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.

The 2020 review

It is Bank Holiday Monday, that is the one before the New Year so it is usual on this blog to write a kind of review which may as well start a bit from where we were last year.

Ever since the great schism between CG/l with age play and age regression broke out on Tumblr there had been further division between purists of Child Like regression that had no place within it for being in a relationship and with some even claiming it for older teens and younger only and the more CGL/re side who did accept relationships but one in which the little was regressed and had that child-like headspace respected within it.

For good measure those of us on that side also maintained that regression was not limited in any way to your chronological age because it is about the child-like space you thoughts, feelings and emotions that you (re)enter so it didn't matter if you were seventeen or seventy as that body was just the physical form that allowed you to express your inner child.

The peace that broke out in 2019 continued even as a few tried to find the buried bones of the argument from the last gals and guys standing on the purist Chire side which was as well as how the year panned out meant we really needed age regression.

Things had started out as normal with me going with friends for fun, games, fresh air and fun at the Winter Littles Camp in a new venue we'd found having a great time even if the weather wasn't all one may of hoped for.

By little more than a month we all saw what will in future be seen as an historical announcement on Tv that informed us that things were going to be very different thanks to Covid which while being found in China we'd assumed was likely to stay around there but that wasn't to be.

That was going on as unexpectedly I was returned for a couple of weeks to the world around which my old job revolved and while doing a little investigating on foot the  best route to get there and having done that a bit of shopping in the City centre I was taken quite ill within a couple of hours for a few weeks with symptoms' that in hindsight did match Covid.

The restrictions from the announcement meant that two attempts to arrange littles camp togethers were foiled as the rules and deadlines kept changing and even our GHS Halloween Party couldn't happen.

Covid affected an aunt and a cousin both of which have recovered but a third died from complications of which of necessity meant the funeral arrangements were anything but straightforward.

I found myself taking comfort more in my more littles/middle side reading comics, watching children's tv and spending time in the fields enjoying the countryside, nature and fresh air playing even if we had to wait a good while for the playground to reopen to use the equipment.

The world-wide nature of Covid affected pretty much everything from marking VE day anniversary, the postponement of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics together with much sport  to making tv, arts performances and recording music.

While recordings were affected I did enjoy buying some new  classical Super audio cds that I did write about here and enjoyed hugely this years Folklore and Evermore albums by Taylor Swift

While it is hard to look ahead when there are continuing developments within Covid, there is reason for hoping the massive vaccination program launched in December will over time lead to a greater ability for us all to function more freely even if it is about for a while.

Christmas gone was very smol, it needed to be as impacted as even that was with presents that were for being played with such as lego or at least allowed me to enter the smaller more reassuring fun world of imagination.

As much as I can say going forward, in my own tomboyish forever schoolgirl way this next year is more likely to see me in world and mindset of her, coping through repetition and imaginary play with whatever is going one around me in much the same way as two tween girls did playing on their bikes in the wood on Christmas Eve.

To me they showed the best response to getting by in all of this and certainly not obsessing over news and groan up things. 

Christmas Day

It's been a crazy year and that of course feeds into Christmas where I'll be with my folks this year although the difference between what the rest of my family say they're going to do and what in fact they do remains.

In terms of presents as it is time to open them I think we'll kick off with "The Big Un".

I've been slowly and with Covid affecting recording and manufacturing this year, slowly building up a collection of Super Audio cds, mainly classical.

My folks bought me this new recording on Sacd, of Beethoven's Piano concertos, all five plus bonus material which will supplement my classic 1960's stereo William Kempf versions with the Berlin Philharmonic on DG.

The Beano today isn't what it was growing up although to be fair the world of children today isn't either although much of childhood remains the same so while back then I'd of had the Annual, today I have the Christmas special edition of the regular comic with the mixture of classic cartoon strips such as Dennis The Menace and newer ones that are more inclusive around sex, race and disability.

The Beano and Dandy were comics I had and more fittingly I did have this years installment in the "Classic" Beano and The Dandy themed compilations from that past they issue every year, this time looking at the work of Dudley D Watkins, one of D C Thomson's finest creators of comic book strips.

Finally as I sip my grape juice, eventually after a long delay the all time early classic Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson album issued in 1971 came out on a Super Audio cd edition with just a print run of 2,500 world wide in October.

This album, the title of which may escape you was a massive seller in that era and was the home of the #1 single Without You written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of the Welsh group Badfinger.

Now that's what I call scrumptous!

I also had some lego and money although whither the shops may be open in the New Year is another matter although I'm sure Amazon will be running.

Happy Christmas folks!

Christmas Paws Thoughts

We have but four days to go before the Main Event as different as unfortunately it will be for most of us but we are having it nontheless, scaled down because actually it matters to us to maintain faith with time honoured rituals we were introduced to as our parents and grand parents were themselves.

No One not even The Grinch or that nasty chap, Covid has any power to deny you Christmas as you make it in your hands and it lives in your heart wherever you may find yourself this year.

Just let it out and above all, be Smol, Be Little, be your Little Girl or Boy self and enjoy the magic for what it is keeping the groan up cynical thoughts and polly ticks out of our magical time.

It might not of been the Christmas we wanted, but have it, savior it and enjoy the time using whatever means at your disposal to keep connections with family and friends alive as trying as things are.

My message to you is Happy Christmas AND Make It Happen.