Alexander

I thought the woman who sang "Midnight Train to Georgia" was quite good.

My favorite Viola performance was on the "Sinatra in Paris" live album where he performs a duo version of "Night and Day" with Sinatra. Absolutely perfect performance by both men.

It looks to me as though hip-hop is primed to join blues, jazz, soul and funk as music that was once the music of African American youth, but has largely been taken up by middle class whites (like myself). I wouldn't worry about it, though. Every time this has happened in the past, young black musicians have ushered in another musical revolution. It's probably already begun, and we just haven't heard about it yet.

I like that each track spoofs a different era in Dylan's career. My favorite is "Too Many Daves," which is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss poems.

SS, with all due respect, one could use that exact phrase to criticize separating music into different genres. I think its ridiculous to get criticized for expecting a record store to organize stock by genre. Do you really want to go through every musician or group whose name begins with M to find Hank Mobley CDs Its a simple method of time-saving. And yes, Jim, part of selling "product" is making it easier to find for the customer. Oh, come on! You don't have to go through "every musician or group." That's what those little cards with the artist's name are for. You scan the cards in the "M" section to find "Mobley." It wouldn't add that much time to the process. The way I see it, it's more that people don't want to have music they *don't* like near the music they *do* like. They don't want to have to see the little card for "Brittany Spears" when they go looking for "Sonny Stitt." Well, get over it. There's always going to something you don't like. Just look past it.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I've really had it with genres. I used to keep my collection organized by genre, but I've dropped all such distinctions and let everything co-mingle. So, in answer to your last question, I don't think I would have a problem with a reunited Zeppelin recording for Blue Note...

I have "Expansions" by McCoy Tyner in a commerical cassette. I think that's the only tape I still own. When I first started buying music, I was fairly divided between LPs and tapes. I remember buying a mid-80s reissue of "Please, Please Me" by the Beatles on LP (my friend Henry thought I was nuts at the time). I also bought "Radio KAOS" by Roger Waters and "The Final Rip Off" by Monty Python on LP. Once my turntable (which my parents had bought me for Christmas in 1983. I remember that I also got a copy of "Thriller" on LP the same year) crapped out, I bought cassettes exclusively until I got my first CD player in about 1993. Then I traded in my tapes for CDs.

Just to piss Clem off, I have to recommend the album Emmylou did with Mark Knopfler. It's very nice. Anything with Emmylou is worth hearing. I quite like the two "Trio" albums she did with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstandt.

Norah in the new Rolling Stone: RS: Is it odd to you that Come Away With Me is the best-selling album in Blue Note's history? Norah: I don't consider myself in the same league as all those great old records. That album wasn't made with pop goals, but it was made with different goals than most of those jazz records. I consider myself lucky. RS: What's your favorite Blue Note record? Norah: I really like Somethin' Else, the Cannonball Adderley record. It starts out so creepy - in a good way - and it's really mellow. When I signed, I was also really into the Cassandra Wilson album New Moon Daughter. Great record.

A pleasure, but not a guilty one as far as I'm concerned. It hardly compares to his classic work of the early-70s, but it's quite good in its own right. In fact, Elton's last three albums (all co-written with Bernie) have been quite strong. For me, the thing that lets him down these days isn't his writing but his singing. His voice isn't what it used to be. Very few people's voices go unchanged after a long career, but it seems that Elton suffers more for it than some other people. Costello still sounds pretty much the same today as he did in 1977, for example. Bono still sounds good, as does Prince. Dylan's voice changes with age, but it never sounds bad (same with Neil Young). There was a quality to Elton's voice circa 1970 that was very appealing, although it's hard for me to pin down. He doesn't quite have it anymore, but he makes up for it with strong playing and writing...

Well, their dads knew each other...

You'd have to use both...

I dug Norah, and I think I said so at the time. I still dig Norah. Her new album is quite good. She certainly didn't deserve to be such a polarizing figure. It's not mentioned in the article, but I do remember provoking the ire of Tom Evered when I commented that EMI seemed to be downplaying Norah's ethnicity. My point was that with the paucity of Asian Americans in the pop music world, it would be nice to note that one of the top selling recording artists of the moment was - in fact - Indian (or part-Indian). This had nothing to do with the whole Norah/Ravi thing, but rather the fact that the cover photo for "Come Away With Me" looked like it had been specifically designed to lighten Norah's skin color. Tom FREAKED at this observation, and claimed that it wasn't anybody at Blue Note or EMI that was trying to surpress Norah's ethnic background. (But then why was it such a revelation that Norah is Ravi's daughter? Why not just mention it straight out in the press release on her website?)

WORD!

Fawcett comics, actually. Elvis hairstyle and short cape were inspired by Captain Marvel Jr. Don't know if the king ever scored the cool headress. That explains a little inside joke in Mark Wade and Alex Ross's Kingdom Come mini-series/graphic novel collection. For those of you who haven't read it, Kingdom Come is the story of a dystopian near-future in which DC superheroes are in danger of destroying the world through their unchecked behavior. Superman, Wonder Woman and other older heroes are trying to save the world, while Batman, Green Arrow, and other more human heroes are trying to save the world from Superman and his crew. A now adult Captain Marvel Jr. is seen briefly as a background character. He is now "King Marvel" and he looks like this: Alex Ross is a very funny guy, and an amazing artist.

I'm a big fan of the Dust-to-Digital and Old Hat releases, but I am sorry to see Yazoo stop issuing blues reissues. The first time I ever heard Charley Patton (back in the early '90s) was on a Yazoo release. They've been doing it for a long time.

You say it's your birthday?

I suppose you give Kevin Federline props as well. No. Unlike Justin (who has a modicum of talent), K-Fed is a gold digger whose fifteen minutes are up and is making a play for a few minutes more. He's not laughing at himself, he's clinging to public attention. And that's just pathetic.

Some music from the current generation of artists that I absolutely love include the Roots, the White Stripes and Gnarls Barkley. I've picked up the recent releases from Christina and Beyonce and I have to say that I like them. They are uneven to be sure, but far from poor. Christina is not to be included in a list of her former Pop Tart cohorts, in my opinion, because unlike Britney, Christina can SING. Finally, I have to give Justin props for doing "Dick in a Box." The man can laugh at himself, if nothing else.

Say what you like about her, but her new album is her best yet. Seriously. She's got something of a Nick Drake/Leonard Cohen vibe on this one. Of course, Nick and Len have never burned up the charts, so I'm sure that a more mature Norah isn't what EMI was hoping for...

I reviewed this set for All About Jazz. I think the selection is wonderful, despite a few repeats from other CD sets I own (I want to say that I have at least four or five tracks elsewhere), but I agree with the comment about the notes. While the essay on the pathology of collecting is very charming (the Crumb cartoon is great), the set needed something more to balance it out. There is no mention of recording or release dates, no personnel, and nothing about the record labels on which these tracks were originally released. This seems odd, considering the audience for such a set. I may not be as into this stuff as a Joe Bussard, say, but I would like to have a bit more information than they're giving us here!

Check it out!!! Apparently, this song is on their new Greatest Hits compilation. It's a great song (U2 has always been, at bottom, a great singles band) and the video is outstanding. Similar, in some ways, to Gnarls Barkley's incredible video for "Smiley Faces" except this one has pretty much every great singer in the world lip synching Bono. Great job, and I love the ultimate message of the video. I also like the fact that they managed to fit nearly every artist in my CD collection into about four minutes... BTW: I don't suppose anybody has bought the "U218" collection. Let me know if you have...

Greatest Hits 2 has some great stuff as well. That's where you'll find "Levon," "Tiny Dancer," Elton's versions of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Pinball Wizard," "Island Girl," "I Feel Like A Bullet From The Gun Of Robert Ford," and "Philadelphia Freedom." Or you could just get the albums from that era. They really are great.

The best part is that this thread can later morph into an AA thread!

Tumbleweed Connection is a great album, and Madman is pretty good as well. I've always thought Yellow Brick Road was overblown ("This Song Has No Title" and "Grey Seal" are pretty awesome, though) and judging by what I've heard on compilations from the mid 70s onward his music descended into the toilet in a hurry. He had a very nice gospel touch to his piano playing. I've never liked Rod Stewart's voice. My parents love him, though. Guy I agree completely about "Yellow Brick Road." There was a great single album in there, but a little too much chaff. Each classic Elton John album has some really great songs that never made it onto the radio. One of my favorites is "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself" on "Honky Chateau." It's hard to believe that the guy who sang that could later sing "Circle of Life!" Rod's version of "That's Alright" on "Every Picture..." is incredible, especially when it morphs into "Amazing Grace" (accompanied by Ron Wood's slide guitar). It's a great "Saturday Night/Sunday Morning" performance. He really had something then. Pity he lost it in such a great hurry.