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“Vinyl” – documentary by Alan Zweig

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I only just found out about this documentary – “Vinyl” by someone called Alan Zweig (I don’t really know anything about him). I’m part way through watching it and it’s really good.

Basically, he seems to be just interviewing vinyl collectors and probing them a bit on their psychology and motivations. It seems to be getting into the area of where obsessive collecting overlaps with mental health. It’s from 2000 so before vinyl became trendy again.

Alan Zweig talks to camera about his own vinyl addiction quite a bit. At one point he says something really interesting, that he used to have a big Curtis Mayfield collection and he purged it when he got into CDs. But for one particular album, he’s never got over the loss of the vinyl copy – “I regret it every day since”! He has the CD, but “although it eases the pain somewhat… in fact makes it worse…”

Strong words! But I can relate to that. There is something compelling (maybe dangerously so) about the attachment you can feel to vinyl. I can’t imagine ever selling ANY of my records, even stupid ones I have picked up in charity bins. I suspect I am » Continue Reading.

On Track… Mike Oldfield – Every Album, Every Song

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Author:Ryan Yard

I rather like the “On Track” series. They are books which unpretentiously do what they say on the tin: “every album, every song”. So they act as a reference guide to an artist you want to explore, or just a nice little readable celebration of an artist you are a fan of already.

With this latest entry on Mike Oldfield, author and musician Ryan Yard has filled a neat gap in the market. There hasn’t really been a decent book of this type on Oldfield, which is surprising given his rabid fan base. (Richard Newman’s “Making of Tubular Bells” is authoritative, but is restricted to that one ubiquitous album).

“On Track: Mike Oldfield” is scholarly and diligent, which suits the insular nature of much of Oldfield’s music. You could perhaps read this side by side with Oldfield’s autobiography – where that book lacks musical detail and analysis, this fills the gaps nicely.

There is a good deal of academic dissection and musical nitty gritty (the author knows his cadences from his leitmotifs, and has the glossary to prove it) which might be off-putting to the casual fan, but how else do you write about music that is mainly » Continue Reading.

Tenet *MILD SPOILERS*

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Year: 2020 Director: Christopher Nolan

* Mild Spoilers *

If you are like me and you like to see a new Christopher Nolan film totally cold without knowing anything about it, then please don’t read on if you haven’t seen this yet! I won’t spoil the plot as such but I will go into a bit of detail about the overall themes and some of the action.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The first thing to say is that anyone who watches this and says they understand it all the first time is just lying. I don’t care who you are. This film just isn’t made to be understood on first viewing.

That might annoy you, and if it does then you might want to avoid this. But there’s actually plenty to enjoy even if you can’t get your head round it.

I heard that Christopher Nolan didn’t want to make a Bond film, but wanted to make a film that makes you feel like you felt watching the Bond films for the first time. Crucial difference. I think in that he has succeeded. I remember at the age of 10, » Continue Reading.

Brian Eno’s “ambient” speaker system

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Has anyone hear ever used Brian Eno’s “ambient” speaker system?

For those who haven’t heard of this, Eno had a little blurb on the back of his 1982 LP Ambient 4: On Land. He explained that it was a cheap alternative for people who were unable to source or fund a proper “quad” system (the old version of surround sound basically – four speakers with music mixed specially to use all four). For the Eno method see attached link – you basically just attach a third speaker to the positive terminals of your amp, arrange the the “triangle” of speakers around the room, and the sound magically seems to fill the space.

Anyway, with the ubiquity of 5.1 surround mixes these days, I was recently shopping around to possibly dip my two into this, but I was quickly put off by the price and the complexity… (what’s the difference between Dolby NTS and Dolby Digital? Who knows or cares?)…. There was a thread on here recently about surround systems as well, that got me interested.

So, I had a perfectly good hi fi and a spare pair of Mission speakers lying about, so I thought before I delve further into » Continue Reading.

The antiquated technology of the Boeing 747

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Something I just learned.

Apparently, Boeing 747s still use floppy disks to get software updates! Engineers have to update the software in the cockpit every few weeks, and the technology has never been upgraded.

You know what? It actually makes me feel a bit happier. I love old workhorse technology that still works. Can you imagine the problems if it was done wirelessly instead? “Sorry, your flight has been delayed as our wifi is down at the moment”, or “Sorry, your flight has been cancelled due to a virus”.

“There will be an 8 hour delay while we upgrade the cockpit software with the latest Apple download”….

https://gizmodo.com/boeing-747s-still-use-floppy-disks-to-get-critical-soft-1844683811?utm_campaign=Gizmodo&utm_content=&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3nxs_WbTfdeDNsxnAbRan0E97wV95qcMT–yJhNOj8T9793-X379ksghs

Are You Experienced vs Axis:Bold As Love – The Son of the Return of the LP vs LP face off!!!!

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Having given my brutally honest opinions on the Stones and the Beatles in my LP face off battles over the last couple of days, I thought I would tackle another sacred cow today – Mr Hendrix.

I answer to no-one in my adoration of the man. Yet, I tend to listen to individual songs more than the albums. And (like the Stones and Beatles albums I have spoken about) I tend to get mixed up with the Experience’s first two albums, which tracks are on each. So in what is now a time honoured tradition, let’s listen through and I’ll rate each song as I hear it!

A ground rule/disclaimer first. Hendrix is just the best electric guitarist out there. Certainly from ’66 to ’68 he was anyway. Every guitar note played on each of these two albums just drips style and soul. So let’s just assume that as an accepted truth – I won’t comment too much on his guitar playing except where appropriate. Just recognise that the standards I judge him on are different to your average 60s pop guitarist.

Plus I consider The Experience to be a superior power trio than Cream. Probably not a popular opinion, » Continue Reading.

Please Please Me vs With The Beatles – the return of the LP vs LP face off

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Since I enjoyed doing my Stones thread so much yesterday, and it struck just the right amount of nodding agreement and violent disagreement in the Afterword massive, I’m going to do the same thing today (and possibly until the end of the week… or until I get fed up….).

So, again another A List act, and another two LPs I don’t really often listen to from start to end… and which I get mixed up which tracks are on which…

It’s the Beatles! And it’s Please Please Me vs With The Beatles!!!

Once again, tracks marked * are the Good Ones – the ones I would choose to listen to outside the context of the album. And I’ll rate each track out of ten as I listen.

Here we go!

Please Please Me (1963) ———————– A1 – * I Saw Her Standing There – Ah, 1, 2, 3, 4!! 10/10 A2 – * Misery – What a tune… and what harmonies 8/10 A3 – * Anna (Go With Him) – A fabulous Lennon vocal and blistering middle eight rescue this from schmaltziness – 8/10 A4 – * Chains – I have a real soft spot for this one. I think » Continue Reading.

Beggars Banquet vs Let it Bleed

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Just because I felt like it, today I thought I would sort out my perennial dilemma over what Stones album is better – Beggars Banquet or Let it Bleed? To be honest, I prefer Exile and Sticky Fingers, and I am much more likely to listen to either of them all the way through. There are individual tracks on Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed that are the best the Stones ever got, but I get mixed up which tracks are on which, so I’m never sure which of the two is the better album.

So, for no reason at all other than that we all secretly love listing and rating music, here is the result of my track-by-track listen through… Hopefully my scoring system is self-explanatory….

(* = the Good Tracks. Basically, the tracks I would listen to outside the context of the album)

Beggars Banquet (1968) ———————- A1 – * Sympathy for the Devil – Unbeatable 10/10 A2 – * No Expectations – Solid 8/10 A3 – Dear Doctor – Poor, comedy song 2/10 A4 – Parachute Woman – Unremarkable light-hearted blues 3/10 A5 – * Jigsaw Puzzle – Brooding, effortlessly evil and deliciously on the verge of » Continue Reading.

Tom Service – “The Listening Service” podcast

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Just want to give a shout out to this excellent podcast series I recently discovered. I had never heard of it before.

It’s from a BBC Radio 3 show, but the archive is on Spotify and BBC Sounds. Basically, it is a guy called Tom Service who each week talks about a different aspect of classical music. I’d never heard of him before this. Hard to explain why it is so good, but Tom is just a really erudite and engaging host, totally unpretentious and really enthusiastic about the music he talks about. He neither alienates the newcomer, nor patronises the music buff. The shows are brisk and well edited, just half an hour or so each. Perfect for walking the dog.

Some example subjects have been things like what a conductor actually does, or the power of slow music, or why different versions of the same piece sound so different.

He sometimes wanders slightly outside classical music too. The episode on prog rock was really good, with an enthusiastic appraisal of Supper’s Ready. (That episode contains extensive Rick Wakeman though, which might not be to your taste….)

Anyway, I know many people on here are always on the lookout » Continue Reading.

Back To The Future is surely the most perfect film of all time

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It just struck me today when I read a comment somewhere that we are now further away in time from Marty McFly’s 1985 (35 years) than he was from the distant 1955 he travelled back to (30 years).

Which led me to ponder Back To The Future and how good it is. I saw it when I was 12 and it came out in the cinema, and even then I could sense it was something special. It has remained a firm favourite ever since. From a technical standpoint, it is an absolute tour de force, and (as many have pointed out) there is not one once of fat on the script at all. Every scene drips with meaning and later relevance, and the whole plot fits together like clockwork. The humour and sense of joy bursts out of every scene. The opening (wordless) panning shot is a masterclass in setting up all a set of plot strands and setting the tone (a schoolboy with a guitar, a machine for feeding a dog, the missing plutonium, the ticking clocks, the mad scientist….).

It hasn’t even dated like many other 80s movies, with an incomparable orchestral soundtrack and very little 80s sleaziness » Continue Reading.

Ian Holm RIP

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What a shame. Ian Holm has died.

I knew him best from Terry Gilliam’s films Brazil and Time Bandits, but he was one of those guys who popped up in everything.

Actually, the first time I heard of him was when he played Frodo in the BBC radio dramatisation of Lord of the Rings from 1978. I remember thinking what a coincidence it was that he went on to play Bilbo, Frodo’s uncle, in the films.

88 is no age for a hobbit.

Publishing question – Do I need permission to use direct quotes in a music biography?

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I’m just curious about this. I’m toying with the (long term, still very speculative) idea of trying to write a biography of a particular musician who has been rather under-served on the biographical front.

I have no experience in this and I just want to keep myself right. Am I allowed to use direct quotes from previously published interviews and biographies etc? Are these in the public domain? Or do I need permission from the interviewees themselves to quote their words?

I’ve tried googling this but I can’t seem to find any relevant info. I know there are some proper writers on here so thought it was worth asking!

Beck’s Bolero

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I’m probably preaching to the converted (or the indifferent) here, but for no reason at all I just want to shine a spotlight on the magnificent and timeless rock instrumental Beck’s Bolero. You never know, maybe someone here has never heard it before.

I’ll never tire of it. It’s an astonishing piece that bottles up the future sound of hard rock into a packed three minutes, and it swings like crazy. The lineup is just crazy. Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page not enough for you? Well, this also has Keith Moon, Nicky Hopkins AND John Paul Jones. They could have called themselves “The Cream” if that name wasn’t already taken….

I was amazed it was on Beck’s 1968 LP because it sounded so ahead of its time. Then what’s even more amazing is to find it actually came out as a b side in 1967. Then what’s even MORE amazing is to find it was recorded in 1966!!!

Favourite bit? Keith Moon’s scream just before the rave-up section.

Well, lucky me! Has anyone else recently had an email from Mark Zuckerberg?

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(I’ve deleted the links from the email)

“My name is Mark Zuckerberg,A philanthropist the founder and CEO of the social-networking website Facebook,as well as one of the world’s youngest billionaires and Chairman of the Mark Zuckerberg Charitable Foundation, One of the largest private foundations in the world. I believe strongly in‘giving while living’ I had one idea that never changed in my mind – that you should use your wealth to help people and i have decided to secretly give {$1,500,000.00} to randomly selected individuals worldwide. On the receipt of this email, you should count yourself as the lucky individual. Your email address was chosen online while searching at random.Kindly get back to me at your earliest convenience,so I know your email address is valid(*********) Email me. Visit the web page to know more about me: ********

Regards, MARK ZUCKERBERG”

Tony Slattery documentary on BBC iPlayer

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What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery? (BBC, 2020)

I missed this when it was on the telly, but I caught up with it when browsing iPlayer last night. I would highly recommend it. It’s a brilliant and honest portrayal of addiction and mental health. It follows former comedian Tony Slattery trying to work out and solve the root of his depression and alcoholism.

It does blindside you a little, so I would definitely recommend watching right to the end. About halfway through, I was worried it was building towards a conclusion that was too pat, too neat. It seemed to be implying that once Tony “achieves” a diagnosis of bipolarism (like a badge) that would unlock the route to recovery. This is underlined when Stephen Fry makes an appearance and talks about his own condition (no offence meant to Stephen Fry, but I think he sometimes oversimplifies the complexities of depression). I won’t spoil what actually happens in the end, but the real conclusion eschews tidiness and easy answers.

Whatever you think of Tony Slattery as a comedian (if you can even remember him), you would need to have a heart of stone not to warm to him during this » Continue Reading.

Is this guy wrong about the Covid-19 lockdown?

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This article caught my eye, and it seems to go against the conventional wisdom that the lockdown was necessary and a good thing. I’m wary of giving traffic to someone that might just be a crank (and I’ve never heard of the guy or this website), but I have to confess I found the article quite persuasive. I invite the sharp intellect of the Afterword collective to find the holes in it, if there are any!

https://thecritic.co.uk/were-all-in-the-big-numbers-now/

Purgatory

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Time for another Coronavirus update?

How are people doing?

Where I am (Ayrshire, Scotland) I can sense a real frustration with the ongoing lockdown. People are starting to really bend the rules and spending a lot of time outdoors (especially with the hot weather we had at the weekend there). Supermarkets now seem to be only showing lip service to distancing rules, with people flouting it quite a lot.

It’s understandable. Here the virus is a lot more invisible than in the big cities. People might know someone who knows someone who had it, but generally the virus itself hasn’t surfaced quite as dramatically as it was thought it might. Hospitals are coping and there are enough beds. I think that makes it harder – the success of social distancing is invisible and hard to quantify, which doesn’t really motivate people to stay indoors and keep up the isolation.

So yes, it feels like purgatory. The figures and official reports are starting to seem routine and meaningless. We’re getting used to seeing lines go up on graphs and it is hard to equate that to reality. I think fatigue will now start to kick in with a vengeance, so who » Continue Reading.

Virtual pub quiz?

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This is just a thought, and I am IN NO WAY suggesting I take responsibility for organising this, but is there any way we can set up a virtual pub quiz on here? I mean, with everyone skyping in (or Zooming or whatever) so it feels as if we are all sitting in a pub.

There must be a way to do it? If any bright spark with time on their hands was willing to set this up, I’d certainly join in.

Why can’t we all just go about in giant hamster balls?

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I had a chuckle at this news story about a woman who went shopping yesterday in a big plastic ball.

But then I started to think: Isn’t there something in this….? Why couldn’t we all just be going around and about our business in giant hamster balls or (to be slightly less silly) cheap protective suits and masks, instead of being cooped up at home?

It’s the kind of lateral thinking I’m surprised hasn’t been mooted by Dominic Cummings yet. Or maybe it has.

https://www.kentlive.news/news/gallery/kent-coronavirus-herne-bay-woman-3980237

The Avalanches are (maybe) back….

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In case you hadn’t noticed, and as the Afterword’s resident Avalanches fanboy, I should point out that those Australian sampleheads The Avalanches have been putting up strange billboards and cryptic web sites. It appears they may have new music coming out soon and it appears it might be an album called We Will Always Love You.

Their third album in twenty years!

https://www.stereogum.com/2073268/the-avalanches-new-music-teaser/news/