What Are You Listening To? February 2025

[Ojai Sam]

I 'member when that came out. I'd been listening to Fleetwood Mac for years: Then Play On, Kiln House, Future Games, Mystery to Me.

During the winter that the stations were playing the singles, I was working somewhere around Indiana, PA, and later just south of Erie, PA. We were cutting Christmas trees and bailing them to be trucked away. A difficult job made harder by the winter cold and wind chill. When we were working south of Erie, we experienced the lake effect, with blowing snow and a wind chill said to dip to 30 degrees below zero.

You might not be surprised to hear that I quit that job two weeks into it, about 10 days before it was to finish. Sonny, a friend of mine by that time, and I made it to Erie International Airport to fly back home. We found the airport was closed for the night before we got there.

Anyway, I remember telling people that this was a new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. Nobody cared.

Axo, you were both hipper and stronger than I. When this album came out in the summer of 1975, I had just taken the Bar Exam and was awaiting the results. To save money, I gave up my apartment in northern North Hollywood and moved back to my mom's house in southern Orange County, a gap far wider than just the physical distance.

Until December, I continued in my job as office manager for a small oil company in Signal Hill, so the heaviest thing I lifted was either a ledger or a hamburger from Jongewaard's Bake n Broil in Bixby Knolls. Their lemon cream pie was so outstanding that it was the Official Pie of the glamorous Long Beach Petroleum Club.

At the time, I was still listening to mainly the country & western music of the day (outlaws, Conway, Loretta, Marty Robbins, etc.) My efforts to stay afloat in rock and pop had foundered in a deluge of disco, Denver, Doobies and Dawn. Fleetwood Mac had not yet entered my consciousness so this record flew completely over my head.

The story of how I became more enlightened (musically, at least) by the time Rumours was released I will post shortly when I get to that one.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Superchunk - Foolish (1994)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Christian Fitness - I Am Scared Of Everything That Isn't Me (2014)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Elsa Popping & Her Pixieland Band - Delirium In Hi-Fi (1958)

 

[axolotl]

^ I was at that party.

I'm the dog, not the kid on the couch.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Richard Dawson - End Of The Middle (2025)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Burt Bacharach - Casino Royale (soundtrack 1967)

Vinyl Spin of the Day.

What do David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Daliah Lavi, Barbara Bouchet, Terence Cooper. Joanna Pettet, and Woody Allen have in common? Long before Daniel Craig, all of them portray James Bond in this loopy satire, one of the 13 films Burt Bacharach worked on. He followed the example of Henry Mancini's earlier soundtrack for "The Great Race" by presenting a couple of strong songs surrounded by period instrumentals building up to a frantic extended climax. Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass deliver the catchy theme with electricity and Dusty Springfield's sultry performance of "The Look Of Love" blows away the rather tepid single version.

Another soundtrack better than the film itself.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On (2025)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Christian Fitness - Hip Gone Gunslingers (2021)

 

[axolotl]

László Hortobágyi ~ The Transglobal & Magic Sounds (1996)



P. S. Hats off to NB.

 

[axolotl]

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings ~ Naturally (2005)

 

[Nickyboy]

László Hortobágyi ~ The Transglobal & Magic Sounds (1996)



P. S. Hats off to NB.

Hey, I just listened to that the other day! It's so other-worldly.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Just:
Joe Jackson - Night and Day (1982)

Now:
Weezer - Weezer (Green Album) (2001)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Here And Now - Give And Take (1978)

 

[Ojai Sam]

The Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan - In The Beginning (Circa 1960) (Polydor 1970)

Vinyl Spin of the Day.

 

[axolotl]

^ Who are those guys?

 

[Ojai Sam]

^ Who are those guys?

A bunch of Hamburgers. They’ll never make it.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Christian Fitness - You Are The Ambulance (2019)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Berlin Psycho Nurses - s/t (2020)



Chinese post-punk band.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Christian Fitness - This Taco Is Not Correct (2016)