[atlantaprog] Recent acquisitions...

I LOVE getting Amazon gift certificates for my Birthday! Thanks to the generosity of my dear wife and various other family members, I've some great new music/etc.

CDs:

Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live... a proggy Krautrock tour de force. Non-stop jammy psychedelic space rock. Ozric has obviously listened to these guys!

Amon Düül II - The UA Years... continuing in the Krautrock vein, a "best of" collection from these space-rock pioneers. It's a mixed bag. Some of it is a bit aimless, while other bits are sublime. I especially like to eastern influences that crop up from time to time.

Caravan - The Land of Grey and Pink... this one make take a while to grow on me. Some of it is primo psychedlia, while other bits are too saccahrine for my tastes.

The Beatles - Rubber Soul and Revolver... never been a big fan of the early Beatles pop stuff, but I certainly dig their more adventuresome later stuff. I thought it might be time for me to give these two transitional albums a spin. I really like about half of each of them. The rest is too poppy for me.


DVDs:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon.... this is the documentary about the making of this album. Very informative. I'm always interested in creative processes and technical insights behind an artist's work. This is why I was drawn to this. It didn't get a deep into those things as I would have liked... but it was still great. I especially enjoyed hearing some of the individual tracks "soloed", such as the various harmony vocal lines.

The Who - Who's Next... another of those "classic album" documentary discs. Not as in depth as "Dark Side" but quite interesting nonetheless. Spent a lot of time talking about Pete's aborted "Lifehouse" project, which most of these tunes were a part of. My favorite bit was when they soloed Moon's drums and Daltrey's voice so you could hear how Moon's style was directly tied in with the vocal line. I always knew he was flashy and energetic, but I don't think I realized what a sensitive drummer Moon really was.

Book:

When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV... a book very much in the spirit of those two DVDs. Some good insight into Zep's creative processes. A couple of tidbits I learned: "Four Sticks" got it's name from the fact that Bonham held two drum sticks in each hand to create the drum part, and Black Dog (named after a stray black Labrador that hung around the house they were recording at) has around 92 time sig changes in it! I already knew the story of how Bonham's drums were recorded in an open stone foyer with just a pair of stereo overhead mics, but it was interesting to read a more fleshed out version of that story. I also gained a new appreciation for just what a phenomenal track Stairway to Heaven really is (even though I won't mind if I NEVER hear it again!). Did ya'll know that at one point in the late 70s, there was never a moment when STH wasn't playing on some radio station somewhere in the country?

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