Quite agree Jeremy, he seems to be either brilliant or rubbish ! A band who seems to be similar was The Moody Blues, they produced some tremendous stuff but equally as much crap IMO.
Neil Young has made some considerable crap albums but some absolute beauties as well... Ragged Glory par instance...love it and love the guitar melodies....I'm listening to it now...brill.
Now we have it all to think through and do some head scratching. The Dylan 18 CD collection in to be released on 6 November, all the 'bootlegs' from mid-60s and ggggnnnnnaaaahhhhhhhh! (other strange strangling noises followed thinking about what the price may be given the The Complete Columbia Albums Collection costs €160, mind you it is 47 CDs...).
OK, I don't dispute NY is a unique artiste and that I still rate Harvest very highly, but I'd never do another gig given voices deteriorate with years and all that after the 1990 experience. Just stopped being for me. As for the voice thing, I am far worse than anybody else - possibly in the universe - and have almost been attacked for that when I was at least 10km from another living being, except that I forgot that trees can be very vindictive ;-) Anyway, I had enforced music at school, I am not at all competent on anything above comb and paper but I can recognise keys, pitch and so on and tune instruments, hence my way of expressing it. Ultimately, I have heard other people sing Cripple Creek Ferry and it just does not work without NY's way of singing, so unique or what, it were 'is style weren' it...
But then people still buy Cliff Richard records... (goes to be violently ill in littlest room).
Love him or hate him and I think he's brill, he has sold millions of records so he must have something ! I still rate Harvest as his finest album but On The Beach and Harvest Moon are not far behind..
That’s a bit harsh Brian. In the early days his record company would probably have described him as having a “unique voice”!! rather than off-key…
I saw CSNY in '74(awful) and NY in '76(stunning). We all have our off days. He once wrote a song called “Piece of crap” and he’s certainly done his fair share of that, but at least he’s endured and for that I’m grateful.
NY blew it with the Wembley concert at the same time as the release of Love to Burn in 1990. His performance was dire to verging on as bad as anything could be. I reckon 20% of people left yet the reviews were full of praise, which I never got. He has always sung out of tune and key but in a way it worked, but did not have it that day and his guitar playing was so awful it was painful. He lost a fan that day, earlier I had seen him when he was fully up in the clouds on who knows what with a few bevvies to help, that day he had talked about no drugs and booze any more between numbers, so perhaps as a performer he is best out of and off his box.
I think they still play it at Selhurst. I'm a Spurs fan and The DC5 were/are celebrity fans and they even called their music the 'Tottenham Sound' and their record label showed their music as 'Spurs Sound' - the vynyl is an oldie 33rpm with all their biggest hits - plenty of memories there...
Peter, I used to be a Crystal Palace supporter in the distant past. They always used to play "Glad all Over" by the DC5 before the match. Didn't affect the result though as usually we left feeling Sad....
Bruce, I saw Richie Havens in London, mid 70s at a Crystal Palace Garden Party I think. As you say time does indeed pass quickly....very unfair....time travel is the invention I'm waiting desperately for!
Tend to agree Chris.Déjà Vu was the first album I ever bought so special for me but it is a classic, up there with Pet Sounds & Tapestry et al.
Graham Nash's 'Songs For Beginners' is a fine solo album too and still one of my favourites.
It's a pity Crosby destroyed himself with dope, he could have given a lot more...
Saw Richie Havens on http://tela.sugarmegs.org/ Chris. It made me remember when I saw him in Greenwich Village in New York in the early 60s. Doesn't life pass so quickly?
Deja Vu is still a fine album, but Neil Young's the only one who's done it for me since then.
Yep, SSs albums aren't classics but his contribution to music is important all the same. I read somewhere that SS gave guitar lessons to Hendrix !
The CSN first album is good and the CSNY album, Déjà Vu is a quality album in my opinion.
Yeah Chris, I got a Jimi gig on there a while ago. There are several good things, I just use YouTube because it gets it if people search enough for a thing and quality is good.
Mark and Peter, I have the one just titled with his name, sitting in the snow with the pink giraffe. I never really got the hang of Stills, in fact Love the One You're With eventually got on my nerves with the doo-doo doo-doo, doo, doo-doos. Yeah, OK writer and singer but why were people who were supposed to be total freaks so into somebody simply doing quite ordinary, tuneful, conventional lyrics type things?
Brian, as you say there's some great stuff out there if you have time to look, and those two were a great blast from the past. If you are into "live" music and you've never been here http://tela.sugarmegs.org/ give it a try. You can listen or download but as yet there is no facility to inhale...
I don't really rate the single album (Down The Road) but the double album is as good as it gets for me.
You did well, Peter. I used to have a Manassas album, but found it a bit disappointing. One or two great tracks, but not quite up to Steven Stills' best. Thanks for the info about opening hours. I'll check train times etc. and propose a day and a time. Maybe we could go late morning, have a bite to eat somewhere and go back! Make a day of it.
Look at these: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnA8cOahBlQ and www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIemkpnMCvg then a few necessary blasphemous exclamations later float back down to the ground. What there is when one can go looking!
I was in the shop this afternoon as it happens. They are open every day except monday morning and sundays. I picked up an ancient Dave Clark Five Greatest Hits album and Manassas (Stephen Stills) double album plus loads of classical vynyls at a couple of euros each.
lundi 15h - 19h
mardi au samedi 10h - 12h/ 15h - 19h
Tell me when you're available and I will phone to make sure he is open. There are thousands of discs so you will need to allow a few hours. In a couple of weeks would be good for me too, preferably a tuesday or wednesday but I can be around anytime if you give me enough notice.