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PoGo! Products Flipster
Small handheld multimedia player lets you watch video, listen to music, view photos, and record your voice. See it in action, Thursday 5/16 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on 'Tech Live.'
By Robert Heron
May 8, 2002
Modern compression technologies allow portable players to do more than hold hours of our favorite songs. TechTV Labs has been experimenting with video compression using the DivX codec and its ability to generate MPEG-4 (MP4) compatible files. When a new personal media player arrived claiming to support MP4, "Fresh Gear" had to take a closer look.
The Flipster from PoGo! Products is a portable multimedia device for those who need a little bit of everything. Besides supporting a variety of digital audio formats, the Flipster is among the first of a new generation of portable media players that can decode and display MPEG-4 video. However, the Flipster's support of MPEG-4 is limited to Windows Media formats and not actual MP4 files. If you have been encoding your videos into MP4 in the hope of displaying them on a portable device, the wait continues.
What Can't Flipster Do?
With a clamshell design that could easily be mistaken for a cellphone, the Flipster is a Windows CE device with a color display and a 17-button navigation pad.
Equipped with 64MB of Flash memory and a MultiMediaCard (MMC) and Secure Digital (SD) card slot for additional storage, the Flipster comes preloaded with a simple personal information manager and a "Tetris"-style game. Despite being a Windows CE device, the Flipster uses an optimized version of the operating system and is unable to run standard third-party CE applications. At the time of writing this article, no additional applications or software updates were available on the PoGo! Products website.
Audio, video, and photos
For your music needs, the Flipster offers native support for MP3, AAC (advanced audio codec), and WMA digital audio formats. On the video side of things, the $399 Flipster's 2.5-inch backlit TFT display will not win any awards for image quality. PoGo! suggests encoding video clips at the Flipster's 160x234 native resolution at 10 fps. The recommended video bitrate of 156 Kbps seemed a good match for its 206-MHz Intel StrongArm processor, but encoding any clip with a frame rate higher than 10 fps resulted in choppy playback. The Flipster also doubles as a digital photo album with support for GIF, JPG, and BMP image formats.
PoGo! Products claims the Flipster -- which is powered by a rechargeable Lithium polymer battery -- will run for about 3.5 hours when displaying video clips and about eight hours when playing digital audio.
Voice recording
The Flipster links to a PC through a USB cradle. The included Motion-I software provides an Explorer-like interface for uploading files to the device. In addition, the Flipster includes an integrated microphone for WAV voice recording and a built-in speaker for previewing multimedia files when headphones are not available.
Pros, Cons, and Specs
The Flipster is the smallest personal video player we have seen. However, we were disappointed that a $400 device that claims MP4 support would not play our MP4 or DivX video files. It wouldn't surprise us to see competing products offering similar functionality on the market soon.
Summary: The Flipster is a portable multimedia device that supports common digital audio formats as well as Windows Media video files.
Pros: Supports common digital audio formats; will play Windows Media videos.
Cons: No MP4 file support; poor-quality display; lack of applications.
Company: PoGo! Products
Phone: 1.866.367.7646
Price: $399
Available: Now
Category: Personal multimedia player
Platform: Windows CE
Specs: 64MB Flash memory; 206-MHz Intel StrongArm CPU; 2.5-inch TFT display; resolution: 160x234; MMC/SD media card compatible; supported digital audio formats: MP3, WMA, AAC; supported digital video formats: ASF, WMV; supported still image formats: BMP, JPG, GIF.
Intel to unveil personal video player
AFP
San Francisco, July 23
Intel is set to unveil a portable personal video player, which will allow users to play high-quality videos and photos on a handheld device, a bulletin to technology reporters and analysts said Monday.
The player will also let users download video clips from personal video recorders (PVRs), television set top boxes like Tivo that records programs digitally onto large hard disks. This means consumers can save television shows to a small device for later viewing while outside the home.
Who Wants Handheld Video?
by Michael Stroud
3:00 a.m. Sep. 13, 2000 PDT
LOS ANGELES -- In the very near future, you'll be able to watch sports instant replays, catch up on the nightly news, check out the waves at the local beaches, access a how-to video for repairing your sink, and proudly display pictures of your baby girl -- all on your cell phone or PDA.
Rob Tercek, president for programming for San Diego-based PacketVideo, presents this vision not as fantasy but as imminent reality.
Cellular phones are much more logical platforms than PCs or TVs to build the next generation of personal interactivity, Tercek argues.
"They’re the most personal devices going," Tercek said. "You might share your PC or TV with your family. But you're not going to let me program my numbers onto your cellular phone. Your mobile phone is designed to talk to. Can be reached anywhere. And you can receive any kind of service."
"Our (video) software will be in 90 percent of mobile (communication) devices over the next year and a half," he predicted in an interview at the Digital Coast 2000 conference.
PacketVideo, which has created software enabling the delivery of video to wireless portable devices, already has agreements with giants -- including Motorola, Texas Instruments, Intel Sanyo, Sonera, and Lucent -- to create applications for a new generation of "communicator" devices that will begin to hit the market in Asia as early as next September.
Tercek believes personal wireless video's time is imminent. He said one of PacketVideo's itinerant employees views videos of her daughter on her wireless PDA when she's on the road.
Tercek said that while that employee has to rely on wireless data transfer rates of between 14.4 and 18 kilobits per second now, the next generation of wireless networks in Europe and the United States will be about 40 kilobits -- enough to comfortably handle most consumers' streaming needs.
Its video-player software already comes standard with new Hewlett-Packard Jornadas and Compaq iPaq handheld computers.
PacketVideo and Sanyo are currently testing a cell phone with a built-in video camera that will enable consumers to send short videos with voice-overs to other people, Tercek said.
European telecom giant Sonera (and a PacketVideo investor) is testing PacketVideo's software in its home market in Finland. A European sports conglomerate is testing ways to send highlights of major games to executives' portable devices. AtomFilms, an Internet film site, is producing short film content for PacketVideo's platform.
Of course, it's one thing to demonstrate something technologically, and another to make it a consumer reality. Cable television took years to emerge, and the much anticipated video phones have yet to become widespread.
"I have no doubt that wireless video has a future," said Mark Politi, a Beverly Hills-based entrepreneur who runs several streaming media sites. "But it won't fully take off until you have wireless broadband, and that's a couple of years off."
The problem with video phones, he maintains, was that people didn't have any incentive to upgrade to them.
"For most people, their home phones work just fine," Politi said. "They have their computers and their televisions to provide video. Today, they can get webcams for their computers. They aren't going to rush out and buy video phones for their homes."
Tercek explained that the mobile environment is different. Consumers are already used to replacing their cell phones every 12 or 18 months as new technologies come out. He said they'll switch to new communicators -- devices with both cell phone and PDA functionality -- now being developed by companies like Motorola (MOT) and Qualcomm (QCOM).
Also, being able to create and share video from the road is a lot more compelling than doing it from home.
"This idea of 'nobody will use video phones because they don't want people to see them in their hair curlers' is totally antiquated," Tercek said. "It's the outside world that's exciting. Imagine going to the Eiffel Tower and saying, 'Mom, I'm at the Eiffel Tower now, take a look!' That's what's really exciting."
XM Satellite Radio Loss Hits $122 Million
XM's stock closed at a 52-week low on Tuesday, following the earnings report. (File Photo/Jahi Chikwendiu - The Washington Post)
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By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 24, 2002; Page E05
XM Satellite Radio Inc. yesterday reported increasing losses during its second quarter even as it reached 136,718 subscribers, passing its goal for the period.
During the quarter ended June 30, XM reported a loss of $122 million ($1.38 per share), compared with $44 million (76 cents) during the same period a year ago. The loss was higher than analysts' expectations of $1.29 per share, according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial.
That helped spur a Wall Street sell-off and the company's stock lost $1.25, closing at $4 yesterday, a 52-week low.
XM reported revenue of $3.8 million for the quarter. It had no revenue during the year-earlier period because it hadn't launched its service yet.
"We're pretty pleased" with the earnings report, said Hugh Panero, chairman and chief executive. "We are in a difficult market and we continue to show that we're a product in demand."
District-based XM and its New York-based competitor, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., have taken on the tricky task of luring radio listeners to a national alternative that beams 100 channels from satellites to anywhere in the country for $10 to $13 a month. XM began signing up subscribers in late September and launched nationally in November; Sirius launched its service in late winter.
XM announced yesterday that in September it would begin offering its first premium channel, Playboy Radio, for an additional $2.99 a month. It also said it would roll out the second generation of its technology, with cheaper chipsets, by the end of the year.
The higher losses were expected as XM made the transition from developing technology to offering service. During the quarter, the cost of customer care and billing operations shot up to $3.9 million, from $1.6 million. But the firm's sales and marketing budget had the biggest jump, to $46.8 million from $7.3 million.
It's expected to be at least three years before XM makes a profit. The company said it has enough cash on hand to fund its operations into the first quarter of 2003.
Given the current market, it could be difficult for XM to raise more money through a secondary stock offering, said William Kidd, an analyst with investment banking firm Lehman Brothers. He said it could be forced to raise cash from new strategic partners or its current partners, which include radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc.
"I think it's the number one concern," Kidd said. "I don't think satellite radio is a number one priority among the investment community right now."
A key part of XM's strategy for profitability is having the radios installed in new cars. A customer is more likely to absorb the cost of a satellite radio, which can run more than $300, when already spending $20,000 for a new car, the theory goes. General Motors Corp. has said the radios would be available in 25 of its models.
"We are now switching gears to the General Motors launch, which is like the second launch of the company," Panero said.
XM also reaffirmed its forecast of 200,000 subscribers by the end of the current quarter and 350,000 by year's end.
IBM, Opera Will Create Multimodal Browser
July 24, 2002
A week after announcing its commitment to multimodal technology -- which allows users to use multiple forms of input and output interchangeably in the same interaction -- IBM said Wednesday that it is cooperating with Opera to create a multimodal browser based on the XHTML+Voice (X+V) specification.
The browser would allow users to access Web and voice data from a personal digital assistant or Web-capable phone, said the firms, who made the announcement from the Vox 2002 conference in San Francisco. In addition to bolstering the partnership between Armonk, N.Y.'s IBM and Norway's Opera, the venture also makes use of the X+V multimodal standard the firms submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium 9W3C) in 2001. X+V takes what VoiceXML started to the next level.
Multimodal allows such communication methods and tools as voice commands or keypads to work interchangeably in the same interaction. For example, off-site workers will be able to request inventory information by voice, for instance, when they're on the factory floor and need to access information - hands-free. The requested information can then come back to them in text, or as graphics.
IBM and its pervasive computing division are banking on the notion that personal computing will shift from stationary PCs to handheld gadgets and Web-enabled communicators in the coming years.
"As we move further into the pervasive computing model, where our phones, handhelds and even cars become our gateways to information access, the ability to interact with technology in the most natural and convenient way possible will be key," said Rod Adkins, general manager of IBM's Pervasive Computing Division. According to a company release, Adkins was at the Vox 2002 conference to encourage developers to take reusable dialog components -- chunks of code that can be used to build applications to different industries -- to help propel voice and multimodal development.
Research firms, such as IDC, spur the idea of mobile computing on with their appraisals of the sector, particularly as it concerns the enterprise. While it is difficult to estimate the percentage of the high-tech market who will embrace pervasive, or wearable computing, IDC said in a recent study that the worldwide mobile and wireless professional services market will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 58.5 percent to reach just under $30.4 billion in 2006.
"The wireless industry, although not new, is still an emerging market," said Sophie Mayo, director of IDC's Wireless and eCommerce Implementation Services research. "We are far from reaching any type of maturity, taking into account how technology is constantly evolving. The major forces at work in this ecosystem are devices, carriers, system integrators, mobile middleware, applications providers, enterprises, mobile workers, and consumers. Each party is influencing the success of the other, and interdependencies are numerous."
IBM has been moving forward with its pervasive computing drive. Last week, IBM announced its multimodal toolkit for developers and the addition of multimodal capabilities to its recently announced WebSphere Everyplace Access (WEA). Built on IBM's WebSphere Voice Toolkit, the multimodal toolkit will contain a multimodal editor, in which developers can write both XHTML and VoiceXML in the same application; reusable blocks of X+V code; and a simulator to test the applications.
While it is true Opera's share of the market pales in comparison to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator, many firms prefer Opera because its is generally faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers. Opera is available on Windows, Mac, Linux/Solaris, Symbian OS and QNX.
The beta version of the Opera/IBM browser will be released this fall.
Intel licence deal lifts UK's Imagination
(Adds analyst, CEO quote, updates shares, background)
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - Shares in Britain's Imagination Technologies Group Plc rose by a fifth on Wednesday after the computer graphics firm announced a technology licence agreement with the world's number one chipmaker Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - News).
Imagination, which develops and licenses graphics, digital video, digital signal processing and audio technologies for the consumer entertainment and PC markets, said it would supply "PowerVR MBX" graphics and video technology for use in Intel's integrated circuits.
Shares in Imagination, which have lost more than a half of their value in the last three months, rose 21 percent to 29 pence by 1118 GMT, valuing the firm at around 50 million pounds ($78 million).
"Intel is seen as the best technology endorsement there is in the market," said analysts at independent research house Equityinvestigator.com.
"The company hopes that this important reference customer will help it to translate the high levels of interest it has seen for MBX into further licence deals," it said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Imagination receives licence and development income and will receive royalty revenues when Intel ships products incorporating the PowerVR MBX Core.
"We are delighted that Intel has chosen... our embedded graphics and video core, and believe that this is a major endorsement of our state-of-the-art technology in this area," said Imagination Chief Executive Hossein Yassaie.
Imagination announced in April that Japanese electronics giant Hitachi Ltd had signed a deal to use its 3D computer graphics technology in a range of products targeted at the entertainment, car navigation and mobile markets.
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Intel plans portable video player
By Richard Shim
Special to ZDNet News
July 24, 2002, 5:00 AM PT
Intel aims to boost consumer interest in PCs and its processors by announcing components for a portable personal video player on Monday.
Intel's Emerging Platforms Lab will announce hardware and software that will help manufacturers design a device that can store and play digital media, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.
Intel won't manufacture the device, but the design is meant for a player to be the size of a paperback book that downloads content from a PC via a USB 2.0 port or through wireless 802.11b networking technology.
The device would include an Intel XScale processor, hard drive and liquid crystal display. The devices are expected to be available from manufacturers next year for about $400.
Intel spokesman Manny Vara confirmed that Intel is working on components for portable media devices, but declined to comment on the details.
Intel has previously developed devices that act as an extension of the PC, such as digital audio players and digital cameras, in the hopes of encouraging consumers to buy computers using Intel chips. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company even had a division that concentrated on developing consumer electronics devices but closed its late last year because it didn't meet the company's requirements for long-term growth.
Intel will allow manufacturers of the device to determine many of the exact specifications, such as hard drive capacity and screen and battery size. A common configuration will likely include a 20GB hard drive and a 4-inch passive matrix display.
Intel will announce customers for the components later this year. The software will include video, audio and JPEG codecs optimized for XScale, letting consumers to playback video clips, songs and pictures.
Intel aims to avoid the legal battles with entertainment companies that device makers, such as Sonicblue with its ReplayTV DVR, has faced by restricting the degree that content can be distributed. The player can only download digital audio and video content from a device owner's PC but consumers will not be able to share content with each other's devices.
"Making it so that consumers have to depend on the PC is a blessing and a curse," said Richard Doherty, analyst for research firm Envisioneering. "Not having peer-to-peer capabilities makes it a lot trickier for consumers to use."
Digital piracy has become such a hot-button topic that entertainment companies are pressing legislators for the ability to disable peer-to-peer networks and individual PCs.
Doherty noted that Intel may be too restrictive with digital rights management, which could limit the appeal for consumers.
rstring--it seems as if anna had this covered a month ago:
ucansee
In reply to: None Date:6/18/2002 6:47:49 PM
Post #of 13984
Intel Wants to Put a Video Player in Your Pocket
Think of it as TiVo to go--or an MP3 player for movies. Intel's
(INTC ) Emerging Platforms Lab in Hillsboro, Ore., has
designed what it calls a personal video player--a handheld
digital-movie player that could be built by a licensed consumer
electronics manufacturer and sold for under $400. With it, you
would be able to watch movies during a plane trip or make your
commuter train ride pass more quickly with a TV show that you
recorded off cable the night before.
The prototype PVP includes a four-inch color display and is
built around a 400-MHz Intel XScale processor, a 30-gigabyte
Toshiba hard drive that holds 100 hours of video, and a battery
designed to last for several hours.
Loading the gizmo should be easy, thanks to high-speed
connection slots--think USB 2.0, which is starting to appear
on new computers, or FireWire--that are popping up in all
kinds of consumer gadgets. Researchers envision consumers
zapping movies onto their PVPs while at home from cable TV, TiVo recorders, or DVD
players. Or, in airport kiosks, travelers might download a movie or two before a flight.
Sounds great, but it will only work if media content owners cooperate. Intel Corp. promises to
include digital-rights management software in the player, but in the wake of the MP3
phenomenon, Hollywood is increasingly spooked about digital reproduction and is fighting to
restrict it. But if Intel can assuage the movie industry's worries and get a consumer electronics
partner onboard, PVPs should start appearing in handbags near you as early as next year.
By: anotherbullmarket world theatre
23 Jul 2002, 08:24 PM EDT Msg. 18891 of 18927
doug says its a 90 day footrace and he is please how vp5 is selling and the company ...world theatre was signed a few day ago...he cant comment on the 900,000 to start the 3rd qtr...bob summers is world theatre ceo i believe sonys dude i think doug said..on2 is with 4 set top boxes...ntt , pace , i cant remember the other 2...those companys paid on2 alot of money to deploy thes boxes...the boxes are dont and in testing..could be any day for the selling..thats up to those companys....those companys are not going to spend the money without trying to get there products out there..on2 has one box in there office..working and to his knawlege on2 is the only codec in the 3 boxes..of 3 difrent companys...citigroup still has alot of shares
anotherbullmarket
23 Jul 2002, 09:26 PM EDT Msg. 18901 of 18927
he was just giving examples....sane...hey we need to keep a eye on the 4 box companys....1 big sale is money in our pockets...any how ill look latr anyone have time =star dsl ,mso ,pace , seachange i believe...thnks
NAMVET $$ World Theatre/on2/sony/rca?
23 Jul 2002, 09:15 PM EDT Msg. 18897 of 18927
When Doug was talking about World Theatre, he brought up Sony and RCA. Is that a coincidence, as he has used Sony in examples in the past. That coupled with the Spiderman ad on The Street.Com for one day,well he could be trying to tell us something or trying to sucker us in further.I tend to think we have something going with Sony. What do others think?
Regarding Doug's options. His lowest now are at .30, to the best of my knowledge.
http://www.hollywoodhangover.com/bands_and_artists_we_loved.htm.
you need to add Tracey Nelson/Mother Earth
ksquared--wasn't Cat Mother led by Noel Redding?? This is from memory so good chance I may be wrong about that..
Over the next six to eighteen months, we will see the roll-out of a variety of hardware devices capable of playing back DivX video, from handheld players to digital set-top boxes. The first port of DivX technology to a high-performance multimedia DSP-based solution such as the TI DSC25 is a major milestone toward that end."
DivX Video Technology to be Integrated Into TI's Digital Imaging DSPs
Press Release --DivXNetworks, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.
Embedded device capable of playing back full-motion, high-quality video at 7-10 times greater compression than MPEG-2
Edited by Charlie White
Page 1 of 1
SAN DIEGO (Apr. 30, 2002) -- DivXNetworks, Inc. today announced the successful integration of the DivX video codec to the Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) digital signal processor (DSP)-based device, the TMS320DSC25. The DSC25 DSP-based chip is the first embedded device capable of playing back DivX video, which enables full-motion, high-quality video at 7-10 times greater compression than MPEG-2.
DivX-enabled TI DSC25 chips will support DivX playback on next-generation consumer electronics devices, including digital set-top boxes, handheld video players, next-generation DVD players and digital video cameras. The DSC25 is a single-chip, high-performance audio/visual image-processing engine containing all functions required for communication with external devices. A multimedia system-on-a-chip (SOC) solution, the DSC25 supports DivX playback at full video frame rate and frame size.
"A key ingredient in making video convergence a reality is the emergence of a robust embedded solution to power the next generation of multimedia devices that bridge the gap between the PC and the TV, and by enabling high-performance playback of widely popular DivX video, TI's DSC family is well-positioned to lead the convergence charge in the CE space," said Jordan Greenhall, CEO and co-founder of DivXNetworks, Inc. ( www.divxnetworks.com ). "Over the next six to eighteen months, we will see the roll-out of a variety of hardware devices capable of playing back DivX video, from handheld players to digital set-top boxes. The first port of DivX technology to a high-performance multimedia DSP-based solution such as the TI DSC25 is a major milestone toward that end."
"By working together with DivXNetworks to optimize the DSC25 for the high-quality playback of DivX video, we can maximize the value proposition we offer to our customers and partners," said Dr. Kun Shan Lin, VP and manager of TI's Imaging and Audio Group. "We are dedicated to providing a complete real world signal processing solution for high-performance digital video, and we believe the addition of DivX technology to the DSC25 will significantly increase the functionality of our multimedia DSP product line."
Hailed as a "revolutionary product" by Tom's Hardware Guide, DivX MPEG-4 compatible video compression technology has been downloaded over 50 million times. DivXNetworks recently announced a strategic partnership with e.Digital Corporation to design and develop DivX-powered consumer electronics devices, with the first device expected to be available by the end of the year. For more information on DivX technology, visit www.divxnetworks.com/products . To learn more about the TI DSC family of digital signal processors, visit www.ti.com/sc/digitalcamera .
About DivXNetworks
DivXNetworks is a leading technology company that enables the rapid proliferation of video content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks by combining the lightweight, ubiquitous access of the Internet with DVD-quality video performance. The company's approach is built upon the success of the DivX codec, a standard for MPEG-4 compatible video distribution with over 50 million users worldwide, and the DivX Open Video System, a next-generation content delivery system that provides aggregation, promotion, and distribution of video content for mass markets. DivXNetworks is headquartered in San Diego, California, with a satellite office in Los Angeles.
Source: DivXNetworks, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.
7.5.2002 DVD-Player spielen bald DivX-Format
In einer gemeinsamen Presseerklärung haben DivXNetworks und Texas Instruments [TI] bekannt gegeben, dass der beliebte Video-Codec jetzt auf einem integrierten Baustein von TI läuft. Damit ist der Weg frei, DivX auch als Format für Set-Top-Boxen, tragbare Videoplayer und DVD-Player zu etablieren. TMS320DSC25 als System-on-a-Chip-Lösung Schon seit einiger Zeit arbeitet DivXNetworks daran, das Kompressionsverfahren industrietauglich zu machen. Dazu muss DivX jedoch auch auf anderen Geräten als hochgerüsteten PCs in guter Qualität abgespielt werden können. Nun scheint der Durchbruch erreicht. In einer Presserklärung feiern DivXNetworks und Texas Instruments, Marktführer bei digitalen Signalprozessoren [DSP], die Portierung auf den Chip TMS320DSC25, kurz DSC25. Er soll DivX ruckelfrei und in voller Auflösung [720x576] darstellen können. Dabei handelt es sich um einen Baustein von TI, der eigentlich für digitale Fotokameras gedacht ist. Da der DSC25 schon De- und Encoding des standardisierten MPEG-4-Formats beherrscht, ließe sich auch DivX relativ einfach darauf zum Laufen bringen. Technische Details Daneben bietet der DSC25 als SoC [System-on-a-Chip] unter anderem Controller für DRAM- und Flash-Speicher und USB sowie einen Encoder für analoges Video. Möglich macht das eine Kombination aus einem DSP-Kern von TI [TMS320C500] und einem ARM7-Core, einer 32-Bit-RISC-CPU. Angaben zu Taktfrequenz oder Strukturbreite des DSC25 macht TI nicht - der Baustein soll jedoch in ein 16 x 16 Millimeter kleines BGA-Gehäuse [Ball Grid Array] passen. Texas Instruments Erste Geräte kommen noch 2002 Laut Jordan Greenhall, DivXNetworks-Chef und -Mitbegründer, werden schon innerhalb der nächsten sechs bis 18 Monate verschiedene DivX-fähige Unterhaltungselektronik-Geräte auf den Markt kommen. Wer diese Geräte allerdings bauen soll, verrät das Unternehmen nicht.
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FRED NEIL
"Fred was a natural linkup of various musical styles," observes John Sebastian, soon to play an important role in Neil's shows as an accompanist on harmonica, and soon after that to became a major folk-rock star as the principal singer-songwriter in the Lovin' Spoonful. "The thing that was so different about Fred was that he had not only a Southern background, but was one of the first guys that was crossing racial boundaries in his style in a sense. This gospel music that he had inherited was very much the gospel music of the black church. Some of his friends, like [black folksingers] Odetta and Len Chandler and some of the black musicians that were our first real close friends, had an affinity with Fred that they didn't have with the New York musicians. 'Cause we had very much of an Eastern background, and it simply didn't include as much of that rich musical heritage."
When Neil finally made his debut album, it was not as a solo artist, but as part of a duo with Vince Martin, another folk veteran who had sung on the Tarriers' pop hit "Cindy Oh Cindy" back in 1956. The rare Tear Down the Walls album, issued by Elektra in either 1964 or 1965, was a transitional effort, caught between the hootenanny folk era and the dawn of folk-rock. Including roughly equal measures of folk covers and Neil originals (and one Martin composition), it perhaps inadvertently emphasized that Neil was best as a solo performer, not as a partner or band member. On the vocal duets, Martin's more conventionally bright and higher timbres tended to mask the sensual and earthy qualities of Neil's much lower and bluesier voice. Neil's true character -- that of the ambling, good-natured existentialist, best enjoyed in a late-night coffee-and-cigarette frame of mind -- surfaced on blues-folk tracks like "Weary Blues" and especially "Wild Child in a World of Trouble," which he sang alone. "Baby," another standout, hinted at the Indian raga tinges that would more strongly inform some of his best later work.
Tear Down the Walls, in hindsight, was most noteworthy for the arrangements. The folk revival dwelled on spartan acoustic presentation, often played by only one performer. Here Neil and Martin were augmented by John Sebastian on harmonica, and multi-instrumentalist Felix Pappalardi (soon to become famous for producing Cream) on guitarron, a Mexican bass. The quasi-band sound was sometimes only a step or two from folk-rock. "Our instruments went well together," remembers Sebastian with pride of his association with Pappalardi. "The harmonica and the guitar could kind of sandwich a folk performer in a very flattering way. [Elektra producer] Paul Rothchild also heard this, and we began to get work as a kind of team that would rock a little harder on something that was basically a folk arrangement."
Neil took a big leap toward folk-rock -- and a big leap forward in the quality of his material -- with his proper Elektra solo debut, Bleecker and MacDougal (1965). Joining Sebastian and Pappalardi in the backup unit were Sebastian's one-time roommate Pete Childs (second guitar and dobro) and Douglas Hatelid (bass). Only drums, and a greater electric guitar presence, would have been necessary to launch this into bona fide rock territory. In any case, the additional musicians supplied the oomph that Neil's progressively more sophisticated and gutsier compositions demanded.
"The Vince and Fred music was more related to commercial folk music, just by virtue of what you have when you put two singers and two guitarists together," feels Sebastian. "Once Fred was sort of on his own on a record, what would naturally come out would be more of the Southern musical hybrid. Whether he was doing it consciously or not, I can't say.
"He was a 'oh, we'll just feel it and it'll work out' kind of a guy. It was Felix's and my particular lot for those [Elektra] years to get Fred in the studio and nail it down a little bit, actually plan where a solo would be so that the guy would be ready when the solo happened. Peter Childs became another member of this 'keep Fred in line' team. Felix and I were in some degree or another babysitting these recordings a little bit to help Paul [Rothchild], who we could see had an enormous job to produce these projects."
The undoubted star of Bleecker and MacDougal, however, was Neil, now hitting his stride as a singer and writer. Arguably, no other white folk performer was as skilled as singing the blues -- the real blues, not the second-hand stuff -- as Fred Neil was. Instead of just aping old recordings or resurrected blues legends working the coffeehouse circuit in the 1960s, he worked out his own blues-rooted style, stretching out phrases with a serene confidence, caressing the low notes as if he was actually making love to them.
It was fortunate that Neil's compositions were often ideal for the languorous, sweet drowsiness of his deep, rich voice. Neil was not the troubadour bent on changing the world or exorcising his personal demons, as many of his competitors in Greenwich Village were. He was more the observer, content to go with the flow and roll with the punches. Sometimes he painted himself as the country boy come to the city and bemused, occasionally overwhelmed, by big-town temptations and confusions, wanting nothing more than to escape to the country, the sea, or the more peaceful recesses of his own mind. Not for Neil the conventional verse-bridge-chorus-laden structures of most popular tunes, despite his experiences at the edges of the New York music industry. The songs were laid out and delivered more as looping, ruminating states-of-consciousness, the mood and the way it was played and sung taking precedence over clear or instructive messages.
For a guy who came across as a lazy sod in many of his own lyrics, he certainly seemed to have entered a remarkably prolific and consistent period in 1965. All but one of the tracks on Bleecker and MacDougal were written by Neil, and all were at the least good; at the best, they were classic. There was "Blues on the Ceiling," one of his greatest worn-to-the-ground statements of fatalism. When he sang "up to my neck in misery, I'll never get out of these blues alive," it didn't seem to be a pose, even though he sounded more resigned than angry about the situation. "Little Bit of Rain" (covered by Linda Ronstadt on her 1967 debut album, as a member of the Stone Poneys, and also recorded in an unreleased version by top British folk-rock singer Sandy Denny) was a gorgeously drawn-out and tuneful ballad, enhanced by its lovely tremeloed guitar. The title song and "Country Boy" reinforced Fred's image as a man out of his depth in the Big Apple; on "Handful of Gimme," his nonchalance toward everyday responsibilities reached almost comical extremes, with its narrator torn between spending his last cents on a ferry ride or a bag of candy. Other numbers show his facility for swaggering blues, as in the remake of "Candy Man" and "Mississippi Train," which had the hardest electric guitar licks on what is still a largely acoustic album. There was also the soaringly melodic, blissfully unfettered "Other Side of This Life," bound to become his best-known and most-covered composition besides "Everybody's Talkin'."
Although folk-rock had made the jump from idea to reality by 1965, Bleecker and MacDougal stopped just short of being an actual folk-rock album, with no drums and spare dabs of electricity. "Whatever we were calling it definitely had the qualities of rock'n'roll," muses Sebastian 35 years later. "But the styles were always just this side of rock'n'roll. He was a great rhythm guitarist, but he had very little inclination to use an electric. I think that was a wise choice, because that 12-string [had] a certain kind of a propulsion you probably couldn't get out of an electric instrument. He had no objection to anybody playing an electric guitar accompanying him, but there are certainly both acoustic and electric guitarists accompanying him in the various recordings, including the [post-Elektra] Capitol stuff."
While Neil's Elektra records did not sell in huge quantities, his impact on folk and folk-rock performers of the mid-1960s was becoming quite substantial. In the liner notes to the reissue The Many Sides of Fred Neil, David Crosby -- founder-member of the Byrds, the first (and best) popular folk-rock group -- wrote, "I remember thinking how much I wished I had that beautiful deep river of sound coming out of my chest instead of the plaintive little thing I was stuck with....he taught me a sizable chunk of what music was about, and even more about the whys and wherefores of being a musician. He was a hero to me." In those same liner notes, Sebastian cited Stephen Stills and Richie Havens (who covered "That's the Bag I'm In" on his first LP) as others who "learned and borrowed" from Neil.
On a more immediate level, in 1965 Sebastian would become one of the leading folk-rockers as the leader of the Lovin' Spoonful, writing and singing their biggest hits. Several of the Lovin' Spoonful's big singles -- "Daydream," "Rain on the Roof," and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind" -- had a lazy, good-natured swing that was certainly similar in mood to some of Neil's writing, without being explicitly derivative of it. John's also proud to note that one of the Lovin' Spoonful's better album tracks, "Coconut Grove," "was definitely Fred-inspired. My wife and I were staying at his house at the time."
Sebastian's songwriting, he adds, was influenced by "the natural way [Fred] could combine these various styles just by being who he was. It wasn't any kind of an alchemy thing of 'we're gonna pour a little of this, and a little of that.' That was very inspiring. It also was a real lesson in how to let a lyric sound like it just fell out of your mouth, like you hadn't really labored over it. Fred always had that quality about his songs. As a songwriter, at that time [when Sebastian and Neil were playing together], I maybe had written two songs. But I certainly was taking note of how effortless these songs sounded.
"As a matter of fact, in later years, I began to get a little critical about them. And say, 'Jesus Christ, you had this genius two verses, why didn't you write the third verse, for god's sake?' That was the only place that I could actually say I had any influence on Fred. Occasionally I did get up the nerve to say, 'Gee, we're kind of going back to this first verse faster than I really feel like doing it. Couldn't we have another verse, Fred?' That was part of the pincer movement that Felix and I were helping to apply, sort of on Paul Rothchild's behalf."
The Lovin' Spoonful also covered Fred's "The Other Side of This Life," which became a standard of sorts without actually becoming a hit for anyone, as it was covered by star folk-rock/psychedelic groups the Jefferson Airplane and the Youngbloods, as well as Peter, Paul & Mary. In the hands of the Airplane -- who were doing it in concert as early as 1966 -- it became a psychedelic improvisation that was a highlight of their concerts, as preserved on their late-'60s hit live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head. "We explore it all over the place," enthuses Paul Kantner, one of the Airplane's singer-songwriters. "You can go any number of places with it as a basis. It's a beautiful chord lift that goes into the chorus, very unique." Neil also partially inspired Kantner to write the Airplane's "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," which in his words "referred to Freddie and Winnie the Pooh sort of thrown into a mixmaster on the psychedelic era."
Adds Kantner, "David Crosby actually turned me on to Fred Neil. Freddie was very evocative of a certain soulfulness that was generally lacking in the folk movement. His was deeper than most, came from an unexplained source, and therefore was sort of semi-mystical to us sort of whitebread middle-class children. Freddie just led us to places that normal folksingers didn't go. His albums became as important to me as the Weavers' albums, who were also part of my prime influence. Between the two of them it set me off on a really good path."
Judy Henske, who like Neil would traverse the folk, jazz, blues, pop, and rock idioms in the 1960s, was one of the first established artists to cover Fred's songs, putting "Little Bit of Rain" and "The Other Side of This Life" on her mid-1960s LP Little Bit of Sunshine...Little Bit of Rain. "The thing about Fred Neil's songs is that, remember, these are the old folk days," she says. "People are running around singing things like 'Green Broom' -- 'I went to the woods to cut broom, green broom.' Now how interesting is that? It was the longest folk song ever written; it, like, lasted 20 minutes. And it was the most boring song that was ever written. I used to sing it to punish audiences.
"But if you had a Fred Neil song to sing, you weren't punishing the audience. You were rewarding them for sitting there, because it was an inevitably really great song. When he wrote 'The Other Side of This Life,' it was a very well-considered and musically well-written piece of philosophy. He wrote slow music that was very thoughtful."
The husky-voiced Henske continues, "A big reason why I recorded his stuff is because he is what would pass for, if he was a woman, an alto, which means he was like a very low baritone. So the way his songs were written were for a voice that was very much like mine. Everybody else is always going for a high note, but Fred Neil was always going down. His melodies descended in a very delicate way." Chimes in Cyrus Faryar, who would play guitar on Neil's two studio albums for Capitol, "When you're singing in the lower register, it really is sort of effortless. There's not a lot of apparent physical effort to get between you and what it is you're trying to say. With Freddie, it's like whatever's on his mind, or however he's feeling at the time, is going to come easily out of his body." Along those lines, a little-noted song whose vocal delivery certainly seems Neil-inspired -- though the tune was not Neil-composed -- was "Never Say No," sung by Elvin Bishop in a lazy, super-low voice on the Butterfield Blues Band's 1966 East-West album.
Joe Marra, who booked Neil often at his Night Owl club in the Village, notes Fred's perfectionism. "He was very uptight as a performer; he wasn't cut out to be a performer. He could get very critical of himself. If he played a note, and the note was bad, he knew. Other musicians, it wouldn't upset so much. I remember once on stage, he said, 'Who's playing the radio?' And I'm looking around the place -- where's this guy hearing a goddamn radio? [It was] on the corner, about 25 feet away, this guy on the street with a radio."
Cyrus Faryar also remembers Neil's fussiness with 12-string guitars, which with their two sets of strings are infamous for being difficult to tune. "He would be tuning the guitar to the guitar, but also he would be tuning the guitar to other things. Once he was sitting in a club near Coconut Grove [in Southern Florida], and while he was tuning, an airliner came overhead that was going to land in some major airport some miles away. With his ears, he picked up the sound of this plane, and kind of tuned the plane all the way to the ground."
There is probably a phase of Neil's journey from folk to folk-rock that is lost to us now. In the mid-1960s, he performed live for a while at the Night Owl with the Seven Sons, who included Buzzy Linhart (later a singer-songwriter of some note himself) on vibes. Unfortunately there are no recordings of that lineup, and indeed only one of the Seven Sons on their own, a rare ESP album that is more experimental raga-folk-jazz than rock. Neil's first albums with a full, largely electric band would be recorded in Los Angeles for Capitol, with producer Nik Venet.
On the face of it, Venet was an odd choice for a cult singer-songwriter, as Nik was best known for his work on early Beach Boys records, as well as for mainstream pop singers like Glen Campbell, the Lettermen, the Four Preps, and Bobby Darin. By the end of the 1960s, however, Venet was getting into some more adventurous sounds, such as the weird Bay Area psychedelic band Mad River, the Stone Poneys (Linda Ronstadt's first group), early country-rockers Hearts & Flowers, and Neil's friend Karen Dalton, a grainy-toned folksinger who made Fred sound slick. Faryar points out that Venet "was a record producer, but his private life was another whole thing. I messed around and did weird things with Nik. Nik said, 'Hey, let's make a gong album.' So we hired all of these five- or seven-foot gongs, brought them into the studio at Capitol, and spent several hours just whacking the crap out of all these various gongs, recording them for some later magical use." Faryar also says the late Venet would travel to Civil War battle sites and be able to hear, in "clear audio," events like the Battle of Gettysburg.
Venet would not have to re-enact the Battle of Gettysburg with Fred Neil. It would be enough to let the singer be himself, and surround him with top-flight musicians -- including Pete Childs from the Elektra days, Faryar, Jimmy Bond on standup bass, and drummer Billy Mundi (who also played with Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan, and Frank Zappa) -- to aid his transition into full-flung electric folk-rock. And with his first album for Capitol, Fred Neil (released at the beginning of 1967), Neil nailed it, unleashing one of the greatest folk-rock albums of the 1960s.
"The Dolphins," the album's first track, could have hardly been a better introduction to Neil's newly electric sound, its waves of guitar reverb perfectly matching the shimmering melody and vocals. Drums finally made their first appearance on a Fred Neil record, and the bouzouki runs at the end of the song recalled Indian music, closing the classic with an appropriately exotic touch. The lyrics, too, were among Neil's very best, interspersing musings on the life of dolphins (his enthusiasm for dolphin study is well known) with regrets over ill-fated love, though as with many of his songs, the particulars of the situation are never quite clear.
Fred Neil is best remembered, however, for the original version of "Everybody's Talkin'." Much slower and more simply arranged than the famous cover by Nilsson, it clearly laid out his wishes to escape the madness of contemporary life -- the city, perhaps, or the music business? -- into a hermetic paradise. (That destination is most likely Southern Florida, where Neil would spend much of his post-1970 life, given the line about going to a place where the sun always shines through rain.) In Goldmine, Venet claimed that he was asked to ask Neil to re-record the song in a faster tempo for Midnight Cowboy, but refused to do so.
Much of Fred Neil was nearly as strong as its most famous two numbers, however, and extended his lazy, nonplused man-in-the-hammock cheerfulness into some of its most hummable regions. "Ba-De-Da" was another irresistibly catchy statement of dissatisfaction with city life, topped off with some tasty harmonica licks by Canned Heat's Al Wilson. It and "Faretheewell" were showcases for Neil's knack for insinuating moan-hummed vocals. "That's the Bag I'm In" was fatalistic even by Neil's own tough standards, with a narrator who can't even be bothered to make his own breakfast over again after fouling it up. "He wrote that song to get an advance," claims Joe Marra. "He was going up to his publisher uptown in a cab, and he wrote that, just like that. Handed it in, got an advance of I think a couple hundred dollars."
The relaxed, even intoxicated atmosphere of the record, thinks Faryar, grew out of a similar ambience in the studio. "The sessions were very low-key, not heavily produced. Nik's ability was to make a comfortable situation and not interject a whole 'hey, we're paying for studio time' kind of thing. It was a matter of getting people together who would have an affinity for each other musically, who would have no personal or professional hangups in the way, to have a good time. Freddie would run a song down, people would find a place to sit in the music, and it was very relaxed. It was a situation of everybody getting musically comfortable, finding a nice groove, and then playing the song. And the song was in complete support of Freddie and his voice."
"The amplified instruments were mixed right in with the acoustic wash," adds John Forsha, another guitarist on the sessions. "Even when we got 'funky,' there was never a feeling in the studio of heavy electricity. Our amp volumes were way down. There was no heavy edge to anything in the room. You had a feeling, often, that there was a little too much guitar, when you get me and Cyrus and Pete and Freddie going all at once. Nik never really stepped in and said, 'Don't do that.' He got what he wanted. The results were quite tidy, and we hadn't a clue how he was going to arrive at that." Forsha also singles out Al Wilson's harmonica on "Ba-De-Da" for special praise: "He underplayed it beautifully."
Fred Neil was another album destined more for the rock elite than for the general public. Larry Beckett, close friend and frequent songwriting collaborator with singer-songwriter Tim Buckley, remembers visiting the sessions and watching "a huge room in darkness. Way off there, with just a tiny light, was Fred, Cyrus Faryar, and the rest of the guys doing a version of 'The Dolphins' completely unlike what wound up on the album. Then he would stop and change it and do something again, reconceive it. The sense of Fred's magnificent voice and total authenticity and commitment to creativity...you know, if Tim didn't have it already, he got it that afternoon." Buckley would record excellent live and studio versions of "The Dolphins," and also paraphrase a few of its lyrics on his composition "Once I Was," on Tim's 1967 album Goodbye and Hello.
Adds Beckett, "The album Fred Neil, [Buckley] and I and all of our friends think of as one of the four or five albums of the '60s. I don't care what-all lists or sales charts anybody wants to throw up. To me, it's like the Kind of the Blue of the '60s. [Miles Davis' classic jazz album] Kind of Blue is a disc you can listen to over and over, you never get tired of it, it's eternally fresh. And so is that Fred Neil album."
if you have zappa, then you must have: http://www.beefheart.com/.
01 Jimi Hendrix
Band Of Gypsys (1970)
02 Various Artists
Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music (25th Anniversary) (1995)
03 Johnny Cash
At Folsom Prison (1968)
04 Bob Dylan
Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live 1966 Royal Albert Hall (1998)
05 Miles Davis
The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965 (1965)
06 B.B. King
Live at the Regal (1965)
07 Allman Brothers Band
Live at Filmore East (1971)
08 Bob Marley & The Wailers
Babylon By Bus (1978)
09 Nirvana
Unplugged in New York (1994)
10 The Who
Live at Leeds (1970)
11 The Band
The Last Waltz (1978)
12 John Coltrane
Live at Birdland (1963)
13 James Brown
Live at the Apollo Vol. 1 (1963)
14 The Ramones
It's Alive (1979)
15 Aretha Franklin
Live at Filmore West (1971)
16 Muddy Waters
At Newport (1960)
17 Talking Heads
Stop Making Sense (1984)
18 Otis Redding
In Person at the Whisky A-Go-Go (1968)
19 U2
Under a Blood Red Sky (1983)
20 Peter Frampton
Frampton Comes Alive (1976)
21 Little Feat
Waiting For Columbus (1978)
22 Ray Charles
Live (1973)
23 The Rolling Stones
Get Your Ya-Ya's Out (1970)
24 Stevie Ray Vaughan
Live Alive (1986)
25 Grateful Dead
Live Dead (1969)
26 The Doors
Absolutely Live (1970)
27 John Lee Hooker
Live at Newport (2002)
28 Etta James
Rocks the House Live (1964)
29 Lynyrd Skynryd
One More From the Road (1976)
30 Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Live Rust (1979)
31 Joe Cocker
Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1970)
32 Cream
Live Cream, Vol. 1 (1970)
33 KISS
Alive! (1975)
34 Cheap Trick
Live at Budokan (1979)
35 Various Artists
The Monterey International Pop Festival (1967)
36 Albert King
Livewire/Blues Power (1968)
37 Sam Cooke
Live At The Harlem Square Club (1985)
38 Frank Sinatra
Sinatra at the Sands (1966)
39 Eric Clapton
Unplugged (1992)
40 Elvis Presley
Aloha From Hawaii (1973)
41 Ella Fitzgerald
The Complete Ella In Berlin (1960)
42 Judy Garland
Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961)
43 Billie Holiday
Jazz at the Philharmonic (1946)
44 MC5
Kick Out the Jams (1969)
45 Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Live! (1971)
46 Neil Diamond
Hot August Night (1972)
47 John Coltrane
Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (1961)
48 Bill Withers
Live at Carnegie Hall (1973)
49 Elvis Costello
Live at the El Mocambo (1978)
50 Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Live From Deep in the Heart of Texas (1974)
if you have B B King, then you have to have Albert King
After he had signed with Stax Records in 1966 he became a major blues figure. Albert was the first blues artist to play the legendary San Francisco rock venue the Fillmore West, sharing the stage opening night in 1968 with Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall. Albert was inducted into the Blues Foundation´s Hall of Fame in 1983. He died of a heart attack in 1992, just prior to starting a major European tour.
Livewire/Blues Power--one of the top 50 live albums of all time
http://www.hob.com/onlinemusic/specials/topfifty/.
colt-- I notice you have some folkies; are they included? such as Fred Neil who paid some guy named bob dylan $1 to accompany him on harmonica at he Cafe Wha in the early 60's
http://www.fredneil.com/chronology.html
http://www.harveymandel.com/.
http://www.harveymandel.com/music_art/esp_mm_cristo.html.
Cristo Redentor (1969)
Tracklist
1 - Wade In The Water 6 - Cristo Redentor
2 - Lights Out 7 - Before Six
3 - Bradley's Barn 8 - Lark, The
4 - You Can't Tell Me 9 - Snake
5 - Nashville 1 A. M. 10 - Long Wait
Album Specifics
Session Artists: Steve Miller, Fast Eddie Hoh, Charlie Musselwhite, Graham Bond
MIA--Country Joe and the Fish
http://www.well.com/user/cjfish/
Did you guys ever hear this one? While I have sold most of my vinyl collection "for a song" as they say; I still have this 3 vinyl set as a collector's item (someone in England offered me 150 pounds for it):
http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/A_CID_SYMPHONY.html
PS: I thought I was the only person in the world who bought Rhinoceros. LOL
while NOT a performer, i would argue one of the most influential persons on rock and roll history performances was eddie kramer
http://www.kramerarchives.com/
Nicky Hopkins
Hopkins is the prototypical hired-gun piano player, cutting influential sessions on some of the earliest British Invasion albums and sticking with the Stones for decades (next to Ian Stewart he was the closest thing to a sixth member). Hopkins is important because he had better connections than anyone and made a major contribution to the sound of several important artists, but of course he's obscure anyway. He did release solo albums in 1966 and 1973, both of which are hard to find. And he also joined Quicksilver Messenger Service in the early 70's, but only for a couple albums. (JA)
The Beatles, "Revolution" (single version)
Jeff Beck, "Morning Dew" and "Blues De Luxe" (Truth); Beck-ola
David Bowie, Early On (1966 sessions with the Lower Third)
Joe Cocker, I Can Stand A Little Rain
Lowell George, Thanks I'll Eat It Here
Giles, Giles & Fripp, The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp
George Harrison, Living In The Material World, Dark Horse
The Jefferson Airplane, Volunteers; Jefferson Airplane; live cuts from Woodstock and Woodstock II
John Lennon, Imagine; Walls & Bridges
Jackie Lomax, "Sour Milk Sea" and "The Eagle Laughs At You" from Is This What You Want?
Paul McCartney, Flowers In The Dirt
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Shady Grove and later LP's.
Martha Reeves
The Rolling Stones, "In Another Land" (Their Satanic Majesties Request); Beggar's Banquet; Let It Bleed; "Sway" (Sticky Fingers); Exile On Main Street; Goats Head Soup; It's Only Rock And Roll; Black And Blue; Emotional Rescue; Tatoo You
Rod Stewart, Foot Loose And Fancy Free; Blondes Have More Fun
Matthew Sweet, Altered Beast
The Who, My Generation; Tommy; "The Song Is Over"; Who By Numbers
Bill Wyman, Stone Alone
The Yardbirds, Little Games
I suspect but can't confirm that Hopkins appears on records by the Kinks and possibly Small Faces
Unsung Session Heroes:
Nicky Hopkins, Piano and Organ
Hosted by:
By Tony Bove
The late Nicky Hopkins was an unsung session hero on piano and organ. He is probably the most important session musician in British rock history, playing on hit songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and many others.
Nicky Hopkins started with Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages, which also included Jimmy Page (another session hero and founder of Led Zeppelin). He played with the Cyril Davies All Stars, one of the first British rhythm & blues bands (Nicky plays piano on the Country Line Special album).
In 1965, he played piano on nearly every song of the Who's debut album, The Who Sings My Generation. He played piano for the top British bands of the Sixties including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, and Kinks, and on solo albums by John Lennon, Jeff Beck, and others. He also helped define the San Francisco sound, playing on Jefferson Airplane and Steve Miller Band albums, and even briefly joined Quicksilver Messenger Service.
http://www.rockument.com/session_hopkins1.html.
wow-ONLY 25-- I guess bloomfield, mayall, zappa, bowie and the Byrds won't make my list
PMS--ghlad you didn't forget ? and the Mysterians o/w I would be crying 96 tears!!!!
remember this: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading
Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Initial release : 1967
Columbia 9454
The debut LP.
Track listing
It's A Happening Thing
Then Came Love
Twice Is Life
Second Hand Man
You Can't Be Found
Why Did I Get So High
Dark On You Now
The Market Place
You Should Know
The Most Up Till Now
You Took Too Much
Musicians
Lance Fent - lead guitar
John Merrill - rhythm guitar
Al Brackett - bass
Jim Voight - drums
Sandi Robinson - percussion, vocals
Other credits
Producer - Gary Usher
Related releases
It's A Happening Thing, Then Came Love, Twice Is Life, Why Did I Get So High, Dark On You Now, The Market Place, You Should Know and The Most Up Till Now were included on;
Turn On A Friend, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, 1999
All of this LP was included on the two-on-one release;
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading/The Great Conspiracy, Peanut Butter Conspiracy, 2000
It's A Happening Thing was included on;
Greatest Hits of the Sixties, Vol. 1-2, Various Artists, 1995