A couple of Christmases ago, Mr. NOA bought me a new turntable. It was something I had wanted for a while. We have a finished basement here in House Number 8. Ever since we moved in, I had visions of utilizing that space for random, music-infused friends and family fun times. A turntable with an eclectic collection of vinyl was sure to bring my vision to life.

Thus far, I have only purchased two vinyl albums: Billy Joel’s 52nd Street (a favorite of mine in the 80’s) and “Mellow Gold” which is one of those compilation albums (3 albums in one!) comprised of pop hits from various artists in the 60’s and 70’s. I picked that one based on the songs listed on the back cover. My favorite songs in this compilation include “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot, “Doctor my Eyes” by Jackson Browne, and “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates. There’s also two songs on this album that I recall singing in my “Madrigals” group back in high school: “Baby, I’m Yours” by Barbara Lewis, and “Cherish” by The Association.

I know, I’m such a music nerd.

Friends, I can count on one hand how many times in the last almost two years that I listened to these albums in my happy-good-times finished basement. And the only other person who was ever present with me any of these times was my 10 year-old grandson, while we were creating art together on the big folding table I have down there.

Now, I have faith that my HGT finished basement will become a veritable music-filled hang-out spot as time marches on; for now, however, I’m on a mission to find used vinyl to up the chances this will happen sooner rather than later.

Here’s what I recently found at a local thrift store. Perhaps it should have come home with me-however it seems more fun to consider what is going on with the album cover.

Clearly, these are “fancy” men. They envision being adored by their fans and they dress impeccably. I’m not sure if the red roses are being tossed to them by their audience or if this is just a show to ensure all are aware that these are chivalrous, romantic cis-het men who most certainly shower their ladies with beautiful bouquets on the regular. And what on earth is with the fish?

I’m sure they had an artistic vision for this cover. I was going to continue this snark-fest and pontificate on the song titles featured on the back of this album, but I got distracted by Google. However, before I could put this little blog post out there into the world, I felt compelled to at least do a quick search on this band.

Turns out, Heaven 17 included two of the guys from the Human League, and it appears this album actually was considered great by fans of 80’s English synth-pop. Human League put out one of my very favorite pop songs in the 80’s, “Fascination” which I wrote about here.

So apparently you can’t judge an album by its cover. Nor if you don’t even listen to it.

Speaking of album covers, I picked up a coffee table book (A Brief History of Album Covers by Jason Draper) while thrifting a couple of years ago. I have leafed through it several times and came to the conclusion that I can’t possibly display it lest my grandson gets to looking at it. The commentary within this little treasure is for mature eyes only.

So, tell me, my fellow vinyl lovers, what do you play on your turntable?

Let me leave you with a slightly more recent favorite song of mine, which I stumbled upon whilst perusing YouTube looking for songs to share from my “Mellow Gold” album. Turns out, Beck came out with an album of the same name. I hope you love the absolute weirdness of this video as much as I do.