neveronfriday

While sorting out sky-high piles of paper and bills of the past century or so, I threw on the Soundstage Michael McDonald DVD for the umpteenth time. Michael McDonald is one of my heroes from way back when, and he remains one of my heroes today. I've always loved the stuff he's done - mediocre stuff is far between. He's had one or two albums which didn't really make it into constant rotation here, but I have so much respect for the guy that I'm very forgiving regarding some minor recordings. The guy is sincere, he does what he wants to do, more often than not removed from commercial considerations, and his music always gets me into a good mood (even some of those great (sad) ballads he's recorded). Michael McDonald reminds me of my youth and has had more staying power in my collection than most others. I've never had the fortune of seeing the Doobies live and it is one of my biggest regrets. If Michael McDonald ever comes to Europe these next years, I'll travel to wherever for any amount of money to see him. Hell, maybe I'll even stick an old Doobies or McDonald poster up on the wall. It would be the only one. Cheers! P.S.: The Soundstage DVD is a collaborative effort. It's got a number of songs from his wonderful Motown CD (featuring Ashford & Simpson on two (three) numbers), a set of Doobies numbers (Black Water is just a blast on this one ... one of my all-time fave Doobies recordings), it's got Patrick Simmons (what a voice, still today) and Tom Johnston (who doesn't get all that much space on this recording) ... you can't go wrong with this DVD ... and it's got good sound to boot. P.S.S.: I think I'll put on the Lyle Lovett next ... including a masterfully incomprehensible/nasal Randy Newman ...

Same here. Got each and every one that's out on CD. Plus the Michael McDonald Soundstage DVD (quite nice, actually). Plus the Doobies Box. Add to that Lyle Lovett, and we've got a small corner of my collection I often turn to. My real guilty pleasure is Danish Pop and Rock music from the 80s and 90s. I have tons of it. I wonder if anyone has ever heard of any of these? Sneakers, Sanne Salomonsen, Moonjam, Toesedrengene, News, Thomas Helmig, Halberg-Larsen, various spin-off groups, and, and, and. I think I have pretty much the entire catalog, plus tons of other bands. Took me I don't know how many years of hunting around second-hand shops in Copenhagen (and there are plenty of those) to duplicate my LP collection on CD. There are still two CDs I'm missing, and that's it. One was available once (I saw it, held it in my hands and decided to buy it later that day ... since then it has disappeared off the map and NOBODY lists it anywhere as ever having been released ...) the second one had such a limited run that I've not been able to find a single person actually even admitting to having one. Man, talking about "Guilty pleasures". If I think about it, I probably used several weeks of my life in shops hunting just for this stuff. Cheers!

What I would like to see is a Status Quo box set. Everything that is out on the marked at the moment just sucks sound-wise, including a pretty useless box set. I heard their catalogue is supposed to be remastered, but if it's anything like the last effort (the box set), forget it. The early Status Quo material, up to that dreadful "Rockin' All Over the World" release and subsequent duds, is great. I'd love to see all of THAT on a box set, remastered, with as much bonus material as possible. I'd be in heaven. The current one has nothing at all from their time before 1972. There's plenty of extra material on there already, but also too many useless tunes. That's one box set that gets me pi**ed off everytime I look at it. What a waste. Cheers!

There is a Lizzy box set. Just not a complete one. http://www.thinlizzyfan.com/albumpages/boxset.html It's got pretty decent sound as well. It should be readily available everywhere. Cheers!

Holy shit! And I was embarrassed about Simon & Garfunkel???? You know what? And maybe I should add this (although it has been said elsewhere on this thread) ... hell, let me put this into a list: a) I'm sorry, but I'm never ever embarrassed about music I listen to (and I have lots other people might find disgusting). It's a personal thing, and - this has also been said elsewhere - there is always some personal angle to stuff you listen to. I also love watching "Plan 9 from Outer Space", probably the worst film ever made, but I love it. Call it "the aesthetics of bad taste", but I can really get off on that stuff. b) Much like many people on this board, I switched to jazz (something I always had around me in one way or another), because I got tired of a lot of stuff I had in my collection. Frampton can be fun, but only whenever memories catch up with you ...sentimental stuff. And right at that moment, Frampton is the best possible thing to play ... for me. Or "Last Child" by Aerosmith, or "Grinder" by Judas Priest with it's absolutely killing riff and driving beat towards the end. c) Whenever I want to use my brain and enjoy music on a level that engages mind AND body, I listen to jazz. Call that elitist, but that's the way it is for me. It might be country music for others, or classical music, whatever, but for me, it was a development. I didn't reach that stage until later in life. Finally - and this is no rebuttal (and please don't misunderstand this), I NEVER laugh about the musical choice of other people. I'm just happy that they listen to something that tickles their fancy. There are enough people on this planet who think that music is muzak, and I'm happy about anybody who gets something out of any kind of music. Hell, when my brother dances, he has the rhythm of a physically handicapped person, but he loves it at that moment ... which is cool with me. So, whenever I feel like it, I listen to Motorhead, followed by Mussorgsky, followed by the Clash, followed by Paul Desmond.. And I hope other people do the same. Cheers!

If not then I can't post on this thread. I only have two boxed sets that could conceivably be appropriate for this thread, and the other one I refuse to mention, because a) I don't consider much of it rock, and b) it's music I probably should have left in my memory... Let's just say I like him better without Art and leave it at that! In all honesty, I don't like Rock boxed sets. I grew up with the albums, and the boxed sets (and expanded releases) just don't sound right to me. As I didn't grow up with jazz, boxed sets are fine there. Well, I have to disagree a bit here. I also grew up with the albums ... but today I catch myself buying some of these lavish remasters not only for memories' sake, but also because of the packaging, the notes, the extra material, the remastering etc. Some albums I loved as a teenager I tried to get in the best possible CD version, although, much unlike in jazz, that is often a difficult thing. In my opinion, there are a lot more beautiful Jazz reissues than there are Rock ones. You may laugh (and I don't care, HA!), but "Frampton Comes Alive" is still one of my fave albums outside of my Jazz collection. Mind you, I have lots of others that fit that category of must-have reissues, but some just have that sentimental value attached ... like the Frampton, some Marley, the Doobies, Eagles, some older Judas Priest recordings, early Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, etc., etc. etc. The "Frampton Comes Alive" Universal Deluxe Edition is simply a good example of an excellent reissue that I wanted to have to match the fun I had with that album and at the time it came out. And, I am a sucker for these cardboard fold-out thingies, glossy photos, good liner notes, etc. Nothing like having that to look at while the music is spinnin' and a good vintage French red wine is sloshing seductively in a monstrous balloon glas. Cheers!

The remastering is excellent, IMHO. And I care about that kind of stuff. But then again, Steely Dan is also a bunch of perfectionists in the studio, so the original material is/was already damn good. I like the remastering as much as I did when I bought the box and have never seen any reason to update or even look for alternatives (I actually don't think there are any, safe for any SACD remasters, which might exist). Cheers! P.S.: I bought mine when it came out. Since then, it has been re-packaged in some slimline box ... don't know if anything changed in the remastering department, although I doubt it very much.

Butch Thompson is fantastic. I saw him live once presenting his Scott Joplin interpretations. Wonderful stuff. He really breathed some life into those timeless classics. Thanks for reminding me of him. I'll check what's available at reasonable prices. I think he actually recorded the Joplin material to some very favourable reviews (end 90's, if memory doesn't fail me). Cheers!

Same here. Also all the various solo recordings. Plus the "Two Against Nature" DVD. Plus, err, whatever else there is to have. Just great stuff. Cheers!

I have the Rhino Disco! box. 'nuff said.

Are Walter Becker and Donald Fagen "Rock"? My Steely Dan box is the one box that has gotten the most consistent play at my house ever since I got it (1993?) when it came out in its first incarnation. Interestingly enough, that is closely followed by the Gordon Lightfoot one. Well, I think it's intersting. All the Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Police, Eagles, Doobies, Earth, Wind and Fire and whatnot boxes have basically been sitting on my shelves, staring at me. Hm. I know what it is. I'm getting old. Cheers! P.S.: I need to buy that CCR box sometime. It's relatively cheap here in Germany (check "Music Garden" on eBay ... they also have another site somewhere) and has been on my shipping list forever. I just have most of the CCR stuff on spin-off remasters from that box project, so other things always came first.

Yeah, sure does, doesn't it. I'm seriously considering it, also because I'm sick and tired of running the PC/Windows update game. I know what I need and want to do, and this machine looks like it can do it for me. Cheers!

Thanks so far, guys. Some quick comments on the posts above, and some more questions: a) Yes, I have played around with one, extensively. I liked what I saw and it was rather intuitive right from the start. Don't know if I could figure out the Apple stuff as much as I can the Windows stuff, but maybe I don't need to. And, I've used Windows PCs since, what, 95 or so, or even before, and I guess I would have to give a Mac such a thorough workout first. b) I'm not so sure about the hardware requirments. Over the years, although I've had the odd softwareitis fit, I've started toning down my setup to only keep on the PC what I need. And that's what I listed above. The largest image I ever had to handle (once only), was a 250 MB graphic file, usually I just work with hi-res pics to reduce them for web use. All my text processing and DTP work is pretty average ... I don't need to produce any magazines, although I have in the past. So, I guess a single processor G5 should do. More questions: a) How much memory do I need to be on the safe side? 1GB? Or is the Mac easier on the memory? b) I would like to have a 20" screen. What is the Apple one like (23" would be too much of a good thing, I guess)? What I'd like to do is have two A4 pages next to each other when layouting, or a webpage and the corresponding code page open at the same time. c) What kind of graphics card will do if I want to drive the monitor above at varying resolutions (I need to change resolutions frequently for webpage testing)? Cheers!

Hi, again and again I find myself searching the forums for all those wonderful reissue lists (the complete Jazz in Paris, for example, although that one is easy enough to find), discographical lists, Mosaic booklet links, etc. I just think that sometimes all this extremely useful info gets buried somewhat. I would like to suggest either a new forum entirely in which only those things are posted, sans comments (just lists, lists, lists, which are updated by the person who initially posted the topic [much like the BFT master list]), or at least one long-a** thread. Personally, I would prefer a separate forum divided by label, etc. What do you think? A good idea, or is the search function good enough for you? Cheers!

And, do I look good? I mean, I can't see myself either, so ... Cheers!

Babe thread? I'm an anonymous member because I logged in once, checked that box (without giving it much thought) and haven't logged out/in since. That's why. Call me lazy. Cheers!

Forgot: What's the learning curve like?

Hi everyone, I'm still a few months away from it, but I've started toying with the idea of maybe switching from an IBM-compatible system (God, does that term actually still exist) to a new Apple PC. First of all: I would be spending quite a bit of cash on a Windows PC (very large screen, lots of top-notch hardware, etc.), so money is not the real issue. I usually read a lot before I buy something this expensive, and I still will, but knowing that there are lots of Apple users on the forums here (and maybe some who have made the switch), I'd also like to get your/their opinion ... The reason for a possible switch? I've spent more time fixing Windows stuff (I admit that I'm a bit of a freak there) than I have saved time using a PC, and I'm getting seriously tired of that. Secondly, I want a more or less stable system for what I need to do (see below) and am not interested in games or the latest hi-tech stuff. This is what I'd like to do in a FAST and comfortable manner: I'd like to ... - have a stable (meaning, technically stable) DSL Internet connection; - design Internet pages (I need a good wysiwyg editor, just to design visually before I do the actual hard-coding by hand); - do desktop publishing (Pagemaker or Quark) and text processing (Word or some such) - do database work (on my PC that was Access) - do graphic design with sth like Photoshop - listen to music with GOOD QUALITY sound - produce some MP3s and, more importantly, MPCs (different format) - catalogue my media collection with some nifty software (that also allows me to create a "sessionography" That's it. Nothing else (although, that's quite a lot already). So, my questions: a) Would something like the new IMac be good enough (biggest screen, most memory, etc.)? Should I consider another Mac model? b) What would I have to roughly calculate for software (ballpark figure) that actually does what it is supposed to do? c) Would you recommend I do the switch (I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have done what I might do). d) Are the apple screens good? I sometimes spend up to 16 hours in front of a screen (with breaks), so ... Thanks for your input!

Hi everyone, extensive search did not help me find any contact information for John McDonough, who writes for Down Beat and other publications. Can anyone here help me out? I'd like to contact him about reprint rights for our Count Basie Project. I'd like to do that without having to contact Down Beat or another publication directly (the Basie article appeared elsewhere (another institution without a single e-mail address). Send me a PM or mail if you have his e-mail address or know of another way how I can reach him. Thanks!

Been one of my favourite CDs ever since I got it. It's in frequent rotation here. Cheers!

Nuthin' flashy about couw.

Burmester. I think you can buy a car for that one ...? Cheers!

Well, I guess I stand corrected then. Oscar Peterson is a mechanical player. Cheers!

And?

It stands for HHB. http://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/usa/hhbproducts/cdr830/index.asp ... for example ...