My idea of the perfect way to be stuck at home during the virus crisis. 😉
Category: Music
Take a Sad Film and Make it Better
Ah, 1968. A unique, transitional year in popular music, with some of the best-ever Adult Contemporary records.
Like this one…
… and this one, from later that year.
To me, the piano opening of the second song seems to owe something to the start of the first song. Also, take notice of the picture quality of the Beatles video. England’s PAL television system had significantly better detail than America’s NTSC system.
The big Beatles news today is that Peter Jackson’s re-imagined and extended cut of ‘Let It Be’ will be out later this year, and it’s rumored to have a more balanced and happier view of the band in its final year. The announcement coming from Disney has me recalling the early Beatles song ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’, that John Lennon said was inspired by a line in Walt Disney’s first cartoon feature, ‘Snow White’.
Just announced: Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” documentary, featuring never-before-seen footage of the legendary band, comes to theaters September 4, 2020. Photo Credit: ©1969 Paul McCartney / Photographer: Linda McCartney pic.twitter.com/X6nrsmtIlL
— Disney (@Disney) March 11, 2020
Honey Never Gets Old
It’s true that honey lasts indefinitely, and that’s certainly true for Herb Alpert’s timeless recording of ‘A Taste of Honey’, recorded 55 years ago today, at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles.
Fake Out
From that most glorious period of recorded music, 1967-’68.
In stereo…
… and in mono.
The same recording, different mixes, both superbly realized, each one with its own unique sound. The ending seems to owe something to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. “I buried Paul…Simon.” 😉
Their Babes
‘My Babe’, written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter, 1955.
‘My Babe’, written by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, the Righteous Brothers, 1963.
Got Dem Old Audio Blues
When the Robert Johnson CD set came out in 1990 I bought it immediately for myself, but then promptly gave the set to my best buddy. Why? Because the sound was awful, and I knew it wouldn’t matter to him as much as it did to me.
I wasn’t expecting miracles from those old records, but it was apparent to me that the engineers did an unforgivably lousy job. The proof is heard in the remastered 2011 Centennial Collection, and it takes only a few seconds to hear the difference.