HW: The Quest for Levitation

[Stephen Swann]

Alex S. Garcia writes:
>
> Reminds me of when I started hunting out for BOC albums ! The oldest ones I
> had to buy in the States while on a trip there, cause I just couldn't find
> them anywhere here in France (and I tried in several cities, though not in
> Paris - where I 'm sure I would probably have found them). Well, OTOH, I
> must admit it took me "only" a year (maybe two) to get all the BOC albums...
> well, I'm still missing the 3 live ones, actually. Hmm...

I'm tempted to say, "Don't bother - BOC was never much a of a live
band anyway," just to see how much a shit-storm I could brew up.

But even I'm not that crazy.  ;-)

Nor, for that matter would I lie, just for the pleasure of watching this
list burst at the seams.  :-)

Anyway, you really should get yourself a copy of either _On Your
Feet_, or _Some Enchanted Evening_.  This is foundation-stone material
we're talking about, here.  I can't really recommend one over the
other.  _On Your Feet_ has more of the really great old tunes, but
_Some Enchanted Evening_ has the most fabulous rendition of
"Astronomy"...

> >Try listening to that one with the headphones on.  It has multitudes of
> >sound layers that kind of get lost in the mix unless you have really
> >great speakers.
>
> Well, actually I *did* have headphones on since I was listening to it at the
> library. But the sound quality was very poor and one of the speakers in the
> headphone wasn't working, so I wasn't really listening to this in stereo !
> *sigh*

You weren't even listening to it in stereo?  Then, I'm afraid to say,
you haven't even heard the album.  Whatever people might say about
_Levitation_ (it's not a great favorite amongst Hawkfans because it's
probably their most "mainstream" rock album), the fact is that it has
the best production values, and the most delicately textured sound of
any album they ever did.  They must have actually had <gasp!> a budget
on that one.  :-)

> >If you like _CotBS_, you'll almost certainly love _Live Chronicles_.
>
> Safe bet. Sounds logical to me. Though I'm always a bit hesitant to buy a
> live album... especially when I already have the material in it in a studio
> album. But you say there's other stuff on it, so I might give it a try...

Don't let that part about "already having some of the material"
detract you.  _Live Chronicles_ is an *epic* live album - it's much,
MUCH more than what you hear on _Chronicle of the Black Sword_.

You can thank me later.  ;-)

Steve
swann at panix.com