What's The Connection? Operator

Good luck explaining the cover to anyone under forty. Human telephone operators are basically gone, and the kind who could work a room and talk a stranger into a drink are not far behind. Even operators in the picking up people in bars sense are not really a thing anymore, are they? The Connection we make nowadays is probably by text or swiping one direction or another. I am not out there, so I have no idea which direction. Maybe you can tell me. Nobody gets put on hold anymore? They're just ghosted?

What's The Connection? Operator

01 The The - Helpline Operator

02 Bryan Ferry - All Night Operator

03 The White Stripes - Hello Operator

04 Bleep - The Operator

05 Tony & Tyrone - Please Operator

06 Was (Not Was) - Hello Operator

07 Stan Ridgway - Operator Help Me

08 Sade - Smooth Operator

09 Grateful Dead - Operator

10 Mikey Dread - Operator's Choice

11 Buzzcocks - Operator's Manual

12 Talking Heads - Dream Operator

13 Midnight Star - Operator

14 Pete Shelley - Telephone Operator

15 Mary Wells - Operator

16 Jim Croce - Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)

17 Real McCoy - Operator

18 Manhattan Transfer - Operator

19 Buckethead - Stun Operator

20 Keith Hampshire - Big Time Operator

21 Zoot Money's Big Roll Band - Big Time Operator

Meat Loaf | Original Sin

Like yesterday this pick is imagining Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman actually made an album called Original Sin. In reality Steinman made it with a band he made that he called Pandora's Box. It was a decent album with a bunch of good songs. Several songs that Meat did later for his other albums. I left a couple of instrumentals and spoken word stuff that no one else did as Pandora's Box. There were a couple of covers, I put versions in that liked better. I remixed one of the covers. And Back To Hell. I put a couple of extra tracks in as a surprise and the ones I messed with in case you want the originals instead. You'll see. One extra track was the B-Side of a 12" (16 minutes long). Not for every day, but fun to listen to every now and then. I redid the cover. It's more in between styles of the original and what I imagine Meat Loaf would have used (Bat Out Of Hell influences).

Meat Loaf - Original Sin

01 Pandora's Box - The Invocation

02 Meat Loaf - Original Sin

03 Doors - Twentieth Century Fox (Original Sin Remix)

04 Love - My Little Red Book

04 Pandora's Box - Safe Sex

05 Meat Loaf - Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)

06 Meat Loaf - Back Into Hell-(Requiem Metal For) A Teenager In Love

07 Pandora's Box - I've Been Dreaming Up A Storm Lately

08 Meat Loaf & Marion Raven - It's All Coming Back To Me Now

09 Pandora's Box - The Opening Of The Box

10 Pandora's Box - The Want Ad

12 Meat Loaf - It Just Won't Quit

13 Pandora's Box - Pray Lewd

14 Meat Loaf - The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

Meat Loaf | Renegade Angel (Bad For Good)

In 1977 rock and roll was hit with a monster album by Meat Loaf (and Jim Steinman): Bat Out Of Hell. People wanted a followup album, but Meat Loaf was having issues (with his voice, his house, etc). Not important. But Steinman had an album pretty much written and was pressured to make the album. It took until 1981 to get released and he called it Bad For Good. It didn't do that badly, because people wanted it, but Steinman (and Rory Dodds and much of the same crew from Bat) wasn't Meat Loaf. Over the years after that album was released Meat recorded and released many of the songs on other albums. I always wondered what would the album sound like if they had released it together. This pick is as close as you will get. All the versions Meat did. Only two songs that he didn't quite do. One was The Storm (an instrumental) they did record an excerpt on Bat III. I put it here, but the Steinman album version is better, so it's here too. And the one song that never was redone: Dance In My Pants which kinda got panned and will remind you of another track in the first Bat. I put the Steinman version here. The Meat Loaf album was going to be called Renegade Angel, so that's what you get.

Meat Loaf | Renegade Angel (Bad For Good)

01 Meat Loaf - Seize The Night (The Storm Excerpt)

02 Jim Steinman - The Storm

03 Meat Loaf - Bad For Good

04 Meat Loaf - Wasted Youth

05 Meat Loaf - Lost Boys and Golden Girls

06 Meat Loaf featuring Jim Steinman - Stark Raving Love

07 Meat Loaf - Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire)

08 Meat Loaf - Surf's Up

09 Jim Steinman with Karla DeVito - Dance In My Pants

10 Meat Loaf - Left In The Dark

11 Meat Loaf - Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through

Ait

I really can't believe I am having two of these within days of each other after not having any for a while, but here you go another mixtape pick that belongs in the three letter category for me. More rock and roll and all of it around 92 bpm. These edits fit well together and are in camelot key order (I almost typed odor.) Oops! A couple of these were big hits, but much of it are secondary should be hits. None stink. No way whatsoever to be able to explain the title. I have no reasons but there is some rhyme in here. BTW, track 18 is not named properly (it is those guys, that's right) But it is also G3. Saw a version of G3 in concert. They were great, but it was a different version. It's always Joe, but the guys with him change.

Ait

01 Jefferson Starship - Love Too Good

02 Triumph - Fight the Good Fight

03 Spinal Tap - Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight

04 Sammy Hagar - Three Lock Box

05 Digger and the Pussycats - Coming to Get You

06 J Geils Band - Freeze-Frame

07 Black Sabbath - War Pigs

08 AC-DC - Back In Black

09 Beatles - I'm Down

10 Living Colour - Cult Of Personality

11 Sweet - The 6-Teens

12 Switchfoot - Out Of Control

13 The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind

14 The James Gang - Funk # 49

15 Kneel Dung & Psychotic Pony - Paid For By A King

16 Scorpions - Every Minute Every Day

17 Maroon 5 - How

18 Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson - My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

19 Pat Travers - I La La Love You

Bachman Family Pick

It's not any surprise band. I'm sure most people know of most of these tracks on this pick. It has not much to do with anything except that when I was teen, I joined the Columbia records club. They sent you a certain number of albums and then you had to buy a few more more over a period of the next year. One of my choices of the original 11 was BTO. I recognized a song and thought I would take a chance. After that I ended up getting the Guess Who. I ended up being a fan. These are some of the tracks that ended up in the family pick. You get the father, the son, the brother. They're from Canada: a place I've never been to. Almost, but didn't make it.

Bachman Family Pick

01 Guess Who - Laughing

02 Guess Who - American Woman

03 Guess Who - These Eyes

04 Guess Who - No Time

05 Guess Who - Undun

06 Brave Belt - Crazy Arms, Crazy Eyes

07 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Let It Ride

08 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Hey You

09 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

10 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Lookin' Out For No. 1

11 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business

12 Bachman Turner Overdrive - Blue Collar

13 Bachman Turner Overdrive - Gimme Your Money Please

14 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Roll On Down The Highway

15 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Take It Like A Man

16 Ironhorse - Sweet Lui-Louise

17 Union - Mainstreet U.S.A.

18 Randy Bachman - Prairie Town

19 Bachman & Turner - Rollin' Along

20 Tal Bachman - She's So High

hio

It's been a while since I have posted a three letter mixtape. As you know, I take a song or few and figure out how they work together. These are mostly all rock and roll songs and it started with Stevie and Common Ground both at about 107 bpm and in the key of 9A (camelot style). So every song on this pick is either 8B or 9A or 9B. Which means they all are key mixable. I sorted all the tracks by key and ascending BPM. All that means is that they should sound pretty good if you play it all in a row. I've listened now a few times and sure enough it does. Like usual the three letter title is random. Eyes closed and hit the keyboard.

hio

01 Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died

02 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner

03 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business

04 Haim - Rock N Roll Rules

05 Scorpions - The Zoo

06 Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

07 Darkside - Guitar Voodoo

08 Aerosmith with Run DMC - Walk This Way

09 Def Leppard - Rock Of Ages

10 Common Ground - This Is America

11 Stevie Nicks With Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

12 Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

13 Eagles - One Of These Nights

14 Tubes - She's A Beauty

15 The Byrds - Eight Miles High

16 Guess Who - Undun

17 Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time

18 Oasis - Roll With It

19 Question Mark And The Mysterians - Can't Get Enough Of You Baby

Crimson Blaze

Today is Dog Mom's day, so be sure to celebrate! It's also my brother's birthday. In unrelated news, the wormhole covers keep coming, and so do the wormhole mixtapes - even if nobody out there has cracked what the titles mean yet. This one leans hard into the early 80s, which wasn't really a plan so much as where the tracks kept landing. There's some cold wave, some post-punk, a little industrial edge, and then some mutant disco sneaks in and it doesn't even feel wrong. The pick here is the mood more than the genre. It's that slightly dangerous, slightly danceable feeling that a certain era did really well. And yes, Grandpa got his groove in there too.

Crimson Blaze

01 Sole Patrol - Step On It

02 The Tardy Disconesians - Grandpa Got The Groove

03 Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam (Hithouse Mix)

04 Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight

05 Mr Blackout Bean - Brewtal Awakening

06 Shriekback - My Spine (Is The Bass Line)

07 Voice Farm - Free Love

08 Don Armando's Second Avenue Rhumba Band - I'm An Indian, Too

09 Jaxine - Jack Me Free (Less Summer Mix)

10 The Cure - Hot Hot Hot!!!

11 Visage - Fade To Grey (12'' Version)

12 Depeche Mode - See You

13 Felix Da Housecat w-Miss Kittin - Silver Screen Shower Scene

14 Yello - The Race (Razormaid Remix)

15 ABC - Poison Arrow (US Jazz Mix)