20 Dec 2020

How’s life treating you Bob? Happy holidays!

2 Jun 2019

Saw him recently on the Rock Hall of Fame Induction show. Still looked and sounded pretty good for 80!

20 May 2019

Hey Steve: Believe me, I struggled with the concept. With The Beatles, comparing their early stuff to anything after Rubber Soul is almost like apples and oranges. How do you objectively compare "And I Love Her" to "Strawberry Fields Forever"? It is hard to believe that the same four guys are making the music. I guess I'm a bit more protective of the band since I grew up with them, and firmly believe rock would have died when Elvis went in the army if they hadn't come along. I was one of those nine year olds sitting in front of a black and white TV( that got four channels!) on a Sunday night in February 1964, whose life was forever changed by the act he was seeing on Ed Sullivan's show. (Even saw them live. Detroit, 1966!) When the early stuff came out, it was far and away the best there was out there. I'm not sure it should be discounted just because what came later is considered "better". Some of it was, some of it wasn't. Another fact that seems to get lost is that this entire body of work (13 albums) was constructed in less than seven years time. How do you grade it, and at the same time complain about a clunker or two per album? Its like driving a Ferrari and complaining it gets lousy gas mileage! So, I guess I'm guilty as charged!

19 May 2019

I guess the ranking is as much about historical relevance as it is about music. If their first two albums don’t do anything, chances are there won’t be a Sgt Pepper or Revolver. There is a reason Bob’s parents played the early stuff to death. It was a complete rebirth of popular music. IMHO, I think almost 60 years later, just how earth shattering that was tends to get lost in the fog of time.

16 May 2019

Its funny ,to hear Mac tell it, He had very little help writing his later Beatles stuff. It is amazing, however, how badly his compositions deteriorated after the group split up. Perhaps the lack of an in-house rivalry with Lennon, and later Harrison made him get lazy, but something sure changed.

16 May 2019

Haha, sounds like your parents had excellent taste! I agree on The White Album. Half of it should have seen the cutting room floor (Hence the last place ranking). As for one or two annoying tracks, that is true IMHO, of almost any album I have ever listened to by anybody. I thought that for years, John Lennon must have had nightmares about his name being on the writing credits for Ob-La-Di, among other McCartney swill.

12 May 2019

Outstanding coverage from the Shakespeare of Soundblab. Thanks to you (and your wife) for letting the rest of us live vicariously through your travels. I know too well how much time, effort and money it requires to get something like this accomplished.

1 May 2019

Always thought Blue Rodeo was a criminally under-appreciated band. Have pretty much all their albums. Bruce Cockburn as well. Interesting list from the Great White North!

23 Apr 2019

I have to agree with Tim. Fables is the album all other REM discs should be judged against. It is REM's "Disintegration".

18 Apr 2019

“Hide me in the back room, tell me when it’s over” ‘makes for good strategy for the rest of the album’. Love it. Doesn’t get much more succinct than that, lol.