Whoa. Just whoa. I can't wait to hear this.
A quick story -
In 1989 I turned 12 and my mother took me to the local record shop to buy my first album, to play on my first cassette player. I wanted the Cocktail soundtrack because of Don't Worry, Be Happy.
At that record shop I saw the front cover of Appetite.
As soon as I saw it, I was transfixed. I was stunned by that cover, because we were a conservative Christian household and to use the cross like that was deeply wrong, and I desperately wanted to hear whatever music it was.
I didn't know who the Gunners were. I didn't care. The cover took me in.
I knew there was no way I'd be allowed to buy it. (I felt deep guilt just for looking at it, let alone wanting it.)
I turned away and we bought the Cocktail soundtrack, which became a seminal set of songs for me.
About three years later, my family was staying with another family at their friends' farmhouse, while they were away, and we were all on holiday together. It was a bit weird, in retrospect.
The bedroom I was staying in belonged to an 18-year-old, and looking through his albums I found Appetite on cassette.
I stole it. I didn't even think twice.
I hid it in my bag, and days later at home, I played it quietly.
I will never forget the first time I heard Welcome to the Jungle, or It's so Easy, or Mr Brownstone. It was like the future.
(When I opened it up, I was horrified by the other cover and never knew which one to display so I turned it to the thank yous or something.)
I've always wondered if that farmer's son worked out his copy was missing.
I bought this album the day it came out, and it came in a special collector's edition metal tin and guitar pick, and never told anyone in my youth group because by then VH wsn't cool anymore anyway.
I was 14 in 1991 (yeah go on, start counting) but non of my top-five, desert-island songs are from that year. Having said that, 1991 was a remarkable year for music -
Ten, Nevermind, BLSM, Everclear (AMC, not the other Everclear) the Illusions, White Room, Blue Lines, Girlfriend, Loveless, Black album, Screamadelica, Gish ..)
As a 10-year-old Aussie kid in 1987, INXS were inescapable. They were everywhere (they still are, on some classic rock radio stations here). We used to argue over who was better - INXS or the other big Australian rock band at the time, Icehouse, who I don't think ever really made it overseas.
It seemed like INXS were the biggest band in the world in the few years after Kick, and other than U2, they might have been - there are pictures of their world Kick tour of an unbelievable number of people at their concerts, and not the Australian concerts.
However, as I understand it, you have to take much of what Chris Murphy with a LOT of salt. He's known for ... well, exaggeration and putting INXS' legacy first above everything else, and one thing he's done is make that band seem far larger today than they would otherwise be. He's a canny manager.
You have always been very kind to me, generous & wise. I hope I always have more to learn about that kindness & friendshipI know I will try https://t.co/WEMu05lnNl— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) August 20, 2017
But FWIW, I turned 20 in 1997. And when I first heard that bit in Android, when the guitar comes in at 2.40, I just felt the air knocked out of me and nothing else I'd heard that year seemed to matter. Except the Boatman's Call, of course
I saw Dylan play a couple of years ago, and it really hit me then just how much he doesn't care about anything anyone else thinks. The show was great, though, even if the songs were virtually unrecognisable.
He's genuinely great. It's hard getting into the 'Big' artists a long time into their career, cos certain songs of theirs are unavoidable and burnt into your mind. Like, try to miss Free Falling. You can't. So it sort of feels like you know his best stuff already. But with Petty, there's so much more.
Like everything he's done after the Tree of Life, I'll watch this but feel so bored and amazed at what I'm seeing at the same time. He's so frustrating. I love everything up to Tree .. then after that it was really hard to finish his movies. Knight of Cups was terribly dull and pointless.
Gah, Songs of Innocence ... dull, vapid and turgid. Even worse than Horizon, which is saying something. It's really interesting to read "little bit more inventive sonically", which I interpret as them admitting it was just bad.
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