That Same Old Obsession - The Millennium Project That Same Old Obsession Excerpts from a life: 1949-1999 The Millennium Project That Same Old Obsession - The Millennium Project I started collecting music when I was 11 years old. Having been brought up on a diet of classical and banal pop music we inherited an old Dansette autochange record player which came with someone else’s collection of 45s. Pat Boone's April Love/When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano got a good hammering in our house for a while. But in 1958 I was ready for something fresh and new. When I visited my sister Sheila during the school holidays, my new brother-in-law suggested that rather than just go out and buy records 'willy nilly' (£1 birthday money went a long way in those days!) I should collect a particular artiste. I had been thrilled by Lonnie Donegan's 'Grand Coulee Dam' and loved that acoustic sound he got so he was top of my hit list for a while. Then I heard 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' by the Everly Brothers (we didn't have a TV in those days and I thought they were black!) and my life changed from that moment on. So take a bow John Benfield, you changed my life and everyone else's who has come into contact with me since! From a few scratchy 45s in 1958 my collection had grown by a few scratchy EPs (3 x EP = 1 LP on a newsboys wages) by 1960, and (lo and behold) a stack of scratchy (mono) LPs a couple of years later. Gradually I added stereo versions, I never got rid of anything, and the scratches became slightly more acceptable. Then I taped them and played them in the car. I even experimented with Digital Audio Tape in the mid-80s but it was the commercial acceptance of Compact Discs that really changed my life. Over the past 10 years, the last decade of the 20th Century, I've been acquiring my record collection all over again. I've added a lot of things I didn't get first time around and of course discovered many hidden gems I never knew existed. The idea for this project came to me on 22nd May 1999 as I was on my way to my friend Roger Pearl's shop in Worthing. We talked about it and agreed a target date of 31 July for completion. What was intended as a quick visit to buy some recordable CDs turned into a mini-shopping spree which included a second minidisk player and a stack of blank MDs. "One small step for man……… " - the Millennium Project was under way! I have tried a number of times to get my life story down in words and music but always been left dissatisfied with the result. Now for the first time I could rifle through my racks of CDs and dump the highlights onto a series of compact digital music carriers, play around with the running order, add things, delete things at will. I probably drove the family mad during that time but what's new? Hazel and Patrick had bought into the idea of a 'Millennium Tape' but Hazel was convinced I was already losing focus. I convinced her that it was a necessary process. I went through the lot, even dug out a bit of vinyl and a few tapes! And that is what this project is all about. My life story in 74 minutes of music, with a few explanatory notes thrown in. All of the musical energy my family and I have experienced over the past 40-odd years is captured onto one 74-minute CD. I've only allowed myself one track per artiste although as I set the rules I've also broken them in a couple of small places. It's had a couple of working titles. "Thank You For The Music" I liked but it had too many ABBA connotations. 'That Same Old Obsession' is a Gordon Lightfoot song and one of my favourites although the track itself is not included. That Same Old Obsession - The Millennium Project On 7 August – a week late but we each took some blame for that – Roger and I swapped the first cuts of our Millennium Projects. I again felt guilty that I had not included an Elvis track on mine (‘I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone’ is on Volume 2!). However I really didn’t get into Elvis proper until much later on and I think Roger will forgive me because we talked about early and late influences. On the other hand……….. Early Days Faure - Requiem My first memory is from my 3rd birthday, sitting at the bottom of our stairs at 7 Highland Croft, Steyning. That’s why the sub-title of this project is ‘Excerpts from a life: 1949-1999’, which of course belies my true age! Ours was not an especially musical family but we did have a piano in the lounge and my two sisters played it reasonably well. I can remember lying in bed as a small child and going to sleep to the sound of the piano and a recorder wafting up the staircase. I suppose my one regret is that I didn't persist with the lessons myself, and I continue to struggle with the 3 basic chords on my Everly-copy guitar. My father had a passion for church music and I was enrolled into the church choir at a very early age. This piece reminds me of harvest festival, I don't know why, but I can smell fresh-baked bread and freshly- picked apples every time I hear it. Mendelssohn - The Hebrides, Op 26 Having been brought up on church music, light classics and banal pop (how much was that doggie in the window?), I was ready for this by the time we 'studied it' at Steyning Primary School. I seem to remember an accompanying film all about Fingal's Cave but on reflection I'm sure they weren't that technologically advanced in those days so perhaps we just had a very good imagination! That Same Old Obsession - The Millennium Project The Fifties The Sun Keeps Shining - Everly Brothers As I'm only allowed one Everly track let's start (almost) at the beginning. In November 1955 when this was recorded, I was 9 years old and had certainly not heard of the Everly Brothers. But in 1958 when I was already heavily into their music I was enthralled to learn that there was this single that I had never heard. It became something of an obsession until I bought it for myself as a very expensive Christmas present one year. How bizarre that the producer, Don Law, calls out '1998' as the master number just as the young Don (18 at the time) and Phil (16) finally get the intro right. This was my first 'credit' on a record sleeve as I collaborated briefly in 1981 with Richard Weize of Bear Family Records when he issued a maxi-single which contained the four tracks recorded at that session. Two of them were previously thought to have been destroyed. Leave My Woman Alone - Ray Charles Through the Everlys I got to know the music of Ray Charles. They recorded two of his songs, this one included, on their very first Cadence LP and continued to re-arrange some of his classics on a number of their albums over the following 10 years. Later on of course 'Brother Ray' revisited his own Country roots and in 1962 he cut a couple of stunning albums which were really his (rather brassy) interpretations of modern country classics, including 'Bye Bye Love'. He continued to feature country songs in his performances and on his albums and 'Wish You Were Here Tonight', recorded in 1982, remains one of my all-time favourites. I got back into Ray's music in a big way at Bob Rosemurgy's house in September 1998 when we discussed the links between his and Mickey Newbury's music. The Sixties Sweet Dreams - Don Gibson When this was recorded in 1960 I didn't know there was a type of music called 'country'. Even when I got to hear Don Gibson singing 'Sea Of Heartbreak' a year later, it was just another form of pop to me. It took Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and of course the Everlys to educate me and I've never looked back. This song has always been special to me - the Everlys' version on their 1963 album, 'Great Country Hits', has to be the best with Don's rhythmic lead, Phil's soaring harmonies and that wonderful combination of electric and pedal steel guitar on the bridge. Then Don re-worked it for his first solo album in 1970 (an arrangement that was faithfully adopted by Emmylou That Same Old Obsession - The Millennium Project 6 years later on 'Elite Hotel') - Gibson himself repaid the tribute by inviting Don to sing back-up on his version of 'Maybe Tomorrow' in 1975. And of course there is a link to the previous track on this collection as Ray Charles included no less than 3 Don Gibson songs on his 'Modern Sounds' albums in 1962. Teensville - Chet Atkins From 1958 onwards I was into guitar heroes, and have been ever since - of course the Everlys with their matching black Gibsons, but also Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran who's guitar playing was as important to me as their vocals.