Recent CD Purchases

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 12:19 pm

I caved and picked up The Beatles' "Let It Be... Naked." I think it was a worthwhile purchase, if only for Billy Preston's organ solo on "The Long And Winding Road." It's definitely for serious fans only, moreso than even the Anthology sets.

I also picked up Concert For George, which may be my favourite disc yet this year. I really wanted to see this when I was in England, and I'm glad I finally can.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:12 pm

See it where? I guess it was a UK concert in his honour. (Looks like I'm following you round, as you have been me, only with a smaller gap!)

If, like me, you don't own Let It Be and want to, wouldn't you go for Nekkid over Reg? From what I've heard on the radio, there seems no question that this would be the right thing to do, the songs emerge as so much more themselves, e.g. Across The Universe (which needless to say I can't disassociate from the Bowie version, which gets flak, but which, again needless to say, I've always loved [though I do think it's genuinely a good version and fits that fabulous LP well]).

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:24 pm

If you don't own Let It Be at all, you should probably go with the Naked variety. The reason it would be for serious fans only, is because there are only minimal differences between Let It Be and Let It Be... Naked to those who aren't completely familiar with the album.

As for Concert for George, it was held at Royal Albert Hall in November of 2002, a year after his death. See my DVD post.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 11:07 pm

Al Green's I Can't Stop. It put a smile on my face for an entire day that even my job couldn't wipe off.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:12 pm

Did some Xmas shopping for my girlfriend today......

Fred Eaglesmith - Balin
The Replacements - Tim
Robert Earl Keen - Farm Fresh Onions

I picked up David Baerwald's Here Comes The New Folk Underground for myself. After a couple of listens, I think it's one of the most brilliant albums to come out of this entire decade thus far. He may have been a staple of the Tuesday Night Music Club but his music sounds like a hybrid of Randy Newman and Warren Zevon with some Lyle Lovett and Elvis thrown in. Just amazing.

My girlfriend also gave me a copy of Greg Brown's excellent Milk of The Moon tonight as an early Xmas treat. BWAP, I have to say that you should give Brown's mid 90's and beyond work a listen. I know that his earlier stuff can come off as maudlin, but Milk of The Moon and 1997's Slant 6 Mind are much more blues-y and far less sentimental.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:38 pm

Kinks - Arthur

What a great record full of relatively unknown and ignored treasures. Victoria, Shangri-La, and Mr. Churchill Says are the best so far, but it's all very good. And the bonus tracks have a great Dave Davies tune--Mindless CHild of Motherhood. Killer disc.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 10:44 pm

noiseradio wrote:Kinks - Arthur

What a great record full of relatively unknown and ignored treasures. Victoria, Shangri-La, and Mr. Churchill Says are the best so far, but it's all very good. And the bonus tracks have a great Dave Davies tune--Mindless CHild of Motherhood. Killer disc.

Hey noise, glad to hear you picked up Arthur. Definitely one of my favourite Kinks albums. It's the sort of album I put on the headphones while I'm riding the subway, or put on in the car and I'm instantly bopping around. It tells a great story too.

If you like Arthur, then you'll definitely love Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. Same sense of old-fashioned English nostalgia

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:54 am

Thanks. That's my next Kinks album.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:30 am

John Hiatt - The Tiki Bar Is Open.
The Rolling Stones - Metamorphosis, Between The Buttons
Brian Wilson - Pet Sounds Live. According to the liner notes, EC was there in the audience.
Rikkie Lee Jones - The Magazine
David Bowie - Heathen
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - The Last DJ
Fiona Apple - When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King
Pulp - Goes To The Disco

The only Al Green album I personally own is Call Me. I should just go nuts one day.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 12:35 pm

Bamboo, how do you like the Hiatt album? It's one of my favorites.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:33 am

El Vez, The Tiki Bar Is Open was a great find (bought it second hand) -- a real album, and it makes me want to discover more Hiatt...

I've been running with it in my walkman lately, and getting major goosebumps. He's definitely got a fire lit under his ass (that he might see "through a double whisky glass").

Have you seen him live? I initially saw him on Sessions at West 54th a few years ago playing Cry Love (he then went on to be the host but I never saw any of those) so had him marked as someone to look out for. Yet so far I only have Perfectly Good Guitar and TTBIO. I just did a search and see your Hiatt recommendations, but am keen to hear anything at all he's done. He's an unpredictable and passionate writer that seems to be looking out for his demons in his style.

Each song on TTBIO has such a different character and I like them all, so it's hard to name favourites but at the moment I'm into the sinister tones of I Know A Place and the title track. I took to All The Lilacs In Ohio and Hanging Round Here right away, and moreso right now Something Broken, Rock Of Your Love and Come Home to You.

I keep being drawn to Everybody Went Low, there's a depth alluded to with simple oblique phrases throughout of what I've heard of him so far. It all seems very real - transporting, and capturing my imagination as I think "fuck he's good", then wake up halfway through the next song as I remember where I was. The band, The Goners, must have jammed with him for a while to get such fine textures and support the songs. The lead guitar (often tasteful slide playing) is a favourite feature, working dynamically against Hiatt's impassioned vocals. Father Stars is a great closer to it all with it's soothing psychedelic codas.

A very satisfying album -- no doubt the start of another get-everything-I-can-find-by-this-guy phase.

Post by **BlueChair** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 4:19 pm

Wasn't going to buy anything until the new year, but I saw The Clash's Combat Rock in the 30% off bin and had to pick it up. I think now the only Clash studio album I don't have is Cut The Crap

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 5:53 pm

BC,

You don't really need it, except as a novelty. It's awful. Get the second Big Audio Dynamite album instead. It features several Jones/Strummer compositions, and it sounds like the real heir apparant to Combat Rock.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 6:28 pm

A very satisfying album -- no doubt the start of another get-everything-I-can-find-by-this-guy phase

John Hiatt finally found his voice, to use a pretentious phrase, with 1983's Riding With The King. Great album, one half produced by Nick Lowe, the other half is just as good. '87's Bring The Family is a classic, every collection should have it. '88's Slow Turning is almost as good. Since then he's produced a fine series of albums, solid reliable stuff. His pre 83 stuff is most forgettable.

girl out of time · Post by **girl out of time** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 8:05 pm

the the: mind bomb
arabic drums: darkuba

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:00 pm

Nice eclectic list, Bamboo. I'll be predictable and congratulate you on Heathen and say I hope you like it at least a little bit much as I do, which would mean 'quite a bit'. I love Pulp too.

It makes a nonsense of Christmas surprises, but it's how I love to be indulged: I took the day off work and hit the vast urban metropolis of Cambridge with my wife and bought a stash of CDs as my Christmas present: Kid A, cos I've never got round to it before, and Noise knows I must, Ron Sexsmith's Other Songs, so now only Blue Boy to go, and the main one, Talking Heads fabulous looking Once In A Lifetime box set, in Hungup's honour of course. Serious yuletide/early '04 heads infatuation ahoy. Very tempted to read up on what's on it, but won't let myself!

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:36 pm

I think now the only Clash studio album I don't have is Cut The Crap

Noise is right, the Clash went into the studio and quite literally cut the crap.

Post by **BlueChair** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:51 pm

An vinyl LP purchase actually....

Emmylou Harris - Elite Hotel

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 12:18 pm

Bamboo -

I'm so glad you dig The Tiki Bar Is Open. That was actually the album that turned me on to Hiatt as well. It was released the same time as Lowe's Convincer, Dylan's Love & Theft and Ryan Adams' Gold and I was on a shopping spree that week as a form of relief from the 9/11 tragedy and subsequent all-consuming media coverage/necrophilia.

I'd been aware of him for years but for some reason I just didn't feel like checking his music out. Not even Bill Hicks on a Austin, TX public access show talking about Hiatt being a favorite of his right next to Bob Dylan motivated me. What did was reading a glowing review of The Tiki Bar Is Open in No Depression........this was the same issue that introduced me to the Drive-By Truckers, Nick Lowe and Junior Brown. Love that magazine.

My Old Friend, Something's Broken, the title track and, especially, Come Home To You blew me away and I went from there and bought Crossing Muddy Waters (still my favorite), Walk On, Slow Turning, Bring The Family, Stolen Moments (Seven Little Indians is my fave Hiatt song) and Riding With The King. MartinFoyle is right about him hitting his stride with RWTK and his earlier stuff being a series of misfires. They tried to pass him off as a skinny-tie wearing faux Costello for a few years and that was pretty heinous.

Definitely check out Crossing Muddy Waters and Slow Turning next. I'm one of the few Hiatt fans that actually considers Bring The Family to be good but a little overrated. Still, anything from Riding With The King and onwards is worth a listen. Except maybe Little Head.

HungupStrungup · Post by **HungupStrungup** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:35 pm

Don't forget Little Village by Little Village, which is Hiatt with the same band as on Bring the Family, namely Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner. Hiatt does most but not all of the lead vocals, and the four share songwriting credits, so it isn't technically a Hiatt album, but it should be owned by any serious Hiatt fan.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 8:07 am

Thanks to all for the tips on Hiatt. I'll leave from before RWTK for much later. My copy of Perfectly Good Guitar came with a bonus track, a minute longer earlier (though very similar) version of I'll Never Get Over You, which I think he nails somewhat better...

Some trivia... whose motorcycle is that on the cover of Riding With The King?

Otis, am very much appreciating Heathen. I'd started wanting it to jump more, be more rock n' roll, but that was naive -- it simmers powerfully though it seems sad and the sounds are cool (vs hot) sounding... I love I've Been Waiting For You (can relate!), I Would Be Your Slave, Slow Burn, Everyone Says Hi, Sunday... but it's all very good. Now, for that Reality 2CD Tour Edition.

I also just found Other Songs by Sexsmith, which seems pretty good after listening to about half of it so far.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:04 am

I really need to stop, but all three were dirt cheap.

Van Morrison - St. Dominic's Preview
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:35 am

Blue, you have to stop buying cds! Say this over and over to yourself 100 times until you believe it!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:11 pm

Don't listen to Spooky, keep buying.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 10:23 pm

Umm, okay. Sorry for the bad advice, Blue. Now I'm guilty. The Dr and I clicked on the Amazon button above and got a few things for our cd collection:

Night & Day (Original Recording Remastered) - Joe Jackson
Deep Dead Blue, Live at Meltdown - Elvis Costello & Bill Frisell
Elegie - Elvis Costello, Susan Monks, etc. with Brodsky Quartet
Best of Brodsky Quartet

Okay okay, I'm excited to be seeing the Brodskys with Elvis in February.

Elvis Costello Fan Forum

Recent CD Purchases

John Hiatt -- The real deal

Re: John Hiatt -- The real deal

and now for something nearly the same