A Lark Ascending

This book due out next week should make an interesting read on this area: The Amazon blurb: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Eden-Unearthing-Britains-Visionary/dp/0571237525/ref=pd_ybh_9?pf_rd_p=138755991&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=ybh&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0V0SGXREWHD6CMS0E481 The extract in the recent Froots magazine (on Mr. Fox) was excellent.

I think you are right there. Because Thompson has never enjoyed mainstream success he seems to get the press rooting for him every time. Of his albums from the last ten years or so the only two that really bear up for me as albums are 'Mock Tudor' and 'The Old Kit Bag'. Another thing that increasingly disturbs me about Thompson's writing is the sheer nastiness of some of the lyrics. He's always had a thing about oddballs and characters on the wrong side of the tracks but a sort of sneer has crept in. If you want three records that pick up on the spirit of early Thompson (without the guitar heroics), much more firmly rooted in the British tradition, try these: This 7 minute video about the making of the recent album is well worth watching. Interesting to note Wood's take on humanity compared with the bitterness that so disturbs me in recent Thompson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBSWYnzGFh0&feature=player_embedded The first two albums are available in a cheaper double package called 'Albion'. Here is Wood doing his greaterst hit. Ten minutes long but I defy anyone with a heart not to get to the end of it without a tear in their eye:

Just read a 4 star review in Mojo. But I'm not holding my breath - Thompson has put out a lot of dull rockers over the years. Filler describes them perfectly! I think they are the sort of thing that gets a great response live but don't bear up afterwards. He needs to get back over here and reconnect with his roots. I've always felt his songwriting suffered from the early 80s once he seemed to be on endless tour in the States (which is not to say that he hasn't written some great songs in that time - but they tend to make up about 1/3 of each record).

Very good!

I'll only buy it if it includes a replica harmonica mouthpiece.

Coming up in August: Another classic cover! http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=1203

Irony laid on with a trowel. Richard Thompson must get an award for being the front rank musician with the consistently most awful sleeve designs. About time this one and 'First Light' had a proper reissue on CD/download.

I vote for the 'or something'. Don't knock it! My Mum was the X,000th customer through the NAAFI tills in Singapore c.1967 during 'Australia Week'. We won a huge hamper. Only time I've ever tasted caviar. Didn't take to it. Is there such a thing as Aussie caviar?

Does the person who posts the millionth post get a hamper or something?

Absolutes, Absolutes!

Two other pianists I've really been enjoying of late - Horace Silver and Sonny Clark. In both cases I've had a couple of discs (plus sideman appearances) but they never hit home until recently. Love it when performers sit simmering in your collection almost unnoticed and then suddenly the flavours just explode.

And for this box set, I can't find The Complete On The Corner Sessions at a decent price, I didn't even see one at Amoeba's yesterday. I'm tempted to do a Amazon download for $40.00, though I would much prefer the real box -- I'm old and cranky, and don't like this new fangled computer stuff. I tried to get a physical copy last year but the order was cancelled after a couple of months looking. I got the download a couple of months back. Sounds great!

I've only really known him as a sideman - obviously the mid-50s Miles/Coltrane records primarily. I'm finding these leader recordings pure pleasure - will probably sweep e-music clear in the next few months as my credits restore.

Red Garland's 50s/60s things on Fantasy; and a number of things in the same sort of area by the likes of Gene Ammons and Teddy Edwards. Also a bit of a Sonny Stitt/Sonny Criss spate taking me well beyond the few recordings I own. I appear to have the blues.

Apparently it's not clementine.

Well done, Alex.

I'm not one of clementine's fans but I must commend him on this recent alias.

The thread was getting along quite nicely before you arrived with your narcissism. I'm sure it will potter along quite nicely as a pleasant sideshoot of the site once you have decided to go and bother somebody else.

"Tesco supermarkets sells limited run Cecil Taylor 10CD set". You couldn't make it up ! I saw it yesterday next to the frozen peas! Seriously, it's also on e-music. In the UK just one credit for each track.

= feverish buying of everything by him on record? Ha! Very good. Also known as deanbenedetti-itus.

I really enjoyed those when I read them 15 or so years back. I think there's been at least one more since. You might enjoy this small series by David Downing - http://www.oldstreetpublishing.co.uk/AUTHORPAGES/david_downing.htm . Very evocative of the pre-war and early war era in Germany. **************** I've just started: I grew up on RAF bases and the sight of a Spitfire can still make me well up. Read loads of heroic pilot accounts as a kid. It's the 70th Anniversary so there's lots appearing in the media at present. I'm very impressed with this so far. Well written, engaging, seems very thoroughly researched. Very aware of how much of 1940 is shrouded in our national mythology, yet anxious not to embark on a debunking exercise (there have already been a few sour comments about some revisionist accounts).

I buy new releases by people I like (or people I think I might like based on reviews, recommendations etc) as they come out; other than that, it's all quite random. I'll hit a phase of interest in a particular performer or genre and pick up things there, again based on recommendations here, in Penguin, AMG and elsewhere. Seeing a good live performance always has an influence, as does a radio or TV documentary. As I mainly buy downloads I don't have the anxieties of things going OOP. They might get withdrawn at a future date but then again we all might get wiped out by the next bird flu.

Not so much a track as a tune - 'Black Velvet'. Heard it on both a Sonny Clark and an Arnett Cobb recording last weekend and it's been stuck in my head ever since.

I think I bought it in a record shop (remember them?) about ten years ago. It's still knocking about - very good indeed. The only reason I find so many is that I have a 14 year-olds ability to impulse buy coupled with the spending power of a 55 year old!

Big favourite of mine, Bill.