Choose Your Own Adventure - The October 2024 Spin Challenge

Turbo said:
13-Hard: Play an album that features a contrabassoon or bagpipes

Black Sabbath "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (1973 Warner; 2011 Rhino CB cut)
Take these heavy metal bagpipes and shove them up your crumhorn or sackbut or whatever. SCORE = 122 (I'm now counting this in Canadian points motherfuckers!)

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Bagpipes are unfairly shit on, but when they're played right I love 'em. I probably listened to the Braveheart score more than any other since it came out.

I was surprised to learn that I actually listened to an album--although definitely didn't buy it--that used a shawm last year.
 
Hemotep said:
Bagpipes are unfairly shit on, but when they're played right I love 'em. I probably listened to the Braveheart score more than any other since it came out.

I was surprised to learn that I actually listened to an album--although definitely didn't buy it--that used a shawm last year.
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Having done my undergrad at Queen’s in Kingston (In Gord we trust), I’ve been surrounded by bagpipes more than the average Quebecois. They even make a surprisingly strong appearance around Canada Day in the region here. I can tolerate and even enjoy, but also understand why you could use them as a weapon of war.
 
8-Oct On this day in 2018, Taylor Swift goes public with her politics and endorses two Tennessee Democrats, urging her 112 million Instagram followers to vote causing a spike in voter registrations.

Expert: Play an album by a musician from a Red state who Republicans tried to cancel for not supporting their politics (Taylor Swift does not count :-)).

k.d. lang and the reclines - Absolute Torch and Twang
Total: 37.5 (31+6.5)

I'm doing a Canadian version of this, so state becomes province and red becomes blue because the US does its politcal party colors backwards from most other places, but the overall vibe is similar. Lang got a lot of flack in the 90s from her home province for being part of an ad campaign against eating meat, and Alberta is cattle country, and some radio stations there and in some US states stopped playing her music.

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9-Oct On this day in 2002, John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman was denied parole for a second time on October 9th, the same day that Lennon would have turned 62. The state parole board issued a statement that said releasing Chapman after twenty-two years in prison would "deprecate the seriousness" of the crime and while Chapman had "acceptable" behavior in prison, that didn't guarantee he wouldn't pose a threat to society. At his first parole hearing two years earlier, Chapman said he did not deserve to go free.

Expert: Play an album by someone who was murdered or had an attempt on their life.

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Total: 44.5 (37.5+7)

One of the most obvious choices for this expert pick.

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10-Oct On this day in 1960. A silly novelty song called "Mr. Custer" by Larry Verne was the top tune on Billboard's Hot 100. The record told a story about a US cavalry trooper who tries to talk his way out of fighting the Sioux Indians at Little Big Horn in 1876. The song reached #9 on the R&B chart, and although Verne's rendition failed to chart at all in the UK, a cover version by Charlie Drake was successful.

Expert: Play a novelty album that charted.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Straight Outta Lynwood
Total: 52 (44.5+7.7)

This album came out in 2006, which means I own it via iTunes download with bonus music videos, as was the tradition in that bygone era. The track "White & Nerdy" hit #9 on the Top 100 and went platinum.

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14-Oct On this day in 2018, Steppenwolf play their final show, a concert in Baxter Springs, Kansas. It was not announced that this was their last performance until November 22nd, 2019, when band leader John Kay made it official. Besides Kay, none of the musicians who appeared that day were members of the group's hit-making line-up. Expert: Play an album by a band who picked their name from a novel/poem.

From the Cormac McCarthy novel...



Blood Meridian - Kick Up the Dust

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MTD Tally - 87.5
 
11-Oct On this day in 1975, Neil Sedaka's comeback continued with his second number one hit of the year, "Bad Blood". In the span of just eight months, he also wrote two other chart topping hits, his own "Laughter In The Rain" and The Captain And Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together". To date, Sedaka has written or cowritten over 500 songs. Expert: Play an album by an artist in the song-writers hall of fame who has written a top 10 hit for themselves and for another artist/band.
= 60.5 Points

Carole King - Tapestry
Songwriter's Hall of Fame inductee Carole King was one of the most prolific writers in the industry. Not only was this album full of top billboard hits, but she had penned so many songs for other artists that were huge hits including this song by Bobby Vee that made it to #1.


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14-Expert: Play an album by a band who picked their name from a novel/poem.

Grateful Dead "American Beauty" (1970 Warner; 2024 Rhino HF)
The official story on the Grateful Dead, as related by Jerry Garcia in the book Playing in the Band, is as follows: “We were standing around in utter desperation at Phil [Lesh]’s house in Palo Alto [trying to think up a name for the band]. There was a huge dictionary, big monolithic thing, and I just opened it up. There in huge black letters was `The Grateful Dead.’ It … just cancelled my mind out.”
I’ll say — how often does the phrase “grateful dead” pop up in the average dictionary? But it turns out Garcia may not have hallucinated the whole thing after all. In the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, we find a page headed “GRATEFUL DEAD” in big type. Beneath this is an entry to the effect that the “grateful dead” is a motif figuring in many folktales.
Further investigation has turned up a rare volume of folklore entitled The Grateful Dead by G.H. Gerould (1908),
THE STRAIGHT DOPE June 9 1989
www.straightdope.com

Where did the Grateful Dead get their name?

www.straightdope.com www.straightdope.com
SCORE = 132 canadian points

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Turbo said:
14-Expert: Play an album by a band who picked their name from a novel/poem.

Grateful Dead "American Beauty" (1970 Warner; 2024 Rhino HF)
The official story on the Grateful Dead, as related by Jerry Garcia in the book Playing in the Band, is as follows: “We were standing around in utter desperation at Phil [Lesh]’s house in Palo Alto [trying to think up a name for the band]. There was a huge dictionary, big monolithic thing, and I just opened it up. There in huge black letters was `The Grateful Dead.’ It … just cancelled my mind out.”
I’ll say — how often does the phrase “grateful dead” pop up in the average dictionary? But it turns out Garcia may not have hallucinated the whole thing after all. In the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, we find a page headed “GRATEFUL DEAD” in big type. Beneath this is an entry to the effect that the “grateful dead” is a motif figuring in many folktales.
Further investigation has turned up a rare volume of folklore entitled The Grateful Dead by G.H. Gerould (1908),
THE STRAIGHT DOPE June 9 1989
www.straightdope.com

Where did the Grateful Dead get their name?

www.straightdope.com www.straightdope.com
SCORE = 132 canadian points

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Dictionaries are novels and/or poems now?
 
Also it makes me feel less cheatery about playing what i want to play later instead of being more bound by the actual prompt. So thanks!
 
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