Category: Vinyl / Tunes Blog

WALTER BECKER (1950-2017)

The elusive genius and co-founder of Steely Dan passed away five days ago. I’ve been listening to a lot of his music lately, and the hits he co-wrote with Donald Fagen are legendary: “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, “Kid Charlemagne”, “Katy Lied”, “Aja”, “Hey Nineteen”, and the autobiographical “Third World Man”. Continue reading “”

THE RECORDING OF SGT. PEPPER

Disenchanted with touring, The Beatles retreated to Abbey Road Studios fifty years ago and began recording their most iconic album ever, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. By the time it was released in June ’67, they had made several giant leaps forward in the art of building an LP, cover and all. Continue reading “”

THE DOORS FIRST ALBUM

On this day 50 years ago, and for the next eight days after that, The Doors recorded their first album at Sunset Sound in Hollywood. That’s where the rock group laid down their distinctive sound on 4-track tape with producer Paul Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick. Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore, and Larry Knechtel all played on the record. Jim Morrison had is own track. Continue reading “”

IMPOSSIBLE GERMANY, UNLIKELY JAPAN

“Where ever you go, wherever you land.”
“This was still new to me. I wouldn’t understand.”

There are great Wilco songs, and then there is “Impossible Germany”, arguably one of the best from anyone over the past ten years. The album it appears on, Sky Blue Sky, was released in May 2007 and cut to vinyl by Robert Ludwig. It sounds fantastic. Continue reading “”