Any Massive views? I've been offered a subscription. I don't know much about it, other than I remember it being somewhat earnest when it first came over here. I guess it's GQ territory, but where it stands in relation to GQ is anybody's guess.

At least half of my music collection is live recordings from (ahem) various sources. When I rip these tracks for my iPod, I use editing software (Cakewalk Pyro or Audacity) to fade crowd noise in and out, remove long spoken introductions and anything else that I can live without - singalong sections, drum solos and so forth.

I also use the software to knit together songs that belong together - so the Abbey Road segue is one song, as are various prog things - for instance, I have The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway as 2 long tracks.

Anyone else this sad, or is it just me?

Diddy Dave Hepworth, discussing Bill McLaren's pronunciation of past rugby giants, Doddie Weir, Willie John McBride, JPR et al:

'Bill snapped off each unique name as if it were a piece of Kendal Mint Cake'.

The more I venture into this month's mag, the more I find to enjoy: the Sherlock Holmes essay is superb - here's hoping we get a regular equivalent - Buchan, Macdonald Fraser, Greene, Orwell maybe - the scope is huge.

Keep this standard up and I might have to grow a beard.

Anyone else enjoy Giles Smith's hilarious article? The plot of Follyfoot Farm - elderly dementia, council house eviction, neglected and abused animals, alcoholism and ultimately death all served up for kids at tea time in the 70s - well, you'd have to heart of stone not to laugh. The harrowing impact on Smith's 21st century family was brilliantly and hilariously evoked.

I found myself checking the DVD out on Amazon, before remembering that this stuff was terrible the first time round: The idea of actually paying to watch it again - I must need therapy.

Anyway, please can the Smith family be made to watch Quatermass, Armchair Thriller and every other scary and/or naff tv series of old. Worth the cover price alone.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23802431-emis-future-in-d...

Does it matter? I don't really know. Among my jumble of conflicting beliefs is:

- Talent will out - eventually and somehow.

- Creativity ain't what it used to be - we're drowning under a sea of same sounding music, with horizons ever-narrowing - whilst the Beatles would have been familiar with/drawn from skiffle, light opera, jazz, crooners, comedy and classical, today's musicians seem to get by on a far more stringent and unadventurous set of influences, almost all of them coming with a pre-approved 'cool' stamp

- One can make a conscious decision to draw from outside the cool well, but to do so means that you have almost no hope of reaching a non-specialist, mainstream audience.

- If music ceases to be a path to fortune, the people left doing it will be the ones who just *have* to - proper artists in other words.

Tell me this isn't a wonderful trio:

http://open.spotify.com/user/g.reth/playlist/6yQeeUzHe18ZiwCUBBpKPm

Anyone else got a 3 song taster of a band or artist they feel deserves a Massive spotlight.

In common with many fellow members of the Word Massive, I may have given the impression in a recent thread that Sir Paul McCartney was a spent force musically and that his contribution to the musical canon was more miss than hit since approximately 1970.

Phrases like 'history-rewriting, self-justifying and largely talent-free berk who keeps popping up to trade off his HJH legacy to promote a never ending tidal wave of dreck' may have led fellow contributors to draw the conclusion that I shared the uncharitable view that The Beatles were dying in the wrong order.

In fact, having gorged on recent McCartney in recent days, I now see that Sir Paul is still a God-like Genius and whatever it is he ever had, he still has in spades - when it suits: Last week, whilst Christmas shopping, I treated myself with McCartney's latest live opus and, emboldened by the festive spirit, also picked up Back in the World.

I'm blown away. I have not stopped playing both albums since. It goes without saying that the HJH material is excellent (although the segue from Day in the Life into Give Peace a Chance spoils both, the tension in the triple guitar solo part of The End is lost if nobody wants to play Lennon-style anti-chops and someone really should burn his ukelele).

But the recent McCartney stuff is a revelation. I've avoided the guy for years, so hadn't heard Calico Skies, Driving Rain, Lonely Road etc and they're really REALLY good. I've now bought his latest solo album and quite liked it too (Dance Tonight apart). Do I now really have to re-appraise 20+ odd albums I've steered clear of for 20+ years? Are things like Back to the Egg, Flaming Pie, Chaos & Creation etc not as dire as I always told myself they must be? Scary stuff...

Yes, I know, it's all a bit Smash Hits isn't it, but I just wondered whether I was alone in my preference. I've had both albums for a while and listened to them again this morning. One is a joyous, uplifting wonder, the other is routinely cited as Album of the Year.

If you are familiar with both albums (Spotify has both), then hit the UP button here if you prefer ANIMAL COLLECTIVE's Merriweather Post Pavilion

I was chatting to the local indie record store owner, who is always looking for interesting ways to display his wares and prompt the odd purchase.

A lot of the punters are somewhat sheepish, impressionable youngsters clutching their first Led Zeppelin, Roy Harper, Stooges, Floyd etc album and it struck me that it might be worthwhile having a display showing 'How to buy' a particular genre, era or mood. He liked this idea, and asked for suggestions.

Which is where the Massive might be able to help. Can you think of suggested list titles that may inspire the odd sale? I don't need a comprehensive list of albums - although that'd be welcome - more examples of the phenomenon. Ideally, you'd want to have genres that people might want to buy and the odd title they'd heard of, to inspire them to check one or two of the others out.

Any suggestions? Off the top of my head, here's an example: How to buy...Cool Bedsit Hero Singer Songwriters

1. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
2. John Martyn - Solid Air
3. Carole King - Tapestry
4. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
5. Joni Mitchell - Blue
6. Bob Dylan - Bringing it all Back Home/Blood on the Tracks
7. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
8. Neil Young - Harvest
9. Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman
10. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

The Chuck Berry discussion got me thinking: What would Word readers put on their riders - pre-supposing a level of musical success where you'd get what you asked for with a straight face.

Me? Nothing too exotic really. Maybe some Jelly Beans. Some rum perhaps. Some unsalted nuts. Fresh towels. Yogi teas. Some dark chocolate. And maybe a monkey.

Anyone else been turned on by this? It's taken me forever to get around to ripping compilation albums for the i-Thingy and this morning I dusted down this album of 'Protest, Sorrow, Hobos, Folk and Blues' compiled by Jon Savage in 2005.

God it's good. Everything released in 1970, hence some truly great stoner/mellow classics. I was familiar with some of the songs (Free's Mouthful of Grass, Rod Stewart's Man of Constant Sorrow, Loudon Wainwright III's Black Uncle Remus, Nick Drake's Three Hours, Skip Spence's Cripple Creek), some are from periods in the artists' careers I've always avoided (early Steve Miller, James Gang, late-ish Donovan, late The Move, Dave Mason post Traffic) and some from artists I'd never heard of, but will Spotify later on (Leo Kottke, Tommy Flanders, Danny O'Keefe). It also contains only the second Meic Stevens song I've ever heard - both excellent. I must try an album of his.

If you haven't come across this compilation, it's definitely worth checking out. Song of the day for me is Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave by Dave Mason. Now where's my afghan coat...

Caught Jay Z (is that right?) on Jools this week. Call me a prim and sheltered old maid, but WTF? Doesn't anybody find this kind of derogatory labelling just a little bit troubling?

I'm just getting round to ripping (er.. and then discarding) the mountain of free CDs I've picked up over the years and have been listening to tracks from the Now Hear This CD given away with The Word in March 2007. The tracklisting seems to have got into a bit of a muddle, with the result that the last few tracks are listed wrong. I've been able to decode all bar one - the last, an instrumental which is listed as 'Draggin' The Line' by Tommy James. That song is in fact track 14, so I'm lost as to what the real title is. Does anyone have any idea what it is - assuming anyone else still has these things? Many thanks in advance.

In the early '80s, there was a slew of songs and albums name checking the year - PIL's 1981, Quo with 1+9+8+2, Scritti Politti's Cupid and Psyche '85, Whitesnake's miserable 1987. Jimi Hendrix has got 1983 covered with his expected transformation into a Merman (has anyone checked?) and Bowie and Van Halen have 1984 covered (thankfully separately - could have been worse than Tin Machine).

How long is it possible to extend this list either way? I'm aware of a Green Day song that namechecks '86, but have no idea if it refers to the age from which there's no return or the year. The Connells' '74-75 is a bit of a double bonus, assuming the intervening years exist. Ash's 1977 of course being one and the Smashing Pumpkins glorious 1979 another.

Live albums and compilations don't count.

Is it just me they don't work for? I get 'Problem loading page' with every one. Maybe it's just a Mozilla Firefox issue - wondered if anyone else had the same.