...is on the air!

My blog is of anything that pops into this brain of mine as well as what pops into other bloggers brains! If I read something I find interesting, I'll add it to mine and give credit, where credit is due!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

My 1973 Rock Ola 452 Console Jukebox







Turntable and arm with cartridge and needle. ^


This is the selector mechanism. ^


Back of selector mechanism, ^

Underside of glass showcase (where the selector buttons are and the title strips).^

A record just placed on turntable. ^ I hope to figure out how to get a video made of the whole thing working.

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Albim covers # 42!

1983 - U2, War

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Album covers #43!

1979 - Talking Heads, Fear of Music

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Imagine

Imagine what life would be like with John Lennon still in it.... Not that he's not surviving through his message of love and peace and through the genius of his music.... No, I mean, really alive and breathing the same oxygen as you and I.

The music he would be creating.... The love he'd be sharing with the world in interviews.... Two sons, knowing their father's love and growing up with him...

I hate this day.... Every year.

Here's a friend, Gary Landau, from 1981. He wrote and performed this. Gary is a Beatle fan and fellow Lennonite. He, as well, was/is heartbroken by the loss.
Goodbye, John - Gary Landau 1981

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Throwback products we love: Vinyl Records

Throwback Products We Love: Vinyl Records


By Diane Bullock Nov 30, 2010
 
The LP record. Those clunky, 12-inch discs of vinyl have inspired a god-like worship by audiophiles -- from John Cusak’s character in High Fidelity who organized his music collection not alphabetically, not chronologically, but autobiographically to Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock who shelled out $600 for a Beatles LP, rather than a $13 CD because they “sound better” to the characterization of Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, whose radio station studio and bedroom/home office were clogged, floor to ceiling, with the last ‘real’ records before the impending “death rattle, the last gasp, the last grope” of rock and roll music.


Four decades before Cameron Crowe had Bangs putting a nail in the coffin his record acquiring habit, RCA Victor was introducing the very first commercial vinyl record to the market. But the listening medium didn’t catch on until with the public until Columbia Records pioneered cost effective playback equipment and unveiled the 12-inch Long Play 33 1/3 RPM microgroove polyvinyl chloride record at a New York press conference in 1948.

The vinyl record would be the dominant mass market music medium for the next three-plus decades until the 1980s when cassette tapes started filling the shelves. But vinyl’s major popularity plunge came courtesy of Sony (SNE) and Philips’ (PHG) digitally recorded compact disc which proved far more portable, far less vulnerable to damage and, according to some, provided better fidelity. Vinyl records were officially ushered out of the marketplace by 1991 when the vast majority of copies of U2’s Achtung Baby were purchased on CD and Tower Records stores were holding final clearance sales on all vinyl merchandise, which comprised only 15 percent of total sales.

With the relatively recent advent of the Internet, the MP3 and the iPod (AAPL), the empire of the CD is experiencing a gradual overthrow. According to Billboard's senior chart manager and analyst Keith Caulfield, 44 million digital albums were purchased by July 2010, up four million from the previous year, while CD sales dropped by 33 million to 114 million. Online stores now predominate the retail music landscape with Apple’s iTunes store taking the biggest bite at 70% of the digital music market share. June 2009 saw an end of the brick and mortar record store era when the last Virgin Megastore chain in North America closed its doors.

Of course, not all of America’s music stores have turned their leases over to Pinkberry. And of the proud few that remain, an unexpected sales trend is in the works. Although common logic and practicality dictate that vinyl records should have gone the way of fellow technological dinosaurs the floppy disc, the beeper and its CD successor, the LP has managed to cement its place in the niche music consumer’s heart and stereo shelf.

While the vinyl record will never again be a heavyweight contender in the music retail industry, currently comprising only one percent of total album sales, it certainly deserves ‘comeback kid’ status. According to Nielsen SoundScan, sales of vinyl records actually increased by nearly one million units from 1.9 million in 2008 to 2.8 million in 2009 -- and those figures exclude independent shops and concert sales. (In 1980, at the height of vinyl's popularity, 322 million LPs were sold.) We’re seeing a resurgence of vinyl catalog reissues as well as a growing roster of artists firing up the vinyl presses for new releases. Some artists like Green Day are doing both. Last year the punk band re-released every record in their entire catalog on LP and then pressed their newest album, 21st Century Breakdown, on vinyl for its initial release. The Rolling Stones is also catering to the LP collector with a new all-vinyl limited edition box set of remastered recordings from 1964-1969, which will set fans back $265.

As long as there remains a market for vinyl records, a demand will coexist for the equipment on which to play them. Electronics companies like Sony and Pioneer hawk state-of-the-art automatic turntables while recreations of turn-of-the-century wood-accented cabinet models complete with modern digital conversion capability are the business of companies like Crosley. Even Pottery Barn (WSM) has gotten in on the vinyl action with a classic leather bound portable suitcase player that plays and digitizes 33, 45 and 78 rpm records into audio files.

The lasting appeal of the vinyl record extends beyond retro novelty item hipstertude into 100 percent uncompromising sound snobbery. There is a superior race of audio purists who insist that the most cleanly mastered compact disc could never rival the hiss, crackle and pop of its spiral-grooved counterpart. They’ll argue that there’s nothing like physically flipping through card jackets in record store bins, admiring the album art, removing the record from its paper sleeve and gingerly cradling its edges in their palms.

Besides, Stanley Goodspeed wouldn’t exactly get to hear "turn me on, dead man" on "Revolution 9" by hitting the rewind button on his iPod.
http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/vinyl-records-turntable-record-player-gift/11/30/2010/id/31349

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Album covers #44!


1973 - Bob Marley, Catch A Fire (original zippo cover above)

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Album covers #45!

1979 - Public Image Ltd., Metal Box



Friday, November 19, 2010

Sorry...

I've been busy, sick and uninspired lately... Bear with me and I'll find some good stuff to post!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Bond Girls: You Only Live Twice

Kissi Suzuki - Mie Hama



Aki - Akiko Wakabayashi

Ling - Tsai Chin

Helga Brandt - Karin Dorr

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Airchecks 10/9/10

Call ins for John Lennon birthday tributes I had on Saturday.













Saturday, October 9, 2010

For John's 70th birthday...

Happy Birthday, John....
We all love you and miss you here on Earth. Humanity needs you and your message of peace, now more than ever.
Ask God, that if he doesn't mind too much, to please send you back to do your work and see your family...
Happy Brithday, John....

Monday, October 4, 2010

Dana Delany




Rolling Stone's Top 100 Album covers #50!

1973 - Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy (click for larger pic)

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Album Covers #51!

1968 - Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland (original cover) click for larger pic
Front (variant cover)

Back (variant cover)

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Nothing

I'm at a loss...
Not sure what to put up here...
I'll have to get back to you....

Monday, September 6, 2010

Another, of the many way to deep clean your vinyl!

I have not tried this method yetm but it makes sense.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Bond Girls: Thunderball

Paula Caplan - Martine Beswick

Patricia Fearing - Molly Peters

Fiona Volpe - Luciana Paluzzi

Dominique Derval "Domino" - Claudine Auger

John Lennon: 'Gimme Some Truth'

(courtesy of Robert Benson Collecting Vinyl Records )
FULL TRACKLISTS AND COVER ART UNVEILED FOR EIGHT ALBUMS REMASTERED FROM LENNON'S ORIGINAL MIXES AND SEVERAL NEW COLLECTIONS TO BE RELEASED ON 4TH OCTOBER


Sweeping Catalogue Initiative Overseen by Yoko Ono and EMI Music Commemorates Lennon's 70th Birthday

LONDON, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- EMI Music unveils today the complete tracklists and cover art for a broad selection of remastered John Lennon albums and new collections to be released on CD and digitally on 4 October (5 October in North America). Announced last month, EMI Music's global John Lennon 'Gimme Some Truth' catalogue campaign is being overseen by Yoko Ono and commemorates the music legend's 70th birthday on 9 October, 2010. Featured in the sweeping initiative are eight remastered John Lennon solo albums and new titles including Double Fantasy Stripped Down, Power To The People: The Hits, Gimme Some Truth, and the John Lennon Signature Box.


For the first time, Lennon's classic solo albums and other standout recordings have been digitally remastered from his original mixes. Double Fantasy, 1980's GRAMMY Award winner for Album of the Year, will be presented with a newly remixed 'Stripped Down' version produced by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas, Lennon's original co-producers for the album. Some Time In New York City has been restored to include the six 'Live Jam' recordings featured on the original album.

The deluxe 11CD and digital John Lennon Signature Box includes 13 previously unreleased home recordings, and Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, and Julian Lennon have each written personal essays for the lavish collection.

The cover art for the new titles includes original drawings by Sean Lennon for Double Fantasy Stripped Down, while the cover of 1974's Walls and Bridges is restored to its original artwork.

John Lennon's life and music will be specially feted this fall with a variety of commemorative releases and events around the world. Please visit www.johnlennon.com for official announcements and updates.

Click Here to view all of the John Lennon cover art images.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE: THE HITS [CD; Digital]


1. Power To The People
2. Gimme Some Truth
3. Woman
4. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
5. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
6. Cold Turkey
7. Jealous Guy
8. #9 Dream
9. (Just Like) Starting Over
10. Mind Games
11. Watching The Wheels
12. Stand By Me
13. Imagine
14. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
15. Give Peace A Chance

POWER TO THE PEOPLE: THE HITS (EXPERIENCE EDITION) [CD/DVD]

CD (tracklist same as above)

DVD

1. Power To The People
2. Gimme Some Truth
3. Woman
4. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
5. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
6. Cold Turkey
7. Jealous Guy
8. #9 Dream
9. (Just Like) Starting Over
10. Mind Games
11. Watching The Wheels
12. Stand By Me
13. Imagine
14. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
15. Give Peace A Chance

GIMME SOME TRUTH [4CD; Digital]

Working Class Hero

1. Working Class Hero
2. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
3. Power To The People
4. God
5. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die
6. Gimme Some Truth
7. Sunday Bloody Sunday
8. Steel And Glass
9. Meat City
10. I Don't Wanna Face It
11. Remember
12. Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
13. I Found out
14. Isolation
15. Imagine
16. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
17. Give Peace A Chance
18. Only People

Woman

1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. You Are Here
4. Well Well Well
5. Oh My Love
6. Oh Yoko!
7. Grow Old With Me
8. Love
9. Jealous Guy
10. Woman
11. Out The Blue
12. Bless You
13. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
14. My Mummy's Dead
15. I'm Losing You
16. (Just Like) Starting Over
17. #9 Dream
18. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)

Borrowed Time

1. Mind Games
2. Nobody Told Me
3. Cleanup Time
4. Crippled Inside
5. How Do You Sleep?
6. How?
7. Intuition
8. I'm Stepping Out
9. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
10. Old Dirt Road
11. Scared
12. What You Got
13. Cold Turkey
14. New York City
15. Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)
16. Borrowed Time
17. Look At Me
18. Watching The Wheels

Roots

1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. You Can't Catch Me
3. Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
4. Tight A$
5. Ain't That a Shame
6. Sweet Little Sixteen
7. Do You Wanna Dance
8. Slippin' and Slidin'
9. Peggy Sue
10. Medley: Bring It On Home/Send Me Some Lovin'
11. Yer Blues (Live)
12. Just Because
13. Boney Moronie
14. Beef Jerky
15. Ya Ya
16. Hound Dog (Live)
17. Stand By Me
18. Here We Go Again

JOHN LENNON SIGNATURE BOX [11CD; Digital]

Original Albums [digitally remastered]

- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
- Imagine
- Some Time In New York City
- Mind Games
- Walls and Bridges
- Rock 'n' Roll
- Double Fantasy
- Milk and Honey

Home Tapes

1. Mother
2. Love
3. God
4. I Found Out
5. Nobody Told Me
6. Honey Don't
7. One Of The Boys
8. India, India
9. Serve Yourself
10. Isolation
11. Remember
12. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
13. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die

Singles

1. Power To The People
2. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
3. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
4. Cold Turkey
5. Move Over Ms. L
6. Give Peace a Chance

ORIGINAL ALBUMS (REMASTERED) [CD; Digital]

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. I Found Out
4. Working Class Hero
5. Isolation
6. Remember
7. Love
8. Well Well Well
9. Look At Me
10. God
11. My Mummy's Dead

Imagine (1971)

1. Imagine
2. Crippled Inside
3. Jealous Guy
4. It's So Hard
5. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die
6. Gimme Some Truth
7. Oh My Love
8. How Do You Sleep?
9. How?
10. Oh Yoko!

Some Time In New York City (1972)
DISC ONE

1. Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
2. Sisters, O Sisters
3. Attica State
4. Born In a Prison
5. New York City
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday
7. The Luck Of The Irish
8. John Sinclair
9. Angela
10. We're All Water

DISC TWO

1. Cold Turkey (live)
2. Don't Worry Kyoko (live)
3. Well (Baby Please Don't Go) (live)
4. Jamrag (live)
5. Scumbag (live)
6. Au (live)

Mind Games (1973)

1. Mind Games
2. Tight A$
3. Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
4. One Day (At A Time)
5. Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple)
6. Nutopian International Anthem
7. Intuition
8. Out The Blue
9. Only People
10. I Know (I Know)
11. You Are Here
12. Meat City

Walls and Bridges (1974)

1. Going Down On Love
2. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
3. Old Dirt Road
4. What You Got
5. Bless You
6. Scared
7. #9 Dream
8. Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)
9. Steel And Glass
10. Beef Jerky
11. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
12. Ya Ya

Rock 'n' Roll (1975)

1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. Stand By Me
3. Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
4. You Can't Catch Me
5. Ain't That A Shame
6. Do You Wanna Dance
7. Sweet Little Sixteen
8. Slippin' And Slidin'
9. Peggy Sue
10. Medley: Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin'
11. Bony Moronie
12. Ya Ya
13. Just Because

Double Fantasy Stripped Down (2010) / Double Fantasy (1980)

Stripped Down - Original Album, Remastered

1. (Just Like) Starting Over
2. Kiss Kiss Kiss
3. Cleanup Time
4. Give Me Something
5. I'm Losing You
6. I'm Moving On
7. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
8. Watching The Wheels
9. Yes, I'm Your Angel
10. Woman
11. Beautiful Boys
12. Dear Yoko
13. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
14. Hard Times Are Over

Milk and Honey (1984)

1. I'm Stepping Out
2. Sleepless Night
3. I Don't Wanna Face It
4. Don't Be Scared
5. Nobody Told Me
6. O'Sanity
7. Borrowed Time
8. Your Hands
9. (Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess
10. Let Me Count The Ways
11. Grow Old With Me
12. You're The One

SOURCE EMI Music : http://www.johnlennon.com/

Friday, August 20, 2010

Lovers of Covers

Iconic Rock ’n' Roll Images

By Ann Taylor (Aug 19, 2010 )

Before MP3s, CDs, cassette tapes, and even 8-tracks, there was vinyl. And during the reign of vinyl, album covers were high art, often rivaling the very music they encased.


Annie Liebovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, H.R. Giger, even Andy Warhol have put their hand to the design of album covers, the large format providing a perfect canvas for some of the most well-known images in the world.
But one of the most lasting impressions has been left by Storm Thorgerson, the man behind Pink Floyd album covers since 1968 — including the iconic Dark Side of the Moon — as well as covers for Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Steve Miller Band, Black Sabbath, and the Cranberries, among others. Currently showing at the San Francisco Art Exchange’s Lovers of Covers show are more than sixty prints of his celebrated works and several originals.

While Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon cover is undoubtedly Thorgerson’s most famous work, and perhaps the most famous album cover of all time, it is not particularly representative of his typical visual style — Lovers of Covers allows viewers to see that work within the broader context of Thorgerson’s overall ouevre.

Typical of Thorgerson’s work is a surreal, dreamlike quality as well as odd juxtapositions of objects in expansive landscapes, creating quite dramatic compositions, such as the cover for Disco Biscuit’s Planet Anthem. Four women, carefully wrapped in brown butcher paper and tied with string, are ranged across a sandy beach. Like packages of meat at the supermarket, their wrapped forms are inert yet promising, set off dramatically against a cloudless sky as a white sheet floats gently in the breeze.
Along similar lines is the art for The Cranberry’s Bury the Hatchet album, in which a lone naked man cowers in the desert, tiny mesas visible in the far distance behind him, a giant eye staring at him from above. The flatness of the desert and the expansiveness of the clear sky emphasize his nakedness, his vulnerability to the all-seeing eye. These Magritte-esque images seem to tap into nightmare worlds, framing them in desolation and unexpected blue skies.
Even Thorgerson’s more simple images reflect an unexpected complexity and masterful composition. The cover for Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma, for instance, looks, on the surface, like a picture of the band members casually relaxing in a doorway — scruffy, barefoot rock ’n’ rollers sitting around on a warm summer day. Yet, a second look reveals that the frame to the left of guitarist David Gilmour, who is slumped on a stool in the foreground, is a repeat of the same scene, stretching on into infinity like a reflection of a reflection in a mirror.

An even closer examination discloses a subtle change in each subsequent reframing of the scene: the band members are switching positions. Roger Waters now sits slumped on Gilmour’s stool, Nick Mason has taken Waters’ old position on the floor with knees bent, Richard Wright assumes Mason’s former standing pose with arms akimbo, and Gilmour now scissors his legs in the air in the background, where Wright is in the larger frame. And so on. It is little surprises like these that make even the mundane remarkable in Thorgerson’s work.

However, his covers are not just interesting but empty images; they also tend to point to an idea, a story, or even a joke (see the Steve Miller Band’s Let Your Hair Down, Baby cover). Most, if not all, of Thorgerson’s breathtaking compositions are backed by thoughtful concepts, and depict visual representations of those concepts, such as the artwork for The Mars Volta’s Frances the Mute album or Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder — you can read about them for yourself at the show.

Forty years of rock ’n’ roll history is bound up in stunning visuals in Lovers of Covers, reminding us of the power of the image even in the world of music. This show is not to be missed.

 
San Francisco Art Exchange
Through September 15th
Free