Assume Nothing: So what were they?

My Eurythmics collection is mainly proper plastic - vinyl, and because of that largely sits in my old bedroom waiting for me to come home and choose it as part of my jukebox choices for the brief time I am home and in my room long enough to check out the stylus on my midi stereo system. (Which still belts out a good record even now! Loud and bassy!). I do have 2 albums ('Sweet Dreams' & 'Revenge') on cassette but for some reason they got played less even when I was home. Recently 'The Miracle of Love' had popped up on a random play. It sent me back to my Eurythmics compilation album. Then I had tunes in my head from the proper LP days.
Below are the records I wanted to have with me, these are the vinyl records at home. My cassette players here are all broken so my recorded versions gathers dust....and Amazon duly obliged at a fraction of the price of Zavvi...

'Touch' (1983)

'Here Comes The Rain Again'. Probably the song that got me into Annie and Dave. I always admired Ms Lennox and her red/ginger short hair and fiercely wanted to look like that. Strong, individual and yet still stunningly beautiful. I never reached Annie's effortless beauty but I would go on to have short black, and later still, quite red hair in later years.

'The language of love
Has left me stony grey
Tongue tied and twisted
At the price I've had to pay'

'Savage' (1987)

Ah that wig! That make up! This was my favourite for a long while until 'We Too Are One' came out. That said they are both so different that rank equal fav's now. 'Shame' and 'Savage' were the most played tracks. Followed closely by 'Put The Blame On Me'; 'Wide Eyed Girl' and 'I Need You'.

Oh and a true belter which fits my ideals perfectly! 'I Need A Man'

Lyrics? Tune? Atmosphere? I think a combination of all three kept me hooked. By now I was 14 and hormones and 'boys' were becoming a theme. Sunday afternoon football, tea making at half time. Oh dearie me. All girl schools really do accentuate such issues and I was at an all girl school from 11 to 18! I had an inner sense I was somehow sophisticated and an individual. I was certainly an individual - freak they probably thought! I had such a great imagination and believed if I wrote the right words in a letter I would succeed in finding true love. I didn't. Haven't. But do retain friends from those days, and to be fair I have aged far better than they. This then suggests I was swayed to the lyrics.

A part of me still thinks it's the way forward too - but age and experience suggests otherwise.

'Take me to a dark room
And hug me to bits
I just wanna be kissed so badly
Right there
On my lips...'

We Too Are One (1989)

I listened to this album when I last went home, Easter Weekend. As I have grown I have identified with Ms Lennox and her lyrics, especially her solo efforts. 'Bare' being totally raw and emotion charged. This was the Eurythmics album, for me at least, which started to take emotion a little deeper in the songs. '[My My] Baby's Gonna Cry...'; 'Angel', 'Don't Ask Me Why' and 'We Two Are One'. I sang my heart out - something no doubt my parents cringed at and something I certainly haven't done for a long long time.

'How long
Will your love
Hold on
To stay strong'

Madonna - 'Bedtime Stories' (1994)

Ah Madonna. 'Bedtime Stories'. Vincent. Whenever I hear songs from this I think of walking across Victoria Park in the sunshine, Mosquito Coast, mini travellers, April Fool's Day, Leicester City vs Palace, the best student house I had ever lived in and the telephone table by the front door. When would that phone ring? 1994-95, tho mainly 1995, the year of extra University - paid for. The year I discovered who I was. The year I fell in love with a real person. The year I bounced around with inner joy and hormones raged with fulfilled lust. This album back lit it all.

I changed the record when it all went slightly less sunny or joyous. Not sure I have bounced around quite so freely like that since. Dis-trusting and the seeds of cynicism planted.

Seal - 'Human Beings' (1998)