Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual - 1984

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I'm sitting here looking at this post, and I have nothing to say.  Really.  Nothing good, nothing bad, nothing nothing.  My brain is still thinking about work, and I have family making noise around me and I just made that post on my Cure entry from yesterday...  And I can't think of a single damn thing to say.

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Let's see.  I've been binge watching "The 100" on Netflix and Star Wars "Rebels" on Disney XD (with my son on that one.)  Last night for supper I made Baked Chicken and Wild Rice with Cream of Mushroom Soup.  I've been trying to avoid listening to any of the political horse shite that's going on right now....  I didn't watch the Super Bowl.  Hmmmmmm......

All I can say about CL that I haven't already said in my previous posts about her is that this album was popular when I first started listening to music seriously.  It was girly and she had a squeekie voice, so she annoyed me a bit.  I obviously grew to like and respect her later.  She was like the good-girl Madonna.  I remember her "Dad" was in the WWF for a while, and she showed up ringside once or twice.  Funny stuff.

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I have recently gone through the websites that I peruse looking for "New" new music.  Like really new stuff.  and I don't know half the groups out there.  More than half.  I don't recognize names, songs, nothing.  I don't know any Lady Gaga songs, I don't know who this Thicke guy is, I haven't heard a Beyonce song, and I thought Justin Boober was still popular.  Am I that old?  Have I fallen out of the role of knowing the cutting edge of music and into the role of old man pining for better days?  And, if I have, is that so bad?

Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed that ever since the internet started exposing people to more diverse musics, the radio has become sort of secondary.  I feel that people are more apt to listen to Progressive Rock or 80s Jazz or Thrash Metal now, than they were 20 years ago.  People aren't as dependent on what the radio dial tells them to listen to anymore.  I'll say this, I haven't listened to FM radio in 20 years or more.  I think the exposure to more styles of music has allowed a resurgence in styles that were dying out, like Glam Metal and Hard Rock.  Artists are also able to garner exposure more through the internet without a label, sometimes, too.  Now, it's not up to the labels to decide what people will listen to, as much as the reverse.

Anyway, just diarrhea of the mouth (or fingers in this case)  Hope you enjoy Cyndi's first album.

Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual - 1984

Cyndi Lauper - True Colors - 1986

When I was a kid, Cyndi Lauper was just another artist whose songs fell in between the songs I liked to hear on the radio...  Slam.  I considered something of a joke, and for girls only.  Her first two hits, GJWHF and She-Bop sorta set that stage, you know?  Her dad comes out as some sorta wrestler guy for the WWF and what ever credibility she may have had for me was really not there any more at all...  Okay, okay.  I did enjoy her ballads.  All Through the Night, Time After Time, True Colors, and I Drove All Night were pretty good songs and I didn't turn them off when they came on the radio.

In 1996 she officially released her first GH compilation, and my girlfriend (now wife) wanted it for her birthday.  Jeez-a-loo.  Okay, I guess.  If that's what you want, I'm not going to deny you that.  It's not my CD.  So, we start listening to it, and I start remembering the tunes from my youth and I'm not hating it.  The CD became a regular staple of road trips and that was that....

Once the internet broke out big, somewhere along the line I downloaded her albums, I think, just to fill out my "Ultimate 80s Albums Collection."  I started burning discs at a rate unknown to man, with no real regard to exactly who or what.  This album (in it's proto-expanded form) was the first of her's that I burnt.  What a nugget!

I'm not going to recite her history, training, expertise and talent, as I'm not a Wiki.  I will recommend that you do go back and read a little about her, and her professional training, and you'll gain some respect and admiration for her.  Her weirdness and eccentricities add to her talent and creativity and the results are unique and spectacular.  Yes, the music does have that novel 80s sound, but the song writing is spot on, and her execution is commendable.

She's a talented lady, and I'll never doubt her again! 

This one, is for my lovely wife.  Just for you, sweetie!

Cyndi Lauper - True Colors - 1986