MORE SOUNDS FROM THE FRONT ST. HI-FI

Because the last post about the Front Street house led to thought (and ear) provoking comments, about certain records and their particular moments, new associations souped up already familiar songs. Not only that, all of these other songs came to mind.

Why do you remember that one music related incident, that one moment that is permanently etched? Everything seems to zero in on what is happening right when a particular song is playing. Sometimes, you don't remember it until much later. Sometimes, it stops you dead in your tracks and you give in to it.

One night I was at Margaret & Suzie's apartment on West Lewis Street, right before the move to Front Street. When I'd hang out there, we'd usually smoke cigarettes, drink jug wine (about three dollars, from the store across the street) and shoot the shit. On one certain night, I remember coming back from the store, and walking into a candle lit apartment, with a light haze of smoke, everything in a muted reddish hue. Margaret and Lisa were at the table talking, and Peter and Gordon's "World Without Love" was playing. I stopped and took it all in "I don't care, I won't live in a world without love,...". The whole scene was like something out of a movie, everything fit together, as if directed. I'd heard that song a zillion times, but that was the first time I heard it.

Jacqui mentioned Lisa possibly playing "The Letter" by the Box Tops. After listening to it again last night, it now prompts a visualization of Lisa, leaned over a (probably ramshackle) record player, putting on a scratched up 45, with all the accompanying surface noise. Whether or not the details of the imagined scene are correct, the association is not that of anyone getting a ticket for an airplane, any letter, or anything else lyrically referenced. It's of a moment.

Lisa mentioned a party, and Marc Rude listening to the Doors (even where he was listening and in what format). And thanks to her, after listening to "Respect" last night, the thoughts of punk girls singing along to it made me dig it more, and I'm thankful that that association is there. I dig it more; I didn't think it possible.

I remember that other party that she spoke of, the one that was videotaped. (Though, I remember it being Gary Vitalis who combed his hair, and staring unknowingly into the camera.) Early that night, while the camera was pointed toward the front of the living room and the tape rolling, there was Terry Marine with Traci's daughter, dancing in an empty room, to Tommy James and the Shondells' "Hanky Panky."

I dig that sorta shit. I hope these songs recall moments, whether shared or not. A few things to note: The more obvious Stones song would have been "My Obsession" (because it was played incessantly), but I couldn't find an mp3 of it. And something off of "Arrival" would have been a more appropriate choice for Abba, but that blue album cover of "Voulez Vous" seemed to be inescapable in that house.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~.

Peter and Gordon - World Without Love mp3 at Viajando[?]
Linton Kweski Johnson - Sonny's Lettah mp3 at Le Blog de la Grande Chose
Tommy James & the Shondells - I Think We're Alone Now mp3 at Pop Wreckoning
Marianne Faithful - Broken English mp3 at Disco Workout
Abba - Voulez Vous mp3 at {Some Belgium site}
The Vouges - Five O'Clock World mp3 at Rock Town Hall
The Screamers - 122 Hours of Fear (Pt 1) and (Pt 2) at Zahnarzt
The Rolling Stones - All Sold Out mp3 at the Adios Lounge
Aretha Franklin - Respect mp3 at Skyline Church (really)
The Who - Magic Bus mp3 at Systar
Kurtis Blow - The Breaks mp3 at 8106
The Doors - Break On Through mp3 at Music is Art
The Box Tops - The Letter mp3 at Fantastic Weapon
The Zeros - Wild Weekend mp3 at Last Days of Man on Earth
The Righteous Brothers - Little Latin Lupe Lu mp3 at EWU.edu
Hank Williams - Jambalaya mp3 at Tigersoft.com
U Roy - Runaway Girl mp3 at Le Blog de la Grande Chose