by James Wallace Harris, Monday, December 25, 2017
Much can be revealed about myself from examining my Christmas presents this year.
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) – Blu-ray
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) – 2-CD 50th Anniversary edition
- The Complete Monterey Pop (1967) – 3-disc Blu-ray edition
- Trouble No More by Bob Dylan – live recordings 1979-1981
I already own various versions of these works. This is the fourth time I’ve acquired Sgt. Peppers (LP, CD, remastered CD, and now remastered again 2-CD).
I wish I could say my wife knew me well enough to have picked these out, but they were all put on my Xmas-2017 wishlist at Amazon by me. Susan actually knows what I like, she just can’t keep up with what I buy. All the other items on my wishlist, except the Arduino starter kit, were pop culture items from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Is being stuck in the past a sad state of psychology, or just normal for a 66-year-old guy? One reason why I keep rebuying the past is to get higher resolution recreations of art I resonated with from my teen years. I generally never got to experience the Sixties directly except for a few exceptions. For example, I got to see Cream live on their Farewell Tour in 1968 in Miami. I never got to see The Beatles, The Byrds, or The Beach Boys in the 1960s. I didn’t attend Monterey Pop or Woodstock. I got to see a lot of legendary bands in the 1970s and later, even ones who got their start in the 1960s, but that’s not the same.
Until I started getting Rolling Stone Magazine in 1968, most of my news of rock and roll pop culture was highly delayed. It was mostly gossip told by DJs or news items in Life, Time, or on television. The Beatles were always in the news. Most of my favorite bands didn’t make it to television except for cheesy fake performances on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971), American Bandstand (1952-1989), Shindig! (1964-1966), Hullabaloo (1965-66), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-1969). I remember one time catching a great segment on Jefferson Airplane on the Today Show, where they demonstrated the liquid light show. Made me want to run away to San Francisco.
In a way, buying these old recordings is like trying to return to the past. I know that’s impossible. Maybe a better way of looking at it is to say I admire artwork from a particular era. That too is revealing. I feel closest to all forms of pop culture from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. I also love work from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and stuff from the 1980s through today, but there’s a powerful affinity for art created for us Baby Boomers. I’m in-sync with modern television and movies but completely out-of-sync with the contemporary music scene. (Maybe I’ll catch up one day before I die.)
It’s interesting that one of my Christmas gifts is from the 1979-1981 era when Bob Dylan was going through his Christian phase. Back then I bought Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980) and Shot of Love (1981) as they came out. I even saw Dylan live during this time period. But I didn’t feel for this era Dylan like I did for 1964-66 Dylan or 1961-1963 Dylan. Listening to this new bootleg series of 1979-1981 performances I realized I had missed out on something great. Dylan had left me behind, and now I’m catching up.
Am I really hearing the 1960s again? This time when I played the new version of Sgt. Peppers it was both the same and subtly different. In 1967 when I first heard the album, I played the LP on my little console stereo. That technology defined the sound for back then. Today I played it on a Denon AV receiver through four floor standing Infinity speakers. The sound filled the room and Susan and I felt like we were in the middle of the soundstage.
I’ve always admired Sgt. Peppers as a concept album, and loved many of its songs, but I’ve never played them heavily in repeat fashion like I do all my favorite tunes. Sgt. Peppers feels like a music hall performance that needs to be listened to from start to finish. It never sounded better than it did today. This remastered edition felt airier than the last remastered edition, and I thought in a few places I heard things that weren’t there before. Of course, that’s probably tricks of memory. I rediscovered once again what a wonderful work of art this album represents for The Beatles and the 1960s. Just buying Sgt. Peppers again and taking the time to listen to it intently with no interruptions makes it worth the dollars.
Merry Christmas! What did Santa bring Y’all?
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 
Marry Christmas, James. 😀 and to all you hold dear.
My music tastes would probably dovetail nicely with yours. My interest in ‘pop’ music waned about the time someone decided the only way to experience it was to play so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. 🙂 … probably somewhere around the 80’s and the advent of ‘house’ music. (which is the demon-child of disco) … if one must be stuck in a music time warp, there are worse ways to go. 😀
I think my musical tastes would intersect with yours (but with much divergence as well). For example, I’ve bought exactly the same versions of Sergeant Pepper’s as you, over the years. The new version (and I also have the 2 CD one, not the huge deluxe box) is remixed, by the way, not remastered.
When the remastered Beatles discs came out in 2009, I went straight to the music store to look for the black box set. It was sold out, so I picked every disc off the shelves and went home with an entire armful of them. It was true love.
Why do we hold on to the past in this way? Well, look at the name of your blog. It’s a way to keep the great things from the past a part of your makeup; to keep yourself whole. It’s a spiritual thing. If you live to any significant age, the past is slowly (but, alas, surely) erased. I don’t want that. I want to take it all with me.
Santa’s haul this year was much more modest than yours, due to the drastic decline in spendability around here, the last few years. But it was a happy time, nonetheless.
I’m living in the Past, too, but not all the way back to the Sixties. Santa brought me JUPITER CALLING by The Corrs, a new CD by a group I loved back in the 1990s.