How many 78's? If it's just a few, I could do it, as long as you don't want every pop and click removed as well.

I loaded up my iPod last night and am listening to stuff I haven't heard in a long time. Right now, I'm listening to Altar Boy by Madder Rose. I forgot how cool it is. I remember there was a rumor that Mary Lorson from MR and Tanya Donnelly were going to work on something together. That would have been cool.

This is funny. Weird, but funny. NB: the language is NOT office friendly; the visuals are fine, though.

And speaking of weird, apparently James Brown's Soul on Top is either back in print or about to return to print. I had never heard of it, but it was reviewed on some show I was listening to this afternoon. JB, a couple months before he cuts "Sex Machine," decides to record with Louis Bellson's big band, and covers Hank Williams, Sammy Cahn and Kurt Weill as well as recording "swing" versions of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World". The results were much better than I anticipated (he was on a hot streak), and even stranger than I expected. Did anyone write about this for Lost in the Grooves, David? Or did you veto any Godfather related content? :-)

Did anyone write about this for Lost in the Grooves, David?

No, but it'd definitely be in volume 2.

Or did you veto any Godfather related content? :-)

Heh. I was trying to talk my friend Matthew into doing the Mother Popcorn album.

Ginger, no idea on how to answer your questions. But a genuine "thank you" for the earworm.

I can finally respond a little bit to Hayden's post on Smile.

Been listening to Brian Wilson's Smile all day. It's extraordinary. I get choked up thinking about how close the world came to only hearing this in fragments. For every passage that's stiffer than the original (and we can include the vocals on "Wonderful," "Surf's Up," and "Good Vibrations" in this category, as well as the far-less-than-insane intro to "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" -- although all make up for it in other ways), there's a section of lyrics or music or perfect wordless harmony that just takes my breath away. I think I first grew emotional when suddenly there were new words and sounds in "Barnyard", the fourth song on the album (which was always 3rd on my homemade Smile, before - rather than after - "Do You Like Worms?," which is now retitled "Roll Plymouth Rock"). The fantastic transition from "Wonderful" to "Child Is Father Of The Man" is now filled by "Song For Children," which previously was known as the instrumental "Look". The lyrics on "I'm In Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop" and the transition to "Vega-Tables" make it one of the darkest beautiful things that Brian Wilson or the Beach Boys ever created outside of "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times." The instrumental "Holiday" is now the pirate drama "On A Holiday." "Love To Say Da Da" has become "In Blue Hawaii," an intentionally silly ode to the 50th American state. There's no sign of "He Gives Speeches/She's Going Bald" or "Well, You're Welcome".

It's fascinating to me seeing how all the pieces are woven together now. This version of "Surf's Up" is not as standalone spectacular as the original (which, doesn't stand alone in my mind anyway, since it's coupled with "Til I Die"), but the way it works with the rest is fantastic. The way "Good Vibrations" now has a little callback to "In Blue Hawaii" was perfect. And while the original version is superior, I do love the attack of the strings in this version. The whole thing is now this slightly loopy, crow's-eye-swooping-over-the-cornfield of western migration across North America from Plymouth Rock out across the Pacific to Hawaii.

Listening to the completed original teenage symphony to God leads me to wonder how different American rock music would have developed if Brian Wilson had been able to finish it. Smile is such a deeply weird and wholly gorgeous slice of wholesome psychedelic Americana; it's hard to imagine what would have happened if it had been a piece of mainstream music. It's no mere concept album, like Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper's, but a full-blown rock opera, following the notion that albums and songs can proceed in narratively or musically linked sections but rejecting the folk-song verse-chorus-verse trope that informs so much rock music, and pre-dating the hereto recognized first rock opera, The Who's "A Quick One (While He's Away)," by two years.

It seems more symphonic than operatic to me, despite the vocals. The constant weaving of materials and the motifs which recur and play off each other. And for all the influence the Beach Boys had on pop music, nobody really composes these discrete sections the way Brian does. He achieves tremendous effects by rubbing these different mixes against each other with the sudden shifts in tempo and sonic texture.

Hayden, here's a good roundtable for the High Hat: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Smile"

Hayden, here's a good roundtable for the High Hat: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Smile"

Hee hee. Raymond Carver fan, Hec?

Hee hee. Raymond Carver fan, Hec?

Leetle bit. Mostly though the title conjured up all the multivarious (crap word, sorry) responses to Smile.

It's a four-dimensional cultural object which you can spin on a variety of axes.

It's a four-dimensional cultural object which you can spin on a variety of axes.

They said the same thing about the Liberty Bell, and look what happened when they tried.

They said the same thing about the Liberty Bell, and look what happened when they tried.

I am all for replacing the Liberty Bell with Smile.