***'~#''***'* flawed jewels may nevertheless turn out to be the most beautiful... i shall keep that in mind as i tell the passengers that already, so soon out of port, the vessel is fatally holed... and shipping water? well, not quite just yet... i can now reveal the deeply flawed nature of this undertaking: there is a gaping, for alto-shaped hole in my collection at time of writing so instead of my impressions of that album (universally regarded as one of the cornerstones of the discography) i shall have to offer an anecdote, a simple cautionary tale for all collectors...
... my wife and i were in london's west end for the day a few years ago, and as always i made sure we walked down berwick st (record shops aplenty, though one or two fewer now than were there at that time)... one of the exchanges had a copy of alto on cd, at a decent price, and i dithered over it. i knew damn well at the time that the music would have gone way over my head, but i also knew i wanted this album and would end up buying it eventually. the question was, did i need it then? well, we went away and i said i'd think about it... and by the time we passed back that way a few hours later i'd decided that i would buy it after all.
naturally, it was gone... and the moral of the story is that if you see something you want (and can afford it) just buy it, don't hang about or you may regret it. someone had already told me that, but i guess i needed to learn the hard way (as we humans so often do).
i never did get round to picking up a copy and have recently turned down the offer of a rip because i still want the actual album!! but for the time being, there is only the ghost of an outline, a silhouette, a shadow... that album casts a pretty big shadow actually, but this journey is through the territory of my collection as of now and i shan't be buying recordings just to augment the territory... lack of material is not exactly my current problem.
next stop for unaccompanied alto will be 1974, and for now we're back to the trio...
... my wife and i were in london's west end for the day a few years ago, and as always i made sure we walked down berwick st (record shops aplenty, though one or two fewer now than were there at that time)... one of the exchanges had a copy of alto on cd, at a decent price, and i dithered over it. i knew damn well at the time that the music would have gone way over my head, but i also knew i wanted this album and would end up buying it eventually. the question was, did i need it then? well, we went away and i said i'd think about it... and by the time we passed back that way a few hours later i'd decided that i would buy it after all.
naturally, it was gone... and the moral of the story is that if you see something you want (and can afford it) just buy it, don't hang about or you may regret it. someone had already told me that, but i guess i needed to learn the hard way (as we humans so often do).
i never did get round to picking up a copy and have recently turned down the offer of a rip because i still want the actual album!! but for the time being, there is only the ghost of an outline, a silhouette, a shadow... that album casts a pretty big shadow actually, but this journey is through the territory of my collection as of now and i shan't be buying recordings just to augment the territory... lack of material is not exactly my current problem.
next stop for unaccompanied alto will be 1974, and for now we're back to the trio...
7 comments:
dude, this is one mother of a project... very useful for beginners and seasoned collectors alike.
not whole lot i can contribute here, i suppose. are digressions and distractions welcome here at all? because i can always do that, you know. just as you expect response on a particular braxton topic i can come up and start distracting everyone with what a great sax player arthur doyle is or what an great borbeto record i just heard. i suppose all identified braxton fans will just be too polite for the sake of good old c#9 times to tell me to stay to the point. until anonymous rider will tell me to fuck off.
i do enjoy reading this blog a lot. many thanks and please stay on it.
oh, and thanks for the garage quote. always brightens my day.
Digressions are absolutely welcome. It's one of my main skills, digression...
Want to talk about music? Cool. Want to talk about what the music reminded you of? Cool. Want to talk about something else? That's cool, too.
McC.
i'll drink to that :)
a - i was on a hot streak this week (or some of it) so i have stuff in the pipeline to get it rolling... just as well, as real life keeps crashing rudely in...
we are also waiting for mr improv, currently in bologna...
who is this mr improv?
hitherto unknown in the blogosphere, mr improv is nevertheless a denizen of cyberspace... and he loves our man mr b (enough to have headed to italy from the u.k. to see the next "summit")
Hi Chaps: Thanks for opening the doors to non-gloggers such as me.
Good luck with the new blog! I see you've hit quite a niche.
Now Centrifuge: What's your opening bid for a pristine copy of the original vinyl of "For Alto"?!!
:-D i daren't even let myself get tempted
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