December 31, 2016 - Miles Davis - Right Off (1971)

"I'm Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world. I'm black. They never let me forget it. I'm black all right. I'll never let them forget it."

What a year it's been...I can't think of a better way to punch out the lights on 2016 while readying our game faces for 2017 than with the great trumpeter Miles Davis and his band:
John McLaughlin - electric guitar
Billy Cobham - drums
Herbie Hancock - organ
Michael Henderson - electric bass
Steve Grossman - soprano saxophone

Right Off is from the album A Tribute to Jack Johnson. It's a funky experimental rock fusion boxing match that has the gloves flying from the opening bell. It starts off in the key of E, McLaughlin kicks out some inspired guitar, all raw and ragged distortion, Henderson lays down the funky groove along with Cobham's shuffling beat. At 2:11, we get the famous moment when Miles enters the studio and McLaughlin changes the key to B-flat. Henderson is still playing in E. Miles splits the air with a hook that both keys can use. At 2:33, Henderson finally gets on track and away we go.

Miles is in complete control of his powers. He blows notes all over the place. McLaughlin gets the wah pedal going at 5:20, wah chording back and forth with Miles, who eventually takes a short breather at 6:25. During the next round, Henderson and Cobham groove, while McLaughlin wahs his way around them. Miles is back at 6:57, playing smooth and cool while McLaughlin messes around with different chords. Cobham picks up on the intensity of the changing moods and hits the drums harder and adds more fills. It is constantly on the verge of going over the cliff, everyone getting into his own thing and accelerating into the unknown.   

Around 10:45, we enter a brief hazy middle section, not dissimilar to the middle seagull part of Echoes. Miles plays with a mute through a delay effect. The other musicians come back in at 12:00, with Grossman's sax solo starting up at 12:09. McLaughlin squonks about. Herbie Hancock, who just happened to be passing by the recording room, gets brought in and placed at the organ as the bell sounds at 15:03 for the next round. He jumps into the ring, breathing in the atmosphere, nice distorted tone. At 16:00, he lays his arm across the keys and slowly turns up the volume. Cobham pounds away at the drums, McLaughlin plays some sweet wah wah delay chords. Miles is back at 16:40, eager to get in on the battle royale.

At 18:30, guitar and bass jerk and jar into a new area. Are the fighters tiring? McLaughlin and Henderson twist into a groove of repeated funky licks, shifting it up at 20:23 before heading back into the intro section at 20:30. It's time for a second wind to get us through the final rounds. Herbie stabs and jabs at the organ, kicking out the jams nicely. Grossman is in at 22:56, heading into the final minutes. Miles is outside the ropes, coaching everyone on. McLaughlin and Hancock circle each other, like Rocky and Apollo at the end of the first movie, both getting in their licks. McLaughlin gets in some final blows in after the 25:30 mark, channeling his inner Jimi. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a draw. Happy New Year, everyone! Peace.

December 30, 2016 - Pink Floyd - Echoes (1971)

The first time I experienced Echoes was on one of those late night 80s shows when I was in high school, probably Night Flight. It was the Pink Floyd at Pompeii performance. I only knew it was Pink Floyd because their name was printed on all the equipment boxes:
PINK FLOYD. LONDON 

I thought the video was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. It kind of freaked me out too; this area of such ancient horror was spooky enough, then the occasional ghostly imagery would flash across the screen. Yikes!

So, I eventually bought Meddle at Second Hand Tunes in Evanston, IL. Echoes takes up the whole of side two. It is an incredible listening experience, sometimes I wonder at its existence. Humans made this, whoa.

Ping...ping...a cold and lonely sound. A glacier in the Arctic. Primordial mists. The whole opening makes me think of the slow evolution of life. Images of oceans, clouds, waves. Eternal silence and serenity. Majestic dreamy beauty...philosophy, archaeology, biology...science fiction and fantasy. Lost and searching, magical ancient otherworldly wisdom.

Guitar and organ and eerie tones, intensity builds, the main guitar riff falling and rising, the guitar shrieks, drums pound, the high note at 6:56. 

The funky section comes in at 7:00. Organ, bass, and heavy guitar. I love the organ moment at 7:47. Rock climbing, toe tapping. David Gilmour's guitar tone, the perfect mix of sustain, reverb and delay. Space travelling. Getting out there.

Things begin to dissolve around 10:35, though the guitar rages against it. The haunted cries of seagulls, frogs, dwellers of the dark bottom of the ocean. Moaning, crying, weeping..the ghostly sounds of early life on Earth. The existential. The oneness.

We begin to come out of it around 14:45. The lone keyboard chord as the Ping returns. Slowly. Cymbals at 16:52. Muted guitar. All rising up in the morning light. Flowers bloom. The sun is coming. Drums. Stretching. 

At 18:14 the guitar shatters our visions, ringing out like bells. (Reminds me of the guitars at the end of Strawberry Letter 23.) Add into the mix a rising and falling street sweeper? Leaf collector? The pace picks up at 18:43 and we soon head into the final verse, which contains my favorite line:

a million bright ambassadors of morning.

Here comes the sun...another few rounds of the main riff. Then at 21:17, the elegant and elegiac interplay between piano and guitar. Finally, at 22:10 we begin to hear the weird outro that's like an MC Escher painting, sounds seem to keep rising like one of his endless stairways.

December 29, 2016 - Grateful Dead - Dark Star (1969)

Dark Star is ten lines of lyrics and twenty-plus minutes of improvised music. This version is the one from Live/Dead, which I consider my favorite since I owned this album long before I heard so many of its other performances. Based on research, it looks like the Grateful Dead performed it live 247 times.

It's like a giant space amoeba on the edge of the galaxy, flowing and dividing into other mutations, expanding and contracting, sending its pseudopods out into the cosmos. Jerry Garcia sings the first five lines at 6:04, and the last five lines at 21:26. The rest is improvised Grateful Dead chaos and wonder. I am not up for writing about the particulars; just open your mind, lay back and listen.




   

December 28, 2016 - Yes - The Gates of Delirium (1974)

The Gates of Delirium takes up side one on Yes's Relayer album. It is based on Tolstoy's War and Peace, although I sometimes interpret it as the listener being in a near state of delirium due to the often incomprehensible lyrics of many Yes songs. I am a fan of Yes, but I just say no to lots of other prog rock, like ELP, Gentle Giant, and Van Der Graaf Generator. Much of it is over the top pretentious. I think Yes added enough rock elements to their music to keep me interested, in spite of their esoteric lyrics. Do you know who was a big prog rock fan? Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson. 😲

This song curves through lots of little sections. The music is generally excellent, although there are a few brief detours into twee elf music here and there, particularly in Patrick Moraz's keyboards during the opening five minutes; e.g., the 0:54 mark (little elves dancing about?), 2:20-2:30; and Jon Anderson's little hobbit vocals.

But this is all kind of nit-picky. I think it's a brilliant composition, a showcase for the musicians, particularly Steve Howe and Chris Squire, and it contains a number of interesting and/or transcendent passages. Here are some of the parts that appeal to me:

1) Steve Howe's guitar during the beginning, from 0:11-0:25 - the harmonics mixed with fast picked runs.
2) From 1:51-2:02, this sudden haltingly spazzo section of guitar and bass. It just pops up from nowhere, a bridge to the opening verse:

Stand and fight we do consider
Reminded of an inner pact between us

3) 4:53-5:45 - excellent interplay between Howe and Squire during this part.
4) 6:45-7:30 - the same as 3) but here Alan White's drums have a cool hook up with the bass.
5) 8:04-10:21 - part one of the 'battle' sequence, lots of great guitar parts, drums and bass, although the keyboards can be a bit annoying.
6) 10:21-12:38 - part two of the 'battle' sequence, not as good as part one, but more sinister elements, interesting sound effects, a woozy swaying section.
7) 12:39-14:50 - this part kicks off with a mighty Alan White drum flourish, gathering everything in for a final statement on the battle scene. The keyboards swoop up and down with pitch bends and phasing. Steve Howe's slide guitar knocks the keys away at 13:44, playing the same melody as the keyboards, Chris Squire jamming his bass in there too, rising and falling.

By 14:50, the field is strewn with bodies from the intense fighting. The survivors stumble around, blinking and disoriented as first light appears at 16:07. This is the beginning of 'Soon', the final section of the song, which was released on its own as a single.  It is an achingly gentle prayer for peace. Steve Howe plays a volume pedal with delay on the guitar to create the plaintive mewing. Patrick Moraz layers it all with mellotron.

Soon oh soon the light, pass within and soothe this endless night...

8) Finally, I love Howe's steel pedal guitar at 20:32 and 20:58. Nice little guitar moments at the end of the song.

December 27, 2016 - Ash Ra Tempel - Amboss (1971)

Amboss ('anvil' in German) is the first track from Ash Ra Tempel's self-titled debut album. It is an instrumental of Grimm fairy tale darkness.

It begins quietly, hesitantly, like Little Red Riding Hood peering out her front door to see if the coast is clear for her to begin a walk through the Black Forest to Grandma's house. She takes a few steps and begins her journey. The cymbals stir a gentle breeze among the tree branches. The path is dark and winding, and she keeps her eyes straight ahead as other eyes follow her. She pulls her hood and cloak tightly around her and grips her basket as she advances. She hears the voices of various small animals scurrying about, little twigs snapping here and there.

At 3:15 the drums move in like thunder rumbling in the distance. The wind picks up and branches creak and crackle. Red Riding Hood hurries along, hoping to make it to Grandma's before a storm hits, or something worse.

She pauses to catch her breath at 4:14. Then Klaus Schulze speeds up his drumming and a sawing electronic sound appears. The Big Bad Wolf, who had picked up her trail earlier, catches up to her at 5:00, all slobbery and hungry. Red is surprisingly not disturbed by his appearance. She tells him she's on her way to Grandma's, which causes the wolf to pause and ponder this. Instead of devouring her goodies and her then and there, the wolf advises Red to go pick some flowers to take with her and leaves her be.

The wolf, of course, has come up with a sinister plan. He will get to Grandma's first, eat Grandma, assume her identity, and wait for Red to get there. He lets out a series of triumphant howls at 6:00, and zooms off down the path to grandma's house.

At 10:12, the wolf can see the house - there it is! only a few hundred yards away! He reaches the front door at 11:00 and pauses to catch his breath. He enters the house and immediately swallows Grandma.

At 12:00, Red Riding Hood enters Grandma's house, sees 'her' in bed, and the famous dialogue begins...the whole 'what big eyes and nose and ears and teeth you have, Grandma. What sort of bizarre illness are you suffering from?' The wolf says, 'thanks a lot dear, this is how I always look...how else can I see, hear, and..EAT you!?' At 12:55, he devours her and the contents in the basket. Then at 13:10 he lays down to nap, snoring heavily.

Fortunately, around 13:30, a woodcutter passes by and hears the snores of a ferocious animal inside grandma's house. He throws open the door, startling the wolf, who growls and snarls. The woodcutter will have none of this. He grabs the wolf by the throat and chops his head off, spewing blood everywhere. At 14:15 he pulls Grandma and Red out of the wolf's innards and revives them with hot tea and sauerkraut. Grandma feels way better and at 15:08 she grabs the woodcutter's axe and starts chopping the wolf into bits. At 15:35 the woodcutter says, 'You go, Grandma! Let him have it!' Little Red stands there, in awe of Grandma's strength and vengeance.

At 17:13, the three settle down and begin to clean things up. Grandma is going to prepare a nice dinner for Red and the woodcutter. For the final scene, at 18:30, the woodcutter gathers up the dead wolf carcass and all its bones and wraps it in all in a big sheet. At 19:30 he opens the door and tosses the waste outside, then goes back inside, closing the door behind him.

December 26, 2016 - Hampton Grease Band - Halifax (1971)

Imagine a Minutemen/Pere Ubu/Zappa/Beefheart/jam band concoction and you are pretty close to Hampton Grease Band and their album Music to Eat, the second-lowest selling album in the history of Columbia Records.

Halifax is a sprawling spazzy freaky travel guide to the capital of Nova Scotia. You will learn such items as:

1) Edward Cornwallis - first Governor of Nova Scotia.

2) Six-thousand-six-hundred-and-thirty-eight miles of graded road.

3) It’s filled with bridges Well, take a look There’s certain scenery And babbling brook.

4) got candy apples Little Debbie’s I.D.’s And many things You would want.

If you can get past the frantic shrieking vocals of Bruce Hampton, you are in for a Mr Toad's Wild Ride of guitars, courtesy of Glenn Phillips and Harold Kelling. The road changes all the time, speeding up and slowing down...for twenty minutes. Enjoy the ride, just make sure you have your Dramamine.

 

December 25, 2016 - Les Rallizes Denudés - Strong Out Deeper Than The Night (1977)

Back on August 20, I posted the Velvet Underground's I Heard Her Call My Name, and I wrote that later in the year I would be posting some music that would make the Velvet's song seem like a lullaby. Strong Out Deeper Than The Night is that song. It is a howling white noise nightmare of squealing feedback, something to sweep the cobwebs out of your brain and send you running for cover.

In his book Japrocksampler, Julian Cope wrote a wonderful chapter about Les Rallizes Denudés:

"...and nobody even knows quite what the official name of their band is, or even what its popular French form means because there are no such things as 'rallizes' in the French language. And yet the cult that surrounds Les Rallizes Denudés increases in size year after year."

The guitarist and leader of the group is Takeshi Mizutani. He formed the band in 1967, while he was a student at the prestigious Doshisha University, studying sociology and French literature.

I don't have much to say about the music. It's a sloooowwwwed down version of Booker T's Green Onions. You either love it or hate it. I love it. As Julian wrote, "It's relentless to the point of becoming meditative, and cylindrical to the point of being useful...I wanna be that bass player and stand in that wind tunnel, anchoring that level of rage."

December 24, 2016 - Can - Mother Sky (1970)

Mother Sky appears on the Can album Soundtracks, and it was featured in the film Deep End. Another name for this song could be The Crazy World of Michael Karoli's Guitar. As for this video, I have no idea what it has to do with anything, other than it's pretty weird.

It begins like the band were already playing for awhile and someone finally decided to press the record button. Michael Karoli is playing a loud and insane guitar solo, bass and drums laying down the rhythm. This opening shockwave lasts until 2:09, when the guitar drops out and Holger Czukay's bass settles into an octave groove and Jaki Liebezeit locks the drums in place. Damo Suzuki begins singing at 2:36:

I say madness is too pure like mother sky... (not trying to ruin your enjoyment of the melody, but doesn't it resemble Kiss's I Was Made For Loving You, which also resembles Blondie's Call Me?)

At 3:44, Karoli launches into another wild solo that lasts until 4:37. Jaki's drums pick up the pace after this, filling the space with rolls. Karoli picks out some bluesy licks. 

The music drops down at 6:33 as Damo coos sweetly. Irmin Schmidt plays a flurry of notes on the organ at 7:27, then at 7:40 Damo and the band pick things up again. At 8:45, Karoli plays yet another distorted guitar solo of crazy proportions. It lasts more or less until 11:20, when Schmidt jams the keyboard with both hands. This is Can ensemble playing at its finest. After 12:26, Damo comes back in and leads us to the finish line.

December 23, 2016 - Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like We Do (1976)

Peter Frampton, Englishman, gave a gift to young America to help them celebrate and enjoy the red white and blue bicentennial summer. Frampton Comes Alive! was a massive commercial success, staying at the top of the charts for 10 weeks. It was THE album of 1976.

Do You Feel Like We Do is the final and longest track on the double live album. There is a momentary pause, the crowd waiting, then Frampton starts playing the classic opening riff. The rest of the band come in, bass, keyboards and drums.

To the audience, Frampton and his mates can do no wrong. It's like the crowd already know and love the album, even though it didn't exist yet. Maybe there were flashing CHEER and APPLAUSE signs? Perhaps they all owned and loved his studio album, Frampton's Camel? Nah, face it, Frampton was ON and he had them in the palm of his hand. It's great fun 70s rock, it sounds excellent, how could anyone not be having a blast at this show? Of course they feel like you do, Peter. You're the Pied Piper, Peter Piper.

After the first couple of verses, Frampton plays a tasty little lick at 2:10, then kicks out a fantastic solo from 2:21-3:01. Following another verse and chorus, at 3:52 the music slides into a quiet middle section, featuring

Bob Mayo...on the keyboards, Bob Mayo, who plays a groovy solo from 4:12-5:17. Frampton starts asking the crowd, Do You Feel Like We Do...and, yes, I think they do. He solos again from 5:55-7:00.

Then, wait...what's going on? I can't see what's happening on stage. The band are playing along together, the crowd is cheering. Peter must be mucking around with something. Oh right, he's getting his talk box effect thingamajig ready. It appears at 7:22, oo baydo baydo boo...crowd cheer...bah do wah bo baba dah...crowd cheer...Peter you sound funny, I wanna thank you...I hope you have a good night...don't forget to come again real real soon (not sure about this last part). Some of it must just be Frampton going wah wahwah woo wow uh.

At 11:25, Frampton ditches the talk box with a big Woahwoww...then pulls out all the stops for one more mighty solo at 11:45 that lasts until the end, sending the crowd into spasms of joy.

December 22, 2016 - Tangerine Dream - Fly and Collision of Comas Sola (1971)

Fly and Collision of Comas Sola, what a fantastic name for this sort of slow build electronic space phenomenon. We just heard Tangerine Dream a couple of days ago, but I love both recordings and this is how they line up on the timeline. The best part of this piece is the drums that come in late and just demolish the whole thing.

The opening 2:25 is a satellite being launched into the sky, heading for space. Its passengers are our friends from a couple days ago - guitar, organ, and flute. It eventually breaks free of Earth's gravity, but a sudden malfunction sends it out of control, slowly headed on a collision course with the Comas Sola asteroid. Our friends find themselves in a race against time. They eventually lose the last of their fuel and head for certain doom, playing a requiem into the night. The drums are the approaching asteroids, coming in around 8:23, one after another until they are the dominant sound and the satellite is lost forever.

December 21, 2016 - Cluster - Im Süden (1972)

The video clip is the entire Cluster II album. Im Süden goes from 6:20 - 19:10 or so.

How about this idea: take four notes and modulate them over 12:53...can it keep your attention? It's hypnotic, droning, pulsating, as various other sounds fluctuate in and out of the mix. Organic, electronic vibrations. Layers of sound, shaking and buzzing, drifting and hovering. It's good background music, let it drift in and out of your awareness as you do household chores or make dinner.

Cluster was comprised of two experimental musicians: Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. Conny Plank produced and had a major role in the recording. They made all these sounds using analogue synthesizers, effects processors, and various other electronic instruments and equipment, lots of cords all over the place like spaghetti. I mean, just look at this image:

December 20, 2016 - Tangerine Dream - Journey Through A Burning Brain (1970)

We are in the heart of Germany in the early 70s, Krautrock Land. I know there's a certain amount of PC issues surrounding the word krautrock, it's offensive to Germans so don't use it. So, would Germrock be better? That sounds like more of a Scorpions kind of music. Krautrock is strong like concrete, like Krakatoa, cranium, crater, makes your mouth feel like you're actually about to break your teeth on it. Krrrrrautrock! It's Krrrrazy. You know that commercial from the 90s for Freedom Rock? I think it would be fun to make a fake commercial about krautrock. 'Hey, mann, ist dass krautrock?' 'Yawohl!' 'Gut aufdrehen, Mann!' The main problem with the word krautrock is that much of it really isn't rock. It's Kosmische Musik, music from the cosmos.

Let me talk about Tangerine Dream. Back in the 80s, if you had told me I would someday like this group, I would have said that's highly unlikely. All I knew about them was the Risky Business soundtrack, and I thought they were New Age fluff-meisters. Ah, but then Julian C explained that I would love their early stuff, and he was right. It's sometimes edgy and electronic noise, clanging metal, distorted guitar collages, and other times it's subdued ethereal cosmically mellow experimental waves of meditative beauty. Perhaps that side of things won out in the end, melted away the hard edge.

Journey Through A Burning Brain is hard to write about. I could try to write some story about this 'journey' - there's the amygdala, roasting away on the hippocampus. Nah, I'll just write about the free form lunacy. It's a long weird instrumental of noise bursts and tune ups. Organ comes in at 1:47, guitar pecks at the air like a bird. Stick with it, don't give up. The dance evolves. The organ never stops, if it's not the primary sound then it's hanging out just below the surface, gurgling softly. Guitar and organ are getting along well, enjoying a play date, but then flute shows up at 4:53. Ten seconds or so later, the guitar sounds agitated. 'Flute, no! Now look what you've done, you chased organ away and you woke up drums!'

At 5:13 the drums wake up and start banging around the place. Guitar complains, flute replies. Then guitar loses it at 6:45 and cries at flute to get away. Drums keep pounding. A giant electric foghorn blows at 8:20, and storm clouds roll in. Intense! It sounds like the guitars are ganging up on the poor little flute. After 11 minutes, organ comes back and chases guitar away. There, there little flute.

December 19, 2016 - Ash Ra Tempel - Darkness: Flowers Must Die (1972)

A couple of months ago, I posted Ash Ra Tempel's Light: Look at Your Sun. The second half of that theme is Darkness: Flowers Must Die. In his book, Krautrocksampler, Julian Cope writes 'Beware of Schwingungen', the album that contains these tunes. You really need to beware of Flowers Must Die.

It begins harmlessly enough, some electronic noises pulsating about for the first 3:00 or so, cymbals creeping around, some drum sounds, bongos. Then a single note guitar starts up, followed by the suffering voice of John L, who sings about the existential pain of living in the city. By the end of the song he decides that he wants to be a stone, a thing without warm blood in the city.

The music continues to build, a saxophone sneaks in here and there, the drums pound with more intensity. At 7:03, the guitar picks out some notes, and phasing effects tingle our ears at 7:17. It is all suddenly turned inside out by a massive phaser at 7:29 as John L howls and Manuel Göttsching wails on the guitar. Run for your life! That's the eye of the storm. Things continue along for another few minutes, with bursts of phasing and more guitars and drums, a storm of emotions from which we are finally free.











 

December 18, 2016 - Fairport Convention - A Sailor's Life (1969)

A Sailor's Life tells the story of a desperate young woman whose sweetheart sails to sea. She can't stand life without him so she sails off on her own to look for him....Sandy Denny sings with poise and pathos, a beautiful interpreter of English folk music, one of the best. That sort of ruddy strength of spirit, the ability to hone in on the emotional edges, sharpen them up and march into battle between your ears.

Fairport Convention first released a recording of this song on their album Unhalfbricking. That one is good, but it's got that dang violin mucking about during the epic solo. See, Sandy Denny has her own sweet vocal strings, and let's face it, I want the pure electric guitar solo without a pesky violin flashing alongside it. This alternate version from Richard Thompson's Watching the Dark has a whole lotta that, don'it guv'nuh?


The story builds in chapters. The first part is the introduction. People are gathered on the docks to bid farewell to their loved ones. The music sounds like the water lapping at the sides of the ship, maybe it's raining a bit. One sailor in particular is valued among all others by the woman he leaves behind, to weep and mourn.

The second chapter begins at 2:23, the woman asks her father to build for me a bonny boat, so she can go off looking for her sailor boy. I don't think that's a very good idea, but the father doesn't have a problem with it. He's probably like, 'and honey, will you try to find your mother as well? I think she's with them.'😆

The third chapter begins at 3:57, following a 0:45 musical interlude during which the guitars start preparing themselves for the finale. The drums during this section are really cool, lots of precise rolls, military-like. The drama is building, and after a short time a Queen's ship they chanced to meet. The young woman believes it to be the one that carries her sweet William, so she pulls up and asks the crew if he's there. They tell her

no, fair maiden, he is not here
For he's been drownded we greatly fear...

The final chapter begins right after this at 5:45. The fair maiden did not like hearing this, for then she wrung her hands and she tore her hair. Then she ends up crashing her boat against a rock and dying. How can I live now my sweet William is gone?

Too bad, lady. Anyhoo, at 6:45 or so, Richard Thompson untangles his guitar from the fishing nets with over four and a half minutes remaining. He prepares to unleash the raging spirit of the young woman upon the world. The drums and rhythm guitar are coming along, too. Is there any land on the horizon? yes! See over there at 7:56. This is when they all lock in together and head for the shore. Richard Thompson takes over here and blasts away at everything in their path. I frickin love this solo, it's so wiry and buzzy, like an electric dragonfly. On and on it goes, freaking out the kindly natives waiting for them on the beach. Oh, sorry, don't worry, I'm calming down, I'm tired of all this paddling through the ocean.





 

December 17, 2016 - Ras Michael (Dadawah) - Seventy Two Nations (1974)

I first heard Ras Michael, with his group the Sons of Negus, in early February, 2006, in Seattle, where I had gone to visit my friend Ras Dave. It was the weekend of Super Bowl XL, the Seahawks vs the Steelers.

Seventy Two Nations is 10 plus minutes of atmospheric devotional roots reggae. It is a sparse mix of guitar, bass, keys, and percussion, accompanying the solemn vocals of Ras Michael. The guitar of Willie Lindo is a minimal reverb wah pedal spirit that surrounds the sermon:

For He's the King of Kings
He's the Lord of Lords
Conquering Lion of Judah

The bass of Lloyd Parks remains fairly grounded throughout. With 1:38 left, the music goes off the main groove, allowing for quiet contemplation.

December 16, 2016 - Television - Marquee Moon (1977)

Marquee Moon is a trip through a long dark night in New York City in the summer of '77. The heat, the blackout, the Yankees, Son of Sam, CBGB. Creativity and Destruction. 

It opens with two honking horn guitars in a downtown traffic jam at night, the neon lights flashing all around. Suddenly, all the lights go out. Tom Verlaine sings:

I remember how the darkness doubled...

It's dark except for the moon, which shines like a movie marquee in the sky. The narrator wanders around, encountering a man down at the tracks and later, a Cadillac in the graveyard. Strange days.

Extended guitar solos surround the verses, and they are amazing. Richard Lloyd plays a brief one at 3:00, but then starting at 4:52, after the Cadillac verse and chorus, Tom Verlaine takes off on a long twisted ride through the heart of the song. It lasts until 8:13, when all the players unite in a triple-play angst that builds up and release into stardust at 8:42, little sparks of light twinkling like fireflies.

The drums start back up at 9:18; we cycle back through the first verse, then gently come to the end.

December 15, 2016 - Guru Guru - UFO (1970)

Welcome to our tour of the UFO manufacturing plant. I hope you like it. To your right you can see the alien mechanics with their grease guns and blowtorches. Watch out for those oil drums, ma'am. Everyone, this ship is destined for the Alpha Ichnaea system. The mechanics are adding a new VQ-42 compound to the ship's Snailshell manifold. Keep up the good work, fellas! Now, folks, if you will follow me through this doorway, we will look in on a test currently being conducted on the new Silverlex theta generator. The engineers have had a minor setback involving the vento-fan, but after applying a new coating of freshtex they are now ready to run a complete diagnostic. Let's go in, shall we? Guru Guru. Goo goo g'joob.

I really don't know what to say about UFO. Is it music? Noise? It is an abstract sound creation, mysterious and abrasive. It pushes the envelope. We're pretty dang far from a tune like Paperback Writer. At 8:38 we hear a riff that sounds like the main one in Led Zeppelin's No Quarter. Coincidence? 

December 14, 2016 - David Bowie - Station to Station (1976)

Station to Station is like the little engine that could. The first half of the song is the uphill climb and the second half is the thrilling downhill ride. It's David Bowie's longest studio recording.

It begins with the sound of a train powering up and heading out of the station. A whistle is heard at 1:06, and then the train slowly heads up the hill. The piano represents the piston rods cranking the wheels along. At 1:51 the little engine and it cars and crew are all working hard, willing the train along. Little puffs of steam float out of the chimney. The wheels screech against the tracks.

At 3:17, Bowie speaks up: The return of the Thin White Duke Throwing darts in lovers' eyes...not sure if this is helpful to the conductor, he probably just nods from the cab and says 'Yes, sir. I am too busy to listen to your story. Please return to your seat.' As Bowie walks down the aisles to his seat, he keeps up his monologue about the Thin White Duke, getting frowns and muffled guffaws from his fellow passengers.

Perhaps this chant of his has proven helpful, because at 5:14, the halfway point of the song, the train crests the hill and is poised for its downhill run. Bowie sings

Once there were mountains on mountains
And once there were sun birds to soar with
And once I could never be down

Yes, we are on a mountain, on our way down the other side of it. I hope the brakes work if we need them. Bowie's cheerful voice leads us on. He says Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high. Thanks, David, I believe I will. But then he says It's too late to be grateful. Oh well. He says it's not the side effects of the cocaine, but I have my doubts.

The music bounces the train back and forth, it's a rollicking wild party atmosphere as the little train cruises at warp speed down the hill. Roy Bittan adds to it with some piano glissandos. From 7:35-8:22, Earl Slick breaks out the guitar and cranks out a soaring solo of epic proportions. He hits the most divine harmonic at 8:12, a lightning bolt from heaven. We continue along, heading for our destination.

December 13, 2016 - The Stone Roses - Fool's Gold (1989)

I remember it like it was yesterday...one night in March 1990 I was driving back to Chicago from Minneapolis. It was late at night and I was getting closer to home. I had the radio on and it was the first time I heard Fool's Gold. From start to finish it had me completely mesmerized. What was this long funky rockin thing? When the DJ said it was the Stone Roses, a light went on in my mind, because I already knew another song by them, I Wanna Be Adored.

I thought their debut album was great and I still love it, but Fool's Gold was the song that really got to me. That drum pattern and bass line are groovy, and then there's that cool little wah guitar lick from 0:40-0:45. It sets up the rest of the song, an acid rock meets house music/new jack swing formula. The lyrics tell a heart of darkness/treasure of sierra madre story, a mad hunt for gold:

Gold's just around the corner
Breakdown's coming up round the bend

The vocals end at 5:38, but the groove goes on for another 4:15, looping around, guitar spinning out the riffs, the wah pedal pumping along, bass and drums locked together. This was Madchester.

December 12, 2016 - Shin Joong Hyun & The Men - Beautiful Rivers and Mountains (1972)

Shin Joong-hyun is known as the Godfather of Korean Rock. He will be 79 years old in a few weeks. I was introduced to his music via a newspaper article that came out in the late 90s, when I was living in Sangju. He had just released an album called Kim Sat Gat, a collection of poems by the 19th century wandering poet that Shin put to music. It wasn't until years later that I finally heard Shin's earlier recordings.

In 1972, Shin was asked to write a song in praise of president Park Chung Hee. Shin said no, and instead wrote a song about the natural beauty of the country, called Beautiful Rivers and Mountains. His refusal of the president's request resulted in Shin being harassed by the police and other government jerks. He was eventually imprisoned for 'involvement' with marijuana.

Beautiful Rivers and Mountains, Ahreumdaeun Gangsan (아름다운강산), has a pattern that is somewhat similar to Free Bird in that it has a slow majestic intro, a long series of verses and choruses, and a 'kick out the jams' instrumental finale. Musically, it's closer to the Doors. The song opens with a psych pastoral quality, like here we go out into the welcoming forest. At 0:37 the floodgates open and we are propelled down a winding river of loping bass, fast-strummed guitar and pounding drum. The vocals have this kind of dark whispered sound to them. Organ, bass, and oboe or recorder maybe, accompany the vocals. At 3:12, I think it's Shin himself who delivers this kind of spoken word section, accompanied by the lead and harmonies. The singers rise up at 3:54, filling the air with a sense of pride and joy. The final verses begin at 4:36, and the drum pounds away with greater intensity.

The vocals end at 5:47, with four minutes left for all sorts of instrumental fun. After a few circles around the track, at 6:15 Shin Joong-hyun's wah wah guitar gurgles its way into the mix. Organ, drums and cymbals explode around it. My favorite Shin moment is at 8:03 or so, when his guitar just shrieks.















 

December 11, 2016 - Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive (1967)

Interstellar Overdrive is a 9:41 journey through the psychedelic mind of Syd Barrett. We fly among time and space in something much like a TARDIS, witnessing scenes of brilliance and madness. Perhaps we are companions like Ian and Barbara, with Syd as our Doctor.

A turn of the ignition switch powers up the engine. At 0:37 we blast off through the clouds, hitting a rough patch at 0:58 or so before settling in at 1:10. Looking out the window, we notice various comets and swirling energies, objects of great power and beauty, time bending and shifting within the cosmic fabric. It feels discombobulated and strange. At 2:22 we hover over the barnyard of a vast space farm, and a robotic chicken calls out to us...b'gaw! b'gaw! b'gaw! OK, that's enough, chicken. Where's the farmer? b'gaw!! Shut it already, chicken!

At 2:45, a hole slowly opens up around us. A blast of the engine at 3:18 and we head into it, chickens, ducks, tractors, cows, farmer, barn, haystacks and all. Everything expands and contracts as it gets sucked across other dimensions. The intensity builds at 4:30. Roger Waters looks in vain for a place to toss an anchor, while everyone else rolls about helplessly. We are caught in a stardust tornado!

At 6:17 the dust settles and we find ourselves at rest. There is an eerie calmness around the ship. Vibrations pass through us, reaching out for a common thread. Are we being probed? Something is out there. A tractor beam locks onto us at 7:46, and we are pulled into the hull of an even larger ship. We can't fight it.

The larger ship starts its engines at 8:30, preparing for departure, with us on board. It parades before a giant mirror, and we see our negative reflections pass through us over and over again, piling up in sheets of consciousness until we are linked together in one massive field of energy. At long last, the ship arrives at its destination and shuts down its engines. We disembark, finding ourselves back home in our own time and place, much like Ian and Barbara at the end of The Chase...safe and sound.



 

December 10, 2016 - Led Zeppelin - Tea For One (1976)

Tea For One is a large moon that orbits Presence, the Pluto of the Led Zeppelin solar system. Out there in space, barely visible, a dark piece of rock that is seldom visited. Well, I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't care to dine at the yacht club with the 70s family and their creepy object either.

This song deserves way more appreciation than it gets. People treat it like a bastard child of Since I've Been Loving You, from the third album. Although I like SIBLY, I occasionally tire of Robert's screechy hyper vocals. Tea For One is way more relaxed, just guitar bass and drums, no organ and no screech.

The opening groove is fantastic, this 3/4 guitar riff against 4/4 drums...then it is suddenly over just as we're starting to roll with it. It's like the band wanted to rock out, but then heavy and oppressive clouds rolled in. The remaining 9:00 is a slowwwww minor blues meditation on loneliness and boredom, the saddest song they ever did. Robert sings about time dragging on, wanting to be home instead of sitting there drinking tea by himself. His voice sounds haggard and lost, like 'lord, please get me the f home.' When he sings One minute seems like a lifetime, it's hard not to feel for him. It is the blues on a completely personal level. The music sticks with him in solidarity, those slow riffs muscling along like some poor wounded creature at the end of hope. I also love the reverb gloss on everything, it creates a very intimate setting. Some critics claim the musicians sound bored, but I think there's a lot more to it; regret, resignation, sacrifice, choices, things they gave up on the road to superstardom.

December 9, 2016 - King Crimson - The Court of the Crimson King (1969)

https://vimeo.com/142512117...the vimeo link has the long version.

This is really bad timing, Greg Lake just died the other day. He is the singer and bassist on The Court of the Crimson King, and was 1/3 of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. RIP. Palmer is still around.

One interesting thing I just learned about this song is that Doc Severinsen covered it on his album Doc Severinsen's Closet, which is a record my Dad owned. So, my Dad might know this song, albeit a different version.

In the grand progressive rock pantheon, this song has a prominent place at the table. It is from the King Crimson album In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson. Of all the pretentious progressive album titles, this one tops them all. Who do these guys think they are? Knave, we are King Crimson. You may now kiss our hands. OK, I have to say I've always liked it. Even if the cover illustration is annoying. Yeah, like I really want to look up some guy's nose and down his throat. Surely they could have come up with a better image.

The title and last track on the album is the majestic The Court of the Crimson King. It is a fairly Dungeons and Dragonsesque tune with citadels and damsels and knights, and an assortment of wizards and Robin Hoods. The purple piper, the black queen, the fire witch, and the yellow jester are among the characters who appear at the court.

What I like best about this song is how the main motif shows up whenever we get to the in the Court of the Crimson King part. It is treated like such a big deal, who is this Crimson King anyhow? Oooh, I'm in the court of the crimson king. I'm soooo impressed. We are in his court, but is this king actually here, too? Or are we sitting around waiting for him to return from a squash tournament?

Best part is when the drums come in at the end, at 7:55. Michael Giles, y'all. Maybe that represents the arrival of the king. Everything after that is frosting.

December 8, 2016 - Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Down by the River (1969)

The opening guitar scrapes out a space between the ears, making room for another guitar, then a bass and drums. Neil Young sings Be on my side I'll be on your side, baby. Kind of like the power struggle over the bed between me, wife, and dog when we are going to sleep at night.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse perform Down by the River with a loosely structured rural grace. Neil sings with a hushed confessional tone, describing how he shot her dead. The ol murder ballad. 'He had to do it, she was shooting her mouth off about his mom.' Oops, that's Crispin Glover in River's Edge. Both are about a river and a murder. Perhaps Neil was a young Feck. If you haven't seen River's Edge, I sorry for you.

When Neil isn't singing, he's choking out all sorts of primal electric sounds on his guitar. Love those one note solos! 1:52...then at

3:22 he lays down this amazing lick. Guitars trade some great stabbing chords for a bit, then an even crazier one/two note solo starts up at 3:56. Neil at his electric best: cutting loose in his idiosyncratic way, no rules, working out all the subtle nuances of one note until he feels it's ok to move on to a different one. Then having little spasms of fast-picked chaos.

I just love Neil's vocal delivery. Nobody sounds like him, letting the words out of his mouth with this kind of delicate seesaw between innocence and wisdom.

December 7, 2016 - Yes - Roundabout (1971)

I have a story about the first time I heard Roundabout. I was seven years old, and I was in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, at Conference Point (church camp), summer of 1974. I slept on a top bunk in a green cabin. Previous occupants had written on the ceiling. Right above my head someone had written 'Confucius say: Man who go to bed with itchy butt wake up with smelly fingers.' Who was this wise Confucius? Anyhow, I didn't like being at camp too much, but there were these hippie junior ministers who played acoustic guitars and had us sing hippie religious songs, like I am the resurrection, and tunes from Godspell. They were pretty cool. They also had a Chevy van with these big speakers that weren’t locked down to anything. So, one night we were going somewhere and I got to ride in the van. I got in it and someone put one of the speakers in my lap and said I had to hold onto it. They turned on the stereo and I soon felt an amazing vibration surge through my hands and into my brain and I had no idea what was going on...but it was like some kind of epiphany. I didn’t know it was Roundabout at the time. But I recognized it when I eventually heard it again, and I knew it was Chris Squire's Rickenbacker bass that had affected me so much.

That bass comes in at 0:45. It has this woody, round texture, almost like a thick cord of elastic rope, this is what it feels like to me. Rick Wakeman's keyboard riff at 1:53 is pretty dramatic as well. We had a pipe organ at my church, so I probably thought this was another hippie religious song.

Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there...they just stand there, doing what mountains do. In the image below, Jon Anderson says, 'Look yonder! A mountain! Standing there!'

December 6, 2016 - The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (1971)

The Who recorded this song. Who? Right. No, who? I can't believe they all urinated on that helpless concrete monolith. You boys should be ashamed of yourselves!

Who hasn't heard this song a zillion times? I don't know, who? No, they recorded it. Haha, never gets old does it. Groan. I still love it. I have fond memories of playing this song when I was young and my Mom would say, "Oh there's that four year old again, banging on the organ. Where are the parents?"

Won't Get Fooled Again is an epic. It's one big Keith Moon drum fill, John Entwistle bass exploration, Pete Townsend guitar armada. Plus the amazing long organ parts at the beginning and in the middle (also played/programmed by Pete Townsend). Roger Daltrey's powerful vocals, and that wail at 7:45! One of the greatest wails ever recorded. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. What more is there to say, it's from the classic album Who's Next (with the classic urination cover), one of many fantastic albums released in 1971.