My Vinyl Collection 179
U2 (2), Uncle Bonsai (2), The Undertones (2), Van Halen. From Ireland, Seattle, Ireland and New York City. Music history on the shelf. 33 rpm. Vinyl.
1212. U2, The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
1213. —-, The Joshua Tree (1987)
Joshua Tree went No. 1 in 20 countries, hitting the right knobs of empathy and spookiness, within an uncanny way of viewing America. The LP, released in March 1987, sold 235,000 copies in its first week, reached 25 million by the end of 2023. making it the fastest seller in British chart history. The record vaulted the North Ireland band into the big-time stadiums and was the highest-grossing North American tour of the year.
Lead man Bono, a member of the group since high school, parlayed his “Bono Vox” good voice into global political activism. Raising money to fight world poverty and help stop the AIDS epidemic. He was born Paul David Hewson in Dublin 1960; son of a Catholic father and a Protestant mother. He joined U2 in 1976, became the lead singer. By 1980 U2 had its first album in the stores, but it wasn’t until Joshua Tree that the band hit the large stage.
U2 has a history of changed styles, moving the electronic throttle in 1991's Achtung Baby, 1993's Zooropa and 1997’s Pop. Bono went back to his rocking roots in 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, which put the band back up front with the single "Beautiful Day.” Grammy for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) also won several Grammys. The lyrics have remain off center, the causes untraditional. The ultimate frontier Climate.
1214. Uncle Bonsai, A Lonely Grain of Corn (1984)
1215. —————-, Boys Want to Have Sex in the Morning (1986)
Billed “Nearly naked pop folk for everyone” Uncle Bonsai carried on in obscurity from 1981 to 1989, stopped being a band until 1998 then resumed into our present. Three part harmonies from two women and a man, accompanied only by the man’s third-wheel guitar. Arni Adler, Patrice O’Neill, Andrew Ratshin. Life love tightly tiered mightily rehearsed. Recently named “one of the 10 coolest things about Seattle.”
That because, “The group has achieved an almost cult status.The music ranges from irreverent to ironic, from satirical to sad. And despite the folk tag, their music defies categorization as it incorporates elements of jazz, pop, broadway, reggae, and classical.”
And then there’s this 1987 rave from The New York Times, “No other folk group has a vocal blend comparable to Uncle Bonsai. Songs about sexual manners and role-playing directly confront ticklish situations that one would not ordinarily expect to hear discussed in pop songs with honesty, delicacy and humor.”
Ratshin is the son of an opera singer, who began violin lessons at age seven. Living in New York City, he started writing songs and performing at coffee houses. He studied music at the Westchester Conservatory of Music and Marymount College. After leaving Bennington College in Vermont with a Music composition degree he moved to Seattle where he met Arni Adler and Ashley O’Keeffe, who turned out to also be Bennington grads. They three clicked together throughout the 80s, performed 250 original songs until in August 1989 then declared an end with a final show at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle before 8,000 people.
Rashtin started performing and recording solo as the Electric Bonsai Band: “it’s not electric, it’s not a band.” The original group reformed in 1998 and recently the trio did Andrew’s new 25-song cycle, Seven Sins, Seven Wonders, Seven Dwarfs.
A new compilation is also available, on CD, called, simply, ”The Family Feast: The Study of the Human Condition, First World Problems, and the Lasting Physiological and Psychological Effects of Eating Our Young.” It’s available somewhere.
The band will be playing in September at the Triple Door in Seattle for its 43rd Anniversary show.
1216. The Undertones, The Undertones (1979)
1217. ———————, Hypnotized (1980)
Despite performing against the backdrop of the Troubles in their home turf of Londonderry and across Northern Ireland, almost all the material heard herein has to do with the issues of hard core punkers, namely, teenage angst, lust and heartbreak. The ratings for the group are good, however, and my ear perked up when I revisited the record. AllMusic said guitarists John and Damian O'Neill "mated infectious guitar hooks to 1960s garage, 1970s glam rock, and Feargal Sharkey's signature vocal quaver.” He’s quavering all right, seemingly on the brink of suicide on “Girls Don’t Like It,” “Billy’s Third,” and “She’s a Runaround.”
The band lasted until 1983, with 13 singles and four studio albums. None of them were particularly popular outside the rough boy clubs.
1218. Van Halen, MCMLXXXIV (1984)
Just as the second half of the Reagan years drove us into depression, arrived the sixth studio album by the mental band Van Halen. More roar, more noodle, more strings left to suffer their wretched fate. This was the last Van Halen studio album to feature lead singer David Lee Roth until 2012, and is the final full length album to feature all four original bombers.
Eddie Van Halen, the band’s leader, is often touted as one of the greatest guitarists in rock history. He could play rapid arpeggios with two hands on the fretboard.
Born Amsterdam 1955, father a Dutch jazz pianist, mother from Java in the East Indies. The pair was harassed in the Netherlands as a mixed race couple and moved to the USA in 1962. There, in Pasadena, Calif., Eddie and brother Alex were considered "minority" and were bullied by whites with red necks. They began learning the piano, listening to Bach and Mozart before they were ten.
Eddie won first prize at a classical piano competition at Long Beach City College in 1967 but he gravitated toward rock and roll after listening to the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five. He wound up selling 80 million records, the 19th best-selling music group/artist of all time.
He died in October 2020 from throat cancer at age 65.