From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #343 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, September 9 1999 Volume 08 : Number 343 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Songs about brothers [Bayard ] Brothers [bibi gellert ] Re: Songs about Brothers [Patrick Cleasby ] eb all over the world ["Capitalism Blows" ] Re: eb all over the world [MARKEEFE@aol.com] Bumbershoot '99: A Memoir -- The Revenge [Michael Wolfe ] Robert Forster & the Devil's Radio [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James D] Re: Songs about Brothers [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #342 [Doc ] Re: Songs about Brothers [Jason Thornton ] Re: aftonbladet review [Eb ] Lennon recommendations ["Russ Reynolds" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 20:44:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Bayard Subject: Re: Songs about brothers Secession, "Michael" ..which has a tune similar to: "The Brady Bunch Theme" and I can't believe Ross Overbury missed this one: "Frere Jaques" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 20:47:44 -0400 From: bibi gellert Subject: Brothers I'm gonna beat James on mentioning a Kiwi band for this thread: The Front Lawn: "Andy" Bibi G ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 16:05:33 +0100 From: Patrick Cleasby Subject: Re: Songs about Brothers >Also Syd Barret's song about dating two sisters -- "She don't rock and >roll . . . she don't like it, no she don't do the stroll. . . " that song, >but the title escapes me. If we're on to sisters how about Zappa's Dina-Moe-Hum? Then there's Journey's Brother Sister (is that what it's called?) Patrick (Displaying too much AOR knowledge) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 18:00:05 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: pork chops and Apple sauce... On 9/8/99 5:44 PM, Bayard wrote: >Secession, "Michael" >..which has a tune similar to: >"The Brady Bunch Theme" Speaking of The Brady's, I found out recently that Chris Knight, aka Peter Brady, lives here in Sillycone Valley and is Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Eskape Labs (http://www.eskapelabs.com). They make some really cool USB (ahem) peripherals for Macs. Wow, it's a remarkable time we live in, no? - -tc oh yeah, I love the new Pavement disc as well. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 18:23:34 PDT From: "Capitalism Blows" Subject: eb all over the world i'm afraid i hear it as father, singular, and there's not much i can do about that. just as there's not much i can do about hearing it as "perspect orbs" rather than "perspex orbs", or "hid" rather than "hit". lord knows i've tried. why should gay incest be any more taboo a song topic than hetero incest? besides, they don't actually fuck in the song. just some harmless lathering up is all. moreover, i never, to be honest, saw them as actual lovers. just sort of country bumpkin brothers who never knew any better than to lather up together, so didn't find anything strange about it, though their father was disappointed that they continued doing it 'til well into their forties. i know this is at odds with robyn's standard intro. to the song, which involves a magazine featuring lots of young boys nekkid save for the strategically placed lobster, and all. but, dammitall, he shouldn't write such evocative songs, and then introduce him with stories contradicting their imagery, now should he? incidentally. i know it says "bath", but am i the only one that pictures the song taking place in a kiddie pool on the back lawn? (and just about this time of year, actually. perhaps a few weeks from now.) i suppose it's the verse about the frosty garden. for some reason i see the lathering up and the leaving up taking place concatenatedly. like this: lathering up in the kiddie pool, then toweling off and heading over to the garden for some light leaving, thence back to the kiddie pool to clean up. in other words, i think it'd be the *perfect* song to request at one's brother's wedding reception! oh, and anderson, bruford, wakeman, and howe have a song that keeps repeating the line "long lost brother of mine". in fact, that may even be the title. although they're probably not brothers in the sense rich means. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 21:38:02 EDT From: MARKEEFE@aol.com Subject: Re: eb all over the world In a message dated 9/8/99 6:29:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time, etews@hotmail.com writes: << incidentally. i know it says "bath", but am i the only one that pictures the song taking place in a kiddie pool on the back lawn? >> I always picture something more like a locker room shower kinda thing, if only to accomodate three bodies in one bathing area. I guess it *does* specifically say "bath" though. Ah, whatever. Maybe if the song were about some hot, 3-way, chick-on-chick(-on-chick!) action I'd feel more inspired to view, in my mind's eye, the scene in the more cramped confines of a single bath tub ;-) - ------Michael K. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 21:55:08 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael Wolfe Subject: Bumbershoot '99: A Memoir -- The Revenge Day 3: I make an early start so as to see Pete Krebs and Gossamer Wings. I end up getting there right as the MC has introduced the band, which doesn't leave me with enough time to set up my microphone without scrambling. I figure it's not worth the trouble, as I'll probably be able to see 'em again before too long. But I end up really enjoying the set, and wishing that I'd gotten what I could. Today is a day of strange convergences. During the set, a gossamer-winged dragonfly alights on my knee. That's number 1. The next act I want to see isn't until mid-afternoon, so I go back down to Pioneer Square to sit in the coffee shop again and read High Fidelity. Wandering back to the Center, I duck into Borders to browse the latest Entertainment Weekly. I'm flipping through it, and my gaze is being magnetically drawn to the covers of other magazines (like "Maxim" and "Details"), when I jump sky high. There's a buzzing on my right hip. My pager's going off. Shit, I think, it's never done that before. Then I realize that I gave out the number to a couple of people, so that they could get in touch with me to meet for Bumbershoot. The display is showing a phone number from the 420 area code, so I find a pay phone and call it. It's Eddie! Right on! We make plans to meet up tomorrow, and he tasks me to check out the Crocodile and Two Bells to see if Robyn is going to be making any un-advertised appearances. Right now, though, I'm on my way to see Rusty Willoughby, formerly of Flop. His set's not bad, but nothing to write home about either. He's got a very Dead Milkmen-esque voice, and he dips into his Flop catalogue a couple times. Immediately following Rusty, on the same stage, is K recording artist Lois, and she's wonderful. She talks about singing karaoke in France (which echoes off of some passages in the Auster book that I had read the day before). She sings an Everly Brothers song (the last time I was in Seattle, I saw Robyn at an Everly Brothers tribute). Those are convergences 2 and 3. For part of her set, she's got another guitarist on stage with her who looks vaguely like Matt Frewer. Anyway, she's quite an engaging songsmith, and a real stage presence. Good stuff. From there, I go to the literary stage to hear Chuck Palahniuk read (it's not far, fortunately). His looks and voice immediately bring to mind a high school quarterback who'd been sacked a few too many times, but his prose immediately gives lie to that impression. The works that he reads are razor sharp, and incisively observed. The first that he reads is the short story that eventually evolved into Fight Club, and it makes me more eager than ever to see the film. The story is incredibly frightening, from an existential point of view; it made a "fight club" (and all that it entails, i.e., getting the shit beat out of you) sound incredibly seductive, and I'm as pacifist as they come. The second passage he read was from his new novel (called, I think, "Survivor"), the premise of which is that the narrator is a former model who's been disfigured, and how she copes with that, and the power that she finds in being "invisible" (where all eyes were on her previously). She's traveling with her chiseled ex-boyfriend (who dumped her after the accident), and to get back at him she's been feeding him synthetic estrogen that she's stealing from medicine cabinets at real estate open houses, so now he's turned into this bloated, weepy, water-retaining mess. It's great stuff. I'm looking forward to reading some of his novels. I find dinner at Ozaki, a little Japanese restaurant near the center. Ugh. The sushi is not at all inspiring. The miso soup doesn't even have seaweed or tofu in it. What kind of crap is that? I call bullshit on that! That puts an end to the quest for this trip. I go back to the grounds, and it's time for Mojo Nixon. I get perfect recording position, and set up my mic. Mojo comes out on stage, and jumps right into "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child". He's great, the Toad Liquors are spot-on, and there's just this great rock and roll vibe coming from the stage. Mojo's in fine form, cursing a blue streak. Some of the songs are so raunchy that I blush from just saying their names. When the audience votes for him to play a song called "Tie My Pecker to My Leg", the gloves come off, and he seems hell bent on getting his ass banned from Bumbershoot. When the audience eventually calls him out for an encore, he comes out holding a collossal brassier, and says "How sweet it is!" It was nuts. The place was packed, too. It was a great way to finish up Day 3. After Mojo, though, I wandered around Belltown for a while trying to find the Crocodile. I passed the 7-Eleven that Eddie, Carole, Jeme, and I stopped at before our midnight trek back down to Portland during my previous visit. Eventually, I find the Croc, but they deny an impending performance from Robyn. So I head to the Two Bells. It's not far, and I talk to the bartender, and he's a cheerful guy, but a bit scatterbrained. I eventually draw out from him that Robyn played Thursday, and that he doesn't know of any other planned gigs. Damn. Of course, it makes perfect sense in hindsight. During the REM show, Stipe mentioned that they were flying out the next day. Robyn does the Two Bells gigs for his friends, and seeing as he has so many friends in REM, it makes sense that he'd play there before they took off. So it was all there to be put together, if I'd only been paying attention. Day 4: I meet Eddie at the center house, and we go see the Master Musicians of Jajouka. I tell him about the Two Bells gig we missed, and he's disconsolate. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little. Anyway, the stadium's pretty empty, but those Master Musicians are where it's at. They play this amazing polyrhythmic north African music, and the drummers were especially fascinating. They play these double-membraned drums, and each seems to be hitting his drum completely randomly, but when the three drums are taken as a whole, there is a very distinct cycle that evolves over successive iterations. It was something to see. I left just before the end of their set so that I could catch IQU, though. IQU played a pretty short set, consisting mostly of stuff they had done during the MABD tour, but with a little more of it this time. They're breaking in a new bassist, so I didn't expect anything too ambitious. After the set, a young woman and her friend approach me, and ask if I am "Chris". Apparently, I look like some other tall skinny guy that she's expecting to see there. I reply that I am, in fact, Michael. She compliments my Minnesota Timberwolves cap (which, truth be told, is functioning solely as a place for me to clip my microphone). And we get to talking. Up comes Cibo Matto. They're quite surreal. I mean, the band's pretty surreal by itself, don't get me wrong. They play a song called "Sci-Fi Wasabi". But I'm still a little off balance from having been mistaken for someone else, and she's still right next to me. I have my rig running, to record the band, but my attempts to flirt with this woman obscure several key points of the set. Fortunately, I do better than my recording rig. I mean, I don't make an ass of myself. That tape won't see the light of day, though. We go to the Two Bells, the three of us, for drinks. I realize that I'm going to miss my appointed meeting with Eddie, and I feel bad about that -- I really do -- but I figure he'll understand. Anyway, I've got a boot of the previous night's Mojo show to ply him with, if it comes to that (I'm putting together a copy of it for you tonight, Eddie). Alison, Jessica, and I have a wonderful conversation, and I put to use everything that I've learned from reading High Fidelity over the past day. We talk about books, art, and life, and it's all genuinely fascinating. I try to cede the floor as much as possible, while still maintaining my end of the conversation. Jessica excuses herself briefly, and at that moment the topic of conversation turns to relationships. She mentions that she didn't have many of them in college, but that she was glad of it. "And now?" I reply. "Now?" "Yeah, since college?" I slyly enquire. "Well, I'm living with my boyfriend now..." Nuts. Oh, well. It was a good try. My scheduled itinerary for the day has been completed at this point, so I'm game to just hang out with these two, and to see if they can recomend any good music to me. We see a Seattle folk singer named Damien Jurardo, who's built like a brick. As a singer/songwriter, his stature is quite a bit less impressive. He ends his set with Nirvana's Something in the Way, which greater men than him could not pull off in Seattle without sounding like they were pandering. The three of us then go to Larry's and forage in the deli to find some dinner. We just sit on the grass, eating and talking, until finally it's time to head home for the night. We exchange email addresses, but plan to meet up tomorrow -- they're planning to catch the Robyn Hitchcock show, too. They drop me off at my Grandparents' house. One more day to go. Fortunately, it's easy to stay up for this one. Day 5: I wake up late. Crap. There's just enough time to wolf (unfortunate choice of words, that) down some scrambled eggs and race out the door. Eddie's waiting at the opera house, and it had been my intention to keep him company for as much of it as I could. Now, I have to rush just to make sure that I get down there before they open the opera house doors. Fortunately, I make it. And everyone's there, at the head of the line! Jeme and Viv (fresh from their cross country covered wagon trip), Michael K (hadn't talked to him in quite a while), Cynthia (whom I inexplicably missed entirely over the previous 4 days), and of course, Eddie. Eddie immediately drafts me to stand on top of a trash receptacle holding a Thoth sign while he gets a picture. Actually, he first suggests "in" as opposed to "on top of", but I balked. Then I step over the fence to join everyone, and Jeme accuses me of being womanly. Viv tries to read my journal. Oh yeah. Fegs are SO great. ;) To be fair, I make funk-bass noises with my mouth. Waka-chika-waka-chika and all that. And quote Monty Python. One of the security personnel wonders who the hell Robyn Hitchcock is, and I almost give the game away by playing one of my audience recordings for her. Jeme exhibits some discression on my behalf, though, and holds me back. In my defense, it IS day 5, and I'm not all present and accounted for, at this point. Instead, Eddie sings an impromptu "Balloon Man" with Michael K's help. I'm horrendously embarassed, and then I join in with my own a capella rendition of Andy's bassline for the last verse. They let us into the staging area under the ballet theater while the soundcheck is finishing up. We demand to hear the soundcheck, to no avail. Then they let us into the opera hall, proper. Using my superlong legs (I can run as fast as ten fast men!) and my knowledge of fluid dynamics, I find a shortcut and get to the front of the auditorium quickly enough to find the 2nd row empty. Jeme spots me, and tells me to save the whole row. Again, my 6'5" frame comes in handy, and I sprawl out across 4 seats, with my rucksack holding a 5th. We're pumped. This is great position, I'm all set to get a fabulous recording of the show. But first, we get Cat Power. Now, Jeme takes her set personally, as a kind of insult to him. I don't mind it so much. It's not good, and it's not anything that I would, like, particularly want to sit through again, but I find things to appreciate. Her guitar and piano arrangements were quite appealing, I think, with a real tonal clarity that I appreciated. Especially with how muddled things can be in modern rock music. Nothing mushy here at all. It does go on too long, though, especially what with Robyn waitin' for us at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It's easy to understand impatience then. Robyn's set is great. It's mostly stuff he's been doing lots of times lately, but man, he's got it down. It's like he's got all of the skill that familiarity breeds, and none of the boredom. Lysander in particular was majestic, his fingers dancing on the guitar strings like a spider on its web. The Speed of Things seems absolutely perfect for the venue. It's a corker of a set. The others have covered much of the important stuff in their postmortems, so I won't go on at length (ha! I can hear you thinking), but a guy yells out "She Doesn't Exist!" To which Robyn responds (not missing a beat), "Yeah, but who does?" That and a bit about Reagan walking into a truck stop in Iowa. I'm afraid that my chuckle mars my recording a little bit, but other than that, it's quite pristine. After the set, Alison and Jessica come down to where we're all sitting, and everyone says hi. The fegs appear to be splitting up at this point, and I've still got two gigs I want to see, so I join them. Eddie wants to get another big picture of all of us, but as I walk out of the building talking to the two women, I turn around, and Jeme and Viv (who were previously right behind me) are nowhere to be found. Since everyone was taking off anyway, it's not a big deal, so me, Alison, and Jessica head over to Imperial Teen. Imperial Teen is good poppy fun. Everyone does a little bit of everything in the band, and they've lots of cool little vocal embellishments. It's not real complicated music, but they get some neat effects. The weird thing is the intensity of the mosh pit. I'm of the opinion that moshing is dumb, but it's taken to a new level of inanity when done to a band like Imperial Teen. My Bumbershoot is closed off by Built to Spill, and it's a fantastic set. They play 2 unreleased songs, 3 songs from their (for my money) masterpiece, "There's Nothing Wrong With Love", and great new versions of a couple of songs that I've heard them do a couple of times. This is the 4th time I've seen them this year, so I go in not expecting to be surprised, but it turns out not to be anything like the other shows. They just seem to get tighter knit as they continue touring. The highlight for me is "Big Dipper", which is my favorite song from them, which I'd never seen done live before. It is also very very loud. Very. Loud. The three of us head out for drinks and more conversation, this time to a swanky cantina a couple blocks away. We munch on chips, and have a really nice time. Then I walk off to catch the bus, and they head off to see Bis. One letter difference, and we end up in the same place. I warn them not to bring up a certain sore subject, should they get a chance to talk to the lead singer. - -Michael Wolfe ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 23:00:13 -0400 From: puppycakes Subject: aftonbladet review ROBYN HITCHCOCK Jewels for Sophia 3 stars pop (Warner) Favoritexcentrikern Hitchcock låter knepigare och spretigare än på förra albumet (soundtracket till Jonathan Demmes konsertfilm ”Storefront Hitchcock” oräknat) ”Moss elixir”. Men så har han också bjudit in massor av musiker till massor av olika sessions. Namn som Peter Buck, Grant Lee Philips, nästan hela Young Fresh Fellows och, minsann, gamle Soft Boys-polaren Kimberley Rew dyker upp i gästlistan. Hitchcock sjunger om butterflies och ”flutterbies” och en hel låt om Gene Hackman och har kanske inte gjort sin allra bästa platta men tveklöst en av de charmigaste. Håkan Steen 1999-07-23 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 15:47:35 +1200 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Robert Forster & the Devil's Radio >Hmm. this shoulda been cc'd to the list, so it is now... > You really rate "Once I had a New York Girlfriend" over "Danger in the >Past" and "Calling from a Country Phone"? I am on the Tallulah web list and >"Girlfriend" is usually ranked last of Robert's solo albums. I must say I >was intending to get "Warm Nights" and "..Girlfriend", but have not yet. >Robert's genuis as a songwriter would get me to buy "Warm Nights" over >"...Girlfriend". Owning "Danger" and "...Country Phone" is a joy because of >his own songs like "Baby Stones" and "121". I've not heard Danger, I must admit, but yes, I do like the 'girlfriend' album. This despite the fact that it doesn't have Robert's songwriting involved. I think he was a lot better in the group setting - none of the solo albums measure up to the likes of Before Hollywood or Liberty Belle. oh, and: >p.s. gnat just dedicated a Chris Knox song to James Dignan you did? Wow thanks - pity I couldn't hear it... which one was it? (FWIW, my favourite is probably "Lapse") James James Dignan___________________________________ You talk to me Deptmt of Psychology, Otago University As if from a distance ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk Street And I reply. . . . . . . . . . Dunedin, New Zealand with impressions chosen from another time steam megaphone (03) 455-7807 (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 16:08:30 +1200 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: Songs about Brothers well, EvenEb mentioned Bowie's "The Bewlay Brothers", so... Dire Straits did "Brothers in Arms" Anderson Bruford Yawn and Yawn "Long lost Brother of Mine" and of course Alaxei Sayle's "Didn't you kill my Brother?" I take it we can't count the GoBetweens "The Clarke Sisters" Midge Ure did a song called "Sister and Brother" with Kate Bush. *Why* remains a mystery. Icehouse had a song called "Sister" Ry Cooder covered the Presley (original?) classic "Little Sister" but I'm straying off the point[1] James [1] this from someone who has just tutored a year one pych class on social conformity by telling them about Croatian merchants protecting themselves from sunburn. James Dignan___________________________________ You talk to me Deptmt of Psychology, Otago University As if from a distance ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk Street And I reply. . . . . . . . . . Dunedin, New Zealand with impressions chosen from another time steam megaphone (03) 455-7807 (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 21:14:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Doc Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #342 Well, cos I've got nothing else do to before tomorrow's Cubs V. Reds slaughter, I thought I'd post a bit before repairing to bed... The brothers thread made me think, and alls I could come up with was: Frank Black, "Whatever Happened To Pong?" Dire Straits, "Brothers In Arms" Anyone have any idea which Smiths' song is being used as the backing track for the Nissan ad? Leastways I think it's a Smiths' tune. I'm not that familiar with their catalog. As for Lennon albums, I'd have to concur with "Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine". "Shaved Fish" is fine to fill in the holes. Oddly, I chime in on the Phil Spector handjob that is "Rock 'n' Roll Music". Lennon certainly wasn't at his best when he recorded it, but I can't help but like the album, mostly because I like the sound of Lennon's voice. (Odd, since he hated his own singing voice and insisted that it be treated with loads of reverb to give it more punch.) On a completely unrelated note, I was listening to The The's "Soul Mining" the other day on the way to work and I'm still surprised. Last time I heard the album was about five years ago, and I thought it was fine then. Now I find I like the music, but Matt Johnson is a very whiney man. Yeah, the world's a bad place, Matt. Cover yerself with leaves, keep your gob shut, and let's hear more of that piano. Now that I think about it, I like Robyn because he doesn't whine and bitch. He gets on with whatever he's singing about (I can rarely tell, but I just go with it). No moaning or whining. Some creepiness (by his own admission), but no moaning or whining. OK, enough pointless noodling. Night kids. - -Doc __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 22:01:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Jason Thornton Subject: Re: Songs about Brothers >well, EvenEb mentioned Bowie's "The Bewlay Brothers", so... Speakin' o' Bowie and brothers: "Jump They Say." Also, Daniel Lanois did a song called "Brother L.A." - --Jason ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 22:05:18 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: aftonbladet review >ROBYN HITCHCOCK >Jewels for Sophia >3 stars > >Favoritexcentrikern Hitchcock låter knepigare och spretigare än på förra >albumet (soundtracket till Jonathan Demmes konsertfilm ”Storefront >Hitchcock” oräknat) ”Moss elixir”. Men så har han också bjudit in massor av >musiker till massor av olika sessions. > >Namn som Peter Buck, Grant Lee Philips, nästan hela Young Fresh Fellows >och, minsann, gamle Soft Boys-polaren Kimberley Rew dyker upp i gästlistan. > >Hitchcock sjunger om butterflies och ”flutterbies” och en hel låt om Gene >Hackman och har kanske inte gjort sin allra bästa platta men tveklöst en av >de charmigaste. Hey, look! It's the first review which doesn't mention "computers and coffee and smack." ;) Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 23:06:59 -0700 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Lennon recommendations >I'm almost totally unfamiliar with John Lennon's >solo albums. Is there a collection (e.g. "Legend"?) >that would make a good starting point, or are they >all worthless? If the latter, what would be a good >album or two to begin with? Thanks in advance for your >help. The problem with Lennon collections is they all contain "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and who wants to hear that in May? But I'll put my $.02 in for Legend as the best of the collections. Best selection and cleaner sounding. 'The John Lennon Collection" was pretty good too--I think it included John's cover of "Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him" and (for some reason) "Move Over Ms. L" "Shaved Fish" was the first and still rawks but lacks the later stuff and includes just a snippett of "Give Peace A Chance" (BTW, is there a bootleg somewhere containing that entire live version with Stevie Wonder?) If you don't mind spending a few extra bucks the "Lennon" 4 CD set is all the Lennon you really need. Unfortunately there are a few curious omissions (every song on Imagine is there *except* IDWTBASMIDWTD, and the tracks from Mind Games don't include Meat City* but DO include some of the lamer stuff--I guess 'cause Yoko liked 'em). It's also one of those annoying low volume CDs that you tend to shy away from mixing into the changer. This set is not to be confused with "The John Lennon Anthology," which is incredible but for serious Lennon fans. But for starters "Legend" is definitely the best. As for actual albums, Plastic Ono Band is a must, Imagine is almost a must. Walls & Bridges is a probably oughtta. Double Fantasy is a great album but not really representative of his work as a whole, so I wouldn't recommend it for starters. 'specially if you don't like to hear Yoko sing (most of her songs there are really very good, though). Eb: > I still don't even own Rock & Roll or Sometime in >New York City, myself. Rock & Roll is pretty damn good and the outtakes from those sessions make up the most entertaining portion of the Anthology. STINYC is not much of an album but does contain the only Lennon/Zappa composition ever recorded and is a good companion piece to Zappa's Filmore East album. Awesome lightning storm over the bay tonight, by the way. - -rUss * Meat City fun: There's a backwards vocal during a break in the song. Play the single backwards and you'll hear "check-the-al-bum". Play the album version backwards and you'll hear "fuck-a-pig." ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #343 *******************************