{"id":81,"date":"2007-08-10T05:57:42","date_gmt":"2007-08-10T11:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/?p=81"},"modified":"2014-03-22T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-23T04:28:08","slug":"this-lost-boy-back-from-the-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/this-lost-boy-back-from-the-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"This Lost Boy, Back From the Wilderness…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many years ago (1988), I took my girlfriend-at-the-time to see Roy Harper<\/strong> play live.\u00c2\u00a0 He was supported by a young singer\/songwriter\/guitarist called James Varda<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 The gig was excellent, and I was so\u00c2\u00a0impressed with James Varda, that I bought his debut LP, Hunger<\/em> (direct\u00c2\u00a0from the record label , as HMV didn’t carry it).\u00c2\u00a0 It didn’t disappoint, with the best lyrical imagery this side of thin-wild-mercury Dylan, and some powerful use of a semi-accoustic 12-string.\u00c2\u00a0 I must have all but worn out the grooves on that album.\u00c2\u00a0 A year or so later the girlfriend left me and – I found out later – took the album with her.<\/p>\n

I’ve been quietly bemoaning this for years (the loss of the album, not the girl…). Every so often I’d search the\u00c2\u00a0Internet hoping to find that it had been re-released on CD, to no avail.\u00c2\u00a0 But then a month or so ago, I came across a company (cdBBQ<\/a>) on the Internet that offered to track down any vinyl record you wanted, and burn it to CD.\u00c2\u00a0 They even listed Hunger<\/em> as one of the albums they had (although I suspect they just listed every vinyl album ever released, as when I placed my order I got a reply saying that they were ‘trying to locate a copy’ of the album).\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, I took up the offer and ordered it.<\/p>\n

Last week, the package finally turned up.\u00c2\u00a0 It included a pristine copy of the original vinyl album (complete with lyric sheet insert, and plastic sleeve), and a copy of the album on CD-R – and as a proper CD, not just MP3 files of the songs.<\/p>\n

Despite yearning after this album for so long, I couldn’t bring myself to put it on for the first couple of days.\u00c2\u00a0 Hunger <\/em>has been swimming around in my head for almost 20 years, elevating itself to near mythical proportions, and I was apprehensive in case it wasn’t as good as I remembered it being.\u00c2\u00a0 But it turns out that it really is.\u00c2\u00a0 And I remember\u00c2\u00a0it pretty well too (unlike the girl, whose name I can barely recall), being able to sing along\u00c2\u00a0to just about every song.\u00c2\u00a0 I was also pleased to find that it still had the intensity and earnestness I’d credited it with.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to it now, I can just picture Varda straining forward with the urgency<\/em> of it all – as I’m sure he was when I saw him live all those years ago.<\/p>\n

Obviously, I ripped it to my iPod, but I\u00c2\u00a0also gave the vinyl a spin (yes, I still have a gramophone<\/em>…),\u00c2\u00a0and was happy to find that the CD is actually a pretty good quality recording of the album.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, it’s significantly better (clearer, and more dynamic) than some ‘real’ CD re-releases I’ve bought.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening through headphones, at high volume, there’s a very slight background hiss between tracks that gives away the fact that it was copied from vinyl, but apart from that, it’s pretty damn good.\u00c2\u00a0 For the technically-minded, here’s what cdBBQ (say they) did:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Professionally cleaned the record.<\/li>\n
  2. Converted the record\u00c2\u00a0to digital format on audiophile equipment, including a Creek Audio Class A phono preamp, a Music Hall or Audio Technica turntable, and a phono cartridge by Goldring or Grado Audio Technica.<\/li>\n
  3. Applied a sophisticated noise\/hum reduction process.<\/li>\n
  4. Split the recording into tracks, added CD-Text song names,\u00c2\u00a0and recorded it all onto a 24K gold-plated CD.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For an additional fee they’ll apply several additional levels of noise and pop\/click reduction, and scan the cover art and print it on the CD and CD case, but as I knew I’d be ripping it to MP3, which is going to reduce the quality anyway, I passed on that.\u00c2\u00a0 As it was, it cost me about US$70 (GBP35 at today’s rates).<\/p>\n

    Was it worth it?\u00c2\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not sure I’d do this for every album I’ve lost (such as my very first album\u00c2\u00a0– a Gary Glitter<\/strong> double-album), but for the occasional special album (which this is), certainly.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel kind of guilty that James Varda didn’t get his royalties on the CD (although he has had royalties on two albums off me, now…) but I’ll\u00c2\u00a0mitigate my guilt\u00c2\u00a0by ‘bigging him up’ here:\u00c2\u00a0 James Varda is great!\u00c2\u00a0(I’d rate him over Roy Harper, who himself is grossly underrated.) \u00c2\u00a0Go buy his debut album, Hunger<\/em>!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, that’s right, you can’t…<\/p>\n

    December 29th 2007<\/strong>
    \nWow.\u00c2\u00a0 I just got an e-mail from the man himself – James Varda – to tell me that Hunger<\/em> has finally been released on CD (and to send me a new copy – what a guy!)\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to think that this post had something to do with that, but it’s more likely that they planned the CD release and then were searching the Internet for reviews and stumbled across this site.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever the reason, it’s rewarding\u00c2\u00a0to know that someone I wrote about actually read\u00c2\u00a0this blog.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes\u00c2\u00a0three years of blogging all worthwhile.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, Hunger<\/em> is a great<\/span> album.\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u00c2\u00a0take your singer\/songwriters seriously, you should get a copy. You won’t be disappointed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s available online from Amazon.com.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Go buy it.\u00c2\u00a0 Now.<\/p>\n

    Now, whilst I’m at it, here’s a list of CDs<\/span> that have been stolen from me over the years:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • All About Eve<\/strong> – Scarlett and Other Stories<\/em><\/li>\n
    • Melissa Etheridge <\/strong>-\u00c2\u00a0Melissa Etheridge <\/em>*<\/li>\n
    • New Order<\/strong> -\u00c2\u00a0Substance <\/em>*<\/li>\n
    • Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds<\/strong> -\u00c2\u00a0The Lyre of Orpheus \/ Abbatoir Blues <\/em>*<\/li>\n
    • Public Enemy<\/strong> – Fear of a Black Planet<\/em><\/li>\n
    • Simple Minds<\/strong> -\u00c2\u00a0Live in the City of Light <\/em>*<\/li>\n
    • The Doors<\/strong> – Greatest Hits *<\/em><\/li>\n
    • Van Morrisson<\/strong> – Best Of Vol 1<\/em><\/li>\n
    • Van Morrisson<\/strong> – Best Of Vol 2<\/em><\/li>\n
    • World Party<\/strong> -\u00c2\u00a0Bang!<\/em>*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      If the culprits (whether whatshername or someone else who ‘lodged’ at my flat) are reading this, I’d like these CDs back.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I went out and bought the ones marked with an asterisk again, so you can keep them, but you owe me something from my Amazon Wishlist instead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Many years ago (1988), I took my girlfriend-at-the-time to see Roy Harper play live.\u00c2\u00a0 He was supported by a young singer\/songwriter\/guitarist called James […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[42,75],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-music","tag-music-2","tag-nostalgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}