Outside, it’s America:

Julian Cope ‘Citizen Cain’d’, ‘On The Road To Citizen Cain’d’ and ‘Cope’s Notes #7: Citizen Cain’d’ - immersion into these releases brings me to two conclusions. Firstly, the album as originally conceived (on open strings) would’ve been a belter (rip the three discs and form a playlist - Yo) and secondly, the album as it WAS released is better still, with another belter within its outtakes. That I missed out on it twenty years ago is unforgivable, but at least it means that I’m treating all three CDs with equal curiosity and, I have to say, reverence. The book’s typically unputdownable too. Buy ‘em all before they sell out, and groove;

Black Sabbath S/T, ‘Paranoid’, ‘Master of Reality’, ‘Volume 4’ and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ - one of the greatest opening runs of albums ever, and deffo the most influential. Hard rock that defines, defiles, defies and denies its age;

Opeth ‘The Last Will and Testament’ - the more I hear this, the more convinced I am that this is Opeth’s - and prog metal’s - true masterpiece;

Peter Hammill ‘In Camera’ - pH in magnificent extremis, from ppp to ffff. Not for beginners;

Yes ‘Time and a Word’ - the most unfairly underrated of Yes’ ace Seventies output which, let’s face it, still defines them. A couple of twee clunkers aside there’s some really good stuff going down here, not least a killer opening track. The band now using the Yes name isn’t even worthy of decent tribute band status, no matter how well its output is packaged;

Steve Winwood S/T - one of those records that underwhelms at first, yet really blossoms with familiarity. Which in my case has taken a near lifetime. But then, it did come out in 1977, when I was sweet sixteen and otherwise distracted. Wish Steve had got that piano tuned, mind. It’d long since buggered up ‘Low Spark’, after all;

Bob Dylan ‘Desire’ - the first Dylan LP I bought as a new release, and still in my Top Three Bob platters. With its violin obligato and Emmylou’s vocal backing, it sounds like none of his other records, and doesn’t contain a song named ‘Desire’. Unlike:

U2 Rattle and Hum’ - caught live just the wrong side of megastardom with a scant few decent tracks, but in the case of ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’, far better than decent. Why can’t they always be this good? Don’t bother answering that;

Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band ‘Live Bullet’ - fifty years on, this comes across like an AI impression of a Seventies double live album, so cliched it sounds. And yet, it has something. Maybe it’s Seger’s vocal, which cuts through some pretty mediocre material. Whatever, it enlightened a dead Friday night;

Brand X ‘Livestock’ and ‘Product’ - dexterous (if somewhat faceless) fusion demonstrating what a fine drummer Phil Collins used to be. Killer bass playing too;

OM ‘It’s About Time’ - OM’s first studio album for 40 years was a much freer and abrasive affair than their four late 70s ECM albums. Not so much “about”: this NEEDS time for its charms to sink in. But it’s getting there. Fredy Studer RIP;

Chopin: Waltzes (Claudio Arrau) - being one of the first classical CDs I ever owned, this music truly has been a soundtrack to two thirds of my life. No-one had Arrau’s massive sound;

Mozart: Piano Concerto no.17 (Rudolf Serkin/Columbia SO/Alexander Schneider) - Serkin was ever the reliable Mozart man, performing his concertos way before they became standard recorded repertoire. It shows;

Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.4 (w. Wilhelm Kempff)/Mozart: Symphony no.40 (Breslau or Warsaw PO/Hermann Abendroth) - ever in Furtwaengler’s shadow, Abendroth was a fine conductor with a similar ability to read behind the notes. These old live recordings are really quite special, even if they exaggerate the romantic aspects of each work;

Beethoven: Symphony no.5 (Munich PO/Sergiu Celibidache) - a seven minute timing for the first movement might imply a fleet performance, but not here. Amazingly, as late as 1992 Celi omitted its exposition repeat, something I’ve never experienced outside of the 78 rpm era, even from repeat-shy conductors like Walter or Karajan. I kind of liked his dead slow Andante con moto, but the rest of the symphony floats lifelessly in the waters of Celi’s funereal pace, notwithstanding instrumental detail I’ve never heard in any of the other 200+ versions I own. No, this just won’t do;

Saint-Saens: Le Rouet d’Omphale/Franck: Symphony in D minor (Orch National de France/Leonard Bernstein) - superb, dramatic French music given suitable reverence by Lenny back in ’81;

Franck: Trois Chorals (Gillian Weir) - near ideal renderings of Franck’s late, late organ masterpieces;

Mozart: Symphony in C, K 200 (BRSO/Ferdinand Leitner) - one of Mozart’s lesser known symphonies, played as if it’s a masterpiece;

Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Op.59 no.2 (Alban Berg Quartet) - from a box set of all sixteen Beethoven Quartets so cheap it’s indecent. No complaints whatsoever from me;

Beethoven: String Quartet in C, Op.59 no.3 (Amadeus Quartet) - this is the Amadeus’ final studio version of a piece they’d always played well, but here it takes on another level. Fabulous;

Time is running out.

Take care

Dave x