Vol. 2, Episode 8

Short but sweet. I am also going to skip the mix tape on this one.

George Michael – Faith (part two)
I found this album last year for cheap. It is a record that was released in the fall of 1987. I purchased this record with my own money as a kid. My parents did not limit my purchases where music was concerned. The only limitation, it was more of a plea than a limitation, was that I not listen to heavy metal music. At the time the only “metal’ music that was out was the stuff from the hair bands and the stuff from Iron Maiden or Metallica. I had no interest in any of that stuff and I still don’t to this day. I respect the heavy metal music of that era but I have zero interest in owning any of it except for the random record from the likes of say Judas Priest early albums. Anyway, this George Michael album is the only one that I had any interest in. I remember saving my money to get this one. I listened to it every night for a very long time. I had the whole album memorized. When I listened to the album again on vinyl it was like taking a trip back in time to my early middle school years. It is fun to remember those times. As I mentioned in my first review of this one there were two tracks that were not included on the vinyl pressing of this album. So, I popped in the tape that I have still got of the recording and copied those last two tracks. Wow, that cassette tape sounded just as good or better than that vinyl pressing that I have. I was very impressed with the sound of that tape. I did not think that a tape could sound that good. I guess having good equipment really helps the sound quality of any source media.

Robert Palmer – Heavy Nova
I bought this album just because of the single that I recognized, Simply Irresistible. I remember that my father really liked this single. I also remember this single being played in the summer of 1989 when it got a lot of popularity. I usually went camping with my family in the summer time every weekend and two weeks every summer. It was a really great time. My father loved having music on. He would have preferred to have the oldies station on but because of my sister and myself we would usually have what ever the top 40 station was on so we could hear “new” music. This song was played a lot during that summer. I recall hearing my father either quote the song or singing along with the song at times. I also remember seeing the video that goes along with the song. It was just Robert singing with a group of girls dressed in the same colors, black and white I believe, with red lipstick. The girls were supposed to be the band and had instruments to “play” as well. There is another single that was over shadowed for the most part. It is called Early In The Morning. This song is actually a cover of a song that The Gap Band originally did in 1982. This song was not exactly a sleeper but also did not get as much air time as Simply Irresistible. I would like to get the previous album to this one as there are some great singles on that one also.

The Doobie Brothers – The Captain and Me
I originally picked this up from my uncle-in-law. I got this and a few others from him. I have actually had a stack of records from him for the past two years. He gave them to me because they got wet and had a lot of mold on them. My father-in-law said that he would give me some new outer sleeves to put them in. I have yet to see any replacement sleeves and the records are probably junk now from sitting out side for two summers and two winters. I can’t have them in the apartment potentially getting us sick from the mold on the record and cardboard. When I found a different copy at a used record store I quickly snatched it up along with a few other records from the group. I will get to those other albums in a later post. This album is nothing spectacular honestly. The couple of single on it are great but the rest of the album is OK. The reason that I bought the album other than as a replacement for the junk one was for the singles Long Train Runnin’ and China Grove. Both are great mid 70s rock tracks. This is all about that nostalgic feeling for me. It helps me remember parts of my life. I know that this album was released before I was born but This music was played so much on the “oldies” station that my dad listened to while I grew up as a kid. He would have this channel booming in the garage while he worked on cars. He ran a body mechanics business out of our three and a half car garage. It is no wonder that he is losing his hearing now.

That is all I have for now.