HALF PRICE BOOKS WEST SIDE:

“Jethro Tull – Stormwatch”

Jeff included the song “Orion” on his “Lost In My Mind” tape years ago. I have heard the album and back in the day I thought, meh. I thought that this was a subtle change in direction for the band and wasn’t open minded enough for it at the time. It is actually damn good. Turns out the band was dissolving and dying and there was a lot of stuff going on. This was the album before “Jethro Tull – A” where I got off the Tull train.

Actually, he says pushing up his glasses, according to the Wiki, “Jethro Tull – A” was supposed to be a Ian Anderson solo effort, but his record company had him release it under the Jethro Tull name to try and boost lagging sales. The name came about because the master tapes were labeled A for Ian Anderson. One members was dead and one left because of it, and the lineup was changed immensely. Not a bad album, just way different than old Tull, synths were used heavily. Ah well.

Note that my copy has on Ian’s forehead a WSUW stamp.

I’m gonna have to contact them. Let them know it has gone to a good home.

“Jethro Tull – Bursting Out”

This one was my real intro to Jethro Tull. Recorded during the “Heavy Horses” tour, it has all my favorite stuff. I got it from the Meijer’s Super Store back in Ann Arbor and loved it to death. Paid $5.99 for this one. Worth every penny!

“Duran Duran – Duran Duran”

If anyone in my high school knew I had this, I think they would still come after me. This was NOT allowed in the lunchroom jukebox. I loved it in secret. Sorry Simon, I often claimed to hate Duran Duran, but I went on to own almost all the cassettes of DD. In fact, I still own “Arcadia – So Red The Rose”.

Let’s move on.

“Sade – Diamond Life”

This one is solid. You either like Sade or you are the “other people”. You can’t find any bad tracks on this one. All of Sade’s stuff is great.

Then came 3 Cat Steven’s albums that I have never heard before.

“Cat Stevens – Foreigner”

“Cat Stevens – Numbers”

This one seems to be only the inner sleeve. Ah well.

“Cat Stevens – Izitso”

I have seen this one tons of times. I remember seeing it back in the days of my mom’s and my trips to the library in Roselle. I never have heard it though, but these days I am loving all Cat Stevens. I’ll give them all a shot.

“The Cult – Love Removal Machine” 12 inch single!

Yep, that’s right, a 12 inch 45 RPM record. This format is dominated by disco and dance mixes, but here is The Cult! I couldn’t resist it. One side has 2 songs and the flip has one.

That reminds me, I have all of The Cult albums in FLAC format and have been too lazy to convert them. This should get me going on that.

I normally don’t look through the upper regular price bins, but today I did. Found this.

“Led Zeppelin – Presence”

This has one of my all time favorite Zeppelin songs… “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”. The record looked to be in great shape, so, I bought it. I remember owning this one and laughing at all the pictures of the black statue credited as “The Object”.

The Object was a spoof on 2001 AND a way for the album that had no working title to portray power and force. Yeah, thank you Wiki. Also, note the weird boat harbor in the background. This was an artificial marina created for an Earl’s Court Boat Show. I wish there was a poster of the inside.

After those purchases I went to The Frugal Muse near where we work so I could be ready to pick up Cindy for Sister Hazel night.