__________________________________________________________________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ S P E C T R O P O P ______________ ______________ ______________ __________________________________________________________________ Volume #0263 May 15, 1999 __________________________________________________________________ designed to give you many years of trouble-free listening pleasureSubject: Twiggy Received: 05/15/99 3:16 am >From: Marie J. Leclercxxxotron.ca To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com Dear Spectropop, I don't write often but enjoy reading this list. And maybe someone can help me. I've just finished reading Twiggy's autobiography, and I can only recommend it warmly to anyone interested in the sixties and the London scene. She mentions albums she made, and from what is said, they should be good. I have no idea how she sounds, so if someone can tell me what to expect, before I go browse old vinyls, I would be very happy. As for the book, it also contains an interesting if peculiar meeting with Phil Spector, as well as a visit to the now familiar Caribou studio. Thanks for reading, Marie --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: happy birthday burt? Received: 05/15/99 3:16 am >From: Jack Madani, Jack_Mxxxk12.nj.us To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com I'm sure I heard on the radio this morning as I was shaving that Burt Bacharach is 70 years old today. Could this be true? I would have forgotten all about it if I hadn't been listening to my TimeLife AM Gold 1969 cd as I graded lab reports, and all of a sudden up pops Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head. 70 years old? No way! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road, Princeton, NJ 08540 Jack_Mxxxk12.nj.us "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred." --Henry Cabot Henhouse III ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Mamas and Papas Missing Vocals Received: 05/15/99 3:16 am >From: Billy G. Spradlin, bgsprxxxhlink.net To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com Doc Rock, docxxx.com wrote to Spectropop List: > > >I don't recall which hit it was, but when I was DJ-ing in >Toledo, Ohio, there was one track on my CD of their hits >that always came out over the air with missing vocals (but >it played fine at home). The station engineer said that the >label had mastered the track of the CD out of phase on that >song. And thus it was not compatible with the station's >equipment. > >It was a mono AM station. I assume that the board was >wired out of phase, and he did not want to admit it. >Taking an out-of-phase stereo mix and making it mono will >eliminate everything in the middle of the mix. Anyway, I >feel that is the source of the problem we've been taking >and reading about. > >Doc Doc, I think you're referring to "Creeque Alley" on the MCA "16 Greatest Hits" CD which I think its now out of print, since MCA has released other M&P's greatest hits CD's in the 90's. I noticed that the vocals were out of phase when listening to the song on headphones. The good news is that the original mono 45 version (with the horns and extra verse at the end) is now on CD from Varese Sarabande's "On The Radio Volume 3". I wonder why they left the horns off when they mixed it in stereo for the " Deliver" album. Wierd. One thing I have noticed about all the M&P's albums (and one of the best things about them) is that the vocals are mixed in very wide stereo. While this makes it great for stereo lovers, when you combine the left and right channels into mono for AM radio they tend to get buried by whatever in the center channel. I like to listen to KOMA (1520 AM) from Oklahoma City which broadcasts in AM stereo and I have noticed this problem whenever they play a M&P's hit or The Association (Windy) and im listening on a mono radio. I wished MCA would go back and remaster the "The Mamas & The Papas" (thier second album) and "Deliver" albums since they did a great job last year of remastering the first album. It was a huge improvement. The CD version of " Deliver" is one of the worst sounding CD's I have in my collection, it sounds like it was mastered off a cheap cassette! Billy G. Spradlin 29 Rim Road Kilgore, Texas 75662 Email: bgsprxxxhlink.net Homepage: http://home.earthlink.net/~bgspradlin/ --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Out Of Phase stereo Received: 05/15/99 3:16 am >From: Paul Urbahns, Pauluxxxcom To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com Doc wrote: > I don't recall which hit it was, but when I was DJ-ing in > Toledo, Ohio, there was one track on my CD of their hits > that always came out over the air with missing vocals (but > it played fine at home). The station engineer said that the > label had mastered the track of the CD out of phase on that > song. And thus it was not compatible with the station's > equipment. >From what I understand from my DJ days that's right. When an FM stereo station transmitter gets ready to broadcast a stereo song, it combines the L+R single and the postives (everything alike in the two channels) is broadcast as the main carrier in mono. This is what the mono radio pick up and ignore the stereo sub carrier. A stereo receiver picks up both the main carrier (the mono positives) and the sub carrier (which as all the things different between the two channels or a mono negative signal). The fact it receives this signal is indicated by the stereo light because this signal lights that. Then both signals are fed together and the tuning circuits seperate them back to Left and Right respectively. If the song is out of phase it screws up the process. Hope that's not too technical a definition. An AM mono station combines L+R into one signal and does not uncode them back. So, out of phase hurts it too. Paul Urbahns pauluxxxcom --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Taking the Fifth Received: 05/15/99 3:16 am >From: Jamie LePage, le_pagxxxities.com To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com A few thoughts on Jimmy Webb and the Fifth Dimension: I have a CD (of rather questionable origin) called the Jimmy Webb Songbook (Real Music RMD-1004). It apparently is mastered from vinyl, but the sound is good enough for me and the track listing is wonderful. The concept, as I understand it, was to compile all the Jimmy Webb songs >from Up Up & Away, Magic Garden, Johnny Rivers' Changes (you'd like this too Toby), and the Glen Campbell track By the Time I get to Phoenix. Here is the track listing: Prologue (5D) The Magic Garden (5D) Summer's Daughter (5D) Dreams/Pax/Nepenthe (5D) Carpet Man (5D) Requiem: 820 Latham (5D) The Girls' Song (5D) The Worst That Could Happen (5D) Orange Air (5D) Paper Cup (5D) Epilogue (5D) By the Time I get to Phoenix (Johnny Rivers) Carpet Man (Johny Rivers) Tunesmith (Johnny Rivers) Sidewalk Song/27th Street (Johnny Rivers) Do What You Gotta Do (Johnny Rivers) Rosecrans Boulevard (Johnny Rivers) The Eleventh Song (Johnny Rivers) Sweet Smiling Children (Johnny Rivers) By the Time I get to Phoenix (Glen Campbell) Up, Up and Away (5D) Which Way to Nowhere (5D) Never Gonna Be the Same (5D) Pattern People (5D) Rosecrans Blvd. (5D) With Jimmy Webb having been mentioned here quite a bit recently, I relistened to the Thelma Houston album "Sunshower"; written, arranged and produced by Jimmy Webb in 1969, released on the Probe label. There are some interesting tracks on this album; I particularly like Make it Easier on You and Mixed-Up Girl. Thelma covers Didn't We here, but the vocal histrionics are a bit much for my own personal taste. It almost starts to sound like a Whitney ballad! (Do I have that backwards?) Anyway, its saving grace is the outro, where the song changes tempo and fades with an acoustic guitar line backed by a distant string section. Dave Feldman wrote: > Jimmy Webb needs singers who will give in to the emotion > and melodrama of his ballads. Billy Davis and Marilyn > McCoo, like Art Garfunkel, manage to convey passion and > intelligence simultaneously. Thelma's soulful interpretation of the Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash (with a very cool Webb string arrangement) works well enough, but again, occasionally she seems to overpower Webb-penned material, and after reading Dave's comment, I began to wonder if perhaps this is due to Thelma's failure to "give in to the emotion and melodrama" of Webb's songs, opting instead to create her own emotion and melodrama with her spirited singing style. Dave again: > ...the Fifth Dimension were never hip, and were > woefully underappreciated, IMO. They were superb vocalists, > in the studio and live. Couldn't agree more, and thanks for saying it. 5D's vocal approach was always understated, and this allowed the melodies and arrangements to cut through (an approach effectively employed by Brian Wilson, btw). UU&A and Magic Garden are both wonderful albums and showcase Webb's work perhaps better than any other recordings of his late 60's work. and...Rosecrans Boulevard rules! All the best, Jamie --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: The Innocence and more goodies Received: 05/15/99 3:16 am >From: A Cross-eyed Puppet Named Igor, wuxxxet.se To: Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com A record which is almost too soft to qualify as soft rock is The Innocence self-titled record. A friend of mine over here found the LP (it's quite rare, huh) and taped it for me...and I have to say it's great!! Not an abrasive musical element in sight, just pure bliss....vocal harmony, acoustic guitars, vibraphone, major 7th chords, the occasional string arrangement...I kind of overdosed on Roger Nichols and all his string overdubs, so it was really great to hear such great soft rock stripped down to, uh...whatever, I'm too tired to be poetic right now :) Anyway, this LP is a true gem and no Spectropop-listee should be without it! I'm intrigued by the second song, Mairzy Doats, because it's the one that Leland Palmer sang over and over again when he got mad in "Twin Peaks"! Is there an Innocence/David Lynch connection that I should know about? Anyway, The Innocence apparently used to be called The Tradewinds and my friend included two of the 'Winds' songs. One of the tracks, the brilliant New York's A Lonely Town, sounds like a lost Beach Boys surf song (it's from the Cowabunga surf box, is the rest of that compilation as good?)! Other highlights on the tape: an obscure Dionne Warwick bossa nova called "Another Night" (written by Bacharach/David, of course!) and Pizzicato Five's cover of the Beach Boys' "Passing By". Tobias --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- End
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