Back in the day before iTunes, zip cars and Janelle Monae, I had a wonderful routine when listening to records. It was a three part operation with no particular order for any particular day.
1. 45s, where I'd focus on just that, my singles, both A's & B's, quite often playing the same handful of faves along with some new additons.
2. Full Albums, which usually took place on a Tuesday or Saturday, the two days I'd go record shopping. It was much easier to focus on one or two albums back then, as that was all I could afford at one time and there were no other options. Saturday shopping was a bit different, as it would also include the trading in of some lemons, which put some ease on the wallet and afforded me a few extra used LPs.
3. The Mixtape, where I just wanted to listen to my favorites, new and old, and because it was so easy, would throw in a 90 minute Memorex Chromium Dioxide and record it all for posterity. Giving that new cassette a title was another favorite activity. (Found a mix from 1979 recently that I called "Janne Shlobovnik's Journey Through Minsk." I was damaged at an early age.)
Listening to music has changed. It's a discussion that we have often. With our iTunes libraries and iPods at our fingertips, our patience is non-existent. It's too easy to hit "NEXT" if something doesn't jive right away. I also find myself listening to something new once, deciding if it was good or bad, almost always never to return one way or the other, unless it's a record by a favorite artist. I think there's too much music out there. Some will argue that that is a good thing. I'm not some.
In the words of Marty DeBurgi, "Enough of my yakking."
This mix features songs that I seem to be going back to over and over, like the old mixtape days. I couldn't throw a cassette into my TEAC, so once I realized I was giving these tunes some heavy rotation, I jotted them down and put them all together in iTunes.
Some are new, like The Electric Soft Parade and the best Bruce Springsteen song of the month by Willie Nile.
Some are classics that for whatever reason, made their way into my wheelhouse like never before, like the Buffalo Springfield track and the NRBQ track. (Let me take this opportunity to say that I've listened to the first two Buffalo Springfield albums more in the last two weeks than I have in the last 40 years. Hard to find better records.)
A new discovery for me this year is Sutherland Bros. & Quiver. Having only been familiar with the hit single "I Don't Want To Love You (But You Got Me Anyway)," I decided to give the rest of their output a go, since I had acquired it all in a collection. I highly recommend listening to their first 5 LPs. Amazing songwriting, great playing. What a surprise!
The Taj Mahal track was written by New Orleans great Jon Cleary and is one of the most soulful and heartbreaking vocal performances ever delivered by Mr. Mahal.
The haunting Everly's track is not a Fogerty cover.
The rest? Well, they are here for a reason. I've played them all more than twice in the last week or so.
Good, good stuff.
Hope you dig these tracks as much I do.
OH...and that picture of the frog? I've looked at that 100 times in the last day, so it counts as "heavy rotation."
Enjoy!
Stay in trouble.
TRACKLIST
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago- The Yardbirds
Everybody's Falling In Love- World Party
Things Change- Dwight Yoakam
Hung Upside Down- Buffalo Springfield
A Girl Like That- NRBQ
If I Ever See The Light- Willie Nile
Fun On The Farm- Sutherland Bros. & Quiver
You & Your Sister- Chris Bell
21st Century Gypsy Singing Lover Man- Taj Mahal
The Dolphins- Fred Neil
Daddy Rollin' (In Your Arms)- Dion
Green River- Everly Brothers
Feel Older Now- Flo & Eddie
The Corner Of Highdown & Montefiore- Electric Soft Parade
zip
11 comments:
Thanks so much, Sal. Good summer weekend to you!
Iggy
"Hung Upside Down" is just amazing. Nice mix. My music habit was pretty similar, except I never had patience for 45's. It was bad enough turning over an lp.
I concur with your thought re: so much music. I've had this discussion with friends. When you were younger and didn't have the resources, you treasured each album. Played each new album incessantly as you studied the album jacket. A relationship developed. Now, with the ready abundance of available fresh tunes, something has to be instantly spectacular to have a chance. I love the internet. I'm able to listen to music I never knew existed (case in point, your blog) and I'm the better for it. But, that Desert Island Top Ten - the albums that I listen to almost monthly: those are all from back in the day.
As always, thanks for the mix. Enjoy the weekend!
I recently found in my attic a mixtape labeled "Christine's Greatest Hits" from the early 80's. Good stuff! I agree there is too much music out there, at least for me--it's overwhelming. Great post! Always enjoy your writing and your stories.
I wouldn't say there's "too much music". I would say there's too much "bad" music, and it tends to get in the way of the good stuff.
I miss the old album days, too. Back in the '70's, buying a new album was an event for me and my friends. We would sit around the living room, get stoned, and put it on, and then pass around the album cover and ooh and ahh over it. The album covers were occasionally a work of art, and an important part of the experience. And you truly devoted yourself to that album for at least a couple of weeks.
I miss all of that. It was such a communal experience.
Nice frog
I like the reference to mixtapes. I spent sooooooo many happy hours making them. Probably made about 3,000+ in my time, many given away to others. Still about 500 here, the best ones that I still play pretty often.
And thanks for the mix!
Thanks Sal
Nice mix makes the weekend that much more enjoyable
Regards
Rhod
Wow, that The Corner Of Highdown & Montefiore- Electric Soft Parade song was.... AWESOME. Thanks for sharing!
Sal, glad you found SB&Q. Reach for the Sky was the house album at WOXR in Oxford OH in the 70's, and that's how I discovered them. Their guitarist, Tim Renwick, was the guy who supplied all the tasty leads to Al Stewart's early albums.
Funny - my first thought on your listening habits was "Wow, I used to drink like that!" Still hard for me to grasp or relate to the fact that the album as a listening unit just does not exist. Never mind, for now, the longwinded, foolhardy debate/conversation about side one versus side two. (Was it one of the Winter brothers who put out a three sided double album? “We couldn’t give you more and we didn’t want to give you less”[?])Cool mix, they all are, but this one is the first to be upstaged by the photo image!
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