Retro Spins: Jane Wiedlin - Fur

 

Following the lukewarm reception of her self-titled debut, Jane Wiedlin would spend two years carefully crafting the tracks which would become 1988's Fur. The album would fare slightly better than its predacessor, peaking at one hundred five on the Billboard 200, and produce two singles, Inside A Dream, and Rush Hour. They'd peak at fifty-seven and nine on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

Fur would feature a more contemporary production to her previous debut album, leaning on programmed instrumentation supplemented with electric guitar and horns. This statement is the perfect segue for my listening session.

Overall, I just felt the album was far superior to her debut. It feels more polished, and it hits that sweet spot in my 80's sounding ears. Side one kicks off with the two noted hits, before jumping into One Heart One Dream, which kind of has a Madonna vibe to me. This then goes into Homeboy, which reminds my ears of Paula Abdul. I'm not saying that Wiedlin was channeling these artists, nor would I fault her if she was. These are all good tracks.

Side one, or rather, what would be side one if I wasn't listening to it on a CD, closes with the slower paced, The End Of Love. It's serviceable, but at the same time also slows down the momentum that was being built. Fortunately, the tempo quickly picks up with side two's opener, Lover's Night, and stays there with Give!

Ironically, the title track is the weakest among the bunch. It serves no purpose other than to preach that one shouldn't wear fur. I mean, that's a fine opinion to have, but at the same time, who cares?

Wiedlin would continue her solo career, releasing 1990's Tangled, and 2000's Kissproof World. She'd also reunite with the Go-Go's in a series of reunions throughout the 90's, and the band would release 2000's God Bless The Go-Go's, an album conceived by Wiedlin.

The Go-Go's announced a farewell tour in 2010, but this would be cancelled when Jane would suffer an accident while climbing. They'd try again in 2020, only to be halted again by the worldwide house arrest (AKA the "pandemic").

In 2021 the Go-Go's were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and formally announced their breakup in 2022. They would reunite a final time, or rather, their most recent, in 2024 for a one-off performance when inducted into the California Hall Of Fame. Wiedlin would return to her solo career, with her most recent tour concluding in 2025.

On a side note, ever since my Dirty Dozens posts of records for consideration of a spot on the wall, and subsequent tour of the room, I couldn't get something out of my head. That something was the itch to own all of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 80's albums on vinyl. Specifically, to own them and put them on the wall.

I would browse for them here and there, but then seeing that they were about $100.00 each, with exception of the UHF soundtrack, which was about four times that (for some reason), I simply passed on them. I wasn't going to pull the trigger if I wasn't going to feasibly afford the soundtrack.

Well, as fate would have it, I came across three very nice "buy it now" sales on ebay. The first was for his 1986 released Polka Party!, 1988's Even Worse, and 1989's UHF. The latter was slightly higher than I wanted to pay...well, all of them were higher than I "wanted" to pay, so I put an offer out for it. I was surprised that the seller took it, but ecstatic that he did. Even better was that not only did they all arrive in the mail the exact same day, but so too did my order of frames from Michaels. Everything just lined up from start to finish!

I decided that if I was going to make the purchase that I'd have to in turn make them all work on the wall without removing anything else. I mean, every record up there was so for a reason. So, off we went to the inevitable third row.

I also moved some things around. First and foremost, to allow all six of his albums to be next to each other. Secondly, to line up Bad with Even Worse.

I don't know why I couldn't let this one go, but itch officially scratched. Now, I mean it this time! No more records for the wall!

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.

Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

New House, New Rooms

This post has been a long time coming, but then again, this post has been a long time in the works. For those of you who may remember, I moved at the end of December 2024 to my girl and I's first home. Yup. We're homeowners now...Well, sort of. I suppose the bank owns the home for now.

I tell you, there's nothing like packing all your stuff up and physically moving it to really put into perspective just how much stuff one person can own. It's kind of sickening when you get down to the root of it. Don't get me wrong, I like my stuff as much as the next person likes theirs, but dang...When your "toys" alone take up an entire twenty foot U-Haul, it may be time to consider downsizing...Which I did...and almost went through with, but things fell through literally at the last minute. That's a story unto itself.

But, you're not here for the drama. If you're still reading at this point, presumably, it's because you want to see (as the title says) new house, new rooms. Come with me now as we enter The Music and Toy Den! Walk through the archway portal to a world of fun and excitement. A room you can walk through a hundred times, and each time see something you didn't see before.

I wanted to set my massive CD collection up to look like a library. One where you could pursue the shelf in front of you, but with a simple turn, have hundreds of more options to thumb through. A place where you could sit on the floor, and just comb through each piece of album artwork and their accompanying liner notes.

To tie this all together, I wanted rugs which represented music of the 80's. After searching and searching, I finally came across the website rughere. After going through page after page, I found their synthwave series, and immediately knew this is what I had been searching for. There were so many to choose from, but three were the winners in my book.

Madonna rug

Though the bread and butter of my music collection is 80's music, I had several totes full of 70's and prior, and 90's and beyond albums. I forced myself to go through these, and determine what I really needed and wanted to keep. Basically, I gave myself an ultimatum. If it wasn't good enough to put on the shelves, it didn't stay.

Michael Jackson rug

As you can see from the photos, the remaining shelf space is extremely limited, which means my CD buying either has to slow down considerably, or I need to reevaluate what's there, and make a decision as to what's more important. If it can't go on the shelf, it doesn't stay.

I do unfortunately lose about a foot in total of space on each shelf of the shelves along the wall for the sake of creating the "L" shape. In general, working within the confines of this space was difficult. I think I moved furniture around three or four times before finally settling on the current configuration.

Freddie Mercury rug

Butted up against the CD cases are my two shelves of G.I. Joe figures. About three or four years ago I purged myself of all vehicles and playsets from the line out of necessitation. We were moving from a rented townhouse to the rented house we were in prior to buying, and I just couldn't see disassembling and packing up the massive USS Flagg, Terrordrome, and Defiant Shuttle Complex, risking breaking them in the process. Instead, selling them ultimately funded in whole the moving process. The moral of the story being that at this point I only had the figures to contend with.

These figure stands used to have adhesive Velcro circles on them to stick them in place on the glass shelves and tiered stands. However, I quickly found that the adhesive on these had deteriorated greatly over the five+ years they were attached. With figures leaning or falling over, and / or dots coming off left and right, I opted to glue the stands down to the tiers. This ended up working perfectly. As you can see from the photos, each figure is still standing. Mind you, the figures aren't glued down. Just the stands.

Across from this section is my desk and computer, as well as my remaining shelves. To the right of the desk are my Star Wars and Batman (1989) cabinets, as well as my Crosley record / CD / tape / radio stereo.

Yeah, I get it, Crosley is a cheap player, sold primarily in Targets, and its selling point is the old time aesthetics finish. And, yes, I also understand audiophiles insist the record player damages records from its cheap needles. However, I like mine. It serves its purpose.

Gluing down the Joe stands worked so well that I decided to do this with the Star Wars figures as well.

Even before moving, I've never been happy with my Batman (1989) shelves. I just can't get them to look good. There are so many vehicles, and they're all bulky. They just don't leave enough room to appropriately set up the figures around them.

On top of the shelves are the few "larger" Star Wars items I've kept in my collection, Much like my Joe vehicles, I opted to part with my Star Wars ones. They simply took up too much space. The creatures, on the other hand, I consider to be very much a part of the line. Still need that Dewback.

To the left of my desk is my Masters Of The Universe collection. (not so) Fun fact. While setting these up, I bumped the shelf, knocking Dragstor from it. This is where I found out the figure was hollow, as it crashed to the ground, and erupted into a thousand shards of plastic. Fortunately, I caught the other figure which also fell, Rotaro. In hindsight, if one of them had to be replaced, I'd rather it be the ten dollar Dragstor than the three hundred dollar Rotaro. As of this writing, I've replaced him.

Also tucked on these shelves are my Remco Karate Kid figures, McDonald's Changeables, and Knight 2000 Kitt with Michael Knight.

At the top of the shelves sits my Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain, 40th Anniversary He-Man, and select autographed baseball items from my boss's son, Bryce Eldridge. He was one of the top prospect for the New York Giants in 2024. Another fun fact, my bosses dad was the Ben Eldridge from the bluegrass band The Seldom Scene.

Spread across the tops of the CD shelves are a ton of goodies to pursue through. These include the fantastic Marvel Universe Peg People created by George of G.I. Jigsaw.

I realized after taking this photo that Electro was going rogue, and Kraven was starting to follow suit.

On the shelves across from it are the only Classified figures I've kept, the three Cobra Commander with custom hoods that I got from my girl one year for my birthday. Also here are my autographed comic audio CD's, and Marvel Comic Book Collector's Gift. To its right is my autographed Marvel Try-Out Book, which will soon be in a frame.

The walls are adorned with my collection of autographed prints, commission pieces, autographed memorabilia, and a selection of favorite records.

For those of you who read my prior series of posts, you saw me compiling a list of albums to contend for a spot on the wall. The list was whittled down to:

Prince - 1999 (1982)
Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (1983)
Ghostbuster (1984)
The Cars - Heartbeat City (1984)
Jacksons - Victory (1984)
"Weird Al" Yankovic - In 3-D (1984)
Prince And The Revolution - Purple Rain (1984)
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party (1985)
USA For Africa - We Are The World (1985)
Prince And The Revolution - Around The World In A Day (1985)
Falco - Falco 3 (1985)
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Dare To Be Stupid (1985)
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet (1986)
Europe - The Final Countdown (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
Michael Jackson - Bad (1988)
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation (1987)
Def Leppard - Hysteria (1987)
Prince - Sign 'O' The Times (1987)
Roxette - Look Sharp (1988)
Bon Jovi - New Jersey (1988)
Aerosmith - Pump (1989)
Prince - Batman (1989)
Alice Cooper - Trash (1989)
Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989)

It was grueling, it was painful, it was disappointing that there wasn't room for all of them, but here are the winners. I also threw in an audible by adding Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, the only 70's album which will be bestowed that honor.

The Winners

Prince's 1999, Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day,
Sign 'O' The Times, and Batman,
Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad, Jacksons' Victory,
Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, and New Jersey

I am considering adding a second row of ten, much to the chagrin of my girl who says it would be overkill. Alternatively, I may just grab some other albums, and rotate things out periodically...Ah, who am I kidding. I'm not going to do the latter. There's more of a chance of me adding a second row then taking the time to rotate stuff around.

There were six albums that I really, REALLY, wanted to add to the wall, but dang it...Space...These were Def Leppard's Hysteria, Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction, Europe's The Final Countdown, Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual, Aerosmith's Pump, and Alice Cooper's Trash. I also really considered adding all of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 80's albums to the wall, but that decision came down to price. They were far more money than I wanted to spend.

Still, it turned out nice. Not a bad hanging job...if I do say so myself.

The Winners

Michael Jackson's Thriller, Bad, Jacksons' Victory,
Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, and New Jersey,
Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation, Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party,
"Weird Al" Yankovic's In 3-D, and Dare To Be Stupid,
Falco's Falco 3, and USA For Africa's We Are The World

Drapped over my chair is the MTV blanket my girl gave me when we moved in to the new place. She knew the motif for the room would be music, and wanted to contribute something special. She certainly did.

But, it wouldn't be my desk without a new stack of CD's ready to be incorporated into the shelf fold.

Last, but not least, are my overflow comic boxes, and small cabinet with Burger King Star Wars glasses. I had all of my comics in this area at first, but ended up moving them to open up the area with my CD's more, and also because the cases were sitting on my new Freddie Mercury rug, which I didn't like. If you scroll back up, you can see the indentations of them still on the right side of the rug. Hopefully they go away over time.

Tucked next to the cabinet are the few remaining prints I haven't hung up yet. Mainly because I don't know where I want to put them.

From here, we head out of the room, and around the corner to the Cartoons and Comics Lounge...AKA, the bedroom, where I had a shelf built specially for my vast collection of cartoons on DVD. Meanwhile, the doorway to the room is utilized to hang my 80's themed signed prints, and select cartoon related albums.

As soon as I took these photos, I added the above noted albums, as well as some DVD's that came in the mail. This resulted in my taking all new photos, only for another DVD to come in the next day. I didn't bother reshooting everything for a third time.

Much like the above music related rugs, I knew when I came across this Spider-Man one on ebay that it was the one I needed. I mean, come on, it's based on the cover for McFarlane's Spider-Man issue 1! I own like a hundred+ copies of that issue alone. It transitions into my cases of Spider-Man comics perfectly, and ties the room together.

Tucked in the closet nook are my Nintendo cartridges, or as my mom used to call them, my Nintendo tapes.

Adorning the top of the shelf is my in box Nintendo and Advantage, as well as my Super Mario Bros. Movie figures. Hanging out on the shelves below are a variety of cartoon related figures, and a few select other pieces, including my autographed DVD's.

Next to the bed is my Stan Lee signed Amazing Fantasy 15 print, and a classic three disc CD player, which works great for when I want to play music while reading some comics.

A room that remains in progress is the kitchen. I had always wanted a kitchen with a Bethesda Fallout motif. By that, I mean red appliances, dishes, and fun Fallout related decorations placed around. Like I said, it's a work in progress, but it's shaping up nicely.

At some point we'll redo these counters. You know...when we win the lottery or something...

It's funny how we spent money on a new set of red dishes, just to prefer eating off paper plates with plastic utensils. We hate doing dishes.

My girl's granddaughter was nice enough to set up all of my Fallout stuff on both the countertop...

...and on top of the refrigerator. At this point, I was on iteration two of my music and toy room, and was really over decorating. She did a great job.

Last up, is our DVD collection. These used to be on (different) shelves in the bedroom where the Spider-Man comics and Nintendo games are now located. We did away with all streaming services midway through 2024, and went back to physical media for a multitude of reasons, and mainly as a result of them being so cheap, quickly amassed this collection essentially overnight.

Personally, I like the fact that these are now out in the living room for us both to enjoy, but dislike that the shelves are two rows deep. I told my girl we needed at least one more shelf to fit them all, but she is adamantly against that. What I'll end up doing is finding something to boost up the back row so that you can at least see what is back there without having to remove everything in front. Frankly, I did a lot of impulsive buying with these, and there are probably several that I could live without.

From there, you have the rest of the house, which isn't worth showing...because it is boring. But, for what it's worth, this is our new digs, and my new areas to play in. Stop by one day. Hang out. Listen to some music, play some Nintendo, and watch some cartoons with me. We'll make some food, and have a blast.

My place also got a shout out on Channel 33 RPM's Vinyl Dens back in April. Frank's channel has been on my sidebar links for a while, so you may have already checked it out, but if not, I totally suggest you do.

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.