[Ramona_A_Stone]

After my immersion in the file trade, I'd have to say I haven't forgotten anything. I didn't sleep for a year while binging and purging every memory cell in my brain, and being raised on radio, I became extremely bulimic.

"...the black meat is like a tainted cheese, overpoweringly delicious and nauseating, so that that the eaters eat and vomit and eat again until they fall exhausted..."
--William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch

The remembering of certain songs certainly delighted me though, and now they all fill a directory called "skeleton closet," which I often let winamp play at random... Dead City Radio baby.

A number of songs are preeminent and worthy of mention among these, and I have to say Madman Across The Water (which I'm actually working on a cover of) is one of them, the version with the string bridge, not the guitar version, along with several other old Elton John pieces. I can barely stand him now, but Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Sixty Years On and Levon spring to mind, as well as most of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, especially Grey Seal, This Song's Got No Title, and Danny Bailey.

Quite a bit of Alice Cooper, my two favorite songs being Levity Ball from his first album, Pretties For You and Hard Hearted Alice, a couple of really good psychedelic ballads.

Allman Brothers - Midnight Rider

Badfinger, also, oddly, is a standout. Baby Blue, Day After Day (which features George Harrison on slide guitar and Leon Russell--hometown boy--on piano), and No Matter What never fail to completely freak me out and make me feel like I'm in junior high school and in love for the first awkward time.

The Band - The Weight

Bread - If, more hometown boys.

Blind Faith - Can't Find My way Home, same feeling.

The Three Dog Night song in this weird category is Easy To Be Hard. (I loathed Joy To The World, too overplayed)

It's a Beautiful Day (band name) - White Bird (song title)

A lot of Dylan. I'd mention Don't Think Twice It's Alright, which seems to be the very first song I actually remember hearing, or that stood out on the radio. And Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Tangled Up In Blue, of course.

Donovan. Many, many songs but most especially Wear Your Love Like Heaven, Tangiers and The River Song.

ELO, Can't Get It Out Of My Head.

ELP, many, but particularly Take A Pebble, From The Beginning, and Still.

Lots of George Harrison skeletons in there, including the first ever post-Beatle album by any Beatle: the instrumental Wonderwall. Also a much later song sticks in my head: Dark Horse, which one could find on Napster mis-labeled as an Elvis Costello song. (...Isn't It A Pity?)

The Guess Who, These Eyes, Albert Flasher, Share The Land to name a few. He had a really great voice.

Today, Lather, and Trio by Jefferson Airplane. By the time they became 'Starship,' I kept wishing they'd just leave the planet already.

Ten Years After, especially the songs Here They Come and One of These Days, which still haunt the shit out of me.

Harry Nillson - Jump Into The Fire, Spaceman, Without You, some others...

Jimmy Spheeris - Isle of View (whole album), from my hippy period, best songs being Monte Luna and I Am The Mercury. (actually this proved impossible to find on Napster or just about any other file sharing program, but I happened to run across it in a used record store and ripped it and shared it.)

Weird old girls that haunt me section:

Roberta Flack, verging on obssession with The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (the musicians had to be on valiums) and Killing Me Softly.

Carly Simon - That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be, very spooky.

Linda Ronstadt - Long, Long Time. Hopelessly corny I know, but what a sad voice--and that Mellotron! ...I'm gonna cry. (aside to Belle: the eerie sort of similarity to this and Honey is... eerie.)

Lulu - To Sir With Love... Dont laugh at me!!! I only like this one because of the string section and the little wanky guitar. It's got that 'Mersey Beat' thing goin' on.

Melanie Safka - Ring The Living Bell, Lay Down (Candles In The Rain), What Have They Done To My Song, some others.

I'm Just gonna stop now, I've already embarrassed myself enough. (I can't believe I mentioned the Lulu. Thank god I had the good sense not to mention the Petula Clark or the Barry Manilow)