Goin' Mainstream

...or: "I'm not strange, I'm just like you."
I do a lotta writing here about music I think is Strange or Overlooked or Deserves More Attention, but after reading recent posts like Drew's list of his faverite late-'60s/early-'70s albums (at http://drewsoddsandsods.blogspot.com/), it occurs 2 me mayB I haven't done enuf writing about music we probly all have in common & likely all love -- cos I'm convinced most "classic rock" fans have a very similar musical history, if U go back far enuf.
+ I recently heard from my best friend in highschool -- Jeff Mann, who I've mentioned B4 in this blog -- & he said he recently got round 2 buying summa the Strange Music that I & R mutual friend Don Vincent listened-2 back in the late '70s when the 3 of us shared an apartment 2gether -- specifically Yes, Camel & Gentle Giant. I congratulated Jeff on his efforts 2 keep up w/ the times -- & assured him that at least 1/2 of the stuff we useta hassle him about listening-2 back in the day ... both Don & I later Nded-up buying.
So here's a list (without critical comment) of summa the more "normal"-sounding music I've got in the house, stuff U'd probly Xpect 2 find in NE Dcent record collection. Turns out -- 2 my suprise -- the strange stuff makes up only mayB a 3rd of what I've got hanging around here. Summa this "mainstream" stuff I may love even more -- & play more often -- than summa that off-the-wall stuff I write about all the time. We'll C how mucha this stuff shocks ya, & then we can talk about that....
...of course, Strangeness is in the ear of the behearer. The Beatles did a lotta off-the-wall stuff. So did Fleetwood Mac -- try "Murrow's Rolling Over in His Grave," or much of TUSK. & have U heard Queen's "The Prophet's Song," or Blondie's "Angels on the Balcony" or "Victor"? I'll pick this up again later, but most "mainstream" acts have done some pretty strange stuff, sooner or later. & this blog has always mainly bn about the strange & overlooked.
Meanwhile, here's The List:

Beatles: Abbey Road, White Album, '62-'66, '67-'70, Revolver, Introducing (the album B4 "Meet the Beatles").
Led Zeppelin: IV, In Through the Out Door, Houses of the Holy, III, II.
Journey: Infinity, Escape, Evolution, Captured.
Moody Blues: "Classic 7," Long Distance Voyager.
Carpenters: Singles.
Jefferson Airplane: Worst of.
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Chronicle, Cosmo's Factory.
Jefferson Starship: Freedom at Point Zero, Earth.
Paul McCartney/Wings: Venus and Mars, Band on the Run.
Pretenders: 1st, II, Learning to Crawl.
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here.
Who: Who's Next, Quadrophenia, Face Dances, Thirty Years of Maximum R&B.
Beach Boys: Good Vibrations/Thirty Years of, Summer Days and Summer Nights, Party!, Best of, Best of Volume II.
Fleetwood Mac: Tusk, Mirage, Live, Rumours, Very Best of, Fleetwood Mac, Tango in the Night, Mystery to Me.
Rolling Stones: Tattoo You, Forty Licks.
Stevie Wonder: Number 1's, Best of.
Kansas: Leftoverture, Monolith, Audio Visions, Best of.
Yes: Yessongs, Going for the One, Drama, 90125.
Queen: A Night at the Opera, The Game, Jazz.
Police: Regatta De Blanc, Ghost in the Machine, Synchronicity, Every Breath You Take/The Singles.
Tears for Fears: Songs From the Big Chair.
Cars: 1st, Candy-O, Complete Greatest Hits.
INXS: Best of.
Bread: Best of, Best of Volume 2.
Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Greatest Hits 1970-2002, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player.
Cat Stevens: Teaser and the Firecat, Best of.
Al Stewart: Year of the Cat, Time Passages.
Simon and Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Bookends, Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme.
Chicago: VI, Greatest Hits.
Three Dog Night: Harmony, Golden Bisquits, Celebrate/The Three Dog Night Story.
Jethro Tull: Songs from the Wood, Minstrel in the Gallery, War Child, Stormwatch, M.U., Best of.
Dan Fogelberg: Phoenix, The Innocent Age, Souvenirs.
Bangles: Different Light, Everything.
Go-Go's: Beauty and the Beat, Vacation, Talk Show.
Neil Diamond: Classics/The Early Years.
Gordon Lightfoot: Gord's Gold, Sundown.
Norah Jones: Come Away With Me.
Partridge Family: Album, Up to Date, Sound Magazine.
Peter, Paul and Mary: Very Best of, Moving.
Mamas and Papas: Greatest Hits.
Lovin' Spoonful: Greatest Hits.
Grass Roots: Greatest Hits.
Monkees: 1st, More of, Headquarters, Pisces Aquarius Capricorn and Jones Ltd., Head, Greatest Hits.
Electric Light Orchestra: Out of the Blue.
Alan Parsons Project: I Robot, Eve, Best of.
Genesis: And Then There Were Three, Seconds Out, Abacab, Three Sides Live.
Phil Collins: Face Value.
Rush: Moving Pictures, Chronicles, Power Windows, A Show of Hands.
Steely Dan: Greatest, Gaucho, Pretzel Logic, Aja.
Cream: Best of.
Heart: Dreamboat Annie, Bebe Le Strange, Heart.
Hall and Oates: Voices.
Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes.
Pat Benatar: Crimes of Passion, Precious Time.
Katrina and the Waves: 1st.
Bananarama: 2nd.
Iron Butterfly: In-a-Gadda-da-Vida.
Supertramp: Breakfast in America, Crime of the Century, Even in the Quietest Moments.
Blondie: Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat, Autoamerican.
Missing Persons: Spring Session M.
Boston: 1st, Don't Look Back, Third Stage.
'Til Tuesday: Voices Carry.
Byrds: Greatest Hits.
Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune.
Bee Gees: Spirits Having Flown, Best of, Best of Volume II.
Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual, True Colors.
Christopher Cross: 1st.
Stevie Nicks: Bella Donna.
Seals & Crofts: Greatest Hits.
Doobie Brothers: Best of, Stampede.
Linda Ronstadt: Mad Love.
Steve Winwood: Arc of a Diver.
America: History.
Eagles: Greatest Hits.
Jackson Browne: The Pretender, Hold Out.
Men at Work: Business as Usual.
Bob Dylan: Greatest Hits.

...Not sure what all this proves, if nothing more than a LOT of my disposable income has gone 2 music over the last 35 yrs, & that U've got 2 start out SOMEPLACE, but....

(Delayed by torrential downpours, thunderstorms, & poor signal/connections, but finally completed & posted at 12:08 am 21 Dec 10.)