In the early-'80s I bought Manfred Mann’s album The Roaring Silence on cassette tape. Some totally selfish negative-vibe merchant stole my tapes out of my car. Recently in a fit of nostalgia, but mostly because I wanted to hear Blinded By The Light but their version isn’t available from iTunes, I bought the CD. Whoa. I remember all of the songs. I discovered where snippets that pop into my head from time to time came from. My musical tastes have gone beyond Classic Rock, but there’s still a place for it.
What ‘blast from the past’ albums do you have?
Waiter, There’s A Yawn In My Ear is a track from The Roaring Silence. I thought it would make a good thread title.
Olias of Sunhillow by Jon Anderson, of Yes fame. It’s his first solo work.
If you think Yes is compellingly incoherent in some strange other-world fashion, check out this album!
BTW, I’m grateful to Manfred Mann and The Roaring Silence because he introduced me to Springsteen via that album! The single from that album, Singing the Dolphin Through was sort of nice, too. I’ve got the cassette of that album lying around somewhere…
I have that Manfred Mann CD (I’m very fond of both “Singing The Dolphin Through” and “The Road to Babylon”), and an old Yes album that no one but me ever seems to have heard of: “Tormato” (my favorite tracks on that are “Circus of Heaven” and “Onward.”)
I also have a Jethro Tull album called “Songs From The Wood” that I initially bought when I was 13 because I needed one more selection to round out my introductory Columbia House Music Club order (“buy 10 albums for a penny!”) and I’d HEARD of Jethro Tull, though I hadn’t a clue what kind of music they played. I have since purchased that same album on cassette twice, and finally on CD. It remains to this day one of my favorite albums.
I have Broadsword And The Beast and M.U. – The Best Of Jethro Tull. I remember all of the songs on the former whenever I hear them. (And the latter, but especially Broadsword.) Aqualung was one of the tapes that was stolen. Wind Up is the Jethro Tull song that pops into my head most often.
My record collection is 80% “Blasts From The Past.” I used to work in a record store in the late 70s, so we would always divvy up the promotional albums the store got. I still have most of them, and keep a quality turntable around just in case I feel the need to listen to Quicksilver Messenger Service some Sunday morning.
I have Tull’s Songs from the wood (and rather enjoyed it). Heavy Horses was also an off-beat favorite of mine. It’s single “The Mouse Police Never Sleeps” was oddly compelling.
And I remember Yes’ Tormato and a few tunes from it.
You dig Heavy Horses too? Cool! I bought it for the wonderful title song (being a horse lover) and wound up loving the whole thing. You’re right, the mouse song is a grabber.
Heh. Matter of fact, I wrote to Ian Anderson to tell him how moved I was by “Heavy Horses”. He wrote back! A friendly note wherein he confessed that he’s awed and a bit intimidated in their massive presence but loves to see them.