Renewing my interest in music

I've posted on music a bunch in the past several weeks and thought I'd expound a bit on why.

I have listened to music for most of my life.  First record I ever bought was Trooper's Thick as Thieves (which I still like, by the way).  At one point I had about 400 records, then CDs came along.  At one point I had about 500 CDs, having disposed of most of the records (I kept about a 100, mostly rare and import pressing stuff).  Then mp3 came along.  I have about 13,000 songs on my iTunes.  Much of it I bought, much of it I downloaded as I got into Grateful Dead bootlegs for a while and expanded into bootlegs of other bands that I enjoyed.

Aside: You can check out my bootleg collection at etree.  If you want anything, let me know and I'll burn a copy and send it to you.  http://db.etree.org/heresolong . I may post a bit more about bootlegs another time now that I'm thinking about it.  It is an interesting concept and an interesting community.

What I did discover over the past many years is that music has become background, rather than an activity in and of itself.  I put music on when I am running, working, mowing the lawn, cooking, etc, but I don't really listen and I definitely don't spend much time with music as the primary activity.

Enter Political Beats.  PB is a podcast, put on by political writers through National Review Online, that is devoted to music and doesn't discuss politics.  The two hosts invite another political writer and the three talk about a band.  The third writer is chosen for their love of the chosen band.  The results are a bit hit and miss (the gal who talked about Dire Straits didn't have much to contribute other than how much she loved DS, whereas Charlie Cooke, who talked about the Beatles, was clearly a font of Beatles knowledge.  I learned little from the former and much from the latter).

I started with the Electric Light Orchestra because it was there.  I then jumped to The Beatles because I enjoy listening to Cooke.  Not only does he have a British accent (making him sound much smarter) but he has a command of the English language that is impressive.  He uses words in ways that I know are correct, that impart much more meaning than the more common alternative phrases, and that tickle my fancy as someone who thoroughly enjoys language.  I also happen to like the Beatles.  I was amazed at the amount of information that I didn't know.  I knew, for example, that Paul had broken up the band as this was common knowledge growing up in the early seventies when I was just old enough to start following popular culture.  I also knew that Yoko had broken up the band, as there were jokes about it circulating around.  I didn't actually know which of these was true.  (Yoko).  I also heard Beatles songs played and discussed that I had never heard before.  How on earth someone could be in their sixth decade, a fan of rock and roll, and not have heard some Beatles songs?  Well, American releases (which I grew up with in Canada) versus original British releases (which I had never heard).  Two of the four Beatles albums still in my record collection (Revolver and Abbey Road) were the EMI versions and missing songs.  I bought the whole Beatles discography on CD (stereo and mono since I tend to go a little overboard), as well as new copies of Revolver and Abbey Road on vinyl, and am thoroughly enjoying them.

Since then I've bought a new stereo amplifier (Denon) to allow me to hook up my old turntable (Fisher direct drive), new Klipsch center and subwoofer speakers to allow me to listen to a better sound.  I've built a record washer (stay tuned for details and pictures) in order to get a better listening experience from my old records.  I've also listened to four more PB podcasts, carefully selected to jibe with what I knew or thought I knew about my musical tastes.

In order:

Electric Light Orchestra
The Beatles
Dire Straits
The Monkees
Pink Floyd

Steely Dan is in the queue and we will have to see what comes out in the future.  Lots of bands I don't care about or haven't heard about are featured and a fair number of bands that I've listened to but never really went crazy on.

Meanwhile, however, I have bought a dozen or so new vinyl albums and spent some time sitting and listening.  The act of putting a record on the turntable, cleaning off the dust with a high quality and original Parastat record cleaner, and then just listening has been thoroughly fun.  Once again, I'm enjoying just listening rather than having music on as a background distraction.  I do, of course, still have it on in the background, I've maybe just become a little more discerning.

Vinyl Memories

Not Clauswitz posted about heading out to look at (purchase?) an old receiver, high quality sound, the kind he couldn't afford back in the day.

Made me start thinking about vinyl records and this is the comment I posted.  Thought you might enjoy it so copied it over here.


I still have a box full of vinyl.  I can barely lift it and half of them are warped due to being in the box for so long.  It is also, not coincidentally, a box full of memories of my teen years, so there it sits.

Fisher direct drive turntable sits in a box nearby.  Occasionally I set it all up, play some records, marvel at the full, rich sound, then pack it all away again when I realize that it's been two months since I played a record.

So much easier, if less fulfilling, to plug the iPod into the surround sound and listen to one of the eight or nine hundred albums stored there.  No cleaning off the dust first, no flipping the record mid-play, no scratching or warping.

I do miss (in a "those were the days but I really don't want to go back" way) taking a record out of its sleeve and sitting and listening to it, scratches and all.

To this day I still can't listen to Trooper's Two for the Show without expecting there to be a little skip midway through the title song.  That skip is embedded in my central nervous system.

Vinyl recollections

Was going through some stuff that I haven't sorted through in years, gradually getting rid of things.  Found a full box of records.  Yup.  Vinyl.  LPs (plus some EPs for my more pedantic reades).  Thought it might be fun to take a listen but haven't had a turntable set up in years.  Dug some more and found my Fisher direct drive turntable, pulled my old amp out of the garage, along with a set of Boston Acoustic speakers I bought a few years ago for a different system and set it up in my living room.

Here's what I've found so far in the box (links take you to a sample song from the album I was listening too just in case you wanted a reminder or to check out a previously unheard band).  You'll notice there's a fair amount of New Wave.  I have always listened to just about everything and this was no exception.

Kate Bush Japanese import pressing of Never For Ever (Delius)
Mental As Anything (Australian band that I had completely forgotten about) (Spanish Gardener)
Fischer Z (also forgotten, but well worth listening to again) (Song and Dance Brigade)
Tears for Fears remix EPs of various songs (Mad World video)
The Doors Probably didn't need a link for this band, but WTH.  Here you go anyway. (Five to One - turn this one waaaayyy up)
Trooper (every single album including the first album I ever bought, Thick As Thieves) (Two for the Show)

Add ons:

The Swingers - a short lived New Zealand group. Their big hit (Counting the Beat)

and I'm only about a third of the way through the box.  I have to say the sound is rich and full.  A bit inconvenient which reminds me of why we switched to CD, but I really think the sound is better.  I'll have to hook up a CD player to the amp and do a side by side one of these days.