love them very much and I love being around them.  They always make me laugh and feel so good!  Anyway, where were we?  Oh yeh,we were rockin' down to Electric Avenue, sorry. What made this song so unique was the combination of Reggae and electronica. I am pretty sure there was not one real instrument used in the creation of this song.  It is such a boppy fun song and Eddy Grant's voice is so cool.

2.  Take It Easy - Eagles 3:21 (Asylum Records) This is a perfect "driving" song.  Yes it has a driving beat to it but it is the kind of song you want playing during a long road trip.  In my head I am seeing wide open deserts whizzing by on either side of me.  It just has such a relaxed free-spirit feel to it.  It must be the combination of guitars, banjos and those vocals.  It has nothing to do with the lyric, trust me.  This is a song about a guy that can't commit to anyone or anything and is looking for a girl to save him, not exactly a song about being out on the open road.   LOVE that drumbeat at the end before the wooo-ooooo's!

3.  I Got You Babe - UB40 with Chrissie Hynde 3:09 (A&M Records) Ok, Sonny & Cher they ain't, but this is a very cool re-invention of a song we all grew up with. The combination of Chrissie Hynde's gravely, deep voice and UB40's smooth, cool Reggae sound make this one of better cover songs I have ever heard.  Perfect summer-time song to be listening to on this cold, miserable, rainy day!  I want an adult frothy beverage with an umbrella in it now!  Damn!

4.  Lead Me On - Maxine Nightingale 2:50 (Windsong Records) Oh wow!!!  I forgot about this song and how much I love it!  Talk amongst yourselves for a minute, gotta sing along (the fat man downstairs is at work, so I can be loud!) "I'd rather be a fool with a broken heart, than someone who never had a part of you" FINALLY!  We have a song about wanting love but from an adult perspective!!!  Not a stalker, not a sulker nor some creep sitting in a bar!  This woman knows that nothing can really develop from a relationship with this man but she doesn't care.  She wants him!  She told him right up front what she wants and he, apparently, is too much of schmuck to realize what he has in her but she is going to be contenet with what she can get from him and accept the consequences of her actions!  LOVE IT!  And I love the insanely high back-up vocals she is doing at the end of this song! Brilliant.  Playing it again, forgive me!

5.  (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone - The Monkees 2:25 (Bell Records) Mickey Dolenz shoved Davey Jones out of the way and took the lead vocal on this very cool, male emancipation song! Such a great, funky 60's sound. Not your typical Monkees bubble gum song.  Trust me, he ain't takin' no crap from no woman!  I love the thumping bass line in this song!!  Soooooo good! Doing the frugue here.

6.  Disco Lucy (I Love Lucy Theme) - Wilton Place Street Band 3:35 (Island Records) Blaring horns, tom-toms, bongos and lotsa tsst-tsst's coming out of my speakers.  I LOVE THIS SONG! Not alot of people know this song, well this version of it I mean, but I remember seeing it on the chart at the Little Record Store and snatched it up!  I have never regretted it and at any place I have ever DJed, I work it in.  In case you haven't guessed, it is the I Love Lucy Theme re-imagined to a disco-funk beat with the only vocal being, "Let's Dance" and  "Dance Dance Disco Lucy".  Goofy?  Absolutely!  Fun as hell?  You know it! Chair dancing and finger pointing here!

7.  Candida - Dawn 3:02 (Bell Records) I have now let this song play through twice and totally forgot to type a thing!  I keep singing along and doing a little cha-cha dance.  I really don't know what to say....this is a perfect 3 minute pop song.  Amazing hook, outstanding vocals and a brilliant arrangement.  My only question is, "The further from here girl the better"  Where is here?  And where does he think he can take the girl of his dreams to start this great life together?  I guess we'll never know.

8.  (Keep Feeling) Fascination - The Human League 3:43 (A&M Records) What a fun 80s song! Between the funky bass line and that guy with the deep voice "narrating" to off-set the typical 80s lead vocals, this is a great piece-of-fluff song.  The Human League knew how to write a good pop song of the day, and I know I have said this before, but if anyone wanted to know what the 80s were like, just play them this song and show them the picture sleeve!

9.  Delirious - Prince 3:56 (Warner Brothers Records) Prince at his best!  He truly is a master at his craft! Not only is the music to this song a perfect hook that you can't help but mimic, so is what he does with his voice!  Man, this brings me right back to the days of hanging out with John Vargas in the apartment on 89th St.  I know this song predates that, but he loved Prince and we would both dance around the room like fools whenever I would play this!!  Good times.

10.  Left In The Dark - Barbra Streisand  (CBS/Sony Records - Japanese Import) Ok, ok, so I put this one in the mix for today, shoot me.  I just thought it was the right thing to do.  This is a Jim Steinman song (think Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler drama-fests) and it gave Barbra a chance to really show off!  It had an amazing video too!  I love the spoken intro!  She asks the man that she loves, who is cheating on her by the way, all of the questions I think everyone dreams of asking their partner when they find out they have been unfaithful!  A brilliantly written song!  I love the different ways they used the title throughout the song! They used to show this video in the bars all the time back in 1984-85 and I never got tired of seeing it!  I still don't!

Uh oh!  I finished this one WAY too early!  It is not even 2:30 and I am done.  By the time I get the music edited and posted it will be about 4:30.  Not really sure what to do with the rest of my day! I know, I will take my own advice and call some friends and have them over and play some of this music for them.  Have a great day!  Oh look....the sun is actually coming out!!!!  YAY! (Happy Birthday Grandma, I didn't forget)   See you guys tomorrow!