Has anyone heard from bdp24 lately?

Great to hear that @bdp24 is alive and well!

Agreed

About ebm, there is the chance he is just hanging out there and thinking its:

Time to kick ass and take names!!

Glad to hear you are ok, @bdp24. A year or more ago, I was reported here as dead, and a few folks posted. While it was interesting to see those first couple comments, it felt weird, and I had to post to say, "Nope, all good here." Like I said, glad you are kicking. What the hell are you going to do with all those drums, man? 

Glad to hear you're still with us @bdp24.   Love your musician stories.

With the above encouragement (thanks fellas, I feel better now 😊 ), I will comment on a couple of Audiogon issues that came to mind as I attempted to catch up.

First was the passing of Dwight Twilley, who died on October 18th of last year, yet merited not a single comment here. I can’t tell you how heartbreaking that is to me. His good friend Tom Petty (watch the early Dwight Twilley Band videos to see Tom playing a Rickenbacker bass, and doing corny "rockstar" moves. Look also for the choker Tom is wearing 😂 ) received his deserved accolades when he died. Yet Dwight suffered his final indignity, the last in his long list of career slights. I implore you to compare the debut and second albums of The Dwight Twilley Band to those of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Twilleys are VASTLY superior. IMO, of course. Petty’s debut and follow-up are above-average Rock Band albums. Twilley’s first album Sincerely is astounding (and it’s follow-up Twilley Don’t Mind is almost as good), one of the greatest debuts in Rock ’n’ Roll history, making Meet The Beatles sound like a Garage Band! Thank you Dwight, and fellow bandmates drummer/singer Phil Seymour (dead in 1993) and guitarist Bill Pitcock IV (dead in 2011). Personal note: After my divorce from my first wife, she hooked up with Bill, who then moved in with her and our son. Bill offered to give the young lad guitar lessons, but the kid was only interested in Rap. Knucklehead!

The second is a thread that was a discussion of music from various decades. A longtime, highly-respected AG member---and owner of surely one of the best hi-fi’s in the world---mocked the notion of any quality music being produced in the 1980’s. I was flabbergasted! Everyone is entitled to his or her own musical tastes, but to make the case that the entire decade of the 1980’s produced no great music is absurd.

You can make your own list of quality 1980’s music, but mine would include that of Los Lobos, Richard Thompson, Ry Cooder, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton, Evan Johns, Vince Gill, Bob Dylan, T Bone Burnett, John Hiatt, Rockpile, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, NRBQ, Tom Petty, Dwight Twilley, Emmylou Harris, Carlene Carter, Rosanne Cash, Foster & Lloyd, Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Steve Earle, Chris Isaak, Dire Straits, REM, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, The Beat, Cheap Trick, The Plimsouls, The Blasters, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dwight Yoakam, Tracy Chapman, Kate Bush, Linda Ronstadt, Lou Ann Barton, Leonard Cohen, Chris Hillman, The Desert Rose Band, The Long Ryders, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Peter Case, Victoria Williams, Lone Justice, The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, David Lindley (he also died last year), Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

That’s just off the top of my head, and from my somewhat narrow (but deep) tastes. I’m sure others can name hundreds more.

as a teenager of the 80's, I would add The Clash, U2 and the Supertramp

And I would remove Dire Straits from any list.... :)