The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal

Unknown Soldier · 02-18-2012, 10:59 AM

I know there is some catching up to do as you are like on page 90!!!! But just glancing through some of the pages has wetted my appetite, as there is just so much good stuff on here, as I'm on MB a lot, I can review and comment on a couple of pages each time.

Trollheart · 02-18-2012, 12:29 PM

Almost a month since we had our last selection of epic tracks, so must be about due for another one.

Starting off with Pink Floyd, and a classic from the album “Meddle”, coming in at 23 mins 29 seconds, this is of course “Echoes”.

Something a bit more recent now. This is the title track from the album “The city sleeps”, by Touchstone, a track that runs for 11 mins 39 seconds.

Taken from the album “01011001” by Ayreon, this is in fact the closing track, at 12 mins 18 seconds, it's called “The sixth extinction”.

This is one I really love from Mostly Autumn. Taken from the album “The spirit of autumn past”, running for 11 mins 39 seconds, this is “The gap is too wide”.

And to finish, here's 25 minutes and four seconds of pure class from Fish. From “Raingods with zippos”, this is the full version of “Plague of ghosts”.

Trollheart · 02-18-2012, 06:52 PM

Great! Looking forward to your comments. Hope you enjoy it...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

I know there is some catching up to do as you are like on page 90!!!! But just glancing through some of the pages has wetted my appetite, as there is just so much good stuff on here, as I'm on MB a lot, I can review and comment on a couple of pages each time.

Trollheart · 02-19-2012, 05:08 PM

When I was a lot younger, and used to make compilations on cassette tapes --- later CDs, when recordable discs became available --- and before things like ipods and playlists were words in the dictionary, I often would select an artiste I particularly liked and make a compilation of every, single song of theirs that I had, up to that point, and in alphabetical order. I used to call these “The compleat, alphabetical [insert artiste name]”, and not suprisingly they would run to maybe five or six tapes, the longest available tape at the time being a 120-minute. Why the odd spelling of complete? I don't know: I used to see it on books and such, and I think it's an old English version of the word, but I just liked it: sounds more authoritative, I think. Anyway, back to the C120 tapes: these were notorious for suddenly failing, either getting tangled and stuck in your cassette deck (ruining both) or acquiring “dropouts” (see my guide to twentieth century technology”, way back in the depths of this journal) and so I usually used C90 tapes, which as their name implies allowed you to fit 90 minutes of music --- 45 per side --- on each.

Typically, I could fit about eighteen to twenty tracks per side, but then if some of the songs were longer that would obviously bring that figure down. I don't do these tapes anymore, having no use now for a cassette deck and being one of those poor sods who listens more to playlists than albums --- why go to the trouble of compiling your own collection when Apple can do it for you, eh? But in memory of those old tapes I would like now to introduce a new section to the journal, announced recently by Stacey-Lynn's NewsFoxes.

In this section I will attempt to feature every single track from every album by the artiste concerned. I will try to run these weekly, concentrating on one letter each week, and as the series goes on I may add other artistes to run concurrently, as twenty-six weeks is a long time and I may wish to feature (an)other artiste(s) in the meantime. It could of course happen that the band in question may release a new album during the time I'm featuring them, which will knock my running order out of whack, but we'll deal with that as it happens. I may also inadvertently miss unreleased/rarity items, though I'll be doing my best to make sure all the tracks are covered.

Any song beginning with a definite or indefinite article (a, an, the, those etc) will be listed under its first proper noun or verb, so that were I running the Waterboys, “A bang on the ear” would feature under B for bang, not A for a, and “The whole of the moon” under W for Whole not T for the, and so on. Anything beginning with parentheses will use the first word, as long as that first word is not a definite or indefinite article, ie “(Seemingly) Non-stop Summer” by a-ha will be under S, while a song, should it exist, called “(The hour of) nine wolves” --- it could happen! --- would go under H for hour not T for the, and so on. Similarly, any title beginning with a number, like “100 nights”, will be filed under its alphabetical equivalent, ie O for “one” (hundred). Confused? Good. Let's go then.

First up, one of my very favourite bands, progressive rock favourites Marillion. From their debut in 1983 under frontman and vocalist Fish's leadership, Marillion went on to spearhead what I guess could almost be called the NWOBPR --- the New Wave of British Progressive Rock, along with bands like IQ, Twelfth Night, Pallas and Pendragon --- which built on the influence of “older” prog-rock bands like Genesis, Rush and Yes, updating the sound for the eighties while still staying basically true to the core values and themes of the music.

(An) Accidental man (This strange engine)

Afraid of sunlight (Afraid of sunlight)

Afraid of sunrise (Afraid of sunlight)

After me (Seasons end)

Alone again in the lap of luxury (Brave)

Angelina (Marbles)

(The) Answering machine (Radiation)

Assassing (Fugazi)

Asylum satellite #1 (Happiness is the road Vol II: The hard shoulder)

Trollheart · 02-19-2012, 05:22 PM

Trollheart · 02-19-2012, 05:23 PM

Perhaps an appropriate song for a Monday...

Trollheart · 02-20-2012, 11:32 AM

Well, yeah, just a little. There are some country songs/artistes I do like, though a lot of it leaves me cold. Nevertheless, it can't be denied that country music has made some huge contributions towards the industry and that some country songs have gone down, rightly, as all-time classics. In this section I'll be picking not necessarily the best or most well-known songs, but the ones I like, that I know, and that I rate. It'll most likely be a mixed bag, with classics, “nu-country”, some country-rock and maybe some upcoming artistes, who knows?

Anyway, let's git while the gittin's good: here's the first selection.

One of my favourites from the venerable Willie Nelson, this is “The City of New Orleans”.

I'm rather partial to Dwight Yoakam's brand of country/rock, so here's “Long white Cadillac” from him.

We'd have to feature the Man in Black, of course...

And I've always liked Emmylou Harris. This is “I'm movin' on”.

And to wind things up, this is a nice little ballad from Randy Travis, called “Promises”.

Unknown Soldier · 02-20-2012, 02:56 PM

Page 2

Well I was surprised to see Shadow Gallery! I really like this band and they're without doubt one of the best prog metal bands around, whats even more amazing, is that I've never ever seen them mentioned in the rock & metal forum. Their debut album had some good stuff, but the band were finding their feet. Their second album Carved in Stone is a really good album but Tyranny is the band's masterpiece based on the albums that I've heard, every song is special and I especially love "Mystery". The band certainly don't get enough credit, with Dream Theater far too often stealing the plaudits from this style of softer prog metal. What's so great about Shadow Gallery, is at times they sound just like a metal band, other times just like a 70s prog act and other times like an 80s AOR act. I still need to listen to Room V and didn't realize the saga continued from Tyranny on there. Also was surprised to read that singer Mike Baker had died, a great loss.

Do you know Angra the Brazilian power metal band with progressive tendencies? If you don't know them, check them out as their second album Holy Land has similiarities with Tyranny and like Tyranny needs several listen to really appreciate. Tyranny is such a special album and not many albums can hold my attention for 70 odd minutes!

Trollheart · 02-20-2012, 05:43 PM

Trollheart · 02-20-2012, 05:52 PM

Oh come on now, be honest: you can't get much smoother than Hall and Oates, can you? Just the thing to ease you into your day (or, if you're on nightshift, lull you to sleep after a hard night)!

02-18-2012, 12:29 PM	#912 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Almost a month since we had our last selection of epic tracks, so must be about due for another one. Starting off with Pink Floyd, and a classic from the album “Meddle”, coming in at 23 mins 29 seconds, this is of course “Echoes”. Something a bit more recent now. This is the title track from the album “The city sleeps”, by Touchstone, a track that runs for 11 mins 39 seconds. Taken from the album “01011001” by Ayreon, this is in fact the closing track, at 12 mins 18 seconds, it's called “The sixth extinction”. This is one I really love from Mostly Autumn. Taken from the album “The spirit of autumn past”, running for 11 mins 39 seconds, this is “The gap is too wide”. And to finish, here's 25 minutes and four seconds of pure class from Fish. From “Raingods with zippos”, this is the full version of “Plague of ghosts”. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-19-2012, 05:08 PM	#914 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	When I was a lot younger, and used to make compilations on cassette tapes --- later CDs, when recordable discs became available --- and before things like ipods and playlists were words in the dictionary, I often would select an artiste I particularly liked and make a compilation of every, single song of theirs that I had, up to that point, and in alphabetical order. I used to call these “The compleat, alphabetical [insert artiste name]”, and not suprisingly they would run to maybe five or six tapes, the longest available tape at the time being a 120-minute. Why the odd spelling of complete? I don't know: I used to see it on books and such, and I think it's an old English version of the word, but I just liked it: sounds more authoritative, I think. Anyway, back to the C120 tapes: these were notorious for suddenly failing, either getting tangled and stuck in your cassette deck (ruining both) or acquiring “dropouts” (see my guide to twentieth century technology”, way back in the depths of this journal) and so I usually used C90 tapes, which as their name implies allowed you to fit 90 minutes of music --- 45 per side --- on each. Typically, I could fit about eighteen to twenty tracks per side, but then if some of the songs were longer that would obviously bring that figure down. I don't do these tapes anymore, having no use now for a cassette deck and being one of those poor sods who listens more to playlists than albums --- why go to the trouble of compiling your own collection when Apple can do it for you, eh? But in memory of those old tapes I would like now to introduce a new section to the journal, announced recently by Stacey-Lynn's NewsFoxes. In this section I will attempt to feature every single track from every album by the artiste concerned. I will try to run these weekly, concentrating on one letter each week, and as the series goes on I may add other artistes to run concurrently, as twenty-six weeks is a long time and I may wish to feature (an)other artiste(s) in the meantime. It could of course happen that the band in question may release a new album during the time I'm featuring them, which will knock my running order out of whack, but we'll deal with that as it happens. I may also inadvertently miss unreleased/rarity items, though I'll be doing my best to make sure all the tracks are covered. Any song beginning with a definite or indefinite article (a, an, the, those etc) will be listed under its first proper noun or verb, so that were I running the Waterboys, “A bang on the ear” would feature under B for bang, not A for a, and “The whole of the moon” under W for Whole not T for the, and so on. Anything beginning with parentheses will use the first word, as long as that first word is not a definite or indefinite article, ie “(Seemingly) Non-stop Summer” by a-ha will be under S, while a song, should it exist, called “(The hour of) nine wolves” --- it could happen! --- would go under H for hour not T for the, and so on. Similarly, any title beginning with a number, like “100 nights”, will be filed under its alphabetical equivalent, ie O for “one” (hundred). Confused? Good. Let's go then. First up, one of my very favourite bands, progressive rock favourites Marillion. From their debut in 1983 under frontman and vocalist Fish's leadership, Marillion went on to spearhead what I guess could almost be called the NWOBPR --- the New Wave of British Progressive Rock, along with bands like IQ, Twelfth Night, Pallas and Pendragon --- which built on the influence of “older” prog-rock bands like Genesis, Rush and Yes, updating the sound for the eighties while still staying basically true to the core values and themes of the music. (An) Accidental man (This strange engine) Afraid of sunlight (Afraid of sunlight) Afraid of sunrise (Afraid of sunlight) After me (Seasons end) Alone again in the lap of luxury (Brave) Angelina (Marbles) (The) Answering machine (Radiation) Assassing (Fugazi) Asylum satellite #1 (Happiness is the road Vol II: The hard shoulder) __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-19-2012, 05:22 PM	#915 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	__________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-19-2012, 05:23 PM	#916 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Perhaps an appropriate song for a Monday... __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-20-2012, 11:32 AM	#917 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Well, yeah, just a little. There are some country songs/artistes I do like, though a lot of it leaves me cold. Nevertheless, it can't be denied that country music has made some huge contributions towards the industry and that some country songs have gone down, rightly, as all-time classics. In this section I'll be picking not necessarily the best or most well-known songs, but the ones I like, that I know, and that I rate. It'll most likely be a mixed bag, with classics, “nu-country”, some country-rock and maybe some upcoming artistes, who knows? Anyway, let's git while the gittin's good: here's the first selection. One of my favourites from the venerable Willie Nelson, this is “The City of New Orleans”. I'm rather partial to Dwight Yoakam's brand of country/rock, so here's “Long white Cadillac” from him. We'd have to feature the Man in Black, of course... And I've always liked Emmylou Harris. This is “I'm movin' on”. And to wind things up, this is a nice little ballad from Randy Travis, called “Promises”. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-18-2012, 10:59 AM	#911 (permalink)
Unknown Soldier Horribly Creative Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: London, The Big Smoke Posts: 8,265	I know there is some catching up to do as you are like on page 90!!!! But just glancing through some of the pages has wetted my appetite, as there is just so much good stuff on here, as I'm on MB a lot, I can review and comment on a couple of pages each time.

02-20-2012, 02:56 PM	#918 (permalink)
Unknown Soldier Horribly Creative Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: London, The Big Smoke Posts: 8,265	Page 2 Well I was surprised to see Shadow Gallery! I really like this band and they're without doubt one of the best prog metal bands around, whats even more amazing, is that I've never ever seen them mentioned in the rock & metal forum. Their debut album had some good stuff, but the band were finding their feet. Their second album Carved in Stone is a really good album but Tyranny is the band's masterpiece based on the albums that I've heard, every song is special and I especially love "Mystery". The band certainly don't get enough credit, with Dream Theater far too often stealing the plaudits from this style of softer prog metal. What's so great about Shadow Gallery, is at times they sound just like a metal band, other times just like a 70s prog act and other times like an 80s AOR act. I still need to listen to Room V and didn't realize the saga continued from Tyranny on there. Also was surprised to read that singer Mike Baker had died, a great loss. Do you know Angra the Brazilian power metal band with progressive tendencies? If you don't know them, check them out as their second album Holy Land has similiarities with Tyranny and like Tyranny needs several listen to really appreciate. Tyranny is such a special album and not many albums can hold my attention for 70 odd minutes!

02-20-2012, 05:43 PM	#919 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	__________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-20-2012, 05:52 PM	#920 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Oh come on now, be honest: you can't get much smoother than Hall and Oates, can you? Just the thing to ease you into your day (or, if you're on nightshift, lull you to sleep after a hard night)! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018