Episode 12

Graeme Edge Band – Paradise Ballroom

I got this album from my mothers’ collection. She gave me all of her records when she realized that I was getting into vinyl again. The actual cover of this album reads” Graeme Edge Band” on one line and in between the next line in small letters “Featuring” then on the actual next line it reads “Adrian Gurvitz – Paradise Ballroom” . It is kind of misleading, especially for a kid learning how to read. When I was little I thought that the title was the whole second line. The word “Featuring” is so small that I completely missed it. The background doesn’t make it any easier though. Graeme Edge is the drummer from The Moody Blues. He had a short solo career of 2 albums this is the second of those two. The album comes off as a soft rock album that was the style of the late 70s but with a bit of an edge to me. I was under the age of 5 when this album was released so I really couldn’t say other than what the history books tell me. I do like the album as it does have a sound that I really enjoy from that era.

Living Strings – Living Strings Play Henry Mancini

This is exactly what it seems. A string group that is playing the classic Mancini tracks. There are some great tracks on this LP including Baby Elephant Walk, Peter Gun Theme and Moon River. The only thing that I am disappointed with on this LP is that The Pink Panther Theme is not found here. The LP was released the same year as The Pink Panther Theme and this may be the reason that it was not included. Luckily I do have a copy of The Pink Panther Theme from another group. Any way, the album is good but there are probably better compilations out there of Henry Mancini’s work.

Cheech & Chong – Big Bambu

This is the second album released from the duo. Big Bambu is a brand of rolling papers made by the company Bambu. The album was made to look like the rolling paper and there was also a large sheet of rolling paper included in the album. Apparently, it is very hard to find the album with the rolling paper still in it. By chance my parents did not get into drugs and the paper is still in my copy of the LP. I don’t think that this album is as fun as the third album that I have previously talked about. The first track is just awful and a speaker wrecker to boot. It gets a little better after that but not much. The album is basically a sound recording of the skits they were doing on the road. There is nothing extra special to write home about on this one.

Billy Joel – Turnstiles

This is his 4th album and was released in 1976. This album was created after he left California to return to New York. This is plainly obvious with track names like Say Goodbye To Hollywood and New York State Of Mind. It is really a good album is a quasi themed album. I really love the track Prelude/Angry Young Man. Although he has crammed a lot of notes into this song it works. It gets under your skin and gets your juices flowing with the rapid succession of the notes in this song. There is a light use of synthesizers on this album. I am really fine with that as the synths that were used in the 70s are just not that good sounding. I am not saying that the sounds from the 80s are any better but they were used in a better way in my opinion.

Glenn Miller – The Best Of Glenn Miller Vol. III (I can't actually find a good link to this album)

Glenn Miller is a famous big band jazz musician and composer from the 30s-40s. A quote from the back of the LP states his music was a part of, “an era in which America recaptured her spirit.” I completely agree. This music and the music of other artists of this time is just so invigorating to listen to. Glenn Millers is a sad case though. He was a part of the armed forces. He was on a plane that went down while he was serving. The plane was never found and neither was his body. There are some very famous tracks on this album. The first track for one is Little Brown Jug. I remember playing this song with the school jazz ensemble. I loved this track. Really, I love jazz, especially the big band stuff. I have some other stuff from him that I will get to later.

My father-in-law gave me a 2 year subscription to a Hi-Fi magazine called Stereophile for Christmas. I got my first issue a couple days ago. I am only 25 pages into the mag but I really like the thing so far. It is different when you just page through a magazine to pass the time but when you actually sit down to read one it is really interesting. I use to get the Sound&Vision magazine in the late 90s. I really liked that one too but at about the 00s they changed format and started focusing on just the video aspect of the A/V world. What I am getting at is that I am happy to have a magazine that writes about the stuff I want to read. Thanks Dad.

Signing off