From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V3 #265 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Wednesday, November 25 1998 Volume 03 : Number 265 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Very RARE US Debut concert invitation [Jan Johnson ] Re: Very RARE US Debut concert invitation [Joel Cairo ] Re: Japanese Clear Horizon, etc. [Joel Cairo ] Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? [Gorskiceap@aol.com] Jan-Club chat ["Rob B." ] Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? ["Leslie Brown" ] Re: Very RARE US Debut concert invitation [Beverly Martin ] Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? ["Ashoke S. Talukdar" ] Clear horizon rationale (?) ["Leslie Brown" ] Basia on the horizon... ["Ashoke S. Talukdar" ] Reward [Bryce Argabright ] Re: Basia on the horizon... [billsch@transmeta.com (Bill Schnaitter)] Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? [rrumsby ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 19:51:36 +0000 From: Jan Johnson Subject: Re: Very RARE US Debut concert invitation Is 'Mr Mulliner' (soundmn1@gte.net) a member of this list? I just wondered because it seems we are bidding against each other for the concert invitation http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=42630787#BID which is currently being sold at eBay (Beverley, how come you aren't bidding for this??) So far I have bid up to $81 and I still can't exceed his estimate!! Whoever this guy is, he is obviously a true fan. If he isn't on this list already, then he should be. Do you think I should mail him and let us know we're here?? Also, whilst we're about it, apologies to Rob that I couldn't make it to the chat last night. The 4pm chats are better for me on the whole (it's only 9pm here as opposed to past 2am for the other chat) but unfortunately my husband rented a video and couldn't understand my strange reluctance to watch it!! BTW I, too, would appreciate some guidelines on 'how to chat' on Yahoo. I've logged in and tried to get into the chat room room but all I seem to get is a blank grey screen and no command line or controls or anything. And the 'help' is not very helpful. Still can't find 'Best Remixes' at cdjapan.com. Anyone who can help me with regard to search criteria at this site please mail me at jan_johnson@cheerful.com. So far I have only been able to find 'Clear Horizone' (sic) when searching under 'Basia' (which does appear to have an extra track BTW, it clearly says that ESCA-7395 released on 11/11/98 has an extra track (QUOTE 'only Japanese CDs will have an extra track' but annoyingly it doesn't say what the extra track is!!) ESCA-7396 (Also known as 'Clear Horizone') which was released on 11/18/98 doesn't have the extra track and is half the price!! I don't know how many yen there are to the $ but 1260 yen sounds an awful lot for one measly track. And the 'payment' page speaks ominously of how 'For payment amount ,shipping and handling charges are added to the item's price'. How much is this handling charge?? 3 million yen?? Has anyone actually ever bought anything from this site?? Time to sign off I think!! Jan Who STILL thinks that noise right at the end of 'From Now On' sounds like a muffled road drill **mutter, mutter** Who STILL doesn't have her own copy of Clear Horizon (buying it in the States at Christmas - it's cheaper!!) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 08:11:05 +0900 From: "Brian Cundieff" Subject: Japanese Clear Horizon, etc. Usually, I enjoy living in my small town. However, the fact that it was necessary for me to drive about an hour to the nearest major city to buy music was a bit of a hassle. But, hey, it's Basia! Bottom line, I bought the CD Saturday and it's wonderful. Frankly, I would have preferred a Brave New Hope-style CD with only the four new tracks (at a much lower cost, of course). Anyway, for anyone who's wondering, the Japanese CD appears to be identical to the U.S. release in every way that matters. In addition to the regular CD booklet, it also includes a booklet that has all the English lyrics to songs not in the regular booklet and translations of all the songs into Japanese. Also, there seem to be notes about each song (which album it was from, etc.), but my Japanese is not so good--especially reading--so I can't understand much of it. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you all know, just in case anyone was considering shelling out $20+ for the import disc. Sometimes they're worth the higher price. This is not one of those times. But *I'm* IN Japan, so... Because I wanted to listen to the CD myself before hearing anyone else's impressions of it, I saved many of ya'll's posts on the subject until last night. Very interesting reading. So I guess I'll put my two yen in. Art: The cover is not one of her best photos. But I like it, because she looks very natural and expressive, like in her interviews. As for the other photo, near the end of the booklet, WOW! She looks *really* young in that one. I don't like the back cover. It's a beach, right? Looks like it's been heavily Photoshop-ized. I don't have really strong feelings about the other landscape shots; they're just kinda' there. I guess they're better than plain white pages. And I LIKE the blue disc. Sure it's not the best, but I think it looks pretty cool. Remember the days when all CDs only had black lettering on them? Music: Were the live tracks really from Basia on Broadway? I'd check, but that would involve leaving my warm spot. (It's really cold here.) I didn't remember "From Now On" sounding like that. Anyway, I can't decide whether or not I like the saxophone part on that song. Sometimes it fits well; other times, it gets in the way. You know, they could have at least given us previously unreleased live versions of those songs. Oh well. As for the new songs, I'm really happy. These are not the songs of someone who has given up or run out of creativity. Apparently, Basia and Danny have some good stuff in the works for 1999. I'm going to side with the minority here and say that, although both songs were good, I liked "Clear Horizon" better. Someone compared it to "Brave New Hope," and I can see that to a certain extent. But "Clear Horizon" seems more positive and hopeful to me. Today, I climbed one of the mountains I live next to, and I took my walkman with me so that I could listen to the new songs at the summit. Gazing toward the distant mist enshrouded mountain ranges, when I heard the chorus of "Clear Horizon," I was moved to tears. I still feel that everytime I listen to the song. "Yearning" is the only other Basia song that has done that for me. I really like the way she used the Visual Ministry Choir for the background vocals. At least on my equipment, they don't drown her out at all. In fact, I think they complement her voice very well. Although I've always loved the way she does her own background vocals, there's something about having a choir of many different REAL people that lends this song a certain power I don't think it would have had otherwise. Having said all that, I would point out that "Go for You," is a catchier song. I was humming the parts I remembered all the way back down the mountain (except for a few brief moments of terror, during which I thought I was going to die). "Go for You" reminds me of one of my favorite Basia songs, "Come to Heaven." I can't quite put my finger on it, but both have some kind of 1950s flavor. Also, the rising and falling patters of notes has a circular, rolling feel. I like the harmonies in "Go for You," and although "Come to Heaven" is brighter and more up-tempo, "Go for You" feels more... sincere(?). Finally, the song's ending was--I want to say "profound," but that's not quite right. Anyway, it was a real kicker. If these two songs are any indication of what we can expect next year, I think it'll be well worth the wait. From: Samurai27@aol.com Date: Sunday, November 22, 1998 13:23 >I wonder if her >lost of Danny has anything to do with inspiring her to use the words she >used; about never wanting to love again etc. It's a great song. Gosh, I hope she's over it by now! ;) Actually, I always assumed she dumped him. It would at least explain why we rarely see him smiling. - -Brian* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 00:41:18 -0800 From: Joel Cairo Subject: Re: Very RARE US Debut concert invitation Jan Johnson wrote: > > Is 'Mr Mulliner' (soundmn1@gte.net) a member of this list? I just wondered because it seems we are bidding against each other for the concert invitation which is currently being sold at eBay (Beverley, how come you aren't bidding for this??) > > So far I have bid up to $81 and I still can't exceed his estimate!! Whoever this guy is, he is obviously a true fan. If he isn't on this list already, then he should be. Jan: He is. And boy, did he blow his allowance for *this* week.... - -Kevin (sometimes a/k/a "Mr. Mulliner") soundmn1@gte.net [who would warn everyone not to go up against Jan in an auction unless you're *really* loaded for bear... :^) ] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 00:43:48 -0800 From: Joel Cairo Subject: Re: Japanese Clear Horizon, etc. Brian: The question everyone was curious about was whether or not the Japanese version of the disc has different tracks--evidently, the website at CDJapan said there were *3* bonus tracks on the Japanese disc, versus the *2* new songs on the US disc. While I thought it was unlikely that you'd get any more new songs, I figured they might toss an extra remix or some such track on the disc for those of you currently on the other side of the Pacific. Here in the States, the disc is 17 tracks, and the lineup is: 1. Clear Horizon 2. Cruisin for Bruisin 3. Drunk on Love 4. Time and Tide 5. Waters of March 6. Third Time Lucky 7. Promises 8. Baby, You're Mine 9. Yearning 10. Astrud 11. An Olive Tree 12. Go For You 13. New Day For You 14. Perfect Mother 15. From Now On (live) 16. Half a Minute (live) 17. Angels Blush If yours is identical, then we've got nothing to whine about, I suppose... can you confirm that they're the same? Thanks for taking the time to respond...your help would be much appreciated... - -Kevin soundmn1@gte.net PS-- Where are you in Japan? I taught English for a while in Aomori-ken... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 07:02:02 EST From: Gorskiceap@aol.com Subject: Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? So Ashoke, tell us how you REALLY feel about it.... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 07:53:02 PST From: "Rob B." Subject: Jan-Club chat No need to apologize. As it turned out I couldn't make it either and don't know how many members did. Regarding the "grey box", you need to be patient while the applet initializes. It could be as much 2 or 3 minutes, depending on your connect speed, until you see your id listed as logged in. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 08:00:10 PST From: "Leslie Brown" Subject: Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? Ashoke! I'm shocked! Such uncharacteristic behavior! ;) - --Leslie (I can relate after dropping more money into my Dodge Spirit today- uuuugh! Bad, bad, bad.) >I don't normally mind paying $30.00 for a special CD, but when ONLY 40% of >that is the actual CD price (the rest is exchange, shipping, handling, >etc.), particularly because of Sony's piss-poor US marketing, then you bet I >do. > >Copyrights be damned. > >Ashoke. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 08:08:59 PST From: "Leslie Brown" Subject: Re: basia-digest V3 #263 >An Olive Tree: "olivkowe drzewo moze spelnic twe marzenia" (ah ha! I knew >I'd seen that word "marzenia" somewhere before...Leslie's e-mail address! >Pray tell, what's it mean?) Hee! "Maybe it was the olive tree that made my dreams come true." I got a kick out of that for some reason. "Marzenia" means dream, and being a Sandman fan as well, it kinda grew on me. (for those who don't know, it's a comic basically about the bringer of dreams, the Sandman, who is called 'Dream') The one problem with using a foreign word is that no one can remember how to spell it. ;) (BTW, Tomasz, if I'm wrong on this, sorry for messing up your language!;) ) - -Leslie ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 10:25:58 -0600 From: Beverly Martin Subject: Re: Very RARE US Debut concert invitation Jan Johnson wrote: > Is 'Mr Mulliner' (soundmn1@gte.net) a member of this list? I just wondered > because it seems we are bidding against each other for the concert invitation > > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=42630787#BID > > which is currently being sold at eBay (Beverley, how come you aren't > bidding for this??) Beverly is trying to buy Xmas gifts for friends and family, a slight rule in my household is not to buy stuff for oneself after November 15. (which I promptly broke by buying Clear Horizon, but if anyone in my circle of folks thought I was gonna wait til Xmas!!!) But with a large gift I bought the family (an LD/DVD player -- shh it's a secret! ) I really can't play in the auctions right now. As it is, I'm selling some relatively rare comics stuff to help offset costs... but I digress. Tain't me. > So far I have bid up to $81 and I still can't exceed his estimate!! Whoever > this guy is, he is obviously a true fan. If he isn't on this list already, > then he should be. Do you think I should mail him and let us know we're here?? Plus.... $81???????????? Waaaaaaaaaaaay too rich for my blood. You two kids have fun going at it. I'm just happy I did get a copy of the PLAYBILL (the guy who was selling them had an extra and contacted me!!!) -- Beverly Martin PS: we find out in the next email that it is indeed Kevin, you kids play nice now! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 08:26:12 PST From: "Leslie Brown" Subject: Re: Japanese Clear Horizon, etc. > Anyway, for anyone who's wondering, the Japanese CD appears to be >identical to the U.S. release in every way that matters. > Also, there seem to be notes about each song (which album it >was from, etc.), but my Japanese is not so good--especially reading--so I >can't understand much of it My T&T has tons of notes preceding the credits and man, lets just say learning Japanese is sounding better and better (hee!) >But *I'm* IN Japan, so... Hey, have you seen the single yet? Are there any extra songs on that? >she looks very natural and expressive, like in her interviews. As for the >other photo, near the end of the booklet, WOW! She looks *really* young in >that one. You guys know those bluish photos on the inside of the TSI tour booklet and on the cover of the UK Third Time Lucky single? That photo in Clear Horizon sure looks like the same session. Hmmm... > And I LIKE the blue disc. Sure it's not the best, >but I think it looks pretty cool. Remember the days when all CDs only had >black lettering on them? Ugh, yeah. Plus I have to admit that the blue has really grown on me (that CD has been my constant companion lately) As for >the new songs, I'm really happy. These are not the songs of someone who has >given up or run out of creativity. Apparently, Basia and Danny have some >good stuff in the works for 1999. I'm just going to declare 1999 The Year of Basia. If everything reportedly in the works materializes, we are going to be one happy mailing list. >there's something about having a >choir of many different REAL people that lends this song a certain power I >don't think it would have had otherwise. I think it's very interesting to hear her in a different environment. Not that her and Danny's stuff alone isn't great, but sometimes it's good to hear another element introduced. > "Go for You" >reminds me of one of my favorite Basia songs, "Come to Heaven." I can't >quite put my finger on it, but both have some kind of 1950s flavor. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought I was the only one! The song structures are definitely not of this decade. You really don't hear stuff that complex in the pop realm anymore. What that says for '90's song stylings, I don't know... ;) Anyway, that song is sooo well-written. They really are vastly underrrated. - --Leslie ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 11:47:34 -0500 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? Leslie "marzenia" brown wrote: > >Ashoke! I'm shocked! Such uncharacteristic behavior! ;) > :-) Well, if Danny White can be caught on film with an impish smile, I can vent some frustration too. I am somewhat relieved to hear that the Japanese CD might be identical to the US one after all. Someone commented on the plain blue of the CD imprint. I would have preferred plain black, but nevertheless, I like the minimalist cover and CD imprint. However, the effect is ruined by the el-cheapo, generic landscape pictures elsewhere, whose intended significance makes me wonder what the Sony marketing folks have for lunch - probably qualudes! My feelings about packaging a retrospective CD is that it should delve into the artist's persona and reflections. The packaging offers a unique way of doing so - snippets of interviews, perhaps a foreword by the artist(s), screen shots, studio shots, etc. Unfortunately, Clear Horizon's packaging does not take advantage of this. Ashoke. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 08:51:29 -0800 From: billsch@transmeta.com (Bill Schnaitter) Subject: Re: Best Remixes II at cdjapan.com Since there have been a couple of comments plus some frustration, let me relate in some more detail my experience with ordering "Best Remixes II" at cdjapan.com. I go to http://www.cdjapan.com. They seem to have a catalogue of CD's that you get by hitting the "Search" button. "Best Remixes II" is NOT in their catalogue. They also have a button: "Anything to Order." Clicking on that gets you to a special order form. After you have registered (the "Membership Registration" button), you can fill in any CD not in the catalogue and they will see if they can get it or have it in stock. I went ahead and did this, feeling a little more confident since I had gotten the Epic cat. number from someone in this mailing list. It is: ESCA-5449. They responded quickly to say that they did have "a few" in stock and told me the price. I reluctanly decided to go ahead. They have sent another e-mail confirming my order and promise another after it has been shipped. I'll keep y'all (born in big D, little a, double l, as) informed as events unfold. - -Bill Schnaitter ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 10:46:19 PST From: "Leslie Brown" Subject: Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? >Well, if Danny White can be caught on film with an impish smile, I can vent >some frustration too. Hmmm... good point. >imprint. However, the effect is ruined by the el-cheapo, generic landscape >pictures elsewhere, whose intended significance makes me wonder what the >Sony marketing folks have for lunch - probably qualudes! Blame the designer, I think- whoever hired him/her/them was on the 'ludes (somehow I'm thinking of Denis Leary's CD when I think of Ludes, but never mind...) Stock photos are a lame solution. Besides, the whole stock industry is responsible for the loss of a heck of a lot of photographer's and especially ilustrator's jobs, so it really ticked me off on principle. But that's just me. >My feelings about packaging a retrospective CD is that it should delve into >the artist's persona and reflections. The packaging offers a unique way of >doing so - snippets of interviews, perhaps a foreword by the artist(s), >screen shots, studio shots, etc. Unfortunately, Clear Horizon's packaging >does not take advantage of this. Amen, brother Ashoke. I was kinda hoping and even somewhat expecting a word from Basia in there. I know I was definitely expecting more for a retrospective. Oh well. - -Leslie ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 11:42:06 -0800 From: Joel Cairo Subject: Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? Leslie Brown wrote: > >My feelings about packaging a retrospective CD is that it should delve > into > >the artist's persona and reflections. The packaging offers a unique > way of > >doing so - snippets of interviews, perhaps a foreword by the artist(s), > >screen shots, studio shots, etc. Unfortunately, Clear Horizon's > packaging > >does not take advantage of this. > > Amen, brother Ashoke. I was kinda hoping and even somewhat expecting a > word from Basia in there. I know I was definitely expecting more for a > retrospective. Well, in truth Leslie, this collection isn't really what could be termed a retrospective, which to me involves *active* input from the artist involved, and usually does not result in such a predictable lineup. The generic packaging, plain graphics and lack of promotion all smack of what "Clear Horizon" is, which is a placeholder. There are two types of these that are issued when your artist has no new material for you: live albums and greatest hits packages. Well, they used the first option in 1995, and were able to beg a single for 1996; but Epic/550-- stuck again at Christmastime with nothing from Bash & Danny-- had to use their last ace with the hits package for *this* year. And, in keeping with the tradition that was established by Paul Simon's "Greatest Hits, etc." package, they pried another new single loose and stuck it on the disc, in order to make certain that we'd buy it. (this is known in record parlance as "hanging the album on a single"). Well, I hope this all doesn't sound too cynical, but as the record business is a *business*, that's just the way things are... that's the other reason that the new LP is coming out next Christmas-- my guess is that it will be finished MUCH sooner than that, but Epic/550 will want to milk it for all its worth, and that means a Christmas release. Frankly, though, I have the sense that they probably aren't really going to pull out the stops unless she delivers a *very* strong (read: more commercial) package to them-- believe me, they're carefully weighing the value of how much to promote an artist that only delivers an album every four years... and they got burned pretty badly with "The Sweetest Illusion" (though I strongly feel that pulling "More Fire Than Flame" as single would've helped them immensely-- it worked in Japan). None of this, of course, is meant to denigrate the efforts of Basia and Danny in doing their work, which I both appreciate and respect to no small degree, but I just thought that this new CD should be viewed in its proper context. Off the soapbox for now, - -Kevin soundmn1@gte.net BTW, folks, I hopped over and looked at Japan's J-WAVE Hot 100 for the week-- "Clear Horizon" (the single) debuted this week at #60!! I'll keep you posted on its progress... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 13:01:17 PST From: "Leslie Brown" Subject: Clear horizon rationale (?) We needed a new subject line anyway. :) >stuck again >at Christmastime with nothing from Bash & Danny-- had to use their >ace with the hits package for *this* year. And, in keeping with the >tradition that was established by Paul Simon's "Greatest Hits, etc." >package, they pried another new single loose and stuck it on the disc, >in order to make certain that we'd buy it. Ya know, when I first heard that Basia was going to have a greatest hits CD, after the initial excitement wore off, I began to think. Number one, how can someone with only (truly) three albums have greatest hits? Obviously, Kevin is right on that count. But also I had to wonder: was she getting ready to do a label change? 'Best of' just seems to stand for 'last album obligation' these days. I remember when Hiroshima had a best of; they were out of Epic (!) shortly thereafter. Personally, as I have proabably said before at some point, I kinda wish she would leave Sony and go to another label that would give her some sort of promotion and support (not to mention a timed release clause- ha ha). Witness the exodus from GRP- everyone's jumping ship left and right because according to the info out there, the established acts were getting no love from the label and they had other labels that would. So they wouldn't stand for it. Neither should she or Danny (maybe he can put that grimace to good use!) And every recycled album could easily fill up her contractual obligations. I wouldn't be suprised if they served that purpose. I mean, she didn't even want to do BOB. >Well, I hope this all doesn't sound too cynical, but as the record >business is a *business*, that's just the way things are... Hey- reality is no fun. Unfortunately chances are we won't see any changes with this situation. >other reason that the new LP is coming out next Christmas-- Whoa, is that the latest word on that? Yipes. my guess is >that it will be finished MUCH sooner than that, but Epic/550 will want >to milk it for all its worth, and that means a Christmas release. And then it will get lost in the shuffle yet again. Well, maybe that's not fair (since the others were repackaged anyway), but I don't see Clear Horizon making any sort of dent in the US market. Neither did BOB, which I kinda think of as The Basia Album That No One Knew Existed. If that's the story, let's hope that new material will be a draw. >Frankly, though, I have the sense that they probably aren't really going >to pull out the stops unless she delivers a *very* strong (read: more >commercial) package to them-- believe me, they're carefully weighing the >value of how much to promote an artist that only delivers an album every >four years Yep, that seems to support a motive for leaving. I'd be. Of course, she is valuable to Sony for her Japanese sales. Ther problem is the rest of the world (I imagine) and they got burned pretty badly with "The Sweetest >Illusion" (though I strongly feel that pulling "More Fire Than Flame" as >single would've helped them immensely-- it worked in Japan). Yeah, and what about "My Cruel Ways? I could have seen that easily being useful for airplay. Not Yearning, sorry. But I have a feeling they wanted 'London Warsaw New York' the sequel. TSI was evolved. And a bit challenging. >None of this, of course, is meant to denigrate the efforts of Basia and >Danny in doing their work, which I both appreciate and respect to no >small degree, but I just thought that this new CD should be viewed in >its proper context. Absolutely. Thanks for the food for thought today, Kevin. >BTW, folks, I hopped over and looked at Japan's J-WAVE Hot 100 for the >week-- "Clear Horizon" (the single) debuted this week at #60!! I'll >keep you posted on its progress... Hey, remember when J-Wave had Drunk on Love and Third Time Lucky on the charts at the same time? After years of checking out their countdown, I have to say: I want J-Wave in America. Now. - --Leslie noticing that Basia's EpicCenter spot got deleted, and almost thinking that my theory became real for a minute there. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 16:07:11 -0500 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: Basia on the horizon... The end of "Go for you" gives me the chills! I remember some folks saying that the title track was a bit disappointing. I can relate to some but not all of that sentiment. The song is simple (I was singing along by the second chorus), with a lot of controlled and understated elegance. But I could not help wishing that Ms. T. would just say "to hell with understatement" and just do her thing and belt it out. There is one benefit to this song - it has the potential of becoming the staple sing-along tune in her future concerts. I can well imagine the crowd breaking into the chorus, particular towards the end where it is mainly voices and percussion. I know I will. "Go for you" is a glimpse of the old Basia fire from the LWNY days. The mischievous (and DIFFICULT) harmonies, brilliantly mixed - I loved this song. On my way to work, I was rewinding through the chorus over and over to try and catch the harmony line, but I only figured out a part of it. The layering is almost perfect and it gives you a taste of Basia's breathtaking alto (listen carefully to the word "heaven" at the very end). You almost wonder if the lowest voice is Basia's. I also love "Angels Blush". I burned that on a CD a long time ago and it was not new to me. But it always makes me smile - even in the middle of summer. Something about the sound of those sleighbells. On Kevin's post regarding the retrospective issue: Unfortunately for us, he is right. This album is really a "Greatest Hits of Basia" rather than "The Best of Basia". You can almost tell that the songs were picked on the basis of popularity. If this had been a real retrospective (such as the recent "Tried and True: The Best of Suzanne Vega"), Basia would have picked out the songs herself, and we probably would have seen "Copernicus", "Reward" and few other songs. When all is said and done, my favorite track on this collection is still "Yearning" (I think Joanna will agree). Nothing comes close to its scope and diversity. Hoever, as soon as I heard the first line of vocals on "Clear Horizon", I said out loud "She's back!". :-) Ashoke. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 16:18:49 -0500 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: Re: basia-digest V3 #263 Joanna wrote: > >Now, about that book that Ashoke has been wanting to put together...I was >the one who suggested he set a deadline, and have I gotten my page to him >yet? No, but I will, I promise! If any others of you out there are so >inspired, let's try to rustle up some of that enthusiasm that surfaced >when Ashoke first proposed the book, and help get it together! Ashoke, >maybe you'd like to repost the formats you can accept and sort of an >overview of your plans. Maybe this will get some of us off our duffs! > You can always send me a printed page (at most two)- i.e. a finished product, where everything is laid out as you want it. That way you don't have to worry about how the final print turned out. Please, use LETTER (8.5"x11") format only. If you give me electronic documents. I would prefer Word or Photoshop (3.x, 4.x, 5.x). If you give me something in Pagemaker, I only have version 6.0. I also have Corel Draw (v7.0) although I can't imagine why one would want to use that for layout. If you give me text and pictures with detailed instructions, I can lay it out for you. I would prefer the images to be in some NON-COMPRESSED format such as GIF or TIFF. The print area should be about 9.9"x7.7" (I will print them on an Epson Color Stylus Pro on LETTER size, photo-quality, glossy film). Regards, Ashoke. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 18:09:07 -0800 From: "William F.G. McAbee" Subject: Re: Basia on the horizon... I was wondering when someone would mention the omission of REWARD, that and Cruisin for Bruisin are my personal favorites from LWNY. Reward is such a fabulous song, anyone else out there agree? Bill Dallas Ashoke S. Talukdar wrote: > The end of "Go for you" gives me the chills! > > I remember some folks saying that the title track was a bit disappointing. > I can relate to some but not all of that sentiment. The song is simple (I > was singing along by the second chorus), with a lot of controlled and > understated elegance. But I could not help wishing that Ms. T. would just > say "to hell with understatement" and just do her thing and belt it out. > > There is one benefit to this song - it has the potential of becoming the > staple sing-along tune in her future concerts. I can well imagine the crowd > breaking into the chorus, particular towards the end where it is mainly > voices and percussion. I know I will. > > "Go for you" is a glimpse of the old Basia fire from the LWNY days. The > mischievous (and DIFFICULT) harmonies, brilliantly mixed - I loved this > song. On my way to work, I was rewinding through the chorus over and over > to try and catch the harmony line, but I only figured out a part of it. The > layering is almost perfect and it gives you a taste of Basia's breathtaking > alto (listen carefully to the word "heaven" at the very end). You almost > wonder if the lowest voice is Basia's. > > I also love "Angels Blush". I burned that on a CD a long time ago and it > was not new to me. But it always makes me smile - even in the middle of > summer. Something about the sound of those sleighbells. > > On Kevin's post regarding the retrospective issue: > > Unfortunately for us, he is right. This album is really a "Greatest Hits of > Basia" rather than "The Best of Basia". You can almost tell that the songs > were picked on the basis of popularity. If this had been a real > retrospective (such as the recent "Tried and True: The Best of Suzanne > Vega"), Basia would have picked out the songs herself, and we probably would > have seen "Copernicus", "Reward" and few other songs. > > When all is said and done, my favorite track on this collection is still > "Yearning" (I think Joanna will agree). Nothing comes close to its scope > and diversity. Hoever, as soon as I heard the first line of vocals on > "Clear Horizon", I said out loud "She's back!". > > :-) > > Ashoke. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 19:16:46 -0500 From: Bryce Argabright Subject: Reward > Reward is such a fabulous song, anyone else out there agree? Reward is one of my top picks also... Bryce WEB SITES: http://www.brigadoon.com/~bryce/ http://bryce.hypermart.net/ E-MAIL ADDRESSES: mailto:Bryce@brigadoon.com mailto:Bryce@netzero.net mailto:Bryce_Argabright@hotmail.com mailto:Bryce_Argabright@juno.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 16:22:54 -0800 From: billsch@transmeta.com (Bill Schnaitter) Subject: Re: Basia on the horizon... >I was wondering when someone would mention the omission of REWARD, >Bill >Dallas ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 21:18:45 -0800 From: rrumsby Subject: Re: Clear Horizon AND BONUS TRACKS? Leslie Brown wrote: > >Well, if Danny White can be caught on film with an impish smile, I can > vent > >some frustration too. > > Hmmm... good point. > Well lets just put it this way. When I had the good fortune the other year to meet Danny at a PW concert he was very cheerful and smiling, as well as very friendly. bfn BobR ------------------------------ End of basia-digest V3 #265 ***************************