Andy Mackay
Saturday, 30 June 2007
There are so many LP’s with only one track on it that I really like, that I think it would be a great idea to start a daily blog about such LP’s. Not that I am going to write it, but maybe you have time for such a project? I was thinking about great tracks on really lousy LP’s. There are many LP’s with one song on it that sticks out, but often the rest is not that bad. LP’s that are totally boring crap, except for one song, are pretty rare.
The LP In search of Eddie Riff by saxophone player Andy Mackay is examplary in this category. I remember when I first played it: the openings track is a stomping version of a tune by Richard Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries, so I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of the LP. HA! Overexcited, and with growing amazement, I needleskipped through the thirteen other songs, only to return to the openings track, to assure my self that it is as really as good as I thought. Well, it was, and it still is. Just as the other 13 songs are still just as boring as I thought on first hearing. (I checked it again before I wrote this, because I don’t want to talk more nonsense than I already do.)
The cover of the LP is not very promising. So, in fact it is a good cover, because I would be disappointed if Island, who released this LP in 1974, had used the photo on the back as a cover, because that would have been a much better cover.
Here is the song you are waiting for, Ride of the Valkyries.
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(Often, when I am excited over a new bought LP, I am tempted to speedlisten to it. I try to control myself and not do that. First of all because I think that every LP should be treated with respect. Secondly because this behaviour is a sign of pathologic record collecting. And last but not least because I cannot get the thought out of my mind, that “playing” an LP in one minute causes the LP to be less good as it would have been if I played it as I should. I know that this is nonsense, but I tell it you anyway.)