Zen and the Ultimate Ipod Collection

Joni Mitchell – Hits

The album title is a (probably deliberate) misnomer.   Joni Mitchell wasn’t a hit maker.  That said, she had a string of damned fine albums in the early seventies with Court and Spark being a personal favorite.  The problem with Joni is that starting in the late seventies she started following her own personal muse and recorded some generally hard-to-listen to albums (Mingus, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter).  Although some of this stuff is brilliant, she alienated a lot of her fan base.  Still, this album is a nice overview, but she was a true innovater and better served by a listen to her albums.

Marshall Tucker Band – Millenium Collection

After the Allman Brothers Band and Lynrd Skynyrd, these guys were probably the most interesting Country/Southern Rock band out there in the seventies.  They mixed jazz, swing, country, blues and rock into a nice listening experience.  They had a flute/sax player, which is cool.  Stuff like “This Ol’ Cowboy”, “Fire on the Mountain and their hit “Heard in a Love Song” still makes me smile when I hear them.  On the latter song, the contrast of gruff vocals and the lilting flute solos is smart.  This is a two album CD and is a lot from the band.  Plus it’s a European printing and lacks a lot of useful information (song writing credits, what album the songs came from, etc).  I paid two bucks for this and a dollar for Joni, so I’m not complaining too much.

French Wind Music/Beethoven Septet and Sextets/Mozart Flute, Clarinet, Horn Concertos

After symphonies and operas, chamber music is probably the poor stepchild in classical music.  It’s not a major draw in terms of money (unfortunately, the same can be probably said for all classical music).  There are some lovely, well-played pieces on all of these CD’s.  It’s a treasure trove of music you just want to relax with.  I picked up all of these at thrift stores for less than a couple bucks each.  The Mozart CD is a two-disc set.

As music continues to go digital, much good music can be had for a song (pun intended) and most CD acquisitions easily pass my IPod test (i.e at 1.29 a pop for most songs, if the CD has at least two or three good songs, you’re getting your money’s worth.  If you like classical, the sky’s the limit in turns of value.   As usual, thanks for reading.

The Ultimate Ipod Collection Part whatever.

All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra - The Electric Light Orchestra has an interesting history.  The group was formed out of the remnants of The Move.  Jeff Lynne, the main mover and shaker in the group, had the idea of having a small string section become a permanent part of the group.  The highpoint of this idea were the two albums, On The Third Day (which borrowed heavily from Edvard Grieg) and Eldorado:  A Symphony (the album with the Wizard of Oz cover).   Both albums were interesting, but slight, attempts to meld classical and rock. 

Lynne became increasingly bored with the concept and eventually kicked the string section to the curb.  At one point, the group got into trouble for having backing tracks playing on tape during their live show (for the Out of The Blue tour).  Lynne went as far as some reprobate rock artists of the late 1970’s and added disco (Gah!) rhythms to some tracks.  It got worse.  ELO’s music was a focal point on the Xanadu soundtrack.  Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, roller skates.   Jeff Lynne barely redeemed himself as (a lesser) part of The Traveling Wilburys.

As far as this album goes, I wanted a representative collection that included “All Over the World” if only because it was featured at the end of the movie “Paul”.  Unfortunately, it also has a ton of stuff from Out of the Blue on.  Ole ELO is better, if you can find it.  No Disco. No Crap.