Re: "NotS" and CD players...

[harvard!topaz!jerpc.PE.UUCP]

> Someone mentioned "Night of the Swallow" on TD and I somehow feel
> compelled to exclaim that (at the moment) this is the best thing I
> have ever heard!!!   It's simply GLORIOUS!!!  But words can't
> describe it...

I said that, and I agree with you... musically, "Night of the
Swallow" is the best song on that album.  (Lyrically, "All the
Love" is.)  I must admit I like that song partly because it is
so Yes-like, due to the abrupt transitions between contrasting
but connected themes.  Topographic Oceans has a lot of that.
I also like the particular harmonies in the passage you referred
to below, which again is very Yes-like to me.

> Anyway, of more interest to the rest of the list, I wanted to ask
> what the instrument is in "Swallow" that accompanies KB through the
> passage that begins just after "Take them over the water..."  and
> includes "Tonight's the night of the flight..." (or something like
> that).  It's the sort of continuous, haunting, high note that tags
> just a tad behind her voice through this part of the song. 

I listened to that a couple of times, and I am positive it's a
violin (besides which, it says "fiddle" on the sleeve!).  Near
the end, where sings "Let me--let me go", you can hear the bow
picked up off the strings and put back down again distinctly.

> I'm ready to plunk down the bucks for a CD player and some disks to
> start a collection (let's see, that'll be 3 KB's and some Floyd...)
> and wanted to find out what advice others on the list would give.
> I really want to keep the player down to around $350 or less.  I
> will eventually plan on a car unit as well.  One suggestion I've
> had is to buy just the SONY portable.  I suppose it will plug into
> my home receiver and serve as a home deck.  A friend has wired his
> into his car system and it sounds great.  Also, you don't have to leave
> it in the car to get ripped off.  Does this sound like a good idea?
> Can anyone say whether the SONY portable sounds as good as a home
> CD deck on the home stereo?  Is it just a toy?  It is sort of a
> compromise in that it may not have all the nifty features one wants
> in a home deck and it looks a little hard to load while driving, but
> that would sure be a cheap solution.

One of the folks in my office has one of those, but I have never
heard it; he thinks it is OK.  I was thinking of buying one
myself, from 47th Street Photo, just before I bought the one I
have now.

But I recommend the one I have now better.  It is the Magnavox
(actually North American Phillips) 1040SL-2, which I bought on
sale at Service Merchandise for $165.  I bought this model
because one of the hardware types in our office here claimed
that it was supposed to be exceptional in terms of
price/performance.  I think this is true.  Strangely, there are
2 sets of specifications out for it; the ones that come with it
on the instruction sheet, and the ones published in reviews of
it.  The ones published in reviews are much better than the ones
on the instruction sheet.  It certainly sounds good, and due to
minimizing cognitive dissonance and all that, I always believe
that the better specs are the right ones... 

However, I must point out that I am not a proponent of "bells
and whistles" on stereo equipment, and so always buy equipment
that is devoid of special features.  This one doesn't have all
the digital keyboard buttons, etc. that the others have;
actually functionally other than the ability to program
arbitrary sequences, it works exactly the same as my turntable
(one of those microprocessor-controlled Technics models): you
can scan forward and back, pause, start, stop, skip to the next
selection (or previous), program an arbitrary sequence, and make
it repeat.  Other than the time and index number displays,
that's all the controls it has...

I do feel it is a good CD player, though.

> pps. I love early Bowie, like "Changes", "Hunky Dory", and "Ziggy..."

Well, I'll tell you... I am not a big fan of David Bowie, and
get really ANNOYED that when I go to my local record store here
at the Belz Factory Outlet Mall, literally 15-20% of the CDs
there are Bowie CDs!  So I guess you will like that.  It seems
like this guy must have produced a hundred records, and got them
all put on CD immediately.  I can be looking way down in the YZ
section, and here's a David Bowie CD someone has misplaced.