This is the acoustic demo version of Quicksand, which is a bonus track on the Rykodisc issue of Hunky Dory from 1990. It is a lost treasure, unless it still exists on some other reissue I don't know about. I have always found it so hauntingly beautiful, fragile, spiritual. Just strummed guitar and vocals, but the effect is fantastic. It has a sad, tender, lost quality to it. Bowie sings the dark self-questioning lyrics with a tired resignation...I ain't got the power anymore. Bowie's brilliant otherworldly spirit shines out on the part that begins 'Don't believe in yourself...' Makes me feel a bit distressed when I hear it, sends a tingle up the spine.
Whether you're a brother, or whether you're a mother, you're stayin alive stayin alive...if you're a father or if you're a sister, you're just relaxin just relaxin...Hahahaha...i'm just relaxin while I write about this groovy song groovy song.
The scene - a record store in Highland Park, IL, in winter of 1977-78. Mom: Mark, are you sure you want to spend all your money on the Saturday Night Fever album? Me: Yeah, Mom. It cost $9.98 or something, and it was all the money I had, but the mystique was all over my elementary school and I had to have it. For some reason, the instrumental called 'Calypso Breakdown' really blew my 10 year old mind. ha, I still have the record. Look atBarbarinoin his disco threads jumpin in the air on the disco floor. Ieven kinda like the movie. The part where the guy falls off the bridge is pretty traumatic. The ending is sweet, Travolta and the girl agreeing ona platonic friendship. And of course, my favorite part: the dinner scene. The blue collar American family. Tough love.He hits my hair. John Travolta's character, uh, Vinnie? Danny?, wtf is his name? Geez, Tony. How could I not remember that. Anyhow, he is actually a pretty likeable character. An underdog. A sensitive heart in that blustery white suit.
Stayin' Alive kicks off the film and soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. It opens with an immediacy of keyboards and bass. It has a sexy mystique, a hypnotic power, a cool confidence. Maurice Gibb plays one of the most memorable bass lines of any song ever. Then there are strings soaring up to heaven, different percussion instruments popping up here and there, that constant 'chicka' hi hat, and mighty blasts of horns.
And there arethe vocals...the screechy high notes sometimes make me cringe, but I love Barry's vocals on 'life goin nowhere, somebody help me.' Smooooottthhhhh..... The Bee Gees were the gods that sat atop Mount Disco, their high-pitched harmonies crying out across the land. Then you had lil Andy Gibb hittin the charts as well.And who can forget Sesame Street Fever? What a cultural phenomenon, that disco era. I did a social studies report on prejudice against disco, in the form of the Steve Dahl Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park. I liked disco, I didn't really know any better, I was a kid and this stuff was on the radio. I thought the Village People were like Saturday Morning Cartoon characters.
I remember hearing More Than A Feeling on a Saturday morning in the Fall of 1976, in our station wagon as my Mom drove me to gymnastics class. I liked the song so much that it caused me to make my first and worst mail order record purchase. The TV had advertised a record called Muskrat Love, which had this song plus many other popular songs of the time, like Rubberband Man, Nadia's Theme, Theme from Airport '76, Car Wash, Boogie Fever, Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word. Some real tepid stuff. Unfortunately, what I failed to understand about Muskrat Love from the commercial, was that these songs were not the original artist recordings. They were covers that sounded very close to the originals but not quite. I think my Mom tried to explain this to me before she helped me send $3.99 to some PO box in Michigan, but I probably didn't understand. After waiting 4-6 weeks for delivery, which is a lifetime to a nine year old, the album arrived and I eagerly placed it on the turntable. Right away, I knew something was amiss. More Than A Feeling sounded weird. I still listened to the album, but soon soured on it and eventually tossed it in the creek across from our house. I was disappointed, flabbergasted. How could someone be allowed to sell crap like this? Apparently, Canadians were spared this monstrosity.
I finally heard the actual Boston album years later, I heard the real More Than A Feeling. And Peace of Mind. And Foreplay/Long Time. As my brother would say, may your birthday be as cool as side one of Boston's first album. It is a great side. Side Two is good also, but I never cared for Something About You and Let Me Take You Home Tonight (Mama now it's all right). By the way, when did guys start referring to women as 'mama', and when did it end? Was it just a hippie thing?
Later on in life, I heard Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, and noticed that the chord structure was very similar to More Than A Feeling, albeit an angrier angst-ridden 90s yin to Boston's happy 70s yang. The guitar solo in More Than A Feeling is like taking a dose of serotonin. It sends joy and pleasure right into your bloodstream.
A Forest. Any forest in particular? Maybe the same one as Path Through the Forest. Or the one Little Red Riding Hood experienced on her way to Grandma's house. Or maybe Mirkwood. An eerie, discomfiting place to say the least, and The Cure put you right in the gothic rock heart of it. A thick atmosphere of bass and drums, skinny branches of guitar reaching out to grab at you.
But I know it's too late I'm lost in a forest All alone The girl was never there It's always the same I'm running towards nothing Again and again and again and again
I knew it musta been, some big set-up... f r i c t i o n. A dual I-V riff opener, followed by descending triplets with a twisting tail prior to the start of the first verse. The bass line and hi-hat hit make me think of some kind of unique punk disco combination. Marquee Moon is a guitar-saturated album. The interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is some of the best recorded. Very dynamic and inventive, riffing and soloing all over the place.
My eyes are like telescopes...
Verlaine sounds like Barbarino - 'you give me too much homework, Mista Kottuh. I need time to write my poems!'
At the end of Rick Steves episodes on OPB, a voice on the TV says 'Want more Steve?' Well, after yesterday, Want more Rod? Then here you are. More Ronnie too. They were both part of the Jeff Beck Group. Morning Dew was composed by Canadian folk singer Bonnie Dobson, about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Might also remind you of What have They Done to the Rain, by Malvina Reynolds.
Jeff Beck's version is from Truth. It fades in quietly with bagpipes, then his guitar comes in. I love Rod Stewart's haggard vocals, his lyrical ornamentation, like at 0:49 - I'm sorry I'm sorry, at 1:58 - I'm sorry but you know you did (not?), 2:40 - what they've been sayin all these god-dong years has come true, I knew it would. Of course you knew, Rod.
But wait, this is the Jeff Beck Group, not the Rod Stewart Group. Jeff's wah guitar is like a glossy tapestry of sound spread out across the song.
A top ten all-time intro, and a two-parter at that! First one goes from 0:00 - 0:33. Second part is the slower bit from 0:33 - 0:54 when Rod Stewart starts singing. Ronnie Wood on the guitar, showing why he was already in the Stones, he just didn't know it yet. Stay With Me also prominently features sweet keyboard work from the late great Ian McLagan.
The song is basically about the lifestyle of a rock star, the debauchery, the partying, taking a groupie to bed as long as she is prepared to be kicked out in the morning. My favorite line is I know your name is Rita 'Cause your perfume smelling sweeter. I always think, Hey Rod, how do you know that?
The Faces were like The Stones' wild little brothers or cousins. More mischievous and rambunctious, always looking to enjoy a pint or twenty.
I remember when I first heard this song. I was like, what the heck is this guy going on about? I thought he was saying something like 'It's Closed!' You know, get lost!
This is just how the song begins. It quickly turns into this ramshackle garage rock lo-fi organ and guitar adventure. Jeas Cyclo...so that's what they're saying! The crazy guitar and organ are climbing all over each other in the middle passage that goes from 1:09 - 2:00. Then the opening voice comes back, but this time he's saying, I don't know, 'Bot tray', 'Bots dal', 'flo stob'...perhaps the cyclo ride is experiencing some mechanical issues? Nope...we are back and running again. Like Moonage Daydream, we are going to ride a wild guitar off into the sunset, but this time we are traveling a bumpy dirt road. It's an adventurous final 1:30 of crazy wah wah flips, jumps and loop the loops. Vroom Vroom.
According to an article in the NY Times, Yol Aularong was a 'charismatic proto-punk who mocked conformist society.' Sadly, we will never know too much about him...this reminds me, if you have not yet seen it, go out and watch the documentary called 'Don't Think I've Forgotten', all about the amazing rock music scene that thrived in Cambodia during the 60s and 70s.
No Reply At All is a watershed moment for Genesis, marking the group's move from complex 70s Peter Gabriel-era prog rock to streamlined 80s Phil Collins-era pop. I love the frenetic energy: the joyful bursts from the Earth Wind and Fire horns; the drums with all its little percussion minions - woodblocks, claves, drum machine tools; the hyper keyboard rhythms; the funky bass. It is a grooving, smart, well-crafted piece of music. Phil Collins is good at this kind of thing...but people often forget that he is a fantastic drummer, too. He's keeps the rhythm snappy and on point.
My only complaint is Phil's voice on dahnce with me, you never dahnce with me. That's a fairly minor one. The whole abacab album is still a favorite of mine, lots of different sounds, textures, and pop hooks.
On the Ziggy Stardust album, Soul Love barely has a chance to fade away when Moonage Daydream comes smashing out of the speakers: Baaa Na Na! --- I'M AN ALLIGATOR...
If you are not familiar with the story, Earth only has five years left in existence. Ziggy Stardust is a messiah figure/rock star put on Earth by extraterrestrial beings who will eventually arrive to save the rock n roll children.
Moonage Daydream is the third song on the album, and it marks the first appearance of Ziggy Stardust in the story. My take on it is that Ziggy just crashes in on some girl and she is completely startled and shines a flashlight on him. Meanwhile he is blabbering on about being a space invader and seducing her at the same time. He's trying to get her to calm down, but she is freaked out...far out...
Musically, I've never been that into the brief interlude that begins at 1:54. To be honest, I am always just waiting for the 3:14 mark, when Mick Ronson takes us on a completely epic guitar journey into the stratosphere.
Ere Mela Mela is my second blog post for Mahmoud Ahmed. This is powerful, mystical, ancient, ethereal, psychedelic stuff,
wrapped in the raw familiar shapes of jazz and pop. The
horns are dark and hypnotic, surrounded by lurking swampy guitar chords. Mahmoud's voice is soulful and intense. Ere Mela Mela translates into English as Oh Troubleshooting Troubleshooting, or I am looking for a solution.
Want more noise? After yesterday's tune, you might not, but I Heard Her Call My Name just happens to be next in line...nothing I can do about it, folks. Talk to the computer. I started buying Velvet Underground albums in 1985. So the ones I bought were those reissues with the Kurt Loder liner notes. He wrote that this song "featured one of the most withering guitar flipouts in the history of the instrument." I had to hear it.
He wasn't kidding...it's like some kind of primal scream therapy. This is what happens when you feel your mind split open. Lou Reed was forced to go through electroconvulsive therapy as a teenager, so he knew all about that. I love all this guitar squealing, it's fine if my mind splits open (a little). And if you think this guitar is insane, keep following the blog. I will be posting a song waaaay further on up the road that will make this one seem like a lullaby.
Nag Nag Nag is on here mainly for one reason...when I first heard it I thought it was a recording made by my friend Dave. It is totally his voice, and the low-fi noise and drum machine made me think it was something he recorded with his buddy in Palatine, IL. When I looked at my ipod I couldn't believe I was wrong. Cabaret Voltaire? Huh....
This amazing tune is from the compilation album of various artists called Good God! Born Again Funk, released on the cool Numero Group label. I was mesmerized when I first heard it. The album called Like A Ship was released by the Light in the Attic label. Pastor Barrett has had a long and influential life with some ups and downs, but he is apparently still preaching and singing at his Chicago church.
Like A Ship features the Youth for Christ choir, their voices giving strength to the testimony of the pastor. The electric piano/regular piano shimmer, the bass and shakers/sleigh bells groove, and a layer of reverb sends the uplifting voices echoing all around the room, through the ceiling and up to the sky. Handclaps come in near the end at 4:15, excellent drum fill at 4:21. I would have loved going to a church like this when I was a kid. I would go to church now if I was guaranteed this kind of music.
Gimme Shelter is the opening track from the essential Let It Bleed album, the cover of which has the little Stones figurines standing atop a cake's frosting layer that is on top of other round objects placed above the turntable...and the needle is on the record! The back cover shows the resulting catastrophe...please don't try this at home.
Ch-keee, ch-keee, chk chk chk...that instrument is a guiro. It's being played by producer Jimmy Miller. Nicky Hopkins on heavy tolling bell piano. Merry Clayton accompanies Mick on the vocals and her presence adds that extra oomph to the theme of the song. I love that moment at 3:03, her voice rips the air as she screams out Rape, murder!, and Mick (I presume) lets out a woo! Keith's opening guitar riff is classic. Can't forget to mention Mick's harmonica. All the instruments together create a kind of super chord, intense and foreboding.
No youtube video of the main version from Freewheelin and the Biograph box set. Well, of course the video has to have war images, so just read along with the lyrics if you prefer not to watch.
This is a song of great anger and truth and it kicks ass. All about our psychotic politicians and battle junkies whose sole reason for living is to promote war by stockpiling weapons and then putting them in the hands of poor kids who go off to die while they sit in leather chairs and ponder their personal power and money. I can't say anything better than the lyrics themselves, so:
Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
By the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
Moving Pictures was one of the first albums I ever bought. I picked it up at a record store in Northbrook Court. I loved the glossiness of the sleeve, the glossy smell...hey, it still has it!
And the cover, with all the moving pictures meanings: men moving the pictures, people weeping due to being emotionally moved by the pictures and, on the back, the realization that this is a movie, aka a moving picture. Pretty clever, eh?
Lady crying because they are taking away her favorite painting: Naked Man in Pentagram
Hey Lou, how much we gettin paid to carry around the painting of the woman on fire? I dunno, Crosby. Don't touch the painting, kid.
I would sit there studying the entire cover and sleeve as the record played...transfixed and mystified.
Tom Sawyer challenged my 13 year old brain, first because the name of the song was a children's book character I knew about, but the lyrics were esoteric and spoke of "today's Tom Sawyer", a different one, a warrior, with 'mean mean pride.'
Fantastic opening synthesizer and drums. The heavy crunch of guitar. The singer with the high-pitched shriek.
Catch the mystery...
Today's Tom Sawyer he gets high on you and the space he invades he gets by on you....
1:33 the trippy modulated synth of Geddy Lee.
2:00 the radical angular guitar solo of Alex Lifeson.
2:32 and 2:36 Neil Peart's amazing drum fills that are my favorite moments of the song.
He knows changes aren't permanent - but change is. (he put a twist on it there, you see).
catch the spirit catch the spit. (huh?)
And who is this Dubois character who co-wrote the lyrics? Eh professor? Ah yes, lyrics by Dickens and Poe, shall we?
and the video. PLEASE watch the video...geeky geniuses at work in a lab in the snow. Then watch the Limelight video for a quick glimpse of the snow dog.
Jeff Buckley gave us one excellent album, Grace. He died tragically in 1997 at the age of 30, the same age I was that year. I was fortunate to see him perform twice in Portland. I had the opportunity to meet him on his tour bus, but I declined due to the Sony rep's pushiness. I had no desire to bother this guy after he had just finished pouring so much energy into his show. Stupid record business with all the schmoozing and crap. I was pretty devastated by his death, as were many of my peers. He was definitely an artist I was looking forward to following for years to come.
Lilac Wine is a straight cover of Nina Simone's recording, actually the only other version I've heard so I don't know how it compares to others. It opens with Jeff's clean electric guitar and angelic voice. At the chorus at 1:08, cymbals shimmer and the guitar strums, accompanied by ethereal slide guitar. It is a song of heartache and woe, but the very end conveys a feeling of drunken bliss, thanks to the intoxicating effect of the wine.
For many years in the late 80s and early 90s, Trip Shakespeare was the band that dominated my life. I first saw them in 1988 while at college in St Louis and was mesmerized by their performance. I saw them many times after that, in St Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison. I joined their fan club and I still have all their newsletters. They had great three-part harmonies, twin guitar attacks, heavy rockers and beautiful ballads. They had a big cult following. After four albums they called it quits. Dan Wilson and John Munson formed Semisonic and achieved global fame on the basis of the song Closing Time.
Applehead Man is the title track from their first album. It has a raw simplicity that appeals to me, a cool guitar hook, great guitar solo, and a fake ending. Matt Wilson composed the tune, which tells the story of an apple, 'furthest from the road', that gets carved into an applehead man and laments his condition to all his 'apple friends.'
And now, gentle reader, if you recall, yesterday I spoke of Bruce Springsteen and here he is. The Boss. An icon of American popular music from the late 20th century...and he's still going strong.
Born to Run is a motorcycle roaring through images of working class life in the vast desolation of New York urban sprawl. It is a mini opera, an escapist fantasy, a rock n roll dream, a tour de force.
I don't have much else to say about it...it pretty well speaks for itself.
I've loved this song since I was nine years old and heard it being blasted out of a high school neighbor's bedroom window during the summer of 1976. I was often in the vicinity of that house, playing with other kids, and there was always a radio on somewhere. It was also the first time I was exposed to that earsore known as the Carpenters' Top of the World. This song was so smooth and syrupy I felt completely awkward listening to it and was forced to laugh out loud to stop myself from freaking out (for which I was shushed and frowned at by these 11 year old girls). Yes, unfortunately I suffer from music sensitivity syndrome.
The Boys Are Back in Town is a straight up rock classic. It features the twin lead guitars of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, bass and lead vocals by the late great ultra-talented Dubliner Phil Lynott. Look him up on youtube, there are at least two pretty cool documentaries about him. Lyrically and vocally, it always felt to me like an American Bruce Springsteen New Jersey kind of song, to wit:
And that time over at Johnny's place,
Well, this chick got up and she slapped Johnny's face
Man, we just fell about the place
If that chick don't want to know, forget her
I just picture Miller Lite neon signs and Chevys and baseball on the tv...down at Dino's, ya know? Hey, fuhgitaboutit.
I was not a fan of Radiohead's radio hit Creep. It reminded me too much of the Hollies' Air That I Breathe. I was also dismissive of their second album, The Bends. I probably thought Thom Yorke's vocals were too whiny. I was really into the first Oasis album, and Trainspotting (Robert Carlyle as Begbie!) and its soundtrack, but as far as that 90s Brit Pop movement went, Radiohead were nothing special to me.
This all changed when OK Computer came out and I read a review of it in Q magazine, the same issue that introduced me to the great new albums from Portishead and Cornershop. Airbag was something exciting and different. I loved the whole album. Lots of people did. It was a magical recording.
My favorite Radiohead song is Subterranean Homesick Alien. I really like the keyboards, especially this early moment at 0:33 during the first verse. Just a little chord jammed in there. Jonny Greenwood's fingerprints are all over this song, from the keys to the guitars and effects. He's the Man.
I also like the sci-fi theme, about a guy who lives in a dreary town and wishes aliens would swoop down and take him away on their spaceship.
This is one of the few Led Zeppelin tunes to actually make reference to the Lord of the Rings:
in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her
Battle of Evermore. Misty Mountain Hop also. Some LZ fans want every song to be about Lord of the Rings: 'hey dude, that song Hot Dog? It's about the hobbits wanting to enjoy some elevensies, you know, have a little snack after traveling so far.'
This is also one of their Light and Shade songs, featuring gentle acoustic guitars giving way to heavy electric guitars.
Something like that. Ramble On is also one of your Robert Plant double tracked vocal songs. You can hear it mostly at the end, it's like there are two Roberts singing, separate but equal. You can also hear this phenomenon in songs like Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and Whole Lotta Love.
"Clip Clop, cloppety cloppety...hi." Perhaps my favorite dub tune, Lee Scratch Perry, the Upsetters, and Corn Fish Dub. It appears on the Arkology box set, the final track on the final disc.
Cowbell Dub. If you love cowbell, and who doesn't? Plenty to go around. Everything dissolves over time, repeats into the ether, ripples into the distance (even the bass)...but that cowbell keeps you grounded. Everything else just washes over like a gentle wave...of cow milk. Hey, man, I have no idea what Scratch Perry is going on about with all that dreadlock and peanut stuff; this is dub, so it's all just part of the groovy vibe. Hey mon, if I come a Jahmaica I and I help I understand.
The youtube clip I've posted is the Scary Monsters album version of Ashes to Ashes. But of course you must watch the iconic music video as well, the most expensive of its time. I still get kind of freaked out by it, the weird fuzzy pink swampy world, the bulldozer with those Greek Orthodox-looking people bowing ahead of it, Bowie in the freaky Pierrot clown costume.
The memorably wiry jiggly string plucks open the song, joined by punchy slap bass. Drums and stabbing guitar chords accompany. Bowie starts singing at the 0:34 mark, like he's at a bar talking to the guy on the stool next to him:
"Do you remember a guy that's been
In such an early song"
Oh yeah, dude, you're talking about Major Tom from the Space Oddity tune. Hey, Ground Control supposedly received a message from him:
"I'm happy. Hope you're happy, too."
You also have Bowie singing about his own situation via his alter ego Major Tom, his issues with drugs and fame, 'the shrieking of nothing.' It's a complex tune for sure, many layers involved, lots of discussions about the tune out there on the internet. My favorite part is when he sings 'I've never done good things I've never done bad things I never did anything out of the blue.' Kind of self-loathing talk, like what good was all that time spent being so out of it? The sweet choral background synths are very soothing during this part, like it's OK, you made it out of there, David. You found that axe to break the ice and you are coming down. Major Tom, however, must stay up there in space. You had better stay away from him now, remember what your mama said.
As far as I know, this recording of Evil can only be found on Eric Clapton's Crossroads box set. Evil was written by Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1954.
I am way into Jim Gordon's drumming on the Derek and the Dominos version. All these great little fills that emerge out of the pauses during the verses, really swinging. Clapton plays excellent wah slide guitar throughout, especially on the solos out of the 'you better watch your happy home' lyric, the second one leading to the fade out. Don't miss that 'extra push over the cliff' moment at 4:06, when the piano flies in to carry us away.
A great early moment in Sweet Thing occurs at 0:06, when Richard Davis's enormous double bass tone like gentle thunder rumbling in, that full earth moving tone. A combination of Herbie Flowers's bass in Lou Reed's Walk On the Wild Side, and Nathan Watts's on Stevie Wonder's I Wish. A heavy woody tone with lots of jazzy travels around the fretboard. Fantastic elastic.
Another! great moment occurs at 0:16 with the little chimes, just a brief twinkle, but a moment that indicates the curtains have parted and you've crossed into a new world, a very natural one, like Narnia. The narrator blissfully wanders all around; he's young and in love. Like Mr. Spock in This Side of Paradise. Everything is perfect: jumping the hedges, clean clear water, watching the ferry-boats, gardens wet with rain.
My favorite passage is:
'And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
'Hey, it's me, I'm dynamite
And I don't know why''
That's true passion. For Van Morrison and his musicians to be able to catch that feeling and translate it so well into music is truly amazing. (And he always seems so grumpy on the outside. Huh.) Most of Astral Weeks feels similar in nature, and ode to the mystic beauty of life and love found in hidden places, like platform 9 3/4 in Harry Potter.
Things get turned up a notch at the 2:44 mark, when the ride cymbals skip in and the guitar alters its course. The strings are swooping in and out, Mr. Tumnus with his flute is dancing about, and eventually we all happily wander off into the sunset.
Sniff...this is the first Grateful Dead song I remember hearing and it remains their biggest contribution to the classic rock radio format. After the opening nasal inhalation, the first lyrics are the memorable 'Drivin that train, high on cocaine, Casey Jones you better watch your speed.'
The real Casey Jones was a famous railroad engineer who died
saving others in a train crash. He was certainly not 'high on cocaine.'
Blasphemy! And from such a sweet simple jugband and their twinkling young cousin of Santa Claus leader, Jerry Garcia. Tsk tsk. Supposedly, Robert Hunter just felt 'cocaine' was the best fit for 'train'. Works for me.
I was scared of this band before I was even old enough to know what a rock band was. The primary reason was that a kid at school told me the Grateful Dead could beat up the Allman Brothers. That really meant nothing to me, but with a name like the Grateful Dead, how could it not be true? Man, it was years before I learned that these guys were not scary. They just had a morbid sense of humor. And I believe that the real Casey Jones would have appreciated this tribute. Fun singalong melody, great guitar solo, Phil's bass, how could he not?
Let there be more drums!!! Hawaii Five-O? No way, man, we're going surfing down under ... punk rock from the continent of Australia, 1977.
This is a fairly straightforward reading of the well-known story by Edgar Allen Poe, about a guy who survived a shipwreck involving a massive whirlpool. In the hands of Radio Birdman it seems like the whole planet is being sucked down into the depths of the ocean - animals, slaves, humans, planes, trucks...'a million screaming heads.' Guitars battle furiously, raging desperately to survive against this crazy supernatural experience.
Let There Be Drums! Uhhhhh...was that my alarm going off? Usually, it's like 'A chime that is clear and true, a chime a chime...' but right now it sounds cracked. Dull, lackluster. I actually don't feel like getting up right now...life is a drag...I will just lay here with a couple fingers on the organ and hope for happiness. Uh-oh...should I edit that out? No, you edit it out. ... ... ping pong drums ... ... I am talking with myself now, devil and angel on my shoulder . Two voices conversing inside me...I'm starting to panic...what does it all mean?! Suddenly, at 1:42......!!!
Everything explodes! Wow, these lyrics are crazy...
'stars will trade hope for happiness.' I hope the sun reappears and when it does I am happy? The same thing as flowers appearing? A fairly certain hope, more like an expectation.
'hope colours up the things that cause us gloom.' Like Rush's Tom Sawyer, aren't we always 'hopeful yet discontent'? 'Changes aren't permanent, but change is...' Maybe that's why we should trade hope for happiness...it's better to accept that we are happy than to wonder if we're happy? Wow...I just don't know what to think.
Hey, I know what you're thinking... Mark, don't think at all...let's just enjoy the experience of the song without being too analytical, ok? OK. Soft Machine have had lots of different people over the years. I once owned Third on vinyl but I didn't like it much. In this first incarnation we have a trio of organ bass and drums. Robert Wyatt on the drums there. So jazzy and expressive. Quite an interesting life he's had. So, I love this one part: at 2:35, the drums do this sweet little drop step moment. You hear it? Very cool. Mike Ratledge on the swirling organ and Kevin Ayers on bass.
On the album, this song flows into Joy of a Toy and then back into a Hope For Happiness (reprise). Hmmm, what sort of happiness is this guy into?
Wow, in this image they kind of remind me of Nirvana. Wyatt looks like he could be doing a Kurt C.
River Man is in 5/4 time. I couldn't hear it at first. I kept thinking it was 10/8...it's basically a slower river than I was hearing.
This is a nice song to start out August, when the dogs days of summer are upon us. A lazy river song, floating along gently, barely a breeze to send us along. Nick Drake sings mysterious lyrics about a woman named Betty, the change of seasons, the weather, and of course, the river man. It has a pastoral Wind in the Willows aspect to it, as if we should expect to see Mole and Ratty passing by in a tiny rowboat. Featuring a nice string arrangement by Harry Robertson, this is taken from the Five Leaves Left album.
