On Heavy Rotation

back in 1982

The next chapter of ‘Challenge 69’ is ‘locked and loaded’ with ‘Track 18’ pre-scheduled for release at 9am this Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th.

This time out you get; some meditations on a potential alien invasion, a few songs to theme an apocalypse, and the story’s core conundrum creeping closer to conclusion …

… but while we wait.

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It’s rare these days to be asked a question you can’t answer.

We may not (yet) come pre-programmed with a bot-like understanding of ‘everything the world has ever learned’, but after a couple of clicks most queries can be resolved.

Yet earlier this week someone, while studying my vinyl collection, flummoxed me by enquiring, “which of these have you played the most?”

“Hell,” I thought, “there’s no way to look that one up!” Uncomfortably, I had to try falling back on (a very faulty) memory.

The only solid conclusion I could arrive at was that the heaviest rotation of my record collection must have taken place in 1981/82, in Sorby (Hall of Residence), in Sheffield. It would take another forty-four years, after that, to reclaim the time to ‘sit around playing music’ and, by then, the options for listening had expanded exponentially.

So the most worn out grooves to be found amongst the vinyl our guest was inspecting must still belong to those albums/singles that were ‘never off the turntable’ back then.

Which, if you’ll allow me another dive into nostalgia, resulted in the following playlist:

There are, of course, a smattering of subscribers to ‘C69’ who will have been present at many of the aforementioned ‘listening sessions’, so if I have misremembered, and missed, any obvious ‘favourites’ then I am confident somebody will put me right (but, let’s be clear, before anybody tries it, Judie Tzuke’s ‘sunset’ never darkened my deck!)

Remember, back on Saturday with ‘Track 18 - Don’t Know When but a Day is Gonna Come’.