The Great Eighties Playlist Project in Now Complete.

Well, it seemed to take forever but I'm finally finished with my Eighties playlist project. These things take time, OK? Perfection can't be hurried.

1987 Alternative Rock Top 40

1987 was a turning point for Eighties rock: Boomercentric classic rock was starting to fade again after getting a big corporate push in the mid-Eighties, GenX metal and alternative rock were on the ascendancy, and the Top 40 was rapidly losing the luster it had just three years prior.

Talking Synchronicity (and the Year That Broke Reality)

Secret Sun Radio Mystery Hour: You Will Know Synchronicity by Christopher Knowles

How 1983's blockbuster album helped break reality.

Read on Substack

Opening Presence (Led Zeppelin's Presence, That Is)

Presence is an album a lot of Led Zeppelin fans don’t own, and even a lot of those that do don’t listen to it very often. 

The Siren In the Stars: Jeff Buckley's Birth Chart...and more.

Siren Week was so active this time around that it's bleeding over into this week. So much so that our man Karl is on the case with the birth charts of the Shepherd Boy and other major players.

Hell Hath No Fury (Like a Madonna Scorned)

 

Seeing as she has been such a primary vector and conduit for metaphysical evil and cultural degeneracy for the past forty years, it's no surprise that Madonna would play a role in the mythopoetic magical mystery play of the Siren. 

Eatin' to the Eighties: Your Summer Party Megamix has Arrived

From the cities to the suburbs to the countryside, I hear the people shout it out everywhere I go: "The Twenty-First Century sucks - how can we go back to the Eighties?"

Remembering Ian Curtis and Chris Cornell

 

Check this elegy for the Horned Christ here: https://thesecretsun.substack.com/p/bitten-by-the-black-dog

Robert Fripp, Sorcerer of Sound

Robert Fripp has been ripping the guitar apart and putting it all back together wrong for almost 60 years. He never got the memo that "progressive rock" is just a label, that it's not actually supposed to progress... 

Secret Sun Hit Parade: 77 from 1977

Continuing with my yearly playlists, we have the pivotal year of 1977. Disco and punk rock may have gotten all the headlines that year, but regular old rock and roll was still moving units...

Farewell, Prince Dionysus

 

We lost Prince and Vanity in 2016

As we observe the tenth anniversary of Prince's passing, here is the elegy I wrote for him...

Somebody Got Murdered

It seems like only yesterday, but Kurt Cobain's corpse was found thirty-two years ago today at his home in Seattle. 

Feast at Easter

 

You know, there's ten trillion songs about Christmas - most of them awful - but where's the love for Easter? You'd figure there'd be more, and not just the obligatory Peter Cottontail kind of thing.

Dave Grohl Lays the Pipe, Pays the Piper

We live in a very weird time when not only are we somehow shocked that a rock star is running around cheating on his wife, we're somehow shocked that Dave Grohl is running around cheating on his wife.

Bay City Rollers: The Dark Side of the Tartan

 

Seventies cheese doesn't get any more cheddary than the Bay City Rollers, but they also helped lay the groundwork for the Power Pop movement to come. And for that we must be thankful.

The Road to Shambala

The first album I ever got for myself was Cyan by Three Dog Night, just to show old I really am. I asked for it for Christmas because my favorite song at the time was "Shambala."

Insanely Great Songs You've Probably Never Heard, part 1

The music industry as we once knew it was a cruel and fickle beast, often pushing mediocre (but pliable) artists while suppressing great (but more unpredictable) ones. 

Steve Albini: The Jeffrey Epstein of Alt. Rock

I came of age in a time when record producers had become just as important as the artists they worked with. 

An Elegy for Eddie (Van Halen)

In honor of Eddie Van Halen's heavenly birthday, here's the elegy I wrote for him soon after he ascended...

The Playlist That Broke Reality

The 1983 playlist was just completed and is embedded up top for your nostalgia-drenched listening pleasure.

It's mostly mainstream kind of stuff, so I'm linking to these other lists if you want to get a little more esoteric with your Music that Broke Reality experience:

1983 College Rock

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1cBaBWCCy17oRDspm9Pie5?si=f4376c033e964f68

1983 Electronic/Art

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2AC7z4diyFsE5vd6If3sYQ?si=e24fb740580c40c6

1983 Metal and Punk

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xrEnxcLmR46tPCUwM34fK?si=21aeb3634b9441b4

Speaking of the Year that Broke Reality, don't forget the recent Secret Sun Radio Mystery Hour on Synchronicity with Dr. Jones!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/secret-sun-radio-147609886

David Bowie: The Starman, Returned to the Sky

In observance of the tenth anniversary of Bowie's return to the stars, I am posting the eulogy I wrote on that fateful day...

David Bowie, and the Last Rock 'n' Roll Album

In observance of Bowie's birthday, I am reposting a long-lost epic review/essay on the Thin White Duke's 2013 comeback album, The Next Day. Dig in...

Discharge: The Hardest of the Hardcore

There have been bands faster than Discharge. There have been bands who played at higher volumes. There have been bands that have played at a greater intensity for a longer period of time than Discharge. 

Scottish Sunday: It Really Does.

Note: I've been doing a lot of housecleaning at the Mothership and will be transferring all the music-related posts here. Here's one from 2006.

When I talk about the Scottish knack for making music that digs deep into my soul, Nazareth's definitive version of the Everly Brothers' standard "Love Hurts" is one of the songs I am thinking about.