a blog for those who never gave up their turntables or records
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS features articles that don’t fit comfortably into any of the other categories.
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My apologies but I accidentally pushed the PUBLISH button instead of the SAVE DRAFT button and sent my Sound Of Silence/Sounds Of Silence article out onto the internet that was still in draft form.
I will have the piece completed and properly published by tomorrow (October 24, 2020). READ MORE
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I MOVED TO CALIFORNIA from my native Northeastern Pennsylvania in June of 1978. I naively believed I would find some semblance of “the sixties” hidden away in San Francisco. But in only a few years, most of it had been blotted out. Oh, there were still a lot of hand-painted Victorian houses and a few hip coffee shops and bookstores.
WHILE THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG is to address the records that were released decades before most of the people who spend the most time on the internet were even born, I can look at a current topic every now and again. I suppose my fascination with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in not establishing some objective standards for eligibility and the equally obstinate Wikipedia in insisting on “sources” but not on hiring editors to fact-check those sources. READ MORE
I LEFT WIKIPEDIA ALONE for the past few months, even though critiquing their entries is like shooting fish in a barrel. When it comes to “definitions” of persons and terms regarding popular music, Wikipedia’s theme song seems to be a well-known song by Elvis: “If you’re looking for trouble, you’ve come to the right place. READ MORE
I HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE titled Bleeding Heart Liberal Petitions. Most days, I receive a slew of emails with petitions for various causes such as saving an endangered species, urging my representatives in state and federal government to vote for or against a particular bill, protest an injustice, etc. I read them all, sign most of them, and add a few to the Facebook page. READ MORE
MY OLD (OLD) BUDDY, Jerichau St. John, posted a cartoon on my Facebook page. It struck an immediate chord in my record collector’s soul. I left a commented for JSJ and then went looking for the image online. I found it and I am sharing it here with my readers. The cartoon is by Alex Gregory and was published in The New Yorker on May 25, 2015. READ MORE
WHILE TWEAKING AN ARTICLE for publication on my Tell It Like It Was publication on Medium, I noticed that I had referred to lead singer Diana Ross’s soft, whispery vocals on all three of the Supremes’ #1 hits of 1964 as “sex kittenish.” They certainly were coyly flirtatious and the antithesis of most soul singers of the ’60s. READ MORE
