Having completed my initial assignment “to post 25 albums in 25 days that have had a major CREATIVE impact on me” (thanks, Chris Estey), and having enjoyed said project a GREAT deal, I’ve decided to post 25 MORE, for good measure.
So, “50 albums in 50 days”, here I come. Upon completion later this month, I think it will amount to a highly entertaining “map” of my musical sensibility!
As before, I’ll be posting “just album covers without any explanation”, and nominating “a different person each day to do the same”.
By the by, please feel free to follow the eventual links (in the comments) to my longtime home at EAST PORTLAND BLOG, where my dear friend (and EPB editor) Ricky has been re-posting my daily album selections (in an expansive layout where you can view ALL the variant album covers and aural media formats AT ONCE), plus a link to one song I’ve chosen to spotlight from each recording!
In recognition of the sheer MONUMENTAL scope of today’s 50th selection, I’ve decided to post SIX songs, if only to spare myself the agony of an utterly impossible choice!
If you missed any along the way, want to revisit a particular post, or simply wish to listen to the songs, it’s MUCH easier to scroll back through these posts on EPB than it is on FB. Once you’re there, just click on the Tom Kipp “button”!
Today I nominate: Kathy Fennessy
Day 50:
Various Artists: HAVE A NICE DECADE: THE ’70s POP CULTURE BOX (Rhino Records, US, 7 x compact disc box set, 1998)
Various Artists: HAVE A NICE DECADE: THE ’70s POP CULTURE BOX (Rhino Records, US, 7 x compact disc box set, limited edition with a piece of actual “Smiley Face”-patterned shag carpet included, 1998)
Never reissued or released in any other format (LP, cassette tape, or digital download)!
Acquired: 31 July 2000, as one of 100 free items (including over FORTY box sets!) from the Rhino Records catalog, and by far the best of several prizes I received for winning the May 2000, 2nd Seattle iteration of “The Rhino Musical Aptitude Test” (aka The R-MAT)!
Note: This truly astounding collection contains 9 hours, 12 minutes, and 2 seconds of aural content, plus a 90-page softcover book. Included among its 160 hit songs are SIXTY-ONE that reached the #1 spot on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 singles chart, from 1970-1979!
Interspersed (semi-chronologically) amidst its riches are THIRTY spoken segments/soundbites, mainly from news reports or live recordings of some of the most famous and/or notorious events of the blessed decade that brought us Watergate, The Arab Oil Embargo, Streaking, The Jonestown Massacre, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, in addition to Heavy Metal, Disco, Punk, New Wave, and the earliest rumblings of Hip-Hop!
[It was] one of the great conceptual coups in the history of archival A&R….
– Tom Kipp
Day 50 (a six pack!):
Edison Lighthouse: “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” (1970)
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds: “Don’t Pull Your Love” (1971)
James Brown: “The Payback, Part I” (1974)
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils: “Jackie Blue” (1975)
The Ohio Players: “Love Rollercoaster” (1975)
Maxine Nightingale: “Right Back Where We Started From” (1976)
