My weekend vinyl pleasures

In trying to keep up my little space on the web, I thought I'd go through my playlists that won't get posted: my vinyl listening.

This weekend, while pounding away at the keys, and not wanting to be distracted by putting on the TV, I just dug out some LPs. Got the ION turntable plugged into the computer anyway, and was intending to screen all my vinyl to start listing them on GEMM. I am admitting right here, in my scramble to leave no penny unturned, I'm discussing my listening with an affiliate link to the iTunes store.

Iggy Pop, Lust for Life (1977) remains, how shall I put it, "timeless." It's title track is a tribute to Iggy's long career as a heroin addict that would never get airplay if recorded today. It was used in its proper context in the movie Trainspotting, then was appropriated by clueless advertising execs for a cruise line's TV campaign. How Family-friendly!

Renaissance, Novella (1977). Even if you've had it with Prog Rock, this is a slightly refreshing package, made different by having a female lead singer in Annie Haslam, and a greater emphasis on classical and European folk elements over rock, though sometimes it's every bit as bombastic as Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

David Bowie, Alabama Song (1980). From Kurt Weill and Bertoldt Brecht's Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny. Apparently this was pushed out in 1980 as a way to hasten the end of Bowie's contract with RCA. Bowie sure sounds like he could do justice to the material. My German import 12" had it backed with Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam." I got it for the "B" side, "Space Oddity," but found it was a 1980 re-make. Whose orchestration sounded a lot like "Mother" by John Lennon.