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Yesterday I woke up in a muddle. My balance was off and I had to use my cane for most of the day lest I do a faceplant. Finally, in the mid-afternoon I started coming out of my fog, saw a lot of cooking and work to be done around the house, and spun this one on my turntable to wake me up, sharpen my focus, put rhythm in my cooking, and made me feel much better the rest of the day:

I bought this 2-record album when it came out in 2007, the same year I bought my turntable. I remember reading a rave review in Stereophile or The Absolute Sound. The collaboration of these two artists seemed unlikely and gimmicky, but the reviews were so unequivocally enthusiastic I ordered the album. It surprised the hell out of me. It is superb in every way. It was produced by T-Bone Walker, the LPs are 180g pressings, the record has a very low noise floor; it's dynamic, strongly rhythmic, and begs to be turned up,

As for this unlikely pairing of artists, they are definitely on the same wavelength for this album. Their vocal harmonies are close, precise, organic, and engaging. They both cover the same vocal range and make close harmonies with vigor and accuracy.

I couldn't find the review on Stereophile's website, but here's a comprehensive review on AllMusic. HIGHLY recommended.

 

Edited by JohnnyB
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23 minutes ago, JohnnyB said:

 

I bought this 2-record album when it came out in 2007, the same year I bought my turntable. I remember reading a rave review in Stereophile or The Absolute Sound. The collaboration of these two artists seemed unlikely and gimmicky, but the reviews were so unequivocally enthusiastic I ordered the album. It surprised the hell out of me. It is superb in every way. It was produced by T-Bone Walker, the LPs are 180g pressings, the record has a very low noise floor; it's dynamic, strongly rhythmic, and begs to be turned up,

As for this unlikely pairing of artists, they are definitely on the same wavelength for this album. Their vocal harmonies are close, precise, organic, and engaging. They definitely cover the same vocal range and make close harmonies with vigor and accuracy.

 

There was a broadcast of them many years ago. Well worth a watch if you can find it.

F'rinstance, "When The Levee Breaks" - 

 

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I had another achey and out-of-balance day yesterday, but I needed to clean the kitchen and cook dinner for our little nuclear family of three. I burned through three LPs--a 2-record set of:

Brian Wilson's Smile Sessions


Concierto by Jim Hall:

... and jazz flautist Hubert Laws' "The San Francisco Concert:"

 

It must have worked. I made baked beer-battered cod, a fresh Italian salad, and a side dish of lo mein for dinner, plus I poached 1/2 dozen eggs to make egg salad for lunch in the coming days.

If you have any interest in The Beach Boys and Brian WIlson's "Smile" saga, that's a fun, well-made album.

Edited by JohnnyB
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For some unknown cosmic reason, this little ditty from my college days in the late 80s in Boston* popped into my head.  I hadn't heard it for decades but could sing along to every little line.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for The Fools!

 

* for those who care, I went to the University of Dayton for 2.5 years, met this girl**, took a year off, and then finished at Northeastern in Boston while staying at my brother's dorm at Bentley College in Waltham.  Of note, he ran the Campus Activities Board in those times and brought in The Fools to open up for screaming comic Sam Kinesson. I got to work the "security" detail, which amounted to standing in front of the front row of a two foot riser, free "SECURITY" t-shirt, and getting screamed at point-blank by Sam himself.  "AAAUUUGGGHHHHH!  AUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

** Mrs. Toadroller.

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Just got this brand new release - Blueray/2xCD pack - in the mail. Will be a good view, with a mandatory beer.

 

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                                                          I have always been a fan of the San Francisco bay area bands,so.............................Tower of Power,Cold Blood,Quicksilver Messenger Service,Jefferson Airplane etc.....................there are more famous ones of course. This band  is one of my favorites,Cipollina was a great guitarist who's life was cut short way to soon.Here is a flashback.......................... to Winterland.

 

Edited by ARM OF HAMER
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Sometimes I've just gotta have a Beatles fix. I was in 5th grade and 10 years old when they started getting airplay on top 40 AM and then had three appearances on Ed Sullivan in 1964. That summer they came out with the film and accompanying soundtrack of "A Hard Day's Night."

"Revolver" sometimes gets credited as the first Beatles album all written by John and Paul without covers, but actually "A Hard Day's Night" was the first Beatles album with all Lennon-McCartney originals over a year earlier. It also features George Harrison's introduction of his Rickenbacker 12-string, which created a trend in rock and folk-rock to come, starting with The Byrds. Five years later the Woodstock concert film shows a lot of electric 12-strings on stage.

I played the mono version with all Beatles songs rather than the USA Universal Abomination. I played it as an LP with a mono cartridge as originally intended, and it sounded so right.

 

Edited by JohnnyB
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7 hours ago, JohnnyB said:

I played the mono version with all Beatles songs rather than the USA Universal Abomination. I played it as an LP with a mono cartridge as originally intended, and it sounded so right.

Fabs mono recordings are the way to go. More detailed, muscular mix. I'm, "used to", the Capitol LPs, but the original EMI issues (even the British stereo mixes) sound so much better.

As JohnnyB (and millions of American boomers...) knows, the Capitol stereo mixes were our intro to the Beatles. Once I sought out the mono 45s/LPs, well, I can see why EMI was so taken aback by the stereo remixes. They probably weren't taken aback by the sales, though...

@4:21, Original Punk Pete, gives his opinion of the Fabs. Bollocks galore and brutally honest...

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7 hours ago, RobB said:

Fabs mono recordings are the way to go. More detailed, muscular mix. I'm, "used to", the Capitol LPs, but the original EMI issues (even the British stereo mixes) sound so much better.

As JohnnyB (and millions of American boomers...) knows, the Capitol stereo mixes were our intro to the Beatles. Once I sought out the mono 45s/LPs, well, I can see why EMI was so taken aback by the stereo remixes. They probably weren't taken aback by the sales, though...

@4:21, Original Punk Pete, gives his opinion of the Fabs. Bollocks galore and brutally honest...

George Martin was also incensed by Capitol Records hard left/hard right unnatural separation of instruments and voices, and calling it "stereo" when it was 2-channel at best.

"Fabs mono recordings are the way to go. More detailed, muscular mix."

Back in the Capitol USA days, the Beatles albums sounded so thin and nasal that I thought John Lennon or somebody in the mixing booth had lost his high frequency hearing. "Muscular mix" is spot-on. My initial reaction was "robust," which the Capitol LPs were definitely not.

http://www.pannelldiscussions.net/2014/04/264-capitol-records-shameful-handling-of-the-beatles/

Edited by JohnnyB
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On 7/7/2020 at 5:14 AM, Ed Rechts said:

Fun fact: The Fools opened up almost every show of The Knack's first American tour back in 1979-1980

In other words, you have to be a Fool to open for The Knack!

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17 hours ago, JohnnyB said:

George Martin was also incensed by Capitol Records hard left/hard right unnatural separation of instruments and voices, and calling it "stereo" when it was 2-channel at best.

"Fabs mono recordings are the way to go. More detailed, muscular mix."

Back in the Capitol USA days, the Beatles albums sounded so thin and nasal that I thought John Lennon or somebody in the mixing booth had lost his high frequency hearing. "Muscular mix" is spot-on. My initial reaction was "robust," which the Capitol LPs were definitely not.

http://www.pannelldiscussions.net/2014/04/264-capitol-records-shameful-handling-of-the-beatles/

The other day, I bought two 2017 remixes of resp. St.Pepper and Abbey Road on vinyl. Mixes are in modern full stereo and sound really great. I have Abbey Road in the two channel version in comparison. That’s hard to hear on a stereo nowadays. Same with an old The Who, Tommy I have. Recently, I went hunting some vintage vinyl. It’s great having vinyl spinning again.

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7 hours ago, gorch said:

The other day, I bought two 2017 remixes of resp. St.Pepper and Abbey Road on vinyl. Mixes are in modern full stereo and sound really great. I have Abbey Road in the two channel version in comparison. That’s hard to hear on a stereo nowadays. Same with an old The Who, Tommy I have. Recently, I went hunting some vintage vinyl. It’s great having vinyl spinning again.

I bought the full "Beatles in Mono" remix/remaster/re-release in Sept. 2014. Since then I was so busy listening to them I hadn't known that Giles Martin had gotten busy remixing and remastering Beatles albums in multichannel mixdown proper stereo. Gorch has  examples of these remastered-to-proper stereo albums.

For a summary of titles, techniques, and reviews of these, go to this Beatles recent release LP summaries and reviews here.

And if you're interested in shopping for and acquiring these multi-track 8-channel recordings, mixed down to authentic stereo by Giles Martin and pressed on boutique standard 180gram vinyl, Go Here.

"A splendid time is guaranteed for all."

Edited by JohnnyB
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52 minutes ago, JohnnyB said:

And if you're interested in shopping for and acquiring these multi-track 8-channel recordings, mixed down to authentic stereo by Giles Martin and pressed on boutique standard 180gram vinyl, Go Here.

Thanks Johnny.  I picked up my two favorites- Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road.  Of note, not all the 180g Beatles there have been given the Giles Martin treatment.

I also picked up a Dark Side of the Moon, as I've never had it on Vinyl.  I'm a child of the 80s, not the 70s.

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4 hours ago, Toadroller said:

Thanks Johnny.  I picked up my two favorites- Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road.  Of note, not all the 180g Beatles there have been given the Giles Martin treatment.

I also picked up a Dark Side of the Moon, as I've never had it on Vinyl.  I'm a child of the 80s, not the 70s.

I've noticed that a couple of the non-Giles albums were mixed or supervised by George Martin when he was still alive.

The whole first page is 180g pressings except for Al DiMeola's tribute album, which has the more ambitious 45 rpm set of 2 LPs. I have a few 12" 45 rpm LPs and the dynamics and low noise even have a leg up on the 33-1/3s (but then, even my 45s are 180g).

The albums on screens 2-4 are a mix of used LPs and others of a different provenance, e.g. transfers from BBC broadcasts and other thematic collections from the vaults (such as "Rock'n'Roll Music").

My second job out of college was as a sales guy at a somewhat boutiquey stereo store. I was pretty familiar with Pink Floyd from my high school days, but I was unprepared for the creativity and sound quality. DSOTM and "Wish You Were Here" (especially "Money") were two of our favorites for getting a "Wow!" reaction from someone who just walked into the store.

When I bought my turntable in March 2, 2007 after a long 20-year drought of digital-only, one of the first LPs I bought was a fresh remaster/repress of DSOTM. Thanks for the reminder; I may give it a spin today or tomorrow.

Edited by JohnnyB
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Btw. For Queen fans I can strongly recommend the 180gr. Half speed cut Innuendo. I can't see that it had ever been released on vinyl originally. However, I had never been happy with the sound of the original CD. Then 2LP is just incredible. The title track Innuendo has never been more transparent and lust to hear.

For some reason I bought Queen II 180gr, half speed too. Compared it to the original and must say the tapes have lost some brilliance over centuaries. The original sounds better to my ears. This then brought me to the strategy to prefer buying originals of good quality rather remasters. In Germany, we've got a great source for that: https://recordsale.de/de.

The other day I have filled up my collection of the tubes i.e. I had seen them once in the early 80s and again in the late 90s. Always loved their music on record.

Edited by gorch
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14 hours ago, Toadroller said:

Thanks Johnny.  I picked up my two favorites- Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road.  Of note, not all the 180g Beatles there have been given the Giles Martin treatment.

I also picked up a Dark Side of the Moon, as I've never had it on Vinyl.  I'm a child of the 80s, not the 70s.

Interestingly, when you listen to the late Beatles and continue with early ELO I+II right after, except for the voice it keeps sounding very similar. 

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On 7/9/2020 at 11:32 PM, gorch said:

Interestingly, when you listen to the late Beatles and continue with early ELO I+II right after, except for the voice it keeps sounding very similar. 

When ELO first came on the scene, to me they sounded like where The Beatles had been heading musically if they hadn't broken up,

It looks like several people noticed it before me.

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I used to have a recording of this album, retrospective of the Moody Blues' most signature songs released as a 2-LP album. I was working at a stereo store in 1975 and this was one of our favorite demo albums. I made a recording of all 40 minutes of the album on my Tandberg reel-to-reel and listened to it often. I really felt like it gave me a representative collection of their songwriting, musicianship, and variety of styles and themes.

Then 12 years later I sold my reel-to-reel to help finance a move from California to Boston, and I had no way to play my open reel tapes. I went without from 1987 onward.

In 2007 I bought a new turntable and started seeking out my favorite LPs. I tried really hard to find this one, but they seemed to be out of print or there were a few scarce vintage copies that had gotten pretty expensive.

Then a week ago I realized, "Why not see if anybody's listing these on eBay?" Sure enough, there they were, and at prices $10 to $50 below what I'd seen before. I picked a VG+ to VG++ rated copy (and the seller proved to be honest; the black vinyl gleamed), and only $9.50 for the 2-record set in like-new condition.

It arrived a couple days ago (fast response and shipping) and to took me on a time trip. These songs remind me of what was going on in the mid-'70s and what a skilful creative group they were. And my wife likes the Moodies, too. We caught them live in May, 2017 on their 50th anniversary tour of their "Days of Future Passed.

Great stuff, well written, well-recorded, and well-played. And the music takes me all the way back to when I turned 14.

 

 

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