Weiss Heim

Post by **BillH** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:02 pm

Back in 1979 I bought a 7" single.. remember them anyone ?
on the B side was this.

You will notice the undertones of Bachs Prelude in C Major

Given to us by one of Rock's greatest guitarists and composers...

Enjoy

PS.. forget to mention.. Weiss Heim means "White Home" it's relevant.. Like some of the pictures in the Video..

( Its one of those nights, where sleep eludes me once again... )

Post by **Horus** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:25 am

Very nice Bill, love the guitar work and the pictures are great, very tranquil and yes! I do remember 7" records in vinyl, also EP's that contained just four tracks and I even remember 78's. I also remember seeing a record that was about 18" in diameter that had to be played at the 78 speed if I remember correctly, but those were made before pop and rock records came out.

Post by **BillH** » Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:13 am

Ah ! so that's what that 78 speed was all about

I vaguely remember the 78's. they were made from Bakolite (sp) ? as I recall, they broke very easily..

While I appreciate the clarity of modern CD's and Digital music, I find the playback quality a little "sterile".
I liked the full rich atmospheric sound of vinyl so much more. But times change.

I miss the 60's and 70's.. even the colour photographs from that era look different to those of the 80's and 90's as I muse through my photo album. Then came the digital image.

Progress ? in some ways maybe..

the 60's and the 70's were by far the most innovative era for music and I am grateful for living through those decades, listening to the music evolve as it happened. I think that is why I appreciate that music more because of that.

Here's another one from "The Man in Black".. the quieter side of one of rocks gods..
I loved this one...

Post by **Grandad** » Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:20 am

I can empathise totally with your sentiments Bill.

Music through the 50's, 60's and even 70's had a rawness about it before the advent of the 'digital age'.

I find most of the images with the Weiss Heim very pleasing and the music SO relaxed. But could they get 5 minutes of play on a 7", I can't remember.

I DO remember those wax cylinder things though with the big papier mache horn

Only joking

Post by **Horus** » Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:20 am

Interesting point about the duration time of music on a 7" record Grandad, certainly early versions could only manage around 2.5 minutes each side, hence the rather short and I think, more enjoyable songs that we used to get. It always seemed to be a shorter but more intense burst of music with the performers having to get songs across quite quickly, maybe that explains the faster pace of most of these records. I think that Bill's original choice was after the EP was perfected which gave a longer play time in the same space and the technology just moved over to single play records.

Bill, you are correct about the 78's being very brittle, they were also heavier. Here is a good example of two songs that would later become pop hit singles on 7" 45's, but were originally recorded on a 78 record with two tracks on each side, this was unusual as they generally only had one song per side.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Mi8ndIOX6ew" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The first track was later recorded by the Everly Brothers as a 45 (7") and was a big hit, note how the song lasts less than 2.5 minutes!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xbLuWciXFcM" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The other song on the 78 was this one later to become a big hit for Hermans Hermits, again a less than 2.5 minutes duration on a 45.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VGjihSxDEqk" frameborder="0"></iframe>

During this transitional stage of different record sizes and speeds it was very easy to manually select the wrong play speed with some funny results as at the time we had three record sizes 12", 10" & 7" with three play speeds of 78 RPM, 45 RPM & 33-1/3 RPM. Usually each size would play at a specific speed, but some combinations did require you used a different speed in order to play correctly.

Huh! and you guys think you have it hard,

in my day we used to have to .................... get up at 4 am .......... walk 10 miles to work ................ in deep snow ............... and ............

Post by **BillH** » Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:04 pm

It's funny you should mention the wax cylinders Grandad...
About 6 years ago I found this little gem, and have been looking for an excuse to air it in public..

www.alderclose.com/techmishap.wmv

It almost feels so wrong laughing at this. . . Almost.

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was 6 minutes long, don't foget, and that was back in 1975 IIRC..
Problem was as I discovered, the longer the song on 7" vinyl, the quicker the record wore out, as the track was very thin.

My most treasured Albums are in my wardrobe at home, and since I have a good quality sound card and a decent set of speakers installed in my PC, I was considering getting one of these USB turntables.

http://www.usb-turntable.org.uk/

Watching those 2 videos of Horus's brings back some memories, not of the songs, I was far too young

, Nooo, placing the record on the turntable and lining up the stylus with the record and gently lowering the arm to release the sound from the vinyl.. Wonderful

And Horus's comments about getting the speed wrong, yeah, did that once or twice.

Didn't they say back in 1985 or so, that if you played a Kylie Minogue 7" single at 33 rpm, it sounded just like Rick Astley.. Conversley, if you played a Rick Astley single at 78 rpm it sounded like Kylie Minogue ?

Stock Aitken Waterman.. The day the music died...

As for getting up at 4am, LUXURY !! We couldn't afford to sleep, worked 23 hours a day down t' pit ...........

Post by **Horus** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:16 am

Didn't they say back in 1985 or so, that if you played a Kylie Minogue 7" single at 33 rpm, it sounded just like Rick Astley.. Conversley, if you played a Rick Astley single at 78 rpm it sounded like Kylie Minogue ?

And don't forget if you play some Black Sabbath records backwards you hear a message from the Devil

I also laughed at the guy with the wax cylinder

he is either a total prat or it is a set up.

and yes it is true that the longer the play time the tighter together the grooves have to be, so wearing out sooner is a fact.

I was thinking about one of those USB turntables myself as they are a great way to copy all your treasured vinyl for easy play elsewhere. The prices for these things seem to vary considerably saying as they all have to copy a digital sound, so they either work or they do not. The one in your link looks good though with some handy features and the price is reasonable.

Mind you in my day .............. after we had our wages ......... we could go into town, buy a pair of cloggs, three sacks of potatoes, a large pig, three chickens, a duck, 1 ton of coal, 10 really big Mars Bars (the old size) 6 packets of Waggon Wheels, then go to the cinema, (still in our pit dirt) come out and have fish and chips (without washing our hands) and still have change out of a farthing!

Spoiler

Mind you that was the pay for 7 years work down th'pit!

Post by **BillH** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:40 pm

OK Horus, you had it worse than me, but not by much ...

Another story regarding Rainbow..
When I was in Art college back then, I painted one of my bedroom walls matt black. We lived in the middle of nowhere and had no car back then, so was waiting one evening for my friend to pick me up to go out for the evening.
I got bored waiting (he was as reliable as a 1977 Austin Allegro !)
Anyhow, I used a 4B pencil and drew this picture.

It took up the entire wall.

Still bored, I then painted in the colours, and created a replica. I added some mist and made the sky black. It took a few hours and obviously my mate had not turned up.
So I had created an 8 foot square mural. It was there for many years apparently.

The next occupants of the house had no taste whatsoever

and decided they would paint over it. It came back soon after, no matter how many times they painted over it, they told me it refused to go!

In the end, they had to pay a plasterer to come in and remove the plaster and re plaster the wall. That was the only way they could remove it..

"let's hope I never get famous" I said to lady of the house, you could stand to loose a small fortune.

I still draw on the Daler A4 cartridge paper pad I have, every once in a blue moon.
It was gift I inherited from my dear departed Grandad, who would sent wonderful pictures back to my mum, when he was stationed in Egypt during WW2.
She was 7 years old before she ever saw her Dad. He went out in 1940 and didn't return until 1947 !
Imagine that ! he could not come home once in all that time. And of course he had never seen her at all until his return..

He brought back a German guard dog, that the German army had left to die at their encampment when they abandoned it. He rescued it and it was the most loyal companion you could wish for. But that's another story

Post by **Horus** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:35 pm

Great bit of fond memory recollections there Bill,

but must say you have a great artistic ability, really good.

I bet the next occupants were not to keen on it though in having to re-plaster the wall.