Summer and Fall

Dodging the rain this weekend I did get out and things are beginning to make that change and I saw this poem that I felt really describes my relationship to this between bit of the seasons.

I thought that was wonderful.

Oklahoma!

 I was a bit ruff a few days back but here goes.

I had on pre-order a cd box set of the full musical score to Okalhoma!, perhaps you've seen that classic 50's technocolor (tm) movie version as one common thing with musicals is for the scores to be cut down to suit the performance, taking a number out here and there.

The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie.

The other thing being just how do you go about recording it?

Do you record it in multi-track in a studio, player by player editing and mixing takes or do you "stage" it in a theatre and record that performance where the sound balance is controlled via the orchestra and actors projection between spoken word parts as you if you'd of attended a show?

John Wilson decided to pursue the latter for this two cd - and g*a*s*p* limited edition vinyl set too based upon his experiences conducting it live in 2017 and the enthusiasm of the players comes over strong in this recording as does the live atmosphere.

To my ears it works well complemented with the full libretto in English where you can follow the Prairie dialect and pronunciation "cain't" for can't for instance 

I really enjoyed this modern stereo/surround sound recording on hybrid super audio cd (also playable on regular cd equipment).

School issues

In some ways it wouldn't be a back to school week without controversies whither we're talking the concrete issue that goes beyond schools to other public sector buildings, school uniform issues including dealing with heatwaves or what have you.

We've seen bans on knee socks in some high schools including banning anything other than thick tights some saying they have to be between 40 and 70 denier for "safeguarding" reasons and indeed one school specifies 100 denier which is very much past a joke with temperatures above 28 degrees c.

Others banned any kind of not fully covered instep shoe such as ballet style "pumps" apart from such common things as trainers.

Boys faced tailored shorts bans but COULD wear a skirt in some schools while many were forced to keep jumpers and blazers on as they dripped like a tap at their desks as if that was going to aid their learning and attentiveness.

In many businesses adjustments and even a range within uniform today is the norm so is it that some head teachers and governing bodies are power mad that they want to control virtually every aspect of a child's presentation to a military level facing daily inspection drives?

It is one thing to wish to see children in school looking smart and try to keep out competition in dress but just what is up with some of our educators?
 

Updating the Nows - Now Yearbook 1973

September,eh?

That month which has the last week of the summer vacations, the return to school which for most of this district will be tomorrow building permitting and the return of old friend of a series, the Now Yearbook.

1973 was a year that loomed large in my memory being more of the age you took in more of what was going in the world and you followed pop stars and music more and that is the year Now have strangely enough decided to pick up the seventies.

Our last release was 1978 and the contrast between the late seventies and the remainder was quite big, like if diversity in terms of music styles was a big thing in the decade the early seventies had it big time.

That diversity reflected in my own buys that year from things like the instrumental Eye Level to Slade and Wings via Gary Glitter and Alice Cooper.

As with all the vinyl editions you only get a selection about 47 tracks from the 4 cd set but let's face it if you were around then you associate playing these songs  with plonking the record and playing it on your record player so to pick this up and do that brings it all back.

Talking of Mr Glitter he's not on the set in any form and there is the odd strange choice such as Blinded By The Light by Bruce Springsteen that as much as I love it, just was NEVER a UK hit in that year but on whole most of what should be here such as songs by Wings, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Sweet, Ike & Tina Turner are present and correct  when it comes to versions.

If you want a Glam Fest, this isn't it although there is rightly a good sample of it as it covers the popularity of soul not least the delights of the Philadelphia International catalogue which as a soul fan I just adore.

This is great set overall that only could of been improved on by bumping the number of lps to four and certainly sounds better than those 24 track K Tel compilations we had that year!