Friday, March 11, 2016

The inevitability of it all...

Playlist
Brad Mehldau - 10 Years Solo Live
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things
Deep Purple - Burn
Kevin Ayers - June 1, 1974
Jon Anderson - Change We Must
Clifford Jordan - Clifford Jordan
Miles Davis - Miles Davis at Newport: 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4
Pet Shop Boys - Alternative
Beethoven - Complete Piano Sonatas
New Order - Brotherhood
Various - California Dreaming
New Order - Movement
Various - This is Trojan
Louis Smith - Here Comes Louis Smith
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Gentle Giant - Pretentious
Gordon Lightfoot - Don Quixote
Harmonia - Musik Von Harmonia
The Church - Quick Smoke At Spot's
Khachaturian - Spartacus, Masquerade & Gayaneh Suites
Genesis - Foxtrot
Leonard Cohen - The Best Of
Joy Division - Still
Jimmy Smith - Midnight Special
Keith Emerson - Emerson Plays Emerson
Genesis - And Then There Were Three
Ijahman Levi - Island Presents: Roots
Matthew Florianz - Wasteland Signals
Vanilla Fudge - Then And Now
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Greatest Hits
Various - Craig Charles Funk & Soul Classics
Various - The Best Of Hallyday, Rivers, Mitchell, Anthony & Vartan 
Ornette Coleman - To Whom Who Keeps a Record
Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Seven Days of Falling
Brett Garsed - Big Sky
Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment
Michael Gibbs - Tanglewood 63
Van Nostrand - Voyage in a White Building I
Boccherini - Boccherini: String Quartets Op. 32
Various Composers - Pour Deux Clavecins
Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Die Macht der Musik
Van Der Graaf Generator - First Generation (1969-1971)
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Epic ELP

Not much to report today, I thought - the usual fruitless walk to the East End for a salad and a purchaseless mooch around Fopp...

In the early evening, a visit to my mum with Anne - still on the mend but still not getting home...

And an Indian takeaway on the way home (veggie jalfrezie, in an attempt not to offset all the salads this week)...

Upstairs and ticking things off a list of things and enjoying a coffee...


...while listening to the selections for next Thursday's podcast...

And then...

On 30 March 1974, I bought an amazing LP, featuring music which was, for a 15 year old boy, out of this world...




Other than Focus' "Moving Waves", acquired the summer before, off the back of the hit singles "Hocus Pocus" and "Sylvia", this was my first album of, what is now known as, Progressive Rock...

I had the single of "Jerusalem" bought just before Xmas '73 and the NME flexi-disc taster for the LP...

But they hadn't really prepared me for "Karn Evil 9"...

It wasn't called "Progressive Rock" at the time - it was just amazing music (which reached number 2 on the album charts - imagine - the music of Alberto Ginastera at the top of the charts) - and I really had no idea how three people could make such a wonderful sound...

I stuck with ELP through the years - I even think "Love Beach", generally portrayed as their nadir, is good - "In the Hot Seat" their final album, perhaps not so much but it's still pretty good - and, in 2010, Dr Prog and I made a kind of pilgrimage to London to see them perform, what is now, definitely, their last ever gig...

The news tonight of Keith Emerson's suicide at the age of 71, yet another blow...

OK, I know he was unlikely to produce any new music at this stage which would eclipse his glory days (the fate of most musicians) but it's the ending which is hard to take...

Brings it home that Alice Cooper, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and all my other "heroes" are going to join Chris Squire, David Bowie and Keith Emerson not too long from now...

And, of course, inevitably, we'll all join them too...

Having to die is a complete bastard...

Highlight of the Day : Enjoying the music of Keith Emerson...

2 comments:

Disco Stu said...

Always look on the bright side of life eh Dave.

Cloudland Blue Quartet said...

That's me - Mr Uppity Up the upbeat man from Upbeat City...