Early Spring - the mist and fog - what album "sends" you?

[Bob Womack]

Here where I live, we are up to our eyeballs in early spring. That means clouds, cool, gray mornings, days on end without seeing the sun, a gentle misting of rain almost all day long, and a prevalent, dreamy mood in the air. Of course, there has to be music to match.

For thirty-six years, I haven't found a better album to accompany the dreamy mood that settles in right about now than YES' Close to the Edge. The music is about man and nature and spirituality, and is based upon Hermann Hesse's novel, Siddhartha. The dreamy character of the music belies the extreme business of all the musicians as they produce it. While my wife thinks of it as chaotic and angular, for some reason it has always averaged out to a very meditative, mellow suite of music. Perhaps that stems from the fact that the first time I heard it, it was playing out the back-seat shelf speakers of a sub-compact that was taking me to a retreat, squished in with five other teenagers, in 1973. I slid in and out of sleep throughout the album as we traveled.

Whatever, the result is that I am virtually unable to listen to this album without falling into a mellow, peaceful, meditative coma and awaking refreshed on the other side. The first song on side two, "And You and I," with its 12-string into and lap steel voluntaries, is especially meditative. It took me years of amazed, "How did they DO that?" awe before I got beyond the most basic parts of this album as a guitarist. Frankly, I was afraid to work out the mechanics of the performances for fear of somehow finding that the magic would evaporate once I did. I needn't have worried. Though the recording is becoming a bit dated, the pieces have withstood the test of time and still have that magic. This may be the only art rock recording ever to received a positive review in Rolling Stone Magazine.

So, what albums do you have that "send" you?

Bob

[IainDearg]

Mahler's 7th Symphony / Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Elaihu Inbal

You did ask.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by IainDearg

Mahler's 7th Symphony / Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Elaihu Inbal
You did ask.

I can see how the 7th would do that.

In the classical world, it might be more like Barber's String Quartet No. 1, Op 11, specifically the Adagio, for me...

Bob

[stanfan]

Two of my personal fav's are Chuck Brodsky and Kelly Joe Phelps. Pic any album, put the headphones, close the eyelids and off I go.....

Rob

[zenpicker]

Let's see...for that weather forecast I'd recommend:

Alex De Grassi, Slow Circle
Mike Oldfield, Ommadawn
Ben Verdery and William Coulter, Songs for Our Ancestors

Or if you're feeling really gloomy, Gorecki...

[billgennaro]

one album i really love when "i'm in a mood" is the elton john album (his first successful record). i don't know, it just sounds different than any other record with all the string arrangements and different approaches to music and lyrics.

i agree that "close to the edge" is a great mood album. good choice.

james taylor's "sweet baby james" is a good one.

michael hedge's "aerial boundaries" comes to mind.

and nearly anything by mozart, can't forget him.

i'm sure i'll think of more.

bill

[dthumb]

its always the same for me..john coltrane, "giant steps"...just does it in spades for me..
lately , i've been listening to wilco's "sky blue sky", and r.e.m.'s newest "accelerate" in the mornings....or john hammonds...all just have the right "stuff" for me.

[PorkPieGuy]

When I'm driving and it's overcast and I'm by myself, I listen to Radiohead's Kid A.



It may be a little wierd for most people's tastes.

[kerrinsdad]

Santana's Samba Pa Ti came up on my Ipod during my morning run along the Mohawk River......soccer ball flying....spring it is!!

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by zenpicker

Let's see...for that weather forecast I'd recommend:

Alex De Grassi, Slow Circle

Have you tried Mark Isham's Vapor Drawings from Windham Hill?

Mike Oldfield, Ommadawn

I remember....

Ben Verdery and William Coulter, Songs for Our Ancestors

Or if you're feeling really gloomy, Gorecki...

Bob

[mikelhenry]

For me, there was an album by a pedal steel player that worked with Mike Nesmith (yes, of the Monkees) and a group of studio musicians on some moderately successful (and some not so successful) back in the 70's. His name was Red Rhodes and the LP was called Velvet Hammer in a Cowboy Band. The record was a real departure from the pedal steel norm and bordered in some cases on New Age, before New Age was cool. One song, called Lunar Nova really mellows me.

On the pedal steel front, Bruce Kaphan's Slider is definitely not your uncle Billy Bob's pedal steel. Again, very airy & New Agey.

[zenpicker]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Have you tried Mark Isham's Vapor Drawings from Windham Hill?

Bob

No, but I will! Thanks for the tip....

[Bob1131]

Some interesting choices. Sadly, I haven't heard some of those listed, but I will certianly make the effort to hear them in the future.

Bob, this thread inspired me to look at my collection and dig out some old albums. Some of my favorite mood albums were the early Moody Blues; "Days of Future Past," "Search for a Lost Chord," "For Our Children's Children's Children," and "On The Threshold of a Dream." All were great for me, in that they took me someplace! Oh-oh, here comes that 60s feeling, again!

Bob, Thanks for bringing up this thread and letting me think about those great albums again!

[ayavner]

Originally Posted by Bob1131

Some interesting choices. Sadly, I haven't heard some of those listed, but I will certianly make the effort to hear them in the future.

Bob, this thread inspired me to look at my collection and dig out some old albums. Some of my favorite mood albums were the early Moody Blues; "Days of Future Past," "Search for a Lost Chord," "For Our Children's Children's Children," and "On The Threshold of a Dream." All were great for me, in that they took me someplace! Oh-oh, here comes that 60s feeling, again!

Bob, Thanks for bringing up this thread and letting me think about those great albums again!

NOthing "sends" me like Seventh Sojourn, also Moody Blues. I think I'll crank that up on the ol' Pod on the way to work! Hehe I have owned that album on I think just about every available medium....

Wow... suddenly I am a moody teenager with way more thoughts than I have words for, and here comes this record that says alot of it for me....

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by ayavner

NOthing "sends" me like Seventh Sojourn, also Moody Blues. I think I'll crank that up on the ol' Pod on the way to work! Hehe I have owned that album on I think just about every available medium....

Wow... suddenly I am a moody teenager with way more thoughts than I have words for, and here comes this record that says alot of it for me....

Oh, yeah, it's kind of otherworldly, isn't it? "New Horizons" is so dreamy. The interplay between Mellotron and Justin's dual ES-335 solos was just so nice. Justin and John Lodge pulled it off again on the Bluebirds album.

You know another album that falls into that category is Joe Walsh's The Smoker You Drink the Player You Get. Once you get past the first song, the hit from the album, "Rocky Mountain Way," it drops into this really dreamy thing that doesn't quit 'til the end of the album. You can tell they were on vacation at Caribou Ranch when they wrote all that stuff.

...And then there's Spooky Tooth's Witness. "Pyramids"

And Fripp & Eno's Evening Star - "Wind on Water" and "Evening Star". Loops, Ebow, and Frippertronics

Bob