My Boyfriend's Record Collection

I'M GOING TO LISTEN TO IT ALL. Rock n' Roll frontman/music industry dude starts dating music-loving chick who thought she knew it all. She was wrong. So each day they pick a record from his (ever growing) collection to review. HE writes about it, SHE writes about it (no sharing before posting) and then it's onto the next. Note: Posts are best read when listening to the choice song (http://songza.com/listen/my-boyfriend-s-record-collection-EmilyNewman/) .

February 10, 2012 11:28 am

Rave On
By: Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
50 Plays

Artist: Buddy Holly
Album: Buddy Holly
Released: 1958
Label: Coral Records
Choice Song: Rave On

HIS: This album might as well be called “Buddy Holly’s Greatest Hits.” It’s got all the classics. Just look at the tracklist and you might think you’re holding one of those cheesy “20th Century Masters” CDs. Peggy Sue. Listen To Me. Everyday. Words Of Love. Rave On! Those are five of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written and they’re all here on a single album. Appetite For Destruction be damned. This may be the most singular collection of rock and roll music ever made. I consider it arguably the first definitive footprint of rock and roll. It’s the first draft of our thesis statement. But the greatest thing about this album - the thing that’s always intrigued me and endeared me to it more than the music - is its eery cover art. Record packaging back in those days had a certain vibe. Good times. Sunshine. Smiles. Laughs. But this cover is dark. It’s foreboding. It’s almost frightening. Buddy doesn’t even look like Buddy. He looks sad, somber, like he already knows his fate. Gone is Buddy’s Texas-sized smile. He’s taken off his trademark glasses so they won’t break in the plane crash. He’s worn a nice clean suit so they can take him straight to the funeral parlor. He’s probably being told to look at the camera but instead he’s looking straight past it, as if he’s staring down the ghost of himself.

HERS: Not all that long ago, there was no rock n’ roll. What would a guy like the HIS to my HERS do if he were born at a time when it was all petticoats, horse carriages and lutes?? I mean he’s not just some guy who owns a guitar to hang on his wall and pick it up every once in a while. This isn’t a ‘just for show’ game. In fact, the man owns no less than 7 guitars, 3 enormous amps, and more pedals and wires than anyone could fit anywhere—I know this because many have overflowed into my apartment. If he doesn’t pick up a guitar at least once a day, he just doesn’t feel right. When he does have a guitar in his hands, he can’t hear you. He won’t respond. And he’d rather not be touched. He daydreams about his next guitar purchase and cruises eBay building his dream guitar wish list. He’s not just a product of his times. It’s in his blood. It’s who he is to the core. I can’t imagine what he’d be doing, who he would be or how he would survive if not for rock n’ roll. The man can’t even stand to put on a suit for fancy functions. If born in the waistcoasts and top hats era, he would have been screwed. (Actually, I take that back—he’d rock a sick top hat.) In this post I’m sure the owner of said record collection will tell you more about the history of it all and how Holly would influence basically every single rock n’ roll icon to come in his blink of a career. But judging that Buddy Holly only had 23 years to change the face of music forever, it was clearly in his blood, at his core and he also couldn’t help but release the rock n’ roll within. Goes to show we just are who we are. Can’t help it. And hopefully you find a guitar or something to hold onto for the ride.

5 notes

January 4, 2012 10:28 am

The Red and The Black
By: Blue Öyster Cult
Tyranny and Mutation
10 Plays

Artist: Blue Öyster Cult
Album: Tyranny and Mutation
Released: 1973
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Choice Song: The Red and The Black

HIS: I wish we could go back to the time when it was ok to rock. Before - for some inexplicable reason - nearly every last drip of testosterone was drained from rock and roll. Of course there are still plenty of bands out there who rock and rock hard. But there used to be a whole lot more and few of them rocked harder than BOC. Unfortunately, most people only know to reference that goddamn Will Ferrell skit (which has nearly destroyed any usage of cowbells at any point) and those people need to get some goddamn knowledge dropped on them. These guys rock so hard and they are so much more than ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper.’ But I digress. First of all, how many bands have the sack to name their fucking band BLUE OYSTER CULT? I mean, come on. If that doesn’t scream cock and balls, I don’t know what does. Also, when did it become uncool to rock? When did guitar solos become lame? When did ridiculous lyrics and song titles (like ‘O.D.’d On Life Itself’ or ‘Baby Ice Dog’) become a thing of the past? When were 160 beats per minute deemed lame? I sure wish people would rock like that again.

HERS: MORE COWBELL!!!!!!

That is all.

6 notes

September 19, 2011 5:25 pm

All I Have To Do Is Dream
By: The Everly Brothers
The Very Best of The Everly Brothers
190 Plays

Artist: The Everly Brothers
Album: The Very Best of The Everly Brothers
Released: 1964
Label: Warner Brothers
Choice Song: All I Have To Do Is Dream

HIS: Overlooked all too often as rock and roll’s forefathers, The Everly’s were doing it before most. I mean, these guys were the precursors to what so many rock and roll bands did in years to come. It may sound weird, but I hear their influence in everything from The Velvets to The Misfits to Sonic Youth. The tragic thing about them, though - as is the case with most rock bands of this era - is that they recorded so many more throwaways than they did great songs. Which is what brings us to their greatest hits collection. Their greats are as great as great gets and to have them all in one place is a fantastic listen.

HERS: He put this record on and I realized two things. First, that the owner of said record collection is an old soul. I bet, if hard pressed, he’d choose these types of records over all the hardcore punk in the world. Well, maybe not all of it. But close. Second of all, I could probably sing the words to half the songs on this album and yet, wouldn’t have been able to tell you it was The Everly Brothers. Specifically, my thoughts were: Wait… ”Wake Up, Little Susie” isn’t a Paul Simon song?! Oh man, he’s gonna be so pissed that I didn’t know that. Add to the list of things I didn’t know that that song—a lullaby my parents used to sing to me as a baby—was banned and considered provocative back in the day (yes, I wikipedia’d it). But if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that those sports jackets sure are wicked sharp.

2 notes