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Colossal Reviews > 1981

Songs in the Attic by Billy Joel (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Songs in the Attic
  • Artist name: Billy Joel
  • Year: 1981
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: AL 37461 2J
    • Scratched into side two of LP: BL 37461 2B
  • Buy it on Amazon: $18.00

Songs in the Attic by Billy Joel

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am not familiar with this record, but it’s the third that I’ll have reviewed by Billy Joel. The other two were:

What I expected

This is a compilation of songs from his earlier records that were recorded live during a tour in summer 1980. I guess I expect some piano ballads, saxophone and other soft rock accoutrements.

What it was actually like

This was much more of a rock record than I expected.

Some of the songs definitely were close to what I imagined they would be, especially on the second side: She’s Got a Way, I’ve Loved These Days, You’re My Home, Captain Jack and The Ballad of Billy the Kid. All of these, however, at least had a recognizable rock sound, though it was not the dominant sound.

Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) started out sounding like it was going to be a boring piano ballad, then turned into a rock song with a great tempo, and the vocals were dumb, but it was not a bad song.

Everybody Loves You Now also had a fast tempo that I liked, except acoustic, and was also all right.

I did not like the piano on Summer, Highland Falls, but it was another ok rock song, as was Los Angelenos.

Say Goodbye to Hollywood would have been good, but was ruined by an unnecessary saxophone solo.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Memories by Barbra Streisand (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Memories
  • Artist name: Barbra Streisand
  • Year: 1981
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: PAL 37678 1H
    • Scratched into side two of LP: PBL-37678-1F
  • Buy it on Amazon: $19.99

Memories by Barbra Streisand

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record before and I’m not sure if I will recognize any of the songs on it. I do recognize the name of New York State Of Mind, but can not manage to conjure up the melody.

This will be the second Barbra Streisand record that I review. The first, Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits (1970), was not good.

What I expected

More show tunes, I guess.

What it was actually like

I did recognize New York State of Mind, and also Memory.

It has been rare during the course of this project that I’ve seriously contemplated getting up and turning off a record in the middle of a song (though occasionally I do turn the volume down, which I can do from my couch), but I almost did it during You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.

Everything about this record was abysmal and it was difficult to pick a worst song, but the elevator music style saxophone solo on New York State of Mind was a contender, as was the disco song No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Chariots of Fire soundtrack by Vangelis (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Chariots of Fire: music from the original soundtrack by Vangelis
  • Artist name: Vangelis
  • Year: 1981
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Polydor Records Ltd.
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $3.99

Chariots of Fire soundtrack by Vangelis

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard of Chariots of Fire the movie, but I’ve never seen it, and I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this music. I’ve also never heard of “Vangelis.”

There is, however, a certain melody I have in my head that I think may be from the movie.

What I expected

I’m not sure. The back says, “Composed, Arranged, Produced and Performed by VANGELIS,” so I’m guessing that it will be modern classical-style music. The front has a picture of a bunch of men running on a beach, wearing what appears to be plain white undershirts and boxer shorts.

What it was actually like

I was absolutely right about that melody, which was the song Titles! Here is a movie montage that features it. Also, I guess they were not running on the beach in their underwear, but actually were wearing some kind of British sports uniform. This was, weirdly, the best song.

Basically this was a mostly instrumental classical-style record, but done with techno instruments, so it had a weird “futuristic” sound to it, despite being as old as I am.

Abraham’s Theme sounded kind of like the music that I sometimes use to fall asleep.

I recognized Jerusalem as a sometimes-, not-quite national anthem of the United Kingdom[1].

The entire second side was just called Chariots of Fire, a 20+ minute track that mostly consisted of some boring sound effects and repetition of other themes from the first side.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

References

References
↑1 And it’s kind of weird to have another country’s capital as the name of their anthem, right? And is this what we’re supposed to be calling “cultural appropriation” now?

Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be) (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be)
  • Artist name: Willie Nelson
  • Year: 1981
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $94.95

Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Willie and Family Live a few months ago and loved it, and that was the only time in my life that I’ve ever given much thought to Willie Nelson.

What I expected

Country, country rock, blues rock.

What it was actually like

I put the first side of this compilation on, started filling out the details above, and I was just reading what I wrote back in June about how Whiskey River got included twice on the previous Willie Nelson record, and then Whiskey River started playing on this one… so that was a good sign! Besides that one, I was very pleased with the fast tempo of Good Hearted Woman and thought it was the best song on side 1.

My favorite song on side 2 was Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, which I’ve always considered to be an incredibly silly song whose humor builds with every additional exhortation to the singer’s fictional audience of… mammas. And it’s catchy!

The second disc of Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be) was in general much slower and more boring than the first disc, but at least side 4 picked up extremely nicely with On the Road Again, which I think might be the Willie Nelsonest song that Willie Nelson has ever sung, and which has a wonderful percussion part that almost makes me feel like I’m on the road, despite barely having left New York City since 2019.

I didn’t care very much for his version of Heartbreak Hotel, though, even though I liked how much more of a rock song he made it than Elvis Presley’s version – I just think it’s weird to hear any voice singing this song than Elvis’s.

I also really enjoyed the final song, Stay a Little Longer, which I just heard a couple weeks ago on Hall of Fame by Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan and which I couldn’t quite place in my memory at the time, but which I now realize I probably knew all along as a Willie Nelson song!

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Hooligans by The Who (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Hooligans
  • Group name: The Who
  • Year: 1981
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: MCA Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I think I bought this one!
  • Buy it on Amazon: $10.99

Hooligans by The Who

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve been a fan of the Who for decades, and I’m pretty sure that this record was part of my parents’ collection because I bought it and left it in their basement (as I never owned a turntable until my parents gave me theirs when they moved). It’s a compilation and I know most of the songs on it, especially the earlier songs, but I don’t have any clear memory of ever listening to it.

What I expected

Four sides of The Who, but focusing much more on their 1970s era music than on their earlier eras.

What it was actually like

If you name your band “the Who,” you’re obviously doing it for the puns, and for other people to use a lot of puns about you. In this case, the name of the record, “Hooligans,” is an obvious example, and then to take it a step further, they even named the four sides “First Bunch of Hooligans,” “Second Bunch…,” &c.

First Bunch of Hooligans

This was the most varied and excellent side, covering a very small sampling of their Maximum R&B era (I Can’t Explain), extending through the “Tommy” era (Pinball Wizard) and “Live at Leeds”[1] (Summertime Blues). I have always loved the Who’s reinterpretation of Summertime Blues as a hard rock song.

The Relay was the only song I didn’t already know, and also the only song I didn’t enjoy.

Second Bunch of Hooligans

It’s just four songs from Who’s Next (Baba O’Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, Bargain and The Song Is Over), so it might be easier just to read what I wrote when I listened to it last month.

Third Bunch of Hooligans

Slip Kid is an astonishingly bad song, and in fact, this is really the era of the Who that I enjoy much less, and I know very little about it – as far as I’m concerned, there was redeeming value in “Quadrophenia,” but so much of their work from the mid 1970s was highly questionable.

Join Together and Squeeze Box are both good, but I have a difficult time listening to Squeeze Box because it’s so over the top. The Real Me was also all right.

Fourth Bunch of Hooligans

I did not like side four of this double LP.

Who Are You is annoying, but doesn’t really bother me, except that it’s somehow treated as one of the Who’s better known and/or more important songs, but all three other songs – Drowned, Had Enough and Sister Disco were abysmal. Rock bands should not play disco music, period. And with extremely rare exceptions, such as “Who’s Next,” they should just avoid any and all techno music.

I really wish The Who had retired after “Quadrophenia.”

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

References

References
↑1 “Live at Leeds” is a desert island record for me, and that was probably what I was listening to on repeat, on the CD player in my mother’s Volvo, around the time that I bought “Hooligans.” I’m guessing it would have been around summer 2000, at the used record store around East Gude Drive in Rockville.