Mrs Craddock by W. Somerset Maugham

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Not my favorite Maugham novel, but still a very enjoyable read. Maugham is amazing with this novel, in that he makes Bertha Craddock both despicable and pitiable. Edward never really changes throughout the novel. He's the same goofy oaf from beginning to end. But the reader's conception of him changes as Bertha becomes more and more sympathetic through the novel. It's really kind of genius on Maugham's part. But the story itself...so-so.



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Fathers and Sons (and Daughters)

Maybe after this week I'll give up trying to find quirky shit to post a mix. Right now I'm too tired to really care. So here's my post for the weak. It's pretty week, really. As I type this I'm listening to the Tim Buckley part of the mix, and thinking, "I couldn't come up with anything better than this?" Oh well, such is life.

Been bogged down lately by the minutae of education. Kind of pisses me off. So now I'm listening to the Jeff Buckley part of the mix, "Hallelujah," which is kind of cool. So it not a total waste of a week. There are profound moments in life. We just really have to look for them. (By the way, I've had a bottle plus of wine at this point, so fuckin' bear with me. I'm having a James Joyce, stream of consciousness moment here.)

So, okay, back to the seriousness of this post. Who is the son...or daughter who has best lived up to the expectation of being the offspring of his or her father? In case you haven't been paying attention that's what this post is about. Let's do away with the obvious "no fucking way" choices...Ziggy Marley and Jakob Dylan. Don't get me wrong...I love me some Wallflowers, but Jake is not living up to Bob...as if anyone could. And as for Zig...Stephen is much more of the Marley brother who got the reggae roots of mom and dad. Since I included both Marley brothers, it would have only been fair to include both Lennon brothers, but poor Julian...poor Julian. I mean Sean Lennon is just as weird and fucked up as you would expect a son of Yoko to be. But at least he's been jammin' with Cibo Matto. (Yeah, you know what I'm sayin'.) And then there's Jeff Buckley who did his best by drowning to death...not quite living up to the smack O.D. by dad, but you know. P.S.: sorry I put such a sad Tim Buckley cut here. And I have two daughters here. Roseanne Cash and Bebel Gilberto. I guess I should have put up Bebel Gilberto's dad and mom here, but sorry 'bout that Astrud.

1. "Maggie's Farm," Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home

2. "Girl From Ipenema," Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto

3. "The Motorcycle Song," Arlo Guthrie, Arlo

4. "Dead Meat," Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire

5. "Rosie Strikes Back," Roseanne Cash, King's Record Shop

6. "Song for Janie," Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley

7. "Hallelujah," Jeff Buckley, Grace

8. "If You Never Got Sick," The Wallflowers, Red Letter Days

9. "Chase Dem," Stephen Marley, Mind Control

10. "Ballad of Ira Hayes," Johnny Cash, Bitter Tears

11. "Dust Bowl Refugee," Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads

12. "School Days," Loudon Wainwright III, Album I

13. "Tomorrow People," Ziggy Marley, Dragonfly

14. "Samba da Benção" Bebel Gilberto, Tanta Tempo

15. "Punky Reggae Party," Bob Marley, Babylon by Bus

16. "God," John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band

Click on Bebel for the link to the mix.

For the full album I'm posting a little Ronny Wood. I've been listening to quite a bit of Small Faces latley, and have come to appreciate the true genius of Ronny. I really like this album, and who can beat the title. Hope you like all this. I'll try to be more regular about posting this week.

Tommy's Post

I'm posting in a shitty state tonight. Not in a shitty mood...but more in a shit-ass drunk state. So you'll have to forgive both the typos, lack of writing skill, and the increased sentimentality (as if the last post was not soberly sentimental enough). I'm posting tonight for my friend Tom, who owns much of the credit for my musical pedigree. Tom introduced me to, among other things, the Stones, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. In other words, Tommy introduced me to all things good in music. I really cannot say enough about what he showed me in music. I met Tom in Austin, Texas in 1991. I had moved back to Texas after a 2 year nightmare-stint in D.C., working in advertising (which I had misguidedly majored in at UT Austin). Tom was having a short lay-over in Austin in between semesters at USC. We met while waiting tables. I was trying to reestablish residency in Texas so I could get back into UT at the cheaper native-Texan rate. Tom was hanging out and getting high waiting tables, waiting to go back to L.A. to finish his degree. It was just one of those things. We clicked as friends. He went back to USC to finish his degree, but came back to Austin. I was still at the same restaurant when he got back, and we later became head-waiters together. We spent many an evening in his apartment, smoked out on cheap weed, making the month-long schedule for the waiters at the restaurant (saving the best shifts for ourselves). I later moved into a 3 bedroom house with Tom and our friend Mark. Both Tom and Mark were guitar players...Mark the more accomplished. Tom taught me the basics of guitar on the front porch of that house...my first lesson in the early morning hours after a late night of partying. Instead of teaching me finger style and blues scales, he taught me 3 major chords, a minor chord, and three songs to play with them, "Browneyed Girl, Wonderful Tonight, and something else I can't remember in my current inebriated state. What better way to learn to play an axe? At the time (and, really, to this day) he's the coolest guy I had ever met.

Tom taught me one essential thing in life. No matter what anyone else ever said, the coolest album ever recorded is Sticky Fingers...period. He also taught me that no matter how much you paid to see a concert, it was okay to fall asleep in the middle of it. He and I and our friend Johnny paid primo dollars (or it seemed so at the time) for good seats to see Neil up close and acoustic in Austin. By the third song, I looked over at Tommy and he was in classic pose...arms crossed, head to the side, sound asleep. (There was herbaliser involved.) Legend has it that Tommy fell asleep on the floor at a Guns-n-Roses concert. I wasn't there, but I totally believe it.

At the end of this mix I'm including "Powderfinger" from Rust Never Sleeps. Tom gave me this CD in 1998 right before we took off for a New Years Eve trip to New Orleans. Tom and I and our friend Joe took off for N.O. for the holiday, got shitty, smoked a bunch of dope, and did the Bourbon Street thang for the New Year. I remember me trying to sing "Shine a Light" a cappella in the middle of Bourbon Street, Tom telling me to shut the fuck up. (I tend towards the annoying when drunk and happy.)

The ironic part of this mix is that it is absolutely NOT rock-n-roll. This is the alt-co mix. While Tom may have introduced me to the greatest rock-n-roll band of all time, he also showed me the building blocks of the alternative country movement of the 90s. Neil Young is the basement floor of alt-co. Here are some of the artists that I have truly come to love in the last 20 years since those days of waiting tables at OTB. They are truly some of the fondest memories that I have.

Thanks Tom.

Alt-Co Mix:

1. "Elvis Presley Blues," Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)

2. "Nashville," Indigo Girls, Rites of Passage

3. "I Am a Cinematographer," Palace Brothers, Days in the Wake

4. "California Stars," Billy Bragg and Wilco, Mermaid Avenue

5. "Blue," Lucinda Williams, Live at the Fillmore East

6. "You Are Not Needed Now," Townes Van Zandt, High, Low and In Between

7. "In My Mind I Was Talkin' To Loretta," Pieta Brown, Remember the Sun

8. "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere," Dwight Yoakum, This Time

9. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," Ramblin' Jack Elliot, The Essential Ramblin' Jack Elliot

10. "Deep River Blues," Doc Watson, Doc Watson

11. "Our Town," Iris Dement, Infamous Angel

12. "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore," Phil Ochs, I Ain't Marchin' Anymore

13. "Baltimore," Lyle Lovett, Joshua Judges Ruth
14. "When You Walk On," Eliza Gilkyson, Paradise Hotel

15. "South Tacoma Way," Neko Case, Furnace Room Lullaby

16. "Powderfinger," Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps

Click HERE for this mix

Full Album Post:

Neil Bootleg (trust me, this is some good shit):

Fuck Me Cause I'm Stoned (Disc One)

Fuck Me Cause I'm Stoned (Disc Two)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

I'm going to switch things up a little bit for today's post. Normally I would post the mix first and then the full album. But today's post is dedicated to my mom's 65th birthday, and she will be less than impressed by the mix today, but I'm putting up the full album post just for her. The picture here to the right is me and my mom when we were living in Okinawa in 1970 or 71. That would have made me about 4 or 5 and mom about 26. I've often marvelled at the courage of my parents in those early years, willing to pack up the family and move away from the safety and normalcy of Baltimore to the vast unknown of Okinawa. For my father, not so much, since he had been in the Navy before all this and had been to "parts unknown," but for my mother to leave her home to follow my father and take us kids (hell, my sister was still in diapers when we got to Okinawa) to live such an isolated life. It took an awful lot of courage for her to do that...more than I think I would have had at 25 years old.

About 9 years ago I was with my mom on vacation in Bruges. We had just left Paris after a week, and we were hanging out in this little street cafe in Bruges listening to this oompah band that was gigging in the town square. Over a couple of beers my mom told me that she felt that she owed me some kind of apology for dragging me and my sister all over creation during our childhood, never really having a stable "home" until I got to high school in San Antonio. My father worked for National Security Agency, so we did a couple of years in Okinawa, then back to Baltimore for a few years, then off to Hawaii for a couple more years, then back to Baltimore, then finally moving to San Antonio where my parents decided to make a permanent home. Anyway, mom thought that she had robbed my sister and I of a normal childhood, which I can understand her thinking of it that way. I can't say that there weren't times that I wasn't jealous of all those kids who had friends that they had known since kindergarten. But I think that what I got in return was so much better. I learned that the world was a damned big place and there was a ton out there to see. And since then I've done whatever I could to see, hear, and read as much of it as I possibly could. I may not know everything in the world that there is to know, but one thing that I have understood is that everyone on this planet does not think about life in the same way that I do. Other people may think they understand that, but not until you have lived halfway across the world away from "home"...even if only as a small child...can you truly appreciate that. So in that spirit I'm posting this album by Cecilio and Kapono, a Hawaiian pop duo from the 70s. My father bought this album while we were in Hawaii, and I have since inherited this piece of vinyl. And it really is Hawaii in the 70s. I can't remember if I've burned this for my mom yet, but if I haven't I hope she'll download this for herself.

For the mix, I'm going to post something even more "geeked-out" then normal. In case nobody's noticed, I'm a HUGE Dylan fan. I've been contemplating how to attack Dylan's discography for the blog. I thought that I might put together a two or three disc "favorites" mix...and I still will probably do that eventually. But I had this kernel of an idea to do something far more involved and quirky. So the other day I searched for and found and online document of all of Dylan's recording sessions from 1961 to present with notations on which tracks from the recording sessions matched up with tracks on released material. So I've begun to compile a master list of Bob's released material in the order that it was actually recorded...as in which song from his first album did he actually record first and where do all those songs from the Bootleg Series fit in. Bob's recorded life in chronological order. Yes, I really am just that much of a geek. Which is why I'm titling the series "Geekin' on Bob." So here's the first volume which covers November, 1961 through July, 1962.

1. "You're No Good," Bob Dylan

2. "Fixin' to Die," Bob Dylan

3. "He Was a Friend of Mine," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

4. "House of the Rising Sun," Bob Dylan

5. "Talkin' New York," Bob Dylan

6. "Song to Woody," Bob Dylan

7. "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," Bob Dylan

8. "In My Time of Dying," Bob Dylan

9. "Man on the Street," Bootlegs Seriew, Vol. 1

10. "Man of Constant Sorrow," Bob Dylan

11. "Pretty Peggy-O," Bob Dylan

12. "See That My Grave's Kept Clean," Bob Dylan

13. "Gospel Plow," Bob Dylan

14. "Highway 51," Bob Dylan

15. "Freight Train Blues," Bob Dylan

16. "House Carpenter," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

17. "Rambling, Gambling Willie," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

18. "Let Me Die in My Footsteps," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

19. "Talkin' Hava Negeilah Blues," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

20. "Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

21. "Baby, I'm in the Mood for You," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

22. "Bob Dylan's Blues," Bootleg Series, Vol. 1

23. "Blowin' in the Wind," The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

24. "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance," The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

A Love Poem with Some Hip-Hop

Dear M.,

I was counting my freckles

The other day, and when I

Got a thousand, I started

Lisping which Mr. E.

says I do when I get tired

I love you, future wife

Love B.

In honor of me not posting for Valentine's Day...a calculated move, I assure you...I've decided to keep you guessing. The other day some students were discussing "Old Skool Hip-Hop," and I realized that they were talking about Jay-Z. Yes, that's right fellow-fogies, even if you're over 40 and still listening to hip-hop...or ever were...you're musical tastes are tres passe. According to more-than-a-few teenagers, if it was issued in the 20th century, it's totally unlistenable. Most of them know Dr. Dre, Tupac, NWA, etc, but a few years ago a few students got into my CD wallet and begged me to play The Chronic for them because they had never actually heard it.

So perhaps I'm posting this for them, not necessary my students, but any of you out there who might be under 30 and checking out my blog and need a quick, down-and-dirty education on the world of rap before 1995. I've kept this mix to the late 80s and early 90s. Most of this will be readily recognizable to those over 30 who have even a limited knowledge of hip-hop, but I've thrown in a few surprises along with the biggies...not Biggie. Keep in mind when listening that I am a middle-aged white man, self-educated in the world of hip-hop. My first rap album...actually on cassette...was UTFO's self-titled 1985 release (not included here, because god knows where I'd find that shit now). After that I kind of just picked what I could here and there. But nevertheless, I think this is a good smattering of the "Golden Days of Rap." Hope you like.

1. "Pied Piper," Run-DMC, Raising Hell

2. "Raising the Flag," X Clan, To the East, Blackwards

3. "Deeper," Boss, Boss Ganstarz

4. "Who Am I?" Snoop Doggy Dogg, Doggystyle

5. "You Played Yourself," Ice-T, Iceberg

6. "Microphone Fiend," Eric B. & Rakim, Follow the Leader

7. "The Bridge is Over," Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded

8. "Brand New Funk," DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper

9. "Tennessee," Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life of...

10. "The World is Yours," NaS, Illmatic

11. "MCs Act Like They Don't Know," KRS-One, KRS-One

12. "Ladies First," Queen Latifah, All Hail the Queen

13. "Check the Technique," Gang Starr, Step in the Arena

14. "Freaks of the Industry," Digital Underground, Sex Packets

15. "They Want EFX," Das EFX, Dead Serious

16. "Let Me Ride," Dr. Dre, The Chronic

Click on Nas for the link

Last week I was listening to this album by Ann Peebles, and it crossed my mind that it's utterly ridiculous that she's not more of a household name. I mean we all know Aretha...looking her age at the inauguration. But Ann Peebles has not had nearly the staying power of other female R&B artists of her era. And listening to this album, which is hardly not even her best, I don't quite understand why. At any rate I'm not going to go on and on about it, because my brain is not cooperating in this process today. I'll just let the music speak for itself

My Weekend: Hungarian Folk Music, Jack Daniels, and A Plate Full of Butter

This past weekend my wife Michelle and I were running a small bed and breakfast at our house. My father-in-law has been here for a little over a week, because back home in Kentucky the ice and snow had knocked out power, gas, and water. I can feel his pain after Hurricane Ike in September, so I had no problem letting him come and use our amenities for a week or so. Then on Friday night my friend Stephen came down from Austin to hang out for the weekend. Well, not so much to hang out as it was to cruise the blogs looking for Hungarian folk-rock and then burn MP3s onto disc. For various reasons he's having problems unzipping the rar-files on his computer, so I was more than happy to oblige. Stephen and I have known each other since high school (my 25th year reunion being this year was one of the things we discussed) and we roomed together for a while in college.

Stephen actually introduced me to the concept that not everyone listened to pop, rock or country music. Even in high school he was listening to radio from all over the world on his shortwave, learning about folk, rock, jazz, etc in their many variations across the globe. In college we spent many an afternoon flipping through the vinyl at Sound Exchange on Guadalupe Street in Austin, searching for just the right Irish folk title. Stephen is blind, so I would go with him to read off the title of hundreds of albums of which I had no clue at first. So our conversations at Sound Exchange would consist of me reading album titles and Stephen saying, "No. No. No. No. Wait who's the accordion player on that one. Oh no, not that one. No. No. No. Yeah!!! Yeah!!! Get that one!!!" After weeks, months, years of browsing, buying, hearing all kinds of celtic folk, I began to gain an appreciation. Living in the dorm, we would occasionally throw Scottish bagpipe music on my turntable, crank it up to 10, and open the door to our dorm room. Bagpipe music bounces really well off the concrete dorm hallway walls.

Stephen has since moved on from Irish, English and Scottish folk...now amassing one of the most impressive Bossa, Samba, and MPB CD collections that I have seen. Okay, it's the only such collection that I've seen, but trust me, it's impressive. In turn, I have also garnered a more global view of music. So this weekend, while my wife and father-in-law cruised around the city running various errands during the day and watched T.V. at night, Stephen and I sat in my study, downloaded some gypsy folk-rock, talked about music, drank Jack Daniels for me and Irish whiskey for Steve, and watched old television ads from the 80s on YouTube. Ah, livin' the good life!!! We also walked to the Indian food buffet up the street from my house. Hence the "plate full of butter" in the title to this post.

So this week, for the mix disc, I wanted to give a collection of various musical styles that I have from around the world. In listening to this, it may seem a bit schizophrenic. At one point it goes from Zairean guitar ballad, to Mongolian throat singing, to Ananda Shankar doing "Jumping Jack Flash" on the sitar. I'm guessing that most people won't like all of this mix, but hopefully you might find something that you hadn't heard before and maybe you find something that you like enough to buy (or download) a whole disc of it.

1. "Sci-Fi Wasabi," Cibo Matto, Stereo Type A: I know Cibo Matto are actually out of New York, but they are Japanese-born, but it would be ridiculous to classify them as "American." Ever since my friend Alan introduce me to them, I have really dug this duo.

2. "Saukare," Ali Farka Toure, Niafunke: Just love the way he plays guitar. Something rather hypnotic about this track.

3. "Mora Na Filosofia," Caetano Veloso, Trans: No, not Trans the really bad Neil Young album. This is a little MPB from the seventies. And Caetano would be "the man" for that. A beautiful song here.

4. "En Melody," Serge Gainsborough, Histoire de Melody Nelson: For a French track, I was going to put a Jacques Brel tune, but I needed another upbeat tune, since this mix tends a little toward the "jelly." So here's a little Serge.

5. "Ma Jaiye Oni," King Sunny Ade, Juju Music: King Sunny, to me, is the second greatest Nigerian musician. Many would argue that. But we will get to the best in a minute.

6. "Pull Up the People," M.I.A., Arular: I saw an interview with M.I.A. (Mathangi Arulpragasam) on CNN International the other day about the politics of her music. I know it's REALLY poppie, but I really dig this song...and the whole album.

7. "Gentleman," Fela Kuti, Gentleman: Decided that this long cut (all Fela's cuts are long) would work really well smack-dab in the middle, as it were. A little Nigerian interlude. I have a very decent sized Fela collection, so you will be seeing more of him in the future on the blog.

8. "Crooked Jack," Dick Gaughan, Dick Gaughan: This one I owe to Stephen and all that record flipping back in college. Steve was a huge Dick Gaughan fan, and I quickly discovered why. There are other great Irish bards, but Dick Gaughan is king.

9. "Ernesto La Chiva," Conjunto Topo Chico, San Antonio's Conjuntos in the 1950's: A little music from the hometown scene. Growing up in S.A. you could help but be exposed to a lot of conjunto music, even if you were the sheltered white kid.

10. "Limbisa Ngai," Ngwalau Michel & Orch. African Fiesta, The Sound of Kinshasa: Guitar Classics from Zaire: I downloaded this collection on a lark, and was not disappointed. Very mellow.

11. "Haramgui," Egschiglen, Zazal: This would be that Mongolian throat singing I was mentioning before. I really love this stuff. Can't explain it. For me it like when I got into Gregorian chants in college. It's just a soothing sound.

12. "Jumping Jack Flash," Ananda Shankar, Ananda Shankar: This album came out in 1970. Anandar Shankar was much more interested in the whole American pop and psychedelic scene that his uncle Ravi, but he never really took off as his own man as it were. But this cut is kind of cool.

13. "Djam Leelii," Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, Djam Leelii: Just in case you hadn't had enough, here's some more African guitar...this time from Senegal. I guess this is the way my tastes really runs in world music. I'm okay with that.

Click on Fela for the link.

This compilation released by Blue Note in 1992, and then again as a CD in 2001, makes a valiant attempt to gather together a fair sampling of jazz-funk of the 70s. There's some groovy stuff on this disc from Lou Donaldson, Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell and others. Grant Green gets most of the exposure here with three tracks to himself...as it freakin' should be. One of those tracks is Green's answer to Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" entitled "Cantaloupe Woman." And then there's the cover of Sly Stone's "Family Affair." Awesome. Occasionally I will put this album on when I'm grading papers, and I find that I'm doing more pencil-tapping than I am grading. Like that's a crime. Hope you find this just as groovy as I do.

Just Some Rock n Roll

I've noticed that The Boss has been getting quite a bit of face-time lately. Obama's inauguration with a choir doing "The Rising." Then that crappy little set at the Super Bowl. Do you think that some marketing guy got together a thousand 20-somethings, paid them to learn the lyrics to "Born to Run" and put them up by the stage? I do. I totally believe that!!! Just like when the Stones played the Super Bowl whenever that was. All those kids knowing the words to every song they played. PLEASE!!! Let's have a little dose of reality with the 40...or 50-something used-to-be MILF with her halter top and no-bra saggy boobs up by the stage singing along with the Boss. Springsteen had built up at least a little bit of "cred" in the last few year, moving on to become more of a roots rock icon, but all that just got blown at halftime. He went back to the washed-up wannabe rocker along with the Stones and the Who playing a bunch of 30 year old tunes in front of a bunch of teenagers who are saying, "Oh yeah, I know that song. It's in that commercial for Hummers." If Neil Young ever plays the Super Bowl, then I fuckin' quit!!!

Nevertheless....(deep breath)....I do love me some Boss. My senior year in high school and my freshman year in college I played the crap out of every single Springsteen album. While I may have followed the crowd on Born in the USA, I also quickly moved on to Welcome to Asbury Park, N.J...in my own defense. I hazily recall being drunk in some bar in Houston, singing all the words to "Thunder Road" with some girl. (It wasn't playing on the jukebox; we just decided to sing it.) Bruce is a significant part of my musical pedigree. So here's some Boss that doesn't suck. I stopped with Nebraska, because do any of us really need to ever hear ANYTHING from Born in the U.S.A ever again? I also left off "Born to Run," the song, not the whole album. Again, I think we've heard much too much of that particular song, and it really isn't that good to begin with. I've tried to put together a mix that honors Springsteen the poet more than Springsteen the rock star. He is quite the amazing lyricist, but sometimes all that gets lost in the mystique. As always, I hope you like this.

1. "She's the One," Born to Run
2. "Adam Raised a Cain," Darkness on the Edge of Town
3. "Independence Day," The River

4. "Johnny 99," Nebraska
5. "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?," Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
6. "Rosalita," The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle

7. "Mary, Queen of Arkansas," Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J
8. "Lost in the Flood," Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.

9. "Jungleland," Born to Run

10. "State Trooper," Nebraska

11. "Something in the Night," Darkness on the Edge of Town

12. "Backstreets," Born to Run

13. "Nebraska," Nebraska

14. "The River," The River

Click on Bruce for link.

I figure its about time that I posted some Stones. The question was only what Stones to post? I mean Sticky Fingers or Some Girls or one of those would really be silly. You can find those on the internet without me. So I'm posting a boot that I've had for quite some time. Actually I think it may be the first boot I ever owned. I was never really into bootlegs, but about 10 years ago a guy I worked with handed my 3 discs that he had burned. Now this when "burning discs" was still a big deal, a fairly new technology. So they were probably also my first "burned" CDs. He knew that I was a huge Rolling Stones fan and gave me 3 Stones bootlegs. And this one is my favorite. The first half of it is a concert from Honolulu in 1966 and the second is some studio stuff from around the same time period. I think that the concert part is far more interesting than the studio part. This is not groundbreaking stuff, but it's a nice disc to have.