Nov 242009
I was looking through a boxes of burned CDs looking for something (can’t even remember WHAT I was looking for) and found the CD of Martin Newell‘s Greatest Living Englishman. It’s been easily 10+ years since I listened to this disc (maybe because it was in with my “junk” cds and not in it’s proper case…and also then did not make the great migration to the iPod in 2005).
I played it this moring and thought “How Did This LP Get Away?”
Do any Townspeople have a CD/LP/cassette that you totally forgot about, found, and wondered how you let it get away?
As I’ve detailed elsewhere, jungleland2, a few years I came across a mix cassette tape of Be Bop Deluxe that an old coworker made for me years ago. I liked the tape a bit when he first made it, but I quickly stashed it away, a little uncomfortable at what I was hearing. When I revisited the tape after 15 years in storage, I was ready to enjoy this stuff for what it was. I ended up buying about a half dozen of their albums, and I stand by their geeky, Prock merits.
http://overlookedgems.blogspot.com/search?q=be+bop+deluxe
I mainly just want to echo what a terrific album that is by Martin Newell.
Oddly enough I’ve been revisiting some albums that I have not heard in 10-15 years or so. I put on a Swedish group called Beagle who relased 2 albums (Sound on Sound and Within). These were raved about on another list at the time. I didn’t ever really get into them at that time but I really am hearing their charm now. Not as cool as Newell’s disc but still a nice surprise.
I found another one… Peter Wolf’s “Come As you Are” I found my old cassette and then after a search a CASSETTE PLAYER!
Also found Phantom Rocker & Slick’s self titled and Cover Girl cassettes(featuring Keith Richards) not bad stuff for mid-late 1980’s.
None of these are on CD (and all were on cassettes at my house) so that might be why they never made the jump to the MP3 / ipod and essentially disappeared.
Speaking of buried cassettes, I’ve been meaning to see if I still have a cassette dub of a 3-album (I believe) Ralph Records sampler that was done as a radio broadcast of an unsuspecting DJ, played by Penn Jillette, being held hostage and made to listen to every Ralph Records release. Does anyone else remember that thing? It was hilarious. If I find the tapes I’ll digitize the stuff and share it.
I think Bob Dylan made a reference to Ralph Records on his radio show (and even played one of the cuts). I may be getting this confused with something else…I just remember Penn talking about it.
TB
Speaking of Dylan, that’s my what happened to this! My dad gave me Vol.1 to 3 of the Bootleg Series many years ago and I put it on in the background when I was writing a paper or something and put it away since. I was never big into Bob Dylan until recently and this was given to me about 1997, 98 somewhere in there. As I was packing (I’m moving this weekend) up my CDs I came across this again and decided to give it another go. Glad I did. Unbelievable unreleased gems like “Hard Times in New York Town” and “Let Me Die in My Footsteps” started me off. The version of Idiot Wind is so much more accessible and moving than the Blood on the Tracks release, stumbled words and all.