FEATURE: Inspired By... Part Six: Missy Elliott

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By...

PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Seliger

Part Six: Missy Elliott

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IN this next part…

of Inspired By…, I am including an artist who turns fifty on 1st July: the sublime Missy Elliott. Before getting to a playlist of artists with Missy Elliott D.N.A. in their bones, this 2019 article from Revolt talks about Missy Elliott’s influence and legacy:

“This year, at a glance, was a huge one for Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott. As the first female rapper to receive the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the Video Music Awards on Monday (Aug. 26) night, it's clear that her dominance in the industry is unyielding, and her substantial influence has left an imprint on a slew of artists from all genres.

During the VMAs, rapper Lizzo posed the question, "Where would hip hop be without Missy Elliott?" And mega-producer Timbaland reminded us, "People wouldn't do the videos they are doing today if it wasn't for [her]." The 48-year-old has tremendously impacted the game and is truly one-of-a-kind. She is known for pushing creative boundaries with confidence, charisma, and exceptional ease. Being in the game for more than 20 years, the Virginia native has influenced the music industry with new fashion, era-defining videos, innovative dance moves, and bold lyrical content. On top of that, Elliott has made a name for herself by crafting so many 90s and early 2000 anthems, and classic hits that black women can unapologetically relate to.

Although the trailblazing songwriter stepped out of the immediate spotlight for several years, her widespread impact is extremely relevant. Weekly podcast "The Read's" hosts Kid Fury and Crissle West, and superfans worldwide championed for her comeback and for her to also receive the Video Vanguard Award. Fast forward and campaigning for her continued success paid off, and spoke to the indelible footprint that she has deeply embedded in the culture.

Although the accolades and recognitions are incredible, this honor was long overdue. Not only has Elliott killed the game on her own with Billboard-charting hits, but she has also collaborated and penned tracks for other legendary artists including Janet Jackson, J. Cole, JAY-Z, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé; and the late singers, Whitney Houston and Aaliyah. Even former first lady Michelle Obama shared her admiration for the legendary emcee in an episode of "Carpool Karaoke," as she belted out the lyrics word for word to Elliott's song "Get Ur Freak On."

Breaking barriers yet again in January, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by becoming the first female hip hop artist to receive this merit. In an official statement released by the organization, they confirmed what the hip hop community has stated for years, "Missy Elliott is a groundbreaking solo superstar, pioneering songwriter-producer, and across-the-board cultural icon."

In case you needed more evidence as to why the Virginia native is one of the greatest or you had an ounce of doubt about the five-time Grammy-award winner, she solidified her position in her latest statement, saying, "Don't look for another Missy, [because] there'll be no other one." Undeniably, she is one of the best ever to do it. PERIODT”.

In the playlist below, I will include a few artists who definitely are inspired by Missy Elliott. It is testament to her brilliance that there are artists coming through now that you know follow the lead of Elliott – nearly twenty-four years after the release of her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly. Here are songs from artists who have been impacted by…

ONE of music’s most influential women.

FEATURE: Sometimes I Might Be Introvert: Looking Ahead to Little Simz’s Upcoming Fourth Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

Looking Ahead to Little Simz’s Upcoming Fourth Album

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THIS year has provided us…

with some incredible albums and plenty of surprises! Being a fan of Little Simz, I have been wondering what she has been doing during the pandemic. Her previous album, 2019’s GREY Area, is a remarkable release that scored incredible reviews across the board. I think the Islington-born artist is one of the finest voices in Rap and Hip-Hop. I think that Little Simz is definitely a legend who is inspiring so many other people. I am still listening to GREY Area and being blown away by Simz’s stunning lyrics and vocal performances. She released the amazing E.P., Drop 6, last year. Not only is Little Simz one of the finest artists around; she is also one of the most prolific! She is such a tremendous and original creator, one can listen back to an album of hers like Stillness in Wonderland and get something new from it. It has transpired that a new album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, is on the horizon. This article from NME explains more:

“Speaking to The Observer, London rapper Simz explained that her fourth studio album was written largely in lockdown (in London and later Berlin) and that it explores her difficulty in opening up about her personal life in an industry where everyone is expected to be “an extrovert.”

Speaking about lockdown, Simz said: “I spent the time doing what everyone was doing really, just reflecting.”

She added: “I know that I’m quiet, innit? …I’m just very to myself and I didn’t know how to really navigate that, especially coming in this industry where you’re expected to have this extroverted persona all the time.”

The Observer revealed that the album is 19-tracks in length with spoken-word interludes. It describes the album as “an epic, Wizard of Oz-style quest as Simz confronts her fears and counts her blessings.”

Despite her difficulties opening up, Simz’ new album sees her addressing personal issues, including a distanced relationship with her father and a relationship.

Simz added: “When it comes to business and my work, I’m not shy at all, I don’t hold back with that. I’m very serious and direct, but other stuff sometimes…”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by simz (@littlesimz)

Earlier this month, Simz teased a new video that was shot at London’s Natural History Museum.

As shared on Twitter, Simz appeared in the museum’s iconic concourse, with a blue whale skeleton suspended from the roof, alongside a host of dancers.

“end of the month , let everybody know,” she captioned the post.

Whilst not yet confirmed, the video could accompany Simz’ first single from the album, ‘Introvert’, which will be released next week (April 23)”.

Judging by the reaction GREY Area received, I would not be surprised to find her in even finer form! Looking at the possible scale, scope and story of the album, we will get to learn more about Little Simz. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is going to be a magnificent album. I can definitely feel that! Whilst Little Simz’s work pre-GREY Area is remarkable, I think that 2019’s release was a moment when she really broke through and announced herself as a formidable and sublime artist. At twenty-seven, I think we will see material from Little Simz for many more years to come. I want to bring in a very recent interview from The Observer.

“Simz, full name Simbiatu Ajikawo, doesn’t waste her words. When she talks, she is purposeful, precise, politely withholding. Yet from its overture, her fourth studio album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, reveals an interior world of cinematic proportions. “I’m definitely not the greatest at opening up,” she says today. But there are two Simz: the one that is by nature reticent and the Simz who wants to show you her universe.

Born and raised in north London, she was a shy performing arts kid who found her voice at St Mary’s Youth Club in Islington. As a teenager, she starred in TV shows on CBBC (Spirit Warriors) and E4 (Youngers), all the while making music and uploading it on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. By 21 she’d written, recorded and released four mixtapes, five EPs and an album (A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons), all on her own label, Age 101 Music. After a brief stint at the University of West London, she decided to pursue music full-time. In 2017, Kendrick Lamar described her as “the illest doing it right now”. In his 2019 headline set at Glastonbury, Stormzy shouted her out as a legend and one of 52 essential British artists coming through. Simz describes that year as the best of her life; she landed a recurring role in the Drake-sanctioned Netflix show Top Boy, and released her third album, Grey Area, to critical acclaim. In 2020, she won an Ivor Novello.

About a year ago, Simz was in Los Angeles. She and her producer, Inflo, had recently started work on Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and she was celebrating turning 26. When she thinks about that last burst of freedom before the pandemic, her mind takes her back to a changing room on the morning of her birthday. “I got a birthday outfit to wear later – a dress and heels, a little bag, a whole situation.” That night, she had dinner at Soho House with some friends who were in town, including Top Boy co-star Micheal Ward and singer-songwriter Jacob Banks. Later, they went clubbing. Then, shortly after, her manager called, panicky, and put her on a flight back to London. “As soon as I got home, I think the next day, lockdown.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jameela Elfaki/The Observer 

Suddenly, she was home alone, in her own head. “I live by myself,” she says. “I spent the time doing what everyone was doing really, just reflecting.” That period of reflection has led to some of her best work”.

There are other things Simz won’t give away. There is a tension between what she’s willing to divulge in her music and her tendency to protect her personal life when asked about it directly. Nestled in the centre of her new record is an ode to what sounds like a committed relationship (“When planning for my future, I’ll be keeping you in mind”), the details of which she’d rather not be drawn on. I ask if she’s still in love. She falls silent, eyes darting exaggeratedly from left to right like a cartoon character. “This is so awkward,” she says. I tell her she was the one who wrote about it. “I know, I know,” she says. “I always forget I have to talk about this stuff. Sometimes it’s easier to draw from pain, but I don’t always want to draw from hurtful things, I want to talk about things that make me happy”.

This year has delivered so many treats and stunning albums. The single, Introvert, will be released on Friday (23rd April). I am fascinated to see how that sounds and what direction it suggests. Maybe it will be a natural continuation of GREY Area; perhaps it will hint at an entirely fresh sonic direction. It seems like the new album is going to be truly immersive and fantastic. I love everything Simz puts out, though it seems like we are about to witness something truly biblical! It appears - from what I have seen on social media - that there is a lot of excitement brewing already. Hopefully, as restrictions are being eased, Little Simz might be able to take her new music on the road and bring it the eager and adoring masses. After the success of GREY Area and Drop 6, so many eyes and ears will be trained the way of one of Britain‘s strongest artists. One of our brightest and most inspiring musicians, one can never easily predict Little Simz. Leading up to the release of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, we will listen to the forthcoming Introvert…

WITH great interest and affection.

FEATURE: You're the One: Kate Bush and Del Palmer

FEATURE:

 

 

You're the One

Kate Bush and Del Palmer

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APART from her family…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Rex

the person who has been in Kate Bush’s life most loyally and for the longest time, I guess, would be Del Palmer. Having met Bush in the 1970s, he works with her still today. I am not sure, if there is another Bush album, Palmer will be playing on it and engineering. I would think so. Having worked as a musician on her albums since 1978’s Lionheart and in an engineering capacity since the 1980s, there has been this close working relationship between the two of them for decades. Of course, the two were in a relationship up until about 1993 (1992/1993). Even though that relationship loss would have been very hard on them both, Palmer is still Bush’s right-hand man - and there is this great trust and reliability. During the recording of 50 Words for Snow, Palmer would have been integral; though the two would not have got in each other’s way or had too much interaction (Palmer also played bass on Snowflake and bells on Wild Man). If you need some details and background regarding the relationship between Kate Bush and Del Palmer, then the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia is at hand:

“Born on 3 November 1952 in Greenwich, southeast London, Del Palmer is an English singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and sound engineer, best known for his work with Kate Bush, with whom he also had a long-term relationship between the late 1970s and early 1990s.

He began playing bass in 1967, joining friend Brian Bath's band Cobwebs and Strange. In 1969, Palmer and Bath formed Tame with Victor King on drums. The band lasted until 1970. From 1972, Palmer and Bath were in Company with Barry Sherlock (guitar) and Lionel Azulay (drums). They signed to Cube Records in 1973, but Azulay was injured in a road accident. Charlie Morgan joined on drums in 1974 and the band changed its name to Conkers. A series of singles followed on Cube.

In 1977, the KT Bush Band began with Bush, Palmer, Bath and Vic King, playing the pub circuit. Their live set included material that would later appear on Bush's first album.[9] Beginning with her second album, Lionheart, Palmer became Bush's main studio bassist. He also appeared on stage during the Tour of Life in 1979.

He is credited as an engineer on Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, The Sensual World, The Red Shoes and Aerial. He is also credited with engineering on three further albums involving Bush: Midge Ure's Answers to Nothing (where Palmer engineered her vocal guest recordings), Roy Harper's Once and Alan Stivell's Again. He played bass guitar on Lionheart, Never For Ever, The Dreaming, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World and Aerial (on 5 tracks) and on one track on 50 Words for Snow.

Palmer plays bass on Billy Sherwood's 'Back Against the Wall' and 'Return to the Dark Side of the Moon', both Pink Floyd tribute albums. He released his first solo album titled 'Leap of Faith' in 2007 with a follow up five-track EP titled 'Outtees & Alternatives' in 2008. That same year, Palmer did the mastering for Lionel Azulay's album 'Out of the Ashes', which includes the track 'Wouldn't Change a Thing' featuring Kate Bush. He originally engineered and mixed that track in 1990. He appeared in the BBC documentary Queens of British Pop discussing Kate Bush, and again in the BBC Four documentary The Kate Bush Story – Running Up That Hill. He released his second album entitled 'Gift' in 2010. His third album, 'Point of Safe Return', was released in March 2015.

Del Palmer about Kate

Most of you will already know that I have been involved both as musician and recording engineer with Kate Bush for more than thirty years. It has been, from an artistic point of view, an incredibly fruitful liaison for me. I feel privileged to have had a front row seat to watch a true artist create so many musical masterpieces. (Del Palmer Biog, Del Palmer website)

Kate about Del Palmer

My relationship with Del is very stable. We work together, we live together. It works so well for us. That can be a very intense set-up, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's all very close and direct. After ten years, maybe we ought to be restless, but we're not. Some say the decade between 20 and 30 I very telling time in terms of human development, but I believe that the whole of life is like that. Del and I argue a great deal - over songs. But we consider it healthy. Who wins? Normally, I do. I'm not the shy, retiring, fragile butterfly creature sometimes read about. I'm tough as nails. (Under The Burning Bush, You Magazine (UK), 22 October 1989)”.

I can imagine that there was a lot of affection in addition to disagreement when Palmer and Bush were a couple. They are both strong and determined people, though there was this connection and companionship that fed into the music. I am more interested in the working relationship. I don’t think that many people who are not big Kate Bush fans know much about Del Palmer and his input. From his exceptional musicianship to his engineering and dedication to Bush, he has been a huge part of her music and success!

In 2019, Palmer was interviewed by Music Radar about working with Kate Bush. It is interesting that he also plays in a tribute band (to Kate Bush), Cloudbusting:

“Palmer had already met Kate Bush back in 1976, when she was aged a mere 18. By 1977, the precocious, gifted teenager had decided to try her hand as a musician on the London pub circuit where, alongside Palmer, she performed early versions of the songs James And The Cold Gun and Them Heavy People. The pair soon developed a relationship as a couple, which lasted until the early 1990s.

EMI denied the KT Bush Band an opportunity to record on Bush’s debut LP The Kick Inside in 1978, but Palmer cemented his place as her main bassist later on her follow-up, Lionheart, and when performing with her on the Tour of Life in 1979. By 1985 he was working as a sound engineer on her sonic masterpiece Hounds Of Love, and continued in that role, alongside a gradually decreasing role on bass, until 50 Words For Snow (2011), Bush’s most recent studio album.

Last year, Palmer took to the stage for the first time in decades to perform many of the bass-lines from the Bush back catalogue with a cover band, Cloudbusting. With them, he paid tribute to The Kick Inside for the 40th anniversary of the album, and subsequently joined the group for an Irish tour. Aside from working with Bush, he’s engineered albums by Midge Ure and Roy Harper, and he released his third solo album, Point Of No Return, in 2015.

Why did you decide to tour Kate’s songbook with Cloudbusting, Del?

“It’s a very uncomplicated story. I was in Cornwall last summer on holiday, and Michael Mayall from the band lives down there. He said it would be nice to meet up so he could show me around some of the highlights of Cornwall, which we did, and we got talking about their 40th anniversary gig and playing The Kick Inside album. I thought this sounded really good and could be interesting. It soon got to the point where I asked to be involved. They didn’t ask me - I asked them! There’s something about getting up on stage in front of people that is totally addictive. I can’t understand why it’s taken me 40 years to do it again.”

Are they a tribute band, or a band in their own right?

“I swore black was blue that I would never be involved with a tribute act, but after a while I realised that they’re not actually a tribute act. The music is more important than the sum of the parts, and the people involved are very respectful of this body of work. When the Kate Bush Songbook tour came about in Ireland, I jumped at the chance. I’ve always had a good time in Ireland and I’m a citizen there now. With what’s going on in Europe, it might be quite useful...”

What were your early impressions of Kate back then?

“I thought ‘Where does this girl get all her energy from?’ She would be up at the crack of dawn, and she didn’t stop from that point onwards. She would travel into London for dance classes, come home and sing, then play and work on the music. When I was completely knackered and had to sleep, she would still be working on Wuthering Heights at two o’clock in the morning - to the point where we would get complaining letters from the neighbours. Up until 1979, she was absolutely full of energy and so driven to get her work out there.

“After the tour she wanted to redirect her energy into working in the studio. We did get some fantastic music out of that, but I really missed being out playing live and coming into contact with the fans in a big way. It was after that she got this reputation as a recluse - whereas in reality she was one of the most outgoing people I ever met.”

You must have had some fascinating creative experiences in the studio.

“I was fortunate to have been involved in a lot of moments that have now gone down in history. If you take This Woman’s Work as an example, it was created for a film project and done very quickly in an afternoon. You don’t realise that what you’ve just worked on is going to go down in legend. As far as you’re concerned, it’s just another recording session.”

What are your thoughts on Kate’s later work?

“I’ve always been of the opinion that the best of Kate Bush is when she is sitting down at the piano and playing: everything else is a distraction. Getting other musicians involved and looking for various sounds dilutes the purity of it all. The best stuff she’s ever done is piano and vocal songs. There’s always one on every album - one of those pure moments when it’s just her.”

You’ve continued to work with her, all these years after you first met.

“That’s right. On Aerial (2005) the most enjoyable thing was working with just her and the piano: we weren’t doing the long hours any more. Towards the end of the sessions we’d basically do office hours - we’d start about midday and work until seven and that would be it. By the time of the session she had the song, and had played it over and over - she knew it backwards. I set up the piano and vocal mic and she sat down and played it. That’s all there was. She’d already done the hard work in her own time, she’s done the homework - so all I had to do was add some studio magic to it. For me, that’s the best of her - and always has been”.

Del Palmer has been involved with Kate Bush’s since prior to The Kick Inside’s release in 1978. On 50 Words for Snow, he was the longest-serving member of her team. She has brought in a series of musicians and technical personal through the years…but it is Palmer who has always been there. I hope this working relationship continues until Bush retires. I am not sure what the future holds for Bush and music, though you can bet that her trusty friend Del Palmer will be in the mix! Palmer always delivers phenomenal performances and technical assistance on every Kate Bush album. It makes me excited to see…

WHAT comes along next.

FEATURE: Prince: Five Years Gone: The Hallowed Paisley Park

FEATURE:

 

 

Prince: Five Years Gone

The Hallowed Paisley Park

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THE concept of a musician…

 IN THIS PHOTO: A purple motorcycle and Prince's outfits from Under the Cherry Moon are displayed in a room named after the movie inside of Paisley Park in Chanhassen, MN. on Wednesday, 2nd November, 2016/PHOTO CREDIT: Paisley Park

having their own estate and this fixed Mecca where they create music seems strange today. I think of musicians having more modest surroundings or recoding at studios. As the fifth anniversary of Prince’s death occurs on 21st April, I am doing a few features prior to that date. I wanted to spend this one discussing a place where Prince called home; where he recorded some of his best work and, sadly, died. Paisley Park is this hallowed and legendary space where Prince could roam and create such wonderful music. As the official Paisley Park website states, it is a most wonderful and intriguing place:

“Paisley Park is a place where art, music, fashion, and culture are celebrated, energized, and inspired by the visionary creative spirit of Prince. Known as his home and studio, Paisley Park now draws people from around the world to attend tours, concerts, and events, and feel the love, awe, and wonder that are expressed in Prince’s emotional words: “Paisley Park is in your heart”.

I will come to an article written a few years ago where a journalist spent some time at Paisley Park. As Variety reports, the public are being offered rare access five years after Prince’s death:

“April 21 will mark the fifth anniversary of Prince’s death — and on that day, Paisley Park, his home, studio and “creative sanctuary,” will invite fans to pay tribute to the late artist in its atrium free of charge. Advance reservations are required.

“On the fifth anniversary of the passing of the incomparable Prince, Paisley Park, his home and creative sanctuary, is opening its doors for fans to pay tribute and celebrate his life,” the announcement reads. “The Paisley Park Atrium, 7801 Audubon Road, will be open for free visitation on Wednesday April 21 from 9:00am – 9:00pm. Advance reservations are required.

“Guests are also welcome to leave flowers, mementos, and other memorial items in front of the Love Symbol statue outside the Paisley Park main entrance.”

In the years since his death, Paisley Park has effectively become a Prince museum, although the pandemic obviously has curtailed those efforts. His estate, which was in considerable disarray at the time of his death, has reached agreements with Warner and Sony Music and has embarked on an ambitious reissue campaign that has produced three excellent boxed sets (for the “1999,” “Purple Rain” and “Sign O’ the Times” albums) as well as a superbly curated website containing a detailed history and all of his official videos, among other projects.

“Prince’s passing remains incomprehensible to all of us,” said Alan Seiffert, Paisley Park Executive Director. “We celebrate his life and legacy every day at Paisley Park, a place that Prince wanted to share with the world. So, on this day especially, we acknowledge the incredible force and inspiration Prince is in people’s lives and open up our doors for them to pay their respects”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Paisley Park is an active museum, state-of-the-art recording studio, and concert venue in Chanhassen, MN. For nearly 30 years, the facility served as Prince’s home, creative sanctuary and production complex. Fulfilling Prince’s vision that Paisley Park would one day be open to the public, the venue today welcomes fans, musicians, and audiophiles for tours, concerts, festivals, and special events. When Prince wrote the song “Paisley Park,” he envisioned a place of love and peace, where there aren’t any rules or limitations for creativity. The lyrics became a reality when Paisley Park opened its doors in 1987. Since then, it has inspired respect, ideas, connection, community, and spirituality and furthered Prince’s legacy of creative freedom/PHOTO CREDIT: Paisley Park

As a Prince fan, I would love to travel to Minnesota and visit a mansion/facility that witnessed such magic. As lord of the manor, I could only imagine the scenes at Paisley Park. In 2016, Forbes published an article that took us inside Prince’s home:

“Paisley Park was Prince’s private palace, a music factory as mysterious as the enigmatic artist himself. Adjacent to Highway 5, the 65,000-square-foot compound (size estimates vary) is a $10 million big white aluminum-and-metal mansion with a nondescript, prison-like façade, few windows, retail-style parking lots, and encircling grassy knolls. The complex’s geometric exterior is as charming as an Amazon warehouse. Its most appealing feature is the purple hue emanating from the structure (which reportedly indicated whether Prince was home).

This musical landmark’s interior has barely seen the light of day. Only professional musicians, privileged friends, special-invite fans, and journalists have seen and felt its ambiance. Prince forbade virtually all visitors from photographing or recording the inside (and he demanded journalists abandon their cell phones, recorders, and notebooks before entering his purple palace).

Here’s what we do know about Paisley Park. The property was conceived in 1983 during the filming of the Purple Rain movie (for which Prince won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score)—just as his superstardom detonated. Paisley Park was completed in 1988, designed to Prince’s specifications by BOTO Design Inc. and then 23-year-old neophyte architect Bret Thoeny.

IN THIS PHOTO: Paisley Park Studios covers about 65,000-square feet/PHOTO CREDIT: Paisley Park 

The singer’s goal—a one-stop music and film production facility with a Hollywood-style soundstage, two recording studios, a dance studio, custom costume department, and office space all under one roof. Besides music production, the venue is also used for video shoots and TV commercials. Prince produced about 30 albums at Paisley Park, including for other artists like standout singer Judith Hill. But ultimately, Paisley Park was a venue where Prince could create and produce music every single day.

The lobby is reminiscent of a “1950's American diner,” and walls “vibrant reddish purple, flickering candles lined every ledge and the smell of incense filled the air,” according to London newspaper, The Mirror. This description may be lost in translation. More accurately, the super-bright lobby with purple carpeting is a Memphis design style highlighted by a "Raspberry Beret" cloud motif, Love Symbol #2 glyph on the floor, viewing balconies, and wide glass ceiling under the pyramid skylights.

Paisley Park is where Prince produced his mid-career classic hits “Alphabet Street,” “Sign O' The Times,” “Diamonds and Pearls,” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.” His song "White Mansion" pays homage to Paisley Park with lyrics: “But one day I'll have a big white mansion. At the top of the road. I’m gonna wear the latest fashion. I'm gonna be happy, don't you know.”

Prince died in Paisley Park’s elevator which make’s lyrics from 1984’s smash anthem “Let’s Go Crazy” all the more eerie: “And if the elevator tries to bring you down. Go crazy, punch a higher floor.” Could the very religious Prince have done that? You decide. Now that he’s gone, perhaps the public will get a better glimpse of Paisley Park, just as it's posthumously learning about Prince Rogers Nelson, the man.

Paisley Park is already becoming a spiritual shrine for Prince fans, like Elvis’s Graceland. In fact, Prince's family plans to turn the estate into a future Graceland-style museum open to all, according to Prince collaborator Sheila E. This news is ironic considering Prince purposely toned down Paisley Park's exterior to avoid becoming Graceland”.

I guess that fans who get to see inside Paisley Park very soon will not have access to everything. They will get an idea of what it was like for Prince and musicians who spent time there. It is sad that the master himself will never again record from Paisley Park. It will be preserved for decades to come as a monument to a musical genius. Before concluding, I want to bring in a 2018 article from The New Yorker. Amanda Petrusich reported on her time there. Whilst this new revelation about public access being allowed at Paisley Park is exciting, access was allowed after Prince died. Petrusich tells of her experiences and recollections:

“Prince wrote often and eagerly about the idea of sanctuary—places where his spiritual anxieties were assuaged. Back then, Paisley Park was merely an imagined paradise. “Paisley Park is in your heart,” he sings on the chorus.

Three years later, it was real: in 1987, Prince built a sixty-five-thousand-square-foot, ten-million-dollar recording complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota, and called it Paisley Park. It was intended to be a commercial facility—Madonna, R.E.M., and Stevie Wonder all recorded there—but by the end of the nineteen-nineties it had stopped accepting outside clients. Eventually—no one can quite say when—Prince began living there. He wanted to establish a self-contained dominion, insulated from interference or judgment, where he enjoyed total control, and his life could bleed easily into his work.

PHOTO CREDIT: Paisley Park 

On April 21, 2016, Prince collapsed and died in an elevator at Paisley Park. He had overdosed on the opioid fentanyl, which he’d been taking for chronic hip pain. He was fifty-seven, had sold around a hundred million albums, and did not leave a will. Shortly after hearing the news, Joel Weinshanker, a managing partner of Graceland Holdings (which runs Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion, in Memphis), approached Bremer Trust, the bank tasked by a Minnesota court with administering Prince’s estate while his heirs were determined. Weinshanker wanted to make sure that Prince’s things were cared for. The bank agreed to let him visit. “The air-conditioning and the heating system weren’t working,” he told me. “There were leaks in places where you wouldn’t want leaks.”

Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, and his five half siblings were eventually named his heirs. With the family’s blessing, Graceland Holdings took over management of the property. Because Paisley Park is expensive to maintain, and because the estate was facing a considerable tax bill, the family made one decision quickly: Prince’s sanctuary would become a museum. Six months after Prince’s death, on October 28, 2016, Paisley Park opened to the public.

The Paisley Park tour charges on from the atrium, through exhibit rooms filled with displays—costumes, instruments, notebooks, gold records—that are linked to albums, films, or specific periods in Prince’s career. It snakes into his office and his editing bay, and through three studio spaces. These feel clean, modern, and expensive. One of the highlights of the tour is a chance to play Ping-Pong at Prince’s own table, where he often beat his guests—including Michael Jackson, who visited Paisley Park in 1986, while Prince was working on the film “Under the Cherry Moon,” the follow-up to “Purple Rain.” Prince mercilessly taunted the hapless Jackson, who had never played Ping-Pong before. When Jackson dropped his paddle, in defeat or clumsiness, Prince joyfully walloped a ball into his crotch. (The gift shop now sells canary-yellow Ping-Pong balls branded with Prince’s purple symbol; I bought a set of two for twelve dollars.) Prince was a more gracious basketball player, though no less formidable. “I don’t foul guests,” he told the writer Touré when they played a two-on-two game at Paisley Park, in 1998. The incongruousness of the hobby, and his skill at it, was immortalized in a “Chappelle’s Show” skit from 2004, in which Prince, who was barely five feet three, drifts gently down from the basket after a winning dunk. The bit reiterated a thought many of us had already had: that the laws of the physical world simply did not apply to Prince.

Details about Prince’s personal life remain scant, and there have been surprisingly few posthumous revelations. There is tenderness and lust in his songs, but it’s harder to find those things in the stories told about his life. This makes autobiographical readings of his work difficult. In 1996, he married Mayte Garcia, a twenty-two-year-old belly dancer. She had toured with him since she was seventeen, when her parents appointed Prince her legal guardian. Garcia gave birth to a son, Amiir, in October of that year. He died in the hospital at six days old, of a rare genetic condition. Prince refused to publicly acknowledge his son’s death. Oprah Winfrey arrived at Paisley Park just a few weeks afterward, and filmed an interview with the couple. She gently asked Prince about Amiir. “It’s all good,” he replied. “Never mind what you hear.”

Garcia’s memoir, “The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince,” was published in April of 2017. It’s one of the only first-person accounts of life at Paisley Park, and the book’s disclosures are sometimes troubling. Under the tutelage of Larry Graham, the bassist for Sly and the Family Stone, Prince became a devout Jehovah’s Witness, and because of his new faith, he discouraged Garcia from seeking medical attention after a miscarriage. He was often demanding and proprietary of other people’s bodies. If his female backing dancers gained weight, Garcia writes, he docked or withheld their pay.

At Paisley Park, he was able to write, rehearse, and record as much as he wanted, without compromise, and on his own schedule. “He didn’t see music as work,” Leeds told me. “It’s just what he did. If you called it work, you were a cynic.” In “The Most Beautiful,” Garcia includes a note that Prince sent her early in the couple’s relationship: “A secret—when I have a disagreement with someone—it’s usually only one. Then they’re gone”.

Five years after Prince’s death and the world will be paying tribute to an icon. On 21st April, I know there will be vigils, articles and articles dedicated to his memory. I think that Paisley Park plays such an important part in his legacy. Although some may not have been keen on everything they witnessed at Paisley Park, for diehard fans, having the chance to visit such a crucial part of Prince’s life is priceless! I can dream of what scenes unfolded when Prince was recording classic albums and concocting new songs. After all these years, there is nobody who has his same genius and set of talents. He is sorely missed by everyone. In memory of the upcoming fifth anniversary of his passing, I wanted to take a moment to look inside the very special…

PAISLEY Park.

FEATURE: Grammatically Correct: Saluting the Amazing Hannah Reid

FEATURE:

 

 

Grammatically Correct

PHOTO CREDIT: Zoe McConnell for NME 

Saluting the Amazing Hannah Reid

___________

THE third album…

from the Nottingham-formed trio, London Grammar, came out on Friday. Californian Soil is a stunning album that sees the group regain some of the form that was, perhaps, lost on their second album, Truth Is a Beautiful Thing. That arrived in 2017. Since then, it has been a period of change and slightly turbulence for them. I would recommend people buy Californian Soil, as it is one of this year’s best albums. When it comes to the subject of experiencing upheaval and strain, this is especially true for the group’s lead, Hannah Reid. I want to bring in an interview where she discussed the misogyny that was aimed at her by various people in the industry. From views about her appearance to being silenced, Reid has had to endure a hell of a lot! Not that her story (sadly) is confined to her alone: so many women in the music industry have had to endure sexism and misogyny. Some of the struggles Reid has faced can be heard in the new album. Before I go on to that interview and writing why Reid is such a special artist and songwriter, I want to quote NME’s review of London Grammar’s third studio album:

“London Grammar’s third album ‘Californian Soil’ marks several shifts for the group. Sonically, it’s the most upbeat they’ve ever sounded, but it’s behind the scenes that the major change occurred, with vocalist Hannah Reid stepping up into a leadership position.

The indie-pop trio, made up of Reid and multi-instrumentalists Dot Major and Dan Rothman, first formed at Nottingham University in 2009. By the time they’d graduated and released their 2013 debut album ‘If You Wait’, they’d cemented their place as one of Britain’s buzziest bands. Global tours and awards nominations followed, and in 2017 their second album ‘Truth Is A Beautiful Thing’ flew to Number One.

Behind the scenes, though, things weren’t so picture-perfect. Throughout their time as a band, Reid had been enduring countless instances of music industry misogyny. There were the engineers who didn’t take her seriously, outfits she was pushed to wear, men she couldn’t show emotion around (lest she be considered “irrational”) and unsolicited comments about her appearance.

She was exhausted by the sexist microaggressions she’d had to put up with on a daily basis, and something had to give. As she told NME in a cover story earlier this year: “I did say to Dan and Dot, ‘I don’t want this to end, but something does have to change because I just can’t keep doing my best work or going out on the road if I’m going to come back and feel this way.’”

And so, as Reid stepped up into that leadership position, assuming responsibility for the band’s visual aesthetic, she also opened herself up more in her songwriting. While on previous release, 2017’s ‘Truth Is A Beautiful Thing’, Reid retreated behind the record’s gloomy instrumentals (“I wasn’t making myself very vulnerable and I didn’t feel like I was taking any risks,” she told NME), on ‘Californian Soil’ her lyricism is honest and direct.

The album sees Reid tackle toxic relationships (‘Lord It’s A Feeling’), break-ups (‘How Does It Feel’) and the death of the American dream (‘America’), fusing her searing honesty with romantic imagery.

This bold lyricism is coupled with lush and lively musical accompaniments. On ‘Californian Soil’, London Grammar have managed to distil the ecstasy that permeates the house-laced ending of the band’s 2013 single ‘Metal & Dust’, imbuing the album with this fizzing energy. This is particularly evident when the band are assisted by British electronic musician George Fitzgerald, who co-produced the jubilant ‘Baby It’s You’ and ‘Lose Your Head’ and brings buzzing late-night verve to the table. The slinky ‘Missing’, which meshes ‘00s R&B with ambient-pop, also sees the band’s ethereal soundscapes shaken up and coupled with slick electronic beats.

In comparison, the two tracks that bookend the record, ‘Californian Soil’ and ‘America’, embrace the more sedate moments of previous London Grammar releases. ‘Californian Soil’ is a steady, art rock cut, while ‘America’ channels Lana Del Rey’s spectacular ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’, Reid’s distinctive, powerhouse vocals performing gymnastics over stripped-back guitar twangs and dusky synths.

With Reid now stepping up as the band’s leader, London Grammar are revitalised. While previous album ‘Truth Is A Beautiful Thing’ was a sombre affair, a new energy saturates ‘Californian Soil’. Fizzing with club sounds and filled with bright lyricism, London Grammar are more confident, and more fun, than they’ve ever been”.

I am betting London Grammar, like so many in music, are eager to tour and get their new music to the people! Californian Soil has seen the trio pick up some of the best reviews of their career. Together with  Dan Rothman and Dominic 'Dot' Major, Hannah Reid has enjoyed a lot of success and attention. Whilst I love what Major and Rothman bring to London Grammar, I feel it is Hannah Reid’s vocal brilliance and her songwriting that makes them such a strong force. It is shocking to read of her experiences with sexism and misogyny. In an interview with NME, Reid goes into more detail about what she faced. It seems that Reid taking the lead regarding songwriting has rejuvenated the trio somewhat too:

“It’s almost impossible for Hannah Reid to pinpoint a single moment of music industry misogyny that caused her to snap.

“We were sound checking for a gig, and I thought that the bass was too loud,” the London Grammar frontwoman remembers of one particularly egregious moment. At this particular show, her two male bandmates, instrumentalists Dot Major and Dan Rothman, were taken seriously when they asked the engineer for changes. When Hannah voiced her concern about the sound levels, though, she received an unwanted lecture on how bass actually works.

“Afterwards,” she says with an eye roll over Zoom from her home in London, “everyone complained that the bass was too loud, and I was like, ‘Yeah – I bloody said it!”

London Grammar first formed in 2009 after meeting at Nottingham University; a few years later, they emerged as one of the UK’s buzziest rising bands after the release of 2012’s ‘Metal & Dust’ EP, and (now Double Platinum) debut album ‘If You Wait’. Both were filled with the band’s intoxicating blend of art-pop – a fusion of trip-hop production, lush soundscapes and Hannah’s emotive, contralto voice. It was a sound that would earn them a slew of awards nominations (including winning an Ivor Novello for the emotive, ambient ‘Strong’), Glastonbury slots and gigs all over the world.

Behind the scenes, though, things weren’t quite so peachy. The list of sexist experiences Reid draws on for ‘Californian Soil’ is neverending. There was the mix-up before a gig when Hannah had to argue with a security guard to let her backstage to her own show, as they didn’t believe she was in the band. She later found out the staff member in question had told their tour manager that she was “a formidable young woman”.

“I was just like, ‘For fucks sake’. If I was fucking Chris Martin, he would not be called a formidable young man,” she reflects. “To me that’s just code for ‘bitch’.”

There were photoshoots where Hannah was pushed to wear certain outfits. She recounts one television appearance when she turned up to discover a rail of pre-approved ‘looks’: “One was like a glittery, very short gold dress, another one was red satin little shorts with like a little satin crop top. I do love fashion and I will dress up every once in a while if I want to, but Dan and Dot were definitely not having to put up with this. I will just wear what the fuck I want to wear, thank you very much.”

There were the industry men Hannah felt like she couldn’t show emotion around, lest she be considered ‘irrational’; the strangers who commented on what she wore online; the rooms she’d walk into with her male bandmates and feel like she had to constantly prove herself. Then there was the time that, after appearing on Radio 1 back in 2013, a tweet was posted on the station’s Twitter account that read: “We all think that the girl from @londongrammar is fit. Let us know if you agree.”

On album three, Hannah’s mindset changed: “I felt like, ‘You know what, that really didn’t work for me and I kind of have nothing else to lose now’. I want to just be completely vulnerable, say everything that I want to say and people will like it or they won’t.”

At the core of the switch was ensuring her experiences in the past aren’t replicated in the future. “I did say to [Dot and Dan], if I’m the leader, other people will have to respect me and respect us.”

Her bandmates were happy to let her take the reins. “Lyrically, [‘Californian Soil’] is very much about Hannah’s experience as a woman, and we wanted that message to come through as loud as possible,” Dot tells NME on a separate Zoom call alongside Dan a few days later.

Californian Soil’ is an album that’s begging to be enjoyed in sweaty clubs and as the sun sets over a festival stage. “It’s the most upbeat London Grammar have ever been,” says Hannah. Having sat on the finished album for 12 months, the band naturally intend to tour once it’s COVID-safe, but after the brutal nature of the band’s early tours, it’ll have to be done right.

But at least the hidden turmoil the band experience wasn’t all for nothing. “I think I’m a better person because of it,” Hannah reflects. “I think we’ll tour a lot less, but in a way I’m glad, because if I’m then looking at a schedule that I know is manageable, I will then be able to make each and every one of those gigs so special. If you end up in a place where you’re so exhausted or unwell, you’re not giving your fans what they deserve”.

I have been following London Grammar since their debut album, If You Wait, arrived in 2013. Songs such as Wasting My Young Years, Strong, Nightcall and Hey Now stuck in my heart and heart because of the amazingly soulful and powerful voice! Her delivery is so intoxicating and real. It is impossible not to be drawn to her voice. As a lyricist, I think that she is one of the most underrated in modern music. There is so much range on Californian Soil. So many terrific lines and words that can take you by surprise, draw you into another world or help you escape. I think the trio are a lot brighter, bolder and bigger than on the previous two albums. As a lead, there are few as hypnotic and talented as Reid! I think that Californian Soil is the start of a new phase for them. I am interested to see how Hannah Reid evolves and changes as a singer and songwriter. I think that she has so much more to say and offer us. It is angering to read what kind of attitudes she has had to face. The fact that she has gone through extensive periods of frustration and anxiety is upsetting. Maybe things are not completely reversed and better now, though it seems like there has been some improvement. Having just released an amazing album, there are few in the industry who can ignore Reid. She is one of my favourite artists in all of music…and every song she puts her voice to has a potency and beauty that few others can summon! I think she is a phenomenal songwriter. It will be fascinating to see where London Grammar head next. Critics are celebrating Californian Soil and calling it in a return and revitalisation. In Hannah Reid, we have one of…

OUR very finest artists.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Fifty-One: Primal Scream

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Roney/Getty Images 

Part Fifty-One: Primal Scream

___________

HAVING passed the fifty mark…

I am continuing A Buyer’s Guide with legendary Primal Scream. 1991’s Screamadelica is one of my favourite albums of the 1990s and, since I experienced that album as a child, I have been following their work. For anyone new to the band, here is some biography that should help out:

“Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (keyboards), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums). Barrie Cadogan has toured and recorded with the band since 2006 as a replacement after the departure of guitarist Robert "Throb" Young.

Primal Scream had been performing live from 1982 to 1984, but their career did not take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band were a key part of the mid-1980s indie pop scene, but eventually moved away from their jangly sound, taking on more psychedelic and garage rock influences, before incorporating a dance music element to their sound with their 1991 album Screamadelica, which broke them into the mainstream. Their latest album Chaosmosis was released on 18 March 2016”.

As their latest album was released just over five years ago, I was keen to include the Scottish band in A Buyer’s Guide. If you need to know which Primal Scream albums are worth getting then I have put together some suggestions. These are the excellent Primal Scream albums that…

YOU will want to own.

_______________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Screamadelica

Release Date: 23rd September, 1991

Labels: Creation/Sire

Producers: Andrew Weatherall/Hugo Nicolson/The Orb/Hypnotone/Jimmy Miller

Standout Tracks: Movin' On Up/Higher Than the Sun/Come Together

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/primal-scream/screamadelica-45efb525-69b0-44ce-b27f-1ab4a95b4554

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5PORx6PL7CdOywSJuGVrnc?si=oU5-lgKnSsaRrLNLChdE4Q

Review:

“Wheeee! Here come three new releases from the teen technodance bin (Jesus Jones division), all of them combining scintillating rhythm tracks with a kaleidoscope of hooky musical styles — dabbles of house music, rap, synth-pop, and for the old folks, good ol’ rock & roll. Blur’s Leisure is the standout here, plastering a Carnaby Street drawl and psychedelic guitars over some very modern, man-and-machine backing tracks. Don’t miss the throbbing chorus to ”She’s So High” or the acid-house-meets-British-Invasion beats of ”Fool” or ”There’s No Other Way.”…The musical palette is a bit broader on Screamadelica, the first full U.S. release from Primal Scream. My personal favorite is the band’s cover of Roky Erickson’s ”Slip Inside This House”; with their wound-up house-music version, they pull off a nice aural pun. Elsewhere you get everything from thoroughly modernized Stones (”Movin’ On Up”) to a thoroughly rocked-up take on the percolating black pop of Soul II Soul (”Don’t Fight It, Feel It”). Ultimately, though, the pastiches backfire a bit; the dizzying array of styles keeps the band from developing a consistent personality…. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, believe it or not, is aptly named: Stylistically, God Fodder contains everything but the kitchen sink, all done nuclear strength. The music is dancified, but there’s some punk here as well — the guitars attack your speakers (and ears). ”Kill your television,” they holler in one song, and there’s even a nicely sarcastic look at what used to be called the generation gap. The guys in Ned’s actually seem to have something to say. Leisure: A-; Screamadelica: B+; God Fodder: B+” – Entertainment Weekly

Choice Cut: Loaded

Give Out But Don't Give Up

Release Date: 28th March, 1994

Labels: Creation/Sire

Producers: David Bianco/George Clinton/Tom Dowd/George Drakoulias

Standout Tracks: Jailbird/(I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind/Give Out But Don't Give Up

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1648942

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0j2jLKMZRXxh43wpcm9Ua9?si=PPggraCHT66_zUbAf-Am5w

Review:

“Glasgow, Scotland's Primal Scream does the '70s better than just about anyone in the '90s. The band's second U.S. album is littered with '70s influences-from the "Wild Horses"-style acoustic ballads "Everybody Needs Somebody" and "Cry Myself Blind" to the T. Rex-inspired "Rocks" and the P-Funkish "Funky Jam." What elevates the band led by vocalist Bobby Gillespie above mere mimicry is their solid songcraft and musicianship, aided by guest appearances by George Clinton, the Memphis Horns and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. The band also has a secret weapon in second lead vocalist Denise Johnson, who duets with Clinton on "Give Out." If you want to hear some '90s-style "classic rock," this is it” – Chicago Tribune

Choice Cut: Rocks

Vanishing Point

Release Date: 7th July, 1997

Labels: Creation/Reprise

Producers: Primal Scream/Brendan Lynch/Andrew Weatherall

Standout Tracks: Burning Wheel/Star/Motörhead

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vanishing-Point-VINYL-Primal-Scream/dp/B0058NXVD2

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4VhBLFWE273FyI3rDeNx0A?si=P-X-N3kCQWOyJjIbE1CF0A

Review:

“Primal Scream found themselves in danger of losing their hip audience in the wake of their misconceived trad-rock record, Give Out But Don't Give Up. As a reaction, they returned to the genre-bending, electronic dance-rock of the seminal Screamadelica for Give Out's follow-up, Vanishing Point. Instead of recycling the dazzlingly bright neo-psychedelia of Screamadelica, Primal Scream reaches deep into cavernous dub and '60s pop. Vanishing Point is a dark, trippy album, filled with mind-bending rhythms and cinematic flourishes. The addition of former Stone Roses bassist Mani to the Scream gives their music an organically funky foundation that had been lacking. Over those rhythms are samples, reverbed guitars, and synthesizers that echo spy movies, Southern soul, and the Stones. Above anything else, Vanishing Point is about sound and groove. Words remain a weak point for Bobby Gillespie, who only manages cohesive lyrics on the swirling "Burning Wheel" and "Star," but that is a secondary concern, since Primal Scream is at its best when working the rhythms. Songs like "Kowalski" and, in particular, the extended instrumentals of "Get Duffy" and "Trainspotting" illustrate that the group is still capable of creating exotic, thoroughly entrancing sounds, which is what makes Vanishing Point a remarkable comeback” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Kowalski

XTRMNTR

Release Date: 31st January, 2000

Labels: Creation/Astralwerks

Producers: Brendan Lynch/Primal Scream/Jagz Kooner/David Holmes/Hugo Nicolson/The Chemical Brothers/Kevin Shields/Tim Holmes

Standout Tracks: Accelerator/Swastika Eyes/Pills

Buy: https://www.lostinvinyl.org/new-products-3/primal-scream-xtrmntr-2lp-reissue

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6IpWFkYgfNoH4aAgCfySgL?si=RDJWvMHKTcqcpU7STcV5cA Review:

“Typically, electronic-rock fusion falls flat for smelling too much like silicon and solder. XTRMNTR defies such classification thanks to the brilliance of Kevin Shields. This is the man who crafted one of the most sonically incredible records of all time, and his work here proves his skills have not diminished. "MBV Arkestra" drifts in hypnotic rhythms. Shields mixes countless tracks of accelerated drums into a thick snakecharm. Layer upon layer of sandstorm guitars and horns sweep over the shifting dunes of beats. The song feels like a drugged-up rush through a packed Punjabi streetmarket. People, it's My Bloody Valentine! On "Accelerator" Shields pushes the volume to an exploding point like gravity pulling an MC5 song back into the atmosphere. White flames flare off charred drums as strings turn to magma. Elsewhere, his influence is felt, like on the wargame instrumentals of "Blood Money" and "Shoot Speed/Kill Light". 

The album has its shortcomings. "Keep Your Faith" and "Insect Royalty" dip a bit too much into the more sentimental song-based style of the last record, Vanishing Point, and "Swastika Eyes" needs no reprise. But the fighting spirit keeps Primal Scream ahead of the pack. Gillespie now sports post-lice hair and mysterious face scratches. He's a battered veteran who's making up for some horrible moments in the past. Rest assured, Rod Stewart will not be able to cover anything from XTRMNTR. 

Some still sadly associate Primal Scream with their baggy rock days. Yet few other bands evolve this deep into their career, let alone care. At some point in the mid-90s, Primal Scream woke up and realized they'd made a mistake. Their new political agenda digests much easier than bands like Rage Against the Machine who market their entire career off such stances. In the end, Primal Scream understood that under all of the rants there has to lie a steady throb of rump-shaking war” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: Kill All Hippies

The Underrated Gem

 

Beautiful Future

Release Date: 21st July, 2008

Label: B-Unique

Producers: Björn Yttling/Paul Epworth

Standout Tracks: Beautiful Future/Uptown/Necro Hex Blues (ft. Josh Homme)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=28069&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/313B3JiySwgy0ZBpZC4vIV?si=1qi8aDbwT0iencRpNl-Dng

Review:

“Not many bands with 26 years of history can claim consistent self-reinvention album after album; unless of course you’re Primal Scream. A band that have seen multiple line-up changes, battled drug addiction, courted political controversy and dabbled in everything from acid house psychedelics, complex dance, euphoric rock, dark-electro and a whole lot more besides. OK, so it hasn’t always worked in their favour, but nine albums later and ‘Beautiful Future’ is one that further vindicates Gillespie & Co’s autonomous worth. Reinvention in this case is the Scream’s stab at pop, but as you’d expect, there’s a lot more to it than that and any pop content is left solely at the bands discretion.

Complimented by a heady genre crunching mix of signature electro fuzz and accelerated rock n roll, the angular guitars and electro splashed charm of ‘Beautiful Future’, ‘The Glory Of Love’ and ‘Uptown’ juxtaposed with Gillespie’s intoxicating vocal haze and inscrutable lyrics fuel a double edged euphoria. And while the Riot City Blues familier ‘Zombie Man’ placed alongside the vast snatches of smeared emptiness in ‘Beautiful Summer’ reassures, Mooney and Mounfield’s precise percussion-bass partnership keeps the breakneck electro-rock of ‘Cant Go Back’ and ‘Suicide Bomb’ from mutating into serotonin shifting paranoia.

Primal Scream are no strangers to collaboration (previous guest appearances include Kate Moss and Robert Plant to name a few) and ‘Beautiful Future’ is no exception. CSS’s Lovefoxx gets in on the act with the claustrophobic MDMA shadow throb of ‘I Love To Hurt (You Love To Be Hurt)’ as does British folk-rock legend Linda Thompson who features on the simple, stunning and beautiful cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ballad ‘Over & Over’, before Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme’s lip-smacking guitar skills shatter the illusion with ‘Necro Hex Blues’, the end result of a Thin Lizzy tribute jam between Homme and the Scream’s very own Andrew Innes.

So the all important question; is it any good? Of course it is and although it won’t rank alongside their best, its appeal is unquestionable and the merits of album number nine can only be measured by three decades of incredibly high self set standards” – Gigwise

Choice Cut: Can’t Go Back

The Latest Album

 

Chaosmosis

Release Date: 18th March, 2016

Labels: First International/Ignition  

Producers: Bobby Gillespie/Andrew Innes/Björn Yttling

Standout Tracks: Trippin' on Your Love/100% or Nothing/Where the Light Gets In

Buy: https://assai.co.uk/collections/vinyl-offers/products/primal-scream-chaosmosis-lp-vinyl-new-33rpm

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6y9cSoZ4ZCiRIGWjvbUhPL?si=rz-o6raHSt-GVcoJeaZNVQ

Review:

“Autumn In Paradise’ abandons any attempt at subtlety when it comes to gently borrowing aspects of New Order’s sound, shuffling along with a Factory catalogue number only just out of sight. ‘When The Blackout Meets The Fallout’ feels like their ‘XTRMNTR’ incarnation popping back for a sub-two minute disco reboot and, while a little diverting in such company, it’s all a rather glorious folly.

‘Carnival Of Fools’ is built around a naggingly insistent piano line and a simplistic synth stomp, but its real strength is a some neat double-tracking of the vocal. A lop-sided, bleary-eyed nugget, it feels like new ground for a band who have famously been pretty much everywhere. The same could be said of ‘I Can Change’, on which Gillespie near-whispers an account of detachment from the depths atop a reedier synth line that belongs in the early hours.

The album’s centre features an odd couple. Firstly, the gloriously delicate ‘Private Wars’, a brief and sparse acoustic piece with more talk of change and then early single ‘Where The Light Gets In’, a duet with Sky Ferreira that never quite manages to sound as effortless as one suspects it should. Still, it has a fairly enormous chorus and it serves as quite a neat summary of where Primal Scream are in 2016. They’re still pushing on, still evolving their sound despite having at least one foot in the past and still obsessed with finding decent melodies. As a result, they make missteps - some more catastrophic than others - but they would seemingly always rather try it and see than worry what anyone might think.

‘Chaosmosis’ from its title onwards is endearingly flawed, but the sense of communal enjoyment with which they are synonymous radiates from a large swathe of this material and it remains pretty addictive” – CLASH

Choice Cut: I Can Change

The Primal Scream Book

 

The Scream: The Music, Myths and Misbehaviour of "Primal Scream"

Author: Kris Needs

Publication Date: 20th November, 2003

Publisher: Plexus

Synopsis:

“This biography of Primal Scream, by legendary rock journalist Kris Needs, tells the real story of one of the few remaining bands genuinely devoted to the rock n roll lifestyle. At its peak on the road, Primal Scream s special brand of chaos has been witnessed by the author, who has accompanied them on most of their major tours. He has incorporated his experiences with the band into a fly-on-the-wall testimony for the book, resulting in much more than a conventional biography. Alongside this, Needs lays bare the band s raison d ªtre  the music exploring their influences and roots via a series of exclusive interviews with the band members themselves” – Amazon.co.uk

Buy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scream-Music-Myths-Misbehaviour-Primal/dp/0859653382/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=primal+scream+music&qid=1617804738&s=books&sr=1-1

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Awesome Remixes

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Kylie Minogue/PHOTO CREDIT: Jenny Brough 

Awesome Remixes

___________

I do love original album tracks…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Andrew Weatherall/PHOTO CREDIT: John Barrett

and the impact they can make. I am interested when a track or single gets a remix. Throughout the years, there have been some phenomenal examples. They can take a track that may seem quite ordinary and raise it to a new level. Róisín Murphy has recently revealed a new remixes album. Dua Lipa has also released a remix album of her Future Nostalgia smash. I am curious whether artists are keen to hear songs in a new light after spending so much time with them or whether it is a way of extending the shelf life of that album. A truly great remix can add something to a song and introduce it to a new audience. Because of that, I am bringing in a few great remixes through the years. I hope that there are some remixes in this Lockdown Playlist…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim)

THAT capture your imagination.

FEATURE: Beat on the Brat: The Ramones’ Eponymous Debut at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Beat on the Brat

The Ramones’ Eponymous Debut at Forty-Five

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SOME hugely important albums…

PHOTO CREDIT: Roberta W. Bayley

celebrate big anniversaries this year. I have covered a few already. Not only does The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers turns fifty on 23rd April. On the same day, the Ramones’ eponymous debut turns forty-five. I think that Ramones is not only one of the most important albums in the history of Punk/Punk-Rock; it might be one of the most influential and important albums ever. Rather than me expend a lot of words, I want to bring in reviews and articles that properly contextualise the album and explore its huge significance. Here is some background information regarding Ramones:

“Ramones is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Ramones, released on April 23, 1976 by Sire Records. After Hit Parader editor Lisa Robinson saw the band at a gig in New York City, she wrote about them in an article and contacted Danny Fields, insisting that he be their manager. Fields agreed and convinced Craig Leon to produce Ramones, and the band recorded a demo for prospective record labels. Leon persuaded Sire president Seymour Stein to listen to the band perform, and he later offered the band a recording contract. The Ramones began recording in January 1976, needing only seven days and $6,400 to record the album. They used similar sound-output techniques[clarification needed] to those of the Beatles and used advanced production methods by Leon.

The album cover, photographed by Punk magazine's Roberta Bayley, features the four members leaning against a brick wall in New York City. The record company paid only $125 for the front photo, which has since become one of the most imitated album covers of all time. The back cover depicts an eagle belt buckle along with the album's liner notes. After its release, Ramones was promoted with two singles, which failed to chart. The Ramones also began touring to help sell records; these tour dates were mostly based in the United States, though two were booked in Britain”.

Whilst some would debate the fact, Ramones is the first Punk-Rock record. It was a game-changer that introduced the New York band to a hungry and excited audience. I want to source from an article Louder Wire published last year to mark forty-five years of the Ramones’ debut album:

On April 23, 1976, the Ramones forever sped up rock music with their self-titled debut album. To many, it’s considered to be the first true punk rock album, still inspiring buzzsaw-guitared acts to this day.

After forming in 1974 and emerging as the leading act for now-iconic New York City venue CBGB, the Ramones took to the eighth floor of Radio City Music Hall to record Ramones at Plaza Sound studio. Thanks to the Ramones’ no-frills spirit, immense work ethic and Johnny Ramone's refusal to do more than a few takes for each track, Ramones was recorded in just seven days for a minute sum of $6,400.

Clocking in at just over 29 minutes in length, the Ramones committed 13 original tracks and one cover (Chris Montez’s “Let’s Dance”) to their debut. Though proto-punk acts like the Stooges and Television were of tremendous inspiration to the Ramones, a much less obvious influence, the Beatles, actually shaped much of Ramones’ final product. Extremely raw production in placing Dee Dee Ramone’s bass strictly in the left channel, Johnny Ramone’s guitar in the right channel and dropping Tommy’s drums and Joey’s vocals in the center was an homage to the Beatles’ earliest work. The original Ramones album cover was also inspired by the Beatles, but it was scrapped for the now-iconic band shot taken by Roberta Bayley, which shows Johnny Ramone slyly slipping us the middle finger.

An amalgam of tongue-in-cheek topics filled Ramones’ track listing. “We all kind of shared a dark sense of humor,” Joey Ramone divulged in the acclaimed documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones. Cartoonish Nazi rhetoric was placed into classics like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World,” the latter of which contains lyrics like, “I’m a shock trooper in a stupor / Yes I am / I’m a Nazi schatze / Y’know I fight for fatherland.” These weren’t the original lyrics, however. Sire Records president Seymour Stein pleaded with the Ramones to drop the verse, "I'm a Nazi, baby, I'm a Nazi / Yes I am.” After threatening to remove Ramones’ closing track completely, the band ultimately agreed to the lyrics we all hear today, though you can listen to Joey barreling through the song’s unrecorded verse on the Ramones’ legendary 1979 live album, It’s Alive.

Ramones was vastly ahead of its time, selling poorly upon its release. Sire still stuck to their guns and supported the Ramones, watching as the punk icons gained a big following overseas, especially England, leading to the formation of bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash.

It took Ramones 38 years to attain gold status by the RIAA, finally selling half a million copies in the United States as of April 30, 2014. To this day, Ramones remains the only studio album in the bands catalogue to go gold. Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone had all passed away long before they were awarded their gold plaques, though they did enjoy a victory in 1994 when the Ramones' Mania compilation went gold in 1994. Tommy Ramone lived long enough to see Ramones sell half a million copies domestically, but sadly died just three months later.

Four decades later, Ramones remains untouched by the rust of time. And though the Ramones would go on to release many more classics during the band's 22-year career, Ramones remains a brilliant recording from front to back”.

There is no doubt that Ramones is a flawless album. I have not seen a review for its any less than glowing and hugely enthusiastic. Although the band pack in fourteen tracks, each are so short that they blitz by. Ramones never sounds packed or too long. It is one of those albums that has not dated. One can spin it today and bond with each song. I want to bring in a review from the BBC. This is what they wrote in their review:

“Dumb, crude, three-chord thrash? Yes. Fast, exhilarating and brand new? Yes. Intelligent, boundary smashing and woefully underrated? Definitely. The Ramones were all of these things and more. Like a film’s opening credits their first album contains everything that their later career was to offer, and in 1976 nothing else sounded quite like it.

Formed in 1974 by a bunch of middle class kids with a mutual love of the Stooges , New York Dolls and 60s garage bands, they followed bass player Dee Dee’s lead and all adopted the surname Ramone, subsuming their identities beneath the concept and started pairing down their sound into the two minute rushes that we know and love them for today. Shows were understandably brief when they started growing a fanbase at New York’s CBGB’s.

Initially reviled by the American press for their seemingly crude approach to rock ‘n’ roll the barest glance at their lyrics reveals a dark sense of humour and a perfect understanding of rock’s dynamics. Nazi affiliations (“Today Your Love Tomorrow The World”, child abuse (“Beat On The Brat”), drug abuse (“Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”), the Cuban Missile Crisis? (“Havana Affair”); all were fair game in da brudders alternative universe of nihilism and short sharp fun. But anybody who was looking closely would have also spotted a softer side. Their love of Phil Spector’s perfect pop, referenced in “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend” (interestingly the only song on the album with another instrument apart from guitar and drums – the glockenspiel) was to later put them in the hands (and allegedly at the end of a gun barrel) of the midget genius on their End Of The Century album.

Luckily some people did get the joke. In the UK they were first played not by cool figurehead, John Peel, but by that bastion of prog and metal – Alan Freeman! Like the Velvets’ first album, not many people did actually buy the album, but nearly all who did formed a band. For a couple of years they took their formula further and faster and the world resounded to the cry of "onetwothrefour!”.

I hope that a lot of people return to Ramones to mark its forty-fifth anniversary. In terms of its legacy, there are few albums as seismic:

“Ramones is considered to have established the musical genre of punk rock, as well as popularizing it years afterward. Rombes wrote that it offered "alienated future rock", and that it "disconnected from tradition." The album was the start of the Ramones' influence on popular music, with examples being genres such as heavy metal, thrash metal, indie pop,  grunge, post-punk, and most notably, punk rock. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said of their influence on rock in general:

When the [Ramones] hit the street in 1976 with their self-titled first album, the rock scene, in general, had become somewhat bloated and narcissistic. The Ramones got back to basics: simple, speedy, stripped-down rock and roll songs. Voice, guitar, bass, drums. No makeup, no egos, no light shows, no nonsense. And though the subject matter was sometimes dark, emanating from a sullen adolescent basement of the mind, the group also brought cartoonish fun and high-energy excitement back to rock and roll.

Despite the lack of popularity in its era, the importance of the album for the development of punk rock music was incredible, influencing many of the most well-known names in punk rock, including The Damned, the Clash, Black Flag, Misfits, and Green Day. Billie Joe Armstrong, singer for Green Day, explained his reasoning for listening to the band: "they had songs that just stuck in your head, just like a hammer they banged right into your brain." The album also had a great impact on the English punk scene as well, with the bassist for Generation X, Tony James, saying that the album caused English bands to change their style. "When their album came out," commented James, "all the English groups tripled speed overnight. Two-minute-long songs, very fast." In another interview, James stated that "Everybody went up three gears the day they got that first Ramones album. Punk rock—that rama-lama super fast stuff—is totally down to the Ramones. Bands were just playing in an MC5 groove until then.” In 1999, Classic Albums by Collins GEM recognized Ramones as the start of English punk rock and called it the fastest and hardest music that could possibly be concocted, stating: "The songs within were a short, sharp exercise in vicious speed-thrash, driven by ferocious guitars and yet halting in an instant. It was the simple pop dream taken to its minimalist extreme." In 2012 the album was preserved by the National Recording Registry, deeming it "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".

I want to conclude by bringing in a review from AllMusic. Through the years, critics around the world have had their say about Ramones:

“With the three-chord assault of "Blitzkrieg Bop," The Ramones begins at a blinding speed and never once over the course of its 14 songs does it let up. The Ramones is all about speed, hooks, stupidity, and simplicity. The songs are imaginative reductions of early rock & roll, girl group pop, and surf rock. Not only is the music boiled down to its essentials, but the Ramones offer a twisted, comical take on pop culture with their lyrics, whether it's the horror schlock of "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement," the gleeful violence of "Beat on the Brat," or the maniacal stupidity of "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." And the cover of Chris Montez's "Let's Dance" isn't a throwaway -- with its single-minded beat and lyrics, it encapsulates everything the group loves about pre-Beatles rock & roll. They don't alter the structure, or the intent, of the song, they simply make it louder and faster. And that's the key to all of the Ramones' music -- it's simple rock & roll, played simply, loud, and very, very fast. None of the songs clock in at any longer than two and half minutes, and most are considerably shorter. In comparison to some of the music the album inspired, The Ramones sounds a little tame -- it's a little too clean, and compared to their insanely fast live albums, it even sounds a little slow -- but there's no denying that it still sounds brilliantly fresh and intoxicatingly fun”.

Ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary on 23rd April, I wanted to celebrate and spotlight a classic album. Ramones is an album that opened doors and minds back in 1976. It inspired a generation; its shockwaves and influence is still being felt and heard to this day. This is a passionate salute to…

AN iconic album.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Joni Mitchell - Woodstock

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell playing acoustic guitar in November 1968. This image is from a shoot for the fashion magazine, Vogue. Mitchell wore a loose-fitting white dress/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Robinson/Getty Images

Joni Mitchell - Woodstock

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EVEN though I have…

featured Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock on my blog before, it is a song that I wanted to return to. The penultimate track of her 1970 album, Ladies of the Canyon, I think Woodstock is one of the finest songs in Mitchell’s cannon. There have been some impressive covers of the song through the years – my favourite is Matthews Southern Comfort’s -, but I think there is something about Joni Mitchell’s original that stops you in your tracks. I really like the Ladies of the Canyon album and, if I had to choose, I would pick it as my favourite album of hers. Ending with three brilliant tracks in Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock, and The Circle Game, you are left wanting more! In fact, there is not a dropped note or song on the album. This year marks fifty years since the follow-up album, Blue, was released. I am going to write about that album closer to its anniversary in June. Now, I want to spend some time about a song regarding a legendary music festival. Woodstock started on 15th  Aug, 1969 - so this was a new and exciting revelation at a time when peace and love was being promulgated. I think, against the backdrop of warfare and political strife, Woodstock paints pictures of togetherness and a peaceful army. Woodstock had three versions released in 1970. Mitchell’s was included on her as the B-side to her single, Big Yellow Taxi.

The second release that year was by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; their version has become a staple of Classic Rock radio and is the best-known version in the United States. The third version, by the British group Matthews Southern Comfort became the best-known version in the United Kingdom; it was the highest charting version of the song, reaching the top of the U.K. Pop charts in 1970. It is testament to the strength of the song that two other groups covered it in such quick succession! There are a couple of articles that I want to borrow from that take us deeper into an iconic song. The first, from Far Out Magazine discusses how the song sounds so evocative of the festival experience, despite the fact Mitchell never attended Woodstock herself:

“Woodstock ’69 was one of the most significant cultural events that America has ever witnessed, it would change the course of countless careers and immediately become a thing of legend. However, one person who unfortunately missed out on their Woodstock moment was the great Joni Mitchell.

The historic and groundbreaking event was held from August 15–18 in 1969, hosted on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York. Originally billed as ‘An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music’ but people instead just referred to it simply as the Woodstock Rock Festival. The first edition of the festival attracted a mammoth audience size of more than 400,000 who flocked to the fields on the East Coast for the bash.

IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell plays Woodstock at the site of the original Woodstock festival in 1998 

Despite not appearing at the event, the footage from the weekend was unavoidable and Mitchell was inspired to write the song from the perspective of her fear of missing out. The track went on to become one of her most-loved numbers which featured on her timeless Ladies of the Canyon record in 1970 as well as serving as the B-Side to ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.

‘Woodstock’ tells the story of a young music fan’s voyage to the festival and the life-changing weekend that they embarked on — it is the perfect encapsulation of the historical event which played a huge part in creating its legacy despite Mitchell pulling out of the bash.

Mitchell made up for the lost time when she got to perform the track at the site of the original 1969 festival almost 30 years later in 1998 during A Day In The Garden festival which was a tribute to the iconic event and she finally got her belated Woodstock moment”.

The fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock was supposed to happen in 2019, yet it never went ahead. I wonder if we will ever see the festival again because, after such a hard last year or so, many people would love to converge and come alive at one of the world’s most-famous events. I think there would have been something truly evocative about the first Woodstock in 1969. Listening to Mitchell’s song, there is a sense of hope and love; there is also a feeling that, despite everything, true peace and comfort cannot be guaranteed.

This article of 2019 investigates the fact Woodstock offers no guarantee of hope. That said, the song gives us one of Joni Mitchell’s richest vocal performances:

“In her book, Break, Blow, Burn, an analysis of several hundred years of western poetry, Camille Paglia calls Mitchell’s “Woodstock”: “Possibly the most popular and influential poem composed in English since Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy.’” Paglia, a contentious thinker whose opinions on sexual assault and #MeToo have led many to call her “dangerous,” continues, claiming Mitchell’s hymn to show an understanding of what it meant for thousands of people to have merged together without question or violence. “From that assembly rises a mystical dream of people on earth and of mankind’s reconnection to nature,” she writes.

A 1970 review of Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon in Rolling Stone calls “Woodstock” “mellowing” with a “quicksilver effect.” The album itself, writes the reviewer, is one of “departures, overheard conversations and unquiet triumphs for this hymnal lady who mingles the random with the particular so effectively.” And that she does. With “Woodstock,” Mitchell builds for herself a dream. Propped against the periphery of a great muddy spectacle, she imagines a mystical journey had by innocent individuals against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, amid the destruction of our ecosystems. Hers is a fictional tale rooted in particular events — whether those events were relayed secondhand or taken in through a grainy hotel television set. “The deprivation of not being able to go provided me with an intense angle on Woodstock,” Mitchell once recalled to an interviewer. “Woodstock, for some reason, impressed me as being a modern miracle, like a modern-day fishes-and-loaves story. For a herd of people that large to cooperate so well, it was pretty remarkable, and there was tremendous optimism.”

Mitchell, at first, wrote the song “for her friends to sing,” as she put it in a BBC Live In-Studio in 1970 — quickly amending the statement with a jolty “…for myself to sing, as well!” The two versions are almost unrecognizable as the same song. CSNY’s is a rousing, guitar-solo laden, electronic organ-filled blues bop: totally anthemic, not at all melancholic. From the get-go, it’s all synthy guitars and rock ’n’ roll. Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” on the other hand, is a different beast. A dark jazz piano builds to an unsettling fortissimo. A dream is born.

Vocally, “Woodstock” is one of Mitchell’s most challenging songs. Listening to CSNY’s version side by side with hers, of course, makes the arrangement feel even more herculean. Her voice wriggles, crossing octaves, making statements in mid voice, raising questions in falsetto. In my opinion, the only other time she executes like this is on “A Case of You” — and perhaps also “Cactus Tree” — two songs which convey heaps of meaning”.

At their core are themes of love and humanity: freedom-seeking women both full and hollow-hearted; men so precious you can only consume them as you would wine; and humans understanding, finally — altogether in one place — that they are mere piles of billion-year-old carbon. Sure, there are plenty of other tracks where Mitchell’s voice soars and bounces across time and space, somersaulting through litanies of obliqueness. But not all are as painfully felt, as massively significant as songs like “A Case of You,” in which Mitchell inserts herself, “the lonely painter” or “Woodstock,” in which she melds into a crowd of half a million — and as a lone wanderer, becomes a spokeswoman for them all.

And yet, she makes no promises for her generation; providing little in the way of hope. If anything, the song is more a warning from someone who’s already felt the potential hiatus more strongly than her glittering compatriots. “Woodstock” begs us to stay in that place of hippy grazing, to not let the illusion fade. As David Yaffe, author of Reckless Daughter: a Portrait of Joni Mitchell, writes of the song, “It is purgation. It is an omen that something very, very bad will happen when the mud dries and the hippies go home.” Peace and love, for Mitchell, is very serious business. And getting ourselves back to the garden — well, that’s how we stay out of Gomorrah”.

I wanted to look back on an incredible song from Joni Mitchell. In terms of her finest albums, I would say 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon is her best. I love Blue and other albums like 1974’s Court and Spark. It will be wonderful to mark fifty years of Blue very soon. I think that the first signs of Mitchell’s true genius presented themselves on Ladies of the Canyon. If Blue is more personal and a slightly more emotive and heavier listen, then Ladies of the Canyon is a little broader and lighter. In terms of topics, Mitchell covers everything from the aesthetic weight of celebrity, to observation of the Woodstock generation, to the complexities of love. Ladies of the Canyon is viewed as a transition between Mitchell's folky earlier work and the more sophisticated, poignant albums that were to follow. In Woodstock, she created one of her very greatest tracks. I think it holds immense power over fifty years since it was released. Whilst Mitchell did not attend Woodstock, the namesake track evokes feelings of hope and community set against the backdrop of a turbulent time for the United States. To me, Woodstock is this…

WORK of wonder and brilliance.

FEATURE: Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away: The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away

The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers at Fifty

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I wanted to mark the upcoming…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Rolling Stones in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Webb

fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest albums of the 1970s. The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers arrived in the middle of a golden period for them. Following 1968’s Beggars Banquet and 1969’s Let It Bleed, the band would follow Sticky Fingers with, arguably, their greatest album in 1972’s Exile on Main St. Not only was their consistency stunning. The fact they were releasing such strong albums so regularly is astonishing. I want to bring in articles and reviews about a truly stunning album. Before that, it is worth bringing in some background and basics regarding Sticky Fingers:

“Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and eleventh American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released 23 April 1971 on their new, and own, label Rolling Stones Records after previously having been contracted by Decca Records and London Records in the UK and US since 1963. It is Mick Taylor's second full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album (after the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!) without contributions from guitarist and founder Brian Jones, who died two years earlier. The original cover artwork, conceived by Andy Warhol and photographed and designed by members of his art collective, The Factory, showed a picture of a man in tight jeans and had a working zipper that opened to reveal a pair of underwear. The cover was expensive to produce and damaged the vinyl record, so later re-issues featured just the outer photograph of the jeans.

The album featured a return to basics for the Rolling Stones. The unusual instrumentation introduced several albums prior was absent; most songs featuring drums, guitar, bass, and percussion as provided by the key members: Mick Jagger (lead vocal, various percussion and rhythm guitar), Keith Richards (guitar and backing vocal), Mick Taylor (guitar), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), and Charlie Watts (drums). Additional contributions were made by long-time Stones collaborators including saxophonist Bobby Keys and keyboardists Billy Preston, Jack Nitzsche, Ian Stewart, and Nicky Hopkins. As with the other albums of the Rolling Stones classic late 1960s/early 1970s period, it was produced by Jimmy Miller”.

I will come on to the iconic cover photo for Sticky Fingers soon. In terms of the albums of The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers is right up there with my favourites. With classics like Wild Horses and Brown Sugar, it is an album where the band really hit their stride. Fifty years after its release and Sticky Fingers sounds both thrilling and timeless. It is both raw and tender. Its range and quality led to the album being included on many lists of the best albums of all-time. I want to bring in an article from Albuism. They looked back on Sticky Fingers on its forty-fifth anniversary in 2016. They discussed the challenging path The Rolling Stones faced in the lead-up to their eleventh album:

“Every great band has a defining, signature moment in which they let the universe know that they are going in a very different direction. The Beatles' Revolver was our tour guide to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The road to Exile on Main Street was hand-delivered to us by Sticky Fingers, the ninth British and eleventh American studio album by the Rolling Stones.

This transitional phase was not an easy one. Let's go back to March 1969. During the recording sessions for Let It Bleed, Brian Jones' erratic behavior had taken a severe toll on the band. His multiple drug arrests made it almost impossible for the band to tour the United States. He was in such a bad state that he only contributed to two songs, playing autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on "Midnight Rambler.” On June 9th of that year, he was fired from the band that he had formed. Keith Richards played all of the guitar parts on the rest of Let It Bleed.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Rolling Stones in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Webb 

The opening riff on "Brown Sugar" was all Keith Richards, but the unsung star of this album is Mick Taylor, the newest member of the band. His contributions on the tracks "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "I Got the Blues" are clear evidence that a new era for the Stones was being ushered in. Sticky Fingers manages to pull off the difficult task of simultaneously offering a loving nod to the Stones' bluesy past and a foreshadowing of their hazy drug-fueled future.

Sticky Fingers is a night out on the town with an old friend whom your significant other kind of likes, but knows will get you very drunk and render you useless the following day. Your night starts out at a very cool bar in New York City (the old, really cool New York City, not the one that exists today). You've already told yourself that you’ll have just a couple, but then you're heading straight home.

"Brown Sugar" is that song that makes your ears perk up once you hear that opening guitar. It brings you to a familiar place and you're at ease. "Sway" and "Wild Horses" is that point in the evening where your friend, this free spirit whose life, free of responsibility, you sometimes envy, tells you about the person who's captured his heart. Once you're over the shock that your friend even has a heart, you can’t help but say to yourself "damn!”  By the time "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" rolls along, your friend manages to convince you to down three shots of Jameson's. At this point, you know you're in for the long-haul. "You Gotta Move" and "Bitch" is that inevitable conversation you have about lovers long gone.

Sticky Fingers is that old friend you miss dearly. You love hearing the stories. You don't mind knocking back a few and feeling like you're living on the edge for a little bit with the full knowledge that you can return safely to the world you enjoy now. Thank you Sticky Fingers, my troubled yet brilliant friend. For the past 45 years, you've never let me down”.

We do not see it much these days, but a great album cover can almost court as much press and popularity as the material within. The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers is one of the most popular and discussed cover ever. In this article from 2018, we learn more about the creation and legacy of a classic cover:

“No other Stones album cover would express the band’s decadence so well. According to 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind the Sleeves by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell (themselves legends of album cover design), Warhol suggested the idea of using a real trouser zipper to Mick Jagger at a party in 1969. Jagger, intrigued, asked Warhol to do the design.

Warhol’s former manager Paul Morrissey was quoted in 100 Best Album Covers thusly: “Andy was sensible enough to know not to be pretentious when doing album covers. This was a realistic attempt at selling sex and naughtiness. It was done simply and cheaply, without the pretensions that seem to go with other covers.”

The stark black-and-white close-up of a man’s crotch captured the cheap, simple approach. “It was a cheap camera and cheap film,” said Morrissey. “I have no idea what brand.”

The red rubber stamp design of the album title and band’s name added to the gritty look.

Artist Craig Braun was responsible for translating Warhol’s design into a functional album cover. As told in a 2015 New York Times article, Mick Jagger insisted that the zipper needed to work, and it had to reveal something when you pulled it down.

“[The Rolling Stones] knew if they put jeans and a working zipper that people were going to want to see what was back there,” Braun said.

Braun obtained a photo of the Andy Warhol model in his white underwear to slip behind the zipper. (Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a close-up of Mick Jagger’s crotch you see when you pull down the zipper.)

Realizing Warhol’s vision was a chore. The zipper damaged some of the initial pressings when the albums were stacked and shipped to record stores. The zipper literally dented the vinyl inside the sleeves pressed against it. Removing the zipper would ruin its effect. The solution was for each zipper to be manually pulled down just far enough that the tip of the zipper would no longer rub against the vinyl of any other albums in shipment. As Braun told Joe Coscarelli of the New York Times:

“I got this idea that maybe, if the glue was dry enough, we could have the little old ladies at the end of the assembly line pull the zipper down far enough so that the round part would hit the center disc label,” he said. “It worked, and it was even better to see the zipper pulled halfway down”.

I think it is worth concluding my bringing in a couple of reviews. Sticky Fingers is considered one of the greatest albums ever and it has gained praise from critics since its release in 1971. In their review of 2013, this is what AllMusic reported:

“Pieced together from outtakes and much-labored-over songs, Sticky Fingers manages to have a loose, ramshackle ambience that belies both its origins and the dark undercurrents of the songs. It's a weary, drug-laden album -- well over half the songs explicitly mention drug use, while the others merely allude to it -- that never fades away, but it barely keeps afloat. Apart from the classic opener, "Brown Sugar" (a gleeful tune about slavery, interracial sex, and lost virginity, not necessarily in that order), the long workout "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and the mean-spirited "Bitch," Sticky Fingers is a slow, bluesy affair, with a few country touches thrown in for good measure. The laid-back tone of the album gives ample room for new lead guitarist Mick Taylor to stretch out, particularly on the extended coda of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking." But the key to the album isn't the instrumental interplay -- although that is terrific -- it's the utter weariness of the songs. "Wild Horses" is their first non-ironic stab at a country song, and it is a beautiful, heart-tugging masterpiece. Similarly, "I Got the Blues" is a ravished, late-night classic that ranks among their very best blues. "Sister Morphine" is a horrifying overdose tale, and "Moonlight Mile," with Paul Buckmaster's grandiose strings, is a perfect closure: sad, yearning, drug-addled, and beautiful. With its offhand mixture of decadence, roots music, and outright malevolence, Sticky Fingers set the tone for the rest of the decade for the Stones”.

We are sure to see new articles and retrospectives about a huge album from one of the world’s most influential and popular bands – one that, nearly six decades after their formation, are still together and touring (or they will be post-pandemic). I think that Sticky Fingers is one of their greatest and most enduring works. I want to wrap up by sourcing from a Pitchfork  review of 2015:

“By this point, the Stones were so convincing playing rootsy American music it made little sense to compare them to their British peers. Musically at least, the Rolling Stones of 1971 had more in common with the Allman Brothers than they did the Who. Along with the barrelhouse piano, pedal steel, and Stax-like horns, Sticky Fingers was also only the second album to feature the guitar work of Mick Taylor, and his clean, fluid, and highly melodic leads bear a strong resemblance to Duane Allman's playing from this period.

But ultimately, this is Mick Jagger's album, the same way Exile is Keith's. Of all the iconic vocalists in '60s and '70s rock, Jagger remains the hardest to imitate, at least without sounding ridiculous. That's partly because he himself never minded sounding ridiculous, and he turned his almost cartoonish swagger into a form of performance art. Jagger's voice never sounded richer or fuller than it does here (Exile mostly buried it, to artful effect), but he's doing strange things with it, mimicking and exaggerating accents, mostly from the American South, with an almost religious fervor.

When the Stones were coming up, the line on British singers is that they sounded American because they grew up listening to those records; on Sticky Fingers, Jagger pushes that kind of mimicry to places that run just short of absurd. His twang on "Dead Flowers" is obviously played for laughs, but "You Gotta Move" is harder to get a bead on, partway between homage and parody and delivered with abandon. "I Got the Blues" is utterly sincere, with Jagger flinging every ounce of his skinny frame into it. Wherever he stands in relation to the material, Jagger is selling it, hard, and by extension selling himself as a new kind of vocalist. "Sister Morphine" and "Moonlight Mile" are the two songs that stray furthest from American music reverence, and they are highlights, showing how well the Stones could convey weariness and a weird kind of blown-out and wasted beauty.

With reissue culture in overdrive, we're seeing which classic bands kept the most in their vaults. The Stones, like Zeppelin, didn't keep much. The 2010 version of Exile on Main St. pretty much cleaned out the vault as far as music from this era, so what we have here are alternate mixes, an inferior but still interesting different take of "Brown Sugar" with Eric Clapton, the one true rarity that has long circulated but never been officially issued. There's also, depending on which version you get, a good deal of vintage live Stones, which is the main thing to get their fans excited. Selections from two 1971 gigs, both recorded well, capture the band in a peak year.

To my ears the Stones' live prowess has never quite translated to recordings. The best live records are about more: more heaviness, more jamming, more crowd noise, more energy. And their music didn't necessarily benefit from increasing any one of those things. Their songs were about a certain amount of balance between all of the elements, which is why their recordings sound so platonically perfect. With their live records, you can focus on the grooves and the riffs and the collective playing, but it's easier to notice moments of sloppiness and mistakes. Still, as far as live Stones on record, the material here is about as good as you will get.

The Stones entered the '70s still young and beautiful, but they'd have their share of problems just like everyone else; they got into disco and then in the '80s they dressed like they were on "Miami Vice" and then finally they fully understood what nostalgia for them was really worth and they discovered the power of corporate synergy. Given the weight of history behind it and its centrality to the story of both the Rolling Stones and rock music as a whole, it can be difficult to put on Sticky Fingers and try and hear it for what it was: the highly anticipated new album from one of the biggest bands in the world, a group that at the time hadn't released a new one in two years (in 1971, that was an eternity). They were called the World's Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band for entirely too long, but if that designation ever applied it was here”.

On 23rd April, we will mark five decades of an utterly superb and important album. No matter where you place Sticky Fingers in your list of the best albums by The Rolling Stones, I think most can agree that their 1971 album is an exciting and contrasting album where the band created something sensational (according to Acclaimed Music, it is the fifty-third most-celebrated album in popular music history). I know that Sticky Fingers will get a lot of passionate appreciation…

ON its fiftieth anniversary.

FEATURE: Home For Christmas: Kate Bush and Charity

FEATURE:

 

 

Home For Christmas

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an album cover outtake for 1989’s The Sensual World/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush and Charity

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I wanted to focus on an aspect of Kate Bush…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993 during filming for The Line, The Cross and the Curve (the shirt she's wearing goes back to an album signing for The Dreaming in 1982)/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

that has always been there, but it has come more to mind the past few weeks. From 1982, where Bush performed at the second Secret Policeman's Charity Gig in London, to a news story that broke recently, there is this benevolence and charitable side to her that I really love. In 2018, I visited a Kate Bush pop-up shop that appeared in London. Not only was it a great idea to get Bush fans in the same space. She was also raising money for Crisis. This is a charity close to her heart. The Standard reported the news:

“A Kate Bush-themed pop-up charity shop is to open at King's Cross next week.

It will sell CD and vinyl versions of the newly released box set of her ten studio albums plus rare track and cover versions, called Kate Bush - Remastered, as well a book collection of lyrics titled How to be Invisible.

Other items for sale include Christmas cards, T-shirts and art prints.

The shop at the new Coal Drops Yard development near the station will open from Wednesday 5 December to Sunday 9 December and all profits will go to the housing charity Crisis.

The Wuthering Heights singer said: “I can’t imagine how it must feel to be homeless. Our attention is drawn to this tragic issue at Christmas when most of us can share the celebrations with those we love but, of course, homelessness is there all year round - all the time. It must be so frightening”.

PHOTO CREDIT: EMI/Fish People

One can say that many musicians support charity and have this kindness, though I think that this has been encoded into Bush from a very young age. It seems that her heart is very much going out to those in need. Not only is improving the plight of the homeless important to her. As we learn from the Kate Bush News website, Bush has donated several items to a charity auction:

“Kate has donated six newly signed items to a cancer charity auction. She has signed one each of the Remastered in Vinyl box sets plus a copy of the How To Be Invisible book and a 50 Words for Snow CD. There’s also a Red Shoes promo box that has been donated by an ex EMI Marketing Director and a copy of the 2011 50 Words for Snow vinyl.

Cabaret vs Cancer is a small independent charity that works to raise money to support people living with the effects of cancer, especially children who have lost someone. Our very own Dave Cross has been an ambassador for the charity for two years now and has put together this, their first music charity auction. The auction also includes very special signed items from Kylie Minogue and Kim Wilde, plus other items from Elton John, U2, Steps, Iron Maiden and lots more. The auction is live now and will be open until Sunday 25th April – you can start bidding here! Well done, Dave, fantastic work on this!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush

There are other occasions where Bush has either donated to charity or supported them in some form. In 2005, the NSPCC were given permission to use one of her best-loved songs for an important campaign. This article provides more details:

“The NSPCC has launched a DRTV advertising campaign to encourage people to donate to the charity for its work in clamping down on cruelty to children.

The charity has been in discussion with singer Kate Bush, together with EMI. Bush has donated her song This Woman's Work for use in the advert, which was broadcast for the first time on Monday.

The advert, which will be shown in 60-, 40- and 10-second versions, depicts children in a number of distressing circumstances of the kind experienced by thousands of children each day in the UK. The voiceover points out that, as children, they are unable to stop or cope with the abuse inflicted on them.

League of Gentlemen actor Michael Sheen waived his fee for doing the voiceover in the advert, created by WWAV Rapp Collins London.

In the opening scene, a boy of about four is shown, with the sadness in his face explained by the voiceover: "He's just a child, so Andy can't defend himself when his father attacks him."

In another scene there is a little girl in her back garden, with the voiceover saying: "She's just a girl, but Charlotte's uncle makes her do things she's too young to understand."

As a toddler is depicted alone in his cot, the advert states "They're just children and they need your help" before asking viewers to call a number to give £2 per month to the charity.

Lisa Williams, donor recruitment manager at the society, said: "We haven't exaggerated - these things really happen and, sadly, there are countless examples."

The advert will run until 31 August on terrestrial and other channels, including Channel 5 London, ITV North, ITV2, MTV, UK Gold and Sky News”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Record Collector

It is no surprise, for those who know Bush and her warmth, that she is very much committed to charities. I think she has this attitude where she wants to see change and the people come together. Some might get cynical, yet one only needs to read or listen to interviews she has conducted to know that Bush seems to care about everyone! It is this generosity of spirit and inner-beauty that is one (of many) reason why people respect her so much. Recently, Record Collector were inspired to donate to Crisis. They produced a beautiful edition dedicated to Kate Bush. And, as Kate Bush News reported late last year, the profits raised went to a very important cause:

“One of the joys of working on this unique Kate Bush special edition magazine from Record Collector magazine was the fact that they agreed to donate the fee from the work done on selected collectable articles to a charity of our choice. The work on those beautiful illustrated features, involved the collected efforts of many fans around the world, and was a joy for me to manage and facilitate. I am so happy that we can instantly send £650 (much-needed funding) to the same charity that Kate Bush selected to be the pre-Christmas beneficiaries of her amazing Remastered Pop-Up Shop initiative in December 2018. Please consider also making a donation this Christmas to Crisis UK here if you’ve enjoyed reading this wonderful, fantastic fan-focused Kate Bush magazine! – Seán Twomey, with special thanks to the Record Collector Special editor Jamie Atkins from all us fans”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton 

I will finish up soon. I just get struck when musicians bond with charities or make contributions. Kate Bush has done it a lot through her career. I am sure we have not seen the end of his charitable endeavours. There is so much to admire about Bush. I feel her kindness and good heart is almost at the very top of the list. Even when new music is not out, there is no shortage of activity when it comes to the Kate Bush world! From the recent flood of books and magazines with her very much at the heart, to a couple of times Bush has either made a small announcement or donated items for a charity auction, she is very much present and always inspiring. I’ll leave it there, but I couldn’t just read the recent news about the Cabaret vs Cancer auction without looking back at the times where Bush has got involved with charitable causes. It does makes me wonder whether there will be new music soon. I say this a lot. It is just a natural instinct. One can never predict what Bush is working on or what will come next (or when). The fact we get these glimmers of news where she is doing something positive gives us all so much heart and cheer. It is evident that charity and making a difference (however small)…

IS so dear to her.

FEATURE: The April Playlist: Vol. 3: My Chosen Family Are My Titanium

FEATURE:

 

 

The April Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Dave 

Vol. 3: My Chosen Family Are My Titanium

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THIS week is pretty jam-packed…

IN THIS PHOTO: Rina Sawayama and Elton John

and brimming with big tracks! There are new releases from Dave, Rina Sawayama and Elton John, Paul McCartney (ft. Phoebe Bridgers), MARINA, London Grammar, Fiona Apple, Mick Jagger with Dave Grohl, Royal Blood, Amy Winehouse, Biig Piig, Dawn Richard, Coach Party, and Alanis Morissette. Throw into the mix Olivia Dean, AJ Tracey, The Black Keys, Imelda May, girl in red, Field Music, Greentea Peng, and Andra Day, and one has more than enough to get you going and off to a great start! It is a busy and varied week, that is for sure. If you need a boost and some energy to get you into the weekend, then I think that this collection of songs…

 IN THIS PHOTO: London Grammar

SHOULD do the trick.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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Dave – Titanium

ART CREDIT: Parent Company

Rina Sawayama, Elton John – Chosen Family

PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCarttney

Paul McCartney (ft. Phoebe Bridgers) - Seize the Day

MARINA - Purge the Poison

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Waespi

London Grammar - Lord It's a Feeling

Fiona Apple - Love More

Mick Jagger with Dave Grohl – EASY SLEAZY

Royal Blood – Boilermaker

PHOTO CREDIT: Bram Clayton

Biig Piig – Lavender

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox

Coach Party - ‘i'm sad’

Dawn Richard - Mornin | Streetlights

Olivia Dean – Be My Own Boyfriend

AJ Tracey - Little More Love

The Black Keys - Crawling Kingsnake

PHOTO CREDIT: Eddie Otchere

Imelda May – Diamonds

Methyl Ethel - Neon Cheap

Baby Queen - Dover Beach

Fickle Friends - Cosmic Coming of Age

girl in red - You Stupid Bitch

easy life – skeletons

Field Music – Do Me a Favour

LAUREL – You’re the One

Greentea Peng - Kali V2

Sinead Harnett - Hard 4 Me 2 Love You

Fred again… - Dermot (See Yourself in My Eyes)

Andra Day – Phone Dies

PHOTO CREDIT: Dani Monteiro

IDER - Cross Yourself

Popcaan – Survivor

Bebe Rexha – Sabotage

The Offspring - This Is Not Utopia

The Coral – Vacancy

Liz Phair - Spanish Doors

Amy Winehouse – I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Live at the BBC

PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Barnes

Barenaked Ladies – Flip

Charlotte OC – Bad Bitch

Queen Naija – Passionate

Orla Gartland - Zombie!

dodie - I Kissed Someone (It Wasn't You)

José González – Visions

MarthaGunn - Giving In

Lucy Dacus - Hot & Heavy

Emotional Oranges (ft. Becky G) - Down to Miami

RuthAnne – F.L.Y.

Birdy – Second Hand News

Jenny Lewis & Serengeti - GLTR

Grace VanderWaal – Repeat

PHOTO CREDIT: Raen Badu for EUPHORIA. 

Julia Michaels - Love Is Weird

Matilda Mann – Doomsday

Charli Adams – Cheer Captain

Amy Shark – Amy Shark

Georgia Twinn – Matty Healy

Alanis Morissette - I Miss the Band

Low Island - Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Matt Berry - Summer Sun

CupcakKe - Mosh Pit

Hey Violet - Problems

PHOTO CREDIT: Bridgette Winten

Maple Glider - Swimming

FEATURE: A New Formation: Beyoncé’s Lemonade at Five

FEATURE:

 

 

A New Formation

Beyoncé’s Lemonade at Five

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THERE are a few albums from 2016…

that I am marking in features through the coming weeks and months. Most would say that a fifth anniversary is not a big one. I would disagree. I feel it is good to look back on an album after that period of time and see how it has influenced and aged. On 23rd April, Beyoncé’s sixth solo album, Lemonade, turns five. After putting out the Beyoncé album of 2013, there was a gap until her next album arrived. I love that eponymous album and feel that it is among her very best. It was developed as a ‘visual album’; its songs are accompanied by non-linear short films that illustrate the musical concepts conceived during production. Another reason why the album is so extraordinary and connected with critics is because of its dark, intimate subject material, which includes feminist themes of sex, monogamous love, and relationship issues (inspired by Beyoncé's desire to assert her full creative freedom). Lemonade was a similar album in terms of its release and impact. Another amazing visual album, its concept boasts a song cycle that relates Beyoncé's emotional journey after her husband's infidelity in a generational and racial context. I am going to end by talking about the legacy of Lemonade. Not only is the album one of the best of 2016. I think it Beyoncé’s finest release. Focusing on infidelity in Black relationships, she also used the album as a form of recognition, commemoration and celebration of the culture and history of Black people in the Deep South and in the United States as a whole.

Alongside this are powerful songs of Black feminism. It is an exceptional album that is so important and powerful, but it is accessible at the same time. I think that Lemonade is an angrier album that a lot of Beyoncé's earlier work. I also think it is broader in terms of sound. Moving away from a mostly R&B sound, Beyoncé covers Rap, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Art Pop, Soul, Blues and so many other sounds through the twelve tracks (the physical release had twelve tracks, whereas Sorry appears on the digital release). Although there are vocal collaborators like James Blake, Jack White and Kendrick Lamar, it is Beyoncé's incredible performances and voice that burns brightest and leaves the biggest impression. The reviews, unsurprisingly, were phenomenally positive! So many were stunned by an album that sees Beyoncé's at her absolute peak. This is what Entertainment Weekly wrote:

“Like her “Formation” video, the visual album’s imagery—a mostly female and nonwhite affair—makes the point with haunting clarity. Black women in antebellum dresses populate eerie plantation tableaus; home videos of kids playing in the yard bleed into coffins and the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner holding portraits of their dead boys; Serena Williams, whose otherness has long been scrutinized by the very not-woke tennis world, dances with abandon. Her body belongs to herself—no small thing in the context of African-American history. “Did he bend your reflection?” Beyoncé whispers. “Did he make you forget your own name?”

For the magnetically spare emotional ballad “All Night,” we see footage of the women in Beyoncé’s own family and get a sense of how their pain links them through the generations: “Grandmother, the alchemist, you spun gold out of this hard life, conjured beauty from the things left behind.” Lemons into lemonade, personal into universal.

And then there’s the album’s fiercest banger, “Freedom.” Beyoncé’s victorious voice combusts (“I break chains all by myself”) over a maximalist soul sample, while Kendrick Lamar, the game’s top rapper, explodes in a verse that cuts into our nation’s perpetual civil rights tragedies. “Freedom” is big. Could an anthemic Black Lives Matter jam become mainstream America’s song of the summer? If anyone can make it happen, it’s Beyoncé.

Other things she can do: rock, blues, country, avant-garde, whatever. Lemonade stands as Bey’s most diverse album to date. Sinister strip-club-in-the-future R&B (“6 Inch,” featuring none other than the Weeknd) sits right next to a slab of Texas twang (“Daddy Lessons”). Led Zeppelin and Soulja Boy become bedfellows; Andy Williams and Isaac Hayes both get sampled; and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, James Blake, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, and Animal Collective all get credits.

But inevitably, a lot of you are still wondering: What does all this mean for her husband? The guy who was the desired object of Bey’s other surprise visual album, the superb 2013 self-titled record that made married sex seem so hot while also introducting us to the “surfbort”? Fortunately for Jay Z, things look like they might be all right. After wrestling with herself throughout Lemonade, Bey begins to heal towards the back half, as evidenced by the sweet, vulnerable ballad “Sandcastles.” By the time we get to “All Night,” the last track before the Super Bowl-vetted “Formation” closes the album, Beyoncé’s soaring voice indicates that she’s found some peace, at least for now. “Our love was stronger than your pride,” she sings, and it sounds like she believes it.

Of course, many will still obsess over what it was Jay Z did and with whom. If you want to spend your time speculating, cool—that’s your deal. But Beyoncé’s not thinking about that. She’s too busy putting out her boldest, most ambitious, best album to date. Middle fingers up”.

I have been listening to Lemonade a lot since 2016 and it still moves me in a very powerful way. I am not sure what it is exactly. The songwriting and production is incredible. The variety of genres fused is impressive and extremely nuanced, whilst Beyoncé's voice is at its very best! In their review, Rolling Stone concurred that Beyoncé's voice is amazing throughout:

“Yet the most astounding sound is always Bey’s voice, as she pushes to her bluesiest extremes, like the hilariously nasty way she sneers, “He’s always got them fucking ex-cuuuu-ses.” She hits some Plastic Ono Band-style primal-scream moments in the devastating ballad “Love Drought.” (“Nine times out of ten I’m in my feelings / But ten times out of nine I’m only human” is a stunning confession from a diva who’s always made such a fetish out of emotional self-control.) “Freedom” and “Formation” reach out historically, connecting her personal pain to the trauma of American blackness, with the power of Aretha Franklin’s Spirit in the Dark or Nina Simone’s Silk and Soul. She can’t resist adding a happy ending with “All Night,” where the couple kisses and makes up and lives happily ever after, or at least until morning. But it’s an uneasy coda, with the word “forgive” noticeably absent and the future still in doubt.

Whether Beyoncé likes it or not – and everything about Lemonade suggests she lives for it – she’s the kind of artist whose voice people hear their own stories in, whatever our stories may be. She’s always aspired to superhero status, even from her earliest days in a girl group that was tellingly named Destiny’s Child. (Once upon a time, back in the Nineties, “No No No” was the only Destiny’s Child song in existence – but make no mistake, we could already hear she was Beyoncé.) She lives up to every inch of that superhero status on Lemonade. Like the professional heartbreaker she sings about in “6 Inch,” she murdered everybody and the world was her witness”.

I am going to round off with a couple of articles that discuss the impact and legacy of Lemonade. In a feature from last year, Pop Dust argued why the album is one of the best pieces of art ever made:

“Not much can be said about Lemonade that hasn't already been written. Lemonade was before its time and yet fundamentally of its time. Rich with history, sparkling with collaborations and features, it's a sonic and visual experience that uses poetry, music, and visuals in a completely innovative way. It was personal and political, private and immensely public, ageless and timely.

Ostensibly about Beyoncé's relationship with Jay-Z and her response to his infidelity, it also dives deeply into many layers of existence, including the experience of being a Black woman in America, the experience of being a woman, the experience of trauma and the experience of finding redemption in community and resurrection in love. "It isn't just a collection of standalone pieces produced for pop-culture consumption; the culmination of these movements spans a broader political perspective of the black female experience," writes Suzanne Churchill.

Despite its lofty themes, Lemonade was produced for pop culture consumption, as much for young girls as it was for academics. It is a pop album in a high-art frame, highbrow and lowbrow, open for the taking and sharing. It reached far more people than any piece of literary theory, yet it broke open boundaries and created new spaces out of fragments, questions, and fractured memory.

PHOTO CREDIT: HBO 

"Lemonade reflects and advances a black womanist Afrxfuturism that asserts Itutu, precision of self-expression and direction within instability. Conjuring balance in the maelstrom of antiblackness produces an Afrxfuturist aesthetic teeming with seeming paradoxes that can be best understood through the idiom of diasporic vertigo," writes Valorie D. Thomas. In its contrasts, in its flickering multimedia images and constantly shifting soundscapes, it performs the alchemy that inspired its name. Lemonade is life out of lemons, it's shoots growing out of concrete, it's hope at the end of the world.

"[Lemonade] invokes so much of the Yoruba tradition, which is grounded in African tradition," said Dr. Amy Yeboah, associate professor of Africana studies at Howard University. "But it spreads across the diaspora. So you see it in Cuba, you see it in Louisiana. It's a cultural tradition that connects women of the diaspora together."

"This Womanist fairytale — featuring American Southern, Voodoo, and Afrofuturist utopian imagery — is most of all a personal film, though co-directed by seven people, including Beyonce Knowles-Carter herself," writes Miriam Bale for Billboard.

All in all, Lemonade is gospel for the modern era. Lemonade is a literal and figurative story of rebirth, of baptism by fire and of birth through death. Each time it's watched, the video offers more and more gems of wisdom, more hints about how we might all be reborn.

"Lemonade shimmers: history and current events remain co-present. As Beyoncé says, 'The past, and the future merge to meet us here,'' writes Carol Vernallis. More than ever we need recipes for rebirth and healing. Luckily, Beyoncé wrote us one in 2016”.

I know Beyoncé has released other music since Lemonade, though it is the most-recent solo album. I wonder whether we will get another album from her soon, and whether it has a similar ambition and tone as Lemonade. I think it is an album that created such shockwaves that it might take a while for Beyoncé to follow it! This Wikipedia article reveals the sonic, visual and wider impact of a remarkable album:

“Lemonade has been credited with reviving the concept of the album in an era dominated by singles and streaming, and popularizing releasing albums with accompanying films. Jamieson Cox for The Verge called Lemonade "the endpoint of a slow shift toward cohesive, self-centered pop albums", writing that "it’s setting a new standard for pop storytelling at the highest possible scale". Megan Carpentier of The Guardian wrote that Lemonade has "almost revived the album format" as "an immersive, densely textured large-scale work" that can only be listened to in its entirety. Myf Warhurst on Double J's "Lunch With Myf" explained that Beyoncé "changed [the album] to a narrative with an arc and a story and you have to listen to the entire thing to get the concept". The New York Times' Katherine Schulten agreed, asking "How do you talk about the ongoing evolution of the music video and the autobiographical album without holding up Lemonade as an exemplar of both forms?" Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times describes how "some brand-name acts are following Beyoncé’s blueprint with high-concept mini-movies that can add artistic heft to projects," with Frank Ocean's Endless and Drake's Please Forgive Me cited as examples of artists' projects inspired by Lemonade. Other projects said to have followed the precedent that Lemonade set include Lonely Island's The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience, Thom Yorke's Anima, Sturgill Simpson's Sound & Fury, and Kid Cudi's Entergalactic, which were all albums released with complementary film projects.

Several musicians were inspired by Lemonade. American rapper Snoop Dogg named his fourteenth studio album Coolaid (2016) after Lemonade. British girl group Little Mix cited Lemonade as an inspiration for their album Glory Days (2016). American singer The-Dream wrote a response to Lemonade titled "Lemon Lean" in his EP Love You To Death, saying that the album changed the way people think about their relationships. American singer Lauren Jenkins used Lemonade as the inspiration for her album and long-form music video No Saint. American comedian Lahna Turner released a visual album entitled Limeade in homage to Lemonade. American singer Matt Palmer was inspired by Lemonade to create his visual EP Get Lost. American musician Todrick Hall's second studio album Straight Outta Oz was made as a visual album due to Lemonade. British singer-songwriter Arrow Benjamin was also inspired by Lemonade for his 2016 EP W.A.R. (We All Rise), saying: "Every piece on this project was created from a visual, so that's why I was extremely inspired when I saw Lemonade." Cardi B was inspired by Lemonade for her upcoming album, which she says is "going to have my Lemonade moments".

Jenna Wortham for The New York Times drew a parallel between both albums as "blueprints for how to take in all that emotion and kind of how to push it back out in a way that’s cathartic and constructive". Dan Weiss of Billboard wrote that Shania Twain's Now "couldn't have existed without" Lemonade, as an album that "completely changed the course of breakup album history" in which the artist is "someone at their full creative peak pushing herself into new niches, dominating new musical territories."

Kadeen Griffiths from Bustle states that Lemonade, as an album that deals with issues related to black women, "paved the way" for Alicia Keys' Here and Solange's A Seat At The Table. Danielle Koku for The Guardian stated that Lemonade aided the return of African mysticism to pop music, writing: "By taking African mysticism to the world stage, Beyoncé stripped it of its ancient pagan labels”. Many critics have noted that Jay-Z's thirteenth studio album 4:44 (2017) is a response to Lemonade, with Jay-Z referencing lines from Lemonade, such as the "You better call Becky with the good hair" line on Beyoncé's "Sorry", with Jay-Z retorting: "Let me alone, Becky" in "Family Feud”.

Ahead of its fifth anniversary on 23rd April, I wanted to write about a very special album. It is an album that everyone should own on vinyl, as I think we will be talking about Beyoncé’s Lemonade for decades to come. This was a musical icon delivering such a profound, staggering and hugely vital album that makes me (and many who hear it) feel so many different emotions each time. Even if you were not invested in Beyoncé’s career up until 2016, everyone has to concede that Lemonade is impossible to ignore and dislike - such is its potency, confidence and brilliance. Five years since it was released into the world, Lemonade must go down as…

A modern masterpiece.

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger

FEATURE:

 

 

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure

The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger

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IN this current part of my feature…

that highlights songs that are seen as guilty pleasures, I am investigating The Fratellis’ 2006 hit, Chelsea Dagger. My aim is to show that there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure song. A lot of tracks that are seen as such are a lot stronger than many give it credit for. On 28th August, 2006, the Glasgow band unleashed a huge tune. I am including this song, not only because it turns fifteen later in the year; the band released their album, Half Drunk Under a Full Moon, on 2nd April. Whilst some see The Fratellis as a bit of an average band, I think that they are pretty decent. Their debut album, Costello Music, has some great tracks on it. Whilst Chelsea Dagger is not my favourite off that album – that honour goes to Creepin Up The Backstairs -, it is a song that has got some stick through the years – some see it is boozy and a crowd track that is a bit basic and stupid. As Wikipedia outline, Chelsea Dagger has been celebrated and ranked high in critical lists:

“This song was number 77 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. "Chelsea Dagger" has become notable for its usage in sports. It has also been featured in adverts for Amstel Light and KitKat, the films Run Fatboy Run and Pitch Perfect, a TV spot for Open Season, an episode of The Inbetweeners, as well as the video games Burnout Dominator and Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits. The song peaked at number 2 on the Scottish Singles Chart and number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry in 2018”.

 

I am going to bring in a recent feature from The Guardian, where Jon Fratelli (songwriter, vocals, guitar) and Tony Hoffer (producer) talked about making the song. It is has quite an interesting backstory:

“Jon Fratelli, songwriter, vocals, guitar

From the age of 16 onwards, I spent my time either lying in bed or on the sofa, with the TV on and a guitar in my hands. For some reason, to write songs, those elements just always had to be present. And out of that would come these little ideas. Chelsea Dagger was one.

I was living in a quiet village outside Glasgow. I didn’t know anybody. I hadn’t travelled. I hadn’t really lived. So with that song, I was trying to create this alternative reality – a slightly dodgy underworld I’d never been to, filled with characters I’d never met. Burlesque dancers. Gangsters. Cradle-snatchers. The song has the atmosphere of a sinister old speakeasy.

I wrote it after meeting my girlfriend, who became my wife. At the time, she was building up to her first burlesque performance at Club Noir in Glasgow, which was the world’s biggest burlesque club night. I had no idea what “burlesque” meant. I’ll be honest: at first, it sounded to me like stripping, but I was told in no uncertain terms it was completely different. She’d chosen Chelsea Dagger as her stage name – as a play on Britney Spears – and something told me I could get a song out of that. But I don’t really see her as Miss Dagger, the burlesque dancer in the song. My wife is more wholesome.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sony BMG Entertainment

We went to Los Angeles to record. I wasn’t mad keen on going down the road of the chant vocals. I really wanted to have a New Orleans big band playing. But Tony Hoffer, our producer, had us doing multiple vocal takes from all around the studio. At one point, I seem to remember standing on top of a £60,000 Steinway grand piano.

We didn’t think we’d made a hit. Most musicians are so hard on themselves that they never write something then punch the air. It was nice when Celtic started playing Chelsea Dagger at matches, but I think it got overused at sporting events. There was a period where every third team was using it and it’s hard for any song to keep up. I understand why some journalists formed the opinion that Chelsea Dagger was music for football hooligans, but I would never give any credence to that.

I wasn’t eased into success. It was a headfuck. Of course, there’s a downside to having a song like Chelsea Dagger, but it feels perverse to talk about it, because it’s made my life so much more pleasant. I doubt Rod Stewart wants to be playing Maggie May every night. I’m not even sure if Springsteen wants to play Born to Run. I’m exactly the same. But that’s the deal you make, and you have to do it in good faith. If you do it begrudgingly, people smell that a mile off.

Chelsea Dagger is a song for a crowd. When we play it, we fade into the background and it becomes theirs. That never gets dull”.

I have seen a lot of quite decent songs have to defend themselves. I do not think that one can see any song as a guilty pleasure. Everything is worthy and valuable. If you have been a bit reticent to embrace the howls and chants of Chelsea Dagger then I would encourage you to revisit. It is a powerful song where one cannot help but sing along to the chorus! Maybe it is not the most sophisticated or deep song, but it has a charm and a catchiness that is hard to refute. Rather than see it as a guilty pleasure and a track that should be given a wide berth, check out Costello Music’s second single. I remember when that album came out. It is hard to believe that it is almost fifteen years old! The album is actually pretty strong. It got some positive reviews, though I think it is underrated and warrants a fresh listen. I can appreciate that some feel Chelsea Dagger has been overplayed or has not dated that well. I would disagree. It is a fine song that one should surrender to. You can release energy and tension singing along to it! After years of the song being played and sung along to, Chelsea Dagger remains…

A magnificent racket.

FEATURE: Every Grain of Sand: Bob Dylan at Eighty

FEATURE:

 

 

Every Grain of Sand

PHOTO CREDIT: Ted Russell/Polaris  

Bob Dylan at Eighty

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I realise that I am a little premature…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ted Russell/Polaris

by marking the eightieth birthday of Bob Dylan. The Guardian recently published an article to mark a series of books that are due to coincide with Dylan’s eightieth. On 24th May, one of the world’s greatest songwriters hits a milestone birthday. Neil Spencer talked to, among other people, Clinton Heylin. He has just released A Restless Hungry Feeling: The Double Life of Bob Dylan Vol 1 1941–1966. I am looking forward to May, when we get to celebrate a musician who continues to release music of the highest order:

“Dylan has certainly lasted extraordinarily well, rebounding from a career low in middle age – his role as a washed-up rock star in 1987’s Hearts of Fire and on disc with the Grateful Dead the same year marked his nadir – into a creative renaissance during his “third act”, a time when most pop stars have long since hung up their rock’n’roll shoes. A revival that began with 1997’s Time Out of Mind has continued with Love and Theft (2001) Modern Times (2006), Tempest (2012) and last year’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, a quartet interspersed with three albums inconsequentially covering the great American songbook (ie Porter, Sinatra and co), a somewhat preposterous Christmas record and a sizeable memoir, 2004’s Chronicles Volume One, not forgetting his brilliant radio series, Theme Time Radio Hour. All have arrived against the background of the “never-ending tour” that Dylan declared back in 1988 and which has since delivered more than 3,000 shows, its progress halted only by the Covid pandemic.

It’s an astonishing work rate that has surely taken its toll. Arthritis means that Dylan can no longer hold a guitar; onstage he plays, and is propped up by, an electric piano. His voice – rarely a thing of beauty and most often an abrasively compelling affair described by David Bowie as “like sand and glue” – is in tatters, obliging him to abandon singing altogether for gravelly, dramatic declamation on Rough and Rowdy Ways. Yet like Matisse, forced to give up oils and canvas for cut-outs around the same age, Dylan remains obstinately true to his art, “refusing to let his career become embalmed” as Paul Morley puts it in his new book, out next month. Once you stop creating, you’re in the past.

Dylan’s trickiness, his elusiveness, indeed his outright dishonesty, are legend. Arriving in New York he would tell people he was an orphan, was born in Oklahoma, had run away with the carnival… anything but the truth, which was always concealed, one reason, presumably, for the title of Heylin’s latest biography, The Double Life of Bob Dylan.

“For sure,” confirms Heylin, “but also something as prosaic as the fact that this exploration of his life will be in two volumes, and most importantly, to reflect Dylan’s Gemini nature; hot and cold, kind and cruel, hard and soft, wild and woolly, and most of all, public and private, artist and man.”

Heylin has long been Dylan’s most accomplished biographer, with 1991’s Behind the Shades moving on the singer’s story from the well-chronicled glory years of the 1960s to the quarter century beyond, and supplying a wealth of original research. The book has been updated three times since, while Heylin has also delivered two volumes analysing Dylan’s songs, Revolution in the Air (2009) and Still on the Road (2010). The arrival of the Dylan archive – Heylin is one of the first to be granted access – has already delivered fresh insights.

“It’s an impressive resource,” says Heylin, “and an important one to have in light of the usual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame approach, which continues to paint Dylan as a quirky protest singer from the 1960s. However, the archive doesn’t really start until after his motorcycle accident in 1966, which is where this volume ends. There are very few manuscripts from before then, but one coup was to go through the entire footage of Don’t Look Back and Eat the Document [DA Pennebaker’s renowned documentaries from 1967 and 1972] in that period of great creativity, where you see Dylan not just in interviews but in conversations, in down time, and witness that mind endlessly whirring… it never turns off!

At 80 Dylan has lived a third of his country’s history, becoming both cultural titan of modern times and shaman from “the old weird America”. He once claimed “the Dylan myth wasn’t created by me - it was a gift from God”, but he has been a willing accomplice, a magus distilling his personal gnosis as much from religion as from music or art, one steeped in Judaism and Christianity, though ancient Rome is a surprisingly consistent strand. Women remain the other element in the alchemy, but despite a trove of love songs, variously tremulous, ardent or betrayed, Dylan remains an old testament prophet, forever promising “A wave that can drown the whole world” or warning “You gotta serve somebody”. Apocalypse is always imminent, but first, he’s heading for another joint on the never-ending tour”.

There will be a lot of articles and features published about Bob Dylan ahead of his eightieth birthday next month. I adore his music and I grew up around his albums. I think my favourite would have to be Bringing It All Back Home of 1965. Although there was a little bit of a slump in the 1980s, I think that he has been amazingly consistent and has released incredible albums through every decade since the 1960s. His thirty-ninth album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, was released last year and ranks alongside his very best!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

I wanted to write this feature for a couple of reasons. The books that are out/coming out are really useful and different approaches to an artist who has not only influence generations of musicians; he has also had an enormous impact on society as a whole. I am going to end this feature by bringing in a Bob Dylan playlist. It shows the scope and prolificacy of his genius. I will write a few other features between now and Dylan’s eightieth birthday. I was caught by the article from The Guardian and the interesting books that pay tribute to a remarkable artist. I think Dylan has impacted us all and, even if you are not a massive fan, there will be songs and albums of his that resonate. I have been a big fan since childhood, and I continue to be amazed by his brilliance and the fact that, as he nears eighty, he is in peak form! Let’s hope that we get to enjoy his music for many years to come. I hope that people use Dylan’s eightieth birthday to listen back to as much of his material as possible. From his eponymous 1962 debut album through to a trio of masterpiece albums from 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home, to a fascinating mid-1970s period and his hugely accomplished recent albums, Bob Dylan has released so many amazing and timeless albums. It will be exciting to see how the world salutes and thanks a brilliant artist...

ON his eightieth birthday.

FEATURE: Always and Forever: The Incomparable Luther Vandross at Seventy

FEATURE:

 

Always and Forever

The Incomparable Luther Vandross at Seventy

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I am going to finish off with a playlist…

that contains some of Luther Vandross’ ultimate cuts. The R&B legend is very much missed. Having passed in 2005 (he suffered from diabetes and was confined to a wheelchair in 2003 following a stroke), there has been a huge gap since he left us. As 20th April would have been his seventieth birthday, I am revisiting one of the greatest voices ever (I did a Lockdown Playlist last year I think). As this Wikipedia article illustrates, Vandross left us with a raft of classic tracks:

“Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Throughout his career, Vandross was an in-demand background vocalist for several different artists including Todd Rundgren, Judy Collins, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Ben E. King, and Donna Summer. He later became a lead singer of the group Change, which released its gold-certified debut album, The Glow of Love, in 1980 on Warner/RFC Records. After Vandross left the group, he was signed to Epic Records as a solo artist and released his debut solo album, Never Too Much, in 1981.

His hit songs include "Never Too Much", "Here and Now", "Any Love", "Power of Love/Love Power", "I Can Make It Better" and "For You to Love". Many of his songs were covers of original music by other artists such as "If This World Were Mine" (duet with Cheryl Lynn), "Since I Lost My Baby", "Superstar", "I (Who Have Nothing)" and "Always and Forever". Duets such as "The Closer I Get to You" with Beyoncé, "Endless Love" with Mariah Carey and "The Best Things in Life Are Free" with Janet Jackson were all hit songs in his career.

During his career, Vandross sold over 35 million records worldwide, and received eight Grammy Awards, including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four different times. He won a total of four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for a song recorded not long before his death, "Dance with My Father".

I am keen to get to a playlist at the end. I want to first source the biography from his official website, because we learn a lot about one of the most extraordinary and influential artists ever:

“In the world of contemporary music, there are just a handful of superstars whose first name alone brings instant recognition. Check Aretha, Whitney, Mariah, Diana and Dionne. But when it comes to male vocalists, the list is far shorter. One name towers above the rest in any discussion of black male singers whose impact and influence has been unparalleled. Say the name “Luther” and record buyers the world over respond immediately. The fact is, Luther Vandross was, and always will be, the pre-eminent black male vocalist of our time.

In the years since Luther’s passing, one constant has remained to define his life and musical success: the voice. Like any great singer of the past 100 years, Luther Vandross’ voice and distinct singing style led to not only monumental success, but an instant recognition when you hear him singing–through your stereo, car radio, on TV or in a movie. Bing. Frank. Billie. Robeson. Aretha. Diana. Dionne. Whitney. Mariah. Michael. Marvin. Luther. It is rarified company, but indelibly classic and everlasting in the annals of American music and a club in which Luther Vandross’ membership is permanent.

Coupled with that voice was Luther’s unique ability to write and sing about love and the shared emotions we all feel in that search for and enjoyment of love. Love of family, friends, that special someone–all were themes Luther explored with his music regularly, reaching many. Through his songs, for the last two generations Luther Vandross became a staple in the most joyous moments of people’s lives.

At the time of Luther’s death in 2005 following complications from a stroke two years earlier, Luther had been in entertainment for 35 years. From his introduction to the world as a singer on the first season of PBS’s Sesame Street in 1969 to winning four Grammy Awards in 2004, Luther was a permanent and dynamic force in popular music. He crossed boundaries, starting with his earliest success as a background vocalist and arranger for David Bowie, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, J. Geils Band, Ben E. King, Ringo Starr and Chic. He produced records for Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and Whitney Houston. He wrote one of the climactic musical numbers (“Everybody Rejoice”) for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and Academy Award-nominated film The Wiz. Luther’s reach is extensive enough that CBS Sports has used his rendition of “One Shining Moment” for their coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament since 2003, and Luther performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXXI in January 1997 in New Orleans.

Luther was a regular musical performer on the television shows Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show (Johnny Carson and Jay Leno), Rosie O’Donnell, The Arsenio Hall Show, Solid Gold and Soul Train and was a common performer at Washington DC events in the 1990’s, including The People’s Inaugural Celebration, A Gala for the President at Ford’s Theatre, Christmas In Washington and A Capitol Fourth.

Luther also appeared on Hollywood Squares and Family Feud, and tried his hand at acting on TV’s In Living Color, 227, New York Undercover, Beverly Hills 90210 and Touched By An Angel and in the film The Meteor Man. Luther’s songs have appeared in a vast number of movies, and he contributed original songs for sixteen films, including Bustin’ Loose, The Goonies, Ruthless People, Made In Heaven, House Party, Hero, Money Train and Dr. Dolittle 2.

For almost 25 years, from 1981 to 2005, Luther dominated the American R&B music charts like no other artist before or since. In that span Luther released eight #1 R&B albums, seven #1 R&B singles and another five Top 20 R&B singles. He achieved crossover status with eight Billboard Top 10 albums, including reaching #1 with 2003’s Dance With My Father; and another five Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 singles.

From 1981 to 1996, Luther Vandross released 11 consecutive platinum/double platinum albums on CBS/Sony’s Epic Records label; and at the time of his passing in 2005, 13 of Luther’s 14 studio albums had gone Platinum or multi-platinum.

Luther’s success was not confined to the United States, with record sales of over 40 million worldwide since 1981, including four Top 10 UK albums (one #1). In March 1989, Luther Vandross was the first male artist to sell out 10 consecutive live shows at London’s Wembley Arena.

Overall, Luther received 31 Grammy Award nominations, winning eight times. Additionally, Luther won eight American Music Awards, including Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist seven times.

Throughout his distinguished career, Luther Vandross was active in charitable causes with the United Negro College Fund and the NY Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, in addition to performing at numerous charity concerts, most notably Michael Jackson’s Heal The World concerts in the 1990’s. Luther also contributed “The Christmas Song” to the A Very Special Christmas 2 record released in 1992 to benefit the Special Olympics.

Luther Vandross was a musical master whose style has influenced an entire generation of today’s vocalists. His distinctive brand of satin smooth vocal magic moved international audiences and continues to touch people to this day”.

To mark the seventieth birthday (on 20th April) of an icon and much-missed artist, I am ending with a playlist featuring some phenomenal Luther Vandross tracks. You only need to listen to one or two to understand just what a talent he was! Although we will never hear anyone like him again, I think that he has inspired so many artists. His legacy and importance remains strong. That is why I was keen to pay tribute to…

ONE of the all-time greats.

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Forty-Two: Jehnny Beth

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

Part Forty-Two: Jehnny Beth

___________

THERE are a few reasons why…

this part of Modern Heroines features Jehnny Beth. The French songwriter, born Camille Berthomier, is one of my favourite artists right now. She used to be in the band, Savages. Their final studio album, Adore Life, turned five earlier in the year. I loved Savages, though I can understand why they went their separates ways. One only needs to listen to Savages to realise that Jehnny Beth is a force of nature! I also wanted to include Jehnny Beth as her debut studio album, TO LOVE IS TO LIVE, was released last year. I think it is quite underrated, despite the fact that it got some great reviews. I am going to bring in some interviews and a bit of information about her book, C.A.L.M.: Crimes Against Love Memories, that she produced with Johnny Hostile. If you have not heard Jehnny Beth’s debut solo album, then check out TO LOVE IS TO LIVE. It is a magnificent album that has that blend of power and sensitivity. This is what CLASH wrote in their review:

“You might think that after being nominated for two Mercury Prizes, you would feel accomplished. But Savages’ Jehnny Beth said, f*ck that and has sculpted what could possibly be the album of the year by leaps and bounds, ‘To Love Is To Live’.

‘To Love Is To Live’ is Beth’s debut solo album, a cathartic tour de force founded upon a marriage of vulnerability and power reflecting upon her own emotional pilgrimage. “I am naked all the time” — the opening line of ‘I Am’, symbolic of fragility, is voiced in a low-pitched grumble coupled with sinister and ghoulish waves that could have been plucked straight out of the Stranger Things soundtrack. It all feels rather spooky until the track seamlessly melts into a desperate and poignant torrent of tenderness and emotion.

Again Beth uses the bent, low-pitch of ‘I Am’, mimicking the assertive, congenital dominance presented by the male species. Grappling with the notions of power and inequality, ‘Innocent’ is Beth’s middle finger to the patriarchy. Crafted of dense bass and brisk drum attacks, the track emits unapologetic confidence. This is further emphasised when the album reaches its most chaotic with the anarchic and face-melting sixth track, ‘I’m The Man’. This fan favourite is a frenzied discourse of masculinity.

And it soon becomes a common theme placing the delicate amongst the brazen. This is most prominent in ‘Flowers’, a treasured BBC Radio 6 pick. Beth’s semi-whispered vocals get swept under a thick rug of jugular bass, frantic keys and a half-shouted chorus.

As the result of self-scrutiny and discovery, the songwriter frequents Catholic imagery in her lyrics with tracks such as ‘Innocence’ and ‘We Will Sin Together’, but is referenced in some way in each track. It seems as though Jehnny Beth is breaking free with ‘To Love Is To Live’ as her own echo chamber, which is briefly shared with a cameo from Idles’ Joe Talbot.

Nearing its close, ‘The French Countryside’ takes the album onto a gentler path. Hearing Jehnny Beth actually sing almost sounds strange, but oddly comforting with the addition of a melancholy piano and mellow strings into the bargain. Creating a cyclic structure, the ultimate track ‘Human’ is dark and poetic, hearing those strings as a horror movie instead of a drama.

‘To Love Is To Live’ is a sonic poltergeist with sentiment to boot”.

I normally end these features with a career-spanning collection of songs from that artist. As Jehnny Beth has only one solo album to her name, I am including songs form her Savages days (she also performed in the duo, John & Jehn, alongside Johnny Hostile). I think that we are going to see a lot of compelling and challenging albums from the remarkable artist. She is not only one of the most interesting songwriters of today; her live performances are so sensational! Before I come to the C.A.L.M. book, I think it is worth introducing an interview Jehnny Beth conducted to promote TO LOVE IS TO LIVE. NME spoke with Jehnny Beth about a stunning solo introduction:  

“And what better exercise in self-analysis and discovery than putting together your debut solo album? On Friday, Beth arrives with ‘TO LOVE IS TO LIVE’, an assured collection of pummelling industrial rock and soaring cinematic sounds, which back the French punk provocateur’s most raw and personal lyrics to date. The last Savages’ record, 2016’s ‘Adore Life’, was adorned on its sleeve by a fist; a symbol of the defiant spirit of the record within – tackling sex, power, fluidity and freedom. ‘TO LOVE IS TO LIVE’ feels like a much more open gesture, inviting you to get to know who Jehnny Beth really is. The sleeve this time is a naked statue of the singer, exposed yet primed to face the world.

 Savages soon gained a reputation worldwide for their rabid and confrontational live shows, with Beth often drawing comparisons to the intensity of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis as a performer. You might have also witnessed this when she went on tour with Gorillaz a couple of years back after singing on ‘We Got The Power’ from 2017’s ‘Humanz’ alongside Noel Gallagher. Pained by being unable to step on stage for a while due to COVID, she’s found another outlet for her fighting spirit.

“The stage for me is where I can push the physical boundaries, be in the present and be absorbed by this total energy,” she says. “I do miss it a lot since I stopped touring with Gorillaz to work on the record. However, I’ve found the energy again at home through boxing. The boxing ring shares a lot of aspects with the stage. There’s an attitude you need to get. It makes you mentally as well as physically strong.”

Beth first had the epiphany to step away from Savages and touring to focus on her own music in 2016. Like many of us, she awoke in the early hours of January 10, opened her phone and was struck down by the news that David Bowie had died. As well as spending the day poring over his final album and parting gift ‘Blackstar’, she felt the pang that something was missing in her own life. “I realised that one day I’m gonna be gone, so in my core I felt that there was something that I hadn’t done yet,” she admits, “and that was this record.”

 Asked if there was anything restrictive about Savages that drove her to go solo, she blurts out a playful “ha!” followed by a very pensive pause. “You know what? It’s all down to a life and death situation. I know it sounds quite dramatic, alright, but hear me out.”

With the album written before the onset of COVID-19, and this interview taking place before the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent worldwide protests for racial equality, little did Beth know that reality in 2020 would continue to escalate.

Still, Beth admits that many aspects of ‘TO LOVE IS TO LIVE’ became “quite magic and premonitory” – not least for its title calling for connection and togetherness. “I used to be a human being, now I live on the web… take what’s left of me and my free time,” she sings on ‘Human’, seemingly predicting our days lost to Zoom calls, as well as our desensitization through an endless algorithm of shocking headlines. ‘Innocence’ meanwhile, takes us to a vast city where everyone feels disconnected, alone and riddled with self-doubt despite being surrounded.

“There’s rage piling up on these songs as you wonder where humanity has been and where it has gone,” Beth tells NME. “Those ideas felt quite scandalous and frightening, but then a song felt like the right place for them to exist.”

Another fiction she tackles is love, and how desires don’t always fit the shapes that love songs present you with. “She loves me and I love her, I’m not sure how to please her,” she pines on ‘Flower’, written for a dancer she fell for at Jumbo’s Clown Room, the raucous landmark Hollywood burlesque bar, frequented by the stars and where Courtney Love used to dance in the early ‘90s.

“That song is shouting about the unknown,” says Beth. “When you’re in love and not sure if you’re going to be loved back, that sensation is quite tender and exciting. It definitely makes you feel alive”.

I think that Jehnny Beth is already one of the finest artists in the world. I know that she has the promise and talent to be an icon of the future! TO LOVE IS TO LIVE is an album that I keep returning to, as there are so many songs that have stuck in my mind and I need to revisit. If you can get a copy of C.A.L.M.: Crimes Against Love Memories, then do so. This is how Rough Trade describe the book:

“This is the uncompromising vision of Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile. Fearless and highly erotic, these stories delight in ideas of sexual transgression and liberation, offering a window onto a world where anything is permitted, and everything is safe. As each of Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile's characters break from the bonds of acceptability and enter a darkness of desire, submission and sex, they discover their own humanity, a place where they can truly be free.

A manifesto in the form of erotic photography, monologues and dialogues, Johnny Hostile's stimulating photography punctuates Jehnny Beth's seductive prose. Collapsing the barriers between sex an art while examining the universal values of human existence and consciousness through uninhibited desire, C.A.L.M. established Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile as two of the bravest and most provocative voices in fiction and erotic art today.

The full collection of Johnny Hostile's photography is featured in a hardcover limited-edition photographic art book of C.A.L.M.”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Benge/Redferns

I wrote about C.A.L.M.: Crimes Against Love Memories when it was released. I compared it to Madonna’s Sex book of 1992. She released that alongside Eroitca, so that we got this sort of companion book to a sensational album. Madonna received a lot of flack from the press because of the explicit nature of the book and album. Forward to 2020 and we have this modern-day equivalent. Whilst Madonna and Jehnny Beth are very different artists, it is impossible not to draw comparisons. Jehnny Beth spoke with The Quietus about the book:

“Not that either of us abide by a gendering of gallantry, as she tells me of her image: "I don't really think of myself as a man when I'm doing this." Yet a tough pomp trusses Jehnny Beth's new album, To Love Is To Live and her forthcoming book of erotic stories with photography by Johnny Hostile, C.A.L.M. She is a practiced interviewer and interviewee – but her polish doesn't evade difficulty. Rather, as she continues our conversation from Paris, it allows her to civilly lock horns as we discuss artists who dare not to please. As she sings in 'Innocence', "Not my duty to give you shelter/Not my duty to give you hope."

C.A.L.M. (Crimes Against Love Memories, released via White Rabbit books this July) presents adventures in gore, piss and abject passion with a forensic detachment that recalls Bataille, De Sade, Anais Nin and Patrick Suskind. On the other hand, the surreal, menacing soundscape of 'To Love Is To Live' is a dark pop drama. Throughout, adrenaline-fuelled drum machine, siren synth, amorous brass, street voices, and a ticking clock underpin Jehnny Beth's gripping vocals. Soaring from sorrowful whisper to Enya-like harmonies, creeping from cold proclamation to crepuscular beast, she's never sounded better. Melding electronica, punk, jazz and noise, she skulks through these songs of doubt – of romantic love, of the self – with a rent-boy glamour. And just when the gleaming production feels perhaps a little too controlled, she slashes its compression with a vomit of emotion in the cyberpunk thrash of 'How Could You'. She's equally piercing as we discuss her struggle to create a space, in book and album, free of social conditioning.

For me, a recurring theme unites your album and new book, C.A.L.M. You seem to suggest that by being 'sinful', we reclaim innocence. Your opening song, 'I Am' and the narrator in the story 'Bitching', both speak of "burning inside" – and this burning is far from 'wrong'. Rather, the dogging, the group sex in the story, is an act of love. 'Burning' feels like a metaphor for purification. And burning turns up again in the song, 'We Will Sin Together'.  Elsewhere in the album, you sing, "I'm done with trying to fix what's wrong" and "your safe is my danger". So, I must ask, what is 'sin', for you?

Jehnny Beth: [Laughing] That is probably the best introduction to an interview I've had. You've really brought together the book and the album. When I wrote those lyrics in 2016 and 2017, they were about survival. I felt bereft of my own self. A lot of reasons behind that were to do with extensive touring. Also, the first time I came to London, I was 15. I never really looked back. I accomplished a lot with Savages, in terms of finding an artistic identity. But I found that what was burning inside, from being a teenager, was that question, "Who am I?"

I grew up as a bisexual although, despite my experiences, it took me a long time to name it. It created the anxiety of feeling I was living a lie. As a bisexual, whether you're with a man or a woman, you're always excluding the other part of yourself. In my younger life, I even desired to kill myself because the pain was too strong. Music saved me – and my relationship with Johnny Hostile, which was very open-minded. There was never anything we couldn't talk about.

Sin, as it's been told to me… My grandma is very religious but my parents were not. My sister and I are the only ones in our family not baptized. This caused quite a stir with my grandma. She bought me a Bible and cross and took me to church. I would pray every night through the Virgin Mary. I loved the discipline and the rituals. But I think the conditioning that was imposed on me is that what happens in your mind, whether or not concretized, is a sin. They [the Catholics] go deeply into your brain and are already closing doors, there. Through my art, I was trying to open those doors.

I wanted to write a book of erotic fiction because I feel fantasies should be free of sin. They shouldn't be attached to any social or political stigmas or be constrained, because they are between you and your mind”.

I am interested to see where Jehnny Beth heads next. After an accomplished and incredible debut solo album, there is going to be a lot of interest regarding a follow-up. TO LOVE IS TO LIVE is proof that, whether solo or with The Savages, she is one of the greatest modern-day songwriters and performers. There is no doubt that Jehnny Beth is going to be an iconic artist of the future. I love everything she puts out so, looking ahead, I am definitely going to…

KEEP my eyes and ears peeled.

FEATURE: The Hope Six Demolition Project at Five: PJ Harvey’s Finest Cuts

FEATURE:

 

 

The Hope Six Demolition Project at Five

PJ Harvey’s Finest Cuts

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I like celebrating quite big album anniversaries…

and, even though PJ Harvey’s ninth studio album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, is five tomorrow (15th April), I feel it is worth marking! I think that the album is quite underrated and warrants new inspection. Prior to the album’s release, this is how PJ Harvey’s official website announced the release:

“This spring sees the release of PJ Harvey’s ninth studio album,

The Hope Six Demolition Project, on April 15th through Island Records.

The Hope Six Demolition Project draws from several journeys undertaken by Harvey, who spent time in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C. over a four-year period. “When I’m writing a song I visualise the entire scene. I can see the colours, I can tell the time of day, I can sense the mood, I can see the light changing, the shadows moving, everything in that picture. Gathering information from secondary sources felt too far removed for what I was trying to write about. I wanted to smell the air, feel the soil and meet the people of the countries I was fascinated with”, says Harvey.

The album was recorded last year in residency at London’s Somerset House. The exhibition, entitled ‘Recording in Progress’ saw Harvey, her band, producers Flood and John Parish, and engineers working within a purpose-built recording studio behind one-way glass, observed throughout by public audiences”.

I am going to end this feature with a selection of the best PJ Harvey cuts. I know I have included a Harvey playlist before but, as her latest studio album is five, it is worth coming back to her fabulous music! In their review of The Hope Six Demolition Project, this is what The Guardian wrote:

“Tellingly, The Hope Six Demolition Project is better still when Harvey hands over the songs’ narrative voice to others. The Community of Hope more or less transcribes a Washington Post journalist’s running commentary while driving Harvey around the city’s roughest neighbourhoods, perfectly capturing the point where impotent hopelessness – “This is just drug town, just zombies, but that’s just life … the school just looks like a shithole” – collapses into cynicism: “They’re gonna put a Wal-Mart here,” it concludes, in a rousing massed chorus. A Line in the Sand, meanwhile, is flatly terrifying. This time the voice is of a worker in a refugee camp, detailing the horrors he’s seen – refugees murdering each other over air-dropped food, “a displaced family eating a cold horse’s hoof” – the whole thing somehow rendered bleaker still by the fact that Harvey sings his words to a jaunty, skipping melody, in a blithe, high-pitched voice.

The Hope Six Demolition Project is full of moments like that, where the experiment unequivocally works, to pretty devastating effect. Even when it doesn’t – when the words seem a little hollow or heavy-handed, attended by a distinct hint of think-about-it-yeah? – it’s still a hugely enjoyable album, potent-sounding, stuffed with tunes great enough to drown out the occasional lyrical shortcomings. By anybody else’s standards, it would be a triumph, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that Harvey was after something more than a hugely enjoyable, potent-sounding album stuffed with great tunes – in which case, she’ll have to settle for a qualified success”.

To mark the fifth anniversary of one of the world’s greatest artist’s current studio album, the playlist below combines some of PJ Harvey’s very finest tracks. As you will hear, when it comes to the music of Polly Jean, she has been releasing stunning music since the start. She truly is…

A musical treasure.

FEATURE: The Snow Is Coming… Kate Bush in 2011

FEATURE:

 

 

The Snow Is Coming…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut

Kate Bush in 2011

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I feel like I have discussed Kate Bush and the fact…

that 1978 and 2011 have parallels. Both years saw her release two albums. In 1978, it was her debut album, The Kick Inside, and its follow-up, Lionheart. In 2011, she put out Director’s Cut…then came 50 Words for Snow. I am writing this feature because Director’s Cut turns ten next month. It is an album where Bush reworked songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes. I think that, if anything, Bush was a little more pushed in 2011 than 1978. She put out two albums within about six months of one another! Although 1978 was a frantic years where she barely had chance to rest, I think that there is something about Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow that is more complex and hard work. The former is an album where she had to rework old songs. That may sound simply, yet it is not as simple as doing a new version of those songs. Bush stripped back the tracks and reworked them. It was almost like doing a new album from scratch. There are those who question whether it was necessary to rework those songs and put out Director’s Cut. I think that any Kate Bush album is a great thing and, if Director’s Cut was not essential and among her best, it was a chance for her to correct songs that she felt were not at their best originally. Bush also set up her Fish People label at the time. Director’s Cut arrived on that label and EMI – who had released every album prior to Director’s Cut. It was obviously important to get Director’s Cut out and sort of deal with ‘old’ material before putting anything new into the world.

I am going to bring in a review for Director’s Cut and an interview before moving onto 50 Words for Snow. On Director’s Cut, Bush didn’t have that many other musicians playing with her. Her brother, Paddy, was there as you’d expect. Her other half, Danny McIntosh, was also there, as was Eric Clapton, Gary Brooker and her son, Albert McIntosh. A few other people were involved. Compare that to 1993’s The Red Shoes or even 2005’s Aerial and it is a smaller crew. I guess the main thing was re-recording the vocals and having a slightly stripped-back sound. Even so, it would have taken a while to make sure the songs sounded as she had hoped. After all, releasing an album where certain songs are ‘improved’ would have been futile if she were not satisfied with the results. Nobody was really expecting a couple of albums from Bush six years after the double album, Aerial. It is clear that she had new music brewing, though she also wanted to clear the decks and redo some songs that she was not entirely happy with. I have speculated whether you could do the same with songs from even earlier in her career. It is unlikely, although I would be interested to hear how she re-versioned some songs from Never for Ever or The Dreaming! Although some felt that it was a bit sacrilegious redoing some great songs from two of her previous albums, Director’s Cut received a lot of praise.

This is what AllMusic observed in their review:

“During her early career, Kate Bush released albums regularly despite her reputation as a perfectionist in the studio. Her first five were released within seven years. After The Hounds of Love in 1985, however, the breaks between got longer: The Sensual World appeared in 1989 and The Red Shoes in 1993. Then, nothing before Aerial, a double album issued in 2005. It's taken six more years to get The Director's Cut, an album whose material isn't new, though its presentation is. Four of this set's 11 tracks first appeared on The Sensual World, while the other seven come from The Red Shoes. Bush's reasons for re-recording these songs is a mystery. She does have her own world-class recording studio, and given the sounds here, she's kept up with technology. Some of these songs are merely tweaked, and pleasantly so, while others are radically altered. The two most glaring examples are "Flower of the Mountain" (previously known as "The Sensual World") and "This Woman's Work." The former intended to use Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's novel Ulysses as its lyric; Bush was refused permission by his estate. That decision was eventually reversed; hence she re-recorded the originally intended lyrics. And while the arrangement is similar, there are added layers of synth and percussion. Her voice is absent the wails and hiccupy gasps of her youthful incarnation.

These have been replaced by somewhat huskier, even more luxuriant and elegant tones. On the latter song, the arrangement of a full band and Michael Nyman's strings are replaced by a sparse, reverbed electric piano which pans between speakers. This skeletal arrangement frames Bush's more prominent vocal which has grown into these lyrics and inhabits them in full: their regrets, disappointments, and heartbreaks with real acceptance. She lets that voice rip on "Lilly," supported by a tougher, punchier bassline, skittering guitar efx, and a hypnotic drum loop. Bush's son Bertie makes an appearance as the voice of the computer (with Auto-Tune) on "Deeper Understanding." On "RubberBand Girl," Bush pays homage to the Rolling Stones' opening riff from "Street Fighting Man" in all its garagey glory (which one suspects was always there and has now been uncovered). The experience of The Director's Cut, encountering all this familiar material in its new dressing, is more than occasionally unsettling, but simultaneously, it is deeply engaging and satisfying”.

Before coming to 50 Words for Snow, I want to source from an interview Bush conducted in 2011. Speaking with Interview Magazine, she explained why she wanted to take Director’s Cut on:

“EHRLICH: It’s funny. I’d think revisiting those songs would almost be like looking at old photographs or reading old love letters from a long time ago, because as a songwriter, the emotions that you’re tapping into are the most primal, raw, and immediate ones. Was it strange to step into the emotional clothing you had worn 20 years ago and see how it fit and wonder, Who is this person?

BUSH: Yeah, it was. At first, it was quite difficult, and, at a couple of points, I nearly gave up the whole process. I found that by just slightly lowering the key of most of the songs, suddenly it kind of gave me a way in, because my voice is just lower now. So that helped me to step back into it. And although they were old songs, it all started to feel very much like a new process and, in a lot of ways, ended up feeling like I was just making a new album—it’s just that the material was already written. When I listen to it now, it feels like a new record to me.

EHRLICH: Why did you decide to re-record existing material rather than do something new, or just release the old versions remixed, or whatever?

BUSH: Well, I really didn’t see it as a substitute for a greatest hits package, but it was something I’d wanted to do for a few years. I guess I just kind of felt like there were songs on those two albums [The Sensual World and The Red Shoes (1993)] that were quite interesting but that they could really benefit from having new life breathed into them. I don’t really listen to my old stuff, but on occasion, I would either hear a track on the radio or a friend might play me one, and there was generally a bit of an edgy sound to it, which was mainly due to the digital equipment that we were using, which was state of the art at the time—and I think everyone felt pressured to be working that way. But I still remain a huge fan of analog. So there were elements of the production that I felt were either a little bit dated or a bit cluttered. So what I wanted to do was empty them out and let the songs breathe more”.

Not only is Director’s Cut coming up for its tenth anniversary; it is almost a decade since Kate Bush put out 50 Words for Snow. In November 2011, we were not ready for a second Bush album in a year! She knew that she wanted to put out her second album of that year before the end of the winter as she would have had to have held it back to the following winter otherwise – what with the snowy themes, it wouldn’t have sounded right to put it out in the spring! Though she could have released it early in 2012, I think that she knew from the start that she wanted these two albums out in 2011. The first album entirely released on her Fish People label, she had no timescales or any big input from EMI. A completely different entity to Director’s Cut, Bush would have been working on both albums alongside one another. There was this overlap where she had material for her tenth studio album; at the same time, she was putting the final touches on Director’s Cut. I can only imagine the scenes in the Bush household as 50 Words for Snow was coming together! It must have been tense trying to get everything ready for release. Whereas Director’s Cut was quite bare because the songs were intended to be a bit less cluttered than they were on the original albums, 50 Words for Snow had a deceptive bareness. I think the compositions are gorgeous and beautiful, yet they are also quite intricate and full at the same time. Again, to switch headspace and moods so quickly is quite a skill - and it must have proven tricky!

In terms of personnel, things were fairly tight again. The only returning musician – apart from her son and other half – was Steve Gadd on percussion. I wonder whether Paddy Bush would have been offered a part? I suppose 50 Words for Snow’s sound and reliance on guitar, piano and percussion meant that there was not a lot for him to do! I think that 50 Words for Snow is one of Bush’s best albums. It received huge critical kudos. Maybe the experience of stripping songs for Director’s Cut naturally led Bush to create something fairly similar for her next album. In this review, The Guardian were keen to show some love:

“But in one sense, these peculiarities aren't really that peculiar, given that this is an album by Bush. She has form in releasing Christmas records, thanks to 1980's December Will Be Magic Again, on which she imagined herself falling softly from the sky on a winter's evening. She does it again here on opener Snowflake, although anyone looking for evidence of her artistic development might note that 30 years ago she employed her bug-eyed Heeeath-CLIFF! voice and plonking lyrical references to Bing Crosby and "old St Nicholas up the chimney" to conjure the requisite sense of wonder. Today, she gets there far more successfully using only a gently insistent piano figure, soft flurries of strings and percussion and the voice of her son Bertie.

Meanwhile, Fry's is merely the latest unlikely guest appearance – Bush has previously employed Lenny Henry, Rolf Harris (twice) and the late animal imitator Percy Edwards, the latter to make sheep noises on the title track of 1982's The Dreaming. Equally, Fairweather Low is not the first person called upon to pretend to be someone else on a Bush album, although she usually takes that upon herself, doing impersonations to prove the point: Elvis on Aerial's King of the Mountain, a gorblimey bank robber on There Goes a Tenner. Finally, in song at least, Bush has always displayed a remarkably omnivorous sexual appetite: long before the Yeti and old Snow Balls showed up, her lustful gaze had variously fixed on Adolf Hitler, a baby and Harry Houdini.

No, the really peculiar thing is that 50 Words for Snow is the second album in little over six months from a woman who took six years to make its predecessor and 12 to make the one before that. If it's perhaps stretching it to say you can tell it's been made quickly – no one is ever going to call an album that features Lake Tahoe's operatic duet between a tenor and a counter-tenor a rough-and-ready lo-fi experience – it certainly feels more intuitive than, say, Aerial, on which a lot of time and effort had clearly been expended in the pursuit of effortlessness. For all the subtle beauty of the orchestrations, there's an organic, live feel, the sense of musicians huddled together in a room, not something that's happened on a Bush album before.

That aside, 50 Words for Snow is extraordinary business as usual for Bush, meaning it's packed with the kind of ideas you can't imagine anyone else in rock having. Taking notions that look entirely daft on paper and rendering them into astonishing music is very much Bush's signature move. There's something utterly inscrutable and unknowable about how she does it that has nothing to do with her famous aversion to publicity. Better not to worry, to just listen to an album that, like the weather it celebrates, gets under your skin and into your bones”.

Bush did not provide that much press for Director’s Cut. I guess, as the album is her reworking older songs, there was not to much to say regarding the songs’ origins and meaning – as we all pretty much knew all of that already. That was not the case with 50 Words for Snow. Between radio interviews and press chats, Bush was very generous with her time! I suppose, as she had put out two albums in a year, she was eager to discuss her latest work. In 2014, The Quietus published a 2011 interview where John Doran chatted with her about 50 Words for Snow:

“So Aerial is full of images of clear skies, still water, warm days and it’s full of the bustle of family life and an easy domesticity. 50 Words For Snow is a similarly beautiful album but there is a chill to it - it lacks the warmth of its predecessor. I wondered if it represented another switch from an autobiographical to a narrative song writing approach?

KB: Yeah, I think it’s much more a kind of narrative story-telling piece. I think one of the things I was playing with on the first three tracks was trying to allow the song structure to evolve the story telling process itself; so that it’s not just squashed into three or four minutes, so I could just let the story unfold.

I’ve only heard the album today so I can’t say I’m completely aware of every nuance but I have picked out a few narrative strands. Would it be fair enough to say that it starts with a birth and ends with a death?

KB: No, not at all. Not to my mind anyway. It may start with a birth but it’s the birth of a snowflake which takes its journey from the clouds to the ground or to this person’s hand. But it’s not really a conceptual piece; it’s more that the songs are loosely held together with this thread of snow.

Fair play. Now some of your fans may have been dismayed to read that there were only seven songs on the album but they should be reassured at this point that the album is 65 minutes long, which makes for fairly long tracks. How long did it take you to write these songs and in the course of writing them did you discard a lot of material?

KB: This has been quite an easy record to make actually and it’s been quite a quick process. And it’s been a lot of fun to make because the process was uninterrupted. What was really nice for me was I did it straight off the back of Director’s Cut, which was a really intense record to make. When I finished it I went straight into making this so I was very much still in that focussed space; still in that kind of studio mentality. And also there was a sense of elation that suddenly I was working from scratch and writing songs from scratch and the freedom that comes with that.

Had you always wanted to do 50 Words For Snow or were you just on a roll after Director’s Cut?

KB: No, they were both records that I’d wanted to do for some time. But obviously I had to get Director’s Cut done before I could start this one... Well, I guess I could have waited until next year but this record had to come out at this time of year, it isn’t the sort of thing I could have put it out in the summer obviously.

Did the snow theme come from an epiphany or a particular grain or idea? Was there one particular day when you happened to be in the snow…

KB: No. I don’t think there was much snow going on through the writing of this… it was more to do with my memories of snow I suppose and the exploration of the images that come with it.

Have you worked with Andy Fairweather Low before, the [Amen Corner] vocalist who presumably plays the role of the hirsute gentleman of the mountains?

KB: [laughing] Hirsute? Well, no, Andy doesn’t play the hirsute beastie, he’s one of the people on the expedition into the Himalayas. But I think that Andy just has one of the greatest voices. I just love his voice. When I wrote the song I just thought, ‘I’ve got to get Andy to sing on this song because he sounds great.’ Which I think he does. He’s just got a fantastic voice.

Now, ‘Snowed In At Wheeler Street’ features the vocal talents of Sir Elton John and I was wondering, was the track written with him in mind?

KB: Yes. Absolutely.

How long have you known him?

KB: Oooh. I’ve known him for a long time. He used to be one of my greatest musical heroes. He was such an inspiration to me when I was starting to write songs. I just adored him. I suppose at that time a lot of the well-known performers and writers were quite guitar based but he could play really hot piano. And I’ve always loved his stuff. I’ve always been a fan so I kind of wrote the song with him in mind. And I’m just blown away by his performance on it. Don’t you think it’s great?

I love the way out of the fifty words that you come up with for snow, without a bit of digging round I wouldn’t have been able to tell you which words were real, which were made up, which were partially true and which were obscure, archaic or foreign. I know that the whole idea of Eskimos having 50 words for snow is false but at the same time I do know that the Sami people of Lapland do actually have hundreds of words for snow. But from your point of view where did the idea for such a beautiful and weird song come from?

KB: Well, I’m really pleased you like it. Years ago I think I must have heard this idea that there were 50 words for snow in this, ah, Eskimo Land! And I just thought it was such a great idea to have so many words about one thing. It is a myth - although, as you say it may hold true in a different language - but it was just a play on the idea, that if they had that many words for snow, did we?

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

If you start actually thinking about snow in all of its forms you can imagine that there are an awful lot of words about it. Just in our immediate language we have words like hail, slush, sleet, settling… So this was a way to try and take it into a more imaginative world. And I really wanted Stephen to read this because I wanted to have someone who had an incredibly beautiful voice but also someone with a real sense of authority when he said things. So the idea was that the words would get progressively more silly really but even when they were silly there was this idea that they would have been important, to still carry weight. And I really, really wanted him to do it and it was fantastic that he could do it”.

I will leave things there. I was thinking about Kate Bush and 2011 because, on 5th April, Director’s Cut’s Deeper Understanding turned ten. Releasing only one singe from each album (Wild Man was the single from 50 Words for Snow), Bush was keen for people to listen to the albums as a whole – she also only put out one single, King of the Mountain, from 2005’s Aerial. Props to her for not only putting out two albums in 2011; both albums are terrific and completely different – perhaps not something one can say about her two albums from 1978. Although nobody could have predicted it, Kate Bush fans were treated to…

TWO brilliant records in one year!

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Julien Baker – Little Oblivions

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Julien Baker – Little Oblivions

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IN this Vinyl Corner…

I am concentrating on an album that was released just this year. Julien Baker’s excellent Little Oblivions is an album I would encourage people to get on vinyl. This is how Rough Trade describe the record:

“Little Oblivions is the third studio album by Julien Baker. Recorded in Memphis, TN, the record weaves together unflinching autobiography with assimilated experience and hard-won observations from the past few years, taking Baker’s capacity for storytelling to new heights. It also marks a sonic shift, with the songwriter’s intimate piano and guitar arrangements newly enriched by bass, drums, keyboards, banjo, and mandolin with nearly all of the instruments performed by Baker”.

Tennessee-born Baker has received widespread critical acclaim for her music. Her songs often tackle issues of spirituality, addiction, mental illness, and human nature. In addition to her solo work, Baker is known as a member of Boygenius alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. I think she is one of the finest artists on the scene and, on her remarkable third solo album, she has hit new levels of brilliance. I haven’t heard songs from Little Oblivions played a lot on radio since its release. It is a pity, as it is such a fine record with so many highlights. The single, Hardline, is one of my favourite of the year. I think that Baker will continue to grow as an artist. With three terrific solo albums under her belt, one can see and hear that quality.

The reviews for Little Oblivions have been largely positive. In their review of the album, DIY observed the following:

“I’m telling my own fortune, something I cannot escape,” offers Julien Baker on ‘Hardline’, the opening track on her expansive third studio album; a step away from the acoustic led singer-songwriter affair of her first two outings. Her words perfectly establish what’s to follow across the record’s twelve tracks, songs that continue to make often self-deprecating observations about herself and others that feel as vital as they are inescapable. Julien has forged a space from laying her demons bare and the hunt for some semblance of solace, and ‘Little Oblivions’ is no different.

Like slow-burning debut ‘Sprained Ankle’ and 2017’s ‘Turn Out The Lights’, Julien’s latest doesn’t attest to look for answers. By closer ‘Ziptie’, her outlook is as bleak as it has largely always been. “Tired of collecting my scars,” she sings, “somebody’s got my head in a ziptie.” The lyrics are accompanied by an expanse of instrumentation previously absent from her sound, and drums drive ‘Little Oblivions’ forward with a disarming urgency. At times, the hushed subtlety of the two previous records is all-but forgotten, not least as ‘Ringside’ leans on heavy reverb and ‘Repeat’ turns to electronic pulses and distorted vocals. It’s new territory for Julien, but one she traverses with ease, complementing her more overt tales of faith, inebriation and inter-personal relationships”.

I would encourage everyone to buy the album. Although the lyrics are very honest and, at times, brutal, it does not make for an uncomfortable listen. The songs are revealing and captivating – something many critics have picked up on. This is what CLASH said in their review:

“You say it isn’t cut and dry, oh it’s not all black and white,” Julien Baker sings at the outset of ‘Little Oblivions’. “What if it’s all black, baby, all the time?”

Since 2015’s ‘Sprained Ankle’, appropriately, the Tennessee songwriter has built a catalogue of songs that explore the range of coloured bruises, grey zones, and emotional fractures sustained across a lifetime, observed up close in painful detail. On her third album, the view has swung from microcosm to breathtaking panorama.

It’s also louder. ‘Ringside’ is all soft-rock euphoria, while the bass-drum that arrives during ‘Repeat’ evokes her boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘I Know The End’. On ‘Hardline’, the effect is overwhelming; crushingly beautiful, it is perhaps Baker’s finest moment.

There are periods of reprieve: ‘Heatwave’ and ‘Favor’ feel simultaneously darker and cosier than the rest of the record. But it’s hard not to long for that dazzling brightness again, the hearts-on-sleeves yearning, as if one day the greys might finally wash away forever”.

The more I listen to Little Oblivions the more it affects me. I think Julien Baker is one of the most interesting and accomplished young songwriters in the world. I look forward to seeing how her career progresses.

There were a few interviews released around the time the album came out in February. Apologies for slightly mangling the VICE interview, but there were a few segments that caught my attention:

“Many who’ve found themselves out of work, furloughed, or otherwise marooned from their ordinary lives will have identified with such dissatisfaction at some point over the past year, left with only time and the inside of their minds, once the trappings of social life were stripped away by lockdowns. For Baker, however, this feeling is not an entirely new one – she remembers a time when something similar set in a couple of years ago. “2019, for me, was a lot of the exercise I hear people describing in quarantine, because I had come off of the road,” she tells me. “It wasn't healthy for me to be touring anymore. And I just had to exist in this new, unfamiliar space where I was not constantly collapsing my own identity with the persona that I and other people had cultivated for me as a performer.”

This “persona” developed because Baker’s profile grew exponentially around her second full-length record, the rapturous and critically beloved Turn Out the Lights, which came out in 2017. The album built on her more lo-fi 2015 debut Sprained Ankle, in an unexpected manner. Over email, Baker’s contemporary and bandmate Phoebe Bridgers describes her ambition and innovation: “People loved that first record, myself included,” Bridgers writes. “If Julien wanted to, she could have stayed in her lane and made that same kind of record over and over. Instead she decided to play drums and deconstruct guitar pedals and scream. By the time people (me) were trying to copy the way she sounded on Sprained Ankle, she didn’t even sound like that anymore.”

What Baker had created instead, using organs, loop pedals, and cavernous-sounding production, was a new canvas upon which to display her almost unmatched gift for facing down the parts of the psyche that many of us shy away from. Indeed, the most accurate description I have heard of what Baker does comes courtesy of the poet and critic Hanif Abdurraqib, who accurately describes her as a master of “what whispers in through the cracks of a person’s time alone.”

Detailing this feeling on “Relative Fiction,” a song on Little Oblivions, she describes herself as “A character of somebody's invention / A martyr in another passion play.” “I guess I don't mind losing my conviction / If it's all relative fiction anyway,” Baker sings, addressing the disconnect she was beginning to feel between the way she was written about, and the facts of her reality. The track, then – as most of those on the album do – explores this period in Baker’s life as one when she had to, in her words, “re-approach” her “relationship to sobriety.”

“Saying that I was sober for a really long time, and that I went through a period of being deeply, destructively involved with substances again – it felt like a failure at first,” she tells me. “But now, it feels like understanding that recovery, growth, or any sort of ideal of self improvement isn't linear helps your world not implode when something goes wrong.”

Little Oblivions sounds like a record made by someone who has had that realisation, and is comfortable and even happy in it. This emotional progression is mirrored sonically, as the record builds out from Baker’s catalogue so far. Some songs feel like direct continuations – second track “Heatwave,” for example, recalls the simplicity of Sprained Ankle’s “Everybody Does,” before swelling into a full band ending, while “Favor” employs the backing vocals of her boygenius bandmates. Others, like the first single “Faith Healer,” with its electronic inflections, try something new, though Baker’s voice – by turns delicate and powerful, so gilded-sounding that to hear it on these new songs still feels, in a manner, holy – remains its guiding principle.

Comparing the process of making the new album with her older work (wherein, she says “there was something about the essentialism of making very stripped back music with very few instruments that felt like a good exercise at the time”), Baker describes a more free-flowing process: “I wanted to have less arbitrary perimeters around music,” she tells me. “I tried to use sounds very conceptually on previous records. And on this record, I think it was more about just collecting noises that sounded interesting to me.”

Like Baker’s previous music, however, the album does not shy away from self-recrimination or accounts of hurt caused, though it does seem that perhaps she has gained something different from displaying such candour this time. “Although it is pretty masochistic to make a record that is like a laundry list of my failings to myself and others,” she laughs, “it’s relieving. It’s relieving to like, disappoint, in a way. It builds a more earnest relationship with someone, when you allow yourself not to be perfect. And I think it also makes you more merciful, with yourself and with others”.

I will end things there. Little Oblivions is, in my view, one of this year’s best albums. Do yourself a favour and go and check it out. I really love the album and, as I said, I am interested to see where Baker goes next in her career. Four years after the excellent Turn Out the Lights, Julien Baker released what could be her best album to date. Little Oblivions is yet another stunning release from…

THE multi-talented songwriter.