Teasing the Korean

The creepiest fade is "When a Man Needs a Woman," with that scary Eraserhead roller rink organ. Another creepy fade is "Be With Me," where you hear Dennis scream, and then you just hear the strings playing by themselves. You have to turn it up loud to hear them. Capitol screwed up a lot of the early stereo fades by having the instruments disappear first. This was because the mixing board had to be rigged for stereo mixing. The mono fades were much better.

If he didn't, I'm sure his accountant did.

If The Beach Boys meet your definition of "rock," I have been listening to the Feel Flows box set. Keep in mind that TTK's pad is generally a rock-free zone.

I have been on a Sly kick recently. Listen to the coda of "Everybody is a Star," from about the two-minute point on. It sounds like the fade from a tune on Wild Honey, between the sustained brass and the a cappella harmonies.

Of course. Love You is one of my favorite Beach Boys albums and IMO their last really great album, although I do love the song "Good Timin'" that they released a few years later. This is from someone how has all their albums from the beginning through Love You.

I have long had the impression - correctly or incorrectly - that Brian was pretty out there in the early- to mid-70s, and that he eventually kind of got it together by the late 1980s, through a combination of prescription meds and because of, or despite, therapy. But check out this 1976 interview. Brian is certainly quirky - he always was - but he is lucid, articulate, and self-aware here. Compare this to interviews from more recent decades, and I think you will see what I mean. It makes you wonder if prescription drugs are as bad as if not worse than some of the recreational drugs.

Of course, I was just kidding.

Oh, yes, that has that sound indeed! It makes me want to misbehave and uncork a bottle of wine, something that I shouldn't do tonight, as I've come down with something. (Not COVID, thankfully; I got tested and the results came back negative.) And the Walter Raim albums on MTA have a black label, like that of Pulsar!!!

So she is fairly well-known in the UK? In the US, she is very much an underground, cult figure.

What's the issue? When you buy one, back it up with a program like XLD. You'll always have another.

It all came together for Aftermath, which is the only Stones album I care about, and which is the only "rock" album I occasionally return to anymore. I can't say the same for any Beatles album. I much prefer to hear "rock" interpreted with the civility, gentility, and politeness that we associate with jazz.

The early Stones had beefier guitars, plus Ian Stewart on keys. It was a much fuller sound than the Beatles or any other British rock group had back then, with the possible exception of the Yardbirds. The instruments on Stones records were for the most part better recorded than on Beatles records; there is more definition in all of the instruments. And the Stones' guitar arrangements and interplay were far more interesting than what the Beatles were doing at that time. IMO.

Both of those albums I posted are worth seeking out. VS&T is on Qobuz as a lossless download, if you can't find a CD or LP.

Yes, she is credited as composer and arranger on that track. Early on in that interview clip I posted above, she discusses her first studio experience as an arranger/conductor, and how the male orchestra was not prepared for this. It's a cool story.

Did you read that lengthy article that was posted several years back about how Sun Ra's archivist, who was also a WFMU DJ, held on to all of Sun's masters, at least the ones that were on Saturn? These were the tapes that Irwin Chusid used for all these remasters. The article is in the Jazz in Print sub-forum. The reason the remasters sound so good is they are from this collection of tapes, which were in the guy's closet during the whole time that Evidence was releasing CDs in the 1990s. https://believermag.com/logger/angels-and-demons-at-play/

A confusing thing about those library records is that sometimes the tracks were commercially released with different titles, probably as a way to avoid detection.

Vocal Shades and Tones was a library album, so it was not commercially available. A lot of library albums and composers were rediscovered through a combination of DJ culture and the "lounge" revival. Several tracks, such as "Hot Heels," appeared on comps, and the entire album was released at some point. Voices in Latin was a commercially available album. I have the CD reissue. Moore did lots of behind-the-scenes stuff also.

Arranger/composer/vocalist Barbara Moore has died. Her DeWolfe album Vocal Shades and Tones is a library classic.

Feel Flows.

I developed a latent interest in girls, so at the time, I just thought it was a dumb cop show.

I dunno, Shelly had kind of a Lauren Bacall thing going on.

Cheryl Ladd or Shelly Hack?

Each of the songs on Jo Stafford Sings Broadway's Best is by a different songwriter or songwriting team, and the composer/lyricist provides brief liner notes for each of the songs. After discussing the background of the song and his approach to the lyric, Ira Gershwin writes, "Whimsy aside, I can honestly say I've been a fan of Miss Stafford and her renditions for a long time, and I'm delighted this song is included in her record."

My parents joined what was left of the Pied Pipers - namely, Chuck Lowry - and briefly sang as members of the Pied Pipers on a tour. This would have been very early 1950s. Chuck liked to hit the sauce a little too hard, and as a result, they had to replace Chuck during the tour. Because there were no original members left, they decided to change the name of the group for the rest of the tour, even though they were singing Pied Pipers songs and arrangements. Some version of the Pied Pipers was reestablished after this time, but my parents had gone onto other projects by then. My Mom idolized Jo Stafford. By the way, that 1952 version is from a Columbia LP called Jo Stafford Sings Broadway's Best. I absolutely adore this album. I don't think it was ever reissued on CD, at least not in its original form. For some reason, every Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, while I'm preparing dinner, I play this album, along with Mingus Oh Yeah. Not sure how I started that tradition. As for the melody in the 1952 version, I just think Jo is taking tasteful liberties with the melody. There are a lot of repeated notes in that melody as written, so the song seems to lend itself to those kinds of changes.