After Recording Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, at Old Bear Records, October 2018

Tina Vozick & Paul Levinson at Old Bear Records, October 2018

Playlist by Anthony Marinelli of Songs from It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles

 

Two-Hour, In-Depth Interview about My Music

 

a nearly two-hour interview by Greg Shanks about my music, with details 

I haven't written or talked about before

Good Way to Start off 2023

"The Soft of Your Eyes", song I wrote for Tina in 1968, just added to new, short "Best of Wrapped" Spotify playlist.

And see 16 other playlists "The Soft of Your Eyes" was added to in the past few years.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Song playlist

Enjoy!

"The Soft of Your Eyes" added to 19 Spotify playlists in the past three years (updated)

 
"The Soft of Your Eyes" (from Twice Upon A Rhyme) 26th on this list

And here are four more: You May Sweetly Ask  ... 70s (first half) ... NTS Heaven and Earth Magic ... Thanksgiving 2021 

And here's one from back in April 2021: Cosmic Country Outsiders

And here's another one added later in December 2021: True

And five from January 2022:   I Don't Want To Live the Wrong Life ...  NTS 3 ...  sagit brother ... My Shazam Tracks ... Soft Sands FM

And two from February 2022: Blue Sands ... pain au chocolat

And one from March 2022: Solibo Magnifique

And one from July 2022: Heart Full of Love

And one from December 2022: Best of Wrapped

And one from January 2023: Music for Watering the Mind

And one from January 2024: Down Home Comforts <3

Thank you!

"The Soft of Your Eyes" on new Folk/Psychedelic Rock NTS Radio Playlist

 

Paul Levinson       Hey, it's been a while since I wrote to you about a song from Twice Upon A Rhyme, my 1972 album reissued on remastered vinyl by Whiplash/Sound of Salvation Records about a decade ago.   But I just found out that "The Soft of Your Eyes," the song I wrote for Tina back in the late 1960s, was added to Jocelyn Romo's folk/psychedelic rock Heaven and Earth playlist on NTS Radio where it's been getting tons of play, alongside songs by Gerry Rafferty and Don Everly.  Meanwhile ... Peter Jackson's documentary The Beatles: Get Back is amazing and life-changing and I highly recommend it!  I review all three parts here (written reviews) and here (audio podcast reviews). Songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time played this and last year on Plastic Tales from the Marshmallow Dimention, WNYU-FM Radio Dig Vinyl's Melodic Distraction playlist, American Dream with Yvonne Howard Margolin's Destinies, 24 & 31 July, 7 Aug 2020, WUSB-FM Radio Howard Margolin's 37th Anniversary Destinies, and 38th Anniversary Destinies, WUSB-FM Radio Carl Thien's WZBC show (8 Dec 2020, and earlier this year) Patrick Rands' Abstract Terrain show on WZBC-FM Radio in Boston Kevin Anthony's Psychedelic Jukebox Captain Phil's WUSB-FM show.  Plus the following stations: Bellarmine Radio, Louisville, KY; KDWG Radio, Dillon, Montana; The End, Cleveland, OH; SYN Radio, Melbourne, Australia You can get all the Welcome Up music, any time, here: Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp and Spotify Order multi-color vinyl from Light in the Attic CDs in stock - get them here And here's Twice Upon a Rhyme: Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp and Spotify Original, sealed 1972 HappySad Records vinyl New remastered Sound of Salvation vinyl from Those Old Records Here's a one-hour virtual concert I did in April 2020 with songs from both albums at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona.   Here's a video of me singing "Alpha Centauri" at my virtual concert at Amazingcon in June 2020.  More video clips from Welcome Up here and here. Welcome Up Reviews and Interviews: Jon Pruett says in Ugly Things Magazine that Welcome Up is "eight slices of interstellar delight". Joseph Neff says in The Vinyl District that Welcome Up "hits the ear as the best kind of long-delayed follow-up to a phenomenon of cultish proportions ... sounding like nothing else on the current scene." Taro Miyasugi says Welcome Up is "a stunning folk pop album with gorgeous late 60s elements like vintage velveteen cloth..."  Evan LeVine observes about Welcome Up that "any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it... As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity."  in-depth interview about Welcome Up in Klemen Breznikar's Psychedelic Baby Magazine  audio Bear Tones podcast in which I talk about Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme. I talk with John Anealio -- with whom I wrote "If I Traveled to the Past" and "Tau Ceti" -- about those songs on The Functional Nerds podcast. Looking a bit into the future ... I may be doing another new album in 2022 ... stay tuned!     Music   Samantha (from Welcome Up) If I Traveled To The Past (from Welcome Up)   MORE MUSIC     Press   "Welcome Up is ... eight slices of interstellar delight."— Jon Pruett, Ugly Things Magazine, Aug 15, 2020     Connect

Podcast Review of Invasion 1.4

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 203, in which I review the fourth episode of Invasion on Apple TV+.  This episode of the podcast also includes congratulations from Don Frankel and his very famous alter-ego! Written blog post review of Invasion 1.4 is here.  Podcast review of episodes 1.1-3 is here.

Listen to "If I Traveled to the Past" with Don Frankel's accordion on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Apple Music.

Check out this episode!

"Merri Goes Round" Played on The Music Authority Today

Robbie Rist + Don Frankel = Sundial Symphony

That's right -- starting at 4 minutes 54 seconds into the first hour of today's Music Authority program, you'll hear Sundial Symphony singing "Merri Goes Round," a song I wrote with Ed Fox in 1971, recorded back then by a studio group I put together called The Trousers.

Sundial Symphony's version was recorded in 2016, and released on Big Stir Records in 2019.  I should mention that Sundial Symphony consists of Robbie Rist (yep, Cousin Oliver) and Don Frankel.  Don played keyboard on lots of the tracks on my 1972 LP Twice Upon A Rhyme, and accordion on "If I Traveled to the Past" and "Tau Ceti" on Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, released on Old Bear Records and Light in the Attic Records (vinyl) in 2020.

James Jim Prell, DJ for The Music Authority, says all the songs he plays are chosen by "algorithm".  But I owe him a big thank you anyway, for presiding over that algorithmic choice!

• listen to today's Music Authority (any time) -- Merri Goes Round starts at 4min54sec, and there are lots of other great songs in this episode
• Twice Upon A Rhyme on Spotify and Bandcamp
• Welcome Up on Spotify and Bandcamp
• reviews of these albums and more

McCartney III: Endearing, Strong, Memorable

I was never one to look for differences between the Beatles on their individual own and when they were The Beatles. To my ear and soul, Paul, John, George, and Ringo on their own sounded far more like The Beatles, captured and continued their extraordinary essence far better than any other artist. Sure, some solo numbers sounded more like The Beatles than others. I heard "Ticket to Ride" in Paul's "My Brave Face," and when someone on the Steve Hoffman Forum said it evoked "Things We Said Today," I could immediately hear it. 

Maybe that's why Robert Christgau's dispeptic reviews in The Village Voice of McCartney's of first two solo albums felt so wrong to me that I wrote a Letter to the Editor objecting to it, which The Voice published as a straight-up article, which turned out to be my first writing published anywhere.  I realized back then that professional reviewers get to where they are because they write well, not necessarily because they hear well (and the same applies to movie critics writing not necessarily watching well, etc).

So, although I've loved The Beatles more than any other music over all of these many years, I've loved Paul's work almost as much and sometimes just as much, and eagerly await everything he does.  McCartney III, which I just listened to, was well worth waiting for.

The album, as I'm sure you know, is the third album in the McCartney (1970 - the one that Christgau didn't care for) and McCartney II (1980) series of recordings in which McCartney played all of the parts.  One of the reasons why the new album is so endearing is that it evokes elements from both The Beatles and these solo all-McCartney albums.

Here are my favorites:

• "Seize the Day":  I just love the sound of "when the cold days come and the old ways fade," which could have come from any Beatles album.  Not to mention the double rhymes (cold days and old ways) which I always strive for when I can get them in my own lyrics.
• "Women and Wives":  A strong song with a good melody and lyric ("chasing tomorrow")
• "The Kiss of Venus":  Another good melody, which Paul sings in falsetto.  Look, his voice is obviously not as powerful or supple as it was for most of his years, but it's still enjoyable to hear. His phrasing and emotion come through fine.
• "Deep Down Feeling":  What I really like about this track is the way it shifts into acoustic/melodic in the last minute of the 8-minute-25-second song.  That was one of the fabulous moves in "Admiral Halsey".

All of this is after only one listening to the album.  It took me at least three or four hearings of Sgt. Pepper before I realized how great it was, and I still like Rubber Soul better.  But there's no doubt that McCartney III makes a memorable contribution to Paul's astonishing lifetime of work, which continues to light up many a soul.

from the Steve Hoffman forum

Playlists: Science Fiction and Fantasy Songs, Songs about DJs, Songs about Phones

Joel Iskowitz illustrator; Delin Gonzales model

Three playlists for your listening pleasure:

 Science Fiction and Fantasy Songs

Songs about Disk Jockeys




Songs about Phones (from 1919-present)

Pictures on the Phone: Demo of Brand New Song

lyrics and details here

Three Beach Boys Covers: Foxes and Fossils, Hal Eisenberg, The Fendertones

I'm still in a musical frame of mind -- actually, I always am -- but this frame includes writing, so here's my third blog post in two days about exceptional music, in this case, three excellent Beach Boy covers that I've been really enjoying on YouTube.

The first is "Don't Worry Baby" by the cleverly named Foxes and Fossils.  That would be three women who look and sing great, and a number of guys who sing and play, and bill themselves as old, though some are probably younger than I am (I usually feel like I'm 17, unless it's a bad day, and it's more like 19).  I love the velvety harmony and the whole general feel of this video.

Next is "I Can Hear Music," which I just came across the other day, by Hal Eisenberg with "friends and family" in Nashville.  This is not a typical Beach Boys song -- it was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector (Ellie Greenwich, by the way, produced my group The Other Voices aka The New Outlook for Atlantic Records in 1968) not Brian Wilson, who didn't even sing on the Beach Boys 1969 recording (Carl sang lead, and produced the record).  That makes it a tough song to cover really well.  Hal Eisenberg's is the best I've come across -- I like it even better than Kathy Trocolli's 1996 version with some of the original Beach Boys -- with Hal's evocative lead backed by sweet sweet harmonies.

And last but in no way least is the Fendertones' "Sloop John B".  The Fendertones have done so many Beach Boy covers that they may add up to more songs than the Beach Boys actually recorded.  And this one is a masterpiece, with Scott Totten and John Cowsill (who tour now with the Beach Boys and, yep, that's John Cowsill from the Cowsills) joining the Fendertones in a gracenote perfect rendition of Brian Wilson's stunning arrangement and recording, down to someone singing "I feel so break up" about a third-way into the song, when everyone else sings "broke up," just as The Beach Boys (probably accidentally) did in 1966.

I should mention how much I've always loved The Beach Boys.  They usually are my second all-time favorite group -- the first are the Beatles, and once in a while The Rolling Stones are my second.  The New Outlook sang "Surfer Girl" as one of our regular numbers, when we cut classes and sang in the early afternoon in The Alcove at City College up on 140th Street in Manhattan in the Fall of 1963.  So I'm always looking for good covers, and Foxes and Fossils, Hal Eisenberg, and The Fendertones are among the very best.

Spun Dreams on Bandcamp

Before Twice Upon A Rhyme and Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, there were Spun Dreams: studio and home demos, most from mid to late 60s, sunshine pop with a bit of an edge and a psychedelic flavor, especially as you get into the album. My group back then was The New Outlook, a folk-rock trio. Spun Dreams has been streaming for almost a decade on Spotify, Apple Music, and all the usual places. But now it's up on Bandcamp, with all kinds of details on songs and tracks that I haven't mentioned before. Details in the track credits about how the likes of Ellie Greenwich, Mike Rashkow, Tash Howard, and dj Murray the K figured in these songs. And check out the bonus items for at least one special photo I haven't laid eyes on since 1966.

Apple Music Links for Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up

 

Great New Review of Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time

 thank you Jon Pruett and Ugly Things Magazine

Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time  - digital, CD, vinyl

Borrowed Tides and "Alpha Centauri"

As some of you may know, my second science fiction novel, Borrowed Tides (Tor Books, 2001), is about the first starship to Alpha Centauri.

As others of you may know, or as the same some of you may also know, one of the songs on my Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time album (released this past February by Old Bear Records, with vinyl distribution by Light in the Attic Records) is "Alpha Centauri," about an astronaut who travels the 4.3 light years to that triple star system.   That song was written (words by me, music by Peter Rosenthal) around the same time as Borrowed Tides.

I performed it this past weekend, online, at Amazingcon.  Here's a video (that sounds like it was broadcast from Alpha Centauri) of the Zoom performance.



review of Welcome Up album by Joseph Neff for The Vinyl District

Great New Review of "Welcome Up" / Live, Free, Online Concert this Saturday

Paul Levinson Hey, a great new review of Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time went up by Joseph Neff on The Vinyl District yesterday.  What I especially love about it is the way Neff puts Welcome Up in the context of Twice Upon A Rhyme, concluding that Welcome Up "hits the ear as the best kind of long-delayed follow-up to a phenomenon of cultish proportions; unstrained, totally comfortable in the present time, but sounding like nothing else on the current scene."  Read the whole review, with thoughts about each song -- such as, "the album’s standout is really “Picture Postcard World,” which infuses the soft-pop cheer with persistent psych swirl (getting downright underwater toward the end) as Levinson hits just the right level of crooner" -- over here. And speaking of Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme, I'll be singing songs from both, as well as a couple of new songs, at a virtual (online) totally FREE one-hour concert at Amazingcon on Saturday, 6-7pm.  Although the concert is totally free, you do need to register beforehand, which you can do here.  You register just once for the entire three-day online convention, which will feature all kinds of science fiction stars, whom you can see here.  In addition to my concert, I'll be on several panels, and also reading from my novelette, Robinson Calculator -- my complete schedule is here.  What a treat it would be to see some of you on that Zoom screen on Saturday! Songs from Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time played on Dig Vinyl's Melodic Distraction playlist, American Dream with Yvonne Howard Margolin's 37th Anniversary Destinies, WUSB Radio Carl Thien's WZBC show (scroll down to Part 2) Patrick Rands' Abstract Terrain show on WZBC Radio in Boston Kevin Anthony's Psychedelic Jukebox Captain Phil's WUSB-FM show.  Plus the following stations: Bellarmine Radio, Louisville, KY; KDWG Radio, Dillon, Montana; The End, Cleveland, OH; SYN Radio, Melbourne, Australia You can get all the Welcome Up music, any time, here: Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp & Spotify Order multi-color vinyl from Light in the Attic CDs in stock - get them here And here's Twice Upon a Rhyme: Listen to entire album FREE on Bandcamp & Spotify Original, sealed 1972 HappySad Records vinyl New remastered Sound of Salvation vinyl from Those Old Records Here's a one-hour virtual concert I did in April with songs from both albums at HELIOsphere: Beyond the Corona.   Video clips from Welcome Up here and here. More Welcome Up Reviews and Interviews: Taro Miyasugi says Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time is "a stunning folk pop album with gorgeous late 60s elements like vintage velveteen cloth..."  Evan LeVine observes about Welcome Up that "any fan of Twice Upon A Rhyme will be overjoyed by it... As otherworldly, mystical and far-out as the subject matter may be, the songs burst with love and warmth and humanity."  in-depth interview about Welcome Up in Klemen Breznikar's Psychedelic Baby Magazine  new audio Bear Tones podcast in which talk about Welcome Up and Twice Upon A Rhyme. And ... early warning:  another new review of Welcome Up in the next issue  (#54) of Ugly Things Magazine. Music Samantha (rough mix, from Welcome Up) If I Traveled To The Past (rough mix, from Welcome Up) MORE MUSIC Press "Welcome Up (Songs of Space and Time) is a contemporary dispatch, firmly sent. It hits the ear as the best kind of long-delayed follow-up to a phenomenon of cultish proportions; unstrained, totally comfortable in the present time, but sounding like nothing else on the current scene."— Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District, Jun 10, 2020 Connect Update Contact Info      Unsubscribe      Report Abuse      Privacy Physical inquiries can be sent to: 65 Shirley Lane, 9146596160, White Plains, NY, 10607, USA If our email is in your Spam/Junk Folder, please add Levinson.paul@gmail.com to your address book. Powered by  Fan Reach