In praise of the 45 RPM 7-inch single!

In the days before the mp3 download, the most popular format for people to have their favorite hit songs at their disposal was the 7” vinyl 45 RPM single. Well, at least from about 1955 to about 1999 or so. Many singles had unique information on them – often quite different from the same songs as they might appear on a 331/3 LP. Some of it had to do with timing (the radio edits would be shorter to accommodate the time constraints of AM radio play – something that wouldn’t really be challenged until the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”) – many times it had to do with mixing – especially in the MONO era. Until the 1970s, the mono single mix was the HIT mix. AM radio was mono – stereo 45s wouldn’t make sense until stereo FM radio broadcasts were more common by the early 1970s.

Singles were also a relatively inexpensive investment. I have some old 45s with stickers on the sleeves with price tags of 49 cents on them – not bad. However, depending on the record company – your 45 single might not last through repeated plays because – there was also a prevailing attitude towards popular music of the time – that it was * gasp * DISPOSABLE. Yes, folks – some record companies argued the point that since singles were a reflection of popular tastes which were bound to change – the fans would only play the songs so many times before getting sick of song A and moving onto song B for the next few weeks and so on. Because of this idea – some record labels pressed their singles not on nice durable vinyl compound, but on something much less durable called STYRENE. This material is very brittle and can only withstand so many plays before it starts decaying. And when that happens the sound gets all fuzzy and yucky and you gotta find another copy! Of course styrene was a much cheaper alternative for the record companies to expensive vinyl compound – you get the drift.

Unfortunately some pretty big companies used this trashy garbage to press their 45s on. Columbia, CBS, Epic, London are just a few that cut their costs using styrene. That means records by the Byrds, Simon and Garfunkle, the Dave Clark Five and The Rolling Stones are usually found in secondhand shops in totally burnt and useless condition. Even looking at them doesn’t always prove if they’re good or not. They might not be scratched, but if played with heavy stylus pressure a few good times – it’s a goner. This can make collecting 45s very frustrating indeed. Ah, but when the unthinkable happens and you score a good sounding copy of a hit record you love – it almost wipes out all the transgressions and headaches these little beasts can cause you.


It’s been a long time since I dragged out my 45s, but it happened again last night. I wish I could invite you all over to hear just how freakin’ amazing 45 rpm vinyl can sound when the planets align and you find a great specimen to illustrate the point. There’s almost no logic when it comes to 45s. I’ve purchased 45s that looked mint and played like poop and conversely some real shaggy dogs I’ve taken a chance on that can leave you sitting in front of the stereo with your mouth open and you’re thinking “How can this thing sound THAT GOOD?”. Yes – it took me three good attempts at buying different copies of original pressings of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime” to finally find …THE ONE. And when it plays – look out! The great 45 RPM experience is, invariably, a MONO experience. Punchy, bassy, ballsy in-your-face goodness is what a sweet mono 45 disc can deliver as ONLY a mono 45 can deliver, people.

So here’s a list of some knee-kocking, socks-rocking, “Oh, Hare Krishna is this a GREAT sounding record!” 45s as you’re ever gonna hear:

1. Rolling Stones  - Tumbling Dice – 1st issue mono 45. There is only one way to feel the glory – LOUD!!

2. Tommy James and the Shondells – Crimson and Clover – mono 45.
You..have..not..lived…until…UNTIL…you..hear THIS MIX on the 45. Really….really.

3. Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly. Why, for the love of God did they issue this on the Greatest Hits album in re-channeled fake stereo? The 45 is a religious experience.

4. The Beatles – She Loves You – on the SWAN label. No issue, analog, digital, British, Chinese, Japanese, I don’t care what it is – this track never sounded better than on this US pressing. Whoever cut this record from the master tape deserves a medal at least. Listening to any digital version of this song is like playing the game of “Lets count all the edits, kids!”. Not the 45. Why? I DON’T KNOW!!! AHHHHRRGGGH! Buy up every copy you find before they’re all GONE. Only pressed in 1964……if only the original Capitol 45s sounded this good. And, er….they didn’t – had to wait for the 70’s and 80s reissues for better Beatle sound.

5. I Can See For Miles / Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand – The Who – US Decca 45. The A-side is a stone groove in mono. The B-side has this unbelievably crisp and ringy finger-cymbal hit that comes smacking out of the grooves so hard you’d swear it was none other than Allen Ginsberg risen from the dead and playing (with unusual restraint) in your very living room! Its like outta NOWHERE and wham! Where’d that friggin’ thing come from? – wow! Ah, the song itself is kinda wimpy – ah well. Better head back to the A-side……..

6. (I Just Wanna) Testify – The Parliaments – mono 45 on Revilot (that would be the record label – never heard of it? Well, by the stamp in the deadwax it appears that the record was pressed by CBS and you guessed it – styrene! But for some dumb reason it’s not a problem on this record – NO LOGIC I tells ya!). My copy looks like hell and is sooooo sweet and PHAT sounding – oooh. This is the sound of the FUNKA…before the DELIC!

7. Pictures of Matchstick Men – Status Quo – the mono Cadet Concept 45. Lots of groovy phasing only on the mono 45. My copy looks even worse than my Parliaments 45 and is like Psychedelic GOD on record! Go figure.

8. I’ll Try Anything – Dusty Springfield – UK mono Philips 45. Wicked-deep bass. This record packs a whollop and, yes she may be long gone now, but Dusty’s voice still makes me swoon. Blimey!

9. Psychotic Reaction – The Count Five – I went out of my way to find a mint original copy on the Double Shot label for this. The best Yardbirds copy record ever. And a very hot-cut record it is too, but in a good way. The drums just gallop out of the speakers and knock you right over. Great psych-punk rave-up music!

10.  Where’s the Playground Susie – Glenn Campbell – ha ha, just kidding. Yes I own this record, but I think only Ceriello will get the joke here. I can note that my copy features the rare Capitol “target” label design with the ultra-rare Capitol dome-logo printed on it – a very rare combination that lasted for only a few months in the year 1969. If you have any Beatles 45s on this label variation you can send them to me since they’re not worth as much as Justin Bieber CDs……heh heh heh!

Get in the Waaay-Back machine!

How far back can we go? 1800's? 1700's? Renaissance? Medieval chanting? I like to see how far my ears can stretch - time-wise, genre-wise, tonality-wise. So I have this ongoing thing about so-called "Classical" music. I don't know what it is. I'm just as likely to listen to Theolonious Monk, The Beach Boys or even Black Sabbath. But there's a lot of other vibrations out there. So that's where I've been placing my ears a bit lately. I know I put some of those vibrations here, but I decided to create a whole new space for that bag and here it is if you're so inclined to check it out:

http://hyperprism-sounds.blogspot.com/

I'll still be whippin' some other grooves on you here too - so check in at both places if the spirit moves you. Bright Moments!

Tonight's Jazz Forecast calls for Weird Noises

Few things get music buffs more worked up than the controversy over the word JAZZ. I once had a teacher in high school tell me that anything recorded after the Original Dixieland Jazz Band wasn't really jazz music (I think he was serious!). Charlie Parker was called "Anti-Jazz". So was John Coltrane. Now, as far as I'm concerned - the real "anti-jazz" goes by the name of Kenny G and if your haven't read the now-classic editorial on that guy by Pat Metheny you haven't lived. You can dig it up on the net somewhere - it's a hoot!

Anyway - jazz gets a bum rap even, inadvertently, from some of its biggest supporters. Maybe that explains the poor attention this beautiful American art form gets in its own country. One of the last great exponents of jazz in the 20th Century took the music to the world stage, both literally and figuratively. Unfortunately too many folks these days lazily lump the efforts of the various members of Weather Report into either the dreaded "Fusion" category or - worse still - try to blame these guys for pushing the music closer to that evil cousin of real jazz - SMOOTH JAZZ. (Now I happen to believe Mavis Staples when she says "The Devil don't HAVE no music." But I think, if push came to shove, the guy with the pitchfork and horns would probably pick "smooth jazz" as the soundtrack to his environment!)

So, I'm going to shout it for the world to hear:  WEATHER REPORT is NOT "Smooth Jazz"!! Good melodies? Yup. Commercial appeal? It their time, yep. Smooth? No way. In fact, if musicians tried to do today what Weather Report did in the 70s they'd never get as much attention. Josef Zawinul, Wayne Shorter and company were serious sound freaks. They were constantly searching, trailblazing and just plain throwin' it down night after night. Witness the clip below from Montreaux 1976. Zawinul is at the helm of a bank of analog keyboards AND an antique thumb-piano AND running sped-up tapes of what sounds like indigenous chanting from......who KNOWS where.

So - is it World Music then? I don't know. I just know it cooks and it ain't smooth. Lots of Weather Report albums can be had for cheap - some more interesting than others. None should be ignored. If you ears can dig the sounds from the clip - watch the rest of the concert. Dig that young punk on the bass - Jaco had just joined the band and was a few years away from becoming engulfed by his personal demons - he's at the peak of his badness here.

Do the voices you left behind still hear YOU?

Guitarist John McLaughlin once wrote a piece of music in memory of John Coltrane called "Do You Hear the Voices You've Left Behind?". When it was released in 1977 on McLaughlin's "Electric Guitarist" solo album - John Coltrane had been departed for ten years. Yet his influence on music was arguably at an all-time high - perhaps moreso than in his own lifetime. My question, of course, intends to bring the issue up to date.......

My own appreciation of John Coltrane and jazz in general started as more of a calculated pursuit. Essentially,  I came to jazz as an outsider. There was a little appreciation of “swing” music from my folks – Benny Goodman and the like. Actually, my Grandmother gave me my first Dave Brubeck record (her brother John was a pretty decent clarinet player so I’ve been told), but that’s for another entry. Serious jazz is something that I read about first and then went out of my way to explore on my own. A huge influence on me in my formative years was a little monthly magazine my folks gave me a subscription to called Musician Magazine. From about 1984 ‘til it folded in the early 1990’s I read this religiously. Popular artists could be on the cover (Michael Jackson), but just as easily the cover might be graced by the likes of Miles Davis or even …………………………………………..………………………JOHN COLTRANE.

    For the July 1987 issue, Musician Magazine put Coltrane on the cover with a long feature story in memorial to the anniversary of his passing 20 years earlier in July 1967.  That article, complete with remembrances from Coltrane’s peers and contemporaries, made a deep impression – enough for me to rush out and grab the first available piece of Coltrane I could find. It just so happened that, at the time of publication, Coltrane CDs had not yet been issued (they were about to be…) so I checked out the vinyl bins at the local mall chain store (still stocking vinyl in those days) and came up with

……..EXPRESSION – the very last of Coltrane’s recordings on the planet. I had no idea what I was going to hear when I brought that thing home. In retrospect, I’m glad it wasn’t something even more OUT like “OM” or “Interstellar Space” – Expression was OUT, but actually kinda gentle if that makes any sense. Even still – I think I must have sat in front of the stereo with my mouth wide open. It was like getting a great novel and reading the last chapter first – I had to claw my way back to the beginning to figure out what the heck was going on in this music – FAST!

    Inside the record jacket was a little insert from MCA records (MCA owned the Impulse catalog in the 80s) with a listing of other jazz records available. The Coltrane list was ENORMOUS. This guy put out all these exotic sounding records………Africa Brass, Kulu Se Mama, OM, Meditations, Interstellar Space, Sun Ship……on and ON! And that was just his Impulse output (he cut records for other labels too – WHEW!!!). This was going to be a lifelong journey (and it still is).

    Once the CDs were released – it was like sonic potato chips for me. Thank goodness I was working part time and the discs were given budget prices (since they were reissues, basically).  Coltrane became my first jazz obsession. I immediately dug his tone – clear, strong – a little biting, but oddly warm. Got to hear some of the classics – A Love Supreme, My Favorite Things, Giant Steps – all the while I had this sense of urgency about the music. Coltrane was a “no BS” artist – every record was an important musical message – not in a preachy or even philosophical way, but in an intuitive, abstract way. Listening to Coltrane opened me up to lots of other music – jazz and otherwise.

    Here’s a link to the first track off the Expression album I mentioned above.

Although there’s a lot of free blowing going on, there is a really beautiful melody that the piece is based on which is stated at the opening of the track and later at about 1:26. Coltrane left a lot of music behind for all to hear, but there’s something bittersweet about the music on Expression. I don’t know if I’m projecting my own ideas on the music, or if its something Coltrane himself felt – there’s a sadness amidst the searching. I guess the music makes me wonder if Coltrane knew he wasn’t going to live much longer beyond these sessions.

    From what I can gather, it seems that there was quite an appreciation for all things Coltrane in the years after his death well into the 1970s. Even today, I would imagine that many tenor players still feel his influence even if indirectly. It’s kind of like Hendrix and guitar players – impossible to escape the influence even if you have a totally different and unique style. But I wonder how many young folks are digging into the Coltrane catalog anymore. There was a lot of media attention in the 80s and 90s with the CD reissues. Will Coltrane still be heard in the Age of the Download?

Keep an Ear on Summer...........

   
Like most folks, I go through phases of listening to certain stuff. I became a stone Beach Boys freak in the 90s – certainly with the help of the great 1993 Box Set “Good Vibrations”. I have a number of CD “box sets” – most of which haven’t gotten a lot of play over the years, but the Beach Boys one was in heavy rotation through the 90s. A few years prior to this (1990) Capitol put out all the individual Beach Boys albums on 2-fer CDs (two albums per disc) – and plenty of bonus tracks! Got those too. Along with mono LPs (where necessary) I figured I was good to go – until……..

Some online research led me to discussions about Beach Boys CDs released in Japan in the late 80s as part of a series titled “Pastmasters” (see photo). No bonus tracks here – only one album per disc – why the fuss? Sound quality. Seems that the 1990 US 2fers, though generous with music, were subjected to no-noise processing. Nothing too drastic, but still there.

What’s no-noise? Remember cassettes? Remember how you could record a tape with a “dolby” switch on or off. Dolby was an attempt to filter out “tape hiss” while retaining some high frequency information (the highs – cymbals, etc…..). The option must have had its supporters since it was a standard feature of every decent cassette device of the time. To me, it sounded like wool sweaters over the speakers so my dolby switch was more often “off” than “on”.

Well, the 1990 Beach Boys CDs had no-noise built into them. While not obnoxious it was there (put there by mastering engineers – not on the original tapes). How could a person know – how could you compare? Seems that the Japanese “Pastmasters” CDs had the advantage of being made from straight dubs of the original master tapes. This was good since no-noise was not used, but not optimal since the discs revealed any wacky problem that surfaced with the original master over a 20+ year period of storage, use and misuse. It can be cringe-inducing to hear massive tape drop-outs and damaged tape sections from classic Beach Boys songs (these issues are also usually resolved by competent mastering engineers which is why they’re not heard on most official releases). Japan must have been in a hurry so they got the master tape dubs warts and all. I’ll bet quite a few people were upset with these “defective” discs – if they only knew!!!

Truthfully, most people wouldn’t give a toss about any of this. But I ended up with one of these things as a fluke – found the “Friends” album from the Pastmasters series for about $8. I actually didn’t like it as much as my green-label Capitol reissue LP from the 80s, but I kept it. Little did I know it basically revealed the sound of the master tape the LP was cut from. (Mastering engineers can make all sorts of sonic changes when transferring a master tape to either vinyl or CD – sometimes the results suck, sometimes the results improve on what the master tape sounds like – I have good story that illustrates the second possibility for another time……..)

Imagine being invited to a recording studio to hear the master tapes of  (insert your favorite band here)’s albums straight off the analog reels. Would you? Depends how obsessive you are, of course. So, I’ve managed to track down a few of these Pastmasters beasts and they are interesting (and pretty good sounding).  * Note – this scenario only applies to the Beach Boys titles in this series. I have no idea if other Japanese Pastmasters CDs of other bands were made from master tapes. * They can be difficult to bump into, especially at reasonable prices.

The other night I pulled out a few discs to do some shoot-outs with the 1990s 2fer discs of the same material. For some reason I decided to plop earphones on. Although I already knew about the differences (and could hear them) the headphone approach highlighted the no-noise processing of the 1990 discs very well. Want to hear for yourself?

Legally I can upload brief sections of songs for such a purpose – so that’s what I did. If you’ve read this far down the page and you’re still willing to take the plunge……..see if you have some headphones or earphones handy. Plug into your computer and open the two links / windows side by side. About the first 7 seconds of “Keep an Eye on Summer” – from the 1990 CD and the Pastmasters CD.

     1990 version:
                                     http://www.sendspace.com/file/yavg5b

     Pastmasters version:
                                     http://www.sendspace.com/file/1pp5yp

What can you expect to hear? Start with the 1990 version. Sounds okay, right? Listen to that bass guitar intro again – hear how that sounds? Alright, move to the Pastmasters clip. Same intro – your should be able to hear the attack of the bass strings a little better defined here. If you listen close, you’ll also hear some tape hiss right at the beginning of the song (and surrounding those initial bass guitar notes). On the Pastmasters version you will also hear a crisper sounding snare drum and some faint bass-drum hits back there. The bass drum sound, though pretty quiet on the Pastmasters version, is essentially inaudible on the 1990 no-noised version. Crazy, huh?

To my ears, the sound of the Pastmasters version is fuller and more dynamic overall  - the 1990 version sounds “squashed” in comparison. Is one better than the other? I dunno – just different. Subtle maybe, but – it all depends how obsessive one might be. Happy listening!!!

Seek, Listen, Vibrate & Eat Cheeseburgers...........

    Albert Ayler put it succinctly as the title track to one of his last (and sadly misunderstood) albums – “Music is the Healing Force of the Universe”. I think Albert pretty much covered a lot of philosophical ground with that statement. And, of course, I happen to agree with him. Not in some witch-doctor, shamanistic sense, but in a more profound and subtle way. I would propose that a fair number of folks on the planet find comfort and strength in music on a daily basis. Sometimes the right piece of music heard in the right circumstances can alter the path of a day that has pointed to “Misery” on the Crap-o-Meter of life at least towards “tolerable” and sometimes better.

    Rahsaan Roland Kirk had his own term for this phenomenon – he called it “Bright Moments”. Under Kirk’s usage and (loose) definition, one could certainly have plenty of Bright Moments that were not necessarily musical, but considering his own hyper-allegiance to the overall experience of “sound” there is little doubt music was a key piece of the overall puzzle picture.

    Getting the chance to hear live music is especially gratifying – particularly if the performance is good and the music inspired. Live performance can even elevate music beyond what an “official” recorded version conveys. When I saw the Who in 2002 at Madison Square Garden they played “You Better You Bet” – an okay song on record, not one of the best in my opinion, but live – it rocked! A good musical performance should be like that – a sonic magic show.

    Listening to music at home or in the car is a different experience. Mainly, these days, it’s more of a private affair. Like reading a book – it’s you and the art confronting each other. That’s when more subtle information is shared. Those experiences where you go “wow! I felt that once!” or “How come I never thought to use those words….” The cross-over country singer from the 60s – Roger Miller – is a primo example of someone who came along at the right time to put lots of ironic, yet common, ideas that people have floating around in their brains to expression through songs. Like the song “The last word in lonesome is me” for example. Did you catch that? Clever guy that Roger Miller, eh?

    Sometimes its not even words – it could just be a sound. Like the sound of a hit record from the 70s that you haven’t heard in 20+ years – it can transport you back to a (hopefully) happier time.  A bunch of years ago, oldies stations started playing that song “Sweet City Woman” like it was 1974 all over again. Goofball song, but heck – I was singing along. A few months ago I broke out some Ornette Coleman records I hadn’t played in awhile. It was like meeting an old friend. I have those reactions and I’ll bet plenty of other folks do too (well, maybe not with Ornette Coleman exactly….. heh heh).  I call these people “Sound Freaks”. Rahsaan called them “Eulipions”.

    Rahsaan continues to be a major source of inspiration. Not the least of which in terms of attitude towards music. He was a jazz musician, yet he hated the label “jazz” preferring to call his music “Black Classical Music” which I can totally dig. But he had the right idea. Music is music is music. It’s the vibration and the intention of its creator that matters. People that create music from a purely selfish and materialistic point of view create cold and nasty music. Sun Ra knew that. If music is good it reaches your heart and uplifts you – even the blues. ‘Cause the blues understands your feelings – happy and sad and all points in between. The brilliant NRBQ guitar-slinger Steve Ferguson called it “Humanistic Music” – the good stuff.

    I don’t know where I’m going with all this except to say I had a good journey with a fellow “Eulipion” today that involved music, philosophy and good cheeseburgers – a winning combination in my book. Our time on the planet is so short – the Benevolent Creator (upon bestowing free-will to all of us) gives us challenges every day – sometimes ones that seem too much to bear (and trying to do it alone CAN be too much to bear). But the gift of music can pull us through and be a connecting point to like-minded people so we can relate to each other.

    The summer is officially here. Time to give thanks, recharge spiritual batteries and explore the sounds around us – composed and non-composed. Seek, listen, vibrate and pass it on if its good to you……………….

Back to STEREO!

You know, there may come a day when I’m ready to concede to the ipod /hard-drive /music-server model with my music collection. I have moved relatively few times in my life and even moving my record collection from one place in my house to another can be an arduous task. There’s a lot to be said for the portability of new music hardware devices.

But that’s not what floats my boat for, what is, essentially – my hobby. Some people build model airplanes, trains, gardening, golf – I dunno. For me it’s music – in all its weird and wonderful forms. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that I am a “format junkie”. I have 8-tracks, open-reels, 45s, etc….. and I love comparing sound quality amongst different formats (or even pressings of LPs). Think all copies of the Beatles White Album all sound the same? Guess again! Some people collect stamps – I do the music thing. Whatever.

Problem is – physical music products are slowly starting to recede from the main marketplace. I ended up at fairly big shopping mall this weekend with my family. It’s a big one with lots of shops – no place to park – not very far from New York City – that kind of place. The only store I would bother to spend time in was the Borders and – guess what? GONE! A big American shopping mall – and you can’t purchase physical music products there (or books for that matter).

So I realize I am like a hobo yodeling in the forest here, but I’m gonna do this anyway………there’s nothing like owning a nifty, old fashioned stereo to play your physical music products on. And chances are, for not much money – you can have something better than an ipod with a docking station – at least in terms of sound. Here’s what you can do:

Check out ebay. Look for an integrated amp / receiver that’s in decent shape – from the 70s or 80s. Don’t be afraid of Japanese products – in fact, that’s generally good stuff from this era. You could probably get something even at 60 watts per channel. Heck – try to find something with inputs for a turntable – hey, you never know!

Then, look for some vintage speakers. You want something with woofers no smaller than 8 inches. 10 inch woofers will do you – at least in a smallish room. Got a big room? Get some speakers with 12 inch woofers – if you want to hear bass, you’ve got to move some air. Like what? KLH, Advent – shop around – get something half-decent. Don’t skimp too much on the speaks, man.

Then – get a CD player. Just about any SONY will sound light years ahead of an ipod. Want something really fun? Get a first edition SONY Playstation 1 – make sure it has RCA outputs on the back of it. I got one for $10 at a Goodwill. Naw, you don’t care about playing games on it – you just want it to play music. Those things sound real smooth for some stupid reason. G’head – find one somewhere and give it a try. Don’t pay stupid money for these though – keep looking at yard sales, Goodwill, etc……..

THEN – go to Amazon. There are plenty of third-party sellers selling used CDs for a few dollars a pop – great titles. And what’s awesome about used CDs – chances are they won’t skip or do anything weird a used record or tape might do. It’s gonna sound – like NEW. Really want to have some fun? Go to the music prompt on Amazon, and type in “Original Album Classics”. SONY has box sets of albums from everyone from Miles Davis to Spirit – several “albums” in one box – and here’s the best part: CHEAP! What? You never heard of “Spirit”? Well, for $20 you can own ALL FIVE CLASSIC SPIRIT albums on CD from this series – NEW. Those discs sound great. Way better than MP3 downloads and, here’s the other great part, CHEAPER than MP3 downloads of the same material. Your ears will thank you.