16 Comments

Brilliant, as always. Also, there’s this great book about the making of Astral Weeks (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-miracle-of-van-morrisons-astral-weeks), which sounds wild. But apparently Van wasn’t happy with the final recording, saying they ruined it in production with everything they added in. So we’re left to wonder if he dug the triangle. I certainly do.

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oh cool yeah I’d love to read that.

Glad you liked the episode. Fun to sneak Van into a nutcracker discussion.

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Could’ve been billed “The Tambourine Episode” eh?

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Yeah it initially was gonna be all about tambourines but there’s so much cool stuff in the nutcracker i couldn’t keep a lid on it..

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I have been struggling to get into the Christmas spirit but this episode has me dusting off Ringo's Christmas album and buying hot chocolate.

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Wow that is the exact desired effect of all this!

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Walt: I rarely leave the house these days but when I do I listen to the Walter Martin Radio Hour. One problem - when I play stuff from Substack in the minivan I can’t control the volume. I have no idea why. Are the radio show episodes themselves available from some other source, or just Substack? I’ve looked elsewhere with no luck.

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Derek! Great question. If you go to my substack and go to “more options” or “add to Apple Podcasts” you can connect the radio show to your podcast app and it’ll automatically update with every new episode. Lemme know if you have any trouble. 🤘

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Bingo - that works. Thanks! Just started that Milan episode. Hope that project takes off....

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Great episode. Really enjoyed the collection of songs. I make a holiday mix every year and have one of your songs on my mix, While I shovel the Snow, you mentioned in this episode. Ironically long before I started following your show. Anywho, thanks for the mixes. Here is a link to the mix if your interested: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Skv9EUnUFEaTAgQqvRy8x?si=fqT8CXCGQFOoKW1qzoTnNg&pi=u-4s3gwS5XSIeN

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Another great episode, Walter.

As it happens, listening to The Walkmen has become an annual festive ritual for me.

I'm not sure if it's the waltzing time signatures, the chiming, glacial guitars, the brass arrangements, the imagery of the lyrics, or the use of triangle (!), but I've come to associate many of these songs with winter.

Interesting to hear some of the eclectic music that may have influenced those songs.

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Glad you enjoyed t. Yeah definitely many bells and percussion details thrown all over Walkmen stuff— and everything I do. I can’t resist.

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This is one of your best episodes yet, Walter! Absolutely loving it and I am a huge fan of the Nutcracker and had no idea where your show would go but this was a wonderfully entertaining and really great music theory class/show! Loved it. Happy holidays to you and yours!

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as an aside, i randomly heard the Beatles, “you’ve got to hide your love away” and for the first time noticed the heavy tambourine this time due to this episode

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Thanks so glad I liked the episode it was fun to make.

And yes Hide Your Love Away is the best!!

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Dec 7
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Glad you enjoyed it, thanks.

Theses!! Of course.

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