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http://www.dorktower.com/2009/06/30/why-glam-matters-to-me/ http://www.dorktower.com/?p=3918  Just in case anyone’s interested, here’s my iTunes Glam playlist. It’s been getting me through the last couple of days’ worth of work.
Most of the tracks are from a double CD I picked up in London, “The Best Glam Rock Album In The World…Ever.” It was pretty solid, but I added some extra Bowie, T-Rex, Slade and Sweet to the mix.
A few of the bands are crap. Mud, for instance. Even at the age of 12, I realized this was pretty fake stuff. But I left them in the mix as the entirety of this represents a very specific time and place in my life.
Glam is possibly why I always kept my taste for pop, even after Punk hit and blew me away. In a sense, it’s the music that defined me: some of these bands are the first groups that I ever realized MATTERED - that their music was BETTER, for some reason I couldn’t really define. This was IMPORTANT in a vague, palpable way that twelve-year-old me couldn’t put into words at the time.
When Punk hit, I was a bit older, and knew why it mattered. Years afterwards, I considered Punk the prime musical influence of my life. But it took “The Best Glam Rock Album In The World…Ever” to remind me of what had shaped my musical tastes a few years before.
Ending the mix, neither “Boston tea Party,” “Sound and Vision” nor “Blinded By The Light” are - technically - Glam, but I included them as bookends of a movement that in some parts evolved and in others faded surprisingly quickly. In the same mindset, I could have just as easily have thrown the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The UK” as the ending track, with its blazing chords a direct descendant of the heavy guitars of glam (physically, if not philosophically). England had moved from Cockney Rebel to Cockney Rejects, but roots were shared.
Like finding forgotten photos of a first girlfriend, “The Best Glam Rock Album In The World…Ever” helped me to realize that my first musical love was was a LOT hotter than I remembered.
And every now and then, it still gets me through the days.
Come on. Feel the noise.
THE RADIO MUSKRAT GLAM PLAYLIST
Killer Queen - Queen
Blockbuster - Sweet
All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
John, I’m Only Dancing - David Bowie
Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
Children Of The Revolution - T.Rex
Elected - Alice Cooper
Mama Weer All Crazy Now - Slade
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us - Sparks
Let’s Stick Together - Bryan Ferry
Radar Love - Golden Earring
The Man Who Sold The World - Lulu
Space Oddity - David Bowie
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Perfect Day - Lou Reed
10538 Overture - Electric Light Orchestra
Ball Park Incident - Roy Wood’s Wizzard
Rock On - David Essex
I’m the Leader of the Gang - Gary Glitter
Little Willy - Sweet
See My Baby Jive - Roy Wood’s Wizzard
All The Way From Memphis - Mott The Hoople
20th Century Boy - T.Rex
The Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Tiger Feet - Mud
Life On Mars - David Bowie
Devilgate Drive - Suzi Quatro
All Because Of You - Geordie
Gudbuy T’Jane - Slade
Personality Crisis - New York Dolls
Do The Strand - Roxy Music
Once Bitten Twice Shy - Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson
Cum On Feel The Noize - Slade
Motor Bikin’ - Chris Spedding
Seven Deadly Finns - Brian Eno
Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
Solid Gold Easy Action - T.Rex
Standing In The Road - Blackfoot Sue
Dyna-Mite - Mud
Angel Face - The Glitter Band
Starman David Bowie
Dance With The Devil Cozy Powell
Skweeze Me Pleeze Me Slade
New York Groove Hello
I Love Rock And Roll - The Arrows
Can The Can - Suzi Quatro
Do You Want to Touch Me - Gary Glitter
Boston Tea Party - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Fox On The Run - Sweet
Sound And Vision - David Bowie
Blinded By the Light - Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
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The Dork Tower scheduled for Today will go up tomorrow instead, I fear. technical problems. But I’m told in a couple of weeks DorkTower.com’s being moved to a new server, and things should be lightning fast. Fingers crossed…
John | 
