The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

[AM Matt]

I also got David Clayton-Thomas self-titled & "Tequila Sunrise" (both from 1972) (2 albums on 1 CD) from Edsel which was reissued in 2002 & out of print. I watched "The Midnight Special" in May of 1981 (last show, then it was "SCTV") when the late John Denver was the host when it debuted back in August 1972 (until February 1973) & David was of the performers. He did "Yesterday's Music" & "Nobody Calls Me Prophet". The songs "Magnificent Sanctuary Band", "Don't Let It Bring You Down" (remake of the Neil Young 1971 song) & from "Tequila Sunrise": "Yesterday's Music", "Nobody Calls Me Prophet" & "Fallin' By Degrees" are my favorites!! The self-titled album went to a disappointing # 184 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts in April 1972 while "Tequila Sunrise" went to # 202 on the Billboard Bubbling Under The Top 200 Album Charts in November 1972. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I just received a great box set of classical music called Living Stereo 60 CD Collection on the RCA Red Seal label. I got a great deal on this from the www.popmarket.com site. It has the usual great classical masterpieces (Saint-Saens, Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Berlioz, Vivaldi, Dvorak, etc.). Full symphonies, piano concertos, violin concertos and operas. The conductors range from Fritz Reiner to Arthur Rubenstein to Arthur Fiedler to Charles Munch. Also includes performances by Mario Lanza and Leontyne Price. It also cntains an audiophile sampler of pop and classical pieces, from Henry Mancini to Chet Atkins to Perez Prado and Harry Belafonte. Pretty cool stuff!

This is gonna take a while to absorb, but should be well worth it!



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Harry]

I just picked up that Van Cliburn in the upper left on an SACD hybrid, so it's got the hi-rez SACD layer and the regular CD layer. It was an old favorite of mine from childhood and one the first 'albums' that was all mine. It was a gift from my piano teacher.

Looks like a good haul.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

That is a good box set indeed. There might be a couple of duds in the set (don't they all?), but the bulk of these are classic recordings. And while I'm not familiar with that particular set, I would think it is a recent mastering, based on the same ones that ended up on the SACD releases. Considering most of these were recorded from the mid 50s through the early to mid 60s, it still amazes me how well they were recorded back then. And there are a lot of legendary names, both performers and conductors. Can't go wrong, and the price is right!

I also strongly recommend the SACD versions if anyone is so inclined, but I'd throw in the caveat that with supplies dwindling on some titles, the costs are starting to skyrocket. I've really liked the titles I've bought so far. I received an Anna Moffo disc (as a substitute for another) that is now selling for $30 or more, used. New? Forget about it. I do have one spare to sell off; I'd intended on selling the Anna Moffo SACD also, since operatic singing is not for me , but it is so well recorded that it is hard to part with it.

@Harry, if you like that Van Cliburn, the other SACD with the Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev Concertos No. 3 is worth getting if you can still find it. If I recall, the Tchaikovsky No.1 on the SACD you have, plus the Rachmaninoff Cto#3 were the two pieces he played in the Moscow competition (and won) to an eight minute standing ovation. The latter is supposedly notoriously difficult to play, and he makes it sound so effortless.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Not too long ago I picked up a Fritz Reiner & the Chicago Symphony doing Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition on SACD (which the regular CD is in this set) at it sounded great.

I listened to the Saint-Saens Symphony #3 (Organ Symphony) a little while ago and was blown away by the sound. I had an LP by Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Symphony of this piece, which was a great performance. But this new CD by Charles Munch & the Boston Symphony is a tad better. A bit quicker tempo, but that organ really comes out! I had it cranked up in my man cave and I think I almost blew the windows out! So far so good. I'm looking forward to hearing that Cliburn album. I just noticed I had a disk of Sousa marches. I should play "Stars & Stripes" just for the holiday!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Another cool thing with this set is the booklet that came with it as it describes how they came about doing the Living Stereo series by experimenting with different engineers and different concert halls to come up with the "new" stereo format. Kind of neat reading, even if it is in the smallest font I'd ever seen. Thank God for my bifocals!



Capt. Bacardi

 

[JeffM]

Latest local vinyl acquisitions (LPS)...Mickie Finn's: "America's Number One Speakeasy," Bobby Vee: "Golden Greats," Elvis: "Flaming Star." Mail-order treasures (?)...Dean Elliott: "College Confidential: Original Jazz Soundtrack" and Ted Knight (!): "Hi, Guys! Ted Knight Sings" (LPS,) Arthur Godfrey: "Teterboro Tower/The Letter" and David Seville: "Alvin's All-Star Chipmunk Band" (you have to hear it to believe it...or not...) (45's.)

Wonder why nobody ever asks me to bring the music for their parties...

 

[Rudy]

Not too long ago I picked up a Fritz Reiner & the Chicago Symphony doing Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition on SACD (which the regular CD is in this set) at it sounded great.

That one is excellent!! One of my "demo" discs for certain. That is one I'm looking to get on vinyl--Analogue Productions has done a new mastering of it, and like the SACD, is done directly from the original analog source. That is about the purest way to hear the original tapes (short of "borrowing" them from RCA's library ). The SACD gets it most of the way there and it puts a lot of modern all-digital classical recordings to shame.

 

[Rudy]

Among a handful of records spun tonight are these two classics:

 

[jfiedler17]

I just received a great box set of classical music called Living Stereo 60 CD Collection on the RCA Red Seal label. I got a great deal on this from the www.popmarket.com site. It has the usual great classical masterpieces (Saint-Saens, Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Berlioz, Vivaldi, Dvorak, etc.). Full symphonies, piano concertos, violin concertos and operas. The conductors range from Fritz Reiner to Arthur Rubenstein to Arthur Fiedler to Charles Munch.

Naturally, of course, I've got to suggest spinning that Arthur Fiedler record.

My most recent pickups have been a bit all over the place stylistically: I've picked up still-sealed vinyl copies of Bob Welch's Three Hearts and Patty Smyth/Scandal's The Warrior (for just a buck each!), and continued my still-growing Jarreau collection by picking up his Look to the Rainbow live disc ("We Got By" is especially amazing). On an A&M-related note, I also just found - at a small thrift shop, and for just a quarter, at that! - a near-flawless copy of a record I'd never run across before, Merry Clayton's self-titled '71 album for Ode/A&M with appearances from Carole King and Billy Preston. A very good record, actually!
My rarest or most obscure find as of late has to be a CD of Real Life's Send Me an Angel '89 album. For a song that went Top 40 on two different occasions, that album (as well as the album the original mix appeared on, too - Heartland) is not terribly easy to find these days. I actually ended up finding it at a library book sale!

 

[Rudy]

Good haul! I actually found Look To The Rainbow on the Mobile Fidelity vinyl that was issued in the late 70s or early 80s. That is one I need to listen to again soon.

I have one of those lazy (aka "nursing a headache") evenings going. The current Oppo players have a "network" mode (mine is the BDP-105). On a phone or tablet, you can install their Media Control app which not only provides a remote control, you can access your network media server and play the files through the player. (I can also use any DLNA-enabled control app.) I haven't gone into detail about my network server yet, but so far it is working better than I had ever imagined it. And in full lossless fidelity, too.

So, I'm playing a couple of Bebel Gilberto's albums this evening. Her self-titled album is spinning currently, and I'll be playing Momento next. This beats shuffling CDs all night, and also saves wear on the player.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Now spinning Floyd Cramer/Only The Big Ones on Orange DynaFlex LP. Also have the early duplication 4 track RCA Open Reel tape as well.

 

[AM Matt]

I picked up Rick Braun latest CD "Can You Feel It" which has Jeff Lorber on a couple of tracks!! Former "American Idol" member Elliott Yamin does the remake of Al Green "Take Me To The River". Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Rudy]

It's rare enough in these parts, and I found the last one Discogs had listed...

 

[Harry]

The mono version of EQUINOX, LP 122. Lots of audible differences from the stereo. You can tell it's a Larry Levine special!

Harry

 

[Rudy]

That's the one I grew up with--heck if I remember the differences though! I still have them but they are too beaten to bother setting up the "beater" turntable and playing.

 

[AM Matt]

The CD debuts of Kerry Chater "Part Time Love" (1977) & "Love On A Shoestring" (1978) (issued back then on Warner Bros.) have been reissued by Real Gone Music!! Sound quality is excellent. The song "Love On A Shoestring" was also done by the Captain & Tennille from 1979 "Make Your Move". Kerry was also a bass guitarist for Gary Puckett & The Union Gap from 1967 - 1970. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Rudy]

Haven't spun much vinyl lately--I'm waiting to sell one cartridge before replacing it with another. (I have the pre-preamplifier shipping to me now, in fact, as the new cart is a low-output moving coil.) I'm also sending my V15 out to Soundsmith for a retip.

Anyway, not much spinning here at the moment other than a few favorites. Been listening to Led Zep, Genesis (up through Wind and Wuthering) and Rush as of late, along with some Jean-Luc Ponty. In addition to the Randyandy LP above, I also received a sealed Earth Wind & Fire Touch The World. On the way to me now is a promo LP of Rush's Hold Your Fire, and a few others.

Stoked about the next two Led Zep titles coming out, and awaiting my preorder shipment.

 

[Rudy]

Finally scored one!



Rush, Hold Your Fire. Hard to find on vinyl, harder still to find an untrashed copy. This one is a Robert Ludwig (Masterdisk) cut, and sounds fantastic. Probably my third favorite Rush album behind Moving Pictures and Signals.

 

[Rudy]

Working through a lengthy Dionne Warwick playlist at the moment. This little overlooked gem from the Promises, Promises Broadway production is one I'll replay at least once.



One of Hal David's great lyrics IMHO.

 

[alexpop]

Vinally 'picked up a USA A&M
' American Dream 'by Emitt Rhodes ' more Harry Nilsson than his later Paul McCartney aspirations. Some choice cuts though.

 

[Rudy]

I had ordered a "NM-" copy of Gino Vannelli's Crazy Life, as my current copy, a Canadian-pressed version, is still a bit noisy after cleaning. This one arrived, a promo, and it turns out it is mono. Normally I'd complain and return it (as it was listed under the stereo listing for the album), but with the price being so low and the LP being in respectable condition, not to mention being quite a rarity in this format, I'm keeping it. The cover has a sticker: "For AM Radio Play Only." Mono sure sucks the life out of the sonics, though--this is likely a fold-down from stereo.

So like the Roger Nichols LP, I'm still on the hunt for a good "keeper" copy.

I would have been listening to the new Rumer LP but my first copy is in poor condition. A replacement is on the way, and given DHL's pysse-poor shipping, I will not see it for another month yet.

 

[Mike]

Now playing - Hello Jolly! Pete Jolly & His Trio & Lots of Friends" . Japanese reissue on CD.
Song tracks: 1) A hard Days Night 2) Here's That Rainy Day 3) The Grass is Greener 4) People 5) The Moment of Truth 6) A Sleepin' Bee 7) Blues Two Ways Hello Dolly 9) The First of May 10) Sweet September
Originally released in August 1964. This is some good stuff!

All the best,
Mike

 

[Mr Bill]

Vinally 'picked up a USA A&M
' American Dream 'by Emitt Rhodes ' more Harry Nilsson than his later Paul McCartney aspirations. Some choice cuts though.

Man, I love that album. I was fortunate to find it on CD while I was stationed on the USS Blue Ridge in Japan. I enjoy every cut on this one! He did three more for ABC/Dunhill before his demons and the beast known as The Record Business ended his creative streak. He still runs his own studio recording local bands in LA's South Bay and occasionally is lured out to play his (and Merry-Go-Round's) classics or watch/listen to modern bands cover his material. Rhodes was/is a talented man whom we should have heard more from.

--Mr Bill

 

[Dave]

Take away the diabolical, ABBA-esque vocals and you have a pretty neat fusion album by this Swedish Contemporary Christian Group:



Wish I could find the import gate-fold LP on the Prim label... I had to settle for a copy on the only American label that would give these guys a break, Lamb And Lion... So no inner-sleeve or any information on the names of who these guys are, or even lyrics...


-- Dave