In a moment of clarity during my haze of tryptophan and Lions' victory, I realized I hadn't written my annual Thanksgiving post. The past year has been pretty good, so here's what I'm thankful for...Go Lions!
* My family
* My friends
* Sweet Moses ice cream shop
* The Roderick on the Line podcast
* Judge John Hodgman
* Seeing John Hodgman perform
* John Hodgman signing my copy of "Areas of My Expertise"
* The Trews by Russell Brand
* Record Den
* Lucky Records
* Square Records
* Centro-matic reissuing Redo The Stack on LP
* Arrow- the TV show
* Franz Kafka
* Bacon
* Not being killed by a cop
* those stupid quizzes on facebook
* Miguel Cabrerra
* Megatron
* Andre Drummond
* Pavel Datsyuk
* Guided by Voices
* Centro-matic
* Courtney Barnett
* MST3K Turkey Day Marathon
* Tanqueray No. 10
* My wife who loves me despite all my non-sense and record buying. And she makes a mean Tom Collins.
Seriously, meeting John Hodgman was both the most exciting and most mortifying thing that happened to me this year. I've posted before about my anxiety regarding asking someone for their autograph and how I've only done it once in my life. When it was my turn to have him sign my book, I froze up and mumbled incoherently about liking his podcast and thanked him for introducing me to the Roderick on the Line podcast. He couldn't have been nicer, but it was awkward. At least I didn't ask him what he thought of the hobo name I came up with; Tom Collins the Setlist Spoiler. Peace.
A Living Will For My Music Collection
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy
When it was announced that the Led Zeppelin catalog was being remastered and reissued on 180 gram vinyl I was annoyed, but not surprised. It was inevitable during the great vinyl revival of the 2010's that record labels would cash in on this opportunity to resell albums by classic artists. Hell, The Beatles have already done it twice with the releases of the 2009 stereo remasters on vinyl and then the recent mono versions. Now don't get me wrong, I love that there is a resurgence in vinyl sales and I'm glad this stuff is available. I'm mainly annoyed with myself. I knew I could be strong and resist buying the Led Zeppelin reissues...until they reached my Zeppelin wheelhouse of Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti and Presence. Here's the thing. When I was a kid, I bought all the Zeppelin albums on cassette through the Columbia House record club. This format lasted me until last year when our basement flooded and my cassettes were destroyed. My friend Mike came to my rescue and sold me his old Zeppelin CD box sets, so it was all good. The cool thing about the box sets is they aren't in album order. So it's like having the Zeppelin catalog on shuffle. The drawback is sometimes you want to listen to Houses of the Holy. So, when this announcement was made, I knew Houses of the Holy would be Tom's Last Stand and I'd be buying buying their catalog again.
My other minor annoyance is with the marketing. Why can't they just reissue the albums as they were originally intended? But no, let's have Jimmy Page dig through the vault for any never before heard demos and alternate versions so we can sell deluxe editions. Well, I don't play that. I was at the record store shortly after the first batch of reissues came out and they were playing the deluxe edition of Led Zeppelin I. What I heard was Zeppelin songs where Jimmy Page hadn't worked out the solo yet and the lyrics hadn't been finalized. Jimmy crack corn and I don't care. But if you're the guy who's into that sort of thing then free market capitalism wins again.
So, after a few moments of hesitation over buying an LP with bare-assed Aryan children climbing around on rocks on the cover, I picked up the Houses of the Holy reissue. When I dropped the needle on "The Song Remains The Same" and Jimmy, Bonzo and John Paul Jones kick in it sounded exquisite. I seriously can't stress enough how good Zeppelin on 180 gram vinyl sounds. Admittedly, I'm weird, but Houses of the Holy is my favorite Zeppelin album. Physical Graffiti makes a strong case, but suffers a little from double LP syndrome. If it were distilled down to the best ten songs it would possibly be the best album of all time. When I was younger, ZOSO was my favorite, but like most people I developed a severe case of "Stairway" fatigue. Tremendous song, but I can go a long time without hearing it. I won't bore you by rehashing the songs on Houses. They are all classics that anyone reading Sound Mind knows inside out. I love the great moments though, like Page's strumming on "Over the Hills and Far Away", the lyrical imagery of "No Quarter" and the opening riff of "The Ocean". My favorite song in the set is "Dancing Days" which includes the fantastically bizarre line "I saw a lion, he was standing alone with a tadpole in a jar". Great line, but if anyone knows what that means, please let me know.
I really feel that Houses of the Holy captures Zeppelin at the zenith of their songwriting prowess. Every member of the band delivers the best performance of their career, especially John Paul Jones. Not only is he a monster on bass, but his keyboard and arranging skills are unearthly. I can hardly wait for the releases of Physical Graffiti and Presence. Now, where's that confounded bridge? Peace.
My other minor annoyance is with the marketing. Why can't they just reissue the albums as they were originally intended? But no, let's have Jimmy Page dig through the vault for any never before heard demos and alternate versions so we can sell deluxe editions. Well, I don't play that. I was at the record store shortly after the first batch of reissues came out and they were playing the deluxe edition of Led Zeppelin I. What I heard was Zeppelin songs where Jimmy Page hadn't worked out the solo yet and the lyrics hadn't been finalized. Jimmy crack corn and I don't care. But if you're the guy who's into that sort of thing then free market capitalism wins again.
So, after a few moments of hesitation over buying an LP with bare-assed Aryan children climbing around on rocks on the cover, I picked up the Houses of the Holy reissue. When I dropped the needle on "The Song Remains The Same" and Jimmy, Bonzo and John Paul Jones kick in it sounded exquisite. I seriously can't stress enough how good Zeppelin on 180 gram vinyl sounds. Admittedly, I'm weird, but Houses of the Holy is my favorite Zeppelin album. Physical Graffiti makes a strong case, but suffers a little from double LP syndrome. If it were distilled down to the best ten songs it would possibly be the best album of all time. When I was younger, ZOSO was my favorite, but like most people I developed a severe case of "Stairway" fatigue. Tremendous song, but I can go a long time without hearing it. I won't bore you by rehashing the songs on Houses. They are all classics that anyone reading Sound Mind knows inside out. I love the great moments though, like Page's strumming on "Over the Hills and Far Away", the lyrical imagery of "No Quarter" and the opening riff of "The Ocean". My favorite song in the set is "Dancing Days" which includes the fantastically bizarre line "I saw a lion, he was standing alone with a tadpole in a jar". Great line, but if anyone knows what that means, please let me know.
I really feel that Houses of the Holy captures Zeppelin at the zenith of their songwriting prowess. Every member of the band delivers the best performance of their career, especially John Paul Jones. Not only is he a monster on bass, but his keyboard and arranging skills are unearthly. I can hardly wait for the releases of Physical Graffiti and Presence. Now, where's that confounded bridge? Peace.
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