YESS relic

It was my friend who introduced me to the YESS cassettes. YESS cassettes were produced by a company in Bandung. The were two colors of the covers:  green and blue, the cassettes themselves were typically colored green (later white). The other unique feature is the logo. It looked like a combination of a plane and bird (later on I realized that it was stolen from the art of Roger Dean who was the artist who created my covers of YES albums). 

I always prioritized YESS cassettes over the other (pirated) products. Typically many producers issued a new album of an artist at the same time. Below I pasted the same album of YES produced by Aquarius and YESS. To me the one on the right looked better. 

  

(Notice that the cassette produced by YESS has another album about half of side B. Most pirated cassettes were C60 which has total 60 minutes duration from both sides about 20 minutes longer than LPs which have about 30-44 minutest total play duration consequently the producers had to fill these extra minutes by adding songs from other LP in the above we could see Chris Squire's album added to side B typically the added albums were from the same genre. Chris Squire was obviously the bassist of Yes and hence he would have sounded like YES. I typically listened to this part of cassettes to find out the next artists to listen to)

Back then there was a cassette store in Bandung that would allow us to exchange any cassettes bought there within 24 hours. I remember I exchanged Genesis' A Trick of A Tail album as it had a glitch on one of the songs. Looked like the original LP that they used was scratched 

 

One cassette that had typo was Dave Grusin album below. It was written live in Budukan - obviously the correct word was Budokan. Budukan itself means mangy. I was sure that it was a practical joke by the producer

I could not find YESS cassettes in the city where I spent my junior high school, Cirebon, however I could find those in Kuningan which is about 30 km from Cirebon. Kuningan is much smaller to Cirebon and yet one store had YESS cassettes there. I would bet that I was the only person who bought some of those. 

When pirated cassettes were banned in Indonesia YESS along with some others disappeared from the market. We could still buy them online or in some second hand market but of course we need to have tape player which also had disappeared too.  YESS cassettes are now relics of a past era. 

one month of blogging

I have completed my first blogging month in 2022. Learning from my 365 of days of  exercise as recorded on Strava last year I am convinced that If I putted my mind on something it could be done. I would like to celebrate my first milestone by reviewing my first month of blogging here. 

My first eight blogs were inspired by my running hobby. Those could be found on my wordpress site. I spoke about why ranking (on strava) doesn't matter to me,  how I am addicted to run, how do I see running spiritually, my habit of listening to podcasts as I run, my dad as my inspiration, my running shoes, my earphones, and lastly my experience joining a half marathon. 

Some blogs were inspired by books (Mother Teresa, a book the read when I was a kid), a film (Spiderman), experiences like joining a trekking, some news, a twit, memories (old Nokia phone), things that I saw (a cemetary, a city). I also wrote my memories about Bands that I listened during my teen years (Deep Purple, Van Halen, The Beatles)

I have accomplished but 1/12th of my goal - I need still to write some 330 blogs in the coming months. To be honest I am sure I could come up with some entries (more Bands to write, I listen to podcast daily so I might steal some ideas there, I am picking up books again hoping to have some ideas, etc) - I am sure that on some days I might struggle to find ideas but one thing is certain that no matter what I am committed to accomplish this 365 days blogging challenge this year. 

 

Count your blessings !

Count your blessings ! I quoted this sentence from a web that I googled today. To count your blessings is to focus on all the good in your life. While we all have troubles, if we stopped and did a count our blessings should outweigh our troubles.

It is unwise to compare our life with the life of others but from time to time seeing other people troubles would allow us a chance to ponder about our own life. Oftentimes our trouble is miniscule in comparison to others. 

My first reaction of seeing other's troubles would be admiration. They must be so strong to carry to weights day in and day out. Secondly how grateful am I to be spared of all those heavy burdens. Thirdly I sympathize those people who have such challenges in their life. 

I always remember Voltaire when I am reminded about the different life situations of each of us

 “Each players must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she must alone decide how to play the cards in order to win the game” — Voltaire

Van Halen was my name

After listening to Van Halen's 'Fair Warning' (not from Aquarius this time, too bad forgot already the producer of the pirated cassettes) I fell in love so much to the band that I add Van Halen to my name (written LOOQQAZT VAN HALEN)

The sound of Eddy's guitar was the perfect sound that I thought a rock band should be.  When David Lee Roth screamed his voice turned into some unique howling that was fantastic to my ears. I often day dreaming listening to the cassette when I got bored or distracted during class. My most favorite song was 'Unchained' 

As usual I hunted the other album of Van Halen. The one available one at that time was 'Women and Children First'. I did not know that Van Halen had two previous albums: Van Halen and Van Halen II. Of course 'Van Halen' has the phenomenal 'Eruption' which I listened much later 

The next album that I had was Diver Down.  I thought 'Hang 'Em High' was the highlight of the album. I had this album when I was in high school. At that time Van Halen was still obscure. Compilation (like 'The Best of" was not available yet). However I managed to find a poster of Van Halen (of course pirated). I proudly pasted it in my room

When 'Jump' was released I hated that now everyone knew Van Halen. Eddy's keyboard was catchy but to be honest I hated him for not solely playing guitar. Jump was released as part of 1984  album. It has one track that to me was still sound pure Van Halen 'Hot for teacher'  

The next Van Halen album, 5150, was a real surprise. Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth and Eddy played more keyboard. Now Van Halen was really departing their original path but it was a success. To quote Wikipedia: The album hit number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, surpassing the band's previous album, 1984. 5150 has more love songs and ballads. Van Halen turned pop. 

I did not buy or listen the next Van Halen albums. If anything I just watched them on MTV specially the album  For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge which was released in 1991. I was in the US at that time studying for my Master's Degree. I thought Right Now was the highlight of that album. The song was no original Van Halen but the piano sounded cool. Before I left the US I bought an original T shirt of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge as gift for my brother. 

Van Halen issued three more albums after that. I listened to none. I was amazed when Gary Cherone took over vocal duties from Sammy. I thought Eddy and Alex were completely mad. But of course I would not careless as to me the real Van Halen was the original line up without any keyboard sound. 

I listened nostalgically when David Lee Roth rejoined the band for their last album A Different Kind of Truth. It still did not sound like the Van Halen that I knew. Lately I learned that Michael Anthony the original bassist was not part of the band anymore.

When Eddy passed away I thought one milestone of my youth has gone too. Van Halen was my name. The Van Halen of the old era where Eddy's guitar sounded angry and rocky. I felt betrayed when he played keyboard or played love songs. I was lost completely amid newer albums. But still Eddy was my childhood hero.  

Queen were the champions

My first queen cassette was the compilation produced by (again) Aquarius. Wearing Flash T shirt Mercury jumped so high that I thought some kind of camera trick was applied. See below

May and Deacon must be more than 165 cm or so - hence Mercury would be more than 2 meter above the floor. Fantastic. The first song of the cassette was 'Love of My Life'. I tried to learn the chords but was stuck toward end, normally I just jumped to the end part:   

Love of my life

Love of my life

Ooh, ooh

When this cassette was released a pirated VHS tape titled "Rock Convert" was circulated. It had videos of Queen performing live. I remember when Mercury sang 'we will rock you' he was piggy backed by a guy wearing superman costume. Apparently it was shot in 1979-1980 during 'The Game' tour. Hence the queen crazed started.

My next Queen cassette was 'The Game'. My band mate wanted us to play 'Need Your Loving Tonight'. The other song that I would not miss was of course 'Crazy Thing Called Love'. I quickly found what the chords are and later I played the song with my Uni mates (1985-1990). 

I hunted all the old albums produced by Aquarius and Monalisa. I love all albums expect for the earlier albums (Queen I and Queen II). Later Aquarius issued the second best compilation of Queen. It contained 'Under Pressure' performed by Queen and David Bowie.

The other song that I remember in this cassette is 'You Take My Breath Away'. I learned the chords. It was easier to play the song on piano rather than guitar. In fact I am sure I didn't learn the chords using a guitar, even though I did not have a piano/keyboard until much later.

I watched Flash Gordon mostly because the sound track was produced by Queen. The movie was pretty cheesy but I still loved the sound tracks. Songs that I loved from the album are: Football fight, Battle Theme, The Wedding March and Flash's Theme Reprise (Victory Celebrations). 

I stopped listening to new Queen materials after listening to 'Hot Space'. It has two songs that were parts of Aquarius The Best 2 above: Under Pressure and 'Life is Real (Song for Lennon)' but the rest are -to me- did not sound like Queen that I knew (choir, rocking riff, etc). To quote Wikipedia ' a notable shoft in direction from their earlier work, the employed many elements of disco, funk, rhythm and blues, dance and pop music on the album'

I thought the only new Queen song that I loved was Radio Ga Ga. Nothing so Queen about it, but the song is catchy. 

When Queen (+ Adam Lambert) played live in Perth (August 2014) I watched them along with a bunch of friends. One of my friends brought Queen T shirts in Jakarta and we wore those to the show. Of course no one around us wore those. Buying T shirt sold during concert was costly - obviously much more to the ones my friend bought in Jakarta.  Of course Lambert is no Mercury and he didn't pretend to be one. But I was pretty satisfied watching (older) May and Taylor on stage

I watched Bohemian Rhapsody with a mixed emotions. Having read one bio book about Queen I did not think the movie was faithful enough to the real history of Queen but of course as entertainment the movie was pretty OK. 

Mercury was dead, Deacon is no longer public but long live Queen, they were one of the loves of my life.

  

with the beatles

I started to listen to The Beatles  pretty much when the pirating cassettes labels in Indonesia (in my case : Aquarius) reissuing their own compilation following the death of John Lennon in the 1980. My journey into Beatles catalogue pretty much followed what Aquarius issued.

I started with the pop-py songs like Hard Day's Night and later to more "serious" tunes like Strawberry field Forever. I was amazed by the range of their musical style. I had no access to any literature about The Beatles so I had to guess and appreciated little that I knew about them. 

Of course I learned how to finger pick their songs too. Aquarius included lyric and chords in the cassettes that really helped me. I also bought a special issue of song books and cassette from a (cassette pirating) company called AR. I am sure my guitar skill was much improved by learning Beatles songs.

I learned my first French lesson from The Beatles's Michelle.  

My Michelle

Michelle, ma belle

Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

Tres bien ensemble

Many years later (around 1996) I learned that Paul said the word bien the way it is spoken by people from southern part of French. Of course back then I had no clue, it was all French to me

To me the coolest of George's melody was in the tune of 'till there was you. I didn't know that it was a cover version. I was not able to play it until I saw how it was done on YouTube. Listening to the original version would convince listeners how brilliant were the Beatles 

One puzzle that remained a mystery to me until the internet is around was which Beatle played solo on In the end. The solos begin approximately 53 seconds into the song. It turned out that all the three guitarists. McCartney, George Harrison and Lennon perform a rotating sequence of three, two-bar guitar solos. What a fantastic solos they all did. In fact in this song we have the only Starr drum solo even though he disliked solos.

In the end is also special as it ends with a deep cosmic philosophical line

And in the end

The love you take

Is equal to the love you make

our timeline mystery

When I was around 13-15 years old I had friends who influenced me to be fascinated with slapping bass tunes. To us those slapping bass were madness. It is just crazy to play bass in such manner. Try not to tap your feet listening to this song Can't Get Enough from Jeff Lorber Fusion (around minute 1 or so). At that time I could not imagine how one such bass sound. I guess the player must pulling the string or something (check out this video for a quick tutorial). Anyhow my friends and I were busy hunting for that crazy sound by listening to radio and cassettes. I guess if Internet was around by that time we would have easier hunting time

I guess I would listen to different music genre had I was raised in different place. It so happen that I stumbled to group of friends who love such music despite living not in the capital of the province. Of course there is no way for me to find out the alternative universe where I did not meet those friends. 

I am not saying that being crazy about bass slapping was a fundamental part of my identity or something like that. I am just pondering that somehow my line of lifetime crossed over those friends and it colored my childhood and in a way some of my personality. 

Life is a mystery in a sense that what happened to our life is affected by whom we met and it would be impossible to reconstruct each detail of our past. Why did our parent move to that city at that time so that we would met these friends etc. 

In many sci-fi movies it is common to hear that if we changed something in the past - even a small detail of it - then the future as we knew would not happen as life would take a different path of  trajectory. Of course there is no way for those future people to understand that past had been altered. Only those time traveler would have known that a different future had been assembled by changing the past. 

Not sure if time travel would ever be possible. For all we know this is the only timeline that we have and that is not a mystery.