"Something/Anything" is maybe a top ten all time album for me and this track is pretty much Kid A on the power-pop list. When I was writing for Magnet Magazine we did an entire issue devoted to power-pop -- you might really like it if you haven't seen/read it already. My Big Star feature (which included an invu with the late Alex Chilton) stood for a while as maybe one of the more definitive things out there about the band -- at least until the books came along (ha). https://magnetmagazine.com/2002/09/11/shake-some-action-an-intro-to-magnets-history-of-american-power-pop/
Love this series. My kids are all 5 and under, but I see a lot of parallels in the way we share music. I’m looking forward to the day when we can get deep like this. It seems like you guys have a great relationship!
This album changed my life--even more so, it gave me something to live for. Found the sheet music for the album and studied the piano transcriptions for all of the keyboard-based songs as least as much as any other academic work I did in high school and college. Motivated my first cheapo 4 track recorder purchase where I discovered that recording as a one man band (on magnetic tape) was a formidable challenge. TR made it seem easy, even though it wasn't. 50 years later, I'm still dazzled by his work. One of rock's most brilliant musicians, never to be eclipsed!
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S/A is the last TR recording engineered by Jim Lowe (of the erstwhile Electric Prunes) while Todd focused on songwriting and performance. Afterward, Todd would handle the engineering duties on his recordings as well. A tip of the hat to ol' Jim!
S/A was mostly recorded at ID Sound in LA, which in a earlier incarnation was the workspace for David Seville and his varispeed experiments that resulted in the Alvin/Chipmunks recordings. Further work on S/A ("Runt Recorders") was done at 2501 Astral Drive in LA, where the gatefold photo was taken at sunrise. [More info at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmCOXpEELa8 ]
I love every song on S/A, but especially CIJTY! Since so many of my musical heroes recorded their own versions of this song over the years, it must have altered their lives somewhat also.
"This album changed my life" is a sentiment I think you share with a lot of music fans (especially power poppers). And thanks for the additional info behind such an amazing track and album.
Great that Lucy liked the Todd track - I encourage her to check out the rest of the Something/Anything? album, there are many other treasures to discover there!
"Something/Anything" is maybe a top ten all time album for me and this track is pretty much Kid A on the power-pop list. When I was writing for Magnet Magazine we did an entire issue devoted to power-pop -- you might really like it if you haven't seen/read it already. My Big Star feature (which included an invu with the late Alex Chilton) stood for a while as maybe one of the more definitive things out there about the band -- at least until the books came along (ha). https://magnetmagazine.com/2002/09/11/shake-some-action-an-intro-to-magnets-history-of-american-power-pop/
Awesome to have you here! I have read that article...but now I'm gonna read it again.
Love this series. My kids are all 5 and under, but I see a lot of parallels in the way we share music. I’m looking forward to the day when we can get deep like this. It seems like you guys have a great relationship!
Thank you so much! This series is one of the happiest parts of my life.
This album changed my life--even more so, it gave me something to live for. Found the sheet music for the album and studied the piano transcriptions for all of the keyboard-based songs as least as much as any other academic work I did in high school and college. Motivated my first cheapo 4 track recorder purchase where I discovered that recording as a one man band (on magnetic tape) was a formidable challenge. TR made it seem easy, even though it wasn't. 50 years later, I'm still dazzled by his work. One of rock's most brilliant musicians, never to be eclipsed!
=====
S/A is the last TR recording engineered by Jim Lowe (of the erstwhile Electric Prunes) while Todd focused on songwriting and performance. Afterward, Todd would handle the engineering duties on his recordings as well. A tip of the hat to ol' Jim!
S/A was mostly recorded at ID Sound in LA, which in a earlier incarnation was the workspace for David Seville and his varispeed experiments that resulted in the Alvin/Chipmunks recordings. Further work on S/A ("Runt Recorders") was done at 2501 Astral Drive in LA, where the gatefold photo was taken at sunrise. [More info at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmCOXpEELa8 ]
I love every song on S/A, but especially CIJTY! Since so many of my musical heroes recorded their own versions of this song over the years, it must have altered their lives somewhat also.
"This album changed my life" is a sentiment I think you share with a lot of music fans (especially power poppers). And thanks for the additional info behind such an amazing track and album.
Good stuff. Thanks!
🙏
Great that Lucy liked the Todd track - I encourage her to check out the rest of the Something/Anything? album, there are many other treasures to discover there!
Thanks! I’ll pass that recommendation along.