Musicwhore.org Music and memory

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

Our retrospective ends at 1978 because my collection starts thinning out at this point. I was 6 years old at the time and just starting to become aware of songs on the radio. Of course, nothing on this list would have appealed to 6-year-old me.

1. Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians
2. Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports
3. Kate Bush, The Kick Inside
4. Emmylou Harris, Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town
5. Blondie, Parallel Lines
6. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Variations
7. Andy Gibb, Shadow Dancing
8. Willie Nelson, Stardust
9. Kate Bush, Lionheart
10. The Police, Outlandos d’Amour

Other favorites from the year:

• Clannad, In Concert
• Rap Reiplinger, Poi Dog

I loved Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”, but when my dad saw her perform on Solid Gold, he hated her on sight. “She looks drugged,” he would complain, so I wasn’t allowed to listen to Blondie. That didn’t stop my brother from picking up the 7-inch singles for “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture.”

I can only imagine what dad would have said if he saw Kate Bush dancing in “Wuthering Heights.”

If any album on this list would have appealed to 6-year-old me, it would be Rap Reiplinger’s Poi Dog. Local radio played Reiplinger’s skits regularly, and I enjoyed hearing “Room Service” over and over again.

I didn’t realize those skits were available on an album. I thought only radio could broadcast them, so it wasn’t until Poi Dog was reissued on CD in 1992 that I could relive that thrill.

Reiplinger forged the Honolulu stand-up comic scene, and it died when he did in 1984. Or maybe it was the humorlessness of the 1980s.

Tags: andrew lloyd webber, andy gibb, blondie, brian eno, clannad, emmylou harris, favorite edition, kate bush, rap reiplinger, rewind, steve reich, the police, willie nelson