Roll up for the mystery tour (the Beatles ) (LP 463 - 464)

The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records/ Parlophone , 1967) *****

The Beatles Yellow Submarine (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records/ Parlophone , 1969) ***

Genre: Beatles pop/rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (YS); Real Groovy Records (MMT)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Strawberry Fields Forever remains peerless over 50 years later. That is extraordinary.

Gear costume: Penny Lane, All Together Now

Active compensatory factors: I always seem to link these two albums in my imagination. 

Both are not really bone fide Beatle albums as such - in that MMT was a double EP before the Americans expanded it into an album and YS is a film soundtrack (with side two given over to George Martin's instrumental score).

So why 5 stars for MMT you ask? Apart from being the bloody Beatles, the songs are pretty much all great classics, and the packaging is excellent with the colour supplement of stills from the film inside the covers.

I mean, it has Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am The Walrus, Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, and All You Need Is Love on it, for goodness sake! Ridiculous.

YS retreads All You Need Is Love and Yellow Submarine but also has the wonderful side of George Martin's innocent sounding film score, which I just love to bits!

In fact it gets better and better with time. Go listen! Just see if I'm not right!

Where do they all belong? Slotted in between The White Album (a.k.a. The Beatles) and Let It Be/Abbey Road.

Piece of my heart (Big Brother and The Holding Company) (LP 462)

Big Brother & The Holding Company  Cheap Thrills (Vinyl, CBS, 1968) *****

Genre: American pop/rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Ball And Chain

Gear costume:  Turtle Blues  

Active compensatory factors: For me, Janis Joplin's finest hour. Before the crazy histrionic downward slide towards her early exit, her work as just one of the band on this album features her most inspired vocals. 

It's most definitely of its time, 1968, though in terms of the Holding Company's sound. It's the psychedelic guitar attack of Sam Andrew (who died in 2015) and mostly James Gurley (died 2009) that established and now dates the sound - freak out guitar wig outs.

Janis didn't stick around too long after this album and its subsequent tours, so by 1969 she'd started up the Kozmic Blues Band and the slide to her death in 1970 was underway.

Where do they all belong? Well, it's a starkly tragic, cautionary tale - heroin and alcohol doesn't lead to a long happy life. Duh! So remember her this way, young and vital - singing Turtle Blues.

Fame (David Bowie) (LP 461)

David Bowie Young Americans  (Vinyl, RCA, 1975) ***

Genre: British pop/rock 

Places I remember: One of my last purchases from the RCA Music Club, delivered to my new home in Mt Roskill South.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Right

Gear costume: Young Americans, Fame 

Active compensatory factors: The appearance of John Lennon was my primary reason for buying this album.

Being a completist is tough at times. I was not a huge Bowie fan and his fascination with soul/RnB wasn't my favourite Bowie period. Even he called it 'plastic soul'.

Across The Universe and Fame are the two tracks to include Lennon. Fame, of course, was a huge hit single.

Listening to it again is an interesting experience. My impressions of it haven't changed at all. It still sounds cold (as in lacking warmth) and I still dislike his version of Across The Universe.

Where do they all belong? An oddity in the collection. Ziggy, Diamond Dogs and Hunky Dory are still the three Bowie albums I play the most.

Another night (Citizen Band) (LP 460)

Citizen Band C.B. Bootleg (Vinyl, CBS, 1980) *** 

Genre: NZ pop/rock

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records (Wellington)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I Feel Good (no live version available on YouTube so enjoy the studio one again instead).

Gear costume:  Ladder Song, Julia  

Active compensatory factors: Has it really been 40 years? Seems like last week that me Kevy and Greg were going gaga over Mike and Geoff Chunn's next band after splitting from Split Enz.

They'd joined up with two others - Brent Eccles on drums and Greg Clark on lead guitar, both from Space Waltz, to produce Citizen Band. 

Two studio albums later and then this live album and that was that. 

Initially, I was disappointed when C.B. Bootleg came out. So much that I sold my copy (this is a replacement bought last year while on holiday in Wellington).

For a starter, the faux bootleg cover is a poor choice - it's been done to death and this one isn't a good example of the sub-genre.

As a live album, it just doesn't have the flow of a live concert. It feels disjointed and a little flat. Having relistened to it, I'm more inclined to its rocky charms. Ladder Song and especially I Feel Good get the juices flowing.

Where do they all belong? Moving to Australia wasn't a good idea (is it ever?), they weren't ours anymore, and then in 1982 it was all over Rover. 

Instead - return to that sublime debut album and dig that tex! 

Concerto (Vivaldi) (LP 459)

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (Jean-Claude Malgoire, La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy) Concerti (Vinyl, CBS, 1980) ****

Genre: Classical

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (15 Queen's Arcade, Auckland 1)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/Gear costume: Concerto for two mandolins and strings in G major 

Active compensatory factors: The period of classical music that speaks to me the most is the (flat) Baroque one - 1600s until 1740s, including Bach, Telemann, Corelli, Scarlatti and Vivaldi.

The Four Seasons is an entry point for plenty of people and justifiable so - it's a great piece of music.

This Concerto may not be as well known (I'm not as au fait as I am with rock music) but, for me, it's another great example of Baroque experimentation and innovation.

Where do they all belong? Almost done for classical LPs. Another Baroque Concerto album to come.

Sleepy shores (Sounds Orchestral) (LP 456 - 458)

Sounds Orchestral Words (Vinyl, Pye, 1968) ** 

Sounds Orchestral Sounds Like A Million (Vinyl, Pye, 1969) **  

Sounds Orchestral Wigwam  (Vinyl, Pye, 1971) ***

Genre: Easy Listening

Places I remember: Graham Purdy collection

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:  Wichita Lineman (Wigwam)

Gear costume:  Classical Gas, By The Time I Get To Phoenix  (both on Wigwam)

Active compensatory factors: Sounds Orchestral is actually a group, not a faceless bunch of studio hacks churning out easy listening cover versions. The drummer remained the same (Kenny Clare) and the bassist on these albums is mainly Peter McGurk (he died in 1968 and was replaced by Frank Clark for Wigwam).

Johnny Pearson on piano is the chief instigator though. His playing dominates proceedings. He's not jazz or pop oriented. At all.

The strings that drench each track are my main issue. With them the songs sometimes turn into Ricco Suave dinner music (that's how I heard these albums growing up btw - at dinner time). 

At worst it's mush, at best it's pleasant, undemanding, laid back stuff. Background music for dinner time.

Wigwam is the best of the bunch - some meatier beats and strings are down in the mix or else, in the case of Wichita Lineman, add a greater poignancy to the music. Still - the version of Something is only just tolerable.

And a final word - those covers are especially terrible!!! The packet of gold cigarettes alongside Beethoven, a man on the moon and a coke bottle? What the...???

Where do they all belong? That's nearly it for dad's stuff in the Easy Listening genre. One to go. Gird the loins.

Easy does it (Oscar Peterson) (LP 450 - 455)

Oscar Peterson  Blues Etude (Vinyl, Mercury/ Limelight, 1966) ****

The Oscar Peterson Trio  Canadiana Suite (Vinyl, Mercury/ Limelight, 1964) ***

Oscar Peterson Trio with Herb Ellis Hello Herbie (Vinyl, MPS/BASF, 1969) ***

Oscar Peterson and Count Basie  Satch And Josh...Again (Vinyl, Pablo, 1978) ***

The Oscar Peterson Trio In Tokyo, 1964 (Vinyl, Pablo, ?) ***

The Oscar Peterson Trio  Night Train (Vinyl, Verve, 1963) ****

Genre: Jazz piano 

Places I remember: All are from Graham Purdy's collection. I bought The Pablo and Verve albums for him when I worked at Marbecks.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Blues Etude (Blues Etude); Wheatland (Canadiana Suite); Blues for H.G., Seven Come Eleven (Hello Herbie); Lester Leaps In (Satch and Josh...Again)

Gear costume: The songs on Night Train spark and sizzle!

Active compensatory factors: My dad loved Oscar Peterson's piano jazz style. I don't know why, I never asked him.

The Blues Etude and Canadiana Suite albums were always in his collection from when they were released in the sixties, so his appreciation was well established by the time I was working at Marbecks in the late seventies. Roger got a huge shipment of Pablo imports in and I hunted these albums out for dad for his birthday presents.

I like his playing but I'm not as much of a fan as dad was - I keep them for sentimental reasons. Dad loved them, so they are a little piece of him that I can latch onto.

I suspect you need some understanding of piano playing (like dad had) to appreciate Peterson on a deeper level. I'm much more emotional in my appreciation. Most of those fab tracks (above) are the mid to fast paced ones, I'm not such a fan of the slow ones!

Where do they all belong? Safe and sound in my collection until I've gone and then either to my children or a good home. They belong to someone who will appreciate them.