10 albums a day #40

Patsy Cline
- 12 Greatest Hits (1988, CD)
- The Patsy Cline Collection (3 CD box set, 1991)
Peter Gabriel
- Peter Gabriel (1980, CD)
- Security (1982, CD)
- Peter Gabriel Plays Live (1983, 2 CD set)
- So (1986, CD)
- Us (1992, CD)
Peter, Paul & Mary - Best of (1970, LP)
The Pogues
- If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1987, CD)
- Hell's Ditch (1990, CD)
Phish - A Live One (1995, 2 CD set)

I'm pretty sure I bought Cline's 12 Greatest Hits myself, thinking that would be all I would ever need. My wife bought the box set later on. The box set contains 45 tracks total, and is amazingly not redundant with the other one--not by even one track.

I don't remember how I first got into Peter Gabriel, possibly I heard some of his stuff on the radio, although now I can't imagine ever having heard anything by him on any San Antonio station. Could have been the old KLLS, an "adult contemporary" station that I used to listen to in the early 80s. I can see myself buying more by him if I was in the mood. I would like to get his other two early eponymous albums; his first three albums were all titled Peter Gabriel, and are often referred to by their cover art. The one I have is called "Melting Face." When I was sharing a house with Babel in the late 80s I listened to a whole lot of Peter Gabriel from his record collection. One old one that I would particularly like to get is the soundtrack to Birdy, which is very ambient. As I already covered when I was doing my ambient category, I also have his soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ. My favorite of these albums is So.

When I was a kid my favorite song was "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and I had a single of it that was horribly destroyed because it was left out in the car and the sun melted it when I was 4 or 5 years old. I was heartbroken, of course. I came across this record in the ACU bookstore in 1982 or so and bought it immediately when I saw it; until that time I didn't even remember who had recorded that song. I still like this record a lot, even if they are a bunch of communists.

If I Should Fall From Grace With God is one of the Best Albums Ever. I don't remember why I bought it but I listened to it repeatedly. I got the follow-up when it was released, but after that the lead singer was kicked out because he couldn't get a handle on his alcoholism, and their following albums lacked the luster of his song writing. A co-worker bought the album following Hell's Ditch and I did listen to it, but it failed to thrill me. I read not long ago that he has since gotten his alcoholism under control and is back in the music business, so I might have to look him/them up again and see what they sound like now.

During the mid-90s I briefly subscribed to a music magazine called huH. Each issue came with a sampler CD--I still have all four of those CDs that I got before I canceled the subscription--and one of them had "Bouncing Around the Room" by Phish. So I got this set that has that song on it. The rest of the album is very different; that one song must have been the closest they ever came to having a "hit single." Phish is one of those groups who were never popular in the mainstream sense, but are very popular in the "rabidly fanatical and devoted fanbase" sense. They may have made more live recordings than studio albums. Anyway, they are known for their live shows and extended jams that incorporate influences from just about all genres of pop/rock music. Thanks to this album, I "get" Phish jokes when I read them on the internet.

Album count: 403.