Category: Music

Morten Harket, “A Kind of a Christmas Card”:

Does that sound like the lead singer of a-ha to you? And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to make of the poet-narrator, as he sings:

All you folks back home
I’ll never tell you this
You’re not supposed to know
Where your daughter is

And later:

Just think of the girl I used to be
You were my age once, mama

Is he singing about the daughter? Was he the daughter? In this timeline, the song from the 1995 album Wild Seed is smack dab between “Lola” and “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” and 2020, man.

The rest of the album sounds more like the voice of a-ha, though, and it occurs to me that although I have his first English solo effort (the aforementioned Wild Seed, he has released six solo albums, all the way up to 2014. Perhaps I will think to get them when I am feeling profligate.

So I have been thinking about writing some more Christmas album reviews, since they’re popular parts of the deep content here around Christmas time, and I have been thinking of including CDs I own instead of just record albums. Of course, I was thinking about that because I was without a means of playing records until I recombined the electronics here in late November. So, clearly, the idea of resurrecting the Christmas album reviews is another plan I’ve meant to put into action but have not yet.

Not being able to listen to the records meant I piped things from my phone a bunch, which is why I had been listening to Christmas CDs (ripped and streamed). One of them is Erin Bode’s A Cold December Night which opens with a song called “Skating”.

Continue reading “Apparently, I Do Not Own All Of Her Albums” →

St. Louis Blues announcer Charles Glenn and Larry Barker have a single song called “My Attorney Bernie” which is not available for purchase, but is on Soundcloud.

I would buy a Charles Glenn jazz album. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any such thing.

Hopefully, that’s only not yet.

As you know, gentle reader, I have often postulated that metal makes all music better and have pointed out how much better Leo Moracchioli’s covers sound than the originals (see Transgenre Music from 2018 and many, many postings in the Legion of Metal Friends Facebook group or build a time machine to travel back to the Redeemer Trunk or Treat in 2018 where we did a heavy metal concert theme and played Frogleap Studios on a loop).

Well, B.P. has a more thoughtful post called Making Metal Out Of Rock which makes the same point, albeit with significantly less Noregianness.

My beautiful wife was playing some playlist in the kitchen whilst cooking. I heard a song and said, “That’s Bach, ainna?”

She said it was.

I don’t know if she was impressed or not–I always assume she is impressed with every utterance and impressive bit of trivia I know. So I immediately ruined any positive impression by admitting I knew it because it was the song that played when you went into the church in the Commodore 64 Friday the 13th video game which I played a bit in my youth. In a pirated copy downloaded from a l33t BBS somewhere, which is the only way a kid in a trailer park got games to play that he didn’t have to type in out of magazines himself.

“It must have been a Lutheran church,” she said.

I was going to post about it earlier this week when it happened, but I needed to research it as I did not look to see what it was and didn’t want to have to go through random Bach songs to find it.

But last night, I discovered it on the LP A Solid Brass Christmas.

It’s Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis 140).

Which I recognize because it was in a video game I played over 30 years ago.

It’s kind of like knowing classic works because they were in old Looney Tunes cartoons. But in 8-bit Commoodore SID chip sound with a dash of software piracy thrown in for spice.

Christmas time in, what, 1984? We’re at the house that my maternal grandmother rented in High Ridge right next to the firehouse. My brother and I are lying on the floor watching MTV because my grandmother had cable, and we could watch MTV which would have been important to a twelve-year-old at the time. We would have been visiting on a weekend, as we were still living with my aunt in St. Charles at the time. The television is a big console unit that would be in our trailer too soon as my grandmother would pass away in a year or so.

But this Christmas song comes on. A science fiction sounding Christmas song.

We’re lying on the floor, and as it finishes up, my brother and I turn to each other and say, “Whoa.”

It’s Mannheim Steamroller’s “Deck the Halls” from the then-new Christmas album. I liked it so much that I bought it on audiocassette whilst I was in college; it would have been the first Christmas album I bought.

As our latest inexpensive bookshelf system failed, again, after six or seven months of playing records, I’m not spinning platters for a second year in a row. I’m reduced to listening to songs via Bluetooth. Somewhere in the recent decades, my beautiful wife spent time ripping audiocassettes to MP3 files, so I have a copy of my old tape on my phone now, and I listened to it the other night and remembered how I was introduced to Mannheim Steamroller.

So I asked my brother if he remembered it.

He did not.

So many of the things I remember, I am unsure if they actually happened like that or not. And more and more, nobody can tell me differently.

And as I’m getting older, my wife or increasingly my children ask me if I remember some incident that seemed more important to them than to me, and I cannot. So I am a little gratified that other people my age–namely, my brother–cannot remember some things, too.

As long as it actually happened. I suppose it would be no consolation if it didn’t and I was just recalling it wholesale.

At any rate, I am thinking of reviewing some Christmas “albums” that I have in non-record format as the posts about the Christmas albums are popular, especially this time of year.

So I was trying to play Naz’s album Time After (yes, the one with "Time After Time" on it, not that Naz has made a second album for you to confuse the two).

But on my Portable Device, I tapped and held the artist, and it came up with a photo.

Wait a minute, that is not Nazia Chaudry.

So I did a little bit of Internet sleuthing, which means a search for naz musical artist, which came up with Naina Naz:

Who is apparently an electronic traditional pop Pakistani singer:

Who hails from a land where only men go to concerts or something.

The image on my phone does not look like her.

So I did a new fangled image search, and I discovered this is Japanese electronic pop artist Naz.

Since I have great affection for Japanese/Japanese American fusion jazz, I gave it a listen just in case, but no.

Not my thing, but it would have been right up Charles’ alley.

You know what is my thing? Wishing the right Naz would put out another album since her cover of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” is not on Time After:

As you might know, gentle reader, I pretty much think that Eydie Gorme did the best rendition of every song she ever recorded, andall other artists who attempt to record new versions of the songs are fools.

However, as I recently picked up a new copy of the album Eydie In Love since the copy I got in 2015 (that long ago? Already?) skipped. I would like to acknowledge that my beautiful wife bought me the CD for my birthday, but when presented with the chance to buy another record (for fifty cents!), I did. I put it on the turntable the other day, and it includes her rendition of “It Could Happen To You”:

But I had recently heard Ashley Pezzotti’s version:

As you know, gentle reader, I am not generally a fan of scatting, but Ashley Pezzotti might be the best I’ve heard.

The two interpretations have a bit of a difference. Eydie is more wistful and mournful–she warns it’s not necessarily a good thing. Ashley is more playful, and although she might have given you that advice previously, love has happened to her, and she’s happy it did.

So does that mean that I think that Eydie Gorme might be trumped by an upstart? Heaven forbid! The interpretations make them completely different songs (and you thought the difference in pronouns was a dodge!).

But I also got a new copy of Eydie On Stage, which has a rendition of “But Not For Me”:

Ms. Pezzotti’s debut album We’ve Only Just Begun has her rendition:

And, erm….

Well, they’re different songs because Eydie’s has the take of an older, more world-weary poet-narrator, and Ashley’s has the perspective of a younger person who is only, hopefully, temporarily discouraged.

Jeez, Louise, I am walking on a thin line here. I love Eydie Gorme, but I’m also quite fond of Ashley Pezzotti. Whereas I am ever hopeful to find a new record of Eydie Gorme’s vast discography when I go to antique malls and book sales, I am also hopeful that the Quarantine Sessions are building up a repertoire for a new Ashley Pezzotti album sometime soon.

Last year, I admitted that I sometimes confused Patty Smyth with Patti Smith.

According to this article with one of them ahead of her first new album in almost thirty years, it happens frequently:

Do people still confuse you with Patti Smith?

It happens all the time, and it’s insane that it still happens. To tell you how far back she’s been haunting me … when I was a teenager, I was getting her mail in the East Village. And I’m not kidding. I had no idea what she did or who she was, but I knew that she existed.

Time will tell whether I get the album, but I probably owe it to her.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to confuse myself with the question Is she the one who is married to John McEnroe or the one that had the hit with Don Henley?

The New York Times Continues To Ignore Rock Star Deaths:

Somehow, over the past few months, the paper of record omitted obituaries for Steve Priest bass player, singer and co-founder of The Sweet; Pete Way bass player and co-founder of UFO, Fastway and Waysted; guitarist Paul Chapman, also of UFO; Lee Kerslake drummer for Ozzy Osbourne and Uriah Heep; and Franke Banali drummer for Quiet Riot and W.A.S.P..

To be fair, though, I have only known one of these fellows, Frankie Banali, by name and only because I recently read Louder Than Hell. And I am a fan of metal music, although more modern metal than the recently departed.

Also, I am not twenty-six-years-old and a professional.

UPDATE: After I scheduled this post, the news came out that Eddie Van Halen passed away. He shall get an obit in the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal for sure.

Well, my friends, I have bought my first LPs in what seems like a long time. I guess my last purchases were in July when I bought a handful of records while spending gift cards at Relics Antique Mall, but, come on, it doesn’t feel like I’ve bought LPs unless I’ve been to this book sale and have bought fifty.

Which I did, sort of.

I got:

• Charlie Byrd
• Countdown Time In Outer Space The Dave Brubeck Quartet
• One Hell of a Woman Vikki Carr
• For All We Know Vikki Carr
• The Lord’s Prayer Perry Como
• Easy to Love Frankie Carle
• Praise the Almighty The Lutheran Hour Choir with the St. Louis Symphony
• Brasil 88 Sergio Mendes
• Norwegian Songs Kirsten Flagstad and Gerald Moore
• Puts A Little Sax In Your Life Boots Randolph
• On Stage Eydie Gormé (I already have this album, but for fifty cents, I’ll buy a back up)
• Moonglow Artie Shaw and His Orchestra
• Eydie In Love Eydie Gormé (I also have this one, but the one I already have skips a bit)
• Albany Park Lani Hall (I have a couple of her CDs, but I’m glad to get her on LP outside of Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66)
• Radioland Nicolette Larson
• Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 Val Cliburn (I read something recently about how good of a pianist he is, so I thought I’d get one of his albums)
• Hit Parade International Tom Jones; this is an Italian greatest hits album with a book cover.
• TWB The Tim Wiseberg Band
• Das Lied der Berge; I am not sure if it’s the title or what as it’s completely in German
• A Very Good Year The Columbia Treasures Orchestra and Chorus. PWC.
• It’s Impossible Perry Como
• Wild Heart of the Young Karla Bonoff (PWC)
• My Favorite Brahms Van Cliburne (as it stands, I got two of his LPs)
• The Best of The Three Suns
• Together Again Tierra
• Song of Norway The Original Cast Album
• Bouquet of Love The Percy Faith Strings; there’s a lot of Perry Faith in the wild. I might as well see if I like it.
• Tiger Rag Jo Ann Castle and Her Wild Piano!
• Fool on the Hill Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66. I know I have this album cover, but I bought it a long time ago to discover it had a different SM&B66 album in it. I might have already bought another copy with the right platter. But I know I’ve got it now.
• Great Verdi Arias Anna Moffe
• Sandy Posey Sandy Posey
• Temptation Roger Williams; one finds a lot of Roger Williams available. For fifty cents, I’ll take a flier on an album with a Pretty Women on the Cover (PWC).
• April in Portugal Frankie Carle
• Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music Perry Como
• Alone Too Long Charly McClain
• I’m Jessi Colter Jessi Colter
• The Best of Perry Como Perry Como
• Joyous Music for Christmas Time Various
• J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Wanda Wandowska

Not purchased: A copy of Phoebe Snow’s debut album, which I bought in July at Relics for $7.99 and $1.99 as I bought two copies (remember, I had been looking for this album for a year and half at Relics after spotting an unpriced copy of it, so when I saw them this year, I bought both). I could have had it for fifty cents were I but patient! But you never know what you will find today or tomorrow while hunting, so it’s best to buy it when you see it if it’s not too expensive. Note that I did not buy a third copy; this isn’t Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights of which I have three or four copies. I’ve stopped buying all of them that I see as the early Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass albums–The Lonely Bull, Going Places, South of the Border, What Now My Love, and Whipped Cream and Other Delights are still fairly common at book sales. And they will be, undoubtedly, until I need to replace one.

So for $24, I got a bunch of Perry Como along with a lot of late 70s and early 80s pop, jazz, and country.

Did I get any books, you ask? I’ll answer tomorrow.

Unfortunately, two things:

1. Given that I do not spend as much time in my parlor or kitchen these days, it will take me a long time to listen to all these records;
2. I don’t actually have room for these in the record shelves that I made last year, so I’ll have to make another set of them sometime soon.

First world problems, I know. But if I don’t hoard, how will my children sell enough things for a quarter each at my estate sale to amount to anything?

Sign language interpreters at metal concerts.

Actually, I am in pretty good shape for a couple of reasons. One, I have not been to the gym lately, so I have not been listening to metal at max volume in earbuds much this year. Second, I don’t tend to go to actual metal concerts because in my youth, metal heads tended to give me the business, so I avoid them in large groups.

But still.

(Link via Neatorama.)

In 2018, I stopped at the Classic Rock Coffee location in Springfield for, well, coffee, and I took pictures of the album covers on the wall beside the booths where I sat. I then quizzed myself on which of the classic rock albums I owned (here and here). I scored 2 out of 16 (roughly 12.5%).

Whilst cleaning off the desk in the parlor, where I spin records and stack them as I play them, I found a paper inner sleeve from some LP that looks to be RCA Victor from roughly 1960. The kind that depicts other albums on the label you might be interested in. The sleeve itself contains sixteen records.

I’ll treat it as a quiz and bold the records I know I own:

• Cool Water by the Sons of the Pioneers. Actually, I have two copies of this album somewhere in the mixed-up record library. As I mentioned in 2012, my father used to play this album on Christmas for some reason. I got the second copy last year to double my chances of finding it on Christmas this year.
• Last Date by Floyd Cramer.
• Glenn Miller’s Original Recordings by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. I might have this one, actually; although it looks like a single record, I have a box set with a very similar cover. I think. Hard to say; the albums are packed in so tightly that it’s hard for me to find anything.
• Inspirational Songs by George Beverly Shea.
• Teen Scene by Chet Atkins.
• Souvenirs by Hank Snow.
• The Student Prince by Mario Lanza. I have a couple by Lanza, but not this one, and I probably won’t get it as I’ve not really gotten into operatic show tunes.
• My Favorite Chopin by Van Cliburn. I don’t think I have any of this pianist, but he’s not on my “nah” list. So maybe this September, if they actually do have the Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library Book Sale that they’re advertising, I will find some.
• Calypso by Harry Belafonte. Nah. Which often is only short for “Naht yet.”
• South Pacific. Nah. I am also not into non-operatic show tunes.
• Oliver!. Ditto.
• Honey in the Horn by Al Hirt. I have a lot of Al Hirt because my beautiful wife plays the trumpet, but I am not into Al Hirt qua Al Hirt because I’m not into the Dixieland sound. I don’t think I have this one.
• The Pink Panther by Henry Mancini. I have a lot of Mancini, too, but I don’t think I have this one. But if I see it, I will probably pick it up. Coincidentally, WSIE played “The Pink Panther Theme” by Mancini whilst I was scanning this record sleeve.
• Cattle Call by Eddy Arnold. You see a lot of Eddy Arnold about. I shall probably pick something by him up sometime.
• Songs I Love by Perry Como. I don’t think I have this one yet, but I like Perry Como, so if I see it, I will buy it.
• Miriam Makeba by Miriam Makeba. I bought this one last May.

So that, too, is 2 of 16 with a slight chance of more than that.

To be honest, part of me thinks it’s cooler that I have 13% of these RCA Victor titles from 1960 than the classic rock albums that a lot of people own (which is why they became “classic” albums).

Whenever I see these “also available” sleeves, I like to look to see what I might already have. I tend to do better on A&M Records, that is Herb Alpert’s label, than others because I have a lot of Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, Burt Bacharach, and even Claudine Longet.

Could the designer who put together this sleeve in 1950-something have ever guessed it would be an Internet listicle quiz seventy years later? I think not!

As I mentioned the other day, I pre-ordered the debut album by Damascus and got it on the first day it came out.

Damascus is the project of a guy I went to high school with who goes by Butch. I’m not sure if that’s his given name–it’s in the yearbook, so perhaps. He was one of the few long-haired kids who didn’t give me grief for being smart and bookish. Bullying, I think they call all of it now, although back in my day, bullying involved the threat of actual physical violence and not just making you feel bad because you didn’t smoke pot and didn’t like Iron Maiden (I’ve grown into the metal, as you know, gentle reader).

At any rate, I would be remiss in not sharing Butch’s current work with everyone who reads this blog, and by that I mean everyone searching for a viable book report on The Sire of Maletroit’s Door.

The whole album is cool, and it’s pretty long–17 songs including originals and covers of “Fade Into You” and “Nights In White Satin”. You can find the Web site with links to places you can buy it here. I initially tried on the iTunes store, but it crashed my PC iTunes, so I ended up buying it on Amazon discounting it with credits for slow delivery.

David Gilmour has a new song, “Yes, I Have Ghosts”:

He’s sounding a little more like Leonard Cohen these days, but not the older Leonard Cohen.

Of course, I hear parallels that aren’t there, so he probably does not.

He has long been my favorite member of Pink Floyd, and I was listening to his solo album About Face today, when I remembered he had this song out. So I got it for the cost of a couple of planned shipping delays from Amazon.