Chicago MMXII

I taped songs off the radio regularly from 1990 to 1992. I think I ended up with about 14 cassettes (of varying lengths, probably). Anyway, I'm pretty sure "Ice Ice Baby" was on one of the first of those tapes, along with Snap!'s "The Power" and Tony! Toni! Tone!'s "Feels Good" and whatever else was hot in late 1990.

"on THE first," rather.

did someone say 1990?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7scrq8ilQ1rcq6xho1_500.jpg

Back in 2003-04, when I first started getting into pop music again and blogging about music, I really wanted to dig up those tapes, but alas, I couldn't find them at my parents' house. I'm guessing they were thrown out at some point when I wouldn't have cared about their preservation as much.

i have all mine but my tape player just broke! like just about a month ago ;_;

I think I used to "rap" ice ice baby on the school bus in middle school. Perhaps I was famous for it among my peers.

I really wish I'd at least have written down the track lists somewhere. My tastes were fairly indiscriminate back then (I was in middle school) -- Europop jams next to power ballads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_That_Care

I only had a couple of tapes of the radio like those, made in the late 80s, one labelled "A" and one labelled "B". I think they may still exist somewhere. If I ever have a house or whatever I'm going to get all the shit out my mother's basement and have a party.

Taped stuff off the radio by pushing one of these against the speakers

http://www.arsenalamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Cassette-Player.jpg

waiting for the DJ to play the song I'd called in and requested.

My dad had a fancy stereo set up with components and shit, so the tape deck was connected to the radio and I used to do this thing where'd I'd tape stuff off the radio, bits of songs and ads and DJ patter and then go back and listen to it to see if it sounded like anything interesting. The only two things I remember about the results are taping "She's a brick... house... house... house" and liking that, and the across the highway neighbor swearing that she once managed to splice together the phrase "synchronize your baby in a Hersey's candy bar," but I think she was lying.

if there was a problem, yo -- carl solved it

I taped the radio using something very much like this:

http://www.pennpollyvintage.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/yellow-boombox-sony-cfm-104.jpg

Also I used to make DJ tapes of me playing all of these old 45s (and some 33s) that my parents had from their childhood and teenage years and improvising DJ chatter in between. I was in third grade or so, so I think I'm far enough removed to really want to hear that again.

Also I graduated from high school in 1990 and you are making me feel old.

Oh lord, I just got a memory of walking home from elementary school or maybe junior high? listening to radio tapes on my off-brand Walkman that was the size of a freaking brick. I distinctly remember Robert Plant's solo stuff being on one of these tapes.

I only had a couple of tapes of the radio like those, made in the late 80s, one labelled "A" and one labelled "B".

My first tape was labelled A/B, after the two sides. Subsequent tapes were C/D, E/F, G/H, and so on. The last one was something like CC/DD.

BIG LOG

This is not the first time we've talked about Robert Plant's BIG LOG on Chicago ILX, I don't think. I also think I instigated it the last time. SORRY GUYS I just love Robert Plant's BIG LOG.

As pictured here.

I was actually unaware that bob plant had a song called "big log". Is it about his wang or his poop?

xp I guess that answers my question

I don't think it's about either, actually. (it's a pretty good song though)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZQL22xOmUM

My love is in league with the freeway
It's passion will ride, as the cities fly by
And the tail-lights dissolve, in the coming of night
And the questions in thousands take flight
My love is the miles and the waiting
The eyes that just stare, and a glance at the clock
And the secret that burns, and the pain that won't stop
And it's fuel is the years
Leading me on
Leading me down the road
Driving me on, driving me down the road
My love is exceeding the limit
Red-eyed and fevered with the hum of the miles
Distance and longing, my thoughts do collide
Should I rest for a while, on the side
Your love is cradled in knowing
Eyes in the mirror, still expecting they'll come
Sensing to well, when the journey is done
There is no turning back, no There is no turning back, on the run.
My love is in league with the freeway
Oh, the freeway, and the coming of night-time My love,
My love, Is in league with the freeway.

Nothing about wangs or poop.

where's the big log?

is that robert plant's chat log?

if so, he is v romantic!

I linked it on the word "here" rather than post it in line. It's SFW but maybe not something somebody would want to see real big on their computer.

I'm going to try hard to incorporate Vanilla Ice into my long run on Saturday.

A good character would be someone who remembers Vanilla Ice but only for his cover of "Play That Funky Music."

haha i thought that was an eazy post til i read it again

Haha.

What it's like
Havin' a roni

one time it came on and i taped over the tape of songs i taped from the local "modern rock" station, so what i wound up listening to for years whenever i felt like listening to that tape was "stone cold yesterday" (lol) interrupted by about 2/3 of ice ice baby, and then (i think) "beach bump" by baby ford.

These accidental medleys were the best! I had a few that I listened to long after I bought the albums on CD. The one I remember ATM is Japanese Whispers where 'Lovecats" ("ooohhh Lovecats! [glissando on piano]") ended and Swans' droning "Money is Flesh" came on really loud a little before the YOU DESERVE IT, YOU DESERVE IT, YOU DESERVE IT part.

I thought Vanilla Ice was saying A1A Detroit Avenue, but that was incorrect. Beachfront.

anyone else have the afternoon/day off? i was thinking of going to see killer joe.

cool - i just logged into chipublib to see if they had the new david eggers book for kindle and they had four copies with no one in line - i guess i searched just when they added them to the system. anyways if anyone else wants to read it there should still be a few "copies" available if you hurry up

I have the afternoon off, but I'm using it to drive to Michigan.

Also I never taped anything off the radio, because by the time there was a radio station worth taping I was able to buy my own music.

Now, ripping off BMG et al for dozens of albums, that was my shit.

i didn't do much radio taping either because I LIVED OVERSEAS GUYS but i definitely had at least a couple of radio tapes from when i was back in florida for the summer. i remember one that had "sister" by juliana hatfield and "headache" by frank black. oh when "loser" by beck came out, at first i only had a version taped off the radio and it was missing a verse so when i finally bought the cassingle i was like woah there's another verse.

what i DID used to do a lot was: i had a stereo with two tape decks and i'd do that low-grade multitrack recording where i'd record one guitar part on the stereo, then record that to another tape while playing another guitar part over it, and so on until i'd have a song with multiple parts.

also my granddad would tape MTV and send me the video tapes and i'd watch those a lot. just like two hours of whatever was on MTV for those two hours. i was really into the "falling to pieces" video by faith no more.

definitely had some mtv videotapes, mostly beavis and butthead, headbangers ball, and 120 minutes

I have probably mentioned this before, but you know the song that hooked me on LOL ALT-ROCK? "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots. I don't know where I heard it, but I found it strangely appealing. It was August 1993, right before my sophomore year of high school. I was already beginning to move away from the rap/R&B that dominated my taste the year before, but I hadn't settled on anything yet. Earlier that summer I was listening a lot to a Blue Note jazz comp and Stereo MCs and Digable Planets and then random adult-contempo stuff like Bruce Hornsby and Tina Turner. I read a couple of Douglas Coupland novels. Anyway, "Plush" came along ... somewhere ... and by the beginning of the school year I'd switched over to Q101. Anyway, I mention this because one of the first Q101 "Top 5 at 5" countdowns that I remember featured "My Sister" by Juliana Hatfield. Also "Soul to Squeeze" by RHCP.

OK now I really want to listen to Bruce Hornsby's Harbor Lights. I'm sure I haven't heard a single note of that album in more than 15 years.

So 1993.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Harbor_Hornsby.jpg

omg you guys
this is too much. i will always be 4 years older than you guys, i guess.

i had a vivid dream about bruce hornsby last year that i still haven't shook. we hot tubbed together!

!

Also you're only 4 yrs older than me and n/a and Jeff...

bruce hornsby is the no. 1 celebrity who lives in williamsburg, va. people would trade their hornsby sighting stories (i never saw him but also i don't know what he looks like).

the no. 2 celebrity who lives in williamsburg, va., is the guy who plays thomas jefferson in colonial williamsburg. one of sarah's friends saw him tooling around town in a red convertible.

You're not 4 years older than me. Are you even older than me at all? (here we go with this again)

I so wish I could take the afternoon off and go to the movies w/ you, n/a. Work is busy with things that I'm afraid will go wrong and I don't want to be here today.

But if I can sneak out, I definitely will. What time were you thinking of going?

2 pm

Oh. Yeh, that's probably not funna happen.

it's cool. gonna have some solo nick time. watching an nc-17 movie by myself in the theater.