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.

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...

It’s the 25th anniversary of Kirsty’s tragic death. This is a wonderful overview of her career.

While mid-90s alternative played, a Christmas tradition was born... musicofmylife.net/2025/12/09/m...

From five years ago: a treatise on high school crushes and odd memories. Happy Wait for Me Day. musicofmylife.net/2020/12/05/a...

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...

My 1000th post: a bit of news. musicofmylife.net/2025/11/18/d...

The last installment of hits from '85: the ones that definitely still rock my world. musicofmylife.net/2025/10/31/l...

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...

Twenty additional tunes that are fab to these ears forty years on... musicofmylife.net/2025/10/25/i...

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...

My fave picture from Lexington this afternoon. I'm certain they're only trying to talk to each other above the noise.

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...

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."

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...

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...

How about something good that's happened as a result of scrolling through Facebook? musicofmylife.net/2025/09/23/f...

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...

Hard to fathom that the albums addressed within are on the cusp of becoming a half-century old. musicofmylife.net/2025/08/31/s...

Why, yes, there are changes a-plenty in the air... musicofmylife.net/2025/08/20/i...

Seeing friends, losing friends, great joy, and great sadness. musicofmylife.net/2025/08/13/r...

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...

Another helping of arcane AT40 trivia, but at least there's some fine early 80s funk accompanying it. musicofmylife.net/2025/08/02/a...

From the summer of Grease, six songs that looked longingly up the charts in hopes of more love: musicofmylife.net/2025/07/26/s...

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...

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...

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...

Thinking about the stuff from our early years that gets left behind. musicofmylife.net/2025/06/30/b...

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...

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...

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...

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:

Revisiting the Summer of the Kittens. musicofmylife.net/2025/06/07/m...

The usual fun of discovering great and dud albums from way back when, this time 48 years ago. musicofmylife.net/2025/05/31/s...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

This great disk is one of the contenders for "last album I ever bought new on vinyl." musicofmylife.net/2025/03/16/f...

@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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Of signing up for classes and a space shuttle disaster. musicofmylife.net/2025/02/02/a...

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...