What Are You Listening To? February 2026

[Zeeba Neighba]

Got up to Dark Side but Wish You Were Here will have to wait because...
It's Yearly Playlist Thursday

And it's 1968

So still lots of Beatles but hey, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", "Mrs Robinson", "Time of the Season", "All Along the Watchtower", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Born to Be Wild", "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay", "Mony Mony", "Piece of My Heart", Aretha's "Think"

Plus songs like Joe South's "Games People Play", Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues", Spirit's "I Got A Line On You", Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man", Supreme's "Love Child"

And even Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today", Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie", Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles", The Bonzo Dog Band's "I'm the Urban Spaceman", Brooklyn Bridge's "Worst That Could Happen", and Sergio Mendes's "Fool on the Hill"

And Many, Many, More.... (10 hours worth)

 

[Ojai Sam]

John Addison, Bernard Herrmann - Torn Curtain (soundtrack 1965, LaLaLand Expanded Edition 2024)

Alfred Hitchcock had begun his long decline by the time he made "Torn Curtain". When he started the film, his 50th, he went back to Bernard Herrnann whose dark, ominous soundtrack had propelled "Psycho" to the heights of suspense. But when Herrmann submitted a 13 minute demo in a noirish vein, Hitch bailed in favor of the younger John Addison whose last films had been the rollicking "Tom Jones" and "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders". This scoring change coincided with the casting replacement of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint by more youthful Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.

Although it sold respectably, "Torn Curtain" was a critical flop. The New York Times called the film "a pathetically undistinguished spy picture, and the obvious reason is that the script is a collection of what Mr. Hitchcock most eschews—clichés." One would have to say that Addison's soundtrack was similarly bland. Throbbing electric guitars and edgy brass figures backed by surging strings didn't succeed in imparting the contemporary feel Hitchcock was after.

LaLaLand's expanded reissue, part of the Universal Film Music Classics series, gives us a lot of bonus material from Addison's score plus the Herrmann demo. Together, they provide a fascinating behind the scenes glimpse of Alfred Hitchcock trying to drum up another hit in his autumn years.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

John Addison, Bernard Herrmann - Torn Curtain (soundtrack 1965, LaLaLand Expanded Edition 2024)

Alfred Hitchcock had begun his long decline by the time he made "Torn Curtain". When he started the film, his 50th, he went back to Bernard Herrnann whose dark, ominous soundtrack had propelled "Psycho" to the heights of suspense. But when Herrmann submitted a 13 minute demo in a noirish vein, Hitch bailed in favor of the younger John Addison whose last films had been the rollicking "Tom Jones" and "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders". This scoring change coincided with the casting replacement of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint by more youthful Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.

Although it sold respectably, "Torn Curtain" was a critical flop. The New York Times called the film "a pathetically undistinguished spy picture, and the obvious reason is that the script is a collection of what Mr. Hitchcock most eschews—clichés." One would have to say that Addison's soundtrack was similarly bland. Throbbing electric guitars and edgy brass figures backed by surging strings didn't succeed in imparting the contemporary feel Hitchcock was after.

LaLaLand's expanded reissue, part of the Universal Film Music Classics series, gives us a lot of bonus material from Addison's score plus the Herrmann demo. Together, they provide a fascinating behind the scenes glimpse of Alfred Hitchcock trying to drum up another hit in his autumn years.

View attachment 15383

TIL the source of the band Television's song "Torn Curtain."

 

[Ojai Sam]

The Beat Farmers - Loud and Plowed and...LIVE!! (1990)

MusicBoomerang Trade of the Day.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Mandy, Indiana - URGH (2026)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Ray Budzilek - The New Sound Of Ray Budzilek Presenting The New Tones (197?)

It's Friday afternoon, time for something new from Ray Budzilek!

 

[Ojai Sam]

Lily Laskine - French Music Under The Restoration (1979)

Beautiful harp pieces from the pens of Louis-Emanuel Jadin, Nicholas-Charles Bochsa and Francois-Joseph Nadermann. Never heard of them? Neither did I, but they all sure knew how to write for this most delicate of instruments.


Lily Laskine (1893-1988)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Franz Schubert - String Quartet No. 15 in G Major (Juilliard String Quartet)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Ratboys - Singin' To An Empty Chair (2026)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Zen Guerrilla - Trance States In Tongues (1999)

 

[Ojai Sam]

Dave Frishberg - Let's Eat Home (1990)

MusicBoomerang Trade Of The Day.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

NPR Music's New Music Friday weekly PlayList

Not a great week for new music IMO

 

[Ojai Sam]

Various – Open Strings: Early Virtuoso Recordings From The Middle East, And New Responses (Honest Jons comp. 2009)

MusicBoomerang Trade of the Day.

Disc A is "mostly 1920's recordings from Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turkey"

Disc B is "new commission in response"

That's all the album tells us.

Tony Mix Tapes sez:

"Honest Jon’s took a 20-song mix of classical string music -- performed by artists about whom we know nothing other than their names -- and circulated it to some of the most amazing modern purveyors of string music from the West. With no real provisions, Honest Jon’s simply asked the artists to listen to the disc and craft a musical response. Truly an experiment, the results are disparate, beautiful, and thought-provoking."

 

[Ojai Sam]

The Yardbirds - Story, By Giorgio Gomelsky (Charly comp 2007)

The Yardbirds' recordings are a discographical mess, aggravated by personnel turnover and management changes. This 4 CD box (itself a reissue of an earlier Charly 4 CD box ) augments but doesn't completely replace Charly' big old green Shapes of Things LP box. But, as you can see from the description on the newer black box itself, it gives you more than enough from the Clapton-Beck years.

Next up...Roger the Engineer.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Ivan The Tolerable - Chromophobia (2026)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Started yesterday but yes, it's the weekly playlist where I go year by year
And it's 1969
11 hour playlist
Wide range of stuff as always - great year - ya got Abbey Road and Let It Bleed and the first two Zeppelin albums. Credence's emergence. Tommy. CSN's debut. Sly's Stand. Santana's debut. The Jackson 5.
Bowie's "Space Oddity"
Edwin Starr's "25 Miles"
Badfinger's "Come and Get It"
"A Boy Named Sue"
"Leaving on A Jet Plane"
5th Dimension "Aquarius" and "Wedding Bell Blues"
In the Court of the Crimson King
Isaac Hayes' "Walk on By"
Glen Campbell's "Galvaston"
Elvis "Suspicious Minds"
"Whipping Post"
Chicago's debut
"Spinning Wheel"
"Mother Popcorn"
"Many Rivers to Cross"
"Living in the Past"
Neil's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Box Tops "Soul Deep"

And many, many more....

 

[axolotl]

This:



Most of my listening is in the car these days. This is not an ideal CD for heading down the freeway, lest listening to the lovely lute be lost.

It is wonderful music. Thanks, Zeeba!

 

[axolotl]

Stars as Eyes ~ Enemy of Fun (2002)



IDM, Indietronica

 

[axolotl]

Carmen Rizzo ~ The Lost Art of the Stolen Moment (2005)



Downtempo, Ambient Trance

This is primarily women's voices over chilled beats. I don't care for chilled beets so much anymore.