The Blog Starts Here

Starting this blog has made me feel almost the same way I did when Frank Sinatra died and I wrote in the pages of Stereophile that when I became a music writer, lo those many dark-haired days ago, I knew that someday I'd have to write a Francis Albert obit. When the blog craze first began to gallop, I knew intuitively that someday, I too would be sucked into the immediacy maw and be lured into venting my opinions, valuable or not, in the blogosphere.

What the hell do I plan to say? In my everyday life here in the seething Apple, I end up running my mouth, ah, I mean interacting, on the phone and in person, with all sorts of musicians, club owners, music business employees, in short folks in and around music. Given the fact that Stereophile is a monthly, much of this info, slash almost substantiated gossip, goes to waste. In addition much comes in Page Six form, and so is not appropriate for a feature story or even a column. I intend for that to be one fertile source of blog fodder. In addition, I have opinions, God knows, that occur day and night and which may hopefully elicit opinions from those in the Stereophile community and beyond. And while music will ostensibly be the topic, everything else, i.e. wine, women and sports—a triumvirate better known (and better stated) by Homer Simpson as "Football, potato chips, boobies"—will I’m sure become a part of this. It’s hard to hide obsessions that are rooted that deeply in one’s soul.

So welcome. I'll try not to bore you. Or drive anyone crazy with too much intimate ranting, too much ill timed, ill thought out humor or too many deliberately outlandish statements about which Seventies acts remain underappreciated, which Beatles songs would have been better off as ballads than rockers or how global warming really isn't a farce. I'll try and keep it short, sweet and worth a look. And please keep those comments coming

COMMENTS
John Atkinson's picture

Just remember the Golden Rule, Robert: NO DEEP PURPLE OR MORRISSEY! :-)

Monty's picture

Discussions about women are always enhanced with pictures! As for global warming, yeah, we are probably going through a period of increased Solar activity that will have an impact on the climate. This has happened a lot in the past and will no doubt happen a lot in the future. I don't think we have figured out a way to alter Solar activity. When you get a chance, google The Year Without A Summer and read what happened back in the early 19th Century when an Indonesian volcano erupted, pouring an estimated 6X the amount of atmospheric pollutants into the air compared to man's entire contribution since the dawn of time. New York experienced sub freezing temperatures in July! Crops were destroyed and a mini famine ensued. On a more positive note, Naplolean had his hat handed to him and Frankenstein was born.

wes fyck's picture

Two words. Kyle Riabko!

ken micalef's picture

Glad to see Robert Baird joining the ranks of E-audio writers. Now if only we can get him to cover something other than every John Hiatt and Tom Waits CD that arrives on his doorstep! Really, though I don't agree with the style of records that Robert assigns or reviews in SP (yada yada), he always manages to make them sound pretty damn interesting. No easy feat! :)

ken micalef's picture

And Deep Purple's Burn and Stormbringer albums rule!!

Jon Iverson's picture

And don't forget the classic and great MACHINE HEAD!!

Robert Baird's picture

And let us not forget Who Do We Think We Are. Hey, no excuses," it's oxlike blues rock at its very finest. I mean this is the braintrust that wrote the immortal lyric: ""But some stupid with a flare gun"," Burned the place to the ground."" That said", the classic Mark II lineup, with Gillian (vcls) and Glover (bass), is where the classics (?) came from. The twosomes that proceeded and followed the Mark II lineup in those same spots: Rod Evans (vcls) and Nick Simper(bass) before and David Coverdale (vcls) and Glenn Hughes (bass, vcls) after, are minor league talents compared to their middle period counterparts. Also DP was more a band--as opposed to collection of hair band hired guns--during the Mark II era than at any other time. Much as I like Fireball, the legacy really lies in three records only: Machine Head, Made In Japan and Who Do We Think We Are.

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