Songs And Music of the Redcoats

[dragonlady7]

Remember how, ages ago, I wrote a blog entry about a song I dimly remembered? I also (embarrassingly) went on at length about exposing myself in public (it being mardi gras) and the such. Well, apparently that entry got indexed by Google under Songs and Music of the Redcoats, which is the album I was discussing. It was an old vinyl imprint snapped up by re-enactors and history geeks in the mid-seventies, and it subsequently went out of print, and now most of the discussion of it on the Internet is people lamenting the fact that you can't get it anywhere.
I know this, because I've looked for it. Dad's vinyl copy was a casualty of "loaned to a friend"; he copied it to tape before loaning it out, and we listened to that a lot when I was a kid, but then when I was a teenager I dropped it and it stopped working properly. (Great.) So I've long been guilty about that.

Anyhow. A particular person found my blog entry and sent me an email. "I too enjoyed the music, and, more to the point, about 30 years ago when I was young and foolish, I taped the LP." Astoundingly, unlike in my father's case, the tape has survived to this day, and has been ripped to .wma format.
(Also, fascinatingly, this individual is a professor at St. Andrews University, which not only is the one hathy_col attends, but is also in the small city where I lived for a year whilst Abroad. He is the world's leading expert on how grasshoppers jump. I hesitate to give his name for fear of him coming up in Google searches, but I assure you, I will link to how the grasshoppers jump later, because it is worth a read. Did you know they use catapults? I did not.)

So I am now gleefully in possession of 34 .wma files of all the songs from this LP that is so much a part of my early consciousness. But I am stuck with a dilemma: How to make a .wma file into an audio CD my dad can listen to? (Ideally I'd love to manage to rip them to .mp3 so I could listen to them in iTunes as well, but...) Can anyone offer any advice?

Comments

... St Andrews?

[helloder.livejournal.com]

Well what a small world we live in. I was there for four years as a student and had a great time. I knew from some of your previous entries that you had lived in Scotland but did not know where. I was back there last year for a reunion of mediaeval history graduates and stayed at Hamilton Hall - the one overlooking the Old Course, and then on the point of being sold off to become time share apartments. Sad.

Interesting to hear about your grass hopper knowledgeable professor. I also find it strange that St A offers courses in counter terrorism! Wasn't like that in my day ...

Do you read Val McDermid? Although an Oxford graduate, she comes from Fife, and has at least one book which concerns ex St A graduates, and one or two others, the Tony Hill ones, where he is a lecturer at that university. Great reading, but sometimes quite scary! I can recommend her wholeheartedly, but for some books you need a strong stomach. Tow of the books have been adapted for TV and are out on DVD as part of two series based on her characters.

Re: ... St Andrews?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I was there for just a year, at St. Leonards, which is a high school that at the time was just for girls. So I didn't get to do much living, as we had to be locked in at night...
Oh boy, time shares on golf courses. Naturally. Blegh.
I was on the Old Course precisely twice in my entire year there-- once, late at night and rather drunk, and the second time, as part of our Leavers' ceremonies. I remember little of it, however.


I will have to look up your recommendations. :)

Re: ... St Andrews?

[helloder.livejournal.com]

St Leonards? How posh!

I only went to St Andrews University because 1) it got me away from home; 2)I got a student grant (those were the days!); 3) my dad was a keen but impoverished golfer!

But I can well remember pier walks after midnight and after Hall (of Residence) balls with one's partner of the night and others, when we would walk along those wonderful West Sands, as immortalised in "Chariots of Fire".

Let me know what you think about the recs when you get there...

Re: ... St Andrews?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I was only at St Leonards on an exchange program. I assure you it was far too posh for me too.

I think we mostly stayed down by Castle Sands and East Sands-- West Sands were off-limits without permission! (Boarding school was quaint for about five minutes, after which I just wanted to hit people a lot.)



Let me know what you think about the recs when you get there...

What recs where? *is confused*

Recs

[helloder.livejournal.com]

.. the Val McDermid ones ... Her books. Those are what I was recommending as potential reading, or viewing (but the reading I think is better).

Didn't realise that they were so restrictive at St Leonard's re access. Whenever I go back to Fife I try to have a good long walk along those beautiful West Sands.

I can remember as a student in my late teens after my (hall of) residence's annual ball ("University Hall Ball") doing a Pier Walk and also walking along the West Sands in company in the early hours in a ball dress, complete with a corsage (usually an orchid).

I also remember American Students when I was at St Andrews. From William and Mary and Sweet Briar. Seems quite idyllic now. I am still in touch with friends from that time.