Whats on your turntable tonight?

Yes, J. Webb the man has really managed to fly underneath the public's radar all these years, despite how many people know his name and reputation as a songwriter. When I found this CD it was actually came as a bit of a shocker to finally see a face and hear a voice attached to the legend, neither of which at all matched my vague mental conception of who this guy 'was'. But Webb actually had several major-label records under his own name during his late-60's/early-70's heyday, and I'd like to find original copies of some of those. I took a flyer just now and typed in www.jimmywebb.com, and sure enough many more questions can be answered there. And if you jump to Tower's "Artist" webpage on him, it also appears he's got some sort of 4-disk series forthcoming next month.

I unashamedly admit to loving many, many of his songs, despite generally weak lyrics. I wonder what might have been if he had had a lyricist as Burt Bacharach did.

I was looking around and noticed that Webb got the Rhino Handmade 5-disk box-set treatment of his 70's albums -- 2,500 copies, all sold out, but brief soundclips are online (a copy is on ebay now for $277, set sale -- basically a $200 markup). Hard to tell from this if I'd really care to follow that deeply however; he's still pretty MOR, and I suspect that for my tastes the cream may have largely risen to the top with his 60's hits and selections from the two Richard Harris LP's, but I still wouldn't mind finding his first two solo LP's from '70 and '71. Here's a link to the liner notes from a reissue of the first LP.

Lots of music playing today during our local audio group's gathering - a true vinyl fest! Here are some of the LPs playing while I was in the listening room (versus chatting in the room next door):

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Reiner/CSO, RCA (Classic Records reissue)

Rossini: Overtures, Gamba/LSO, Decca SXL 2266 (Speakers Corner reissue)

Music of the Baroque: Oslo Consort, Simax PS1006

Dave Brubeck: Time Out (Classic Records reissue)

Count Basie: 88 Basie Street, Pablo 2310-901 (Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue)

Led Zepplin I (Classic Records reissue)

Creedence Clearwater Revival (Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue)
.

Rushton, I'm afraid we might be birds of a feather in that more than not when my area Hifi group gets together it is predominantly a social gathering not unlike many (none) classical music concerts these days. I find the friendships great and the talk is often stimulating yet somehow many never sit down and really listen to the music (or the systems). Seems a little odd... I try to show up with a bag full of records that beacon the listener. So far I'm having modest success. There is a time and place for everything and I'm tring to promoting some focus. Happy Listening!