Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hey fans. Back from a ramble around New York state to watch my son's high school cross country team run in the state championships. An 800 mile round-trip drive for less than 18 minutes of running. Great to see all the various and varied regions of New York even at a frenetic pace. Frequent poster Larry was kind enough to send me some Chris Bell discs and they were a fine soundtrack for the ride. Thanks, Larry!

Hope everyone down in NYC is gearing up for tomorrow night's Big Star show. Please file reports! We fans on the other end of the state (memo to those who think New York state is a big city with some suburbs: go look at a map...it's actually mostly mountains and rural areas and Buffalo is over 400 miles away from the Big Apple) are wondering if Alex Chilton's Box Tops will perform Eddie Floyd's Stax chestnut Big Bird at their local appearance next week in a nod to Thanksgiving.

No need to hold off on your holiday shopping...the Big Star box set is now only $41.99 at Amazon. Just click on the link to the right and fill those stockings!


The above article addresses how bad most recordings sound today i.e. "the loudness wars." It's a short article and obviously the author can't touch on every great sounding record ever made (i.e. Radio City) but it makes a good point. Recordings used to be easier to listen to beyond the music. They certainly were more pleasing to the ears. I'm not sure I'd feel the same way about Radio City if it had been recorded using today's standards. Everything sounds loud, harsh, and brittle. No breathing room. Makes it hard to make it through half a disc. How would you discover September Gurls if your ears screamed "no mas!" before you could get that far into the disc?





3 comments:

Larry said...

You're very welcome - glad you're enjoying them.
What do you think of the Dickinson version?

B. E. said...

Dickinson version is interesting to say the least. Do you know anything about its background? Also, the ninth track is a new one to me (although my Chris Bell research hasn't been that extensive so it could already be out there in collector land). Seems like the title is Lovely Days So Long or something like that. Any take on that one? Interesting on how the track list mirrors the CD to a significant degree...

Larry said...

All I know is that Jim D. sent it to a friend of mine (who I've since lost touch with) in the mid or late 80's. At the time I thought Jim D. told my friend that he'd produced it, but that's probably wrong. I think the mystery track is called "Love You All Day Long" - and to be honest, I'm not even certain that it's Chris singing lead. Oddly enough, Better Save Yourself was titled "#3", even though it was the second song on the cassette my friend received (just like on the CD).