h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Showing my age in more ways than one - getting the names mixed up, and she hasn't been Emily Nugent for donkey's ears When I was a lot younger I had a bit of thing for her

Stereo's an interesting idea. but like you say, it's often either unnecessary or just plain pointless where music is concerned.

We have two ears and the way our bodies have evolved means that their positioning is good for telling where a sound (such as that animal that wants to eat you) is coming from. In other words, we have surround-sound hearing, which at a pinch you could call stereo.

Unless you're sitting down, unmoving, listening to a piece of music with strategically placed speakers, or if you're wearing headphones, stereo isn't going to do much for you. One thing I will say it's good for is radio drama, and surround sound in cinemas can add an extra layer of enjoyment to a film.

I agree with you about stereo being a waste of time in pubs, shops, restaurants etc, but in the CD shop where I worked for a few years, a very simple rectangular space with rows of racks running up and down the length of the shop, we had the speakers on each of the two long sides, so customers were able to get the stereo, and you could get some pretty interesting effects with pieces of music that contained deliberately emphasised stereo passages, like Yours is No Disgrace, with the music seeming to fly backwards and forwards over your head Being able to play it loud was a factor, I suspect. The 1812 Overture was pretty good in that respect too

Another Band I haven't listened to before

Porcupine Tree
Trains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UHwkfhwjsk&list=RD0UHwkfhwjsk#t=21

"End result bright / tinny CD's." Aha. That explains why one classical CD I have is unlisten-able. Roumanian Rhapsody by Georges Enesco. By ten minutes in all you can hear is the damn triangle. I'm starting to lose the ability to hear the highest frequencies, and I have a touch of tinnitus, but even so that CD irritates me. I should look around and see if another orchestra has recorded it since the last time I looked.

Although he's most definitely not within a country mile of prog, Tom Waits, leastways his early stuff, is someone many of us old heads appreciate and respect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny3K8Dqth1M

Probably my last one tonight
Gerry Rafferty - City To City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3D7Cmr_9hQ

Oh yah, Tom Waits. Here he is at the Montreal Jazz Festival -- this is for the second song, "$29.00", off Blue Valentine, still my favorite album of his. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSve3_odCfg

At about 8 minutes into the (9 minute) film it shows his atrocious form, how he holds his hands when playing piano.

In 1980 I went to Corfu and worked for about a year at a hotel, looking after some horses and taking clients on rides. All I heard was either Greek pop music or disco -- Funky City, Start Me Up etc. etc. When I flew back home to Birmingham, England, and rented a car to get home, I got on to the A34 before relaxing enough to turn on the radio. And it was Tom Waits.

Gerry Rafferty also dates back to my horse career days... that sound takes me back to a tack room at a place in Sutton Coldfield, where I was working as a groom. That and what's-her-name who sang "Heathcliff", but I don't mind if we skip that album.

*helps herself to more tea*

Strangely enough Lil

what's-her-name who sang "Heathcliff"
is the next one I'm putting on.

You may cover your ears if you wish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mt7_Xe7Lg

Wuthering Heights, sung by her, right. I'll go get us some more crumpets.

Sorry the crumpets will have gone cold by now
Just after I posted that, my Comp threw a proper hissy fit, Overheat alarms, so the last two hours have been spent cleaning it out, amazing how much crud was in the fan filters.

It is also a lot quieter

Today I think it might be a pink floyd sort of start to the afternoon
Meddle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ALYA_VCyGY

and some David Bowie to keep me busy
Hunky Dory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQTENuQYgjM

Tom Waits' fingers... they bend in all the wrong ways

When a friend was teaching me how to play piano I bought a copy of the Tom Waits Anthology, a collection of some his piano-based songs, and although I couldn't sight read a piano score (still can't), and I still can't read bass clef (played French horn at school so very familiar with treble clef), I learned some of them bar-by-bar, and they were so much fun to play - Ghosts of Saturday Night, Martha, Shiver Me Timbers, Kentucky Avenue, Tom Traubert's Blues. But then I had to get rid of the piano and I haven't played since - nearly 20 years

I also learned how to play this... the prelude, not the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE4u58qD50E

Although I won't have a word said against the song either.

But just in case you feel uncomfortable with that, here's a little palate-cleanser - Kentucky Avenue, a song which never fails to bring a tear to the eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCgkrxIltwE

No problem with Tom

However I'm sitting here listening to Barclay James Harvest
Everyone Is Everybody Else
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI8JH7-_FH8

A band I didn't follow at the time, but it was in a lot of mates record collections

Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3FlW5R2GL4

I'm just following along with what I've got on in the Background here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tsamNxGC9U#aid=P9rVdYipBrw
The Velvet Underground & Nico

Yes, that's my Steely Dan Can't Buy a Thrill you're listening to, with my compliments. The mix and separation are a bit old-fashioned, I notice since I listen under headphones these days.

I don't think we have so much as mentioned Ry Cooder yet! A member of my personal guitar pantheon, the man who taught Keith Richard a thing or two. This is the album version of Get Rhythm dubbed on to a video. The legendary Flaco Jimenez is on the stage with Ry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG91Y62T4C0

Ah, Flaco Every bit as much a Texas music legend as Willie, Waylon, Stevie Ray and Bob Wills. And someone who I'd never heard of until I moved here, nor knew of the existence of his style of music which I've since grown to be a fan of.

Same goes for Bob Wills actually.

Flaco
You still don't hear him mentioned this side of the pond, perhaps he doesn't travel well.

Then off out so a quiet day in here for those sleeping.