Billy Joel's Greatest Hits revisited

Suprisingly the last and only time we mentioned Billy Joel was February 2024 and that was to note after a long hiatus from recording anything he'd issued a new single.

Billy Joel and me go back a long way late 1977/1978 actually in that period Elton John was off the charts, he snucked in and grabbed my attention.

Suffice to say I bought whole albums by him, all currently on cd or hybrid super audio cds but no records but way back - well around this time 1985 - I was enjoying You're Only Human (Second Wind) which was the lead off single for a compilation of his called Greatest Hits Volumes 1-2 issued around that time on record and tape.

The main strength of that compilation was having the original edited singles versions all in chronological order that really showed how great he was at writing and performing songs and these songs are amongst my most favourite of all time.

Songs like, Piano Man, Moving Out, Only The Good Die Young,My Life, It's Still only Rock and Roll To Me, Allentown and Tell Her About It take me back to people and places and on August 22nd this was reissued on record.

Thus I bought it for the pleasure of just plunking the stylus down and enjoying the times and memories in the way I was used to back then.

It was the quietiest pressing I've had in a good while do for just £26 was a bargain.

Taking a step back to be the best you can

Cooler week this week which helps with me normally bein a bit on the warm side and also when it comes to getting things I like in from the shops like ice creams and lollies.

Everybody is a bit different, some more extrovert, others not, some go headstrong into things while others are more cautious, being fearful, some struggle taking things in.

Credits: eggs doodz

What may not phaze you, may well do that to another, perhaps getting a little emotional so we all exhibit differences and none are necessarily wrong or right but what matters is we try to understand each other, listen, showing support.

It's never wrong to care.

Updates for the toolbox

It's been a hot week so feeling a bit rundown here but we've been doing a few things like reducing some of legacy bits and bobs connected to the hifi which needed bits and things unscrewing.

I doing do much around that (or d.y.i) cos of my hand issues but sometimes you might need to so I did get a new set of screwdrivers.

This have relatively short handles that can help in fiddly spaces, tilting tops and a magnetizer which isn't something I'm likely to need as getting anything magnet around tape or record devices is the last thing you need but if you've taken anything apart and had screws land anywhere or not sit where they're not meant to you'll appreciate.

They are very well made with a mixture of popular sized flat and cross-head fits.

They'll prove useful over the years.

Round ups from the couch

 Been a bit of a rough week of which Wednesday was really a big drop from the energy front after being out so I was yawning alot and struggling to keep the peepers open while keeping an eye over the forum looking out for anything that needs attention and where Orion is providing A.I. based relevant art rather well matching what the site is really about as much as we have to issue the odd reminder to folks.

It's been replacement time as a couple of stylus's wear starting to show signs of wear so I needed to order them up - I keep a few less exacting ones around for less than perfect records where a trade of absolute fidelity works better for less noise on things like me original 45's.

Talking of which I'm reading a book about one group I rather loved whose 45's come in that category which I may say more about Monday but it's gripping and more around life from inside than a facts and figures sort.

Christmas came early too with a couple of things ready for then as christmas stuff always starts production and distribution especially around now ready for a few months time so they'll have to filed away here.

Sun is out so time for a glass of milk and a biscuit!

87 Years of The Beano

It's Friday, we enter a new Month and by coincidence we do mark an anniversary many of us are glad of even if you may no longer be a reader of.

On July 30th 1938, the Beano was born by Dc Thomson of Dundee, Scotland and if you look in those early decades of the Beano you will detect a bit of that scottishness even though it's very much british centric as many of its illustrators back then were scottish, drawn from the Scottish media empire they had and the cartoons in those newpapers.

While that picture is fantastic for showing a man inroducing a modern child to the very first edition of The Beano ina world very much different than today where values and childhoods might seem a world away the comic isn't quite as it was published.

Looking at the top left of masthead of the front page that illustration of a black child eating a watermelon has been taken out of the copy we see in the top picture.

Now I will say that has racial overtones I cannot endorse but such attitudes were not uncommon 87 years ago in adults and inevitably the spilled over to children having read children's encylopaedias of that era with text many of us today would strongly disapprove of .

The only sensible way to deal with such things is to talk about them and explain why those attitudes, words and phrases are wrong thatwe should not use them rather than airbrushing them out of our history.

Facing challenges in its early years thanks to Mr Hitler and those evil Nazis waging war on us with paper shortages, children found comfort in stories they could relate to and laugh loud at while in the decades the way the stories would be told changed from illustrations and text to the more modern speech bubble and changed times as society altered.

By 1967 it had reach it's 1,000 editionwith many staples we all know such as Dennis The Menace, The Bash Street Kids Biffo Bear and Minnie the Mix having come in and if you were reading the Beano in the 1970's and 80's you'd feel quite at home with that apart from the change of currency we went through.

In time some comic strips that we enjoyed but did have some racial stereotypes like Little Plum went and some of borderline "queerbashing" in Dennis The Menace  directed at Walter got toned down as as a society and as children we did begin to understand to be more respectful of differences and cultures as our society itself evolved.

In the nineties full colour came in and we moved from small newsprint to A4 glossy paper as slowly traditional humour comics dropped off to to today where the Beano is the only survivor of the old school comics.

It's moved a bit more toward a magazine format, is more inclusive even if I feel it can be too heavy going around some topics at times - kids like a laugh and a joke and stories that are entertaining not slavishly earnest but it is here.

A link to the past, a window on modern childhood as unimagable to us today as forty or so years today might be.

Happy 87 years!