I advise all of you to have an older sibling, preferably one with impeccable taste and unassailable opinions, to attend to your musical education, turn you into a discerning listener, quiz you on the details of records, and schlep you to historic concerts. As mine did. Hence: Motown, Sam Cooke, Spector, Dion, British invaders, Dylan, all show up (or will, eventually) in my collection. Let's be ...
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Married ten years and we've never merged record collections (and now we can't anyway, as he's transferred all of his to digital). When we met, friends said things like, "Oh, great, you both like music." Ha. I used to work at a magazine that ran stories about couples' relationship crises, and the couple, in recounting how they met, would inevitably say something like "We both liked barbecue and ...
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Who remembers Rock Follies and Rock Follies of 77? (I know two Moggers who do.) It was a terrific Brit miniseries (and sequel; 12 eps in all) about a girl pop trio, the Little Ladies, and their relationships, the music business, etc. I bought the CDs only recently, seeing that my VHS copies of the series are gathering dust in a closet (and you need a multi-region DVD player to watch the DVDs). ...
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Here's what Rosanne Cash and I have in common: We were born in the same year, we live in New York City, and we lost our fathers in the not-too-distant past. Our backgrounds probably couldn't be more distant, but that last connection is crucial. It's why I love Black Cadillac, her meditation on/tribute to the lives and deaths of her dad, mom, and stepmother. These songs are spare and true and te...
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It's March 7, 1963. The following musicians walk into a recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: John Coltrane (tenor sax); McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Elvin Jones (drums); Johnny Hartman (vocals).They record six songs:They Say It's Wonderful (5:15)Dedicated To You (5:27)My One and Only Love (4:50)Lush Life (5:20)You Are Too Beautiful (5:32)Autumn Serenade (4:11)(There ...
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I usually get a bit grinch-y at this time of year: The gaudy decorations and endless ads and noise-noise-noise-are all too much, and I'd like to go into a store without hearing holiday treacle leaking out of the speakers. That said, there are some songs I don't mind, and some I'm very partial to. ("A Christmas Song" isn't here; I love Nat Cole to pieces, but not for that.) *Two that are sad and wi
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Before we hooked up the gizmo that lets you play your iPod in the car ('92 model, cassette deck, no CD player), we used to listen to oldies on CBS-FM (101.1) till we lost the signal, then to a cassette or two, and then, when we got to the Hartford area, I'd slide the dial up to 102.9, WDRC ("dreck," haha), with a similar oldies format. (There's something comforting about that.) I liked CBS (thi...
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I've done freelance work for a bridal magazine. These magazines regularly publish handy little stories with suggestions for wedding music: processional, first dance, dance with your dad/mom, throwing the bouquet (shudder), and so on and on. The lists are usually lumpy combinations of the traditional, the so-hip, the ewwww and the I-have-no-idea ("Butterfly Kisses"?)--"Wind Beneath My Wings" oft...
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