Vinyl Conversion Status Report, Pt. Dos
Category: Music...
Posted Thursday, June 17, 2004 at 08:25 PM [GMT-6]

The second batch of LPs is in the can, so to speak, having been converted to digital and then copy to CD. Here's the list, along with an observation or two about each record:

• "The Game" - Queen (c. 1980). If I had known then what I know now about Freddy Mercury, would I have still bought this LP? Yeah, for sure; it's a classic, and he had a classic rock voice. Favorite cut: "Don't Try Suicide," probably the most perky tune ever recorded about the subject.


• "Tres Hombres" - ZZ Top (c. 1973). Another classic; loved hearing "La Grange" in "Shanghai Knights," btw. And, I gotta tell you, if the centerfold of the album doesn't raise your cholesterol level 20 points and make you pine for a laminated copy of the Scoville Scale just by looking at it, then you'll never be a real Texan, even in your imagination. That photo is exhibit "A" as to why CDs will never really replace LPs in the hearts and minds of Those Who Know Better.


• "Who Do We Think We Are?" - Deep Purple (c. 1973). Yeah, more DP, dude. The liner notes consist of self-congratulatory headlines and excerpts from articles proclaiming Deep Purple to be the pinnacle of moderne beatmusik. But, still, a very good classic rock album; these guys pretty much lived up to their headlines. Some of the organ licks still remind me of ELP.


• "Winds of Change" - Eric Burdon & The Animals (c. 1967). Very dark, depressing. What do you expect from an album containing cuts like "Paint It Black," "The Black Plague" and "Motel Hell." Sprinkled with a modicum of San Francisco hippie peace-n-love blather. Burdon wrote the liner notes introducing the band members and a couple of other folks, and boy, are they a hoot! If you didn't live in the 60s, you won't understand, but Rod McKuen would be proud.


• "We're Only In It For The Money" - The Mothers of Invention (c. 1967). How weird was I as a kid? This was the third LP I bought after "Chicago" (by you-know-who) and "Disraeli Gears" (by the Cream). Frank Zappa obviously had Eric Burdon in mind when he concocted this bubbling platter of musical mayhem, even if the cover art is a takeoff on "Sgt Pepper." These guys were underappreciated musical genuises, and it's a shame that we don't get to see what Zappa could accomplish with a little of today's technological magic. But, perhaps he would snub it, even today. For, as the liner notes proudly proclaim, "None of the sounds are electronically generated...they are all the product of electronically altering NORMAL instruments." So, he took his electronics the old-fashioned way. [As an aside, I finally got to use the "Reverse" filter built into Sound Studio, as the last track on side one ends with a segment of backwards-playing music and lyrics. I can see why, after hearing it normally; the censors would never have let it through!] Overall, the album ranges from hysterically funny to scathingly sarcastic and from Manson creepy to adolescent gross. IOW, another classic.


• "Too Hot To Stop" - The Bar-Kays (c. 1976). Funkalicious!