Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence - ROBERT FRIPP.
Information is not knowledge;
knowledge is not wisdom;
wisdom is not truth;
truth is not beauty;
beauty is not love;
love is not music;
MUSIC IS THE BEST - FRANK ZAPPA.
I think we're a little happier when we have a little music in our lives - STEVE JOBS.
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe - LAO TZU.
Rock and Roll is fire, man. FIRE. - DAVID BRIGGS.
Music grips you, gets into your soul -
GEORGE MARTIN
Claudio ArrauBeethoven Piano Concerto No.2, Op.19; Piano Sonata No.1, Op. 2, No.1(Vinyl, Philips, 1964) ****
Genre: Classical Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Auckland Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Piano Concerto Rondo
Gear costume:Piano Concerto Adagio Active compensatory factors: When I was trying to flesh out my musical palette, I bought this on the recommendation of Murray Marbeck, Roger's dad. He knew what he was on about did Murray. We bonded over the fact that we were both old boys of Mt Albert Grammar School. Being a MAGS boy carries some gravitas. To be fair, you can't go too far wrong with Beethoven. My preference is for the piano concertos and sonatas rather than the symphonies and I enjoy this album whenever I hear it. But the classical deviation didn't stick, I'm afraid. Jazz and rock music is my cup of tea.
Where do they all belong? In the slim classical section along with the baroque period artists that I enjoy the most.
Peter NeroI'll Never Fall In Love Again(Vinyl, Columbia, 1970) **
Genre: Easy listening Places I remember: Another album inherited from my father's record collection. Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Something Gear costume:I 'll Never Fall In Love Again, Lay Lady Lay Active compensatory factors: Seemingly, the sort of album hip youngish executives put on the hi fi as they loosened their tie and made a gin and tonic after a day of meetings at work in Otahuhu while kids did their homework and their wife got dinner ready. In 1970, my dad would have been 42 and my mother 40. At 12 years old, I was a naive and innocent bystander. My 10 year old brother was just annoying. Yes indeed, this album is a memory bomb. Drop the needle on that first track, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, and I'm back in the bosom of the Purdy family at 18 Korma Ave., Royal Oak, Auckland, NZ, Earth, the Solar System, The Universe. At that time this kind of music washed over me. I was listening to the real thing on The Beatles Hey Jude album in 1970 - well the few weeks of 1970 after Christmas that is. Now I listen to this album with a nostalgic tear in my eye for those much simpler days when I had my family intact around me! It's tough being a grown up. And I miss my mum and dad.
Where do they all belong? At the time I completely failed to notice what a distinguished musician Peter Nero was. Such is youth! I'll never ever get rid of this album! It sits happily in the Easy Listening section of my collection along with George Shearing, Herb Alpert et al.
Tony HancockThe Blood Donor, The Radio Ham(Vinyl, Marble Arch, 1968) ***
Genre: Comedy Places I remember: Charity shop in Caterham Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Blood Donor
Gear costume:The Radio Ham Active compensatory factors: Recorded on my birthday in 1961 (I was 4) and released on Pye's budget label in 1968, this is comedy genius folks! Hancock's Half Hour was a regular radio feature along with The Goon Show, and The Clitheroe Kid when I was growing up. I loved HHH especially. Background from wikipedia: Two episodes from Hancock, made after he split from Sid James, are among his best-remembered: "The Blood Donor", in which he goes to a clinic to give blood, contains some famous lines, including "I don't mind giving a reasonable amount, but a pint! That's very nearly an armful!"; in "The Radio Ham", Hancock plays an amateur radio enthusiast who receives a mayday call from a yachtsman in distress, but his incompetence prevents him from taking his position. Both of these programmes were re-recorded a few months later for a commercial 1961 LP, produced in the same manner as the radio episodes. As a young nipper (and now for that matter), I am particularly drawn to his accent and comic timing. He can say a simple line and I'm grinning! Where do they all belong? In my youth.
Genre: Piano jazz Places I remember: Ray's Jazzbar in Foyles at Charing Cross, London Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:The Squirrel
Gear costume:Love For Sale Active compensatory factors: Recorded in 1971 but not released until a few years later, Red shows that he still has the goods (I believe in jazz muso circles this is referred to as 'chops'). His legacy stretches back to the mid fifties, with Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Although not recording during the late sixties he returned in the seventies with a flourish. He passed away in April 1984. My copy from the second hand bin at Ray's Jazz is a promo copy that also has a faded stamp on the back cover saying RR Records, Glendale, California. So it's much travelled, at least from America to London to New Zealand! It's the perfect after school/work on a Friday afternoon sort of record. That is, it's brilliant piano jazz, played by vets who know what they are doing.
Where do they all belong? A safe pair of hands! Pity about that cover though - worse in real life!
Ted Heath and His Music Swing Is King (Vinyl, World Record Club, 1967) ****
Genre: Swing (Jazz) Places I remember: This is another one from my father's record collection. He loved Big Bands! Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Sing Sing Sing
Gear costume:Flying Home Active compensatory factors: This album pops! And swings like a billy goat! Just listen to the last track on side 2 - Sing Sing Sing* above. It's the last track coz really - how do you follow that??? The only thing you can do is flip over the album and start again with track one (Flying Home). Which is also spectacular. *You may remember Sing Sing Sing from Spielberg's 1941 movie. It's a great scene! Where do they all belong? In a very niche corner of the collection forever.
Frank SinatraSwing Easy!(Vinyl, World Record Club, 1954) **** Frank SinatraIn The Wee Small Hours(Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1955) ** Genre: Jazz Vocal Places I remember:Swing Easy! comes from my parents' record collection - mum was the Sinatra fan. Small Hours was found in a charity shop in Caterham during our recent stay in the UK. It's in excellent condition too, given it's probably been in someone's possession since 1955!!! Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Get Happy
Gear costume:I Get A Kick Out of You, A Foggy Day Active compensatory factors: These are both in weird formats. Bear with me. Swing Easy! was originally released as a 10 inch, eight song 'album'. My copy is the extended 12 inch LP version which adds the eight songs from the 10 inch 'album' Songs for Young Lovers, featuring (as above) the Swing Easy! cover but including a miniature inset of the Songs for Young Lovers cover. It's ugly but it gets the point across. Mum and dad belonged to the World Record Club and obviously bought this through the mail. The label is therefore cheesily stylised as the 'Light Music Club'.
In The Wee Small Hours was originally released as two 10 inch 'albums'. I have part 1, so side 1 and side 2. Which is fine, as the lonely early morning mood conjured up by the songs, the cover picture, and Frank's delivery doesn't move me especially. Much better is the 12 inch long player of Swing Easy! released a year earlier - Swing Easy! is a spot on title by the way. Frank sashayes his way through the material and Nelson Riddle's arrangements and orchestration are justifiably lauded.
Where do they all belong? I stretch to a Greatest Hits CD and tha tha that's all folks.
