I made my pilgrimage to see Dylan last night, at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. I call it a pilgrimage because first, I am in awe of the man, and second, my expectations in terms of entertainment are modest. He does gruff these days – very gruff. That’s how it is, and you have [...]
I am going to write about my life as a music fan, for no other reason than that I want to. The story starts in late 1963. I was 4, nearly 5. We lived in a big old farmhouse in Cheshire in north-west England; there was not a record player in the house. There was, [...]
If you have the tiniest shred of affection for old-fashioned vinyl records, you have to love the 12″ singles created by New Order in the 80s. They have Peter Saville’s beautiful, minimalist designs, they sound superb, and the songs themselves still pack a punch. Yesterday I played Blue Monday followed by both versions of Ceremony … [...]
Andrew Turnbull has done a nicely illustrated post on why today’s CDs often sound worse than those from 15 years ago. The problem is that most pop/rock CDs are engineered to sound loud at the expense of the natural dynamics of the music. The hi-fi industry has wasted an enormous amount of effort on DVDA [...]
I’ve just come across the Rickie Lee Jones MP3 store. Rickie Lee Jones is the singer/songwriter who brought us the sexy, sublime Chuck E’s in Love back in 1979. Now she’s the biggest artist on sale at Great Big Island, where you can buy both CDs and MP3s. The percentages are not stated, but it seems that [...]
I feel another list coming on. This is for songs that have a quality of completeness, such that it is hard to imagine how they could be improved. The Cranberries – Linger. Best in the studio version as Dolores O’Riordan can’t resist getting the audience to sing along in concert. Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling [...]
Everyone loves lists, apparently. So here goes. By the way, I don’t believe in top ten lists. Subjective, subjective, subjective, plus dependent on which way the wind is blowing. And yes, they are of a certain era. Feel free to ignore this post. Quadrophenia by The Who There’s something about going down to Brighton and railing [...]
From time to time I get an urge to revisit past musical pleasures. The other day it was Emerson Lake and Palmer, and I dug out Brain Salad Surgery, the eponymous first album, and the sprawling live affair Welcome Back my Friends. I can’t make up my mind about this band. It seems to be [...]
Back when I was at school, we all despised compilations. Thing is, they have no artistic integrity. Artists make albums, record companies make compilations. It seems we lost the argument. When I search for an artist on Amazon and sort by bestselling, all the top choices seem to be compilations. Despite myself, I buy ’em. It’s got all my favourites [...]
Way back when, Island Records had a sampler LP called Nice Enough to Eat. There was a song on it called At the Crossroads, written by Doug Sahm and performed by a band called Mott the Hoople. I liked its yearning, dylanesque sound and later picked up the album of the same name. I’ve had a [...]