Assessing The Classics
I visited a Salvation Army charity sale on Saturday morning. The vinyl and books on offer were a bit rubbish, so, determined not to leave empty handed, I flicked through the tapes. Yes, tapes. I know. Anyway, the nice lady said I could have five for a pound, so I got Sgt Pepper's, a couple of spoken word things, a Pete & Dud oddity (sponsored by PG Tips) and Hotel California. I'd never owned an Eagles album before and it seemed worth 20p, so Eagles it was. Frankly, Sgt Pepper's was a bit unlistenable, so I proceeded to play The Eagles in the car all weekend. Now, even a cursory listen will tell you Hotel California not all good. New Kid In Town is a huge drop off from the title track and Victim Of Love is a trifle lame, but Life In The Fast Lane and The Last Resort are great. I even quite like Pretty Maids All In A Row. It does go to show how one amazing track can / could sell records - 16 million and change in this case. One of the biggest surprises for me was hearing how much they were clearly designed to be the cheesecloth 'n' worn denim Beatles. But you couldn't love them could you? Maybe it was all the nose-bag, but it's all a bit cold...
What "classic" album have you come to late? What did you make of it?
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John Martyn - Solid Air
Most beardy faced acoustic based singer song writers have little appeal or interest for me - I even used to skip John Martyn on the Old Grey Whistle Test DVD's. But after downloading a couple of tracks then lending an ear to 'Solid Air' in its entirety
John Martyn made sense.
I was always thought Nick Drake would be my token folky concession. I bought all the albums, played all the albums and found him a bit like Scandanavia - distant, icy with extended periods of darkness and not some where I want to spend much time.
I still don't have much interest in beardy faced acoustic based singer song writers - but John Martyn (the Marlon Brando to Nick Drakes James Dean), 'Solid Air' and in fact almost all of his seventies albums are gems to enjoy..
Led Zepplin IV
Like many of this Parish, i have recently returned to dabbeling in vinyl again. I'm of the CD generation, but always recall the treat of being allowed to play records as a child, either on Dad's Music center, or [even better] on my Grandad's Radiogram [ that for the podcast team for bringing back warm memories a few weeks ago].
any way on a trip to the lake disrtic last year, as i'm mainly uninterested with waterproofs, walking boots, and platic kitchten wear i was over thye moon to find a second hand shop with a large collection of records, front and centre, led zep IV.
And it sounds pretty good, again, you could say that it mainly sound for 'stairway...', nut rock and roll and black dog still sound great. The stand out feature had to be the drum sound, still sounds brilliant!
with the ability to download single tracks, will this, 'one killer , all filler' become a thing of the past. I was always very careful when buying 'Best of...' compilation, as some time you can miss out on some real corkers, just because they wheren't the single, may i surgest Dire Straights first album. some really good stuff, but no no one ever hears it as the never bought the album, just listerned to 'sultans of swing' single and that was it
Cassette Vs CD
Can I just say Cassette boxes make better ice scrapers than Cd boxes?