October 2021 Anniversaries
Released 1st October 1971
TEASER AND THE FIRECAT
Cat Stevens
'Cat Stevens' is a deceptive name isn't it? I brings images of a bad-boy lothario wearing black leather and spending a lot of time being louche and dangerous. Of course, in fact, Cat/Yusuf is, and always was a peace loving, gentle troubadour. He has a nervy, trembly voice and uses it to good effect on this, which includes Moonshadow, Peace Train and Morning Has Broken.
We used to sing Morning Has Broken in junior school assemblies. It's not a Stevens composition but a hymn written in 1931, but it seems to fit well with all those slightly happy-clappy guitar led songs that we were encouraged to sing in front of headmistress Mrs Moseley and right-hand woman on the piano Miss Knight in the school hall every morning. See also The Family Of Man and When The Saints Go Marching In. I believe we were even taught 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone'.
The Wind
Rubylove
If I Laugh
Changes IV
How Can I Tell You
Tuesday's Dead
Morning Has Broken
Bitterblue
Moonshadow
Peace Train
Released: 1st October 1991
Prince And The New Power Generation
Sign O The Times seems to be generally accepted as Prince's masterpiece, but for me, this has been the most consistently enjoyable album so far, from the funky sitar of Thunder to the absolute filth of Gett Off and Cream it's full of memorable grooves (that's right, I referred to a musical track as a 'groove'). There's a thrilling, thrumming bassline on 'Daddy Pop' which contrasts with the delicately crafted title track, a perfect duet with Rosie Gaines, who has a voice to match any of your Mariah's or Alicia's.
As noted above, the Nelson libido is not being held in check on this album. 'Cream' squeezes every ounce of meaning out of it's title. It sounds like it's been whipped to a smooth consistency. He even manages a reference to T-Rex's 'Get It On'. Not much later on he doubles down with 'Gett Off'. Rapper Tony M's "23 positions in a one-night stand" is unambiguous to say the least. It's all ecstatic screams, sleazy flute, thumping bass and lewd commentary.
The Prince falsetto is back back back on 'Strollin'', an ultra cheesy easy-listening jazz effort that strays about as far into the innocent as 'Gett Off' goes into depraved, and he continues to explore his more thoughtful side with the smooooth 'Money Don't Matter 2 Night'.
There's a couple of thumpin dance tracks too in Jughead and Push accompanied by forceful and furious rapping. I'm no big fan of hip-hop, but you can hear the craft that goes into it.
The album packaging was a holographic image, which of course I can't really reproduce in this medium, but it at least explains why every version of the cover I found online was slightly different from the rest.
Thunder
Daddy Pop
Diamonds And Pearls
Cream
Strollin'
Willing and Able
Gett Off
Walk Don't Walk
Jughead
Money Don't Matter 2 Night
Push
Insatiable
Live 4 Love
Released: 1st October 2001
Elton John
There comes a point in every major artist's career where a return to form must be discussed. Elton never really had much form in my view, but I'm quite desperate to give him some credit and so I'm going to grant him a level of return to form status for this one. It's nicely produced and has some decent songs on it.
I do have a question about Dark Diamond. It features Stevie Wonder on harmonica. He does that quite a lot as a guest appearance and undoubtedly, once you know it's him you can recognize it as such, but it's quite a niche speciality for such a creative man. Why does he bother himself with it?
The main reason I have more time for this than much of the rest is 'I Want Love', and that's because it has a pretty good video. A one-shot piece featuring Robert Downey Jr lip-synching the words as he wanders around a Californian mansion. It's an engaging performance and Downey was on hid professional uppers at the time. It's just possible that the Marvel Cinematic Universe might have been quite different if it wasn't for Elton employing him when no-one else was.
Intriguing too is 'Mansfield', mainly on the basis of what a song about a town which sits in a kind of middle-England limbo. I'm guessing that Bernie has some kind of connection. It's not a million miles from his Sleaford hometown and has a similar profile as a town. Or it could be about one of around 50 Mansfields scattered across the US.
There's some extra stuff on the Expanded Edition, as you would rightly expect. A version of 'Your Song' with Alessandro Saffina providing some operatic gravitas and a choir giving it some swell. and a cover of Womack and Womack's 'Teardrops' with shouty sixties scottish chanteuse Lulu.
Also, more good news! We've entered the current century.
The Emperor's New Clothes
Dark Diamond
Look Ma, No Hands
American Triangle
Original Sin
Birds
I Want Love
The Wasteland
Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes
Love Her Like Me
Mansfield
This Train Don't Stop There Anymore
 |
GHOST IN THE MACHINE
The Police
I was looking forward to yet another head-shot of the three band members on the cover and instead we get this clock-radio display thing. It's supposed to represent them and you can just about see that the middle figure is suffering from a Sting feather-cut, but it doesn't really work.
The album opens strongly with three singles: 'Spirits in the Material World', 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' and 'Invisible Sun'. Spirits... goes back to their preferred reggae style with strong guitar chops all through. My best guess on Every Little Thing... is that it's about unrequited love. Invisible Sun is the most interesting track on the album, with it's kind of repetitive industrial sound.
As for the rest, if I can't really get into an album the first time round I'll give it another go but I found this so boring, with repetitive songs that I really can't be bothered. 'Demolition Man' was resurrected by Sting for the Stallone/Sandra Bullock movie of the same name, but I seem to remember that the reworked version was much better (I have it on Guitar Hero: World Tour so maybe I'll check it out on that). 'ReHumanize Yourself' is playfully frenetic, but we'll have less of the potty-mouth if you don't mind Mr Sumner. I think the closer, 'Darkness', is intended as a meditation on being caught in the rat-race.
One more Polis album to go. I have to say that so far, they have not really filled my criteria for a bit of artistic progression, sticking to the reggae and punk influences that served them well at the beginning. Let's see what Synchronicity has to offer.
Spirits in the Material World
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Invisible Sun
Hungry for You (J'aurais toujours faim de toi)
Demolition Man
Too Much Information
Rehumanize Yourself
One World (Not Three)
Omegaman
Secret Journey
Darkness
Released: 15th September 1986
Talking Heads
All the way through from Remain In Light to here, these albums have been instantly familiar. They were a quite significant contributor to my student years, but True Stories might be the most familiar of them all. Byrne made a movie of the same name, which I've never seen but is available for rent for the price of a flat white coffee. However, I'll stick to the album for this one since it still represents a completely original set of songs and doesn't need the movie to put it into context I hope. It pretty much continues on from the tone of Little Creatures, if anything even more accessible.
I'm guessing that by now Talking Heads was, creatively, probably 90% Byrne. The film is associated with him, not the band, after all. If you were determined to identify the musical influences on this then I guess you'd look to the southern states of the USA (the film is set in Texas I think, so it figures). There's the trance-like voodoo of 'Papa Legba', and the swirling hurdy-gurdy of 'Radio Head' (one minor itch that Wikipedia has managed to scratch for me here, Radiohead the band did take their name from 'Radio Head' the song). But Byrne is never that far from African influences and the raucously joyous choir on 'Puzzlin' Evidence' seems to tap into this while 'Hey Now' has the slower feel of a spiritual.
However, I think my favourite on this album is the slow, reflective and really quite heartbreaking 'Dream Operator'. The sentiment of "When you were little, You dreamed you were big; You must have been something; A real tiny kid; You wish you were me; I wish I was you" is enough to find me swallowing something hard and jagged. Dave bends the truth a little to make his lyrics scan on 'People Like Us'. "In 1950 when I was born...", well he was actually born in 1952, but that extra "two" just won't cut it. It's a nice lazy steel-guitar piece too.
It finishes with 'City Of Dreams'. It's apparent that Byrne is interested in exploring America, it's history and evolution and this reflects on all of this in a regretful way. I loved listening to this again. Even if they were at each other's throats by this time, its a fantastic, upbeat album with enough quirkiness to keep anyone interested.
Love For Sale
Puzzlin' Evidence
Hey Now
Papa Legba
Wild Wild Life
Radio Head
Dream Operator
People Like Us
City Of Dreams
THE MONKEES
The Monkees
I used to love the Monkees TV series. I particularly liked the bit in the opening titles when they lauched off a building dressed as superheroes. We had a Corgi Monkee Mobile which probably did end up as battered as the one pictured.
This feels like a direct tie-in to the TV series with the theme tune front and centre. The Monkees we know and love (Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith and Tork) only sing on this - and Tork doesn't even get a lead vocal, everything else is done by session musicians.
(Theme From) The Monkees
Saturday's Child
I Wanna Be Free
Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day
Papa Gene's Blues
Take a Giant Step
Last Train to Clarksville
This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day
Let's Dance On
I'll Be True to You
Sweet Young Thing
Gonna Buy Me a Dog
PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY AND THYME
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon and Garfunkel albums come up regularly as anniversaries and I always pick them up because, well why wouldn't you? However you do tend to find that the same songs keep coming up. It's mostly because they issued different albums on either side of the Atlantic or they turn up on solo albums too. There's plenty of classics here, just look at the track listing
Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Patterns
Cloudy
Homeward Bound
The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Dangling Conversation
Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall
A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
A Poem on the Underground Wall
7 O'Clock News/Silent Night
SONGS FROM THE LABYRINTH
Sting
Now I could be all sniffy and snarky and tear him off a strip for being so far up his backside that he risks making himself cough with his feathercut, but, you have to admire him for taking a risk on an album of songs by a renaissance England musician using what I assume is not the easiest instrument in the world to master. You have to take it as a piece rather than breaking it down into individual songs I think. The harmonies and round singing are pleasingly effective. It's also probably the first LP I've listened to issued by Deutsche Grammophon - there's highbrow for you.
There are a number of spoken interludes which allow Sting to deploy his tried and tested acting skills to the full (who can forget his career defining turn as Feyd-Ruatha Harkonnen in Dune? Not me certainly, I didn't have to look any of THAT up on Wikipedia). I think his strangulated vocal style is a problem with this sort of stuff though. I imagine a late 16th century troubadour would have more honeyed vocal cords.
Walsingham
Can She Excuse My Wrongs
Ryght Honorable...
Flow My Tears (Lachrimae)
Have You Seen the Bright Lily Grow
...Then in Time Passing On...
The Battle Galliard
The Lowest Trees Have Tops
... And Accordinge as I Desired Ther Cam a Letter...
Fine Knacks for Ladies
...From Thence I Went to Landgrave of Hessen...
Fantasy
Come, Heavy Sleep
Forlorn Hope Fancy
...And from Thence I Had Great Desire to See Italy...
Come Again
Wilt Thou Unkind Thus Reave Me
...After My Departures I Caled to Mynde...
Weep You No More, Sad Fountains
My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home
Clear or Cloudy
...Men Say That the Kinge of Spain...
In Darkness Let Me Dwell
ARRIVAL
ABBA
Now they've ditched the stretch limousines and are biffing around in light helicopters. However, they can't afford one each (yet) so they all have to squeeze into one. Things look a bit cramped and it's probably as well that there are four of them, that thing looks like it might be prone to imbalances. The packaging is worth a bit of attention. There was a copy of this back in the ancestral home, and it may still be gathering dust in my brother's shed in Leeds for all I know. All joking aside, the artwork is excitingly glamorous and indicative of the position that ABBA held in the mid-seventies poposphere (in the UK at least). They must have been the biggest pop act by quite a distance. Even more thrilling was that instead of the white paper inner sleeve with the round window for the label, Arrival had a glossy inner sleeve with another picture of them standing by the chopper in their pristine white jumpsuits (having 'Arrived' presumably) and, I think, the lyrics printed on the reverse side. The 9 year old me had never seen anything more beautifully designed.
The album matches the packaging for quality too. This is ABBA at their creative a commercial peak and on the cusp from being a bit of euro-pop fluff to something deeper and more nuanced. Some of the songs have the characteristic layering of the vocals - 'When I Kissed The Teacher' and the real groundbreaker here 'Knowing You, Knowing Me'. Lyrically there are some mis-steps but it's more just the over-literal effect of translating your thoughts into a second language I think. "He was leaning over me, trying to explain the laws of ge-o-met-ry" is a bit clunky after all - and the general tone of 'When I Kissed The Teacher' is maybe not something anyone would try today. There's 'Dancing Queen' - which is on my list of wedding disco songs, along with 'Come On Eileen', which tends to flummox the casual dancer. It's possible that ABBA's continuing success is due to the probably wholly unintended consequence of calling a song 'Dancing Queen' and therefore making it completely accessible to pretty much every sexual orientation. The fact that it's pretty much a perfect pop song helps too.
'Money, Money, Money' is here too. I could criticize the sentiment that the answer to a woman's problems is to find a rich man, but on a song like that I don't think they were trying to say anything profound back then anyway.
The relationship cracks begin to show too - 'My Love, My Life' , 'Why Did It Have To Be Me?' and 'Knowing You, Knowing Me' all have a bitter edge. The last has almost been ruined by Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge - it is really hard not to do a strident "A-HA!" at the appropriate moment. However in the unadulterated version, they even pull off the rather melodramatic whispered "Good days...bad days".
I remember that the 9-year old me found 'Tiger' to be about the most exciting and edgy piece of music I'd ever heard. Those thumping drums and the A's shrieked words give a genuine sense of threat. The idea of a tiger stalking a city was thrillingly scary "And if I meet you, what if I eat you?" Well quite. It's probably a sophisticated metaphor, but I hope not.
Just like on the previous album, there's an instrumental - although there is some vocal contribution from the A's too - which is the title track. It's very good. An Oldfield-ian Celtic anthem. It finishes the album on most versions, but Spotify includes 'Fernando' after it which was added in some territories.
When I Kissed The Teacher
Dancing Queen
My Love, My Life
Dum Dum Diddle
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Money, Money, Money
That's Me
Why Did It Have To be Me?
Tiger
Arrival
Released 12th October 1981
OCTOBER
U2
Well, if I'm honest it's rather dull. All rather pompous and laden with religion. At least the debut, Boy, had 'I Will Follow', which had something about it.
Pictured are Gonch Gardner, Ziggy Greaves, Stewpot Stewart and Gripper Stebson. Flippin 'eck Tucker!
Gloria
I Fall Down
I Threw a Brick Through a Window
Rejoice
Fire
Tomorrow
October
With a Shout (Jerusalem)
Stranger in a Strange Land
Scarlet
Is That All?
MR BAD EXAMPLE
Warren Zevon
Inspirational. At least in the sense that two of the songs lent their titles to other forms of art. There's 'Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead' a film starring Andy Garcia whose character's name of Jimmy The Saint comes from the early Springsteen song 'After The Flood'. Never seen it and almost certainly never will. Also, there is the book, 'Quite Ugly One Morning' by Christopher Brookmyre, a blackly comic Scottish thriller which is the first of Brookmyre's Jack Parlabane novels. I have read that, at least twice, and would recommend Brookmyre to anyone willing to listen to me. The song itself has a thumping guitar riff, backed up some sitar-plucking and is suitable for anyone who doesn't like opening their eyes before noon.
This maintains Zevon's high standards but the subject matter is as skewed as ever. His 'Model Citizen' really isn't and 'Finishing Touches' is the bitterest of breakup songs. We spend some time in a crack den in 'Angel Dressed In Black' and the title track is just a relentless litany of misdemeanours crashed out to a one-man-band marching beat. Not so sure that a career in dodgy hair transplants is quite the moneyspinner he claims it to be though.
Renegade reminds me of 'Desperadoes Under The Eaves', there's even an echo in the respective titles. It could be a lament for a forgotten section of society in the Deep South, but with Zevon it's sometimes hard to get a handle on where he actually stands. It feels sad and touching though.
I really like 'Heartache Spoken Here', even if it is just for the unmistakable contribution of Dwight Yoakam on backing vocals and both 'Suzie Lightning' and 'Searching For A Heart' provide the slower, more thoughtful moments.
A portrait album cover as usual, with Warren setting a very bad example by having a drag.
Finishing Touches
Suzie Lightning
Model Citizen
Angel Dressed In Black
Mr Bad Example
Renegade
Heartache Spoken Here
Quite Ugly One Morning
Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead
Searching For A Heart
DARE
Human League
Human League defy all my prejudices really. They can't sing and it's all pre-programmed on synthesisers. They come from a time when dancing around your handbag with your best mate in a Sheffield nightclub was a pathway to pop stardom. But despite all this they produced era defining classics like this. In particular 'Don't You Want Me' seems to distill everything that early eighties electronic pop was about.
The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
Open Your Heart
The Sound of the Crowd
Darkness
Do or Die
Get Carter
I Am the Law
Seconds
Love Action (I Believe in Love)
Don't You Want Me
IN THE GARDEN
Eurhthmics
What is well-known about (the) Eurythmics? We know that they sprang out of two-hit wonders The Tourists and that Dave Stewart qualifies as the David Beckham of his day by marrying a member of the most prominent girl group of the time. One thing you probably won't know unless you are a pretty hardcore fan, is any of the songs on this album. It was probably quite a tough proposition in 1981, when the pop-kids were lapping up Abba, Queen and Shaky and electronica was only just about breaking through with the likes of the Human League. However now, it sounds completely sharp and contemporary. You can easily imagine some poorly-dressed young Canadian woman delivering any of these on the next edition of Later With Jools Holland.
It's tempting to pigeonhole Eurythmics with all the other pop-synth duos of the era, but their sound is much more diverse. Admittedly 'Take Me To Your Heart' owes quite a lot to the plinky-plonky side of Kraftwerk's output, but the preceding 'Belinda' throws in plenty of more classical rock noises. I'd say they'd spent a bit of time listening to Scary Monsters from the year before - and that 'Eur' part of the name is no accident, they clearly were embracing wider influences than you might have heard Mike Read playing on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
Probably the most Bowie influenced thing is 'Caveman Head', which reminded me of the brilliantly bonkers, Japanese-gabbling 'It's No Game' that bracketed the Scary Monsters album. First single was the brilliant 'Never Gonna Cry Again' which sees Lennox in slightly distracted form. It got to number 63 in the UK Chart in a month when 'Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley)' made the top 5. Who says 'popular' means 'any good'?
The artwork is kind of literal - they are in a garden after all - but is also faintly disturbing with the double-exposed photographs giving a ghostly feel. If you have never listened to it then give it a go, if you have then listen to it again. Although they were established in the business from the Tourists days, this is an incredible debut album and possibly a lost classic.
English Summer
Belinda
Take Me To Your Heart
She's Invisible Now
Your Time Will Come
Caveman Head
Never Gonna Cry Again
All The Young (People Of Today)
Sing-Sing
Revenge
OTHER VOICES
The Doors
Jim's been gone for just three months, but the rest soldier on. He is missed, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger just don't have the resonance in their voices. Even the title is a kind of warning that you're not going to get what you really want. In some places it's recognizably The Doors, but elsewhere ('In The Eye Of The Sun' and 'Tightrope Ride') they sound like a Stones tribute, which may be intentional in the latter given the references to Brian Jones.
In the Eye of the Sun
Variety Is the Spice of Life
Ships w/ Sails
Tightrope Ride
Down on the Farm
I'm Horny, I'm Stoned
Wandering Musician
Hang On to Your Life
BAT OUT OF HELL III
Meat Loaf
Did you even know it existed? I have to admit I needed to check whether I imagined it or not. It's better than II, although it got me thinking about the formula for Steinman/Meat Loaf songs and albums. First of all you need a title, and route one is to identify a fatuous phrase that can stand as a metaphor for pretty much anything. I'm tempted to go topical and suggest 'Brexit Means Brexit (And It's A Fact That We're Never Going Back)', but for my imaginary song let's go for 'Some You Win And Some You Lose (But I'm Never Gonna Lose You)'. Musically you have to stick to classic heavy rock tropes, so plenty of crashing guitars, crashing drums and tinkly piano inserts. Kettle drums too if you can squeeze them in. You do need to give some kind of nod to modernity though, so, for example the opening 'The Monster Is Loose' here is clearly influenced by the darker howling style of mid-noughties nu-metal.
They are a little behind the curve with the intro to 'If It Ain't Broke Break It' (d'you see my point?) which starts promisingly enough sounding a bit like Metallica before almost immediately descending into a loud brassy blancmange of poodle rock. If you do a duet with a female singer then this tactic must be used sparingly. Only one or two songs per album at most. And you need a woman who has a voice honed by a 60-a-day habit. This album has 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now' which you might just remember, and 'What About Love'. You need a lot of choral backing as well.
As for Meat himself, he needs something he can get his teeth into, although 'In The Land Of The Pig, The Butcher Is King' may be a step too far. If it's a ballad, there's a certain threshold of muscularity that has to be exceeded, or failing that he needs to be able to deploy his vibrato to the full (see 'Cry To Heaven'). Of course you need to make some classical references, so 'Monstro' is based on Carmina Burana and 'Seize The Night' has a full orchestral intro. Lyrically, all you need is a rhyming dictionary and have a reasonable grounding in gothic horror. Probably watching Hugh Jackman in 'Van Helsing' is enough. Nights are always long and lonely. The albums need a long centrepiece song and here 'Seize The Night' is pretty much the successor to 'Bat Out Of Hell' and 'IWDAFL(BIWDT)'.
Oh. There's a song called 'The Future Ain't What It Used To Be' as well. It features Jennifer Hudson. She should know better.
The Monster Is Loose
Blind as a Bat
It's All Coming Back to Me Now
Bad for Good
Cry Over Me
In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher Is King
Monstro
Alive
If God Could Talk
If It Ain't Broke, Break It
What About Love?
Seize the Night
The Future Ain't What It Used to Be
Cry to Heaven
LIVERPOOL
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
It's pretty terrible, but then, objectively, Welcome To The Pleasuredome has quite a lot of dross camouflaged by Relax and Two Tribes. Two years was a long time in pop in the mid-eighties and Frankie were so huge in 1984, and their overall talent was so slight, that they could only fail with the follow up. Anyway, Holly Johnson was much more fun when he went solo, so it all turned out right in the end.
Warriors of the Wasteland
Rage Hard
Kill the Pain
Maximum Joy
Watching the Wildlife
Lunar Bay
For Heaven's Sake
Is Anybody Out There?
BLUE MOVES
Elton John
It's a double album and it feels thinly spread. I get the impression he wanted to do more instrumental songs but I might just be carrying a first impression from the long intro to the opening track into my perception of the rest of it. 'Song for Guy' is on the next one, which really was a puzzle as to why he sang anything on it.
'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word' is here. An effective break up song with an interesting turn of phrase in the lyric, and in a clear case of lyrical determinism, as a song, it's sad (so sad).
Wait, is that the Top Gear theme, 'Jessica' by the Allman Brothers? Oh no. It's something called 'Out of The Blue'. But wait! It turns out it is the music from Top Gear, but the one used on the closing credits. This leaves me wondering whether the two songs really are very similar or are just associated in my subconscious. I'm confused and not a little disoriented. It is an instrumental, but I would argue is not all that Eltonish, more like, well, The Allman Brothers.
Elton and Bernie continue to be bad at song titles. This time we have the suicidal 'Someone's Final Song' and 'Theme From A Non-Existent TV Series'. Possibly sour grapes that they actually hadn't (yet, see above) managed to jump on the TV theme gravy train. Of course they shoot themselves in the foot with the title anyway, if it had been used it would have been an oxymoron. It fits the brief, clearly a cop/spy show. Lots of frantic piano conveying suspense and races against time.
He sounds weird on 'Idol', and by weird, I mean he does quite a good job on the vocal. Lounge-jazz-singer croon might be his forte. At one point I thought I was listening to his mate George Michael, who could hold a tune when he tried.
The closing 'Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance)' was the second, little remembered single. An energetic disco chugger in which Bernie came up with the title and then took the rest of the afternoon off.
Your Starter For...
Tonight
One Horse Town
Chameleon
Boogie Pilgrim
Cage the Songbird
Crazy Water
Shoulder Holster
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Out of the Blue
Between Seventeen and Twenty
The Wide Eyed and Laughing
Someone's Final Song
Where's the Shoorah?
If There's a God in Heaven (What's He Waiting For?)
Idol
Theme From a Non-Existent TV Series
Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)
WELD
Neil Young and Crazy Horse
I did think I had a piece on this one, but in fact I heavily reference it in the one for Live Rust. There's an embarassment of riches out there when it comes to Neil Young Live albums. This has a searing 'Rockin' In the Free World' and a version of 'Blowin' In The Wind' which suggests that Dylan was actually an old square and his song needs a bit of rebellion injecting into it.
The 'deluxe' edition came with 'Arc'. Essentially 34 minutes of feedback which is probably still a better listen than 'Metal Machine Music'. I don't know though, who would bother to try and find out?
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Crime in the City
Blowin' in the Wind
Welfare Mothers
Love to Burn
Cinnamon Girl
Mansion on the Hill
Fuckin' Up
Cortez the Killer
Powderfinger
Love and Only Love
Rockin' in the Free World
Like a Hurricane
Farmer John
Tonight's the Night
Roll Another Number
AMERICAN PIE
Don McLean
I mean the title track has been done to death hasn't it? We all know what it's all about and in later years even Don has come McLean about most of the references.
There's also Vincent. Van Gogh seems to be a figure whose conflicts just seems to enhance his reputation and tragedy. McLean captures it all perfectly.
Beyond that 'Everybody Loves Me, Baby' is Don's entry in the Dylan Parody stakes, 'The Grave' is beyond grim and 'Babylon' dabbles in the madrigal.
It's a great great great album cover.
American Pie
Till Tomorrow
Vincent
Crossroads
Winterwood
Empty Chairs
Everybody Loves Me, Baby
Sister Fatima
The Grave
Babylon
KEYS TO ASCENSION
Yes
They've thrown me a curveball with this. There are two albums, imaginatively distinguished by the number '2' at the end of the title of the second, a lot of which are live performances of older material. Well I ain't going through all that lot again, so we'll just concentrate on the new studio stuff from each album and call it all 'Keys To Ascension' The lineup now is Squire, Anderson, Wakeman, White and Howe (I DO hope you are keeping up, there will be a test at the end - not a joke).
So on the first album we have 'Be The One', which is bashy and crashy and all rather good and 'That, That Is' coming in at a whopping 19:15. Howe's characteristic guitar plucking starts it off and we get treated to some berserk bass playing by Squire before it all calms down and Anderson croons away for a while. As you might expect, with nearly 20 minutes to play with they run the gamut, but it does represent a return to form I think.There are many more new studio tracks from the '2' album starting with another behemoth, 'Mind Drive'.
Yes go about their business pretty confidently on this album. They capture their old selves really well. The second movement in 'Mind Drive' does appear to be strongly influenced by Zep's 'Kashmir' and there's also a little harking back to the sound of 'Wonderous Stories'. They are still polishing up some stuff they found down the back of the sofa though, Wiki-passes-for-research tells me 'Children of Light' was written by Jon and Vangelis as 'Distant Thunder' a few years before.
Roger Dean retains the sleeve design contract. They have a new band logo as well, although they take a belt and braces approach by using the old one at the top too.
Siberian Khatru
The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)
America
Onward
Awaken
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
Life Seeker
Disillusion
Würm
Be the One
a. "The One"
b. "Humankind"
c. "Skates"
That, That Is"
a. "Togetherness"
b. "Crossfire"
c. "The Giving Things"
d. "That Is"
e. "All in All"
f. "How Did Heaven Begin"
g. "Agree to Agree
EXIT STAGE LEFT
Recorded: June 10-11 1980 and March 27 1981
Rush
On the rare occasions that the subject of New Order comes up in conversations here at RockOdysseys HQ, Mrs R.O. always dismisses them as 'a bloke's band'. You have to bear in mind our particular vintage. We were students in the heyday of Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and co, and what I always take this comment to mean is that they were definite favorites of males of our age because they represented 'serious' contemporary music (depressing, Mancunian and mostly boring). Now you may be wondering why I raise this in a piece on Canadian rock darlings Rush? Well I would contend that the epithet 'bloke's band' was pretty much made for them. Their proposition is intricate lead guitar work, fiddly basslines and complicated drumming (with more cow-bell action than is really warranted). No woman really likes that kind of thing, which is a sweeping generalization of the worst kind, but I doubt any female would consider it a serious insult to to their sex, nor to the fight against the patriarchy.
Rush do sometimes cross the line into the turgid and a live double album, I'll admit, tried my patience a bit. Which is a shame because I love hearing 'Spirit Of The Radio' and 'Tom Sawyer' on the rare occasions they make it onto the radio. But you can have too much of it, and Geddy Lee's nasal shriek is fine for a while, until you start to worry that he's going to give himself a sore throat or at least blow out his sinuses. 'Xanadu' is included too. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' is irresistible to nitwit popstars because it speaks to their sense of power and pompousness (they never do 'Ozymandias' do they?), but at least Frankie Goes To Hollywood showed some self-awareness and mischief by changing the words to "In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan, stately pleasuredome ERECT!".
But don't get me wrong. Rush are great in the right context and I'd recommend listening to this double album one side at a time, or simply go for 'Spirit Of The Radio', 'Xanadu' and 'Tom Sawyer' and skip the rest.
Band Bantz: 'Red Barchetta' is "a song about a car". See? Bloke's Band.
Heckles And Coughs: They take the vocal duties for the appropriate parts of 'Closer To The Heart' and Neil Peart's drum solo on 'YYZ 'brings them to raptures. The question that has nagged me for about 40 years now is, how do you pronounce 'Peart'? is it "pert", as in "bum", or "part" to rhyme with "fart"?
Next Track Off The Rank: Jump by Van Halen.
Spirit Of The Radio
Red Barchetta
YYZ
A Passage To Bangkok
Closer To The Heart
Beneath, Between & Behind
Jacob's Ladder
Broon's Bane
The Trees
Xanadu
Freewill
Tom Sawyer
La Villa Strangiato
MEDDLE
Pink Floyd
The thing about The Pink Floyd and their albums is that you often sit there waiting for about 15 seconds while you try and decide if the album has started yet or you didn't push the button properly. They do like a low rumbling intro. This is another which is short on tracks but higher on quality. The opening 'One Of These Days' sits somewhere between 1977's 'Magic Fly' by Space and, from the same year, 'Fanfare For The Common Man' by ELP. It's unlike anything they've done before and does seem weirdly prescient of future trends.
Rather uncannily I was listening to the Fleet Foxes yesterday while taking the kids swimming (I'm the driver, so I get to choose the music and I believe they CAN be educated) and the rather pastoral 'A Pillow Of Winds' has something of the proggy Crosby Stills and Nash sound that the FFs do so well. 'Fearless' sounds like a typical Gilmour/Waters collaboration but rather puzzlingly ends with the Anfield Kop singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. Waters' 'San Tropez' is rather more whmisical, you could imagine him performing it with a striped blazer slung over one shoulder. 'Seamus' is a blues ditty to the eponymous dog. Nuff said.
Side 2 is taken up with the 23 minutes of 'Echoes' which rather effectively starts with a sonar ping that resolves into a plucked guitar intro. It also features a repeated phrase that Andrew Lloyd Webber may well have nicked for Phantom Of The Opera. Then again, since Floyd are not averse to a bit of litigation, there can't be a strong case or they might have pursued it. (As a side note, I was recently listening to a radio discussion involving Guy Chambers and Tom Robinson following the recent case about 'Blurred Lines' and it seems there are certain criteria around chord progressions etc that go toward a successful plagiarism prosecution). Anyway, it all goes fine until about halfway through, nice bit of jazz-funk exposition, but then stuff like whalesong makes an appearance and ruins the mood. They do pick it up again later on.
The cover is apparently an ear underwater (not the Baboon's backside that the designer wanted) but I'm buggered if I can see it.
One of These Days
A Pillow of Winds
Fearless
San Tropez
Seamus
Echoes
FACE TO FACE
The Kinks
Yeah, for quite a lot of this they sound like Beatles wannabes, and even 'Sunny Afternoon', when you listen to the lyrics rather than succumbing to the relaxed vibe reveals itself to be a reworking of the themes of 'Taxman', although I did wonder if Davies was having a little dig at Harrison for moaning a bit too much.
Party Line
Rosy Won't You Please Come Home
Dandy
Too Much on My Mind
Session Man
Rainy Day in June
A House in the Country
Holiday in Waikiki
Most Exclusive Residence for Sale
Fancy
Little Miss Queen of Darkness
You're Lookin' Fine
Sunny Afternoon
I'll Remember
LULU
Lou Reed and Metallica
Well really Andy. What did you expect? Lou Reed is notoriously grumpy and Metallica are notoriously noisy, so a noisy grumpy album was the only realistic outcome. It is *hard work* and you wonder whether Reed in general was just taking the piss most of the time and seeing what he could get away with. At times it feels a little like he's trying to exorcise some demons, but I don't see why we should have to suffer as well.
Brandenburg Gate
The View
Pumping Blood
Mistress Dread
Iced Honey
Cheat on Me
Frustration
Little Dog
Dragon
Junior Dad
TOM TOM CLUB
Tom Tom Club
I recently read (listened to - we need a new word for when you 'read' an audiobook) Chris Frantz's biography. He was clearly happier doing this rather than all that Talking Heads stuff because it didn't involve David Byrne, whom he can't abide, and did involve Tina Weymouth, whom he clearly adores.
I didn't include Tom Tom Club when I did the Talking Heads blog because I decided to focus on Byrne as the key creative talent, a decision that would surely have enraged Frantz, but credit where it's due, this is a massively inventive album and 'Wordy Rappinghood' and 'Genius Of Love' were instant, leftfield alt-pop classics.
Wordy Rappinghood
Genius of Love
Tom Tom Theme
L'éléphant
As Above, So Below
Lorelei
On, On, On, On...
Booming and Zooming