Album of the Evening

[Paul R]

What a great Saturday evening. Got the system cooked up the way I like it, so I listened to two albums tonight!

 

Even though it is getting a bit dated, this has to be one of my favorite albums of all time. I don't think I ever get tired of it. 

This is the 2005 remastered version from the SACD set (kindly ripped to disk for me by a very cool friend - thank you again!).  

 

I have several favorite parts of this album, but tonight the curate episode, with Julie Covington's performance of _The Spirit of Man_ was as awesome to me as the first time I heard it, back in the 1970s on FM Radio.  If you have not listened to it recently, or heaven's forbid, never listened to it, give it a try. 

 

Even if you don't like Pop/Rock/Progressive/etc., I bet you will find something to like in this. 

 

 

 

I played Harrison's  _Dark Horse_ CD while I was setting up a second system. My goodness, it sounds really different in near field listening, or else I am just in a good mood. Too bad George was pouring out the sadness in his heart for this album. As usual, the Roon Reviewer and I don't necessary agree. I am not so sure his throat is strained, or just closed up with emotion. I am sure that too many histamines and too much tobacco do have something to do with the sound, but not all of it. 

 

The "Jai Sri Krishna"  track... huh. Guilty little secret. I love A. R. Rahman's Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack, including the much overplayed "Jai Ho!"  So much so I have taken to learn a little bit of the language. When I listened to this, I realized it was "Honor Lord Krishna", or possibly "Hail Lord Krishna". It was a tad bit more fun when I didn't really realize what he was saying.  

 

All I could think of was how the Brits appropriated "Jai Ho" into "Talley Ho!" - and I felt sorry for the poor foxes...

 

This wee bit of linguistic knowledge has - perhaps unreasonably - changed this bubble filled track for me.  Aw well, I never liked the weird instrument making the bubble sounds anyway. Still a comfortable album, and worth listening to occasionally.  Just not if you are really down! 

 

[Paul R]

1 hour ago, firedog said:

George worked rehearsing for his tour and recording the album at the same time. Overworked his voice and lost his voice  before the tour. He toured anyway and was definitely hoarse on the tour and for much of the album. It was well documented and publicly discussed at the time. You can also hear his hoarseness in the press conferences at the time, where I don't think he was choked up on emotion. I saw the tour. The effect on his voice was quite audible when speaking to the audience and in performance.

 

I don't have the album handy at the moment, but listen to "So Sad" and you can clearly hear the strain in his voice. He can't hit the notes. It's a shame, because it's a great song that he didn't do justice to on record. Try the Myron Lefevre-Alvin Lee version (album "On the Road") of So Sad (with George on guitar) and you can clearly hear how much better the song can sound when sung properly.

 

Thank you for filling in the blanks. I will look for that version... 😎

[Paul R]

New discovery tonight. I liked this, though I did not think it deep. I guess the tell is that I did not buy the album. But it was an entrancing listen.ers.

 

Ok ok - it was the Alien Cockroach on the Cover that got me. I'm a sucker for cool covers...

 

-Paul

[Paul R]

This is an "odd" album. I only listen to it when I am myself in a bit of an odd mood, like tonight.  I think it is just West Coast Weird, but for some reason, I never turn it off when I start listening to it.  I think they are a good band, but one that always leaves me a little puzzled. Why do I like them?

 

-Paul 

 

 

 

 

[Paul R]

 A recommendation in another topic led me to tonights really enjoyable recording. (Thank you Austinpop. ) 

 

 I didn't catch but perhaps one word in every ten though.  The title and track, Vande Mataram means something like "I bow to thee mother". The song is from a 19th century Bengali poem of the same name. I do not even begin to understand all the threads that make up what this song means to people from India, but it is inextricably tied up with their struggle for freedom in the 20th century. On this album, _Vande Mataram_ is also sung by A. R. Rahman. 

 

The last track, _Maa Tujhe Salaam_ hold a worlds record for being performed in the most languages - 277 different languages to be exact, and according to Wikipedia. The title means something like "I Salute You Mother India!"  and, so far as I can tell, is a sweet little song saying that India is home and the best place to be. Very patriotic! 

 

The Roon blurb speaks of the album being intended to introduce international audiences to Indian music, and if so, I would say it is a success. 

I forgot to listen for the recording aspects, because I got lost in the music. 

 

[Paul R]

Have not listened to this is a very long time... not exactly music I am afraid, but a cool album. If you think of the new Hawaii 5-0 or the new Magnum, this is even more hilarious...  

 

The "Lexography of Non-Local Locution" is worth the admission price to the album.

 

-Paul 

 

 

 

[Paul R]

 

I had a lot of fun with the album tonight. I am not normally a Reggae fan, but...  this is fun. Not great music perhaps. 

 

 _Guns Don't Argue_ is to me the standout track on here. If it doesn't spin your head then - well - you must have it screwed down too tight. Don't call me Scarface!

 

_Steve Austin_ is actually about, yep, you got it, the Six Million Dollar Man. Just plain fun. 

 

The whole album is like that. 

 

Available on Qobuz, if you give it a try listen with an open mind and ignore the older fashioned effects. It probably isn't something most people will want to keep in heavy rotation, but it definitely an album to pull out every once in a while. When the occasion demands it...

 

-Paul 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Paul R]

Had to listen to an old favorite that is much more happy.

 

 

Everyone has a favorite from this album, at least one track, but usually three or four.  From side 1, Coldwater Morning is still just awesome - so much sadness surrounded by beauty it is wonder the song doesn't just break.  I really like "He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother" too.  Weird that I listened to this just before watching ST: Discovery, which was all about Burnham finding her brother. 

 

The real jewel here is the entire second side- known as  _The African Trilogy_. It a sonic wonder ride and, to me, Diamond's best work.

 

At least on the album, the African Trilogy was arranged by Marty Paich.  Like the first side, everyone has one or more favorites from this side of the album. Mine is _Childsong_. 

 

My copy is a 24/192K  needledrop from the original LP I bought and listened to far too many times. The drums are simply amazing in the African Trilogy performance.

 

-Paul

 

[Paul R]

Emerson Lake & Palmer – 1971.

My copy of this is a needle drop of the Cotillion Records release(SD 9040). Dang, even after all these years,  and listening to the album near a 100 times or more, it is still one heck of a musical trip.

Keith Emerson and Greg Lake both died back in 2016, and for me, that leavens listening to this music with sadness. Still, Emerson’s jazz-infused keyboards, Lakes inspired bass lines, and of course, Carl Palmer’s drumming make it well worth listening to today.  

Even if one walks “With sadness on your shoulders, like a worn out overcoat…” That line having stuck with me all these years, takes on new meaning now.

Is this progressive rock? Jazz? Sixties pop? Poetry? Classical? You call it. The first song on the album, _Barbarian_ is _Allegro Barbaro_ by Bela Bartok, and was the first song the band put together. Other tracks on the album area also just full of familiar surprises. I find delight in their unique take on some of this.

The band formed in 1970, and legend has it, their first live appearance, leading off with _Barbarian_ was a small club outside of London, and for which they were paid about 400 pounds. That was on August 23, 1970.  Their *second* appearance, also with a lot of this music, was at the Isle of Wright, and had an audience of about 600,000 people. That was a whole six days after their first appearance. I don’t know anyone who was there, so take that with a grain of salt. But any man who was there would surely have been a Lucky Man! 

 

 

[Paul R]

19 hours ago, Musicophile said:

 

Inspired by this: My latest favorite Four Seasons recording:

 

 

24/192 from Qobuz (but Channel Classics & NativeDSD has it in up to DSD256 if you want to max it out). 

 

Similar to Beyer’s recording, this combines outstanding playing with being a real audiophile pleasure. Highly recommended. 

 

By the way, Pinnock’s later version also used to be my go to version for many years.  

 

See also: https://musicophilesblog.com/2018/04/14/a-new-excellent-four-seasons-recording-by-rachel-podger/

 

 

 

Oh my - like Hugo9000, the Trevor Pinnock recording from the seventies has been my favorite. Since I bought it new. In the 70’s. 

 

But I had to make some room for this one. Wonderful playing, combined with one of the best recordings I have ever heard. I am off to buy this one. Thank you for posting it! 

 

-Paul

[Paul R]

If you don't know Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, you might want to take a bit of time to get acquainted. 

 

Be warned, his music is often times experimental, and that is true on the album below. But if nothing else, Esko Laine's solo is well worth the price of admission. 

 

Pellimannit means "fiddlers", and in this composition they take you on a wild ass ride. The composition is all about Finnish myths, and let me tell you, those Finns have some wierd myths. Be warned, I am not responsible if you can't sleep after listening to this, or you find yourself sleeping with the light on! 

 

This copy of BIS 73189590009109. Great stuff, but dang, I wish I had listened to it in the daylight! 

 

 

 

[Paul R]

2 hours ago, Jud said:

I have absolutely been playing the shit out of this thing.  Jazz *tuba* with an unshakeable groove.

 

 

 

This is on Apple music, and wow -- is it ever addictive.  Thanks for the tip off.  - Paul 

[Paul R]

Besides listening to Jud's fantastic Tiuba Jazz find...  tonight was time for some light and wonderful fare.  

Sometimes I think I was born either too soon or too late.

[Paul R]

This was an accidental find, the Album name caught my eye then the subtitle go me -  The Man With 533 Kids?! 

 

Then, the track listing caught my attention, with just about every other song being composed and performed by Andre Manoukian. The man is a French Armenian Jazz Artist, and I usually like his stuff. On this album, his stuff is intermixed with performances by "We Were Evergreen" - a French "sort of" Electronic Folk group. If that is even a genre... 

 

The two artists seem to provide a great counterpoint and complement for each other on the album; each artist by themselves might have been a bit too much on this soundtrack.  When I  listened to the album I smiled a lot and even laughed at a couple tracks. It was worth the time. Might even track down the movie...

 

The album is available on Qobuz, and sounds pretty good.   https://open.qobuz.com/album/5060281616845. Details below. There are a couple tracks on here marked as "unavailable" - I don't know why, but the few seconds of the tracks that play just seem jarring, so maybe someone is on to something here... 

 

BTW: If y'all haven't guessed, I find a lot of new music I like in soundtracks.

 

 

 

 

[Paul R]

40 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Haha, how did you guess? 😉

 

Who's guessing? It is a sure bet.

[Paul R]

57 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Very different from the Pines of Rome, but lovely in its own right!

 

 This is one of my favorite recordings of all times.

-Paul 

 

[Paul R]

This is one of my favorite Tafelmusick discs, in the case #3.  I honestly don't know much about the artist (The Hellicon Ensemble), but it is one of those "Prof Johnson" recordings, and it is exceedingly well done.  I listened to this near field for the very first time, and it is quite an experience. I think I will do some more near field listening,.

 

[Paul R]

I have been spending some time modifying my needle drop rig, trying to eliminate an annoyed 24k resonance (or something) that isn't supposed to be in there. Today I setup my little PreSonus Studio 1810c to bring in the sound from my TT, and just grabbed the first record that came to hand to test it with. 

 

Oh my, talk about taking a time trip back to the late 1960s. This was hot stuff when I was a kid. My favorite cousin loved this album. I typed in the notes on the back of the album cover just because you gotta read them to get the feel for this album, the time, and why people actually liked it so much.  They are included beneath the picture below.  Any typos are of course, mine. 

 

Unfortunately, this album is not, so far as I can tell, on Qobuz or Apple Music. 

 

-Paul

 

 

 

Quote

DON HO Creates INSTANT HAPPY

Reprise Records. RS6283

1968

 

At Duke’s, they sit over dinner (steak or ribs, not a poi in the place). They down Mai Tai’s from grapefruit sized tumblers, each tumbler urging “Suck Em Up” and in tall, scarlet letters, “Souvenir of Duke’s.”  Tourists are welcome to load up their suitcases with all the glasses they can empty. And, after five Tahitian imports shake the shambles out of their hips, and four beer-bellied Tahitians beat the Bejesus out of their oil drums, and after three lean Tahitians singe their sideburns with spinning torches, people applaud. But wait. For Don Ho.

 

Outside, in a block-wide courtyard called the The International Settlement, there is a Polynesian Disneyland, filled with booths selling coral necklaces, funny-saying T shirts, and more of those camellia print aloha shirts. Through the gas torches and palms, a crowd of 300 [sic] starts lining up, for for Don Ho’s midnight show.

 

And you wonder what the hell Ho’s got.

 

At his most formal, in sweat shirt and white ducks, Don Ho mounts the stage at Duke’s. He does it with as much show biz flair as you exhibit entering your garage. No cymbals, no flashing spots, no booming “And NOW!” What announces him is the hush.

 

Five hundred faces turn his way. Behind Don stand the Aliis, Aloha camellia shirted, looking like weird models for Macgregor Sportswear. They amble to their vibes, piano, guitars, drums. Without the camellia coutour, they could look like a loose Paul Revere and the Raiders. Without those instruments, they might be a stranded rhythm group from an old Harry Owens tour. With both, the look and sound unique.

 

Together, they may sing about silver shores, but the shores today twang and rock. Songs about wahinis, huapala, and pua blossom with a with a zing that is more Nancy Sinatra than Hilo Hati.

 

And so, with no in front fanfare, Don Ho launches his opener. Probably “Tiny Bubbles,” with a subtle blend of after beat and ease, of triplets and poi-mount vocal, of luaus with stingers. The sophisticates in his audience turn around in surprise. They look around at the the other 500 intent on Ho. Without urging, the 500 are singing along.

 

And the sophisticates wonder, what the hell Ho’s go?

 

Most entertainers, to get a sing along going, issue pleas, talk out the lyrics, then bumble though false starts. No so, Ho. Walking without warning into his arena is like stumbling into some secret song society. Like at your first high school assembly, when everyone else knew the school song. So you sat there, pretending to move your mouth right.

 

You wondered, what the hell as Ho got?

 

Back on the mainland, it was fairly Ho-Hum. No so here. Around you, pink-checked co-eds from Colorado sit, mini-breasted and combed, singing along, waiting for romance before Pan Am snatches them back. And grey-cheeked sailers with a week of R&R leave sit, Adam’s Apples bobbing, in from Okinawa, holding the unfamiliar hands of their wives, and singing along. Islands converts from New Jersey, now up to their arm pits in commercial pineapple and the tourist trade, sit tan-cheeked, glowing with certain knowledge of a longer life, sing along. All non-swank. Five hundred folk, all with different hearts, coalesced.

 

You wonder, what the hell Ho’s got?

 

Ho’s up on stage, fighting off sleeping sickness. An easy-going baritone, apparently not too uptight over whether the skies tomorrow may bust open and rain down troubles, trials, and taxes. Making instant forget it all. A little snappy patter, but mostly songs that drawl along line a canoe adrift downstream. Working his audience, massaging its anxieties, half sex symbol, half Miltown.

 

Ho is the archetype of the Polynesian dream. The masculine counterpart to the native lasses H.M.S. Bounty dallied over in Tahiti. Ho: the Polynesian male. Letting the pursuit of pleasure pursue him. Shuffling across the sands, his nervous system tense as a plate of spaghetti. Seducing the sensibilities under Pacific night skies. Facing such traditional metaphysical stoppers as Death, Finitude, and Senility with a slow shrug and a satisfied sigh that add up to, “Ain’t no big thing.”

 

A unique attitude. An individual Man. The stuff of idols.

 

And that’s what Don Ho’s got.

 

— Stan Cornyn 1968.

 

Oh, and the recording came out great, but I didn't get rid of the resonance.

 

[Paul R]

I honestly do not remember where I picked up this CD, but it is always gorgeous. It is not identifiable by Roon, so I don't have information ont he recording for you, except it is a very good recording.

 

L'Estro Armonico - it means The Harmonic Inspiration, and I think the naming is accurate. They were transposed for keyboard performances by no less a personage than Johanne Sebastian Bach himself. This particular recording is performed as it was originally meant to be performed though.  No. 11 was written for two violins, Cello, and strings.  There is at least once version of this available on QoBuz. 

 

-Paul 

 

[Paul R]

Was browsing today, and found a copy of Emerson Lake & Palmer's _Love Beach_.  I realized I had never done a needle drop of the album, and when I looked it up, the only version on Qobuz was a remastered version.

 

I barely remembered this album, though I did remember the cover made 'em look like Bee Gees, and it was made in Nassau.  Emerson did most of the mastering, if memory serves me correctly. My album does not have a producer listed, but the info on QuBoz and Wiki says Emerson was the producer. It shows... 

 

I might should have just moved on. Turns out this was a "forced" album, and made only under pressure and threats from Ertegun, who also demanded the album be "commercial."  The first side of the record is a vast wasteland, save for the last track, _Canario_, which is somewhat interesting.  The second side is all Emerson, and a bit better, but you know - the guy must have been burning out about this time. Drugs, too much popularity, British Tax Law, who knows?  

 

It was a bit of fun for the memories, but otherwise, not so much. Perhaps the remastered copy on Qobuz would be more worth the time, but I just don't know.  Caveat Emptor! 

 

[Paul R]

Had to find something to get that last album out of my ears...  went back to one of favorites. This one I can unreservedly recommend to just about anyone. Great example of mid-80's Fusion. It's a wee bit overproduced, but the musicians having a blast comes through without question!

 

Evans is just - cool. The best thing about this particular album for me is that the very last song _Flight of the Falcon_ is my favorite, but listening to all the other tracks is  nothing less than a joy to me. (Well okay, he gets a little wild on _Let the Juice Loose!_- just a tiny bit overboard perhaps.

 

The album information below is for the CD, but I listed to a needle drop of my old LP. Blue Note BT85111.Same songs, same layout. Two songs have slightly different playing lengths on the CD. 

 

Yours,

-Paul 

 

P.S.  This is the other Bill Evans, not the piano guy!  This Bill is best known for the album Soulgrass, which if you have not listened to, jump on Quboz and have yet another treat.    

 

 

[Paul R]

Well, a treat from just after the decade of peace, love, turn on, tune in, & drop out.

 

Never understood all that, but this is cool and great fun to listen to. 

 

This is from a needle drop, Bell 6073. Remastered version available on Qobuz;  https://open.qobuz.com/album/0888880250711

 

-Paul 

 

 

[Paul R]

On 3/16/2019 at 4:27 PM, Jud said:

 

Yes, although I'd be interested in suggestions regarding versions with the best SQ.

 

The Weight of course is a classic, but I particularly love Chest Fever.

 

Caledonia Mission for me, but honestly? I like the 1969 "The Band" a bit better. Possibly because it has "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" on it, and I have (had) relatives that resembled that remark...  How a bunch of Canadians ever got that song so right, I do not know.

 

Sad to say, they would probably be shot if they went to perform that today.  Modern songs only heap hate on people, mainly on wimmen' and old white men. 

 

-Paul 

 

[Paul R]

While browsing tonight, I found this jewel. If you love soundtracks like I do, this is pretty much heaven.

-Paul 

 

 

https://open.qobuz.com/album/n5iv26ykvj64a

 

 

[Paul R]

What a wealth of music we have at our fingertips today, so much music, so little time! 

 

This was always one of my favorite movies. Guess I had a crush on Garland.