BruceH

Many congratulations! Sounds like a tough delivery, glad everyone's all right. You've got a lot ahead of you, and it sounds like you're up for it! Hurray!!

I remember going to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Iowa as a kid, my Uncle would say "pop" instead of "soda." So we would get into this groove: "It's soda." "No, it's "pop." "Soda!" "Pop." "Soda!" "Pop." Ahh, good times, good times....

YES! Take off "Yellow Submarine" and put in "Rain" and "Paperback Writer" (from the same sessions after all) and you've got one of the best albums of all time! "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is one of the weakest in my book. A song that you've really got to pull the wool over your eyes to like. The other least favorite/worst are the usual suspects: "Let It Be," "The Long and Winding Road," "Hello Goodbye" etcetera. "Mr. Moonlight" they didn't write so I'm not counting it. Besides, I always felt they did it as a goof and taken it as such. BTW, Bev's comments above seem very on-target to me.

Finally found a copy of this, and I've been enjoying it mightily. I can't add much to what's already been said in this thread except to agree with it. The sound is very good, Victor Feldman (the "Plus" of the title) is great on piano and vibes, and it's just a fantastic record. Cannonball continues to amaze me. I used to think of him as someone from whom one or two or three representative albums would suffice. But over the last year or two I've bought over 15 albums of his and they all rank from solid to great. You'd think that someone who recorded so much would, understandably, have a lot of mediocre commercial efforts in there, but the ratio of wheat to chaff seems astonishingly high. Thanks, jodigrind, for choosing this as AOTW!

My favorite thing on this album is the first track, "Filthy McNasty." A great slab of live hardbop. Any compilation of the best of Horace Silver should include it.

All I know is, Fanta is supposed to be a "down-scale" imprint of Coca Cola, they were around here a long time ago, but not for years. I even have vague memories of Fanta being available in New England when I was growing up, but maybe I'm just kidding myself. For apple-soda I'll have to stick to Martinelli's. Haven't looked for the Welch's/Minute Maid sodas (though I think they're around). I used to think that they stopped making Fresca, but boy was I wrong!

Fanta is just not around here. My wife says it's been ages since it was. Guess I'll have to drown my troubles in IBC.

I know what you mean! "Gotta Gettaway" "Don't Let's Start" "Bob Dylan Wrote Propoganda Songs" What's that you say? They all have to be POPULAR?? Ah, screw it.

I don't expect musicians, composers, writers, directors, actors, or artists of any type to be nice folks that you'd love to pal around with. You've got to be able to separate the work from the person. If I couldn't do that, I'd own a hell of a lot less books and records. Having said that, though, hearing that someone whose work you admire also happens to be a decent human being is certainly a plus.

"We Built This City" really is one of my most hated songs of the 80s. They were on target there. Here's another: "Hungry Like the Wolf" by that pile-of-crap band Duran Duran. One of the most obnoxious pop songs ever.

Was it something I said?

Yes, they still make Shasta. Never tried it before, maybe it's time to start. Diet Lime Coke IS pretty good! The "lime" flavor takes the curse off the "diet" taste. If you live near a Safeway, the "Lemon/Lime Safeway Select" is amazingly good, and 97 cents per sixpack! Glug!

I agree that you would be doing yourself a favor to check out any and all of the Contemprary albums, then the Omegatapes. "No bad Pepper"---almost literally true.

The Nina Rota is the standout, for me. Love that record.

I'll bet it's not in my area. However, there's a store-brand soda that I just got into. Up til now I've always loathed store-brand drinks, but I tried this Albertson's Strawberry soda and it's surprisingly good. Kind of like drinking liquid sugar. Nice!

You are so, so right. Box sets are the SUV's of music. (And just call me Mr. Gas-guzzler.)

Wow, 2005? That's a heck of a run. At the risk of pissing people off, I've got to add my voice to the critical hosanas this box is getting. This is the kind of set that could change your mind about Johnson. If you ever thought that he was kind of facile but lacking in substance, give this a listen. All respect to Teagarden, Vic Dickenson, and Curtis Fuller, but J.J. was THE MAN. (Moose, you DON'T have the Four Freshman set? What's up with that??)

That's a great big ditto right there.

We wanted you to have the joy of discovering it for yourself.

The Rhino Ray Charles set, and the 3-disc Hank Williams set----in both the second disc is the most solid. Jazz? Well, the second disc of the West Coast Classics Mulligan/Baker quartet is great.

So will the new Britney Spears album. So what?

Bus drivers are the worst! Glad you're alright. Better your bike broken than you.

Toss'm some Mobley and Dexter Gordon. Even non-jazzers can get into Go! How about Mingus Ah Um? Then there's always Ellington...

YES!! Love it.

Right on, Brad.