Awesome Mix

Dave Chapman came up with this over on his blog, inspired by the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix, Vol. 2. It looked like fun, and I’m taking a lunch break, so I decided to give it a go.

The rules:

1) Select 12 songs that have an emotional meaning for you – remind you of your childhood, your parents/guardians/friends/family.
2) The first 11 must be songs that you listened to before you started buying your own music.
3) No duplicate artists.
4) Compile them into a list – an Awesome Mix – think carefully of the running order.
5) The final song on your Awesome Mix should be the first single you ever bought for yourself, not bought for you.

So, without further ado, here’s my Awesome Mix:

1. “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” by MECO.
Come on. “Remind you of your childhood”, right? This is me. I saw STAR WARS for my 8th birthday. This *is* my childhood.

2. “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty.
Will forever remind me of the smell of blacktop parking lots, sand and sea air, on the beaches of Long Island.

3. “Brother Louie” by Stories.
Mid-70s, living away from Long Island for the first time, upstate New York.

4. “Reelin’ In The Years” by Steely Dan.
Reminds me of getting into Steely Dan via a friend’s older brother’s record collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bwHK1xkgJA

5. “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John.
In 1976 in America, it was impossible to escape the bicentennial.

6. “Dirty Low Down” by Boz Scaggs.
Another track that reminds me of AM Radio in NY of the late-70s.

7. “Chuck E’s In Love by Ricki Lee Jones
A lot of these are heard from the mental perspective of the back seat of my family car (A Chevy Nova, then a Citation beginning in 1980).

8. “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” by Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer.
Disco was everywhere… and some of it was really, really good.

9.”A Little More Love” by Olivia Newton John.
Olivia Newton John was also inescapable… and pre-adolescent me didn’t even WANT to escape.

10. “Underground” by Men At Work.
My favorite track from “Business As Usual”, which I got for Christmas.

11.”Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by David Bowie.
A birthday present from a friend.

12. “New Frontier” by Donald Fagen.
Fagen’s debut solo album, “The Nightfly” was the first album I ever bought for myself (was never a purchaser of singles) in 1982.

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