Ramblin' with Roger

Renaissance redux

Perhaps my enthusiasm made them think it would be more in keeping with what they would like.

In my recent prog rock post, I ended, “I own albums by FM, Electric Light Orchestra, Kansas, Renaissance, Supertramp, Genesis, and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, but not the ones listed.”

Then Arthur commented:

I don’t have most of the albums you talk about…, BUT the ones you list at the very end of this post, I want to know more about your connection to those. That’s because I had something by most of the bands you list, but you’re the only one I know who’s ever listed Renaissance. (I have two of their albums on vinyl and chose to bring them with me from America when I had to leave so many other things behind)

Let’s start with the group Renaissance. I must have heard them in New Paltz during my college days.

1977 was pretty much, from an emotional point of view, my annus horribilis, graduated from college but directionless. In the first months of the year, I was crashing on my parents’ sofa in Charlotte, NC. My birthday was coming up in March, and all I really wanted was Scheherazade and Other Stories, the 1975 album by the British group.

I received it, and I played it. I sensed a really unenthusiastic, albeit mostly unspoken, response from the family, especially my father, who said something like “Hmm” in that particular way he did when he was displeased. He had heard a variety of musical genres, Beatles, Stones, Young Rascals, Led Zeppelin on my turntable.

Yet, I got the clear impression that this particular group was just – I don’t know, how do I put it? – Too white? Too weird? Perhaps my enthusiasm made them think it would be more in keeping with what they would like. Or something; in any case, the rejection was a bit soul-crushing.

I played it all the more for that, but at the same time, it sucked much of the joy out of listening to it. I hadn’t heard it in years until I found it on YouTube. LISTEN. My, I love it all over again, especially side 2. I mean, the second half, which literally made me weep, as I anticipated movements I had not heard in three decades.

Anyway, less than two months after my birthday in 1977, I hitchhiked out of Charlotte, unannounced, and continued my wanderings. Did I take the LP with me, or did I have them ship it to me subsequently? I have no idea.

Coincidentally, this is an album that the Wife – even younger than YOU, Arthur 😉 – was familiar with, because her college roommate Alison played the music of the group incessantly.

Other prog rock groups

FM – I misremembered; I have a couple by a duo called AMFM, at least one of which I got from a Kickstarter sale by their label, Polyvinyl.

Electric Light Orchestra – A New World Record on CD, plus extra songs. Also, a greatest hits CD. Saw Jeff Lynne’s ELO perform a song from Alone in the Universe, the 2015 album, on CBS This Morning Saturday in November.

Kansas – just a greatest hits CD.

Supertramp – Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America on vinyl. Had to burn a copy of the latter onto CD, because I LOVE that album.

Genesis – I own none of the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, though I have a LOT of solo Gabriel. Abacab (1981), Genesis (1983), Invisible Touch (1986), We Can’t Dance (1991), the latter two on CD, plus the greatest hits.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention – Vinyl: Fillmore East – June 1971. CD – Jazz from Hell, You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 (show from 1974, released in 1988), the compilation album Strictly Genteel, the single Peaches en Regalia, and a greatest hits album.

Arthur also asked:

I’ve since had time to follow the link and saw there were a lot I’d never heard of. Which made me wonder, Roger: How many of those, if any, had YOU not heard of?

LOTS. 50-45, 42, 41, 39, 38, 36, 35, 29, 26-24, and 19.

The Lydster, Part 141: the Presbyterian

The stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA explained the denomination to the Donald.

Both the Wife and I grew up in the Methodist tradition. We didn’t become Presbyterians until the 21st century. Theologically, there’s not that much of a difference between the two Christian denominations, IMO, but some of the rituals are a bit different.

The Daughter has grown up in the Presbyterian church, so it’s more difficult for her when we go to other houses of worship, such as my parents-in-law’s Methodist service. For my spouse and myself, it doesn’t much matter, when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, if we say “sins” or “debts” (our usual form) or “trespasses” (the Methodist form). I WILL admit that growing up, all that sibilant “trespasses… trespass against us” ironically sounded a bit serpentine.

When Donald Trump was campaigning, he made some comments about Ben Carson’s Seventh Day Adventist faith. Then he noted, “I’m Presbyterian. Boy, that’s down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness.” The Daughter saw this on TV and grimaced. “He can’t be a Presbyterian, can he?” (The stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA explained the denomination to the Donald.)

I wish The Daughter was more familiar with the late Fred Rogers, who was a counterculture Christian icon, not just a wholesome American TV star. Here’s a lovely story about the ordained Presbyterian minister.

Music Throwback Christmas: For Unto Us A Child Is Born

Merry Christmas!

Isaiah 9:6 King James Version (KJV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Here are three traditional versions of the Handel Messiah piece:

Artist not listed. Some commenters think the tempo is a little fast; I think other versions can be a bit too slow.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Sir Colin Davis, Tenebrae, London Symphony Orchestra

Here is the Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration version:

Sounds of Blackness

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2015

A couple years, I’m drawing a complete blank.

One of the lovely things about December 24, Christmas Eve, pretty much since 1983, is that I know what I’ll be doing that evening: singing in church.

Back in the 1980s, the service at the Methodist church started at 10:30 p.m., and ended about midnight; when I went home, it was almost always snowing lightly. The service at my current church begins much earlier, but there’s a certain familiarity about the celebration, though the forecast this year is that the daytime temperatures will be in the 50s F (low teens C).

What I started thinking about was what did I do in the decade before I returned to the church. At least one year in the 1970s, I went to some random Roman Catholic church. Another year, I went with my then-girlfriend to her mother’s home near New York City; by New Year’s Eve, we had broken up.

Probably went out to eat with my girlfriend in the late 1970s, but what the heck did I do in 1980, after we had broken up earlier that month?

One Christmas, probably 1975, I lived in this coffeehouse in New Paltz, but, like the dorms, we had to vacate it during the winter break. I hitchhiked down to New York City and spent a week with my great aunt Charlotte. Surely we did NOT go to church – that wasn’t her thing – but we had a good time visiting cultural events that week.

Still, for a few years, I’m drawing a complete blank.

This is to say that I LIKE the tradition of going to church on Christmas eve. It’s not just theologically significant. It creates a sense of tradition when I feign not having one.

Links

1966 CBS holiday messaage, which I well remember.

Several versions of 12 Days of Christmas; the first one is my favorite.

Christmas Dishes From Around the World.

Mark Evanier’s Mel Torme story.

Listening While Feminist: In Defense of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”.

Charles Mingus’ Secret Eggnog recipe will knock you on your ass.

The office party

I am among the WORST gift wrappers on the planet.

I was not sleeping well the night before the holiday office party. Part of it was the fact that I knew The Wife was going to get a routine medical exam REALLY early the next morning. This meant that, instead of her getting up at 5:30 a.m., which, after all these years, I’m still barely used to, she’d be up before 5. Arrgh.

Abandoning the bed, I tried to sleep in the recliner downstairs for a while, then onto the sofa. I was awake enough to note the kitchen light was on but fell back asleep until 7:20. Not only did I have to rush to get dressed for work, but I also had to wake the Daughter – usual rising time 6:30 – so she could get to school before 8.

Also, I had to wrap the gift for the grab bag. I had chosen the soundtrack to the great Broadway musical Hamilton, which may very well be the album of the year. Fortunately, the Wife came home, so I could take a shower, and SHE could wrap the gift because I am among the WORST gift wrappers on the planet. Plus, I was running so late, she drove me to work.

I do two reference questions. Noticing that the Outlook calendar has noted the noon party time, I didn’t rush, knowing from experience that my colleagues are always late getting started. But when I looked up at 12:10, no one was there, as though I were in one of those Left Behind films. I hadn’t heard them leave; I wear headphones with music to minimize the external chatter. I walked the handful of blocks to the venue.

The first party game was putting together a list of holiday-related items. So I had at it, running through A to N without stopping, then picking off some other letters. The secretary/party coordinator said it didn’t specifically have to be the immediate upcoming holidays, so I used that for my V response. And even starting late, I won the contest.

Here was my list.
A: apple – I’ve sung, in a choir, the anthem “Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree”
B: bells
C: carols
D: ding dong. Thinking of “Ding Dong Merrily On High”, though the George Harrison song would also fit
E: eats
F: fun – these last two were pretty generic, but whatevs, as the Daughter says
G: greenery
H: holly
I ivy – the lat two from “The Holly and the Ivy,” naturally
J: joy, as in “to the world”
K: kisses, as in Hershey
L: love
M: manger
N: nativity
O: open the window; I’m thinking A Visit from St. Nicholas
P: pouch – Santa’s, of course
Q: quest for the King; a tad obtuse, but it’s Q
R: reindeer
S: Silent Night
T: Toys for Tots – we had just collected presents for them
U: unity -another vague one
V: Valentine’s, Saint – hey she said holidays, so I reached into February; Vixen would have been better
W: We Three Kings
X: Xmas
Y: in the Year of Our Lord
Z: Zion

I won two scratch-off lottery cards. I hadn’t played these in decades, and the second one seemed to have rather complicated instructions. But I had a 2X on a card, which means I won $10 X 2 or 20 bucks. When I went to the corner store later to cash it in, the proprietor seemed irritated that I didn’t know the procedure, which was to scratch off the code BELOW the game, and scan it to see if it’s a winner.

The grab bag had several alcoholic beverages, mostly wine, and I scored a nice Riesling plus a bar of Ghirardelli chocolate. Then there was a guessing game about who brought which gift. I think EVERYONE figured that it was I who brought Hamilton, especially after the only other likely candidate acknowledged that she would have coveted it had she not already owned it. I figured out only three gifts out of 12, whereas a couple of folks nailed six.

I should oversleep more often? Or I should get scratch-off lottery tickets more often? Or I should arrive late more often? There’s a life lesson here SOMEWHERE.

Other prog rock groups

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