#0098 IRON DJ: 1984

An impenetrable, majestic fortress of some of the best songs, samples, and sounds from 1984.

As I started looking at songs, I realized that there was a ton of great music released in 1984, when I graduated high school. So much of it, though, falls into that category of “80s music.”  We hear it in elevators, barber shops, or shopping malls on any given day….all those songs that are compiled on hundreds of “Best of the 80s” CD compilations. So, I eliminated any of those right off the bat, with perhaps one or two exceptions, but exceptions that are so good, they justify their own existence on this mix. Many of the songs I listened to back then, but I heard a lot of them later in the 80s too. All songs were released in 1984. Besides too many big hits, I also kept away from some heavy favorites like Iron Maiden, Accept, and Priest and tried to include some different things (so that eliminated Aces High, Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had, and Jawbreaker).

At first I was trying to cram the songs I wanted into an hour long package. But then I thought about old cassette mix tapes. The ones that really sucked were the tapes that were 30 minutes on each side, or one hour mixes. 90 minute mix tapes were okay, but I really  liked 100 minute cassette mix tapes, which is the length that I ended up settling into over time. And so that’s what I made here. The longer format works for some mixes, and I think it works for this one too.

Hope you like it.

1. *Repo Man Theme (Instrumental) – Iggy Pop
2.  Death Ship – Hoodoo Gurus
3.   Wonderin’ – Neil Young**
4.  Wait – Wang Chung
5.  A Friend I Call Desire – Ultravox
6.  Got Me Under Pressure – ZZ Top ***
7.  Priestess – Wendy O. Williams
8.  Master and Servant – Depeche Mode
9.  Handsome Devil – The Smiths
10. Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
11. Pink Turns to Blue – Husker Du
12. Jam On It – Newcleus
13. Ivo – Cocteau Twins ****
14. Mama’s Boy – Ramones
15. It’s My Life – Talk Talk
16. Realization – The Art of Noise
17. Nobody’s Home – Deep Purple
18. I Would Die 4 U – Prince
19.  Stay the Night – Chicago
20. Snaggletooth – Motorhead
21. 88 Lines About 44 Women – The Nails*****
22. Maybe Partying Will Help – Minutemen
23. 99 Red Balloons – Nena
24.  Show Me – The Pretenders
25. Slippery People – Talking Heads******
26. Fight Fire With Fire – Metallica

*          Repo Man
**        Ghostbusters
***      Spinal Tap
****    Making the Grade
*****  The Man with Two Brains
****** Red Dawn

#0086 – Music for Melancholy

Melancholy is this show’s theme. More precisely, how music moves me from feeling melancholy to feeling more upbeat. We all feel melancholy from time to time, for many different reasons. Lost or unrequited love, loss of a dream, even a rainy day. whatever the reason we have all been there.

When I feel melancholy I like to first live with it for a while, then listen to songs that sweep the melancholy away.

Rock Island, WI at sunset

Move from feeling melancholy to . . .well. . . better

1. The Who – Melancholia
2. Neil Young – Birds
3. Patty Loveless – Sorrowful Angels
4. Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate
5. Ray Charles – A Fool for you
6. The Doors – The Changeling
7. Rolling Stones – Rocks Off
8. Steve Earl – Galway Girl
9. The Grateful Dead – Scarlet Begonias
10. The Allman Brothers – Blue Sky
11. The Ramones – California Sun

Canis lupus familiaris

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Archaeological evidence dates domesticated dogs living with Native Americans at least 14,000 years ago. I suspect one day they’ll find evidence going back a lot further. Just a hunch. But until then, here’s to 14,000 years of friendship!

This mix has a special bonus track for dogs (or just people who like frog calls). Play the track for your dog and you should see an interesting reaction.

  1. Lassie Come Home Trailer (1943)
  2. Snoopy vs. The Red Baron – Royal Guardsmen
  3. Canis lupus – The Aquabats
  4. Slow Dog – Belly
  5. Jesse – Paw
  6. George Carlin, from Carlin on Campus
  7. How Much is that Doggie in the Window – The Baja Marimba Band
  8. The Underdog – Spoon
  9. Do the Dog – The Specials
  10. MItch Fatel
  11. Dog House – The Legendary Hucklebucks
  12. Hound Dog – Big Mama Thornton
  13. Dirty Old Egg-Suckin’ Hound – Johnny Cash
  14. Brian Regan
  15. Dog Years – Rush
  16. Dogs and Chaplains – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
  17. Cheech & Chong
  18. Fido, Your Leash is too Long – The Magnetic Fields
  19. Move It On Over – Hank Williams
  20. Bad Day – Samiam
  21. George Carlin, from On the Road
  22. Pauly the Dog – Agnostic Front
  23. Old King – Neil Young
  24. 10 Dead Dogs – Wild Sweet Orange
  25. Every Dog Has Its Day – Flogging Molly
  26. Stray – Fetchin Bones
  27. I Wanna Be a Drug-Sniffing Dog – Lard
  28. SPECIAL BONUS TRACK FOR DOGS

NOTE: I have a hardware issue I’m working on but until then the drive crunches a bit and so there are a few glitches here and there throughout the mix, but nothing Earth-shattering. If I wait until I fix the problem it will be months before this mix is released, so just releasing as is. It’s not that bad.

#0057 – IRON DJ – This Mortal Coil

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KevinKevin – This mix just pretty much goes after the theme of life and death head-on.  Kafwacko.

Since I’m a technical rube, I cannot insert cool images into my post without bulbous blue borders or exploded text resulting.

  1. ELO – I’m Alive
  2. Missing Persons – Destination Unknown
  3. The Alarm – Strength
  4. Steve Martin (edit from Rambin’ Man)
  5. Jimmy Buffett – Cowboy in the Jungle
  6. Love & Rockets – No New Tale To Tell
  7. Bruce Springsteen – Candy’s Room
  8. Social Distortion – Story of my Life
  9. Gorilla Biscuits – Start Today
  10. Otep – Perfectly Flawed
  11. Neil Young – Dead Man, Round Stones Beneath the Earth/Guitar Solo # 5/Edit
  12. Morrissey – Margaret on the Guillotine
  13. Jaws of Life – The Way to Go Out
  14. Gary Numan – I Die: You Die
  15. The Fools – Life Sucks, Then You Die
  16. The Feelies – It’s Only Life
  17. Ralph Stanley — O Death
  18. Queen — Dead, All Dead