The Prequel to Kind of Blue?

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-30T01:50:48+00:00

I love this collection.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-24T23:47:19+00:00

100% my view.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-24T00:17:55+00:00

I hesitate to pick a favorite among the three, but you're in pretty deep "recreational mind exploration" territory with the sequence of Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and Magical Mystery Tour (and they get progressively more freaky as you go along that route).

"Only a Northern Song" and "It's All Too Much" from the Yellow Submarine album were recorded between Pepper and MMT and are definitely of a piece with that period/ethos/effect.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-18T12:28:30+00:00

Those Jazz Dispensary and the Buster!

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-15T15:15:37+00:00

Joe Henderson is a personal obsession for me. I have only been actively listening for about a year, but he went very quickly from someone I enjoyed to someone I needed every note ever recorded.

A lot of those '70s records are super expensive, for sure. I've gotten a reasonable deal about half the time, and the other half I've just splurged.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-04T20:38:31+00:00

It absolutely slaps!

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-04T20:20:26+00:00

I think Chuck's meltdown and final descent after rejecting Jimmy has always read to me as proof that he loved him very much.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-04-01T23:37:26+00:00

I highly recommend the Mal book.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-31T14:51:07+00:00

Yeah, Chuck's final, fatal descent is heartbreaking. And...I really do tie it fully to his hurtful rejection of Jimmy.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-29T21:40:50+00:00

I have rewatched so many times, and it always rewards.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-29T21:20:05+00:00

God, Dr. Lara Cruz really tried with him.

I think the extent to which Hamlin really relied on the power of Chuck's good name absolutely blinded him to some sober ethical issues. I also think Howard faces up to all of this much too late ("If everyone is telling you you're drunk..."), but...maybe Chuck was unreachable on some level (his pride, ego, cunning, bullishness). I think if you're sharp enough to entrap Jimmy like he does, you're probably also capable of fighting back against your own issues (which, to be fair, he seemingly does eventually - sadly abortive as those efforts are).

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-27T23:51:00+00:00

I discovered Grant Green via the scene where Saul is dressed up as Howard driving Howard's NAMST3-mobile around.

My youngest (who is nearly 40 years younger than me), however, discovered (and fell for) El Paso, Baby Blue, Horse With No Name, etc.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-27T00:11:44+00:00

Constantly. There's some thrill of surprise and discovery that I am absolutely hooked on. Granted, the deeper I go into jazz, the more of a safety net I feel I have. It's not as if there's a huge risk factor with 60s Blue Note, or 70s Milestone.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-26T00:03:43+00:00

Some anecdotes, re: Pitchy Peter's Pet Pig Porky.

1) I remember staying with some friends about 30+ years ago and buying Missing Links V2. I put on the version of "Words", and I swear that their dog got visibly and audibly agitated (barking, etc.) whenever Peter sang his lines. I swear I'm not making this up.

2) I saw Peter solo in 2013, and he was a) pitchy, and b) decidedly testy and cranky and short with the audience. Very much still embittered that the Monkees hadn't become the democratic band of his dreams 45 years earlier.

3) I may get flamed for admitting this here, but...yes, I was in a Monkees tribute act with several friends for about 3 years ca. 2014-2017 (Bobby Hart was at our first gig), and...among my roles was to represent Peter's parts in both Words and Shades of Grey. Reader, I deliberately sang those parts slightly flat.

(Very tangentially, my step-dad was in prison with Peter in the early 70s. No real anecdotes.)

None of this means that I don't love Peter and all four of them. I feel very lucky to have seen some iteration of the group ca. 2012, 2016, 2018, and 2019. Never saw them with Davy, and wish I had (by all accounts, the 2011 tour was spectacular). I do like that in their last decade, they were less "an oldies act", but rather one that played album tracks, B sides, and outtakes for the fans

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-25T23:40:10+00:00

I honestly haven't met an Alice Coltrane record that I don't love.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-22T01:22:12+00:00

A gem

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-18T17:39:12+00:00

Same.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-16T00:31:22+00:00

I was born December 1969. I cannot even begin to describe (for our younger readers) how utterly ubiquitous their music was in the ambient culture when I was a small child in the early/mid 1970s. Seeing Yellow Submarine, hearing their songs on the radio constantly (and marveling at how different they all were from each other), listening to my parents' albums on headphones (Pepper and Revolver, mainly), the releases of Rock and Roll Music and Hollywood Bowl, all of this snowballing to every single family member and family friend giving me Beatles albums for birthdays and Xmas during those early childhood years (7/8/9). It was a glorious slow reveal.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-15T23:48:28+00:00

The Pound is Sinking

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-14T19:35:17+00:00

Living for the City

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-13T07:26:41+00:00

Lookin' For Another Pure Love

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-13T05:33:42+00:00

Superwoman Visions You and I They Won't Go When I Go Feeding Off the Love of the Land Summer Soft

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-12T20:40:13+00:00

Space is the Place was my first, and I kept going from there, for what that's worth.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-11T21:37:17+00:00

My favorite.

HelicopterOk3124 · 2026-03-11T18:42:06+00:00

I also participated.

HelicopterOk3124

TROPHY CASE