Random Tune for Tuesday 12/27/16

This picture may look familiar ... because it's *almost* identical to the last one posted in this series a fortnight ago.

Eagle eyes will see though that the B side of this homemade recording is showing this time.  As for why it's in the trash, well that's because it represents an item for which there is also a matching CD in the personal music collection, rendering it okay for the cassette to be discarded.

Another programming note ... this will be the last Random Tune for Tuesday (something new starts next week), but the discarded cassette series will continue with a small tweak as it moves to Mondays in 2017.

As such, I'm going to break with tradition and feature TWO tunes from this particular album -- because I couldn't choose.

There's the wisdom about the secret of life ...

The secret of life is gettin' up early
The secret of life is stayin' up late
The secret of life is try not to hurry
But don't wait
Don't wait

But there's also the inspirational song -- much needed for our times -- reminding us to be there for each other:

The whole world's gone and let you down but
Better days they're comin' for you
I know they will
'Cause I'll be right here makin' sure they do

Thanks Faith for helping us keep the faith ...

TRY NOT TO HURRY BUT DON'T WAIT, DON'T WAIT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNnlcqf00YU

TOGETHER WE CAN BRING BETTER DAYS FOR EACH OTHER:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnVboZ2HlEI

Random Tune for Tuesday 12/13/16

Something new in the trash can!

Well ... something *old*, because the whole point of this ongoing series every other week is to discard the cassettes for which there is also a matching CD in the existing music collection (because a hoarder has to unhoard very slowly, one item at a time, one fortnight at a time).

What's *new* this week is that it is a cassette tape made (not manufactured) from back in the late 90's and get this -- it's OF the CD that is now in the collection.

So you can marvel at how meta this all is, or, if your brain hurts, then you can just focus on the good music from a great singer with a big voice (regardless of whether she herself is hefty Jennifer or skinny Jenny.  I'm going to skip over her Dreamgirls stuff that was on this best-of collection for a late nineties dance club hit instead ... 'cause who doesn't want a slightly remixed 'No Frills Love'!?

DON'T WANT A LOVE THAT WILL GO AWAY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd7rrviGWkY

Random Tune for Tuesday 11/29/16

Another cassette in the trash!

This time, it's the third album from the late Whitney Houston that's being discarded ... but only because I also have the CD in the music collection ... and that makes sense since so many of these that are doubled up in storage in that way are from the late 80's and early 90's.

As for which tune I'm choosing to feature, it will be the one that was stuck in my head for days after listening to the CD recently ('cause I don't make the decision to actually get rid of the cassette until after I've played the CD through to make sure it's fully functioning).

For some reason, after knowing how her life played out, the innocence of her rediscovering love again in 'After We Make Love' was the way I wanted to remember her -- and I couldn't get the haunting refrain out of my head about how "all that matters is right here and now."

FROM HER INNOCENT DAYS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5feP2zdEDc

Random Tune for Tuesday 11/15/16

As is usually the case, the cassette being discarded tonight is from the late 80's/early 90's -- at the height of my Columbia House twelve for a penny addiction -- and this classic final album from Genesis (well ... final one that included Phil Collins) makes its way to the rubbish bin.

I've featured songs from this album before on this blog (such as the hits-close-to-home 'No Son of Mine', the epic 'Driving the Last Spike' and the haunting 'Fading Lights'), so I had to look for a different one to highlight as I say goodbye to the cassette (don't worry ... I *also* have the CD in my collection).

With the rise of fanaticism and its entry into politics, I chose the one that includes the lyric:  "Jesus he knows me, and he knows I'm right" -- a cautionary tale of misplaced priorities and the use of religion as a cloak for doing other less Christian things.  Just because.  No particular reason ...

RELIGION FOR SALE!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBb6kkrnIhs

Random Tune for Tuesday 11/1/16

It seems like a natural segue to go from Eagles the last time I posted a discarded cassette two weeks ago to the one and only Don Henley tonight.

And since I already have this particular greatest hits on CD, this old version in an old format (with its broken case) is getting the boot.

As for the tune to feature, it was also a no-brainer of sorts that I'm going to select one from the three bonus tracks that were new on this album when it was released.

I almost chose 'Garden of Allah', except, via the power of the google search, I confirmed that I posted that song already during Holy Hell Week around Easter of 2011 (oh that google!), so instead I'll highlight the perfect kiss-off song:  'You Don't Know Me At All'.  In my humble opinion, it should be played as all divorces are being signed ...

YOU TOOK MY BREATH AWAY AND NOW I WANT IT BACK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOOZaYvC-Ao

Random Tune for Tuesday 10/18/16

I do believe this will be the last of the Eagles cassettes that I'm going to be discarding seeing as how I also have the CD in the collection and seeing as how I somehow successfully tricked myself into a slow and steady purge of a few of my somewhat-hoarded belongings.

Which makes it kind of fitting that it's a greatest hits collection -- a volume II at that.  Since many of the songs on it have already been featured at some point in this series, I'm going to turn to that tuneful bit of melancholy commentary on the fickleness of popularity ... also known as the song that provides you with this bit of pithiness:

"They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along."

EVEN YOUR OLD FRIENDS TREAT YOU LIKE YOU'RE SOMETHING NEW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0d53KUlTN8

Random Tune for Tuesday 10/4/16

The list of things I'll do should I ever win the lottery includes creating my "Just One More" foundation, establishing a college scholarship fund for the next generation of scholars among my friends and family, building the home I've had pictured in my head since high school sociology class that includes a two story office/library with an archive room underneath it AND opening up an establishment called the Sad Cafe so that we'd all have a place to meet at midnight ...

Also ... this is another entry in the ongoing discarded cassettes series -- worry not that I'm no longer capable of listening to the Eagles' 'The Long Run' ... I just do it on CD now!

As for the atmosphere I'll have to create inside said cafe, the lyrics help set that bar:

Oh, it seemed like a holy place
Protected by amazing grace
And we would sing right out loud, the
Things we could not say
We thought we could change this world
With words like "love" and "freedom"
We were part of the lonely crowd
Inside the sad cafe.

MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT BABY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnzsk-q7yAk

Random Tune for Tuesday 9/20/16

Courtesy of the power of the google search (and boy is that thing powerful), I already know that the song that will eventually appear linked below was featured before on this blog.  With 3000 some posts, there's bound to be a repeat of sorts every now and then.

The reasoning was different, though, on July 8 of 2014.  At that time, I was featuring a college era mixed tape soundtrack.  At this time, I'm back to the trash can to see what cassette is being discarded tonight (not for judgmental reasons, but because I happen to also have the CD in the music collection) ... and it's time for the 1977 Eagles release of 'One of These Nights' ... which includes the tune with these favorite lyrics of mine:

And when you're looking for your freedom
(Nobody seems to care)
And you can't find the door
(Can't find it anywhere)
When there's nothing to believe in
Still you're coming back, you're running back
You're coming back for more

Indeed ... "put me on a highway and show me a sign" and you best bet that I'm going to "take it to the limit one more time".

YOU KNOW I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A DREAMER:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFQMk6WWcoM

Random Tune for Tuesday 9/6/16

I will always be a full album kind of guy (and since I refer to it as full "album" despite the fact that most of my music collection is cassettes and CDs, that's a clue as to my age).

Kids nowadays and their fancy itunes with their hot hip singles are missing out on the totality of the artistic experience ... hearing the songs that don't get released ... that sit in between the hits ... that, when listening to them some thirty-plus years later, perfectly capture the melancholy of a moment.

That's all the long way to say that the next entry in the discarded cassettes series is the Eagles' 'On the Border' (discarded 'cause I also have the CD and I'm finally slowly purging some things) ... and that the song is the Don Henley penned 'You Never Cry Like a Lover'.

I can't live with you baby, can't live without it
And sometimes I believe in love
Sometimes I doubt it
But your life goes on
Like a broken down carousel
Where somebody left the music on

PERFECTLY CAPTURED MELANCHOLY OF THE MOMENT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag_ONZypHIM

Random Tune for Tuesday 8/23/16

It almost pains me to throw away something so old (the cassette in the trash can tonight was only released one year after I was released from my momma's privates) ... but that's the way this whole thing works, with me throwing out the cassettes for which I also already have the CD in my music collection.

So in the trash can Eagles 'Desperado' must go.

And it's what I was referring to a month ago as the so-called 'summer of Celine' was ending and I promised that a "group of artists" would be featured next (except I forgot I had a Taylor Dayne album that fit in between alphabetically).

As for which of the oh so classic songs to pick for tonight's tune?  I'm going to skip over all the most well known ones (like Desperado, Saturday Night and the Desperado/Doolin Dalton reprise -- all great choices in and of themselves), and go for the one with a message we all need to hear sometimes:  "Son, don't wade too deep in bitter creek".

AND THERE AIN'T NO CAUSE TO WEEP ... AT BITTER CREEK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R68eQ6rqV0

Random Tune for Tuesday 8/9/16

Oops!

Two weeks ago I hinted that tonight's discarded cassette (which appears in the trash can ONLY because I also have the CD in the music collection) would be from a *group* of artists.

But between the summer of Celine (the last few posts in the series) and what is ahead (which, *for sure* will be from a *group* of artists, as promised a fortnight ago) is THIS particular artist.

As a child of the late 80's/early 90's, it can't be a surprise that Leslie Wunderman makes an appearance in this series.  Or, for those who don't know, that's the one and only Ms. Taylor Dayne.  As for the song from her third album ('Soul Dancing'), it's the emotional plea for emotional support that gets chosen.

PLEASE SEND ME SOMEONE I CAN HOLD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWLnPShElAY

Random Tune for Tuesday 7/26/16

Summer's not over yet ... but tonight concludes the summer of Celine (in my trash can).

It's the fourth entry of hers in my discarded cassettes series, which is the way I'm finally moving past some of my hoarding issues and throwing out any tapes that I *also* have on CD.

There were so many songs about love from which to choose as tonight's tune ... which makes complete sense from an album called 'Let's Talk About Love'.  I was *this* close to picking the optimistic 'Love Is On The Way' ballad to feature ... but instead decided for the slightly feistier 'To Love You More' statement-song about competing with a lover's other lover, mostly because I'm a sucker for the strings accompaniment.  (I know I said the same thing about the horn accompaniment a few weeks back ... so maybe I just like high drama in my pop songs.)

In two weeks, I'll move on to another artist ...which will actually be a GROUP of artists ... but that's for next time.

I'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMRs61AOduE

Random Tune for Tuesday 7/12/16

It's the summer of Celine -- in the trash!

Which means that it must be that every-other-week thing I'm doing where I discard a cassette because I confirmed I also have the same CD in the music collection.  (And where you realize how old fashioned I am seeing as how I still collect cassettes and CDs.)

Tonight it's the 1993 The Colour of My Love (note the non-American spelling of color ... 'cause ... Celine).  And there were so many from which to choose ... but I settled on the fifth released song for tonight's tune.

I'll admit ... it's all about that modulation (hoping that's the right word) before the final chorus (pretty sure that's the right word) when she gets all extra-determined to take that only one road back to that love she left behind so long ago.  After all, I can get behind someone who spends so much time looking back at old memories ... seeing as how that's kind of what I do (as they say ... "know your brand")!

THERE ... IS ... ONLY ONE ROAD!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=przJ8xNAJ1Y

Random Tune for Tuesday 6/28/16

The summer of Celine (in a trash can) continues ...

... and this week, the cassette of hers getting discarded (because the CD version of the release is *also* in the music collection) is actually her FIRST English-language album.  (I probably should've started with this two weeks ago instead of her eponymous release.  [Although now I got to use the word eponymous twice ... so there's that ...])

As for which tune to pick, everybody knows "Where Does My Heart Beat Now?" ... so instead I'll select another one that made it to the radio, but that was also covered by a certain Sheena Easton -- the urgent plea to a cheating lover to come clean and ensure that she would not be "The Last to Know" (which, come to think of it, is also the theme of a classic Reba song).

For those keeping track at home, with two Celine picks in the series so far, we now have her plaintively crying in one song ... and urgently pleaing in the next.  At least she knows her brand.

DON'T LET ME BE ...:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbzKVVkkPvc

Random Tune for Tuesday 6/14/16

Lest Shirly P-S get alarmed, please know that the fact that Celine Dion is in the trash can today does NOT mean that we are never listening to her favorite singer again.

What it does mean, though, is that we'll be entering the "summer of Celine" phase of the ongoing "discarded cassettes" series, which is where the cassettes copies of CDs that already exist in the music collection are finally being purged.

Starting with her eponymous release from the early 90's and her plaintive cry to a love who's not paying attention to her.  (Note:  she's pretty much cornered the market on plaintive cries ...)

More Celine in the trash in two weeks!

WHAT DO I GOT TO DO?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVorQyjA6gA

Random Tune for Tuesday 5/31/16

So I already took out the trash today ... which is why tonight's discarded cassette (of something I already also have as a CD in the music collection) is in the *bathroom* trash can.

As for the tune to choose from '#1s' -- the *first* compilation album from Ms. Carey (formerly Mrs. Cannon ... formerly formerly Mrs. Mattola) ... not to be confused with the similar sounding '#1s to Infinty' -- the *last* compilation album that is practically identical ... I'm going with the duet between Whitney and Mariah ... the one that won an Academy Award.

Growing up when I did, it's a song that reminds me of what once was for both of these performers ... before the declines and identity crises and breakdowns and fatal baths (you'll have to decide who belongs to which category).  If nothing else, listen to it again for how competitive the divas were in trying to get the last note in to end the song (you can't tell me all those runs were "arranged") ... or also for the uplifting message.

THERE CAN BE MIRACLES WHEN YOU BELIEVE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKaXY4IdZ40

Random Tune for Tuesday 5/17/16

First off ... we're out of creamer.

And second off ... it's back to the trash can for this week to see which cassette gets discarded because the CD version is also in the musical collection -- Toni Braxton's 'Secrets'.

Now I *could* feature the smash hit from this album about hearts getting broken and pleas to have them un-broken ... but where's the fun in that.

Instead, the tune to accompany tonight's post will be the non-smash hit about hearts breaking ... the one that didn't "dent the US charts" (according to the wiki) ... the one that includes the sounds you want to hear when you're looking back at lost love (those being from Kenny G) ... the one known as 'How Did an Angel Break My Heart' ...

IF NOT FOR THE TONI, THEN LOVE IT FOR THE KENNY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsDJRTzN9FY&spfreload=5

Random Tune for Tuesday 5/3/16

All right ... I get it.

It seems a bit off-putting to find Dame Julie Andrews in the trash can this week.

But remember ... this is not meant to disparage any of her talent ... it's only that I also have this same release of 'Broadway:  The Music of Richard Rodgers' on a CD and I'm finally (slowly) purging my collection of any duplicates.

After so much Aerosmith in this series these last few every-other-weeks, I've finally moved on to another 'A' artist.  In so doing, I've also proven that one never knows what one will find when one opens up my music closet.

As for the tune to feature, I'm going to cheat a bit and provide a link to a live performance of almost all the songs that she medleyed together in what she named her "Waltz Carousel" on this album.  I dare you to listen and not end up doing a "von, two, three" in a Lawrence Welk accent at least once while listening to her perform the nearly fifteen minutes of classic Julie singing classic Rodgers.

ALL TOGETHER NOW ... "VON, TWO, THREE ... VON, TWO, THREE":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T48fqNtRt6o

Random Tune for Tuesday 4/19/16

This will be the last shot of a cassette discarded in my trash can.

Oops ... missed a word.

This will be the last shot of an *Aerosmith* cassette discarded in my trash can.

Meaning that I still have a whole box of cassettes that are duplicates of CDs also in my collection that I'll be discarding every other week for another few months ... or years ... or until the internet breaks.

Meaning also that I am finally out of doubles of Aerosmith releases (seeing as how this was the last one they put out in the nineties, that kind of makes sense, looking at the overall timeline as to when CDs became more popular as a music format).

[Disclaimer:  all that said, I do reserve the right to buy more Aerosmith CDs in the future which may or may not result in a return visit of these guys to my trash.]

In the 2600+ posts since I started this blog, I know for sure I've already featured so many songs from this album ... but I don't think I've ever featured tonight's tune:  'Kiss Your Past Goodbye' and these words of advice:

I've been so lost I must confess
I've had my share of loneliness
But yeah it's hard to keep a good man down
The loves you lost were all in vain
The past lives on inside your brain
I don't think you need those memories
Hangin' 'round, yeah

SO KISS YOUR PAST ... OR KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRuvu5xeA8s

Random Tune for Tuesday 4/5/16

Dear Steven, Joe, Tom, Brad and Joey:

Please know that the fact that there have been so many Aerosmith cassettes in my trash can of late has no bearing on my deep love for your music.

It's just that I *also* have the CDs, and I'm taking the babiest of steps toward keeping my apprentice-hoarding tendencies in check.

I also promise that this will stop in two weeks, when I finally post my last discarded Aero-cassette.  Mind you, I still have lots more cassettes to discard ... it's just that I'll be all out of ones from you guys!

But for now and for tonight, it's 'Get a Grip''s turn to be featured.  In the years I've been micro-blogging, I know for damn sure that I've already offered up many of the songs from this album in this blog ... so for this post today, I'll sum it up with the command that you gave your fans ... "when you can't do jack, just shut up and dance".

SEX IS LIKE A GUN ... YOU AIM ... YOU SHOOT ... HA-HA ... YOU RUN!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxh0Of36-m4