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Whats on your turntable tonight?

For me its the first or very early LP's of:
Allman Brothers - "Allman Joys" "Idyllwild South"
Santana - "Santana" 200 g reissue
Emerson Lake and Palmer - "Emerson Lake and Palmer"
and,
Beethoven - "Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major" Rudolph Serkin/Ozawa/BSO
slipknot1
mwinkc
368 posts
 
Big_Greg, Thank you!

I listened to Morph The Cat a year and a half ago and did not care much for it. But that was before getting a new cartridge, phono stage, springs under my tt 😄 and upgrading from MMG’s to 1.6’s. After reading your post and being a Steely Dan / Donald Fagen fan since the 70’s, I just had to give it another listen.
Wow...a win - win situation. "Discovered" a really great album that I had overlooked and...got some more validation for the changes made and dollars spent!

Cheers!
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,769 posts
 
@boxer12 The Madcap Laughs is insanely good. I have an original and it's got so expensive, I've held back playing it!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 

@noromance, I bought a UK copy of The Madcap Laughs when it was originally released (even though I didn't care for Pink Floyd or Psychedelia in general). We were at that time looking for anything "weird", but this album is WAY beyond that; it's terrifying and alarming. Hearing it is like being in a room with a seriously mentally ill person. No, not mentally ill, full-on insane.

In the late-60's/early-70's there were a not-inconsiderable number of people walking around in the Bay Area (Ground Zero for psychedelics) who had taken acid far too many times (George Harrison said The Beatles did it only a handful of times). Skip Spence ended up in San Jose after he was ushered out of the Agnew State Mental Hospital (when Governor Reagan cut off funding, all tax payer-funded State mental health facilities were closed. "Your on your own, losers."), walking the downtown streets babbling to himself, bumming cigarettes and spare change. What a sad spectacle, and a waste of talent.

It's an unfortunate fact that talent and self-destructiveness often go hand-in-hand. Brian Jones, Brian Wilson, Peter Green, Chris Farley (comic genius), plenty of others.

big_greg
6,623 posts
 
@mwinkc That's one of the fun things about this thread.  I'm often reminded of things I haven't listened to in a while, or hear of things I haven't before.  It's great for discovery of new/old music.

I've listened to that recording many times digitally and it's my second favorite Fagen album next to the Nightfly, but I'd always felt like it was a bit bass heavy.  Listening to the vinyl, I still had a bit of that impression.  With the vinyl I got a better sense of the musicians being a little looser than the typical Dan/Fagen affair.  The music is really "dense"... there's a lot going on there, but it was easy to pick out all the different instruments and vocals and the bass made it a visceral experience, close to listening to live music.  I think I paid way too much for that record in some ways, but at the same time a listening experience like that which I can repeat again and again was well worth it.

Glad you enjoyed it!
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
I would have to second Eric's opinion on Madcap Laughs.
It is plain scary but not surprising when you consider the mind it came from at the time.

A little saner on now.


See See the Sun ..... Kayak
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