This weekend falls about half way between mine and my wife’s birthday, and with our aging parents, we find we are less and less inclined to go far and for long, just in case. So for this weekend, we chose to visit a BnB in the small city of Brockville. Brockville is quite an old city on the Ontario side of the Saint Lawrence River from Morristown NY in the Thousand Islands. There was scheduled to be an October fest event called Brews and Blues on Saturday from 11 until 11, outside. But it turned out to be a cold rainy day, and we decided we didn’t want to be sitting out in the cold dampness drinking beer, and listening to blues performed live. So we Went shopping. We started at Grizzly’s Records Store on Perth Street. Everywhere I looked, I saw records from bands I liked, and in a lot of cases, didn’t have. At the end, I walked out with 4 records including The Smiths - Meat is Murder, a really nice Technics SU-7700 integrated amp and a Pioneer SX-850.
Here I am now, back home, sitting in my living room with the Technics amp set up with a nice Hitachi unitorque direct drive turntable, and some locally made speakers from the late 70s/early 80s, and listening to the records I picked up, Starting with Bobbie Gentry’s Greatest Hits. I’m loving that divine voice and the guitar technique. Next I put on Al Green. Mmmm, so good. Finally, we were listening to The Smiths, Meat is Murder. We’re both loving it. I flip to side two and immediately, we start hearing the melodic sounds of How soon is now. The interesting thing is no where on the record cover or dust cover do they even mention How soon is now being on side 2! I immediately flip it off, turn off the amp, take up the record and place it on the main system. I know this song well, but never knew it was on that record. I never really noticed. And I love How Soon is Now! The first time I heard it, I thought cool, a new record from Pink Floyd! But it wasn’t! It completely blew me away then, and still does now. I had to hear it on the best available system, loud! And my wife was completely for it! Oh yeah!
Have you ever had a moment like that? When you are hearing something on gear just to hear how the gear sounds, and you suddenly need to play it loud on the best system possible?
Do you have a story where it is all just perfect?
Edited to add more detail. Turns out my version of the Smiths cover and dust jack don’t mention How Soon is Now. The first sing on side two is indicated as Nowhere fast. Hmmm.
Here I am now, back home, sitting in my living room with the Technics amp set up with a nice Hitachi unitorque direct drive turntable, and some locally made speakers from the late 70s/early 80s, and listening to the records I picked up, Starting with Bobbie Gentry’s Greatest Hits. I’m loving that divine voice and the guitar technique. Next I put on Al Green. Mmmm, so good. Finally, we were listening to The Smiths, Meat is Murder. We’re both loving it. I flip to side two and immediately, we start hearing the melodic sounds of How soon is now. The interesting thing is no where on the record cover or dust cover do they even mention How soon is now being on side 2! I immediately flip it off, turn off the amp, take up the record and place it on the main system. I know this song well, but never knew it was on that record. I never really noticed. And I love How Soon is Now! The first time I heard it, I thought cool, a new record from Pink Floyd! But it wasn’t! It completely blew me away then, and still does now. I had to hear it on the best available system, loud! And my wife was completely for it! Oh yeah!
Have you ever had a moment like that? When you are hearing something on gear just to hear how the gear sounds, and you suddenly need to play it loud on the best system possible?
Do you have a story where it is all just perfect?
Edited to add more detail. Turns out my version of the Smiths cover and dust jack don’t mention How Soon is Now. The first sing on side two is indicated as Nowhere fast. Hmmm.
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