Cocktails and Records

Although the lovingly crafted mix tape will always have a special place in my heart, there are some good commercially produced compilations available. One of my very favourites is Space Invasion, a Ronco LP from 1980. It has many, many merits:

1. A high-tech space invaders themed cover which advertises ‘20 galactic hits’.
2. Quite possibly the most wide-ranging selection of music that I’ve ever seen on the type of record that boasts ‘as seen on TV’ on the cover: from The Shadows, Elton John and Sheila B. Devotion to OMD, The Carpenters and Hawkwind, all your favourite space themed hits are here.
3. It features not one, but two space themed songs by Dollar.
4. And the magnificent ‘Eve of the War’ and ‘Forever Autumn’ from Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds.
5. It strategically places the relatively rare ‘Theme from the Space Invaders/Firecracker’ by Yellow Magic Orchestra between Hot Chocolate and Deep Purple.
6. It cost a mere £2 from Walthamstow Market.

So do you have any compilations that can beat Space Invasion?!

Sometimes I just don’t know how I am related to my parents. Of course, I am – I share my father’s cynical pessimism and my mother’s liberal hand-wringing – but when it comes to music, particularly the ‘classic rock canon’ which constitutes a fair chunk of my record collection, I do wonder.

The records below, now liberated from my parents apathy and in my possession, illustrate my concerns.

Example 1: With the Beatles


Amongst my father’s record collection are the first three Beatles albums. These records came into his possession when he stole them from an ex-girlfriend in 1964 as payback for scratching his Duane Eddy LP. They then lay dormant, unloved and unplayed, for almost 20 years until I announced aged 6 or 7 that I loved the Beatles and wanted, no needed, some of their music. They remain firm favourites.

Example 2: The White album

My mother has a mint pressing of The Beatle’s White album (and I mean mint – it’s pristine and perfectly preserved, including the set of four individual Beatles portraits which came with it). She received it for her birthday in early 1969, listened to the first side, decided it was rubbish, and never played it again. And side 1 is the good side with ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘While my Guitar Gently Weeps’ on it. Thank God she didn’t start with side 4 and ‘Revolution no. 9′.

Example 3: Highway 61 Revisited

When I was about 14 I discovered a immaculately kept original copy of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited in my parents record collection. ‘Who’s is this?’ I innocently enquired. My parents proceeded to have an argument about who didn’t own it:

‘It’s not mine. I can’t stand the man.’
‘Well, it’s certainly not mine. Do you think I would ever have bought something as bad as that?’
‘You must have because I would never listen to that talentless man.’
‘I tell you it’s not mine. I hate Bob Dylan more than you do.’
etc. etc. etc.

Meanwhile, I decide that ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is quite possibly the best song ever.

Example 4: George Bean / The Rolling Stones

Again in my early teens, I was rifling through my parents collection when I found a 7″ titled ‘Will you be my lover tonight?’ by someone called George Bean. As a young music obesessive, I naturally ask my father who George Bean is.

‘Oh, some guy I used to know’ says Dad absent-mindedly.
‘Really!‘ I exclaim ‘Both sides are written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and it’s produced by Andrew Loog Oldham! You used to know someone who recorded songs written by the Rolling Stones??!!‘
‘Yes.‘ Dad looks positively bored. ‘I saw them play a few times, met them once or twice through George.‘
‘What were they like?’ I am practically beside myself now.
‘Crap’ says Dad ‘like that single.’

‘Will you be my lover tonight?’ George Bean (2.49MB)

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‘Will you be my lover tonight?’ is the first single apparently written by the Jagger/Richards combo for someone other than the Stones and was released on Decca in 1964. Sounds like they’ve all been listening to a bit too much Phil Spector for their own good…

A copy of Hi-Fi News has somehow found its way into our house. I am not responsible for this I’d like to stress – I may love reading about music, but I don’t necessarily love reading about moving-magnet cartridges.

However amongst its pages of Hi-Fi porn, the magazine does have some pretty amusing album reviews. Each record gets two star ratings based on its performance and on its recording. This means that the 180g vinyl reissue of Linda Ronstadt’s Don’t Cry Now gets a 4/5 for recording, but 3/5 for the actual performance (there’s a lack of energy and excitement which doesn’t compare well to the great recording).

Thank God I’m not an audiophile. I’d have a break-down each time I attempted to buy an album with all these additional things to worry about (and I’d have 50 ever so slightly different copies of Kind of Blue).

The recent vinyl reissue of Steely Dan classic Aja gets 5/5 for both performance and recording, but sadly I have an inferior 70s pressing so I will forever be missing out on something or other.

Every week it seems that there is something in the news reminding us about the crisis in the music industry - how the old business model isn’t working anymore, CDs are dead and downloads are the future.

Although I love my ipod, I don’t particularly like the MP3 format – the music is compressed to hell and call me an old fashioned consumerist, but I like physically owning the music. I like the packaging, I like the liner notes, I like proper running orders and I like actually putting things on the stereo.

So since I started hearing that the CD is dead I’ve been having my own personal crisis. What the hell format do I get music in? Is there any point in buying CDs if they are redundant technology? Is it like still buying video tapes, rather than DVD?

I’ve always bought vinyl, but mostly singles and 12”s and old vinyl from record fairs, charity shops and the like; I’ve bought all my new releases on CD since 1990. CDs have never really been loveable, but they are portable and as someone who has moved house and countries several times I definitely know the downside of lugging crates of records around.

However, this week in a random act of strangeness I bought some new, mint vinyl LPs – Nostalgia 77 and James Yorkston – both readily available on CD and download, probably for much cheaper than I paid. They sound and look fantastic obviously, as vinyl does.

Is vinyl, as Wired magazine says, the future? Is this a new beginning for me? And more importantly, can the floorboards in our upper floor flat take it?