Category b) Seventies [1970 – 1979]
THE TWO LIBRARIES
LORD OF THE RINGS — A BOOK AND MUSIC STORY PART II — THE TWO LIBRARIES Most of Australia’s population (then and now) cluster in the major cities, meaning that most of those aspiring to further education after secondary school do not, by necessity, need to live away from home. So I was a day-release patient, commuting from the south-eastern […]
THE FELLOWSHIP OF BOOKSELLERS
LORD OF THE RINGS — A BOOK AND MUSIC STORY PART I — THE FELLOWSHIP OF BOOKSELLERS After high school finished there was a clear message from the parental end of the dinner table that the young scion was not to be lazing around all summer relaxing and recovering from the stresses of exams, but […]
PROLOGUE: CONCERNING HOBBITS, AND OTHER MATTERS
Needing to choose a book to read and reflect upon for a literature project in his Grade 5 class, I was surprised and delighted when the boy asked to borrow The Hobbit. Other than some pathetic attempts to conquer Lego: Lord of the Rings on the Play Station, we haven’t really done much Tolkien in the family […]
KEEP OR CRATE?
Record collectors know how there slowly accumulates, around the gems and the sparkling finds, a considerable meterage of albums having an unsteady foothold on the beachhead of the collection. Those LPs plucked from the bargain bin where they rightly languished; that gap-filling reunion album that should have stayed where it was; the so-called ‘supergroup’ that […]
TOMITA – A TRIBUTE
Japanese synthesiser pioneer Isao Tomita died in the first week of May at the age of eight-four. Inspired by Robert Moog’s electronic instruments and the work of Wendy Carlos, Tomita produced a substantial catalogue of studio albums in addition to several live releases and a significant body of soundtrack work. In a previous post, I wrote briefly about […]
THE ROAD TO RESTRAINT
I remember seeing a striking cover on shelves in the mid-70s… a slender wrist rises up, clasping a silver ingot like a futuristic advertising photograph. The skin tones are dull, muted, as the shot is taken against a bright white light, a small bright rising star behind the argent rectangle. Behind, surrounding all, a deep […]
TAKING FLIGHT
What was it drew me to pick up the blue on blue album with a banking seabird, wingtip to water, blurring the sea to azure glass? Was it the sense of movement as the bird fused air and liquid with breathtaking confidence and grace? Perhaps the sea itself; pale like an ice floe, smooth as […]
COMET, CACTUS, CAFE
Decade Diving Number #4 2006 Though I tend not to loiter at the heavier end of the music spectrum here in Vinyl Connection land, there is a goodly chunk of noisy stuff in the collection. Avatar by US West Coast band Comets On Fire is an album I’ve had for a while and really like, despite an aversion […]
GO SOLO STEVE
PREAMBLE If you are a music fan over a certain age who likes to know stuff, chances are you have a few kilograms of rock reference books. There’s the large format, glossy-pictured one given to you on some forgotten birthday by a well-meaning family member that looks great but has not one solitary bit of […]
HIGH-HEELED BOYS
Continuing a survey of the remarkable career of Steve Winwood PART III Setting up a colourful tent at the English folk-rock fayre, John Barleycorn Must Die, with its linocut sheath of grain picture and earthy brown sleeve, was a heady brew of rock, folk and jazz influences that sounds remarkably fresh to this day. Opening […]
SMILING PHASES
STEVE WINWOOD How do you approach the catalogue of an artist active over many decades in several different outfits who has a substantial solo output to boot? That’s the question I’ve been pondering, on and off, since a blogmate expressed interest in reading a little about the career of one of the great rock singers, […]
DECADE DIVING #2
1976 When I stumbled across a copy of Jean-Michel Jarre’s breakthrough electronic album Oxygène in a Daylesford book and record shop some years back I was quite excited. Not because of the music itself —I already had the album on vinyl and CD— but because of the alternate cover, one I’d never seen before. Instead […]
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