TGIF=M
The Hideaway has always been HERC's main web hang but loyal viewers know one property on the interwebtube Monopoly board ain't enough for ol' HERC, oh no. Some of y'all are kind enough to tune in every other Monday as he rates the K-tel albums of his youth using the K-Tel Scale™ on The K-Tel Kollection. And a very small, obviously highly intelligent and surprisingly fiercely loyal group of viewers have been following along as HERC has shared his 1985 vinyl buying journal on 1985: A Vinyl Odyssey, which will be coming to an end after he posts the final entry - Day 97 - later this month. HERC mentions his other blogs because a sort of synchronicity has been discovered between HERC's Mixtape Monday feature here on The Hideaway and his posts of vinyl acquisitions over on 1985: AVO. This is cool on several levels but what HERC appreciates the most is the way the data helps narrow down the range of dates that he created the tapes. Here are a few examples:
As HERC noted above, mixtape "M" features eight tracks from eight records he welcomed into his collection on April 6th. Purchases from four different days in March filled in most of the rest of the playlist. Based on those dates, HERC feels confident in stating for the record that mixtape "M" was dubbed after the first week of April 1985. A Side opener, the extra-throbbing LIVE version of "Relax", was taken from the "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" US 12" single while the instrumental version of the same song that opened Side B was lifted from the "Relax" US 12" single. HERC chose to include both versions of the song because he had just picked up tickets for the June 12th Frankie Goes To Hollywood concert that morning. It was Saturday, April 13th 1985. He distinctly remembers making this tape that night.
This is a really good listen, one of the few tapes we've played twice recently. (Well, the Spotify playlist was played twice as the tape case for mixtape "M" is empty.) Some oddities appear on mixtape "M" as well, including:
- Day 11 (Feb. 6) saw HERC purchase three 12" singles, all of which wound up on mixtape "J";
- Day 14 (Feb. 18) featured four purchases that ended up on mixtape "K";
- Day 28 (Apr. 6) found HERC buying eight different albums and twelve-inch singles. Tracks from all eight acquisitions that day ended up on today's mixtape, "M".
As HERC noted above, mixtape "M" features eight tracks from eight records he welcomed into his collection on April 6th. Purchases from four different days in March filled in most of the rest of the playlist. Based on those dates, HERC feels confident in stating for the record that mixtape "M" was dubbed after the first week of April 1985. A Side opener, the extra-throbbing LIVE version of "Relax", was taken from the "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" US 12" single while the instrumental version of the same song that opened Side B was lifted from the "Relax" US 12" single. HERC chose to include both versions of the song because he had just picked up tickets for the June 12th Frankie Goes To Hollywood concert that morning. It was Saturday, April 13th 1985. He distinctly remembers making this tape that night.
This is a really good listen, one of the few tapes we've played twice recently. (Well, the Spotify playlist was played twice as the tape case for mixtape "M" is empty.) Some oddities appear on mixtape "M" as well, including:
- Vanity's pretty awful solo debut "Pretty Mess";
- the minute long opening instrumental track from Planet P Project's Pink World concept album;
- Barry Manilow's boogie woogie throwback "Jump Shout Boogie";
- and two tracks from the We Are The World charity album, the all-star title track and Prince's contribution. (For the Spotify playlist below, HERC included the newer version of the song from The Hits/B-Sides box set.)
Which brings up the perfect time to answer a question:
Viewer JayME Starr wants to know "if HERC is such a huge Prince fan, why isn't he including more of the Purple One's songs on these mixtapes? The guy was red hot at the time."
Viewer JayME Starr wants to know "if HERC is such a huge Prince fan, why isn't he including more of the Purple One's songs on these mixtapes? The guy was red hot at the time."
Well, JayME, here's your answer:
One of HERC's first formal dates with the woman who would become Mrs. HERC was to see the movie Purple Rain on its opening day: Friday, July 27th, 1984. (It must have been their second or third date.) Over the following week at the restaurant where they worked together, HERC gifted her with six cassettes, dubs of all six of Prince's albums (on four TDK SA 90s) up to that point, including all three albums by The Time on one TDK D 120 minute cassette as well as the Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 albums back to back on a TDK SA90. Because HERC gave her all of Prince's music in such concentrated form, he generally refrained from including Prince music on the alphabetical mixtapes although there were a few exceptions. He kept records of all the mixtapes he made to avoid duplicating tracks but sometimes certain tracks did show up more than once. (Like on today's tape, he is pretty sure that both "My Drawers" and "Dirty Laundry" have appeared before. There may be more repeats.) It should be noted that Mrs. HERC's favorite color has always been purple so she was somewhat easy to convert into a fan of Prince's music.
SIDE A | 44:10 | ||||
1985 | Relax International (LIVE) | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | 04:52 | ||
1982 | Dirty Laundry | Don Henley | 05:30 | ||
1984 | My Drawers | The Time | 04:09 | ||
1984 | Pretty Mess | Vanity | 03:44 | ||
1983 | Cat People (Putting Out Fire) | David Bowie | 05:10 | ||
1985 | Some Like It Hot | Power Station | 05:05 | ||
1979 | Heartache Tonight | Eagles | 04:26 | ||
1982 | Goodbye, Goodbye | Oingo Boingo | 03:55 | ||
1985 | * | Why? | Bronski Beat | 06:19 | |
1984 | In The Woods | Planet P Project | 01:00 | ||
SIDE B | 45:32 | ||||
1983 | Relax (instrumental) | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | 04:24 | ||
1980 | Cadillac Ranch | Bruce Springsteen | 03:03 | ||
1976 | Jump Shout Boogie | Barry Manliow | 03:05 | ||
1985 | Vox Humana | Kenny Loggins | 04:10 | ||
1985 | Everybody Wants To Rule The World | Tears For Fears | 04:11 | ||
1985 | One More Night | Phil Collins | 04:52 | ||
1984 | Don't Walk Away | Rick Springfield | 04:03 | ||
1985 | 4 The Tears In Your Eyes | Prince & the Revolution | 03:25 | ||
1984 | One Lonely Night | REO Speedwagon | 03:21 | ||
1985 | Talk To Me | Fiona | 03:51 | ||
1985 | We Are The World | USA For Africa | 07:07 |
What, no room for Sheila E. in your Prince "Complete Collection" series??
ReplyDeletePoor, little Sheila... Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
Nice catch there, Dirk. I did intend to make her a Sheila E tape but after I gave her the first two Prince tapes (For You/Prince and Dirty Mind/Controversy) she surprised me by telling me she went out and bought The Glamorous Life album after hearing it on the radio. Said she paid just $5.99 for it. She never did have to buy another Prince-related album though. While we were vinyl shopping in Vegas last month, she made me buy the "A Love Bizarre" 45 in picture sleeve even though I already have two copies. Thanks very much for your question.
DeleteU still a die-hard fan of Prince's work, Herc? Eye, personally, revere most everything he released (or produced) up through 1995's "The Gold Experience"... Unfortunately, what he's released since, while interesting at times, doesn't hold much sway over me.
DeleteI'm probably in the same boat with you. Used to be I had to have Prince releases on the very first day. I waited for a full two weeks before picking up his two 2014 releases.
DeleteI do get lost for hours in the old stuff, though. Very excited to see any special editions, remasters, reissues, whatevers.
Never cared much for his shorthand. It's like he invented texting and tweeting.