Blog

Reading Greil Marcus’ The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs. I’ve read most of his books over the years (starting with the indispensable Mystery Train), and what I find thrilling about his writing is the way he seamlessly combines deep knowledge with unbridled imagination.

The chapter on Buddy Holly (“Crying, Waiting, Hoping: 1959/1969”) is the best thing I’ve ever read on that artist. “1969” alludes to the Beatles’ attempt, in the studio, at playing the Holly songs that inspired them to start a band in the first place — as their band was falling apart. “A Day in the Life” has a big part in the chapter too. The whole ten-year story, as Marcus tells it, is heartbreaking.

Great interview in the new Tape Op (#129) with Teri Landi, curator of the huge ABKCO Records tape archives. Especially the info about Cameo-Parkway recordings, like how there was often gobs of reverb on the tapes that almost disappeared in the transition to 45s.

Hal Blaine’s drumming on “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)” ❤️

Wanted a decent, inexpensive pair of powered monitors for everyday listening, so I got these Presonus Eris 3.5s. Very pleased! They’ll be useful for mix-checking, too.

Listening to Schaun Tozer’s OST for Mighty Jerome. A lot of his stuff is jazzy, but this (like Intelligence) has an electronic edginess to it that I love.

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
the narrator of Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

The professional blogging sites (and courses, and books) say the savvy blogger should become an expert at something. No, more precisely, you should be perceived to be an expert. I’m not an expert at anything, even the things I love. I love = amateur.

Experts (the real ones, not the “perceived as” types) burrow as deeply as possible into a topic, whether it’s early punk music, or JFK conspiracy theories, or vintage motorcycles… they know the whole history, the tiniest details — and we need these people; they write the histories. And don’t get me wrong, they love their subjects; they all started out as amateurs.

I’ve just never had the inclination to be an expert on any one topic, or a “critic" for that matter. I hope that my writing here (especially about music) comes across more as appreciation, from the heart of an amateur.

As I said earlier, this isn’t an “oldies music blog” (first few posts notwithstanding). It’s not really a “music blog” either, although I’ll probably write more about music than about any other topic. One big area I want to explore is Mindfulness, particularly from a Buddhist perspective. Although, I’d never call myself “a Buddhist.”

Listen to Hal Blaine’s drumming on the “quiet” parts of The Mamas & the Papas’ “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)”. No wonder the Wrecking Crew got the big bucks back then. BTW, this is a song I can put on repeat for an hour and still want to listen again. Perfect.