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1
Nov 22

Happy November to you

Did you enjoy Catober? It is one of my favorite times of the year. Phoebe and Poe are good sports the whole month as I try to put one camera or another in their face. And they cooperated right until this weekend, when I was trying to get a traditional bonus photo. If you missed a day, you can click that link, above, and see them all in reverse chronological order.

It was cold, you see, and we’d just made breakfast on Sunday morning. Put the stove cover back on, which I built to keep cats off the stove. So they sit on the cover, or near it, to enjoy the radiant heat from the slowly cooling stove and oven. This is the routine. Part of it, anyway.

Good thing I made that cover, I guess.

I saw this scene as I was parking this morning. This is the parking deck a block from our building, adjacent to where the old hotel/dorm/office building was. In fact, this is that removal project. You can’t really see much of this from my office anymore, but the heavy machinery work continues, and a dad thought enoufh of it to bring his kid. And they had a time.

They’re busting up cement with the big machines. Big repetitive sounds. The kid is bouncing in dad’s arms in time. It’s the cutest thing.

This is quite the treat for both of them, I’m sure.

We ran across this in Indianapolis on Saturday, and it didn’t really fit in yesterday’s sparse entry, so I’m putting it here.

“We thought. You. Was A. Toad!”

The soundtrack to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” in a future installment of the Re-Listening Project. Speaking of which …

There’s not much new you can say about 1977’s “Bat Out of Hell.” The Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman debut is one of the best selling records in the history of everywhere. Meat Loaf became an actor and enjoyed a well-deserved musical renaissance in the 1990s, but “Bat Out of Hell is the mark. It is certified 14-times platinum in the U.S. and spent 522 weeks on the charts in the UK. It’s also 26-times platinum in Australia and two times diamond in Canada. It topped the Australian, Dutch, and New Zealand charts in it’s day. A quarter century later it found its way atop the Australian, Irish andAmerican album charts again in 2022, and landed in the top 10 in four other countries. It was as, they say, a minor success. I think they issued it to people in the suburbs for a time.

There was a time when someone bought this record, invited their friends over, and put this needle on the vinyl for the first time. Imagine, or remember, hearing the first 100 seconds of this rock opera for the first time.

That’s one of those first-time experience I’d like to have once more. Wikipedia:

Steinman insisted that the song should contain the sound of a motorcycle, and complained to producer Todd Rundgren at the final overdub session about its absence. Rather than use a recording of a real motorcycle, Rundgren himself played the section on guitar, leading straight into the solo without a break. In his autobiography, Meat Loaf relates how everyone in the studio was impressed with his improvisation. Meat Loaf commends Rundgren’s overall performance on the track:

In fifteen minutes he played the lead solo and then played the harmony guitars at the beginning. I guarantee the whole thing didn’t take him more than forty-five minutes, and the song itself is ten minutes long. The most astounding thing I have ever seen in my life.

Next up, a bit of Van Hagar. I bought my first Van Halen record, “OU812,” as a cassette in 1988 or so, when it came out. The first Van Halen CD to appear in the collection is a bit later in their catalog. It, like so much of the Sammy Hagar holds up.

I should have played this filler-track for Halloween.

If you’re looking for classic Van Halen riffs and percussion …

This iteration of the band was doomed to fail just after the supporting tour. In retrospect, I think you can hear it in Alex Van Halen’s drum solo. There’s just something grievous and entropic happening in here.

Now, “Baluchitherium” didn’t make it onto the vinyl format because of time constraints, but it’s full of that classic sound. And, score one for a more modern format.

Real Van Halen fans thought this riff sounded familiar. They were correct.

The record was three-times certified as platinum in the U.S. and Canada, but it was the last of Hagar. The band got tense on the road, because this is the Van Halen story. Three years later there was the one record with Gary Cherone, and then the last studio album, the still-tumultuous David Lee Roth version of the group.

Altogether, Van Halen had 12 studio albums — all but one of those landed in the top 10, and four of them, including “Balance” went to number one. (Balance was the last to hit the top of the charts.) From all of that, and two live albums and two more compilation albums, they released 56 singles. Thirteen of those sat atop the charts in the United States, and another 10 landed in the Top 10. But every time Van Halen comes to mind, for some reason, I think “What if?”

I’m sure that’s just my timing, talking.

Speaking of timing … just you wait until you hear the underwhelming anecdote I have for the next item on the Re-Listening Project.

I shouldn’t say it is very underwhelming … that might set the bar too high. But the story will not impress you at all.

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26
Oct 22

Scenes from a walk

Just about the time you get inside, get the shoes off, get the stuff out of your pockets and all that stuff, take your coat and tie off and put some lazy clothes on it is time to sit down. Then you can sit down. And a moment or two after that it is time for a walk.

You’d almost think it’s deliberate, but it’s not. The sun is on the clock, and dusk brings a chill, so if you’re gonna go outside, doing it six minutes after you get to the house and 45 seconds after you sit on the sofa is the right time to do it.

Gives you good views, at least. My apologies for walking into someone’s yard for this on.

This sycamore was ready for its closeup.

Just two minutes later, and 180 degrees the other direction.

Direct light this time of the year is fairly dynamic. One last hurrah before everything is diffused in clouds, I guess.

That’s one big leaf!

Yeah, this one is a little blurry, I guess, but that’s how you remember the leaf turn anyway. It’s a mass of color, more than the separate leaves. They only count up there in the altogether.

Down here, you might look at them a bit differently.

But you can’t do that unless you go on the walk.

Let’s briefly return to the Re-Listening Project. Of course, we just spent a whole post on this yesterday, but if we get in one more right here I’ll be caught up for the moment. Today’s installment was at least a contemporary record when I bought it, though it was probably still part of this batch purchase. But I listened to it a lot more because it was the music of the moment, and, in 1996, the harmonica had a moment.

This was Blues Traveler’s fourth album, and it’s the one that has the songs you know. They’re still doing it, by the way. Their 15th studio album came out just last year, did you know that?

Did you also know that John Popper, the guy doing the singing and harmonica playing, was originally in another band with the core guys from Spin Doctors? That group was called The Trucking Company. One day I’m going to look for some of their music, just to see what it sounds like.

Anyway, Blues Traveler sounds like Blues Traveler. And a lot of people liked that sound! This record peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200. The band saw this record land in the top 40 of the year-end charts for both 1995 and 1996. And, of course, there are the two top 10 hits to consider, too. “Hook” hit number eight on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. “Run-Around” peaked at number two on the Adult Top 40 chart, and only Seal could keep them from the top spot, but “Run-Around” stayed on that chart for an impressive 66 weeks.

No wonder, then, that “four” was certified as a platinum record six times. Also, there’s a Grammy tied to this record. Not a bad moment in the sun.

It was a big hit at parties, at a time. I’m sure it got played around our place a lot in college. And it was a good soundtrack for sunny days in the car with the windows down. Popper’s voice needs room to breathe. And let us acknowledge that he can make a harmonica sound like most anything.

I’m going to let “Uncle John,” the last track on the album, and a joyous jam song, play us out. I admittedly don’t listen to the record a lot because a little goes a long way, but this time through, this song caught my attention the most. It has almost all the key ingredients.

I’m going to offer one small quibble, and it isn’t even with the band. If you look on Wikipedia, the post covering Blues Traveler lists their genres: jam band, blues rock, folk rock, alternative rock, all of this is fair in that this group has enough diversity to fill in all the blurry areas where those genres coexist. But to call Blues Traveler southern rock … this band is from New Jersey. The parts that aren’t from Canada.

Anyway, the best Blues Traveler song is a cover, but we should be getting to that soon enough. I say should because while I’m playing these in order, I’m not looking at the discs ahead of time. It’s almost a little surprise with each one.

And that’s enough for now. I hope your Wednesday evening, or perhaps your Thursday, has some little surprise as well. The pleasant kind, if I have any say in it.

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25
Oct 22

Come on and dance

It’s a cold and rainy and busy day, signifying … something. So instead of the usual filler, or four grim paragraphs about all of the leaves that have quite quit today, let’s just get back to the Re-Listening Project.

I’ve started working my way through all of my old CDs, but in chronological order of purchase. It’s a good way to pad the blog, which is what we’re shamelessly doing today. (But with some delightful music.) These aren’t reviews, there’s nothing new to say about today’s discs anyway, but they are fun, particularly if you like what is, today, classic rock.

This isn’t my genre, but the genre reaper comes for all of us, eventually. In fact, I’ve probably always thought of this first band as classic rock. They were on the AC stations of my youth, which meant the music of the adults in my world, which meant, and means, classic rock. Listening to it today, in a bit more isolation and years removed from hearing it on regular airplay, I am appreciating what I’m hearing.

Which is to say this is the Steve Miller Greatest Hits compilation. Given the above, this is surely this was a bulk purchase I made in my early days of CD collecting. Given the rest of the above, I’m glad for it today.

“Greatest Hits 1974-1978” made it to #18 on the Billboard chart, and #11 on the Top Rock Albums chart. Not bad for a record of contemporary hits that was released in 1978, essentially immediately as these songs fell out of heavy rotation. All but one song came from their previous two albums — it was a different time, musically speaking — and I’ll bet you can guess which one was the outlier there. Anyway, let’s listen in …

The first four tracks work about as well as you would expect for three top 20s and a number single. But the fifth track grabs your attention. “True Fine Love” manages to be a rock ‘n’ roll history lesson in just two minutes and 40 seconds.

I believe that if you just pulled out the guitar track here you could identify this as a Steve Miller song.

This sounds like a cover, but Steve Miller wrote this, with a Joseph and Brenda Cooper. They seemed to have just the one song. And if you’re wondering if I won’t spend a lot of time trying to find their collective story … well, then … you must be new here.

As an aside … there are a few interesting covers of “Dance, Dance, Dance.”

A capella intro!

There’s a lullaby version … which opens up a whole new world of options, really.

Is there a video of some dudes singing this in the bed of a pickup?

You really are new here.

(Those guys are from New Jersey.)

Play this song and see how many snippets and bits of other songs it reminds you of. That happens a lot to me in Steve Miller Band songs, for some reason.

My favorite song, this time through, was “Wild Mountain Honey.” I listened to it a few times. It was worth it. It’s trippy, which meets the mode of the moment, but it has some heart.

As I have said, probably over and over, in this section of the Re-Listening Project, I think we’re in a batch of CDs I bought all at once. It makes sense, given my tastes at the time, and the records in question. I don’t have a lot of memories or stories affiliated with this Steve Miller compilation. The problem might be my listening habits. Maybe bulk purchases become a sort of obligation. “OK, here it is. I have played it. Now I must listen to these other four.” It becomes, perhaps, more mechanical and obligatory, and there aren’t dozens or hundreds of plays like the regular CD purchased in isolation. So there aren’t strong anecdotes or even flashes of stretches of road, that come to mind as I re-listen to this CD, but I can say this, unequivocally: I bought this for one song.

Yeah.

I have, from time to time, thought of changing my name to Maurice, just so I could tell people “It means ‘Gangster of Love.'”

Now, I don’t have this record, but there’s a general consensus that the made up words of epismetology and pompatus can be traced back to “The Letter.”

My collection really needs some doo wop filled with nonce words.

That’s almost 750 words, and 11 videos, of filler masquerading as content. Let’s wrap this up. The next CD in the list is another greatest hits. Which one? Good question. I can hardly tell myself. It’s a version of The Police’s greatest hits. I say “a version” because they, and their label A&M, only released SEVEN versions of this thing over 23 years. That earned 23 platinum certifications in five countries and 10 golds in seven more, so clearly it worked. But, if Steve Miller is before me The Police are beyond me.

So, here, have “King of Pain.”

Try not to think about how much that reminds you of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.”

Maybe “Wrapped Around Your Finger” is a better way to close this out.

Seven greatest hits compilations. They released five albums before they broke up.

Know what was the straw that broke the camel’s back?

This drum machine:

Take us home, Wikipedia:

Because drummer Stewart Copeland had broken his collarbone and was unable to drum, he opted to use his Fairlight CMI to program the drum track for the single, while singer/bassist Sting pushed to use the drums on his Synclavier instead. The group’s engineer found the Synclavier’s programming interface difficult; it ended up taking him two days to complete the task. Copeland ultimately finished the drum programming and claimed that the Fairlight’s then-legendary “Page R” (the device’s sequencing page) saved his life and put him on the map as a composer. In a Qantas inflight radio program named “Reeling in the Years”, Copeland was quoted as saying that the argument over Synclavier versus Fairlight drums was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” and that this led to the group’s unravelling.[citation needed]

No, Wikipedia. No citation is needed. That would require a deep dive and, ultimately, another greatest hits release. (Here’s a less colorful version of the story from Andy Summers, if you must.) I’m fine with something between hyperbole and ambiguity. It’s The Police, after all.

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21
Oct 22

1,000 words without trying, and rockabilly

Sorry for the lighter-than-normal load here the last few days. It’s seemed … busy … somehow. Well, busier than normal, I guess. Not every widget we make is a producible unit of measure, not every exercise is something you can point to: I made this, this was made, because I helped make this. And those are the best days. Videos or copy or online metrics come and go, the time you spend working with people is where the real value is. You hope they feel the same way about you.

Worked with some of those people today. Had the opportunity to thank someone who did something for me. Thanked him twice. Gave a tour, because someone has to do that and you’re reading words typed by the guy that draws short straws. Today was also career day, which featured a lot of alumni who had returned to talk about what they do. The smart students took time to visit the many sessions. This ran all day and occupied a great deal of attention and energy.

At quitting time I walked out into the sunshine and walked a block to the car and drove the 4.5 miles to the house. Narrowly avoided a red light in one of the larger intersections. At home I checked the mail, just political stuff. The two people running for the local state legislative seat have spent a fair amount of money on direct mail. Now we’re getting stuff that is designed to look like it’s for one candidate, but it is, in fact, from the opponent.

I wrote my master’s thesis on this stuff. Some of them are more sophisticated than others. And among my metrics are language, Photoshop skills and clip art acquisition. These guys? Amateurs.

Washed the dishes, straightened up the kitchen, started the weekend’s laundry.

Normally I try to do laundry on a Thursday or, in peak form, on Wednesday. Then it is all done and not a moment of weekend time gets spent on it. But, last night, I was gripped by a wear sense of thinking ahead. If I waited a day, more things could go in the basket, into the machine, and so on.

It’s foolhardy to think ahead in something that you know is a perpetual cycle. But at least everything was washed and dried this evening.

I try to do this on Thursday so it isn’t a weekend chore, but, mostly, so it isn’t a weekend celebration. That’d be too much to handle after a peak day like today.

Time to check in with the Re-Listening Project. I’m working through all of my old CDs in chronological order, and padding the blog by writing about it. None of these are reviews, but sometimes there’s something fun. And, today, there’s a lot of good music. First, let’s stop in the mid-1990s.

Chris Isaak found his way into the player. No, not that record. I don’t actually have that one. This is “Forever Blue” which is two albums after that one. And I’m not sure why I bought this, or several of the ones that are to follow. Maybe there was a Columbia House deal. That hustle got a bad rap. If you knew what you were doing, and could maintain some discipline within the system, you could do well. We’re still in my first book of CDs at this point and so, I’m sure, this was all an effort just to add some bulk and heft. And one of the singles, probably “Somebody’s Crying” or “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing,” probably got my attention.

“Forever Blue” is a good record, just steady and consistent Isaak. It went platinum in the U.S., certified platinum three times in Australia and gold in Canada. Clean instrumentation that compliments the lyrics of a powerful, yet unpretentious singer-songwriter.

Here’s the rockabilly that you grow to expect from Isaak.

Sometimes you hear the Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson in him.

This time through I wondered how I had managed to never hear Roy Orbison in his singing. It’s obvious and beautiful.

Between the twang and the slide there’s a lot of Dick Dale, too.

I just googled this, and Chris Isaak and Dick Dale have collaborated on some music. I had no idea about that before I was listening this time and thought of the The King of the Surf Guitar.

When you put all of that together, Dick Dale and rockabilly and Roy Orbison and the others, you get sleepy, powerful masterpieces like this.

When I drive, in this town, I somehow manage to spend a disproportionate amount of time at one particular red light. (It is always red, is what I’m saying.) Spend enough time at one spot you’re liable to cultivate a few memories there, and sure, I have one or two at that intersection now. But hearing that song, this time, at that intersection, is the one to hang on to. This record works for me in a new way now, the appreciation deepened when I thought “This is what it would sound like if you put Roy Orbison and Dick Dale and rockabilly and Ricky Nelson together.” And, looking them up, what do you know, I was right.

Only took 26 years.

The next album up: “Greatest Hits,” by Styx. This is how I am sure we are working through a bulk purchase part of my CD collection. I don’t like it. Maybe I bought it for one or two songs, probably “Renegade,” and “Come Sail Away,” or perhaps some sense of suburban obligation. Perhaps I had spent a week without hearing some classic rock station, I don’t know. The tenor is good, but the music just isn’t for me, and this is a compilation of the pop and rock singles, not their prog rock catalog. Most of these songs, though, were recorded between 1975 and 1983 and I have a complicated relationship with that mini-period of music.

Which makes the next couple of albums curious choices.

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18
Oct 22

A sostenuto over tea kettle

The interesting thing about siloed and stratified workplaces is that, sometimes, people get out over their skies and, because you know their background you know they are well out over their skis. We all get there eventually. Racing along until you’re flailing along. The next part is about how graceful you can be when the physics are no longer your friend.

This is why I don’t talk a lot about market equities or PEST analyses. My hips and shoulders would be out of alignment pretty quickly. And if those were the sorts of things in your vocabulary, you’d know how much flailing about I was doing.

Another interesting thing about working in a place like this is that I today had occasion to say this sentence.

“… and the point behind that is based on research developed in this very building … ”

Because that, friends, sounds cool.

This is also an area where I can talk about something I’m trained in, to someone who is not, and delivery as much clarity as necessary, operationalizing things like the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing and cognitive processing in video messages or, more broadly, concentrated messaging or holistic strategies.

Looks like it is time to catch up once again with the Re-Listening Project. I’m filling valuable blog space and valueless time in the car by working my way through all of my old CDs in chronological order. None of these are reviews, but sometimes there’s something fun. And, today, there’s a lot of good music. So fall back to the mid 1990s with me, won’t you.

I’ve probably listened to this as much as anything I own. If there’s something I’ve played more, I’d like to know what it is. I bought this double live album as a cassette. How much did I listen to this? I learned how long you had to rewind each song to get back to the front again. I listened to it a lot. When I picked it up again as a CD, I had a copy for the car and a copy for the house.

As I listened to this last week I found myself reciting all the spoken parts, and playing the bass lines on the steering wheel. The only problem with listening to this in the car is that it is always tempting to just keep driving.

Some times, when Amy Ray is singing, it is really quite tempting. Anyway, 28 great tracks make up just under two-and-a-half magical musical hours, and they’ll all play in that one fabulous box above. There’s one song I skip, but this time I listened all the way through.

Speaking of bass lines, the next record is from Martin Page. “In the House of Stone and Light” had a top 10 hit and a top 20 followup in 1994. I bought this later than that because it just seemed like the choice at the time. I don’t play it a lot, but it never disappoints. The guy has had a star-studded career, working with Kim Carnes, Earth, Wind & Fire and Barbra Streisand. The keyboards you love on the Ghostbusters theme? That’s him. He’s also worked with the great Bernie Taupin, Starship and Heart. He composed for Neil Diamond, worked with Chaka Khan and produced Tom Jones, among others. And then he did that mid-90s AC and VH-1 staple.

Rather than play the two radio hits from this record, though …

This one was released as a single, but it didn’t get the same traction. Somehow I imagine it was huge in retail shopping settings, though. Play this, you can just feel that weird sensation of extra hangers grabbing hold of one another, or that new shoe smell from the back right corner of the store.

Someone took the ballad and made it a Pride & Prejudice track. It … works?

Those are from his debut album. This summer he released his 10th record. So I have some work to do, hips and shoulders. Hips and shoulders.