This week I'm focusing on progressive, avant-garde, and jazz-fusion albums released in 1970. I first looked at what I had on my hard drive and then what I had but were vinyl album rips needing to be broken into tracks. Then I took the remaining list and did a library search, and today, I went to pick them all up. See the results below.
The only one I haven't actually heard yet was the Fleetwood Mac live album. That's actually a 1971 concert with the lineup after guitarist Peter Green and before Stevie Nicks and Linsay Buckingham. It's an interesting period in Mac's history, so I thought I'd check it out. I'll put that in a seperate playlist I have for stuff I haven't heard yet.
The rest: Moody Blues - A Queston of Balance, Miles Davis - Bitches Brew, and Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die, I've heard before and have owned before on vinyl and CD. For some reason they escaped my collection before getting digitized. The Traffic album is actually a Deluxe remaster with an extra disc of live and alternate takes. BONUS!
After the libraries, I stopped at a thirft store and thumbed through a lot of vinyl not finding anything. Then I hit two Barnes & Nobles. One didn't even have a music section and I didn't find anything I needed at the other. Them's the breaks. But I did take a look at the USB turntables they were selling for $99. I'm seriously thinking of getting back into vinyl. I think though, I will go to my local used record store first and see what they might have that I want on vinyl. If there's a lot of stuff I need, then I might do it. I'm not doing it for one or two albums though. That would be more trouble than it's worth.
During all this driving around, I hit several McDonalds for spot passes. The two Barnes & Nobles should've gotten me a few Miis as well. I checked later at work and I had a full ten. I actually greeted them all into the Plaza at work too so I'd free up the cache for any more I might get at work. That's some advanced technique right there.
And so I'll leave you with the greeting my Mii, wearing a baseball glove hat, makes to incoming Miis , PLAY BALL!
John Barleycorn could be my favourite Traffic album or maybe Low Spark... dunno.
Bitches Brew I found really hard to listen to even though I respect what Davis is doing on it.
Question of Balance is another favourite but I love all of the pre adult easy listening Moody Blues albums. Their early stuff was very much prog.
It's weird, but when I was really into prog, I never considered Moody Blues to be part of it. Recently though I relistened to In Search of the Lost Chord and thought it was the perfect expression of prog with just the right balance between artiness and pop entertainment. I think that was it though. I always thought them too pop to be prog. I was hard core back then. If it didn't blow my mind with feats of technical prowess, then it was out.
Dammit, I missed McDonald's breakfast AGAIN.
I say the same thing all the time, but just think, soon it'll be breakfast all day long. ALL DAY LONG! The utopia has arrived!
I don't think I've ever seen that Fleetwood Mac CD. It sounds interesting especially if it was pre Buckingham/Nicks. Bitches Brew I remember from college. I used to check out random CDs from the campus library just to listen to different music.
If you decide on getting a USB Turntable check out the reviews. I heard some of the cheaper ones actually harm the vinyl.
I had never seen it either. Bitches Brew has proven to be quite annoying to me. I listened to it again and I just can't stand 20 plus minutes of jazz fusion noodling. I just don't get jazz sometimes. It seems aimless. I took all the longer tracks out of my playlist. That left only two tracks.
My local used record store dealer told me those $100 turntables at B&N weren't very good. Of course, he has an interest in saying so. He can order me a better one. I kinda believe him though.