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Danse Macabre by French composer Camille Saint-Saens. It's about the dead interred at a cemetery rising from their graves at midnight (when else?) and dancing around. The xylophone represents the sound of dancing skeletons. Halloween is coming up next Wednesday and I'll be spinning it again. The cover pic may look a little corny, but the sound on the remastered, repressed LP is stunning:

 

Edited by JohnnyB
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1 hour ago, mudshark said:

 

I have that one on LP. I'll have to spin it tomorrow.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's always interesting who you might meet/run into over the course of your time in a given locale. Turns out the Twin Cities has a storied and diverse musical scene which stretches back decades. In my current job at the tennis shop, I started working with a guy, Mark, my age, who grew up in Minneapolis and St. Louis Park. He found out that music was one of my great interests and pursuits, so we now talk about music incessantly. Turns out Mark has childhood friends who ended up playing in Prince's band in the early days, and other friends who became notable promoters/producers of various local acts.

Mark recently brought in a book written by his friend Owen Husney, titled "Famous People Who've Met Me." It's a very quick and interesting read. It turns out that Mr. Husney, who became a concert and talent promoter, "discovered" Prince, and was instrumental in signing the record deal which lead to the production and release of Prince's first album, For You. I have that album, but I never listened it to it that much because it was never my favorite album of his (I have 20 of his albums). While I was reading the chapters of the book dealing with the recording and production of the album, I played it a couple of times. It really is quite remarkable that an 18 year old kid from Minneapolis was talented enough, and Owen was persuasive enough, that the record company allowed Prince complete creative control of the album.  Give it a spin with this in mind: he wrote all the songs, many of them on the fly during the recording process, and also was able to take almost complete creative control of the production process. It's a remarkable feat, and the songs, musicianship and production are even more remarkable to me in that light.  Give it a listen if you've got it.

I gave a quick look for the album on Youtube, but I don't see that much of Prince's music  is available there.

Also, coincidentally, one of the drummers in my 4321 All-Stars group (we get together almost every Tuesday at my house to jam in the basement), Michael, is a cousin of Bobby Z, who was also instrumental in the recording of the first album.  Bobby Z was also Prince's earliest drummer.

Listen to the album again, and check out the book if you can find it. It's really a fun read. There's lots about Prince, but the book is really about Owen Husney, who was the quite the character in his own right.

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