Tim Buckley - "Goodbye and Hello" (1967)

This is a relatively old record but a newcomer in my collection. The question I ask myself these days when I buy a new record is if I should buy it on vinyl or CD. I must honestly admit I think it's much more comfortable with a CD. Throw it into the player, jump around between songs as you want, pause, if necessary, by pressing a button, etc. To top it all is a new CD also often cheaper than a new vinyl. Yes, new vinyls are actually disturbingly and provocative expensive. The record companies seem to want to use the vinyl neo-Renaissance to the utmost and use us connoisseurs shamelessly. But sure, it feels like a vinyl should actually be a bit more expensive to produce, and they are probably pressed in much smaller quantities.

But these negative thoughts seem not to exert any power over me, because I always buy a vinyl if there’s a choice. I say as many others, it's a completely different feeling with a vinyl. It’s a, if not religious, at least a very nice experience to hold a vinyl cover in your hand – it’s large, it is (often) beautiful and there’s somewhat of a ceremony to pull out a record from its cover and put it down on the turntable. It’s not just something you do on the fly, you have to slow down, take a break from everyday life and suddenly arises that inner peace that exists somewhere deep in the soul. In addition, you can have vinyl covers as works of art on your wall too. How many CD covers are sitting on people's walls?

Many also argue that the sound is better on vinyls than on CDs, however, I leave that unsaid. Both sound good, let us be happy with that.

So I bought this album new and it’s a re-release made ​​by Four men with Beards who specialize in 180 gram audiophile re-releases on vinyl (standard weight of a vinyl is around 120 grams and it’s said that the sound quality becomes better if the record is heavier. Moreover, it will keep its shape better and not be skewed so easily. Fact or myths created by the companies? Who knows. Most re-releases occurs today on 180-gram discs, anyway.). Elektra released the original 1967.

Tim Buckley was an American singer who moved between many different genres - folk, jazz, psychedelic, funk, etc. Goodbye and Hello was his second album and is considered by many to be his best, Tim was 20 years old when it was released. I discovered the album through the book 1001 albums you must hear before you die. I have discovered an alarming number of albums through this book, and I have not even read a fifth of it yet...

The owner of Elektra, Jac Holzman, had a lot of faith in Tim and rented advertising space on the Sunset Strip at the time of the release. This was highly unusual for a solo artist who had not seriously broken through yet. Goodbye and Hello was not a smash hit but reached a 171st spot on the Billboard Charts, Tim's best position with a record. Tim had most of his career a certain cult status and the number of fans varied over the years.

I think it's a good album. The music can be said to lean toward the singer-songwriter tradition with a spice of folk and some half psychedelic elements. That’s a very nice mix and the album has a clear aroma of the 60's, which I mean in a positive sense. Tim has a very distinctive and beautiful voice that leaves its mark on the songs, and throughout his career he often used his voice as an instrument. Even his singing in falsetto sounds great. He has written most of the songs himself, some with the poet Larry Beckett.

Tim Buckley met Death in 1975 in the form of an overdose of heroin, 28 years old. He had used drugs from time to time, but during the last tour he didn’t (and therefore his tolerance was probably lowered). When the tour was completed, he partied a weekend with the band and went on Saturday night with his friend Richard Keeling to his home, hoping to score some heroin. Tim walked into the bedroom while Richard was having sex and a minor quarrel arose. It all ended with Richard in frustration, throwing a quantity of heroin to Tim with the invitation / challenge "Take it all, then". And that’s what Tim did. He was transported, still alive, to his wife Judy who bedded him down in a bed. When she a little later checked on him, he had died. According to reports Richard Keeling, during the fateful evening, had heard Tim's last words that were supposed to have been "Bye, bye, baby" which was probably directed towards his wife.

Tim Buckley had a son who was named Jeff Buckley. He also had a musical career and met Death prematurely by drowning, 30 years old.

Favorite Song
Carnival Song
Pleasant Street
Goodbye and Hello

Side A
1. No Man Can Find the War 2:58
2. Carnival Song 3:10
3. Pleasant Street 5:15
4. Hallucinations 4:55
5. I never asked to be your mountain 6:02

Side B
1. Once I was 3:22
2. Phantasmagoria in Two 3:29
3. Knight-Errant 2:00
4. Goodbye and hello 8:38
5. Morning Glory 2:52

Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973)

The world is at the moment washed by a wave of Dark Side of the Moon created by Pink Floyd and their release of the new goodlooking and expensive CD / DVD box. Of course I don't want to be left outside, how much fun it is to stand outside and look from a distance at the party? In the cold and dark, and hear how much fun everyone has? Nah, I've done that enough, so I'm going to join the party but of course focus on the vinyl. Finally, I'm inside with the rest of you.

In the late '80s, I lived a year as an exchange student in Ohio, US. One thing that had made ​​me a little disappointed was the fact it was only sold CDs at the supermarkets. I had not yet entered into the new digital age and I missed the vinyls. On a trip to New York I discovered that it was still sold vinyls there so full of abstinence I bought a couple of albums of which Darkside ... was one. I was 16 years old and life was still an adventure. Pink Floyd was a new band in my life.

Themes that are repeated in the songs' lyrics are things that Roger Waters described as "making people crazy" - money, greed, death, mental ilness etc. and the record must be described as a concept album. Many miles has been written about this album and I will not be too tedious in repeting facts that you might already have read (or will read) on the Internet or magazines. But I can contribute with some mixed curiosities in a relatively unstructured form.

Dark Side ... was recorded during two recording sessions in 1972 and 1973 at Abbey Road Studios. The fact is that the music was created during a tour and was presented already in February 1972 for a bunch of journalists (which were delighted with what they heard).
PF discovered that another band, Medicine Head, already hade used the album title and then changed the working title to Eclipse. However, the Medicine Head album was a flop and PF went back to the name Dark Side of the Moon.

Alan Parsons was the engineer during the recordings. Relatively sophisticated equipment was used in the studio - a 16-channel tape recorder, synthesizers, etc. According to some the recordings were regularly interrupted since Roger Waters wanted to see his favorite team Arsenal play and the whole band wanted to see the TV show Monte Phytons Flying Circus. David Gilmour, however, later denied that this is true and claimed that they focused on the recording.

On the song The Great Gig In the Sky, Clare Torry sings a wordless melody improvised in the studio. For this she received £30 (equivalent to £300 today). However, she sued Pink Floyd and EMI in 2004 and claimed that she was a co-writer to this song and demanded royalties. The court said she was right and a secret agreement was signed. All the Dark Side ... records released after this date therefore has Clare Torry as a songwriter together with Richard Wright concerning this song.

On the record voices can be heard regularly saying different things, some of these voices belong to a few roadies. These were recorded in the studio where they had to answer various questions about violence, death and similar themes. Paul and Linda McCartney also answered such questions but their answers were not allowed to be on the album (they tried too much to be funny, according to those involved).

The classic cover was designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie and was created after Richard Wright's wish to come up with something "smarter, neater, more classy" compared with the covers of the albums before. Wright had also asked for something "simple and bold."

Dark Side ... is one of the best selling albums ever, and the band members became wealthy. Waters and Wright bought large estates and Mason began his collection of sports cars. Some of the money was invested in the movie Monte Phyton And The Holy Grail.
It is estimated that the album has sold about 45 million copies and on a slow week it sells 8000-9000 ex. In 2002, for example, it sold around 400 000 ex, which made ​​it that year's 200th best selling album, nearly 30 years after its release.

So what I do I think of this historic album that always gets top rankings on lists such as "best album", "most important album" etc? Well, you can't dislike it and yes, it's very good. But I think PF has done even better albums so it's not my favorite of their creations. It's a fantastic production and the sound is crystal clear, it's hard to believe that this was recorded almost 40 years ago. The songs flow very nicely into each other and most are of very high quality. However, I have always been ambivalent to the previously mentioned The Great Gig ... which I find a little noisy with the crazy woman singing/screaming. In addition, I think Money is so-so and Us and Them can sometimes feel a bit boring. But this perhaps I write this mostly to balance all the great positive stuff that has been written about this album through out history.

As a final reflection, I might mention that this album for some reason has always given me summer vibes. The songs evoke images from my childhood's and youth's summers that meant an endless sea of liberty. Maybe it's because I listened to the album a lot during summers, or maybe it's the melancholy in the songs that comes through and raises the memories of a time that has passed. A time when you were free, didn't have any responsibility and could enjoy the day there and then. At least, that's how I remember it...

Of course I recommend a purchase of this album if you don't already have it. For me personally it's a little extra fun with this album in my collection as it was purchased in the Big Apple on one of my few visits there. But the content itself goes a long way too.

Favorite Songs
Time
Brain Damage

Track List
Side A
1. Speak To Me 1:30
2. Breathe 2:43
3. On the Run 3:36
4. Time 7:01
5. The Great Gig In the Sky 4:36

Side B
1. Money 6:22
2. Us and Them 7:46
3. Any Colour You Like 3:25
4. Brain Damage 3:28
5. Eclipse 2:03

Rare Earth - "Ma" (1973)

Rare Earth was formed in the early 60s, initially under the name The Sunliners. In the following years came and went a number of members and in 1968 they recorded their first album. The next year the band signed a contract with Motown under its new name, Rare Earth, and became one of the label's first all-white bands. Rare Earth was to belong to one of Motown subsidiary labels which had not yet a name, and the focus of this subsidiary label was exactly all-white bands. The people of Motown asked the band if they had any suggestions concerning a name for the label and they answered jokingly Rare Earth. To the band's surprise, Motown thought that this was a good idea and the label Rare Earth was born.

The band Rare Earth had a number of hits during the first years but the postitions in the charts over time became lower and lower. Motown then decided to take a stronger artistic control over the band's production and called in the legendary songwriter / producer Norman Whitfield for their sixth album at Motown - Ma. Norman wrote and produced all the songs, a couple of them together with Barrett Strong.

I found this album earlier this year in one of Quebec's shops for used vinyl records. The main thing that made ​​me curious about the group was the fact that I own a record with Sunday Funnies (see a previous post) which was released at the label Rare Earth. Since I like that album I thought the chance was pretty high that another band at that label also would be good, especially the band that gave the label its name! In addition, I liked the cover that almost can be called minimalist. Since I didn't have a record player in Quebec, this album had to wait quite a long time to be played by me, but he who waits for something good ... Right?

Side A consists of the song Ma and clocks in at just over 17 minutes. This is the album's peak, according to me. The song had previously been done by the Temptations and Undisputed Truth. A hypnotic groove takes the listener on a funky soul journey on the theme "mother". The groove is steady and doesn't change during the 17 minutes, but things are always happening in the song which help to keep up the interest. One time I found myself getting strong Hawkwind-vibes from an unusually spacy-psychedelic part in the song. Imagine that! The drummer Peter Hoorelbeke is the main singer of the band and has a classic raspy soul / funk voice with a lot of power.

The B-side is also good and offers more funky soul / rockn'roll. The album ends with the softcore song Come With Me in which a woman's voice is heard moaning in a way that can't be heard otherwise than very sexual. I would say that both Donna Summer (Love To Love You) and Jane Birkin / Serge Gainsbourg (Je t'aime ... moi non plus) are problably beaten here.

The album Ma is considered by many to be the band Rare Earth's best album. The band has continued to exist over the years with (as always) a large number of member changes. They still tour and released an album as recently as 2008.

Favorittrack
Ma


Tracklist
Side A
1. Ma 17:21


Side B
1. Big John Is My Name 4:06
2. Smiling Faces Sometimes 6:20
3. Hum Along And Dance 5:15
4. Come With Me 4:30