The subtle art of promotion


"This book comes on like the Hallelujah Chorus done by 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch" - Thomas Pynchon

Promotional blurb on cover of Richard Fariña's 1966 novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. More on Richard Fariña soon. He was married to Joan Baez's sister Mimi. So in the meantime here is a link to Joan Baez's (or, actually, Lloyd Stone's) take on Sibelius.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

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Four great albums that are victims of clickbait correctness

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On that sleeve for his 1985 recording of the Goldberg Variations , Scott Ross is seen standing in the grounds of Château d'Assas in Languedoc. It was here that many of his great recordings were made. Then, as today, the château dwelt in the twilight zone between grandeur and dereliction, and thirty years ago the recording sessions were regularly interrupted by the sound of rats scurrying across the floor. Scott Ross was born in Pittsburgh in 1951, and moved to France with his mother following the death of his father in 1964. He studied at the conservatoires in Nice and Paris, and first came to Château d'Assas in 1969 to give music lessons to the grandson of its owner Mme. Simone Demangel . When an early music academy was established at the château, the harpsichordist gave masterclasses and became a frequent visitor. At first he stayed in a room in one of the towers, but from 1983 he rented a small house across the road from the château. The photos below were taken by me on a
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If this had been a Deutsche Grammophon session.....

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