Spotify, Pandora, Kindle, CDs and Books

Posted on by
Reply

A few months ago I posed the rhetorical question “Have I really bought my last cd?”.

For the best part of six moths I happily went along listening to Spotify and Pandora as a paid subscriber. I discovered new music and old favourites. Amazingly convenient and almost no song not available. Rented music seemed the answer to my almost insatiable love of music.

Then a few weeks ago I had a change of heart sparked by a chance listening to a radio program with The Beatles biographer, Mark Lewisohn which sparked a desire to listen to The Beatles from start to finish and I wanted to own them, not rent them.

So it was back to the CD Shop and a resumption of a long term passion of purchasing music again. It was like running into an old friend. Seeing what was new, browsing the CD racks for something interesting and then the bargain bins with each visit usually resulting in a purchase. The result is that since purchasing The Beatles Boxed Set I have bought a few more CDs and it’s been fun. I doubt I will buy as many CDs as I did in the past, but I know for sure that my love for owning my music burns deep. Renting is convenient but just not the same.

The same chance listening to the radio

Continue reading →

Dr Who – 50 Years

Posted on by
Reply

Just been for a wander around my office to discuss the upcoming 50th Anniversary of Dr Who.

The excitement is building. I had managed to contain it until a family dinner last night where it seemed next Sunday’s ( we are in Australia) 50th Anniversary episode of Dr Who was the only topic of conversation.

We covered the important questions. Who is your favourite Doctor? What was your favourite adventure? Can there ever be a better assistant than Romana? It easily filled a whole family dinner!

Well here are some of my answers.

I always like the current Doctor best. As a poster on the BBC’s #savetheday site says it’s OK to have a favourite and like them all.

The Key to Time series was definitely my favourite, although Blink was fantastic.

No, there can’t be a better assistant than Romana, although I have a super soft spot for each of Sarah-Jane, Rose and Amy Pond.

Funnily enough there wasn’t agreement on much of this over dinner.

As a survivor of Dr Who since the beginning, I can’t believe that it’s been fifty years since my sister and I first started watching from behind the lounge chair, something one of our daughters also did when she was little. She still says Dr Who gives her nightmares.

Just a few more days and it will be up early to watch the Day of the Doctor. It’s going to be awesome!

The Beatles – Boxed Set and a Book

Posted on by
Reply

A few nights ago I was lying in bed listening to Overnights on the ABC and was captivated by Rod Qunin’s interview with Mark Lewisohn the author of a new Beatles biography, The Beatles: Tune In. I lay there completely captivated by the story of the group that like so many others had introduced me to music.

The book is the first part of a trilogy and it’s a healthy 980 pages as I found out when I went into Dymocks to buy it. I accompanied that purchase with the digitally remastered boxed set of The Beatles fourteen album set. Whilst I already owned many of the albums on CD and vinyl, I didn’t have them all, so the purchase was at least partially based on logic!

Abbey Road was the first LP I ever bought. I remember purchasing it with money given to me by my grandparents, who seemed not so much horrified that I was buying a Beatles record but that it cost $5.20. It must have been in late 1969 or early 1970. That started a love affair with music and The Beatles.

I am only a few pages into the book and enjoying learning about their family background and formative years. So many insights.

Walking to work, at work, the gym and at home, I have listened to The Beatles all week focussing on the early years. The joy of it. I started with Please Please Me a couple of listens and then onto With The Beatles, and Beatles For Sale, an album I always realise is better than I remembered. From there it was A Hard Days Night and Help. I’m just loving it.

When I started this post I didn’t plan to write about the individual songs thinking my focus would be on the the complete album. Well at least that was what I was thinking until Yesterday. It’s true classic, in its own way euphoric. Through a week’s listening to these early albums over and over again, enjoying each and everyone of them, Yesterday stands apart.

The Beatles music in this period seems simple and not at all pretentious. Hit after Hit, Love Song after Love Song. A collection of amazing songs driven off the back of the modern era’s greatest writing partnership Lennon and McCartney.

Whether next week is a progression to Rubber Soul and beyond remains an open question. For now it’s back to Help.

Second Valley, South Australia

Posted on by
Reply

20131020-092744.jpg

Second Valley is located on the western shore of Fleurieu Peninsula and is surely one of the most beautiful spots in South Australia. The natural beauty of the undulating hills and the rugged coastline is always picturesque whether seen in the dry of summer or the green of winter.

So says Ron Blum as he opens his book The Second Valley A History of Second Valley South Australia

It was during the public ride for the Tour Down Under that I really discovered Second Valley. A day which was so far beyond hot it didn’t matter. I had cramp early in the ride not surprising given it was 40c plus and which made all of the hills a major challenge. The road was melting under my wheels!

I reached Leonard’s Mill and sat in the shade simply to recover before attempting yet another hill. One which on a normal day would have been simple. While I was sitting there a group of locals rolled out of the pub after a cold beer and had a chat. I must have looked quite a sight!

20131020-171825.jpg

In any event, I took a mental note of the place as we searched for a new beach house. We had a place at Aldinga but Continue reading →

Shivers Down My Spine

Posted on by
Reply

My test of a beautiful song is whether it sends shivers down my spine.

It is not necessarily mainstream classics that cause my shivers, but more the relationship to a special time or person.

Songs like the Corrs Runawy with its beautiful harmonies and classic Irish folk style or Deep Blue Something’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s with its guitars are gorgeous songs, but there are so many more.

Yesterday, an all time classic written and sung by Paul McCartney is one of the great songs, with its beautiful guitar opening and mellow vocals.

Glenn Campbell’s version of the Jimmy Webb written Galveston is amazing. Jimmy Webb’s lyrics are so powerful, an anti-war classic sung in military time, making it all the more poignant.

Somebody’s Baby by Jackson Browne a song that makes me think of my wife each and every time I hear it. Shivers down the spine and a smile on my face.

It so also hard to go past Leaving on a Jet Plane. I love both the Peter Paul and Mary and Chantel Kreviazuk’s versions however it is always John Denver’s version that sends shivers down my spine. I saw John Denver at Adelaide Oval play this song with a close friend whose father had recently died and as Denver played the tears just gushed down my friend’s face.

There are so many Joni Mitchell songs that I love but it’s Free Man in Paris that fits this bill best. Jose Feliciano’s opening guitar is awesome, but it’s the memory of a day on my own where

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favours

as I wandered down the Champs Élysées. An amazing day the memory of which is rekindled every time I hear the song.

Walking in Memphis and the words

“Tell me are you a Christian Child?”
And I said “Ma’am I am tonight”

does it every time.

So there are some examples of beautiful songs that send a shiver done my spine but of all of them it is Anne Hathaway’s version of I Dreamed a Dream which truly stands out, it is simply emotionally raw and beautiful.