Random Notes from the Turntable

Ernie brought his turntable downstairs a few months back, from the Fourth Room where it had been languishing. In theory we were going to turn the Fourth Room into a little music room for Ernie but honestly.....the Fourth Room is really the place where we put all the junk we don't know what to do with. We call it the Fourth Room because it's the fourth tiny bedroom upstairs and I refuse to call it anything else until it becomes something other than a big junk pile. So it stays the Fourth Room.....and downstairs came the turntable. We've had great fun.....he pulled out a big stack of his old 45s and has been playing them.

He played the Adverts the other day...and frankly I don't know all that much by them other than Gary Gilmore's Eyes...but good lord...it sounded like Rush. I kid you not. Not the whole song, but at least the beginning....and the turntable may be running a little fast which just made it even more Rush-like... Listen...

 My brain works like shit these days so I sit there listening to whatever he's put on, thinking "I'm NOT going to ask who this is. I'm NOT going to ask who this is. I KNOW I'll think of it in a minute. I'm NOT going to ask who this is" and then of course I break down and say "Who is this?" If it's not a 45 and it is really embarrassing that I couldn't come up with it, I try to cover with "Well yeah, but what ALBUM?" as though I knew all along who it was. 

He played the Fountains of Wayne and I tried and tried to think of who it was. I knew the song and I knew it was the band Robbie Fulks wrote the hotline song about but still I couldn't come up with it. He said "Ffffff......wwwwwww"....and I said "FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE!" and sagged with relief. Whew. We sat and listened and Ernie laughed, saying, "A lot of words in every song, and some of the songs sound alike....but they're still great."  I christened them the Gilmore Girls of pop. I mean, I couldn't adore the Gilmore Girls more but there ARE a lot of words and some of the episodes did seem alike after a while.....

I remember when Owen was pretty little and his favorite song was California Sex Lawyer. He played it for my Mom and she told him it was very nice and just looked at me and said, "California Sex Lawyer?" I shrugged. It was sort of like when I brought my first Buzzcock's record home many years ago. She looked at the name of the band and said, "I don't want to know."

Then he played one of my favorite Comsat Angels song....really this should be my theme song at times....

And I can't stand up and I can't sit down
'cause a great big problem stop me in my tracks
I can't relax 'cause I haven't done a thing
And I can't do a thing 'cause I can't relax

Finally we stopped playing music and went and cooked a piss-poor dinner. Oh well...can't win them all.

I didn't really care though....because I had ALL that music in my head....