Bowie: Aladdin Sane/The Man Who Sold the World

Simply put Aladdin Sane/The Man Who Sold the World (TMWSTW) are David Bowie's most debauch records of all time and I love 'em.  As a child I bought TMWSTW and was quite scared of it to start with.  Then the insaneness and blackness of the record really caught hold.  The obvious single was a great hit but there is some really dark heavy rock here: Width of a Circle, and She Shook Me Cold to name two.  So that was 1970.  I used to play this with my first real friend Mark.  he didn't really get it but he did like Space Oddity which was a little more safe as an album.  We did play Life on Mars b/w The Man Who Sold the World to death!

Move on to 1973, just three years, and Bowie comes out with Aladdin Sane.  A drug and illicit sex driven album of such greatness that I personally don't believe any artist, including Bowie, has even matched it.  Watch that Man, Aladdin Sane, Panic in Detroit, Drive in Saturday and of course The Jean Genie.  It's just a brilliant album.  Listen to Aladdin Sane - Mike Garson's mental piano solo is unbeatable.  When I first heard it I though: what the hells that?  But the way it goes way out of key and then back in is - well you listen!

As with TMWSTW, quite scary at first for a fourteen year old boy.  I remember my mum and dad taking me and my brother on our annual pilgrimage to London for pre-Christmas shopping and to take in yet another tediously dull musical.  We did a shop one dark afternoon (it was cold) and there was Bowie in full Aladdin Sane make-up on a full length poster in the HMV, Oxford Street window.  Dad I said, I have to have that album.  Dad said Bowie looked like a poof but I think he secretly quite liked it - not batting an eyelid he bought it for me.  Bowie was one of those artists you were allowed to fancy, even as a male.  I cant remember how much it cost BUT I do remember just wanting to go home right there and then to play it.  I stayed in HMV for over an hour listening to it.   When Drive in Saturday came on I almost cried - it was just something.

When we did eventually get home I rushed up to play it.  When the first track side two "Time" came on I threw the stereos volume to 11 and blasted out "He flexes like a whore, falls wanking to the floor".  So shocking, so androgynous and so Mick Jagger.  Over the years I still feel debauch and slightly scared every time I play this album and TMWSTW.  None of my friends were into Bowie in the 70's so it was a lone crusade for me which kept me a bit isolated from the rest of the world.  I don't think some of my friends knew what to make of me into Floyd, van Der Graaf Generator, Bowie and Iggy - Bowie was mine and I was really glad I didn't have to share him with anyone.......and I still don't!  As Bowie says on David Live - Love on ya!

Van Morrison - Avalon Sunset Vinyl

Rummaging through our local second hand vinyl store I came across 17 albums that I simply had to buy.  Average price 0.99 to 2.50 each.  The first one I have played is Avalon Sunset by Van Morrison.  I only ever had this on CD but the Vinyl just brings it alive.  Even the duet with Cliff Richard on Whenever God Shines His Light, stand out on this vinyl.

There's something about vinyl that CD's just can't replace.  The large sleeve, inner liner notes and the record itself - this one sporting the famous red Polydor label, record number 839 262-1.  I can;t believe it was 22 years ago (1989) that this album first came out.  This one and Enlightenment (which I also picked up for 2.50) are surely the last albums that Van put out that are worthy of great praise?

Standout tracks on this one are Have I Told You Lately I Love you, Coney Island, These are the Days and Contacting My Angel (IMHO).  A great album from a great man. JP 09-10-2011.

Dark Side of the Moon 2011 Vinyl edition

Speaks for itself really. Amazing 200gm vinyl _ beat that!

David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars - Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars - Ziggy Stardust. A superb album and not a bum track on it. Picked this up from eBay for £2 still sounds as good as when it came out. This is a German 80's black RCA label version from the original masters. I reckon it sounds better than my original UK Orange RCA label version.

Standout tracks are: Starman, Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City and Rock n Roll Suicide.  Great musicianship from the Spiders and a great drum sound from the famous Trident Recording studios. I worked at Trident from 78 to 79 and listening to the track Lady Stardust this is the track that sounds so like the ambience in Studio 1 in the basement of Trident.

The Piano is the original famous Bechstein Grand as played by Elton John on his early albums and on Hey Jude by the Beatles. I used to have to polish the beast and have a tickle of its ivories every now and then. Rod Lumley (Joanna's cousin) was keyboard player for Brand X and he would play the Bechstein and chat to me for hours about his time playing live with Bowie at the famous Hammersmith Odeon gig.

The drum sound is what the studio is famous for. Simply amazing for 1972. You'd be hard pushed to better it today: 40 years later.

Pink Floyd - the Final Cut

Great album but sad as it's the the last Floyd Album with Waters, Rick had gone and David and Nick were about to take Floyd in a new direction (after some mediocre solo albums). This one has a Great album label with an image of Poppies on side 1 and a similar image side two but with a dead soldier with a knife in his back with a dog beside - was this a dig at Gilmour?

I love side two, a deep and anti-Thatcher, Anti-war masterpiece.  On the images inside there is one of a soldier holding a film canister with a knife in his back - apparently directed at Alan Parker with whom Waters fell out after the making of the Wall.

Home taping is killing music?

Who'd have thought it. I found this on an album inner sleeve. So funny as I do have some tapes left and they have all deteriorated so badly they are unusable.  And the government has recently said It's ok to copy a cd you have purchased to mp3 or other digital format. It's been a long time coming. I think Apple and their cloud probably had something to do with this change in law. 

Do you remember that you had to tape in real time and the whole process took ages. Then you had to cram long albums on more the one side of a C90 (90 minute tape 45 per side).  The plus side was that you could create a mix tape.

Wind & Wuthering

Wind & Wuthering my favourite post Gabriel Genesis album.

One for the Vine is probably the best post Gabriel song ever.   Amazing virtuoso and great lyrical content.

One man commanding many men to fight for a cause no one is sure about. Familiar?

Then this album has You Have Your Own Special Way.

Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation

Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation.  Great album by a great band. Lizzy were really polished by the time this album came out. Dancing in the Moonlight is a great Track but real smooth. Great twin guitars of Gorham and Brian Robertson.  However, Robertson had been in a Brawl and only played on Opium Trail and Killer Without a Cause.   Theres something I really like about Tony Visconti's production. This album went to number 4 in the UK.  Of note Jon Heliwell of Supertramp fame plays sax and clarinet. This album dedicates special thanks to their friends Rush.  Mary Hopkin was married to Visconti and sings on the final track Dear Lord.

My standout track is Killer Without a Cause. On vinyl you can really enjoy the double tracked acoustic and lead guitars.

David Bowie first Album

This is the superlative first real bowie album re-released in a special 40th anniversary edition package with the original sleeve and on 180gm supergrade vinyl. I was told EMI vinyl pressings are bad but this is noiseless.

The album sounds so fresh with great masters recorded at the famous Trident RECORDING studios in Londons Soho. I used to work there and we played the quarter inch masters of this album.

Standout tracks: Space Oddity, Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed.  My personal favourite is Memory of a Free Festival. I simply adore this album made in 1969. Now pass me that Stylophone will you?

Jon Anderson - Survival & Other Stories

Jon Anderson - Survival & Other Stories.  At last Jon Anderson back to what he does best. Personal and uplifting this album is full of life. Wonderfully mixed a pleasure to listen to. Anderson's voice is as good as its ever been. How I wish he was still with Yes. Fly from Here would have been so much better with him. Lyrically 1,000% better the his Yes counterparts.

Stand out tracks: Love and Understanding, Unbroken Spirit and New New World, Just One Man.

Yes - Tormato

Yes - Tormato
I just don't know if I like this album or not. So many things wrong with it on so many levels. I like these tracks: Future Times, Rejoice, Don't Kill the Whale. The problem is once again Steve Howe but this time with Rick Wakeman fighting to get their over-toppy instruments to outdo the one another. Take those away and it could be one of their best albums ever. Another Yes album for me to remix and I would delete the tracks Arriving UFO and Circus of Heaven. So embarrassing. I would also change the cover to a Roger Dean impression of Yestour. No wonder Rick Wakeman chucked tomatoes at it! 

Going for the One - Yes

Going for the One - Yes.
I love this Yes album. Made when punk had just hit but Wonderous Stories still got to number 4 and the album reaching the no1 slot in the UK.
Side 1 is great but my ears cannot take the toppy mix and Steve Howes high IQ slide which dominate and ruin great songs like Going for the One and Parallels.  I would love the opportunity to remix side 1.  It's predecessor Relayer had such a better mix.

Stand out tracks: Wonderous Stories, Awaken.

Blackfield - Blackfield

Blackfield - Blackfield. Another of my favourite albums and so much better on Vinyl. Avid Geffen and Steven Wilson at their best. Stand out tracks: Hello, This Killer and 1,000 people.

Blackfield - Welcome to My DNA

Blackfield - Welcome to My DNA. My favourite album of 2011. And yes on Vinyl. Just simply beautiful. Stand out tracks: Glass House, Blood and Go to Hell. "Goodbye old friend, my paranoid We'll meet again Someday, Life is running out, I guess I had enough,I need to go now" - says it all - the new PROG?

Bin Iver - Bon Iver

Bon Iver - Bon Iver.  Yes even now they release new vinyl this one on 200 gms. Great album very ambient.  Stand out tracks: Michicant and Perth.

Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin IV Brilliant! From the opening tune up preceding Black Dogs riffage to the kick-ass drums of When the Levee Breaks this album rocks like no other. Stand out tracks: all of them!  sold 32 million worldwide. Recorded at Basing Street Studios and then on to Headley Grange at the suggestion of Fleetwood Mac.

Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans

Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans possibly the most Progressive Rock album of all time. Grossly underrated as Jon Anderson's over endulgance but if you listen to it you will hear some of the most classic Yes moments of all time. For me it's second only to Relayer as the most virtuoso Yes performance of all time. It's like watching the the three Lord of the Rings movies: an epic journey almost impossible to play without listening to all four sides. Wakeman said of this album was an example of the worst excesses of "PROG rock". Now tell me Rick what about King Arthur on ice! 

Stand out track: Side 1 The Revealing Science of God-Dance of the Dawn.

Led Zeppelin - Presence

Simply put Presence is one of my favourite Led Zep albums ever. Only let down by the hypnosis cover which would have been more suited as a Pink Floyd cover. However the Object has now become one of those must have memorabilia items for Zep fans fetching in excess of $500 for a copy.

Stand out Tracks:  Achilles Last Stand, Nobody's Fault but Mine and Royal Orleans.
I picked up this clean copy for £7.95 so you'll never make a lot of money on Zep vinyl. It was just too popular and sold millions.

Genesis - Nursery Crime

Genesis - Nursery Crime A tremendous album really showcasing Genesis at their creative and PROG peak. Standout tracks: Seven Stones, Musical Box.  Of note, Harold the Barrel was the forerunner to Robbery, Assault and Battery some 5 years earlier.  Their first album to include Collins and Hacket for  the classic 5 piece line up. Recorded at the studio I worked in: Trident. One of only a handful of studios with 16 track facilities. State of the Art at that time.

IPad what do I use it for?

My iPad 2 comes with me everywhere. Music in the car, research, magazine reading, eBooks, email, Twitter and Facebook. So which of these apps do I use the most?  Answer: none of them as in the photo I mainly use it as a humble tray? 

Breakfast in America - Supertramp

Their most amazing USA breakthrough album. Released in 1979 and includes three hit singles: The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger and Take the Long Way Home.  The album shows a New York scene with the World Trade Centre depicted by two fragile stacks of boxes. Interestingly Hodgson doesn't play his 12 string guitar on this album. One of two not to feature it. The other being Crime if the Century. Lots of Fender Rhodes piano on this instead reminiscent of Dreamer.

Tony Banks. A Curious Feeling

Amazing album grossly underrated. As good as any Genesis release at the time (...and then there were three)

Rush Signals

Great 1982 album by Rush. Signals is arguably the best of this era Rush.

Rush Hemispheres

I worked at Trident Recording Studios in August1978 when they came in to complete this perfect album.

Great HTC Sensation photo

Great contrast of colours on HTC Sensation.  Perfect conditions helped.