Some Music Pickups

On 04/04/2015 at 02:34 AM by KnightDriver

Before I started collecting video games, I collected music. Back in the 80s, for me, it was all about stereo equipment, vinyl records, CDs and cassette tapes. I made mixes of my collection on tape and took them with me to play on a Sony Walkman or on my car cassette tape player. I was way into that stuff just like I am now with games.

So I got nostalgic for some music I used to listen to and decided to look on my hard drive to see what I still had and what I wanted to get to fill out the collection. I started with music from 1969, the year of Woodstock. I didn't grow up with that music but it's what I listened to in the 80s. My friend Steve, in the band I was in the late 90s and first decade of the 2000s, grew up in the early 70s and I really envied him. He got to see a lot of my favorite bands live.

yeralbum

This week (I've been using Friday as my music hunting day) I found three CDs all originally released in '69 on vinyl. The James Gang's Yer Album is their first. Joe Walsh is in this band who went on to enormous fame solo and as a member of the Eagles. I used to have this on vinyl but I guess I never ripped it because it wasn't in my collection.

Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline. I can't say I'm a huge Dylan fan but I wanted to hear a lot of stuff from '69 in a massive playlist I'm putting together.

Marvin Gaye and His Girls. I really wanted his album M.P.G. from this year but I saw this and noticed its copyright date of '69 and thought, "well, it's better than nothing from Gaye." I'm interested to hear the comparison to current artist Pharrell Williams who is in a law suit with Marvin Gaye's copyright holders.

I got two of those albums at Barnes & Noble for $5 each and the Dylan album at my local used record store for $7. They were a little cheaper than iTunes and a lot more fun to look at. But I'll be ripping all this stuff for my playlists on my iPod Touch. It's how I listen to music these days; no more stereo equipment. Sigh.

mothman

04/04/2015 at 08:23 AM

Love me some James Gang. I had Yer Album, Rides Again and Thirds on vinyl and saw them 3 times in concert. Great shows but Joe was getting pretty high back then and would stagger all over the stage.

James Gang was essentially Joe Walsh's band while he was in it. The other two members were sadly faceless backup musicians.

After he left Domenic Troiano (Toronto boy) took over guitar duties and was followed by Tommy Bolin for a short while. Even though I love both those guys I stopped listening to James Gang without Joe.

KnightDriver

04/04/2015 at 04:16 PM

I only tried Staight Shooter, the first one without Walsh. It was ok. The song Madness was fantastic though. I still keep that one song around in my playlists.

You sir are another person I envy. Saw them live?! Awesome!

GeminiMan78

04/04/2015 at 10:18 AM

Nashville Skyline is one of Bob Dylan's best in my opinion. It is unlike any of his other stuff, more country than folk. Plus it features Johny Cash. I know of the James Gang but I forgot what they sound like. I need some more Marvin Gaye, all I have is a best of I picked up at walmart for $2.

04/04/2015 at 04:19 PM

I saw so many best-of collections. I'm trying to avoid those if I can. I want to hear the original albums, not just the hits. If I was all about the hits, I'd get Spotify or one of those streaming services.

I really like Dylan's John Wesley Harding album.

04/04/2015 at 05:04 PM

I usually don't by best of collections either for the very same reason. It was an impulse buy.

04/05/2015 at 02:17 AM

Some are cool though. I have this Mothers of Invention best of called Mothermania. That one's cool.

goaztecs

04/08/2015 at 11:10 AM

As much as I like Game pickups, I might like Music pickups a little more. I miss the walkman, making tapes, and trying to find that last song that can fit on the end of a mixtape.

I was never a big fan of Dylan, but I do appreciate what he has done in the music world. I do like his son's work. Everytime I hear about Joe Walsh I always think about the Eagles Documentary and the random stuff he used to do. Love Marvin. Lots of good stuff.

04/08/2015 at 04:24 PM

Well, I'll be posting more music stuff because I plan to go on a music hunt every Friday for a while.

I remember those extra minutes at the end of mix tapes. My friend Sean and I used to do little audio skits to fill the space. You used to have these tape players that would play forward and backward, so you'd leave the tape in to play both sides. Between sides you heard the bits at the end kind of like messages on the inner circle of a vinyl record (btw that James Gang Yer Album vinyl version had such messages I found out). At one point I collected all the bits Sean and I did at the end of mix tapes. It was funny stuff.

PixlBit