The Magnificent Goldberg

Definitely! I recently got the John Kirby Sextet complete Columbia and RCA Victor recordings (1939-1942) on Definitive. It includes: Greig's "Anitra's dance" Chopin's "Minute watz" and "Fantasy impromptu" Dvorak's "Humoresque" Schubert's "Serenade" Lehar's "Frasquita serenade" Donizetti's sextet from "Lucia" "Bounce of the sugar plum fairy" "Beethoven riffs on" (I don't recognise this, or don't remember recognising it) All very nice stuff. Not to forget, Grant Green's version of the Mozart 40th symphony 1st movement theme, with Idris Muhammad stoking the engine! And Purcell (!) is represented by Grover Washington Jr's "Love song 1700". MG

Here's something I worked out about the price of beer when I retired in 2003. Don't know if it's comprehensible to an American. When I left school, in 1960, beer in my local was 11d a pint; popular 12" LPs were 32/-. My salary, when I started work, was £4 a week. That's 2.5 LPs exactly or 87.3 pints. A pint of Brains SA, in the Old Arcade, costs £2.10 now (2003). So 87.3 pints would cost £183.33 now. That is a little bit above the minimum wage, which is not far from what I was earning in 1960. LPs cost about a tenner now, so you could buy 18.3 LPs for the price of 87.3 pints. That is about 7.3 times as many as you could buy for that price in 1960. So relative prices of beer and LPs have changed greatly, while beer and wages haven't (much). Full priced CDs cost £15, but commonly last an hour, compared to 40 minutes for LPs. So there is little difference between the cost of full price CDs and LPs, measured by time. MG

I saw an original vinyl of this in London a couple of weeks ago for £15 ! Badly scratched though, unfortunately. Sleeve was pretty nice. First one I've ever seen in the shops too. I've had two copies new and they've both been duff. I have a TOCJ now though, so I'm happy. MG PS - meant to say that it's one of the most interesting of their albums - the only one where Shirley has no bass player. And yes, she can play the pedals! And "Think" is a blinder!!!!

Joannie Summers Lesley Gore Shelley Fabares

'Bout time someone else bought this. MG

That's what I did. I rotated it and then copied and pasted parts of it to fill in the gaps that showed up around it. Now it's a Pollock collage. Ah - well, I suppose with a Pollock it really doesn't matter which way up it is. Silly me... MG

How do you get that Pollock to fit? I just tried it and I get an inch and a half of blue down either side of the screen and a bit more than half the pic up and down (the bit from the middle). MG

Bananarama Carmen Miranda Moby Grape

YAAAAYYY!!! MG

Milo O'Shea Jane Fonda Barbarella

From the sublime to the ridiculous ! Found vol 1 2nd hand in Cardiff at a silly price - then I had to get vol 2, didn't I? Couldn't find an old one, so I got what there was in the shops at the time. Vol 2 cost a lot more than vol 1. MG

Foxy Brown Redd Foxx 20th Century Fox

Sidney Bechet - Jazz classics vols 1 & 2 - BN vol 1 is 47 W 63/Lexington, vol 2 is Pathe Marconi Sonny Criss & Georges Arvanitas - Live in Italy - Fresh Sound orig (complete with really awful sound, and it takes a LOT for me to notice - is the CD better?) MG

But slower. MG

Mind giving a little info on "The Soul Stirrers"? Never heard of them. A gospel vocal group which included Sam Cooke. Yes, the Soul Stirrers were formed in Texas, in the thirties I think. The original lead singer was Rebert H Harris. Started recording in early 1940s, then for Aladdin in 1946. Backup lead was Paul Foster from 1950, when they started recording for Specialty. Harris left the group in 1951. Sam Cooke recruited to replace him. Paul Foster continued alternating many leads with Cooke (these are, I think, the most exciting of the Stirrers' singles from the Cooke period). Cooke left 1957, replaced by Johnnie Taylor, previously with the Highway QCs, the Soul Stirrers' training quartet. Leroy Crume joined group on baritone and playing guitar, when group left Specialty and recorded for Cooke's label, Sar. Taylor left 1960, also to pursue career in Soul, replaced by Jimmy Outler; Foster still with the group! Foster and Outler left in 1965, replaced by Willie Rogers and Arthur Crume; group now recording for Checker. Rufus Crume arrives; now three of them in the group! Strength, power and love was recorded in 1973 and the personnel was: Dillard Crume - lead guitar & organ Arthur Crume - rhythm guitar Rufus Crume - bass & guitar Sonny Thompson - piano (this was the great blues pianist whose "Long gone" was a huge R&B hit in 1948) Terry Thompson - drums A more or less total takeover by the Crume Brothers! Although there are a few hangovers from the Cooke style, the album is rather different from their earlier recordings; more power-packed, less subtle. MG D'oh, i believe i was just looking at a 3cd boxset on amazon of Sam Cooke and the soul stirrers in that sale someone posted. The Cooke stuff is excellent; much more subtle than most of the forties/fifties hard gospel quartets. But give me the RHHarris stuff any time. I should think the CD of the Harris Specialty tracks is still available - called "Shine on me" Specialty don't know the US # 'cos I have the UK edition. Wish someone would issue the complete Aladdin sides. MG

Well, he's to be found on the Blindman's Blues forum, which is very polite, in my experience. MG

Guitar LPs made in England! Kenny Burrell - All day long and all night long (just the two long title tracks - can't be asked to listen to all that fifties Hard Bop ) - Prestige RCA UK issue Kenny Burrell with Coleperson Hawkins - Bluesy Burrell - MV Xtra UK issue Calvin Newborn - From the hip - Rooster Jazz orig (and this one was even recorded in England - Wave - oh all right, hiya there) MG

Arnond Schwartzenegger Kirk Douglas Road Runner

Slim Dusty Muddy Waters Duster Bennett

Mind giving a little info on "The Soul Stirrers"? Never heard of them. A gospel vocal group which included Sam Cooke. Yes, the Soul Stirrers were formed in Texas, in the thirties I think. The original lead singer was Rebert H Harris. Started recording in early 1940s, then for Aladdin in 1946. Backup lead was Paul Foster from 1950, when they started recording for Specialty. Harris left the group in 1951. Sam Cooke recruited to replace him. Paul Foster continued alternating many leads with Cooke (these are, I think, the most exciting of the Stirrers' singles from the Cooke period). Cooke left 1957, replaced by Johnnie Taylor, previously with the Highway QCs, the Soul Stirrers' training quartet. Leroy Crume joined group on baritone and playing guitar, when group left Specialty and recorded for Cooke's label, Sar. Taylor left 1960, also to pursue career in Soul, replaced by Jimmy Outler; Foster still with the group! Foster and Outler left in 1965, replaced by Willie Rogers and Arthur Crume; group now recording for Checker. Rufus Crume arrives; now three of them in the group! Strength, power and love was recorded in 1973 and the personnel was: Dillard Crume - lead guitar & organ Arthur Crume - rhythm guitar Rufus Crume - bass & guitar Sonny Thompson - piano (this was the great blues pianist whose "Long gone" was a huge R&B hit in 1948) Terry Thompson - drums A more or less total takeover by the Crume Brothers! Although there are a few hangovers from the Cooke style, the album is rather different from their earlier recordings; more power-packed, less subtle. MG

Sound ideal, but I don't think anyone in the world has managed it since the dawn of "civilisation". (And perhaps not even before then.) MG

Jack McDuff - Tough 'Duff - Prestige plum label The Soul Stirrers - Strength, power and love - Jewel orig MG

Oh, so I've probably got other stuff with him playing Thanks Marcello. MG

You're all right - Harold, John L, Allen, Jim, Clem, and even me. And yet... A great deal of what is new and exciting in music nowadays is coming about because people of different cultural backgrounds are bringing those backgrounds together in a way that defies "authenticity". Or if it's authentic anything it's authentically "western melting pot" (and that's an signal that a lot of this is crap, too - but then, a lot of almost everything has been crap). I'm not talking about Arts Council jobs here (which ARE crap), but about stuff that seems to be arising naturally through the general interaction of musicians, singers and paying (and dancing) audiences. So, there are exceptions. MG

Louis Armstrong Ella Fitzgerald Bobby Darin