Growing up and hanging around my dad's barber shop as wells in our household was the "Blue Note Jazz." However on Sunday's nothing but gospel before and after church. Motown sound was also a powerhouse for me when it comes to music. The strong points in music for me were during the Viet Nam War and civil rights movements and what our Country was going through. The strong sounds of Miles,Monk,Coltrain, the relaxing tunes of Bill Evans and the Return to Forever with Chick Corea moments were right on time. Strong solid rock time periods with The Cream (slow hand Clapton), Crosby, still, Nash and Young, The Birds, Stones and Iron Butterfly just to name a few. :-) Enjoying a pipe and listening to the "Old Lions" of jazz does it for me every time along with "Classic Rock". Please add in some Kurt Elling and Boney James. Thank you.
Prokofiev/ Schumann / Rachmaninov / Liszt / Brubeck Quartet / Scriabin / Johnny Cash / Woody Guthrie / Jethro Tull / Yes. Not necessarily in this order
For all the bluegrass fans out there, my best friend plays bass in this great new band called The Rowdy Souls. I've been able to see them live a few times, and they only get better with every performance. Thought some of the folks here would enjoy their music.
At least for this Monday, my pick has been a John Prine station I’ve been honing on Pandora for a few years. A little of everything from Americana to the blues that has set very well with me today.
Listening and watching some You Tube videos of live Adrian Belew Power Trio. I'm going to see one of my favorite guitarists of all time in a small club in NYC in June. The venue and the music should be spectactacular. It will be the first time I've seen him play since his King Crimson days and during the Three of a Perfect Pair tour in the 80's. Decemberists the night before in New Haven!
As some of you may know my handle Ghosts Of Pompeii was the name of my solo music project. Before completely retiring from music due to tendon damage in my hand I had recorded nine studio albums as Ghosts Of Pompeii and several compilations. But before that in the early 70s' I was the keyboardist for the Indiana progressive group Vesuvius. We had a small cult following and managed to get one of our songs included on the WKQX Hometown album, a competition sponsored by a Chicago radio station. We were the only Indiana band included on an album of mainly groups from Chicago. The band folded shortly thereafter and all that was left was a box of unmixed rough cut half-track tapes of the recording sessions. We never had the opportunity to finish the recordings properly. We'd book studio time when we'd get up enough cash to return to the studio. But rather than get one track completely finished then move on to the next, our Producer/recording engineer decided it would be best to lay down the basic tracks of all the songs we intended for the album - then go back and polish each song with what-ever studio magic, overdubs, and vocals needed to make a finished product . So in essence we had nothing but unmixed rough cuts of assorted tunes to show for all the money we had spent in the studio. And unfortunately the band folded before we could make a finished product to shop around as a demo to labels.
Decades later, after returning to music with my Ghosts Of Pompeii project I came upon the box of unmixed Vesuvius studio tapes - and thankfully still had my Panasonic reel-to-reel recorder. So I cleaned up the residue on the tapes, which had been pretty badly gummed up - and transferred the music from analogue to my digital home studio. Many of the songs were so badly degraded that the tunes couldn't be rescued. But I was able to restore a few. And with the addition of overdubs to fill in drop-out on parts that were muddy or washed out I was able to bring a few of these tracks back to life. So since this was a hobby project and I wasn't intending to release the material I thought I'd take liberties with the recordings and add a few of the keyboard overdubs that should have been on the finish product. So the material is a marriage of the original Vesuvius studio sessions with a touch of Ghosts Of Pompeii.
My son Jason has recently taken an interest in promoting his old Dad's past achievements and began posting a few of the Vesuvius tunes on YouTube. So I thought I'd share a few of these videos on this music thread. The music is dated and a product of the time, but it's a nostalgic trip back in time for me and hope some of you might enjoy it.
I'm the one with the beard and bad haircut. It's also one of the few songs where I sang lead. Listening back now I sound like a girlie boy. Wouldn't be able to reach those notes now unless a bear was gnawing on my testicles.
A love song about necrophilia. How tasteful. And if you think the song and lyrics are in bad taste, you should have seen the live show that went with it. We developed quite a reputation for the live concerts. More people came to see the show than listen to the music.
We actually recorded this tune in the studio, but the version we preferred - and the one on the video - was recorded in the basement on a relatively cheap Panasonic reel-to-reel tape recorder with two microphones positioned on either end of the basement. About as low tech as you can get - even at that time. Yet for some reason it sounded better than the studio recording, and would have been the version included on our demo had we finished it. As an added plus - it's our only archived live recording to survive.
Glad he posted this one, it's one of my favorites from the band. It's also the last thing we did together in the studio. Shortly thereafter we broke up.
Do you prefer listening to instrumental music while smoking - or tunes with words?
Depending upon the mood I'm in - I guess I like both. When I'm feeling a bit nostalgic I'll pull out some of those 60s' songs I listened to as a kid in high school. Other times I like listening to soundtrack albums ... especially music from Bernard Herrmann. I'll bet I listen to the filmscore for "Mysterious Island" at least twice a month.
@pwkarch Can never go wrong with Floyd - no matter what era you pick. I even like the very last album they released which was more of a tribute to Rick wright.
It really depends on my mood. I enjoy an hour long smoke on my way to and from work. In the car I listen to Led Zepplin, Drum Corps, Jazz Fusion or Classical. When smoking on my back porch, I prefer not to listen to music but to enjoy nature and the peacefulness.
Comments
When I'm looking for some smooth jazz fusion I usually listen to the German band PASSPORT. These guys are great.
Jethro Tull / Yes. Not necessarily in this order
As some of you may know my handle Ghosts Of Pompeii was the name of my solo music project. Before completely retiring from music due to tendon damage in my hand I had recorded nine studio albums as Ghosts Of Pompeii and several compilations. But before that in the early 70s' I was the keyboardist for the Indiana progressive group Vesuvius. We had a small cult following and managed to get one of our songs included on the WKQX Hometown album, a competition sponsored by a Chicago radio station. We were the only Indiana band included on an album of mainly groups from Chicago. The band folded shortly thereafter and all that was left was a box of unmixed rough cut half-track tapes of the recording sessions. We never had the opportunity to finish the recordings properly. We'd book studio time when we'd get up enough cash to return to the studio. But rather than get one track completely finished then move on to the next, our Producer/recording engineer decided it would be best to lay down the basic tracks of all the songs we intended for the album - then go back and polish each song with what-ever studio magic, overdubs, and vocals needed to make a finished product . So in essence we had nothing but unmixed rough cuts of assorted tunes to show for all the money we had spent in the studio. And unfortunately the band folded before we could make a finished product to shop around as a demo to labels.
Decades later, after returning to music with my Ghosts Of Pompeii project I came upon the box of unmixed Vesuvius studio tapes - and thankfully still had my Panasonic reel-to-reel recorder. So I cleaned up the residue on the tapes, which had been pretty badly gummed up - and transferred the music from analogue to my digital home studio. Many of the songs were so badly degraded that the tunes couldn't be rescued. But I was able to restore a few. And with the addition of overdubs to fill in drop-out on parts that were muddy or washed out I was able to bring a few of these tracks back to life. So since this was a hobby project and I wasn't intending to release the material I thought I'd take liberties with the recordings and add a few of the keyboard overdubs that should have been on the finish product. So the material is a marriage of the original Vesuvius studio sessions with a touch of Ghosts Of Pompeii.
My son Jason has recently taken an interest in promoting his old Dad's past achievements and began posting a few of the Vesuvius tunes on YouTube. So I thought I'd share a few of these videos on this music thread. The music is dated and a product of the time, but it's a nostalgic trip back in time for me and hope some of you might enjoy it.
I'm the one with the beard and bad haircut. It's also one of the few songs where I sang lead. Listening back now I sound like a girlie boy. Wouldn't be able to reach those notes now unless a bear was gnawing on my testicles.
A love song about necrophilia. How tasteful. And if you think the song and lyrics are in bad taste, you should have seen the live show that went with it. We developed quite a reputation for the live concerts. More people came to see the show than listen to the music.
I guess it's apparent by now that we didn't record many romantic ballads.
We actually recorded this tune in the studio, but the version we preferred - and the one on the video - was recorded in the basement on a relatively cheap Panasonic reel-to-reel tape recorder with two microphones positioned on either end of the basement. About as low tech as you can get - even at that time. Yet for some reason it sounded better than the studio recording, and would have been the version included on our demo had we finished it. As an added plus - it's our only archived live recording to survive.
I think I may not have the proper stuff in my pipe for this, however.
Glad he posted this one, it's one of my favorites from the band. It's also the last thing we did together in the studio. Shortly thereafter we broke up.
Do you prefer listening to instrumental music while smoking - or tunes with words?
Depending upon the mood I'm in - I guess I like both. When I'm feeling a bit nostalgic I'll pull out some of those 60s' songs I listened to as a kid in high school. Other times I like listening to soundtrack albums ... especially music from Bernard Herrmann. I'll bet I listen to the filmscore for "Mysterious Island" at least twice a month.