I remember watching this concert live (IIRC) on MTV in 1982, and recording it via a mono VCR to a 3-head cassette deck, passing through one channel to the other to add tape delay to make it not sound so mono. What really sent the shivers up my spine was the break from the interlude after Play The Game Tonight. Kansas was by far my favorite band at the time.
Carry on Wayward Son
Play the Game Tonight
Fellowship Church’s version of TSO’s Carol of the Bells (amended with God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) reminded me of what has to be one of my favorite songs typically used at Christmas time, O Come O Come Emmanuel. It too has gotten some modern air time with some enjoyable variants, here are a few that I enjoy, including a version by yours truly from about 10 years ago. See my previous post for FC’s version.
Aaron Shust – this is probably the one with the best groove, and some astounding bottom end.
Phillips, Craig & Dean, this is the first modern adaptation I heard over 10 years ago (which is what inspired me to take a crack at it.)
Steve Martin, while not as groovy, it think it’s very tasteful.
And lastly, my version, all sounds were created by a Korg M1.
Just copy-catting Van, but this vid rocks!
Trans Siberian in Service from FC Post on Vimeo.
If you’re a [Christian] throwback, you’ll groove on this podcast. Full Circle Jesus Music. I got into the Christian music scene in 1982, and at the time my secular favs were Kansas, Boston, Styx, Journey, AC/DC, Rush, REO, Heart, et al. But they play some stuff that even pre-dates me, across the gamut to daring to play Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” which was controversial at our local roller skating rink on Christian music night. At any rate, you’ll hear some stuff that was never released on CD AFAIK, including some Fireworks. And with a little help from Fission, you can tuck those select tracks into your collection for direct access.
This has got to be the most meaningless post I’ve done yet, but if you’ve ever had an obsession about finding “the” version of some 70’s TV theme song, like the theme from “S.W.A.T.” or the Rockford Files, look no further. I have this CD and can vouch that it matches (as best as I can recall) the versions I remember hearing as a child, and is priced well too.
I saw this article today in my local paper, very interesting indeed. Not that this is an issue for live sound, but something to note nonetheless (as I crank up the Multiband Compressor on a speech track.)
Another similar article.
And another.
This article states something that I’ve been thinking on for some time; that there’s a direct link between our schedules – how much time we have, how busy we are, and the dynamics of the music we “have time for”. Back when I was single I had all kinds of time to kick back (picture a sunlit room, nice wood floors, pleasant wall coverings, a single over-stuffed chair, not a clock or phone in sight) and philosophize about the texture and resonance of Phil Keaggy’s acoustic guitar on “The Mission” off of “The Wind and the Wheat“, and I could appreciate the nuances of Richard Souther’s tracks and the wide sound stage that made some effects sound like they were coming from another room and yadda yadda yadda. It didn’t have to have the “disco smile” on it to be enjoyable, it could be a little forward in the mids and not be irritating – because I wasn’t in a hurry to be someplace with my nerves already on edge. But now, though I still have vintage audio gear (mostly gathering dust), I really have no time for it. I grab an occasional listen on my computer (lossy compressed source material and stock computer headphone outputs – gag me with an oxygen-free patch cable!) The moral of the story? I just wonder if the race will ever end, can we say “no” a little more often and not be overbooked by 25% everyday? I believe it’s the strategy of our adversary to get us so busy we can’t really connect with Jesus, we can’t really commune. When’s the last time we were up late at night to pray because we couldn’t go another day without it? We see Jesus do this several times in the gospels because He refused to go on anything less than a full “tank” – knowing the purpose of the day to follow.
Could we say, our lives have become highly compressed with little dynamic range?
PS, this doesn’t change my philosophy on recording speech because the practical side is; it’s extremely distracting to try to listen to a sermon that goes from screaming to a whisper in 2.3 seconds. It can be distracting enough to largely negate the desired intent of the message.
Tim Daniel has been in the music business for over 20 years, he’s a psalmist, pastor, and freely distributes his music. I was blessed to be able to help him digitize his earlier material. Find my favorite picks of his material on this page.
On “Vision Beyond” there’s some star studio musicians at work; Shane Keister on keys and one of my favorite drummers of “AD” fame, Dennis Holt (he also plays on this track which I used at my wedding.) Shane also does some moving work on “O Sacred Head” from Tim’s first album. His sons accompany him on later albums on bass, keys, drum machine, engineering, they’re a chip off the ol’ block!
UPDATE – 1/16/07
Tim’s son Jason emailed me this additional factoid:
“I see you put that his first album featured Shane Keister which is true. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but when he decided to walk away from Nashville to go independent after ‘A Vision Beyond’, he recruited the help of a then unknown co-songwriter and studio musician known as Steve Chapman for ‘The Day of the Lord ‘project. Obviously he would later become known as Steven Curtis Chapman.
We heard his first demo song at this time that he used to pitch his producers to get his start as a solo artist. The song (Simple Ironies) actually never found it’s way onto one of his CDs as it was picked up by Dion for the Velvet and Steel CD.
Anyways, Steve helped with the producing as well as the background vocals, all of the drum programming, most of the electric guitar, most of the bass (I did it on ‘My Sheep’) and most of the keyboard (my brother [Chris] did some) for ‘The Day of the Lord’.”
See a much younger Tim here.
Anyone who’s a parent faces things in their lives that they don’t want to see duplicated in the lives of their children. And we all have fears of how we might fail. What we do with those fears makes all the difference in the world – do we let them immobilize us in the present, or do we let them motivate us for the future. On and off since my first child was born there’s been the image of a song in one of the “rear-view mirrors” of my life, the classic “Cat’s In The Cradle” by Harry Chapin. I can relate to the child that’s raised through the story of this song, a child that wasn’t invested in by his father and therefore is content to live life with his father at a long arm’s length, since that’s all the better he knew him. Are we content to live with God the Father at a long arm’s length? It’s a constant reminder to me when I get distracted or obsessed with other things – like this website that the few in cyberspace who will get some value out of it (hopefully there’s some…), or those that benefit from my efforts on some project, won’t be there on my deathbed. But my children, if raised properly, will. We must “Pass The Flame“.
What’s in your rear-view mirrors?