Dinner Music: From the archive

This week, instead of the usual weekly lineup, I’m taking the paywall off four playlists and albums from the archive. Today I’m starting a big drive across half the country, first to Sewanee, Tennessee for a writers conference, then on to Brooklyn. After two weeks in each, I’ll make my way back to Texas. I got some great recommendations on albums to listen to on the drive on Notes, too:

Am I about to begin my Bob Dylan era? I’ve been solidly in a Townes Van Zandt era for the last two years—it might make sense to move into Dylan now.

Any other recs?

*as of September 2024

“Looking back at the archive and listening to defining Dinner Music artists.”

“Some very nice music. I love the fun little sounds, the blips and boops and whoooos of the theramin, distorted warbles of a chord progression on an organ, the zip-zang of a Flex-A-Tone.”

“Library” music consisted of “ready made commercial soundtracks of the ’70s and early ’80s” and the industry thrived in Europe, especially with Italian composers, like Piero Umiliani. Where did that wildly inventive sound come from? The 60s thru the 80s was a fraught time for Italy and that unrest, along with musical inspiration from Black Americans, gave italian library its distinct sound.

“This week we’re leaning into sounds like capture “that summer feeling.” As Henry James wrote: “Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” And now, we try to capture it in sound.”

Thank you, Thank you. Have a great week.

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