poet, podcaster, radio host, troublemaker
What more can I say about this album that hasn’t been said already? One of the greatest albums EVER, by ANYONE. Spinning this at the store in honor of the end of Stevie’s Songs In The Key Of Life tour, and sending this out to Josh and Hilary, who got to see him perform this album.
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The Final Cut was my favorite Pink Floyd album in high school. This, though, was THE Pink Floyd album of my high school years. Released my freshman year, and followed by a massive tour that led to a live album and concert video, the songs on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason were omnipresent when I was a teenager. This album came into the store over the weekend and I’m hearing it for the first time in more than 20 years this morning. It kicks ass.
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Holy god this is a good record. Earnest 80s power-pop by a band that at one time was as big as they come.
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Richard Thompson feels like the forefather of all the rock music that followed him. I know the story is more complex than that, but when you listen to a record like Amnesia, it sure does sound like, “Oh, this is where it all came from!” This record is overflowing with great session players like Mitchell Froom and Tony Levin and Jim Keltner. The songwriting is weird and wonderful and takes more left turns than you’d think possible.
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I’d never heard of Sparks until a couple years ago when I started listening to Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews on the BBC. Both Mark and Simon mentioned the band several times, and then I think they played “Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth” on one show. I knew and liked that song (without realizing it was by Sparks) and decided to check out the band responsible. I was instantly smitten, and I’ve been listening to Sparks ever since.
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This album was released into the world one day after I was. I listened to it for the first time today and it’s fabulous. I’d heard several of the songs before: popular live closer “Rosalita” as well as “Kitty’s Back” and “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).” I enjoyed everything about this record, from the songwriting and the performances to the production and the mood.
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Dire Straits has made it onto Record Of The Day once before, and let’s be honest, they’ll probably be here again. I adore this band. Part of the reason I love them so much is because of Douglas Adams, who used Dire Straits in So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, during one of the most romantic moments between Arthur and Fenchurch. I also remember an exchange student who stayed with my family back in the 80s named Christian. He brought some Dire Straits records with him because his English teacher in Denmark had used Mark Knopfler’s lyrics as a teaching tool.
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“From Jen-ghis Can to the Fuller Brush man, they’re just a bunch of losers like me.” That’s the last line of the first song on this world-weary and wonderful record, as least as well as I can render it phonetically. And today, I’m really feeling the title of the album.
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First things first. “Ooh Child” by Stair Steps is one of the best feel-good songs ever recorded. And the rest of this collection, released by Pickwick Records in cooperation with Buddha Records, is top-notch, from “This Is My Country” by Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions to “Testify Parts 1 & 2” by the Isley Brothers.
Leave a CommentHarold Taddy puts on a great show. Tonight he brought a varied group of poets, musicians and dancers to the Bremen Town Ballroom in Millheim, PA. He also brought a crowd — the place with packed with attentive, appreciative folks who braved the single-digit temperatures to support local artists. Huzzah! for everyone involved.
A personal note: Last night I timed out my set, including the banter, and came out at 13 minutes (two minutes under the limit). Tonight I stuck in a bunch of jokes and went three minutes over, for the first time in my life. Embarrassing! My apologies to everyone who had to suffer through the super-sized set of poetry.
Regular readers know that the camera on my phone is horrible, and tonight I forgot my real camera. So here are a few bad photos of some of tonight’s performers. You can also listen to, or download, my poetry reading using the player above.
The Band is one of my favorite bands. Even so, I’d never heard this album all the way through until tonight. I’d heard live versions of some of its songs — “Ophelia” and “It Makes No Difference” are on the The Last Waltz — but never the original record. On first listen, the production is a little keyboard-heavy in some spots, but overall it’s a solid record with lots of great singing.
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I never used to like Bruce Springsteen. When I was a kid, he represented the kind of mindless jock rock that my friends and I hated. This was, of course, wrong, but it took me years to figure that out. I married a Springsteen superfan, but even then I didn’t come around. It wasn’t till 9/11 and his album The Rising that I reconsidered. I thought that album was perfect and necessary, and so I started to give some time to his other albums. This collection is huge — 10 LPs of live music. The guy who owns the record store here says he always finds them in great condition because most people bought this collection and didn’t play it. My advice? If you own one, play it. And if you don’t…
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I first learned about Fishbone when I saw them in concert in 1991, opening for Primus. Nothing can really prepare you for your first Fishbone experience. I didn’t know what to make of them. Years later I started to spend time with the music, and this album quickly rose to the top. My favorite of its songs (and my favorite Fishbone song) is “Ma And Pa,” but the whole album is fantastic.
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This was the first Elvis Costello record I ever heard, and I came to it in a weird way. During my ten minutes in college, my second roommate had a CD of a Cornell glee club singing an a cappella version of “Veronica.” From that I checked out this record, which remains one of my favorites in EC’s discography. From “Veronica” (with Sir Paul McC on bass) to the perfect anger of “Tramp The Dirt Down” and the beauty of “Satellite” (with Chrissie Hynde on the chorus), this album is a solid winner. Plus, it features the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and guitarist Marc Ribot, among many others.
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