I had the original first edition vinyl pressing...have you heard the bear family Flatt & Scruggs box with this album in stereo?...it's as good or if not better...
Cool, I haven't gone further than the first three albums with the Pretenders but should check out the rest sometime. I have liked the few later songs that I've heard.
Saw Doc Watson in college at a small club about a year after Merle's death. He had another young cat accompanying him and he would occasionally slip up and call him Merle and then apologize. What a tremendous talent. Anytime I've had a bad night of sleep, I'm always reminded of his line "the way I been sleepin', my back and shoulders tired..." Wore out his greatest hits cassette.
Been a while since my last post.So its time for a update. 1.The 5 Royales The Complete Singles 1952-1962 and as I suspected every song is GREAT! Will be all over this for quite a while.So much wonderful music on this set.
I LOVE DOC! I jammed with Doc twice...when I first met him his handshake was very sincere. a gentle pleasant fellow...I was honored.
"Cuban Slide" is a must! If you go the vinyl route you can get it on the 1981 5-track mini-album Extended Play. Alternatively, you could get the 2CD Rhino expanded version of the debut on which "Cuban Slide" and "Porcelain" open the bonus disc. ...and no, I don't only love it just because it starts with that Bo Diddley/NFA beat that our GD heroes played so often (but it doesn't hurt).
James Honeyman-Scott is one of my favorites. That sound! Country, yet urban. Twangy, but really more sophisticated than twangy. You do not get that sound at her shows anymore, at least not as of Break Up The Concrete, I think it was called. For me, things really started to go south with Get Close. That was the last one I bought. If any of her later albums are good, I wouldn't know though because I haven't really heard them.
Re: Early Beatles The Silver Beetles > The Beatles Disheveled, greasy-haired, black-clothes wearin' rockers > cute, mod-haircut, suit wearin' poppers ...in other words.
As an aside, I love playing/singing " 'Til There was You" on the guitar. Some lovely chords on that one.
I really disslike the early stereo panning. Mono up to '67 for me. Sgt Pepper and White Album works either way.
Very cool! Where and when did you play with the Doc? Do you know about this release? It really is fantastic! Doc & Merle Watson: Never the Same Way Once – Live at the Boarding House – May 1974
I saw him once in '96 or '97 at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa, great show. Always loved his Southbound album that I discovered through a college roommate. The recent Owsley recording release is fantastic as well.
Keeping the Pretenders thing going with the MoFi SACD of Pretenders II tonight. Point re: Cuban Slide duly noted. I will see whether I find a used copy of the 2-CD version of the debut or the vinyl version of the EP first, don't think I really need to do a deep dive into the bonus tracks otherwise but open to more suggestions. I will say this, I don't subscribe to the notion that II is much of a drop off from the debut.
Viva el Amor and Break Up the Concrete are both, at least in my opinion, just as good or even better than Learning to Crawl. I think that it is better. The one-two punch of those harsh opening tracks and that sequence of track 3 to 11 that is pure pop perfection. In fact, the album is so great that they had to include that abomination "Louie Louie" to conclude the whole thing in such a way that they would actually be able to follow it
I have absolutely no problem with that, my friend. As long as I can keep on hating it with a passion Seriously, I think that the songwriting on both of those are about equal, but that perhaps the sequencing has a better flow on II.
