Gary McFarland special at Amazon

[GA Russell]

I want to let you know about a good deal I found at Amazon tonight.

For decades I have wanted Gary McFarland's Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon? from his Skye years.

Amazon is now offering it for $2.61, and they will give you a free $1.00 credit toward an mp3 which must be used by January 31.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000005YUE/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[JSngry]

Have you heard this album? I like it a lot, but it is wholly "easy listening", not "easy listening jazz".

As I said, I like it for what it is. Just be prepared, even at $2.61.

Then again, I've paid a lot more for a lot worse, so...you can't lose, right?

[GA Russell]

I didn't know that, Jim. That's OK. I can satisfy my curiosity for that price.

[mikeweil]

It is easy listening, but the most hip and sophisticated I have ever heard!

[.:.impossible]

I bought a beautiful copy for $0.99 last year!

[sgcim]

GM did a whole slew of EL LPs in the 60s, most of them with his fellow druggie Sam Brown on guitar.

I know nothing about the other guys in the group (Donald McDonald? -drums), but when I found out GM's fellow recording artist Gabor Szabo was a junkie, I knew something was funny about that GM group on the Skye label.

Sure, GM might have been poisoned in that bar, but would you take drugs that you found in a bag left behind by someone in a bar?

[Teasing the Korean]

Some - not all - easy listening albums by jazz artists sound as though they were made with a gun pointed to the musicians' heads.

McFarland's easy listening albums to me sound completely genuine. I think they were just as important to him as his "serious" albums, and they convey the childlike wonder that is in his best work, jazz or otherwise.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Teasing the Korean

[etherbored]

hear, hear! mcfarland knew no other way. or if he did, it didn't make it to record.

[sgcim]

The strangest record GM ever made was "Butterscotch Rum" on Buddah, with Peter Smith on vocals.

I was at my local used records store, and the owner is a GM freak, and he played it in the shop.

I asked him, "Who the hell is this?"

He said, "Gary McFarland"

I said, "What???"

I bought it immediately.

[JSngry]

I love that one...got it a looooong time ago very accidentally and very circuitously and had no idea what lay in store. when the bridge to that "Jenny" song hit....whoa....

[alankin]

So who's doing the whistling on Gary McFarland's Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon?

[Teasing the Korean]

Gary does his own whistling, as far as I know.

I have to go into work today, but when I get home, I'm planning to blast "The In Sound."

[GA Russell]

Marc Myers in this morning's Wall Street Journal has an article on both McFarland's death and his interest in '60s pop hits.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/a-too-brief-life-in-music-recalled-1415056985

[mikeweil]

What a story! What a superfluous death!

The CD/DVD combo went right to the top of my wish list.

[mikeweil]

Got the DVD two weeks ago - very well made, but McFarland stays as mysterious and unique as he always was after viewing the documentary, if ya know what I mean ... the bonus live CD is nice, but not overwhelming.