Alexander

I've recently started a blog on Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music." Each entry discusses one track from the "Anthology." I plan to do all four volumes (including the posthumously released volume on Revenant), one track at a time, until I'm finished. Please check it out and post comments! You can visit the blog here. Updates are Sundays and Tuesdays.

I got a reissued mono "Blonde on Blonde" a couple of months ago. Listening to disc four of "A Tree with Roots" right now. Second take of "Tears of Rage." What an amazing bunch of sessions!

Nah-noo, nah-noo...

I've always enjoyed the second side of "Yellow Submarine." I don't listen to it all day long, but I do listen to it whenever I listen to the YS album...

Agreed! Cushing is my favorite Holmes. Except that Cushing looked more like Moriarty to me...

Being a Holmes fan from way back, I've gotta say that casting aside, I'm not feeling this. The previews, at least, give no sense of the contemplative pace of the stories.

Talk about being late to the party... When I was in High School (1985-1989...prime Smiths territory), I was aware of them but little else. The Smiths (like Echo and the Bunnymen, the Violent Femmes, and the Cure...all of whom I like now, btw) were the province of the proto-Goths (the term didn't exist at the time) who hung out in the art wing. Being a neo-hippy (from about 1986 on), I listened exclusively to music that was ten to twenty years old. I wouldn't give the Smiths the time of day... Then I discovered Elvis Costello during my senior year and I realized that good music WAS being made in the '80s. I went off to college and had a Smiths fan for a roommate. Rather than sharing our interests, he insisted on slamming Costello, so I retaliated by refusing to give HIS music a chance. Too bad, because years later I would become a big fan of the Smiths (and solo Morrisey to a lesser extent). I still wish that I could tell that guy that I wound up getting into the Smiths, largely because of what I heard from him in our dorm room (although I wouldn't have admitted it at the time). Funny thing about this guy, btw (whose name was also Alexander) was that he was a totally macho guy of Cuban/Chilean descent (his family had lived - happily, being filthy rich - under the Pinochet regime. My roommate actually had a POSTER of Pinochet in our room) and was totally homophobic (his favorite epithet was "ass-pirate"). How he reconciled his Smith fandom with his homophobia I've never figured out...

This is the key phrase right here... I prefer the mono to the stereo in most cases, but I wouldn't want to be without both...

No buyers remorse here. When I got my copy of the mono set in the mail I was all over it. And it is a thing of beauty. They did an amazing job with it.

I've got the flu. Was just diagnosed yesterday. I'm out of work until Monday (and I don't get sick pay, which means this week is a wash-out for me). Two things REALLY suck: I've got a run of TheatreSports starting this weekend, and if I'm not feeling better by tomorrow night, this means I'm going to miss that too! I'm also going to have to miss Halloween, which is my favorite day of the year! Now I don't know if it's really H1N1, but they are assuming that all cases of flu are H1N1. The doctor put me on Tamiflu. I feel crappy, but luckily I don't feel too crappy to listen to music and read. I finished rereading "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" last night and now I'm reading "Where Dead Voices Gather" by Nick Toches (about black-face comedian/singer Emmet Miller).

The True Vine Record Shop in Baltimore. Last Vestige records in Albany and Saratoga...

Happy Birthday, Don!

Lucky!

More Diz with the Muppets...

A very happy 92nd to the spirit of John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie! I'm digging the 1945-46 volume of the Chronological Classics disc as I write this. An amazing musician and a great ambassador for jazz. His was one of the first names I learned as a kid (thanks to his appearance on the Muppet Show, among other things). Like Pops, he was one of those people who was so ubiquitous that you were almost surprised to learn how important he was... I was amazed to learn that if he were still with us, he'd only be a year older than my grandmother (an amazing woman who is still with us). Yay for Diz! Check out Diz on the Muppet Show!

As far as sound issues are concerned, I think the Beatles CDs sound excellent in both mono AND stereo. I don't you think you're missing out from a sonic standpoint if you only have the stereo discs. I think the biggest problem with the stereo discs is the fact that the mix is hamfisted on every album until the White Album. The engineers at EMI seem to have been behind the curve when it came to stereo (it has been pointed out by others that American producers and engineers were much better at making stereo mixes during the early to mid '60s). Then there's the fact that more care went into the mono mixes and there was more direct artist input, which gives the mono the edge from an "authenticity" standpoint. EMI is definitely guilty of gouging here. I think the mono mixes are definitive and really SHOULD be the "standard" versions. But the stereo is the standard version in the US because that's all most people have heard (at least from "Help" on up). I "A/B"ed the mono and stereo versions of "Sgt. Pepper" this afternoon and I think, for a number of reasons, that the mono version sounds better. The biggest difference, of course, is "She's Leaving Home." As has been noted elsewhere, the mono version is faster than the stereo and is pitched higher. At first, it's a little disconcerting, but the ear prefers it after only a few listenings. In comparison, the stereo version now sounds draggy. It's obvious that the Beatles MEANT "She's Leaving Home" to be faster and higher in pitch. For whatever reason, the engineers didn't get the memo and forgot to apply the varispeed to the stereo mix. But the slower version is what we all know. Similarly, John's vocal on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" has been treated with a phasing effect on the mono version, but is "naked" on the stereo version. Again, once you hear the mono version, it sounds "right" and the stereo version sounds like a mistake. There are several other "little" differences (the laughter at the end of "Within You, Without You" is louder in the mono version, as is the crowd noise on "Sgt. Pepper Reprise." In fact, until I heard the mono version, I didn't really NOTICE the crowd noise on the stereo version!) but to me "Lucy" and "She's Leaving Home" are the most significant. To me, it's a matter of what the Beatles WANTED. The mono version is what they wanted the world to hear. For the last several decades, this is not what the world has heard. It's a shame that EMI elected to make the mono version so relatively hard for people to hear...

Leonard is AMAZING in concert...

Boy, some people are real idiots when they get on camera... The pigs and the dogs get a pass. They were just doing what comes naturally...

I recently listened to my favorite Christmas album, "Where Will You Be Christmas Day?" In fact, I listen to it year round! It's just a great album!

I also like her acting, especially in hubby David Mamet's work!

Got my Mono box today! Hooray! Hooray! Listening to "Please Please Me" as we speak...

I agree wholeheartedly with Lon. I got this earlier this week, and I think it's a hoot n' a holler! I LIKE the arrangements. There's a Western Swing feel to the whole thing. And Bob is clearly having FUN singing these silly, cheesy Christmas songs. Hey, every OTHER major singer gets to do a schmaltzy Christmas album. Why not Bob? I don't think he's "taking the piss" out of anybody. Which is not to say that I don't think that Bob's tongue is not firmly in his cheek.

I don't know how you folks with multiple kids do it. One is more than enough work! Congrats to you and the Mrs., Jim...and to your little ones!

Of McCartney's solo stuff, I think his first two solo albums ("McCartney" and "Ram") are worth owning. I grew up on his Wings material (my parents had several albums), but I only ever listen to two of the albums from that period: "Band on the Run" and "Venus and Mars." I do have a few of his recent albums ("Chaos and Creation," "Memory Almost Full," the recent Fireman album), which are pretty good, but not nearly his best work...

I was given the Lewison book for a Christmas/birthday present (I was born in late December) when I was about 18. I love it. I've returned to it often over the years.