What are you listening to?

[MichiganJ]

Chris:

My older sister had “Out of the Blue” on 8-Track! I used to borrow that all the time! (She had Foreigner’s first album on 8-Track, too. “Cold As Ice” was one of the songs that spanned two tracks. Every time I hear it on the radio, I anticipate it fading out in the middle, hearing the “click”, and then fading back up again. Today’s technology can’t compare to 8-Tracks....)

I agree about Lynne’s vocals. Actually it’s the backing vocals which tend to grate. They are always the same, even on the Harrison albums he produced.

Of course the early 70’s was the era for over-production, which is only a “hindsight” criticism. Growing up with these albums, they sounded great. Many still do. (I’m thinking of Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, still a brilliant, yet over-produced album [by wall-of-sound guru, Phil Spector]. The “recent” reissue, tackles the production a bit, but since I’m so familiar with the original, I prefer to listen to that.)

My college radio station had one Alan Parsons album (the one with Eye in the Sky on it), but that’s all I really know of them. Always looking for some good “old” music. Do you have a recommendation? Is it best to start with a “greatest hits” (I tend to avoid these unless I have no idea where else to start).

Kevin

[movieman1957]

Hi Kevin:

I agree about "All Things Must Pass." George's voice was almost too buried but there are some great songs there and a wide varity of styles too.

I have the same problem with 8 Tracks. The track change is still there in my head. If you were lucky there was enough room the song was repeated later without the break.

If you are not familiar at all with Parsons (or anyone) a greatest hits or "Best Of" album is a good way to go. "Eye In The Sky" is a good one. "I Robot" is among their most famous. "Turn Of A Friendly Card," "Stereotomy" and "Try Anything Once" are good. I think each of the albums has some good things on them even if the overall album isn't great. The only problem with collections of Parsons material is the albums are usually thematic and that is lost on those types of albums. I also have 4 or 5 others that make for good listening.

[ChiO]

Excuse this tangent, but it's Chris' fault for mentioning The Alan Parsons Project.

As a native-born Hoosier, basketball is hardwired into my very being, and I somehow passed that to our younger daughter, Stacey. And you may recall that there was a pretty decent basketball team in Chicago in the '90s.

Summer 1996: We took our daughters (Alison, 17, & Stacey, 8 at the time) on a two-week vacation to France. On our last full day, driving from the Loire Valley to Paris, we stopped at Chartres. Stacey was attired, as usual, in her red Dennis Rodman jersey, red Bulls basketball shorts and Bulls cap. We went into the Cathedral with the first wave of tourists immediately following Mass.

At one point, I notice that a single beam of light is shining through the center of a rosette window and making a circle on the bare floor. Alison walks over, looks at it in awe, and I say: "Straight from God to this spot." She nods.

Then Stacey walks over. I tell her what I had just told Alison. She looks at us, then the beam, then the circle. She throws her cap into the circle and loudly proclaims: "A-n-d now, the starting lineup for your CHI-GAH-GO-O-H BULLS!!!"

Alison and I ran away, leaving Stacey standing there looking very proud of herself.

The Alan Parsons Project, "Sirius" (it still gives me chills)
[youtube][/youtube]

[movieman1957]

Great story.

[MichiganJ]

Big tower of CD’s to shelve:

Warren Zevon--Excitable Boy (Warren, miss your humor, man)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--Damn the Torpedoes (Not a bad song in the lot)
Roy Orbison--The Essential Orbison (one of the most amazing singers. “Do the ooby dooby”)
The Alan Parsons Project--Eye in the Sky (Thanks for the recommendation, Chris!:D Memories of my collage radio days and especially Laura L., who loved Parsons. Ah Laura...)
The Alan Parsons Project--Tales of Mystery and Imagination (I liked this Edgar Allen Poe concept album even better than EYE,)
X--Los Angeles (This album refuses to date. Loved it then, love it now.)
Gore Gore Girls--Get the Gore (Had to pick this up simply because of the band’s name. They aren’t The Runaways, but then, who is?)
Elliott Smith--Figure 8 (Bet you can’t tell what kind of day I was having)
Miles Davis--’Round About Midnight (I know Birth of Cool is the benchmark, but this is my favorite Miles Davis album...at least for now.)
Pink Floyd--Total Eclipse (Bootleg Floyd with disc one highlighting the genius (madness?) of Syd. The rest of the set is pretty great, too.)
The Smithereens--Meet the Smithereens (A song by song, nearly note for note, remake of Meet the Beatles. Why? Dunno, but it’s great!)
George Harrison--33 1/3 (Badly produced but still wonderful album. Harrison’s humor shines!)
Led Zeppelin--Leppelin III--(I love when people insist Leppelin is heavy metal. My favorite Zep album, unless you count all of the others.)
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros--Streetcore (I love Joe Strummer and his version of Redemption Song makes me shiver.)


The stack is too high to list ‘em all. I’ll add more later.

[movieman1957]

I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed the Alan Parsons albums. The only other album we share on the list is Harrison's "33 1/3." I don't care much for the sound of it either. Too thin for my taste. I like the sound of "Material World" better but I agree that there are some witty phrases scattered about the album.

"All Things Must Pass" is my favorite Harrison piece but for me it suffers from being over produced in places but there are some great songs and a credit to his varied writing style.

[inglis]

Big tower of CD’s to shelve:

Warren Zevon--Excitable Boy (Warren, miss your humor, man)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--Damn the Torpedoes (Not a bad song in the lot)
Roy Orbison--The Essential Orbison (one of the most amazing singers. “Do the ooby dooby”)
The Alan Parsons Project--Eye in the Sky (Thanks for the recommendation, Chris!:D Memories of my collage radio days and especially Laura L., who loved Parsons. Ah Laura...)
The Alan Parsons Project--Tales of Mystery and Imagination (I liked this Edgar Allen Poe concept album even better than EYE,)
X--Los Angeles (This album refuses to date. Loved it then, love it now.)
Gore Gore Girls--Get the Gore (Had to pick this up simply because of the band’s name. They aren’t The Runaways, but then, who is?)
Elliott Smith--Figure 8 (Bet you can’t tell what kind of day I was having)
Miles Davis--’Round About Midnight (I know Birth of Cool is the benchmark, but this is my favorite Miles Davis album...at least for now.)
Pink Floyd--Total Eclipse (Bootleg Floyd with disc one highlighting the genius (madness?) of Syd. The rest of the set is pretty great, too.)
The Smithereens--Meet the Smithereens (A song by song, nearly note for note, remake of Meet the Beatles. Why? Dunno, but it’s great!)
George Harrison--33 1/3 (Badly produced but still wonderful album. Harrison’s humor shines!)
Led Zeppelin--Leppelin III--(I love when people insist Leppelin is heavy metal. My favorite Zep album, unless you count all of the others.)
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros--Streetcore (I love Joe Strummer and his version of Redemption Song makes me shiver.)


The stack is too high to list ‘em all. I’ll add more later.

Hi Michigan.I have All Things Must Pass on vinyl. I bought it when it first came out .Its in brand new condition still,I love the song Apple Scruffs .I also have it on CD now which I play more ofetn than my album. Tom Petty is coming here in August. I bought ticktets for my husband and myself .We are big Tom Petty fans .I have been waiting to see him for years .We are quite excited about it. I didn't ever think he would make it to our city .It's the big event of the Summer here .Steve Winwood is touring with him it should be a good show.Damm The Torpedo's here we go .Inglis

[movieman1957]

Hi Carol:

Since you mentioned "Apple Scruffs" I thought I'd mention that was the term the Beatles used to refer to the girls that would hang around outside the Abbey Road studios while they were recording.

More useless information from moi.

[MichiganJ]

inglis & chris:

Without question All Things Must Pass is one of Harrison’s best albums, and inglis, I do mean “albums’. I, too, own all of Harrison’s works on LP, and find they sound far better than the CD’s (I have all of his CD’s, too). In my opinion, the Harrison albums on Apple/Capital are his best, with the exception of the posthumous Brainwashed, which is brilliant, and makes his early death all the more sad because he obviously had more great music offer. His Dark Horse albums all have highlights, but I tend to listen to the Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989 album more than the individual releases. For some reason, though, I love 33 1/3.

Chris, you mention Living in the Material World. I love that album and think the song Be Here Now is one of the greatest songs ever written. I recently saw Robyn Hitchcock in concert, and he performed that song as an encore. Amazing.

inglis- I saw the Petty/Windwood Tour here in Indy this Spring, and, as you might expect, it was awesome. You and your husband are in for a treat. There’s no better band than the Heartbreakers. Years ago, when they backed Dylan, it was so much fun seeing them keep up with Dylan’s odd tempo changes and phrasing. Dylan himself was having fun trying to “fool” them, and all of them, Mike Campbell chief among them, was staying right with him. By far the most fun Dylan concert I’ve ever seen.

If you are a Petty fan I’d highly recommend seeing the Peter Bogdanovich documentary, Runnin’ Down a Dream. It’s long, but boy is it great. Plenty of concert footage--you forget how long Petty and the boys have been playin’ together and exactly how many great songs they created.

[movieman1957]

The only Harrison albums I don't have are "Dark Horse" (I thought he sounded awful, much rougher than usual,) "Gone Troppo" and "Brainwashed" but I will probably rectify the last one.

New question, "Cloud 9" - too much Jeff Lynne? Overall I like the album, especially "When We Was Fab" (more great humor) but there are times it sounds too much like Lynne and not enough like Harrison. Probably the same thing with Petty and Wilburys. (Mind you I like ELO up though about 1977.)

[inglis]

The only Harrison albums I don't have are "Dark Horse" (I thought he sounded awful, much rougher than usual,) "Gone Troppo" and "Brainwashed" but I will probably rectify the last one.

New question, "Cloud 9" - too much Jeff Lynne? Overall I like the album, especially "When We Was Fab" (more great humor) but there are times it sounds too much like Lynne and not enough like Harrison. Probably the same thing with Petty and Wilburys. (Mind you I like ELO up though about 1977.)

Hi Chris .Dark Horse is a great album if you get a chance to pick it up go for it .Thanks for the tibit about Apple Scruffs ,have a good weekend ,Carol

[inglis]

inglis & chris:

Without question All Things Must Pass is one of Harrison’s best albums, and inglis, I do mean “albums’. I, too, own all of Harrison’s works on LP, and find they sound far better than the CD’s (I have all of his CD’s, too). In my opinion, the Harrison albums on Apple/Capital are his best, with the exception of the posthumous Brainwashed, which is brilliant, and makes his early death all the more sad because he obviously had more great music offer. His Dark Horse albums all have highlights, but I tend to listen to the Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989 album more than the individual releases. For some reason, though, I love 33 1/3.

Chris, you mention Living in the Material World. I love that album and think the song Be Here Now is one of the greatest songs ever written. I recently saw Robyn Hitchcock in concert, and he performed that song as an encore. Amazing.

inglis- I saw the Petty/Windwood Tour here in Indy this Spring, and, as you might expect, it was awesome. You and your husband are in for a treat. There’s no better band than the Heartbreakers. Years ago, when they backed Dylan, it was so much fun seeing them keep up with Dylan’s odd tempo changes and phrasing. Dylan himself was having fun trying to “fool” them, and all of them, Mike Campbell chief among them, was staying right with him. By far the most fun Dylan concert I’ve ever seen.

If you are a Petty fan I’d highly recommend seeing the Peter Bogdanovich documentary, Runnin’ Down a Dream. It’s long, but boy is it great. Plenty of concert footage--you forget how long Petty and the boys have been playin’ together and exactly how many great songs they created.

.Hi Michigan .Well I an really excited now .Glad to hear it was a good show .I will have to see that documentry. I know they have been around for along time and I am just as excited to see Mike Campbell.My brother is a big Tom Petty fan as well .Thats how I got hooked .I used to listen to his album collection when I was a bop head.Thanks for the info ,Carol

[MichiganJ]

Chris, I agree with Carol, Dark Horse is great album. During the 1974 tour, though, Harrison blew his voice out and he did, indeed sound rough. He did perform some interesting versions of his songs, though, and reinterpreted John and Paul’s In My Life complete with horns. But I digress...If you like Material World, you’ll like Dark Horse, too.

Jeff Lynne’s production on Cloud Nine is very evident. It’s the way he records his backing vocals, I think. Sounds way too much like ELO. However the album is very good and worthy of Harrison’s “comeback”. When We Was Fab, co-written by Lynne and Harrison, is still funny and shows that Lennon wasn’t the only Beatle with an acerbic sense of humor, although Harrison’s touch was considerably lighter.

The Wilburys? With all that talent, Lynne’s co-production (with Harrison) is much more restrained. Both albums, recently re-released as one set, are terrific.

[ChiO]

Bryce: You've done Steve Albini proud. You do belong in Chicago.