Aaron Bitman
Well-Known Member
I’ve gotten the impression that when joining these forums, it’s protocol for new members to tell who they are and why they’re joining. I guess I’ll answer those questions in reverse order, because once I start on the first question, I’ll never shut up about my life story.
Recently, I wrote a little biographical article about Herb Alpert, just for the fun of it. I came up with a list of questions, mostly because the answers to some of them might look good in the biography, but I also want to ask some questions just out of sheer curiosity. I combed the internet – including these forums – and found quite a few answers, but I still have about a dozen questions left I’d like to ask.
I’m afraid I might get frustrated when I do, because I’m a cheapskate. (I’ll expound on that subject soon.) You could give me fantastic answers to my questions, but if your source is, for example, some article from a magazine dating back many years, I’d be too cheap to order a copy myself to verify that. Still, I’d like to give this a shot, as long as I can do so at no cost to myself.
So who am I? Well, actually, I’m nobody much. I get the impression that some of you on these forums are real music fans, going to many concerts and hunting down rare records and music memorabilia. I don’t do that stuff. I pinch pennies to a fault, especially when it comes to entertainment.
But now and then, I veer off that narrow road. And for Herb Alpert I strayed farther than I would have believed.
Now I’ve been a fan of Herb Alpert’s music since before I was old enough to pronounce his name. My grandparents, who lived out of town, used to have five of his albums from the 1960s, and at the end of one annual visit to those relatives, I took those records home and listened to them to death. Someone (I think it may have been my other grandmother) got me Rise and I liked that as well (as long as I could pretend that this Herb Alpert was a different musician who happened to have the same name.) In my teens, I was lucky enough to find six more old Tijuana Brass records at a yard sale, and I played to those to death as well. After a few more years, though, I grew tired of Alpert, and stopped listening.
Flash forward over two decades to 2014. By that time, my old records were long lost. On a whim, I started listening to TJB records on YouTube… and I couldn’t stop! In a few weeks, I felt compelled to buy more than a dozen “Shout! Factory” re-issues of old Alpert albums. I hadn't bought so much music - nor spent so much money on frivolous things - in such a short period of time since the 1990s.
But perhaps I shocked myself even more with just one album: Bullish. I listened to it on YouTube, and said “I must have this.” I no longer have a turntable (except one old built-in-speaker record player for children) and the only way to get a digital copy (legally, anyway) was to order an old CD from a 3rd-party vendor through Amazon for $25.
That might not seem like so much to you collectors, but to me, such a price is laughable. I had never considered paying nearly so much for a single album!
And I bought it. And I questioned my own sanity.
Months later came the matter of research. I was browsing through books, wanting some reading material for those long stretches of time when I didn’t have internet access, and I couldn’t think of any subjects about which I rather read than Herb Alpert and his music. I was surprised to find no real book on him, except The Herb Alpert File by Steve O’Rourke. (Curse myself for buying those albums in MP3 form! If only I had gotten the CDs, I’d have the liner notes, which may have all sorts of juicy tidbits! And now that I bought those albums, my cheapness has kicked in again, so I’m not buying them again. If only I could get those liner notes in PDF form, or something!)
So I started writing an article on Alpert (too short to be called a book) myself, starting me on the quest I described at the beginning of this post. And here I am.
Recently, I wrote a little biographical article about Herb Alpert, just for the fun of it. I came up with a list of questions, mostly because the answers to some of them might look good in the biography, but I also want to ask some questions just out of sheer curiosity. I combed the internet – including these forums – and found quite a few answers, but I still have about a dozen questions left I’d like to ask.
I’m afraid I might get frustrated when I do, because I’m a cheapskate. (I’ll expound on that subject soon.) You could give me fantastic answers to my questions, but if your source is, for example, some article from a magazine dating back many years, I’d be too cheap to order a copy myself to verify that. Still, I’d like to give this a shot, as long as I can do so at no cost to myself.
So who am I? Well, actually, I’m nobody much. I get the impression that some of you on these forums are real music fans, going to many concerts and hunting down rare records and music memorabilia. I don’t do that stuff. I pinch pennies to a fault, especially when it comes to entertainment.
But now and then, I veer off that narrow road. And for Herb Alpert I strayed farther than I would have believed.
Now I’ve been a fan of Herb Alpert’s music since before I was old enough to pronounce his name. My grandparents, who lived out of town, used to have five of his albums from the 1960s, and at the end of one annual visit to those relatives, I took those records home and listened to them to death. Someone (I think it may have been my other grandmother) got me Rise and I liked that as well (as long as I could pretend that this Herb Alpert was a different musician who happened to have the same name.) In my teens, I was lucky enough to find six more old Tijuana Brass records at a yard sale, and I played to those to death as well. After a few more years, though, I grew tired of Alpert, and stopped listening.
Flash forward over two decades to 2014. By that time, my old records were long lost. On a whim, I started listening to TJB records on YouTube… and I couldn’t stop! In a few weeks, I felt compelled to buy more than a dozen “Shout! Factory” re-issues of old Alpert albums. I hadn't bought so much music - nor spent so much money on frivolous things - in such a short period of time since the 1990s.
But perhaps I shocked myself even more with just one album: Bullish. I listened to it on YouTube, and said “I must have this.” I no longer have a turntable (except one old built-in-speaker record player for children) and the only way to get a digital copy (legally, anyway) was to order an old CD from a 3rd-party vendor through Amazon for $25.
That might not seem like so much to you collectors, but to me, such a price is laughable. I had never considered paying nearly so much for a single album!
And I bought it. And I questioned my own sanity.
Months later came the matter of research. I was browsing through books, wanting some reading material for those long stretches of time when I didn’t have internet access, and I couldn’t think of any subjects about which I rather read than Herb Alpert and his music. I was surprised to find no real book on him, except The Herb Alpert File by Steve O’Rourke. (Curse myself for buying those albums in MP3 form! If only I had gotten the CDs, I’d have the liner notes, which may have all sorts of juicy tidbits! And now that I bought those albums, my cheapness has kicked in again, so I’m not buying them again. If only I could get those liner notes in PDF form, or something!)
So I started writing an article on Alpert (too short to be called a book) myself, starting me on the quest I described at the beginning of this post. And here I am.
