A mix CD that led to marriage, a radio station’s lost Stones LP, and other vinyl fates.
Dr. Dog - Easy Beat (Rough Trade – RTRADLP 258, 2005 🇬🇧)
I paid too much for it and it’s not a great pressing by any stretch of the imagination, but I simply had to add it to the library. I had to do this because “Easy Beat” reminds me all day and night of the first mix CD I made for my wife right after we first met. Of course, I ripped the music for that mix from a promo CD that has since disappeared, but a number of mystical elements contained in the lyrics in “The World May Never Know” struck me as particularly prescient during a rainy, snowy and terribly cold New England winter week in Providence, Rhode Island. My wife must have agreed - otherwise - she wouldn’t be my wife:
I found a needle in the hay
I found the sunshine at the end of the day
and oh, I found a pearl in the snow
Sam Blasucci – Real Life Thing (Calico Discos – CD20242, 2024)
Sam is an amalgamation of his record collection, but so much more. While you can hear every bit of his Rundgren and - on this album - Billy Joel influences, his own voice comes through loud and clear. There is poetry in his lyrics (because he’s a poet) but there is also an occasionally plaintive and desperate howl that exists in his vocal delivery adding to the music an uneasiness one feels when they hear an argument in progress in the apartment next door (I don’t know what it feels like for you, but for me that amounts to a good helping of curiosity imbued with a streak of fear). A good recording produced by @mrjohnnypayne and a good pressing, too. Sam Blasucci is an artist who is committed to showing you his complexities, and boy can he write a melody.
Wes Montgomery – Movin’ Wes (Verve Records – V-8610, 1964 🇺🇸)
It might be a bit splashy, a smidge commercial, but Wes’ Verve debut worked. It clicked with the American public who found the fast fingers of Montgomery irresistible enough to bring jazz guitar for another moment into the mainstream. Some amazing tracks in this one with a big band backing that sticks its tippy toes right up to the line on the overbear-o-meter, but never quite crosses it. Van Gelder and Ramone on the knobs. Can you imagine?
Simon And Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (Columbia – KCS 9914, 1970 🇺🇸)
I guess in some ways the 60s came to a close on Jan. 26 when S&G released their final studio album. Even though “Bye Bye Love” felt like it was included to take up space (though it’s a masterful rendition of the Everly Bros. Tune), an element of BOTW felt like those two were just getting warming up.
Chris Bell – I Am The Cosmos (Omnivore Recordings – OVLP-231, 2017 🇺🇸)
Today is Chris Bell’s birthday (1/12), and so I thought it fitting to bring him out for a spin and it’s the 2017 reissue of this compilation that I’ve got on hand. If you’re a love of Big Star and have worn out their albums proper, you’d be simply foolish to ignore Bell’s solo work; personally, I feel the sound of Big Star was never the same after his departure. There was a truly unique voice to his songwriting that comes through loud and clear on this batch of tunes. Chris should have been a big…star. Now, to go see if I can get my hands on the Complete Chris Bell box set; why don’t I have it?
The Rolling Stones – Love You Live (Rolling Stones Records – COC 2-9001, 1977 🇺🇸)
Apologies to @wcpr740, but I’m pretty sure this record was stolen from you—just not by me. After all, it came out a year before I was even born. Still, who could resist the charm of that bold, no-nonsense warning scribbled in red radio station felt-tip ink by some overly confident music director back in the late ’70s? The declaration reads:“This album belongs to WCPR and no one else. If you have this, you must have stolen it and had better put it back.”Dear WCPR, you’re welcome to reclaim this record if you want, but something tells me you’re not exactly missing it. For what it’s worth, this rogue copy hasn’t wandered too far from home—it’s still kicking around near the ‘boken.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (Reprise Records – 2 RS 6307, 1968 🇺🇸)
I don’t always listen to Jimi Hendrix, but when I do, it’s turned up pretty loud. Throw shade at me if you must, but I can do without the 15 minute “Voodoo Chile” dirge, however Electric Ladyland functions as Jimi’s make-believe, science fiction - albeit fractured - world of the late 60s. Is it wrong to love Redding’s “Little Miss Strange”? Nah, Jimi did, too: otherwise, it wouldn’t have made it to the record. Lots of flange, make sure to take your Dramamine. The drums are occasionally wooly, lots of the bass is woof-woofy, Jimi’s single-coils give plenty of 60 cycle hum and the vinyl (on my copy) looks a lot better than it sounds, but this mushy soundscape works. I’d compare it with my UK press, but four sides is enough for now. But maybe one more spin of “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” before she goes back on the shelf.
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