Sunday 23 October 2011

Day 46: Genesis - Foxtrot

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel. We're really starting to look forward to moving to Norway, it's still scary of course but it feels like this is something we need to do before we start really recovering. I'm just glad I can do this for you, even if it's very little. I'm sorry I'm a bit over midnight but we've been a bit busy and I wasn't able to find the time during the day where I could be listening to music.

We're maybe thinking of building a house if everything lines up nicely, but we're not entirely sure. In the end it's turning out to be very difficult to get a foothold in Norway, because once we're there it should be a lot easier to be able to sort things out. But obviously the big problem right now is taking that first step into Norway and getting somewhere to live temporarily, but that's proving difficult too.

In the end even if we're renting it's far better than living here in terms of money we'll be making but it would be much better if that money was spent on paying off a mortgage rather than renting. For the first few years we'd still technically be throwing half the money down the drain because of interest repayments but that's better than all of it of course and it decreases as time goes on. And of course if our situation ever changes we'd be able to pay off the mortgage even faster hopefully.

I had always wanted to teach you fiscal responsibility when I felt you were ready but I suppose that would have been a long time from now. Continuing where we left off yesterday today we're listening to the second album of Genesis' brilliant trilogy Foxtrot. This album shows a further growth in the band and is topped off by one of the greatest progressive rock tracks of all time Supper's Ready, a 23 minute epic, I'll not spoil it for when we get to it my angel, just be assured it really does live up to whatever hype it's given.

I'm not sure what first drew me to Genesis, or at least these three albums. But I think I had heard Selling England By the Pound when I was quite young because when I re-heard the album it all felt incredibly familiar to me and I immediately liked it. Genesis often have a very soft touch which makes them easy to get into since there's not much to turn the average listener away, the same can't be said for the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway which I just can't stand, much like Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Don't get me wrong I love extravagance as much as the next prog rock fan, if I didn't I wouldn't be saying how awesome Supper's Ready is. But there's a certain point where it just gets silly like with the Wall, Lamb or everything by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. At one point too much ambition just makes the music unlistenable and I can't even admire what they tried to do because it just sounds so awful.

 I love you my angel. I hope you enjoyed Supper's Ready, it really is a great piece of music. Certain epics just make a day feel a lot brighter. This I believe will be the fourth such epic over 20 minutes we've listened to with the other three being Lizard by King Crimson, Caravan's Nine Feet Underground and of course Thick as a Brick. Goodnight Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Saturday 22 October 2011

Day 45: Genesis - Nursery Cryme

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, I love you. Was up very late last night after driving to pick up some friends and driving them home. Probably wouldn't have gone to bed early anyways but I'm feeling very sick so I ended up getting up a lot later. It's hard to get to sleep but it's even harder to get up. I just get up and look forward to playing some music to you.

Tonight I decided we're going to do a trilogy of albums, the best three albums of Genesis. We'll be listening to Nursery Cryme tonight and then Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound the next two nights. These three albums were created under the direction of visionary band leader Peter Gabriel who led the band until after the abomination that was The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. But before his ideas got too far ahead of him these albums are absolute masterpieces.

Genesis of course went on top replace Peter Gabriel with their drummer Phil Collins have made dreadful music ever since. But for three years in the 70's Genesis were one of the greatest bands making progressive rock. It's a huge shame that their main popularity came from their pop albums of the 80's which have caused a lot of people to merely shudder at their name and not appreciate the greatness that they once had.

The great thing about the progressive rock movement was that there wasn't one specific sound, the whole point of prog was to experiment and create new types of music and it leads to a great collection of eclectic bands under the same banner. Genesis have an absolutely amazing and very accessible sound to them during this era with an interesting mix between organ, piano and guitar. Genesis remind me a bit of Gentle Giant in their members being multi-instrumentalists, not to the same extent as Gentle Giant of course but it gives the same type of feel to their recordings that feature a lot of different instruments.

Peter Gabriel himself went on to create a variety of interesting albums after his departure from Genesis which we can explore at a later time, but a lot of his Genesis brilliance is apparent in these later recordings, even if they come in a very different style.

I hope you enjoyed the prog stylings of Genesis my angel, and I hope you're ready for more tomorrow with Foxtrot and then Selling England By the Pound. I've figured that bands that release a range of quite similar material can be appreciated better if we focus on them for awhile, or at least through their classic albums. After this I'm not sure if we should ease into fusion or just keep up the study of certain bands and albums, we'll see how I feel. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Friday 21 October 2011

Day 44: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Freak Out!

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, I love you. I've been all over today, I got the passport back from the Australian embassy which  feels great. Not sure when to go to Norway for a week to scope things out, it really depends on what we decide over the coming days in regards to timings. I hope we'll be able to move without much trouble when we finally get down to it.

I know I said we'd move onto fusion but I just really fancied this album for tonight as a little interlude. Freak Out! is not only an amazing album but it has many distinctions. Not only is it one of the first Concept Albums, it is one of the first double albums, and it's also the first album featuring Frank Zappa. At the time the band was simply called the Mothers of Invention after being called something altogether much cruder. Since Frank Zappa was essentially the band even though he was the newest member of the band, it is currently considered mostly just a Frank Zappa album.

I find it interesting that the Mothers of Invention are now mostly just remembered as Frank Zappa albums, even last.fm gathers all of his albums, including those with the mothers as simply Frank Zappa albums. I really love this album, it's an interesting social commentary and parody of popular music of the time. As such it features a very eclectic mix of musical styles that is not only quite funny but also really nice to listen to. Of course this isn't our first meeting with Frank Zappa since we had previously listened to Apostrophe ('). Over time we'll be able to hear all of his albums, hopefully more than once but there's no way we're going through all of them at once like with Led Zeppelin.

This album was incredibly influential in the UK and became essentially the earliest example of raw progressive rock, Zappa was experimental in nature and it was all about creating music that wasn't like anything that been heard before, which is the essence of progressive rock, avant-garde and experimental music. All of which can be associated quite heavily with Frank Zappa. I can never decide what I like most about Frank Zappa, because not only was he a brilliant and unique composer he could also be incredibly funny and cutting with his satire.

I think there's something horribly wrong with how few people are aware of who Frank Zappa even is, let alone have heard any of his music. It's so hard to introduce people to Zappa and have them appreciate the genius behind the man without them being willing to invest quite a lot of time becoming familiar with his music and style of humour, especially if they're not used to anything unorthodox. I hope you like it my angel.

Not quite sure what I'll play tomorrow, we will eventually move towards fusion with some prog rock scattered in between. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Thursday 20 October 2011

Day 43: Bud Powell - The Amazing Bud Powell

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel. We went to see you tonight and we brought you a nice little elephant called Ollie, I hope you like him, he's super cute. We haven't gotten a proper place to him yet so he's in the little jar until we can put him in the big see through bag with the teddies from uncle Sean and great uncle Les. Hopefully we can get the gravestone sorted soon, but we want to make sure it's absolutely perfect for you.

I absolutely love Bud Powell's piano playing on this album, it really is amazing, shame there's less than 30 minutes of it. But I find jazz re-releases extremely tedious, especially how poorly they arrange the track list so I always go for the original article, it's very rarely I'll get excited about bonus tracks unless it's from one of my absolutely favourite artists such as Led Zeppelin where I'm already very familiar with all of their work.

Bud Powell was the main reason I started to enjoy jazz pianists, even before Thelonious Monk I already enjoyed Bud Powell, of course Monk was more influential, but I really like how Powell plays. It just has a great feel to it. There was a time where Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell were considered equally influential in the late 40's to early 50's but today more people have heard of Monk, partly due to his prolific compositions and longer lasting career.

I love you my angel. I hope you really like your elephant and that you really enjoyed the jazz, I think we will be moving on to some more progressive rock tomorrow before launching into full fusion for a couple of days. We'll return to proper jazz every now and then but after we're finished with the fusion I think I'll just play whatever I fancy for the day and stay away from themes until it's more appropriate. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Day 42: Thelonious Monk - Thelonious in Action

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my love, I hope everything is perfect for you. I am having a lot of trouble sleeping for a variety of reasons I suppose. It's gotten to the point now where I'm always tired since I haven't been able to have a full nights sleep for so long. I just wish I could get that for just one night right now. Things just felt so much simpler when we were still expecting you.

I know we will never forget you, and that's not something I'd want to happen. But it's so hard day to day just knowing you're not with us anymore. I dream of you every night but recently I feel like I dream more about the fact that you're gone instead of dreaming about what should have happened. And at the moment since I can't do anything right now it just feels like I'm always waiting for something out of my control. Like waiting to get my passport back or waiting for various appointments and important days.

As such it really feels as if we've lost whatever small control we did have over our lives because we're always waiting for something to happen, and whenever that does eventually happen we end up waiting for something else. That's why I really want to just get a fresh start in Norway and in doing so, at least to some extent finally taking control of our lives. I know once we get to Norway and I'm in a job and we have somewhere to live there will be more arbitrary things to wait for especially when it comes to money, but at least in a job it won't be a constant concern.

And once we are settled we'll be able to think about giving you a brother or sister when we feel ready and safe to do so. I suppose I should be able to talk to you about money, I had always expected that talk to come much later. It's our intention to try to buy a house with whatever deposit we can scrape together and then spend most of our earnings paying off the debt as fast as possible, of course we will still try to enjoy ourselves and decorate the house to fit our needs but paying off debt should be our number one priority.

While in Norway the economy is booming at the moment due to the oil industry especially in Stavanger we can never know how long it will last so I don't want to end up in debt without a job if worst came to worst. I also want to plan so that we can live comfortably and not have to worry when we're older, and of course the quicker you spend to pay off the debt the less we have to pay in interest over the years.

I still need to introduce the wonderful jazz we've been listening to however, and it is none other than Thelonious Monk with a 1958 live recording. Of course the nature of the recording is really of little importance given that at the time songs were recorded as parts of full takes without much editing if any at all so a live setting with a good recording setup has very similar sound quality to that of a studio recording. Without the occasional clapping and voices being heard every now and then it would have been hard to tell that this is indeed recorded live.

Of course this record is attributed to the Thelonious Monk Quartet but we'll just stick to the simpler definition as Monk was the band leader on this brilliant show. All four of the musicians were at the top of their game this day. Of course Monk's piano and Johnny Griffin's sax take precedence as the main solo instruments but the rhythm section is very tight as well and not without solos. The band plays incredibly well together live which I'm guessing was the main way for their music to be heard during this era.

I'm not entirely sure about this but it really feels like the whole jazz scene is centered mainly around New York, at least the idea of this cool style of jazz and hard bop. If not solely New York then at least the area around it as well with things such as the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island (it was also held in New York in the 70's). Although the location of the scene isn't entirely important it is interesting to think about considering the vast amount of collaboration between the individual artists especially at a time where travel could have been difficult for the musicians themselves due to discrimination.

Whatever the reason the 50's Jazz scene is an amazing wealth of great music. I would probably have played jazz to you very early around bedtime or when waking up or just generally doing stuff since it's amazing background music as well, even if it's a bit of a waste given how nice it is to straight up appreciate. Although I suppose most of everything I play you right now serves as background music to my various rantings, but it's fun anyways.

I love you my angel, I hope you really enjoyed today's album. I miss you so much but I know everything will be okay one day. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Day 41: Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, I love you. Today has been quite busy for me, and I suppose it's these kind of days that help every now and then. I'm still barely sleeping so I'm too quick to get tired and I just don't feel like I can get properly refreshed at night, doing this every day helps me more than anything.

Tonight, as promised we're listening to Sketches of Spain, Davis' first album of the sixties and the first album after his first great masterpiece Kind of Blue. Miles had something quite special, a sense of timing and scale and how to use it to absolutely great effect. He also gives us an incredibly accessible version of jazz, although it feels as if that was merely an added bonus. What we get is something that's incredibly easy to listen to on the surface but very challenging when you get down to it.

His style of composition flows really well but at the same time there's never anything overtly unexpected until he gets into his fusion period. He was also not scared of moving away from the hard bop style of small bands and brought in nearly 20 musicians to play on this album. It does give the album a very interesting feel especially for someone mostly used to hard bop. Miles Davis was essentially the pioneer of modal jazz with his previous albums and continued to experiment with the jazz sound ever since.

Jazz is one of the styles of music that I absolutely adore however I'm incredibly ignorant when it comes to the goings on outside of the album releases themselves. I know what I like within jazz and it doesn't take me long to find out if I will like something. However I don't have the slightest clue about most of the history and the stories surrounding the scene other than the most basic information that can be gleaned from who played on what album and in what year.

There is probably a whole wealth of information about the jazz scene but I never found it as interesting as the rock of blues side of musical history, even if the music itself is generally superior.

I love you my angel, I hope you enjoyed Sketches of Spain, it's a great album to just chill out to, and we'll continue that tomorrow with some cool hard bop, unless something else takes my fancy. Goodnight my darling Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Monday 17 October 2011

Day 40: Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, I hope you're having a great time my love. I miss you my angel.

Tonight I wanted to go back to Jazz, I should probably have chosen something a bit more standard but I felt like I needed something more off the wall after Led Zeppelin before we settle back into the standard. This is one of my favourite Jazz albums, recorded in the middle of the hard bop era this experimental style was quite far ahead of its time.

 The interesting thing about jazz is the concept of band leaders and members of that band, while a band leader generally has the most influence over the recording given the improvisational nature of the band a lot of the brilliance comes from the members involved with the recording. Mingus himself contributes the bass on the album which while important doesn't have the same role at the forefront as the piano or saxophones, however his influence and direction is clearly evident and easily distinguishable as being his style.

Of course Mingus also created a lot of the compositions that are played, or at least the arrangement of them. One of the finest examples of his direct composition is the title track which tells the story of human evolution and subsequent devolution. However the concept of the band leader I find quite important. It is quite rarely that you will find someone playing on a strong record that haven't served as a leader themselves.

The Jazz scene at the height of hard bop was rife with collaboration and a huge amount of music was created, thankfully. It's incredibly easy to link all the great artists together, for example Charles Mingus has played with Bud Powell, my favourite jazz pianist, Miles Davis, one of the absolute greats of jazz and Duke Ellington who can simply be described as the Duke. Miles Davis himself has played with Coltrane, who we have already had a small listen of, and a huge list of other musicians.

We're going to listen to some Miles Davis tomorrow and will definitely be revisiting Mingus as well at some point. I think over the next week we'll be exclusively be playing jazz before moving into the jazzier side of Progressive Rock and the Canterbury scene and then we'll start to focus a bit on fusion with Miles Davis' later work, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report probably starting with Soft Machine to bridge the gap between prog and fusion. It will also be a great excuse to play some more Zappa.

I absolutely love this style of jazz, it really showed the potential of the piano outside of classical music, and probably one of the last ways in which the piano was still relevant as a main player on a whole album, with Billy Joel of course being the exception. It was of course mostly replaced by the keyboard and the Hammond organ in relation to progressive rock especially, the same can be said for the saxophone which has unfortunately been relegated as a novelty instrument in pop songs.

I hope you've enjoyed this album as much as I do my angel. Sleep well Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Sunday 16 October 2011

Day 39: Led Zeppelin - Coda

Dear Nathaniel,

I love you my little angel, I hope you know just how much. Tonight we're listening to the last Led Zeppelin studio album released after the band had disbanded following the death of John Bonham. Coda is the shortest Led Zeppelin album, due to the lack of material given that most of the songs that had previously been unreleased were featured on Physical Graffiti.

Given the massive effort Jimmy Page has taken since the release of Coda in remastering all of Led Zeppelin's catalogue this album sounds infinitely better remastered than it did when first released which was the version of this album I had been familiar with previously. Because of the remasters Coda becomes very much a good Led Zeppelin album, in my eyes even better than In Through the Out Door.

Coda also has the distinction of featuring live performances on a studio album with previously unreleased cover of We're Gonna Groove and then a live version of I Can't Quit You Baby which is the only song featured on two Led Zeppelin albums (the first and the last). Of course the live feel has been edited out of the recordings giving them more of an energetic studio feel, but it's still very noticeable on I Can't Quit You Baby.

The second side of Coda is undoubtedly the strongest of the album and if not a fitting end to the greatest band of all time, at least an adequate one. It includes a drum solo by John Bonham and three albums cut from In Through The Out Door. The In Through the Out Door rejects are much better examples of Led Zeppelin sound than the songs that made it onto the album.

While Led Zeppelin were incredibly instrumental in defining the sound of their own era their like was never to be seen again. This style of hard rock essentially died with John Bonham and it's such a huge shame because even as heavier bands have come along they were never able to recapture the stripped down yet complex sound of Led Zeppelin.

Of course Led Zeppelin has still been able to influence a lot of great music but nothing has ever come close to surpassing them. I'm not sure exactly where to go tomorrow. I know I can't exactly be playing something similar to Led Zeppelin because it won't compare well at all. We might explore some more progressive rock or jump straight into punk, or better yet play the music that inspired Led Zeppelin, blues. Maybe we'll look at jazz a bit more and then ease ourselves into Jazz Fusion, that would probably be the best way to go about it.

I hope you're okay with that Nathaniel, and I hope you've really enjoyed listening to what is essentially Led Zeppelin's full discography, missing a few b-sides and bonus tracks from Coda, but it can't really be helped. We might have to go revisit the band at some point in the future. I love you Nathaniel, good night.

Love from Dad.

Saturday 15 October 2011

Day 38: Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, we went to a "wave of light" tonight, we got a little angel and wrote your name on it and we lit two candles for you too. After that we went to visit you and I'm really happy that your light is still working it looks lovely in the middle of the night. We were also able to give the money we got to the charity tonight and that was really nice.

Tonight we're listening to Led Zeppelin's last studio album as an active band, a year after this was released drummer John Bonham died. This is the least Zeppelin-esque album of their back catalogue, due to most of the writing being done by John Paul Jones and Robert Plant. Jimmy Page and John Bonham had both wanted to go back to a harder rocking Led Zeppelin with their next album that never was.

Having been listening to Led Zeppelin almost exclusively over the last week or so I'd have to say this is my least favourite of their albums and the quality of Coda was improved tremendously with the remasters so I had to completely change my opinion of it as an album. Of course this is still a very good album in it's own right. The guitar work by Page is really good if a bit buried in the mix especially given the prominence of John Paul Jones' keyboard work.

Because of the excessive keyboard usage this Led Zeppelin album doesn't have the same stripped down and primal feel of their previous albums and it's usually somewhat of a disappointment to go back and listen to it. It is still a good album of course but it just doesn't compare to the rest of their albums, especially not with back to back listening.

Led Zeppelin at this point were plagued with significant personal problems. Not only was Bonham suffering with alcoholism and Page was addicted to heroin but Robert Plant had lost his five year old son while Led Zeppelin were touring which had put the band on hiatus for a long time. The song All of My Love on this album is dedicated to Plant's son Karac. While the remaster of this album has put the guitar a bit higher up in the mix it still doesn't change the overall lighter style of the songs.

I love you my angel Nathaniel I hope you liked everything we did for you today and I hope you're having a wonderful time. Goodnight.

Love from Dad.

Friday 14 October 2011

Day 37: Led Zeppelin - Presence

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, we got a nice new bear for your grave and it looks lovely and the jar matches the sun in a jar. I miss you a lot my love. I'm also renewing my Australian visa so we might be able to go there for awhile too but it might have to be quite a bit later.

Well here we are, the finest moment of Led Zeppelin's studio career. Presence starts with Achilles Last Stand which is in my mind undoubtedly their finest moment. Achilles Last Stand is epic in itself not only the feel of the song but the huge task Jimmy Page had in recording and mixing the song given the huge amount of guitar work that was put into it. Not only that but also given the short time Led Zeppelin spent in the studio recording and producing the album it's an incredibly impressive feat.

I think the reason I love this album so much is because of the tremendous amount of control Jimmy Page had over the writing and recording. Robert Plant was in the process of recovering from a car crash and was joined by Jimmy Page where they started writing songs, the album itself was recorded before Plant himself had fully recovered so Jimmy Page had significantly more control over the album because Plant was simply not up to it. Bonham and Jones had never traditionally been part of the writing process either so that didn't change with this album, however In Through The Out Door was dominated by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones.

This album has Led Zeppelin back to their roots, the songs are primal and full of life, and is quite probably the heaviest Led Zeppelin album. I just absolutely love every single moment of it. Nobody's Fault But Mine is most likely my second favourite Led Zeppelin song, not only is it great in the studio but it's absolutely amazing live. It's too hard to concentrate to write when listening to something this good, so just relax and listen with me my angel.

Goodnight Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Day 36: Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, it was nice going to see you today and your new flowers look absolutely lovely. I'm so happy that I'm able to do this to talk to you, it makes things just a bit better when I'm writing. Our cats are all being quite amusing really and whenever they're playful I just think about how nice it would have been for you to play with them.

Tonight we're listening to Led Zeppelin's only double album Physical Graffiti. Although given Led Zeppelin's penchant for long concerts; I spent two and a half hours last night listening to a great 1973 bootleg recording, it's not the longest Led Zeppelin experience. I'm really enjoying this rediscovery of Led Zeppelin's music with you, it has been awhile since I've listened through all of their albums and bootlegs and watched the DVD's.

It's easy to forget just how much you enjoy the music of a certain band and In My Time of Dying is a perfect example of that. Listening to this song now it just brings back all of those great feelings that I associate with Led Zeppelin and really enjoying their music. While that is present on all their albums I can feel it more now that I've spent so much time listening to the band in the past few days. It's a small obsession based on a huge passion of mine and it makes me feel so good. I think I'll probably end up listening to Presence tonight after this and then of course again tomorrow with you. I might listen to another bootleg show as well.

This album wasn't originally intended to be a double album but when they went to studio they found that the songs they had recorded were too long to fit on a single album, and being incredibly satisfied with the quality of the songs they decided to make it a double album and release some other songs that had yet to make the cut from previous albums since they had enough great songs to fill out the remainder of the needed time.

One thing I find interesting is Houses of the Holy's inclusion of the album, the band had recorded and mixed it to Led Zeppelin standard but felt it didn't fit on it's namesake album. I think it takes a lot to eventually make that decision of removing the title track from an album and it shows an incredible devotion to the concept of the album and how an album should feel.

Led Zeppelin also experiment a bit more with funk on Trampled Under Foot and it just pumps you full of energy, which you really need for Kashmir. Kashmir is a really special song and along with In the Light is probably the high point of the album, but I suppose it depends on your favourite Led Zeppelin style. Kashmir's sound is incredibly far ahead of its time in a way that I find slightly disappointing. It features essentially a constant barrage of sound which is  great for short passages in an album, but now generally most songs are recorded like this and I for one really like bands to have the confidence to have things go silent for even a split second, it's really hard to describe.

It's so amazingly lucky that this did end up being a double album or many of the tracks might not have received the extra attention and studio work to be acceptable to be released. I love the interesting sound to Down by the Seaside which should have been on Led Zeppelin IV. I don't think it would have fit on that album which is why I assume it wasn't included in favour of one of the other songs that made it onto the album.

Ten Years Gone is a great example of the silence I was talking about, Led Zeppelin are confident enough in their musical ability and timing to let the record go silent at times. This is especially admirable live with various timings since it shows a great deal of chemistry within a band to be able to pull it off well and Led Zeppelin were one of those bands that were basically able to achieve whatever they wanted musically, in part due to how well they play together.

The song Black Country Woman was recorded in the backyard of Mick Jagger's mansion at the time. It has a great outdoor sound that I find quite familiar when thinking of lo-fi black metal bands. Of course the sound is acoustic and quite far away from metal but it has that certain feeling.

I love you my angel. I hope you enjoyed the first double album we've listened to so far. It might only be a little bit longer than some CD albums released nowadays but it's still quite a long slog when being used to 30-40 minute albums. I miss you so much, every day. Goodnight Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Day 35: Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel. We're seriously considering moving to Norway now, there are a lot of jobs and such to get there and it would probably do us a lot of good to have some change in scenery. It feels like things are getting harder rather than easier as the time goes by and I think we need to start looking forward to the future more than anything.

We're staying with Led Zeppelin here on their fifth effort, the first one with an actual title. I think Led Zeppelins work after IV is often ignored for some reason when I feel the quality of music is essentially the same throughout their career. Houses of the Holy bring Led Zeppelin in yet another direction after IV. There is a bit of experimentation here and just a generally different sound from their earlier work. It's still unmistakably Led Zeppelin, it's just different.

I think the fact that Led Zeppelin have had very subtle changes in sound throughout their career was incredibly beneficial to their success. They weren't belting out the same songs over and over again rather showing certain transitions that make their back catalogue very varied and continually interesting to listen to. With Led Zeppelin listening to all their albums back to back doesn't give off a feeling that you're listening to the same thing over and over again and it's really nice.

With Led Zeppelin you know every single song is going to be notable in some way. It is even true for the album we'll be listening to tomorrow where over half of the songs are new material interspersed with older cuts that didn't make it onto previous albums due to time constraints. Jimmy Page has a very interesting acoustic guitar style that is present on Black Mountain Side, White Summer and it can also be hinted at with Over the Hills and Far Away. It's always interesting to see him use this live especially on all his different versions of White Summer/Black Mountain Side recordings that are available as bootlegs or on official releases.

I love Led Zeppelins funky number the Crunge it's so different to everything they've done before and since, the same can be said with D'yer Mak'er a reggae inspired number where the title itself is a play on Jamaica. Despite the mix of styles present on this album it flows really well and they don't make anything seem out of place. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why but it's one of the reasons Led Zeppelin are so great is that all of their songs are instantly recognisable as Led Zeppelin songs.

I love the usage of Theremin in No Quarter, the whole song itself is incredibly reminiscent of Progressive Rock on the whole which adds yet a whole new dimension to the album and Led Zeppelin itself. In a way I wanted to comment on how far Led Zeppelin have come from their debut album but it feels like that doesn't do enough credit to their earlier albums, it's merely meant as a comment on their stylistic changes over time.

I hope you've enjoyed Houses of the Holy my angel. I love you and I miss you so much. Not a second goes by where I didn't wish you were here. Goodnight my sweet Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Day 34: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my love, I have finally started writing some songs for you, I want to look over them some more and then run some basic recordings to see how long the whole thing would be. If I was looking to make a little album for you I'd like it to run around 40 minutes like most good albums. I want the album to have both an electric and acoustic element with a few instrumentals and one or two covers of Led Zeppelin songs thrown in. I'll keep you updated my angel.

We continue our exploration of Led Zeppelin's studio material today with their fourth effort. This is often regarded as their finest work and it is absolutely brilliant but not my favourite. It doesn't have a single weak point straight through it and features Led Zeppelin's most popular and recognised song Stairway to Heaven. Now like any sane person I've had my period of thinking this was the pinnacle of music, let alone Led Zeppelin and I still think it's great but I much prefer quite a few Led Zeppelin songs above it.

The thing that Stairway to Heaven has though is the buildup, that tense anticipation that releases with the introduction of the drums and starts to build up again until the guitar solo. The song is a journey and an amazing one at that but I prefer Achilles Last Stand and Stairway to Heaven never translated as well live as most of their other songs. Since we haven't gotten to Stairway yet I should probably mention again that the female vocalist Sandy Denny who we heard with Fairport Convention provides vocals on The Battle of Evermore. It's incredibly interesting how intertwined the music scene was with all the big bands of the era.

We've already explored the connection that was the Yardbirds, which then extended further with the various projects the guitarists went on to do. Most big bands of the era could probably be linked in one or two steps for example Ian Stewart (one of the founding members of the Rolling Stones) plays on a song on this album and on Physical Graffiti. Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Keith Moon (of the Who) played on Jeff Beck's Beck's Bolero along with Nicky Hopkins who has contributed, as a session musician to an astounding amount of records and bands. Including the Kinks, Jefferson Airplane, Donovan and Steve Miller Band.

Of course Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were themselves prolific session musicians in the early to mid 60's. Which is one of the reasons Page hired Jones. Either way the whole scene is highly linked and I've just daydreamed away the entire second side of the album.

Goodnight my sweet angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Monday 10 October 2011

Day 33: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel I hope everything is perfect for you. I'm feeling really unwell again, I've had headaches all day but they seem to be lessening now for awhile which is good. Yesterday I had headaches too but they went away when I was listening to Led Zeppelin with you, and again when I'm listening now I'm completely headache free.

We're continuing our lovely Led Zeppelin theme with their third album. On this album Led Zeppelin use even more acoustic instruments than their previous album and it makes for a great mix. Given the amazing versatility of Jimmy Page his acoustic guitar playing is always a treat. I think one of the things that make Led Zeppelin larger than life is because of the fact that there is a guitarist at the forefront and in a way acts as the frontman of the band. That being said each band member is given lots of time in the spotlight in their musical performances.

But that ends up being about it, they toured a lot, but they didn't play up their own personalities and let the music talk for them. Of course live performances were high energy affairs but it all revolves around the music and Led Zeppelin itself, and because Jimmy Page was essentially the frontman of the band it gives at least two specific voices in the band. I just realised how had this is to describe but usually the main focus of the band is the vocalist but because of Jimmy Page's prominence they're both at the front of the band which adds an extra dynamic.

This is similar to a lot of Progressive Rock bands where the vocalist often also plays an instrument or there are multiple vocalists and the focus is on the music and not the vocals. I find it a lot more rewarding to listen to this style of music where the music takes precedence over the vocals and the vocals themselves become a great part of the musical landscape.

This is generally achieved either through an amazing vocalist such as Robert Plant where his voice is essentially an additional instrument or with vocals that are generally less important such as with prog rock. The reason this album has a more relaxed feel with a lot of the songs is due to the fact the Page and Plant went to the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in the country in Wales. The cottage itself had no electricity or running water and it led to more tranquil music being recorded.

Jimmy Page was also listening to more Bert Jansch and artists like him at the time too and it all culminated in the recording of this album. Of course that's not to say this album doesn't have its hard rock moments however the second side of this album is essentially fully acoustic. Many critics and fans disliked the style of the album and it didn't sell as well as previous albums. Of course it is highly regarded now like most Led Zeppelin albums.

This album is brilliant at evoking emotions through music, I think the Tangerine is possibly one of the most emotional songs Led Zeppelin record. It has all to do with the guitar on the song, from the first chord to the solo it is full of emotion and it's just amazing. It always fills me with a warm feeling that is just lovely, but it also has a sense of longing to the playing which can make it hard to listen to sometimes.

This is the only Led Zeppelin album that doesn't leave you with an incredible high but it rather leaves you with a feeling of calm contentment. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this album compared to the rest of Led Zeppelin's discography. It's so hard to compare Led Zeppelin albums after identifying a favourite. I'd probably just call this a great album and be done with it.

I love you my angel. I think I've decided to play you all of Led Zeppelin's work throughout the week. It's going to be great fun my love. Goodnight Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Day 32: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel. Starting to fool around with the guitar a bit today, not much but just a few riffs to see if I had any form of skill left. Basically I need to put in loads of hours before I can even begin to play competently but we'll see. I'm almost tempted to write something really heavy to just rock out to for you. I think that would be quite nice.

Speaking of rocking out to we're staying in 1969 with Led Zeppelin's second album, not exactly the most creative band when it came to their album names at the start of their career but still it offers a nice simplicity and makes it very easy to remember their albums. Also Led Zeppelin have always let their music speak for itself and in the end it was the music that made people buy their albums not fancy album titles and covers.

While I personally thinking Presence is the best Led Zeppelin album it's such a close call and it all comes down to Achilles Last Stand a ten minute epic on Presence that is undoubtedly the greatest thing they ever did in the studio. While of course Stairway to Heaven on IV has it's own brilliance and buildup I don't think anything can come close to Achilles Last stand. I normally hate comparing songs from an artist rather wanting to rely on the quality of the albums.

The reason I make the exception for Led Zeppelin is the overall quality of all their albums is so phenomenally high you have to look at your favourite individual songs to compare. Of course every time I listen to any Led Zeppelin album I immediately want to call that my favourite and the greatest ever. But once the ecstasy has worn off I'm usually able to step back and re-affirm Presence as my favourite album. The amazing thing is I don't know if it's my favourite album of all time.

It's interesting because I identified Close to the Edge as a perfect album, and it is, but it's not my favourite. Led Zeppelin is essentially the perfect band yet Presence is probably not my favourite album. I suppose I really need to have a large re-examine of my favourite albums and see if I could ever come up with a number one. In the end it will probably come down to my moods. I could eventually come up with a favourite album for each mood that I'm in but I probably can't advance from there.

I know that First Utterance by Comus will be high up there, however being an entirely acoustic it lacks a certain something that only the electric guitar can bring to the table. Of course that being said First Utterance is still a very heavy album both lyrically and musically. When it comes to metal my favourite album is Mardraum: Beyond the Within by Enslaved and I can't imagine that ever changing. I suppose having a favourite album of all time is not exactly that important. There's so many great albums out there that picking a favourite is quite daunting and will probably always be a disappointment making me want to change my mind.

Well my love that brings us to the end of yet another album, and yet another Led Zeppelin album, I enjoy doing the same band twice in a row. Not sure whether or not to keep going and play III tomorrow. We'll see, it would be kind of nice to blast through their whole discography before moving on. Once you rock you can't really stop. I love you my angel Nathaniel, goodnight.

Love from Dad.

Saturday 8 October 2011

Day 31: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my love. I miss you so much.

Today we're finally taking the plunge and listening to the greatest band that ever was. They left us with 8 brilliant albums and one decent album released after John Bonham died. This is their debut self titled album. Led Zeppelin songs always feel so perfectly crafted, produced and performed. There is a special care that Jimmy Page takes with everything he has control over. While Led Zeppelin has always been a collaborative effort Page was the driving force and quite importantly the producer of the band.

Jimmy Page knew what he wanted from an album and he almost always achieves this type of perfection. Of course most of the great tight sound comes from the fact that there's four brilliant musicians working in unison towards a shared goal. This is painfully obvious in live recordings of Led Zeppelin too. Everything just worked when they played together. Unlike the music we've been listening to recently, everything feels perfectly thought out and well planned in the way it comes together.

It's so hard to describe, but when you listen to Led Zeppelin after having listened to their contemporaries in the late 60's it becomes very obvious they were in a completely different league. Of course that's not meant as a slight on the other bands we've been listening to as the free form feel of other recordings can be refreshing at times, and in the end it comes down to what mood I'm in as to which I would prefer. Of course I don't think I could ever not be in the mood for some Led Zeppelin.

Of course now that we've listened to Led Zeppelin we've come full circle with former Yardbirds guitarists with Jimmy Page. Of course Jimmy Page technically never left the Yardbirds, everyone else did and he formed the New Yardbirds with John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant to fulfill touring commitments. Of course the New Yardbirds was a short lived name and it was quickly changed to Led Zeppelin.

The reason the band itself is called Led Zeppelin was from an earlier suggestion of a supergroup with Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Moon and John Entwistle where the latter two started it would go down like a Lead Balloon. The Lead was changed to Led so Americans wouldn't pronounce it wrong and the Balloon was changed to Zeppelin.

The instrumental Black Mountain Side from this album was inspired by a Bert Jansch arrangement which I'm sure I mentioned earlier when we were listening to Jansch's debut album. I love the juxtaposition between an acoustic guitar piece jumping straight into a very heavy song with Communication Breakdown. Since this there has always been a fascination with Heavy Metal and Hard Rock bands to experiment with quieter acoustic pieces and it almost always works incredibly well when a talented band experiments with an acoustic sound for a few songs or an album.

I absolutely love Jimmy Page's guitar solos on this album, they're just amazing. I hope you've enjoyed Led Zeppelin as much as I enjoy it, although I'm not sure that's entirely possible. I probably have listened to Led Zeppelin more than any other band but I still don't feel like I've listened to them nearly enough. I'm not sure if I should introduce you to all of their albums over the next week or so or if I should space it out. I was thinking of maybe having a tribute to the greatest year in music 1972 but then I realised we've already listened to so many of the classics from that year so I'm not quite sure what to do next we'll see my love.

Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Friday 7 October 2011

Day 30: Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello again my love, I hope everything is wonderful for you my angel. I've been back down home today and I brought home the guitar and computer so maybe I can start learning to play again. I'm still not getting the right inspiration to write something for you yet my sweet but I'm sure it will come. In the meantime I can always surround myself with good guitarists and good songwriting for inspiration.

When I was driving back up here I was listening to obituaries on Radio 4 and was shocked to hear Bert Jansch had died. I had always wanted to hear him live and witness a wizard of the acoustic guitar at work, but like many things it was never to be. Bert Jansch is ultimately what every other guitarist I'm going to tell you about wish they were. He has been an inspiration to many guitarists acoustic or otherwise and had kept alive the art of finger picking outside of classical guitars for years.

You've already heard some Nick Drake finger picking style but it really doesn't compare, Jansch wasn't afraid to make it his trademark and no one will deny his position at the top of the hill when it comes to the acoustic guitar. His voice is very much an acquired taste it's such a small part of the performance that it barely matters. Jansch delivers his lyrics adequately enough to understand them and to not at all take away from the experience.

Jimmy Page plays a tribute to Jansch on their debut album with Black Mountain Side, we'll get to listen to that soon enough, I know I keep saying that but be patient my love, your first Led Zeppelin experience is something to savour. I suppose it barely needs saying that we're staying in the 60's still, 1965 to be exact. But with acoustic folk music I don't really suppose it matters much.

Jansch himself has always been fascinated by the guitar since he saw one in school at a very early age. Bert Jansch also formed Pentangle a lovely folk band that we can maybe listen to tomorrow. I love being able to show you all these great bands and artists and talk about them to you. It just really helps me put my mind at ease while I'm doing it, and I know eventually it will help me even more than that.

Another thing that's important about Jansch was his jazz influence, as is evidenced by his Mingus inspired piece on this album, Alice's Wonderland. I have a lot of respect for the Hard Bop Jazz artists and the influence they've had on music. There's something so amazing about a talented artist like Jansch drawing influence from Hard Bop as it's really noticeable in quite a bit of his work. There's something brilliant about jazz influenced rock music such as Canterbury progressive rock or even straight up Jazz fusion. There's so much exciting music out there and I can't wait to show everything to you.

I wish I could just tell you about everything right now, but there's so much to say that it would just become jumbled. That's why I love being able to listen to an album with you every night. It's a nice methodical way of introducing you to the music that I love. I know I started out quite scattered but I've been able to create some themes and I've given you a good cross-section of the 60's so far in showing you what it had to offer. I have by no means exhausted the 60's of course, there will be plenty more to come back to when we finally do get out of the decade.

I'm not entirely sure what style of music I will move onto after I get out of this 60's mood. Perhaps starting with Led Zeppelin we will launch ourselves into the hard rock of the 70's. Most likely though I'll probably introduce you to more of the wonderful progressive rock that decade has to offer. We'll see.

Bert Jansch was always one to shy away from the spotlight and he still remains quite an underground figure outside of a guitarist or folk lover perspective. It's quite a shame in some ways but he kept making music and has left behind a great legacy of work so his lack of fame never stopped him doing what he loved. I wish he had gotten more acknowledgement for his amazing talent in his lifetime, but I suppose the endorsement of every guitarist work their salt is all the acknowledgement he ever wanted.

I love you, and miss you more than words can express. I hope you've enjoyed Bert Jansch's debut. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Thursday 6 October 2011

Day 29: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello again my love. I really wish I could be stronger for you, but things are still too hard day to day. I really want to be able to do anything, but in the end I end up doing nothing. It's suddenly really cold after a really warm start to October and it's just weird having everything being different.

We're staying in the 60's even longer and we're still in America today. Creedence Clearwater Revival were protesting in their own way, but by this point protest was very fashionable and Creedence were very popular on both sides of the Atlantic. At the time their southern rock stylings were just what the public wanted and CCR were happy to oblige. Releasing six albums over the course of three years and then running into differences and eventually disbanding with a terrible seventh album a couple of years down the line. At their height CCR burnt bright, perhaps too bright.

CCR has always been a favourite with me throughout the years, and their distinct sound and continued popularity make it nice to listen to when out with friends. I can't really think of anyone I know disliking CCR, they're simple straightforward and just fun to listen to. The thing about Southern Rock is that distinctive guitar sound that just sounds so cool. Lynyrd Skynyrd has it, Canned Heat has it, the Allman Brothers has it too. You always know what you're going to get with Southern Rock when you feel the urge to listen to it.

This is one of the styles of music I feel has been forgotten in the studio nowadays and although I'm sure there are a lot of good bands playing this style of music today they haven't been able to capture it in the studio. Of course a lot of the 60's-70's bands are still playing but they're not creating the same level of music they did back then. I've never really thought about it until now, I mean Prog Rock still has the banner flown high by The Mars Volta, straight up rock has various bands still making good music, just not exactly in the mainstream, but for something as popular as southern rock was there's nothing to fly the flag with new material.

I'm really not sure what my favourite CCR album is, given how good I find all of their first six albums but I suppose that just shows how good they were. I'm pretty sure I've gone off on a huge tangent right now, but that's just how it is when I start talking about music. Whatever I've been talking about I'm completely lost for words right now. I know you'd learn these things about me and be able to set me straight if I ever started ranting about things.

I can feel you by me my angel, I miss you. Tomorrow it will have been five weeks since you were born, that just doesn't seem real, time just feels like its lost all meaning. Days of the week don't feel like they matter unless they're Monday or Friday. I feel like I've never needed music as much as I do now, yet I find it hard to listen to it when I'm not writing to you, I feel like I should force myself to listen to more music, like I used to. I think I might throw on another album after this my love and just relax. Goodnight my angel Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Day 28: Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello again my love, two times today, it feels good to be able to speak to you again. It's terrible when I have to miss a day, I've realised I really don't feel very well, I was basically just thinking that I was okay again since I was feeling better, but it was just by comparison. I hope you've had a great time between me bugging you.

This is Dylan's second electric album, even though it's only one side electric and the second side is acoustic just like earlier Dylan recordings. His usage of electric instruments was subject to some controversy with some believing it meant a move away from his politically charged recordings and becoming a more commercial artist, while the events have undoubtedly been exaggerated it's still interesting to look into.

Personally I do believe an artist can "sell-out" and purposely creative music to sell more albums but I don't think Dylan was one of those people. One of the reasons for the controversy was apparently the poor sound system used live which made the band and vocals distorted and very hard to hear. Either way people were unhappy but Dylan's electric albums were very successful.

There's something about almost all of Dylan's 60's releases that just have a disenfranchised feel about them. There's anger and protest which usually make great music of this type and Dylan's lyrics are just a great example of that. Dylan's lyrics don't deal with the conventional popular music subject matters such as love or having fun and decides to write about what is essentially his view and frustration of the world.

Dylan always makes me think and reflect about things, and it makes it hard to write. I really miss you and it's hard to come to terms with and accept what's happened. I thought the pain would ease with time and I'd be left with the good memories but the sense of loss just seems to get bigger as the days go by. I know one day it will be easier and we will be able to move on, it just doesn't seem like it's going to be any time soon.

I really want to start playing the guitar again and I think I might bring it up here soon if we're not going back home for awhile. I just want to write something for you that we can listen to together it would be nice, especially if it was ready for you soon, but I'd have to get good with the guitar first I suppose. I think I need a project to focus on like this so I think I will try to start writing something as soon as I feel ready.

Whatever I do end up writing I know it will never do you justice, I don't think anything on this world ever could. I miss you my angel Nathaniel goodnight.

Love From Dad.

Day 27: Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my love, I'm sorry I wasn't able to play music for you yesterday, I just wasn't feeling up to it my angel. We did however get some stuff done yesterday and I will play you two albums today. Yesterday me and your great grandmother took the bears you got from Uncle Sean and great Uncle Les and dried them all up and put them in a see through bag so they won't blow away again. We also had to take away your flowers, but you still have your cross, and bears and your little sun in a jar.

The first song on this album always makes me smile because your mam always said it sounded like Dylan was singing "The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind" and she drew a very cute little drawing of someone losing their ant friends in the wind. But then she also drew them all reunited so it was fine. Today we will be listening to two albums, not at the same time but to make up for yesterday. We'll be listening to two Bob Dylan albums this first one is his second album, while he is still completely acoustic, and then we'll be listening to his sixth album, and second one using electric instruments; Highway 61 Revisited.

We can talk more about the controversy regarding using electrical instruments when we end up listening to Highway 61. Bob Dylan was an instrumental force in then creation of contemporary American folk music. While the pop and rock music of the time in America was dealing with a lot lighter subject matter Dylan and other folk contemporaries where singing about more serious and political subject matters. One of the more unique aspects of Dylan however was his success in the US.

While he was always more successful in the UK during the 60's like most American artists offering challenging music such as Frank Zappa he was also quite commercially successful in the US Frequently getting top 20 albums and even challenging the top spot in the US charts in the late 60's. He was able to establish a significant fan base in the United States without resorting to a more commercial sound. There was an interesting dynamic in the 60's in the US where home grown artists were respected far less than British blues bands unless they were incredibly pop oriented.

For example the Beach Boys were successful in America but they had an incredibly commercial sound and to a much greater extent so did the Monkees. The US were yet to accept more challenging bands if they weren't British which seemed to make albums far more desirable at the time. A lot can be said about this subject especially given the fact that the British bands of the time looked up to the great American Blues musicians which had been shunned in their own country due to racial prejudices.

And of course when it came to pop bands like the Beatles again it was all about image and sex appeal rather than the music itself. Either way Dylan was able to retain his integrity and become popular on both sides of the Atlantic as an American artist and that's quite respectable in it's own right. What I've always liked about Dylan is his prolific use of the Harmonica which has always been an incredibly rare instrument especially with American artists outside of traditional blues. I can only think of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith as an American artist using it, of course it had a lot of usage in British rock in the 60's and 70's given how influenced they were by the old Blues

Bob Dylan has also been heavily covered given his penchant for writing brilliant lyrics however he has also been criticised due to his vocal style which has changed many times on different recordings. I've always liked listening to Dylan's voice, while he's not a great technical singer he has a very honest approach to his vocals which I've always liked. I'm not entirely sure how influential his music was in the civil-rights movement (it's really up for debate but you can't exactly put a number on it) but it certainly helped move things in the right direction.

I had always planned to play Bob Dylan for you when I felt you were ready to appreciate that some music can be great mostly because of the lyrics and the delivery of the vocals. Dylan's not as easy to sing along to either so it would probably have been quite awhile down the line. I probably would have introduce you to some other music in opposition movements such as Punk and RIO around the same time too.

I love you my angel Nathaniel, I hope you enjoyed the first part of the Dylan for today.

Love from Dad.

Monday 3 October 2011

Day 26: Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my love, I feel a bit better today, and I feel like we can start looking forward soon, I want to make plans and be able to have something to look forward to. We're going to be contacting the charity that made our memory box soon about giving in our donations, that will be nice. I love you so much, and because of the help of the memory box we have even more to remember you by than we would have. 

I eventually decided to stay in the 60's but with a different twist, we've gone straight into folk with Fairport Convention. I really enjoy Fairport Convention and they have a lot of connections to explore. The band itself would go on to play on Nick Drake's first two albums and Sandy Denny would sing on Led Zeppelin IV's Battle of Evermore. So we'll call that our connection with the Yardbirds, even though it has yet to happen at the time of this recording.

I really enjoy this album along with their other 1969 recording Liege and Lief. While I have heard their first two albums as well I never found them as enjoyable as these. And I haven't really explored further into their long back catalogue. I suppose one day it would be appropriate but I've only explored what is considered essential. I should listen to their debut again and see what I think.

This album really showcases the incredible talent that was Sandy Denny, unfortunately she succumbed to drug use at the age of 31 and has since been mostly forgotten. I really enjoy the often subtle guitar playing as well on this album, despite being very much a folk album they use a lot of electric guitar throughout and it really adds an interesting tone to the recording. That's not to say electric guitars are uncommon in folk, it's just generally more associated with the acoustic side of guitar playing. Of course Electric Folk was also called British folk rock so it's not unexpected.

This album is really warm and lovely and it's always nice to listen to. It never disappoints me when I want to give it a spin and it always puts me in a folk mood. The thing is after something like Fairport Convention it's puts me in the mood to listen to folky metal which has always puzzled me. I'll introduce you to metal a bit later my love it takes awhile to get into and it has a stigma which I suppose it has deserved at some point, but to me music is just music and shouldn't be associated with or seen as something bad, unless it's pop of course.

If I had to say anything bad about this album it would have to be that the tracks don't flow very well throughout the album and it could have been done a bit better, possibly a track list change but I haven't really thought about it that much. It's a shame that a lot of albums suffer from this, I feel it detracts quite a bit from the album experience. If an album doesn't flow well it's easier to get distracted by the fact alone, at least for me, I start to think about how the album isn't flowing well rather than listening to the music. Again this is probably just because I have been spoiled by progressive rock.

Thankfully this criticism is minor with this album as the songs are very easy to get lost in. I miss you my angel, I wish it was easier than this, but I know that soon I will be able to only remember all the good times and how perfect you are. 

I hope you're having an amazing time just like you should. I love you my angel, goodnight Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Day 25: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

Dear Nathaniel,

Hello my angel, We stayed up all through the day yesterday and went to bed near a proper nighttime so essentially over the past week or so we've missed a full day by being awake for longer than we should have consistently. So right now we almost have a normal sleeping pattern which we need to sort stuff out throughout the week. The only problem is I know it won't take long for out pattern to get messed up again because it's so hard to sleep, I miss you so much.

It's been a whole month now since you were born, I can't believe it's already the second of October. It was so amazing to meet you and I'm so glad I was able to get that time, and all the times afterwards that I got to meet you. I could always feel you there with us when me and your mam came to see you it was lovely.

Continuing the 60's them with a good friend of Clapton we're listening to the debut of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Jimi Hendrix is a tragic story of shortlived talent, brought to the UK with the specific intention of forming the Jimi Hendrix experience he was almost guaranteed to be a success with the management he had. It's amazing how quickly the music scene was moving at the time in the UK and the experience managed to pump out three albums in two years before the band became defunct and Hendrix himself died.

The thing about Hendrix was that he wasn't afraid to experiment with his guitar in order to get the sound he wanted in recordings and to please the crowd live. He will always be remembered as the guy who played the guitar with his teeth. However in recordings it has suggested he used various objects such as cans to get the sound he wanted from the guitar. I like this style of experimentation when it can be backed up with brilliant playing in general and Hendrix has that in spades.

When I was younger I used to really dislike Hendrix's vocals but after years of listening to Black Metal I'm not bothered by vocals when the music is good, and his vocals have quite grown on me besides that. But what matters here is really just the guitar, the rhythm section is really solid but in the end quite poorly recorded and produced, so I've always seen them as merely adequate in the studio, especially on this album. The guitar playing takes such great precedence and that's why I feel a lot of people are quick to call Hendrix the greatest guitarist of all time. While he's certainly the best American guitarist if you exclude the older Blues players which I'd judge on completely different criteria he can be a bit overrated by a lot of people who fail to see the brilliance of more subtle guitarists.

For example Robert Fripp one of my all time favourite guitarists gets buried in top guitarists lists because King Crimson as a band had multi-instrumental talent and weren't an overtly guitar oriented band, that doesn't mean that Fripp didn't contribute amazing guitar playing to King Crimson, it's just not the main focus all the time. We really need to go back to prog soon, I'm getting that itch now, this album might be the last of our explorations into the 60's for now unless I decide to go for Led Zeppelin tomorrow, but I think I will save that for much later.

We'll see, and we can always come back to the 60's later and explore some American music from the era, maybe a bit of acoustic and electric Dylan and some Creedence Clearwater Revival. It's great knowing that there's always more music to explore and dig deeper. We have all the time in the world so I'll be able to show you pretty much everything there is to offer. I'll have to think a lot about what I want to play for tomorrow I guess. I wonder if I should continue to show you some great guitar playing even if I move away from the 60's. I'll let it be a surprise for you until tomorrow I guess, so I won't decide just yet.

I also realised we're onto the 25th day of doing this. Even if there's been a few days missed in-between and one completely falling off the radar due to my sleeping problem. Yesterday I spent some time outside playing a couple of Led Zeppelin albums and a David Bowie album. It was nice to listen to music outside and I have decided I really do need to listen to more music. Even if I'm not writing to you I feel like you're always listening with me regardless, it certainly feels that way.

I hope you enjoyed the experience today my angel. I love you, and miss you so much. Goodnight Nathaniel.

Love from Dad.