Bradley's Buzz

The Bubbatunes Vaults

For those of you that are wondering what a bubbatune is, let me explain, it's a whole series of CDR's I burned to give me the ultimate in listening pleasures. The mixed tape of a favorite artist on CD with complete artwork, chart information and a lot of pix. In some instances I made them because the band lacks a truly excellant greatest hits CD, or the band completely lacks a greatest hits package, or the album itself has yet to see the light of day on CD; in all cases, these are musicians and songs I really wanted on CD, so I went all out and gave the band's the kudos they deserve. Oh, and though you may see the illegality in some of it (damn you RIAA), is it my fault some of this has eluded the music stores so far? If anything else I always thought I'd use the artwork as a portfolio to get me a job as a artist on CD packages, but until then just sit back and let's revisit all of the bubbatunes. Some of these I haven't listened to in a long time and I have never ever listened to them in chronological order so this should be fun!

bub 01 Deborah Harry - DEBRAVACIOUS - THE SINGLES (1999)
The very first CDR compilation I ever made and the real props should go to Patrick of Orange Television, who taught me how to burn a CD in the first place. I wanted a collection of Debbie solo singles, something that hadn't been released yet at least state side, so we came up with Debravacious. Patrick did the original artwork including the cover shot and the back cover shot in the booklet which has a pic of Debbie from the 45 of "The Jam Was Moving" and includes three cleverly written quotes by Andy Warhol, Debbie and Marilyn Monroe. The songs themselves are all the singles version of every official single Debbie released. Also included are some singles that only saw the light of day in other countries or on promo version. The solo singles from her 4 main albums all made it here including the edited "Backfired", the Stock Aiken Waterman version of "In Love With Love" and the guitar clunky single version of "The Jam Was Moving." Also included are some unfamiliar to most like the jazzy ballad "Prelude to a Kiss" from the movie of the same name released only as a promo, "Summertime Blues" from the film That Night which was only released in Australia, "Der Enziger Weg" a German sung duet with Robert Jacks from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, and the 1999 century turning "I Want That Man - Almight Dub Mix" which was released in time for "the 21st century."

Track list
01. Backfired 02. The Jam Was Moving 03. Rush Rush 04. Feel The Spin 05. French Kissin' 06. Free To Fall 07. In Love With Love 08. Liar Liar 09. I Want That Man 10. Brite Side 11. Sweet & Low 12. Maybe For Sure 13. Well Did You Evah! (with Iggy Pop) 14. Prelude To A Kiss 15. Summertime Blues 16. I Can See Clearly 17. Strike Me Pink 18. Command + Obey (Groove Thing feat. Debbie Harry) 19. Der Einziger Weg (w/ Robert Jacks) 20. I Want That Man - Almighty Dub Mix Radio Edit

bub 02 Blondie - RIP IT TO SHREDS - THE SINGLES (2003)
Of course I love my Blondie and I love Blondie compilations and believe me there is a million and one to be found out there, however until my Rip It To Shreds came along there isn't one that contains all the actual singles. Most of the comps include all the same songs but leave off a lot of songs that were released as singles, so it was up to an avid fan like myself to come up with the ultimate in the Blondie singles discography. For these, because of time contraints only official singles were put on there, so any promo and Japanese etc. were left off and like the Debbie solo project, all songs are the singles versions. Rip It To Shreds includes all US and UK singles from the first album in 1976 through 2003's "Good Boys" from the second reunion album The Curse Of Blondie - this is a group of hits and sometime misses you won't find on one collection anywhere else but in my music room. As for the initial cover artwork, I found the awesome pic of Debbie with her back to the camera from a Rolling Stones cover article they did in 1979; it says so much without one word, always being the focus of Blondie, it's awesome to find a pic that though she still stands out front, it's the boys who back her who are staring at the camera and without them Blondie wouldn't be the awesome band they are/were.

Track List:
01. X Offender 02.In The Flesh 03. Rip Her To Shreds 04. Denis 05. (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear 06. Picture This 07. I'm Gonna Love You Too 08. Hanging On The Telephone 09. Heart Of Glass 10. Sunday Girl 11. One Way Or Another 12. Dreaming 13. Union City Blue 14. The Hardest Part 15. Atomic 16. Call Me 17. The Tide Is High 18. Rapture 19. Island Of Lost Souls 20. War Child 21. Maria 22. Nothing Is Real But The Girl 23. Good Boys

bub 03 Pat Benatar - THE SINGLES 1979-1981 (2003)
Of course where there's Debbie there's going to Pat; and once again Pat's singles compilations are hard to come by, mostly because she's had so many over her career. Debbie and Blondie can be separated but Patty Patty is a fire ball all of her own accord; so when I realized there was no way in hoo ha I was going to get all of her singles on to a single compilation I decided to separate her singles discography into several compilations and with that I decided to add her b-sides as well, just to keep the momentum going. So when listening to the Pat Benatar Bubbatunes The Singles collections, it's like listening to the actual 45, flipping it over and listening to both the A and B sides, it's all so cool and thanx to me, you don't actually have to get up and flip the record over. The Singles 1979-1981 is pretty self explanatory in it's title, here we have 18 cool Pat songs from her first three albums, including "Heartbreaker", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Fire & Ice" and the like, plus the uber cool b-sides that were on those classic singles like "Out-A-Touch", "Hard To Believe" and one of my all time favs "Rated X."

Track list:
(Highlighted tracks are the singles A-sides)
01. I Need A Lover 02. Rated X 03. If You Think You Know How To Love Me 04. So Sincere 05. Heartbreaker 06. My Clone Sleeps Alone 07. We Live For Love 08. You Better Run 09. Out-A-Touch 10. Hit Me With Your Best Shot 11. Prisoner Of Love 12. Treat Me Right 13. Never Wanna Leave You 14. Hell Is For Children 15. Fire And Ice 16. Hard To Believe 17. Promises In The Dark 18. Evil Genius

bub 04 Pat Benatar - THE SINGLES 1982-1985 (2003)
Part 2 in the 4 part The Singles series for my girl, this one follows our girl as she moves a little into new wave with her Get Nervous album, then slows the power crunching guitars down to a synth whimper for her Live From Earth and Tropico albums but those whimpers included such bombastic singles as "Love Is A Battlefield", "We Belong" and "Ooh Ooh Song", plus her earlier hits like "Shadows Of The Night" and "Little Too Late". The compilation also includes the single versions of "Temporary Heroes" which was released for radio and in Japan as a single and "Painted Desert" which was a German only single; and all of their B-sides of course; and on The Singles 1982-1985 there's a bit of a rarity for most of Pat's B-sides were just songs pulled from the album where the single could be found but with the UK version of "Love Is A Battlefield" came the Metropolis soundtrack song "Here's My Heart" (the Leivas' fav Pat song), and from "Ooh Ooh Song" is the downright toe thumping Spanish version B-side "La Cancion Ooh Ooh."

Track list:
(Highlighted tracks are the singles A-sides)
01. Shadows Of The Night 02. The Victim 03. Anxiety (Get Nervous) 04. Little Too Late 05. Fight It Out 06.Looking For A Stranger 07. I'll Do It 08. Love Is A Battlefield 09. Hell Is For Children (live) 10. Here's My Heart 11. We Belong 12. Suburban King 13. Ooh Ooh Song 14. La Cancion Ooh Ooh 15. Temporary Heroes 16. Diamond Field 17. Painted Desert 18. The Outlaw Blues

bub 05 Pat Benatar - THE SINGLES 1985-1989 (2003)
I know we hit the 1985 year at the end of the previous installment but between then and now, a new album was released and the final singles released from Tropico (1984) were released in early 1985, but from "Painted Desert" in March we move into the summer of 1985 and a sort of return to form for Miss B - she still held onto the keyboards and synths but reintroduced the tough as nails guitar and drums that made her the rockinest chick on the block and it all began with the top ten single "Invincible" which is still as strong a song as it was back then, one of her best if I may be so bold, and you know I will be; then we venture into the singles that came from the Seven The Hard Way album including the bombardment of "Sex As A Weapon" and "Le Bel Age". Then a few years off for the new mother until the summer of 1988 when a true return to form came with the balls to the wall rocker of "All Fired Up" from the Wide Awake In Dreamland album. The Wide Awake album launched three more singles and though they didn't do much chart wise, the songs themselves are truly some of Pat's best.

Track list:
(Highlighted tracks are the singles A-sides)
01. Invincible 02. Sex As A Weapon 03. Red Vision 04. Le Bel Age 05. Walking In The Underground 06. All Fired Up 07. Cool Zero 08. Don't Walk Away 09. Lift 'Em On Up 10. Let's Stay Together 11. Wide Awake In Dreamland 12. One Love 13. The Outlaw Blues Remix

bub 06 Pat Benatar - THE SINGLES 1991-2003 (2003)
The leg of Pat's career thus far and the last in The Singles installment, this is probably the most varied of all the singles compilations as it was time of change for my Patty Patty; beginning with the blues album True Love from 1991, the singles are all downtown jump blues or rootsy bluesy rockers before she came back to the world of rock in an alterna-rock form for 1993's Gravity's Rainbow, one of her most overlooked albums but one of her best in my opinion and probably her only post-hey day album that should've been on the radio at all times; then her more acoustic side from her 1997 album Innamorata and finally another turn to the old rock style that made her famous in 2003's Go! plus you get rare b-sides not released on anything else like "Cry For Love" a live version of "Promises In The Dark" from 1993 with a kick ass final note you can't even believe and "Temptation". Sure, only a handful of these songs did anything chartwise and even that was in the UK, but that doesn't mean these songs aren't good because "Somebody's Baby" and "Everybody Lay Down" are awesome little tracks, this is probably the one you really want to listen to if you aren't familiar with any of the songs as I think everyone would be quite surprised to learn the girl hasn't lost a bit of her edge after all these years.

Track list:
(Highlighted tracks are the singles A-sides)
01. True Love 02. Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss 03. Evening 04. So Long 05. I Get Evil 06. Everybody Lay Down 07. Promises In The Dark (live '93) 08. Somebody's Baby 09. Temptation 10. Crazy 11. Strawberry Wine (Life Is Sweet) 12. Cry For Love 13. At This Time 14. Angry 15. Papa's Roses 16. Have It All

and there you have the first 6 in the Bubbatunes Catalog - stay tuned next time when you learn that I do know there are more musicians out there than just Deborah Harry and Pat Benatar.

posted by swivek @ 8:18 AM