S1 · E239
September 15 · 9 min
DS
Dave's Side One
Art of Listening Records
Talk about music, vinyl, classic rock, classic jazz, and whatever else comes to mind. Hosted by one of the founders of Art of Listening Records - Dave Gwilliam.
https://artoflisteningrecords.com
https://www.discogs.com/seller/artoflistening/profile
- 70 episodes
- daily
- Avg 6 min
- English
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
- DSS1 · E239September 14 · 7 min
By 1979, I Was Obsessed with Alan Parsons
By the end of the 1970s, Alan Parsons wasn’t simply one of Dave’s favorite artists. It had become an obsession. In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave closes out the week — The Records That Take Me Back — with The Alan Parsons Project’s Eve. The story begins with Dave’s best friend, who introduced him to Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I Robot and Pyramid. Something clicked. Dave estimates that through 1978 and 1979 he probably listened to one of those early Alan Parsons Project records every day. So when Eve arrived in 1979, there was no debate. Dave bought it and kept listening. The production, arrangements, changing voices and album-scale ideas were exactly the things the listener Dave was becoming wanted to explore. And the week comes full circle: Monday began with a friend pointing out every nuance of Aerosmith’s Rocks. Sunday ends with Dave becoming the obsessed listener—the person who wants to point to a sound and say, “You have to hear this.” These records didn’t only take Dave back. They helped build the way he listens now. Side One Spin: What artist did you become completely obsessed with—and who introduced you?
- DSS1 · E237September 13 · 5 min
The Follow-Up I Had to Have
A great first album can make the second one feel almost automatic. In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave remembers buying Toto’s Hydra because the band’s debut had already earned his trust. Radio offered obvious entry points in “99” and “White Sister,” but Dave’s relationship with the album wandered elsewhere. He loved the groove of “Mama,” the introspection of “Lorraine,” and the orchestration and ambition of the title track. That is the interesting thing about a follow-up album. The first record gets you through the door. The second asks whether you’re actually going to follow the band somewhere new. The singles, reviews and previous album can get us to a record. Then the record has to introduce itself. For Dave, Hydra did that through songs and sounds he couldn’t have predicted from the radio. Side One Spin: What second album did you buy almost automatically because the first one had earned your trust?
- DSS1 · E236September 12 · 5 min
The Song I Kept Skipping To
The world chooses the hits. Sometimes one listener quietly chooses a different song. In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave returns to Supertramp’s Breakfast in America. He loved the singles, and in 1979 they were everywhere: “The Logical Song,” “Goodbye Stranger,” “Breakfast in America,” “Take the Long Way Home.” But the song that moved Dave most was “Lord Is It Mine?” Instead of simply letting the album play, Dave repeatedly went looking for that track on Side Two. The big singles were public. “Lord Is It Mine?” felt private. That is one of the reasons albums matter. Radio, charts and greatest-hits collections can tell us which songs the culture selected. They cannot decide which song becomes ours. The hit connects us to everybody else. The deep cut can connect the album directly to us. Side One Spin: What album has a huge hit, but your song is somewhere else on the record?
- DSS1 · E235September 11 · 6 min
We Thought “Nights in White Satin” Would Help
Teenagers don’t merely listen to records. Sometimes they assign those records jobs. In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave remembers discovering The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed with his friend group around 1976. The album was already nearly a decade old, but it felt like a discovery. And somewhere along the way, Dave and his friends became convinced that “Nights in White Satin” might be instrumental in their quest for teenage romance. It wasn’t. The strategy failed completely. The record stayed. Behind the joke is something real about the way music works when we’re young. A song can become the soundtrack to a plan, a party, a drive, a crush—or the person we hope we might become. Days of Future Passed could change the atmosphere in the room. It simply couldn’t guarantee the romantic outcome. Side One Spin: What song did teenage you believe had powers it absolutely did not have?
- DS
S1 · E234September 10 · 5 minSuddenly, Eddie Money Was Everywhere
Do you remember when an artist could seem to appear on the radio almost overnight? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave goes back to Eddie Money’s 1977 debut. At first, nobody in Dave’s circle really knew who Eddie Money was. Then the songs were suddenly on the radio—and “Two Tickets to Paradise” became more than something Dave heard. The band Dave was playing in learned to cover it. That changed the song. Listening to a record is one experience; learning somebody else’s song forces you inside the arrangement. Where does the change happen? What is the guitar really doing? How do the parts fit together? Eddie Money went from a new voice on the radio to part of Dave’s own musical life, and the debut album became a listening staple. Same song. Different memories: hearing it, buying it, learning it and playing it. Side One Spin: What song did you understand differently after you tried to play it?
- DSS1 · E233September 9 · 5 min
The Album I Owned on Cassette First
Sometimes the format through which we discover an album becomes part of the album itself. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave returns to The Doobie Brothers’ Takin’ It to the Streets—but the record on the turntable is not the copy that owns the memory. Dave had the album on cassette first, and Side One, Cut One—“Wheels of Fortune”—became an obsession. He loved the riffs, rewound the tape and went back to the beginning again and again. Later, he bought the vinyl LP. It should have been the upgrade. Instead, it only reached the turntable a couple of times because Dave kept returning to the cassette. The history remembers Takin’ It to the Streets as an important transition for The Doobie Brothers. Dave remembers a cassette deck, a rewind button and one opening track. Sometimes the best copy isn’t the cleanest pressing. It’s the copy attached to the ritual. Side One Spin: What album is permanently connected in your memory to the format on which you first heard it?
- DSS1 · E232September 8 · 6 min
The Friend Who Taught Me How to Hear Aerosmith
Sometimes the person who changes the way you hear a record becomes part of the record forever. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave begins a week of "Dave's Memory Lane" — The Records That Take Me Back — with Aerosmith’s Rocks. Dave already liked Aerosmith when he first heard Rocks at a friend’s house. His friend was different: he was obsessed. He knew every nuance of the record and kept pointing out riffs, fills, changes and little moments until Dave began hearing the album differently too. A couple of years later, Aerosmith came to Salt Lake City in 1978. Dave had fourth-row floor seats—and had to sell them because he couldn’t get off work. The bill also included AC/DC. The concert was missed. The listening lesson stayed. Sometimes somebody doesn’t merely introduce us to an album. They teach us how to listen to it. Side One Spin: Who taught you how to hear one of your favorite records?
- DSS1 · E231September 7 · 6 min
Your Record Collection Should Tell Your Story
If someone could see only five records from your collection, would they learn anything about you? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave closes Week 10 — The Art of Listening by turning the experiment away from price, condition, sequencing and discovery and toward the person standing in front of the shelf. Using Chicago VI as a personal anchor, Dave asks what makes a collection more than an inventory. Records can remember stores, concerts, friends, old stereos, mistakes, discoveries and different versions of ourselves. Their value is not only what they are worth or how highly they rank. Sometimes the important question is why that particular record is still there. Dave introduces The Five-Record Autobiography: Choose five records that explain your musical life. Not the five greatest albums ever. Not the five rarest. Five honest records. For each one, finish the sentence: “This record is here because…” The best collection is not the one everybody else envies. It’s the one nobody else could have built. Side One Spin: Which five records would tell me who you are?
- DSS1 · E231September 6 · 5 min
Listen to the Record Nobody Talks About
What happens when the masterpiece becomes a doorway instead of the entire catalog? In Episode this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Blue Öyster Cult’s Spectres to introduce a simple catalog-discovery exercise: move one album over. The famous album is often the right place to begin. The problem comes when consensus turns one record into the complete answer for an artist. Dave introduces The Catalog Neighbor Test: Choose an artist you know. Pick the album you think of as the landmark. Then move exactly one studio album forward or backward. Play that record from beginning to end. Don’t ask whether it is better than the masterpiece. Ask what it reveals about the artist that the famous album does not. Spectres follows Agents of Fortune, but the point is not to crown a winner. It is to hear the version of Blue Öyster Cult that existed in the neighboring moment. A masterpiece should make a catalog bigger, not smaller. Side One Spin: What overlooked album sits right next to an artist’s masterpiece?
- DSS1 · E229September 5 · 5 min
Buy a Record You’ve Never Heard Of
What happens when you buy curiosity instead of something from a want list? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Beck, Bogert & Appice for an Art of Listening experiment built around record-store discovery. Want lists are useful. Reviews, ratings and streaming previews are useful too. But knowing almost everything before buying a record can remove one of the great pleasures of browsing: the possibility that the first real encounter happens at home when the needle drops. Dave introduces The Blind-Buy Test: Set a small discovery budget — $10 or $15. Go into a record store - in person or on-line. Buy one record you did not plan to buy. No phone research in the aisle. Use the cover, credits, label, names you recognize and your own instinct. Then take it home and play the whole album. The experiment does not fail if the record does not become a favorite. If it introduces one musician, one producer, one song or one record to hear next, it opened a door. Side One Spin: What’s the greatest record you ever bought completely blind?
- DSS1 · E228September 4 · 5 min
The Imperfect Copy Test
Can an imperfect copy still be a great listening copy? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Dave Mason’s It’s Like You Never Left to separate grading a record from listening to one. Collectors naturally see condition first: ring wear, split seams, writing, scuffs and surface marks. Those details matter when a record is being bought, sold or graded. But once the needle drops, the question changes. Does the condition prevent the music from communicating — or are we still thinking about flaws we can no longer hear? Dave introduces The Imperfect Copy Test: Find the roughest-looking record you own that still plays properly. Put it on. Sit where you cannot see the jacket — close your eyes if you have to. Give it five minutes. Are you still thinking about condition? Or did the music take over? Grade honestly. Buy the condition that works for you. Listen generously. Side One Spin: What’s the roughest-looking record in your collection that you still love to play?
- DSS1 · E127September 3 · 5 min
Read the Back Cover Before You Drop the Needle
Your next favorite record may already be hiding in the credits of one you own. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Steely Dan’s Aja for the next Art of Listening experiment: read the back cover before you drop the needle. Before recommendation algorithms, listeners could follow musicians, producers, engineers, studios and arrangers from one record to another. Aja is an ideal example because one album can send a listener in dozens of directions through the people who helped make it. Dave introduces The Credits Test: Play a record you already know. Wait until one musical detail catches your attention. Then read the credits and identify the person responsible. Follow that person to one other album. One sound. One name. One new record. The track list tells you what you’re about to hear. The credits can tell you where to go next. Side One Spin: What musician, producer or engineer did you discover because you read the credits?
- DSS1 · E226September 2 · 6 min
When the Song Becomes a Performance
When does a song stop being a fixed recording and become a performance? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave continues The Art of Listening with The Allman Brothers Band’s At Fillmore East. A familiar studio recording can become the version of a song we carry in our heads: the guitar enters here, the solo lasts this long, the ending happens there. But a great live performance reminds us that the recording is only one possibility. Dave listens for the conversation inside the band — guitars, bass, organ and drums reacting to one another — and asks why extended performances work when the musicians use the extra time to develop tension, make choices and go somewhere. The Studio vs. Live Test: Play a studio version of a song. Then play a great live version. Don’t ask which is better. Ask what changed: tempo, dynamics, arrangement, solos, interaction and ending. Then ask what those changes did to the feeling of the song. The song may be the map. The performance is the trip. Side One Spin: What live version made the studio version feel incomplete afterward?
- DSS1 · E225September 1 · 7 min
The $5 Record Can Be Better Than the $50 Record
What is a record really worth once the needle drops? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave begins a new week of challenges — The Art of Listening by separating market value from musical value. Using Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Cosmo’s Factory, Dave asks a simple question: if one copy costs $5 and another costs $50, is the expensive record ten times better to listen to? Condition, pressing, scarcity and demand all matter when we buy and sell records. But once the music starts, they answer a different question. Dave introduces The $5 Record Test: Pull one inexpensive record you genuinely love. Then pull one record that is worth considerably more. Play both without checking prices, sales history or collector information. Which one makes you want to stay in the room? Which one makes you reach for Side Two? A record does not know what you paid for it. Side One Spin: What’s the cheapest record in your collection that you would absolutely hate to lose?
- DSS1 · E224August 31 · 7 min
The Side I’d Play for a Skeptic
You get one side of one album. No greatest-hits package. No custom playlist. Just one side to make the case for a band. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave closes Why Album Sides Matter with Side Two of Styx’s Equinox and introduces The Conversion Test: Can the listener enter? Does the side expand their idea of the band? Does it reveal something distinctive? And when the side ends, do they want to continue? A great conversion side does not explain everything. It does something more useful. It creates curiosity. Side One Spin: What one album side would you use to convince someone to give your favorite band another chance?
- DSS1 · E223August 30 · 6 min
The Side That Changed Direction
Sometimes Side Two does more than continue an album. It changes the rules. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Rush’s 2112 to explore a record built around two very different listening experiences. Side One asks for immersion in an extended long-form suite. Then the record flips. Side Two resets the format and moves through individual songs. Dave introduces The Direction-Change Test: Does Side One fully commit? Does the flip create a natural reset? Does Side Two establish its new rules? And does the whole record still connect? A great direction change doesn’t make an album feel divided. It makes the album feel broader. Side One Spin: What album changes direction after the flip and still works?
- DSS1 · E222August 29 · 7 min
The Side With No Weak Track
What does “no weak tracks” actually mean? Does every song need to be equally brilliant? Dave doesn't think so. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Side One of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road provides the test: “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” “Candle in the Wind” “Bennie and the Jets” Three tracks. Three different jobs. Dave introduces The No-Weak-Track Test: Does every song earn its place? Does every song add something different? Does removing one weaken the side? And would you simply let the whole thing play? A great album side isn't a ranking. It's a relationship between songs. Side One Spin: What album side contains nothing you'd remove?
- DSS1 · E221August 28 · 6 min
The Greatest Album Flip
What happens in the few seconds between Side One and Side Two? On vinyl, the answer is: A lot. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses The Beatles’ Abbey Road to explore the physical and musical architecture of the album flip. Side One ends with “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Then: Silence. The listener turns the record over. Side Two begins with “Here Comes the Sun.” That change in weight, mood, and emotional temperature makes the physical flip feel like part of the album itself. Dave introduces The Flip Test: End. Pause. Reopen. Transform. Side One Spin: What album has your favorite Side One closer / Side Two opener combination?
- DSS1 · E220August 27 · 7 min
The Side-Long Journey
What makes a side-long musical journey work? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave turns to Side Two of Chicago’s Chicago II and “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon.” The key isn’t the running time. It’s what the music does with that time. Dave introduces The Suite Test: Does the piece establish a theme? Does it change shape? Does staying with it pay off? And when familiar ideas return, do they mean more because of everything we’ve experienced in between? A great extended album side doesn’t simply last. It travels. Side One Spin: What suite or extended album side completely pulls you in?