I don’t always catch Drew Carey’s SiriusXM show, but whenever I do it’s always fun. This is the tune he opened with tonight. It sure does nail down that 60’s sound we love.
Category: Music
Love Me Do-lby
In 1982 I bought a British import 12-inch 45 reissue of the Beatles’ first Parlophone single, “Love Me Do.” Side 1 has the take with Andy White on drums. It was mastered from the original tape, and to me it sounds fab and gear.
Side 2 is the take with Ringo on drums, and it was mastered by necessity from a 1962 Parlophone 45. Compared to the first side it sounds like you’re playing it on speakers while wearing headphones that aren’t plugged in. It’s all explained here, in exhaustively delightful detail. Or is it delightfully exhaustive detail?
French Fever Dream
This is currently my favorite performance of my favorite symphony, the “Symphony Fantastique” by Hector Berlioz.
Barber Shop
I first heard Chris Barber’s recording of Sidney Bechet’s “Petite Fleur” about 40 years ago on a favorite LP of mine, “Roots of British Rock.”
Hugh Laurie, who I know from “Blackadder,” but you may know from “House,” talks about, and with, Chris Barber.
This is a little Paul McCartney ditty…
… that Barber recorded. It’s on another favorite LP.
Time-Out
I like the way this song…
… is used in this movie.
I’m sure glad OUATIH came out when it did.
It’s a Platter of Fact
Before records became a popular music medium again, good used turntables were cheap. This durable Pioneer PL-112D, for example, was an impulse purchase I made a long time ago.
Because it’s endlessly fun to futz with audio gear, I bought a new belt for the PL-112D and pulled it out of storage.
This latest exercise in retirement time wasting was done to see if increasing the tracking force of a Grado cartridge from the fixed P-mount setting of 1.25 grams to ~1.70 improves tracking.
Well, whaddaya know? It works. The distinctly annoying sibilance in George’s vocal on “Within You, Without You” is gone from my 1970’s British Parlophone pressing of Sgt. Pepper.