Kansas remasters

Following from my liking for structurally simple uncomplicated songs about romance I slowly graduated toward more complex music such as that by Kansas ( I couldn't really get into four sided concept albums) but the majority of their albums I had were on tape so I was mighty glad to get this cd set recently.

Beginning in the 70s from their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, the group produced a wild mix of rock anthems, introspective ballads, and loose jams on their studio albums.

Many of you have heard of "Carry On Wayward Son" on Classic Rock radio stations which was a smash hit for the group back in '76. Well that's from an album called Leftoverture that happens to part of this extremely cheap 5 cd set."Dust in the Wind" (off the featured '77's Point of Know Return album) is hardly indicative of the full-bodied, keyboard-and-violin-fueled anthems that grace most of their albums.

The albums included are:-

Kansas (S/T)

Song For America

Masque

Leftoverture

Point of Know Return

The discs are the Sony Legacy remasters from the 2000's that happen to sound extremely good to my ears coming with bonus live tracks too in card lp style covers.

I have the US 1996 re-master of Monolith from 1979 featuring the hit People of the South Wind as well Audio-Vision which had the hit Hold On.

I first bought Drastic Measures as a lp record in August 1983 shortly after its US release and following a selling off period in the late 80's while I was trying to build up my cd collection, I have been without a copy!

This was a pity as it was a enjoyable album the Prog rockers when John Elefante joined the band taking lead vocals.

It came out briefly on cd in 1996 and I bought a copy although it is long period out of print (England's Rock Candy re-issued this title a few months ago but that not as good sounding)

The song Mainstream takes a pot shot at the label people who stifle artistic development and Fight Fire With fire is a up tempo rocker.

YouTube - Kansas - Fight Fire with Fire

I also got the matching 1996 Legacy cd of  Vinyl Confessions the 1982 album with the hits Play The Game Tonight and Play On both of which shared as did most of tracks the bands strongly felt Christian beliefs.

My boarding school life

 Encountering and talk with someone for a few week rather got me to thinking a little about writing something about my boarding school life although my own pictures seem to have disappeared over the years.

So you wanna know about boarding school?

Well I went when I was 11 and 1/2 and it probably as as well as there were lots of problems at home revolving around Dad that were affecting me emotionally.

As much as I'd love to say I went to this gorgeous old building with orchard and that, it was actually a very modern boarding school on the edge of a small town and as close we got to an orchard was a field with wild poppies growing in it.

The school was what you call co-ed taking both girls and boys in it.

I quite liked it because it gave me security, a host of friends and more of a chance to be myself because for once I was in the right place at the right time.

When you mention boarding schools people tend to weigh in with opinions from either 'my Island horror story' or 'the very making of me' but oddly enough I think the best portrayal is in fiction specifically Enid Blyton's Malory Tower or St Clares series that you might possible of read before those who had it in for Enid removed her books from libraries in England tossed in with the boyish wit of Jennings of which I read a lot at the time.

Her portrayal is very similar to my experience in that it's a multifaceted thing because you are part of a social unit who live and breathe together for all of the time so everything is that much bigger. The good and the not so good.

If you live away from people as I did it's a great thing because you have a ready made supply of playmates available from daybreak to sunset from different backgrounds plus my family had issues amongst themselves (they still do sadly) so it provided a bit of an escape from them.

I suppose the first thing to say when I arrived was there were more boys so when the first morning had began it obvious the head boy had rather more to 'take care of' trying to settle in so standing very nervously by the wall, the Head Girl puts her arm through mine and says "I'm Jo and I'll take care of you".

This leads to the biggest tear stain heart to heart ever as I explain what stuff is like at home and why I really hate how I looked to the point of hurting myself deliberately (we'd call it "self harming" today) all with a vocabulary of a nine year old as my English wasn't terribly good then. She doesn't really understand it all but says she'll help me which is good enough.

By a stroke of luck while the individual Dorms are gender separated, they alternate along one long corridor so you could see them about and talk in the common room or in the grounds.

By a bit of persuasion I was able to get to play netball and rounders with the girls as I wasn't much good at rugby or cricket and swimming was mixed.

In my school, the  Dorms for us held about 3 or four to one room in which  which you can put up some of your own things such as posters, action man figures and you could have your own tv and tape player.

In the evenings the Subbuteo table was out and all us boys would be around it going hell for leather to make our teams players win which was little different from the recess football matches we'd start and inevitably send the ball on to the flat roof to the consternation of our headmaster.

If you wished although in the common room where you could read watch tv and have drinks before getting dressed for bed and lights out. No talking ever after lights out!!

Generally we could play in our dorm, the hall, outdoors in good weather under supervision, in in our common room although that's where we'd listen to music mainly in and sometimes we could arrange activities such as cubs or school would take us out to places like the movies or the theatre especially when we were older.

The other side of being in a boarding school was you had to accept this space had rules and you had staff who would see you looked after yourself when it personal appearance and hygiene because that was their responsibility.

We also wore uniform outside class grey skirts for girls or trousers or at a push depending on the staff shorts for boys like me with grey or red jumpers and white tops -nothing really fancy (I'd of loved a blazer!) which I didn't mind cos at least nobody was able to be nasty about clothes you had.

If I was lucky the girls would make me over in a skirt and white pereline socks which was marvellous.

The first thing you learned in your first term as that the 'social ground rules' were different, so If anyone said anything catty regarding another it would last well beyond communal mealtimes and 'broadcasting' your thoughts willy nilly or making wild accusations was a very silly thing to do cos the group would be upset for ages and you couldn't escape it.

You'd pretty much have to apologize to the person and the group and take whatever sanction they'd apply so we all could move on and you could be spanked by the staff during the day and for certain things outside school hours.

In hindsight that was the best training for using the internet ever ('Everything seen cannot be unseen') as well as being very useful in large organizations dealing with group issues.

So you see my school experience was actually pretty good not because of some big edict from above but just from being flexible and showing compassion.

Hollies studio albums on cd

Well apart from some bad rain Tuesday night, it hasn't been a bad ol' week at all as far as the weather goes having been out a bit. Indeed the sun is shining very brightly as I type this out. 

The Hollies: Bus Stop c/w Stop! Stop! Stop! The Sound: 

The most striking thing is the lack of grey harshness compared to my experience of the 6 CD box Clarke, Hicks and Nash set that is remarkable value for money in some ways (and no doubt the same on the individual stereo/mono cds) and a sense of more resolution that is most marked on Bus Stop. Stop Stop Stop is the re-titled US issue that is the same as the UK For Certain Because album which is a gem of the Hollies 60's output. 

For once I did feel like turn the volume right up and noticed the 'scale' increased sounding like you're surrounded by a beat group with real dynamics sound lacking the oppressive buzz of limited mastering. 

There's some good low end on this cd. 

To summarize, If you're looking for the best currently available For Certain Because on cd then this is it outperforming the UK EMI editions and Bus Stop as much as it is a hodge podge of tracks over two years does gel reasonably well giving you good versions of the songs from their respective UK tape sources.

BGO also issued the first two US Hollies albums, Here I Go Again which comprises of a selection from their UK lp Stay with the Hollies with singles and b sides while Hear! Here! is essentially the same as the UK Hollies album of 1965 bar two tracks changed for I'm Alive and Look Through Any Window. 

This disc is all mono which is as well as those early stereo mixes weren't to great as either stereo or punchy sounding. 

Having completed my collection of the 2011 BGO discs my attention moved toward the last full year of the Nash era Hollies, a period of rapid change across the entire pop music scene and within the group itself.

In essence Graham Nash wished for the group to expand musically and lyrically in the way such luminaries as the Byrds, Beatles and Beach Boys had upping the 'Oh Wow' feel rather than producing perfect two and half minute pop songs, feeling that with December 1966's For Certain Because album they'd shaken of the mantle of recording other peoples work.

What he could not of foreseen is the way the singles and albums buying public would divided into two camps and the attempt to main pop success by the old standard of hit singles would eventually lead to a situation that he'd leave the band as he felt increasingly he was writing songs that couldn't supply them with the hits they required.

Telling the first album Evolution, as issued in the UK had no lead single and announced to the World the Hollies had embraced psychedelia where as the issue by Epic Records who'd acquired North American rights from Imperial rejigged it to 10 tracks from 12 and made Carrie Anne a hit single the opening cut. 

This album and it's follow up Butterfly were remastered in 1999 by Peter Mew for EMI and suffered as did the whole series from the misuse of noise reduction leaving it sounding dead and tonally grey.

In the UK in 1989 BGO did issue on cd both albums in their UK form and in 1999 Sundazed did but based around their US configurations.

In the case of Evolution the tracks orphaned from the UK release are placed at end of the cd re-issue adding Open Up Your Eyes, Jennifer Eccles and Signs That Will Never Change at the end.

The Sundazed cd in STEREO SC 6122 does sound very good being mastered by Bob Irwin at Sony Music from the UK tapes.

In November 1967 the follow up album Butterfly was issued which in my opinion is a more cohesive set of tracks seeing the band sing about Astral Plains and seeing all the colours of the rainbow in Try It, invoking child like wonder on Pegasus and chord changes on Dear Eloise.

For all of that it's still a beat album by the Hollies although with the benefit of hindsight Elevation Observations amongst others sounds like a Crosby Stills and Nash song before they all hooked up.

The North American version was re-titled as Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse featuring these two US Singles cut to 11 tracks adding Leave Me from the UK Evolution album.

Thankfully when Sundazed re-issued it on cd as SC 6123 they reinstated the UK sequence adding the US only tracks immediately afterward and well as Do The Best You Can in stereo.

BGO issued it briefly on cd as CD BGO 79 and it's a close call between the two for sound (I just about prefer the Sundazed).

King Midas is the US mired in reverb squashed stereo where is the orchestration? version: The best sounding stereo one is on the 1991 Epic Anthology.

It's been commonly held that Graham Nash's exiting the Hollies was the step back from sophisticated pop but I'm less than convinced of it even if some of that studio trickery and backwards tapes era stopped. 

For one thing the unique vocal sound, a sound Terry Sylvester more than filled the missing Nash's shoes as part of, soared for much of the late sixties into the mid 70's on such classic records as The Air That I Breathe. 

For another sophistication lyrically wasn't a million miles removed from what Graham himself did as part of C,S,N & Young and for me nowhere is more evident than on the 1970 album Confessions of the Mind. 

 Altered in that irritating America knows best level from this UK 13 track album to the 11 track Moving Finger it show their concern about relationships in such numbers as Little Girl dealing as it does with the impact of relationship breakdowns on children and the notion of having given something your all, in returning home, head held high for trying in Gasoline Alley Bred.

Thankfully when making an excellent job of reissuing it in 1997 Sundaze reinstated the missing 2 tracks from the UK original and as with the other two discs Bob Irwin mastered it well from the UK tapes. Catalogue number SC 6125

Going back a little to that mid sixties period, unfortunately there's not a really good cd of Would You Believe out there as it wasn't issued in the states as that and BGO in the UK have yet to issue the album with 8 of its songs "Beat Group" that was issued instead probably as there's not a studio album to match it up with in a 'twofer' package even though Sundaze have re-issued it in mono on lp. 

That lp sounds wonderful. 

In the end I've decided to get the now deleted UK EMI 'ORIG' stereo&mono cd as this had less extra limiting applied to it than the later two on one by EMI in mono. 

This has the folk flavoured Fifi The Flea, a cover of Buddy Holly's Take Your Time, I'll Take What I Want and Hard Hard Year a song whose maturity was to show just where they were headed in a matter of months. 

My modest hope is BGO will issue Beat Group on cd in mono with Imperial's 1967 release Greatest Hits and add Stewball together with I've Got A Way Of My Own as bonus tracks. 

Lost Canal pictures

Well well well! After last weeks scary moment I'm feeling much better and have been busy doing Something Else over the weekend. As well I have my broadband back.

A friend seemed to like the boat picture I took and obviously loves the Trent & Mersey canal part of which goes through here to Runcorn via Northwich. Also if I'm not mistaken wasn't there a tv program called Rosie and Jim set on a narrowboat shown over here???

Anyway the upshot of this is I've decide to post a couple of pictures I took three years ago but get messed up on my old camera so not previously published on this blog or any other site so it's a kind of exclusive for you!

The first is of a Narrowboat decorated for a Festival that passed this way with flowers and plants the second taken during the summer when we have a lot of boat people pass by and use our stores.

Moved on

On March 31st last year I wrote about the process that I was to be put through to bring forward my post puberity s3xuality and expression learning to act on s3xual needs to bring that side of me more into line with something more like my peers.

As a matter of interest I did take one these emergent tests to see just where and how things had moved on to.
 

You are that rare species of sissy: submissive and dirty but with a measure of restraint that marks you out as the perfect maid or secretary to serve an alpha mistress. 

Most sissies are either too c*m thirsty (and act in an unseemly manner) or too frightened to perform or*l/an*l when push comes to shove. 

You however have the perfect little mouth/slit to serve your superiors with modest efficiency. 

You're h0rny....but controlled; dirty...but honest; and are clearly cognizant of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not.

It is obvious I have moved forward so I should be recognized as a person who should be included in s3xual discussion and capable of consenting to s3xual intercourse respecting my additional needs because of what had happened to me.

Miss D had this to say last year "When you can get to the point where you want to be sexual in a feminine way and learn to do so, then the pathway going forward is quite clear. For most gurls, that seals their destiny. It really doesn't have much to do with whether your partner is male or female then...

Why don't you just say it, you are attracted to men. So simple...  x x wants what men can do to them."

That's one way of putting it. I've accepted my  s3xual cravings and innate sexuality and I am glad for what was done to me

Being an emotional real inner kid

 For me what people call age regression has a different kind of a meaning, it's not that may not involve age playing in the sense of not being, not acting as an adult but rather while some play with characters with very fixed characteristics that may include a specific age not unlike most other kinds of role playing to me it's not role playing.

That is because I have a  "emotionally real inner kid"  who has a part in this which involves a very deep and personal connection when in age play that any adult sense of self isn't there so what you have is a fragile side of me that is looking for healing through this and so not only has child-like vulnerabilities through being at a developmental level a child but additional ones because a person in such a situation such as mentor, 'Foster parent' or Caregiver to being hurt by careless individuals who aren't sensitive to my needs being with them.

To that extent as far as is possible then for all intents and purposes, the hearts of inner children such as me should be treated with as much sensitivity as you would treat a real, biological child even if the law says the outer wrapping is 'adult'. 

The relating pattern will always be that of grown up, parent or guardian  to the child me so when you are involved at such a level emotionally to me, it needs to be an emotional commitment that is for the long haul and not just dropped when the next object of attention comes along.

When you do, you may very well be breaking the heart of someone who looked to you to protect them, to take care of you, to guard you. When that person vanishes suddenly and it has, it is disruptive to the healing process as an inner child I'm undergoing, and it does more damage than simply leaving a role playing site or just some girlfriend with which you were previously associated.