#spaceacesunday — Public Fediverse posts

SpaceAce Sunday | Buffalo Springfield (1966, Canada/US)

Our next Self-Titled Summer spotlight is on number 1054 on The List. And, as it was submitted by our dear friend J aka SpaceAce, this is technically a SpaceAce Sunday. Why not on a Sunday? Well. Today is a year since he left us. A whole year. Makes no sense at all.

I knew I wouldn’t want to write this post so, after noticing that the next submission from J was a s/t, I started the whole Self-Titled Summer series to psych myself up. That didn’t work though, as I wrote the last STS post a couple weeks ago and have been stalled on this since. I even did a full listen-through of Carly Rae Jepsen’s entire discography to see if that would help (J was a HUGE Carly fan). But it didn’t.

So, if you don’t mind, rather than giving this album – Buffalo Springfield’s debut – the regular STS treatment, I’m just going to leave it at a few random thoughts I had when I gave it my first listen, just over a month ago, and imagine what J would have to say about it.

• Seems like the perfect SpaceAce pick to land on today, given J’s origins were also Canada/US.
• I did not know Buffalo Springfield was a Neil Young band or that they’re the ones responsible for the fantastic protest single “For What It’s Worth”, a song I’ve always absolutely loved. As soon as I pressed play on this album and heard the first few notes of that song, I literally smiled and thanked J out loud.
• There are variances in the tracklists, depending on what version/medium you’re listening to. Only some include “For What It’s Worth” (recorded after the album was first released, then added for the reissue a few months later), either as the first track or somewhere on side B; “Leave” seems to be on different sides depending on the variant; and “Baby Don’t Scold Me” is missing completely from some variants and streaming services (swapped out for “For What It’s Worth”).
• Aside from “For What It’s Worth”, the other stand out track for me is “Out of My Mind”, with Neil Young on main vocals.

Thanks, J. Love that I’m still learning from you.

You are still very much missed.

• Songlink: Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield
• Discogs: Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield

#1960s #BuffaloSpringfield #countryRock #folkRock #music #musicDiscovery #NeilYoung #psychedelicRock #selftitled #SpaceAceSunday

Frost and Fire, Part 1 – SpaceAce Sunday Edition

When I sat down to search for a streaming link for our next SpaceAce Sunday, I realized that we, in fact, have two albums on The List with the title Frost and Fire: The Watersons’ 1965 folk debut, and Cirith Ungol’s 1981 proto-doom/heavy metal debut. Given that (a) The Watersons’ album contains a few Xmas/Xmas-adjacent songs, and (b) I, like many of you, am rather ambivalent towards the holiday season at best, I wanted to offer up both albums at this time of year as if they were both Xmas albums, even if one is only partially an Xmas album and the other can essentially only be considered an Xmas album due to proximity, or, say, in the sense that Die Hard is an Xmas movie because it takes place on December 24.[1] In doing so, we can each choose for ourselves what level of holiday music we want to expose our ears to. And, because SpaceAce Sundays are clearly limited to Sundays, we will first spotlight SpaceAce’s Frost and Fire, i.e., The Watersons’ album, and then, on December 24, we will spotlight Cirith Ungol’s take on the title.

The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)[3] (1965, UK)

And so, today we go back to one of the first albums SpaceAce submitted to this project, number 481 in The List.

I think it’s fair to say that SpaceAce must’ve loved this band/family, seeing as this is the third album of theirs we’re looking at thanks to him. As noted in the liner notes by A. L. Lloyd[2] (who we met in a previous SpaceAce Sunday), this album collects traditional ceremonial songs, not just from around the winter solstice but from each season:

Seasons of anxiety, seasons of joy. The common people had their rites of propitiation and triumph, older than the rituals of the Church and closer bound to their daily lives. This record takes us through a year’s calendar, displaying songs that accompanied these ceremonies, season by season…

When the Christian church arose, it ranged itself against the beliefs and customs of the old nature worship, and prudently annexed many of the seasonal ceremonies. Thus the critical time of the winter solstice, a rich period for pagan ritual, became the season of the Nativity of the new god. The season of the great spring ceremonies became the time of his slaughter and resurrection. So it happens that in many songs on this record pagan and Christian elements are inextricably tangled…it’s necessary to recall that behind most of these calendar customs and the songs attached to them lies nothing more mysterious, nothing less realistic, than the yearly round of work carried out in the fields…For it’s due to their relation with economic life, not to any mystical connection, that the song-customs have persisted right up to our own time.

That’s the sort of Xmas songs I can get behind.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and, if you wish to listen to this Frost and Fire, let’s take a listen together. Otherwise, let’s meet back here Tuesday for a more metal take.

• Songlink: The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)
• Discogs: The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)

[1]To be clear, Die Hard is most definitely an Xmas movie. I will not be taking any questions at this time.
[2]The liner notes are reproduced in full here.
[3]Note the cover of the US pressing that I’ve included here doesn’t include the subtitle found on the original UK cover, but this one is so much cooler looking (and, I believe, is the version SpaceAce owned).

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #BritishFolk #ChristmasMusic #folk #folkMusic #holidayMusic #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #SpaceAceSunday #TheWatersons

SpaceAce Sunday | The Watersons – The Watersons (1966, UK)

The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1050 on The List.

I forgot to explain in our last SpaceAce Sunday that that album marked the first of the last group of SpaceAce’s contributions. From there until we reach the end of our SpaceAce Sundays (with the exception of next week), you may notice that each album was released in 1966. This isn’t an odd coincidence. When I had finished indexing the entirety of The List, I discovered something odd: of the roughly 1035 albums we had gathered up to that point, none of them had been released in 1966, the only entry for that year being a compilation that included some singles released in ’66. Granted, there was also no albums for 1962 (again, just a compilation with some ’62 singles) and then one or none for any year earlier than 1955, but the bare spot for 1966 seemed to really stand out to me, given the number of albums we had in the few years before and after.

And so, me being me, I tooted “was no one pressing records in 1966?”…and some lovely Mastodonians promptly provided evidence that, in fact, ALL of the records were pressed in 1966, lol, and we ended up adding 16 albums from that year to The List. SpaceAce is responsible for most of those, as he took a look at his gigantic vinyl collection on Discogs, sorted by year, and made a list of 10 albums from 1966 that were worthy of The List.

And so, here we are. If The Watersons sounds familiar in this context, it’s because we’ve already had a SpaceAce Sunday looking at this family, in particular the duo of siblings Lal and Mike. As mentioned in that previous spotlight, The Watersons consisted of Lal (or Elaine, as billed on the cover of this album) and Mike, their other sibling Norma, and cousin John Harrison. The album here is their second. Next weekend we’ll be taking a look at their previous album from 1965, the first album in fact that SpaceAce had contributed to The List – it’s a holiday-ish affair, so we had saved it for the holiday season. That said, for me at least, the a cappella tunes on this album already remind me of Christmas carols, so guess I’m getting an early start.

Happy listening, all. And thank you, J.

• Songlink: The Watersons – Early Days
  • Note: I can’t find a streaming link to just the 1966 album, but it is included in its entirety (and with tracks in the same order) in this 1994 compilation (tracks 7 to 17) that also features the same cover photo.
• This Die or DIY blog post has a download link (.rar format), if you’re into that sort of thing.
• Discogs: The Watersons – The Watersons

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #BritishFolk #folkMusic #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #SpaceAceSunday #TheWatersons

SpaceAce Sunday | Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc (1966, France)

The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1047 on The List.

As mentioned in our spotlight last week on Mission of Burma, I recently started a new listening project of going through entire discographies (well, studio albums) of artists, particularly those other Mastodonians have recommended. After Mission of Burma I went through Roxy Music’s discography, and then, as I was craving a different vibe from either of those two bands and wanted to listen to someone I wasn’t familiar with at all, I decided to start in on Françoise Hardy’s studio albums. All 32 of them. Wowzers. After listening to about 10 albums (and falling in love with Hardy), I started reading the Wikipedia entries on Hardy and each album, and realized that she had been married to Jacques Dutronc, whose self-titled 1966 album just happened to be our next SpaceAce pick. Funny how things go.

So, Jacques Dutronc, husband of Françoise Hardy. I would so have loved if SpaceAce had written this spotlight, I’d have loved to hear what he had to say about this dynamic duo. Like, the two met the year after this album, Dutronc’s first of many, came out, and Hardy was already 8 or 9 albums in. Can you imagine the amount of music flowing through that house?

Anyway, we’ll revisit Hardy in another spotlight as we have her self-titled 1971 album on The List. For now, I hope you’ll give this album a spin because it is fucking fantastic. Like Hardy, Dutronc was an important figure in the yé-yé movement, with this album being in the beat/garage rock genres (I think?), with maybe a touch of mod (think Bob Dylan meets the Beatles, but, you know, in French), plus whatever wonderful nonsense is going on in the second-last track “La compapade”. So nice, I listened to it twice.

Thanks, dear SpaceAce, for leading us towards such a great rabbit hole. I may even figure out what exactly yé-yé is soon.

• Songlink: Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc
  • Note on the album title: Similar to Hardy’s albums, the majority of Dutronc’s albums were released being self-titled, and then came to be known under the title of one of the singles or most popular songs on the album. This one might be titled Et moi, et moi, et moi (as the Songlink has it), Les play boys, or Les Cactus, depending on where you get your albums from.
• Discogs: Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #FrançoiseHardy #France #FrenchRock #garageRock #JacquesDutronc #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #SpaceAceSunday #YéYé

SpaceAce Sunday | The Auteurs – After Murder Park (1996, UK)

Welcome back to SpaceAce Sundays. The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1035 on The List.

…And, unfortunately, that’s pretty much about all I can tell you about After Murder Park, lol. Though The Auteurs put out four studio albums and a handful of EPs, I can only access two of their releases, not including this one. And since the work of the late great Steve Albini apparently made the band sound unrecognizable on this album, commenting on the albums I can hear wouldn’t tell us much. At any rate, with Albini’s name on it and SpaceAce’s tip of the hat, it’s safe to say it must be worth the spin.

If you’ve heard this record, please go ahead and tell the class all about it, and/or drop a streaming link for non-Canadian folks below [edit: there is now a – limited-time only! – WeTransfer link as well as a couple non-Canadian streaming links in the comments!]. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, have a read-through of SpaceAce’s tribute to Steve Albini, up on the excellent Digital LoFi blog. (And, remember kids, don’t rely on streaming services to preserve your favorite albums – long-live physical media!!!)

• Discogs: The Auteurs – After Murder Park

#1001OtherAlbums #1990s #Britpop #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #rock #SpaceAceSunday #SteveAlbini #TheAuteurs

For what may be my final #SpaceAceSunday (forever? for a while?), I am publishing the massive post on my memories of the 80s Boston post punk scene that I was working on when J died. As I speak to in my Author's Note, the Digital LoFi blog had become in a lot of ways a conversation between J and I. Not surprisingly, when he died I put aside the post, not sure if I would finish it. And when I picked it up I found I just wanted to address J directly. So I did. To say I'm bummed he didn't stick around long enough for me to share it with is an understatement. But I know he would have been excited to read it and had lots of thoughts.

"Not saying he would’ve liked all the bands, records I’m writing about, but he loved to talk shop."

This one is for J.

https://digitallofi.com/blog/2024/11-november/notes-on-my-boston-rock-scene

#blog #music #postPunk #SpaceAce

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is number 1025 in The List.

You might notice that, compared to the number for the previous SpaceAce Sunday, this one comes in quite farther down The List. SpaceAce’s intent with his original submissions for the project was largely to bring us all up to speed on what was going on in UK folk/folk rock in the 60s and 70s. While we still have a couple more from this area coming up in future SpaceAce Sundays, most of his later additions were trying to fill other gaps in The List that still remained after the dust had settled a bit.

I can’t remember the exact context,* but one day while chatting on Mastodon we were both shocked/appalled to realize that no one had yet added a Hüsker Dü album to The List – a Bob Mould album, but no Hüsker Dü. I could’ve picked one myself but SpaceAce volunteered as tribute. Turns out, he picked the same one I would’ve.

Zen Arcade is the second album from Hüsker Dü, and is both a double album and a concept album, a hardcore opera, if you will. If you’re new to this band or just wanting to relisten to something of theirs, you really can’t go wrong choosing an album, they’re all the correct choice. But, thanks to SpaceAce, the choice is made for us today.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Songlink: Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
• Discogs: Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade

*Isn’t it ironic (don’t you think), seeing as “husker du” apparently means “do you remember”.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/06/spaceace-sunday-husker-du-zen-arcade-1984-us/

#1001OtherAlbums #conceptAlbum #hardcorePunk #HuskerDu #posthardcore #SpaceAce #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is the fourth studio album from Pentangle, number 486 in The List.

I would’ve liked to know what SpaceAce’s thoughts on this one were. To me, from a single listen, the music itself doesn’t stand out from the previous British folk/folk rock albums that he submitted to The List – it features traditional folk songs, Jacqui McShee’s beautiful vocals sound rather familiar, etc. What I would like to know is whether the fact that the final track (“Jack Orion”) takes up the entire second side of the album was thought to be strange or controversial at the time. According to Wikipedia, Cruel Sister was a commercial disaster. Was it because of “Jack Orion” in particular? Was there a backlash for straying into the prog lane, akin to Dylan going electric? Did they play the entire 18 minutes and 36 seconds of “Jack Orion” in live performances? At any rate, it couldn’t have hurt the band too much in the end, as they continued to put out albums (including a number of reissues/remasters of Cruel Sister) and still exist today.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Songlink: Pentangle – Cruel Sister
• Discogs: Pentangle – Cruel Sister

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/09/22/spaceace-sunday-pentangle-cruel-sister-1970-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1970s #BritishFolk #folkRock #Pentangle #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is the fourth studio album from Fairport Convention, number 485 in The List.

This is the only album of the 25 SpaceAce submitted that is also on the “official” list. Like many other contributors to The List, SpaceAce was quite careful to submit only albums that are “other” (i.e., that had been missed by the official list), so I’m going to take the inclusion of this one as an emphatic “you got to listen to this…or else, HA HA”.

This is the last Fairport album to feature the spectacular Sandy Denny on vocals. Denny had joined the band the previous year, and together they put out three releases. Denny is credited with nudging Fairport away from being a “British Jefferson Airplane” (i.e., worshipping at the altar of American music) towards being a full-on British folk rock band. Denny quit the band soon after Liege & Lief was released, and formed Fotheringay, whose only release we’ll eventually meet in another spotlight (not submitted by SpaceAce, but I imagine only because it had already been added to The List before he joined the project). As mentioned in our previous 6 Degrees of Separation series, we’ll also hear from Denny again when we get to Led Zeppelin IV. In the meantime, thanks to SpaceAce, we’ll lay our Denny foundation with this lovely album.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Songlink: Fairport Convention – Liege & Lief
• Discogs: Fairport Convention – Liege & Lief

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/09/15/spaceace-sunday-fairport-convention-liege-lief-1969-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #BritishFolk #FairportConvention #folkRock #SandyDenny #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is the single studio album from Mellow Candle, number 484 in The List.

I didn’t know what to expect just based on the sorta hokey album cover, but turns out I LOVE this album. Mellow Candle was formed in 1968 by Clodagh Simonds, Alison O’Donnell (née Bools), and Maria White while they were still in school, later adding Dave Williams (guitar), Frank Boylan (bass), and William Murray (drums) for this, their only album. For some reason, the band broke up the following year. I wonder why, but I bet SpaceAce knew.

Anyway, it’s really gorgeous somewhat psychedelic progressive folk rock with absolutely lovely vocals, especially those of Simonds, who would go on to sing on a few Mike Oldfield albums and a Thin Lizzy album, and then would later found the experimental band Fovea Hex, which is still active. After listening to the first couple songs on their first EP (found in the set called Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent, which features collabs with the likes of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp), I have a feeling I’m going to be obsessing over Fovea Hex’s entire discography, in addition to the Mellow Candle album. So, thank you, SpaceAce.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Songlink: Mellow Candle – Swaddling Songs
• Discogs: Mellow Candle – Swaddling Songs

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/09/01/spaceace-sunday-mellow-candle-swaddling-songs-1972-ireland/

#1001OtherAlbums #1970s #ClodaghSimonds #folkRock #FoveaHex #Ireland #MellowCandle #progFolk #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is the debut album from Anne Briggs, number 483 in The List.

As with the other folk albums we’ve listened to so far for SpaceAce Sunday, this is another artist who was apparently very influential in the British folk revival of the 60s. If you (like me) don’t know anything about Briggs, I’d recommend checking out her Wikipedia page – she sounds like an interesting person, and there’s a ton of musical connections to explore. One thing that jumped out at me was that she plays bouzouki, and played it while touring in the late 60s with an Irish band, Sweeney’s Men (it can also be heard on the second last track – and my favorite – of this self-titled album). The Wikipedia notes that the instrument was rare in Ireland (and Britain) at the time; I can’t help but wonder if Briggs’/Sweeney’s Men’s bouzouki playing laid any sort of foundation for the Irish folk community’s later acceptance of bouzouki player Mohammad Syfkhan, who we met in a previous spotlight. My mind wanders…

This album was just re-released this April as a deluxe edition for Record Store Day with an additional 7″ that has four extra songs. I would think SpaceAce likely grabbed a copy of it – if my memory serves, he posted at least a few times about Anne Briggs records.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Youtube: Anne Briggs – Anne Briggs
• Songlink: Anne Briggs – Anne Briggs (deluxe edition)
• Discogs: Anne Briggs – Anne Briggs

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/08/25/spaceace-sunday-anne-briggs-anne-briggs-1971-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1970s #AnneBriggs #bouzouki #BritishFolk #folk #folkMusic #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is a collection of holiday tunes, so we’re going to save that for a later SpaceAce Sunday and skip to the next, number 482 in The List.

This is a really lovely and eclectic collection of folk songs from the Waterson siblings. SpaceAce must’ve really dug what this family was doing, as he also submitted the first two albums by The Watersons, an earlier band that included both Lal and Mike along with their other sibling Norma, and cousin John Harrison. The Watersons had broken up in 1968 but would reform the same year Bright Phoebus was released.

I think SpaceAce would’ve had a lot to say about this one. As per the Wikipedia page, it had some really mixed reviews when it was released, presumably because it was a departure from the family’s typical work of singing traditional songs, featuring instead original songs, some of which were more poppy, some rather dark. To put in context of contemporaries, Ewan MacColl (who we met last SpaceAce Sunday) hated it, but Anne Briggs (who we’ll meet next SpaceAce Sunday) loved it. Since then, it seems to have become a bit of a holy grail, as it wasn’t repressed on vinyl until 2017, and then the re-release was pulled due to copyright issues. I wonder if SpaceAce had one of the original 1000 copies…

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Youtube: Lal & Mike Waterson – Bright Phoebus
• Discogs: Lal & Mike Waterson – Bright Phoebus

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/08/18/spaceace-sunday-lal-mike-waterson-bright-phoebus-1972-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1970s #BritishFolk #folk #folkRock #LalWaterson #MikeWaterson #SpaceAceSunday #TheWatersons

Last SpaceAce Sunday, we took a listen to the first album that SpaceAce submitted to this project. We had a sort of surrogate spotlight on the second one back in March, pointing to SpaceAce’s own post on that album,* so here we jump to the third.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen to number 479 in The List. This one is a collection of traditional sea shanties, and one of the many collaborations between Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd, both key in the British folk revival of the 1950s and 60s.

Thanks, friend.

• Songlink: Ewan MacColl, A. L. Lloyd – Blow Boys Blow (Songs of the Sea)
  • Note: CW for lyrics in the title track.**
• Discogs: Ewan MacColl, A. L. Lloyd – Blow Boys Blow (Songs of the Sea)

*SpaceAce’s piece on Forest’s The Full Circle is on the Digital LoFi blog. While our surrogate spotlight simply links to his post, you may want to check it out – in a weird tech glitch/gift, though SpaceAce’s use of the autodelete setting on Mastodon means that his comment on the Mastodon side has long disappeared, it remains on the blog side, complete with his cartoon avatar and signature ALL CAPS joy.
**I questioned pointing this out, but I feel like SpaceAce would’ve said something about it. The title track has a racist word in a lyric describing an antislavery ship; the song appears to have originated during the slave trade. There’s a discussion of the song and its various versions including this one here. The same site has an ultra-detailed discussion of each song on Blow Boys Blow and of both Ewan MacColl’s and A. L. Lloyd’s entire discographies, if you’re interested.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/08/11/spaceace-sunday-ewan-maccoll-a-l-lloyd-blow-boys-blow-songs-of-the-sea-1958-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1950s #ALLloyd #BertLloyd #BritishFolk #EwanMacColl #folk #folkMusic #seaShanties #SpaceAceSunday

In memory of our dearly missed SpaceAce, let’s raise a glass and take a listen to the first album he submitted for this project, number 474 in The List. This one is a collaboration between singer Shirley Collins and guitarist Davy Graham, two musicians who were highly influential in the British folk revival of the 60s, as was the album itself.

Thank you, friend.

• Songlink: Shirley Collins, Davy Graham – Folk Roots, New Routes
• Discogs: Shirley Collins, Davy Graham – Folk Roots, New Routes

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/08/04/spaceace-sunday-shirley-collins-davy-graham-folk-roots-new-routes-1964-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #acousticGuitar #BritishFolk #DavyGraham #folk #folkMusic #ShirleyCollins #SpaceAceSunday