Jake Starr's Monthly Harangue

January 2003:
A Trip Through My "Special" Record Collection!

My name is Jake Starr and I'm the singer in the rock-n-roll band Adam West. After hogging all the bandwidth on labruta.com last month with the tales of my adventures in Suomi with the Hellacopters, I thought that I would give you all a break this month and go easy on all of you. I'm going to talk about a special section of my record collection that you all need to know about.

This is the part of my collection I only speak about with my "special" friends:

Village People Live LP: This is one of the best recorded live LPs of all time. Just imagine, you get to hear all your favorite VP songs done live. You can almost smell the poppers and KY Jelly as this LP spins, spins, spins. Kudos for the rap after "In the Navy." "Did we get any new recruits out there?"

Bronski Beat's "Small Town Boy": Back in the mid 1980s, I was struggling with my "identity" when I happened to see a video for this song and my life was changed forever. Seeing Jimmy Sommerville "come to grips" with the harassment he received at his "coming out" party gave me the strength to carry on. I still have dreams about the pool scene.

The Human League's "Don't You Want Me Baby": I WAS working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. That much is true!

Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)": This is the song I first danced to with my significant other. I was so into this band that I grew out my hair like singer Pete Burns. I've been enamored with this song ever since.

OMD's "Enola Gay": I used to think this tune was about the American bomber that dropped the A Bomb on Hiroshima, but one of my more "in the know" friends hipped me to the fact that this song was about parties, parties and, did I mention it? Parties!

Soft Cell's "Tainted Love": Who can forget the first time they were dumped by their partner? This tune always makes me think of a special weekend I spent at Fire Island in the late 1980s. The beach was great, the parties spectacular and the passion, oh, the passion!

Marc Almond: Anything by this torch singer still gets me lubed. Marc, go on tour again . . . please!

I'm sure there are other songs and artists in that special area of my collection. It's not just MC5 and Stooges, ya know?

See ya all soon (when things revert to "normal").