Photos by Ebet Roberts Walk into the home of Alan Parsons, nestled in the hills of Santa Barbara, and you'll see ample evidence of his illustrious career. There are so many gold and platinum records on the wall of the studio annex that they spill from the hallway and fill the kitchen.
The scene: the London Planetarium. A fitting venue to visit The Dark Side of the Moon. But it's 1973, and this is the album's maiden voyage. And a quadraphonic mix, not approved by Pink Floyd, is being played on terrible, destined-to-be-forgotten speakers. The band members decline to attend and are represented by cardboard cutouts.
Readers are often surprised by what our Top 10 lists include and exclude. That's a given for any Top 10 list. But this year, we should explain why a certain album doesn't get one of our annual S&V Entertainment Awards - and why a certain movie gets a second one.
Mandate? We'll leave that topic to the political arena. But in the realm of our annual S&V Entertainment Awards, ten music and eight movie critics have voted, and in each department the majority has ruled: Brian Wilson's SMiLE is the best CD of 2004, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the best DVD. Interesting.
Basking in surround mixes for my Elton John review last month, I got fired up by the London 2002 version of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" from the Dream Ticket DVD-Video.
Talk about A road to nowhere ... I'm sitting in Sterling Sound, one of the foremost mastering studios in New York City (make that "the world"). And everywhere I look, I see a high-tech wonderland - except outside the huge window, where everyone can see the remnants of the High Line.
