What's the most intriguing record you've heard?

[george costanza]

Recently I was culling through some old storage & I found a recording that I'd forgotten about. It's a 45 rpm single I bought as a kid in the 1970s: "I Am the Walwus"/"If I Were a Carpenter" by Lewis & Carol, a sort of folk music act (I think they were from Boston). Tuck & Patti, they weren't! The Beatle cover features dobro, raucous violin & dueted vocals. It begins with a fiddle introduction that transforms the George Martin string orchestration into something like the guitar line from Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart". The first verse is sung by Carol & Lew alternating each word; this shifts, at the chorus, into some extremely stringent harmonies (imagine George Jones & Loretta Lynn on helium). The famous radio-dubbed end section of the Beatle recording is rendered by the duo shouting lines back & forth, with Lewis (I guess) throwing in an occasional Bob Will's-style "Aha!". Their interpretation of Tim Hardin's "...Carpenter" is hardly less inventive. Setting off at a brisk tempo, what sounds like an autoharp or a dulcimer is flailed so hard you can hear the strings stretching below pitch with each strum. Again, they alternate vocals---though here taking a full verse each at a time. Sections are delineated by hyper-dramatic dynamic shifts between forte & whispery pianissimo. They fade with Lewis speculating,"If I were a carpenter", & Carol answering,"and If I were a lady", in a sort of round/canon. Your turn!

[DJDM]

For me it was the LP "Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music" that I picked up in the early eighties. I am not sure of the exact date it was released. It was made up of examples of mostly 70s synth technology along with some very early 80s sounds that were arranged in cuts with an instructional focus. It had only one song on it (featuring Vocorder). Strange record but I liked it a lot in Jr. High. I have forgotten what was used for the experiments and I would hard-pressed to tell you exactly what was done in them but I do remember being very inspired by the whole thing. I had been buying electronic music randomly from the "electronic music" section in Tower Records for some time by then and was accustom to strange recordings but this one was always special. It even came with a booklet that outlined the nature of the sounds and what was used to create them. MY GOD! I have to find that recording in the basement tonight! :) Nice thread George. - DJDM

[-_dup1]

I recently found an old 45 of mine that I had as a kid -- The Brooklyn Bridge, with "The Worst That Could Happen" B/W "My Kite, Your Kite"... Even though I've heard "The Worst That Could Happen" a bunch of times, I never really listened to the production or the lyrics until a few weeks ago. The production goes from solo acoustic guitar and organ to a full blown Phil Spector-like wall of sound with trumpets, a male choir, etc... I don't know who produced this song, but it was someone heavily influenced by Spector. Very cool stuff. I was probably influenced by this song as a kid and didn't know it until now. Then there's the lyrics. That part REALLY didn't register with me as a kid, except of course for the hook. Now that I actually [i]listen[/i] to lyrics, I'm fascinated. There's a ton of pathos involved in this song, although I don't know how much was intentional and how much was a product of the times. What I mean is, the lyrics contain outright, dated chauvinism ("A woman like you needs a house and a home") to Austin Powers-styled swinging ("I'll never get married ... You know that's not my scene") to the classic pop subject of love unrequited ("If you love him more than me..."). Basically, there's a whole lot of emotional currents going on in the lyrics of the song, and [i]it doesn't even make the singer out to be a nice guy (!)[/i] but it works on its own terms... As complex, tortured, and as hummable as orchestral pop can get. The B-side, "My Kite, Your Kite" doesn't have the colossal production/twisted emotional whallop of "The Worst That Could Happen", but it's pretty cool nonetheless... It seems to skirt the lighter, poppier edges of late '60s psychedelica. So yeah, I'm intrigued by the Brooklyn Bridge. I don't think any of their albums are available on CD (other than greatest hits compilations... bleh! :mad: ) so I'm going to keep an eye out for their albums on vinyl. Those two songs have been getting a lot of airplay at home and I'd like to hear more.

[Bob Keelan]

Just a follow-up to Hank: The Brooklyn Bridge was the featured act at our local Italian-American festival a couple of months ago. I was a little skeptical before the show but at 72, Johnny Maestro can still crank it out! I am very familiar with the single (I was in 8th grade) and if he missed any of those notes it wasn't by much! They put on a really good 'oldies' show. My 5 year old & my 2 year old were a couple of dancing fools during his entire act which was an added bonus for me. :thu: bob

[whitefang]

Believe it or not, back in the '60's I bought an album by Joan Baez. Well, I had a few of hers, but this one included a song that was actually the Edgar Allen Poe poem "Annabelle Lee" set to music. The liner notes claimed she first heard it on an album by the folk group, The Dillards, and the whole disc was songs of famous poetry set to music. The name of THAT album I can't recall, and finding it was impossible. Joan's "Annabelle Lee" was done with an orchestral backing with a mesmerizing arrangement. And nothing else on that album caught my attention after that. It's long-gone, never CD re-issued as far as I know, but I keep looking. Can't remember the title of THAT one either, but I always look to see the song line-ups just in case. It was an unusual type of song and arrangement for Joan to do at the time, and really unusual for ANYone to consider back then, if you think about it. I had always considered the poem to be beautiful to begin with, and Baez' treatment just added another dimension. You can't deny that the woman could sing! She DID have trouble when it came to thinking, however. Whitefang

[Audiobotica]

Fripp & Eno, No Pussyfooting Conlon Nancarrow, Nancarrow: Studies For Player Piano Vol 1-5 The Gyuto Monks, Tibetan Tantric Choir All verrrry intriguing. Yours in Music, Ben Fury

[Throatsinger]

The Tibetan monks were certainly up there, wherever it was that I first heard them. Now I've known several of them, and can enjoy chanting with them, in their way. Most intriguing albums were probably Birds of Fire by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and 60 Horses in My Heard, by my bros Huun-Huur-Tu. Steve Sklar

[Magpel]

Intriguing? I'd have to say the good Captain's Trout Mask Replica. I listen to it every now and then and have for years. And I feel that I'll never quite get it and never quite get over it. The intriguing album that absolutely, irrevocably reconditioned my ears was Tom Waits' Rain Dogs. It was a whole different game after that one, for me. And for about the past four or five years, I've been drawing on the intrigue of Astor Piazzolla's Zero Hour... But lest you think I like only trash can tango and the like, a pure pop album that has been intriguing me for almost 15 years of steady listening is Trip Shakespeare's album Lulu. Obscure band. Two of them went on to form Semisonic (blech). But y'all probably knew that.

[Wrave]

I think it was Spooky Tooth's "Ceremony" that still intrigues me. Even in an age when "concept albums" were not unusual, this album was a real divergence from the mainstream. Billed as an "electronic mass", it was full of ideas that were extreme. I can still hear the sound of the hammer against steel they used to signify the nailing of Christ to the cross. It was completely different from anything else they did. Very intriguing...

[Hippie]

'801 Live'; It was a short-lived band that recorded one of their shows, beginning at 8:01 -hence the name. It featured Eno, Phil Manzenera, Paul Thompson, (most of the members of Roxy Music, Asia) and a few others. The first few listenings I thought it was so damn weird. Now, I just love that record. Matt

[The Bear Jew]

You need to hear this act: Death By Chocolate. How do I describe it? It's sort of like the kind of music you'd imagine Austin Powers would like (lots of groovy organ and tinkly pianos with a late Brit invasion backbeat), but here's the kicker... the vocals are all semi-surrealist spoken-word poetry done by a smarmy young lady with a clipped British accent. Her name is Angie Tillet, and apparently, she's a bartender in some little town in England who does this for kicks. There's a Dudley Moore cover (!!) called "The L.S. Bumble Bee" and they take a crack at the theme from [i]The Flying Nun{/i]. Basically, it's fucking bizarre and entertaining. I got this CD when I was the managing editor of a music magazine. It came in the mail, and I threw it on the CD player just for kicks. When the first track started, the assistant editor and I looked at each other in much the same way that you've seen Elks on the African plains do when a lion makes an appearance. Basically, we were perplexed and a little frightened.

[the people of Earth]

Mr. Costanza, that's the most entertaining desciption of a record we've read in days; we could almost believe it! "...Walrus"/"...Carpenter" by Lewis & Carol :rolleyes:

[Lee Tyler]

Holy shit! I never thought [i]anybody[/i] would mention the name Tim Hardin in this day and age. Classic stuff from this dude, for sure! WTG George! [quote] Their interpretation of Tim Hardin's "...Carpenter" is hardly less inventive [/quote]

[D_dup3]

Well, I like gamelan so I'd have to vote for the Nonesuch explorer series. But I can't help wondering (with the People of Earth) if George doesn't deserve a creative writing award. Lewis & Carol, indeed!

[KenElevenShadows]

Stuff in the past that really turned my ear were R.E.M. "Murmur", Led Zep "Physical Graffiti", and "My Life In the Bush of Ghosts" by Brian Eno and David Byrne. Lately, probably the Godspeed, You Black Emperor EP from a little while back, Nigeria 70 2-CD compilation (afro-funk at its finest), Ethiopiques 4, and Eva Ayllon "Musica Negra", some of the grooviest, most sensual music I've heard.

[KenElevenShadows]

There's just too much stuff to remember. Djivan Gasparyan "I Will Not Be Sad In This World" and Cesaria Evora's mournful and acoustic "Cabo Verde" and her self-titled release. There's just so much mind-blowing music out there...

[Imbecilia]

Must have been different records from Pink Floyd or Roger Waters solo. Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin, too.

[freddynl]

White Noise - Electric Storm Made in 1969! I recently found the old vinyl between my collection and it is still intriguing and never imitated as far as I know.