Just in case anyone’s interested, here’s my iTunes Glam playlist. It’s been getting me through the last couple of days’ worth of work.
Most of the tracks are from a double CD I picked up in London, “The Best Glam Rock Album In The World…Ever.” It was pretty solid, but I added some extra Bowie, T-Rex, Slade and Sweet to the mix.
A few of the bands are crap. Mud, for instance. Even at the age of 12, I realized this was pretty fake stuff. But I left them in the mix as the entirety of this represents a very specific time and place in my life.
Glam is possibly why I always kept my taste for pop, even after Punk hit and blew me away. In a sense, it’s the music that defined me: some of these bands are the first groups that I ever realized MATTERED – that their music was BETTER, for some reason I couldn’t really define. This was IMPORTANT in a vague, palpable way that twelve-year-old me couldn’t put into words at the time.
When Punk hit, I was a bit older, and knew why it mattered. Years afterwards, I considered Punk the prime musical influence of my life. But it took “The Best Glam Rock Album In The World…Ever” to remind me of what had shaped my musical tastes a few years before.
Ending the mix, neither “Boston tea Party,” “Sound and Vision” nor “Blinded By The Light” are – technically – Glam, but I included them as bookends of a movement that in some parts evolved and in others faded surprisingly quickly. In the same mindset, I could have just as easily have thrown the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The UK” as the ending track, with its blazing chords a direct descendant of the heavy guitars of glam (physically, if not philosophically). England had moved from Cockney Rebel to Cockney Rejects, but roots were shared.
Like finding forgotten photos of a first girlfriend, “The Best Glam Rock Album In The World…Ever” helped me to realize that my first musical love was was a LOT hotter than I remembered.
And every now and then, it still gets me through the days.
Come on. Feel the noise.
THE RADIO MUSKRAT GLAM PLAYLIST
Killer Queen – Queen
Blockbuster – Sweet
All The Young Dudes – Mott The Hoople
John, I’m Only Dancing – David Bowie
Virginia Plain – Roxy Music
The Passenger – Iggy Pop
Children Of The Revolution – T.Rex
Elected – Alice Cooper
Mama Weer All Crazy Now – Slade
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us – Sparks
Let’s Stick Together – Bryan Ferry
Radar Love – Golden Earring
The Man Who Sold The World – Lulu
Space Oddity – David Bowie
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Perfect Day – Lou Reed
10538 Overture – Electric Light Orchestra
Ball Park Incident – Roy Wood’s Wizzard
Rock On – David Essex
I’m the Leader of the Gang – Gary Glitter
Little Willy – Sweet
See My Baby Jive – Roy Wood’s Wizzard
All The Way From Memphis – Mott The Hoople
20th Century Boy – T.Rex
The Ballroom Blitz – Sweet
Tiger Feet – Mud
Life On Mars – David Bowie
Devilgate Drive – Suzi Quatro
All Because Of You – Geordie
Gudbuy T’Jane – Slade
Personality Crisis – New York Dolls
Do The Strand – Roxy Music
Once Bitten Twice Shy – Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson
Cum On Feel The Noize – Slade
Motor Bikin’ – Chris Spedding
Seven Deadly Finns – Brian Eno
Cherry Bomb – The Runaways
Solid Gold Easy Action – T.Rex
Standing In The Road – Blackfoot Sue
Dyna-Mite – Mud
Angel Face – The Glitter Band
Starman David Bowie
Dance With The Devil Cozy Powell
Skweeze Me Pleeze Me Slade
New York Groove Hello
I Love Rock And Roll – The Arrows
Can The Can – Suzi Quatro
Do You Want to Touch Me – Gary Glitter
Boston Tea Party – The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Fox On The Run – Sweet
Sound And Vision – David Bowie
Blinded By the Light – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
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The Dork Tower scheduled for Today will go up tomorrow instead, I fear. technical problems. But I’m told in a couple of weeks DorkTower.com’s being moved to a new server, and things should be lightning fast. Fingers crossed…