If you’ve been checking this blog regularly, you’ve probably noticed that the pace of postings has fallen off a bit (except for the odd joke or two). I’ve been working on digitizing some of my vinyl LPs and 45s, which is an excellent way to procrastinate, since I have potentially thousands of songs to capture, edit, title and save.
Along the way, I’ve noticed that while I’ve been getting older, my records have been getting older too. So I’ve got some things that are hard to find these days. While poking through the singles from back then, I noticed that a lot of them were priced at 99 cents. 30 years later, we’re back to a price of 99 cents for most single songs. Maybe that’s more than they need to charge, since the marginal cost of producing a single download is pretty small when you’re selling millions of them. Still, if the price of a single hasn’t changed in 30 years, that doesn’t seem like as bad a deal now, does it? Of course, back then, you did get two songs for your money, though one was usually horrid.
Anyhow, I’m going to put links to some of the songs up here. Remember, these are not ripped from CDs, they’re made from good old fashioned vinyl, a lot of which has been played on brutal radio station turntables. Software can eliminate some of the hiss, crackle, and pop, but not all of it, especially if you want to retain any of the high frequency sounds in the music.
Some of the songs will be good, some interesting or fun, and some just silly. I grew up in Vermont. Maybe the Sex Pistols were putting out music by the end of the decade, but it wasn’t getting played on the radio where I could hear it. So we made do.
In honor of his recent autobiography, I’m starting off with King Tut, by Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons from 1978. Enjoy!
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Great first pick– the skit from SNL is one of my all-time favorites! Steve Martin’s outfit and goofy smile kill me.