Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus
In 2002 my BFF from Ohio sent me his vinyl copies of "The Missing Six" (Journey Through The Past, Time Fades Away, Hawks And Doves, American Stars And Bars, Re*Ac*Tor, and the incredible On The Beach). At that time it looked as though these albums were NEVER gonna be released on CD, so I used my excellent vinyl transferring equipment & made magnificent CD's from them. Within months of that, 4 of them (all but the baffling JTTP and the wonderful TFA) were finally released. We both agreed that my transfers sounded a little better.
My friend was tragically lost in December of '09
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NP Joe Jackson - Tonight and Forever (from Big World)
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I'm sorry to hear about your friend, but it sounds like y'all got to share a very special connection with Neil's music, which is always great. Me and my friend have a similar connection over Tom Waits, and it's always fun to have that mutual love established just between one another.
Those vinyl transfers sound great just reading about it! I'm one who's all for vinyl, and I'd like to transfer more of my records with the turntable i currently have, but it's a portable one, slightly cheap, and the last (and only) record I've transfered so far - the Beach Boys' super
Smile - is very low in volume, a little scratchy on more pronounced vocals, and lacking in the bass department (essential for the album's anchoring bass guitar grooves). Maybe the more complex recording process would work better, but that's beside the point.
"Ambulance Blues" is a really great Neil song, so personal and meandering. It's a very touching closer considering the mind he was in and the whole tone of the second side. Personally, I love the title track, with it's haunting, suspended bluesiness, and "For the Turnstiles," also very chilling in its lyrics and presentation, at least for me. But the whole album is definitely among his best, and one with material that can't be heard quite the same way later or earlier in his career; it was very much of the moment where he was kind of getting over his friends' deaths and looking to the future.
Equally trivial: I bought a recreated
Zuma poster shortly after seeing Neil, but at a Melvins show! Their artist friend revised the bird and woman on the front with features of the lead guitarist and (i believe) the drummer. But even funnier/trivial: Asking the band to sign the poster after the show (they gladly obliged), they asked if we (my girlfriend and I) liked the album. We said yes, and I told him I was really bummed that they didn't play any of it, but he replied they usually don't. Anyway, he, the lead man of a notoriously heavy, trippy, goofy metal band, asked if we liked On the Beach, as it was one of their favorites.
Anyway, I thought that was crazy.