And Now For Something Completely Dated
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
:: Ayatollah, Let 'Em Go! ::
:: Wings To Fly ::
Hi,
Ok, I know, we've been sloughing off lately. We go for months without posting, then we come back and post 3 or 4 times, then go away again indefinitely. We've been doing this for years now. I mean, we had 2 or 3 really good years that make up the bulk of what we've done, and I'm proud of that, but when it comes down to it, Record Robot is like a shark; it has to keep swimming or it dies. Or does it?
We keep thinking we can revive it, and bring it back to some semblance of what it was before (a functioning audio-blog), but for the most part we're satisfied having a living, breathing digital archive available on the interweb for anyone who seeks it out. We love Google too. Google searches wield all kinds of interesting fodder for us to thrive on, so keep sending those comments folks. Don't get me wrong, we love Record Robot, it's just that it's a lot of work and we're not willing or able to do it most of the time.
Which brings me to this record. I bought this probably 4 or 5 years ago with the expressed intention of exploiting it on Record Robot. Any record called "Ayatollah, Let 'Em Go" By June Wade and The Country Congregation is dying to be exploited on the Record Robot, right? I had a chuckle upon my initial listening, then set it in a pile destined for Record Robot greatness sometime in the future. Apparently that future is (finally) now.
Which brings me to another subject: The new year/decade. Jesus, it's another new decade!? Y2K seemed like it was a couple of months ago. If I'm still around in 2020, 2010 will feel like a week ago Thursday.
Obviously this record was recorded/released in 1980. Or at least I make a broad assumption based on it's subject matter. The sheer naiveté of the songwriter's intention is pretty dog gone funny. As if they were thinking the record might become a big enough hit that perhaps Ayatollah Khomeini himself might hear it be suitably impressed by the spirit and passion of the singers as to release the hostages, or something like that.
Oh, the b-side, "Wings To Fly" is much more along the lines of the kind of material JWaTCC was known for. I almost didn't include the B side because is munched. I think whoever the original owner of the record was, they preferred this side, and played it lots of times on a crappy turntable with a needle that ate the grooves in short order. Also, this song was mastered about 2 db below the A side, so I tried to compensate for it, but then more surface noise came to the top. It's almost worth it though. Hang in there. I'm tellin' ya, it's almost worth the slog.
So, Happy New Year Record Robot readers, and let's hope that in the next decade, Record Robot will be updated each working day with new music and insightful creative writing. Also it would be nice if there was like world peace and stuff. You gotta hold on hope. (and on a personal note I'll add:) It's the last thing that's holding me.
Mike
