Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence - ROBERT FRIPP.
Information is not knowledge;
knowledge is not wisdom;
wisdom is not truth;
truth is not beauty;
beauty is not love;
love is not music;
MUSIC IS THE BEST - FRANK ZAPPA.
I think we're a little happier when we have a little music in our lives - STEVE JOBS.
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe - LAO TZU.
Rock and Roll is fire, man. FIRE. - DAVID BRIGGS.
Music grips you, gets into your soul -
GEORGE MARTIN
Bob DylanHard Rain(Vinyl and CD, 1976) ***** Genre: American pop/rock Places I remember:Marbecks Records (Auckland) Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Shelter From The Storm
Gear costume: Everything else. Active compensatory factors: Hard Rain is from 1976's Rolling Thunder Revue. Compare this to the fuller Rolling Thunder Revue concert found on the Bootleg series Vol 5 (Live 1975) and experience the difference. The light and airy atmosphere from 1975 is replaced by brooding malevolence in Hard Rain. The face makeup, cool hat and feathers have been replaced by scraggy beard and gypsy scarf! Stripped back from the artiface, the single version is raw power (and that gets dissipated over a double CD anyway). The versions here are well chosen - there's a snarl, snap, crackle about Idiot Wind that is largely kept in check on the studio version from Blood on the Tracks. Each song has been deconstructed, rearranged and then punk'd up into a rolling thunder menace. This is the Dylan album I want! It sits alongside John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Neil Young's Tonight's the Night in the honest emotion charts. Where do they all belong? Less is more. We now have a multi CD pack with a variety of RTR concerts to experience, but I'll be sticking with the brutal Hard Rain.
LambchopThis (Is What I Wanted To Tell You)(Download, 2019) ** Genre: American pop/rock Places I remember: An MNAC selection by Mr Lewis Kirkham Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) Gear costume:Crossroads, Or What This Says About You Active compensatory factors: I'm new to Lambchop. Although I have heard their songs on compilations over the years, this is the first time I've listened to a whole album. This means, unlike Lew who has grown up with this music since pre teenagerhood, I don't have a real context to appreciate their music. An important distinction to keep in mind: my music appreciation began in the late sixties and I rate the 1971 t0 1977 period as my formative years. the time when it's MY music! As a 60something I now have a lot of musical baggage. I know what I like, in other words. That said, I'm happy that Lew suggested this album. It was about time I listened to an album released in 2019. It must be said that this 2019 version of Lambchop is a long way from their early Alt Country style which must have initially hooked Lew back in the mid nineties. As he's grown and matured, so have Lambchop. Lambchop now sounds very grown up! For me, the often sparse/ floaty instrumentation is cool, as are the sophisticated rhythms, but the electronica... I'm not a huge fan of this aspect: the urban doh/veet's in Everything For You grated and the vocoder treatment on the vocals did nothing for me I'm afraid. In fact, it's the vocal embellishments that progressively annoyed me. I found myself really aching to hear the songs in a rawer state. For that reason the title song is my favourite track. The hint of some muted trumpet (a 'real' instrument, rather than the electronic drums and blips and beeps) was also a welcome point of difference.
Where do they all belong? Definitely a worthwhile experience but without the history (this isn't MY music), it left me wanting to listen to my Golden Smog CDs!
Anderson Bruford Wakeman HoweAnderson Bruford Wakeman Howe(CD - Arista, 1989) *** Anderson Bruford Wakeman HoweAn Evening Of Yes Music Plus(CD - Fragile Records, 1993) **** Genre: Prog rock Places I remember: The Warehouse stores when they were interested in selling CDs Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:Long Distance Turnaround
Gear costume:Brother Of Mine, Close To The Edge
Active compensatory factors: A recent issue of Prog magazine reminded me of this old set by former members of Yes, before they regrouped for the much maligned (but not by me) Union album. The studio set is quite dated sounding now, mainly thanks to Bruford's electronic artificial sounding drums. Now Bill Bruford is a great great drummer but this eighties sound is not his finest hour.
Instead I often return to the live set. Even though it has a Roger Dean cover, it's shoddily packaged. Indeed when I first got it I thought it was a bootleg! Starting off with acoustic instruments (for most of the first volume of this two volume CD set), it is a warm and engaging sound with some welcome twists to my established favourites like Long Distance Turnaround. Rick Wakeman follows Steve Howe with some solo turns and almost steals the show! A great Gone But Not Forgotten and Catherine Parr! When the full band kicks in it is with power and prog depth. If I want to listen to Close To The Edge (and I do more often than you'd think), I go to this version. Where do they all belong? As a one off in the Yes canon but an exciting, worthwhile one off!
Mark HollisMark Hollis(1998) **** Genre: UK pop/rock Places I remember: MNAC selection from Tom Kirkham (yes: THAT Tom Kirkham) Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Colour Of Spring (love how it emerges out of silence)
Gear costume:Inside Looking Out, Watershed Active compensatory factors: An extraordinary album! I like Talk Talk (Mark Hollis was the front man (played guitar, piano and sang), but this isn't much like Talk Talk - great in a different way: full of delicate sound patterns, minimalist at times, discordant in patches (but that resolves into interesting textures), beautiful piano driven songs that sound like glimpses of other things (David Crosby, Keith Jarrett, Blue Nile) but end up being uniquely Mark Hollis. Where do they all belong? He was a complicated character by all accounts but he left us with this - a perfect final word, delivered some 20 years before his death this year. That sounds weird right? And so it is. he basically retired from music (but not life) after this one and only solo album!
The MonkeesThe Monkees(Vinyl - Colgems/RCA, 1966) **** Genre: American pop Places I remember: Greg Knowles gave his copy! Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Last Train To Clarksville/ This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day
Active compensatory factors: Wow! What a year for music 1966 turned out to be: Pet Sounds, Revolver, Roger The Engineer, Takes Off, Freak Out! and then in October - The Monkees!!! Yes, I'm still on a Monkees high after their recent Auckland concert (great 2019 version of The Last Train To Clarksville was a clear highlight btw). Their debut holds up amongst that great company! There are some great tracks on here, confidence was high and the production is spot on pop-wise. And as to the sneery idea that 99% of the music came from session musicians? Too words: Pet Sounds. Two more words: True genius. Where do they all belong? I'm gonna buy me a dog. Yes, sir!
The NationalI Am Easy To Find(YouTube - 2019) *** Genre: American pop/rock Places I remember: MNAC selection Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:Oblivions
Gear costume:You Had Your Soul With You Active compensatory factors: This was an album recommended by a member of Monday Night Album Club recently. Turns out some of the MNACers know and love The National for personal reasons that are of long standing. This is a tad daunting because I know they are deeply invested in the band and I am brand new to them (which is kind of the point of MNAC). My only previous experience of the band was watching them perform on Later...with Jools Holland in the company of MNAC sister act - Fran Kirkham. She also loved them and, in retrospect, I believe my somewhat underwhelmed response was ill considered. Luckily, listening to their new album is a happier experience - they are a band I could easily love too - especially the faster paced songs (some of the mid paced and slower stuff will take me longer to love). In the positive column: the poppier songs appeal (lead off song: You Had Your Soul With You and Where Is Her Head are favourites), songs often build in a lovely way (Hey Rosie), and the mix of female and male lead voices on songs like Oblivions is hugely appealing (I understand this isn't typical of their approach). Bottom line - a good introduction. These songs are growing on me. Where do they all belong? I must have missed Lew's link so I pieced the album together from studio and live footage on YouTube. It was easy to find. Not ideal but the visual aspect actually helped.
Jethro TullLiving In The Past(Vinyl - Reprise, 1972) **** Genre: Prog rock Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (Auckland) Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:Living In The Past
Gear costume: All the rest Active compensatory factors: This is another case of me re-buying an album bought in the seventies and shedded along the way in the eighties or nineties. I had a hankering for it again a few years ago and found a copy before heading to the UK to live. The title track is the real deal and one of those songs that I love every time I hear it. The timelessness and other worldly aspect of the song makes it a special one in the Jethro Tull canon.
Where do they all belong? The rest of the double album is a compilation of singles, live tracks and unreleased songs from their early career. It doesn't quite hang together as a whole and is a bit of an anomaly in the greater scheme of things. But it's still fun and the package is a lavish one.
