It's Meme time- The Platters, XTC, Judy Collins, Prince, etc.

We briefly interrupt this blog for a meme I received from my boo. These kind of things can always be weird , not to mention revealing. It's kind of nice to get tagged by someone but then you wonder, "OK, what do I say...?" So, here goes.

THE RULES

1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I'm gonna have to cop out on the last one 'cause anyone I know I'd ask would be too busy to do this and the people who would respond don't have blogs (some don't, GASP, even know what a blog is!). Sorry, I know that's weak but... I'll tell you what though, if you want to add your own entries into the music listings I have below, feel free to post them in the comments section for this, OK?

1. I've had the pleasure of being with a sweet red-headed girl from Astoria for going on three years now. I've been very lucky and I'm grateful for this. After the new millennium, I was wondering if I spend the rest of my life alone and I'm glad that won't be the case. I've already had a lot of nice memories with her and look forward to more. Ain't I mushy?

I'll leave the other personal details to my non-existent biographer (born and raised in NJ, went to school in upstate New York, Peace Corps, computing, etc.) and move on to the musical goodies now...

2. WHAT I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: The Platters, All Time Greatest Hits (Mercury). Related to a recent posting about sad songs, I wanted to have a good collection of their stuff so I picked this up and I'm glad that I did. "Only You," "The Great Pretender," "My Prayer," "Harbor Lights," "Twilight Time" and 13 other beautiful pieces of doo-wop heaven.

3. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT: The Beatles, Hey Jude (from 1970, think I bought it a few years later). A great collection that spans their whole career and it only briefly made it onto CD (now replaced by the Past Masters series). I still have the original copy but was also delighted to find an actual copy of the CD on Ebay, which I promptly snapped up.

4. THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: Judy Collins at Tanglewood, July 1977. I was with my family and all of 12 years old. Mostly I wanted to see the opener, Arlo Guthrie, who was good. I vaguely remember that Collins had a really good guitarist with her, who she let do a solo number, and that Guthrie opened with a gospel number.

5. THE FIRST CD I BOUGHT: XTC Skylarking (from 1986). I was a little late with getting on the digital bus but I couldn't resist when I heard some of this beforehand and had to have it in hi-fi format- it was do damn lush! Little did I know about the sound quality with albums and CD's...

6. THE BEST PERFORMER I'VE EVER SEEN: A tough one since it's usually the one I've just been to. Under duress, I would probably chose Bruce Springsteen or Prince, both of whom I've seen more than once and both of whom I'd gladly see again and again. Not only are they great songwriters, singers and musicians but they're both incredible showmen. I'd sure they'd be honored to be in the same company. Among the many runners-up are the Stooges, AC/DC, Butthole Surfers, the Dictators, the Feelies, Fela Kuti, Al Green, PJ Harvey, Motorhead, the Ramones, Roxy Music, Sonic Youth, U2, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Gogol Bordello, P-Funk and others that I'll hopefully remember again someday...

7. THE ALBUM THAT I'M MOST QUEASY ABOUT ADMITTING THAT I OWN: Helen Reddy, Helen Reddy. I already went into detail about this on my other blog so I'll just provide a link to that post here.

8. THE ALBUM THAT I'D LIKE TO GET MY HANDS ON SOMEDAY: Lucinda Williams Artists Choice (Hear Music/Starbucks), which was part of a series where the coffee maker asked artists to make a mix CD of their favorite music. The Ray Charles CD is a nice one too and other ones included the Stones and Johnny Cash. The Lucinda one has sadly been out of print for a while and includes a intriguing line-up, which I might have to just recreate though online purchases and such:

1.It Makes No Difference, THE BAND 2.Good Day, PAUL WESTERBERG 3.Mary, PATTY GRIFFIN 4.These Things, ANNE MCCUE 5.To Us, TEX PERKINS 6.These Days, GREGG ALLMAN 7.Tears Are In Your Eyes, YO LA TENGO 8.Famous Blue Raincoat, LEONARD COHEN 9.Don't Explain, NINA SIMONE 10.Say It (Over And Over Again), JOHN COLTRANE 11.Sylvia Plath, RYAN ADAMS 12.No Other Love, CHUCK PROPHET 13.La Chanson Des Vieux Amants, JUDY COLLINS 14.April After All, RON SEXSMITH 15.My Funny Valentine, CHET BAKER 16.Eclipse, JOAO GILBERTO


And like I said, feel free to post here about your first CD, album, favorite performance, first concert, guilty pleasure album or record you'd love to get one day. In other words, I'm meming all of you out there reading this!