The Free Box Tapes #18 & 19: Steely Gustav

More tapes from the Free Box of yesteryear. 

---

Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic (1974) 

Sixty-Four Words: This is widely considered to be one of the great albums of its time. I think that if you enjoy Steely Dan, this record really captures their production values and instrumental virtuosity. Personally, I feel like they made songs musically complex without making them exciting, beautiful, or interesting. I could never have guessed that “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” would be a hit song.

Disposition: Will be disposed of.  Yell if you want it.

---

Mahler, Symphony #2 ("Resurrection")

Sixty-Four Words: I've never much warmed to Mahler's Second, and I had low hopes for an anonymous recording on a low-grade "LN" cassette.

Turns out that it’s an exciting recording, very energetic and dramatic! The unknown conductor and orchestra treat the ol’ “Resurrection,” which often comes off as stodgy, as if it were fresh and new. Even the sound quality is better than it should be!

Disposition: A definite keeper.

The Free Box Tapes #14, 15, & 16, & 17: Eclectic Boogaloo

I recently spent a long afternoon clearing the dense towers of papers, notebooks, and bric-a-brac from the top of my second-string desk.  To pass the time, I turned to some of the neglected Free Box Tapes for a soundtrack. 

---

Henry Threadgill, Carry the Day (1995) / Jon Jang & The Pan-Asian Arkestra, Tiananmen! (1993)

Sixty-Four Words: The project had stuck on this one; I didn’t know quite what to make of it. The Jang album is a fusion of conventional jazz with traditional Chinese music. It’s more middle-of-the-road than it sounds. The Threadgill toys with world music in a jazz format, but experiments freely with tonality. It’s more challenging than it sounds, and sometimes makes me feel a little carsick.

Disposition: I don’t think I’ll ever love these, or even ever listen to them again, but for now I will retain the tape on probation.

---

Steely Dan, Greatest Hits (1978)

Sixty-Four Words: I dismissed Steely Dan pretty breezily the last time we encountered them in this project, but I wouldn't say no to having a collection of their familiar radio hits as something to play in the background of an occasional rainy afternoon. I think “Deacon Blues” is a good song. Unfortunately, it turned out that the tape was missing. It was just an empty box.

Disposition: I used the tape case to replace a broken tape case.

---

GP GM Klotz: Biographies (1980) 

Sixty-Four Words: OMG! It's really Grandpa and Grandma Klotz, narrating their biographies in response to a questionnaire that their granddaughter, Karen, sent them for a school project. It is awesome. Grandpa is not nearly as into it as Grandma. They are both articulate, intelligent, and more candid than they would have been if they knew their tape would end up with a stranger. It's found gold!

Disposition: The tape broke when I tried to rewind it, but that’s easily mended. One could have a lot of fun with this treasure! There are plentiful clues that would allow someone with the interest and a modest budget track down the descendants of the Klotzes, and send them all copies of the tape. Or, one could rip the tape to their computer, and sample the narrative to have the couple make utterances that are poignant or evocative (or vulgar, I suppose) over an ambient soundscape. Whee!

---

Steve Reich: Tehillim (1983) / the Desert Music (1985

Sixty-Four Words: I like the idea of Steve Reich more than Steve Reich compositions. Often I forget that I’m listening to music and think that I’m suffering a headache instead. On this tape, the sound quality is quite poor, and there are choral parts, which is not perhaps playing to Reich’s strengths. I’ll give it a few more listens and report back if there’s an epiphany.

Disposition: As noted.

The Free Box Tapes #11, 12, & 13: Fusion, Essays, and 90s Indie Pop

The eleventh and twelfth Free Box Tapes were home recordings; lucky number 13 is a genuine indie-label commercial cassette tape. 

---

Weather Report: Heavy Weather (1976) / Return to Forever, Romantic Warrior (1976)

Sixty-Four Words: The Weather Report side let out an ungodly garble. I rewound the Return to Forever side, and it seemed to be the epitome of what many people my age are thinking of when they say they don’t like jazz: slick, sterile, and self-indulgent virtuosity. Prog-rock without the rock, perhaps. But I could only give it one listen, and then the tape seized up terminally.

Disposition: Is in the landfill by now .

---

“Colo Trail”

Sixty-Four Words: This is “Journey to The Fluted Mountain,” essays by a Julie Davis about the hike she took on the Colorado Trail with her dog and some goats. (!) These are the kind of kitchen-sink pieces where any given new paragraph might begin “the Navaho people believe that…” Competent writing in an undemanding form, and probably more than you need to know about Julie Davis.

Disposition: I would be happy to send this tape to anyone who felt like listening to some essays.

---

My Sister Jane: Pain in the Middle (1992) 

Sixty-Four Words: A jangly and more-or-less intentionally lo-fi guitar pop album that would not have been out of place in the famous early 1980s Athens, Georgia music scene. That’s a good sound! I bet I would have really liked this band live. The recording quality is not quite radio-friendly, but the album grows on me, especially since I noticed that there’s a song in 7/4 time.

Disposition: Isn’t it funny that 1992 is 22 years in the past?  I shall keep this tape out of mild affection.

The Free Box Tapes #11: "John Coletrane"

The Free Box Tapes project has been dormant for a while.  It hit a conceptual snag when the jesting hand of chance nominated this cassette as the next in the series.

The Beatles Part 1 is a "best of" compilation, and it didn't seem right to listen to it while I am still -- slowly, slowly -- listening my way through the canon of Beatles records.

With my characteristic decisiveness, it only took me a couple of months to set this tape aside and roll my d12 to determine the next next tape.  Here goes.

---

"John Coletrane"

Sixty-Four Words:  Some jazz albums, or perhaps an intentionally selected mix of tracks, by John Coltrane.  It’s earlier stuff, unobjectionable, mellow, and suitable for the kind of nightclub where men wear ties.  It includes his cover of “My Favorite Things.”  The tape seized up once, and on side two it makes a pathetic rhythmic moaning familiar to those of us who survived the cassette tape era. .

Disposition:  Will retain, but will probably throw it out the next time it seizes up, or the time after that.

The Free Box Tapes #10: Siouxsie and the Banshees

The tenth Free Box Tape has two albums on a 90 minute tape. 

---

Siouxsie and the Banshees: Superstition (1991) and Peepshow (1988)

Sixty-Four Words: When I read about Siouxsie and the Banshees back in the 1980s, they seemed like a band I would like. Having listened to this tape, I think that is right. I would have liked them, then. But, there doesn’t seem much point in cultivating an interest in them now. Incidentally, I am surprised to discover that they were responsible for that heinous “Peek-a-Boo” song.^*

Disposition: Basically a blank tape.


^* I got kind of fascinated by the heinous "Peek-a-Boo" song, and spent some time looking into it.  It is technically quite an interesting and well-crafted production, and must have been a lot of fun to put together.  Very well made!  Yet, strangely dreadful at the same time.

The Free Box Tapes #9: Marianne Faithfull: "Blazing Away"

The ninth Free Box Tape has HIGH BIAS!!! 

---

Marianne Faithfull: Blazing Away (1990)

Sixty-Four Words: It turns out that Marianne Faithfull and Patti Smyth are two different people, although I’ll forgive myself the conceptual blurring.  This live album has a genteel cabaret rock feel to it, reminding me in that way only of the “unplugged” Nirvana album.  A distinctive alto voice working with a strong and varied set list makes this an interesting rock music find.  Thanks, free box!

Disposition: I'll keep it around.

---

---

Meanwhile, in August...

I had wondered for time to time if my monthly running mileage record of 116.75, set in May 2012, was going to be permanent.  But, with the help of 31 days and five full weekends, I went charging after it last month and ended the month with 119.26 miles in the hopper.  Congratulate me!

The Free Box Tapes #8: "The Amazing Joan Armatrading"

The eighth Free Box Tape is a bottomfeeder-cheap commercial tape inside a blank-tape box.  

---

The Amazing Joan Armatrading (1974, possibly)

Sixty-Four Words: Joan Armatrading has a great name and a cult following in the U.S., although she’s a bigger deal in the U.K. and presumably huge in her native St. Kitts and Nevis. This is apparently an opportunistic re-release of her debut album with an extra song tacked on. I don’t know about “amazing,” but it’s pretty good stuff. Smoky music for people who don’t smoke.

Disposition: I'll keep it around for rainy afternoons.

---

---

Meanwhile, in Wyoming...

The running Avatar passed through Glenrock, Wyoming this weekend.

He eschewed the chance for delicious meals and dreamy beds, however, and continued eastward on Highway 26.

The Free Box Tapes #7: "NY Jazz"

The seventh Free Box Tape is a mix tape called "NY Jazz," with no additional labeling.  The music fills one side of a 90-minute cassette tape; side B is blank.  

---

"NY Jazz," presumably a mix tape.

Sixty-Four Words: This collection of tepid wine-bar numbers captures everything I didn’t like about jazz, back when I didn’t like jazz. This includes a fixation on unnecessarily complex chords, a “smooth” and improbably earnest phrasing of dumb lyrics, and singers performing instrumental solos vocally -- I don’t know the word for it, but I call it “pretending to be a saxophone.” I prefer the blank side.

Disposition: This is an addition to my worthless stock of blank tapes.  This reminds me that, once upon a time, I offered to make everybody mix tapes.  That project seems to have got away from me.

The Free Box Tapes #6: Charles Mingus, "Ah Um"

The sixth Free Box Tape, conveniently enough, was another one on The Jazz Thing list.  

---

Charles Mingus: Ah Um (1959)

Sixty-Four Words: As I implied earlier, Mingus is a bit of a mystery to me. I haven’t figured out yet what constitutes his sound, or what makes him special. The album exhibits a variety of styles, all expertly performed and with some great moments. At first I listened to Side B then Side A; I liked it better when I got them in the right order.

Disposition: It's good. I'd keep it even if it wasn't a Jazz Thing record.

The Free Box Tapes #5: Joe Farrell and Randy Brecker, "Together," except actually not

Since the fifth Free Box Tape was a bona fide commercially packaged cassette tape, I didn't expect to have to do any, like, investigating.  

From the cover, you'd have to think that this was the album Together, by Joe Farrell and Randy Brecker. 

But it ain't.  I wouldn't have noticed a thing, actually, if I hadn't been planning to write that the album features funk and disco sounds that were only used for a few years in the mid-1970s, but then decided to check for a copyright date to hedge my bet.

Copyright 1985?!?  There was no guitarist alive that would have used the um-chakka-um sound in 1985.  So I looked the record up in the massive AllMusic.com database, and found that, well, it didn't exist.  That was weird.  I put in a few of the song names, and I kept getting results for somebody named Michael Longo.  That was weird, too.  

Then I looked at those liner notes.  There are five musicians listed on the cover, but a sixth -- Michael Longo -- is listed under "personnel" (we say "human resources" these days).  And then notice the song credits: M. Longo wrote all six of them.  A few more clicks confirmed it: what we have here is the 1975 Michael Longo Album 900 Shares of the Blues, doing business under not just a different title, but as the work of other artists.  There's a boring story in there, somewhere.

---

"Joe Farrell/Randy Brecker: Together (1985)," which is actually Michael Longo: 900 Shares of the Blues (1975)

Sixty-Four Words: Because it features funk and disco sounds that were used widely for a few years in the mid-1970s and thereafter scrupulously avoided, you instantly recognize this album’s context. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. The music conspicuously aims at being jazz with a contemporary feel, but the moment has passed. Perhaps unfairly, it is hard not to see the music as past its sell-date.

Disposition: Unraveling the weird misattribution of this tape's packaging has somehow made me kind of fond of it. It shouldn't matter, but it does. I'll hang on to it, for now.

The Free Box Tapes #4: Oliver Jones and Herbie Hancock

The fourth Free Box Tape had the yellow case liner of Memorex in the early 90s.  

The tape itself was perhaps a decade older.

---

Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961) b/w Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage (1965)

Sixty-Four Words: It was handy to have two Jazz Thing contenders land in my lap, but although the Oliver Nelson was OK, I was cool on the Herbie Hancock. Too, the tape drags – you never could trust the 90 minute cassettes – and it has filler tracks that I don’t like. The label doesn’t say what they are. The guy who made the tape probably just knew.

Disposition: I will see if Mrs.5000 wants to try it in her little collection of tapes in the basement.  If that doesn't fly, I guess that its tenure with me was just a short stopover on the way to the landfill.  Holler if you want it.

The Free Box Tapes #3: Miles Davis plays Porgy & Bess, and Steely Dan plays "Katy Lied."

The third Free Box Tape was, like the first two in the series, recorded on a transparent c.1990 Memorex cassette tape with the still-familiar pale yellow case liner.  The first few notes of Porgy & Bess are cut off, and both sides are more than a little tinny.

---

One does rather miss album covers.

Miles Davis: Porgy & Bess (1959) b/w Steely Dan: Katy Lied (1975)

Sixty-Four Words: Miles Davis plays jazz arrangements from Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess? I mean, damn! It’s awesome! Could I possibly say otherwise? This landmark recording is backed here with one of the less successful records by Steely Dan, a band that fused complex harmonic structures with unconventional rhythms and what are often deemed “cerebral” lyrics, yet somehow produced only a clutch of blandly pleasant pop tunes.

Disposition:  Will retain.

The Free Box Tapes #2: Miles Davis, "Directions"

The second Free Box Tape was, like the first one, kind of mysterious.

It turns out that "Directions" means:

---

Miles Davis: Directions (1981)
 

Sixty-Four Words: Wow, a Miles Davis album! There’s a piece by Hector Villa-Lobos! How could it not be great? Except, maybe it isn’t AS great as the other Miles Davis records I’ve been listening to for the last year-and-change, nor anywhere as cohesive. Turns out, it’s a collection of archived material from the late 1960s, packaged as an album a decade later. Ah, that explains things.

Disposition: Miles is Miles. Will retain.

The Free Box Tapes #1: Brecht/Weill

How to decide where to start among The Free Box Tapes?  I wanted to have some sort of sensible system, so I rolled 1d12 and counted in from one of the corners.  Here's what turned up!

Mysterious!  But the tape inside is labeled:

---

Brecht/Weill
Mixed Tape of Assorted Songs in French, German, and English.

Tape Notes: This is one of those mix tapes where one side uses most of the tape, and the other half ends halfway through, which means a lot of rewinding.  In this case, Side A is the short side.  This is bringing back memories.

Sixty-Four Words:  The songs of Berthold Brecht are basically show tunes, not always my favorite genre.  They are also generally pretty didactic, which I don’t like at all.  But, they are also often very clever.  As performed here, many of them have a gritty cabaret feel, as if the cabaret was being run by Tom Waits.  And dang, “Mack the Knife” is one insanely catchy tune.

Disposition: Will not discard, but would consider passing on as gift or barter item.

The Wednesday Post

Some Actual Philatelic Postage Stamps that I Actually, Like, Bought
And other stuff that came in the mail.

"VERY OLD EGYPT COLLECTION"

"Why on Earth" you might reasonably ask, "would you buy philatelic postage stamps?" 

"AWESOME 1914 ANGOLA COLLECTION"

The answer is, I think they're kind of neat, and it's fun to get something interesting in the mail.  I bought them on a whim, for peanuts, on a well-known online auction site.

What was I doing on an online auction site?  Well, I was shopping for this:

I know, right?  KEEPING IT REAL!!!

And the reason I got this (for peanuts) was partially to be able to listen to The Free Box Tapes at work, and partially for its AM radio, which offers the possibility of giving me an alternative way of listening to college football, now only 17 days away, on days when Mrs.5000 just doesn't want to hear it.  Assuming, that is, that I can change the station tuning, the knob for which is missing.  One accepts these things when one is buying for peanuts.

Did anything else come in the mail!?  Yes, my new business cards!

Let me know if you need a few to spread the good word!  To think that there are people missing out on quality online entertainment like this post!

The Free Box Tapes

I don't know if I've talked about it much here, but I've really been moving away from downloaded music.  It's probably just idiosyncratic, but recorded music doesn't seem to really work for me if it doesn't have some kind of physical form.  So I've cancelled my subscription to my old online music service and scrapped some of my files.

The new beat around here for the last year or so has been 33 1/3 vinyl records.  You can get a huge variety of recordings at prices from 25 cents to two dollars (or more, of course, by why?), and with a little patience and by trusting to serendipity I've built a fun little library without any particular effort.  With such a low per-item cost, you can take gambles on oddball recordings that usually turn out to be dreadful, but occasionally turn out to be real gems.

Fast forward to yesterday.  As I was setting out on a voyage of adventure, I noticed that the people down at the corner had left out a fairly substantial Free Box with a bunch of gently-used binders.  That got my attention, because for professional reasons I'm all about looking for ways to defray school expenses for refugee youth.  So I jump out and pillage the binders, and underneath them I find this:

It's a well-constructed case for an eclectic, respectable music collection spanning pop, classical, and jazz.  And it's all on cassette, on the second-lamest medium in which music was e'er marketed!  But at least it's a physical medium, right?

Well, talk about building a fun little music library without any particular effort!  Me being me, it was instantaneously obvious what I must do, and that is: listen to one of these tapes every week or so, according to some random system, and then write a short post regarding its merits or lack thereof in this blog, probably late Sunday where it won't get in the way.  Won't that be fun?

That's the plan, anyway.  We'll see about the follow-through, but I'm usually pretty good at that.  Mrs.5000, it's on my sewing table if you want to take a look.