Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Wed, 4 Nov 1992 15:33:25 EST
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Nits, old socks.

From:         U19807@UICVM.UIC.EDU
Subject:      Re: Sun Ra - stroke

> In article <ALLMUSIC%92103012443402@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU>, Paul Heroy
> <HEROY@LSUVM.BITNET> says:
> >Best wishes to Sun Ra for a speedy recovery. Sounds like that trip to
> >Saturn for routine maintenance is on the way - I hope it's not permanent.
>
> His health,if I recall correctly,was not too good in the first place. Wasn't
> he in the hospital a year or so ago due to heart trouble?

A previous stroke. My wife saw the Arkestra a few months afterward, and they
just wheeled Sunny on stage in front of the piano, where he waved a little at
the band by way of conducting but didn't play. Later he got to where he could
play again, at least a little bit. The prognosis doesn't look real good, though
:-(

From:         RTURNBUL@TOROVM1.VNET.IBM.COM
Subject:      Hawkwind

> I also happened along the Gentle Giant CDs last night (didn't pick any up).
> I've been meaning to check these guys out for awhile, but I don't know that
> much about them. Any hints?

I think real highly of, in order of release, _Three Friends_, _Octopus_, _In a
Glass House_ (extremely and criminally out of print), _The Power and the Glory_
and _Free Hand_. Gentle Giant were unparalleled at counterpoint: their grooves
would consist of three interlocking riffs for bass, keyboard, and guitar-- or
some more peculiar ensemble; they also doubled on violin, cello, vibraphone,
sax, trumpet, etc. They had a certain medieval flavor too, especially in the
first and last albums named. (They did two albums before that list, where the
writing isn't good enough yet, and a handful of albums thereafter where they
were getting a little too desperate to get a hit. I listened to their last,
_Civilian_, last night, and while it's not as bad as the commercial music of
today, it's decidedly lacking in focus.)

From:         "(Jeff Preston)" <bt979@CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: no-nicker will be happy

> P.S. -- Does anyone here (Dero?) know what label Joe Satriani is
> on these days?

In case nobody got around to mentioning it, Relativity.

From:         Ken Koester <MAINT2@ERS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Peter + Wolf ^= Moose + Squirrel

> Oh *hell*--I *knew* we couldn't do this w/o a dose of Wittgenstein. . . . :-)

Some day I hope to write a song setting of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
I'd like to get Dagmar Krause to sing it.

From:         Ilia <CC29@IONA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Reveiw,Question,Advice

> features Mel Collins who also played with _Red_ Crimson. Is that right?

Mel played with _Lizard_ and _Islands_ King Crimson. Original saxophonist Ian
McDonald sat in on _Red_, and then went and joined Foreigner to make a buck.

From:         crispen <crispen@EFFTOO.BOEING.COM>
Subject:      Re: Blues

> or, better yet, go where the blues is played live.  Eventually you'll
> get to a point where you can say (as some on the list have done) that
> Gary Moore is a weak player or that "Damn Right..." is a weak performance
> by Buddy Guy, but for now just listen and enjoy.

If you're uncommonly lucky. More likely, you'll hear a lot of lackluster
12 bar at quaalude tempo by pickup or garage bands. You want to hear it
done right, you've got to hear the masters. Blues Nite at the Mafia Front
Pub isn't gonna cut it at all.

From:         Little Inquisitor <U33963@UICVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: A week late and a megabuck short

> On Fri, 30 Oct 1992 15:08:07 EST Ken Koester said:
> >On Fri, 30 Oct 1992 12:36:17 CST Little Inquisitor said:
> >>On Fri, 30 Oct 1992 07:45:50 EST Ken Koester said:
> >>>On Thu, 29 Oct 1992 13:01:38 CST Little Inquisitor said:
> >>>>On Wed, 28 Oct 1992 12:02:17 MST Gargra Varr the Wench said:
> >>>>>Sonia said:
>    .........etc. (alleged content omitted)
> >(Of course, the real point is to see if I can fritz RICEMAIL by imbedding too
> >many layers of quotes inside it.  Feel free to assist.)

In net.news parlance, this data structure is called a "cascade."

You're not gonna fritz RiceMail, which could give a shit whether your text is
meaningful or 99% right brackets. It's just gonna split the line wherever it
needs to. If the line is already 80 right carets long, it'll insert a new line
with a single right caret. This is the E-mail equivalent of singing "A Hundred
Bottles of Beer On the Wall" to its conclusion.

From:         "(Russ Gelinas)" <R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU>
Subject:      Another Tuesday Night and I Ain't Got No Cat

>    The cat?  Well, I'm out in the driveway talking to the cops, who were
> really cool about it, btw, and I see a flat cat in the road.  My cat.
> Hit by a car.  Had to be put down.  Wife is truly bummed, as is 3-year
> old.  Intersting, there's tire tracks in the leaves that lead right to
> the new (2 months) neighbors driveway.

Please accept my condolences. That sucks. Have you considered sugar in that
neighbor's gas tank?

From:         Dave <USTS060@RUST1.DPO.UAB.EDU>
Subject:      CD releases

> ...Oh Jesus!  Pink Floyd has a *nine* CD
> box set coming out on the 17th...

I got more information about this one. Eight of the discs are the original
albums, and the ninth is not-so-rare B sides like the tunes on _Relics_ and
the extra tracks on _A Nice Pair_. And it's gonna cost $150 or so. Intended
to sucker in the Kollector Skum, but no real people will need to get it.

From:         mjferzig@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Re: Jazz - delicious hot, disgusting cold!

> good stuff first. Would you give a neophyte to classical music "Glass
> Works" before anything else?

Of course not, but I don't believe _Glass Works_ has anything to do with
classical music. (I wouldn't give it to a Glass neophyte either, I'd start
them on _North Star_. It may be bite-size pieces of Glass, but it's real
well done.)

From:         crispen <crispen@EFFTOO.BOEING.COM>
Subject:      Re: Miles at Carnegie Hall

> The MCA release, of course, is not remastered and there are zero
> words in the booklet that did not appear on the LP.  God, I hate
> those guys at MCA!

I do too-- easily the lamest of the majors. (Most corrupt too; see the book.)
I keep hoping Mitsubishi will straighten them out.

From:         Jumbo <RM8B@DLRVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: let's put the C back in front of RAP

> Sting has called in the Fraud squad after discovering over six million
> pounds missing from personal accounts.
>
> How do you do that?

The money was intended for the Contras, but got put in some sultan's numbered
Swiss bank account by mistake. But Clinton will make it up to Sting by naming
him Secretary of Lite Jazz.

From:         Hosko <RMCB@DLRVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Dylan tribute tape compilation

> There have also been hit cover versions of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' and
> 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue', but I forget who did them.

Not much of a hit, but Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin did a humorous hip-hop
version of "Subterranean." "Baby Blue" is one of several (dozen) Dylan songs
Manfred Mann's Earth Band did, I think. There are countless Dead/Jerry Garcia
Band Dylan tunes-- I have actually grown to like Uncle Jerry's creaky rendering
of "Simple Twist of Fate." The best version I ever heard of "Knocking on
Heaven's Door" was seeing Television do it in concert-- they played it like
it meant something.

From:         "OUT,
              OUT - YOU'LL NOT FEEL THE FALL-OUT..." <OLIVOTTO@ITNCISCA.BITNET>
Subject:      RE: Sampling and rip-offs

>         About arbitrary Italian laws, I could flood you with examples... :)
> Anyway, I think in this particular case the subject is *difficult* in itself.
> When one starts to talk about concepts which are (necessarily) as vague as
> "music composition as abstract creation", there is a need to draw a line.
> I have heard many people say "this song X is a rip-off of that song Y", and
> others say "not at all". How can one decide? It depends on what one actually
> hears in a song. To a certain extent, this can be coded. Beyond a certain li-
> mit, one must decide himself/herself.
>         When it all comes down to plagiarism, that limit is almost invariably
> crossed.

The currently operative concept in America is that if a tune is less than 17%
different from another tune, it's considered to be a copy.

Jonathan King (who recorded "Everyone's Gone to the Moon," produced the debut
Genesis album, and has generally been hovering around the fringes of the music
industry for many years now) recorded a version of "He's So Fine" intentionally
as close as possible to George Harrison's rendition of "My Sweet Lord." The
backup singers do some of the "Hare Krishna" routines, and at the climax
of the bridge, they chant, "See you in court!"
From:         "OUT,
              OUT - YOU'LL NOT FEEL THE FALL-OUT..." <OLIVOTTO@ITNCISCA.BITNET>
Subject:      What? Italian is musical...?

>         Sorry, Michael, I feel I have to jump in this time...
>         The point you address is nothing but a widespread belief, but it is
> essentially not true. I can see why most people think that my native language
> is easier to sing... because we have lots of good operas which sound very good
> to the ear, melodic, fluid and all that.
>         But the real point is that NONE of those operas are really sung in I-
> talian! I mean, I can't understand even the 30% of the words, because vowels
> and pronounciation are so stretched and forced that they really end up making
> another language...

Well, there's a song Amy Denio wrote on the second Tone Dogs album, _The Early
Middle Years_, which is kind of a parody of the fluid sound we Americans like
to assume Italian has. The song's called "Salvatore," and it basically consists
of whatever Italian words she could think of-- "Tarantella, fettucini, buon
giorno," etc. all strung together haphazardly, and sung with seriously rolled
R's and similarly pretentious diction. I hate to admit it, but it sounds real
romantic to me. (I'll easily admit to being pretty dotty about Amy Denio.)

> ... really have a singing attitude when they talk. I'll never forget the
> waitress, in Bath, who would greet me with a "helloooooooo!" extending over
> a major sixth whenever I left my room... :)

Yeah, but remember what Dave Stewart said about the major sixth: "used to
bring geriatric melodies to a falsely hearty conclusion."
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