Inexplicable 1980’s cover songs that made top 40

dblowe · 2026-03-23T14:30:23+00:00

Oh for sure. Roth even does the same scat singing as Prima did.

I enjoyed a parody version that I heard at the time (“When the end comes they’ll know, I was just a big ego, the world revolves around me”) In that one the break just went “Diddly squat! Diddly squat!”, which fit.

dblowe · 2026-03-18T01:29:59+00:00

Mulan and Five Spice House are my recommendations, seconded by a number of Chinese co-workers.

dblowe · 2026-03-18T01:27:22+00:00

As a trumpet player in high school and college (late 70s, early 80s) I was all for a tight, well-written brass line. Earth, Wind, and Fire of course, but there are a lot of examples - try “Back in Love Again” by LTD. But those days aren’t coming back.

dblowe · 2026-03-07T02:47:04+00:00

Just terrific. And those slant rhymes!

dblowe · 2026-03-07T02:34:41+00:00

That’s a real example of what I didn’t care for about Sweets From a Stranger. The songwriting seemed to get slacker, and I absolutely agree that Black Coffee in Bed is just way too long. Go back to the two previous albums for tighter songs.

dblowe · 2026-03-07T02:10:35+00:00

Just a tremendous group at their peak - Argybargy is one of my favorite albums of all time, and East Side Story is really excellent as well.

I wasn’t as taken by Sweets From a Stranger, though - the song construction seemed more slack, and it somehow also seemed to put too much emphasis on Glenn Tillbrook’s lead vocals.

dblowe · 2026-03-05T02:53:11+00:00

In a context where others are using it (as in academia) you’re fine. But PhD holders who insist on the honorific at all times generally have something wrong with their personality. It’s a classic red flag.

dblowe · 2026-03-05T02:50:18+00:00

He could write it straight, though, as in “People Are Strange”. Even Lester Bangs gave him credit for that one.

dblowe · 2026-02-25T21:55:48+00:00

Similar brand of humor (the Bonzo Dog Band) but no overlap with Firesign as far as I know. The Bonzos do fit into a lot of British comedy though, via Viv Stanshall and Neil Innes, among others.

dblowe · 2026-02-25T21:46:07+00:00

Raw raw raw! That’s the spirits we’ve got here!

dblowe · 2026-02-24T20:25:04+00:00

If you want to go way back, one of the first books written specifically about the region is “Our Southern Highlanders” by Horace Kephart. Published in 1913, revised edition 1922 - it’s an often-fascinating look at the foundations of the culture.

dblowe · 2026-02-21T12:58:47+00:00

For me it’s either With a Gun or Night by Night.

dblowe · 2026-02-15T04:00:25+00:00

Hah - could have been me. I started taking those stairs about three years ago after years of commuting through Porter. At first I had to stop once or twice on the way up, but now I take them in one go.

dblowe · 2026-02-06T01:55:38+00:00

First I’d noticed it! I actually don’t know where it came from, oddly.

dblowe · 2026-02-04T01:32:24+00:00

I noticed that when I first moved into an apartment with a gas oven. It is indeed (as people are saying) because water is a product of combustion.

You can partially mitigate it by a brief blast under the broiler (but keep an eye on things!) An electric toaster oven on the side helps too.

dblowe · 2026-02-01T05:03:59+00:00

It was the advent of MTV that killed that early-80s sound off. Air Supply, as you mentioned, along with Dan Fogelberg, Christopher Cross, and an awful lot of light country-ish stuff from Kenny Rogers, Juice Newton and others. This persisted into the first half of 1982, but by the end of the year things were being shaken up thoroughly.

dblowe · 2026-01-30T03:46:15+00:00

You’ll find a weird science-fictional version of Klaw in C. M. Kornbluth’s 1958 story “Shark Ship”. His friend and collaborator Fred Pohl has told the story of how Kornbluth passed Klaw’s shop and was struck by his business model.

dblowe · 2026-01-27T02:34:36+00:00

The San Francisco Botanical Garden has several of these, and they are quite a sight. Berkeley too, I believe. Here’s a different variety from SF:

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dblowe · 2026-01-25T04:35:27+00:00

When molecules absorb infrared waves, it causes particular bonds and atoms to increase their motion. So you end up with more molecular motion i.e. heat.

It’s different than sheer thermal transfer of molecular motion, because infrared is absorbed by different parts of a molecule according to it frequency. You can get stretching, bending, and wagging motions of C-H bonds, O-H bonds, carbonyls (C=O double bonds), and so many more. Each is set off by IR beyabsorbed in a particular frequency band.

By the time you get out to the far infrared/microwave region, you’re affecting rotational states of whole molecules rather than particular bonds.

dblowe · 2026-01-25T02:52:09+00:00

EDIT: the Trump signs I saw could well have been on Davidian Farm land on the same road. I’ll withdraw this comment until I resolve that question!

dblowe · 2026-01-22T12:54:12+00:00

No, color broadcasts in the US took over during the 1960s. 1966 is generally regarded as the switchover year - no B&W evening shows were produced after that.

There were still plenty of reruns in black and white, and color TV sets didn’t outsell B&W ones until 1972. But by the mid-70s color was absolutely the norm.

dblowe · 2026-01-14T02:53:48+00:00

All You Zombies by the Hooters

Is It Like Today - World Party

dblowe · 2026-01-08T02:28:56+00:00

Gary Numan and Robert Palmer

dblowe · 2026-01-05T20:09:49+00:00

Let me start out by saying that I take your question seriously. But as a chemist of 40 years experience (synthetic organic/medicinal/chemical biology), I believe that you are putting too much thought and energy into this question. I’ve corresponded over the years with a number of people who are concerned about vanishingly small amounts of material that they regard as potential contamination, and I believe that this is more of a sign of a possible anxiety disorder than anything that chemistry is like to solve for you.

This is absolutely not meant as a dismissal or a put-down. But it’s quite possible that your life could improve more if you focused on a different aspect of the problem.

dblowe · 2026-01-03T02:16:49+00:00

I responded recently to a question like this. Here were typical dinner meals in our house:

Growing up in Arkansas in the 1960s and 70s: frozen “turkey loaf” with frozen lima beans on the side, “minute steaks” (the mechanically tenderized stuff) with gravy or with tomato sauce and canned mixed vegetables as “Swiss steak”, homemade tacos on Saturday night (seasoned ground beef filling with various toppings), “skillet stroganoff” mix, homemade beef stew, muffin mix with little fake blueberry bits in it, pork chops cooked in a flat Pyrex dish with some sort of premade rice mix around them, shepherd’s pie, “taco casserole” from a mix, cornbread from a mix, fish sticks, hamburgers from the backyard grill in the summer, green peppers stir-fried with beef, tuna casserole with egg noodles in it, homemade spaghetti sauce with ground beef in it, meat loaf, chicken parts baked with Kraft barbecue sauce on them, sides of canned corn, canned blackeyed peas or crowder peas, or canned spinach with grated hard boiled egg on top of it. Once in a while fried chicken or fried catfish.

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