Wm. Harris
@wmharris.bsky.social
📤 88
📥 179
📝 296
Math professor and music blogger. Read all about it at
https://musicofmylife.net
Fifty years ago today my sister and I received a portable tape recorder for Christmas. It came with a 10-minute cassette (yes, 5 minutes per side) on which my father, posing as Santa, recorded a brief greeting. We also got a couple of longer blanks, probably 60-minute tapes.
3 days ago
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Past and current seasonal practices collide in an attempt to make the title of Kate's song a prophecy.
musicofmylife.net/2025/12/21/c...
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Christmas/Holiday Cheer: Kate Bush, “December Will Be Magic Again”
Things hit a little different for me this year as the holiday season approached. Martha and I always do quite a bit of decorating for Christmas, but getting stuff out and placing it around the hous…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/12/21/christmas-holiday-cheer-kate-bush-december-will-be-magic-again/
7 days ago
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It’s the 25th anniversary of Kirsty’s tragic death. This is a wonderful overview of her career.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 days ago
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While mid-90s alternative played, a Christmas tradition was born...
musicofmylife.net/2025/12/09/m...
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Modern Rock Tracks, 12/2/95
As the end of 1995 approached, I was finishing up my seventh semester at Georgetown. The thing I remember most about that term now was the geometry class I taught. I’d picked an idiosyncratic…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/12/09/modern-rock-tracks-12-2-95/
19 days ago
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From five years ago: a treatise on high school crushes and odd memories. Happy Wait for Me Day.
musicofmylife.net/2020/12/05/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 12/1/79: Daryl Hall and John Oates, “Wait for Me”
8/12/79: It’s Sunday morning, and I’m hearing voices. More accurately, the voices of folks around me in the hotel restaurant and the swimming pool area sound just like those of people I know, which…
https://musicofmylife.net/2020/12/05/american-top-40-pastblast-12-1-79-daryl-hall-and-john-oates-wait-for-me/
28 days ago
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Cracking open a 39-year-old issue of SR, for better (Smithereens, Winwood, Peter Case) or for worse (Dylan, Young).
musicofmylife.net/2025/11/30/s...
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Stereo Review In Review: November 1986
At this point I guess I was still a stranger in the strange new land of Champaign-Urbana, beginning to find my footing as a first-year grad student. For all I know, I may have leafed through this i…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/11/30/stereo-review-in-review-november-1986/
28 days ago
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My 1000th post: a bit of news.
musicofmylife.net/2025/11/18/d...
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Don’t Be Afraid To Let Them Show
In the early spring of 2000, Martha and I learned we were going to be parents. We’d been trying for some time, ultimately turning to a fertility specialist. Over the ensuing months, there were the …
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/11/18/dont-be-afraid-to-let-them-show/
about 1 month ago
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The last installment of hits from '85: the ones that definitely still rock my world.
musicofmylife.net/2025/10/31/l...
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Let Me Steal This Moment From You Now
For my 1984 list, there were only two American acts in the top 10–I’ve upped it to three this go-round. Without further ado… 10. The Hooters, “And We Danced” (#21, Oct…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/10/31/let-me-steal-this-moment-from-you-now/
about 2 months ago
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More hits from 40 years ago that I still dig, one of which is no doubt some folks' least favorite song of the year.
musicofmylife.net/2025/10/28/i...
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I Can’t Stand This Indecision
In addition to the three guys I noted in the last post who have three songs on this list, there are fifteen acts with a pair of tunes. Ten have already appeared at least once; the other five debut …
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/10/28/i-cant-stand-this-indecision/
2 months ago
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Twenty additional tunes that are fab to these ears forty years on...
musicofmylife.net/2025/10/25/i...
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It’s A Do Or Die Situation
Yesterday afternoon Martha and I drove to Lexington for a bit of shopping. It was a beautiful day–clear sky, high in the low 60s. Our route to the shoe store didn’t take me by Transy, t…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/10/25/its-a-do-or-die-situation/
2 months ago
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Twenty-five more groovy tunes that peppered the charts 40 years ago. Don't know about you but I'm digging on the incongruity between title of the post and the video thumbnail.
musicofmylife.net/2025/10/21/i...
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I’m Relying On Your Common Decency
Time for the second quarter of my list of faves among 1985 Hot 100 hits. I acknowledge this is a creation springing from a couple nights’ thought and that the rankings could easily be somewha…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/10/21/im-relying-on-your-common-decency/
2 months ago
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My fave picture from Lexington this afternoon. I'm certain they're only trying to talk to each other above the noise.
2 months ago
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Part 1 of a musical look back forty years and what I think of the hits of 1985 now.
musicofmylife.net/2025/10/18/a...
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All Alone In A World That’s Changed
Around this time last year I looked back forty years to put together my top 100 pop hits of 1984; while I can’t imagine making such a list too many years beyond that one, I do have sufficient…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/10/18/all-alone-in-a-world-thats-changed/
2 months ago
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One feels like there's hope for a day when the song one hears on the way to work (it's a short commute) is "Tangled Up in Blue."
2 months ago
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The greatest musical discovery I made around this time of year 30 years ago wasn't on the MRT chart then but definitely should've been.
musicofmylife.net/2025/10/11/m...
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Modern Rock Tracks, 10/7/95
One Friday afternoon toward the end of September 1995 found me on the road to Ft. Wayne, meeting up with friend Mark L for a weekend bridge tournament. A quick search at the American Contract Bridg…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/10/11/modern-rock-tracks-10-7-95/
3 months ago
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This past weekend Premiere played the first show from what evolved into an ongoing series of discussions, referred to within as "wide divergences of opinion."
musicofmylife.net/2025/09/30/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 9/22/79: Nick Lowe, “Cruel to Be Kind”
Once Mark Seaman and I agreed to “debate” the merits of AT40 lists from the 70s and 80s (now over four years ago), there was the matter of making my first selection for discussion. I el…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/09/30/american-top-40-pastblast-9-22-79-nick-lowe-cruel-to-be-kind/
3 months ago
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How about something good that's happened as a result of scrolling through Facebook?
musicofmylife.net/2025/09/23/f...
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Forgotten Albums: Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out Of This Country
There are many days when I question the wisdom of continuing to visit Facebook on an ongoing basis. I post daily Wordle results in a couple of places and share links to these pieces when I get my a…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/09/23/forgotten-albums-camera-obscura-lets-get-out-of-this-country/
3 months ago
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Start-of-the-school-year ain't what it used to be, so I'm thinking about some of the times when it was.
musicofmylife.net/2025/09/10/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 9/8/84: Madonna, “Lucky Star”
Long, long ago, the beginning of the college year was energizing, exciting, fun. The hint of change in weather, the new folks you’d meet–there was just something in the air that felt di…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/09/10/american-top-40-pastblast-9-8-84-madonna-lucky-star/
4 months ago
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Hard to fathom that the albums addressed within are on the cusp of becoming a half-century old.
musicofmylife.net/2025/08/31/s...
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Stereo Review In Review: August 1976
This is the farthest back in time I have yet gone for one of these looks back. While I don’t recall anything from this issue, it’s likely it was still in the house when I began perusing Dad’s SR ma…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/08/31/stereo-review-in-review-august-1976/
4 months ago
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Why, yes, there are changes a-plenty in the air...
musicofmylife.net/2025/08/20/i...
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I Can’t Trace Time
Today is the first day of class at my institution. It’s a weird one for me, since, outside of sabbatical terms, it’s the first time I’m not going to be in the classroom on day one…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/08/20/i-cant-trace-time/
4 months ago
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Seeing friends, losing friends, great joy, and great sadness.
musicofmylife.net/2025/08/13/r...
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Reflections, Coming Through The Radio
This past Friday I traveled to Newberry, SC, to visit college friend Warren and his wife Debbie. A couple of months ago he invited me to go see 10,000 Maniacs, who would be playing at the Opera Hou…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/08/13/reflections-coming-through-the-radio/
5 months ago
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A fave concert and an appalling failure of memory lead in to a look back at alternative hits from the summer of '95.
musicofmylife.net/2025/08/07/m...
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Modern Rock Tracks, 8/5/95
In July of ’95, I spent two weeks teaching the math portion of a science/math camp for high schoolers that my college had been running for about five years. I was involved with it (with one e…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/08/07/modern-rock-tracks-8-5-95/
5 months ago
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Another helping of arcane AT40 trivia, but at least there's some fine early 80s funk accompanying it.
musicofmylife.net/2025/08/02/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 8/7/82: The Gap Band, “Early in the Morning”
I became an avid, ardent listener of American Top 40 in the late winter of 1976. Since it’s always been very much my nature to seek out patterns and try to formulate rules when encountering n…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/08/02/american-top-40-pastblast-8-7-82-the-gap-band-early-in-the-morning/
5 months ago
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From the summer of Grease, six songs that looked longingly up the charts in hopes of more love:
musicofmylife.net/2025/07/26/s...
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Songs Casey Never Played, 7/29/78
Several years ago I noted that I ran daily (and I do mean daily) for several months beginning in June of ’78 in an attempt to improve on my lackluster eighth grade performance on the school c…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/07/26/songs-casey-never-played-7-29-78/
5 months ago
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Today is the blog's 8th birthday. This weekend's AT40 show from 1972 gave me an excuse to think back on the summer I was 8 years old. Turns out what I most remember are the neighborhood kids in the new world I'd just joined.
musicofmylife.net/2025/07/20/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 7/22/72: Argent, “Hold Your Head Up”
The summer I turned 8, we moved. After spending almost four years at a church in Stanford, a small town forty-five miles south of Lexington on U.S. 27, Dad accepted a pastorate in Walton, a small t…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/07/20/american-top-40-pastblast-7-22-72-argent-hold-your-head-up/
5 months ago
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Eights are wild on a two-post weekend marking eight years of blogging, starting with some thoughts about an AT40 from 37 years ago.
musicofmylife.net/2025/07/19/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 7/23/88: Jane Wiedlin, “Rush Hour”
This weekend marks the eighth anniversary of posting here at The Music of My Life. To denote the occasion, we’re taking a look at the two Premiere AT40s on offer; it’s fortunate I don&#…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/07/19/american-top-40-pastblast-7-23-88-jane-wiedlin-rush-hour/
5 months ago
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An exercise in 80s chart trivia: how often did all the songs in a week's Top 10 make it to the Top 5? Or even higher?
musicofmylife.net/2025/07/05/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 7/5/86: El DeBarge, “Who’s Johnny”
I’ve mentioned before that I do a lot of my 70s and 80s Billboard Hot 100 chart research via the Ultimate Music Database. I know it’s an imperfect resource–that’ll happen wi…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/07/05/american-top-40-pastblast-7-5-86-el-debarge-whos-johnny/
6 months ago
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Thinking about the stuff from our early years that gets left behind.
musicofmylife.net/2025/06/30/b...
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But Not So Little Boys
This may not be news to those who know me, but as far back as I can remember I’ve had an emotional reaction (that is, tears, oftentimes plentiful) to songs and stories about growing up and saying f…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/06/30/but-not-so-little-boys/
6 months ago
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Happy birthday to Harriet Wheeler of the late & great Sundays. "Here's Where the Story Ends" is 100% an all-time fave tune. This is another banger from their debut album; always got a Smiths vibe from it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Gw...
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My Finest Hour
YouTube video by The Sundays - Topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8GwiPemL8I
6 months ago
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Writing about current music for a change, but of course the thought was inspired by a couple of tunes from the 70s...
musicofmylife.net/2025/06/18/w...
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Waiting For Wednesday
I’ve been on the road for longish stretches a few times recently, which in recent years has become a signal for me to tune into Channel 28 on the SiriusXM dial, The Spectrum (“where cla…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/06/18/waiting-for-wednesday/
6 months ago
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The last time Premiere featured the 6/12/76
#AT40
I wrote this ode to an growing obsession and a mystery that lasted for over a decade. Oh, and there's baseball, too.
musicofmylife.net/2019/06/08/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 6/12/76: Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, “Dance Wit Me”
My family attended Cincinnati Reds games regularly throughout the 70s, maybe four or five times a year for a while (we benefitted from the “Straight A Program,” where kids with good gra…
https://musicofmylife.net/2019/06/08/american-top-40-pastblast-6-12-76-rufus-featuring-chaka-khan-dance-wit-me/
7 months ago
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Dad may have said this directly a # of times, but he also left audio evidence that the Beach Boys were his favorite music group. In 1993, he made a couple of mix tapes (yes, my 60+ year-old father) of his all-time fave songs. Brian Wilson and the Boys earned 7 of the top 55 slots on this list:
7 months ago
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Revisiting the Summer of the Kittens.
musicofmylife.net/2025/06/07/m...
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Modern Rock Tracks, 6/3/95
In May of ’95, I bought a tree to plant in my backyard. Martha came over to help one afternoon not long after school ended for the year, and as we were digging we found that we had company: a…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/06/07/modern-rock-tracks-6-3-95/
7 months ago
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The usual fun of discovering great and dud albums from way back when, this time 48 years ago.
musicofmylife.net/2025/05/31/s...
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Stereo Review In Review: May 1977
This doesn’t look to be an issue of SR on which I dwelt for long after it showed up in our mailbox. My sister and I did go in together on the ABBA, which I’m glad to see made a stellar impression. …
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/05/31/stereo-review-in-review-may-1977/
7 months ago
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Forty years ago this week, I spent a couple of nights in the campus radio station after the school year had ended, making the mix tapes that indirectly led me to fulfill my writing ambitions.
musicofmylife.net/2025/05/27/s...
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Slow Change May Pull Us Apart
I turned in the final paper for the Environmental Philosophy course I was taking for May Term during my junior year of college on Friday, May 17, 1985. As I still have the graded paper in my posses…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/05/27/slow-change-may-pull-us-apart/
7 months ago
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Revisiting the springs of '78 and '84 and thinking about how much can go on between middle school and the midpoint of college.
musicofmylife.net/2025/05/16/i...
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I’m Ready To Cross That Fine Line
This past weekend Premiere offered up American Top 40 shows from 5/6/78 and 5/12/84. It’d been eight years since either had been rebroadcast, but that’s just recent enough that I alread…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/05/16/im-ready-to-cross-that-fine-line/
8 months ago
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Tunes from a wannabe Material Girl, a pair of legends, and a future reality TV star are among those to grace this edition of songs that couldn't find their way to the promised land of AT40.
musicofmylife.net/2025/04/30/s...
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Songs Casey Never Played, 4/26/86
I had four weeks left as an undergraduate. Ready to move on to the next phase I was, even if it turned out I still had a whole lot of growing up to do. Casey was spinning Prince, the Bangles, Pet S…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/04/30/songs-casey-never-played-4-26-86/
8 months ago
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The greatest thing about hobbies with a social element is the opportunity to make lifelong friends. That certainly happened to me when I took up duplicate bridge. Today's the 40th anniversary of my first dip into that pool.
musicofmylife.net/2025/04/15/i...
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If You Think I’m Older And Missing My Younger Days
Forty years ago this evening, I played my first game of duplicate bridge. Mark H and I had been teaching ourselves since the previous summer, dealing out hands and trying to bid and play on our own…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/04/15/if-you-think-im-older-and-missing-my-younger-days/
9 months ago
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Travels from thirty years ago, including my one spring break trip to Florida, along with the alternative hits of the day.
musicofmylife.net/2025/04/05/m...
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Modern Rock Tracks, 4/1/95
By the beginning of 1995 I’d been attending First Christian Church in Georgetown for a while, and one night that winter I received a short visit from Larry Paul, the senior minister. It was m…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/04/05/modern-rock-tracks-4-1-95/
9 months ago
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This is the 3rd issue in a row I've written up that looks at an album by a certain British quintet with an ever-revolving cast. Plenty o' other good stuff in:
musicofmylife.net/2025/03/31/s...
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Stereo Review In Review: March 1984
Sophomore year of college. I was just starting to buy LPs in earnest, so only one of the albums below was something that came close to being purchased in real time (yes, it was Yes). The Lauper alb…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/03/31/stereo-review-in-review-march-1984/
9 months ago
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I'm not an anthropologist but this is the second March in a row I've spent part of a day exploring change in a place from my youth.
musicofmylife.net/2025/03/23/s...
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Singin’ the Florence Mall Blues
I doubt there was a place I visited more frequently during my high school years than the Florence Mall. The town where I grew up had a population of less than 2000, with (very) limited shopping and…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/03/23/singin-the-florence-mall-blues/
9 months ago
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This great disk is one of the contenders for "last album I ever bought new on vinyl."
musicofmylife.net/2025/03/16/f...
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Forgotten Albums: Paul Kelly and the Messengers, Under the Sun
It was around this time of year in 1988 that I purchased my first CD player. It was during my second year of grad school, the year that John and I shared an apartment with Jim, a chemistry grad stu…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/03/16/forgotten-albums-paul-kelly-and-the-messengers-under-the-sun/
10 months ago
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@kurtblumenau.bsky.social
Since you kept up so well with Dalbec's MLB travails last year I thought you might want to see how it got memorialized in his Strat-o-Matic card for the 2024 season.
10 months ago
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Ten years ago today my mother passed away. Here is what I wrote five years ago about how and what I was feeling during her final months; the piece could use some editing but it all still rings true. I love you, Mom.
musicofmylife.net/2020/03/03/w...
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Whenever One Door Closes
The first photo of me with my mother, ca. March 1964. Which drew my attention first: Glen Campbell or Anne Murray? “Country Boy” or “Shadows in the Moonlight?” I’m standing in the hallway around th…
https://musicofmylife.net/2020/03/03/whenever-one-door-closes/
10 months ago
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Thumbs up: Waylon, Neil, Donna, Queen, and Buffett. Thumbs down: Yes, Chic, Heart, the Ramones, and the four solo Kiss albums (in a hilarious take). Read all about it in:
musicofmylife.net/2025/02/28/s...
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Stereo Review In Review: February 1979
It’s been a while since I looked at a February issue, when SR graced the world with their awards for the year recently passed. This is the second time in three months we’ve revisited th…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/02/28/stereo-review-in-review-february-1979/
10 months ago
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The joys and perils of listening to an AT40 show forty-seven years after recording it from being played over the radio.
musicofmylife.net/2025/02/23/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 2/18/78: Odyssey, “Native New Yorker”
I spent the Saturday evening following my 14th birthday the way I did so many weekend nights from those early teen years, hanging out with Casey as he counted things down. By this point I had disco…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/02/23/american-top-40-pastblast-2-18-78-odyssey-native-new-yorker/
10 months ago
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Eleven Super Bowl Sundays ago, four pretty amazing songs from back in the day finally came to my attention. A semi-associated Archie comic comes along for the ride.
musicofmylife.net/2025/02/09/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 2/6/71: Rufus Thomas, “(Do the) Push and Pull (Part 1)”
It’s February 2, 2014, Super Bowl Sunday. I’ve spent the night at my mother’s townhouse and, following breakfast and a shower, have made it over to Mom’s room at St. Elizabe…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/02/09/american-top-40-pastblast-2-6-71-rufus-thomas-do-the-push-and-pull-part-1/
11 months ago
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There better not be any homies dissing my girl on this 30th anniversary of my wife's and my first date.
musicofmylife.net/2025/02/04/m...
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Modern Rock Tracks, 2/4/95
Thirty years ago this evening, I drove from Georgetown to nearby Versailles, to the apartment of a woman I’d met less than three weeks earlier. We’d hit it off immediately and were abou…
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/02/04/modern-rock-tracks-2-4-95/
11 months ago
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Of signing up for classes and a space shuttle disaster.
musicofmylife.net/2025/02/02/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 2/1/86: Mr. Mister, “Kyrie”
This year I’m academic advisor to around twenty students, the vast majority of whom are in their first year of college. In October I met individually with them to discuss classes they wanted …
https://musicofmylife.net/2025/02/02/american-top-40-pastblast-2-1-86-mr-mister-kyrie/
11 months ago
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1/29/77 is a strong contender for my favorite AT40 countdown; glad to get to hear it again today. A few years ago I ranked its songs and wrote about 'em. This is the post with the upper half of my rankings, but there's a link to my #40-21 within.
musicofmylife.net/2019/01/26/a...
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American Top 40 PastBlast, 1/29/77: Gene Cotton, “You Got Me Runnin'”
AKA My Personal Top 40, 1/29/77, Part 2…  Here’s a link to Part 1. 20. Kiss, “Hard Luck Woman” (20) The seventh-grade girls at my school had the Bay City Rollers, while a number of the boys were me…
https://musicofmylife.net/2019/01/26/american-top-40-pastblast-1-29-77-gene-cotton-you-got-me-runnin/
11 months ago
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