X is often the scourge of the A to Z Challenge and X was particularly difficult for me in finding albums to match. That's when I have to be creative. I don't think I did too badly.
Gone are my albums by groups starting with the letter X. Gone because I never had any. But I had these...Links to the music are included throughout the post if you want to hear the music.
Okay, had to get creative with X as usual. Why these two albums? They each have ten songs which in Roman numerals is X. Works for me. What are the albums? Read on...
Celebrate the Son: A Collection of Contemporary Songs from the Heartland Family of Artists (1984) This is a label sampler album that includes songs like "Love Lifted Me" by Cindy Richardson and "Shout It Out" by Prodigal. This is an album I bought at a large discount book store on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville TN. I bought a bunch of albums that day and mentions of some of them appear throughout this series.
Tropical Palmeras de Tampico (@1975?) contains 10 (or X) songs like Los Mandados for example. This is a tropical style dance music from Mexico. I bought this album in a record store in Ciudad Acuna Mexico in 1976 at the same time I bought a copy of a War album (see the W post). It must have been relatively inexpensive since at that time I was watching my pennies. I seem to recall that they were playing this album loudly in the store while I was looking at albums. I must have been kind of moved by the music.
OXO (1983) could have gone under O, but look at all those X's on the cover. I'm not real sure where I bought this album, but most likely I got it in the late eighties. I probably got it at a discount bookstore like I mentioned above. I was buying a lot of things at those bookstores back then. Seems like there were several in Knoxville and the surrounding areas. This is a pretty good album although I haven't listened to it enough for it to really sink in. But I used to see the "Whirly Girl" video on MTV a lot and grew to like that song. The video was pretty cool too.
Anything in this post you recognize? Is the X post usually a difficult one for you? Besides the group X are there any X artists you actually come up with?
Craig again,
ReplyDeleteI have a copy of Wild Gift from X, with Excene Cervenka.
I think I am either saving it for posterity or just to say I have an X album. It is a tremendous album, if early punk doesn't upset your sensibilities, and I should play it once in a while.
Craig, thanks for dealing with the Blogger screwiness to keep commenting.
DeleteI've never owned anything by X, but I used to watch some of their concert performances on some late night show that used to be on cable in the eighties. They'd get pretty crazy. I can see keeping that album. I'm not sure about playing it other than on rare occasions.
Lee
Good selection for X. The OXO album cover is quite unusual. Not sure if I have heard these artists. Surprisingly I found Q and Y to be challenging. X was easy this year.
ReplyDeleteArchana, a lot of times the choice of theme can make certain letters more challenging. Time for creativity in those cases.
DeleteThe OXO cover is an ideal one considering the group's name. I think they were basically a one hit wonder sort of group. "Whirly Girl" is a fun sort of song.
Lee
Jamie here (I'm having the same trouble as Craig, and have not been commenting the last few days).
ReplyDeleteI began to wonder what you would come up with for this one.
Jamie, it appears that maybe Blogger has tinkered with their spam protection or something. Whatever they've done has impacted commenting. Thanks for storming through and managing a comment.
DeleteX is always a time for some creative thinking. Hard to find the words that begin with X that will fit into most A to Z themes.
Lee
Brilliant usage of X!!! Xow... I mean wow! Roman numerals X idea is so cool... Wish I would have read this post am hour ago when I published mine. I needed so many Xs as you know I did the silly thing of choosing to start every sentence of my post with the letter of the day!! Glad we are over it and how!
ReplyDeleteDamn, I love ur X idea... Will borrow next year!
https://momandideas.com
Mom, I've done the Roman numeral thing before. X can be so limiting if you just stick to regular words. Not many from which to choose! I've got to see how you tackled X now!
DeleteLee
X is the hobgoblin of the A to Z!
ReplyDeleteI have XTC in my collection and the X-Files soundtrack "Songs in the Key of X." ;)
Tim, XTC is a good one. I have a few of their albums on CD & cassette and have enjoyed them quite a bit.
DeleteLove the title of the X-Files Soundtrack. I am pretty sure that I have that album on CD, but apparently I haven't listened to it much if I don't remember for sure.
Lee
Good to know it's nothing personal between me and google.
ReplyDeleteTerrific way to muscle through the x pain ;-) I hadn't heard any of your choices (until I clicked the links) but I liked Los Mandados and OXO, both great dancing songs. Neither my cheat sheet nor Siri had any good suggestions for X. It usually is a tough one for me.
Something weird is going on in blog land. I keep hearing tales of folks who have been having trouble navigating of late.
DeleteGlad you were able to make it through the gates.
Lee
I've thought about someday doing an A to Z theme about albums or bands, but even I'm hard-pressed to think of any starting with the letter X. There are none in my personal collection, and I can't easily think of anyone or anything I'm aware of from the era of classic rock and pop, or even my childhood decade the Eighties. Maybe there's an artist whose name starts with X, like Xavier, Xenia, or Xanthe.
ReplyDeleteCarrie-Anne, no matter the A to Z theme anyone picks, X is almost always a bugbear. It's a time of creative thinking. A few previous commenters came up with some good choices. XTC, which I have on cassette and CD, is a particular favorite that I had forgotten about--but no vinyls by them so they didn't really fit into my theme.
DeleteLee
X can be challenging during the challenge
ReplyDeleteMike, Usually takes some creative bending of the A to Z premise.
DeleteLee