Gary, 7-1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Mark, 7-1
For us who grew up with pop and rock in the 1960s this is an awful
period of grim inevitability that we will need to endure over the next
10 years or so. Once we had come to terms with David Bowie's death, the
biggest shock last year was Tom Petty's recent sudden passing. I don't
know any of France Gall's records - she didn't seem to follow Francoise
Hardy's example in successfully extending her fan base into other
countries' pop markets in the sixties before progressing into more
serious, highly personal album-making.
Speaking of Françoise, I was pleased as a collector over the last
20 years to see a two page "how to buy" feature on "French pop's
existential romantic" in the current January edition of Mojo magazine.
Ranked no.1 in their listing is the album I talked about in my previous
e-mail: "La Question" from 1971 which is described as "intense, haunted
and hypnotic....with a powerful dreamlike eroticism."
Here comes the change in the conversation that is to split off in three ways, France Gall, Ray Thomas of Moody Blues and 'Trouble No More'. Mark read Wo.s top 10 albums of 2017 (see here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2017/12/wonoblogs-top-10-best-read-posts-of-2017.html) and responded with his comments.
Mark, 7-1
Very interesting but have to admit most of these artists I'm not
aware of! Typically I didn't buy many new releases last year so my
antennae are not as well-tuned as yours, Wout - and I tend to be stuck
in my long-established grooves - literally so in most cases* (see
below). However, in my top 10 I would put Slowdive's wonderfully
atmospheric eponymous album (a return after an absence off 20 years:
they were Ride's "shoegazing" contemporaries in the early 1990s), the
Stones blues return "Blue and Lonesome", Noel Gallagher's "Who Built the
Moon" (play "Holy Mountain" LOUD!) and Steve Earle's "So You Wanne Be
an Outlaw."
On the archive front I am now working my way through the Dylan 8 cd
boxset "Trouble No More" from the controversial 1979-81 period of
intense evangelism. Some of the unreleased songs, rehearsals and
alternate takes are a revelation of sublime lyrics and exhilarating
musicianship (including Mark Knopfler). I have all the original albums
but with this box set I now understand why Dylan's career took this
particular direction - and it was not at the expense of his artistic
integrity: quite the opposite. If you get a chance, listen for example
to "When He Returns", "Rise Again", "Dead Man, Dead Man" and "Every
Grain of Sand" (as a complete Dylan collector I now have four different
versions of this song which I would rank as one of his greatest songs).
On the Fab Four front, now that Pepperland has been thoroughly
explored, I need to start saving up for The White Album box set (I
wonder if it will be numbered....) due later this year. Giles Martin
(George's son) had the daunting task of sifting the huge number of
studio takes (over 70 for "Dear Prudence" alone). About 15 years ago I
bought an original mono version (as with Sgt Pepper there are some
noticeable differences to the stereo mix) which is now worth about £300.
An Imagine box set is also on the cards this year apparently.
Also due in March is a third Hendrix archive set of unreleased
recordings (how many more are there?) entitled "Both Sides of the Sky"
(following the "Valleys of Neptune" and "People hell and Angels" studio
archive compilations from a few years ago).
As for new releases in 2018: I'm still hoping Gillian Welch will
release a new album: a notoriously un-prolific but top notch songwriter,
it's now over 6 years since "The Harrow and the Harvest." 2011 was also
the last time Tom Waits released an album ("Bad As Me"): will we see
him return to the racks?
* Flying back from Japan via Helsinki a couple of days ago, the
Finnair in-flight magazine had a feature on the vinyl comeback - a sign
of the times. I wasn't aware when at last summer's ICANN meeting that
Helsinki has some very good second-hand record shops.
Gary, 7-1
Like Mark, I am not familiar with most of your top
releases… and also like Mark, I have not bought much in the way of
recordings as I am starting to depend on Spotify or Apple streaming,
only resorting to my vinyl collection when I want to listen to quality
music time! There is a local record market that takes place every month
or so, so I may be saving my pennies/cents to get some more acquisitions
later this year!
I hope you both had a great New Year, even though I know that Mark had a rather sad event before Christmas….
Wo, 8-1
Yes, I saw both in the news yesterday, but was too busy to respond before now.
First, all the best for 2018!
I think I wrote all there is to
write for me on France Gall. There are three songs I know by her. One
from the 60s and two from the 80s, which are both very sophisticated pop
tracks.
Ray Thomas is of course someone
a little more in the background of the Moody Blues. Yet his keyboard
work was very defining for the band's sound. This morning the radio
station of service honoured him by playing 'Question', the band's only
#1 hit song over here. It was a long time since I heard it. I noticed
that I appreciated the quiet middle so much more than way back then. The
loud part remains formidable, the contrast makes it superb. I can
imagine a lot of people at record companies frown over a single like
that. "Too difficult", "too strange".
Coming back to 'Trouble No
More'. I was given the double cd version for my birthday recently. So
far I had only heard the compilation on Spotify. Again Dylan surprises
me with the strength of his work. I already knew that the best songs of
his religious albums would have made one great one. There was much more,
only hardly anyone wanted to hear at the time. I can remember the
outrage in the music press when the journalists started to understand
what was going on. Dylan had become anathema to them. Only to survive
yet another storm in his career.
On the Dutch music. Yes, I highly recommend listening to 'Another Place' by Maggie Brown.
As lovers of things prog, the album by Soup, 'Remedies', comes highly recommended for you. A great and extremely dynamic album.
Gary, 8-1
Very sad news, The Moody Blues are to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year…..
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/07/moody-blues-singer-ray-thomas-dies-at-76
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/07/moody-blues-singer-ray-thomas-dies-at-76
Wo. was not really finished with France Gall and wrote on her and Ray Thomas here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2018/01/france-gall-and-ray-thomas.html
Gary, 13-1
Yes Wout,
Wo., 14-1
Wo., 14-1
BTW, I was given Led Zeppelin's
I and III (in the original package!) albums on vinyl recently as a
present. Man, what a powerful experience that is. What an albums. What a
sound.
Gary, 14-1
It is sad that we have to wait for the passing of a
talented person to finally appreciate just how important they were….. I
would imagine that is even more keenly felt by those same people that
have put their heart and soul into a work and it is all but forgotten?
Wo., 14-1
Coming back to Moody Blues. It
turned out that the two record stores I went to yesterday afternoon had
all its albums 2nd hand except for the one I had come to buy, In Search
Of The Lost Chord. Patience is a nice thing. Instead I came home with
Noel Gallagher's last effort. So will know soon enough if Mark is right
and let it grow on me. His previous album I truly liked better than most
Oasis albums. Also a recent 12# single by Mick Jagger I didn't know
existed. So enough to listen to today.
To come back to Ray Thomas. The
man wrote scores of Moody Blues songs, was one of the lead vocalists of
the band and I hadn't a clue. I always though it was all about the two
blond guys up front. Fact is that I have discovered another band to
like. My review of the album is on on Tuesday.
14-1, Mark
I only hope that the San Francisco 1980 concert recording of "The
Groom's Waiting at the Altar" with Carlos Santana is on one of your two
cds: majestic, epic, stonking, storming, spine-tingling...God I wish I
had been there! You have to play it LOUD! As the book points out, this
is an example of a masterpiece that Dylan recorded in the studio for
Shot of Love but inexplicably decided at the last minute to cut from
the vinyl version (but was included on the cassette apparently*).
Uniquely in Dylan's recorded history, it was added eventually to the cd
version of the album presumably because it had gone down so well in
concerts.
If not a cassette buyer, prior to that you had to get the single
"Heart of Mine" as it was served up as the B-side of that. Non-album
B-sides: collectors just love them! However, that's a whole new topic!.
*I was not a cassette collector but tape-length timing constraints
could have unexpected consequences. My wife had a copy of Abbey Road. I
say "had" because it is now in my Fab Four collection! When I played it
in the car (no cds at that time) I thought hey what the heck's going on?
It has a different running order: why? Because side 1 is 4 minutes or
so longer than side 2 soo they had to switch songs around to even the
timings up. The result is the only legit Beatles album that starts off
with back to back two George Harrison's two greatest songs - and some
might the strongest songs - nay,masterpieces! - on the album: Here Comes
The Sun and Something. Side 2 kicks off with "Come Together" followed
by "Because" It is funny how different running orders can create a new
feel to an album: with "I Want You" finishing the first side that's
three Lennon songs in a row but each with a very distinctive style and
arrangement. This original cassette goes for 25 quid these days on ebay
(but don't tell my wife!).
I read the other day that pre-recorded cassettes and mix-tapes
(didn't you just love doing those?!) are now following vinyl back into
vogue - streaming, bah! And I was delightfully surprised that in Japan a
couple of weeks ago to see cassette-radio recorders still on sale in
department stores. Streaming? Just a fad!
Gary, 14-1
😄
Very interesting Mark, and no, I was not aware of the
‘re-ordering’ of album tracks were done like that….but it makes complete
sense, even a few meters of tape saved on a cassette will make a big
production saving to the company!
This may sound like sacrilege to you devotees, but I have
never been a big fan of Dylan! Yes, I respect him (and quite rightly),
yes, I love some of his writing (e.g. All Along The Watch Tower as
performed by Hendrix…. Who I know was a big fan of Dylan), but his
performance and recording never turned me on… man! I have a good friend
(ironically named Bill Lennon - yes, his real name) who dies an
excellent tribute concert, and I really enjoyed that…. But I just can’t
get into the original, don’t know why? But I did like 'Subterranean
Homesick Blues’…. Excellent song and film idea!
Interestingly, there is money to be made transferring old
media formats into current ones…. I have some VHS tapes that I recorded
years ago, they cost about £25 to convert into DVD or a data file… so
maybe keeping some old quality audio/visual equipment may be a future
pension supplement?!
One of the VHS tapes is of my eldest daughter on a
children’s TV programme and another of myself, ahem!…. on Channel 4 News
at the Millennium Dome giving advice to a job seeker (I was working in a
Job Centre at the time… a year before you interviewed me for a job at
DTI!)… with me (conscious of the TV camera and nervously trying to think
of anything sympathetic to say) coming out with the cringing line “It
must be like the sword of Damocles hanging over your head?”…. As soon as
I said it, I regretted it!
Wo., 14-1
'Groom Still Waiting At The
Altar' is one of my favourite Dylan tracks since the mid-80s. 'Biograph'
was one of the first Dylan albums I had (on tape) from a friend of a
friend who had the, what we would now call a box set. To my amazement I
found that this song was a B-side from a fairly dismal album I had and
have. 'Every Grain Of Sand' of course being the one fabulous song on the
album. The song has so much power.
My version on the double cd is
not with Santana unfortunately. A strong version, but not special. Dylan
is far ahead or behind the backing ladies, creating a few awkward
moments stretching the song beyond where it ought to be stretched and
still he gets away with it. The famous Dylan phrasing and timing, I
guess.
I have never been one for
cassette tapes really, although I had some at the time. Recently a 30
something bought the last cassette copy machines in this country from a
person who decided to retire. According to the newspaper article the
demand is rising again. So there you go. Nice to find this difference,
Mark.
Everyone I talk to comments
that the recent vinyl rise of sales is just a fad. It may well be. What
my experience is over the last 10 years or so, is that I have lost all
attachment to music due to the over-availability and streaming of songs.
There's simply no way that I connected on a deeper level with much of
that music. Now that I'm back to vinyl for the albums I truly like, that
bond is there once again. For some certainly like with my first albums,
I guess. Simply because they are so ridiculously priced that I don't
want to buy too many all at once. Next to missing the time to play them
as much as I could as a teenager. Whether sales will stick with today's
youths? Time can only tell.
Noel's album's first to play.
Gary, 14-1
Here is the 1980 San Francisco version with Santana on (if you can bear it! 😉) VEVO: https://youtu.be/X1k0tYy6p-I I have to admit, this is a gem!
 |
youtu.be
Trouble
No More - The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981 Buy/Listen -
https://bobdylan.lnk.to/svd-amzdlx!gswaa About the album: The next
installment in the a...
| |
Mark will tell you we used to have lively discussions at
work with a few others on the (and to paraphrase...) “reports of the
death of vinyl are grossly exaggerated”…. But I think we are all
surprised just how popular it has become not only with the 'baby-boomer'
generation but also with young people as well! I think it is for the
very same reasons that you mention that there is that connection with
music when you put that platter on the turntable and sit down to listen.
I think it must be the way you have to follow an almost
ritualistic path when playing an album? First you have to think what it
is you want to listen too; then you have to find that precious 'LP’s
worth of toons' (to quote Todd Rundgren); then you gingerly pick up the
album glancing at the enticing cover and then gently ‘undress’ the vinyl
and place her gently onto the turntable (steady boys!); ‘turning on’
the deck and placing the stylus and arm, oh so carefully, onto the edge
of the record and respectfully close the dust cover over the deck; then
returning to your comfy chair (big assumption here!); sit back and relax
simultaneously picking up the sleeve and settling down to enhance your
aural entertainment…..
You can’t really do that with digital!
Wo., 15-1
This is exactly what I mean, Gary. So well described. I had lost that feeling for years, starting with cds and then downloaded MP3s, let alone Spotify and very glad to have recovered it.
Gary
Mark
Wo.
Wo., 15-1
This is exactly what I mean, Gary. So well described. I had lost that feeling for years, starting with cds and then downloaded MP3s, let alone Spotify and very glad to have recovered it.
Gary
Mark
Wo.
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