Monday, December 21, 2009

Photo/Album: Post 6

Welcome to the winter solstice 2009. It arrived at 11:47 a.m. CST today at Leech Lake. Therefore, for this installment of the Photo/Album series I thought I'd use a winter photo and an album that the band began recording in December, 1966.

PHOTO


This is a view of Sucker Bay looking north as a mid-winter's storm is brewing. The photo was taken on February 25, 2007 during a trip when my son Joe and I spent some wonderful time on the ice fishing, digging ourselves out of a massive winter blizzard and inside our warm house playing games and listening to music.

The Northwoods is a great place any time of the year, but there's something almost magical being there in the winter. The first thing that I always notice is how peaceful and quiet it is at Leech Lake during the winter months. This photo seems to capture that feeling for me.

ALBUM


I still remember hearing The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for the very first time. I had purchased the album at the record store at the local mall, came home to my parents' house, went into my bedroom, removed the shrink-wrap plastic from the LP and placed it on my turntable. Although I'd been listening to The Beatles since I was in kindergarten, nothing had prepared me for listening to Sgt. Pepper in its entirety. Wow!

There is a very good reason that Rolling Stone magazine named Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the #1 album of all time -- it's simply incredible. From the method the LP was recorded to the breakthrough artwork on the cover to the stellar music itself, there's nothing lacking in this record.

Recording for the LP started in December, 1966 and the album finally hit record stores in June, 1967. I purchased it years later, but to me it was as fresh and incredible as the day it was released.

In case you need a refresher, here's the first song on the album, the title track. Enjoy.

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