My Favorites

I already liked hearing "Follow You, Follow Me" on the radio when I was a kid in the 1980s. But then we had a neighbor that had this album and he would play it outside full blast to where we could hear the entire album (which included "Follow You, Follow Me") across the field between our houses. I thought every song on the album was fantastic with nonstop high energy! One of the greatest live albums of all time and personal favorite live album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_suXKh_AgKo&list=PLV-kIjeheBnW9-a6jQG_AR40wQmaW8S5K&index=8

I of course knew who Elton John was when I was a kid but all my area radio played from him when I was growing up was the "soft rock hits". When I heard "I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" and saw the video on MTV I thought it was one of the greatest songs I'd heard up to that point in life. I used my allowance to by the album on cassette. I loved almost every other song on the album so much that I begged my family to take me to see Elton in concert on this album tour in 1988. That show was my very first concert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2aQfcJRbGk&list=PLA9-lU434qdtSwVPdbld-hal4dyP2kiLR&index=4

There wasn't much innovation as far as TV technology was concerned in the 1990s in my opinion. The pay-per-view business was huge back then thanks to the WWF pro wrestling events and Mike Tyson boxing on ppv carrying over from the late 1980s. Other forms of entertainment tried to cash in but without much of the success that the WWF and boxing had. In 1993, there were endless promos on my cable company featuring Pete Townshend advertising his concert of this Psychoderelict album coming to ppv. I was very curious on what the concept was but I didn't want to buy it because ppv concerts were usually more miss than hit for the price. This turned out to be no different. I had heard in reviews that Townshend's throat was sore and there were technical issues. Much to my surprise, a few months later, the concert aired for free on PBS! I loved it and ran right out to buy the album. I loved the concept, and looking back, it's eerie to me how Townshend predicted the future here on how the internet and apps (what he called "the grid and programs" in the album) would be so involved in our lives for news and entertainment as well as 24/7 tabloid media. Years later when doing other rare solo concerts, Townshend would admit that this album was in his words, "a critical and commercial bomb".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Uw3HcROmw&list=RDr9Uw3HcROmw&start_radio=1

For more years that should have been allow and before the days of everyone having the internet, people would try to tell me Van Morrison was dead. That was probably because of American radio only playing the same few hits of his that they wanted to play and him hardly ever appearing on American late night talk shows. I happened to catch the video of the title track of this album by flipping by VH-1 the week it came out in 1995. I loved the jazzy sound and lit up thinking to myself "I knew he wasn't dead and this proof!" I went out and bought the album. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to get as many of his albums as I could. I didn't know how much of a life changing treat I was in for! For me, Morrison has songs and albums to fit every mood. Jazz, rock, blues, soul, poetry and philosophy rolled all into one. My favorite solo artist and it all started with this album. His few and far between performances with David Letterman on both the NBC and CBS late night shows are great moments in TV history including the promotion for this album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2rez5sJ_Gc&list=RDs2rez5sJ_Gc&start_radio=1

Prior to discovering this album, I didn't know much about The Who aside from their classic radio hits. I was a fan of Pete Townshend's solo albums because of Psychoderelict as also mentioned in this list. For multiple weeks in 1996, HBO did ads to announce that they would be airing The Prince's Trust Concert that year featuring Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan,and The Who "performing highlights of Quadrophenia". I didn't know what they meant by highlights at the time. The concert didn't actually air live on HBO, it was tape delayed and edited. Alanis Morissette and Jools Holland were also part of this big London, UK event but I don't even remember if Holland made the final cut on the HBO broadcast. When I saw the show I was blown away by The Who (with David Glimour plating along as a special guest) and I understood because Quadrophenia is a double album they couldn't do the whole thing due the other acts on the show so the highlights were select songs. It was in the era where Roger Daltrey had the big eye patch with The Who logo on his face after accidentally hitting himself in the eye with the microphone during rehearsals. I knew someone who had the album on CD but they weren't fans of The Who (they got in free in a record club) and they gave me the album. I was so impressed I got tickets to see them twice on that tour in 1996 and 1997 where of course they performed the whole album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-XiVtp2ISg&list=RDR-XiVtp2ISg&start_radio=1

I very excited and hopeful about this new version of Genesis and this new album (which was their final studio album). Phil Collins announced he was officially leaving the band in 1996 to fully focus on his solo career. Tony Banks and Rutherford vowed to continue on using the Genesis name with Ray Wilson as their new lead singer. Wilson would be the third lead singer in the band's history following Collins who followed Peter Gabriel. Wilson didn't have big shoes to fill, he had huge shows to fill! Fans would not accept Wilson as the new lead singer at all. The North American Tour for this album was canceled due to low ticket sales. I had front row seats to a show that never ended up happening. I loved this album but it was a critical and commercial dud. From the first second of the opening title track I knew this was still Genesis. The title track is very somber and introspective, some would even say depressing. I like those songs at times. Banks and Rutherford once said it is about some trapped in outer space thinking about their life and rall of their regrets. There were a few other good songs on the album too like Shipwrecked, Not About Us, and There Must Be Some Other Way. For some reason they decided to make Congo the first single. It is very corny and boring. To me it's for sure the worst song on the album, and maybe even the worst song in the history of Genesis. This was 1997, where sadly at the time, legends like Genesis weren't getting new songs and videos easily played on the radio and MTV and VH1. It was the era of grunge and "alternative music". A lot of the legends were now getting viewed as "uncool" and past their prime by the trendy music media and MTV. A song like Congo didn't help matters. I've discussed this album with a couple of actual critics and music historians online. One of them always tells me they think this album would have done better "if it was called something else" after the departure of Collins. It couldn't have done any worse, but sadly I don't think anything could have helped. Phil Collins would return for a reunion tour in 2007 and then again earlier this decade. No songs from this album were played on those tours. Wilson and this album seem to be not even in the band's history canon. Genesis got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Collins will be a Hall Of Famer as a solo artist this year. Peter Gabriel got into the Hall Of Fame as a solo artist in 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_mz4IqY-E8&list=RDD_mz4IqY-E8&start_radio=1

After ending The Jam in the very early 1980s, Paul Weller decided to do something entirely different. He formed a new back in 1983 called The Style Council with Mike Talbot and drummer Steve White. Their sound combined jazz, soul, ska and funk. This was their first album. Dee C. Lee would later officially join the band full time continuing on as a backup singer and then at times co-lead singer. She would also become Weller's wife. I love the instrumental tunes Mick's Blessings, Blue Cafe, and Council Meetin'. The big single was of course the catchy My Ever Changing Moods. There's also the lovely song The Paris Match sung by Tracey Thorn. The band broke up in 1989 after 5 albums (the final one wasn't released until years later). Paul Weller once said they should have ended things two or three years before that. I wish they would have stuck around. It makes me wonder what could have been. Weller would go on to a solo career in the early 1990s with numerous solo albums that countine to this day. He and Lee divorced in 1998.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_mz4IqY-E8&list=RDD_mz4IqY-E8&start_radio=1