What are you listening to?

[JackStraw]

8 hours ago, John Gallup said:

Not by me, but I'm a big Jorma (and Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) fanboy, enjoyed his autobiography, followed his on-line quarantine concerts, etc. The first track ("Genesis") mixes fingerstyle guitar and strings in an unexpectedly beautiful way.

Yep! Based on your recommendation John, I picked up the same autobiography. Good stuff👌👌

[bkeske]

17 hours ago, BKDad said:

 

50th Anniversary Edition - the live stuff.

After all these years, Workingman’s may just be my all time favorite Dead album. Perhaps the time for me, I dunno, but the essence of what the Dead was….to me, personally.

[bkeske]

Back to the Szell section of my racks….before a new chamber performance by members of the Berlin Philharmonic today….

 

[John Gallup]

32 minutes ago, JackStraw said:

Yep! Based on your recommendation John, I picked up the same autobiography. Good stuff👌👌

There's some filler material in there, but a lot of wonderful photos, and the guy has lived one heck of an interesting life.

 

[BKDad]

37 minutes ago, bkeske said:

After all these years, Workingman’s may just be my all time favorite Dead album. Perhaps the time for me, I dunno, but the essence of what the Dead was….to me, personally.

I especially like the live recordings from around that time.  The latest remasters using the Plangent Processes system sound pretty good to me.  Who says all digital is bad?

[bkeske]

17 minutes ago, BKDad said:

I especially like the live recordings from around that time.  The latest remasters using the Plangent Processes system sound pretty good to me.  Who says all digital is bad?

I have that one on vinyl. Are you thinking of this? 

 

 

 

 

 

[bkeske]

or this

Or this

Or this

😀

[BKDad]

Several of those albums have been redone using the Plangent Processes system.  To me, they sound better and more like the real thing.  Real thing meaning a plausible recreation of the original performance limited by the size of the playback venue - our living room.  Of course, you need Vandersteen loudspeakers to really appreciate this.  🙂

The digital versions have extra live tracks from various shows from around the time period when the albums were originally released.  I very much like those.

 Jamie Howarth has described the Plangent system in a bunch of interviews, some with audiophile type magazines.  Pretty clever idea and execution.  There's tons of distortions built into recordings on the very best of machines and Plangent cleans them up.  They do this not by filtering, but by fixing the time domain signature through locking to the tape bias signal originally imprinted on the tape while recording.  (I guess that's technically a filter, but not in the way most audio enthusiasts think of.)

For anybody interested, here is a video interview:

Jamie Howarth

[bkeske]

@BKDad All three of the above are new, and replaced my originals. All the 50th Anniversary reissues, and as you say, sound great.

I need to pick up the 50th Workingman’s.

Thanks for that link 👍🏼

[bkeske]

I believe a 50th From the Mars Hotel was recently released too. Another fav,

[JackStraw]

2 hours ago, bkeske said:

I have that one on vinyl. Are you thinking of this? 

 

 

 

 

 

I picked up the reissue of this last year. Real good sound and the Hard to Handle is hard to beat! 

[JackStraw]

1 hour ago, bkeske said:

@BKDad All three of the above are new, and replaced my originals. All the 50th Anniversary reissues, and as you say, sound great.

I need to pick up the 50th Workingman’s.

Thanks for that link 👍🏼

The Workman’s on 45 (Mobile Fidelity) does not disappoint! Same with American Beauty. 

[bkeske]

7 minutes ago, JackStraw said:

I picked up the reissue of this last year. Real good sound and the Hard to Handle is hard to beat! 

Seems a forgotten gem. 
 

[bkeske]

More Szell/Cleveland. IMO, a very underrated symphony.

[GdnrBob]

Mr. Szell, made a first class orchestra in Cleveland. I remember many of his CBS recordings that still haunt me.- Especially, Mozart.

bob

[John Gallup]

5 hours ago, bkeske said:

or this

Or this

The Dead played the ballroom of Purdue University Memorial Union 18 April 1969, while I was a student there, and thanks to the miracle of the internet sound of the entire concert seems to be available on Youtube, at who knows what level of quality. The opening act was a blues band from the U of Illinois area called the Finchley Boys. The Dead had so many amps that the normal electrical system in the ballroom couldn't hook everything up.

They were great, but I don't remember the set list--I'm sure it's out there on the internet. Pigpen was still alive, I think. I was so inspired that I went and bought "Live/Dead" shortly thereafter, immersing myself and my friends and my future wife in "Dark Star" and the other deliberately obscure Robert Hunter lyrics. I had no idea at the time but apparently it's about as good a live album as the Dead (or maybe anybody) ever made.

[bkeske]

Pig was definitely alive John. He didn’t really start taking a ‘backseat’ until Godchaux was hired, and became a fixture during the Europe 72 tour. Pig died in 1973, RIP. But prior to that, he was a very important piece, in fact, all the band members wanted Pig to be the front man for the Dead in the beginning post Warlocks, which he was never comfortable with. Jerry kinda took that role, by default.

Interesting enough, after all these years, I know realize how well the Dead albums were engineered and recorded, but really didn’t show itself until I got better equipment, and their music sounded better along with it. I sit and listen to Workingman’s Dead and amazed by the high SQ that LP has, still.

Edited July 6 by bkeske

[BKDad]

I recently bought the 50th Anniversary redo of American Beauty.  This is a high res digital version, with all the live show additions.

While listening to it on my computer playback system - not Vandersteens! - it struck me that the music industry sure went astray after the 70’s or so.  Not just for rock and pop music, but for most everything.  (I say most because I’m not a rap aficionado, so it’s not fair for me to comment on that genre.)

[GdnrBob]

12 hours ago, BKDad said:

- it struck me that the music industry sure went astray after the 70’s or so.

I blame it on Dolby

Bob

[bkeske]

Happy birthday Gustav. In celebration, I’m pulling this CD box, as jumping between LP’s will be a chore, plus, it is an excellent set. 

[BKDad]

4 hours ago, GdnrBob said:

I blame it on Dolby

Bob

That could be.  I'm not qualified to make any sort of judgement on that, but the timing is right.

This is a really good topic for conversation.  To me, there's two aspects to this.  One is the business of music and recordings.  The other is the technical details of producing music and recording it.  But, probably not a good topic for this thread...

[Jackstraw75]

Mr. Bojangles performed at a radio station circa 68 or so.  Audio is good/emotion/performance is 👌👌

Edited July 8 by Jackstraw75
Update

[Mike Goetz]

A truly great audiophile recording!
Lyn Stanley, Black Dress Ballads, AT Music LLC, 3 LP, 45 RPM One-Step recording.

 

[Mike Goetz]

On 7/6/2024 at 12:15 PM, bkeske said:

After all these years, Workingman’s may just be my all time favorite Dead album. Perhaps the time for me, I dunno, but the essence of what the Dead was….to me, personally.

A great album and a favorite, although American Beauty is still my absolute favorite!

Edited July 8 by Mike Goetz

[Steve Edwards]

On 7/6/2024 at 9:15 AM, bkeske said:

After all these years, Workingman’s may just be my all time favorite Dead album. Perhaps the time for me, I dunno, but the essence of what the Dead was….to me, personally.

Brian, I'm a big fan of it as well.  That and American Beauty.  While most Dead Heads prefer their live records, I think the studio material was excellent in its own right.  What I seldom (if ever) hear discussed is the quality of vocal harmony that Jerry and Bob laid down.  They're not Lennon & McCartney, but IMHO, very good, particularly on the two aforementioned records.