Notes_Norton

God Gave Rock And Roll To You - Argent

You need to adjust your thinking. When I was a child, the Miami News ran an article comparing the average temperatures on December 25 from all the major cities in the USA to the temperature in Bethlehem over the last 50 years. The city with the closest Christmas Day average temperature to Bethlehem was Miami, Florida. All that snow and ice, all that white Christmas, all that jack frost stuff is simply a load of propaganda to get you to think better about freezing your keester off in the middle of winter. It's a yankee plot. Fake news. Misinformation. The way I see it is this, "It just doesn't feel like Christmas if I can't go swimming at the beach." ???

One of the first records I ever owned: Don't You Just Know It - Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns Some early New Orleans blues/rock

I like this one from him too: Cancer - Joe Jackson

30 Days In The Hole - Humble Pie Steve wailed the vocals on this one.

Suffragette City - David Bowie

Summer Wind - Frank Sinatra We learned this for a club owner who hired us once a week for a couple of years. It's a great song and I really enjoy singing it. It was difficult to make a backing track for, but well worth the effort. The Nelson Riddle arrangement is just so nice I wanted to cover it as close as my ears could cop. Originally released in Germany as "Der Sommerwind" and written by Heinz Meier and German language lyrics by Hans Bradtke. Johnny Mercer wrote the English Lyrics. Although recorded by others in the US before Sinatra, his recording is the one associated with the song. Sorry if that's TMI. I'm an amateur musicologist, and IMHO life is too short to listen to and enjoy only one genre of music.

About a year ago I spent 5 weeks in Australia. From Brisbane up to Point Trib, over to Darwin, down the Stewart highway to Kangaroo Island, and around the bottom hitting cities and parks along the way, and eventually ending in Sydney. I found the Australians some of the friendlies and most civilized people on the planet, and I've been all over the world. They were cheerful, ready to talk, and extremely courteous. Whether they were city folk or the roughest out-back personalities, there was a gentleness, cheerfulness, and friendliness to them. In 5 weeks I didn't meet one sourpuss. Quite the contrary, I was always delighted by the people. I saw platypus, cassowary, koala, kangaroo, wallaby, kookaburra, emu, frog mouths, rock art, symphony concert, giant termite mounds, and hundreds of other things I've never seen before, which was exciting, but the best part about the trip was the Australian people. Thanks to all who live down under. If it weren't for the climate crisis, the lack of water, and the fact that I don't have enough money to be admitted, I'd move there. Bob

"Walk On The Wild Side" - Jimmy Smith with arrangements by Oliver Nelson Great arrangement and great organ player. IMO Everybody who plays a B3 organ owes a debt to Mr. Smith

Stanley Turrentine - Sugar (full album) Actually I'm listening to this on my turntable at home. I just got a new turntable so it's time to listen to some old records that need to have the dust cleaned off.

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Black Magic Woman - Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) Now I do like Santana's version a little better, but this is also very nice.

I live on a dead end street. 12 houses total and we all know each other. We know what cars we all drive. In the 30 years I've been here we've had one theft. My wife saw a car that didn't belong go to a neighbor's house while they were on vacation. We got the license number and the police caught them about a half hour later trying to unload the stolen goods. One guy in that car had warrants out for his arrest in numerous other burglaries, and ended up with 26 years on a plea bargain. We had another suspicious car come up, and we went out to help. The driver of the car said he was overheating but declined our offer to use our hose to put water in his radiator. We were very friendly, didn't accuse him of anything, just bragged about what a nice, safe, watchful neighborhood we live in -- letting him know our neighbor who has nothing better to do records every license plate that doesn't live here (and he really does). He never came back. Our neighbors have done similar things, and we all watch out for each other. We had roofers come to give us an estimate while we were away. A neighbor called the cops saying there were strangers on my roof and they investigated and actually detained the workers for a while. I ended up using that company and gave each worker a $20 tip to make up for the police interference. It just seemed like the right thing to do. The majority of the people are nice folks, but there will always be that nasty minority. Some steal out of desperation when times are hard, others just do it because they are bad people. The police can't usually spend too many resources on a break-in, because they are notoriously understaffed, underfunded, and looking for the glory of drug busts. Things ain't like they are in the old movies. On a dead end street makes it easy, as there is no reason for an "alien" car to come up here. We all know each other, we have block parties once a year or more, and even though we have our differences, we have a common bond of neighborhood unity. And if you visit me, your license plate will be logged by at least one person (three are doing that now). Insights and incites by Notes

S.L.I.P., Is that a play book for the Grateful Dead ??? ?

Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang

Actually, I believe neither Vinyl or CD is better. They both have different faults. I've had enough electronics to know specifications are helpful, even necessary but not the holy grail. The proof was in the picture and all the tests and specs were only a ball-park estimate on how they would affect the TV pictures. (I was a field Engineer for a Cable TV equipment manufacturer for a few years in the analog days, trying to see what normal was - and decided normal is overrated). I would love to see digital audio go up in bit rate. Listening to SACDs convinced me that we haven't gone as far as we need to go with digital. Unfortunately, the general public doesn't want to spend money replacing their music with yet another format. Plus they stream compressed audio, listen to mp3s and don't really care about higher fidelity. But when I was younger people listened to 45rpm records, cassettes and (ugh) 8 tracks. I remember the first time I heard an 8 track in a friend's car. It was during the psychedelic era when many songs were longer than one track, so it faded out, clicked to the next track and faded back in AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH. How can anybody listen to that and be proud enough to show it off to me!!!!!! It's sacrilege in the nth degree :D I have a few cassettes, but like mp3s, they were mostly recordings of my LP collection to play in the car. Working on the cruise ships in the late 1980s I did collect a lot of local music from the Caribbean that was only available on cassette tape so I still have them. I have plans to digitize them, but the belt is probably rotted on my cassette player. As far as specs go, I don't listen to specifications, I listen to tone. But I listen with musician's ears. The general public does not. I also play wind synthesizer which uses physical modeling synthesis. The tone of say the trumpet, sax, trombone, and other instruments isn't perfect. But it allows me to duplicate a lot of the nuances of these instruments, and to the general public that is more important than the finer points of tone. I'm having fun with my vinyl because I haven't listened to it in well over a year, probably two or more. And I'm listening to mostly recordings of favorite sax players and vocalists because that's where I appreciate the tonal differences the most. I've got most of these same recordings on CD either ripped by me or a commercial release. I've listened to some that aren't significantly different between the two mediums, and some that are drastically different. It's nice to have a turntable again for those that do sound better. And yes, what sounds better to me, might not sound better to someone else. Insights and incites by Notes

Two years ago I spent 5 weeks in Australia in a camper. From Brisbane to Point Trib to Darwin to Kangaroo Island to Sydney with plenty of stops along the way. I met some of the nicest people on the planet. Cheerful, friendly, helpful and polite. I wish you all to stay safe during these trying climate times. ------- now on with the "listening to this now" thread ----- Raiz - Simentera This is some great music from the Cape Verde Islands. A former Portuguese colony off the coast of Africa. The musicians took their own great heritage, absorbed and mixed in the Portuguese music and ended up with something even better than the ingredients. This is just one example.

You mean like those beef-ish patties in a bun? Without becan?

I rip all my albums that I want to listen to often, unless I can buy a factory produced copy. That way I have the choice of convenience or sound. I play digital more often, it's convenient, and it saves my LPs. I put the LPs on when I want more serious listening, especially for my favorite sax players and vocalists. ------------------------------------- Wibbles, I understand what you are saying. There is no way to do a double blind test. The person playing the CD and the LP needs to know. BTW, she sat with her back to me, and I didn't say a word, but I admit, we do have a mental connection. However the difference on sax tone is so obvious, no one needs to be cued. Perhaps the reason why I'm so sensitive to vocals and saxophones is because they are my primary instruments, and I work on the nuances of those tones and have done so all my life (so far). Or else, some instruments take the digital treatment better than others. This is not an analog is always better post. Again it's a matter of which distortion do I want to listen to: CDs add high frequency harmonics that weren't present in tone of the instrument LPs add surface noise and suppression of some harmonics For symphonies I prefer CDs, for serious Jazz and Pop music I like LPs, and for non-serious, chewing-gum for the ears music a good mp3 is fine. The biggest difference is in the tone of Stan Getz and Paul Desmond. I've heard both these sax players in person and on LP their tone is instantly recognizable. On CD it's still recognizable, but with an added edge that was not present when I heard them live. BTW, we "opened" for the Dave Brubeck Quartet when I was a young man on a Jerry Lewis Telethon. We played during the commercial break and didn't get on TV. Paul Desmond was very kind and encouraging to the young rock and roll sax player. A true gentleman. But that's besides the point. On CD Stan Getz sounds more like Zoot Sims. Insights and incites by Notes

"The Great Pretender" - The Platters

Thanks. Interesting article. Of course any demos on the Internet aren't valid because the Internet is both digital and the audio on the Internet videos is compressed. I did a single blind with my wife, who is also a musician. I didn't tell her which one was playing and I muted the first note so the needle dropping on the groove wouldn't be heard. I did this with two commercial releases, "Focus" by Stan Getz and "The Baddest Turrentine" by Stanley Turrentine. The difference is obvious and she preferred the recordings. Now that is with saxophone, my primary instrument. On the Getz album strings accompany the sax, and there isn't a great difference in the sound of the strings. The Turrentine album you could hear the difference even in Ron Carter's bass as well as the entire sound of the jazz group. Now I don't know how well-mastered the commercial releases are, but Verve and CTI are good labels who's owners care about music, so I assume they are at least good quality mastering, probably taken from the original analog masters and recorded to CD. Notes

On LP: The Planets - Gustav Holst - Adian Boult w/London Philharmonic & Chorus

Yes I know vinyl degrades, and no matter how well you look after them, there are often a few pops and clicks. So which distortion do I want. Surface noise or tinny tone? It's picking the lesser of the two evils. I wore out a couple of "Focus" by Stan Getz LPs, bought it on CD, and it's not the same. Edgier tone, harsher, just the wrong mood entirely. I listen to it on CD. I have others that I bought or recorded myself from LP to CD and listen there when casually listening, that makes the LPs last longer. When it's time for serious listening, sometimes the LP is best. It depends on the music. If it's a symphony orchestra, I'll usually go for the CD. The harmonics don't seem to bother me on violins as much. Perhaps because I don't play violin so I'm not as intimate with the tone as I am with saxophone and a few other instruments. After listening to a lot of sax and vocal jazz albums on CD for a couple of years, the difference in sound is in my face (or ears) and I'm loving it. Since I took care of the LPs and on all but the oldest, I've always used a good light tracking tone arm there aren't any scratches. High humidity in Florida minimizes any static. It's too bad higher bit-rate SACD or other formats didn't take off. A SACD played on my DVD/Blu-Ray player have much better tone. Insights and incites by Notes

Forgotten Steps / Image and Likeness - Andy Summers & Robert Fripp

Midnight Blue - Kenny Burrell (great jazz guitar player)