The Daily Vinyl Blog

On the Amazon site, you can download FREE Mp3s. (I know, I know, not as cool as Vinyl… I’m with ya. But FREE is pretty darn cool too!)

Free Rock MP3 and Top 100

This list is filtered in the “rock” category, but — obviously — feel free to peruse around.

Oh, and if you happen to buy anything on Amazon through this link, one day I might get enough to download one of those sweet 89 cent MP3s. (still waiting for that glorious day! Glad I’m not holding my breath.)

Free MP3s and the current Top 100 ROCK downloads

Finally finished Vinyl Video #48. If you were alive around 1980/1981 you might remember a bit of medley craze. I think “Hooked On Classics” was the first big hit. The next couple big ones were a Beach Boys medley that used the REAL Beach Boys audio tracks and this “band” called Stars On 45. This is Side A of the album “Stars On Long Play”. I did a little bit of editing to the theme song at the beginning, middle & end to keep it under 15 minutes.

I filmed this with the help of my 2 girls. As you may know, I record the audio on my home stereo system to get the best quality, then synch up in editing. The lights were activated by sound, so for 17 minutes my girls and I made non-stop noise and singing at the top of our voices. Hilarious.

If you want to own the single version, it’s downloadable here:

(The single version also has a bit of “Venus” and “Sugar”)

Or the full Side A:

(wow, all 15 minutes for only 89 cents! jeepers!)

Which Way The Wind Blows – Anthony Phillips & Phil Collins (TheDailyVinyl music video #49) Yep, you read that right, vinyl video #49! What will #50 be?????

This song is from a bloke named Anthony Phillips. He was the original guitarist and co-founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall-Of-Fame band GENESIS. Pretty much nobody knows him except for fans of their classic 70′s material. He left the band shortly before Phil Collins joined on the drums.

Anthony’s first solo album had his friend and co-founding member of Genesis Mike Rutherford working with him. Mike (who would later lead the 80′s supergroup Mike + The Mechanics) suggested they bring in Phil to sing two songs. He seemed to have a nice enough voice. (Certainly not the kind of voice that would one day rule the charts in the 80′s!)

Anyway, this song seemed so appropriate for the lovely autumn day. Enjoy!

And if you’re local record store does not have any Anthony Phillips in stock (he’s not that easy to come by), feel free to use my affiliate links below to acquire his catalog.

(BTW, I ran the numbers, and I currently have 2.55 GB of Anthony Phillips’ music in my iTunes collection, lasting 31 hours on non-stop, non-repeating music!)

Sometimes a 20th Century Man has to iron his clothes.

If you dig what I’m doing here, won’t you join my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Daily-Vinyl/195059149588.

Ooooh, look. You can order your own 180-Gram vinyl copy of “Muswell Hillbillies” if you can’t first find it at your local independent record store!

So Many great records by The Kinks! Click here to see them on Amazon.com.

(and, yes, the link is through my affiliate account with Amazon. Basically, Amazon will one day throw a few bucks my way for sending business to them. The truth is, I have yet to see 1 dime in the 2.5 years I’ve been doing this, so money is NOT the main reason why I put the links. I think of it as a tip jar for people who were gonna buy something from Amazon anyway. And one day there will be enough in the tip jar to buy another record. Also, I hope it shows good will toward the artist/management/labels that in fact I am trying to promote their music through my own creativity and not some sort of piracy site.)

Ooooh, look! More NEW expanded KINKS Deluxe Editions:

I love this….

The “Spot The Pigeon” EP was Genesis’ last studio release with their amazing guitar player Steve Hackett. Soon after, they became superstars. The 3 songs on “Spot The Pigeon” was released in 1978 but were leftovers from their classic “Wind & Wuthering” LP.

The filming of this video can be summed up as “extension cord management”. I filmed this on father’s day 2011 with my darling little angel fairies (who can be seen in other TheDailyVinyl videos). They “helped” me keep the cords from getting stuck around corners and such.

If you haven’t picked up the remastered box sets, here’s my affiliate links to them on Amazon. (by using these links I get, like 57 cents!!! One day I hope to earn enough to buy a 45! Please help me live my dream!) Each box set contains both the Audio/Stereo CD, plus a 5:1 remastered DVD with incredible bonus content (live shows, all the music videos, and brand new documentaries). Most also include a bonus CD w/ b-sides & EPs.

The Classic Peter Gabriel era CDs (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Selling England By The Pound, etc):

The brilliant pre-superstar years when Phil Collins humbly took over lead vocal duties. Amazing songwriting!!! This collection includes the bonus disc that includes the featured song above. (Plus early hit songs “Turn It On Again” “Abacab” “No Reply At All” “Follow You, Follow Me”)
(looks like it might be out-of-print! Yikes! Better hurry & get it now before it goes up in value further!!!)

Big time popular years. You know the hits: “That’s All” “Mama” “Invisible Touch” “Land Of Confusion” “Tonight Tonight Tonight” “No Son of Mine” …

Here’s the live records, also w/ Audio CD & 5:1 remastered discs. (I have yet to purchase this myself… makes a fine Christmas gift for The Dude!)

Here’s the live movies on DVD (Three Sides Live, Mama Tour, Invisible Tour, We Can’t Dance + bonus footage. Again… makes a fine Christmas gift for your loved one and me.)

But HERE’s the BOMB!!!! … the original Peter Gabriel era records on VINYL!!!! (remixed and remastered! brilliant!!!)

Peace to you!!!!

Vol. 2 in the “The Daily Vinyl Presents ‘Off The Record with ‘The Daily Vinyl’”. This episode features the amazingly talented Gabe Dixon!

The new album:

The brilliant self-titled Gabe Dixon Band record! GET THIS RECORD!!!!!!!

Finallly got the U2 playlist created:

I finally launched my new YouTube channel: TheDailyVinylLIVE. I filmed everything in Nashville and I’ve uploaded my first 3 playlists for:
Rush
Paul Simon
The Wood Brothers

Be sure to watch in HD!

And I have just a handful of U2 songs left to go before I have a near-complete U2 concert.

Enjoy!!!! (And support the artists by buying the CDs or legally downloading their songs. Even cooler if you can them on VINYL!!!!!)

TheDude

Just thought I’d give my loyal TheDailyVinyl fans a heads-up that on the 2-year anniversary of this site, I’m going to launch “TheDailyVinyl LIVE! I’ve been editing the footage I took at this year’s RUSH, Paul Simon, Wood Brothers and Street Corner Symphony concerts. Keep an eye out for July 7th!

I get asked a lot about the programs I use. For my video editing, I use Adobe Premiere. (I’ve used Elements for the past 2 years, but I just picked up CS3 and have been using that for the LIVE videos I’m about to launch.)

But for the past 10 years, I have LOVED using Acoustica programs for audio editing. I really encourage you to check these out. (And if you use these links, they’ll send me a finders fee, which is nice. Every buck I get is goin’ straight to my local record shop!)

Spin It Again:

The software is dedicated to the task of recording LPs and cassettes. It digitally cleans and restores them. This allows the user to focus on the job of recording their records and tapes, instead of learning how to use a complex recording application. I haven’t used it too much, but it seems really cool.

Now, Mixcraft is a GREAT program. I use this all the time for editing and recording audio:

I think this link goes to a trial version
Download

——

Need a great labeling program? I use this one for all my CDs:

and here’s the trial version link:
Download

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Here’s another program I use weekly. This is a GREAT audio file converter:

Trial version:
Download

Well, hope their stuff helps you as much as they’ve helped me! Let me know if you download it and what you think about them.

The Dude
~ June 2011

So I just signed-up for eMusic again. (This is my 4th time).

Of course, I love vinyl (and you probably do too), but at my core… I am a music fan. I am afflicted with the curse of being a completist. So, sometimes you gotta find the best deal to get music (as well as support the artist).

eMusic has come a long way since i first signed up. But its how I acquired my Bjork and Aimee Mann collections. It’s also been instrumental in finding some of those rare/random songs by my favorite artists on soundtracks.

They’ve changed the billing structure to have a $ value associated with an album or a song. But they’ve got a pretty sweet deal. $5 for trying it out. Find some songs or an album, and the cancel if you want. I’m going to keep mine going and keep filling in the gaps of my collection.

Oh, and while we’re speaking of YES… I guess I forgot to post the link to The Daily Vinyl music video #42: “Ritual” by YES (special ‘Nous sommes du soleil’ rare edit)

Using a very rare DJ pressing of YES’s 1973 controversial double album “Tales From Topographic Ocean,” I created a unique VINYL version. (Guess this could have been the single edit, if they had just asked me!) The full length version is over 20-minutes.

The bulk of this video was filmed in East Tennessee out in the woods of Fairfield Glade. I was on a “spiritual retreat” so, of course, I brought my turntable. I filmed my drive back in the snow and it just felt magical. Wanting to bring the video out of the cold and into the blue sky & sunshine, I later filmed my drive to Florida the following Spring with this video in mind. (Look for the double rainbow… WHAT DOES IT MEAN???)

I hope you enjoy it.

And I have to say, as much as I love my records, if ever an album benefited from being remastered to CD, it’s “Tales From Topographic Ocean”. It simply sounds incredible. I realize that a double album with only 4 songs is not for the faint-of-heart, but it really is an incredible masterpiece of the genre that has become known as prog-rock.

Dedicated to the runners of the Country Music Marathon, April 30 2011. At this point, these athletes have already completed 19.4 miles!!!! and still another 7 miles to go. (Heck, I get winded running 2 blocks, so I’m amazed at all these people! Good on ya!)

The song “I’m Running” was recorded by the band YES and released on their 1987 album “Big Generator” — the follow-up record to 90125. (You may see a similar code on the lyric sleeve.) This song was always my favorite from “Big Generator” and the closest to that classic YES.

The filming was fun. It was hot and windy. You can actually watch the sun warping the record, hence the reason I used the LP jacket as shade. That seemed to help. Couldn’t stop the wind tho! Look out!!!

You can see the difference in album cover from vinyl to CD:

This is a new segment for TheDailyVinyl channel called “The Daily Vinyl presents ‘Off The Record with The Daily Vinyl’ ” (catchy, right?)

Episode #01: ARADHNA.
The first time I even heard of Aradhna was mere hours before their Nashville show. There was something about the little postcard-sized flyer that grabbed my attention… the two hippie lookin’ dudes playing sitar and acoustic guitar and it said they sang mostly in Hindi.

The duo’s performance (along with a drummer – their college-buddy who lived in the area) was astoundingly beautiful! There was such passion in their presentation. It was a Spiritual experience — at least for me (and my lovely goddess of a wife.) It was the kind of Spirituality that transcends dogma.

I sat down with Chris Hale the sitar player and learned about the formation of Aradhna, his time in India, what inspired him to pick up the Sitar, and their 2011 release “Namaste Sate”

To learn more about them, visit AradhnaMusic.com.

Namaste!

Aradhna MP3s on Amazon

Download Namaste Sate

Be sure to watch in HD!

“Who Came First” was Pete Townshend’s first major-label solo album and released in 1972. It includes demos from the aborted THE WHO concept album “Lifehouse” — part of which became “Who’s Next.” The original release had a gatefold cover and included a poster with additional photos of Meher Baba.

This song “Time Is Passing” was also recorded by The Who and finally released on the 1998 remastered version of “Odds & Sods”.

I hope you enjoy this video filmed over the course of several hours & a couple of days. I think my favorite moment is in the last 3 seconds.

I have seen a preview of this book… and it is FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!!! It was created by a wonderful person and a very dear friend of mine that sadly — and unfarily — left this earth before she could see the final product. Melissa and I spent many afternoons talking about what bands and artists could be featured in an ABC book. LOL! What a great concept!!! I’m amazed it all came together.

Trying to think of what to give that rock’n'roller for Christmas? Here ya go!!!!

You’re welcome!

Next year is the 20-yr anniversary of the album “Union” by prog-rock band YES.

The 70′s and 80′s had been good to YES and they were coming into the 90′s with an intersting and amazing project. A union of 8 of the most classic members. Jon Anderson (lead vocals) had left the band (for the 2nd time) after the “Big Generator” tour. Frustrated w/ the pop direction the band had taken following the mega-hits “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” and “Leave It” (from 1983′s “90125″) and the minor hits “Love Will Find A Way” and “Rhythm Of Love” (from 1987′s “Big Generator”).

Anderson regrouped with 70′s-Yes alumnis Steve Howe (guitar), Rick Wakeman (keyboards)and Bill Bruford (drums). They called themselves Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe. (Sounding very much like a law firm.) They were joined on bass with Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel’s studio and stage bass player and met Bruford during their stint with King Crimson in the early 80′s.)

The remaining members of YES were Chris Squire (bass, backing vocals – and the only member to appear on every YES record), Trevor Rabin (guitar – the “new guy” and primary inspiration and songwriter for those big 80′s hits), and Tony Kaye (keyboards – the original keyboard player on their 1st three records. But was fired in favor of a more dynamic player: Rick Wakeman. Kaye rejoined just before the 90125 album was record and my understanding is that he was actually used very little on those records as Trevor Rabin was a fairly accomplished on the keys.) and Alan White (drums. Only the 2nd drummer in Yes’ history. Pretty good.)

After Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe’s self-titled debut was released to fairly good reviews and a successful tour, they had little quality material for the follow-up. Jon Anderson was urged to approach Trevor Rabin about writing some new material for them.

Eventually the stage was set for the first YES record to feature those 8 alumni.

Could have been amazing. Could have.

Unfortunately, the record label pressured for quick release. The album was rushed, studio musician were brought in (I think there is like 8 keyboard players listed in the credits). And for the most part, the songs are just not good. The 8 musicians did not play on any song together. It was still the Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe & Levin (with some new backing vocals provided by Squire) and Rabin, Squire, Kaye, White with lead vocals by Anderson.

The tour was great. I saw them in Miami. Fabulous show. Terrible record.

But for some strange reason, I pulled it up on my iPod while washing the dishes and I wonder if it could have been better if the song listing was different. Maybe not, but it couldn’t have hurt! Although some reviews on Amazon praise the beginning of the album, the first time I listened to it I wanted to vomit, hating the first 3 songs.

Here is the original track listing w/ the primary YES version (ABWH or ARSW)

1. I Would Have Waited Forever – ABWH
2. Shock to the System – ABWH
3. Masquerade – Steve Howe guitar solo
4. Lift Me Up – ARSW
5. Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day – ABWH
6. Saving My Heart – ARSW
7. Miracle of Life – ARSW
8. Silent Talking – ABWH
9. More We Live/Let Go – ARSW
10. Angkor Wat – ABWH
11. Dangerous (Look in the Light of What You’re Searching For) – ABWH
12. Holding On – ABWH
13. Evensong – a Bruford/Levin improvisation
14. Take the Water to the Mountain – ABWH
15. Give & Take [import version] – ABWH

First off, I think there are too many songs. I would’ve pulled a few tracks and saved the rest for a “Lift Me Up” CD single. For instance, the Steve Howe solo “Masquerade”, to me, is just awful. It sounds like he screws up the timing and hits a few duff notes. “Evensong” is fine, it’s a short mellow sound improvisation w/ few chords played on the bass (Tony Levin) and electronic drumming by Bill Bruford. I personally can’t stand “Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day” and “Shock To The System”. They just hit me so wrong. Here’s how I would’ve released the record. (I’m not sure if they released “Union” on LP, but because this IS The Daily Vinyl, I thought of it terms of side A & B):

Side A
1. Lift Me Up – ARSW
2. Dangerous (Look in the Light of What You’re Searching For) – ABWH
3. Miracle of Life – ARSW
4. Holding On – ABWH
5. Take the Water to the Mountain – ABWH

Side B
1. I Would Have Waited Forever – ABWH
2. Saving My Heart – ARSW
3. More We Live/Let Go – ARSW
4. Silent Talking – ABWH
5. Angkor Wat – ABWH

“Lift Me Up” EP
1. Lift Me Up (radio edit)
2. Shock to the System – ABWH
3. Give & Take [only released on the Japanese version] – ABWH
4. Masquerade – Steve Howe guitar solo
5. Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day – ABWH
6. Evensong – a Bruford/Levin improvisation

Any of you familiar w/ this record care to comment?

I have begun uploading the hour of video I filmed at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. This July 26th 2010 concert was the very first time Paul McCartney EVER performed in Nashville (as a Beatle, in Wings, solo — ever!), so it was quite funny when he said “Hello Nashville! It’s good to be back!”

He opened the show with “Venus and Mars” > “RockShow” > “Jet”. Although this version of RockShow is extrememly abridged, it was still the first time he performed it live since the 1976 “Wings Over America” tour. Pretty amazing.

The second (well, I guess technically it’s the fourth song) of the evening was The Beatles classic “All My Loving”

He then rocked it out with another song from the 1975 Wings album “Venus & Mars” — “Letting Go”

Back to the Beatles cannon — “Got To Get You Into My Life” from the 1966 album “Revolver.”

And now he’d like to do a song by his alter-ego… called The Firemen. The song is “Highway” from the album “Electric Arguments.” This tour is interesting because he is not actively promoting a new record. His last tour was to promote this album and “Memory Almost Full.” So for that reason, there were only 4 post-Wings songs played! Although, I enjoy seeing and hearing the new stuff, knowing that most of it will never be played live again, it was fun to get a healthier dose of classics this time around. (I also saw him in ’89 in Miami and ’93 in Orlando where he was promoting “Flowers In The Dirt” and “Off The Ground” respectively.)