Things have been busy. As such, the iPod has not had as much use of late. For the past week or so I had two CDs loaded: Arne Domnerus Jazz At The Pawnshop and Reggae Jamdown: The R.A.S. Tapes. Needless to say, these two sets do not complement each other.
Jazz At The Pawnshop is another disc I learned of from the Mad Batter in the mid-1980s. I like jazz, but I know little about it. All I know is this band moves and I love it! It’s been more than 20 years since I first heard this and I still pull it out. It was definitely in heavy rotation on my shifts. It should be on everyone’s playlist.
The R.A.S. Tapes was purchased long ago as well. I like reggae and this was my attempt to branch out away from Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and all the other “standard” reggae artists. I’ve always enjoyed Edi Fitzroy’s version of Hotel California. The entire disc is a fun listen to, but there are no dominant standouts.
Once I pulled those off, I loaded Nirvana’s Unplugged in New York and Traffic’s Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys. Perhaps these two CDs are not the polar opposites of the previous two, but they are definitely different.
In the early 90s I tried to get into Nirvana. I purchased a few of their CDs. I never quite got onboard. I recall watching the Unplugged show. I enjoyed that series. Anyhow, not having listened to much Nirvana in the intervening years, something stood out while listening to this. Namely, the lyrics suck.
I need an easy friend
Come dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend, as a friend, as an old memoria
I’m on my time with everyone
I have very bad posture
I think I’m dumb (repeated over and over and over and over)
What else should I say
Everyone is gay
I suspect Nirvana will not be on my playlist for a while. It just didn’t do anything for me.
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is a classic that has been my musical rotation for decades. I grew up listening to Traffic and am particularly fond of this album and the title song. Traffic, for me, was the perfect nexus of various musical styles that produced some awesome music at a time when rock and roll thrived.
The title song is a very slow jazzy tune that just encapsulates the listener. At 11:35, it seems short. Needless to say it doesn’t get much radio play.
Not to be lost, however, are some other very good songs. Hidden Treasure and Rock & Roll Stew really provide good contrasts to the lengthy title song. The album ends with Rainmaker, a psychedelic tour de force. Traffic was a band that seems somewhat forgotten, but is among the heavyweights of the late 60s-early 70s.
Today, I reached back to Traffic’s era again for some more psychedelia. This time we re-visit Winterland, Bill Graham’s musical arena that served as San Francisco’s venue of an era. The Grateful Dead were the house band and anybody and everybody played here until it closed at the end of ‘78.
For today’s listening pleasure, I fired up Jimi Hendrix’s Live At Winterland. “Fired” is the correct word. This set is a compilation of a three-night run The Experience played in October ‘68. The breakout of what song came from what show can be found here.
Not getting too hung up on the lack of a complete show, I thoroughly enjoyed the pick me up first thing this morning given I dragged myself into work.
The hits are here: Fire, Manic Depression, Foxey Lady, Hey Joe, and Purple Haze. In addition, we are treated to a cover of a new song . . . Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love. There is also an electrified version of the 60’s hit Wild Thing.
One really gets the flavor of The Experience from this set. There is still no one who plays guitar like Jimi did. He was unbelievably talented. Awesome stuff.
I have an affinity for Lehrer. My mother introduced me to him. We had a few of his albums growing up. New Math, Pollution, The Element Song, etc. He even wrote for The Electric Company, a favorite of mine at the time.
Happy birthday, Mr. Lehrer. My all-time favorite Lehrer song (and I don’t speak in superlatives often) is the following. Enjoy!
Just now I was reading Power Line (it’s a daily read). There was a post up that linked to the famous SNL skit with Christopher Walken calling for more cowbell. Good humor.
I once went down to Neil Young’s ranch and he rowed me out into the middle of a lake - putting my life in his hands once again. He waved at someone invisible and music started to play in
the countryside. I realized Neil had his house wired as the left speaker and his barn wired as the right speaker.
And Elliot Mazer, his engineer said, ‘How is it?’
And Neil shouted back ‘More barn!”
I used to have the T-shirt documenting that event.
Reinvigorated, I loaded some new music for today. I have decided to work my way through my commercial CDs . . . at least for a while. For today I put on Bob Weir’s Heaven Help the Fool and David Sanborn’s As We Speak. Both offerings remind me of college.
The first time I heard Heaven Help the Fool was my freshman year at the ‘Berg. I liked it. I always thought some of this should have shown up in the Dead’s roatation, but alas . . .
What really struck me today was how short albums used to be. I don’t listen to a lot of commercial stuff as I primarily put in complete shows. Three hours is normal for me to complete an offering. By contrast, the eight songs here came in under 35 minutes. Sheesh . . . I completed this before I made it to work today.
Some of the songs sound dated. Bobby did not record another Ace here. The album has a produced sound to it with some tricks along the way. But good songs are good songs despite the post production.
The first six songs are decent. Track seven, I’ll Be Doggone is the weak song and the closer, Wrong Way Feelin’ doesn’t do much for me. I’ve always liked Bomb’s Away and it gets the album off to an upbeat start. I actually quoted a verse of this for a geocache I placed four years ago.
The ballads, however, seem to be what I like most out of Bobby’s stuff here. Easy to Slip and This Time Forever are good. While neither is more than the requisite 4:09 for radio play, both are structured for a big Jerry solo in the middle. Oh wait . . . that’s not going to happen. Hmmm . . .
Salt Lake City, Shade of Grey (predates Touch of Grey), and the title song are all solid. Listening to this disk this morning had me easily seeing my dorm room, Craig, and the big stereo cabinet I used to have back then.
As I arrived at work As We Speak came on. This is another album from my college days. I kind of stumbled into this album and hence, Sanborn and jazz to boot.
It was circa 1984 and my friend Mike Rubinstein decided he was in need of a new pair of speakers. He asked me to come with him to Bryn Mawr Stereo. Back then, Bryn Mawr was the place to purchase high-end stereo equipment. They were eventually gobbled up by Tweeter.
We drove out to the Whitehall store. At the time I was a fan of Polk Audio and Rubes was taken by a big set. Soon enough someone came to help my buddy. We went into a private listening room to test out some stuff. This was pre-CDs folks. The salesman put on a record and then began his spiel about the speakers. I was right there, but not being the one putting out the cash, listened to the music. Things were crystal clear. I interrupted and asked what we were listening to. The guy told me a bit about David Sanborn and handed me the album cover.
This began my move to liking jazz. I even played the alto sax because of this album. There is a humorous story associated with that, which I will share some other time. Sanborn has played with all sorts of folks over the years and he was definitely it at this time. The restaurant I managed during this period played a lot of Sanborn and other kewl jazz. Fast forward a couple years and I purchased my first CD player. As We Speak was one of the first five CDs I purchased.
It’s been a while since I listened to this, but it never takes long to get into it. Port of Call moves! This is no Kenny G, folks. Sanborn lays down some serious grooves with his band here. Of course, George Duke makes an appearance on this opening tune.
The band includes Omar Hakim, Marcus Miller, and Micheal Sembello. among others. This is a fine band for Sanborn to rip his saxophone. Back Again is the highlight of the record followed by the aforementioned Port of Call and the title song.
This morning was a nice trip down memory lane. I don’t regret much in life and I don’t really want to go back in time, but I wouldn’t mind slipping into my 30″ Levis again.
I believe I made a plea for this some time ago, but I am reiterating it tonight. I want a service similar to Shelfari for music. Shelfari is a web 2.0 application for books. One adds the books he owns. I usually type in the ISBN and the database spits backs the details of the book. I select to add it to my shelf. From there I can do a lot. I can record when I read the book, tag the book, write a review, create favorite/will read/am reading, etc. lists, and so on.
It seems trivial to replicate this for music; trivial in the sense that if it can be created for books (and there a lot of such services: Library Thing, aNobii, etc.). Why can’t a music service be created that I can add the CDs I own, tag them, write reviews, etc.?
Folks point to last.fm. I use the service. I like some of it. When I plug my iPod in, what I have listened to is recorded to my page. Lots of statistics can be had from that. That is awesome!
But I can’t create a list of the music I own from that information. I cannot write a review of an album. I cannot create favorites lists, playlists, etc.
I am surprised such a site does not exist. Long ago I created a spreadsheet of all my commercial CDs. I kept track of what I listened to. The idea was to work through the list. It didn’t work. I still long for that, but I want to document it as I do so.
So, who is going to tackle the music web 2.0 stuff?
