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Okay, well after the week I’ve had I could certainly do with some
http://www.trollheart.com/cheerful.jpg so let’s have a look at a few more songs that just basically lift me when I hear them. Sometimes there’s no reason why songs like these cheer me up; sometimes they evoke a mood or memory, often it’s in the lyric or just the music, and then again there are times when I simply don’t know why they put me in a good mood; they just do. But I could definitely do with some cheering up right now, so let’s go… Moderator cut: image removed “Building a bridge to your heart” --- Wax, from the album “American English”, 1987 From the opening “One! Two! One-two-three-four -- hold it --- NOW!”” to the catchy melody line and the “Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!”s all through the chorus, this song just makes me smile whenever I hear it, which is nowhere near enough. Wax were a short-lived UK “supergroup” made up of Andrew Gold, best known for his hits “Never let her slip away” and “Lonely boy”, and 10cc guitarist Graham Gouldman. The band only lasted till 1990, when Gouldman returned to help reform 10cc. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...shappyhour.jpg “Happy hour” --- The Housemartins, from the album “London 0 Hull 4”, 1986 I know I’ve featured this track somewhere else in my journal, but it’s certainly a song you have to be made of stone not to smile at. The happy, jumping rhythm, the rapid-fire vocal delivery and the general sense of fun shows why the Housemartins were so popular during the late eighties, despite only putting out two albums between ‘86 and ‘87, before splitting to form the Beautiful South. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Long_Time.jpg “Foreplay/Long time” --- Boston, from the debut album “Boston”, 1976 What do I love about this track? It’s kind of a hybrid song really. The powerful organ intro makes it seem like you’re going to be listening to a progressive rock track, if you don’t know Boston as a band, and then the drums kicking in and that soaraway rock guitar from Tom Scholz as the song really takes off: just love it. Mind you, it could end better, but then you can’t have everything.. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._LYLF_disc.jpg “Let your love flow” --- Bellamy Brothers, from the album “Let your love flow”, 1976 Turned down by Neil Diamond, this went on to become one of the great Country crossover hits for the Bellamy Brothers, hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and also becoming a hit in the UK as well as other territories. It has such an uplifting, if simple message, that it’s hard not to be drawn in. It also has little if any steel guitar, so doesn’t really sound that much like your typical Country song. Not that there’s anything wrong with Country songs. But this is just a great feel-good, kick back happy song. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...braceAshes.jpg “Ashes” --- Embrace, from the album “Out of nothing”, 2004 A song I knew nothing about until I saw it performed on MTV, or one of the many video channels available these days, it just struck me with its upbeat sound and feel, a great lyric and some superb instrumentation. Just one of those songs that captures the moment I guess. Again, it could do with a better ending, but I really love this song and it always lifts my mood when I hear it. |
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Possibly the worst criticism a reviewer can give of a movie is to say “The only good thing I can say about it is that I came out humming the theme tune”, and it can definitely be true more often than not. Sometimes a movie is just so bad that the only thing that even slightly rescues it is the soundtrack. Now of course if a movie is good and has a great soundtrack too then that’s perfect, and naturally not every great movie will have a great score, which of course leads us to the bottom of the barrel, the movies that are terrible and have awful music. But the one I want to discuss does not fall into that worst category, although in fairness without the music that supports it it would most certainly be down there. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...vie_poster.jpg Yeah, I’m sure you all remember this classic! Stallone does his best (read, worst) to emulate Eastwood and comes off looking more like Duh!-ty Harry . It’s a truly awful movie, as can be said of the vast majority of Stallone’s cinematographic output. It did at least have a half-decent tagline, which got absorbed somewhat into the popular consciousness, though most people who use it today would probably be hard-pressed to remember where they heard it. To be honest, I don’t even know if it was an original line: maybe the writer stole it from somewhere else. But that’s not important. Neither is the movie. It’s a pretty bargain-basement cop revenge thriller trying to masquerade as something of higher quality and failing utterly. Probably the only line I recall from it is Stallone, as Cobra, throwing a lighted match down on top of a suspect who had been doused in petrol and muttering “You have the right to remain silent!” Oh, hilarity ensued! And this man would later play my favourite of all crimefighters, the fascist totalitarian future cop Judge Dredd. And screw that iconic role up in a way that still has me occasionally waking up bathed in sweat and screaming “He took his helmet off! Dredd never took his helmet off!” But enough of such reminiscences. The thing that saves Cobra from being a total turd in all areas is the soundtrack. Peopled with the likes of John Cafferty, Jean Beauvoir and Miami Sound Machine, it’s a clear example of the adage, which I just made up and claim copyright to in perpetuity in all territories extant or to be discovered in the future, “Forget the movie, listen to the music” (Copyright Trollheart MMIII, all rights reserved). This movie has such a good soundtrack that you can almost --- almost --- forget how bad the actual film is. Of course, while watching it the one time I did, in the cinema, I was basically unaware of the music, as I tried to keep up with the plot --- bad mistake: there basically is no plot! But afterwards when I saw the album I thought sure why not? In fact, if I recall, I bought it for the song that becomes the opening track and in fact if I remember (and want to) closes the movie. “Cobra” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack --- Various Artists --- 1988 (Scotti Brothers) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...a1986album.jpg Now I believe I still have this somewhere in my record collection, but in 1988 I was mostly still buying vinyl, and truth to tell this didn’t see the light of digital release until four years later, so the vinyl copy is all I got. Sadly I no longer have a turntable, and though I got a USB one for Christmas last year (or was it the year before that?) I am too lazy to even open the box and so have never used it. Ah, don’t get me started! HTTP://WWW.TROLLHEART.COM/lazyguy.jpg So I’ve searched for it online but have had no luck. I’m therefore reduced to trying to recreate it, track by track, via YouTube, so if there are tracks I can’t get we’ll just have to muddle through as best we can. I’m sure you’ll be able to contain your disappointment. As it goes, I’ve noted in passing most of the better tracks are available, so we might just be missing one or two, perhaps instrumentals, but we’ll find out as we go. That track I bought the album for initially is there. John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band rock us in with “Voice of America’s sons”, with a sort of John Cougar Mellencamp vibe melded to some heavy AOR, blasting keyboards and growling guitars, Cafferty’s voice a raspy growl as he laments the state of America for the ordinary workingman. A great hook in the song, punchy powerful and rocky, and indeed a good ending song for the movie --- I seem to recall Stallone riding off, stone-faced on a motorbike as the song played behind him, his mirror shades hiding the conflcting emotions that weren’t playing across his eyes as he departed with a grunt. Great guitar solo but in many ways it’s the peppy keyboards that carry the song with a real sense of upbeat, er, ness, and a nice little sax break there near the end. You’d think after a powerful opener like that the chances of getting a good followup would be small, but you’d be wrong. Jean Beauvoir, known for his association with the Plasmatics and Little Steven from the E Street Band, hits us with a menacing, smouldering rocker in “Feel the heat”, which was in fact a hit for him, and you can see why he is so sought after, with the kind of voice that just screams AOR and hair metal. Slower than the opener certainly, more restrained and with a sort of oppressive feel about it, it’s still powerful and retains enough of the acceptable face of rock to have made it a hit for him. Of course, every film (well, nearly every film) has a love scene and where would the ballad writers be without them? The “Cobra” OST has two, but I prefer the second one more, even though there are some fairly heavy hitters on “Loving on borrowed time”, with both Gladys Knight and Bill Medley taking vocals on the song. I don’t know who wrote it and I don’t much care; it’s fairly standard ballad materal, with a big shimmering digital piano opening and a melody that seems to evoke that other sugar-sweet movie ballad, “Somewhere out there”, but there’s no denying the talent of the two singers, who have both been around for a long time and really know how to turn it on, even if it is only for a crappy movie nobody will remember in five years time. They’re well matched, and indeed Medley contributes to the other ballad, taking another female partner this time. More of that later, but right now all I can say about this song is that it doesn’t suck, but it’s not something you’d listen to much or put on any special playlists. But, you know, as I said, it doesn’t suck. Totally. And if there’s a ballad, you can be sure there’ll be instrumentals. And there are. The thing is, some of them are really good, like Sylvester Leavy’s (yeah I don’t know who he is either) “Skyline”, which just plods along at the right pace while still retaining enough suspense to make it something you want to keep listening to. Even a few touches of “The Wall”-era Floyd in there, if you listen closely, though mostly it’s carried, again, on some pretty super synthwork. There is, it has to be said, a pretty searing guitar solo near the end. Gary Wright is, according to Wiki, one of the members of sixties group Spooky Tooth, and whether he’s the same Gary Wright who pens “Hold on to your vision” or not I don’t know, but it’s the first point where the album diverts from what I would call rock and hits into electropop territory, and even the presence of some decent guitar can’t take from the lighter feel of this song, not helped by the whistling keyboard that runs though it. Sounds like something you’d hear on the soundtrack of a really crappy mov ---oh, wait… ;) Yeah, about the first time I felt the quality of the album, such as it was, began to slip, and while I can certainly listen to Gloria Estefan, I’ve never been a big fan of her work with Miami Sound Machine. “Suave” is not the song that was ever going to change that stance, with its upbeat salsa rhythms, boppy brass and overall sense of fiesta. Pass. That’s the last low point, for me anyway, of the album, the second of Sylvester Levay’s instrumentals recalls the dark tension of “Terminator”, grinding along on swishy wind sounds and a growling, menacing synth. It’s probably the one that opened the film credits, as it definitely has the sort of introduction sound to it, and I think I can remember this being the case. Things keep rocking for Robert Tepper’s superb “Angel of the city”, with its industrial, mechanical rock themes and its weary vocal somewhat reminiscent of Joe Cocker punches its way in on the back of some almost Genesisesque synth and then just takes off with some really nice female backing vocals. Interestingly, Tepper’s first big hit was from another Stallone movie, released in the same year, and which you’re all more likely to know: “Rocky IV”, so 1986 was obviously a good year for him. This is certainly one of the better tracks on the album, and it’s followed by the second, and final, instrumental. Our friend Mr. Levay, who holds the dubious distinction of having the same first name as the star of the show, returns to hit us with “Chase”, which turns out to be the only track I can’t find online, but with a name like that you can guess how it would have gone. All squibbly keyboards, screeching guitars and a sense of pursuit and capture. To be honest, I can’t remember myself how it goes but I’m sure that’s close enough. Probably some fiddling around with siren-like sounds too, I'm sure. We end then on a high note, with the second ballad which, as already mentioned, features a return for Bill Medley, this time duetting with a lady by the name of Carmen Twillie, though who she is or was I couldn’t tell you. I do actually remember this one, as it did play over a love scene and I remember thinking what a good song it was. It may also have been a factor in my decision to buy the album when I saw it included, I don’t know. Again it opens with the dreaded digital piano, but somehow it’s more restrained this time, less as if it’s taking over the song. When Twillie’s voice joins the song you do have to wonder what happened to her, as she really has a nice voice, one that complements Medley’s well. Which is not to say that Gladys’s didn’t, but she’s a well-known and legendary figure in music. This lady, to my knowledge, is not, and bearing that in mind she does a great job. There’s some real passion in the song, which makes me wonder if there was something between the two vocalists, though maybe not. Absolutely mind-blowing sax break then, which the piano works with very well and it all builds to a crescendo, but sadly fades out and rather too soon, but still it’s a great ending to the album. TRACKLISTING 1. The voice of America’s sons (John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band) 2. Feel the heat (Jean Beauvoir) 3. Loving on borrowed time (Bill Medley and Gladys Knight) 4. Skyline (Sylvester Levay) 5. Hold on to your vision (Gary Wright) 6. Suave (Miami Sound Machine) 7. Cobra (Sylvester Levay) 8. Angel of the city (Robert Tepper) 9. Chase (Sylvester Levay) 10. Two into one (Bill Medley and Carmen Twillie) I suppose I should in some ways not slag off the movie so badly, because I’m pretty sure that had I not endured --- sorry, watched it, I would most likely have passed this soundtrack by, and thereby missed a lot of really good music that should in fairness not have to be associated with such a turkey of a movie. But if sitting through an hour and a half of watching Stallone play tough and trying to struggle with his limited lines is the price I paid for getting this album, then it’s one I’m happy enough to have paid. At least I can confidently say that something good came out of that movie for me, which is a claim I fear most others who went to see it can’t make. |
Darkness on the edge of town --- Bruce Springsteen --- 1978 (Columbia)
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...SzfW3yhLb1erS1 The electric precursor to "Nebraska"? This certainly stands as one of Bruce's darkest, most mature albums prior to the recording of that acoustic, stripped-down effort that bared his soul, and that of middle America, for all to see. Not a commercially successful one (which must have really pleased his label after the runaway success of his breakthrough album "Born to run", released three years previously) it's still highly respected and thought of by Springsteen fans, and like "Born to run" it features accessible, relatable, real characters who ride or drive or just shuffle through its songs like lost souls looking for a home. Of course, much of this could be taken to be allegorical, and in songs like "Factory" and "Streets of fire" Springsteen is obviously using the characters as examples, as metaphors for an injustice and a lack of caring far more than just personal. But it starts off very upbeat, and through most of its run continues so, even if the lyrics themselves are pretty unremittingly bleak for the most part. A big rolling thunder drum starts off "Badlands", as Springsteen, in the guise of the protagonist, aches to be out of this small town he lives in and do something with his life: "Talk about a dream/ Tryin' to make it real/ You wake up in the night/ It feels so real/ You spend your life waitin'/For a moment that just don't come" and the energy and exuberance behind the darkness says that anything can be conquered if you have the guts, determination and the will to see your dreams through. The E Street Band is in fine form here, and it's sad to think that they'll never be again together, not in this life anyway. Max Weinberg thumps away with enthusiasm and a certain anger as Springsteen, in his characteristic drawl, spits out his fury at being trapped in this one-horse town. The song builds to a climax as Bruce snarls his challenge to anyone who cares to hear it: "For the ones who had a notion/ A notion deep inside/ That it ain't no sin/ To be glad you're alive/ I wanna find one face/ That ain't lookin' through me/ I wanna one find one place/ I wanna spit in the face of these Badlands!" I never was crazy about "Adam raised a cain", with its almost negro-chorus style, but it's a grinding, angry song that certainly fits in well with the rest of the album. A thick blues guitar gets it going with a thumping bass from Garry Tallent and honky-tonk piano from Roy Bittan backed up by the late Danny Federici's wailing organ as Bruce growls the vocal out with all the defiance he can muster. Still, I find it hard to muster any real enthusiasm for the only song I feel is weak on this album. Memories of that soon disappear though in the piano and rolling drum intro to "Somewhere in the night", as Bruce wails like a wounded animal before settling down into the vocal. It's a slowburner, with a certain country flavour, as some of the tracks here possess, but probably the best part is near the end when everything stops bar percussion and Bruce sings the vocal in a defeated tone before the band come back in and the whole thing powers right back up to the end. One of the shortest songs on the album then, "Candy's room" opens on ticking drum and pattering piano as Springsteen mutters the vocal, more spoken than sung, then he switches to singing and as the percussion thunders in with rolling piano the song takes off and it's a fast rocker running on mostly Bittan and Weinberg's teamup though Steve Van Zandt throws in a fine guitar solo. If you listen to this on headphones, the sound is arranged so that when Springsteen sings What she wants is me" every second word comes out of the opposite speaker, so that the phrase seems to dart across your head, left to right and back. Very effective. One of the standouts comes next in the beautiful stark piano ballad, "Racing in the street", which chronicles the desperate attempt to do something to fill up the hours and make something of yourself, as guys race their souped-up cars on the deserted streets after darkness. Lovely whistling keys add to this and provide a motif that runs right through to the end. Again there's great use of a buildup in the song, where everything drops away to just Bruce and piano for the last part of the song, with a rising choral vocal which I think is created on the keys, then the drums slip in after one final solo flourish from Bittan, the whistling keys painting the signature across the song while the rest of the band comes back in and the whole thing fades out perfectly. "Promised land" is another uptempo song full of hope, with a big bluesy harmonica from The Boss leading the way as Bittan's piano again drives the song matched closely with Federici's organ. A song of dawning adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it, Springsteen sings "Mister I ain't a boy/ No I'm a man/ And I believe in a promised land!" If there's something missing from this album I feel it's the Big Man. He's just not as visible on this as he was on "Born to run", but here he storms back in with the kind of sax solos we've come to know him for, and it really adds extra heart and passion to the song. Rest in peace, Clarence: you're missed. That country influence is back, and never stronger for "Factory", a short song, shortest on the album, barely two minutes. A simple song of working men, it chronicles the people Monty Burns once called Eddie Punchclocks as they eke out their existence, working on the assembly line like robots and drinking to cover the pain and the numb tedium and the hopelessness of it all. Like I said, it's not just about those factory workers: this is literally a song for America, and everyone who wastes their life in a job they hate, simply because there is no choice and men must eat. "Streets of fire" is led in by Federici's sonorous organ before it explodes into life and Bruce screams "I want streets of fire!" It's Danny's chance to shine and he really does drive the song, helped by Bittan on the piano and then Bruce weighs in with an almost industrial strength guitar solo. A simple song of passing the time making love in an attempt to leave the darkness behind, "Prove it all night" is uptempo but its lyrics speak of desperation, as do many songs on this album, an almost wilful reluctance to face the bleak reality of life and a grim determination to enjoy it as much as possible, with a perhaps fitting motto of "not here for a long time, just a good time". Clarence is back with another sweet funky solo which metamorphoses from sax to guitar as Bruce takes over. The title track then is a dour, bitter, country-styled total classic, again driven on slow piano, slow and measured, almost defeated in tone, something of a contrast to the raucous, defiant tone of the preceding tracks. There are explosions of anger and passion in the song, but they're quickly subsumed as the chorus ends and the verse goes back to a slow, sullen tone, with the song fading out at the last. TRACKLISTING 1. Badlands 2. Adam raised a cain 3. Something in the night 4. Candy's room 5. Racing in the street 6. Promised land 7. Factory 8. Streets of fire 9. Prove it all night 10. Darkness on the edge of town I got into Springsteen through "Born in the USA", not the best introduction to the complex songwriter and performer this man is, I know, but I quickly decided I loved his music and went back through his catalogue, right the way to "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ", which I must admit I found mostly quite staid and boring, but that's another story. But of the triumvirate of albums that make up what I think of as Springsteen's golden period, this is the one I like best. Of course I love "Born to run" --- what Springsteen fan wouldn't? --- but although I also like "The river" I find it a little overlong ( it is a double album, of course) with some slightly below par songs, I believe this is where Bruce finally found his voice. After declaring his intentions in no uncertain fashion with "Born to run", it was I think suddenly a case of yes, born to run, but where to? And in this album I think he realised that destination was, in fact, nowhere. It's well named as an album, because it really is dark, and as I say there would be nothing like it in his catalogue until 1982, when he would unleash the quiet monster that is "Nebraska" upon us, and Springsteen fans would never quite be the same again. Even the love songs, the have-fun songs here are tinged with sadness, desperation, bleak humour and an unremitting recognition that all our struggles in the end come to nothing. The darkness is always waiting, there on the edge of town, for us to move towards it, or let it move towards us. A serious, mature rock album that has deservedly taken its place in the pantheon of classics, if you haven't heard this album before, where have you been, and why are you still here? Dark emo-rock? Pfft! The Boss was doing it, and doing it better, thirty years before any of those bands were even alive. |
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Ah, don’t you just love it when a crusty old fifty-year old tries to “get down with the kids”? Not literally of course: that would be illegal and possibly land him in jail! But trying to keep up with all the slang and buzzwords, and the new meanings for old words (“Sick” now means “great”, apparently!) :rolleyes: can be wearing for an old codger like me, whose best friend is Mister Oxford and Mister Roget (forget it: if you didnt get that reference -- hah! --- you’re too young and I ain’t explainin’ it to ya youngster!) but I do my best. I do know though that these days when the kids refer to “epic fail” hey generally mean something has not gone as well as it should, in fact, it has gone spectacularly bad. Hey, even I can understand the thinking behind that! So this section will focus on ideas down through the years in music that were bad ones, ill-advised ventures that were never going to sail (ooh-hoo! Slick little segue there, see ahead!) and make you ask “what in god’s name were they thinking?” http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...n_the_navy.jpg In the Navy --- Village People --- 1979 Yeah. What an inspired idea! Down at Navy Headquarters they’re watching how the YMCAs are filling up with eager young men on the back (ooeer!) of the iconic disco hit by Village People and thinking “We want some of that!” (ooeer again!) so they contact the guys, who duly oblige by recording the above hit single, proclaiming the benefits of the US Navy, a fine marketing and recruitment tool. Dear God help us. Were the “Top Brass” not aware of the excessively gay nature of YMCA, to say nothing of Village People themselves? In long-running British soap “Coronation Street”, one of the characters, cunningly pretending to be gay so that his live-in mate can be seen as his lover and so not be charged extra rent (seriously: I don’t make these things up!) uses the Village People album in a display to show how gay he is. VP were always considered the gayest band ever and have been parodied many times. They are, to be quite honest, synonymous with the gay culture. Not that, I hasten to add, there is anything wrong with that, or anyone’s sexual choices or preferences. I don’t like Village People’s music, but not because it’s linked with the gay movement. It’s just not for me. Kylie is also a gay icon and I like a lot of her stuff. Oh, also her music! But if you’re going to promote one of the roughest, toughest institutions in America, try to get people to join up --- “Join the Navy! Become a Man!” (BIG emphasis on the capital M there!) --- then surely it makes little sense to use a band who are inextricably tied in to the world of homosexual preferences and acceptance? Isn’t it the Navy who had the “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy till a while ago? And yet, here they are, using Village People to try to get people to join up? I mean, you might as well have had Motorhead spearhead a teetotal campaign, or asked Kerry King to run anger management classes! It;s a sad irony, surely, that the military service who prevented homosexuals from serving would use the most iconically gay band in the world to advertise their services. I don’t honestly know if Village People are gay, and it doesn’t really matter. The point is they were, have been, and always will be identified with being gay, and that’s surely not the image the manly US Navy wants to project to the world? In the end, as it goes, the project was pulled over protests that taxpayers’ money was being used to shoot a music video, as the Navy provided a warship, dock and setting --- and obviously financial backing --- for what would go on to be a huge hit for the pop group. Not the done thing, and quite right too. But it does make you wonder, do the chiefs at the navy still drink rum, and if so, did they perhaps overdo it the day they came up with this concept? And did they actually entice any recruits with this song? If so, and if these guys harboured a particular desire to be among other men “in that way”, then I think the US Navy only has itself to blame. |
Good work using 5 year old internet slang, TH! xD
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As we move into December and the big day looms closer, you'll be seeing my journals take on a distinctly Christmassy flavour. There'll be plenty happening in "The Couch Potato" of course, with Christmas TV being such a part of the yuletide season, but here too we'll be decking the halls. For the craic, I'll be running a competition-type thing, sort of a treasure hunt with a macabre twist --- okay, there's no macabre twist. But definitely a treasure hunt. Well, a word hunt. Kind of. Anyway, I'll talk more about that tomorrow. You can win prizes and everything! Hey, it is the season of goodwill! So get off my back unless you want a punch! ;) I'll be of course posting my favourite --- and perhaps not so favourite --- Xmas songs, reviewing some festive albums and who knows what else? And of course anyone who wants to drop in with a Christmas message is welcome. No, Batlord: "**** you and your Christmas" is not a Christmas message! ;) This doesn't of course mean that the usual things won't be happening, or that I'll be shipping in busloads of elves to help out --- where IS that bus? They should have been here hours ago! --- but I'll be doing my best to make this "the most wonderful time of the year". Yeah, good luck with that, I know. Anyway, sod you all: I'm gonna do it and if you don't like it you know where you can stick it! What? I've only got so much Christmas spirit in me, you know! So let the countdown begin: twenty-four shopping days left from tomorrow! Unless this gets posted tomorrow, in which case twenty-three ... oh, you know what I mean! Now, where did I put my copy of "Santa's Greatest Hits"? Ah there it is! SMASH! CRACK! TINKLE! Good. There'll be none of that this year. Heh. Well, maybe some. Christmas is a time for miracles, after all... See yaz tamarra! Or tonight. Oh, this is too confusing... |
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The stereotype is now mostly associated only with guys that are on subs because women aren't allowed to be on subs. They might be making progress to change that though. |
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Trollheart's Christmas Message: win big prizes! Well, prizes anyway... Just for the fun of the season, I'm going to be hiding my Christmas message in sections throughout my journals over the next twenty days. The message is sixty words long, and each day I'll post three words from it in one or the other of my journals. The words will be hidden in a review, feature, comment, somewhere, but they'll always be there. To single them out from the rest of the text they will be spelled backwards, but they will always be in sequence, and the second three words will follow on from the first, and so on, until the message can be read. Anyone who has that much time on their hands that they collect all the words and assemble the message will be in with a chance of winning five albums of their choice in digital format from my favourite music vendor. Two runners-up (should there be that many people interested!) will each win an album of their choice. First to send in their correct entry will be declared the winner, and the full message will be revealed on Christmas Eve, along with the winners. So put on your sleuthing caps, and start tracking down those words. The sections will appear in my journals from today up to and including December 20th. Good luck! Some small rules: 1. My decision is final (duh!) and no correspondence will be entered into 2. All prizes are digital, probably in mp3 format though some may be in FLAC, according to availability 3. In the unlikely event of two entries coming in at the same time, the forum timestamp will declare who was first, even if that's only a second in the difference 4. The message must be complete and exact, so no guessing. And make sure you double-check before sending your answer 5. Entries to be sent via PM to me with the heading “Trollheart's Christmas Message” 6. Prizes will be despatched on or before Christmas Eve, in compressed file format to a free file hoster, most likely Zippyshare, though if a winner wants the files delivered by email or some other format that can be arranged. No physical discs will be sent. 7. Trollheart makes no claims or guarantees regarding the quality or integrity of the files, but has not had any problems with this vendor for several years. |
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Though traditionally the Navy has been seen as "a man's life", and this was certainly true of the Royal Navy and other navies in the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries... |
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http://www.trollheart.com/xmasmetal1.png Over the next three weeks and a bit I’ll be presenting some of the best, worst and most interesting Christmas-themed songs, or any covers I can find of Christmas songs by metal bands. There are a lot more of them out there than you might think --- even metallers get festive at this time of year --- and I’ll be doing my darndest to hunt them down for you. As per usual, I’ll be writing a little about the song as well as looking at the artiste and assessing whether or not they would have been likely to have recorded a Christmas song. After all, nobody would be surprised to learn that Queen or Bon Jovi had penned a festive tune, but did you know that perennial yuletide favourite, King Diamond, released one of his own? It’s true. And more shocks and surprises await you along the way. Maybe. So let’s get started: there are only twenty-three shopping days left to the big event! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tion_cover.jpg We three kings --- Kamelot --- from the live album “The Expedition”, 2000 Although included on the live album released by progressive metal giants Kamelot at the turn of the millennium, this version of the old Christmas Carol is actually taken from extra material recorded during the sessions for their 1998 album, “Siege perilous”. It’s all instrumental, mostly on guitar, and includes sections from “God rest ye merry gentlemen” too, making it something of a Christmas medley from Kamelot. Seriously, if you want a Christmas-flavoured metal song, or a metal-flavoured Christmas song, you can’t go much wrong with this! Although the US metallers would not immediately be seen as having any sort of links to Christianity, they do explore similar themes in the double-concept albums “Epica” and “The black halo”, and have certainly alluded to religious themes on some of their other works. Plus it probably just seemed cool to do it, though given that the concerts “The Expedition” is recorded from were in August, it must have sounded a little weird to be playing it live at that point. Great song though. |
Time --- Rod Stewart --- 2013 (Decca)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...albumcover.jpg Yes, I’ve been raving about this for months now, and it’s odd because I’m not a huge fan of Rod’s. Like everyone, I know the hits --- “Maggie May”, “Do ya think I’m sexy”, “Sailing” etc --- but would not, prior to this, have considered buying one of his albums, bar his greatest hits, which I do own. And it was more curiosity than anything else that drew me to this on the new releases section of my favourite album vendor. At first I took it to be a greatest hits compilation --- after all, what did Rod do these days other than release greatest hits compilations? But looking further into it, I discovered it was a whole new studio album; new tracks, new songs, an original composition, his first since 2001, not counting his various covers and tribute albums released since then. So I was intrigued. The guy’s a legend, after all, but would he still be able to cut it in the twenty-first century? Would he, like so many others before him and from his general era, try to update his sound, adding influences from today’s music? Would he collaborate with some of this century’s better-known stars? Or would the album sound dated, ageing, out of, as they say, time? Only one way to find out, so I bought it and played it. What I discovered was a man who, at the age of sixty-eight and with over twenty albums to his credit, over twenty top ten singles, five of which were number ones, can still stand shoulder to shoulder with the best and show ‘em how it’s done, and remains relevant even thirty-five years after his career took off. It’s a little depressing to note that the singles released from this album so far have failed to even make a dent in the charts, and I guess ol’ Rod doesn’t have the pulling power he used to, when almost everything he touched turned to gold, and he only had to record a song for it to be a hit. But these are different times, people want different things, and this, so far as I can see with my limited knowledge of his music, is a very different Rod Stewart album. Of course, there will be those of you --- most of you, probably --- who will scoff and jeer at my championing the cause of the music of an old man, and to be honest I’m as surprised as anyone that this album impressed me as it did. But then, everyone seems to be raving about Elton John’s first album in seven years, and he’s from the same time period. It is however gratifying to see that “Time” slipped right in there at number one in the album charts, so someone appreciates good music. It opens with a big, bright, bouncy love song which affirms Rod’s happiness with his new love, and celtic instrumentation being the thing these days he has fiddle, accordion and also dulcimer and maracas giving the song a very folky feel. The album has been praised as his “most personal to date” and indeed it is: all through the album Rod either reflects on his past or looks to the future, and in every track, on every song he seems to be thankful for what he now has, his bad boy days gone. In many ways, he’s the antithesis of Robbie Williams, whose new album I reviewed some time back. Robbie, now fast approaching forty, is still trying to be the Peter Pan figure and hold on to his fading youth on “Take the crown”, trying to hold back time and age and live in a perpetual world of booze, birds and bad boy behaviour. Rod, on the other hand, seems much more comfortable in his skin, at peace with himself and his place in the world. I get the impression this album was not necessarily released as an assault on the charts, or to prove he still has it, or even to make money, for why would he need that? To me, this seems more an affirmation of life, a joyous celebration of everything he has achieved, and perhaps as a thank you to the fans for putting him where he is today. Then again, maybe it is just for the money. But it certainly does not give me that sort of vibe. I also find that, despite the fact that the music here is pretty great really, this is an album which really transcends music. Yeah, that’s incredibly pompous, isn’t it? What I mean to say is that in many ways the music is not the most important thing on the record; it’s almost more a state of mind, a way of looking at things and the pure and simple joy of realising you’re alive, and all that entails, that informs the album. Granted, it’s a lot easier to be happy about life when you’re rich, but even so I get a sense of exuberance from “Time” which, while fully realising he is the age he is, makes you think of Rod as a younger man, full of hope and promise for the future. Indeed, the second track almost confirms this, as “Can’t stop me now” chronicles his early success and rise to fame, namechecking his famous hit along the way --- ”Then along came Maggie May” --- while still realising that it’s his millions of fans who put him where he is today. ”Thanks for the faith” he sings, and it really sounds sincere, ”Thanks for the patience, thanks for the helping hand.” Another upbeat song, it’s full of the youthful enthusiasm that must have filled the young Stewart as he suddenly realised he was on the way to making it big. It’s more a rock track than the previous, with harder guitar and a nice Scottish sound on possibly some sort of pipes; probably keyboards if I’m honest. It’s hard though not to get swept up in the optimism and excitement, and to feel yourself in the young man’s shoes, the world at his feet. The first single from the album, which sadly did far worse than I would have hoped it would, is a bittersweet ballad where Rod realises a love affair has come to an end, and it’s best just to let it go. “It’s over” is full of regret and loss, sorrow and pain, but also a sort of fatalistic acceptance. Well, no, not fatalistic. Realistic. It’s got some lovely orchestral arrangements, gentle piano and soft acoustic guitar, then the percussion cuts in and it gets a little harder --- ”All the plans we had together/ Up in smoke and gone forever” --- and for a man who’s been through more than his fair share of divorces, there’s a pragmatism about what’s important: ”I don’t want the kids to suffer/ Can’t we talk to one another?” It’s truly a beautiful song, and was the first point in the album where I sat up and thought, yes this is quite possibly going to be a great album. And it is. Many of the songs here trace moments and events in Stewart’s life, such as the aforementioned second track with his rise to fame, divorce in this one, and the reflecting on a love that could have been in “Brighton Beach”. Not one of my favourite songs on the album I must say; I find it a little dull and pedestrian, but not bad. Evokes those memories we all have about what if and wonder where he/she is now? Carried on nice acoustic guitar backed by some mournful violin, another fine orchestral outing. Things get back rocking then with “Beautiful morning”, as Rod lets loose and just exults in the joy of living. It’s a simple song, but then it needs to be. This is no complicated lyric, no deep meaning of life stuff; it’s just something we can all relate to, that morning when you wake up, the sun streaming in your window, your bank account fat and your lover by your side and just think what a fantastic morning to be alive. A real rocker, and one to make you come alive after the somewhat boring previous track. “Time” doesn’t really hit that midpoint I often speak of, but there are weak tracks. Luckily, they come and go, and are followed by better ones, and the quality of the album only flags, if at all, momentarily before picking up again. As you might expect with all his songwriting expertise down the years, Rod pens every track, mostly with his producer Kevin Savigar, and occasionally other writers. All that is except one, which we’ll come to. “Live the life” is a good track but it suffers from something that recurs through parts of latter half of the album, which is plagiarisation. The opening is a rip-off of his own song “Maggie May”, while the main melody recalls Albert Hammond’s “It never rains in Southern California”, the bridge to the chorus putting me in mind of Carole Bayer Sager. There’s just a lot of influences in the song, too many to allow it seem original. Even the sentiment expressed in it is somewhat tired and overused, but it’s not the worst song on the album. That’s probably held for the next one, and “Finest woman” is Rod back to his old bad boy days, leering at the girls and flashing his, er, smile. It’s perhaps a little disappointing given the lessons he’s telling us through this music that he’s learned, but I suppose everyone needs to let their hair down once in a while. Still, it’s not for me; sort of mixture of rock, soul and bit of gospel. Uptempo certainly, just a weak track in my opinion. Some sweet brass in it and good female backing vocals, but I’m waiting for the title track. And here it is. And man, was it worth waiting for! A slow, powerful ballad with very much gospel overtones, “Time” tells us all that we need to know when to move on, when it’s finally time to quit. ”Time” Rod advises us ”Waits for no-one/ That’s why I can’t wait on you.” A gorgeous organ intro, almost church-like with a lot of blues in it pulls in some fine piano and excellent backing vocals from the ladies. There are echoes of Country in the song too, blues and a bit of soul. Superb work on the organ and keyboards by his producer, and Savigar really testifies on the keys as Rod pours out his heart and soul. Talk about personal! Super little guitar solo, but again it’s almost note for note from Bon Jovi’s “All I want is you”. Rod has made no secret of his love of the music of Tom Waits, and the influence it’s had on his own music, and indeed he’s had two big hits with Waits songs. Here he takes a slightly lesser-known track, from the “Mule variations” album, and does a great job with “Picture in a frame”. I’ve never had an issue with his interpretation of Waits’ songs, and he doesn’t disappoint here either. For those who may not know it, it’s a simple, piano-led ballad telling the story of the realisation of the singer that his girlfriend means more to him than he had originally thought. Truth to tell, he also covers “Cold water” but it’s a bonus track and I just don’t do those, so let me just say he also does a great job on that. “Sexual religion” is another “old” Stewart style song, with Rod marvelling at the power a woman has over him, and what she can make him do. There’s a certain sense of seventies ABBA in the song, with powerful production values and a strong female backing chorus, the track itself a mid-paced one as Stewart sings ”If there’s one thing I don’t understand/ It’s the power of a woman/ And the weakness of a man.” Yeah, and the rest of us, Rod! It’s kind of close to the general melody of his big hit “Do ya think I’m sexy”, but a much different song at the same time. More restrained and low-key is “Make love to me tonight”, in which Rod takes on the persona of a working-class grunt, facing the hard times but determined to make it once his girl is by his side. Sort of similar, lyrically is not musically, to “Livin’ on a prayer” --- wonder if Rod listens to Bon Jovi? ot hsiw lla On a bouncing, mostly acoustic rhythm, it’s an us-against-the-world song full of passion and optimism, and recalls some of Rod’s harder times, such as when he slept under the bridges in Paris while gigging, and it certainly speaks to the everyman in us all. Simple, perhaps simplistic, with a nice celtic lilt to it, it’s hard not to be engaged by its almost blind, determined sense of hope. That old bugbear however resurfaces in the closer, and it really is a pity because it’s such a beautiful song, and a perfect way to end a really strong album. Maybe I’m just being a pedant and overly critical, but listen to the melody of “Pure love”, and if you know the song you can’t help but hear the 1952 classic “You belong to me”, not to mention that the opening intro is “Send in the clowns”. But that aside, it’s a touching, emotional message to it would seem one of his daughters, a father’s advice, carried on gorgeous piano and violin, with a heartfelt vocal as Rod sings ”Don’t ask me now where all the time has gone/I’ve loved you since the minute you were born”. A truly stunning upsurge of orchestral strings near the end just paints the final stupendous layer on a finale to what is truly a remarkable album, and a real tribute to a man who has seen it all, done it all, and is, in the words of one of his contemporaries, still standing. TRACKLISTING 1. She makes me happy 2. Can’t stop me now 3. It’s over 4. Brighton Beach 5. Beautiful morning 6. Live the life 7. Finest woman 8. Time 9. Picture in a frame 10. Sexual religion 11. Make love to me tonight 12. Pure love Look, you can all laugh: I’m used to that. People read a review of Andy Williams (not yet), Neil Diamond or Pixie Lott in my journal and make choking noises, and move on. Doesn’t bother me. But it’s sad if you avoid this album purely on the basis that it’s Rod Stewart. As I said, I’m no big fan but I was quite amazed by how mature and accomplished this album is, given that he could have just trundled out another greatest hits or even a by-the-numbers album of pop singles, paying others to write for him. He didn’t. This is, first and foremost, a personal account of where he has been, what he’s learned and how he’s dealt, in different ways, with different situations, to arrive where he is now. If you leave your prejudices at the door and wipe that disparaging grin off your face long enough to give this album a chance, you may find that you’re pleasantly surprised. I know I was. |
Rod Stewart? Turd.
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http://www.trollheart.com/xmasmetal1.png http://www.manowar-collection.de/SilentNight.jpg Silent night --- Manowar --- 2007, special release From a limited Christmas Edition CD single, of which only 666 copies were released (see what they did there?) it’s Batlord’s favourites doing a traditional Christmas hymn. How could you not like it? Yes, the “Kings of Metal” themselves, Manowar, treat us to a version of “Silent night” --- a particularly inappropriate phrase to describe their power metal --- and really do a very good job on it. It’s restrained at the beginning, pumping up in that powerful, almost orchestral and dramatic way Manowar do so well as it kicks in properly, with a very powerful vocal from Eric Adams which even so doesn’t go over the top. More to the point, Manowar are respectful of the hymn, failing to jazz it up (or metal it up, as it were) and playing it quite reservedly and reverentially, accepting it is a well-known and loved classic Christmas tune. They manage to put their own inimitable stamp on it, without taking it over, which is not an easy thing to do. And finally, when they released this in December 2007, they gave it away free as a download. How’s that for a Christmas present? Nice one, lads! And a very happy Christmas to you too! Oh, and look! I inadvertently took my new avatar from the cover! Spooky! |
Satan bless. Every one.
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Like him or loathe him --- and let's face it, the latter is most of us. Apparently. --- you can't deny that Barry Manilow is the king of mushy ballads. Like others before him --- Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Andy Williams --- he's always lumped in with the "blue rinse brigade", and his music does obviously appeal to the older set, but I've enjoyed his music (although would seldom admit it at the time) from my twenties, and while his more uptempo stuff has never done it for me, I could list off a dozen excellent ballads of his that are true classics. So for this section I could have chosen anything from "Mandy" to "I made it through the rain", but have decided to go with what is, unarguably, my favourite Manilow ballad of all time. "Weekend in New England" Barry Manilow 1976 from the album "This one's for you" http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...land_cover.jpg One of not that many songs not actually written by Manilow himself, this is in fact a Randy Edelman composition, and concerns what appears to be an extra-marital affair (though the protagonist may not be married; it's never made clear) between a man who goes to New England and meets his lover, sharing time with her. cisuM retnaB a Back at his job in the city he thinks back over the time he had and wonders when he will see her again. It is, like most ballads, a simple enough story, and in the hands of someone else might fall flat on its face, but Manilow knows how to work his magic and under his influence it turns into something truly inspiring. Opening on a simple piano line, Manilow's voice singing gently of the encounter is almost phrased like a letter to the lover as he sings "Last night I waved goodbye/ Now it seems years", clearly still on Cloud Nine. The piano is joined by soft horn and violin, the orchestral backing growing a little stronger as the chorus comes in and he asks "When can I see you?/ When can I touch you?" The second verse more or less follows the same line, with the orchestra taking a little more of the tune and the piano getting a little stronger too. It's not until we hit the middle eighth that that familiar upsurge and dramatic punch comes through, percussion coming in too as Manilow sings "I feel a change coming/ I feel the wind blow/ I feel brave and daring/ I feel my blood flow" and the orchestra begins driving the melody. Manilow's voice gets more powerful and insistent as the key changes for the last round of the chorus, and the song ends as it began, the orchestra building up to a crescendo then dropping away to leave Manilow solo on the piano, with a final violin chord ending the song. As a soppy ballad, this song is interesting because to me, this puts the power very much in the hands of the woman in the song. Manilow throughout is asking her when can he see her? He is not telling her that he will come back, he's asking when can he? Whether this is to do with the fact that he, or indeed she, or both, are married or involved and so opportunities may be limited, I don't know. But there's no question that he can't wait to see her again, but has to wait until she says it's okay to do so. Girl power in the seventies? You had better believe it! Last night I waved goodbye, now it seems years. I'm back in the city where nothing is clear. But thoughts of me holding you, bringing us near. And tell me, when will our eyes meet? When can I touch you? When will this strong yearning end? And when will I hold you again? Time in New England took me away To long rocky beaches and you by the bay. We started a story whose end must now wait. And tell me, when will our eyes meet? When can I touch you? When will this strong yearning end? And when will I hold you again? I feel the change comin', I feel the wind blow; I feel brave and daring, I feel my blood flow. With you I could bring out all the love that I have; With you there's a heaven, so earth ain't so bad. And tell me, when will our eyes meet? When can I touch you? When will this strong yearning end? And when will I hold you again? Again... |
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http://www.trollheart.com/xmasmetal1.png http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/k...lChristmas.png Santa Claws is coming to town --- Alice Cooper --- We wish you a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year (2008) Who else but the king of shlock horror rock could make the phrase “Santa Claus is coming to town” seem like a threat, something not to look forward to but to fear? When he grins “Santa Claws is coming to town: your town! He knows that your windows are open! He knows what’s underneath your bed!” a little shiver goes down your spine and you start to question whether or not it actually is a good idea to be inviting this half-ton housebreaker into your home? Doesn’t he have a well-documented predilection for little boys and girls? Isn’t he always going on about people being naughty? Doesn’t he have a nasally-challenged reindeer in his team? Who IS this guy, really, and why should we trust him? Brilliant mock-horror version of the old Christmas favourite, with John 5 going mental on the guitar and Vinnie Appice pounding out the beat like a bunch of kids falling down the steps and breaking their necks on Christmas morning (thought you’d appreciate that one, Batlord!) ;) as Alice growls out his warning with sick, twisted satisfaction. We know what Alice wants for Christmas: a nice new shiny sharp axe and the address of the nearest coed dorm… Merry Christmas, Mister Cooper! :rofl: Taken from the album “We wish you a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year”, featuring such delights as Lemmy snarling through “Run Rudolph run”, Ronnie James Dio’s version of “God rest ye merry gentlemen” and Testament’s singer Chuck Billy making it a very un-”Silent night”, this is one album I may have to return to again…. |
Albedo 0.39 --- Vangelis --- 1976 (RCA)
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...WhIoXN7g6YPmaA All right, let's get this out of the way right from the start: "Albedo: the reflecting power of a planet or other non-luminous body. A perfect reflector would have an Albedo of 100%. The Earth's Albedo is 39%, or 0.39". Happy? No? Tough. For those who need to know, the title is pronounced All-bee-doh zero point three nine. This is the mighty Vangelis's eighth album, among a flurry released in the seventies (twelve in all) which was certainly his most prolific period, and yet not his most popular or commercial. That only came in the early eighties with the hit "Chariots of fire" and later of course he would write the entire soundtrack for the cult sci-fi movie "Blade runner". But even back in the seventies he was certainly in demand, with his music appearing in various documentaries of the time, most notably of which I remember as Carl Sagan's "Cosmos", which was in fact where I first heard the music of Vangelis. Despite being of course completely instrumental, "Albedo 0.39" is seen as a concept album, basically looking at the physics of space --- think Professor Stephen Hawking if he could put his thoughts to music --- now there would be a collaboration, eh? It's not surprisingly really; Vangelis' music has always had that otherworldly, eerie feeling of space, of drifting off into the universe and seeing the sights. It's no fluke that his music typically soundtracked programmes on science, space and exploration, because it is these very ideas that his music conjures up: the mystery and awe of the universe in which we live out our oh-so-insignificant lives on our oh-so-insignificant little planet in the vain conceit that we are the most important beings in the cosmos. But enough philosophical ramblings: on to the music. "Pulstar" kicks things off with, not surprisingly, a pulsing synth joined by another which trumpets alongside it, then little stabs of higher-register synth jump in, almost like lasers being fired in a space battle. Rolling percussion booms behind piano and little tinkly noises, the tempo fast but not too much. Some strings-style synth is added to flesh out the sound before it all gets a little frenetic with the drums booming and the squeaky, laserlike synth answering. It all builds then towards something of a crescendo before the whole thing falls back, like a wave crashing against a cliff, and the main melody begins again, a little more restrained this time and pulling wind and other sound effects into the mix. With a last boom of percussion and roll of synths we fall into a descending bassy synth line which ends with the sound of a telephone being hung up. As the speaking clock tells us the time we're into "Freefall", an orientally styled piece with gamelan taking the lead as little whistling synths bring up the rear, little in the way of percussion really and it's kind of like listening to someone setting wind chimes to music, very ambient. "Mare Tranquillitatas" then is another short piece consisting of rising synth with droning keys and snippets of conversation from NASA moon landings, taking us into "Main sequence", where Vangelis goes all jazzy, with brassy drums and a sequenced synth piece trundling along like something out of an old TV adventure show. Lots of synth brass in this too, rising in pitch as it goes along. The keyboards get a little progressive rock here at times, but mostly it's a piece built around a syncopating jazz rhythm. Some heavy synth chords then bring in a piano, but it's mostly drowned out by the squealing main keyboard melody and synth trumpets that carry the main tune. For what it is it's overlong for me. I don't mind long Vangelis tracks but I'm no fan of jazz, and this is very jazzy. The piano begins to make its presence felt now, with hammered chords echoing across the melody, the drums almost out of tune with the rest of the piece, seeming to be keeping their own rhythm. Yeah, I really don't like this. But eventually it ends, calming right down and "Sword of Orion", though a far shorter piece, just under two minutes, is much slower and laidback, built on a small synth arpeggio with rising lower-register synth behind it, almost hymnal in its way. Spacey sound-effects rise and fall as the piece reaches its end and flows into one of my favourite Vangelis tunes, one of the very first I ever heard. Built on a single simple phrase, "Alpha" starts off with a high-pitched synth and sprinkly sounds like somone scattering fairy dust or something, and grows as other synth sounds get added, in the sort of progression we see in Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major". It's a sprightly little tune, very catchy, and actually runs for nearly six minutes. After about two of those, heavy booming percussion hits in and the tune takes on a new life, and when the drums get going properly trumpeting synth joins the other quieter one and the thing marches majestically on to its triumphant conclusion. Between them, the "Nucleogenesis" suite take up almost twelve minutes, but they're recorded as two separate tracks, with part one upbeat and rife with squealing, squeaking synth and rolling piano, galloping drums and little synth noises, a very bassy synth taking the lead early on with hammering chords and rapid-fire arpeggios, with later some breathy runs recalling the best of ELO's material coming in then halfway through it breaks down into an almost Spanish guitar and tubular bells melody, becoming quite classical in tone. Thick heavy bass and crashing drums take it into a slightly darker line, this emphasised by the deep pitch bend at close to the fifth minute. Then everything stops as the sound of an old-style rotary telephone being dialled and we hear the pips of the speaking clock, whereafter a huge cinematic passage breaks through, fading out quickly though and taking us into part two. Fugue-style church organ opens this, very baroque, much slower and grander, and indeed continuing the dark tone of the first part, then spacey synth noises and runs slide in, the organ fading out and drum pads fizz and pop while trumpeting fanfare keys thread themselves through the melody. There's quite a prog rock feel to this again now, as tubular bells chime and a low buzzy synth complains while the main melody continues, guitar added and sprinkling little effects flying off here and there. The tone has sped up now and right up to the point a gong rings out it keeps going, finally fading down on the back of a rolling strings synth melody like the ending to a film. Have to be honest and say I don't like either of these pieces very much. The closer is also the title track, and if weird it's typically Vangelis. Against a low, swirling synth line his engineer relates facts about the Earth, such as maximum distance from the sun, density, refractive index and lots of other stuff you and I probably don't know or want to know. The music accompanying the list of facts suits it perfectly; spacey, eerie, almost ominous. It also works very well when he eventualy delivers the important bit, the title, the Earth's albedo, and the music stirs grandly behind him, rising like the sun over his shoulder. TRACKLISTING 1. Pulstar 2. Freefall 3. Mare Tranquilitatis 4. Main sequence 5. Sword of Orion 6. Alpha 7. Nucleogenesis (Part One) 8. Nucleogenesis (Part Two) 9. Albedo 0.39 Vangelis is not for everyone, and this album is certainly not for everyone. It's not really even for me. There's a lot I don't like about it, but then my favourite Vangelis track is on it, the one that introduced me to this man's work. And of course there's the title track, like nothing you've ever heard before. It's an odd album, but there is always one other thing that ensures it will forever have a place in my heart, despite its flaws. My best friend Gary, over twenty-five years dead now, used to laugh when we would play the title track and imagine it playing at a disco, where the DJ would tell the people to stop dancing and take out notebooks. "You may as well go home knowledgeable" he would say. Not too many albums can promise you the "length of the siderial year, fixed star to fixed star", or other tidbits of information about this wonderful planet we live on. That in itself is a decent enough reason to at least listen to this album once, I believe. |
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The Battle of Britain, July 10 to October 31 1940 http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...e_1387295c.jpg One of the most critical and decisive battles of World War II and the first significant defeat for the Nazi forces of Hitler, the Battle of Britain was the first major engagement in any war to be fought entirely in the sky, as the RAF battled the German Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain and its waters. Having secured most of Europe by early 1940 and looking eastward with hungry eyes towards Russia, unaware that this would be the critical misstep that would lead to his eventual defeat, Hitler needed to subjugate the English forces and invade their homeland, in order both to force a surrender from the British and to establish a staging ground from which they could later launch an attack against the USA. Herman Goerring, Reichsmarshall of the Luftwaffe, was entrusted by his fuhrer with the task of destroying the Royal Air Force, something he had supreme confidence his better-trained and superior in numbers air force could easily do. He promised Hitler an easy victory, and der fuhrer began to lay plans for Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of England. Goerring was right to be confident: at the time, the RAF was in no shape for a protracted fight, having helped out over the skies of France and been decimated. In addition to planes downed, many experienced pilots had been lost over the channel and there were not enough replacements, so younger, less experienced men were drafted in to fill the gap and balance the ratio of pilots to aircraft. The Luftwaffe, by contrast, had already honed its pilots’ skills in the Spanish Civil War, and had more serving aircraft, along with the pilots to fly them. As RAF involvement in the war in Europe up to 1940 had not been that great --- mostly support and interdiction for the native forces --- they were woefully ill-prepared for the onslaught of the Germans, who had had over three years flying sorties, bombing runs, attacks and engaging in dogfights. On paper, the English looked a poor match for the Germans, but were to prove the statistics wrong. Goerring proudly proclaimed that his Luftwaffe would destroy all British air defences within four days. He intended to bomb the airfields, crippling England’s capability to strike back or defend themselves, then move on to bomb the aircraft factories, thus ensuring no replacement fighters made it into the air. He later revised this estimate to five weeks, but he was wrong in both cases. The Luftwaffe, along with the Wehrmacht, had won Europe by a policy of Blitzkrieg, lightning war, in which they struck hard and fast, overwhelming the enemy and moving on to their next target. Attacking the RAF did not suit this model. http://acepilots.com/german/heinkel-111-bob2.jpg Needing fighter escorts for his bombers, the Reichsmarshall decided that Messerschmidt BF 109 fighters should stick close to the slower Junkers and Heinkel bombers, to protect them from the marauding British Spitfires and Hurricanes, and though the BF 109 was known to be in most cases superior to both the RAF fighters, its need to remain close to the bombers meant it was limited in its manouevrability, while the Spitfires and Hurricanes had no such shackles to worry about, and could harry the Germans at will. In addition to this, the 109s had not the fuel capacity to allow them to remain over England for very long, and after a flight escorting bombers and perhaps an engagement along the way, they had usually to turn back for France to avoid literally falling from the sky! Of course, the RAF pilots, though many were young and not that well-trained, had another advantage, the mindset of the defender. It’s always easier to be determined and dig in when you’re protecting your homeland, and the “boys in blue” were not about to let the “Jerries” have it their own way. They gave their lives in the defence of their country and their way of life, and no matter what country you live in, we all owe these brave men a huge debt of gratitude. Not to mention that for the British boys, being shot down or having to bail out during an encounter did not mean the same thing it did to a German pilot. Fighting in the English skies, RAF pilots were over friendly territory and if shot down could easily be back at their airfield in hours, ready to take again to the sky. A German pilot hit down was likely to be captured, imprisoned and most likely his war ended there, to say nothing of what the “boffins” would make of the technical aspects of his downed aircraft. Radar was another tool the RAF employed that gave them something of an edge over the Germans, who did not use it because they apparently mistrusted it, but it helped the RAF stand against the repeated attacks of the Luftwaffe, fighters and bombers alike. Although the Luftwaffe initially targeted the radar towers, and took some out, it was only for a few hours and they were operational again that same day. The lack of proper intelligence on British radar led the Germans to believe the towers were next to indestructible, which they were, but failed to take into account that had they knocked out the communications infrastructure that aided radar and was a vital part of Fighter Command, they could in all likelihood have succeeded in doing what Goerring had promised Hitler, which was to blind the RAF. http://www.aspeterpan.com/book1/images/Goering002.jpg By September 1940, after massive losses on both sides but with the RAF undefeated and air superiority far from assured, Hitler turned his attention to bombing campaigns, to try to smash London and the rest of England into submission. But with the RAF still very much a factor in the war, his bombers did not have it all their own way and many were shot down. By the end of October, as “The Blitz” came to a close, with London still standing and British resolve still intact, Hitler realised he would have to call off his plans to invade England, and accept that the doughty enemy would remain to play a vital part in the next few years of the war. He turned his attention to Russia instead, which would prove to be yet another major defeat for his army, and lead to the eventual collapse of the vaunted thousand-year Reich. Paying tribute to the men who flew in defence of Britain during those crucial months, and who in reality saved not only their homeland but the entireity of Europe from falling forever under the shadow of the Nazi menace, Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously declared “Never, in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to so few. If the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.” http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/200...02_468x542.jpg |
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Trollheart's http://download.installmob.com/anima...=VUWMM&lang=enhttp://www.trollheart.com/room101mv.jpg There were some raised eyebrows at my first choice for this section, even though I made it clear it was the two songs I was picking, not the artiste. I don’t know enough about Steve Miller to consign him himself to Room 101, but I did hate those two songs. Anyway, whether you agreed with it or not, or cared, it was and is my choice. This isn’t a democracy. There’s a reason why my username is before the title of this section. Today’s selection however I feel sure few if any people will have a problem with. http://cdn.itv.com/uploads/show/show...UDwzUuUWX4.png From the earliest days of television there have been talent shows. Before TV even there were talent shows, places where people with, you know, talent, could go and display it, and maybe win a prize. But then Popstars came along, and the whole format changed. Now it was go and audition, and a panel of judges who supposedly knew the business would tell you if you were good enough to go through to the next round, and so on until everyone had been eliminated and a winner emerged. That winner then ostensibly received backing and finance, and possibly a recording contract. Popstars was the first, God help us, giving birth then to the more streamlined and glitzy Pop Idol, which in turn paved the way for American Idol and finally, the big one, the grandaddy turd of reality television, the X Factor. I remember when they were plugging the X Factor. They said they wanted not just another bunch of singers, but people with --- wait for it --- the x factor, that unknown, unquantifiable quality that made them stand out from the crowd. They were looking for contestants with something special, something you couldn’t quite put your finger on, a je ne sais quoi that would single them out as someone to watch. Initially, that sort of happened. While my sister was able to make it downstairs in the early stages of her illness I spent almost all my free time with her, and invariably we watched the TV. I was subjected to more soaps than I care to relate, and reality shows such as this. I suffered through, I think, about the first four seasons of the X Factor before she got too bad to come downstairs anymore, but that’s another, sadder story. The point is, my knowledge of this show is not based on the fact that I was ever a fan, but neither is it blind ignorance, in that I have never seen an episode. I have, and I know how it runs, or at least how it ran, up to about 2007, when I gratefully was able to stop enduring it. Now, I should make this clear: I’m not against someone getting their chance to shine on a talent show. However, it irks me no end that this show, and others like American Idol, are seen as short cuts to fame. Most bands who are worth anything --- solo artistes too --- have come up the hard way: playing the pub circuit, gigs in every local dive that they could get, hawking demos around various record companies, hoping for the talent scout to be in the audience that one fateful night, which is how most of them were discovered. Now, with the rise of X Factor and American Idol, all a prospective star has to do is head on down to the auditions, get the judges to listen to them and if they’re good enough (yeah…) get picked for the selection process. Not only that, there’s now increasingly an emphasis on “sob stories”, which drives me mad. Or did. When I watched it. I assume it hasn’t changed much. This would be when a contestant would tell a sad story, perhaps about a parent who has passed on, or being a single mother or, in the case of American Idol maybe having spent time in jail, and all the while crying crocodile tears and insisting how much “I want this! This is my life! I’ve nothing else!” etc. It often seems that, talent aside, contestants get through purely on the basis of their sob story, how sorry the judges (or audience, or both) feel for them. Is that any way to decide who gets a shot at fame? I’ve no problem with sob stories per se, but they should be related AFTER the decision has been made as to whether the auditionee has been chosen, not before. The sob story should have no bearing on the decision, and it often does. Someone who’s not a great singer but who impresses the judges, audience or both with their sad little tale of how they got here and how they “must have this!” will stand a better chance of getting through than someone who happens to be a great singer but has no tale of woe to relate? How’s that fair? Then of course, it’s not the person who shows us what they’re made of, shows us how good they are. No. Each of the judges mentors a certain section of the finalists, which are split into groups --- boys/girls/bands/whatever --- and gives them the benefit both of their expertise and their resources, essentially training them and moulding them into what they want them to be, or what the show demands. Sometimes there’s a well-known music star as a guest judge, and they too offer their advice, which is okay I guess as long as they don’t end up helping to train them as they do in American Idol, which really goes a step too far. But the real thing that annoys me about X Factor is that it has now become, after more than ten years of the show, ingrained in the minds of youth that all they have to do to become famous is audition for this show. So why bother gigging any more? Why spend long nights travelling places in vans, to dingy nightclubs and dodgy pubs, playing cover versions or your own songs, trying to get a record deal? Why make all the effort, when you can have it all if you cry enough tears or compliment the judges, or can sing a little? Hey, if your family and friends think you’re a star, you must be one, right? And don’t get me started on all the contestants who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket (like me) and yet still think it’s a great idea to go to the auditions and essentially humiliate themselves on national television! Of course, in the end, the show's vaunted "search for people with the x factor" turned out to be nothing more than a list of generic singers, many of whom don't even deserve the title. So much for being different! For the “quick-fix”, easy way out. For the simpering, smiling judges whose words can cut to the quick and destroy dreams. For the eternally annoying cliched phrases --- “You killed it!” “You made it yours!” --- and for the seemingly endless stream of no-hopers and to-be one-hit-wonders this show has foisted upon us, most of whom will do little but add to Simon Cowell’s gigantic bank balance, oh and for Cowell himself. And Louis Walsh. For all the bands who try to make it for real and snort at the “instant, manufactured pop stars”. For the lack of intelligence of its audience, who actually think this show is fair and not fixed! :rolleyes: For Saturday nights wasted watching this tripe and for every fucking sob story under the sun, oh yes, and finally, for making kids think that Carl Orff’s “O fortuna” is the bloody X Factor theme tune and nothing more. For all these reasons, and many more, Cowell, Walsh, take your simpering platitudes and your cutting remarks with you as you go. As you’ve said so many times to an unlucky, unwise or, in some cases you would have to think, plain stupid candidate: the door is that way! http://download.installmob.com/anima...=VUWMM&lang=en |
TH, you're right with the last portion of your post. There's lots of reasons for the current state of music. I'm not really one to crawl onto the rooftop just to scream about how much today's music totally suxorz, but it is a shame that actual bands have kind of gone by the wayside. Look around, there is no room in the music space for bands anymore. There's maybe a handful of popular ones and they sing indie-folk-pop (Looking at you Mumford). People want to take it back to the 80s and earlier, but really in the late 90s/early 2000s I think bands started becoming obsolete. Part of that is these reality shows turning waitresses into pop stars in a matter of weeks.
I'm going to stop myself right there with that train of thought for fear of ranting about today's music and sounding like every YouTube commenter I've ever hated. But it just falls in line with society in general; a sense of entitlement and severe lack of work ethic. Why tour in a $600 minivan and play 200 person capacity firehouses when you can just try out for a reality show? That's the mindset nowadays I think and it blows fat cock. |
How many people from X-Factor have become household names? It's weird to call it an "easy way" as if the ones who get far havent ever sang before or dont value music as much as those who dont go on the show. It's still incredibly difficult to win the grand prize. Why disqualify them because they didnt take the route you would have? If your dream was to be a singer why WOULDNT you take the oppurtunity to become noticed if it presented itself?
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Bollocks! None of this in my day. If you wanted to get noticed you got up off your arse and spent time tramping around labels and managers with your demo tape, you did the gigs and you built up a following. Nobody gave you an easy out. And why am I saying this? It's all in the article, did you not read it? :rolleyes: It's mostly down to the, as butthead says, sense of entitlement people, especially young people have. Now if they hear a good singer they don't say oh you should join a band, they say you should go on the X Factor. And half of the so-called stars that thing manufactures like some gigantic printing press aren't worthy of being called such, they're just clones that are produced to a blueprint the record companies and the TV audience want. Anyhoo, that's my take and it's my journal so I'm taking it and going home. :p: ;) Oh, and thanks for commenting: first time I think? Welcome. Even if it doesn't sound like it. I like to argue. But always with respect. You prick. ;) :rofl: |
In the wake of Metal Month (yes I’m still talking about it!) I’ve found myself drifting away generally from heavier music and towards the poppier, more electronic end of the scale, as denoted by my first review following that special. It occurred to me, as I listened to the banality and tedium that was Visage’s latest and greatest (!) album, that it might be an interesting idea or even challenge to go back to the sort of music I used to hate and ridicule when younger and see if there actually is anything there that I missed. Was I just being pig-headed, a dedicated metalhead refusing to listen to any other music? Well no, because I did listen to a lot of artistes who would be considered anything other than metal. I enjoyed some pop music. But the problem with the bigger pop artistes was that all I ever got to experience of them was their singles. This was brought home to me in my review recently of the Pet Shop Boys album. Oh, I hated it (“Actually”) but the point is that I didn’t know that for sure until I had listened to the album all the way through.
My dislike for, and rejection of much new-wave/new romantic/electronic pop music was and is purely based on what I heard in the charts, and on the radio. I never had the interest to delve into their albums --- and at the time, the only real way you could get albums was by buying or borrowing them; no Spotify or even YouTube back then, to see if you liked something before shelling out the cash! --- and perhaps by ignoring these I’ve managed to miss some really good music? Perhaps the singles I heard were not representative of the band, or the singer. It’s often the case: the most commercial, saleable and chartable tracks get chosen for singles, while the ones which are maybe more mature, deeper, less poppy and airplay-worthy get left on the albums, and this can be where the artiste’s greatest work resides. So over the coming months I’m going to give the music I used to hate a chance. Sort of like the section I did two years ago, when I ran “Stranger in a strange land”. Without the land. Or being a stranger. I may make this into a new series; I haven’t quite decided yet. But I want to kick it off with a look at an electro-pop/new wave icon, for whom I never had much time, and I want to do it in a new http://www.trollheart.com/triplebox.jpg The artiste I want to look at is one whose output I know very little of, but have a passing familiarity with due to the singles he has released. But looking at his career he’s had more than twenty albums over a (so far) more than thirty-year period, so surely somewhere along the way there’s an album I won’t hate? Vain hope perhaps, but then I did love “Are friends electric?” so maybe there’s some chance that I’ll hit a golden nugget, or even a piece of brass in here? To give myself the best chance, I’m taking one from the eighties, one from the nineties and his most recent. I’m even avoiding the obvious, leaving albums like “The pleasure principle” and “Replicas” out of the running. In this way, I hope to gain a better understanding of the man and his music, to at least give him a fair chance before I agree with my younger self that I was right in the first place and should just have stuck with my metal. Sort of. I, assassin --- Gary Numan --- 1982 (Beggars Banquet) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...niassassin.jpg After his previous album “Dance” had seen him flirt with jazz and dance techniques, it seems Numan went further with the followup. Mind you, he had announced the previous year that he was retiring from live performances, though that would soon change. For “I, assassin” Numan pushed the fretless bass to the forefront, making it the main melody instrument, resulting, apparently, in one funky album! I haven’t heard “Dance” (surprise, surprise!) so I can’t say with any authority how different this one is to that, or indeed to others, and this will be my first actual foray into a Gary Numan album, so it sounds like it could prove to be interesting. “White boys and heroes” is the first thing I hear, and it’s a slowburner initially, opening with congas and then a low, rising synth line before that fretless bass, in the expert hands of one Pino Palladino, takes over, and then Gary’s voice, which I’ve always found flat, emotionless and cold, comes in. There’s a nice sort of screaming synth line in the chorus which I like, but for me it’s a little too funk-oriented. Not really my thing, but then I was warned. It’s a long track, the longest in fact on the album at just short of six and a half minutes, and I must admit I hear a little of the Thin White Duke in Numan’s delivery. Interesting. I must admit, the fretless bass does get into your soul after a while, and I find myself grooving even despite my intentions. Great bit of sax there at the end really adds to the song, which is, it has to be said, pretty empty, much of it relying on repetition of the chorus line. Glancing down the tracklist --- fifteen in all --- I note few if any short songs, and “War song”, clocking in at just over five minutes, reminds me of Depeche Mode, but then my experience of electronic/new-wave bands is, as I have already said, sparse to say the least. Nice drum loops in this, and a shot of Duran Duran-ish guitar (like something out of “Girls on film”) but again it’s a little dead, no real heart and I never have and probably never will find Numan an engaging singer. Actually, you know what? Of those fifteen tracks I mentioned seven are additional bonus ones, so I’m not going to include them in the review, which leaves us only eight tracks to get through, two of which we’ve already done. As The Batlord would say, sweet. Again I find “War songs” lacking in ideas, and just fades out on a repetitive instrumental line. There’s an oriental feel to the synth opening of “A dream of Siam” --- well, there would be, wouldn’t there? --- and it’s another six-minuter. But already I like this more, quite a touch of Sylvian and Japan about it, bit of OMD too. Nice sort of birdsong effects, and I wonder if it’s an instrumental. Echoes of “Are friends electric” there in the synth line, and then no, it’s not an instrumental, as Numan comes in with the vocal, though I have to say this time he sounds a lot better. Almost a touch of Peter Gabriel in his voice I feel. Some effective little piano work then from Roger Mason and that fretless bass is of course all over the track as Palladino sets his musical fingerprints on the music. It’s slower than anything on the album so far, and if I had to choose a favourite track at this point this would be it. The next one up was a hit for him, and “Music for chameleons” (hey there DJ!) :wavey: has a nice little thumping piece of percussion and a spooky synth run opening it, again slow, the synth reminding me of the opening from a-ha’s “October”. It picks up a little then on the back of drum machine and the fretless, and this time Numan sounds more like Phil Oakey to me, with echoey solid synth lines that sound like they would be very much at home on an Ultravox album. No, I’m not trying to namecheck every electronic band I can; it’s just how the sound reveals itself to me and who it reminds me of. I must admit I find it hard to believe this was a single, as it has undiscovered album track written all over it. And it’s another that runs for six minutes, though I assume it was cut for the single. Well, I see it wasn’t a huge hit for him but it did get into the top twenty. Just doesn’t sound like single material to me. Oh well, what, after all, do I know about this music? “This is my house” starts off with the same weird, distorted, descending synth lines that make you think you’re at the ocean’s edge or something, then Palladino’s bass takes it and it becomes a mid-paced track with some nice keyboard lines, but as in most of the tracks here I don’t find that Numan’s voice adds anything to the songs, in fact in many cases it seems to take from them, which is not good considering these are his songs. And again, the song runs out of ideas about halfway through and just stumbles on through its almost five minutes, taking us into the title track, which has a nice line in arpeggios going, Numan even rising to the occasion with a vocal that has some emotion in it, even if it is the emotion of an android. Nobody’s going to understand what I mean, but if you hear the song as opposed to the rest of the album you may get where I’m coming from. Nothing here is terribly fast, but then perhaps that’s the case in new wave/electronic/call it what you will music, though I surely remember “Just can’t get enough”, “Wishing” and “Sailing on the seven seas”, so I know some of it can be fast-paced. Just nothing here is. So far. For a moment then I think I’m listening to “Killer queen”, what with the fingerclicks and the bass, but it’s “the 1930 rust”, which has a blues feel to it thanks to some harmonica from a gentleman who goes only by the name of “Mike”. Oh yeah, he’s also responsible for the rather cool sax breaks on the album. Speaking of which, here he is on both. Funky in a bluesy way. I like this. Add in some very nice fretless and you have another contender for standout of the album. The closer then is the other big single, hitting the number nine slot when released, though they halved it for the single. “We take mystery (to bed)” is somewhat more the sort of thing I had expected originally to hear from Numan: big chattering brassy synths allied to other sonorous venerable ones, a jumping bassline and altogether a much more uptempo song, with Gary back to his flat, almost disinterested tone. You can see too where they had not to cut too much fat as the last minute or so is again basically an instrumental fadeout, though it does finish the album well. TRACKLISTING 1. White boys and heroes 2. War songs 3. A dream of Siam 4. Music for chameleons 5. This is my house 6. I, assassin 7. The 1930s rust 8. We take mystery (to bed) Well, no huge surprises here. I could say I liked maybe two tracks on the album, but then again this was something of a departure for Numan so perhaps not typical of his musical output. I still think his voice is tediously boring and flat, lacking in emotion and seeming quite disinterested really --- I remember what it sounded like on the track “Warriors”, as if he just didn’t want to be there, so he has not endeared himself to me. However perhaps that will change as we make one giant leap for Trollheart and hop in the TARDIS, moving forward fifteen years to what was his eighteenth album, if you can believe it. Exile --- Gary Numan --- 1997 (Eagle) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Numanexile.jpg A concept album of sorts, this was Gary having a go at religion, debunking or poking fun at long-held Christian beliefs and postulating the idea that God and the Devil were the same creature. Oh come on Gary! Tom Waits had already put forward this theory seventeen years prior, when he grunted “Don’t you know there ain’t no devil?/ That’s just God when He’s drunk!” So hardly a new idea. Still, it may be an interesting album, so let’s give it a go. Rather predictably, it opens with a sort of choral vocal like angels singing to God, then the vocal when it comes in is very low-key and restrained, the music the same; gentle percussion, soft synth and quiet guitar as “Dominion day” gets going. There’s certainly more an industrial feel to this, less of the squeaky synth and drum machine, and it’s almost rock in places. Some growling (supposedly demonic) to open “Prophecy”, though again Numan falls into the trap (unless it’s intentional) of mixing mythologies, as the opening line mentions Valhalla. Hmm. A slower, more relaxed piece with actually some quite soothing percussion and again a very laidback vocal, driven mostly on the drum pads. Yeah, definitely much more an industrial feel to this album, sort of like a darker Depeche Mode or maybe The Sisters of Mercy. Kind of U2-like guitar riff opening “Dead Heaven”, then the vocal is almost a rap of sorts, the first time when Numan’s quirky vocal delivery that annoyed me so much on “I, assassin” comes to the fore. A much more stripped-down band this time, with only two others, a keyboard player and a guitarist, helping Gary out, compared to the six on the other album. Gives the whole thing a sparser, leaner feel, which I think suits the music very well. This song kind of reminds me of Lacuna Coil at times too, then “Dark” is one of the two shortest pieces on the album, its brother the following track, both just barely shading the four and a half minute mark. “Dark” is built on a barebones percussion with low synth almost in the background and Numan again emulating Gabriel as he did on the previous album in this section. As there is no credit for drummer I have to assume that’s a Linn or one of those drum machine things; certainly sounds it, very mechanical and automated. Rob Harris adds some nice guitar riffs to this, pulling the track somewhat out of its murky, brooding theme and then Numan tries another semi-rap, though in fairness it’s not too bad. I much prefer the way he sings on this album so far, his voice in the lower registers but still high enough in the mix that you can hear it and concentrate on it. “Innocence bleeding” then starts very low-key and muted again, some solid piano work adding to the atmosphere courtesy of Mike Smith and again the thing has a very Peter Gabriel sound, perhaps a bit of early Bowie thrown in. Nothing on this album has so far been what I would consider uptempo, certainly not pop music. If anything it’s possibly dark electronica (darkwave?) and it’s a lot more palatable than almost anything I listened to on his eighties effort. I get the idea of an artiste growing in maturity and experience, and trying new things, expanding beyond his limited musical boundaries and reaching out to encompass and embrace new influences. Can’t fault the man for that. “The angel wars” has a depressingly obvious title for an album which is primarily concerned with the concepts of good and evil, and it starts off a little more boppy than anything else on the album thus far, but it’s still a far cry from “I, assassin”. A slowly rising, droning vocal gets stronger and more insistent as the song goes on, then although the general theme of the album has been pretty laidback I think “Absolution” comes in as the ballad, with a nice relaxed vocal and a slower, more sedate tempo, some nice soft synth and ticking percussion. “An alien cure” goes back to the industrial rock we’ve been hearing up to now, with a slight upsurge in the tempo, though not much. Bit more to be heard from Harris’s guitar as it shoulders and shoves its way through the banks of keyboards, though again Numan’s vocal on this one annoys me. The song’s okay but to be honest nothing special, and now we’re at the end. The title track opens with some sound effects and a slow percussion, droning synths and Numan keeping up the annoying vocal inflections that make me dislike him more every time he uses them. But it’s a slow, laidback song and a decent closer, quite eerie if a little kind of empty. TRACKLISTING 1. Dominion day 2. Prophecy 3. Dead Heaven 4. Dark 5. Innocence bleeding 6. The angel wars 7. Absolution 8. An alien cure 9. Exile Although I enjoyed this album more than the previous, it’s still failed to imbue in me any desire to check out the rest of his discography. It’s not that it’s a bad album, but to coin a phrase, I just ain’t feelin’ it. It’s the sort of music that leaves me generally cold, untouched and fails to evoke any sort of emotional response in me. I haven’t felt like crying, singing along, learning lyrics or even thinking about the songs in the way my usual music affects me. In other words, a great big meh so far. And with that cheery thought in mind, let’s move on to the final album in this trilogy of tedium. |
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Do you think the people that win X Factor never practiced or trained for it? Quote:
I wonder, do you think that winning the lottery means you are a less deserving millionaire? Luck plays a role in everything, but how many of those bands that scrounge around for any small venue show would make it big on X Factor? My guess is it's just as small an amount as the ones that made it from playing shows back in your day. (also yeah im pretty new to this journal thing, and i dont know if im doing im doing this right haha.) |
I suppose I could have gone for any of his later albums. If you want to, as I do, pick one from each decade (seventies excluded as he really only had the two album then, apart from the one with Tubeway Army, and both of them are quite well known) then there are four to choose from in the twenty-first century, leaving aside two reissues. But I thought the best way to wrap this up was to check out his latest offering, and so here it is.
Splinter (Songs from a broken mind) --- Gary Numan --- 2013 (Mortal) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...FABM_Cover.jpg This could be the biggest test for me yet. Twelve tracks --- the most of any Numan album I’ve reviewed up to now --- and nothing much under four minutes. Looks like it’s mostly himself on the album, with a little help from the odd guitarist --- Steve Harris? Not the Steve Harris? From Iron Maiden? I somehow doubt that. This must be checked! No, as I expected a different Steve Harris, from some folk band called Archive. Phew! Knew the king of metal wouldn’t be seen dead playing on an electronica record! Anyway, moving swiftly on, apparently this is his highest chart position since 1983, which is surprising considering he’s not one of these artistes who don’t release an album for ten years and then hope to capitalise on the sudden influx of fans old and new buying their albums. Numan has been steadily releasing material right through the 1990s and 2000s, with the one prior to this only having hit the shops in 2011. So it’s not like his fans have been starved of his music. Must be good then. I note too that the album sleeve is quite similar to “I, assassin”, though the music is definitely more in the “Exiles” line, at least from the big heavy industrial opening of “I am dust”. Definitely more powerful than the album just reviewed though, with punching, slamming synthwork and heavy percussion, again we must assume electronically reproduced, as there is no drummer credited. Good strong opening, very much keyboard driven with some good backing vocals. “Here in the black” showcases the talents of guitarist Tim Muddiman, with a very intriguing whispered vocal from Numan, then “Everything comes down to this” is the first Numan song I’ve heard where the man actually shows some emotion, even passion. It’s a powerful song, driven on thick bassy synth and howling keys, then there’s a lot of Japan and some Ultravox in “The calling”, with a rather nice strings-ish synth passage a little way in. Slower too than anything else on the album to datre, though I wouldn’t call it a ballad. Kind of a rolling, muted, almost jungle rhythm then to the title track, chanting adding to the otherworldly feel of it and also lending it an eastern tinge and it’s another slowish track, driven on kind of marching drums and low, dark piano. Sort of a slow, grindy feel to it. Not bad at all really. “Lost” has a gorgeously dark and doomy bass piano line that builds up really nicely. It’s almost the only instrument accompanying his voice at the beginning of the song. I actually think I may have heard this, or something very similar, and it has a very lo-fi indie rock sound to it. If I heard this outside of this album (as I have mentioned I may already have) I don’t think I would peg it as a Gary Numan song at all. Some nice industrial sounds on it but mostly it’s like one of those indie ballads you hear on dramas like “The Vampire Diaries” and such. Must admit though, I do like it. A much heavier, growlier feel to the next track, “Love hurt bleed”, with a very eighties-style keyboard riff running through it. Hard guitar and thumping percussion with a real sense of energy and anger, then the overall ominous feel remains for “A shadow falls on me”, with a vocal so falsetto that for a moment I thought Gary had hired a guest female singer! A short song, shortest on the album in fact at just over three minutes, but a decent one, then we’re into “Where I can never be”, with dark, echoing synth and hollow percussion, some nice work on the guitar from Robin Finck, the third guitarist he uses on the album, choosing himself to stick to vocals and keys. It’s a sparse track, but effective and leaves an impression. “We’re the unforgiven” marches along with menace and purpose, more good guitar striking in between the banks of synths, with a powerful vocal from Numan, then things pick up tempowise for “Who are you” with some fine buzzing synths. Some more whispered vocals from Numan --- he uses these to good effect, sparingly and carefully --- and the album ends on “My last day”, rather appropriately. Nice low-key start with piano and keys, synth noises and a quiet vocal from Numan. Some powerful guitar from Muddiman takes the energy up several notches for a short moment before it lapses back again. A really nice piano passage in the middle as the synths swell in the background, then a sort of violin-like synth joins in as we end on an instrumental fadeout. Very nice. TRACKLISTING 1. I am dust 2. Here in the black 3. Everything comes down to this 4. The calling 5. Splinter 6. Lost 7. Love hurt bleed 8. A shadow falls on me 9. Where I can never be 10. We’re the unforgiven 11. Who are you? 12. My last day If I have to pick one of these three as my favourite Gary Numan album I’m definitely leaning towards this, his most recent one, though that said his music is still nothing that grabs me and I’d be uninterested in checking out the rest of his admittedly impressive discography. The three albums chosen here, with over thirty years between their release, certainly show a man who is more than the sum of his parts and deserves a lot more credit for his music and creativity than I had ever afforded him. It’s pretty clear why he’s still so popular even now, and why his music is still listened to over three decades since he started with Tubeway Army and scored that huge hit. All of this I can readily admit and accept that I had up to now judged him too harshly. However, no matter how good someone’s music may be on its own merits, to interest me and make me a fan I have to like it. It has to speak to me, engage me, interest me. This does not. I enjoyed listening to the albums here more than I did, say, Napalm Death or Possessed, but it was still business rather than pleasure. I seriously doubt I’d listen to another Gary Numan album, but at least now I can give him the credit he deserves, even if I don’t like his particular style of music. And so, in the ancient Dublin tradition, let me say “Gowan Gary ya good thing ya!” ;) |
Okay let me see if I can address this. First off though, as I said, this is all friendly debate and you're as entitled to your opinions as I am. The moment it gets too personal or turns into anything too serious I'll just say that's it. Don't want punch-ups in my journal! ;)
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The other part, yeah of course some bands would not make it on X Factor, which is my point exactly. They wouldn't have what the show was looking for, but they could be ten times better than some of the twats on there, and being picked. Course, they could also be a bunch of talentless wankers. Quote:
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My lottery analogy was more to emphasize that whether or not you agree with how they got there, they are still millionaires. It shouldnt matter if someone gets their break on X Factor or by touring for months in a VW van. You can succeed or fail either way. "Fair play to anyone that wins". Let's just say for ease of argument that going on X Factor is easier. Then you concede that you know of an easier way to become famous. If that's not your goal with respect to being a musician, then fine. But you realized that you could try out. You could be famous. It's the same as buying a lottery ticket. You didnt buy a lottery ticket so you didnt win. But dont complain when someone is announced a millionaire. It's fair game. |
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1. There are two ways to make (potentially) a fortune. Method 1, buy a lottery ticket and win. Same as going on the XF and becoming famous. 2. You can work hard, save, invest wisely, lose some money, recoup losses etc and eventually reap the rewards. This to me equates to getting on the road/in the studio with your band and making it work, or hoping to. Option 1 = everything is handed to you (you win for the price of a lottery ticket, one time deal, nothing huge involved, just blind luck and chance) Option 2 = You work for what you get. Nobody hands it to you. Anyway that's how I see it but like you say we'll agree to disagree. Must say, I didn't expect this level of debate about the bloody X Factor going in Room 101! Wish I'd had this interest when I used it as a thread subject, quickly sunk! Maybe the next choice will be as controversial. Or maybe not... :pssst: |
Sorry people! Sorry! I tried to stop him, but his hired goons pushed me aside! I’m really sorry…
BAH! Out of the way, you! Thought you could keep me out, eh? Advantage … Burns! https://www.tomtom.com/en_ie/images/...m132-16720.jpg Oh hello! Yes. Thought you’d seen the last of me, I’ll be bound, when that Trollheart fellow stopped using me in his avataricons, eh? But then I popped back up in the Music Banter Members Journal Weekly Update Thread (till he ran me off there too, how dare he!) but you can’t keep an old miser down you know! At least, not one who knows what palms to grease, what goons to pay off, eh Janszoon? Vanilla? Mo-jo? Ahem! What? No no, nothing at all. These people have nothing to do with me, I do assure you. Yes? Well I challenge you to prove that in a court of law, sonny! Anyhoo, I’m tired of all this tomfoolery about Christmas! Peace and love? Toleration for others? Goodwill to all men? My great-great-great-grand uncle Ebeneezer Burns would turn in his grave, if I hadn’t already sold the plot for a high-rise carpark and shopping mall development! Really! It’s time for some balance around here! Enough Santa Claus, it’s time for Satan Claws. Oh ho ho, very droll yes, I see what my overpaid speechwriters did there. Most amusing, yes. http://www.trollheart.com/xmasburns4a.png So this section is going to be run by me, and there’ll be no interference by that annoying Trollheart. What do you mean, post not approved? How dare you! Oh yes, I see: will that be enough? Ah, blast your hide to Hades then! You drive a hard bargain, my friend, but we shall see who’ll have the last laugh. Oh yes, and I’ll be popping over to that other thing he runs too, what is it he calls the confounded thing? The sofa carrot? Ridiculous! As if a carrot would need a … what’s that you say, Smithers? Ah I see! Jolly good! The Couch Potato, eh? Still ridiculous! But anyway, we will be heading over there too: far too much goodwill and Christmas cheer in evidence over that part of the forum. Time to put the boot in, as that delightful Hitler chap once put it. So go bring the car round and keep the engine running, Smithers, we’re going to visit the neighbours, oh yes. What? No, we are NOT bringing them gifts! For the love of Peter…! Oh, and that’s another thing I want to hear none of in this section: laugher, especially that of children, cuts through me like a knife. I’ll ensure there’s no reason you should feel the need to laugh anyway. So what is this about? Well you may ask. Mister Burns! You have to tell them or nothing happens! Mister Burns! Sir! MISTER BURNS!!! Wha --- Who? Mater? No honestly, I didn’t unplug your life support machine on purpose! I tripped --- what? Oh, it’s you Smithers. What is it? Oh yes, the plan. Right. Of course. Smithers? What IS the plan? Oh, yes of course. Silly me. How forgetful of me. The plan. Well, the plan is to debunk some of these annoying Christmas songs we all hear screeching out of the wireless this time of year. Some of the lyrics are just preposterous! “Lonely this Christmas”? Let me tell you, when you get to my age it’s lonely every Christmas! And that’s just how I like it! “Rocking around the Christmas tree? Not in my mansion you don’t, sonny! My Christmas tree is one of a kind, and priceless! You do your rocking somewhere else, preferably far from here. Ah yes, the hounds have been released, why do you ask? Excellent. So then, what to start off with? Well, I’m not one to speak ill of the dead, but since I have more than one foot in the grave as it is, I feel like I can be made the exception, and so let me present to you the first in this charming travelogue though the songs of Christmas. Burns style. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../04/Xmas81.JPG Ah, Lennon! You were always my favourite Russian … what? Not THAT Lennon? Damn and blast it man! You’re making me look foolish! To the Wikipedia page, post-haste! http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__..._Burns_Car.jpg (Mister Burns will return momentarily. Until then, here is some music...) http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/10...tes-4-song.jpg Ah, I see. A Beatle. How jolly. I do so love those English pop stars with their unconventional haircuts and their entertaining accents. So, there were four of them eh? But this is just one. Fine, now go over there and sit down out of the way, will you? I’m trying to talk to the people! “Happy Xmas, war is over” says John Lennon. Well, he may have hoped for that, but last time I checked the Afghans were still knocking the bejeebers out of each other, those charming Iraquis were blowing up everything in sight, and back here in the good ol’ US of A we’re still looking around for other countries to conquer. All right, invade. Oh blast your eyes man! Very well: render political assistance to. Is that pee-see enough for you? Heavens to betsy! It wasn’t like this when Bush was in power! Now there was a man who knew how to get things done! Want to effect regime change? Orchestrate a terror attack in your own --- ah, no, I’ve said too much. Forget I spoke. Oh look! A charming something over there in the corner, with absolutely no connection whatever to nine-eleven. Phew! Dodged a bullet there, Smithers! So anyway, back to the Beatle chap. “War is over”, he croaks, “If you want it.” What? War is over if you want it? Want what, you hippie? War? Or war to be over? Well if it’s the latter then surely you would say “war is over if you want it to be”? Pah! Comes from going to Liverpool Polytechnic, I suppose. Never see a Yale man make such a glaring error! Let’s go a little further into this misinformed Christmas classic, shall we? “And so this is Christmas”, he warbles. Well, as that organ bank from sector 7G, er, er --- Smithers! (Homer Simpson, sir) Ah thank you, yes. Homer Sampson would say, d’uh! (Simpson says d’oh Sir!) I know, damn and blast it man! I’m being ironic! We know it’s Christmas, John! We don’t need you to tell us that! What else does he witter on about? Let’s see… ah yes. “For weak and for strong.” Pfah! Christmas is a time for the strong, always has been. The strong get the last Robo-fighter-ninja-killer 4000, or whatever damn thing the little brats are looking for this year. The strong survive while the weak pass out or end up in soup kitchens, or fall asleep in front of “The sound of Music”. Bah! What else? “The near and the dear ones” --- all my near and dear ones have,been eliminated ah, passed on, with not a shred of evidence to link their murde -- ah, untimely deaths, back to me. “The old and the young?” Now really! This is taking things too far! The old do NOT enjoy Christmas! Never have done! It’s a time for screaming children playing with their annoying toys, usually left at the top of the stairs where vulnerable old men like me can trip over them and end up spending Christmas in the emergency room. Yes. I won’t be inviting my grandchildren around to the mansion this year, I can tell you. Once is enough for something like that. Twice is quite enough. But after the ninth time, I think I’ve finally to put my foot down. Which is where the trouble began in the first place. Tax deductible expense my foot! Again, which is where the trouble began. Ho ho! No, not ho ho ho! Two "ho"s is all you get from me, my friends! You want more you can pay some fat fellow to wear a red suit! Ah, but I digress, for the sake of humour. LAUGH, you proles! What do you think I’m paying you for? What? You’re not getting paid? Just as well. Wait! Where are you all going?? Oh well, may as well finish this confounded thing. So the last lines are “War is over now.” Let me just turn on the news and see --- no, no. Seems war is still going on, most parts of the world. What? No, that helicopter gunship did NOT bear the crest of Burns Chemical and Biological Weapons Corporation on it! Where did you get that idea? Ah, the amount of times people have said that to me … oh you must be mixing that up with Burns Orphan and Needy Relief Corporation! Yes yes, that helicopter is going to the orphanage in, um, Sierra Leone, to deliver, um, ammunition belts to the children. What? Do you know how few children in that part of the world get to even SEE quality American weaponry? Unless it's being used against them. They should be grateful! What? Of course it’s live ammunition! Do you think I’d let my helicopter pilots face the forces of rebel --- er, visit children in hospital --- without live ammunition oh dear was that the door? Excuse me just one moment. (The sounds of clumping feet, the screech of car tyres, a slamming door and the sound of a retreating car engine receding down the driveway all indicate that Mister Burns may have had to leave to attend an important meeting, but Smithers is here to explain.) Um, sorry about that, readers. Mr Burns had to attend a very important and sudden stockholders meeting and will not be back for a while. He texted me though and assured me that --- let me just read that --- KILL EVERYONE LEAVE NO WITNESSES ---- er, I think what he meant to say was that he will be back with a look at another Christmas favourite soon ---- ah here’s the correct message --- SCORCHED EARTH. CODE RED. PRIORITY ALPHA. Hmm, probably reading too much Tom Clancy. Well, I must go now. Please remain where you are, someone will be along to show you out. Hmm? No, no, just locking the door as a security protocol. No, I can’t smell any gas. Must just be you… gotta go! |
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Ahead of my soon (promise!) to be started series “Roses among the thorns”, the first of which will feature this lady, I thought it might be an idea to look at her in the context of this section. When I mention Judie Tzuke (pronounced “zook”) to people, invariably the response runs something like this: “You what? Judie who? Oh yeah, she was that bird who did “Stay with me till dawn”, yeah? Little cracker!” And so the curse of the Albatross strikes again. For those of you --- probably somewhere in the region of ninety percent or more, I’m guessing --- who don’t know Judie or only know her through that hit single, let me enlighten you, or try to, and show you that there is more to this lady than that one hit single. http://www.tzuke-info.net/pictures/albums/stay_c.jpg Stay with me till dawn Judie Tzuke Released first quarter 1979 (Can’t get an exact date, but the album was released in May) From the album "Welcome to the cruise" Backed with "New friends again" Chart position: 16 (UK) --- only chart success in a career spanning over thirty-five years If anything could be said to be misrepresentative of the artiste, this single is it. Not that it’s not a good song, it certainly is, and deserved to be a hit. But from it came the unshakable belief that this was all Judie Tzuke wrote, that this sort of music --- slushy pop ballads --- was all she was capable of, or should be expected to be. Not really that surprising: she was a woman getting into what was pretty much still then a male-dominated arena at the very tail-end of the seventies, and in addition she looked stunning, so these two factors tended to override the possibility that she might actually be a songwriter with something to say. “Stay with me till dawn” is, despite its deeply romantic overtones, apparently a song written for a good friend of Judie’s with whom she used to stay up late chatting on the phone. It’s news to me, because like everyone else I always assumed this to be a love song, but you learn something new every day. Everyone else thinks so too, though, as it regularly crops up on “various artists” albums with names like “The Love Collection”, “Love is…”, “Heartbreakers” and a thousand other generic titles, where she shares space with the likes of Paul Young, Alison Moyet, George Michael and Elton John, stuck in a neverchanging and undemanding world of sentimental and banal love songs. But this was from Judie’s first album, and it’s a great one, as I will detail later when I feature here in that new section of which I spake. She was to go on to have, to date, fifteen studio albums, none of which would trouble the charts in any way or give her any more hit singles, though I believe “Understanding”, from the second album, may have been a single. raey dna I epoh The point is, like many artistes and indeed some featured previously here, hit singles are not always the be-all and end-all of a career. I’ve already explained how a-ha, despite having only a handful of hit singles, went on to have a very successful career before breaking up somewhat in triumph, and how people who think Motorhead’s only release was “Ace of spades” need to listen to their long and impressive catalogue. So too with Judie. Some of her albums are quite frankly amazing, including the debut here but also ones like 1989’s “Turning stones”, 1985’s “The cat is out” and the excellent 1996 release “Under the angels”, to say nothing of “Queen secret keeper”, released in 2001. In many ways I suppose you could argue she shot herself in the foot here, releasing the beautiful ballad as her single, and is now forever damned with faint praise for it, “Stay with me till dawn” being the only song anyone can recall --- if they can name one at all --- if you ask them about her. It’s a great song, but there are better on the album, and I do wonder had she chosen the title track, “Katiera Island” or even the other ballad, “Ladies night”, would she have faced this wall of indifference to the rest of her output? Not as I’ve said before that it matters: I’m sure she doesn’t go to bed every night crying about how ignored by the mainstream music scene she is, and how she only had one hit. She’s made a very successful career out of her music, if generally on what could be seen as the sidelines, and not only that, but her daughter is following in her footsteps, carving out her own musical career. So she has a lot to be thankful for. But I wonder if there are times when she wishes that she and Mike Paxman had not penned that song, and how different her life might have been without it? Of course, she may not then have had any hits, so it could be a case of thankful for small mercies. And her fans know her well enough not to be shouting for the song at the gigs (though invariably it gets played, usually as the encore). But to the general public she always will be that one song, and nothing more, which is sad. She certainly is a cracker, though! ;) |
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You kids! Don't know ye're born! :rolleyes: |
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http://www.trollheart.com/xmasmetal1.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...causealbum.jpg Do they know it’s Christmas? --- Far, featuring Chris Moreno --- A Santa Cause: It’s a punk rock Christmas Vol I(2003) Following in the footsteps of the Band Aiders almost twenty years previous, Far teamed up with Deftones singer Chino Moreno to record this cover version for the charity album mentioned above, which gave part of its proceeds to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, a worthy cause if ever there was one. I don’t know much about Far, but apparently they are now broken up and came from Sacramento. It’s a decent version, with some nice riffs and Moreno’s distinctive screaming in the fadeout of the chorus. Still, it’s better than listening to Paul Young and Bono! Who says punks don’t care? |
Love love LOVED the Burns segment on Lennon! Keep it up, mate!
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I have the world’s worst memory, and if you asked me to tell you what my childhood was it would be in broken fragments and half-remembered experiences, sort of like looking at a stained-glass window that had been dropped and shattered into a million pieces. The basic are there, but it’s hard to recognise and sort out the specifics. Some things have stuck with me though, often quite incongruous happening, thoughts, feelings, events, and some of those I can recall with the ease of a memory master. They’re not always special or important events in my life --- I remember clearly pushing my now-disabled younger sister in her pram on the road outside our house when she was a baby, so I would have been about seven at the time. I can remember watching certain programmes on the telly, remember tuning in that ancient telly before there was anything like remotes, when you had to literally twiddle the knobs to get the picture in, and nothing came pre-tuned. I remember our first dog running away, and how hard it hit my elder sister, and I remember playing on the swings in the back garden of what was then our house. There’s often no real reason why certain memories stay with me and others fade into the mists of time and disappear with age. Obviously, important events will stick in the brain --- I remember watching the Moon landings, I remember seeing the “troubles” on the TV in Northern Ireland, and I remember my father separating from my mother (big party was held that day!) --- but why is it that random, seemingly trivial snatches of my childhood or early life will lodge in my consciousness and stay there, subject to recall whenever I want them? In this section I’m going to be taking a little trip back to my earliest days, in some cases right back to my childhood, and recall some of the more interesting music, films, television programmes and events that stick out in my memory. Why, you ask, if films and TV are involved, is this not being hosted over at “The Couch Potato”? Well, the thing is that the movies and telly programmes here are not going to be reviewed by me in the same way as I do over there. Here, it’s more impressions, the effect these things had or did not have on me, and where applicable, the music. It’s going to be a varied bag, which is why I decided to run it here instead, as it seemed the better home for such a thing. http://www.cinemaphile.org/reviews/2...junglebook.jpg “The Jungle Book” --- Walt Disney Studios, 1967 This is the first memory I want to dredge up, as its songs have been zipping around in my head for some time now. Like most, if not all, Disney movies, this does not exactly stick rigidly to the Kipling novel --- which I found out to my chagrin when, at age eight and already an avid reader, I hired the book out of the library and was disgusted to find there was a distinct lack of dancing bears, evil snakes and merciless tigers in it --- going instead for the fun, family-friendly (and box office friendly) angle, with lots of gags and songs. Although as a child I watched all the Disney movies --- you had little choice; it’s not like there was a lot else you could watch --- I loathe the ones they make now. All this “Hey man time out” crap drives me mad. Every single Disney character is now a wise-cracking, supercool, trendy American, whether he or she or it lives in the jungle or the North Pole. Grinds my gears no end. But back then, in the sixties and seventies, they made decent movies. “Sleeping Beauty”. “Snow White”. “The Sword in the stone.” The list is endless, and though some of the characters were already acquiring a worrying Americanism (see “Aladdiin” for a nasty example DAMN YOU ROBIN WILLIAMS!) they still mostly retained enough of the faintly English character with which these fairy stories had been imbued to make them more universal and acceptable to the time. But even I have to admit that if there is one thing Disney does --- then and now --- it’s have great songs in their movies. Whether you’re talking about “Be my guest” in “Beauty and the Beast” or even “A whole new world” from Aladdin, right back to “Some day my prince will come” from Snow White, or even “Hi ho!” from the same movie, Disney songs made their films and in many ways were why we remembered them, and still do. Come on: you seriously telling me that if I start singing “Hi ho, hi ho! It’s off to work we go!” you won’t whistle the rest? Liar. And this is where “Jungle Book” came up trumps for me as a kid. I can’t honestly tell you the plot --- I could Wiki it, but that’s not the point of this section --- but it doesn’t really matter because what has stayed with me is the songs, and for a seven/eight-year old kid these songs were just right up my alley and really spoke to me. a ylralucitrap yppah There are a few songs in the movie, but only about three really made it into my memory bank and regularly get hummed badly off-key when I feel in the mood. The first one is the song sung by Baloo the Bear, who always impressed me with his “tomorrow will look after itself” way of thinking (perhaps not the greatest lesson to teach kids, but there have been worse certainly) and his song “The bare necessities.” I just loved that song, still do. I can sing it word for word, including the little spoken asides --- Mowgli: “You eat ants?” Baloo: “You’d better believe it!” --- and I can see the big bear rubbing his back up and down with great satisfaction against a tree, showing the mancub how to scratch. Just class all the way, specially the dance the big fat bear does, and the disparaging looks of the more prim and proper, and socially aware Bagheera, the black panther that tries to convince Baloo that the human child is not his new companion, and cannot stay with them in the jungle. He must be returned to his own kind, a quest which informs much of the movie. Then there’s the song of the deadly but hilariously inept snake Kaa, as he tries to hypnotise Mowgli so that he can eat him. I have vague memories of the snake somehow hypnotisng himself (I think Baloo or Bagheera somehow show him his reflection, maybe in a pool: it’s not important) and falling out of the tree, shaking himself and then launching back into his song, “Trust in me.” A precursor for Smithers and Burns? As Baloo says in “The Bare Necessities”, oh-ho! You’d better believe it! Finally there’s the superb performance by Louis Prima as King Louie the orang-utan, who wants to be human and believes that if Mowgli will share with him the secret of “man’s red flower”, he will be able to become human. The child of course knows nothing of fire, but that doesn’t stop the ape king from trying to bribe him, mostly with bananas. Here he sings the song in which he outlines his reasoning for wanting to be human, in “I wanna be like you.” Special mention must be made for George Sanders, who voices Sher Khan, the lordly tiger who constantly tries to thwart Baloo and Bagheera’s attempts to protect their human charge, and eat him. The lazy, laconic and aristocratic voice hides a vicious, savage animal that hates man and all his instruments of hunting, which had led to many of his people being killed by them. Louie may be the self-styled “king of the swingers”, but Sher Khan is the real ruler of the jungle. a true prince of the wild, and he not only knows it, but makes sure everyone else knows it too. I watched this movie again when I was about nineteen or twenty. I was at the time living just around the corner from a good friend of mine, one of my best, and we would have regular weekly video sessions, mostly of Star Trek or some music video, or some hush-hush computer graphics thing he had got hold of. One day I happened to mention “Jungle Book” and was amazed to hear that he had never seen it. He was about my own age. We legged it over to the video store and had no trouble renting a copy. I spent the next about hour and a half not only enjoying the movie all over again, reliving my childhood, but watching in delight as each new scene threw Tony into fits of laughter, and there were many rewinds and replays. To see someone enjoy for the first time something which had given me so much pleasure as a child was truly a new and thrilling joy, and I think that night cemented the place of this wonderful Disney movie in my mind and my heart forever. No wonder I’m still singing the songs! |
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http://www.trollheart.com/xmasmetal1.png When I started this special section I made mention of one King Diamond, and you probably all thought I was just talking through my ahhhsss ... it happens, I was serious. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...220px-NPFC.jpg No presents for Christmas --- King Diamond --- originally a standalone single, 1985 but rereleased on “Fatal portrait” 1986 Released, as I say above, as the first single from The King since Mercyful Fate broke up, this also found its way onto his debut album, hence the two release years above. samtsirhC ot allinaV It starts off, lulling the unsuspecting listener into a false sense of security if they don’t know what to expect, with a tinny keyboard rendition of “Jingle bells” segueing into “I saw mommy kissing Satan, sorry Santa Claus” before it bursts into a high-powered metal rocket ride, with the King singing at the top of his range. Pretty good really, considering I wouldn’t listen to a Mercyful Fate album in a fit --- no, not even for Metal Month! --- and it even ends in a keyboard instrumental of “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer”, with a short vocal of “White Christmas” before King D kicks his way out the door with a maniacal laugh. Good fun really, but poor old Noddy Holder must be turning in his grave. What? He’s not dead? You sure? Ah. I see. Excuse me just one moment, I have to make an urgent telephone call. Hello? Taxi, yes, and hurry. Liverpool Cemetery. Quick as you can mate: it’s an emergency… |
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Ah-hoy-hoy! Or perhaps I should say “Ah-hoy-hoy-hoy!” Ah yes how amusing. I really must start paying my writers. What do you mean, pay them more? No, no, my friend: I mean pay them at all. Well they have to work off their little bursts of creativity somewhere now don’t they? And I do have those photographs… Quite. So just remember that, all right? Now, let me just sit down a moment. All this running from journal to journal tires an old man out, you know! I’m not the spry seventy-eight-year-old I once was! But it’s worth it if it means I can show you what Christmas a la Burns is like. Time to have a peek at another one of those pesky Christmas songs, eh? You know the ones: always blasting at full volume out of the infernal wireless or tootling out of the tannoy whenever you go down to the local shopping auditorium to purchase some bengay and a bottle of catsup. Or is it ketchup? Catsup? Ketchup? Catsup? Ketchup? I get confused; well who wouldn’t? The blasted bottles look identical, for the love of Peter! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes: those dratted Christmas songs. Can’t avoid them. Go shopping, there they are. Stay at home, there they are. Even if I switch off all forms of media in my mansion I can still hear their annoying croaking drifting up from the servants’ quarters --- what? I specifically told them there was to be NO entertainment this Christmas! Remind me to fire them, preferably on Christmas Eve. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Anyhoo, on with the show, as they say. Here’s our next cheery Christmas tune, just ripe for the picking apart. [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Iwi****couldbe.jpg[/img] What? Where in blues blazes is my picture? Oh for the love of... Because the words "wish" and "it" come together the stupid Nanny system has decided the word is "****" and won't show the picture because the link is "asterisked" out in places! Bah! Release the hounds on these do-gooder, tree-hugging, save-the-whales hippies! I hate them all! Now I have to save the image on my own computator --- er, SMITHERS! Yes, it keeps saying "file not found". .. ah. Excellent. Most impressive. Now go home to your can of cold mushroom soup. I no longer need you. Let's see now, upload. Upload? What in --- SMITHERS!! Ah yes, thank you once again. Most kind. Yes in fact the hounds HAVE been released: you know the distance to the wall, I'm sure a fit young fellow like you can make it in --- Hmm. I would advise you desist wasting time and --- Ah. Hello? Emergency Services? Yes. Ambulance please, post haste. Yes, Burns Manor. Yes, Smithers again. Yes, the Hounds. Look, I don't intend playing twenty questions with you young lady! Send the meat wagon immediately! Thank you. Oh yes, of course. Merry Christmas to you too. (Bah!) Now let's just see if ... Huzzah! Success! http://www.trollheart.com/wizzard.jpg Ah yes, excellent! Wizzards eh? I could do with a new potion to extend my --- what?!! I’ve never heard such poppycock in all my days! You wish it could be Christmas every day, do you? Well, you’re the only one, matey! You seriously believe that the Sally Housewifes and Eddie Punchclocks of this world would enjoy queuing for presents, taking their squalling brats to see some old fool dressed as Santa Claus (it was a WAGER, all right? I lost a wager…), writing Christmas cards and running up credit card bills the size of a Central African country’s GDP do you? Every day? You would have this horrendous season every single day? Are you mad? The mere logistics of such a thing boggle the mind! You would have to have had three hundred and sixty-five identitcal Saviours, each born in the same city one day apart, for that to work. Do you know the odds against that happening? And how would the economy fare, were your fond dream to come true, hmm? Hard-pressed employers like myself are forced by law to allow our lollygagging drones a day off for this momentous day, and you would have it every day, would you? So the organ banks would be off 365 days a year, ie there would be no work done. What utter nonsense! Speaking of nonsense, let’s take a closer look at these so-called lyrics and see if they at least make some sort of --- what in the hellfires of damnation?? “When the snowman brings the snow”? Snowmen are MADE of snow, you bearded moron! They can’t BRING snow. Snow brings them. Assuming some snivelling little child has the time on his busy hands to create one! What else is there, let’s see… “Now the frosty paws appear, and they’ve frozen up my beard”... Were these chaps known to indulge in the “waccy baccy”, as I believe it’s referred to these days? Ah, they were? Explains a lot. Not that line though: what in the name of Samuel Hill are these frosty paws he’s talking about? Oh dear, this is getting depressing. “When Santa brings his sleigh all along the Milky Way.” Santa lives in the North Pole, you fool! It’s on Earth! He doesn’t have to travel the galaxy, and he couldn’t anyway: how would those delightful (and delicious, take it from one who knows --- oh you thought there were only eight reindeer, did you? That was the year SANTA lost the wager! ) reindeer breathe? Absolute balderdash! Oh, and look at the last line: “Why don’t you give your love for Christmas?” Capital idea! Find the cheapest, most meaningless present that is going to take you zero time to buy, wrap and give. Baste my steaming puddings! Can you imagine anyone offering their love as a Christmas present? And they call me a miser! Look, the biggest mistake I can see was when a band decided to record a Christmas song when previously their main area of interest had been in advising people to see their baby jive. Should have stuck to those sort of songs, my friends. Now we’re condemned to listen to this idiotic drivel every single Christmas till we die. So thank Satan that it isn’t Christmas every day, because if it was I think I would just have to end it all. And take Smithers with me of course. Smithers? Why are you looking at me like that? No no no! When I die, you’ll be buried alive with me! What? I thought you said you couldn’t bear to be separated? Well, this way that will never happen. It’s my gift to you, on this festive season of giving. Merry Christmas Smithers! Of course I'll come to see you in hospital, my faithful lackey! (Hah! Not bloody likely! Now, want ads, want ads ... faithful lackey required, must be able to run faster than the Hounds....) |
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