Twenty-five years ago, I was a senior at UC Berkeley, living in Cheney Hall, just south of the campus on Durant Avenue. Because I’d attended community college for two years before transferring, I was one of the few upperclassmen living in the dorms. This made me popular when party time rolled around, because I was also one of the few dorm residents who didn’t have to worry about having a fake I.D.
Cheney Hall was a co-ed dorm, but the 2nd floor was all male, and over the course of the year we had ourselves a pretty darn good time, If I do say so myself. There were several of us with decent stereo systems, and one of us (not me) with something quite a bit better than that – a state of the art, Bang & Olufsen set: turntable (you could pound on the damn thing, and the record still wouldn’t skip), receiver, pre-amp, speakers, the works. All of us that hung out together the most – Colin, Eric, Sutton, John, Don, Eric, Maria (no, she didn’t live on our floor), and me – were really into music. Our tastes varied widely – everything from AC/DC to ZZ Top, from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to Brian Eno to The Clash to The B-52s and back again, which led to some interesting arguments from time to time. For the most part, we made a real effort to get into the stuff that the others liked (though I may never forgive Colin for Haircut One Hundred) – which is probably the only reason that I own so many Brian Eno records today.
A year or so ago, John volunteered to put together a batch of CDs for all of us, provided that we were willing to put together a list of our favorites from that time and send him as many as we could to save him from having to go out and buy half the record store. From that effort, the “Cheney Hall Big Chill” list was born, a batch of songs that I can guarantee will be a good starter for a rockin’ party. Without further ado, the list:
AC/DC: Back In Black, You Shook Me All Night Long
The B-52s: Dance This Mess Around, Private Idaho, Mesopotamia. We saw the B-52s play at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, somehow managing to find our way to and from the BART station on both ends. We lived to tell the tale.
Laurie Anderson: O Superman. Boy, did this start some arguments. You either loved it, or thought it was an unmitigated piece of crap. Nothing in-between. I loved it.
The Blasters: No Other Girl
Blondie: Rapture
David Bowie: Heroes
The Clash: Lost In The Supermarket, Train In Vain, Rock The Casbah
Elvis Costello: Pump It Up
David Bowie and Queen: Under Pressure
Dead Kennedys: Holiday in Cambodia
Earth, Wind and Fire: Let’s Groove
English Beat: Mirror in the Bathroom, To Nice To Talk To
Brian Eno: Kings Lead Hat. I’m not sure that any of us at the time realized that “Kings Lead Hat” was an anagram for “Talking Heads.” Apparently, Eno’s idea of an inside joke.
J. Geils Band: Centerfold, Freeze Frame. I remember a football player, whose name escapes me, waking from a drunken slumber at 4 in the morning upon hearing the beginning of “Centerfold,” and running down the dorm halls naked as a jaybird, dancing like a crazy man. Pretty funny stuff.
Go Gos: Our Lips Are Sealed, We Got the Beat
Rick James: Super Freak
David Lindley: Don’t Look Back, Mercury Blues
Bob Marley: Jammin’
Orchestral Manouevers In The Dark: Enola Gay
Pretenders: Brass In Pocket
Prince: When You Were Mine, Controversy
Psychedelic Furs: Pretty in Pink, Into You Like A Train
Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated
Rolling Stones: Waiting For A Friend
Romantics: What I Like About You
Roxy Music: More Than This, Avalon, True To Life. "Avalon" was one of the last albums I bought in Berkeley, and one of my all-time favorites to this day. One of the clearest memories of my life is sitting in my dorm room, alone, right after having finished my last final, and listening to “True To Life.” I had no idea what would come next, but thankfully things have turned out OK.
Bruce Springsteen: Hungry Heart. This one wouldn’t have been my choice; I would have opted for “The River.” Oh well.
Talking Heads: Once In A Lifetime. I saw the Heads play Zellerbach Auditorium in October 1980; to this date one of the greatest shows of my lifetime. The English Beat opened, and I remember their aged saxophone player (“Saxa”) sitting in a folding chair, at the edge of the stage, blowing that horn and sounding as if he were 16 years old. The auditorium held only a couple of thousand people, and we had great seats – sixth row, if I recall. The band was in the midst of their first tour with the “big band,” although the personnel would change when they filmed the monumental “Stop Making Sense” a few years later. We were parked right in front of an absolutely immense speaker, and Adrian Belew’s guitar chords attacked our eardrums as if they were heat-seeking missiles from Hell. David Byrne hadn’t yet gotten comfortable with dressing up, and wore a plaid shirt and jeans. Awesome show.
Peter Tosh: Legalize It, Stepping Razor. The UC Theater, Winter 1982, a classic double bill: “The Harder They Come” and “Rockers.” You didn’t have to bring your own; all you had to do was breathe the air.
The Specials: A Message To You, Rudy
Tom Tom Club: Genius Of Love. We overplayed this one to the point where I still can't quite enjoy it today.
Wall of Voodoo: Mexican Radio
X: Soul Kitchen
There were a lot more, but this gives you an idea. You could certainly do worse.
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