stuff we're listening to this week
the very best of jussi bjorling: bjorling (1911-1960) was a swedish operatic basso who my sweetie digs much. i was raised listening to this stuff and thought i had an aversion to it, but after _finally_ watching the vid of puccini's tosca that my old man gave her when we were in jersey last summer, i find i have not-bad memories of parts of the same composer's la boheme, mozart's die zauberflote, and wagner's die flieglende hollander that were not erased by having my pop 'n' his pals play my cream rekkids at 78 when they had a bag on. hell, if i was garrruuunnnk and had a cream rekkid and a turntable with 78 speed on it handy, i'd prolly do the same thing today. in a day and time when ray liberio goes to the symphony, anything is possible. es verdad.
petra haden sings the who sell out: charlie's girl arranges 'n' sings (on eight separate tracks) all the voxxx _and_ instruments from townshend's _real_ masterwork. these days i actually listen to this more than the 'riginal, which is one of my two or three fave rekkids on the planet.
pere ubu, ray gun suitcase: i totally missed this when it came out in '95, but to these feedback-scorched ears, it sounds every bit as good as the early stuff that made their rep. david thomas' weird career trajectory has kept faith with the ideals of the late-'60s/early-'70s underground that inspahrd him.
johnny cash at folsom prison: i wasn't familiar with the 'riginal alb, so i'm not put off (as i often am) by the extra shit they added to the pristine artifact for remastered ceedee release. i'd guess, however, that johnny's joke about needing a glass of water after "cocaine blues" and his remark about how "this is being recorded for an album on columbia records, so you can't say 'damn' or 'shit'" weren't on the 'riginal. talk about connecting with yr audience. pure, unvarnished, raw, ragged, right.
laura nyro, the first songs: back when i didn't like any music that didn't have loud electric gtrs, my big sis usedta drive me up the wall with this singer and joni mitchell. while i still like the _idea_ of joni mitchell better than i like most of her actual music, this '67 alb (and nyro's gonna take a miracle with labelle from '71, the yr i saw patti, nona, and sarah get booed offstage by racist noo yawk hipi scum when they opened for the 'oo at forest hills) is nothing but '60s northern soul music of the sort i grew up diggin' 'cos it was _in the air_ where i come from. and she even made a song ("buy and sell") that sounds like it was based on "flamenco sketches" from miles' kind of blue.
tom waits, orphans: too much of a good thing is never enough. while the "bawlers" disc remains the fave at mi casa, the "brawlers" one (with larry "mole" taylor on bass and marc ribot on gtr) is a great blues rekkid, like captain beefheart minus the obliqueness.
petra haden sings the who sell out: charlie's girl arranges 'n' sings (on eight separate tracks) all the voxxx _and_ instruments from townshend's _real_ masterwork. these days i actually listen to this more than the 'riginal, which is one of my two or three fave rekkids on the planet.
pere ubu, ray gun suitcase: i totally missed this when it came out in '95, but to these feedback-scorched ears, it sounds every bit as good as the early stuff that made their rep. david thomas' weird career trajectory has kept faith with the ideals of the late-'60s/early-'70s underground that inspahrd him.
johnny cash at folsom prison: i wasn't familiar with the 'riginal alb, so i'm not put off (as i often am) by the extra shit they added to the pristine artifact for remastered ceedee release. i'd guess, however, that johnny's joke about needing a glass of water after "cocaine blues" and his remark about how "this is being recorded for an album on columbia records, so you can't say 'damn' or 'shit'" weren't on the 'riginal. talk about connecting with yr audience. pure, unvarnished, raw, ragged, right.
laura nyro, the first songs: back when i didn't like any music that didn't have loud electric gtrs, my big sis usedta drive me up the wall with this singer and joni mitchell. while i still like the _idea_ of joni mitchell better than i like most of her actual music, this '67 alb (and nyro's gonna take a miracle with labelle from '71, the yr i saw patti, nona, and sarah get booed offstage by racist noo yawk hipi scum when they opened for the 'oo at forest hills) is nothing but '60s northern soul music of the sort i grew up diggin' 'cos it was _in the air_ where i come from. and she even made a song ("buy and sell") that sounds like it was based on "flamenco sketches" from miles' kind of blue.
tom waits, orphans: too much of a good thing is never enough. while the "bawlers" disc remains the fave at mi casa, the "brawlers" one (with larry "mole" taylor on bass and marc ribot on gtr) is a great blues rekkid, like captain beefheart minus the obliqueness.
posted by stashdauber at 5:29 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home