"It's 4 O'Clock in the Morning, Dammit!" Next on Mix Tape Memories

On this episode of Mix Tape Memories, we are going back to the early 90s for an awesome mix tape. This tape features Elton John, U2, Michelle Shocked, Til Tuesday, Van Morrison, 10,000 Maniacs, Indigo Girls, Concrete Blonde, Tori Amos and many more!

A post shared by Vinyl Voyage Radio (@vinylvoyageradio) on Jan 18, 2018 at 5:28am PST

Season 1, episode 10 premieres Friday night at 8pm, Central. Then it repeats next Wednesday at 1am and 1pm Central.

Song of the Week Anthology, Weeks 21-30

Did you miss any episode of "The Song of the Week" over the last ten weeks? Don't worry. We've got you covered. Catch up with the "Song of the Week Anthology."

You can listen to the Anthology at the following times:

8am and 8pm Wednesday, December 13
3 am Thursday, December 14
4 pm Saturday, December 16
1 pm Sunday, December 17

Or, you can listen to it on-demand via Mixcloud

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" the Vinyl Voyage Song of the Week

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was released in 1975 and contains one of the greatest songs ever: "Someone Saved My Life Tonight." Listen tot his classic on vinyl, premiering at 10 am (central) on Vinyl Voyage Radio.

Listen to the song now playing on Youtube:

Out of Sight--The Canadian Version on AiV!

On the last episode of Adventures in Vinyl, we went back to 1975 for the K-Tel classic, Out of Sight. As usual, we listened to the American release. However, being a global corporation with many subsidiaries, K-Tel International often released different versions of the same album simultaneously in different territories. Out of Sight is no different. This month, we will be featuring the Canadian version of Out of Sight.

Although they look very similar, these two albums are very different. In fact, only 5 of the 20 songs on the Canadian version can be found on the U.S. release. In some cases, the artists are the same, but the song selection is different.

Overall, another solid release.  This album is heavy on some Canadian bands that don't often appear on U.S. releases. Such as the Stampeders:

and Tinker's Moon. There's no pictures of this band. They were session musicians and only released two singles.  On this album is also a Canadian band named Chilliwack:

In addition to the Canadian bands on this release, there's also an obscure British pop band called The Rubettes. Here's what these guys looked like: 

If that picture doesn't make you want to listen to this album, then there's something wrong with you.

In addition to those obscure artists, there's also Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, the Hollies and Elton John as well.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard on Vinyl Voyage Radio at 12:30 pm central Saturday, 4:30 pm central on Sunday and 2:00 am on Wednesdays. Older episodes can be heard at 1 pm Tuesdays and 10:30 am Thursdays.

All episodes can be heard on Mixcloud as well. 

Adventures in Vinyl---"Out of Sight" (Canadian Version, 1975) by Vinyl Voyage Radio on Mixcloud

K-Tel's Music Express, this month on AiV

Going back to 1975 for this one.  K-Tel's Music Express was one of the first albums that I ever got. It features Captain and Tennille, Elton John, 10cc, Jigsaw and Barry Manilow.  Plus many, many more.

Here is a detailed look at K-Tel's Music Express, including chart data for all of the songs.  This album features 20 songs....most of which were heavily edited. For example, Phoebe Snow's "Poetry man" is a mere 1 minute, 58 seconds.

But that's K-Tel for you.


Music Express will be streamed in its entirety on Adventures in Vinyl this month.  Only on Vinyl Voyage Radio.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard

Saturday 12:30 pm
Sunday 4:00 pm
Tuesday 1:00 pm
Wednesday 2:00 am
Thursday 10:00 am

All times Central.

Next on AiV: K-Tel's 20 Dynamic Hits from 1972

After an extended summer hiatus, Adventures in Vinyl is back with a very special K-Tel album from 1972.  First of all, this album is brand new--never opened.  You'll be hearing it first played on AiV.

Secondly, this album was a K-Tel album, but also a "Top Star Festival" album, which was the record label of the United Nations. Yeah, that United Nations.  They had released several albums in the 60s and early 70s with all proceeds going to refugee aid.  As far as I know, this is the only one released by K-Tel.

The album came out in 1972 and was advertised like any other K-Tel album on television.  It contains hits from James Taylor, Elton John, the Osmonds, Rod Stewart and many, many more--another great sampling of music from the time.

And, as a special treat, it also has a very rare recording of Aretha Franklin covering Frank Sinatra's "My Way."  This was never released until 2008.  How K-Tel got a hold of that recording, I do not know.


Not only that, the album begins with a song that actually began as a television commercial jingle. Remember "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke"?  That song proved so popular it was worked into a hit song and was covered by two bands in 1972:  the New Seekers and the Hillside Singers.  The version performed by the Hillside Singers starts off the album.  If there is a better song to bring you back to that time, I have yet to hear it.
Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central):
Tuesday 1 pm  Wednesday 2 am Thursday 10 am Saturday 12 pm Sunday 4 pm
Adventures in Vinyl:  the only radio show dedicated to the lost art of the K-Tel record compilation.  

New Editions to the Vinyl Voyage Library

This week, I digitized some more vinyl.  Here are the latest editions to the Vinyl Voyage library:

Elton John Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)	Barbara Streisand Memories (1981)
Billy Joel Turnstiles (1976)	Crosby, Stills and Nash Crosby, Stills and Nash (1969)
Sting The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985)	Heart Dreamboat Annie (1976)

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

When I was a kid, I used to check out record albums from the public library.  I was perusing the LP bins one day and came across Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.  At the time I was perhaps 10 years old and knew nothing about Elton John, other than the crazy outfits and sunglasses he wore.  I think my first introduction to Elton was via the sitcom, One Day at a Time (I had a slight crush on Valerie Bertinelli).  In one particular episode, the two Romano sisters, played by Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips, do a routine in a variety show dressed as Elton John and Kiki Dee singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."  That song I knew, as it was played ad nauseum on the radio at the time.

Anyway, I checked out Captain Fantastic not because it was Elton John, but because the cover was so awesome.   Although I hadn't yet been exposed to Hieronymus Bosch, the cover must have been influenced by the paintings of the 15th century artist.  When I studied art in college I remember looking at The Garden of Earthy Delights and immediately thinking of Captain Fantastic.

Like Bosch, the cover to Captain Fantastic is filled with other-worldly creatures: birdmen, naked bodies, giant fish, men carrying large timepieces, creatures pooping gold.  The only thing missing from the Elton cover is a man playing a flute out of his ass.

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy came out in an era when album art mattered and bands spent a great deal of time and energy making the album art part of the entire experience. The packaging was almost as important as the contents. First, the introduction of compact discs diminished album art importance and the evolution to digital completely killed this time-honored tradition. The art of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy could never be shrunk to a small lcd screen.  Indeed, an album like Captain Fantastic would not even be produced today.

I listened to the album when I brought it home and stared at those images while the music played on the turntable. I was entranced. The album is amazing.  This is not an album of hits; Captain Fantastic only produced one single:  "Someone Saved My Life Tonight."  That song is, by far, my favorite Elton John song---perhaps because of that moment back in the 70s when I truly began listening to music.

It was Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy that opened my eyes--and ears--to music beyond the trope that was being played on the radio.  Captain Fantastic taught me that albums matter.  Songs  played in order mean something.  There is a reason why "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" finishes side one.  You have to stop and turn the album over, the last lines and bars of the music still echoing in your head:

I never realized the passing hours of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I'm strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It's four o'clock in the morning
Dammit listen to me good
I'm sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music's still alive

I haven't heard Captain Fantastic in its entirety in years.  A couple of weeks ago, I was in a used record store and came across a nice copy of the album and I was instantly transported to that time back in the 70s when I fished the album out of the bin at the library for the first time.  I bought it and soon the black disc was spinning on my turntable.  It was like I was a kid again, feeling the same emotions I felt when I first heard the album in another time, another age.

Although the album is a concept album chronicling the early musical lives of Elton John (Captain Fantastic) and Bernie Taupin (Brown Dirt Cowboy), it spoke to me like nothing had spoken to me before.  It's lyrics are still powerful, thirty-five years later.

The first song, "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" has a great melody and sets up the album nicely, but it was the second song that stopped me cold.  Infused with religious imagery that I did not understand as a 10 year old kid, "Tower of Babel" is a powerful rumination on life and meaning---perhaps more so now that I am closing in on my 45th birthday:

Snow, cement and ivory young towers
Someone called us Babylon
Those hungry hunters
Tracking down the hours
But where were all your shoulders when we cried
Were the darlings on the sideline
Dreaming up such cherished lies
To whisper in your ear before you die

Wow.  I can't remember the last time I heard that song.  I am sure the lyrics didn't mean then what they mean to me now.  That's the wonder of life and art---interpreting meaning through different lenses and experiences and eras.  As one who didn't necessarily feel like I fit in at the time, there was plenty in Captain Fantastic to give my adolescent feelings legitimacy.  Now, as a grown man those feelings are somewhat nostalgic, yet the lyrics now seem more mature...more wise.

There are songs on this album about suicide ("Someone Saved My Life Tonight"), love ("We All Fall in Love Sometimes"), the record business ("Tower of Babel," "Bitter Fingers"), and success and failure ("Writing," "(Gotta Get) A Meal Ticket," "Better Off Dead").

The album ends with the hauntingly beautiful "Curtains," which is about death and the mark one has made on the world:

Cultivate the freshest flower
This garden ever grew
Beneath these branches
I once wrote such childish words for you
But that's okay
There's treasure children always seek to find
And just like us
You must have had
A once upon a time

When I started buying compact discs, I never revisited Captain Fantastic. The copy I taped from the library long gone, Captain Fantastic was a mere fragment of a memory until I found it once again. The copy that I bought from the used record store even had an original poster from the album.  I want to frame it and place it on the wall behind my bed.

I hope my wife doesn't mind.

"Mind Bender" Another Great K-Tel Compilation This Month on AiV

In 1976, K-Tel Records released Mind Bender, a compilation album featuring "22 Original Hits, Original Stars."  You know the drill.

This album features War, Elton John, Jigsaw, Hot Chocolate, KISS and many, many more.

Mind Bender is the featured K-Tel album this month on Adventures in Vinyl.



Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central): Saturday, 12 pm
Sunday, 4 pm
Tuesday, 1 pm
Wednesday, 2 am
Thursday, 10 am

Starflight is the Winner!

The winner of the other important election of November is the 1979 K-Tel classic, Starflight. This will be the featured album on Adventures in Vinyl in December.

So take a trip back to the last year of the 1970s---a time when Blondie was tearing up the airwaves with "Heart of Glass," Sigourney Weaver was battling a creature in space and a Chicago DJ was blowing up disco records in a ballpark.  Yep.  The 70s were just about over.

Even K-Tel noticed that things were changing. Before 1979, the label they slapped on their discs looked like this:

In 1979, it changed to this:

I am not sure where I got Starflight. I think I may have picked it up in a Goodwill store. It's not in great shape.  I spent a lot of time cleaning it and it sounds pretty good.  A couple of scratches, though. That's okay---it makes it more authentic.  The album is over 30 years old, after all.

Eclectic to it's core, Starflight offers up a variety of 70s hits.  It features some prominent disco in a time when disco was on the way out:  Peaches & Herb, Abba, Atlanta Rhythm Section.  Some 70s pop:  Elton John, Robert John, Suzi Quatro.  And some rock and roll as well:  Foreigner, Cheap Trick and Peter Frampton.

Here's the commercial:


So join us on this music time trip through the magic of K-Tel.  Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (all times Central)
Saturday, 12 pm Sunday, 4 pm Tuesday, 1 pm Wednesday 2 am Thursday, 10 am
Adventures inVinyl:  The only radio show dedicated to the lost art of the K-Tel record compilation.  Only on Vinyl Voyage Radio.