Alternative Weekend: Thanks Rob.C..., for all the Weird Music

Source

During the couple of years I knew Rob.C, the infamous Atari 8-bit cracker, I picked up more than many pieces of illegally cracked software in the form of music that was completely alien to my naive tender ears.

I wrote more about this extremely talented, yet eclectic character years ago on STEEM here. A trip to Rob's place was never predictable as you couldn't get to know the guy properly. If it wasn't his sheer aloofness, even with so-called friends it was his attention, which was tough to grasp even a sliver of.

Source
...'Rob.C's Menumakers are still littered around the internet, he was 'the cracker' in the UK when it came to the Atari 8-bit'...

Music was always playing in the large ramshackle house that was largely uncared for, and not just in Rob’s bedroom. It seemed the various other members of his family (were they members?), all had music blaring from different rooms.

A knock on the front door, never resulted in Rob opening it, but some seemingly random stranger who told me, 'just go up'. It could well have been a squat as far as I was concerned, but it oozed character and flavour.

How simple was life then, ripping off software and opening your ears to strange music not heard outside of your local HMV superstore.

Broken English – Marianne Faithfull (Broken English – 1979)

This likely came from hearing part of Marianne’s comeback album produced in 1979, which depicted a much changed vocal courtesy of laryngitis and copious amounts of drugs consumed in the previous ten years.

Gone was the sweet innocence of 'As Tears Go By', replaced with this raspy, broken, cracked voice that was heavily distinctive. I am far too young to remember the aforementioned 60’s hit but have since looked back on it noting the dramatic vocal differences.

Source
...'can you believe that raspy voice comes from this delicate flower?...

Having an extended fling with Mick Jagger does this to a girl…, I mean who did the Rolling Stones frontman not fuck during that period?

Broken English is a more accommodating, receptive, acceptable track than Why D’Ya Do It, which definitely got my attention with blatant lyrics such as 'Why did you let her suck your cock?'.

This was all a little excessive for the innocent me, a typical Duran Duran, Prince, Howard Jones, and Eurhythmics fan of 1984, and would help set me on a course of strange musical tastes. I bought the album and managed to get engrossed. I don’t think Marianne managed to better it.

The Crackdown – Cabaret Voltaire (The Crackdown – 1979)

This funky, electronic underground dance track full of strange noises was a major annoyance to me in 1984. I wanted the 'Rob.C version' but my efforts to find it were all in vain.

The internet was a pipe dream, so how could you find the mix you wanted and not the boring version without that 'swirling atmospheric synthesizer soundtrack' that went so down so well while throwing up in a toilet after over-smoking weed too strong for you to handle?

I bought the album, 'The Crackdown' from HMV, that place with weirdo staff, with long hair who listened to this strange music only to find it contained the 'wrong version' that was dull as dishwater. Let's face it, without that synthesizer overlay, the song would be overlong mediocre, humdrum, and tedious.

It wasn't until many years later, that I grabbed the 'good version'. By that time I knew only too well..., someone, somewhere..., cracks down.

Seen and Not Seen – Talking Heads (Remain in Light – 1980)

Not all of Rob.C's music had an impact on me. The Bauhaus I tried to like but couldn't get to grips with, same with WasNotWas, a name he would change his handle to eventually, presumably to protect his anonymity later when becoming an Atari ST cracker.

'Remain in Light' had a huge effect on me and resulted in Talking Heads gaining another fan very quickly. Having listened to the majority of the band's back catalogue this is by far their best material.

I do like songs that tell a story, even strange ones such as this about a man who metamorphoses into someone else, and using spoken lyrics.

The theme doesn't sound too great and it is certainly not Rap music. I think the background music suits its being upbeat as well as strange sounding.

I managed to pick up a bootleg tape of Talking Heads during the part of my life of a live concert by the band. It was an 'official' bootleg as close as they come, with a colour photocopied cover. I almost wore the tape out, it was that good. I wish I could find it.

I owe a lot to my old, unsociable, strange friend who opened up my world from the doldrums of pop into the weirdest, obscure music possible.

If I could find Rob.C, I would tell him, 'thanks for guiding me away from the path of cheesy musical mediocrity'. He’s probably still typing away in Hex and writing 6502 applications for 8-bit computers somewhere.

Guitar Image - Source

• Earn currency while you play and become a global Rock Star with Rising Star
• Own assets, and earn currency while playing one of the oldest, most established Crypto Games, Splinterlands

If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, rehive, engage me or all of these things.