Random Tune for Tuesday 4/14/15

Raise your glass!  Tip your "fo-ty"!  Prepare your speech!

For it's now time for the final track in this series ... track 39 of 39 ... and since mixmaster Jon M found the perfect track to close out the two cassette mixtape from back during our college era days, made for all of those who hung out in FE213 (and somehow fit into the little 83 Ford Escort for midnight trips to trespass [allegedly] on the grounds of the nearby military base) ...  who am I to waste any more e-space with my words, when Tony Banks wrote it and Phil Collins sang it and they both sooo hit the nail on the head:

Another time it might have been so different
If only we could do it all again
But now it's just another fading memory
Out of focus, though the outline still remains

Like the story that we wish was never ending
We know sometime we must reach the final page
Still we carry on just pretending
That there'll always be another day to go

Another chance hello, another goodbye
And so many things we'll never see again
Days of life that seemed so unimportant
Seem to matter and to count much later on

Far away, away, fading distant lights
Leaving us all behind, lost in a changing world
And you know that these are the days of our lives remember.

Yes indeed.  Remember.  Those were the days of our lives ...

THE PERFECT ENDING AFTER 39 WEEKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXKLSX05jWw

Random Tune for Tuesday 4/7/15

And so the countdown comes to an end.

Oops ... wait a minute ... that's *next* week.

*This* week is track *38* of 39 (of the collection of tunes that appear on that two cassette [yes, I said cassette] mixed tape from my college era).

And the penultimate song was the ultimate choice back in the day (before Facebook co-opted the title word for its own nefarious purposes) for recognizing that those to whom you are closest in a season aren't necessarily going to be around forever ... except for the memories you hold in your heart ... forever ... or until they're knocked loose by something like ... well ... like a 39 week countdown of songs that meant something to you during those heady and hearty soul-finding personality-tuning times.

Of course, the youtube link below isn't exactly the same as the one that appeared back then, but who could pass up a "live" duet between Michael W Smith and the one and only Amy Grant.  Sappy .. sure.  But I'll be damned if I might not have teared up upon hearing the song anew again tonight.

A LIFETIME'S NOT TOO LONG TO LIVE AS FRIENDS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Zaevi3IUw

Random Tune for Tuesday 3/31/15

We're nearing the end ... track 37 of 39 ... which means that each song is going to sound like it could recap the whole countdown of tunes from that two cassette mixed tape from my college era.

But I mean come on?  Haven't all 37 songs fit this description:

It can make a right from a wrong, it can make you fall in love
It can get you singin' along
Chase the clouds away and make the sun shine above

I mean, after all, that's why I've been featuring these tunes since last July 1 (slightly more than 37 weeks, because I took time off in the new year for my other occasional/annual series affectionately known as the "dead celebrity trilogy") ... to take [us] to another place in time [and to] completely change [our] state[s] of mind!

HE OF THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE "FAME":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SYbSPO6iqE

Random Tune for Tuesday 3/24/15

What I already knew ... "the" Darlene Love did some backup singing for "the" Cher during her musical comeback in the late eighties (which happened to coincide with my coming into my own).

What I didn't know until TONIGHT, when I went looking on the interwebs for track 36 of 39 in the review of the two cassette mixed tape from college that I'm now just a few weeks away from wrapping, is that the song Perfection was billed as a DUET ... with none other than "the" Bonnie Tyler!

Nothing quite like learning something new twenty years later about that which you are on record as having a healthy obsession regarding.  That also means track 24 and 36 were *both* Cher duets.  (In retrospect, I'm sure the mixmaster now regrets not putting some other Cher duet as track 12 ... oh well ... no going back to redo it now ... seeing as so few people have cassettes and all).

BEFORE ADOPTING THE SLACKER LIFESTYLE, THIS WAS MY THEME SONG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4pWbvWRMow

Random Tune for Tuesday 3/17/15

What can I say ... sometimes the tunes just line up perfectly.

Exhibit A:  on today, a drinking holiday for many (and for some, the culmination of a five day bender if you were young enough to start over the weekend), it's time for track 35 of 39, from Don Henley the soloist.

And ... it's a song I had nearly forgotten about, but will now seek out any time I'm faced with having to make a jukebox decision.  Although with the way said Henley protects his intellectual property, I'm not sure that I'd find the song among the selections.  (To that end, click through the link soon, before he shuts it down on the youtube as well.)

Or, to sum it up as pithily as Don does in the chorus ... "ay-yi-yi-yi".

THERE AIN'T ENOUGH WHISKEY IN TEXAS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8ovEah68lg

Random Tune for Tuesday 3/10/15

Generally speaking, I'm not one that chooses favorites.  I'd much rather embrace that which is enjoyable and memorable about each and every unique experience.  So I'm not going to say that tune 34 of the 39 I've been featuring every Tuesday is necessarily my favorite from this two cassette collection from my college years.

But I will say that the whole damn dorm knew when any of us were in FE213, as we would quite often blast the first song of Billy Joel's KOHUEPT album, and sing (yell? chant?) in Gregorian monk style at the top of our lungs.

Of course, we didn't know the words ... but we could imitate the sounds phonetically ... and we could most certainly do our best to hold the longest "HO" note for as long and as loudly as we could.

ho-de-oh-ya-ho-de-oh-ya-ho-ho-doy-ee-ah-ho-doy-ee-ah-ho-doy-ah-ho-doy-ah-HOOOOOOO!

OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAgDeGyXzlQ&list=PLb7YSwrGOyBTsR0WA-0PnAbn5U985BC29&index=1

Random Tune for Tuesday 3/3/15

I'm not saying that those who sang tune 33 of 39 in my ongoing presentation of songs from the double cassette college-era mixed tape were inspired by this Winnie the Pooh quote ... but I'm also not saying that I can't see a connection between this truth and the lyrics to the classic country duet between Clint Black and Wynonna* that occupies this spot in the "countdown".

[*I'm also not sure what year Wynonna jettisoned her last name to be a one-name diva in the Cher vein, so maybe this duet is officially credited to Wynonna Judd instead of just Wynonna.]

Its inclusion as a selection happened long before the Facebook, and it was accompanied with a call to action in the liner notes to all those who regularly set foot inside FE213 back in the day (and there were many) to "at least communicate with each other" and to "never lose touch".

Words of wisdom are just all around us for the listening, no?

GOODBYE -->  EASIER SAID THAN DONE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLA8sUvCLeU

Random Tune for Tuesday 2/24/15

You decide for yourself ... is track 32 of 39 from this mixed tape I've been featuring sad or inspirational?

[Checking the liner notes, the mixmaster who found all of the selections way back in the early nineties argued for the latter ...]

Regardless of your decision, it's true that Kathy Mattea's 'Seeds' is one of those songs that makes you think.  Is where we start where we have to end?  Or for those of us who find ourselves in "sandy" situations, can we grow toward the "fertile soil"?

Here's hoping this particular tune gives you some kind of comfort if you "find yourself at a crossroad once again" ...

DREAM COME TRUE OR DREAMING OF THINGS YOU WON'T DO?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61D5AU3SG7A

Random Tune for Tuesday 2/17/15

What was track 31 of 39 on that college era mixed tape I've been going on and on about?

As represented photographically by the accompanying image, and as sung by the youngest of the JoBros in the companion link (well -- the youngest of the bro-trio-group, not the youngest in the Jonas family, as I've learned by fact-checking my reference on the Wiki) ... tonight's tune was the song that *I* sung in order to land the lead in the LVC musical 'The Pajama Game' back in the day.

Mind you ... my singing career nowadays is mostly limited to screaming along at the top of my lungs whilst driving (yep, I'm *that* guy beside you on the road) ... but for that brief moment in time over twenty years ago, *this* was the song that started it all.  Hence its spot on the tapes ... and here near the end of this series ...

ON THAT LONELY BARRICADE AT DAWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahjml-7EFNE

Random Tune for Tuesday 2/10/15

Track 30 of 39 (we're in the home stretch!) marks the return of Mr. Yearwood (just kidding) to the review of the tunes that were on that college-era mixed tape to which I've been referring for the last many many months.  (And, as a reminder, "college-era" for me means the early nineties.)

I'll tell you, I had a bit of a challenge trying to find an accompanying selection on the youtube to pair with this post ... my choices being a myriad of covers of varying quality ... or a karaoke version with only the background ... or, what I settled on, a "fan-originated" version from a recent concert now that Garth is back on tour.

Thinking back to the song ... is there a better lesson to be learned when in college than the message contained therein?  "Just because he may not answer, doesn't mean he don't care ..."


REMEMBER WHEN YOU'RE TALKING TO THE MAN UPSTAIRS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbhvw4rhZcc

Random Tune for Tuesday 2/3/15

Track 29 of 39 in the ongoing series of songs from the college era mixed tape?  This top hit from Canadian Tom Cochrane that, depending on your age, you might know better as the tune by Rascal Flats from Cars.

Or, if even younger, maybe you know the Alvin and the Chipmunks version.

But for us LVC college kids in the early nineties, it was only the original that made it on to the collection.

Not that we were ever out on the highway in the middle of the night when we should have been sleeping or studying or other college-y things.

As he sings ... "there's no load I can't hold, road so rough this I know, I'll be there when the light comes in"

TELL 'EM WE'RE SURVIVORS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sMjm9Eloo

Random Tune for Tuesday 1/27/15

Here it is.  Track 28 of 39 from the college-era mixed tape made in the early nineties that I've been regularly featuring.  (How can we be so close to the end when it seems like we just started?)

And I checked the mixmaster's liner notes on this one (yep ... this was a professional amateur collection of songs ... complete with a few sentences highlighting the significance of each tune in an accompanying handout) ... and it begins as follows:

"Bryan is one cool Canadian.  (This is not a statement to say that all the other Canadians are not cool ... Bryan is just above the rest.)"

With that ... enjoy this gem (co-written by Bryan with the ex-Mr-Shania-Twain [who, admittedly, co-wrote just about everything that David Foster didn't touch]) and enjoy the doggie in the video (not the one pictured on the album cover, but the one that belonged to the actual studio owner where the video was filmed).  (Thanks Wiki for your [likely true] tid-bits.)

DON'T DENY ME THIS PAIN I'M GOIN' THROUGH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x8wPt8xarE

Random Tune for Tuesday 1/20/15

After a three week hiatus, we return to the college era mixed tape owned by the handful of folks who spent regular time in FE213 on the LVC campus ...

Correction ... mixed *tapes*, as the "Appropo" Music of FE 213 came in two volumes.  In 2014, the first 26 songs were featured from Vol I, subtitled "Long Live Uniqueness".  For the remaining 13 songs in Vol II., subtitled "Long Live Independence", we'll take the next 13 weeks of 2015 to present a tune at a time.

And first up is really *third* up, because it's the *third* time that they appear in the mix (quite literally), which proves yet again that Toad the Wet Sprocket was indeed the soundtrack for the decade I spent in undergrad (I kind of didn't want to leave ...)

OR IS IT THAT THEY FEAR THE JOY OF LIFE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFXTWhsbE6U

Random Tune for Tuesday 12/23/14

Track 26 of 39 represents the end ...

But wait?  There are 13 more songs, those of you who know how to do simple subtraction say ... and it's true ... this was a *2* cassette mixed tape from the best years at LVC back in the early nineties ... and the first one was jam packed with 26 tunes, ending with this song.

And what a classic song to end on.  If asked what one band best represented those years, I'd say for sure Toad the Wet Sprocket (and as this image shows, it may simply have been all about the timing, seeing as how their founding year of 89 was also the year I graduated high school/started college).  And nothing says, "these things weren't taken for granted" like reliving some of the best memories over twenty years later in the weekly posts I've been doing for the last 26 weeks.

After a brief hiatus (I have my annual dead celebrity tune trilogy covering the next three weeks), this "countdown" will resume on Jan 20 of 2015 with the second cassette and the final dozen songs.  Until then ... and in the spirit of this season ... I wish for you reflection and retrospection and the peace and understanding that comes from "not taking your things for granted" ...

ONE PART OF ME JUST WANTS TO TELL YOU EVERYTHING:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNEt60MoK_I

Random Tune for Tuesday 12/16/14

For track 25 of the 39 that will eventually all be featured as weekly tunes on Tuesdays, it's going to get a bit sappy ... which is why I sought out a photo that lightened the mood a touch.

But let's face it ... sappy is not necessarily a bad thing.  And the years spent in college are often ones where everyone is being all inspirational with each other (and no, "inspirational" is not a euphemism or anything for partying, because we weren't exactly that kind of dorm room).

So to the extent that we *were* each other's heroes and giving each other wind for use underneath each other's wings so that we all could fly higher than eagles ... that's not at all a bad thing.

SO HIGH I ALMOST TOUCHED THE SKY:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAzMRKFX3c

Random Tune for Tuesday 12/9/14

Track 24 of the 39 that will all eventually be featured one at a time every Tuesday (we're almost up to the point where we start the second cassette ... *almost*) and it's the SECOND appearance of Marvin Aday.

Except this time ... he is not alone.

I refuse to choose favorites (everything is "the best" in its own way), but I have been looking forward to putting up this tune since I started this trip down college-memory-lane way back on July 1 of this year.

It's a song none of us from FE213 even knew existed, or as mixmaster Jon M says in the liner notes (oh yeah ... there were liner notes to this mix tape), "As the story goes, I went out to the Boscov's mall to buy the Beavis and Butthead Experience CD [and] before I made the purchase, I decided to look around.  Well, I just happened to notice this Meatloaf CD sticking out that I had never seen before -- as you know, I had to buy it.  As I was listening, I heard the distinct voice that sounded like old Cher.  So I looked in the credits on the CD booklet, and, as they say, 'the rest is history!!!'"

History indeed.  Sweet sweet Cher-ian history!

WITH A VIDEO FILMED AT "WALT'S INN":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GlJMKkkjZo

Random Tune for Tuesday 12/2/14

We're all the way up to track 23 of the 39 being featured from the double cassette mixed tape from college days at LVC (specifically, the time spent in FE 213), and this one's another introspective one ... Little Texas' "What Might Have Been".

At the time, it was more about the reflection on how choices made send people down completely different roads.... leaving those to wonder ... well ... what might have been.

But tonight, listening to it again some twenty years later, the phrase I heard loudest was the one I found in the accompanying image:  "Yes, they might be the best days we will ever know ..."

Because ... they sure might maybe were.

CAUSE THAT WAS THEN AND WE HAVE TAKEN DIFFERENT ROADS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEE3ycDH9_8

Random Tune for Tuesday 11/25/14

Track 22 of 39 in the ongoing series presenting tunes from an actual mixed tape from the early nineties college years ... goes a bit introspective ... a bit wistful ... a bit "crunchy" if you will ... more than a bit poetic ... basically, a bit Indigo Girl-ie.

Well -- a whole lot Indigo Girl-ie, as this spot on the cassette (yep, we're old!) is reserved for the beautiful lyrics of "Love's Recovery".

And if you follow the path of the song through the sad parts about youths too busy making plans to realize that life was being missed around them and about how friends simply fade away up to the powerful trinity climax (the words shown in the accompanying image), the denouement is actually a bit ... well ... *hopeful* toward the future (the future that has already become the past, seeing as how all of these feelings were from a time over twenty years ago).

THOUGH IT'S STORMING OUT, I FEEL SAFE IN THE ARMS ... OF LOVE'S DISCOVERY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xzsY2vkEMM

Random Tune for Tuesday 11/18/14

Track 21 of 39 in the ongoing series featuring the songs from that college era mixed tape o' mine ... the Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald duet ...

WAIT.  Scratch that.  We were a theatrical bunch back then in college in the early nineties (quite literally ... many of us met in the LVC theatre), so if "On My Own" is one of the tunes included, then it's going to be the version from Les Mis.

Well, since the tape is over twenty years old, the modern day youtube link is going to have to be the version of "On My Own" from the version of Les Mis that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the musical (that's the one that had the pre-MMA fighter version of Nick Jonas in it).  What can I say?  We were all young and dramatic and loving from a distance unrequited-ly, etc etc etc.  Ah ... the emotions of college.

THE WORLD IS FULL OF HAPPINESS THAT I HAVE NEVER KNOWN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQCPf55uoK4

Random Tune for Tuesday 11/11/14

Track 20 of 39 (if you don't know by now, then you'll have to do your own research as to what I'm doing every week on Tuesdays for the last 20 weeks [although I do make it easy to do so on the blog, since the mixed tape madness has its own tag]) ... and tonight's a Y2K themed song from the incomparable Billy Joel.

Because, after all, we were the generation that was already well plugged in to the upcoming end of the millennium just a few years ahead from our time at LVC in the early nineties (have I already shared my Y2K "Russians have fired missiles" news report story whilst babysitting the Rite Aid support queue that night?  [turns out it was just a normal new years eve dispute with the poor folks in Chechnya and nothing apocalyptic about which to be concerned]).  And because, after all, we were all celebrating the fact that we were all thrown together ... after two thousand years!

I think I still tear up when I hear the big finish ... "One thing is certain:  Nothing can hold back the light.  Time is relentless ... and as the past disappears ... we're on the verge of all things new ..."

ONLY TRUE LOVE PERSEVERES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D09O_6HoCDA