Category Particular platters
I RUN TO YOU
September 23rd is the forty-eighth anniversary of the release of Steely Dan’s Aja. ♥ From its striking cover—timeless in its enigmatic simplicity—to the fadeout of the final song, Aja resides comfortably in classic album territory. Several other ‘classics’ came out in 1977, commercial monsters including Fleetwood Mac Rumours and the Eagles Hotel California. But where […]
OUT OF TIME
If you read a straight-ahead description of Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, it all sounds terribly serious and highbrow. Recollections of Brubeck’s avant-garde compositional inclinations while a student, his work with French composer Darius Milhaud at Mills College, the unexpected pairing of Brubeck’s inventive, meticulous piano playing with the warm, glowing tones of Paul Desmond’s […]
SUPERNAUT
High School was well and truly done before I acquired my first stereo. Sure, the family home had several devices capable of emitting music: a Bakelite mantle radio in the kitchen, my Father’s Elcon reel-to-reel tape recorder, the sideboard sized stereogram in the lounge, all polished wood and frowning classical records. But all of these […]
THE DAY THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT DIED
Walking down the corridor between the Counselling Service and Student Housing it was not uncommon to encounter a colleague. Greetings were exchanged and sometimes a brief chat ensued, before each continued on their journey. Over time you got to know each other a little better, making life easier when it came to the end-of-year lunch. […]
FEEDBACK
“Most of you won’t like this, and I don’t blame you at all” – Lou Reed, cover notes to Metal Machine Music, released July 1975 “An appalling rip-off” – Critic William Howard in the Boston Globe, 1975 “Worst album by a human being” – Rolling Stone 1975 end-of-year poll “Anybody who got off on The […]
DAVID, STEPHEN AND GRAHAM
On 28th June 1969 the self-titled album by Crosby, Stills & Nash entered the US charts. It reached #6 and stayed around for an impressive 100 weeks. Two singles were released—Nash’s jaunty ‘Marrakesh Express’ and Stills’ extended ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’—both reaching the Top 30. So much for the data. What makes this album so […]
KID REMEMBERS
Sonically daring and lyrically challenging, Radiohead’s follow-up to the hugely successful OK Computer was the result of much suffering. Thom Yorke endured a psycho-emotional crisis during the extensive world tour following OK Computer’s success while the whole band agonised about their ‘direction’. Yet somehow they managed to both renew their sound and create an album […]
CINEMATIC GOLD
In 1982 I was deeply immersed in the Student Union of the tertiary institution where I’d just finished a degree. It was an exciting, intense time full of meetings, negotiations, and nights spent strategising how to improve the lot of the student population. We were young and relatively clueless, but deeply committed. Often by late […]
ALL ABOARD THE McCARTNEY EXPRESS
When Paul McCartney released his first post-Beatles album in 1970, he was about to turn twenty-eight years old. The self-titled debut came out half a year after Abbey Road and a month before the Beatles swan song, Let It Be. Since then, McCartney has given us a slew of live recordings and seventeen studio albums, […]
IMAGINE NO IMAGINE
It is difficult to imagine a world without John’s song “Imagine”. From the time it appeared on the album of the same name in September 1971—and then as a single a month later—it has become an anthem and a lullaby, a protest and a non-religious prayer, a campfire sing-along and a manifesto for dreamers. It […]
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