Still Stuck in the B's - This Week in Anniversaries

Believe me I do appreciate the irony of this post. I know I only have myself to blame for the near constant touring of bands that now need their bus fitted with all manner of assisted living gear. For the constant re-issues of classic albums in different formats and packaging.

After all I'm the person that goes to some of those concerts and I'm certainly the one who buys all of those repackaged versions of songs from my long ago past. There are a few albums where I have at one time or another purchased two copies of the original vinyl (they were scratched, lost or sold to fund an overseas trip), The CD from when it was first released on CD. The CD from when the discs were remastered recently, the DVD 5.1 version and the Hi-Res 192/24 download. I'll even admit I'm now looking longingly at the Newly Remastered - Collectors Edition Box set of Paul McCartney's RAM:-

• 5 disc (4 CD, 1 DVD) in deluxe packaging, plus two digital-only bonus tracks
• The original 12-track album, remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London
• 8 bonus audio tracks
• Remastered 12-track mono album
• Remastered Thrillington album
• DVD featuring previously unreleased and exclusive content including the brand-new Ramming documentary as well as original music videos
• Downloadable 24bit 96kHz high resolution audio versions of the remastered album and bonus audio tracks (via download card)
• 112 page book with scrapbook insert, plus photo prints, handwritten lyrics and mini photo book
• Box Set also includes digital-only premium membership access to paulmccartney.com.
• Digital download of 22 tracks and all video material
• Download Access included to facilitate the download of large files
• Add an exclusive RAM re-issue t-shirt plus an exclusive 20" x 16" RAM lithograph

But I digress.

This week I heard on the radio a fair bit about the 40th anniversary of Davis Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust and the stone spiders from Mars" album.  A few comments from different announcers and a few tracks (well one really, they all played "Starman") 


There was also talk of a Beach Boys 50th anniversary tour. (all except for Dennis and Carl Wilson on account of them being deceased) complete with new album. I've listed to some tracks from the album and I guess it says something that even I will not buy it. I would go to see Brian and the band do their old hits but not in a 10,000 seat venue.


I know I was going to say something else in this post originally but all I can think of now is :-


Where is my Anniversary - remastered - collection edition box set of Ziggy Stardust?

Summer is here...at last.

January 1st 2012 and summer has finally arrived in Sydney Australia. (well at least for a couple of days) After what seems like an eternity of below average temperatures and rain we have warm weather and blue skies predicted for the next few days. I'm sure that by February we will have weeks of warm weather and will all be complaining about that instead but for teh moment the arrival of Summer is to be celebrated.

Summer Music, what to play ?  Summer and driving were always the domain of mix-tapes and now the playlists have taken over its time to create new playlists for this summer.

Old Favorites will always be a large part of any summer playlist for all except the youngest teens and in many ways nothing says summer more that The Beach Boys. I have never mastered either the surf or hotrods (but then again neither has Brian Wilson) Yet the songs have been played so many times in Summer tehy are now linked forever in my brain.




The "Sounds of Summer" album contains 30 Beach Boys tracks most of them remastered in 1999 or 2001. From the original classics such as  "California Girls", "I Get Around", "Surfin' USA", "Help Me Rhonda" and "Surfer Girl" To later tracks such as "Kokomo" from the soundtrack for the movie "Cocktail" this collection has them all (some in glorious mono)






After dusting off last summers playlists and discarding most of the new tracks added last year it would be time to add whatever this years Summer hit will be. A little difficult at this stage because summer has only started today and the big hits of Summer 2012 are yet to emerge. However that is one of the advantages of playlists over mix tapes. As the summer progresses you can add in and shuffle your playlists to keep them fresh.

The best summer songs often have summer in the title as with this track from 2007 by Kid Rock:-



 

As this song pays homage in a big way to the 1974 track "Sweet Home Albama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd we may as well revisit that, add both tracks to one of our playlists and marvel at the outfits and debate the significance or otherwise of the Confederate Battle Flag in the background:-





One more favourite of mine goes back even further back to 1972 and a track by The Raspberries before they broke up and launched Eric Carmen onto his solo career. The video here is not of the band themselves but a slideshow put together by another fan:-




These tracks and more beside seem to make it to my summer playlists most years.

What are your favourite Summer Tracks?