Rebuilding ones portable collection, part III

Today I just finished the final touch to the Card.

I spend what seemed like a long time copying all my Rush albums including a number of  specialty gold and super audio cd 'audiophile' discs in Mp3 last summer but not getting around to transferring to a card.

I decided to cherry pick the period of Rush's work I find myself coming back to listen to, that's  to say from their first album the rather Canuck version of Led Zeppelin with John Rutley on vocals to 1989's Presto taking in the classic Fly By Night, 2112, Farewell to Kings, Hemisphere's and Moving Pictures albums with a shedful of unforgettable songs and playing.

I also decided to put it in Flac (Lossless) for full cd quality and hunted down the original covers for those specialty issues for the best possible sound and backed it up on a seperate USB memory stick.

Rebuilding ones portable collection, part II

To join the new Card with the Kansas albums I added a number of albums by similar artists.

Journey were I band I liked but whose style evolved very much  from their early more prog/jazz rock side to full blown so-called adult orientated rock during the 1980's with songs like Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin', Don't Stop Believin' and Separate ways.

Chicago are a 'guilty secret' with me and I chose the original CBS/Columbia Greatest hits  for their 1970-75 hits and the above European compilation for the late 70's and 80's taking in  songs like Hard Habit To Break and If You Need Me Now.

The album in it's original form most who had a cd player in the mid 80's bought for it, Dire Straits defies easy categorization and I put this and all the previous albums on to the card.
I love their musicianship.

Hello Again! This was the very good specialty remaster from early 2009 of their 1984 top selling album and joined everything from The Cars (1978) to  1987's Door To Door taking in Candy-O and Panorama.

Elton's beyond categorizing but is responsible for a large number of unforgettable songs  so all his 1969-1984 albums including Goodbye Yellow Brick Road were added with some later choice titles such as The Captain and The Kid.

Styx was a staple of mine during the 70's and early 80's (Mr. Roberto anyone?) so they just had to added to the contents.

And in this batch of copying, in in lossless (44.1/16) all 8 studio Roxy Music albums and the compilation from 2012's Roxy Music box set. Prairie Rose anyone?

Rebuilding ones portable collection

I'm still working through recopying some of my albums for my music player as the masters are still stock on the dead laptop I can't unscrew by myself so that's been keeping me busy over the last few days which isn't so bad as I've not been able move far with damaging my left leg yet again (that side of me is 'weak' for medical reasons and easily damaged).

Up on the re-copying list was all five Police studio albums and the first two Sting Solo albums in their MFSL gold cd versions as I've always loved them, having them on cassette and minidisc for portable enjoyment.
I also have the police albums on 8 Track including Syncronicity from 1983!

As well the Eagles related artists albums such as those by Joe Walsh (and the tremendous James Gang) and Glen Frey of which I have a number on Audio Fidelity and MFSL 'audiophile' editions. Funk#49, Life's Been Good and Sunset Grill are staples of my classic rock playlist.

And finally all the Kansas band albums from the 70's and 80's that had again were stuck on the hard drive but copied this time to so-called lossless full cd quality so I can hear songs like Carry On Wayward Son, Play The Game and Fight Fire With Fire in tip top quality on the move.

A little light music

I'm sorry this is a bit late but I got caught up completing some things that really couldn't wait this last week or so.

During that time I've been listening to  Shadows in the night, a ten track album by Bob Dylan of  so-called songs from the great America Songbook many of whom are associated with Frank Sinatra, that came earlier this week.
I felt the way he song them added a certain poignancy, lifting them out of their easy listening context and the arrangements, space as they are captured using old techniques at Capitol's own studio in Hollywood allow that to cut through just perfectly 
I got the HD audio download as that's a bit better sounding from regular cd.

As well I did buy way back in October, the current Taylor Swift album, 1989 although I had to replace my copy as it skipped toward the end. It features the hits Shake It Off and  Blank Space.