A Lark Ascending

I've never owned a Beatles record and the whole thing is lost on me I'm afraid. Possibly due to hype and over-exposure growing up 'Oop North' when they were in their heyday. I won't be buying the mono set.. I can understand that. I deliberately steered clear of them in the first few years of my record buying and did not get fully drawn in until much later. In 1970 they seemed a bit like pre-history, something warm and fuzzy from a half-remembered youth but not nearly as interesting as Yes or King Crimson. Once the adolescent urge to react against what was mass popular had been bypassed I found that I really enjoyed this music...and could see how much I was listening to in my own time was drawn directly from them. The hype thing is very interesting. The posters on this site are pretty wise to the way the industry tries to manipulate us for commercial gain. Yet so many of us have gone for this package in one form or another - some, like me, after initially protesting our indifference. Makes you think about the sheer power of a sustained marketing campaign. I'm also intrigued by the BBC. On its own websites it is extremely sensitive to any form of marketing. On the folk and acoustic site links and announcements are quickly purged if there is the slightest danger of them appearing like a commercial overture. And yet over the last couple of weeks we have had sustained Beatles coverage on radio and TV. I'm not suggesting the BBC are secretly in league with the powers behind these reissues - I'm sure they would argue that they are just responding to a popular interest in these reissues. But it's a rather fine line!

Whether it measures up musically to jazz (or anything else) is a matter of academic interest only. If this stuff moves us I don't think we have to make excuses for immersing ourselves in it again. Even though I didn't own a Beatles record until 1973, they were part of the sountrack of my childhood via the radio. I can't put an exact date on it - must have been between '62 to 64 but I can recall laughing at those plastic Beatles hair caps in the shops and singing the early hits in the playground. Certain records place me in exact places - 'Fool on the Hill' in our garden in Singapore, 'Hey Jude' in the kitchen in Gloucestershire, 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' on Porth Beach in Cornwall. Even aside from the pleasure of the sounds themselves, this music carries powerful associations.

An excellent thriller writer. I've been through all the Falcon novels, apart from the most recent which is sat on a shelf, waiting to be read soon. Indeed! This is the first Wilson's book I read, last week I was on holyday in a remote Sicily's island and I was short of books, so I grabbed this one in the tiny bookstore of the town. The Hidden Assassins (2006), his last but one novel with a strong theme based around contemporary terrorism, is especially gripping. I also particularly enjoyed 'The Company of Strangers'. Like Alan Furst, Wilson his a real feel for the 30s and 40s. I'm reading the first of these and will then progress onto something very similar: The first is a lovely, funny, nostalgic read, telling the story of the LP from its original appearance in the late 40s up to the recent past. Great chapter on mood music LPs (Mantovani etc...the ones whose covers are forever turning up here in those album cover threads).

An excellent thriller writer. I've been through all the Falcon novels, apart from the most recent which is sat on a shelf, waiting to be read soon.

I think that's so true (though I'd stretch the dates to 73-ish for creativity and '76 for its style). By the mid-70s there were enough 'suits' who had some sense of this music (Branson, Geffen etc) to start to control it.

Started with 'Please Please Me' this evening. I've never had this LP. They sound very raw, the lyrics make your toes curl and the songs don't seem up to much. Though 'I Saw Her Standing There' sounds fantastic, both as a song and in performance. And 'There's a Place'...which I don't ever recall having heard...has some hints of the unusual shapes their tunes would soon take. Not intended as a criticism - first recording, new to songwriting, rapid session etc. As far as I can tell, the sound is as clear as a bell. What a distance they travelled in such a short time in the following couple of years!

Thanks, World B3. I mentioned a few posts back that I'd reneged on my earlier decision not to partake and have gone the whole hog for the stereo box. I'm particularly looking forward to getting to 'The White Album' which I've always found muddy on CD (never heard it on LP). Watching a TV doc last Saturday I was again reminded of just how good Lennon and McCartney were at handling unusual (for roc'n roll based pop) modulations. I still find the opening of 'If I Fell' miraculous. I've always been a sucker for the unexpected key change.

Actually, most of my serious listening to the Beatles has been on mono lps bought in Swazliand. The only ones I seem to still have, not listened to for a long time, are Pepper's and the Parlophone lp that became Past Masters Vol. 2 eventually. Someone made off with my Beatles two lp set years and years ago, I really liked that one. I first started buying records in 1970 when mono just seemed to be yesterday's thing (even though until about 1974, apart from when using my parents stereo, I could only listen in mono!). The first Beatles album I had was this: Xmas '73, I think - it had just come out the previous summer, the first major ttempt by EMI to reignite interest in the Beales. Plus Abbey Road which I'd learned to love at a friend's house (though I do recall hearing one of the first radio broadcasts as it came out). Then 'Revolver'. I don't think I had anything else until the mid-80s (almost certainly 1987...I think I fell for the 'It was 20 Years Ago Today' hype then, just I've got sucked in here). I'm sure if I was to listen to both mono and stereo I'd hear the difference people are talking about. But I think I'll choose to just stay blissfully ignorant.

Apart from what I must have heard on the radio as a kid, I don't think I've ever heard the Beatles in anything but stereo.

To find out about music I might like from other ordinary listening enthusiasts - gives a very different perspective to what you read in the papers/magazines from professional critics/writers. Hopefully to communicate a little enthusiasm for things I like to one or two others. And because I've alighted on recordings here that I'd never have heard of through normal channels - Allen Lowe's four boxes, Seeline's wonderful Brazilian recommendations and Alexander Hawkins' recent CD come immediately to mind. I find the place constantly shakes me out of my musical comfort zones.

Great record...as are the others I've heard by him. Remarkable to watch and hear live.

CD arrived today and have just given it a spin. Really like it - a wonderful variety of sound and approaches across the tracks. Loved 'Old Time Folk Music From Oxford' (made me think of Jaki Byard on those '64 Mingus discs where he moves effortlessly between genres) and the lovely Sun Ra track that follows. Very interesting guitar - in fact one of the things that I liked throughout was the very loose feel to the music...a lovely, organic sound (when I bet it took great discipline to pull it together). And the steel pan just adds a very distinctive side without ever approaching the standard sound you tend to hear whenever one is featured. This will get lots of plays - well done Alex and fellow musicians. Time to gig a bit further northwards! (Edit: Just read Clifford's review...it wasn't just me who thought Byard on that track!)

That butterfly in particular is amazing. Love the woody textures on the trees too. We've some really ancient oaks in the one bit of traditional Sherwood Forest left a few miles from here - I'm forever photographing them. But I must try a few with the focus on the bark textures.

Is that why it came out on a Wednesday? I think Tuesday is the usual US release date, Monday in the UK.

Well, after poo-pooing these reissues earlier in the year I've succumbed to this thread and the weight of pre-publicity on the BBC (TV and Radio) - ordered the stereo box on Saturday. Here when I got home tonight. I intend to listen very slowly (my CD player has a 33 1/3 setting), reading the Ian MacDonald bits en-route. There is absolutely no way I'm going to buy the recent XTC remasters....

This was what you had to play before the invention of the iPod shuffle. Talk about a random collection! Great picture...is there another in the series with the family in their personal nuclear bunker?

Bev, I kind of hate to bring this up, but your post is reminding me of your (and my) objections to MP3 players - before you (and I, and a lot of other people) bought one and tried it out. I bet eventual price drops will make e-readers pretty common, though that's probably some distance in the future. You might even find yourself owning one eventually! Yes, Seeline, you could be absolutely right here. Actually, I don't recall having any objection to MP3 players. I did have an irrational aversion to the iPod, simply because it seemed so all-embracing with a large chunk of trendiness about it. But, as you say, having had one for a year I am utterly besotted with it. The same may well hold true of these e-readers.

You missed one. One of the fabulous things about the ipod (I never can recall where the capital goes!) is the shuffle facility; not sure if this would have much application for reading books except, perhaps, it might make sense of Finnegans Wake. Bev, it looks like you need to practice your reading! Ah, well there is a disadvantage...a tendency to skim read on screen, not that carefully! Or maybe that's just me!

Yes, that one struck me as well. A common right of passage. I can still recall playing on bikes in the woods in Gloucestershire and finding these strange pictures of naked ladies with small furry animals (this was 1968...furry animals were obligatory).

You missed one. One of the fabulous things about the ipod (I never can recall where the capital goes!) is the shuffle facility; not sure if this would have much application for reading books except, perhaps, it might make sense of Finnegans Wake. Interested by medjuk's positives - the immediate look up of unknown words and the ability to retrace where you'd met characters previously would be useful. Especially useful with Furst if you have all his books on your machine as there are characters who sneak in to other books like the mysterious Mr. Brown. I could see this being very useful for studying literature. Imagine doing Othello for your exams and having those facilities. Sure beats pass notes. Can't see myself using one though. Like others I like the ease of the paperback - I even find hardbacks irritating for pleasure reading. Always feel I need to be sat at a table.

I rather liked the list - nicely tongue-in-cheek. The Telegraph is a right-of-centre newspaper and like all such papers in the UK (i.e. most of them) sells copy by incessantly telling its readers what they want to hear - that things ain't what they used to be, that those in charge of everything are clueless and that the world is going down the tubes. So it was nice to read something almost self-mocking.

If you are seeking funky or greasy then you're looking in the wrong place. Most ECMs are coming from a different direction. If you are attuned to that direction there's just as much excitement as anywhere else. I'm someone who often doesn't find funky or greasy very exciting as it can sound formulaic. The problem lies in my expectations, not the music. I think we've got a rich enough world of music for these things to live side by side.

I've been trying to order this from FMR, Alex, but their website insists I am not using the right currency even though I press the UK option, put a in UK address and can see a UK price in my basket! Clearly something is not formatted correctly. Might be costing you sales.

I bought this along with my first CD player in the spring of '85. Marvellous guitar record. There was also one with 20thC pieces from the likes of Turina and Falla but I can't seem to find that on the net. I also like the Brouwer discs in the Naxos series.

Anyone going for these reissues who has not read this might find it a perfect fit: Macdonald (who died a few years back) was one of the best of the British critics in the 60s/70s. The bulk of the book is a song by song study, full of interesting info about who wrote what, the background, context, instuments used etc. But the most fascinating part is Macdonald's opening essay about the 60s, where he suggests that the hippy culture and the free market conservatism that followed were actually closely connected, sharing a libertarian outlook; both were working against the welfare state government control that had dominated Britain since the war. A fascinating bit of social observation. Well written in plain English rather than sociology-ese. Some customer reviews here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-Head-Be...8270&sr=1-1