I have to admit that I don't just sit and
really listen to music anymore. When I was young, I could listen...heck...
absorb...myself into an album, but I don't seem to have the time, the quiet house or, frankly, the attention span anymore. My mind wanders to all the things I need to get done..
Well, the wife is away this week and I decided I
wasn't going to have a 16-hour work day today.
For the past year (literally!) I've had my TiVo recording a series called "Classic Albums" as episodes aired here and there. I became interested when I caught an episode on the Who's "Who's Next" album and I loved it. They interviewed band members, engineers, music writers, etc... and broke the album down song by song, and then sometimes track by track...as in: "this is Keith Moon's drum track solo'd on the mixer, and now this is a subtle acoustic guitar that was mixed in...and here's what it sounds like with it's full guitar tracks...etc..etc... I found the program amazingly interesting and educational.
Well, I've got 18 episodes at the moment, and finally decided to do a bit of what I had always planned: Watching an episode on a particular recording that I have, and then following that up with a critical listening session of the recording itself.
So tonight, I started with what's probably my long-time favorite album: Aja.
I have to say, I have this system on a
lot... but always in the background while I'm doing other things.
Doing this tonight reminded me how much I used to love music and how much it meant to me before life got too busy for it. It also reminded me that my M60s are really,
really, good speakers and that I should stop taking them for granted.
And Zimm, despite my small room and efficient speakers, I'm craving an external amp for the volume I'm enjoying...
I think tomorrow night it'll be Deep Purple, Machine Head in that it was one of the first albums I bought as a kid, and I have an amazing, reference-quality 25th anniversary remix CD to listen to afterward.
If you're not familiar with the series, it's worth seeking out!