1981 (mix CD of every year of my life series):
1. Start Me Up (The Rolling Stones)
2. Limelight (Rush)
3. Shake It Up (The Cars)
4. Down Under (Men At Work)
5. Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
6. Our Lips Are Sealed (The Go-Go's)
7. Bringing on the Heartbreak (Def Leppard)
8. Gloria (U2)
9. Me and Sarah Jane (Genesis) (audio only (official))
10. I've Loved These Days (live) (Billy Joel) (audio only (official))
11. Tempted (Squeeze)
12. I Can't Stand It (Eric Clapton) (audio only (official))
13. "Dirty Movies" (Van Halen) (audio only)
14. Indiscipline (King Crimson) (audio only (official))
15. I'm Not Moving (Phil Collins) (audio only (official))
16. One World (Not Three) (The Police) (unofficial upload) (official audio)
17. For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) (AC/DC)
18. Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osbourne) (audio only (official))
19. Better Things (The Kinks) (audio only (official))

1980:
1. I Will Follow (U2)
2. Spirit of Radio (Rush) (audio only (official))
3. Towers of London (XTC) (unofficial upload)
4. Games Without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel)
5. She's So Cold (The Rolling Stones)
6. C調言葉に御用心 (C-Chou Kotoba ni Goyoujin) (Southern All-Stars) (audio only (official))
7. Another Nail In My Heart (Squeeze)

8. I'm Alright (Kenny Loggins) (audio only (official))

9. Private Idaho (B-52's)
10. Coming Up (Paul McCartney)
11. Back in Black (AC/DC)
12. Mr. Crowley (Ozzy Osbourne)
13. Cul-De-Sac (Genesis) (audio only (official))
14. Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townshend)
15. Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
16. Don't Stand So Close To Me (The Police)
17. Romeo & Juliet (Dire Straits)
18. Hungry Heart (Bruce Springsteen)
19. Watching the Wheels (John Lennon)

The only song I was listening to at the time was Paul McCartney's "Coming Up". Catchy little ditty. I had no idea who The Beatles were at this point. Summer 1980 my parents sent me and my brothers to Taiwan for the first time, and it was in a record store in Kaohsiung that I bought cheap, local bootleg pressings of McCartney II and a few others that weren't even in proper sleeves.

The Rolling Stones' "She's So Cold" was the song that made me want to play guitar.

1979:
1. My Sharona (The Knack)
2. Dreaming (Blondie)
3. Oliver's Army (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
4. Is She Really Going Out With Him? (Joe Jackson) (audio only)
5. Cruel to be Kind (Nick Lowe)
6. Danny's All-Star Joint (Rickie Lee Jones) (audio only)
7. Life During Wartime (Talking Heads) (unofficial upload?)
8. I Want You to Want Me (live) (Cheap Trick)
9. Love You Inside Out (The Bee Gees) (official audio)
10. Babe (Styx)
11. Shine a Little Love (Electric Light Orchestra)
12. The Logical Song (Supertramp)
13. Ride Natty Ride (Bob Marley & the Wailers) (official audio)
14. Tusk (Fleetwood Mac)
15. Fool in the Rain (Led Zeppelin) (official audio)
16. Dance the Night Away (Van Halen) (unofficial upload?)
17. Message in a Bottle (The Police)
18. Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd) (official audio)
19. いとしのエリー (Itoshi no Eri) (Southern All-Stars)

I think I owned a bunch of these LPs at the time. The Knack, Cheap Trick at Budokan, Styx's Cornerstone, ELO's Discovery, Supertramp's Breakfast in America. That's quite a lot for a kid with my parents to have, so this may have been the period where I was stealing $10 bills from my parents to buy records. I've mentioned elsewhere I never got caught but I wonder if they knew. Sometimes I think they knew, other times I think there's no way they would've let me get away with it. I was pilfering from my mother's purse and she wasn't the type to keep track of exactly how much cash she had. If it was from my father, I would've been caught the first time.

The closing Southern All-Stars track is, I think, the first Asian entry to these mix CDs. I first heard the track after Shiho went back to Japan in 1986 and we started sending each other cassette letters as well as mix tapes. Southern All-Stars is simply the biggest rock band from Japan. They debuted in 1978 and Itoshi no Eri is arguably their most enduring hit. Ray Charles even covered the song as Ellie My Love with English lyrics.

1978:
1. Don't Look Back (Boston)
2. D.I.Y. (Peter Gabriel) (official audio)
3. Shattered (The Rolling Stones)
4. Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits)
5. Life's Been Good (Joe Walsh)
6. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
7. A Rock and Roll Fantasy (The Kinks) (official audio)
8. An Everlasting Love (Andy Gibb) (audio only)
9. Summer Nights ("Grease") (unofficial upload)
10. Lady (Little River Band)
11. Pump It Up (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
12. One Way or Another (Blondie) (official audio)
13. Roxanne (The Police)
14. My Life (Billy Joel)
15. Bicycle Race (Queen)
16. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (Van Halen) (audio only)
17. War/No More Trouble (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
18. Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush)
19. Follow You, Follow Me (Genesis)

The first two tracks of this mix work out rather well. On the Boston album, "Don't Look Back" segues into the next song so the file cuts off suddenly. On the Peter Gabriel album, "D.I.Y." starts immediately after the previous song. Burn them together with no gaps and it's a perfect segue.

"Shattered" was the hands-down pick from The Rolling Stones' Some Girls album, but I kinda wish I could've included Miss You, since it's referenced on my 1987 mix in Michael Hedges' "The Funky Avocado" ("Whattsa matter wit' you boy?", lol).

I loved the Andy Gibb song when I was a kid. It's a real-time inclusion, it was something I listened to at the time. Nine-ten years old, I always went to the radio when that song came on.

Billy Joel's 52nd Street was the second LP I ever bought, and I lose track after that. "My Life" was my theme song at the time. I actually felt that towards my parents, even though if you listen to the lyrics that doesn't make a whole lotta sense. I guess think pouty 9-year old. But whatever was my childhood trauma, it was apparently already going on, lol #2!

1974-1977