Category: Music

Thankful for Rewound Radio

Thanks to Mr. D.F. Rogers, I have Joel Whitburn Presents: Across The Charts The 1960s, and it’s the perfect companion for what Rewound Radio — by far the best oldies station on the Net — is doing this Thanksgiving weekend.

The All 60’s/No Repeat Weekend starts tomorrow morning (Thanksgiving Day) at 6AM (Eastern) and runs continuously until Sunday at 11PM on Rewound Radio. All 60’s songs with each song playing just one time.

Thanks for so many suggestions! We found almost all of them and they’re included. Rewound Radio really does play what you ask for!

We just ran the shuffle program tonight (we wanted to get as many of your songs in as possible). What a list! There are no rules other than no repeats. So, for example, you’ll hear things like Jimmy Gilmore’s “Sugar Shack” segueing into The Doors “Runnin’ Blue”. Totally unpredictable–and fun all Thanksgiving Weekend 🙂

As each song comes on I’m flipping to its entry in the book. Rewound Radio is playing *everything* from the 1960’s, and for many singles having the artist and song title is essential. Their “Instant On!” player, a great little Flash app, doesn’t do that, so I’m using Logitech’s excellent, but sadly now-discontinued, Squeezebox system.

The Whitburn book tells me that Thank U Very Much — a good song for Thanksgiving — is by The Scaffold and features Mike McGear, who is Paul McCartney’s brother. The song debuted February 10, 1968 on the Billboard hit chart, stayed for five weeks, and peaked at #68. Another option for listening to Rewound Radio and seeing the track information is to click on their PLS (Playlist) link and have the Real Player installed. Smartphone users are on their own, because I’m a confirmed clamshell guy.

Carol is making Thanksgiving dinner, and my sister’s family is coming over later. If they don’t want oldies with their meal I guess I’ll have to eat on the porch.

When I was washing dishes…

Out of nowhere, a song from high school, that I used to hear on WBCN in Boston, popped into my mind. This song.

I liked the lyric “I quit my job, ain’t got no money,” because I’d just started working at my first part-time job, washing dishes for $1.60/hour. Many times I’d work a Friday night from 4-10, then go back in Saturday morning at 8 and work until 10 that night. A sixteen-year-old kid working a 14-hour day, 20 hours out of 30. That couldn’t have been legal, even forty years ago. Back then I thought Savoy Brown was a Southern band, like the Allman Brothers, but they’re British.

Groovy Beatles

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/Beatles/BeatlesVinyl.flv 512 285]

Today’s second official Beatles announcement!

Beginning November 19 and continuing into December, high-end audio retailers in several U.S. cities will host listening events for The Beatles’ stereo vinyl remasters. Each retailer will present the new Beatles vinyl on completely hand-made British hifi systems, with demonstrations of audible improvements in the new vinyl on a variety of turntables and associated equipment. A guest speaker will also accompany the events. Confirmed locations include:

San Francisco: 7pm, Monday, Nov. 19 AUDIO VISION SF (1603 Pine St., San Francisco, CA 94109)
Los Angeles: 5pm, Tuesday, Nov. 20 AHEAD STEREO (7428 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Atlanta: 7pm, Monday, Nov. 26 AUDIO ALTERNATIVE (895 Indian Trail Rd., Ste. 15, Lilburn, GA 30047)
Dallas: 6pm, Tuesday, Nov. 27 AUDIO CONCEPTS (11661 Preston Rd., Ste. 280, Dallas, TX 75230)
Austin: 7pm, Wednesday, Nov. 28 WHETSTONE AUDIO (2401 East 6th St., #1001, Austin, TX 78702)
Chicago: 6pm, Monday, Dec. 3 PRO MUSICA (2236 North Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614)
Boston: 6pm, Tuesday, Dec. 4 GOODWIN’S HIGH END (899 Main St., Waltham, MA 02451)
New York: 7pm, Wednesday, Dec. 5 IN LIVING STEREO (2 Great Jones St., New York, NY 10012)
Philadelphia: 7pm, Thursday, Dec. 6 COMMUNITY AUDIO (8020 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118)
Washington, DC: 6pm, Friday, Dec. 7 IQ HOME ENTERTAINMENT (10890 Fairfax Blvd., Fairfax, VA 22030)

I will not be buying the new vinyl pressings of the Beatles’ catalog, but I may attend the presentation at Goodwin’s in Waltham, outside of Boston. Although the stereo USB Apple is my ultimate dream format, it will be interesting to see if this new box set undercuts the going rate on eBay for the 1982 Beatles LP box set from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. I have several of the individual MFSL titles, and they suffer from an annoying 60 Hz hum that sounds like it came from a grounding problem in the Ortofon cutting head. This is the only flaw in an otherwise sterling presentation. The 24-bit FLAC copies are, of course, completely free of hum, hiss, snap, crackle, or pop of any sort that isn’t on the original recordings. The splices in She Loves You have always bugged me, for example, and I’m not fond of the fake stereo used in I Am the Walrus.