If "Whipped Cream" is released again....

[Dave]

Non-LP Stuff is IDEAL Bonus-Track Material for me! I have at least a couple of CD's with hard-to-find '45' tracks, alternate stuff (that REALLY is different from the LP version; ie. Horns, in place of Strings, or vice-versa) and maybe a Disco Version of something "unreleased" or hard-to-find ('cause it's on a 12" EP format) or maybe issued on an overseas pressing or available only on a Movie or TV Show Soundtrack.

Two-Fers aren't bad, 'cept a lot I have bought have lacked the LP's original artwork and/or a back-cover shot. Worst of all is the lack of MUSICIAN CREDITS and RECORDING STUDIO/ENGINEERING CREDITS. Even whoever did the ARRANGEMENTS and PRODUCED is missing!

Well, that's what a scissors & tape and the original 12X12 Record Sleeve is for!

Dave

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Being a short album didn't hurt EQUINOX...it was reissued successfully; and I didn't feel cheated by the fact that it was just a little over 20 minutes long...I was just glad to finally have the disc on a medium I could play it on.

The weirdest album I ever bought was Junior Brown's JUNIOR HIGH...if you remember HIGHWAY PATROL and YOU'RE WANTED BY THE POLICE AND MY WIFE THINKS YOU'RE DEAD, that's the album they came from...it was just the same six songs on both sides...I bought the cassette...don't know if the gag would have worked on a CD or not...my kids loved the tape, but I felt like I got taken...

Combining WHIPPED CREAM and GOING PLACES seems a little cheap to me...sorta bargain-basement type marketing...clearing house... "let's get rid of this old junk"...and I think Herb is too classy for that. I could see a reissue package of the first 5 albums, TLB through GP, them WNML through TBAC, with YSTSB and CI as extras...I doubt that Herb's solo albums would ever be reissued...RISE might be, but not the others...


Dan

 

[Dave]

Well, why wasn't the rest of the Mendes catalog done like EQUINOX? I'm still curious as to why it wasn't reissued in a standard jewel-box format. A CD just thrown in a cardboard sleeve?! (without even a PAPER INNER-SLEEVE??!!)

I have been collecting some Hugo Montenegro reissues, as they've been coming out. Talk about SHORT!! His albums are under 30-Minutes, as well! They are on RCA imports and the booklets have ALL the album credits, which are on the card in back of the clear jewelbox, too. There is also a listing of what titles are available. Think I wouldn't mind combining TWO albums on one disc in his case.

Dave

 

[Mr Bill]

Well, that's what a scissors & tape and the original 12X12 Record Sleeve is for!

Dave, I sure hope you don't really take scissors to your 12x12 LP covers. That would be downright sinful. Someone take the scissors away and sit Dave in a corner with his crayolas!

--Mr Bill
hoping Dave doesn't run with scissors, either...

 

[Rudy]

To me, one of the best things about a CD is that there is no "low limit" on how long a program can be. I have a "best of Paul Williams" CD I made that's just over 35 minutes long...because that's all the Paul Williams stuff I have that I really, really like.

I realize that "bonus material" is the big selling point on many reissues. But, I can think of only one or two instances in which I've really been impressed by the bonus material. Most of the time, it gets heard once and then never again.

Two things:

First, an ideal album is usually eight to twelve songs. Thing is, the tendency today is to want to fill up a CD's entire 75 minutes with music, which just means there's more filler. Compilations, fine...but for albums, anything past a dozen is pushing it. Any more than that, and you just increase the filler.

For my own purposes, I usually condense two albums onto one CD for use in either the car or home CD changers. If I need room, I'll leave out a weak track or two. Or, I'll just make a compilation of favorites.

Bonus material? If it's a good unreleased track or B-side, I'm all for it. Studio outtakes, alternate versions, remixes....boring. It's just a marketing tool and, more often than not, like Mike mentions, the extras are usually not worth listening to anyway. They weren't intended for the original album, so why bring them up now?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Dan: My copy of EQUINOX came with an innersleeve. Not regular paper though -- it is a softer type of paper that has a clothlike consistency. (There's probably a name for it, but I don't know what it is.)

 

[Brasil_Nut]

My copy of EQUINOX came in a normal, everyday jewel case. I did, however, purchase the cardboard-covered version as somewhat of a novelty.

Jon

 

[DAN BOLTON]

My copy of EQUINOX came in the paper "album cover", and had a protective innersleeve; but I listen to my CDs mostly in my car, so I took it out, and put the CD in an over -the-visor CD "pocket".

I'd like it if some enterprising CD manufacturer would find a way to put the credits and liner notes on the CD so that they could be read on a DVD
player, like those enhanced picture CDs...surely the technology exists...it would be much easier to read them...just a thought.

Dan, with bifocals that need to be changed...

 

[Brasil_Nut]

I'd like it if some enterprising CD manufacturer would find a way to put the credits and liner notes on the CD so that they could be read on a DVD
player, like those enhanced picture CDs...surely the technology exists...it would be much easier to read them...just a thought.

Dan, with bifocals that need to be changed...

Excellent idea, Dan. Perhaps (if it hasn't already been done), it's on the horizon. Think of the possibilities...artist bios, galleries, chart listings, personnel, etc.

Jon

...who is also blind as a bat...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

This can easily be done. I think the correct term for it is "CD Extra," meaning you can play it like a CD or you can stick it into a computer to see the extras. This was used as a marketing ploy for awhile but nowadays, it's mostly been replaced with freebie add-on DVDs, and if there's not a DVD included, the CD will have a "key" to a website that can only be accessed with the CD in your computer drive.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

This can easily be done. I think the correct term for it is "CD Extra," meaning you can play it like a CD or you can stick it into a computer to see the extras.

I've seen a couple of those, but never bought one myself. I almost did - I think it was John Coltrane's Blue Train that had some extra photos and goodies like that. Now that I have a better computer I might go out and get that.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[ElvinJonesGuy]

yeah,
like most people, I think it hitting the charts is an impossibility. I hadn't thought about it, but it's wierd. There hasn't been an instrumental hit in a long time. Perhaps the instrumental was, Feels So Goos! One reason why everything hit the charts in the 60's is because everyone listened and bought records. Back in the 60's even a group of "singing nuns" could produce a number one hit. Today, only kids listen to new music, and what horrible music it is. I don't just mean heavy metal, Josh Grobin, Country singers and pop singers are just horrible! We should put some Avant Garde into kids ears today.

--"Elvin Jones Guy"

 

[Mike]

ElvinJonesGuy, you make some good points. I forgot about the "Singing Nuns", but it makes me wonder, what was the last instrumental to go number one on the pop charts? Anybody know?

 

[Captaindave]

You're right - there hasn't been an instrumental hit in decades...nothing like Taste of Honey, Tijuana Taxi, Spanish Flea, Lonely Bull, etc.

There were others in the sixties that I can remember and liked a lot also, for example:

Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited. Soul Coaxin' (Ame Caline) by Raymond Lefevre. Grazin' in the Grass by Hugh Masekela. Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat. Hungry for Love by the San Remo Golden Strings. Anyone remember any of these? Just a few that come to mind and I know there were others.

As mentioned above, everyone listened. Lots of records were sold. Radio stations seemed to have much broader playlists. Less segmentation of the audience. The airwaves seemed to be carrying lots of different things on the same stations for the same audiences. Kids and adults alike often heard the same music. It seemed that musical tastes were different and that there was an big audience for all kinds of music.

These Top 40 stations also carried your local news and weather reports. Often, people heard the music when tuning in to hear the news. I remember one station that played Slick by Herb Alpert every day as the segue into the 3:00pm news and a change of DJ.

One thing that I just don't hear as much anymore is what you might call just basically good songs. Songs that are well written with nice melodies and good chord structures. Songs that are memorable and "hummable." Good tunes. It seems like the talented songwriters have largely vanished.

The TJB had lots of songs with catchy melodies and hooks that would stick in your mind and inspired that average person to listen and sing along.

We're in trouble musically when the bass and drums and synthesizers become the substitute for good melody.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

You're right - there hasn't been an instrumental hit in decades...nothing like Taste of Honey, Tijuana Taxi, Spanish Flea, Lonely Bull, etc.

Unfortunately, the last instrumental hit I can recall is "Song Bird" by (ack!) Kenny G. Maybe that's what killed instrumental hits!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[ElvinJonesGuy]

gee, I forgot about Kenny G. I guess there has been an instrumental hit. But that's about it. Perhaps Herb Alpert's One O Clock Jump was the latest instrumental hit before Kenny G came . That was bad. people now who dont know a lot about jazz think Kenny G is the main style and essance( ) of jazz, when in fact Kenny G is a bunch of electronic drums and synthesizers, when Coltrane and Miles are the true jazz legends. When I recently told someone I loved jazz, his responce was," Man, like Kenny G?, that music is terrible." I had to explain that true jazz isn't like this. I doubt he would see, as most people today are stuck up and stubburn about jazz and old music. Another problem I have is people thinking jazz and classical are the same things. When one of my friends a long time ago in high school told me that general music class was boring because they just talked about strings and violins, the things you like,I said I dont like that stuff, they said, "you like jazz right?" That got me so mad.

Classical composers like Mozart and Bach weren't that musically advanced anyway. (people would shoot me for saying this) Those classical composers only really created fantastic and genious melodies. If you ever play one of their tunes on piano, you'll relize that they're practically all in c major. And further more, usually every kid knows something on piano. I remember in Band at school, when the kids would see a piano, they would all just plunck out some Mozart things. They're all easy to play, but they are never the less, brilliant melodies.

Now can a kid with no training sit down and plunk out something like, A Night In Tunisia?

--"Elvin Jones Guy"

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Last instrumental to go #1 was probably that theme from Beverly Hills Cop, "Axel F". (At least I think it was #1.) Before that, you probably have to go back to "Rise."

 

[ElvinJonesGuy]

here are some other instrumental hits of the 60's:
Ramsey Lewis Trio-The In Crowd
The Ventures-Walk Dont Run
Young Holt Unlimited-Wack Wack
Jimmy Smith-Walk On The Wild Side
Dave Brubeck-Take Five
Al Hirt-Java
?????????-Classical Gas
?????????-The Horse
The Ventures-Hawaii Five 0
Booker T And The MGs-Green Onions
Kai ?????????-More
Cozy Cole-Topsy (instrumental?)
The Surfaris-Wipe Out
Hank Mancini-Pink Panther Theme

Just some of the reasons the sixties were a great time of music!!!

--"Elvin Jones Guy"

 

[jfiedler17]

Thing is, the tendency today is to want to fill up a CD's entire 75 minutes with music, which just means there's more filler. Compilations, fine...but for albums, anything past a dozen is pushing it. Any more than that, and you just increase the filler.

I wholeheartedly agree that anything past a dozen is pushing it. Somebody tell Shania Twain and just about everyone in hip-hop that. Man, Shania Twain's last album ... after a while, I started to think the album would never end. And today's R&B artists (OK, HIP-HOP artists ... there ARE no pure "R&B" artists anymore, it seems ...) go seriously overboard. Seems every hip-hop album I pick up anymore has at LEAST 16, 18 songs on it - and that's not even counting the really pointless interludes that have become a rather commonplace fixture on R&B albums since Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation."
That's why there are so few genuinely great from start-to-finish albums anymore. Artists don't know when to cut themselves off. The amount of filler is getting REALLY excessive.

One thing that I just don't hear as much anymore is what you might call just basically good songs. Songs that are well written with nice melodies and good chord structures. Songs that are memorable and "hummable." Good tunes. It seems like the talented songwriters have largely vanished.

Couldn't agree more! My brother and I, in spite of having wildly different music tastes, deejay a lot of high school dances together, so we necessarily HAVE to play all the new stuff and every now and then, I have to look at him and joke, "THIS is not a song! Songs have chords! Songs have melodies! Songs are something you can actually sit down at a piano and play!"
Everytime I listen to a recent record that's devoid of any real instrumentation or melody or chords, it always makes me think of a quote from U2's Bono. Don't remember it word-for-word, but it was something like "I met Bob (Dylan) and told him, "Your songs will live forever." And he told me "Your songs will live forever, too. Except no one's gonna know how to play them."" Really ... when you listen to 80% of the stuff out there ('specially hip-hop and more computer-heavy pop stuff like Britney's), you seriously have to wonder how any artist could reproduce this stuff twenty, thirty, fifty years from now without owning the exact same computer or synthesizer program. That's just not my idea of music.

And, incidentally, just so the question doesn't linger in the air forever, the last instrumental song to hit the Top 40 was Robert Miles' "Children" from '96!

 

[JazzVibraphonist7]

and the worst part of it is that,
the majority of America go for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


go figure

 

[bob knack]

Kai Winding-"More" The theme from the movie Mondo Cane. Translation: "The World is Going to the Dogs". Kai was part of the famous Kai & JJ Trombone Jazz group.

Classical Gas-Mason Williams?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

and the worst part of it is that,
the majority of America go for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No. The majority of American record buyers go for it. Most music fans sit on their duffs and don't buy anything, because there's nothing out there they like, or maybe they've just gotten out of the habit of listening to or buying music.

How many people are there in the US that enjoy Herb Alpert's music, but haven't bought a record of his in thirty years? Probably hundreds of thousands. If everyone in this country who enjoys Herb Alpert would rise up out of their easy chairs tomorrow and go buy a copy of DEFINITIVE HITS, the album would shoot up the charts and maybe Herb would say, "Hey, I really do still have fans out there!" and release more music.

There really is music out there that more mature folks would enjoy, the Corrs being a good example. The problem is twofold. Fold #1: Getting the over-40 crowd exposed to the new music they like. (And there is lots of it!) Fold #2: Getting those over-40 people to start listening, and spending!

 

[Rudy]

I will say this: ever since I got XM Radio, I've been listening to broadcast music again, and it has gotten me back into purchasing music I hear on the radio. The added bonus is having the artist and song title displayed the entire time the song is playing. I've been addicted to the 50's channel, and discovering some great older rock and roll, R&B and rockabilly music I'd never heard before, or HAD heard but never knew who performed it. I've purchased a few CDs just having listened to XM Radio. Beyond that, it's been over a decade since I've purchased music directly influenced by hearing it on a radio broadcast. It just shows you how out of touch the music AND radio industries have gotten with musical taste.

 

[Mr Bill]

The l;ast ones I recalll hearing topping the charts were "Rise" (though I don't think the single hit #1), Frank Mills' "Music Box Dancer" and Chuck Mangione's "Feel So Good."

As far as music without lyrics goes, a lot of modern techno could be considered instrumental -- The Verve, some Oasis and the like. But again, I don't know how they do on the overal mixed Pop Charts

--Mr Bill

 

[DAN BOLTON]

RISE was# 1...at WLS in Chicago, Billboard and American Top 40...


Dan