The first pure jazz album in my collection, the first completely instrumental album, the oldest recording so far in thislistening extravaganza, 1959, one of the most popular jazz albums ever, or at least, with “Take 5,” one of the most famous and recognizable,or at least, the first jazz album ever to sell one million copies.VinceContinue reading “#636: B is for Brubeck, Dave”
Tag Archives: record collection
#635: B is for Bright Eyes
In the fine tradition of great bad singers, here is Conor Oberst, otherwise known as the band leader of Bright Eyes. His singing is imprecise, full of vibrato, a tentativetenor, except for when he’s screaming, which he does sometimes, even in quiet songs. He often soundslike he’s on the verge of crying or throwing aContinue reading “#635: B is for Bright Eyes”
#633: B is for Bowie’s “Blackstar”
After a string of fabulous studio albumsin the new centurywhich included a mightyten year gap between Reality and his penultimatestudio album, The Next Day, David Bowie announcesa new record called Blackstar.I bought that recordon release day, a Friday, listened to it straight through three or four times that weekend, and then Monday morning the newsofContinue reading “#633: B is for Bowie’s “Blackstar””
#630: B is for Bowie (“A New Career in a New Town,” The Box)
I “You’re such a wonderful person, but you got problems.”The second tune on Low, all one minute and 52 secondsof it, contains this gem of a lyric. It’s 1977 and records are beginning to sound reallygood, although people at thetime didn’t think so. Tony Visconti has a newtoy called a Harmonizer andit makes the drumsContinue reading “#630: B is for Bowie (“A New Career in a New Town,” The Box)”
#629: B is for Bowie (“Who Can I Be Now?” The Box)
I didn’t rememberliking Diamond Dogsall that much at the firstlisten, but today it’s freshand weird and good.I’d have to study the lyricspretty carefully to understand the Orwell references beyond the titles, “We Are The Dead,”“1984,” and “Big Brother,” but I’m not going to do that; I rather just letthe record wash behindme as I toolContinue reading “#629: B is for Bowie (“Who Can I Be Now?” The Box)”
#628: B is for Bowie (“Five Years,” The Box)
I “Ground Control to Major Tom,”are likely the first words any of usever heard from David Bowie. Maybe I was five, and for yearsI would hear that distinctive voiceon the radio and knew the hits, but my older siblings, the arbitersof new music into the householdnever brought home a Bowie album. I didn’t start buyingContinue reading “#628: B is for Bowie (“Five Years,” The Box)”
We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Poetry: An Apology and a Defense
In my ambitious bid to listen to every record in my collection from A to Z and to write a poem about each artist in the process, I am learning something new about poetry. First of all, writing a “good” poem “in response to a thing,” especially on the fly, is difficult or impossible toContinue reading “We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk About Poetry: An Apology and a Defense”
#627: B is for The Boomtown Rats
It is difficultto put into wordswhat The Boomtown Ratsmeant to me as an aspiringpunk rocker and 16 year-old.Attracted mostly to music from across the bigpond, XTC, Elvis Costello, and these guys, these guysespecially, gave voice to every creative vibration pulsating through my little brain. Bob Geldof, that gangly, Irish punk, with his imprecise, manic, snarlingContinue reading “#627: B is for The Boomtown Rats”
#625: B is NOT for Blake, Sexton, a.k.a. Sexton Blake
Because the band is named after a literary person, a fictional British detective, and not a real person, I’ve discovered I have misfiled Sexton Blake in the B’s. Needless to say, I did not listen to this record from Sexton Blake after finding the mistake, and filed Plays the Hits, a collection of 80’s cover tunes, post-haste,Continue reading “#625: B is NOT for Blake, Sexton, a.k.a. Sexton Blake”
#624: We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk about Record Store Day on Black Friday
It’s Black Friday Record Store Dayand I am boycotting the experience. I thought I was going to pay a visitto my local neighborhood record storebut they really don’t need my supporttoday because they get my supportprobably a couple times a month, sometimes every single week, and the titles offered this year arenot very enticing. IContinue reading “#624: We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program to Talk about Record Store Day on Black Friday”
michael jarmer 