Another Record Haul

I promised I would arrive somewhere after sundown, and it was 20 minutes before that, so I made a stop at the nearest Hard Off. This in spite of feeling slight concern lately about my pace of album acquisition. But as always, I was glad I stopped by. Some albums that I would not expect to find again, and which I would want to acquire even at decent expense, were waiting for me.

I struggle to sufficiently express my love of this record. I became obsessed with the title track circa 2008. It completely enchanted me as I discovered it somewhere, maybe YouTube. The subject matter of reincarnation is downright bizarre for a country song. The atmosphere is almost spooky, but takes my emotions to an interesting place. And of course I can’t get enough of the voices of the four legends that make up The Highwaymen: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.

Edit: Here is a podcast in which the man who wrote “Highwayman,” Jimmy Webb, talks about writing it. Fantastic.

The other tracks are variously good and hokey, which is just another kind of good.

This has nearly as many bangers as All ’n All. Just a stone-cold pleasurable listen.

In 1993 we moved from rural Washington state back to suburban Utah (which we had left four years previously). I was almost 14. I had had a lot of friends in Washington and now had virtually none in Utah. It was summer break, so there were few things to do or opportunities to meet other kids. For the previous Christmas I had received an alarm clock that included a cassette tape player. Our new house was much bigger than the previous one and I had my own room for the first time. A copy of Houses of the Holy was in the house, I think acquired from an older friend of my sister’s, though the history is murky. Maybe it was in a not-yet-unpacked box that I rifled through. I can’t remember. But after finding it, out of sheer boredom, I put it in the player and got my first delicious taste of Led Zeppelin. People who take their own music tastes seriously will say that this was not the right Led Zeppelin album to start out with or to end up loving unconditionally forever. I have no excuse to offer these types, but I am also thankfully not one of them. Music associated with strong memories, no matter how lucky or undeserving it might be to have become so, is in the end the greatest music. And HotH is also actually great. I listened to it on endless repeat (a nifty feature of the alarm clock cassette tape player) most of that summer in my new own bedroom. I can remember feeling the bit of dry summer heat trying to get in through the west Oquirrh Mountains-facing window while the floor vent pumped out ice cold air through a square cut into light brown carpet. I would hear siblings come and go as they reunited with their friends and resumed social lives. I would explore our new backyard or the weird old building there that even had a basement in it, which I maybe ever entered once. I would explore the enormous house and its rooms too. But in my memories I mostly listened to that album. Pretty soon after that I met some of my greatest lifelong friends and life progressed apace. The time alone in that room is not a sad memory. It is a moment when life was stopped but poised to move forward. So listening to Houses of the Holy alone in my office yesterday with a very hot day burning on outside and my air conditioner blowing pleasantly cool air brought me instantly back to the strange and impressionable and liminal summer of 1993.

This album was cheap, at maybe 550 yen. It includes the track “Steal Away,” which is highly entertaining and also the most brazen of the many Doobie Bounce appropriations. It also features Zack-favorite Bill LaBounty on keys. Zack’s love of Bill LaBounty brings me immense joy.

Although I know full well it isn’t quite at (but also not so far below) the level of Themes and Variations from “Taxi”, I love the sound and—how can I put it—fearless be-yourselfness of Bob James. Happily his instrumentals are also very productive as work background music.

Another album that is huge in my memories. If I remember right, either Scott or Rob—not sure which older brother—brought it into the house in CD form. As they went abroad and left it behind, I listened to Stardust a ton while driving between Salt Lake and Ephraim during my single year “studying” at Snow College, before leaving for Japan in 1998. It is Willie Nelson singing various American standards, such as the title track. Many of these standards were introduced to me through the album, so Willie’s version, right or wrong, is the original in my mind. It is expertly produced and very pleasant for a Willie Nelson fan.

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