Ahhh, the legendary T B Tabts. A fictional character that I created in the late 1980s—loosely based on the experiences of my friends/fellow residents at the Fabulous Foothills in Tucson, AZ—it’s an anagram for the negative expression another resident (a Tucson firefighter, who shall remain anonymous) had of women: “The Bitches, They All Be The Same.”

My fictional character looked very much like the character played by Bruce McGill in the original 1985-1992 TV series “MacGyver” (the Richard Dean Anderson version. McGill, incidentally, most famously played “D-Day” in the 1978 film “Animal House”). He wore Hawaiian shirts and often smoked a cigar.

The legend I created was as follows: when you were talking to a girl and you started to smell cigar smoke, you knew he was near. He would use his supernatural powers to ruin and foul any chance you had with your desired target.

We ran with this as an inside joke for years. I had made a cassette tape (this was the early 90s after all) with various songs that exemplified my former relationships; of course I chose the T B Tabts name for it.

I have updated it over the past 30+ some years. After the passing of LC (see previous post), songs have been added (she already had a few, from the first go-round).

Here ya go. Feel free to look up the ones you don’t know. I might add YouTube links—but there are (at this writing) 62 tunes.

I’d like to add explanations to each, but that would entail making up aliases for these women. Yeah—probably not.

THE “T B TABTS’ ‘IN RETROSPECTION’ (1981-2024)” PLAYLIST, v3

Edited and rearranged 6/27/24
Proposed order:

1 More Than This–10,000 Maniacs
2 Sunrise–Simply Red
3 How It’s Gonna Be–Third Eye Blind
4 Almost Made You Smile–The Devlins
5 Wouldn’t It Be Good (Acoustic Version)–Nik Kershaw
6 I Want It Back–Shawn Colvin
7 It’s A Laugh–Hall and Oates
8 Necessary Evil–The Devlins
9 Soul Drifter–Lindsey Buckingham
10 Tenderness on the Block–Warren Zevon
11 You Can’t Make Love–Don Henley
12 Mixed Emotions–The Rolling Stones
13 Meanwhile–The Moody Blues
14 Knife Feels Like Justice–Brian Setzer
15 Current Stand–Kids In The Kitchen
16 No More I-Love-Yous–The Lover Speaks
17 I’ll Be Over You–Toto
18 Endless Nights–Eddie Money
19 Cross That Bridge–Ward Brothers
20 Tragic Comedy–Immaculate Fools
21 If It Makes You Happy–Sheryl Crow
22 Why–Annie Lennox
23 One–U2
24 Kiss This Thing Goodbye–Del Amitri
25 The Scientist–Coldplay
26 Goodbye To You–Michelle Branch
27 Grey Street–Dave Matthews Band
28 Come Back To Bed–John Mayer
29 Always the Last To Know–Del Amitri
30 You Don’t Know–Scarlett and Black
31 Painted Desert–10,000 Maniacs
32 To Each His Own–America
33 Do You Remember–Phil Collins
34 I’ll Be Alright Without You–Journey
35 Time–The Alan Parsons Project
36 Lifeline–10cc
37 Accidentally Like a Marytr–Warren Zevon
38 Please Be With Me–Eric Clapton
39 Back 2 Good–Matchbox 20
40 Me And My Big Ideas–Tears For Fears
41 The Same Old Tears (On a New Background)–
Stephen Bishop
42 Long Time Coming–Toni Childs
43 From The Ashes–Rosanne Cash
44 Hard Feelings–Fleetwood Mac
45 Don’t Shed A Tear–Paul Carrack
46 Somebody’s Leavin’–Little Feat
47 Don’t Break The Promises–10cc
48 When It Comes Down To It–Tasmin Archer
49 I Used To Be A King–Graham Nash
50 All of My Heart–ABC
51 11th Hour–Dionne Farris
52 You Do Or You Don’t–Lindsey Buckingham
53 I’m Not In Love–10cc
54 Blue Eyes Blue–Eric Clapton
55 Driftwood–The Moody Blues
56 Blue Eyes Blue–Eric Clapton
57 Throw the Roses Away–Hall and Oates
58 Dance With The Tiger–Rosanne Cash
59 More Than This–Roxy Music
60 Wouldn’t It Be Good (12″ version)–Nik Kershaw
61 This Nearly Was Mine–Lindsey Buckingham
62 Say We’ll Meet Again–Lindsey Buckingham