I went to a Record Show the other day, which is something I have always liked to do. Lately, they’ve been like having a mega Record Store all to yourself, but last Sunday was different. It was packed! The way it used to be in the early ’80s. [Which reminds me, if you have never been to one, and you go, don’t put your bag on a row of records and look through the one next to it. I know, there isn’t anywhere else to put your records, but I got tired of asking people to get their shit off the crate next to them.] That was good to see, and prices were still generally three bucks for the records I want anyway. Since Alive Naturalsound started reissuing The Nerves‘ and Breakaways‘ stuff, I’ve been getting more interested in Paul Collins‘ side of things. I always liked Peter Case, but didn’t really follow Paul at all. I found the first Beat album, and loved it. I found a more recent one, Ribbon of Gold, and I loved that, too. So I was kind of surprised to find the second Paul Collins Beat album, The Kids Are the Same at the show I was at, and I figured I had to grab it. I was expecting another good power pop kind of album, and I think it holds up well.
This came out in ’81 or ’82, which is about when I started raising a family on $4.50 an hour. Cable TV was something I did not even think of having, so I missed whatever MTV airplay Wikipedia said this album got. What I did have was a radio and we listened to it all night at work on the night shift. I can remember hearing this song, “On the Highway,” and it was one of those songs that I instantly loved and instantly thought was a perfect nighttime song, like “Marquee Moon.” The problem is, I knew who sang “Marquee Moon,” but back then college kids spent way more time playing records than telling you what they played, so I never knew who sang this, what album it was on, or anything about it. I put it on yesterday afternoon and was feeling pretty good about my purchase (nice clean record, not noisy, flat and sounds great) and this song that I loved came out of nowhere and was cranking out right there in my own living room!
Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened once or twice to me, but it’s been a long time. I think that’s like the best feeling of all in a Rock Music Nerd’s Life (or lack thereof). It happens so seldom, but I have a feeling it’s what keeps me digging through crates and reading about music instead of living a normal life. What song jumped off a record unexpectedly on you?
