Through the Past Dorkily: Flick of the Switch

Editor's note: Through the Past Dorkily is a recurring feature that looks back at the embarrassingly dorky diary I kept as a 16-year-old in 1984.

Sunday, January 29, 1984

Today was just yer basic boring day, part II. Drove today from the hardware store in Kingston to Ames in Plaistow. I saw [cute girl] at the plaza (hardware store). Yumm.

Came home, had lunch, played some hockey with JP for a couple of hours. Came in, had dinner, listened to new AC/DC album (Flick of the Switch) that I got from Columbia yesterday. Good record. Then I listened to Heavy Metal From Hell. Tony Beradini said that Saxon might be the opening act for Judas Priest in March. I saw a new Saxon 12" single at Midland Records yesterday called "Sailing to America." It's from a new album called Crusaders. Haven't seen that yet.

Well, seeya later. 

- The (bored, again) Barbarian

Postscript: The "Columbia" I refer to above is, of course, the Columbia House Record Club, which was how I built up my music collection. Pretty sure I signed up for one of those 11 records for a penny deals when we lived out in Washington state. Of course, it was a scam because you didn't pay squat for the first bunch of albums but then they charged through the nose for the subsequent ones that came every month; you had to be on the ball and return the form saying you didn't want that particular selection. After a while, they started having sales that at least made some things worth buying, like box sets. I joined RCA's club, too. Of course, they skimped on the packaging, too, so you often didn't get the lyric sheets that would normally come with an album because they were mass-producing records on the cheap. Amazingly, Columbia House somehow survived until 2011 before finally shutting down. 

Listening to "Flick of the Switch" below just now, I was struck at how it was almost identical to "Have a Drink on Me" from Back in Black. Totally forgot that they often just rewrote songs. Still pretty kickass, though.