Teenbeat XXXI - Classic Rock

This snowy week I'm on the spin.

Those geezers were quite something back then!

Sometimes a project may not be able to done as some might like and this is an example of it.

This year after a break not helped by Coronavirus, the British speciality reissue company Vocalian-Dutton set out a number of new releases of which this two sacd set is one but it wasn't long that a few started to complain that the because entire set wasn't in Quadraphonic surround sound they wouldn't buy it.

Thing was "The Hoople" the first album in this set was issued in 1974 and sadly was the only album of theirs originally mixed and issued on SQ quad record and Q8 quad tape so being realistic would could they do?

That album is the home to the 1973 hit Roll Away The Stone that I remember well plus The Golden Age of Rock and Roll.

Above is the SQ Quad lp jacket.

Split between discs is the first of Mott's albums All The Young Dudes from 1972 featuring that hit Bowie  written song that saved lead singer Ian Hunter's band which was only mixed to stereo.

Completing the set Mott issued in 1973 is the home of the hit singles All The Way From Memphis which is another of that era I remember well and Honaloochie Boogie.

For the modest price of this two sacd set, we get the three essential Mott The Hoople albums  in the highest digital era quality and a otherwise hard to find Surround Sound mix of one which to me is a bargain compared to many other single speciality releases. 

I did a few years back review the Caroline Records Bachman-Turner Overdrive 8 cd box set which as far as I'm concerned is pretty much definitive beyond the original lps which I have. 

Why then you might think would I buy this set?

The first is this is in super audio cd which can sound better on a equipped player and the other is some labels issued quadraphonic surround sound albums on record and then sometimes on tape but others only did tape.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive recorded for Mercury Records and they like all the then Phonogram group of companies did not issue quad records but issued Q8 Quad 8 track tapes of the sort we had at home and in the car at the time.

The quality of such tapes tends to vary and as any 8 Track user knows they are somewhat finicky easily jamming or losing fidelity over time so anyone who wants to hear the quad mixes is having play tapes over forty years old that were never that great to begin with.

This two on one sacd takes the actual quad master tapes used to prepare the Q8 tapes for manufacture and uses them on the surround sound layer for the first time in decades bypassing those limitations.

It also adds the stereo mixes in better fidelity than before too which for around £11.9 I felt was well worth it. 

To me having these albums we grew up with in the highest digital form possible is something I've always wanted and restoring to circulation those lost legendary Quad mixes even as with the Mott The Hoople Discs it's just the one is a dream come true.

Random weekend thoughts

It's another cool weekend that's passed which seems to be very much a trend this year having been  out a bit earlier on with Bobble hat, mittens and scarf to get a bit of fresh air before playing a few recordings which is thing I do at weekends.

My friends and I have a thing where we post what we've been playing at one site I've been at for like ages and we talk about them which might be the music or some detail of the recording we are playing.

Like this time I've been playing some box sets by the composers Sibelius and Beethoven who I love and they've playing mainly "classic" rock although a few play classical music from records which is of course what I used to do as a kid cos that tended to sound better than the tapes of the day.

It wasn't that much of surprise people who like classical music soon bought into compact discs cos with lots of very quiet passages no faint rustles from the groove or slight pop's are appreciated 

It's hardly an original thought but I just feel very smol with everything else going on so dresses like these do come into play although I think proper long socks go better with that grey dress

It's not uncommon for a number of us to have dolls but what would you feel about a "Goth" doll, like could you love it like one in more traditional costumes or short tails?

I think I could, not feeling so tightly bound to childhoods of the past and prepared to accept the present in the restored child-like world.

Making the most of Winter

 

Things as far as the weather is concerned are taking a turn for the better with much of the ice melted as of yesterday which made getting about rather difficult although having "dragon's blood" as my BFF remarks the cold is not of itself an issue with me so much as the wobbly lower paws to tend to go flying.

Thus it's been a more enforced doing thing indoors kind of a week here, cuddling up to my tatty teddie, making things, watching CBBC, reading comics and that not a million miles removed from how it was in school when it was like this.

I did sit out in the garden a bit on my swing - I just no longer care what anyone else might think about that - just cos I find it very relaxing gently swaying back and forth watching the world go by which certainly beats reading the news websites 24/7.

Hopefully I'll be able to go for longer walks this week as the curbs and roads clear.

Who knows I could go to the shop?

Teenbeat XXX - Nilsson Schmilsson

 When this series of features within the Blog was established perhaps only a few had any idea of what the inspiration for them was.

One thing I loved as a kid was going around jumble sales in those pre-ebay days buying things that interested me and short pop music annuals that had features on top artists which might include pictures from tv shows we never saw in colour was one.

I had a small collection of annuals from the sixties and Teen Beat was my favourite as in just two words it seemed to sum up the appeal of such publications and in many ways what I try to write here is of that nature written from the headspace of young person of the era who liked the artists of the day and those of the immediate past.

Recorded in England in 1971 and produced by Richard Perry, Harry Nilsson an American singer of Swedish family origins recorded Nilsson Schmilsson that went on to be his most successful album ever with three hits singles of differing styles.

Jump Into The Fire its third single was a more out and out raucous rock and roll number that included a drum solo by Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominoes and a detuned bass part by Herbie Flowers.

The first was a smash hit cover of Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger's Without You given an emotional searing vocal delivery that was reputably recorded in a single take that garnered his second Grammy award.

Every time I hear it it casts me back to hearing on the radio as a kid, blown over by the vocal.

For the second single "Coconut", a novelty calypso number featuring four characters (the narrator, the brother, the sister, and the doctor) all sung at producer Richard Perry's suggestion in different voices by Nilsson and is also notable for the whole song being played in a single chord, C7.

It is often remember by the chorus refrain "Put de lime in de coconut, and drink 'em both up"

This was the form some of us remember this album in played at home and in the car's 8 Track tape player.

Like a  good number of albums of this era it was also mixed and issued in Quadraphonic surround sound on both tape (four track open reel at 19.1 cms (7 1/2 i.p.s) and Q8 Quad Eight Track which we had) and CD-4 discrete quad record.

This album in stereo was issued on Super Audio cd on October 6th 2020 by Mobile Fidelity using the original analogue masters with the mastering being done by Rob LoVerde using a very high quality tape replay system and sounds breathtaking.