So much to say, so much to write...

So I'm a music teacher meaning I'm off for the summer and have nothing but time in the world to listen to vinyl.  I've been listening to full records non-stop and just haven't had the time to write about it.  Here's a list of what's been on the turntable recently...

Sandy Denny - self titled, album I picked up at Amoeba Music in San Francisco.  Nice, but not in as good a shape as I'd hoped.

Cheiftans 7 - Columbia Promo pressing, sounds great and a great album.  I'll have to share this with my celtic enthusiast friends

Fairport Convention- Expletive Delighted, again, picked up at Amoeba with the Denny and Chieftans album... love it!

AC/DC  - Back in Black, new 180 gram issue.  Can't believe I've never owned this album!  Silent and huge.  Love it!

Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow, got this from my stepfather's sister.  What an AMAZING album!  Can't believe I haven't heard it before but I've digitized it now.  This is a must listen for any guitar fan.  Jeff Beck is a real guitarist's guitarist.

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds, everyone RAVES about this album.  It was okay, don't really know what all the fuss is about.  Of course Wouldn't it Be Nice, God Only Knows and Sloop John B. are the go-to tracks here.  All in all one of the better Beach Boys albums...

Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two, really good album though this one I just bought on eBay and it's in rough shape, sounds like a group of 20 kindergarteners chewing cereal with their mouths open. Music is really excellent though, will have to find a better copy more on this in another post...

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream and Other Delights, not just notable for the album cover!  Their cover of Taste of Honey is a classic!

Paul Butterfield - North South, this is not what it seems.  It appears that Paul had a slight lapse of judgement.  This is no East West.  Blues meets disco?  This one is not one of my favorites.  I like drums to sound like drums, not like some electronic overly produced synthesizer.  I'm posting this one on eBay if anyone is interested...

That's all I can think of now.  I then spent some time modding my Turn Table to be able to play 78rpm but that is for a new post.

King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King

Recently I mentioned how I came across a compilation album that I've never listened to until recently.  Listening to some of the tracks on there inspired me to find full albums by the artists.  One of those albums is the debut album by King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King.  I've seen this album around but thought that the band was probably some heavy metal band or just something I wasn't interested in.  Then I found out that Robert Fripp was the guitarist... instantly I thought this would be a snooze fest.  A long time ago I was given a record collection by my mother's boyfriend at the time and a couple of those albums were Fripp and Eno records.  'Nuff said right?  I didn't need to hear another record of ambiance.  Man, I was wrong.

21st Century Schizoid Man was a great start to this.  I don't know if the Black Keys or the Dave Grohl ever listened to this album before making waves with their own albums, they probably didn't have to.  The influence of this record on everything that has come after is obvious, and huge.  I'm not sure when the first documented use of distorted vocals appears, I know that on a lot of the old folkways blues recordings those vocals were distorted just because of the nature of the field recording technology of the time and I know that 60s and 70s blues based bands tried to emulate that sound but the the case of 21st CSM this was used in a very different way, not to emulate or shock but to get across the nature of the song.  Layered over the top is alto sax (soprano sax?  I'd have to listen again) doubling all the lead guitar lines into a chaotic yet organized and expertly layered solo section going through a number of syncopated time changes that just grooves harder than anything in a straight 4/4 can.  I would say that this is my favorite track on the album but then I kept listening.

Then came I Talk to the Wind.  Ever listen to one of those tracks where, the lead vocals are definitely not performed by a technically accomplished vocalist but it pulls you in anyway (here I think Dylan, Waits, Young)?  This is one of those.  The voice is effective, the harmonies are out of tune for a split second before they come together, I thought I would hate it.  I love it.

The last track on side one and side two SCREAMS of later Pink Floyd.  Ever listen to much of Pink Floyd from their days in the late 60s?  No, neither do I but I absolutely love their stuff from 1973 on.  It's probably because they listened to this album, let it sink in and then got down to business releasing Dark Side of the Moon.  When I listen to Epitaph by KC I can't help but think of Us and Them.  The hugeness of the sound, the depth of the instrumentation, the melancholy of the lyrics and orchestration, theres a reason that this album is considered the birth of Prog Rock.

The second side of the album is much the same yet totally different.  Moon Child is a giant acid/free jazz improv section with some great interplay between mallet percussion and guitar.  Definitely not stoned enough to listen to this track without getting distracted.  Amazingly quiet passages which stayed quiet which is a testament to the condition of the album I'm listening to... more on this later.

The last track, In the Court of the Crimson King is the most obvious pre-Floyd inspiration.  Vocals sound a bit of Bowie in the upper ranges and the vocal chorus, wall-of-sound cymbals and relentless bass and woodwinds make this one really powerful.  It comes down pretty dramatically with a little interplay between guitar and flute with some sparse percussion and bass before building to the final crescendo.  I was very interested in seeing how other folks were using flute back in the days when Jethro Tull was but a babe.  I was really surprised at just how many bands were incorporating the flute into their sound but equally surprised at how NONE were using it like Ian Anderson.  Ian's obvious influence by Roland Kirk with the percussive breathing and vocalizing whilst playing the flute with a bluesy/jazzy tint was unlike any other performer of the time who were mainly using the flute in a more classical style.

Getting back to the quality of the vinyl I will leave you with this; I love getting these things in their original pressings from their original countries.  But this record goes for WAY too much for a 1st pressing so I opted instead for a 3rd pressing English import.  These can be had at a fraction of the cost of a 1st pressing and there's a general consensus that these Pink Rims (as they're called) has as good a sound as the original pressings.  But there's something about those pink Island records that I love, the thick vinyl, the strangely unique 60's quality about it.  I was able to get this on the Pink Rim label which is fine and all, it's a little flimsy feeling, it's no orange eye edition but maybe someday, in a dusty old record store out there somewhere I'll come across that first pressing.  Maybe not.  For right now I've got the music and that's fine enough for me.

Bumpers: Various Artists of Island Records

So, as a Jethro Tull fan I used to buy anything that had Jethro Tull stuff on it.  Quite a while ago I did a quick search and this quirky little album showed up.  I filed it away for later and hadn't even really played it since I'd already heard the Tull song on it..  until recently that is when I decided to check out what else was happening in the British music scene back when Tull was getting started.  I pulled out this thing and decided to give it a spin.  The thing is, it's not just a quirky little album, it's a DOUBLE album FULL of some absolutely amazing music I've never heard before.  I'm sure most readers will already know of these bands as most likely you found this post by searching for one or more of them. Welcome to MY awakening!

Aside from Tull and the more blues based off-shoot Blodwyn Pig, other bands on here include Traffic (featuring Steve Winwood's characteristic vocals and organ work), Mott the Hoople (I had always heard of this band but thought it was some 80s punk band... shows what I know... or don't know), King Crimson, Free, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay and Cat Stevens.  Two albums worth of this stuff... just imagine that listening party!  I seriously enjoyed the track on here by the band Renaissance, very baroque classical mixed in a rock style, not exactly in the Tull style, still very cool. The Fotheringay track blew me away.  Can't believe being the big Zeppelin fan that I am I've never found this band formed in part by Sandy Denny.  What amazing, haunting vocals.  Also of note was the track by the band Clouds and the Cat Stevens track.  The latter I have on vinyl but have never listened to it.  It was really cool to hear it in this context.  I've never thought of him as a British musician until he was included on a British compilation.  The track by Free was also of note.  This is a great album to play on a rainy Sunday afternoon if you're stuck inside.

I'm now on the lookout for albums by most of these groups, more specifically Fairport, Fotheringay and King Crimson and Blodwyn Pig.  I'll have to look for the others later.  What a find, what a find.

Squeeze: UK Squeeze

A first pressing of a record released in 1978 on limited edition red vinyl!?  Must be a collectible worth tons of $ right?  Not so much.  These can be had on Amazon for $6.79.  I hope I can get that deposit back on the lake house...

Judging a book by its cover I forever believed that the music on here would be reminiscent of the Sex Pistols only not as good (I swear my "Never Mind the Bullocks" album is the same color, same style without the guy about to explode).   This is an American release by the band Squeeze.  How can you tell it's American?  They had to put 'U.K" on the cover as there was apparently some legal trouble with releasing an album in the US by a band called "Squeeze" when there was already a band in the U.S. called "Tight Squeeze".  I don't see what the big deal was.  But that's neither here nor there.  I've been dragging this album around for 30 years from school to apartment to house to house.  So today I decided that, after 30 years, I would actually pull this out in order to figure out what was on here.  I was in for a complete surprise.

I'm actually eating Chinese food right now so I'm going to make this quick.  There are some great songs on here.  There is some bluesy stuff with some tasty musicianship.  There's even a pretty cool instrumental on here.  It spans the gamut from new wave and punk to R&B.  Not at ALL what I thought would be on here.  I can't give track names because I wasn't paying attention and just like when I watch movies I'm going to have to give this another listen before I can really remember anything in depth.  I was mostly left with a feeling of "this is cool, I need to hear it again".

As far as the red vinyl though, it sounds like crap.  It's noisy, the mastering is really terrible, squashed and thin.  I have this album also on normal vinyl and swapped it out when I flipped the record over. It was less noisy, not as badly mastered but not great.   When I go to put this on again (most likely next week in order to wash the sound of Shrek the Musical out of my brain) I'll be putting on the black vinyl.  A little research online found quite a following for the Squeeze with many other releases I didn't even know existed.  I'll have to check out a "Best of" to figure out what they really sound like and how they've changed over the years but that's for another day.

the Beatles: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

For a number of years I've owned a copy of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band that I found at a used record store.  Most of my Beatles records came to me in this way and were more than a little noisy, inked up, marked up, abused and smelly.  So when I heard that they were re-releasing the whole Beatles catalog on vinyl I couldn't resist, I had to replace my Sgt Peppers album.  I was of course worried about all the detractors of the new pressings.  Some said they were noisy, some said they were sonically inferior but all I knew was that if I wanted to hear a pristine, vinyl copy of Sgt Peppers I would either have to spend hundreds of dollars on an untouched original or I could spend $25-30 on this remaster.  I'm so cheap the choice was easy, it would have cost me money not to buy this! 

I was a little nervous about dropping the needle down on the new vinyl.  First things first, the packaging is beautiful.  The vinyl is heavy, the record label is an exact reproduction of the original Parlophone label, the gatefold, inner record sleeve, everything reproduced beautifully and faithfully.  These weren't my main interests though, my original copy came with everything it was supposed to except for a clean copy of the vinyl inside.  My fears were quickly alleviated; I dropped the needle on the outer edge and was met with... silence. 

I hate it when I read reviews on records and people talk about the mastering and compression and analog digitality blah, blah, blah.  Some people can hear that kind of stuff.  I can't. Even as a musician a lot of that seems to be lost on me.  What I can tell you is that when I sat in front of my sound system and listened to this album I felt like I was inside the sound.  I felt like it was happening around me rather than in front of me.  If I closed my eyes I could imagine being surrounded by the musicians (which is pretty cool considering that the musicians were the freakin' Beatles).  

This is one of my favorite Beatles albums and being able to listen to it in this manner was like re-discovering it all over again.  Most who know me know that I'm not a huge Beatles fan, I came into them only recently upon reading the book by Geoff Emerick on his days recording the group. The only reason I had the original album to begin with was for the fact that I couldn't really call myself a record collector without having any albums by the Fab Four.  This is one of those albums where most people in the world know just about all the songs on here.  Same held true to me before I first heard it.  The tracks on here that left me wanting would probably be She's Leaving Home and Mr. Kite, while the un-precedented classics would be the title track (of course), Little Help, Lucy in the Sky, Getting Better and, most poignantly as I age, When I'm 64.  

Needless to say, I'm after the rest of this collection.  People hoot and holler about the Mono release. Someday I should get these out of morbid curiosity, but I'm a stereo guy.  I don't like my music, movies or pictures in "flat".  I love music that surrounds you, I love ViewMaster slides and 3D movies.  I can't wait to hear the rest of the new releases... Beatles on pristine vinyl?  Yes please.  But that will have to wait for another day.

Toy Dolls: Dig That Groove Baby

Man, I haven't had this much fun listening to an album in a long time.  I actually find myself singing through these songs in my head, realizing I don't do them justice, and heading back down stairs to put this back on the turntable.  Hell, I'm listening to it again right now with my son who's digging it as well.  

A lot of people who've spoken to me after one of my band's gigs usually remarks on how much energy the band has on stage and how much fun it looks like we all are having.  I gotta say, we've got nothin' on these guys!  Jeez, their whole album sounds like it was a party to record.  I can't imagine a world where it didn't happen that way!  I don't want to imagine a world where that wasn't the case.

In a nutshell Toy Dolls are a fun-punk band.  I don't mean like your Clash or Ramones or Sex Pistols. The Clash were actually quite "message based" for their time, one of the first bands like that and musically excellent.  The Ramones were less musically excellent but were produced very well, loud and pretty badass.  The Sex Pistols were pissed, anti-establishment, sort of middle ground musically and really lived that punk life that we all associate with this sort of music.  

The Toy Dolls are completely different.  Musically quite accomplished with some fascinating chord choices (think a punk song about a guy named Archie from Brooklyn but with chords reminiscent of Pachelbel Canon/Puff the Magic Dragon).  The guitarist is innovative, creative and his lead singing is irreverent with a completely over-pronounced, stuffy nosed yet nasally Cockney that brings forth such classics as Nellie the Elephant (my daughter's favorite), Blue Suede Shoes (with a geometrically ascending guitar break) and their original (and my favorite) which titles the album, Dig That Groove Baby.  This tune makes me think of what Buddy Holly would have sounded like had he put out a punk album in the early 80s.  

I had to look all the way to Germany in order to find an original pressing of this one.  Believe it or not it landed in excellent though it's quite staticky.  Could just be our crap weather right now.  Everything is dry, cold and brittle.  This album's really heating it up in this house though... time to turn it over! 

Grateful Dead: Skeletons from the Closet

I'm about to admit something that I'm not particularly proud of.  Back in 1995 when I heard that Jerry Garcia had died (it's one of those times, I remember exactly where I was... I was driving on the dirt road to the summer camp where I worked, it was a warm, sunny day in August and I was coming back from my day off listening to the radio when I heard the news) I remember thinking, "at last". What was my rationale?  I had seemingly forever lived with Grateful Dead obsessed stoners who thought of little else but the Dead and weed.  At camp, the handful of us who were not Dead-Heads had to fill in for the unbelievable number of staff who requested the weekend off to attend the historic Dead concert in Highgate, Vermont.  My college suite was constantly awash in reefer-smoke while strains of the Dead and Phish came thumping through thin dorm walls accompanying the smoke that drifted from under the doors.  A part of me thought that if Jerry Garcia were dead, maybe all the madness would end.   

Now 20 years later I'm left feeling rather bad about my initial reaction and now that I'm able to listen to the Grateful Dead on my own terms, not those of my room-mates or co-workers I find that there is a lot about the Dead that I can appreciate.  For one is very lightness of the music, and I don't mean in an adult contemporary or easy listening kind of way.  The harmonies, the chord progressions, the melodies and the grooves, Skeleton's From the Closet is nice way to spend part of your weekend whether you partake or not.  This album is like listening to a great batch of old Americana recordings except they're not tunes pulled from the 20s and 30s but from the 60s and 70s.  I also find that this record pulls at my nostalgia strings quite a bit.  Like I said I heard these tunes many, many times during my high school/college career and, whether I like it or not, these songs bring about memories of summers spent with friends, bonfires, music pouring out of cars parked in the dark woods with folks having fun and spending summer nights together.  I would also throw into this lot the music of Cat Stevens and Van Morrison.  Seems I spent a lot of time with hippies.  All these albums now live in my collection and when the weather is below freezing and it just seems like the snow will never go away I can throw on the Grateful Dead and all of a sudden it's summer again, my hair is longer, I'm a bit skinnier, there's a fire going in the middle of the woods, the beer is crappy but everyone's happy.  

Buster Poindexter: Buster Goes Berserk

Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite time of year is Christmas time and one of my all time favorite Christmas movies is Scrooged starring Bill Murray and that some of my favorite quotes from the movie are spoken by David Johansen as the Ghost of Christmas Past ("Niagara Falls Frankie Angel", "Which floor?" and "Go back to Jersey you moron!").  David Johansen, the cross dressing lead singer for the New York Dolls decided in the late 80's to pull a 180 degree switch, adopted the persona of Buster Poindexter and started releasing albums completely unrelated to his New York Dolls discography.  His most well known release was the first Buster Poindexter album which contained the hit "Hot, Hot, Hot".  This album has his version of "Hit the Road Jack" which also became a minor hit but that's not why you listen to this album.  It's a little lounge, a little Carribean, a little swingin' bluesy and Johansen's voice lends itself particularly well to all of it.  Many of the tunes are covers of songs from the 40's but ends with a couple of originals that meld in well with the rest of the tracks.  This is a good record to throw on the turntable on a snowy Sunday.  I'll keep this one.

The Clash: Combat Rock

According to Aria, who sat and listened to this with me, she likes it because it's not really hard rock but it's also not Disney music.  Not to mean that she doesn't like Disney music, she just happens to like this because it isn't.  Make sense?  Her favorites on here are Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah (though she pronounces it as Rock the Cash Bar).  She is also a particular fan of Red Angel Dragnet.  She was horrified at the lyrics to Straight to Hell and refers to it as Straight to Not-Heaven.

As a kid I recorded Rock the Casbah off the radio multiple times on my little Sony Cassette recorder.  It's only now that I write this do I realize what the song is about.  Religious fundamentalism trying to control the populace.  Some things never change.  For those new to the Clash, this is as good as any an album to start with.  No two songs sound alike.  Their musicianship and creativity far out pace your typical punk band and their music-with-a-message was pretty much un-heard of for groups like this back then.

Mick Jones went on to form Big Audio Dynamite and had a hit with the song Rush back in 1991, just as I was graduating high school.  Sadly at the time I wasn't interested in hearing anything new and the Clash roots of BAD was lost on me.  Joe Strummer died suddenly in 2002 of heart arrhythmia after a very active career which even included a stint with the Pogues filling in for Shane McGowan.  I've got a couple more Clash albums in my collection, sadly I don't yet have a copy of London Calling.  I think I had one once but cleared it out with some other albums in the 90's when I was more stupid than I am now.  I look forward to adding that one back into the fold and to listening to the other albums in my collection soon.

Ella Fitzgerald: the Rogers and Hart Song Book Vol. 2

Going through some records today on this lazy Saturday.  Mostly lazy because I'm shirking all sorts of responsibilities and tasks that I really should be doing.  Listening to Ella singing some of the greatest songs ever written reminds me that every once in a blue moon I should really slow down and just be human for a little while.  It also reinforces my rationale for visiting thrift stores and coming home with $.25 gold in dusty, basementy smelling piles of mildewed records needing a bit of cleaning, some new record sleeves and plastic protectors.  I just spent 45 minutes in  a different place, a different time and I didn't even leave my couch except to get this laptop.  The song I was looking most forward to on here?  Blue Moon.  Nobody sings it like Ella... nobody.  

Lonnie Mack: The Wham of the Memphis Man

I never would have heard of this guy if it weren't for Stevie Ray Vaughan.  He was a huge influence on Stevie and Stevie, in turn, helped Lonnie's album get re-produced on Alligator Records to be discovered by a new audience.  It's been quite a while since I've listened to

Lonnie Mack: The Wham of that Memphis Man

Sound-wise, instrumentation-wise, style-wise, this is pure 60's rock and roll Memphis style.  It's actually quite surprising given Lonnie Mack's many talents and versatility on the guitar that he wasn't a more well known, house-hold name.  If you think of some of the more well known yet mediocre players of the time it makes it even more surprising that Lonnie Mack is relatively obscure.  Unlike Dick Dale, Duane Eddy and Link Wray, Lonnie Mack is also a very competent vocalist along the likes of Ricky Nelson or Jerry Lee Lewis.  This is a great album with some real virtuosic playing, great rhythm and soul music and one that needs to be heard by more folks.

I have a newer Lonnie Mack Album, Strike Like Lightning as I believe his career experienced a resurgence due to his collaborations with SRV.  I really want to pull that one out and give it a listen but as I have to head off to the grocery store right now I'll have to leave that for another day.

The Who: Who's Next

This listening was inspired by a young lady's Dr. Who T-shirt which was a take off of this album cover.  Again, this is another record that I got from my mother's record collection back in 1986 or 1987.  I was never much of a Who fan, I have NO idea why.  This album never got a lot of play and so I figured that I would slap on

The Who: Who's Next

I'll be damned if not every song on this album is a classic.  Seriously, not a single dud on this album.  Some band's have a "Best Of" record where the first two songs are really good and then the rest are just songs that the band likes.  This entire album could be a best of.  In fact, I should check and make sure that's not what this is. 

Side A

1. Baba O'Reily
2. Bargain
3. Love Ain't For Keeping
4. My Wife
5. The Song is Over

Side B

1. Getting in Tune
2. Going Mobile
3. Behind Blue Eyes
4. Won't Get Fooled Again

My only problem with listening to this album is that I can't get friggin' David Caruso's face out of my head when I hear it.  Every CSI show has used a song off this album and it will take many, many listens for me to stop associating these guys with CSI.  This is straight ahead, in your face Rock and Roll... more than Zeppelin (though Zeppelin is still my favorite due to their diversity, instrumentation, mystique, etc) and more than anything out today.  If you are looking to pick up ONE album by the Who, make it this one.  It makes me want to go listen to my other Who albums to see if they're as good as this but I'll have to leave that for another day.

Men at Work: Business as Usual

Good lord, I haven't listened to this whole album since I was probably in 6th grade.  And at that time I only had it on cassette tape.  I remember being in college at the Vermont Public Radio Record Sale and they were trying to get rid of all the unsold albums that they were left with after the sale.  I was so excited when I found

Men at Work: Business as Usual

Granted, I also found "Cargo" and whatever their third album is called, I was excited to find all of them. 

I really came into my own musically when I was in the 4th grade.  I had a babysitter named Lisa who was a big Men at Work fan and that made me a Men At Work fan.  I got both Cargo and Business as Usual for Christmas that Christmas and with it came a Panasonic Slim Line RQ-2735 Portable Cassette Player/Recorder (remember these?)

I would play my Men at Work tapes but would also use the recorder to get songs off the radio that I liked.  I had a cassette tape full of half copies of Land of 1,000 Dances, Ghostbusters, Eye of the Tiger and anything by Huey Lewis and the News.  They were half copies because I would never catch the song at the beginning.  I would always scramble to get my recorder ready, tape in the right place and so often my recording of the song I wouldn't start until the second verse.  Sometimes the stars would align and I would be sitting there just as a song came on, my tape would be all cued up and I would catch it sooner than I had on a previous recording.  I wouldn't go back and erase the first copy of the song because it would be in the middle of the tape and I wouldn't want to accidentally record over anything else.... phew... my life was hard.

It's hard to say which MAW tape I would play the most. I even had a hard time deciding which one to listen to today.  It's not like the difference between Boston's debut and subsequent follow-up, I've always liked both albums the about the same.  I suppose this one won out because when I read the title "Who Can It Be Now" I immediately got the song in my head and it's still there now.

I really liked setting this down on the turntable and giving it a spin.  Even without the visceral nostalgia effect it was really interesting to hear this album with another 28 years of listening to and making music under my belt.  I had forgotten that much of the music of MAW involved saxophone and flute (what is it with Aussie bands and saxophone?  MAW, INXS, maybe it was just the 80s, Huey Lewis, anything from Lethal Weapon...).  Besides the usual "Who Can it Be Now" and "Down Under" the first side also has "I Can See It In Your Eyes" and "Underground".  I think I first became aware of vocal harmonies with Underground as I would often try to sing with the higher vocal on the chorus.  I had much more success this time.  Also love the harmonic minory bass/guitar riff on this one.  Still remember all the words I thought went to the song but most likely aren't actual lyrics.  I never could figure out what Colin Hay was saying. 

The one odd track on this side, even when I was a kid was "Helpless Automaton" which was sung by Greg Ham, the instrumental heavyweight behind Men At Works music (think sax part for Who Can it Be Now, flute part for Down Under and keyboard parts for everything).  It's a fun tune, very phrenetic with inventive instrumental parts.  It also screams 80s sci-fi, Blade Runner and the like.

The second side on this album got less play in my day.  "People Just Love to Play with Words" was always a fun listen but "Be Good Johnny" was my favorite.  I had forgotten how cool the intro was and I must not have been the only one for the intro to the final School of Rock song with Jack Black was based heavily on the Men At Work song.  Listen to them back to back and you'll see what I mean.

The other three tracks on this side, "Touching the Untouchables", great slow groove ala first Dire Straits album with a great sax/guitar descending line, "Catch a Star" sort of a slow groove reggae type of thing (again, very 80s), and "Down by the Sea", kind of a trippy tune that is very well crafted but the three songs here are filler when it comes to the stronger tracks of Who Can it Be, Down Under and Be Good Johnny. 

Wanting to fully relive my trip back to 4th grade I'm going to want to pull out Cargo and give that a listen as well but the kids have friends over, are using Sculpey clay and I'm going to have to save that one for another day.

Boston: Don't Look Back

Finally, one in keeping with the intent of the project. I know I skipped a couple of days, I was on a camping trip.  Having to listen to extra albums to make up for lost time isn't realistic, especially since I also have to add watching Blade Runner to my list while watching the kids and renovating the house.  I did finally sit down and grab a record, I decided on one that I've never actually sat and listened to all the way through.  I was very excited to do so as I was inspired by an earlier listening.  I sat and listened to

Boston: Don't Look Back

Boston's second album had its issues.  For one thing it had to follow one of the most amazing debut albums of all time.  Second, Epic records was pushing really hard for a sequel, harder than Tom Scholz was willing/able to work.  Boston's debut album had basically been written over the course of 10 years or more, Boston's second outing was forced out of Scholz in only two years.

Although the album spawned one of Boston's biggest hits (and a great tune that really gets stuck in your head) Don't Look Back, the rest of the album is really pretty good, just not very memorable.  I think that I used to play the first track on the album and then let the rest run out while I was doing other things.  It would then end up back in its sleeve and back in the collection.

So I made myself sit down and listen to it.  Open ears, open mind and nothing else to do to distract me.  It really is a good album.  I happen to think that if I hadn't heard Boston's first album and had a chance to listen to this one on its own for a while it may be an album that would be on the top of my play list.  Sadly though, as Scholz puts it, you can't lose your virginity twice.  The album is good but doesn't have the same kick and genius as the first.

The song Don't Look Back is one that Scholz had on the back burner already, it came from the era of the original songs for the debut album and it sounds it.  It's fresh and original, it has its own sound.  Each of the other songs on this album don't have that same sound, they tend to re-hash riffs and motifs from the first album just arranged in different ways.  Again, without having listened to the first album I may have really liked this one.

This album gives us Boston's first slow song, A Man I'll Never Be.  The second song on the album, The Journey, is apparently Scholz's favorite, I'll have to give it another couple of listens before I feel the same way.  Just like Smokin' on the first album, Party was written by both Delp and Scholz and much like Let Me Take You Home Tonight, Used to Bad News is the only purely Delp penned tune on the album.  Let Me Take You Home Tonight is one of my favorite tracks on Boston, again, it will take me a couple more listens of Used to Bad News in order to feel remotely the same.

Some bands release one album with one decent song on them and are never heard from again.  Boston could have released Don't Look Back only and have been listed among the great one-hit-wonders.  The title track and the very cool album artwork is worth the price of the album alone (for me the price was $0 as this is another I received from my mother when she ditched her collection).  While I didn't listen to the album much as a kid, I used to sit and stare at the album cover and insides forever (it's a gatefold cover though it is only one album). 

But this was not a one hit wonder band.  This is one of America's greatest Rock and Roll Band and deserves their spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I think the best use of this record is to put it on immediately after listening to the first, not as a second album but as a continuation of the first.  Think of them together as Boston's double album and you've got yourself a good hour and a half of listening bliss.

I thought I had Boston's Third Stage lying around somewhere but I can't find it.  I do hope to track it down as I would like to see how much Scholz's writing changed in the 10 years between that release and the first album.  But I'll have to leave that for another day.

Johnny Cash: With His Hot and Blue Guitar

This one will be short, I need to pack to go camping.  This is also totally breaking with my intention because I wanted to listen to albums I currently have in my collection.  Problem is I've been wanting a Johnny Cash album for-ever.  Of all the stuff in my collection I just can't believe this wasn't one of them. 

Johnny Cash: With His Hot and Blue Guitar

Sun records, famous for recording Elvis Presley in the beginning of his career, launched some other big names back then, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.  These were on 78 rpm singles records and this album is apparently the first full length album ever issued by Sun Records.  It is a collection of Johnny Cash singles and this 180 gram lp does NOT sound like it was recorded 60 years ago.  I swear if I close my eyes it sounds like Johnny is live tracking his vocals in the corner of the room (with a good amount of rockabilly slap-back echo).  This is such a clear, "warm" recording I'm blown away.  I can hear the guitar so clearly I can tell what kind of strings he has on his guitar and I'm going to run out to buy some right now.  I've got a kid on either side of me bopping back and forth as I try to write and Aria has given this her stamp of approval:  "I really like this one daddy".  That's my girl. 

Notable tracks on here are Rock Island Line,  I Walk the Line, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle and Folsom Prison Blues.  My next job is to get out my guitar and learn all these songs in full.  Can't believe I waited until I was 40. 

This makes me want to pull out more Johnny Cash albums and give them a listen, but since I don't have anymore, it will have to wait until another day.

Boston

Eventually I will pick an album that I don't absolutely love but so far I've had a hard time pulling those out.  Instead I decided was that I wanted to pull out one of my top ten, no, top five, no, top three albums of all time.  In fact, if I was to be left on a deserted island with nothing but a plate, a needle, a cone of paper and one record album it might just have to be this one.  It's just got too many things going for it: one of the best produced rock albums in history, great lyrics which actually mean something, nostalgia, impeccable musicianship, a lead singer who may have been the best in the business and a lead guitarist who is creative both musically and as an engineer in music technology.  At one time that band was "just another band out of Boston" until they became:

Now let me just say that there's another band out of Boston that most people probably think of first (despite, you know, their name not actually having the word Boston in it... or being comprised only of the word Boston).  I can't seem to understand why Aerosmith is such a huge, mega-hit band, continually churning out music and selling out shows, rockin' with Run-DMC, getting gigs on American Idol etc while Boston sort of faded into obscurity.

My only guess is that it's because Boston simply gave it all away on this, their first album.  And I'm not being figurative here.  I mean they REALLY gave it all away.  With every track on this album I look forward to the next one, and the next one and the next one.  Each song is written, performed, orchestrated and mixed so well it was like all the musical geniuses of the world got together and collaborated on this.  And yet all those geniuses simply live as one in the head of Tom Scholtz.

I found that I actually couldn't type while this record was playing and so I uploaded photos from a recent family vacation instead.  At the end of the album my daughter stood up, flipped the record back over and said "I want to hear that again".  She has since been singing the lyrics to Peace of Mind all wrong and it's making me almost homicidal.  But she's 11, likes the band and is my daughter so I choke back my frustration and gently remind her of the way the lyrics are supposed to go.  She smiles and ignores my attempts.  I bite myself on the cheek in order to focus my rage.  Now she's murdering Mull of Kintyre which isn't even ON this album.  The Seven degrees of separation there is that I was just complaining about Aerosmith who recently had Johnny Depp join them onstage who is working on an album of music with Joe Perry and Paul McCartney who wrote and sang Mull of Kintyre.  How Aria climbed into my head and pulled that one out and yet can't get into my head and get the real lyrics to any song amazes me.  But I digress...

I'll make the history of this one short.  I got this album from my mother's record collection when she decided to get rid of her turntable and records.  Some of those records which became my first record collection was Zeppelin IV, Jethro Tull: Stormwatch, Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon and Boston.  Still my favorite albums to listen to.  And before you go thinking my mom was all cool let me just also tell you that I had to get rid of the Chris DeBurgh, Tina Turner: Private Dancer and Barry Manilow.

My sister at the time (this was around 8th grade, 9th grade) had a cassette tape of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack and she would listen to it every night before she went to bed.  Again, this is not figuratively speaking but LITERALLY speaking.  Don't get me wrong, it is a decent soundtrack and I like many of the songs on it, but I can never, ever hear them again in that order... ever.  Every night I would hear Sylvia and Mickey

"Sylvia!"
"Yes, Mickey."
"How do you call your Lover Boy?"
"Come here, Lover Boy!"
"And if he doesn't answer?"
"Oh, Lover Boy!"
"And if he still doesn't answer?"
"I simply say... Baaa- by"

Every, every, every, every night.  So in response I took my Boston album, recorded it onto a white cassette tape with no label and I, in turn, listened to that album Every Single Night.  What inadvertently happened is that I've now forever linked these two albums in my head but don't worry, I'm currently in therapy for that.

Released in 1976 (I was two) six of the tracks on here were actually written and recorded on a demo by Tom Scholz years before the band actually came together.  The guy is an MIT grad with a recording studio in his home.  He brought in Brad Delp to do the singing and together they wrote a pretty smokin' track titled "Smokin'" (fitting).  Brad Delp then wrote the track that finishes off the album, sort a double time revivalist sounding tune called "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" and the complete opposite of the way the last two albums I've listened to have ended by being probably the most upbeat on the whole album.

Side one

1. More Than a Feeling - I bought a 12 string just to play this song... well and Over the Hills and Far Away and Wish You Were Here... but mostly this one.  This song has a beautiful guitar solo that's not a wanky, pentatonic improv but rather a finely crafted solo that completely fits the song and moves it along on its journey.  Most of the solos on here are like that and many are also harmonized with two guitars, sort of like Allman Brothers but more classically based rather than blues based.  Beautiful.
2. Peace of Mind - These lyrics are speaking to me, I'm just not listening yet but when I do, I'll have Peace of Mind.  I love the use of acoustic guitar throughout this album. It's perfect
3. Foreplay/Longtime - from the awesome walking bass line, great keyboard work and huge build up into the false sense of rest and then blasting into Longtime, the construction of these two songs is, and I really want to punch myself for using this word, Epic.  Funny thing is, Epic is the record label this came out on...

Side two

1. Rock and Roll Band - The vocals on here are killer, Delp was amazing and his death was a huge blow to me as I'd always hoped to see the band perform live someday with him at the helm.  Still planning on seeing the band, just won't quite be the same.
2. Smokin' - I stole part of the arrangement of this for a tune we recorded.  This has the best instrumental break/solo section of any song I've ever heard. Ever.
3. Hitch a Ride - Again, beautiful mixing of the acoustic into the song, great drumming and love the lyrics.  Great one to "leave it all behind to".  The organ leading the way into the breakdown is magic.  Absolute controlled use of feedback into the short dueling guitar solo.  This song is rather hidden here in the middle of the second side but is a terrific songs and deserves its day in the sun. I love all the completely different guitar sounds Scholz uses and this one shows off his very fast, melodic and technical playing
4. Something About You - Love the intro into the harmonized guitar riff.  Just when you think you're getting a slow simmering tune the riff comes in with a pick slide down the low E string.  Vocals are great, think harmony that is all Delp.  Apparently the guy had the uncanny ability to exactly double track his vocals with same inflections, phrasing and pitch.  And the range on that guy.
5. Let Me Take You Home Tonight - What a way to take this one out... we'll miss you Brad.

This album made me want to take out Boston's second album, Don't Look Back and give it a listen.  I don't remember that album being as magical and I'm afraid I'm just not going to like it as much (though the title track is great).  I suppose that's why I'm doing this though so I'll give it a listen, just not now, I'll leave that one for another day.

Led Zeppelin: Presence

I figured I should just get it over with and get to one of my favorite bands in history.  I have four copies of Led Zeppelin I,III and IV, five copies of LZII, three copies of Houses of the Holy and In Through the Out Door and yet, while looking through my collection I noticed that I have only one copy of

Led Zeppelin: Presence

It got me thinking... is this album just not good?  No, on the contrary, this is a great album, most underrated of Zep's career and is a great listen all the way through.  The track listing on here most certainly derived from the time when vinyl ruled. 

Side A starts off with the very bombastic, in-your-face track Achilles Last Stand.  This is one of Zeps longer tunes but unlike the others it really keeps up the pace, there's no real languishing half-time breakdown and yet it doesn't feel forced but completely rock, completely organic. 

Side B starts off with Nobody's Fault But Mine, probably my favorite track on this album if I had to pick one.  There's so much diversity of sound on this album that you really gotta sit and listen to it all the way through.  If there was a track on here that I would consider the weakest of the bunch it would have to be Candy Store Rock.  Apparently it was written in an hour and the lyrics sound it.  It's not a terrible track mind you, just not the strongest on this album.  For some people it's their favorite track on this album, including Robert Plant apparently.

The last track, Tea For One, sees the band return to their slow burning blues-rock roots though a little heavier and more riff laden.  Much like SRV's In Step ending with the slower, more introspective Riviera Paradise, so does Zeppelin sit back and enjoy a slow groove to end a rather energetic, well done album.  It makes me want to pull out my other Zeppelin albums and give them a listen today.  But since Aria has an orthodontist appointment, I guess I'll have to save those for another day.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: In Step

I asked Aria to pick out my second record of the project since she did such a nice job yesterday.  Problem is she picked another double album and it's going on 9 pm here.  Just couldn't do it.  So I reached in and pulled out another album that I haven't listened to all the way through in a long time.  My favorite Stevie Ray Vaughan album; In Step.

Quick note, this picture is not of my record.  Mine still has the plastic and original advertising stickers on it.  OCD.


Quick background on my introduction to SRV.  I was living in Connecticut and a friend of mine started talking about this great guitar player that I needed to hear.  He told me about Stevie Ray Vaughan and I put it in the back of my mind for later usage.  Not long after that I left my friend and moved back home to Vermont to live with my father.  One day while watching MTV (back when it was almost watchable) I saw advertised that Stevie Ray Vaughan was going to be on MTV Unplugged.  Knowing that I would miss the program I set the VCR to record it for later.  For about a week I left that tape in the VCR trying to find the time to watch the show though I really wasn't in any hurry.  I was pretty sure that it would be decent but was also pretty sure it wouldn't blow my mind the way Led Zeppelin was at this time.

Finally one night I had some time and I also had the living room to myself (meaning that my father was sitting in his chair "resting his eyes".  So I rewound the tape and started watching.  I was blown away from the first 15 seconds of watching this man play that 12 string guitar all by himself in front of that crowd.  I loved the hat, I loved the shirt, I loved the guitar, I loved the ease with which he played the thing and how the music just poured out of him.  It seemed effortless to him and it was perfect.  From that moment on I was a huge fan.

The second song of the program started playing and the phone rang.  Great, I was a little annoyed but answered as this was in the days before caller ID.  It turns out it was my buddy back in Connecticut.  He said to me "did you hear what happened?" I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about as I was only half listening, still enraptured by SRV's playing.  He continued "Stevie Ray Vaughan just died in a helicopter accident"...

I'm actually getting goose-bumps right now as I write this, that was an intense night.  I was stunned as I watched my new guitar hero performing on the screen as it hit me that this incredible guitar player had just been silenced just as I discovered him.  There would be no more music, I would never get the chance to see him perform live and I mourned for all the music that we would never get to hear.

I stayed up late that night recording all the news programs that mentioned Stevie.  I recorded all the videos from VH-1 as they were having an SRV video marathon.  I can still remember Kurt Loder's voice on MTV announcing Stevie's death.  I must have watched that VHS tape a hundred times.  That night also introduced me to Dick Dale as it was the first time I'd seen the duet he performed with Stevie in the video for Pipeline from the Back to the Beach Sountrack.  In my quest to collect everything SRV related this was a much coveted album until eBay came along and made it much easier to find stuff.  That Christmas I was given my very first CD player and my father bought me my very first CD; Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Couldn't Stand the Weather.

And so now I'm sitting here on my couch listening to this, his best album of the SRV discography.  He had just gotten sober and was playing the best damn guitar of his life.  He totally changed his life around and he was out to change others through his music and his huge personality.  My absolute favorite track on here is Tightrope.  The guitar solo (both of them) gives me chills every time I hear them.  His performance on Austin City Limits of this song is one of the best live performances by anyone I've ever seen.  In fact, while writing this particular entry I actually had to take a pause when the song came on and then resume.  This really is an album I don't want to be doing anything to... I just want to sit back and listen.

There are lots of albums out there where there are maybe one or two really solid tracks and then the rest is filler.  This is NOT one of those albums.  I can't list a single song on here that I couldn't do without.  Take away any of them and the album In Step just isn't the same album.

Side One:
The House is a Rockin' - Brian Setzer does a pretty decent version of this but damn Stevie really nailed it.
Crossfire - One of the bigger hits from this album. Great groove.
Tightrope - Again, if I have to call a favorite it'd be this one
Let Me Love You Baby - Great rocker and every solo sounds completely different from the others.
Leave My Girl Alone - Vocals are almost more powerful than the guitar on this one... Man.
Travis Walk - Damn! I tried learning this one as a kid... actually I tried learning all of them but especially this one.

Side Two:
Wall of Denial - One of my favorites on side two.  Great goove, funky with fantastic guitar tone
Scratch -n- Sniff - This one sounds different than most SRV tracks, a great boogie and great party tune. Stevie uses a whah pedal rather unconventionally and it totally works.
Love Me Darlin' - Upbeat 12 bar blues.  Funny I don't often hear this version.  I usually hear his slow version.  I can just imagine his head bobbing with that hat as he plays the shuffle over his vocal line.  Listening to his solo I'm just struck by the fact that, if he had to, he could just keep playing ad nauseaum and NEVER run out of ideas.  As someone who tries to play guitar, this just amazes me.  I could never do that.
Riviera Paradise - I tried playing this when I was a kid also.  Still play parts of it sometimes.  I remember trying to write a tune like this in memory of SRV.  It was dumb, I hope I burned it so that nobody finds it.  Normally this would be the type of tune that a kid would skip past but I loved that he ended this album of mostly fiery, poignant barn burners with a jazz tinged, bluesy instrumental.  He shows the power of dynamic contrast and his complete grasp of the instrument.  Man, I wish I could have stood in his presence just once and seen him perform live.

Listening to this album tonight really made me want to pull out my other SRV albums and flop 'em on the platter.  But I suppose I'll have to save that for another day.

I have a pretty big collection of vinyl records.  Not huge, but big enough where I know there are records here that I’ve never even listened to but always imagined “getting around to”.  As a New Year’s resolution (let’s consider this a New School Year’s Resolution) I’ve decided that I’m going to listen to one album, in its entirety, everyday for a year.  Now I’m a pretty busy guy; always on the go, so with that in mind I plan to make up for days when I’m gone by doubling up on the adjoining days. 

The system that I’m using is a Technics Direct Drive SL-D2 turntable with a Shure M97xE Audiophile cartridge attached through a Pioneer SX-650 receiver.  The speakers are a pair of early Advent Legacy II that I re-foamed about 3 years ago.  It is the system that I will be using through the process as I’m not prone to switching things in and out once I’ve settled on a system.  I do not have “golden ears”.  I’m convinced that I can’t hear the difference between music played on a real high quality audiophile system and a mid range setup like mine.  I won’t be talking about the clarity and crispness, the response or the distortion.  I’ll be talking only about the albums and the music contained therein.  

My collection is somewhere over 700 albums, I know because my daughter, Aria, just counted them.  There are 4 crates at around 95 albums each, a record cabinet that holds around 140 records plus some loose ones out.  All told there are just under 600 in the main listening room.  My biggest issue with this project is: which album gets to be the first?  Should I start with my favorites?  That’s tough because, being my favorites, I’ve already listened to them recently.  Should I start with ones I’ve never listened to before?  I’d hate to take the gamble that my first album would be one that I would end up not liking all that much.  Do I start with something “hip” and obscure to show how “cool” my record collection is?  No, God, I’d want to punch myself in the neck. 

Easiest way is to just let Aria pick the first album.  She chose based on which one had the coolest packaging.  Can’t blame her. Aria just picked and so we are listening to

                Jethro Tull: Living in the Past.

She picked it because it was in a book style cover, it looked cool and she likes books.  Her words, not mine.

I can remember finding this album when I was a kid and thinking I had stumbled onto some rare piece for my vinyl collection.  It really is the coolest thing to come across in a used record store or thrift shop.  Turns out though that it is not all that rare.  Doesn't stop me from rescuing them every time I come across them at the Salvation Army.  It’s like a large format photo book with pictures of the band members, each with their own page, some pages with groups shots on them and vinyl albums inside on the green Chrysalis label.  How lucky am I that Aria’s pick was a Jethro Tull double album?!  One of my favorites but also one that I haven't listened to in YEARS.

Living in the Past, released in 1972 (two years before I was born) was not an actual album that was recorded and released as an album but rather a collection of different singles, live performances and outtakes recorded by Jethro Tull over the years and put into this amazing collection. My copy is a little worn as I found it used but it has also traveled with me to summer camp, college, 3 different apartments and finally here.  Still sounds great.  I forgot what a great listening album it is.  My wife isn’t exactly a Jethro Tull fan and so I find I can only listen to this when she’s gone!



So many great tracks on here, all that I fell in love with when I first discovered Jethro Tull back when I was in 9th or 10th grade.  My favorite at the time was Bouree but also a huge fan of Witch's Promise,  Living in the Past, A Song for Jeffrey, Singing All Day, Life's a Long Song, Hymn 43... heck, I'm a huge fan of all of them.  Sides one and two and four consist of studio recordings.  Side three was recorded live at Carnegie Hall and consists of "By Kind Permission of" which the band often used as an introduction to "Locomotive Breath" though on here it stands alone. This then leads into "Dharma For One".   There's good stuff here though I'm sure it was much more fun live than it is to listen to on record.  Aria and I started a puzzle at this point.  As a kid I used to skip this side and tended to listen mainly to side one as it had "Bouree" and "Living in the Past".  Even then I never had the time to sit and listen to the whole album all the way through!


Side four is a great way to go out.  I never get to hear "Wond'ring Again" and ending with the short but sweet "Nursie" makes me want to keep going on to the next Tull record.  But I'll save that for another day.