What are you listening to?

[Savonarola]

The Valadiers - Greetings (This is Uncle Sam) (1961)

The one and only hit for the Miracle label, making it all the way to 89 on the pop chart.  This isn't a bad song in concept; a dark comedy about a young man who's just been drafted all in doo-wop; but The Valadiers simply sing so poorly that it just doesn't work.  The B Side Take A Chance (not related to either the ABBA song nor the Eddie Holland song listed above) shows they could sing.  How the single got past quality control even in those early days of Motown is a mystery.

[Savonarola]

ABBA - The Definitive Collection

Sugary enough to put even the healthiest person into insulin shock; this a collection of all ABBA singles listed in release order from 1972-1982.  It's interesting to see how in the first several singles Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus sing lead in at least part of the song; they were never going to leave Sweden until they stopped doing that.  Once they had only  Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sing lead it seemed like they couldn't fail.  Every song is a undeniably catchy, some more musically sophisticated than others, and all with bubblegum lyrics.  The last few songs (from the album "The Visitors") all sound remarkably burnt out; but the last days of disco had already passed by then.  It's probably best that they didn't try to soldier on after that.

[Savonarola]

AC/DC - Back in Black

AC/DC's sendoff and tribute to Bon Scott is the most incredible wake of all times; a tribute to partying hard, drinking hard, living fast and dying young.  AC/DC would go on to make this same album ten more times; but they never did it as well as this time through.

[PDH]

Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

The boys in the plastic yellow suits had honed their sound for several years before they were discovered, some of the best of their earlier songs are here.  Although Devo thought Brian Eno changed too much, he gave them a sense of structure that they could follow (or not) for years.

This is the Boys from Akron in their Guitar phase, and it really was a game changer back in 1978.

[Admiral Yi]

Nikki Sixx is a host (don't want to say DJ) on the classic rock station I listen to in my car.  I'm guessing it's a national thing.

[CountDeMoney]

Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil (album)(1983)

Every bit as gleefully stupid and over the top as I remembered.  A lot of people who wrote stupid lyrics (The Ramones, Redd Kross, The Beastie Boys) did so intentionally there's a certain  characteristic to their music.  Mötley Crüe works because Nikki Sixx doesn't seem to realize what he's writing is monumentally stupid (and, as a bonus for them, neither did Tipper Gore.)  That would come back to bite them on their next album (Theater of Pain) when he tried to write political (Fight for your Rights) or sentimental (Home Sweet Home) in largely the same voice.  Here, though, where every song is about sex, violence and the devil; Nikki's vision is near perfect.

I remember sneaking that cassette into my house, so my parents wouldn't know. 

edit:  don't sluff off Home Sweet Home, though;  it was the first real metal power ballad of the '80s, and it spawned a slew of even shittier copycats, responsible for everything from Cinderella to Warrant. 
For that, it deserves its fair credit, the way Hitler deserves fair credit when it comes to defining genocide. 

[Savonarola]

Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil (album)(1983)

Every bit as gleefully stupid and over the top as I remembered.  A lot of people who wrote stupid lyrics (The Ramones, Redd Kross, The Beastie Boys) did so intentionally there's a certain  characteristic to their music.  Mötley Crüe works because Nikki Sixx doesn't seem to realize what he's writing is monumentally stupid (and, as a bonus for them, neither did Tipper Gore.)  That would come back to bite them on their next album (Theater of Pain) when he tried to write political (Fight for your Rights) or sentimental (Home Sweet Home) in largely the same voice.  Here, though, where every song is about sex, violence and the devil; Nikki's vision is near perfect.

I remember sneaking that cassette into my house, so my parents wouldn't know. 

I may have done the same thing...

edit:  don't sluff off Home Sweet Home, though;  it was the first real metal power ballad of the '80s, and it spawned a slew of even shittier copycats, responsible for everything from Cinderella to Warrant. 
For that, it deserves its fair credit, the way Hitler deserves fair credit when it comes to defining genocide.

Fair enough, though I think Aerosmith deserves some of the blame for "Dream On" in the 70s.

[Savonarola]

AC/DC - Highway to Hell (1979)

Well that turned out to be a prophetic title...

While I prefer Back in Black; this is still an incredible album.  Scott brought a (usually disturbed, frequently juvenile) sense of humor to the songs that went missing on their later albums.  While its tempting to speculate on what might have happened had their been more Scott albums; that was probably an unlikely scenario (at least without a serious stint in rehab.)

[CountDeMoney]

Fair enough, though I think Aerosmith deserves some of the blame for "Dream On" in the 70s.

Power ballad in the classic big-stadium-sound of the 1970s, perhaps; but you can toss in Boston and Led Zeppelin and all the rest of the redneck beer rock of the Carter Administration in there as well.

But as far as heavy metal power ballads that every big hair metal act of the 1980s and well into the 1990s felt legally obligated to cut--from Poison and Ozzy and Lita Ford all the way, and yes I'm ashamed to say, to GnR--then Home Sweet Home was the archetypal work.

[CountDeMoney]

AC/DC - Highway to Hell (1979)

Well that turned out to be a prophetic title...

While I prefer Back in Black; this is still an incredible album.  Scott brought a (usually disturbed, frequently juvenile) sense of humor to the songs that went missing on their later albums.  While its tempting to speculate on what might have happened had their been more Scott albums; that was probably an unlikely scenario (at least without a serious stint in rehab.)

Heh...Shot Down in Flames and Girl's Got Rhythm are some of my all-time faves; while not as wide-ranging as High Voltage, Highway to Hell is an incredibly consistent and sustained example of the risque playfulness of the Scott Era--although I would choose Let There Be Rock in a desert-island scenario, but that's more of personal choice thing, what with Whole Lotta Rosie being their single greatest work.

In high school, I had a cassette case holder in the console of my '76 Plymouth that had enough room for every one of AC/DC's releases up to that time, and I kept them in order according to release date.     To this day, still the band I've seen the most times in concert.

You asshole, you're going to make me have to listen to them again.

[Savonarola]

Mozart The Last Five Symphonies as performed by the Academy of Ancient Music

It's something to consider that when Mozart was my age he had been dead 8 years.

(Yes, I stole that from Tom Lehrer.  It was a lot funnier when I was 18 and first heard it.)

Simply magnificent, light and cheerful with the occasional trap door thrown in.  Beethoven will always be (rightly) remembered as the genius of the symphony, but Mozart had the magic touch.

[PDH]

Ministry - Just One Fix

[PDH]

Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song

[PDH]

Helmet - Unsung.

[PDH]

Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot