Wednesday, June 10, 2009

SOME OLDIES REVISITED.


OK, I've tried something new, lets see if it works.

I mentioned some time back that I was re-doing a living room and getting some new gear so that I would be able to play my vinyl like in the old days, trouble was this house has two living rooms, one we used everyday and the other which was a storage room for records and equipment but it wasn't very conducive to sitting and listening to music.
So we did a bit of a change in there, two new windows, a new paint job, all the vinyl on one side, CD's on the other and the new gear between two new comfy chairs so I could reach the turntable and the amp sitting down. Right in front were two JBL Studio Monitors plus I treated us to a Sharpe flatscreen. I once again started spending my afternoons playing records, some that I hadn't heard in years, but I recently started being very selective and looking for albums that I'd really enjoyed years ago to see if they'd held up over the years. As you might guess some did and some didn't; a surprise were the Stones, I played several 60's albums and was disappointed with all of them, I think it's Jagger, he's a poseur, it's all fake. Another was Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, I remember thinking it was once great, now it isn't, it became a discard.


There were quite a few more but there were also several that have lasted well and sound just as good today as when I bought 'em, Dark Side of the Moon, Tommy, some early Who, Van's Astral Weeks, Paul Simon, Dylan, CSN, plus more. What I really like about many of these albums are the backing groups and the creative arrangements they used, specifically Van, Dylan, Simon, Floyd and the Who, all great music that was breaking the moulds and going off in different directions at that time. I've chosen single cuts from those albums that I particularly remembered, there's a couple which unfortunately are not included, Tommy and Dark Side of the Moon, spotty doesn't include them, possibly because the record company's don't want to dent their ongoing sales, 'Moon' is still selling in the thousands of copies each week. I deliberately omitted the Beatles 'cos most of them are on my iPod so get regular listening's and I also excluded jazz, reggae and R&B; if this works I might do them separately. Instead of Podbean I'm trying Spotty, it's only a click away: here's the A list.


spotify:user:rrgoneforeign:playlist:6rKoNmhauR3sAki06NcizQ

The Who – Baba O'Riley
Van Morrison – Ballerina
Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone
The Roches – Hammond Song
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Wooden Ships
Paul Simon – Mother And Child Reunion
Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
Buffalo Springfield – Expecting to Fly
Neil Young – Heart of Gold
Quicksilver Messenger Service – Calvary

18 comments:

treefrogdemon said...

There was a great article about Quadrophenia (a book review in fact) in the Grauniad on May 30 -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/30/quadrophenia-seminal-album-who

Luke-sensei said...

it's probably just my computer, but these photos aren't coming up on my screen GF. I just get a blank space with a " ? ".
I'm assuming they are photos of your amazing sounding new room complete with music collection, and there's no more beautiful sight than a shelf full of vinyl in my view, so i'm gutted I can't see 'em!!

ToffeeBoy said...

I don't even get a '?' - I wanna see that room and the world's greatest hi-fi set up!

treefrogdemon said...

I get that broken-image icon. Glad it's not just me!

ejaydee said...

I'd never heard of the Roches before, do you know Quarteto Em Cy? If you don't, check out this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EV8rYiTeDY

AliMunday said...

"Wooden Ships" - one of my favourites. "Baba O'Riley" - one of my favourites. Neil Young - hang on, Goneforeign, how did you get your paws on my record collection??

goneforeign said...

This is odd, I thought there might be problems with the spotty link, wasn't sure if that was working, but the pictures? How can that be, I can see 'em why can't everybody else? Never had this problem before though last week all my posted pics came out very small, I'll have another poke at 'em, maybe I'll try reloading 'em.
Ali: We're obviously on a similar wavelength.
Ejay: You should check out the Roches, 3 sisters, their first album was great.
Toffee: Now this isn't 'the world's....etc' It's just a bit better than what I had before, Techniques 1200 T/T with a Grado cartridge, Onkyo integrated amp and CD player, and my old Sony minidisc deck plus my old [35 years] JBL speakers and a pair of decent Grado headphones.
It's just wonderful to be able to comfortably sit and listen to vinyl again and read the liner notes, I used to do it all the time then when we moved here I fell into lazy habits, listening to CD's on a cheap player with cheap headphones.

goneforeign said...

OK, I've re-done the pics, I re-loaded and re-sized 'em, let me know if it works, if not I'll delete it and think it over.

AliMunday said...

Goneforeign - yep, I can see the pictures now. You have got one or two more albums than me ...

DarceysDad said...

Aw, no' fair - look at that!

But I've decided to take on board your comments about too many years wasted on crappy equipment ...

Thanks, Mr.B

Blimpy said...

I really wish i had a room like that...

Luke-sensei said...

OK, I can see them now and it even exceeded my expectations!!

That is one beautiful wall of vinyl, very very envious!!

Luke-sensei said...

oh..and donds for the Roches, my mate lent me an album of theirs not so long ago, great stuff!

ToffeeBoy said...

@ goneforeign - YES!!!! I can see the piccies and as soon as ToffeeGirl gets home she's going to see them, imported into a PowerPoint slide show called, Toffee Hall - A Vision For The Future.

goneforeign said...

Toffee: Glad you liked 'em. The best feature isn't really visible but it's the reason we bought this house. The big windows to the left of the speakers look into an atrium, a 14ft by 14ft, 2 story interior garden right in the center of the house. It's got a translucent plastic roof, a concrete floor and built in misting system at the roof level plus a garden hose below. I've strung 1/16th inch stainless cables criss-crossing at about 8ft high on which there's hanging baskets of flowering plants and various tropical varieties, some in pots almost 15ft+ high, it's like a rain forest. It's totally surrounded by glass with sliding doors and can be seen from anywhere in the house. I love it.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ gf - I'll be round for a Strawberry Daiquiri in half an hour - can't wait.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ gf - I'll be round for a Strawberry Daiquiri in half an hour - can't wait.

ToffeeBoy said...

In fact, I want to enjoy the view so much, I posted twice!