Category ACROSS THE DECADES
OH! OH! HERE HE COMES
Every shop has a selection of permanent fixtures. Not the cash register or the window dummy but those stock items that sit. Then get dusted. Then sit some more. Bentleigh Sounds, the record and electrical goods store where I worked for a good part of the 70s and early 80s was no exception. Although I […]
GLORIOUS MELANCHOLY
GENESIS A rainy night in Glasgow, early 1980s. Three university students are making music together; writing songs, practicing, discarding, straining for the moment when something soars. The more they leave out the closer it approaches what they imagine. They persevere. BUSINESS The Linn company was formed in 1973 to produce the legendary Sondek LP12 turntable. […]
TRANSCENDENTAL (NEW) MUSIC
Josef Zawinul wrote the melody ‘In a silent way’ after visiting his Austrian family for Christmas. It is a wistful, almost folky melody that you can hear on the composer’s self-titled 1971 album. But more famously and influentially the tune became the title for a 1969 album that indicated a far-reaching change of direction for […]
HOW DO YOU THINK IT FEELS
1 The last time I recall pulling out a Lou Reed album was to refresh my memory of Rock n Roll Animal for one of a series of articles on the joys of ‘live’ albums. I didn’t actually need to play it again – it’s an album whose slashes and strokes are burned into my […]
Homemade Halloween
Made the CD a while ago – quite suitable for Halloween I reckon. The music is great B-Movie fun. Well, the boy thought so anyway. And, to complete the picture, a portrait from the Ozzie period (earlier this evening).
AUTUMN ALMANAC
Born in Melbourne, Australia on 25th October 1941: singer Helen Reddy. Her song ‘Delta Dawn’ was a #1 hit in the liberating year of 1973. Diary – Turned on the transistor and heard that dreadful song about the jilted woman who goes crazy. I’m going crazy trying to work out what to wear to school […]
ALL HOPPED UP AND READY TO GO
Part of the energizing outré CBGBs scene in mid-70s New York, the Ramones story is well known. How a lanky outsider by the name of Jeffrey Hyman linked up with Douglas Colvin and Johnny Cummings to form a three-piece called Ramones. Band manager Thomas Erdelyi recalled ‘they were terrible. It was the worst thing I’ve […]
OF FLEAS AND FAUST
Like a down-market department store for heads and hippies, Goesunder Flea Market in the heart of Melbourne’s retail district was the unlikely venue for an import record shop, yet that is where I first encountered Krautrock. It was my first year at the university, a 15 minute walk north of the city centre. I was […]
THE ART OF TEA
The on-line forum is a strange beast. Often it is a series of blokes (the record collector groups are almost all male, you know) taking turns at “show and tell”. The bargain of the century, my latest rarity, the best, the worst; there is no real dialogue or any genuine discussion but there is lots of […]
A BRAND NEW DANCE
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was released in the second week of September 1980. Preceded by the hugely successful single ‘Ashes to Ashes’, Scary Monsters hit #1 on the UK album charts on 27th September. It also made #1 in Australia and peaked just outside the Top 10 in the US. Bowie’s fourteenth studio album […]
BIRTH AND DEATH OF A WORLD
Not long ago I wrote about an unscheduled month in the UK in the late 90s. A side trip to Wales was mentioned and that is where our story begins today. Every music tragic knows that it is not civic architecture or religious edifices that get the music hunter-gatherer’s pulse a-quickening; it’s record shops. We […]
CLOSE TO PERFECTION
CONTEXT Just in case it isn’t immediately obvious, music is a passion and hobby here at Vinyl Connection. There are several thousand titles in the collection and no imminent danger of a growth plateau. [Picture here, if you will, the crestfallen expression on Ms Connection’s face.] Close to the Edge sits high on my list […]
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