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Post by Dave on Mar 3, 2011 20:22:38 GMT -5
Keith, I somehow missed this yesterday. And too, do I miss the point? What summer medley?
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Post by keith on Mar 5, 2011 17:25:36 GMT -5
I'm doing some long range planning. The summer medley has yet to be created. Back in the day it always seemed like there was something special about summer vacation music. I haven't thought through why.
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Post by Dave on Mar 5, 2011 21:13:10 GMT -5
It certainly might include the Beach Boys.
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Post by Dave on Mar 6, 2011 7:03:04 GMT -5
Mary Ford Mrs Les Paul, Mary Ford was born in the 1920's with the name Iris Colleen Summmers. Les Paul changed her name when they began to work together. Just about all of her popular recordings were done with Paul, with Mary's lips no more than an inch from the mic, an innovation at the time. And of course, Les Paul practically invented the electric guitar. They were also one of the first performers or groups to use multiple tracks with harmony and you'll hear them lay down the 25th and 26th tracks on the video of How High The Moon, below. Given the state of the art of audio recording at the time, I always wondered how you could re-record that many times and not have more static and noise than music. Les Paul and Mary Ford were wildly popular in the early 1950's and Wiki says they sold 6 million records in one year. Their music went out of style as the 1960's loomed. The two divorced early in that decade. Although most of us never heard Mary without Les Paul playing behind her, I chose to label this post with her name because without her voice the team would have not been as popular. Or rich. Here's what was probably their most popular hit, Vaya Con Dios. And I remember being swept away by the music at age nine (?) when Grandma brought the 78 rpm record home from Woolworth's on Genesee Street and played it on our Zenith Console radio and record player. Here's How High The Moon, a favorite. And if you think that video clip was dull, try this one, a snippet of a (hopefully) short-lived television program. The Listerine commercial in the middle of the clip is risible, but the guitar playing is terrific, as usual. Here's Les Paul and Mary Ford with Alastair Cooke on an early Omnibus program.
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Post by keith on Mar 6, 2011 13:10:04 GMT -5
Les Paul bought the first Ampex 5258 recorder in 1957 for $10,000. At least one account I've read said it was customed designed for him (As a benchmark, in 1957 my father was an electrical engineer with 7 years experience. That would have been about 2 years salary for him.) The machine was the size of a refrigerator and recorded 8 tracks on 1 inch tape.
Using "sound with sound" and recording one track at a time 8 tracks could have recorded in the first generation. Paul invented the "sound on sound" technique which put a playback head ahead of the erase head so that the signal from a previously recorded track could be mixed with a new track and recorded. Thus the second generation could give you an effective 16 tracks of recording. One more generation could give you 24 tracks and the rich sound they had and still keep tape noise to an acceptable level.
I'm confused by the tape machines shown in the video. They appear to be 2 half inch tape machines running simultaneously, synchronizing those would have been a real ( & reel)headache.
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Post by Dave on Mar 6, 2011 21:34:25 GMT -5
Probably the reel-to-reel recorders were used as props. I'm sure Les didn't want to move the machine out of his basement (or wherever his studio was.) Chet Atkins' studio was supposedly in his basement. Mary appears to be lip sync-ing and she was no where near the mic to effect the close-in sound she used. Wasn't that Alistair Cooke, the Brit who did BBC's Letter From America each week on the World Service and also Masterpiece Theater and other shows as host/narrator?
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Post by Dave on Mar 7, 2011 8:39:50 GMT -5
Michael BubléWiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bubl%C3%A9This young man is the most talented singer to come along in a quite a while, although I no longer follow the music scene. My favorite songs of his are the Frank Sinatra tunes, and indeed on some of them he sounds like a young Sinatra. This first is not from the 40's, however. Here's a late Sinatra from the '60s cover. Buble's opening comment has me wondering if he's gay, although I don't see where it matters. John Wayne could have been gay for all I know or care. Here's a favorite. I've liked this song since I was a kid and Buble does a nice job with it. If I ran a theatre or club I'd ban every teen age girl who tried to get through the door, or tape her mouth shut. I remember borrowing a copy of Lord Of the Dance and having to sit through the incessant screaming of young girls for the entire performance. I find it quite annoying, but I guess that's obvious.
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Post by keith on Mar 9, 2011 8:17:27 GMT -5
A couple versions of Gloriana's new song.
Although I'm not a regular follower of country music I do enjoy this group. Probably because I still remember Tom & Mike Gossin as kids playing Little League baseball with my son.
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Post by Dave on Mar 9, 2011 16:49:16 GMT -5
They have a nice sound. Almost a crossover.
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Post by Dave on Mar 10, 2011 19:13:39 GMT -5
The Allman Brothers BandOne of my all time favorite groups ... no matter who was playing in it from time to time ... is the Allman Brothers Band. In this first selection Dicky Betts (picking) looks beat and Warren Haynes (slide) actually looks presentable. Later videos show a reversal in their personal presentations. But nothing beats the way these guys play. And I am always amazed how Warren gets each note right on, like sliding into home plate. And I think the band was an early user of three percussion guys ... Three! The blond balding guy is Butch Trucks, Derek's uncle. Here's Blue Sky. I always get a kick out of this tape. Dicky and Warren do a great job while Greg Allman almost falls asleep at his organ. I imagine when they showed up at the Tonight Show studios, someone must have decided they would mute Greg's keys. No matter, it doesn't appear he was even trying to play. Word is he's getting along well with his newly transplanted liver. Here's the short version of Jessica. Greg is in better shape here singing one of my favorites, Statesboro Blues. This is the latest version of the Band with Derek Trucks ... an absolutely terrific guitar player, slide or finger pick. Derek has his own band, which I'll get to some morning, and also plays with his wife's band. She is Susan Tedeschi. Here's Greg doing a nice version of Dreams. Go to Youtube and search on the Allman Brothers. There's a treasure trove of good sound there if you look long enough. I copied about a dozen Allman videos with pretty decent audio quaity to my SanDisk Sansa. I use YouTube Downloader to download and convert to mp3. And pure coincidence ... look what's in this morning's NY Times !artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/after-a-year-away-a-homecoming-for-the-allmans/
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Post by keith on Mar 17, 2011 5:39:49 GMT -5
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Post by Dave on Mar 17, 2011 15:22:41 GMT -5
Hey, that's the Pogues and what's-his-name!
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Post by keith on Mar 17, 2011 22:59:12 GMT -5
Yes although he is not completely gone to rack & ruin so I assume it's an earlier video.
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Post by Dave on Mar 18, 2011 6:44:59 GMT -5
Yup. Probably too much prune juice.
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Post by Dave on Mar 21, 2011 9:49:01 GMT -5
Keith! I'm losing my memory and can't find the Youtube video of the Mexican rock group I included in one of the MonkInTheCellar posts. Do you remember it? Took place in a church, an odd place for a rock video, but evidently not south of the border. I can't think of single term with which to search the blog.
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