Topographic...

Playlist
Various – 1973 Hit Singles Playlist
Hasse – Salve Regina
Various Composers – Dresden Classics
FionaApple – Extraordinary Machine
Various – Hit Albums from 1970 (Shuffleplay)

Couldn’t sleep so up around 5:15, leaving me pretty tired after last night’s drinking and late turn in...

I compiled a 3CD set of hit singles from around each of Anne’s best friend Lynn’s birthdays, and created a cover – a wee present from me as we were off out tonight to celebrate her birthday, which was yesterday...

Then, after recently creating lists of hit singles I liked from 1972 and 1973, I moved on to 1974 and 1975 and then thought looking at hit albums would be interesting...

So I researched hit albums from 1970-1979 – all of the above research was taken from the great chart archive site http://www.everyhit.com/...

In these days of homogenised crap, it’s amazing to see the music that used to hit the charts – granted there was always rubbish like Nana Maskouri, Peters and Lee and Frank Sinatra (yes I’d rate all three around the same on a worthiness scale) and all those various artists LPs but just look at some of the albums that made it into the top forty in the seventies:-

Soft Machine - Third
Hawkwind - In Search Of Space
Isaac Hayes - Black Moses
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Argent - All Together Now
Focus - Focus 3
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds Of Fire
Lou Reed - Berlin
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans
Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
Roy Harper - Valentine

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
King Crimson – Starless and Bible Black
Steve Hillage - Fish Rising
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Steve Howe - Beginnings
Chris Squire - Fish Out Of Water
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - Rainbow Rising
Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow
David Bowie - Low
Rush - Farewell To Kings
Magazine - Secondhand Daylight

OK some of them may not have aged that well and these aren’t exactly the most accessible albums in the world but, once upon a time, they represented the kind of music which was being bought by enough people to make the charts – some of these even made the number one spot...

And now what do we have? Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse and Adele?!!?

Anyway – arranged to meet up with Dr Prog at the Music Library this morning – I’d suggested we might go to Dunfermline Athletic to see Dr Prog’s team against the mighty Queen of the South – but he couldn’t make it – turned out he didn’t make the library either but I turned up anyway....

Headed home with no new music but some nice Polish bread and Danish salami for lunch – expecting my Sparks CDs to have arrived but again, nothing. Although they’re coming from e-bay, the seller is based here in Edinburgh, so it’s very annoying to say the least to be a week on with no discs...

Decided not to go to Dunfermline on my own and so, as Anne left for Tynecastle (Hearts 1 Inverness 0) I watched on the BBC Videoprinter, as Dunfermline thrashed Queens 4-0, with all the goals coming in the second half...

Still that’s them finished fourth in the league, equalling their best position in recent years and gaining one more point than their previous best...

A month till the Cup final – hopefully they’ll arrange a couple of friendlies to keep their fitness up...

In the evening off to All Bar One in George St to meet up with Lynn and Ross, Lynn’s two sisters, Joan and Sheila, Sheila’s partner Tim, Ross’s brother Stuart and his wife, also called Lynn (possibly with an “E” though)...

After a couple of drinks we walked down to Muang Thai for a very enjoyable and tasty meal – I partook of a grated carrot salad to start with which was covered in chilli seeds and nearly blew my head off – mmm...

This was followed by a very hot duck-based dish, accompanied by some yummy noodles and a couple of bottles of Singha Beer, which was required to douse the flames...

I passed on dessert despite the tempting items available...

Then to a bar in Thistle St where I enjoyed talking to Lynn’s sisters about their tastes in music...

Sheila is 54 and remembers the late 60’s music scene well, while Joan is in her early 40’s and was once a blue–haired punk rocker...

An excellent, entertaining night, rounded off by a taxi trip home from Haymarket to Crispycat Towers and into bed around 2 am...

Very tired...

Highlight of the Day : Thai food and 70’s Albums