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Kind of weirdly personal and took a long time to write this one. I also hesitated quite a while before sharing, but here goes… Benjamin Orr. Gifted singer, talented musician, gorgeous human, sad, happy, “randy”, funny, quiet, father, bandmate, son, brother, lover, husband. Ben died twenty four years ago this month, a few minutes before Read more
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Help me to get unstuck. Have you ever gotten to a point in your life where you think/feel/know you don’t want to do this anymore? Whatever this is for you? This of course is different for different people. I’ve been increasingly feeling this way for the better part of this past year. And I feel Read more
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And the year I graduated from high school. I followed a thread on Twitter (I still can’t call it X) started by @PreetBharara in which he posed the question “What was the best song of 1984?”. Impossible to choose. I have been meaning to write about the music of 1984 for a while now in Read more
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I frequently take walks around the village, through the neighborhood where I grew up, past houses where my friends lived, on streets where I hung out when I was a teenager, and most of the time the streets and sidewalks are empty. I wonder; where are all the kids? What are they doing and where Read more
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Two things from the 70s I’m really into right now; the word foxy which I shall promptly add to my lexicon, and the shag haircut. Let’s talk Rock and Roll and Hair. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. From the Beatles’ mop tops, Elvis and Buddy Holly’s DAs, Robert Plant and Roger Daltrey’s Read more
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I’ve invested a lot of time recently in an entire subculture; people who write, blog, post, and make videos about musicians and bands and singers they remember from their formative years who may or may not still be around. This begs some questions. Why have I done this and why does this subculture exist? Why Read more
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Do you ever feel like you really belong in a different generation? What if you’re 58 when you finally realize what you should have done with your life? I’ve always had a feeling that I was born too late and took the wrong path. As I have written before, I never really knew what I Read more
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And where have 44 years gone? I wrote about the greatness of music from 1978, so time to discuss the tunes that ushered in the ‘80s. A new decade and new beginnings for me as I finished middle school and entered high school. What an awkward time in a person’s life- thirteen and fourteen years Read more
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Photo by Lynn Goldsmith- Elektra press kit 1980 ADDENDUM 3/25/25 I already gave props to the mighty Elliot Easton and his superior guitar work, but listening to this song again recently, for some reason I was really struck by the beat, the momentum, and decided I must discuss the rhythm section in this song. That Read more
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I miss the tribal communal musical adventures of my misspent youth. Many things lead to the demise of radio, and the entire musical landscape. Many people who are way more expert than I have written about it. But here are the things I think contributed and they are all connected. -Loss of free-form radio stations Read more
Random musings from a Gen X life lived on the edge… of nothing except Lake Erie. 70s and 80s pop culture and music.
The SFB 