SOUND BITES

Ah, the '80s: a time of excess, the world a neon wonderland where money flowed like champagne and cocaine flowed like money. Oh, and music videos were at the height of their influence, with MTV still playing them and all; as for me, MuchMusic was a raging addiction not unlike those Wall Street power junkies and their powder. By 1986, my consumption of the stuff was up to a solid four hours a day give or take, as I soaked in all that I could. I was an impressionable 10 year old kid with a proxy membership to Columbia House through my older siblings and, between that and regular trips to K-Mart and Zellers County Fair, my cassette collection was growing nicely. 1986 was a year of ups and downs for me; I was excelling at school and living a young and carefree life, but I was also in for the worst injury of my life to date. On December 1st, a snowmobiling mishap (I was riding on back) ended up with both bones of my right ankle snapped. All told, I was bedridden for about a week an...

Somewhere along the way, record labels figured out what most businesses already knew: there were good and bad times to sell your wares. The Christmas shopping season was a given; there were also benefits to selling in spring (with Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation etc.) and early fall (as kids went back to school and parents started thinking about St. Nick). So, record labels developed a strong tendency to release what they considered their best shots at hit records during these peak selling weeks. If you look at a full year's worth of releases, you'll probably notice a glut in April, May, September and October. Which makes my collecting habit a somewhat boring proposition eight months of the year.