FEATURE: The May Playlist: Vol. 4: Wildflower Wildfire and Some Fear Colours

FEATURE:

 

 

The May Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Lana Del Rey 

Vol. 4: Wildflower Wildfire and Some Fear Colours

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THIS is another great week…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Marten/PHOTO CREDIT: Katie Silvester

where there are some terrific tracks from big artists. In the mix this week is Lana Del Rey, LoneLady, Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen, John Grant, Billie Marten, Jade Bird, Olivia Rodrigo, Garbage, and Kate Nash. Also included is Holly Humberstone, Green Day, MARINA, Georgia/David Jackson, Japanese Breakfast, Alanis Morissette, Florence + The Machine, and Biig Piig. It is a really solid week for new music so, if you need a boost and some push to get you into the weekend, then I think that these songs should do the trick. Get involved and discover what the best of this week…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Angel Olsen/PHOTO CREDIT: Fernando Guerrero

HAS to offer.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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Lana Del Rey - Wildflower Wildfire

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Hurst

LoneLady – Fear Colours

Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen - Like I Used To

John Grant – Billy

Billie Marten - Human Replacement

Jade Bird - Different Kinds of Light

Olivia Rodrigo - enough for you

Garbage – Wolves

Kate Nash – Misery

Holly Humberstone - The Walls Are Way Too Thin

MARINA - Ancient Dreams In a Modern Land

Georgia, David Jackson  - Get Me Higher

PHOTO CREDIT: Dustin Liu

Japanese Breakfast - Savage Good Boy

PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Smithies for DIY

Biig Piig – American Beauty

Lucy Dacus – VBS

Anne-Marie, Niall Horan – Our Song

PHOTO CREDIT: Sacha Lecca for Rolling Stone

black midi - Chondromalacia Patella

Green Day – Pollyanna

Mysie – Seven Nights

Duran Duran – INVISIBLE

Zara Larsson – Morning

Liz Lawrence - Down for Fun

Sinead Harnett – Obvious

Martha Hill – Boom

Kelli-Leigh – Feelin’ U

PHOTO CREDIT: Matsu

POND – America’s Cup

Róisín O – 2023

Maisie Peters – Helicopter

Julia Wolf – In My Way

Litany - Cream

Tequisha – Maybe One Day

PHOTO CREDIT: Pooneh Ghana

Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny haha

Maria Kelly – eight hours

Lola Young – Bad Tattoo

Alanis Morissette - Rest

Florence + The Machine - Call me Cruella (from Cruella)

Boys World - All Me

Gruff Rhys - The Keep

CHAI (ft. Mndsgn) - IN PINK

Chrissie Hynde - You’re a Big Girl Now

Gary Numan - The Chosen

PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Carter for The New York Times

Georgia Anne Muldrow - Passin Ooout!

BAMBI BAINS - Khayaal

Tilsen - Little Worse

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Songs from Albums with Iconic Covers

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

Songs from Albums with Iconic Covers

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THIS Lockdown Playlist is a bit special…

as I wanted to mark thirty years of an iconic album cover being shot. On 23rd May, 1991, photographer Michael Lavine took what would be the publicity shots for Nirvana's Nevermind album at Jay Aaron Studios in Los Angeles. The idea for the front cover shot of the baby swimming was taken after Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl saw a T.V. documentary on water babies and was taken by Kirk Weddle. Several babies were used; five-month-old Spencer Eldon's photo came out best. Many consider that cover to be the finest of all-time. Because of this, I thought I would include a song from Nevermind…but I also want to source songs from albums that have eye-grabbing covers. Here is a collection of songs from albums where you are hooked and mesmerised…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @jonasleupe/Unsplash

BY the cover.

FEATURE: Groovelines: The Mamas & the Papas - California Dreamin'

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

The Mamas & the Papas - California Dreamin'

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THIS it current Groovelines…

 PHOTO CREDIT: RB/Redferns

concerns a song that is considered to be a classic. I am talking about the timeless brilliance of California Dreamin’. The song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips (who were part of the band with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot). It was first recorded by Barry McGuire. The version we all know and identify with was The Mamas & the Papas’ single of 1965. The lyrics of the song express the narrator's longing for the warmth of Los Angeles during a cold winter in New York City. I think that California Dreamin’ is a quintessential 1960s songs; one that sounds as compelling and bright as the day it was released. I can listen to the song at any time, and I am transported to this warm and welcoming place. I want to bring in a couple of features that discuss California Dreamin’ and its legacy. I would urge people to check out the If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears album. It also contains the other classic in their cannon, Monday, Monday. The entire album is exceptional and gorgeous. I think that California Dreamin’ is the best-known and popular song from the Los Angeles band. This feature from udiscovermusic discusses how the song took a while to make an impression in the United Kingdom:

“By the spring of 1966, the Mamas and the Papas were big news in the United States. They’d gone Top 5 with “California Dreamin’’’, released the previous December 8, and were climbing fast with the follow-up, ‘Monday, Monday.’ That was on its way to a three-week stint at No.1 in the US when, on the chart for April 28, the vocal quartet appeared on a British chart for the first time.

“California Dreamin’’’ made a tentative first showing in the Top 50 that week at No.49, as Dusty Springfield climbed to the top of the bestsellers with “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.” But it was appropriate for the John and Michelle Phillips composition to be making an impression in the chillier transatlantic climes. The pair wrote it when they were literally feeling the cold of a New York winter and missing the warmth of Los Angeles.

The song never made quite the same impression in the UK as it did in the States, at least not first time around. It climbed the chart over the next month, 34-29-26, before spending two weeks at its peak position of No.23. “Monday, Monday” would be the real British breakthrough, resting for two weeks at No.3 in June. That month, back home, “Dreamin’’’ was certified gold, and then the Mamas and The Papas album spent nine consecutive weeks in the UK top ten, peaking at No.3.

One of the song’s many charms was its alto flute solo, played by jazz man Bud Shank, also a saxophonist. Earlier in 1966, he’d claimed a piece of Beatles-related notoriety with a minor US hit version of “Michelle.” It reached No.65 for the Dayton, Ohio-born musician.

A ‘magical’ session

Fellow Californian scenester P.F. Sloan played guitar on “California Dreamin’”, and later remembered the session in an interview with Songfacts. It was “magical,” he said. “John [Phillips] was very nervous. Nobody particularly liked the song, and to be honest with you, ‘California Dreamin’’ was maybe three or four chords. I added the “Walk Don’t Run” Ventures guitar riffs for that ‘da da da da da da.’ That was all creative work inside the studio when I heard them singing on mic. I had recorded them with Barry McGuire on his second album, so I knew how good they were.”

It was another generation before “Dreamin’” finally landed a Top 10 UK placing. In 1997, the song was used in a TV commercial campaign in Britain for Carling Lager. That started a whole new wave of interest in the classic Californian pop sound and propelled the song to No.9”.

Whilst I love California Dreamin’, one of the moist interesting things about the group is the cover for If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. Shot by Guy Webster, five different versions exist. The one we see is a classic example of a cover that does not hint at the music within. It is an odd choice for a cover, though it does raise a smile! I want to finish by quoting from an article that points to the endurance of California Dreamin’ and the If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears album:

“How about our ears? What did they have to struggle to believe? The group sang HARMONIES! I don't believe it! What's next, well-crafted songs? Well, that's why we're here today... "California Dreamin'", to stick to the most famous of their tunes, was a well-constructed universal piece of song writing. And by universal, I mean anyone could sing it. Start with Sinatra and make the list. One can hear nearly any vocalist covering it.

Let me make the point by offering an opposite kind of song: could anyone sing "Oh, Yoko?" I'm not asking if anyone would want to; I'm asking if anyone possibly could. Tiny Tim? Perhaps. He was, at his best, capable of singing the strangest of tunes, but still...give "California Dreamin'" it's due: The song is melodic, even haunting, and well sung.

The lyrics hang visibly in the memory: "on such a winter's day. Stopped into a church along the way, fell down upon my knees - I began to pray!" (One thinks of Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises; god listens but goes back to reading his paper.) Dreamin' soars, but its heart is dark. The singer would be safe and warm IF he were in L.A., but he isn't. And the preacher knows he's going to stay. Sin hovers at the edges of the song. "If I didn't tell her, I could leave today." Tell her what exactly? What has happened?

Only now, decades later, does one notice the presence of a mystery. It may be why the song has lasted. That, and the fact that it sounds good. As for the album itself, it has more than a few moments that have held up. Cass sings a ragtime remake of "I Call Your Name", daring then, today as easy to listen to as "Something Happened To Me Yesterday", made during that period in which everyone had to make some version of Winchester Cathedral. The covers are all well-picked: "Do You Wanna Dance"; "Spanish Harlem"; "You Baby"; but take away "California Dreamin'" and we wouldn't be talking about it today”.

Although The Mamas & the Papas released many great songs, it is hard to ignore the importance of California Dreamin’. It is a song that is widely played to this day and has touched generations. Whilst the lyrics were very meaningful to the Los Angeles band, I feel we can all identify with and appreciate what is being sung. One spin of California Dreamin’ is enough to…

MAKE you feel warmer inside.

FEATURE: Drip by Drip: The Modern-Day Promotional Campaign

FEATURE:

 

 

Drip by Drip

PHOTO CREDIT: Mailchimp/Unsplash 

The Modern-Day Album Promotional Campaign

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THIS may seem like I am…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @victrola/Unsplash

being a bit of an old man and harking for the past. I think that there always used to be quite a hard drive and extensive promotional campaign when it came to album releases. Some artists put out four or five singles (or more) before an album arrived. I never really thought of it now but, in an age where there is a wider and more viperous promotional cycle, it does seem to be a bit much! There are so many examples of artists putting out quite a few songs before an album arrives. I love London Grammar but, ahead of the release of Californian Soil, they put out four singles (a third of the album) – one would expect at least one more single from it. Little Simz is putting out her album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, in September. Two singles have come from it already; one feels several more may arrive. Every artist has their own strategy when it comes to releasing music and singles from an album. Some go for a few singles and then put the album out; others might release more, whereas some release fewer. Maybe the situation is different for mainstream artists but, for those who do not have the same following and big label behind them, drip-feeding a new album can provide more attention and, hopefully, result in more people buying their albums. I think that the modern promotional cycle is stripping some of the mystery and spontaneity.

 PHOTO CREDIT: @dole777/Unsplash

I feel one of the reasons why artists pre-social media/Internet put out quite a few singles from an album is that it was a music landscape that relied on music television and radio. There weren’t the same channels as we had now; where we have social media that means one can post regularly and reach a lot of people. Also, many artists would release a couple of singles from an album. Then, when it was released, a couple more were put out to get people buying after the album’s arrival. I know it is the labels that drive the single arrivals, though I wonder whether the modern strategy of releasing a bunch of singles pre-release with an intense campaign behind them is the right call. Not too many artists put out singles after an album has come out. What it means is that you get these songs hammered and pushed massively, the album then it out, then that is it. I think that too much attention on individual songs means that, when you come to hear the whole album, you are a bit over-familiar or a little bored of that track. Radio playlists seem more intense, so that one might hear the same song for a month solid, played about ten times a day. Alongside radio play comes Facebook posts, tweets and teaser videos. Many artists might do a teaser video, lyric video and the official video. On social media, you get cryptic posts ahead of time, reminders that the single is coming out, then you have the slew of reminders and retweets/shares. As I said, competition is tough and it is a very hard market to navigate – especially for smaller artists coming through.

 PHOTO CREDIT: @eddybllrd/Unsplash

I like the excitement of a single coming out, the wait for it to arrive and then looking ahead to the album. That’s how it used to feel years ago. Even if an artist put out several singles, I wasn’t hearing those songs too much. By the time the album came out, I still had appetite for the songs and then discovered so many other treats. Now, when I get an album where three/four/more songs have been out there and almost bled dry, I sort of put those tracks aside and return to them infrequently. Today more than ever, the importance of the album is paramount! I feel people still stream and handpick tracks rather than listening to albums through. One wants people to appreciate albums as a single listening experience. Some may only play singles from an album and then move on. One may say that this disproves my point that hammering singles ahead of an album is a positive thing - though I would disagree. I am not sure what the solution is. I think that two singles pre-album release is quite enough. You get to pick songs that represent the album and give people a taster. In terms of social media focus, I wonder why artists post silent or teaser videos.  I think so much impact could be created with a less intense and prolific campaign. Then, when an album comes out, keep the interest going with a further single.

 PHOTO CREDIT: @chadmadden/Unsplash

That way, I don’t feel people have heard too much before the album is released. There is that post-script or post-release consideration. It is strange that so much fervency goes into releasing an album that we rarely hear anything about it or from it when it is out in the world! One gets the feeling that labels want artists to look ahead to the next album or project rather than focusing on the on they have put out. Sure, artists post about their album when it has been released and make sure people do not miss out. What I mean is that there is not another single from it. The surge in vinyl sales shows that people love the album and are willing to buy rather than stream. For me and many music listeners, it can be quite heavy-going having so much focus on individual songs rather than the album itself. I would like to see videos of artists recording their album and discussing individual tracks. Maybe, instead of a raft of singles, these videos help promote an album yet leave one wanting more and not having heard too much give away. Perhaps it is an unavoidable symptom and necessity of the modern age. I like when you get artists that put out a single or two and then let the album do most of the talking. There is such a run-up and calculated campaign for albums and E.P.s now that it does seem too regimented and inorganic. Many might ask that, given this, what is the easy answer. I think artists can get their music out there by stripping back slightly. By releasing a couple of singles and, say interviews or features about the album, that means that there are not the pointless teaser videos and posts for every song. You can also give people songs from the album but craft a deeper connection. Not just in terms of the relationship between artists and fan, but also the process of recording an album itself. I think that would be much more rewarding. I feel that, as things stand at the moment, some of the importance and purpose of an album is being taken away. By exsanguinating songs and putting too much on social media, it is removing some of the...

 PHOTO CREDIT: @annietheby/Unsplash

EXCITMENT of an album.

FEATURE: After the iPod… What Is the Next Great Music-Playing Device?

FEATURE:

 

 

After the iPod…

What Is the Next Great Music-Playing Device?

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I have written about the iPod before…

when I was spotlighting great music breakthroughs – software and hardware that has changed how we listen to and appreciate music through the decades. Ahead of the original iPod’s twentieth anniversary later this year, it has got me thinking about devices and how we listen to music today. There is a great love and demand for vinyl. We cannot really streamline vinyl and make something portable. I am not sure people are listening to compact discs on the move anymore. Tapes are still selling, though I do not think the Walkman or any cassette-playing devices are about anymore. I think there have been a few innovations and breakthroughs over the years since the iPod was launched. I am going to expand in a minute. Before then, I want to bring in an article that looks at the history of the iPod and the first few iterations:

“Our iPod adventure begins in October 2001, when Apple launched its first portable music player.

The first incarnation of the device that was to revolutionise the music industry had a mechanical scroll wheel and launched with 5GB and 10GB capacities, starting at a shade under £300.

The name 'iPod' was coined for use with the Apple music player by copywriter Vinnie Chieco. He was called in by Apple to help market the new product. Curiously, Apple had already registered the trademark 'iPod', but had originally intended it to be used as the name for its Internet kiosks, though these never saw the light of day.

The second-generation iPod waved sayonara to the clunky mechanical scroll wheel and introduced the touch-sensitive version still in use today, albeit in a different form.

Released in July 2002, the new model built on the success of the first incarnation, and came in capacities up to 20GB for £399, with the 5GB model at £259 and 10GB for £329.

With the third-generation iPod, Apple did away with the buttons that surrounded the touch-sensitive wheel, instead setting backlit controls horizontally under the LCD screen.

This edition launched in April 2003 and was the first model to use Apple's 30-pin dock connector. 10GB, 15GB and 30GB models were available, costing £249, £299 and £399 respectively”.

I use the iPod as an example of a device that really changed how we listened to music. Following on from technology such as the Sony Walkman, the original iPod – though it had some drawbacks – offered a library of music in your pocket. I think that, as people still have an affection for hardware but also want a wide range of music at their fingertips, there has not been a development or evolution for today’s market.

It will be great to mark twenty years of the iPod later in the year. In terms of its capacity and specification, this article from Life Wire gives us more details – in addition to information regarding subsequent iPods:

“Introduced: Oct. 2001
Released: Nov. 2001​
Discontinued: July 2002

The 1st generation iPod can be identified by its scroll wheel, surrounded by four buttons (clockwise from the top: menu, forward, play/pause, backward), and its center button for selecting items. When it was introduced, the iPod was a Mac-only product. It required Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X 10.1.

While it was not the first MP3 player, the original iPod was both smaller and easier to use than many of its competitors. As a result, it quickly attracted accolades and strong sales. The iTunes Store wasn't introduced until 2003, so users had to add music to their iPods from CDs or other online sources.

At the time of its introduction, Apple wasn't the powerhouse company it later became. The initial success of the iPod, and its successor products, were major factors in the company's explosive growth.

Capacity
5 GB (about 1,000 songs)
10 GB (about 2,000 songs) - released in March 2002
Mechanical hard drive used for storage

Supported Audio Formats
MP3​
WAV
AIFF

Colors
White

Screen
160 x 128 pixels
2 inch
Grayscale

Connectors
FireWire

Battery Life
10 hours

Dimensions
4.02 x 2.43 x 0.78 inches

Weight
6.5 ounces

Original Price
US$399 - 5 GB
$499 - 10 GB

Requirements
Mac: Mac OS 9 or higher; iTunes 2 or higher”.

I have been looking online for something that has the same sort of functions as an iPod – albeit a bit more developed and multi-capacity – and doesn’t just feel like a way of utilising Spotify and other streaming platforms. Rather than having an anniversary edition of the iPod and doing a more updated version of that, I wonder whether there is a way that people can feel the benefits of the physical and digital. I loved the Walkman because of its solid feel and the fact you could play tapes on the move. That may seem unwieldly now, though people want the tactile pleasure of vinyl and tape; the feeling they are paying for music and have something that will not evaporate. I don’t think that people have evolved from music-playing devices and entirely rely on Smartphones. Vinyl is great but cannot be played portably. I do like the idea of a multi-format device where one could, for example compile a digital mixtape, insert a USB or their library or they could also play cassettes. Maybe something where you could just go digital but have access to streaming and your own personal library. That crossbreed sounds quite chunky and complex. I am a big fan of album artwork, the thrill of the past and the capabilities of the present when it comes to streamlining music and producing something physical. I feel we will get something in the form of a ‘new iPod’ before too long, I for one…  

 PHOTO CREDIT: Daniela Mota/Unsplash

WOULD be interesting to see what form it takes.

FEATURE: Magical Mystery Tours: A Glimpse Inside the Iconic Abbey Road Studios

FEATURE:

 

 

Magical Mystery Tours

A Glimpse Inside the Iconic Abbey Road Studios

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THIS will be a short feature…

but I am going to put out one Abbey Road Studios-related feature a month ahead of its ninetieth anniversary in November. I will come to a very valuable and rare opportunity for people to explore Abbey Road Studios in the summer. First, if you are not aware of the iconic London studios, then their official website gives us some useful and interesting history:

“Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studio in the world and a global music icon. Originally a nine-bedroom house built in 1829, it was purchased by the Gramophone Company in 1928 who went on to build the world’s first purpose-built recording studio. The St John’s Wood address was chosen for its large garden and ideal location – close enough to the performance spaces of the time, but away from the noise and vibrations of the traffic and trains.

The grand opening ceremony on 12 November 1931 included a performance of Land of Hope & Glory in Studio One conducted by Sir Edward Elgar. The Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) in 1931, and the studios later became known as EMI Recording Studios. Since EMI engineer Alan Blumlein patented stereo at Abbey Road in 1931, the studios have been famed for innovation in recording technology, largely developed by the Record Engineering Development Department (REDD) who were responding to the needs of the artists and producers using the rooms. Their innovations include the REDD and TG desks, as well as studio techniques such as Artificial Double Tracking (ADT), created by studio technician Ken Townsend, who went on to become the studios’ MD, as well as Vice President of EMI Studios Group.

While initially a venue for classical recordings, the studios’ repertoire soon embraced jazz and big bands, too, as well as the first British rock & roll records of the 1950s, including Sir Cliff Richard’s first single Move It. Abbey Road is of course synonymous with the legendary work of The Beatles, who worked with EMI producer Sir George Martin and recorded 190 of their 210 songs at the studios. But Abbey Road’s unparalleled history spans the wild experiments of Pink Floyd to iconic recordings from Shirley Bassey, Aretha Franklin, The Hollies and many more”.

Since those exceptional years, artists from Kate Bush, Radiohead, Oasis, Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Kylie and Muse to Sam Smith, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, Frank Ocean, Lady Gaga and Adele have made Abbey Road their creative home, producing countless landmark recordings.

As the demand for classical recording spaces declined, Ken Townsend found a new role for the big rooms – movie scores, with the first major film score being Raiders of The Lost Ark in 1981. Since then, Abbey Road has developed into one of the world’s premier destinations for movie scoring. Blockbuster films such as The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, Skyfall, the Harry Potter series and the Oscar-winning Gravity feature scores recorded here, while recent projects include Black Panther, Solo: A Star Wars Story and the multi award winning The Shape of Water.

The studios house a number of state-of-the-art mastering suites, with engineering expertise spanning direct to vinyl and half-speed mastering. Recent projects mastered or re-mastered by Abbey Road’s award-winning engineers include music from The Beatles, Sam Smith, Sade, Abba, Krept & Konan, Graham Coxon, Novelist, Johnny Marr, Roxy Music and The Rolling Stones.

In Spring 2017, in the biggest transformation since first opening, two new contemporary studios were launched - The Gatehouse and The Front Room - making the magic of Abbey Road accessible to a whole new generation of recording artist. They have already hosted artists from James Bay, Jess Glynne, George Ezra and Skrillex to legends like Nile Rodgers plus grime MCs Novelist and Jammer BBK”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: The late Amy Winehouse is among the artists who has recorded music at Abbey Road Studios

I have not been to Abbey Road Studios myself, though I am very keen to go and visit. In the summer, as this article explains, the doors are being opened to the public - ahead of Abbey Road Studios’ ninetieth anniversary in November:

“Abbey Road Studios will open its doors to the public for one week this summer, offering fans a rare look inside the legendary recording studio.

The Abbey Road: Open House tour comes as part of the recording studio’s 90th anniversary celebrations this year. From 9 to 15 August, fans will be able to visit all three famed recording studios, in which the likes of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Oasis, Ed Sheeran and Adele have recorded.

If you’re a gear head, it’s a rare chance to get up close with the studio’s EMI TG Mk3 and REDD.17 consoles; Mrs Mills piano; a Studer J37 tape machine, and more. Plus, you’ll also get to tour the control rooms and the iconic echo chamber for Studio Two, which was constructed back in 1931.

The tour will also explore Abbey Road’s deep film scoring history and explain how the music for blockbusters such as Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Black Panther, as well as the Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars series were recorded.

Jack Franklin, Head Of Events at Abbey Road Studios, said of opening the studio’s doors to the public in a statement [via MusicRadar]: “As a working studio, the doors to Abbey Road are normally closed, so being able to share a rare glimpse inside our very special building is something we’re all really excited about.

“With a project like this, the major challenge is selecting which bits of the story to tell,” he said. “There is so much history here that editing it down to a 90-minute experience is all part of the fun of the job”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Noel Gallagher

It is amazing to think that Abbey Road Studios is almost ninety! Through the decades, it has seen some of the world’s greatest artists record there. After a hard past year or so, it will be a relief for them to welcome people in. Luckily, I think, there is a relatively normal schedule happening there; so long as artists can maintain social distancing and work safely. We have heard about Abbey Road Studios, but few of us are aware of its geography, landscape and specifications. I posted about this when the news was announced but, in terms of additional anniversary celebrations, Mary McCartney (Paul McCartney’s daughter) is putting out a documentary. If These Walls Could Sing offers a personal and remarkable look inside a hallowed space:

“Mercury Studios, the music-first content studio from Universal Music Group, has announced If These Walls Could Sing, the untold story of the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, directed by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney. The feature-length documentary will be produced by Academy Award®, BAFTA and Prime Time Emmy Award-winner John Battsek following a new development deal between Mercury Studios and Battsek’s Ventureland. Development of the documentary has been overseen and will be executive produced by Universal Music UK’s Marc Robinson and Mercury Studios CEO, Alice Webb.

IN THIS PHOTO: Mary McCartney/PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCartney 

Mary McCartney brings a unique and personal perspective on the history of Abbey Road. She says, “Some of my earliest memories as a young child come from time spent at Abbey Road. I’ve long wanted to tell the story of this historic place and I couldn’t be collaborating with a better team than John and Mercury Studios to make this creative ambition a reality”

Alice Webb says, “Mercury Studios could not be partnering with a more visionary and passionate team than Mary McCartney and John Battsek to tell Abbey Road Studios’ incredible story on film for the first time. We are passionate about showcasing work of pioneering film makers of the highest quality – which is why we are delighted Mary is bringing her creative vision to this project.”

Isabel Garvey, Managing Director of Abbey Road Studios, said, “If these walls could sing. I have lost count how many times I’ve heard that said at Abbey Road Studios over the years. I can’t wait for some of these stories to finally come to life in what will become a timeless documentary”.

I shall wrap things up. I wonder whether there will be any other documentaries or special celebrations planned for Abbey Road Studios closer to its anniversary. Perhaps an album from artists recording songs there? Maybe we will get some live event on 12th November? I would love to go to Abbey Road Studios and do something there one day. I am definitely going to go in the summer when the public are allowed in. The studios still hold so much power and pull…

AFTER ninety years.

FEATURE: Bob Dylan at Eighty: A Selection of Great Cover Versions from Other Artists

FEATURE:

 

 

Bob Dylan at Eighty

PHOTO CREDIT: The Guardian (the image has been digitally manipulated) 

A Selection of Great Cover Versions from Other Artists

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AS Bob Dylan turns eighty…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

on 24th May, this will be the final feature I write to mark this important event. Rather than put out a feature about one of his albums or a side of his career, I thought I would look at cover versions of his songs. I will end with a playlist of songs from other artists. These are, what I consider to be, among the best cover version of his songs. Before bringing in an article about Chrissie Hynde, Wikipedia outlines Dylan’s influence and legacy on other artists:

“Dylan is considered a seminal influence on many musical genres. As Edna Gundersen stated in USA Today: "Dylan's musical DNA has informed nearly every simple twist of pop since 1962". Punk musician Joe Strummer praised Dylan for having "laid down the template for lyric, tune, seriousness, spirituality, depth of rock music". Other major musicians who acknowledged Dylan's importance include Johnny Cash, Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Syd Barrett, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. Dylan significantly contributed to the initial success of both the Byrds and the Band: the Byrds achieved chart success with their version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and the subsequent album, while the Band were Dylan's backing band on his 1966 tour, recorded The Basement Tapes with him in 1967 and featured three previously unreleased Dylan songs on their debut album.

Some critics have dissented from the view of Dylan as a visionary figure in popular music. In his book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, Nik Cohn objected: "I can't take the vision of Dylan as seer, as teenage messiah, as everything else he's been worshipped as. The way I see him, he's a minor talent with a major gift for self-hype." Australian critic Jack Marx credited Dylan with changing the persona of the rock star: "What cannot be disputed is that Dylan invented the arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style in rock since, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Eminem educating themselves from the Dylan handbook".

Fellow musicians have also presented differing views. Joni Mitchell described Dylan as a "plagiarist" and his voice as "fake" in a 2010 interview in the Los Angeles Times. In a 2013 interview, Mitchell, who had previously toured with Dylan and covered his songs, said that her comments about Dylan had been taken out of context. However, she still questioned Dylan's authenticity and musical ability. Mitchell's original comments led to discussions on Dylan's use of other people's material, both supporting and criticizing him. Talking to Mikal Gilmore in Rolling Stone in 2012, Dylan responded to the allegation of plagiarism, including his use of Henry Timrod's verse in his album Modern Times, by saying that it was "part of the tradition".

IN THIS PHOTO: Chrissie Hynde/PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Holyoak for The Sunday Times Magazine

As I am writing this on 13th May, I may be a little too late to include any Chrissie Hynde in the playlist (though, if I see a song surface between now and the time the feature goes live, I shall pop a song in). The Pretenders’ lead, as Rolling Stone reports, is putting out her Dylan covers album on the master’s eightieth birthday:

“Chrissie Hynde will be releasing an album of Bob Dylan covers, the Pretenders singer announced on Monday. The LP, titled Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan, will be out on May 21st via BMG.

In a statement, Hynde explains that she recorded the album during the Covid-19 lockdown with her Pretenders bandmate James Walbourne.

“A few weeks into lockdown last year, James sent me the new Dylan track ‘Murder Most Foul.’ Listening to that song completely changed everything for me,” Hynde says, echoing what she told Rolling Stone about the upcoming album last summer. “I was lifted out of this morose mood that I’d been in. I remember where I was sitting the day that Kennedy was shot — every reference in the song.”She continues, “Whatever Bob does, he still manages somewhere in there to make you laugh because as much as anything, he’s a comedian. He’s always funny and always has something to say. That’s when I called James and said, ‘Let’s do some Dylan covers’ and that’s what started this whole thing.”

Hynde and Walbourne collaborated on Standing in the Doorway almost entirely via text message. Walbourne would record an initial idea for each cover on his phone before sending it to Hynde, who would then record vocals. All of the tracks were mixed by Tchad Blake (U2, Arctic Monkeys, Fiona Apple).

The album will be accompanied by a television special, Tomorrow Is a Long Time, that will give a behind-the-scenes look at the recording process for the Dylan covers. Tomorrow Is a Long Time is produced by White Light Film Productions and directed by Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, and will premiere Monday, May 24th (Dylan’s 80th birthday) on Sky Arts.

Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan Tracklist

1. In the Summertime

2. You’re a Big Girl Now

3. Standing in the Doorway

4. Sweetheart like You

5. Blind Willie McTell

6. Love Minus Zero / No Limit

7. Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight

8. Tomorrow Is a Long Time

9. Every Grain of Sand”.

To show how other artists have covered Bob Dylan’s catalogue and how they have approached his songs, the playlist at the end is an eclectic selection. I hope that you enjoy. I am a big fan of Bob Dylan and he will get a lot of love on his eightieth. Here, to end, is a collection of interpretations…

OF Bob Dylan songs.

FEATURE: Mother (and Father) Stands for Comfort: Kate Bush and Her Parents’ Support

FEATURE:

 

 

Mother (and Father) Stands for Comfort

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with her mother, Hannah, in the video for Suspended in Gaffa/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Kate Bush and Her Parents’ Support

___________

EARLIER in the year…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with her parents, brothers and friends

I published a feature about Kate Bush and how she draws inspiration from her family. There are few artists who have included their entire family in their music. In terms of turning her onto music and different forms of culture, her brothers, Paddy and John (‘Jay’), were important guides for Kate Bush. They have both played a big role in her career – Paddy in terms of making his sister more aware of unusual and less conventional music; he has appeared on many of her albums; John, as a photographer, has snapped his sister since she was a child. Bush’s son, Bertie (Albert) can be heard on 2005’s Aerial and 2011’s Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow (he also performed on stage with her during Before the Dawn in 2014). Her partner, Danny McIntosh, has appeared on many of her recordings. It must be comforting to have her family appear on her records. Of course, when it comes to her brothers, she had a musical and creative bond with them from childhood. Bush’s ‘new family’ of Bertie and Danny has mixed alongside Paddy Bush on more-recent recordings (both appeared on Director’s Cut). I am casting my mind to other artists whose family has been so instrumental in terms of appearing on recordings; who have also inspired the creative process. It is no surprise that Bush has her family appear on her albums, as she has her own studio at home and there is that convenience. Ever since 1978, Bush has worked alongside her family on professional recordings (of course, John Carder Bush photographed Kate many years before that).

I think her siblings’ influence is very powerful and important. Most musicians can count their parents as big fans and supporters. Not only has Kate Bush’s parents been encouraging and helped shape her path; they also appeared on her albums. It was not the case that her mum and dad had no reservations about going into music. They would have liked her to go to university of spent longer in education. Given the fact Bush released her debut album when she was nineteen, one can understand why there were reservations. She was very young and, if things didn’t pan out, what were her options? That said, they didn’t hold her back. They were encouraging and supportive. Maybe it is the fact that this was a middle-class household. They would have been able to support their daughter if things did not go right. A more working-class family may have dissuaded their child from pursuing music in their teens. In a household filled with music, I am not surprised it enforced Kate Bush’s passion! Recognising their daughter’s innate and amazing gift, I feel her parents knew she was going to be a star and provided this support and comforting air. Before moving on, it is worth learning more about Kate Bush’s parents. Her father, as the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia highlights, can be heard on many of her most-famed recordings:

“Born on April 4, 1920 in South Ockendon, Robert John Bush worked hard to win a scholarship to the Grammar School at Grays, and later won a place at medical school to become a doctor.

He married Hannah Bush in early 1943. Together they had three children: John Carder Bush (1944), Paddy Bush (1952) and Kate (1958).

His voice can be heard in the song The Fog, in the extended version of The Big Sky (The Meteorological Mix) and also among the voices calling to the heroine of The Ninth Wave between the songs Under Ice and Waking The Witch.

He passed away in 2008”.

Her mother, too, is someone who one can hear on some brilliant tracks. Again, with the help of the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, we can discover more about an incredibly inspiring woman:

“Born on June 20, 1918, Hannah Patricia Bush was Kate's mother. She worked as a staff nurse at Epsom Grove Hospital and was one of 12 children who originally hailed form the harbour town of Dungarvan in County Waterford (Ireland).

She married Robert John Bush in early 1943, giving birth to John Carder Bush a year later. On December 9, 1952, Paddy Bush was born. Six years later, Kate was born.

Hannah's voice can be heard in The Ninth Wave, saying the line 'Come here with me now' in the song And Dream Of Sheep, and among the many voices calling to the heroine between the tracks Under Ice and Waking The Witch. She can be seen in the video for Suspended in Gaffa.

Hannah Bush passed away on 14 February 1992, and the album The Red Shoes is dedicated to her memory”.

I am going to do another detailed dive into Kate Bush and her family later down the line. Growing up at East Wickham Farm in Welling, the young Kate Bush was exposed to so much music and creative flair. Her Irish mother, who grew up in Waterford (where music was part of the familial and domestic fabric) identified a spark in her daughter. Kate Bush bought her first album, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, and bonded with popular music of the 1970s – Roxy Music, Elton John and Marc Bolan (and many others) mixed with English and Irish folk.

Her father played Classic pieces on the piano and integrated that with songs from the Great American Songbook. Bush, as Graeme Thomson notes in the biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, was inspired by that early exposure. Her love of Classical music later explains her unorthodox song structures and more experimental nature- one can trace this back to her father’s playing. From her mother, she picked up Irish folk and the instruments played on these records - one can hear an Irish influence in her music pretty early on (it is especially prevalent on The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds of Love (1985). It is clear that some tutors at school encouraged Kate Bush and were important to her. Like most artists, the biggest inspiration came from her folks. They realised that she could realistically make a career from music and dedicate her life to this medium. The young Kate Bush was not someone who had her parents ask to hear her songs and barge into her room. Her father was especially attentive and useful as a sounding board when she needed it. Bush has said in interviews how she would ask her dad to listen to her new songs and, so long as she could wait until the adverts came on T.V., he would sit and listen. I think that sort of dedication and audience meant that she could play her  mass of new songs (she was especially prolific and prodigious!) and determine which were promising. Her father was encouraging, but he would not say everything was great – he would give fairly honest feedback (though, as I will soon mention, there was a littler bias and subjectiveness). Her father’s ear and shoulder would be utilised by Bush through her career.

I think his impact was vital when it came to her career and determination. Her mother was also very supportive from the start. When the debut single, Wuthering Heights, was released in 1978, Hannah Bush would ask friends and people to call the radio stations and get the song played in order to get it up the charts - the song would eventually reach number-one. Perhaps the love and slight subjectiveness was a mixed blessing. There was a definite sense from Hannah Bush that, if her daughter’s interests were not being treated fairly, she would have a say. One example came when Kate Bush took the mix of The Man with the Child in His Eyes (from her debut album, The Kick Inside) to producer Andrew Powell. Her mother felt the strings were not turned up enough. Powell, an experienced producer, disagreed. An assumption, in a bid to support and encourage their daughter, that everything she recorded was fabulous was overridden with the introduction of Del Palmer (he and Bush dated early in her career through to the 1990s; Palmer appeared on many albums and is still working with her to this day as an engineer) into the family circle. A no-nonsense and funny Cockney, he would be straighter with Bush! Whilst she did not like people being too critical about her work, I think this sort of balance was healthy. Her parents, of course, were fantastically supportive…though a sort of blinkered and rose-tinted glasses approach could have led Bush to be too complacent and not push herself.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978

Kate Bush grew up in an affluent household, though she never relied on that or needed much financial support too much from her parents. They made sure their daughter was being treated equitably, though she had a clear vision and did not need too much interference. I love the fact that her father, for nearly all of her career, was there to hear music and provide his feedback. Later in life, I think his natural paternal instincts and love was sage and needed. As he was a doctor, he was at hand when Bush was suffering with stress and nervous fatigue. He prescribed bed rest. This came after the recording of The Dreaming. So intense was the recording of that album that it took her six months to recover. Subsiding on an unhealthy diet, things changed when she started work on Hounds of Love. Not only did the fresh air of East Wickham Farm and a custom-built studio (she built a 24-track studio in the summer of 1983 in the barn behind her parents’ home) help reverse a lot of the pollution and strain of London; her parents’ warmth and perfect environment, I feel, played a big part in the sound and brilliance of the album. Her mother’s legendary hospitality meant that musicians and those involved with recording Hounds of Love were well fed and catered for. Of course, her brothers were there to give her help and love - though her parents’ influence and warmth meant that there was this safe haven. I am going to cut it short here. I wanted to break away from my previous piece about Kate Bush’s family and their influence and concentrate on her parents. I know that parents are supportive and loving, but there was something extra about the Bushes. The combination of music, arts, nurturing and hospitality was a massive reason why Kate Bush had this confidence and natural ability. Although they are both (sadly) no longer with us, they will both…

NEVER be forgotten.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Empress Of

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Empress Of

___________

I like to have a mix of artists on Spotlight…

between those who are just coming through and others that are more established. Empress Of (Lorely Rodriguez) definitely slots into the latter category. She has released three albums – 2015’s Me; Us of 2018 and last year’s I’m Your Empress Of -, in addition to E.P.s and a mixtape. I will finish by focusing on her most-recent album. I want to start a bit further back. Before introducing the first interview, here is some background information about the Los Angeles-born artist:

“Rodriguez initially gained attention in 2012 for anonymously releasing a series of one minute-long demos (via YouTube) prefaced only by a solid color entitled "Colorminutes".Her first 7" single, "Champagne" was released soon after on November 5, 2012 through a limited run via No Recordings. Lorely's stage name was inspired by a tarot card reading she did with a friend: "The first card he pulled out was an Empress card and I was like, 'It's me, I am Empress.' [...] the Empress card is connected to fertility and mothering and strength. It's kind of nice to have those feelings."

On April 2, 2013, her bilingual four-track EP Systems was released via Double Denim and Terrible Records in the UK and North America respectively.[5] Since the release of her EP, she's showcased at SXSW, Iceland Airwaves and Pitchfork's Summer Music Festival[6] and toured as a support act with the likes of Jamie Lidell, Jungle, Kimbra and Florence and the Machine.

"Water Water", the first single off her debut full-length Me was released on April 14, 2015. She has also released a Spanish-language version of the track, "Agua Agua" "so that [her] mother listens [to her] music." Rodriguez's debut album Me, which she self-produced and recorded in Mexico was released on September 11, 2015 via XL Recordings and Terrible”.

Before coming up to date, the first interview I want to bring in is from IMPOSE. In it, Empress Of discusses the route to her debut album. We get to learn more about a fascinating artist:

“When Rodriguez was growing up, her father, also a musician, attempted to teach her Beatles songs on the family piano. The uninterested teen resisted, preferring a more autonomous musical education online. When the family got internet, the first website Rodriguez visited was www.christinaaguilera.com. Later, upon discovering Limewire and Napster, thirteen-year-old Rodriguez set out to find the weirdest stuff she could find. She was quickly drawn to Björk, whose swan dress was being broadcast on MTV and VH1, channels Rodriguez and her brothers watched after school. In particular, Rodriguez became obsessed with the Icelandic singer’s big band experiments, like 1995’s “It’s Oh So Quiet.” She researched the original composers and fell down a jazz rabbit hole. After being a competitive jazz singer in high school, Rodriguez enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music to study jazz. But having received her first laptop when she was seventeen, Rodriguez became more interested in making beats. She switched into the college’s sound engineering program. After graduating in 2011, Rodriguez moved to Brooklyn to perform with her pals in Boston psych-shredder outfit Celestial Shore.

Once in New York, Rodriguez began to perform under her new solo monniker, Empress Of. The name originated after a tarot reading by a friend, in which he immediately pulled the Empress card, one that is associated with nature, fertility, femininity, and abundance. Rodriguez later wrote a song inspired by the experience, “Hat Trick.” She decided against calling herself simply “Empress,” saying, “That sounded so cocky. I’m confident most of the time, but not cocky.”

In late 2012, Empress Of released her first recordings, Colorminutes, a song-a-day demo project wherein she releases short, 1-minute snippets of songs straight to YouTube, each assigned a specific color. The process was meant to refine her creative discipline and technical skills. When discussing Colorminutes and her overall practice, Rodriguez feels strongly that true passions lead to intellectualizing: “When you obsess over something there has to be a point where it becomes academic. Like, if you’re obsessed with DJing, then you’re going to be obsessed with all the techniques and the history and records or record collecting,” she explains. “When I first got into production, it got really nerdy for a second. Like how to make certain sounds and how to mix a little bit and then it crosses over into the creative side.” Colorminutes was an opportunity to flex, as she says, the intersections of her nerdy tendencies and her creative side. The project’s minimal information was meant to let the songs speak for themselves. Rodriguez notes that although she would like to return to these songs at some point, particularly her personal favorite, the turquoise-green #2, she cannot because her production and songwriting styles have evolved so intensely. “I would never write that experience like that now,” she says, of the time in her life channeled into that song. “It would be much more of a story. I think developing as a songwriter, you learn how to tell stories so people walk away with your experiences.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Miriam Marlene Waldner for Wonderland.

“I love this record. I love playing this record. I own up to this record 100%. I put everything I could possibly put into it,” she explains. Me’s success, like its content, ultimately depends on the energy Rodriguez pours into it, and for the past two years, she has been relentlessly devoted.

At this mid-summer meet up, Rodriguez tells me more about writing her record. To start, when she arrived in Mexico, Rodriguez broke down. The opportunity to spend a full month alone in a foreign place with the sole purpose of writing her debut album was a surreal opportunity. However, it was difficult to write with the pressure of fulfilling a contract rather than just for herself. “I felt so obligated to come up with content every day. I felt like I was writing against the clock. You can’t force yourself to be creative. I worked on it every day. Some days it was garbage, some days it was amazing, but I mostly drove myself crazy.” While making the album’s biggest hurdle may have been isolation and personal high expectations, these same conditions were the most motivating. “Driving myself crazy is what made those songs happen,” she says. “I spent so much time by myself because I was far from anything. A lot of the songs are about me digging in my head.”

“The biggest message in this record is that it’s hard to be comfortable with yourself,” she continues. “It’s hard to love yourself. When you’re alone for so long you have to love yourself, otherwise you go crazy. I didn’t love myself. When you’re in New York there are so many distractions, there are so many people you can go to and forget that you have these insecurities”.

In this 2019 interview with Wonderland., there are observations regarding her two albums (to that point) and the difference between them. 2018’s Us is a fascinating album and a step on from her debut:

“This element of collaborating and bringing people together has been the main difference between Rodriguez’s two records, both within the songwriting sphere and in her general life. While Me was written entirely by herself in the secluded village of Valle de Bravo in Mexico, she wanted to surround herself with people for her second, moving from New York back to her hometown of LA to be closer to her family and recruiting outside producers and writers such as Dev Hynes and Jim-E Stack to help create her vision. “I wanted to be around other people. I didn’t want to be alone,” she explains. “After working on my first album all alone — and that being great — where I am in my life is wanting to share experiences. I want to know about your experiences. I don’t want to be so selfish, you know?” Covering life experiences that everyone goes through, at its core Us explores what brings people together. Throughout the record, Rodriguez weaves between stories that deal with depression, love, heartbreak, jealousy and friendship that she’s witnessed in her circle of family and friends. She’s done it in a way that has resonated with everyone who’s listened – a fact realised by the 99+ Instagram DM notifications on Rodriguez’s phone from fans bursting with stories of how the record has touched them.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have people reach out to me and tell me how this album makes them feel,” she smiles. “I love when I listen to an album and it becomes a part of a time and a place in my life and it’s like something that was missing. If I can give you something that was missing, that makes you understand yourself better, then I would love that. Listen to the record, find something in it that makes you feel like you understand yourself. It doesn’t always have to be about me. There are autobiographical songs, but these are things that everyone experiences within their lives.” It seems that becoming a #relatable pop icon will only be a matter of time for Rodriguez, but what does she think? “Basically, I’m just a passive-aggressive Libra who wants everybody to get along,” she laughs. Already iconic”.

Skipping to her recent album, and a lot more people turned their heads the way of Empress Of. Not that her previous work flew under the radar. What I mean is that I’m Your Empress Of is, to me, her most confident and incredible album. I am keen to bring together a couple of positive reviews for that album. Before then, this interview from PAPER, we discover more about the time between 2018’s Us and how Empress Of has progressed as an artist:

“Empress Of came down to earth and embraced pop on her indelible sophomore effort Us — one of 2018's best albums. Since then, Rodriguez has thrived in the space opened up by the breakdown between mainstream and alternative music, shared by folks like FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek, Dev Hynes, Clairo and Solange. Besides Rogers, Rodriguez has opened for Lizzo, Hynes' Blood Orange and Mura Masa, and featured on songs with Khalid and MØ. "On Me, I realized I could write pop music and I loved it," she says. "I loved going into rooms with artists that are so different from me and learning from them."

I'm Your Empress Of takes a different direction. While Me was warm, tender and serene, I'm Your Empress Of is a little bit fucked up. "I wanted this record to sound broken," says Rodriguez.

"[While writing Us] I was in a really settled place," she continues. She had just moved to Los Angeles and carved out a block of time to write her sophomore album. Meanwhile, I'm Your Empress Of came together on the road, in the midst of a tour and painful breakup. "I was physically and emotionally unsettled. I was traveling all around the world. A lot of those beats I made on airplanes or in greenrooms our tour buses. There was this driving chaotic energy to the production." Us took her longer than she'd hoped to write. Rodriguez finds "settledness" creatively challenging, so it will tell you something about her emotional state that the new record wrote itself: "I came home for a few months, and I was like 'woah, something's happening to me.' I felt so creative."

Rodriguez co-produced both of her last two albums with Jim-E Stack (Charli XCX, Perfume Genius, HAIM). Us favored frothy synths and percussion with naked vocals firmly in the foreground. I'm Your Empress Of meanwhile, is a maze of clashing symbols, jagged club beats and knotted melodies. She opts for blurry vocal effects on songs like "Not The One," "Awful" and "Love Is a Drug," which turn her lyrics into beat-keeping chants, in contrast to of Us's detail-heavy storytelling. There's a few moments of the blissed out euphoria that fans have come to expect from Empress Of — like the chorus of "U Give It Up" — but overall, I'm Your Empress Of is a darker, more challenging listen.

Empress Of has always been of the music-as-therapy school of songwriting. But on I'm Your Empress Of, writing was more of a life-line than ever. "I'm really bad at expressing myself in relationships and with family," says Rodriguez. "I was really heartbroken when I was on tour and I didn't process it until I went home and started writing." During one songwriting session, Rodriguez realized she needed to take her mental health more seriously. "I need some help, I need some help, I need myself, I need myself," she sings on "Awful," which also contains the excellent gut-punching rhyme, "I get off on being awful to myself." "I realized I needed to talk to someone after writing that song," she says.

The album charts the full life and death of a relationship, from the thrill of letting someone call you "baby," to screaming matches, to apologies like "an anthology of empty words," to self-medication with casual sex, to begging for another chance, to wishing desperately to move on. With this story arc in mind, what of the album's deceptively straightforward title? Whose Empress Of, exactly?

The album offers two different answers. On the opener and title track, Rodriguez sings the lyric "I'm your Empress Of," over and over again on a helium plinking keyboard. Her mother Reina, who returns as a character through spoken interludes across the album, speaks the line "I only have one girl/ But the only girl is like having thousands of girls/ Because look how she reproduces herself in each bunch of you." On her album cover, Rodriguez wears a multicolored bell skirt and bandeau woven from hundreds of shiny, plasticky purple and pink ribbons and bows like a human present. "When a song is done, it's not mine anymore, it's the listener's. I love that my songs, that came from a place of pain, that pain becomes”.

I am going to wrap up soon. Before I do, I think it is worth highlighting what critics made of I’m Your Empress Of. It was one of last year’s best albums. I think that Empress Of is going to go on and be a major star of the future! The Line of Best Fit were keen to lend their praise:

“Title track “I’m Your Empress Of” begins the record with Rodriguez repeating the title over a salsa piano riff she learned from her dad at the age of eight. The rhythm gives way to her mother’s voice, reminiscing about what it was like to come to America, learn a whole new language and find her way in this world. Then she turns to Lorely herself.

It often feels like a gimmick, getting a non-musical family member involved, but here it sets out the stall for what I’m Your Empress Of will become. There’s a pride in her mother’s voice as she declares “Look how many times she’s represented herself in each one of you”. What follows is an Empress Of that feels rejuvenated and connected; spurred on by a need to process a breakup but also to celebrate everything she stands for.

Taking back control by writing and producing most of the album, she sounds fully in tune with every facet of her identity. The Chicago house inspired wonky pop is back. The Latin vibes are back. Most importantly, her way with words is back (“Void”’s opening line “Every apology got worse / An anthology of empty words” is a particularly delightful one).

Us, while full of great tunes, seemed to lose what made Me so special. The cavalcade of producers and writers stripped it of the first album’s magic, as though each song was written for anyone to take on. It’s something all the more apparent when it’s sandwiched between two albums so full of personality since I’m Your Empress Of has that magic back too. By trusting in her ideas and taking on this quest by herself, Empress Of has imbued this record with life.

From the sharp synth stabs of “Bit Of Rain” to the distorted reflections of album closer “Awful”, all led by Rodriguez’s fantastic vocals, I’m Your Empress Of is a funky, generous and vibrant record”.

To finish off, this review from Pitchfork is an interesting read. Never ones to provide too much positivity, they do highlight the merits of I’m Your Empress Of:

“While poring over I’m Your Empress Of’s lyrics suggests an author with fresh wounds, the album is also a showcase for Rodriguez’s production abilities at this new peak. The lead single, “Give Me Another Chance,” is a rush of Eurodance, and in the balearic-inspired mid-tempo “Void,” Rodriguez Auto-Tunes her vocals to suggest weightlessness, her ennui dusted with clouds of powdered sugar. “What’s The Point,” is shot through with pitter-patters of drum’n’bass percussion, and you can imagine the song’s thick, creeping bass whipping crowds into a frenzy at a festival (failing that in the foreseeable future, your living room speakers will do the trick). In the hands of a less sure-handed artist the whiplash between emotional extremes could be jarring, but Rodriguez makes it feel delightfully dizzying. What is life in the digital age if not a constant pinball between joy and despair?

One of Rodriguez’s earliest ambitions as Empress Of was to be “weird.” The first music she shared was a homemade series of wonky electronic oddities titled Color Minutes, but by the time of her second album, she was drawing from the high gloss hip-pop of Ariana Grande. Yet the creative furrow she finds on I’m Your Empress Of is enriched by Rodriguez looking closer to home, an impulse literalized with the inclusion of spoken-word passages delivered by her mom, Reina, a first-generation immigrant from Honduras. Reina’s unguided reflections move from proud messages of survival to love and femininity, providing a guiding light while foregrounding the album as in conversation with shared Latinx immigrant histories. “It was not easy speaking English,” Reina says on the album intro, after Rodriguez plays a bright salsa piano line that she learned from her father. “It was not easy having to learn it,” continues Reina. “But I got it.”

I’m Your Empress Of vibrates with the contradictions that one person can contain: how mourning the loss of a partner is bound up with anger, the fatigue of resilience, and the pleasures to be found in escaping it all, if only for one lusty night. With unexpected production and left-field samples, Rodriguez’s album is powered by a heady rawness that bucks the trend for theatrical concepts in today’s electronic pop nonconformists, producing epiphanies like hot stones spat from a fire. You could say it is as addictive as modern love”.

If you have not followed Empress Of, then go and check her out and listen to her music. She released a new song recently (see below). I hope we get more music from her very soon. On 30th April, Rodriguez/Empress Of announced that she was partnering with an Ad Council-backed national campaign called Sound It Out Together. The campaign is designed to highlight youth mental-health and create an outlet for adolescent school children of colour; to express their emotions and experiences through music. She is an inspiring human and a remarkable artist!. When it comes to to the amazing Empress Of, I think that there is…

A lot more to come.

_______________

Follow Empress Of

PHOTO CREDIT: Miriam Marlene Waldner for Wonderland. 

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/empressof/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EmpressOf

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/empressof

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5QuBVnBPEzwYvFrgBbwpmU

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClc6xFj1RFSNrklVTzGmHnQ

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: The Roots - Undun

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

The Roots - Undun

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THERE is always something…

 IN THIS PHOTO:' The Roots perform an exclusive track during the John Varvatos fall/winter 2011 campaign shoot at Republic Airport in New York

fascinating and unique with every album from The Roots. The Hip-Hop band were formed in 1987 by Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their most-current album, ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, was released in 2014 – let’s hope that this is not the final album from the group. I want to discuss the album that arrived before that: 2011’s magnificent Undun. Its concept is one that really interests me. The album is about the short, tragic life of fictional character Redford Stevens, set in urban poverty and told through a reverse-chronological narrative. Before bringing in some reviews and a link to buy the album, it is worth grabbing some Wikipedia information regarding Undun’s concept:

“The plot of the album takes place in reverse over the course of a day in Redford's life, with the multiple featured rappers all speaking from Redford's first-person perspective. The album opens with the sound of a flatlined EKG on the instrumental track "Dun", signifying Redford's death. This leads into the second track, "Sleep", where Black Thought's verse portrays Redford's dying thoughts on his life, fate and whether he will be remembered. "Make My" depicts the killing of Redford, with an extended outro modeled on Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones (Part II)" that conveys Redford's spirit beginning to leave his body.

"One Time" finds Redford feeling remorse and contemplating the course of his life; he reflects on the time that he stopped caring about school. "Kool On" and "The OtherSide" depict Redford living successfully as a drug dealer. "Kool On" hints that Redford is deluding himself, and the song's lyrics are about "how successful street hustlers might fool themselves in believing they are living the 'good life' but, in reality, 'living on borrowed time.'" "Stomp" is meant to be the song on which "he's either gonna live or he’s gonna die with whatever path he has chosen to go down." While Redford feels that he has been forced into crime, he is also decisively choosing his path. On "Lighthouse", Redford contemplates suicide,[19] and the song's hook "there’s no one in the lighthouse/Face down in the ocean" is a metaphor for Redford being caught up in crime and questioning the direction of his life. Redford recalls his life before crime on "I Remember". "Tip the Scale" explores "how the odds are already stacked against a black man growing up in the ghetto even before he is born".

The album is concluded with a four-part instrumental movement. Part one is Sufjan Stevens performing his "Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)", originally from the album Michigan; part two has a string quartet reinterpret the song. Part three is a free jazz performance by Questlove and pianist D. D. Jackson. The album concludes with the fourth part, another string quartet piece that ends abruptly with an unresolved piano chord. Roots manager Richard Nichols described the final four tracks as a "birth-cycle" and said "It’s almost like he was undone upon birth ... your outcome of your life is definitely gonna be affected by your surroundings, statistically".

I would recommend that people buy the tremendous and hugely memorable Undun on vinyl. You can buy it from Rough Trade. They describe Undun in these terms:

“10th studio album from the Roots originally released in December 2011. The first conceptually-based album from the Roots featuring Big Kirt and Sufjan Steven. Undun is an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999). Through the use of emotives and Redford's internal dialogues the album seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out On the Corner. Utilizing a reverse narrative arc, the album begins as the listener finds Redford disoriented - postmortem - and attempting to make sense of his former life. As he moves through its pivotal moments he begins to deconstruct all that has led to his (and our own) coming undun”.

Many of The Roots’ album have received positive feedback. From their 1993 debut, Organix, to today, the group have been lauded and celebrated as one of the most consistent and innovative in music. It is no surprise that Undun, given its concept and the exceptional music within, resonated with critics and showed that The Roots had lost none of their genius.

The first review that I want to bring in is from AllMusic. They were incredibly positive and deep in their review. They made some interesting observations and points that hasn’t occurred to me before:

“The Roots' umpteenth album is titled after a Guess Who song mutilated by countless lounge bands since 1969. It incorporates a Sufjan Stevens recording, mixtape-style, for the purpose of starting a four-part instrumental suite that closes a program lasting only 40 minutes. Based on those details, it would not be irrational to think that the band’s well of inspiration might be dry or tainted. While the well might be slightly tainted, it is full. Undun is based on the life of Redford Stephens, a fictional product of inner-city New York who was born in the mid-‘70s and tragically passed in 1999, the point at which the album begins -- with a quiet EKG flatline. Appearances from MCs Big K.R.I.T., Dice Raw, Phonte, Greg Porn, and Truck North, as well as contributions by singers Aaron Earl Livingston and Bilal, flank principal voice Black Thought, yet this is no hip-hop opera or anything close to a typical concept album. The existential rhymes, seemingly created with a shared vision, avoid outlining specific events and focus on ruminations that are grave and penetrating, as if each vocalist saw elements of himself and those he has known in Redford. What’s more, Undun probably shatters the record for fewest proper nouns on a rap album, with the likes of Hammurabi, Santa Muerte, and Walter Cronkite mentioned rather than the names of those who are physically involved in Stephens’ life. (The album’s app, filled with video clips and interviews with Stephens’ aunt, teachers, and peers, provides much more typical biographical information.) Musically, Undun flows easier and slower than any other Roots album. The backdrops ramp up with slight gradations, from soft collisions of percussion and keys (“Sleep”), to balmy gospel-soul (“Make My”), to Sunday boom-bap (“One Time”). There's a slight drop into sinewy funk (“Kool On”) that leads into a sustained stretch of stern, hunched-shoulder productions, highlighted by the crisply roiling “Lighthouse,” that match the cold realism of the lyrics. The strings in the slightly wistful “I Remember” and completely grim “Tip the Scale” are a setup for the Redford suite, which is nothing like padding. It glides through the movements, involving mournful strings, a violent duel between drummer ?uestlove and guest pianist D.D. Jackson, and a lone death note that fades 37 seconds prior to silence”.

Just before wrapping things up, it is worth introducing a review from Entertainment Weekly. In another hugely glowing review, this is what they had to say:

“The Roots currently occupy a strange yet comfy bifurcated existence as the hardest-working, most-sought-after band in hip-hop, and the resident music-makers on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Thankfully, the safety and security of a regular gig at 30 Rock (with benefits, no less!) has emboldened rather than stifled the group’s raging ambition. The Philadelphia vets’ 13th studio album, Undun, is the group’s first concept album, and the culmination of everything it has worked toward musically and lyrically. It’s a subtly assured magnum opus that broadcasts its aspirations from the mountaintops.

Conceptually, Undun resembles Christopher Nolan’s Memento. It begins at the end, with the death of its hustling protagonist, and unfolds backward to reveal how he reached such an end.  The ghostly instrumental “Dun”—with its distant echoes of anguished screams and heavenly strings— and the hypnotic “Sleep” kick the album off on an appropriately elegiac note. As befits a project about a dead man’s shattered dreams, it’s a haunted, shadowy album of regrets and retrospection. The backward structure and opening death lend a tragic air to even upbeat tracks like “Kool On,” which swaggers joyously like a lost vintage track from Sly And The Family Stone.

Undun ultimately registers as a melancholy, exquisitely downbeat cautionary tale about the dangers of street life. Previous Roots masterpieces like Things Fall Apart and Phrenology were defined by aggressive, borderline-heroic over-reaching. With the tight, concise, ferociously focused Undun, however, the immensity of the project’s ambition is matched by its seamless, masterful execution”.

If you have not already got a copy of Undun, then go and grab it on vinyl. It is such a remarkable album that keeps you engrossed from start to finish. Not only is its plotline arresting; the music is so rich and varied – from its snare drums to the choral arrangement and strings, it is absolutely brilliant! Almost a decade old (Undun was released on 2nd December), the album has lost none of its power and potency. Do yourself a favour and grab this…

ON vinyl

FEATURE: Mercy Mercy Me: Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

Mercy Mercy Me

Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On at Fifty

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I want to bring in a few articles…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Marvin Gaye in 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Redferns

to mark fifty years of Marvin Gaye’s stunning eleventh studio album, What’s Going On. It turns fifty on 21st May. There will be commemoration and celebration around the world. Not only a moment when Gaye hit a real peak; many of the songs and themes documented through the album are relevant today – from alarm about the environment to racial injustice and violence. One can listen to What’s Going On on one level and appreciate its musicianship, incredible vocals and overall quality. On another, one can listen closely to Gaye’s imploration regarding sanity, peace and progression. I think that is why the album resonates today: we have not really moved on as a world in many ways. I am going to get to some articles and a review of the seminal What’s Going On. Before that, a little overview regarding its recording and impact:   

“What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on May 21, 1971, by the Motown Records-subsidiary label Tamla.

Gaye recorded the album between 1970 and 1971 in sessions at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World, and United Sound Studios in Detroit, and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California. It was his first album to credit him as a producer and to credit Motown's in-house studio band, the session musicians known as the Funk Brothers.

What's Going On is a concept album with most of its songs segueing into the next and has been categorized as a song cycle. The narrative established by the songs is told from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran returning to his home country to witness hatred, suffering, and injustice. Gaye's introspective lyrics explore themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. He has also been credited with promoting awareness of ecological issues before the public outcry over them had become prominent.

The album was an immediate commercial and critical success, and came to be viewed by music historians as a classic of 1970s soul. In 2001, a deluxe edition of the album was released, featuring a recording of Gaye's May 1972 concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Broad-ranging surveys of critics, musicians, and the general public have shown that What's Going On is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time and a landmark recording in popular music. In 2020, it was ranked number one on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

I want to bring in an article that talks about the powerful title track. It is a song that has so much punch and importance, at a moment when there is racial violence and intolerance around the world – it is especially pronounced in the U.S.

Not to cobble together different sections from a fascinating article, but Sound on Sound dissected the recording of What’s Going On back in 2011. I wanted to highlight some interesting portions. We get some recollections and insights from engineer Ken Sands:

“For the previous few years, Gaye had felt increasingly frustrated by the lack of artistic freedom afforded him by the commercial, pop‑oriented edicts of the Motown hit machine and its autocratic founder Berry Gordy (who also happened to be his brother‑in‑law). Then, in March 1970, when a brain tumour claimed the life of Gaye's friend and collaborator Tammi Terrell, he plunged into a full‑blown depression. Refusing to sing on stage or in the studio, he made an unsuccessful attempt to join the Detroit Lions football team, before agreeing to record once more, but only on his own terms, which meant making artistic decisions without deferring to Motown's head honcho.

"In 1969 or 1970, I began to re‑evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say,” Gaye would later tell Rolling Stone magazine. "I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realised that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Marvin Gaye in 1973 

Accordingly, after a golf game with Obie Benson and Al Cleveland resulted in them playing Marvin Gaye the unfinished song back at his house, he came up with the title and added more lyrics, while also embellishing the melody on his piano. 'What's Going On', Gaye thought, would be ideal for the Originals, whose hits 'Baby I'm for Real' and 'The Bells' he had co‑written and produced. Benson convinced him otherwise, and so on June 10th, 1970, Marvin Gaye entered Studio A at Motown's Hitsville USA to record the song himself.

In the case of 'What's Going On', it was Steve Smith who recorded the basic drums, bass and piano.

"That's how Marvin would usually start his sessions,” Sands continues with regard to the general approach on Gaye's records. "He'd play the piano while Pistol [Richard 'Pistol' Allen] was on the drums and Jamerson was on bass, and he would also do a demo vocal along with that rhythm track on track one. The microphones that we used were tube Neumann U67s; they had an extremely clean sound, but they would also allow for a certain amount of distortion/compression that was just enough to give things an edge.

"Pistol would play a relatively small, dark mother-of-pearl Rogers drum kit that was actually designed for jazz. There was a large ride cymbal, a crash on the left, a small tom‑tom, a floor tom‑tom and snare. Pistol would keep that set tuned the way he liked it for playing — he was responsible for the drum sound after Benny Benjamin died.

"Benny was a heavy drummer with a broader sound,” Sands says. "Pistol, on the other hand, was a really good, close friend of mine, and he taught me how to play drums. Then there was Uriel Jones — they were consummate jazz musicians. To record Pistol, I would use just three mics: an RCA DX77 ribbon on the foot, a U67 on the snare, and a U67 overhead. People couldn't believe we were using a ribbon microphone on a bass drum — 'Why would you do that?' The wave front of a bass drum would tend to stretch the ribbon of a ribbon microphone, but that's what we used. That was the foot sound, that was Motown.”

The result, after Ken Sands took care of the mix, was a protest song like no other that had come before; a number that, rather than ask "what's going on,” answered this by reporting on America's struggles and Marvin Gaye's personal strife without bitterness or anger. In a relaxed, laid‑back manner that exuded empathy and understanding, Gaye addressed a "father, father” in reference to his troubled relationships both with God and the patriarch who would eventually kill him, and reached out to the "brother, brother, brother” as an appeal to not only his Vietnam vet sibling Frankie, but all of humankind.

"You see, war is not the answer, For only love can conquer hate,” Gaye intoned, blending the vocal spirituality of his gospel roots with the soulfulness and warmth of the song's sax breaks and jazz‑flavoured rhythms, but this didn't impress Berry Gordy. On the contrary, denouncing 'What's Going On' as "too jazzy”, after Gaye presented it to him with the religiously‑infused B‑side 'God Is Love', the Motown CEO refused to issue the single.

The possibility that Gaye's political statements might alienate certain white listeners can't have been Gordy's primary concern — earlier in 1970, he had approved the release of Edwin Starr's 'War' and the Temptations' 'Ball Of Confusion' (mixed by Ken Sands with producer Norman Whitfield). Quite simply, he just didn't like 'What's Going On', telling Harry Balk — who had sold his Impact and Inferno labels to Motown before running its Creative Division — that it sounded "old” and that he hated its "Dizzy Gillespie‑styled scats”.

Marvin Gaye responded by refusing to record any other material until 'What's Going On' was released, and when Gordy asked Smokey Robinson — then Motown's Vice President, as well as one of its biggest stars — to persuade the Prince of Soul to change his mind, Robinson informed him that, "like a bear shitting in the woods, Marvin ain't budging.”

The stalemate lasted several months until January of 1971, when Harry Balk pushed for the single's release. Quality Control's Billie Jean Brown disagreed, so they turned to Vice President of Sales Barney Ales, who sided with Balk, resulting in 100,000 copies being pressed and promo singles being mailed to radio stations. Gordy was placated when the former sold out within 24 hours, leading to the pressing of a further 100,000 discs to meet demand and 'What's Going On' hitting the top spot on the R&B chart that March. Reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100, it ended up shifting over two‑and‑a‑half million units, making it the fastest‑selling release in Motown's history up until that time.

By then, predictably, Berry Gordy had commissioned the recording of an entire album to cash in on the single's success. Ken Sands took care of the strings and brass on those sessions alongside David Van DePitte in Studio B, while also recording the lead vocals and some of the backing vocals. The rhythm section and other parts were tracked at Studio A, Detroit's United Sound Studios and The Sound Factory in West Hollywood before, according to Sands, he did the final mix on the tenth floor of the Motown Center. Completed in May 1971 and released that same month, What's Going On was the first of Marvin Gaye's albums to afford him credit as sole producer.

"Steve Smith did a couple of mixes and I did the final one,” Sands recalls, contradicting the conventional wisdom that, after he arrived in LA for a film project, Gaye scrapped 'The Detroit Mix' and remixed the album to give it an even softer, smoother feel. "It was my mix that I heard on the radio,” Sands insists, "and that was my final assignment for Motown before the company relocated to the West Coast.”

Either way, What's Going On remained on the Billboard Top 200 for over a year, selling more than two million copies, while being named 'Album Of The Year' by Rolling Stone, which, in 2003, would rank it number six on its list of the '500 Greatest Albums Of All Time”.

Every song on What’s Going On is a gem! They are all powerful in their own way. As this article explores, the story behind the title track is intriguing and important:

“The spring of 1970 was a dark time for Marvin Gaye. His beloved duet partner Tammi Terrell had died after a three-year struggle with a brain tumor. His brother Frankie had returned from Vietnam with horror stories that moved Marvin to tears. And at Motown, Marvin was stymied in his quest to address social issues in his music.

While he was pondering his next move, a song fell in his lap that would provide a channel for all his sorrow and frustration.

The initial idea for “What’s Going On” came to Four Tops member Obie Benson when he was in San Francisco in 1969.

“They had the Haight-Ashbury then, all the kids up there with the long hair and everything,” he told MOJO. “The police was beating on the kids, but they wasn’t bothering anybody. I saw this, and started wondering what was going on. ‘What is happening here?’ One question leads to another. ‘Why are they sending kids so far away from their families overseas?’ And so on.”

Benson shaped his tune with fellow Motown writer Al Cleveland, then pitched it to the Four Tops. But they weren’t interested in a protest song. Obie played a rough version to Joan Baez, who also passed. He then brought it to Marvin Gaye, who loved it, saying it would be perfect for the Originals, a Motown vocal quartet he was producing.

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 

Benson disagreed, giving Marvin an ultimatum. “I finally put it to him like this: ‘I’ll give you a percentage of the tune if you sing it, but if you do it on anybody else you can’t have none of it.’”

Marvin agreed, then set about earning his writer’s percentage of the song. “He definitely put the finishing touches on it,” Benson said. “He added lyrics, and he added some spice to the melody. He added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem more like a story than a song. He made it visual. He absorbed himself to the extent that when you heard the song you could see the people and feel the hurt and pain. We measured him for the suit, and he tailored it.”

Marvin was so thrilled by “What’s Going On” that he tracked down Berry Gordy while the boss was on vacation. “I was in the Bahamas trying to relax,” Gordy recalled in a Motown documentary. “He called and said, ‘Look, I’ve got these songs.’ When he told me they were protest songs, I said, ‘Marvin, why do you want to ruin your career?’”

All Motown artists went through a finishing school that taught them to carefully avoid controversial topics in both their interviews and music. But since day one of his tenure at the label, Marvin Gaye was a rebel. He’d come to blows with Gordy over lesser things. He wasn’t about to back down now.

To record “What’s Going On” and the concept album around it, Marvin drew from the full arsenal of local talent, from house arranger David Van De Pitte to the Funk Brothers. Paying for the sessions himself, Marvin drafted in extra players, including several Detroit Symphony members and two friends from the Detroit Lions football team to add street chatter.

Before ending with a recent article about the relevance of What’s Going On today, I think it is important to source a positive review. I think the album is one of the most highly-regarded in all of music. It is a masterpiece that has resonated through the years and inspired generations. In their review, this is what AllMusic had to say:

“What's Going On is not only Marvin Gaye's masterpiece, it's the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices, a man finally free to speak his mind and so move from R&B sex symbol to true recording artist. With What's Going On, Gaye meditated on what had happened to the American dream of the past -- as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty. These feelings had been bubbling up between 1967 and 1970, during which he felt increasingly caged by Motown's behind-the-times hit machine and restrained from expressing himself seriously through his music. Finally, late in 1970, Gaye decided to record a song that the Four Tops' Obie Benson had brought him, "What's Going On." When Berry Gordy decided not to issue the single, deeming it uncommercial, Gaye refused to record any more material until he relented. Confirmed by its tremendous commercial success in January 1971, he recorded the rest of the album over ten days in March, and Motown released it in late May. Besides cementing Marvin Gaye as one of the most important artists in pop music, What's Going On was far and away the best full-length to issue from the singles-dominated Motown factory, and arguably the best soul album of all time.

Conceived as a statement from the viewpoint of a Vietnam veteran (Gaye's brother Frankie had returned from a three-year hitch in 1967), What's Going On isn't just the question of a baffled soldier returning home to a strange place, but a promise that listeners would be informed by what they heard (that missing question mark in the title certainly wasn't a typo). Instead of releasing listeners from their troubles, as so many of his singles had in the past, Gaye used the album to reflect on the climate of the early '70s, rife with civil unrest, drug abuse, abandoned children, and the spectre of riots in the near past. Alternately depressed and hopeful, angry and jubilant, Gaye saved the most sublime, deeply inspired performances of his career for "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," and "Save the Children." The songs and performances, however, furnished only half of a revolution; little could've been accomplished with the Motown sound of previous Marvin Gaye hits like "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" and "Hitch Hike" or even "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." What's Going On, as he conceived and produced it, was like no other record heard before it: languid, dark, and jazzy, a series of relaxed grooves with a heavy bottom, filled by thick basslines along with bongos, conga, and other percussion. Fortunately, this aesthetic fit in perfectly with the style of longtime Motown session men like bassist James Jamerson and guitarist Joe Messina. When the Funk Brothers were, for once, allowed the opportunity to work in relaxed, open proceedings, they produced the best work of their careers (and indeed, they recognized its importance before any of the Motown executives). Bob Babbitt's playing on "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" functions as the low-end foundation but also its melodic hook, while an improvisatory jam by Eli Fountain on alto sax furnished the album's opening flourish. (Much credit goes to Gaye himself for seizing on these often tossed-off lines as precious; indeed, he spent more time down in the Snakepit than he did in the control room.) Just as he'd hoped it would be, What's Going On was Marvin Gaye's masterwork, the most perfect expression of an artist's hope, anger, and concern ever recorded”.

After the murder of George Floyd last year, a lot of people were asking what was happening in the world. It seemed unbelievable to watch a police office kill an innocent Black man. This incident was not isolated. Brutality, police racism and injustice still reigns around the world. It is especially noticeable in America, particularly given the gun laws and the number of shooting we have heard about. I want to end by quoting from this article, where musician Devon Gilfillian revealed why, recently, the title track from Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On hit hard:

“(CNN)As a child, musician Devon Gilfillian remembers his father, a professional wedding singer, harmonizing with Marvin Gaye's iconic "What's Going On" album in their living room. While the groove of the music was palpable, the lyrics were lost on a young Gilfillian.

The haunting questions of the song resurfaced to Gilfillian, now 31, following the murder of George Floyd. In a recent interview for a new CNN documentary about Gaye's work, titled "What's Going On: Marvin Gaye's Anthem for the Ages," the Grammy-nominated artist and activist recalled rediscovering the album just before heading to a protest in Nashville last summer.

"I saw people with instruments, I saw people with drums, and I was like, man, I want to bring my guitar and I'm like, 'What am I going to sing?''

His song choice, "What's Going On," was easy, but performing it was not.

"I went home, picked the guitar up and started strumming through it. And immediately I just started crying," Gilfillian said.

It was an epiphany, a lyrical catharsis delivered from one man to another, a half-century later.

"He's saying everything, mother, mother, there's too many of us crying, brother brothers, too many of us dying. Father, we don't need to escalate. War is not the answer," Gilfillian said. "It hurt to sing those words. I was legitimately sad and upset and angry."

That was the moment Gilfillian caught up with the message, "I felt like Marvin was like, yo, see, this is what I was trying to say."

Gilfillian has since released a cover album of "What's Going On," paying homage to a man who was pleading for the world to listen, tackling controversial issues, perhaps, before some could hear them.

Who the hell was writing songs about the ecology?" music critic Nelson George said in a conversation for the special. "('Mercy, Mercy, Me') is a song about environmental racism in 1971."

"I'm not sure, in 1971 people wanted to hear that we were burning up the planet and we were polluting the oceans." Marvin Gaye biographer, David Ritz, told CNN for the same project. "He got the message across by grooving it up so craftily until you want to hear it over and over and over again."

"His melodies were like a voice of cry." Sheila E., who toured with Marvin Gaye in 1982-83, says in the film. "(He) talked about the ghetto, talked about injustice, talked about the war. But he wasn't yelling and protesting."

Gilfillian describes Gaye's music as a subtle seduction.

"He makes you hear the lyrics, which are very important and potent. But then he tricks you into listening to them with his music, you know, by making you move and feel and hypnotizing you. And at the same time, you don't know you're actually getting woke”.

Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest albums ever, many people around the world will share their memories. Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father when he was aged only forty-four. It was such a premature and tragic death that, sadly, brings to light some of What’s Going On’s lyrics regarding violence and tolerance. In spite of the fact we lost Gaye far too early, we remember him through his music. What’s Going On, I feel, is his ultimate release. After all of these years, Gaye’s eleventh studio album remains…

A peerless work of wonder.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Best of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

The Best of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails

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AS it is…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor’s birthday tomorrow (17th May), I wanted to put out a playlist of his best tracks - those with the band and his frequent collaborations with Atticus Ross. The Nine Inch Nails lead is a constantly engaging and innovative musician. He is a hugely influential songwriter and singer who has impacted so many others. Before coming to the playlist, it is worth bringing in some biography:

“Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until 2016. The first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was a commercial and critical success. Reznor has since released 11 more Nine Inch Nails studio albums.

Reznor began his career in the mid-1980s as a member of synth-pop bands such as Option 30, The Innocent, and Exotic Birds. He has contributed to the albums of artists such as Marilyn Manson, whom he mentored, and rapper Saul Williams. Alongside his wife Mariqueen Maandig and long-time Nine Inch Nails collaborators Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan, he formed the post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels in 2009.

Beginning in 2010, Reznor, alongside Atticus Ross, began to work on film and television scores. The duo have scored many of David Fincher's films, including The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2014), and Mank (2020). They won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network and Soul, and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The duo has also scored the films Patriots Day (2016), mid90s, Bird Box (both 2018), Waves (2019) and Soul (2020), the documentary Before the Flood (2016), and the television series The Vietnam War (2017) and Watchmen (2019), winning a Primetime Emmy Award for the lattermost. In 1997, Reznor appeared on Time's list of the year's most influential people, and Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music".

To honour the great Trent Reznor, this Lockdown Playlist is all about his best musical moments. It is a wonderful collection of power, memorable and moving songs…

FROM a music icon.

FEATURE: Music as a Medicine: Could New NHS Trials Provide a Breakthrough in the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Patients and Stressed Medical Staff?

FEATURE:

 

 

Music as a Medicine

PHOTO CREDIT: @armin_lotfi/Unsplash 

Could New NHS Trials Provide a Breakthrough in the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Patients and Stressed Medical Staff?

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ALTHOUGH this piece of music-related news…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Tessa Rampersad/Unsplash

came online on 5th May, I have been thinking about it them and wondering whether new NHS trials that are going ahead could provide some breakthrough in treating Alzheimer’s patients. I will provide some thoughts and feelings. The Guardian reported the news of this fascinating trial for Alzheimer’s patients and stressed medical staff:

“Now trials are under way at an NHS trust to see if an algorithm can curate music playlists to reduce suffering in Alzheimer’s patients as well as in stressed medical staff.

A test among people with dementia found an algorithm that “prescribes” songs based on listeners’ personal backgrounds and tastes resulted in reductions in heart rate of up to 22%, lowering agitation and distress in some cases.

This week, Lancashire teaching hospitals NHS trust is extending trials to medical staff who worked in critical care during Covid to see if it can ease anxiety and stress. It is also planning to test it on recovering critical care patients, needle-phobic children and outpatients coping with chronic pain in the hope of reducing opiate prescriptions.

The technology operates as a musical “drip”, playing songs to patients and monitoring their heart rates as they listen. A 90-year-old might be prescribed big band music, while a 50-year-old might get a dose of Van Halen and Paul McCartney.

An algorithm allows the software, which is linked to a streaming service like Spotify, to change forthcoming tracks if the prescription doesn’t appear to be working. Its artificial intelligence system assesses the “DNA” of songs, examining 36 different qualities including tempo, timbre, key, time signatures, the amount of syncopation and the lowest notes. Gary Jones, the chief executive of MediMusic, the company developing the software, said these were among the factors that can shape the heart rate and blood pressure response to a track.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hush Naidoo/Unsplash 

A trial of 25 people with Alzheimer’s aged from their 60s, to their 90s conducted at the Lancashire NHS trust has shown some promising results, the trust said.

“There has been an up to 22% reduction in heart rates in these patients,” said Dr Jacqueline Twamley, academic research and innovation manager. “Some people it doesn’t affect the heart rate at all, but you can see the effect in their facial expressions and in them tapping along. One patient burst out crying. He said the song brought back happy memories and they were happy tears.”

The playlist of a patient in their 60s included Mull of Kintyre by Wings and Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill, said Twamley, adding: “I thought Mull of Kintyre would increase agitation, but that’s a matter of taste.”

Three recommended playlists

The playlists are intended to start with more energy, becoming calmer to lower the heart rate. They are tailored to broad demographic categories as well as personal listening habits and preferences. These are highlights of three lists produced by the algorithm:

For a 90-year-old white British woman
Teresa Brewer – Music! Music! Music!
Bing Crosby – Galway Bay
Frank Sinatra – Among My Souvenirs

For a 60-year-old woman of British Indian origin
Mere Dil Mein Aaj Kya Hai – Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Kishore Kumar
Pyaasa – Geeta Dutt & Mohd Rafi
Lag Jaa Gale – Sadhana, Lata Mangeshkar

For a 40-year-old black British man with interest in soul, R&B hip-hop and pop
The Notorious B.I.G. – Mo Money Mo Problems
Ashanti – Foolish
Fugees – Killing Me Softly With His Song”.

It is interesting looking at the playlists above and that a certain type of song can be applied to different age/ethnicity groups! We know that music can help unlock memories for Alzheimer’s patients and provide hugely therapeutic benefits. Although the new trials – for patients and hospital staff – cannot necessarily do too much to aide memory and help in that respect, the fact that agitation and stress levels are reduced is very encouraging. I do playlists all the time and I have never really thought about songs that patients and stressed medical workers would respond positively to. Each person has their own music tastes and leanings, so tailoring playlists and recommending various songs is much more helpful and effective than generic playlists - those designed to ease stress and calm your mood. Whilst medicine and therapy is crucial regarding tackling Alzheimer’s, something as broad and universal as music can provide something powerful and life-changing. The fact patients have recalled happy memories when listening to certain songs makes me wonder whether more studies will be done into the possibility that music – or certain genres/sounds – can assist when it comes to Alzheimer’s and memory. For stressed NHS workers and anyone with anxiety, music can lower the heartbeat and provide something soothing or uplifting. I think that the more we discover from the trials’ results, the more it will impact dementia/Alzheimer’s patients and those with a range of illnesses.

Going back to the article, we learn more about what the technology aims to do and how triggering songs are filtered out:

“The technology aims to build on research showing the effectiveness of using music to manage chronic pain and on managing anxiety and depression in dementia patients.

It tailors its playlist in part by scanning the user’s music preferences based on the listening patterns recorded on their streaming service, if they have one. It also examines their age, gender, nationality, and ethnicity. Jones said a calming track would often have a major key, would be relatively slow and with spaced out instrumentation.

The system is aware that music can be upsetting too. There are “red flag tracks” that are filtered out if the patient fears they may trigger upset by reminding them of a traumatic event. And if Twamley or anyone else, really doesn’t want to hear Mull of Kintyre when they are trying to reduce their blood pressure, they can put their own red flag in it”.

This is all very encouraging! It is wonderful that stressed hospital staff are being considered - through the complexity and severity of dementia means anything that can provide help is important. The more music is utilised and experimented with, the more that playlists and musical therapy can be applied on a bespoke and individual level. Although the NHS trials are still in the early stages, I think that they have the potential to be…

A hugely important breakthrough.

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Forty-Eight: beadbadoobee

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Curtis Hughes

Part Forty-Eight: beadbadoobee

___________

I know that I recently included…

beabadoobee in my Spotlight feature - though I think she is a definite superstar of the future and warrants a Modern Heroines spot. Ahead of her twenty-first birthday on 3rd June, I wanted to bring in a few interviews, in addition to a couple of reviews for her excellent debut album, Fake It Flowers. Having released several E.P.s prior to her debut album – including 2019’s Space Cadet -, there was already buzz around the Filipino-born British singer-songwriter, Beatrice Laus. I believe that her new E.P., Our Extended Play, is out very soon/the summer. It was announced alongside the launch of her latest single, Last Day on Earth. It is an infectious gem of a track! Back in March, CRACK (among others) reported on the forthcoming E.P.:

“Beabadoobee has released a new track titled Last Day On Earth. The tune offers fans their first glimpse into Beabadoobee’s next project Our Extended Play, which was also unveiled yesterday (24 March) alongside the lead single. The EP was co-written and produced by The 1975’s Matty Healy and George Daniel. It’s scheduled for release this spring.

Speaking on the new single, former Crack Magazine cover star Beabadoobee said: “Last Day On Earth is about all the things I would have done had I known we were going into a lockdown and the world was going to change the way it has. It was written shortly after the first main lockdown and lyrically it’s me reflecting on how it would feel if we all knew ahead of time what was going to happen. All the things I would have done if I knew it was the last day of our old normality.”

Our Extended Play was written and recorded on a farm in the Oxfordshire countryside, with Matty and George working with Beabadoobee – real name Bea Kristi – and her band on a slew of new songs. “It was really nice being able to create together, my first time writing and recording on a farm,” adds Kristi. “I wanted to experiment on the sounds and sonics even more and the EP to me has a feeling of togetherness to it… how we’re all in this joined as one”.

I shall keep my eyes out, as I really love beabadoobee’s previous E.P.s and Fake It Flowers. Before coming to a review or two of that album, it is worth discovering more about a sensational and hugely prolific young artist. I would advise people to follow beabadoobee and keep abreast of all the latest happenings. Later in the year, you should be able to catch her playing around the U.K. I think that beabadoobee (I shall refer to her by her artist name) is among the greatest young artists in Britain. I love her sound and how she can mix tones and shades of the 1990s and something more modern. Rather than replicating music from the decade, one hears something unique and personal. One can detect and identify this artist who wants to influence people and go far in music. In this 2020 interview with The Forty-Five, we learn more about a hungry and inspirational musician:

“Bea makes no bones about wanting to be an influential force – not a lofty entertainer that people cower at the feet of, but someone who girls can see themselves in. Introduced to female-fronted rock by her mother, Bea found particular comfort in the entertainment of yesteryear, a time before women were subject to the constant scrutiny and comparison of social media. “My Mum used to play Suzanne Vega and Alanis Morissette all the time, and I guess subconsciously you get inspired by that,” she says. “There is just something about 90s culture that is super cool and interesting – ‘But I’m A Cheerleader’ and ‘The Craft’ have the most amazing soundtracks. With ‘…Cheerleader’, every song on the soundtrack is a female singer in a band – that is just SO badass.”

Discovering the work of Kimya Dawson was also something of an awakening. “The first record that genuinely had me was ‘Remember That I Love You’. Her lyrics are just so genuine and funny, and sometimes quite childlike – it’s naive but in the best way possible. I really want to show that within my music.”

At the risk of psychologising, her desire to cocoon herself in the familiar sonics of young childhood feels logical when you consider Bea’s rocky adolescence. Raised in West London, school was far from ideal, and she hints at other struggles too, a ‘dark period’ that seems to link back to a feeling of placelessness, her Filipino heritage rendering her as something of an outsider in a classroom full of insecure teens looking for an easy target. Soon, she had fallen in with the ‘stoner crowd’, and just before starting her A-Levels, her teachers called time on her erratic attendance and attitude – she was asked to find a new school. Not the easiest conversation to have with your parents…

“Well, honestly, at first, I feel like any parent would be like, “er, what the fuck?” she remembers. “I wasn’t taking education seriously. I only got into music quite late in my life, and when my dad bought me a guitar at 17, it meant a lot that he understood that I needed something to distract myself from being so sad. He and my mum saw how hard it was growing up in a predominantly white, all-girls Catholic school – you know those backhanded compliments and snidey little remarks? Girls can be amazing, but for some reason, secondary school is just a shithole.”

Music didn’t cure Bea’s depression overnight, but it definitely helped. With a new outlet to express herself, things started moving fast. Uploading the first song she ever wrote –  ‘Coffee’ – to YouTube, she swiftly racked up 30,000 hits, and a genuine escape from the drudgery of formal education proffered itself in the form of a Dirty Hit record contract. It was an opportunity that even her parents knew she couldn’t pass up.

“I remember when I first got really into making music and ended up telling Dad that I didn’t think I wanted to go to University, and he was like “WHAAAAT”, she laughs. “But now he’s the most supportive person ever, as well as my mum. To be honest, I feel like my mom lives vicariously through me because she’s always wanted to play guitar, it’s super cute.”

“I just want to give a message that girls should be confident in who they are, and do whatever they want.” She reasons. “That doesn’t mean I’m saying “stay in school and be a good girl”, but I’m also not saying “go outside and do loads of fuckin’ drugs”. Do what you think is right, but do whatever you’re doing for yourself. All of the people that I looked up to didn’t look anything like me, and I felt really confused and alienated and shit. So I hope to think that I can inspire girls in some way, even if it’s like the tiniest amount, to just get out there and be passionate about something. And if they can find something that helps them come out of their shells and organise their brain a little…it can be a bit like therapy. Music really does help. If you feel shit, write it down”.

I am going to end by looking ahead to the E.P., Our Extended Play. E.P.s are become more popular and prolific. I think it allows artists a chance to put out songs that they could not fit on an album, or ones that offer a bridge between albums. For beabadoobee, songs like Last Day on Earth follow on from Fake It Flowers and shows that she is a musician who can provide something joyful and hypnotic. Even though a lot of her compositions are sunny and full of colour, her lyrics tackle something deeper and hard-hitting. When she spoke with Vulture last year, the nature of lyrics comes up. Vulture also asked why now (2020) was the time for an album – as beabadoobee was releasing E.P.s before that:

“Kristi has made ’90s-influenced rock music addressing young women for years, but Fake It Flowers is her clearest statement yet. Born, like her EPs, from her childhood bedroom in London, it’s an album of “everything I was supposed to tell someone but couldn’t,” Kristi says. Tracks reference and address her mental-health journey, past relationships, and her current longtime boyfriend, Soren Harrison. It sounds bigger than her past EPs, drawing deeper from the ’90s rock music she grew up with, from Alanis Morissette to the Cranberries. “I love that feeling of nostalgic-ness where it feels like a warm blanket,” Kristi explains, calling from Harrison’s West London house. And, unsurprisingly, people have been craving the comfort: The album comes off the heels of the first song she ever wrote, “coffee,” turning into a chart-topping TikTok hit as a sample in Powfu’s “death bed.” Kristi spoke to Vulture about the album, her TikTok stardom, and making rock music for young women.

What has it been like to be back at home? I know it’s been a really inspiring place for your music.

I love my bedroom. I always say this, but I feel like no one knows you better than your own bedroom. Your bedroom has seen you go through the worst and it’s seen you at your best, and I feel like that’s why I have such a close relationship with my bedroom. It’s the place where I’m most comfortable in. And that’s where I’m most creative.

For a while, you were just releasing EPs. What made you decide, Okay, now’s the time to do the album?

I feel like I had grown so much because of tour and through those EPs, and as a girl. I wanted to write something about everything I’ve been through in my life. I started doing therapy again, and I realized how a lot of things from my childhood have affected the way I act as a young woman today. I remember going on tour as well, thinking I knew myself; I didn’t know myself at all. I wrote about why I thought that, and it’s all in Fake It Flowers.

This album that has this really big, blown up rock sound. How did that fit into everything?

There are certain points in music where I want to pinpoint and pick and re-create in my music today, like a guitar sound in My Bloody Valentine. If I hear a really good guitar sound, I’m going to go copy it. You know, nothing’s really original these days. And I wanted something big. I’d just done an arena tour with the 1975, and I wanted music to fill that space. I just wanted to go crazy; I wanted to go big; I wanted to rock out”.

I want to put together a couple of reviews for Fake It Flowers. There was such a widespread and positive reaction to the album. I think that Fake It Flowers was the best debut album of last year. In their review, CLASH had this to say:

“Debut album ‘Fake It Flowers’ is much more than her story so far – it’s Bea in 360, the clearest, most honest depiction of her life, her thoughts that we’ve had to date. Moving from cute, coy indie pop through to screamo, it touches on the innocent melodies of OPM while betraying some of her darker emotions.

Lead single ‘Care’ sets the tone. The voice wrangles with conflicting statements, struggling not to care while being swept up in her emotions – as potent depictions of adolescent angst go, it’s up there with the best of ‘em.

‘Worth It’ and ‘Dye It Red’ crunch hard, the guitar tone and vocal techniques honed on those mammoth tours, moving from sweatpit venues to actual arenas. Throughout, beabadoobee displays incredible control – each note, each moment feels endlessly poised, pursued to the final degree of emotional worth.

The twists and turns of word play that fuel ‘Charlie Brown’ pluck at the heartstrings, treating your chest like a worn out Telecaster, while ‘Sorry’ and the love-lorn ‘Horen Sarrison’ pull down the divide between Bea’s life and listener.

At times glossy at others unadorned, beabadoobee seems to be in thrall to the inner needs of her songwriting. She’s chasing something, and it’s a real ride to move along with her – just check out the seismic difference between ‘Back To Mars’ for example, and DIY lockdown hymn ‘How Was Your Day?’, recorded in her boyfriend’s parents garden.

Indeed, the latter is a reminder that no matter how natural, how innate beabadoobee’s pop instincts are, she remains tied to outsider artists. First handed the guitar by her father as an attempt to shake her out of a teenage slump, it’s become the means for Bea to process and define her emotions – underneath the production, the drama, the sold out shows, her approach is akin to early hero Daniel Johnston, proffering cassette tapes to strangers in the street, asking them to listen.

There’s a purity to the way ‘Fake It Flowers’ unfolds that, well, can’t be faked. Ending with the delirious joy of ‘Yoshimi, Forest, Magdalene’ it’s a record that hauls together many different layers, colours, and hues, a subtle but extremely immediate project that displays beabadoobee’s songwriting in full bloom.

A real pearl of a record, ‘Fake It Flowers’ is a starting statement that runs on unmitigated confidence, a revealing, enthralling, enchanting debut record, one that finally finds beabadoobee throwing open the gates and letting the world into her life. It’s a joy to behold”.

The other review I want to bring in is from The Line of Best Fit. They had a lot of love and praise for Fake It Flowers. They made some excellent points:

“Delving into the track treasure trove of Beabadoobee (aka Bea Kristi if you prefer a formal introduction), you’ll find earworms galore – from lo-fi acoustic offerings such as 2017’s calm and comforting “Coffee” (the first song she ever wrote) to the juxtaposing saccharine scuzz of 2019’s “She Plays Bass”. Despite the slight disparity between these sounds, one thing stays the same; their infectious nature.

Fast-forward to 2020, and Beabadoobee is still producing binge-worthy tracks, this time on coming-of-age soundtrack, Fake It Flowers. Lead single "Care" is a hook-filled hoot with angst-addled lyrics to boot. “I don't want your sympathy” Bea coos “Stop saying you give a shit / 'Cause you don't really / Care, care, care, yeah” she repeats, uniting those who have struggled to get people to understand their past experiences.

Follow-up release, "Sorry", is an alt-rock slow jam, with ruffled guitar work to make way for heavily emotive string-assisted exclamations from Bea in the chorus “And it hurts me […] you stayed in the same dark place, that I adore / But, you stayed for more / I guess that's what happens to the best of us / The best of us”. It’s a step away from the bubblegum bops on the record such as "Dye It Red", which speaks of youthful impulses to feel empowered and in control but presents her story of growth – how inconsistent it can be and sound, as we continue to learn and evolve.

Bea is a beacon of nostalgia for '90s kids who wished they were born a decade or two earlier, donning their Walkman, listening to cassettes, swapping out one grunge gem for the next. Bea provides a much-needed trip down memory lane, but not so much that it’s a pastiche to the era, rather an ardent nod, an ode to.

Despite the uncertainty this year has brought, the true essence of who Beabadoobee is is here to stay, taking us back to simpler times, adorned with mohair knits and baggy jeans”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beabadoobee in London on 13th August, 2020 photographed for The Forty-Five/PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

Looking ahead, and we have a new E.P. to enjoy. Our Extended Play comes very soon after Fake It Flowers. On the strength of Last Day on Earth, it sounds like it is going to be a must-hear release. It is, as this interview from Stereogum reveals, an E.P. with a collaborative nature:

“Still, despite her bedroom beginnings, Bea had bigger, bolder plans for her debut. The choruses of Fake It Flowers practically beg to be screamed in a crowded arena or blasted at a music festival. The sugary punch of “Charlie Brown” is designed for a concert’s collective catharsis; the programmed strings of “Worth It” are meant for the exuberance of a good house party.

But Bea embraced the intimacy and closeness of her strangely restrained release: The sepia-toned video for “Worth It” was shot entirely in one motel bedroom. In the months following the album’s debut, she, like so many other burgeoning acts during the pandemic, virtually invited countless journalists and fans into the confidential confines of her room, performing concerts and teasing small glimpses of her upcoming projects.

That next endeavor, at least in part, will take the form of an EP out this spring, titled Our Extended Play. The EP’s plural pronoun might be a cheeky reference to the record’s collaborative nature: Whereas her previous releases were entirely written and composed by Bea, she created the EP along with Matty Healy and George Daniel, the production and songwriting wizards behind the 1975. “I already had a really nice relationship with Matty,” Bea adds. “You know, we were friends beforehand, and it was just such a comfortable atmosphere to work in.”

The first single from their collaboration, “Last Day On Earth,” combines the trademark styles of the two artists — somewhere between the familiar, breezy soft rock of mid-aughts romantic comedies and the ethereal, reverb-heavy indie pop that’s become a calling card for Dirty Hit releases. While the flourishes — a pitched-up backing vocal track adding “ahs” and “yeahs,” a chorus made up of nonsensical, sing-along ready “shoo doos” — are all Healy signatures, the verses’ easy rhythms are pure beabadoobee. “You made it,” she sings reassuringly. “Your last day on Earth.” As on Fake It Flowers, she has a knowing penchant for melodrama and an unmistakably honeyed voice. Only Bea could deliver the line “You killed someone last night/ You’ve been going to church” like it’s a childhood secret between two best friends.

Releasing “Last Day On Earth” now, as the world is precariously taking its first steps into a version of post-pandemic normalcy, is meant to be a palliative gesture: “I guess it just offers a positive distraction and kind of reminds people of togetherness and unity — you know, alluding to some type of hope,” Bea says. “Me and Matty both definitely wanted the chorus to be something easy that people can sing along to.” After a year of deferred gratification for Bea’s biggest musical endeavors, she sees that earworm of a chorus as a bit of wishful thinking: “If festivals do happen…” she starts, almost hesitant to wish for it too soon. “Sonically, I think that song would just be so nice to play live.” As it stands, she’s booked for several summer fests — including the UK’s Reading and Leeds, which announced they’re full speed ahead for late August — as well as a headlining tour of the UK and Ireland in September.

In many ways, working with the 1975 is a natural progression for beabadoobee — she signed to the group’s label Dirty Hit immediately after “Coffee” became a viral hit, and the two British groups share a similar penchant for technicolor nostalgia. At the 2020 NME Awards, Healy even passed his own Innovation Award to Bea, who he called “the most exciting thing I’ve seen in modern music” (Bea won the “Radar Award” for emerging artists that same night). And as Healy takes on a more active role in Dirty Hit, working with labelmates like No Rome and Pale Waves, Bea’s dayglo chords seem like an obvious choice as the next face for his second coming of Britpop.

For Bea, who’d barely written songs with a full band, let alone an outside producer, the transition to a shared songwriting environment was a bit more of an adjustment: “I find collaborating with art quite hard.” For some of the songs on Our Extended Play, she came into the process after the instrumentation had finished, which seemed alienating for her at first. “I always have the guitar with me,” she says casually, seeming almost surprised that some of these songs were written without it. But writing over Healy’s instrumentation allowed her to focus on her voice as an instrument, and on writing lyrics as an end within itself”.

I will leave things there. Having released some phenomenal E.P.s – with one on the way – and a marvellous album, I think we will see beabadoobee go from strength to strength. At only twenty, it is amazing to think of all she has achieved and how complete her music is – like she has been in the industry for decades! I love Last Day on Earth and looking ahead to what is to come. With beabadoobee in our midst, we have an incredible young artist who…

IS a legend of the future.

FEATURE: From Poole to London via Copenhagen: Bringing a Full Set of Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life to Physical Formats

FEATURE:

 

 

From Poole to London via Copenhagen

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Strange Phenomena during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne 

Bringing a Full Set of Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life to Physical Formats

___________

BEFORE I bring in…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Amsterdam in 1979 for The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Redferns/Rob Verhorst

a lot of information from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, I wanted to have a look around at the last year or two regarding Kate Bush-related products. Apart from a new book by photographer Max Browne of photos from The Tour of Life, there have been song-by-song books, one about The Kick Inside, in addition to an array of magazine features and articles about her. John Carder Bush (Kate’s broither) has annoucned that his photobook, KATE: Inside the Rainbow, is also being reprinted and will be back in stock. Music-wise, we have not seen any reissues or remasters. Bush put out her albums in remastered form in 2018, so it might be a bit soon for further revision. I have written about The Tour of Life before and how groundbreaking it is. Whilst Bush’s 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, is available on physical formats, one cannot get it on streaming. The E.P., On Stage, is a live recording of four songs performed on Bush's The Tour of Life in 1979. It was released on 31st August, 1979 with Them Heavy People as the lead track. It peaked at number-ten on the U.K. singles chart. I will get to why we need to hear a full set of The Tour of Life on physical formats soon. Coming to the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia article; the magnitude and detail of The Tour of Life is amazing:

“The Tour of Life, also known as the Lionheart Tour or even the Kate Bush Tour, was Kate Bush's first, and until recently only, series of live concerts. The name, 'Tour of Life', was not coined until after its completion, with all promotional material referring to it simply as the Kate Bush Tour.

Consisting of 24 performances from Bush's first two studio albums The Kick Inside and Lionheart, it was acclaimed for its incorporation of mime, magic, and readings during costume changes. The simple staging also involved rear-screen projection and the accompaniment of two male dancers. The tour was a critical and commercial success, with most dates selling out and additional shows being added due to high demand. Members of the Kate Bush Club were provided with a guaranteed ticket.

Rehearsals

The tour was to become not only a concert, but also incorporating dance, poetry, mime, burlesque, magic and theatre. The dance element was co-ordinated by Bush in conjunction with Anthony Van Laast – who later choreographed the Mamma Mia! movie and several West End smashes – and two young dancers, Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst. They held morning rehearsals for the tour at The Place in Euston, after which Bush spent afternoons in Greenwich drilling her band. Off stage, she was calling the shots on everything from the set design to the programme art.

Band

The band playing with Kate Bush on stage consisted of Preston Heyman (drums), Paddy Bush (mandolin. various strange instruments and vocal harmonies), Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (electric guitar, acoustic mandolin and vocal harmonies), Kevin McAlea (piano, keyboards, saxophone, 12 string guitar), Ben Barson (synthesizer and acoustic guitar), Al Murphy (electric guitar and whistles) and backing vocalists Liz Pearson and Glenys Groves.

Tragedy

The tour started on April 2 with a tragedy. The highly experienced lighting director Bill Duffield fell through an open panel high on the lighting gallery. He would die of his injuries a week later. Despite this, the tour still went on. A fundraising benefit concert was added to the schedule, taking place on 12 May 1979 to raise money for Bill's family and featured Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, for whom Duffield had also worked.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Hammer Horror during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne 

Set list

The shows featured almost all the songs from Kate Bush's two albums, divided into three 'Acts', in the following order:

Act 1

Moving
Saxophone Song
Room For The Life
Them Heavy People
The Man With The Child In His Eyes
Egypt
L'amour Looks Something Like You
Violin
The Kick Inside

Act 2

In The Warm Room
Fullhouse
Strange Phenomena
Hammer Horror
Kashka From Baghdad
Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake

Act 3

Wow
Coffee Homeground
Symphony In Blue
Feel It
Kite
James And The Cold Gun

Encore

Oh England My Lionheart
Wuthering Heights

Tour dates

2 April 1979: Arts Centre, Poole (UK)
3 April 1979: Empire, Liverpool (UK)
4 April 1979: Hippodrome, Birmingham (UK)
5 April 1979: Hippodrome, Birmingham (UK)
6 April 1979: New Theatre, Oxford (UK)
7 April 1979: Gaumont, Southampton (UK)
9 April 1979: Hippodrom, Bristol (UK)
10 April 1979: Apollo Theatre, Manchester (UK)
11 April 1979: Apollo Theatre, Manchester (UK)
12 April 1979: Empire Theatre, Sunderland (UK)
13 April 1979: Usher Hall, Edinburgh (UK)
16 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
17 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
18 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
19 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
20 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
24 April 1979: Konserthuset, Stockholm (Sweden)
26 April 1979: Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen (Denmark)
28 April 1979: Congress Centrum, Hamburg (Germany)
29 April 1979: Theater Carré, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2 May 1979: Liederhalle, Stuttgart (Germany)
3 May 1979: Circus Krone, Munich (Germany)
6 May 1979: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris (France)
7 May 1979: Mercatorhalle, Duisburg (Germany)
8 May 1979: Rosengarten, Mannheim (Germany)
10 May 1979: Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt (Germany)
12 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
13 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
14 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)

On 24, 26, 28 and 29 April, In the Warm Room, Kite, Oh England My Lionheart, and Wuthering Heights were dropped from the set because Kate was suffering from a throat infection.
The 12 May concert had a very different setlist because this was a benefit performance 'In Aid Of Bill Duffield', featuring guest stars Steve Harley and Peter Gabriel.
'Fullhouse' was not performed on 13 and 14 May.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush receiving huge audience adulation/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne  

Critical reception

As the tour rolled out around the UK the reviews were euphoric: Melody Maker called the Birmingham show "the most magnificent spectacle ever encountered in the world of rock. (...) I hadn't expected to be impressed by her as a singer, both she and the band were nothing short of immaculate". According to Sounds, the show was "so finely realised that it's beyond criticism".

Recordings

Two official recordings were released from the tour, both recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London: first, the On Stage EP was released in September, and some time thereafter a 60 minute video 'Live at the Hammersmith Odeon', featuring 12 songs from the set followed.

There are also numerous so-called 'Bootleg' recordings made available from various sources - although most of them are audience recordings of dubious quality”.

I think that it is great that Max Browne has released a book with his photos from The Tour of Life. It is important to mark and explore such an iconic and important part of Kate Bush’s career. I am sure there are fairly good recordings of a set from that tour. There are videos on YouTube, though the quality is not great (as you can see in this feature!). One feels that there must be something in the archives that has not yet seen the light of day. The fact an E.P. was released suggests that a longer set was available to pick from. Like Before the Dawn in 2014, hearing Bush on stage during such a huge show is spine-tingling and revealing.

I would love to hear her in 1979 and the buzz from the crowd. Maybe a full set would be a bit long for vinyl, so streaming is an option. I am not sure why Before the Dawn is unavailable on streaming services. Perhaps Bush feels that one needs to hear it on a physical form to get the best listening experience. It would be wonderful to buy a vinyl set where we get to experience what it must have been like to be in one of the audience as Bush travelled through the U.K. and Europe! Max Browne could lend some words and photos. It would be wonderful for a booklet/book to go alongside where people who were in the audience share their recollections. Perhaps quotes from members of Bush’s band and crew would add some depth and story. Most of Bush’s material can be bought, yet there is this live vacuum where we have very little out there from The Tour of Life or any T.V. live/recordings pre or post-1979. It would be interesting learning why there is no expansive package valuable regarding The Tour of Life. Over four decades since Bush hit the road and wowed adoring audiences, there is a new generation who would benefit from hearing her live performances from 1979. One can get a bit of the magic and atmosphere from the YouTube videos. A cleaner recording on vinyl would prove more powerful and popular. The Tour of Life remains a groundbreaking and near-peerless live experience…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Strange Phenomena during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne 

AFTER all of these years.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Fifty-Four: Roxy Music

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Cooke/Redferns/Getty Images

Part Fifty-Four: Roxy Music

___________

I gave this feature a rest last weekend…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Virgin Records

but I am back with another A Buyer’s Guide. This week, I am focusing on the best albums from Roxy Music. I am not going to put a full-career biography in here but, before getting to their essential albums, a little overview:

“Evolving from the late-'60s art-rock movement, Roxy Music had a fascination with fashion, glamour, cinema, pop art, and the avant-garde, which separated the band from their contemporaries. Dressed in bizarre, stylish costumes, the group played a defiantly experimental variation of art rock which vacillated between avant-rock and sleek pop hooks. During the early '70s, the group was driven by the creative tension between Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, who each pulled the band in separate directions: Ferry had a fondness for American soul and Beatlesque art-pop, while Eno was intrigued by deconstructing rock with amateurish experimentalism inspired by the Velvet Underground. This incarnation of Roxy Music may have only recorded two albums, but it inspired a legion of imitators -- not only the glam-rockers of the early '70s, but art-rockers and new wave pop groups of the late '70s. Following Eno's departure, Roxy Music continued with its arty inclinations for a few albums before gradually working in elements of disco and soul. Within a few years, the group had developed a sophisticated, seductive soul-pop that relied on Ferry's stylish crooning. By the early '80s, the group had developed into a vehicle for Ferry, so it was no surprise that he disbanded the group at the height of its commercial success in the early '80s to pursue a solo career”.

Having released eight albums as a band, there are some that would argue all of them were critically acclaimed - though there are one or two that did not get the credit they deserved. I am highlighting the four best Roxy Music albums, the underrated gem, their final studio album together – in addition to a book about the band worth investigating. Here is a guide to the County Durham-formed band. If you are new to Roxy Music or not sure of the albums to get, then I hope that…

THIS guide is of use.

_____________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Roxy Music

Release Date: 16th June, 1972

Labels: Island/Reprise

Producer: Peter Sinfield

Standout Tracks: Ladytron/If There Is Something/The Bob (Medley)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58135&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4uUtkBGEiq357ts7HZYuYF?si=Gwo422PZR--yztK1_7cUjw

Review:

“Falling halfway between musical primitivism and art rock ambition, Roxy Music's eponymous debut remains a startling redefinition of rock's boundaries. Simultaneously embracing kitschy glamour and avant-pop, Roxy Music shimmers with seductive style and pulsates with disturbing synthetic textures. Although no musician demonstrates much technical skill at this point, they are driven by boundless imagination -- Brian Eno's synthesized "treatments" exploit electronic instruments as electronics, instead of trying to shoehorn them into conventional acoustic patterns. Similarly, Bryan Ferry finds that his vampiric croon is at its most effective when it twists conventional melodies, Phil Manzanera's guitar is terse and unpredictable, while Andy Mackay's saxophone subverts rock & roll clichés by alternating R&B honking with atonal flourishes. But what makes Roxy Music such a confident, astonishing debut is how these primitive avant-garde tendencies are married to full-fledged songs, whether it's the free-form, structure-bending "Re-Make/Re-Model" or the sleek glam of "Virginia Plain," the debut single added to later editions of the album. That was the trick that elevated Roxy Music from an art school project to the most adventurous rock band of the early '70s” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Re-Make/Re-Model

For Your Pleasure

Release Date: 23rd March, 1973

Labels: Island/Warner Bros.

Producers: Chris Thomas/John Anthony/Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: Do the Strand/Strictly Confidential/In Every Dream Home a Heartache

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58142&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6gKMWnGptVs6yT2MgCxw29?si=3cLF0ZwpQXOfDYKOxSXNUg

Review:

“Roxy aimed for a melding of American R&B and avant-garde European traditions (Mackay’s oboe on “For Your Pleasure” sounds like the last thing you’d hear before bees stung you to death). You don’t hear a struggle between Ferry and Eno, just two guys with similar ideas and a band juiced on its early success and acclaim, trying to get farther from earth while still holding on to the Marvelettes and the Shirelles. The playing is so adept and surprising, and Thompson and Manzanera do such strong jobs of grounding the music’s outlandish shifts, that you only slowly realize none of the album’s eight songs has a chorus.

A few months after For Your Pleasure was released, Eno left the band, quitting before he could be fired, and starting an unparalleled career as a solo artist and producer. Bryan and Brian were incompatible. Ferry was a neurotic—Woody Allen trapped in the body of Cary Grant—while Eno was a disruptor. In interviews, Ferry withdrew like a turtle; Eno excelled at them, and talked fluidly about Marshall McLuhan, Steve Reich, or his ample pornography collection. Eno most avidly pursued the band’s androgynous style, and dressed like he was Quentin Crisp’s glam nephew (leopard print top, ostrich feather jacket, bondage choker, turquoise eye shadow). Out of the chute, he was a cult hero, and Ferry grew tired of hearing punters yell “EEEEEE-NO!” in the middle of ballads, or seeing Eno credited as his co-equal.

The music had no immediate impact in the U.S., where it grazed the album chart at number 193. The band’s two-album deal with Warner Bros. had expired and the label happily left them go. American audiences, Ferry told a British interviewer, “are literally the dumbest in the world, bar none.”

But in England, it was the album of the moment, and Roxy returned to TV’s Old Grey Whistle Test, where Whispering Bob Harris, a stodgy presenter who was still stuck in the ’60s, sneered at them, as he had the previous year as well, dismissing them as great packaging with no substance.

The notion that style and substance were contradictory was a holdover from the ’60s, and it’s one that has never gone away, revived periodically by fans and critics who long for seeming authenticity. Years later, those Roxy TV appearances would start to feel almost as significant as the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Harris’ contempt was recommendation enough for lots of kids, of myriad genders and sexualities, who would soon come to Roxy shows dressed in sparkling tunics, glowing frocks, and immaculate dinner jackets, boys and girls both in drag. But glamor and self-invention were only part of the aftereffect: Within the next few years, plenty of future punks and new wavers went on to art school, where they immediately started acting, dressing, and playing like Roxy Music” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: Beauty Queen

Country Life

Release Date: 15th November, 1974

Labels: Island/Atco

Producers: Chris Thomas/John Punter/Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: The Thrill of It All/If It Takes All Night/Casanova

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58320&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/59RclwjkzMJTJZNxrfGdLC?si=65-3Q737SkKdmP-14jdrrw

Review:

“Starting with the thrilling (pun intended) 'The Thrill of It All', the album just moves from strength to strength, switching styles and flavours at every juncture, never letting the fear of cohesion or boundary spoil its artistic excess. 'Country Life' moves from pure glam rock glory like on the opening track, to obscure, avant-garde speckles of noise like 'Triptych' and 'Bitter-Sweet', to almost anywhere else you could envision. In their finest moments Ferry and co. swap moods or genres in one single song, as evidenced by the fantastic 'Out of the Blue'. If anyone else changed direction so unexpectedly like Roxy did on said track, it would likely seem misguided and botched, but Roxy just had a knack for pleasantly surprising their listeners, not to mention the right tools for the job - the 'tools' being the wonderful musicians playing behind king crooner, Bryan Ferry’s voguish lyrics. It seemed everyone was just in tip-top shape - McKay’s sax work is gorgeous on numbers like 'Three and Nine', Manzanera’s guitar riffs are as inventive and splendid as expected throughout (but especially so on highlights like 'All I Want is You') and the rest of the band are consistent as ever, despite the succession of fresh bass players passing through Roxy’s ranks. The thing that makes 'Country Life' particularly enthralling is that, whatever the venture into different styles and moods, here, Roxy delivered the goods track after track, providing an eclectic swirl of stylish, arty glam rock that thrills and delights like few others.

'Country Life' also captures the final showing of the early Roxy style, i.e. before funk and soul elements seeped into the mix more and more until the group gradually became a vehicle for front-man Ferry’s seductive crooner persona to run wild with romantic glimmer and enticing, silky soft rock tunes (something that would become fully realised with Roxy‘s final outing, the brilliant 'Avalon'). As such, the record is simply all that was great about the art rock sound of early Roxy, but taken to the extreme and its natural, satisfying succession point. A truly phenomenal album, 'Country Life' enraptured and influenced an innumerable amount of listeners, and with glistening gems such as 'The Thrill Of It All', 'All I Want Is You', 'Out Of The Blue' and 'Prairie Rose' being just a few of the high points, its not very difficult to understand why. No matter the taste preference for a certain time period or style in the bands eclectic discography, 'Country Life' is undoubtedly one of the best Roxy albums, and some would say (with great reason), the best” – Sputnikmusic

Choice Cut: All I Want Is You

Siren

Release Date: 24th October, 1975

Labels: Island/Atco

Producer: Chris Thomas

Standout Tracks: Sentimental Fool/Both Ends Burning/Nightingale

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58352&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Tpor3YZBVEJ9tWD5L31mH?si=W0ktCJ8BTNWVeiNEc3T87A

Review:

“But Siren, which was released on Oct. 24, 1975, was something different for the London-based sextet: an album of nervy art-rock swathed in what would be the start of the lush landscapes that would dominate their later work. Self-aware, clever and maybe a bit too arch for its own good at times, Siren is the sound of a band claiming a faraway corner of mid-'70s music as its very own.

On earlier albums like For Your Pleasure, Stranded and Country Life, Roxy Music developed a reputation as one of rock's most adventurous groups, with Brian Eno's oddball synth squalls colliding with Bryan Ferry's hotel-lounge-ready vocals. Eno was gone by the time of Siren, which gave Ferry even more room to play the oily crooner.

But that winking persona gives way to something more romantic, and even more genuine, on Siren. It's there in the tracks "Sentimental Fool" and "Nightingale," covered in sheets of artsy adornment, and it's there in the opening "Love Is a Drug," the band's first U.S. chart hit. Ferry lets down his guard, relatively speaking, here, giving the emotionally detached robot of past Roxy Music albums a heart for once. Though that may be part of the act too.

It doesn't really matter. Roxy Music were never stronger or more focused than they are on Siren. They recorded it in London during the summer of 1975, seven months after Country Life was released as their fourth album in a brief two-and-a-half-year period. And unlike those earlier records, which seemed to force the band's nutcase appeal at times (during Eno's two-album stay, for instance, synthesizer bombs would fall out of nowhere, often taking entire songs out of their grooves), Siren stays on course, leaving few gaping holes in the arrangements.

It wasn't necessarily a breakthrough moment for the group in its native U.K., where the album made it to No. 4 -- Stranded had hit No. 1 there in 1973, and predecessor Country Life reached No. 3. And in the U.S., Country Life climbed to No. 37 while Siren stopped at No. 50. But thanks to "Love Is the Drug," Roxy Music were reaching a whole new batch of fans. The song made it to No. 2 in the U.K., their highest showing at that point. In the U.S., it made it to No. 30, their only Top 40 appearance.

But on another level, Siren was a breakthrough moment. Freed from some of their past shackles (at least the ones that kept them from reaching a wider audience, particularly those music fans who might have been frightened away by some of their earlier, more experimental material), Roxy Music steered their art-rock into a brave new territory, one that infused some warmth into their inherent coolness. After this, they never looked back” – Ultimate Classic Rock

Choice Cut: Love Is the Drug

The Underrated Gem

 

Manifesto

Release Date: 16th March, 1979

Labels: E.G./Polydor/Atco

Producers: Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: Trash/Stronger Through the Years/Dance Away

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58340&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1LDD2nUQ17tm1WMchsevtp?si=rqP3q8g6TQ-3CHYtgDPF7g

Review:

“Manifesto is the band’s first release since it broke up after the obligatory lousy live LP in 1976. Though far more interesting than most such sets (Who can forget the Byrds’ numbing 1973 reunion album? Who can remember a thing that was on it?), it offers only embellishments on the Roxy sound and story. The new record is a lovely footnote, but it can lead nowhere.

That sound and story deserve a footnote: both were among the most glorious and eccentric of the Seventies. The band — especially guitarist Phil Manzanera, saxophonist Andy Mackay, drummer Paul Thompson and Eddie Jobson (missing on Manifesto) on synthesizer — produced railing hard rock or smoky dreamscapes; always the musicians played with precision, individuality and intelligence. Bryan Ferry sang as if he never noticed there was anyone behind him, so lost was he in a strange, abandoned theater of heartbreak, desperate longings and general post-Great Warangst. Roxy Music made it all funny and stirring at the same time, storming through Stranded and finishing up with Siren. Siren was perhaps the most perfectly crafted album of the decade, as well as Ferry’s heart-on-his-sleeve break with the cynicism of the confused hustler’s persona he’d carried so long.

Manifesto is bits and pieces of all that. The songs ending each side fade out with real grace and leave you hanging, wanting more — drenched in a romance out of reach. “Still Falls the Rain” is a quiet, forgiving ballad in the purest Roxy style, full of tiny touches that occur only once, teasing you to wait for a repetition that never comes. Manzanera’s four little notes, almost buried in the distant band sound, underline Ferry’s emotion: those notes are as surprising as anything Manzanera’s ever played, and they carry as strong an echo. “Cry, Cry, Cry” is a horrible piece of old-fashioned soul, and yet, as “Spin Me Round” takes over and closes out the set, you forget all about the mistakes and drift away, just like Dobie Gray said you could.

So the record has its moments — moments few bands even know about — but as with the brazenly (and meaninglessly) titled “Manifesto,” they add up to little. Ferry announces he’s for the guy “who’d rather die than be tied down”; he’s rarely traded on such banality, and he mouths the lyrics as if he hopes no one will hear them. The sound may be alive, but the story is almost silent” – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: Angel Eyes

The Final Album

 

Avalon

Release Date: 28th May, 1982

Labels: E.G. Records/Polydor

Producers: Rhett Davies and Roxy Music

Standout Tracks: The Space Between/Avalon/Take a Chance with Me

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58313&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3JXODSjT9mUz2lIb4YIErw?si=GS2VyMXPSVuFm3xoliPgbQ

Review:

“Flesh + Blood suggested that Roxy Music were at the end of the line, but they regrouped and recorded the lovely Avalon, one of their finest albums. Certainly, the lush, elegant soundscapes of Avalon are far removed from the edgy avant-pop of their early records, yet it represents another landmark in their career. With its stylish, romantic washes of synthesizers and Bryan Ferry's elegant, seductive croon, Avalon simultaneously functioned as sophisticated make-out music for yuppies and as the maturation of synth pop. Ferry was never this romantic or seductive, either with Roxy or as a solo artist, and Avalon shimmers with elegance in both its music and its lyrics. "More Than This," "Take a Chance with Me," "While My Heart Is Still Beating," and the title track are immaculately crafted and subtle songs, where the shifting synthesizers and murmured vocals gradually reveal the melodies. It's a rich, textured album and a graceful way to end the band's career” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: More Than This

The Roxy Music Book

 

Roxy Music's Avalon - 33 1/3

Author: Simon A. Morrison

Publication Date: 1st July, 2021

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Synopsis:

“Having designed Roxy Music as an haute couture suit hand-stitched of punk and progressive music, Bryan Ferry redesigned it. He made Roxy Music ever dreamier and mellower-reaching back to sadly beautiful chivalric romances. Dadaist (punk) noise exited; a kind of ambient soft soul entered. Ferry parted ways with Eno, electric violinist Eddie Jobson, and drummer Paul Thompson, foreswearing the broken-sounding synthesizers played by kitchen utensils, the chance-based elements, and the maquillage of previous albums. The production and engineering imposed on Avalon confiscates emotion and replaces it with an acoustic simulacrum of courtliness, polished manners, and codes of etiquette. The seducer sings seductive music about seduction, but decorum is retained, as amour courtois insists. The backbeat cannot beat back nostalgia; it remains part of the architecture of Avalon, an album that creates an allusive sheen. Be nostalgic, by all means, but embrace that feeling's falseness, because nostalgia-whether inspired by medieval Arthuriana or 1940s film noir repartee or a 1980s drug-induced high-deceives. Nostalgia defines our fantasies and our (not Ferry's) essential artifice” – Waterstones

Pre-Order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/roxy-musics-avalon/simon-a-morrison/9781501355349

FEATURE: In Your Eyes: Peter Gabriel’s So at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

In Your Eyes

Peter Gabriel’s So at Thirty-Five

___________

BEFORE getting to a couple of reviews…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn

I want to bring together articles that look back at the incredible So. Released on 19th May, 1986, it was Gabriel’s fifth solo studio album. I think So was a more commercial move from Gabriel. Quite a sonic shift. His fourth eponymous album was put out in 1982. It completed a run of these quite experimental albums. On So, we can still hear some of that - though I think the fact he collaborates with artists (including Youssou N'Dour and Kate Bush) opened his music to a new audience. Producing alongside Daniel Lanois, I feel So is one of Gabriel’s finest albums. So turned Peter Gabriel from a cult artist to someone who was a mainstream star. It is his best-selling album, having been certified fivefold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It is an album that is absolutely packed with songwriting genius. I don’t think the album has really dated at all. I want to first bring in an article from Ultimate Classic Rock. In the article (among other things) they look at Gabriel’s life pre-solo career and what So did for his career and status:

“Between his years as the freaky frontman for Genesis and his early solo outings, Peter Gabriel was already a rock star before making So. But the 1986 album transformed him into something entirely different and completely unexpected — a full-fledged pop star.

After leaving Genesis in 1975, Gabriel reinvented his art-rock approach in a new context, incorporating influences from the burgeoning New Wave and world music scenes over the course of four self-titled albums between 1977 and 1982. But while the funky single “Shock the Monkey” from his fourth album had made the Top 40, it still didn’t prepare him for the heights he would reach next time around.

So was the first album to which Gabriel had ever given an official title. But he gave people a lot more than that to hang onto. Gabriel’s fifth solo record turned out to be his most accessible and radio-friendly without sacrificing an ounce of the artistry he’d displayed on his earlier outings. It earned not only the admiration of the masses and the critics alike, but also four hit singles.

Gabriel had been a soul fan since his youth, but this was the first time he really brought an R&B influence to bear in his music in an overt way. “Sledgehammer,” the first single from So, is a sassy, soulful strut that finds Gabriel with tongue firmly in cheek delivering a series of not-so-subtle sexual metaphors. Heavily informed by his love of Otis Redding, Gabriel drafted erstwhile Redding trumpeter Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns to add some old-school soul cred to the track, which still managed to sound completely contemporary. Besides becoming an enormous hit, the song had a distinct Claymation video that became one of the most-played music clips on MTV.

“Big Time,” another ironic hit single, deals with the materialistic, acquisitive more-is-more philosophy so prevalent in the mid-‘80s. It’s less retro-minded than “Sledgehammer,” having more in common with Prince or Robert Palmer than anybody from the Stax stable. The churning, funky groove is driven by bassist Tony Levin’s unconventional “drumstick bass” (a bass struck with sticks rather than plucked).

Though Gabriel would never reproduce the phenomenal success of So on any of his subsequent albums, the record turned him from a rather cultish thinking-man’s rock star into a bona fide celebrity. In addition to occupying the pages of music magazines, he started turning up in celeb gossip rags that dished out details about his romance with actress Rosanna Arquette. The media suddenly noticed that when he wasn’t hiding behind weird makeup and creepy album covers, Gabriel was quite the photogenic character”.

I love Gabriel’s eponymous albums, though there is something both accessible and experimental regarding So that makes it a more satisfying and enduring listen. I don’t think Gabriel consciously set out to make a record to crack America or one that was overly-mainstream. As we can see from his official website, some people assume that, as So is his most successful album, that was his attention when putting it together:

“The first of Peter’s studio albums to have a proper title So was a watershed release in his career. Its marriage of the artistic and the commercial made for an indisputable success, with the album quickly sitting atop the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Aside from some intriguing collaborations – with Laurie Anderson on This Is The Picture, Kate Bush on Don’t Give Up and Youssou N’Dour on In Your Eyes – it was the unity of singer, band and producer that made So such a crucial record in the Gabriel canon.

“There is always wisdom from hindsight. And because ‘So’ was my most successful record, I think that a lot of people, particularly in America, think that it was designed to be that.

You know certain songs have a better chance of getting on the radio when you do them, for sure, but I think part of the reason that ‘So’ works so well was that the band was really firing off each other and we had a great sound and production team. It was compact in the process and the way it was put together.

One of the things I learned with Daniel Lanois is a total respect for the magic of the moment. When you have some spine-tingling event musically, you’ve got to capture it. I remember talking to Brian Eno about the Talking Heads record ‘Remain In Light’ and ‘The Great Curve’, I believe, is a track which was recorded on cassette from a band rehearsal because the band were really cooking at that point. They tried it again and again in the studio and never got it to feel as good. I think all musicians know that process, and you never really know when it’s hitting and when it isn’t, and I think one of the things that makes Dan’s records very strong is that there’s a real consciousness of when the performance is good. It’s quite difficult to spot because, you sort of hear what’s good in any particular thing and you forget whether the one before was actually a lot better or a lot worse. Holding all that emotional memory is quite hard.

‘Red Rain’ is one of my favourite tracks from that record. It’s a good example of a band playing together with a lot of energy and again, I think from Daniel Lanois’ input, there’s a respect for the moment. So many times in studios you see people desperately trying to get the best possible sound, but they let the moment go because they want to get something right or fixed, or they know that this bit can be improved, but the moment is something instinctively that you feel and if you get that great performance everything else will bow to it. And you can fix a lot of things afterwards. But, if you get the best sound but you don’t get the great performance, you have nothing. And it’s so easy to forget that in the studio”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Key

I am going to wrap up in a bit. I have written about So before and its recording/legacy. Rather than tread over that ground, I thought it was important to nod to the album ahead of its thirty-fifth anniversary on 19th May, in addition to coming at it from a slightly different angle. Before finishing up, a couple of positive reviews are required. This is what AllMusic observed in their review:

“Peter Gabriel introduced his fifth studio album, So, with "Sledgehammer," an Otis Redding-inspired soul-pop raver that was easily his catchiest, happiest single to date. Needless to say, it was also his most accessible, and, in that sense it was a good introduction to So, the catchiest, happiest record he ever cut. "Sledgehammer" propelled the record toward blockbuster status, and Gabriel had enough songs with single potential to keep it there. There was "Big Time," another colorful dance number; "Don't Give Up," a moving duet with Kate Bush; "Red Rain," a stately anthem popular on album rock radio; and "In Your Eyes," Gabriel's greatest love song, which achieved genuine classic status after being featured in Cameron Crowe's classic Say Anything. These all illustrated the strengths of the album: Gabriel's increased melodicism and ability to blend African music, jangly pop, and soul into his moody art rock. Apart from these singles, plus the urgent "That Voice Again," the rest of the record is as quiet as the album tracks of Security. The difference is, the singles on that record were part of the overall fabric; here, the singles are the fabric, which can make the album seem top-heavy (a fault of many blockbuster albums, particularly those of the mid-'80s). Even so, those songs are so strong, finding Gabriel in a newfound confidence and accessibility, that it's hard not to be won over by them, even if So doesn't develop the unity of its two predecessors”.

Everyone is going to have different highlights from So. I love all the tracks, though I think Sledgehammer and Don’t Give Up, as obvious as it might seem, are the best tracks. There is not a weak moment on the album! It is testament to Gabriel’s consistency and talent that he was producing music of this quality nine years after his solo debut. Pitchfork were very positive in their review:

“In Your Eyes” is the moment where Gabriel fully fuses the personal, spiritual, and global impulses in his music. “On two recent trips to Senegal,” he told Spin, “it was explained to me that many of their love songs are left ambiguous so that they could refer to the love between man and woman or the love between man and God.” But on a platinum-selling album circulating through a global, billion-dollar pop industry, the primary reference of any song is always the star, and “In Your Eyes” is, at root, about Gabriel’s global voyage of self-discovery.

In 1986, N’Dour was already a living legend in his own country. A decade earlier, he was a primary force driving the creation of Mbalax, of the first truly Senegalese pop music. More recently, he’d shown his own willingness to engage in a trans-Atlantic dialogue, adapting the Spinners’ “Rubberband Man” into his own voice. But outside of West African music aficionados, N’Dour was still unknown. After So, that changed: Gabriel saw himself as not just N’Dour’s musical collaborator, but his promoter. He took N’Dour on tour with him and they collaborated several more times. There is no question that Gabriel made N’Dour a bigger star. The thornier question is what did N’Dour do for Gabriel? Was their relationship another example of pop and rock’s long legacy of colonialist absorption? An instance of music business market expansion exemplified by Gabriel starting his Virgin-distributed Real World label/studio in 1989? A simple act of earnest musical dialogue between kindred spirits? Yes. “I’m pleased to see that in most record stores…you see an African section now,” Gabriel said in 1986. “Maybe in another decade there’ll be a world-music section.”

In the mid-1980s, the intertwined forces of rapidly advancing communication technologies and the ever-expanding interests of capital had ushered in the era of “globalization.” To optimists like Gabriel and his pop peers Byrne, Sting, and Paul Simon, it was the dawn of a borderless, utopian era of cultural creativity and fluid identity. To critics, world music forwarded a notion of increased cultural diversity as a garish cover for the increasing centralization of Western economic power and expansion of global economic inequality. Like any popular music form that seeks to make a political statement, world music was founded on a contradiction. It was at once a marketing category designed to sell non-Western music to Western audiences, that also, at its best, could function as a form of cross-cultural diplomacy.

Gabriel fully understood his limits he was working within. “I don’t think we can change the world as directly as many people thought was once possible,” he told Spin. “What we can do is provide information and then let people make up their minds.” Gabriel’s focus on the individual’s role in global change reflected So’s twin fixations: psychological transformation and global communication. So became a blueprint for pop music do-goodery, a political statement executed through self-reflection, collaboration, and the best audio-visual experience money can buy”.

To honour one of the best albums ever turning thirty-five, I was keen to give a bit more information and some context. I wonder whether Gabriel will release another studio. 2011’s New Blood consists of orchestral re-recordings of various tracks from his career. I am sure he is keeping busy, though there are many who would love to hear another album from him (including me). It only leaves me to wish a happy thirty-fifth anniversary to…

A sensational and genius album.

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Morrissey - Suedehead

FEATURE:

 

 

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

Morrissey - Suedehead

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THE reason why I am including…

Morrissey’s Suedehead in this feature is that some might feel embracing a Mozzer song is a bit controversial - what with his political views and the fact he divides people. I can understand that, though he has written some genius tracks (both with The Smiths and solo). Taken from his excellent debut album of 1988, Viva Hate, Suedehead was Morrissey’s first single. I think it is one of the best tracks in his catalogue. I like the fact that Suedehead is the seventh track on his debut album. It is quite unusual to release a debut single that is so far down the running order. I really love early-Morrissey. Whilst his stock and reputation has taken a hit through the years, I do not think people should see listening to his music as a guilty pleasure or something quite conflicting. I want to bring in a couple of articles regarding the song – one that discusses the symbolism and visuals in the song’s video. Before getting to the first one, a little overview on Suedehead from Wikipedia:

“Suedehead" is the debut solo single by English singer Morrissey, released in February 1988. The track was featured on Morrissey's debut album, Viva Hate, and the compilation album Bona Drag, the latter of which also featured the B-side "Hairdresser on Fire". The artwork of the single features a photo taken by Geri Caulfield during a Smiths gig at the London Palladium.

"Suedehead" charted higher than any of the singles released by Morrissey's former band the Smiths, peaking at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and reaching the top 10 in Ireland and New Zealand. The music video, directed by Tim Broad, features Morrissey walking through the streets of Fairmount, Indiana,[3] the hometown of actor James Dean, including shots of the school where Dean studied and the Park Cemetery, where he is buried. Other allusions to Dean in the video include a child (played by Sam Esty Rayner, Morrissey's nephew, who went on to direct the video for "Kiss Me a Lot" in 2015) delivering to Morrissey a copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, Dean's favourite book”.

The first feature that I want to spotlight is from Radio X. They remark that, whilst the lyrics are quite personal, Morrissey was not going to be too revealing and open at such an early stage of his solo career:

“The debut solo single by Morrissey was released on 27 February 1988. Suedehead was the warm up for the singer’s first post-Smiths album, Viva Hate, which hit record shops on 14 March that year. The video sees Moz touring the streets of Fairmount, Indiana where his hero James Dean grew up.

Suedehead was a make-or-break moment for Morrissey. The demise of the Smiths the previous autumn had caused ripples in the music industry and within fandom.

He needn’t have worried: his first release for major label EMI made Number 5 in the UK charts, which was higher than any Smiths single had achieved at that point.

One of their songs was Suedehead, which was to be the first glimpse of the post-Smiths Morrissey. The lyrics were obscure, apparently written about someone in Morrissey’s teenage years, but as he told the NME in February 1988 “I'd rather not give any addresses and phone numbers at this stage.”

The “suedehead” of the title refers to an offshoot of skinheads - the late 60s counterculture that was given a boost in the 1970s with the arrival of punk. They drew bad press by being associated with violence and racism, but the roots of the culture lay in music and fashion.

Suedehead was the title of a 1971 novel by Richard Allen, the follow-up to the successful Skinhead. However, Morrissey claimed that the song had nothing to do with the book: “I did happen to read the book when it came out and I was quite interested in the whole Richard Allen cult. But really I just like the word 'suedehead’.”

The song ends with the lines “It was a good lay, a good lay” - a very un-Morrissey sentiment at the time, for a man who claimed celibacy as a way of life: “ was never a sexual person,” he once said.

With sublime lyrics, a top Morrissey vocal and composition by producer Stephen Street, I think that this was a remarkable debut single. I know that some feel odd about liking Morrissey now. Do we separate the artist from their public persona? If some of his more recent albums have lacked his edge and humour, Viva Hate is a wonderfully quality-filled and rich album. Alongside Everyday Is Like Sunday, Suedehead is a classic! I really love the video for the track. It is so cinematic, simple and lush. I came across an interesting feature that talks about some of the scenes and nods in the video:

“Morrissey sits pensively in a bathtub, a poster of James Dean and Richard Davalos rising above him and the accoutrements of a writer—a typewriter, a fountain pen, a volume of Byron—about him. Lest there be any doubt about the subject of Moz’s contemplation, shots of a handwritten note signed “Jim {Brando Clift} Dean” and a 1955 copy of The Fairmount News bearing a report of Dean’s death flash by. All of this set the scene for Morrissey’s video for “Suedehead,” his 1988 debut solo single; and fitting for a song about obsessive love, it offers a portrait of the singer-songwriter in his element as a devoted, unqualified fan.

Moz’s existence as a fan began early, and ran deep and unabashed. His adolescence, when not spent in thrall to the transformative music and magic of T.Rex and David Bowie, and presiding over the England chapter of the New York Dolls fan club, saw him firing off letters to editors of music magazines, praising and defending his favorites from Sparks (“Today I bought the album of the year”) to The Cramps (“Back to the Cramps or perish”). His 2013 Autobiography, recounting his teenage fandom, contained swooning passages on Andy Warhol and Patti Smith, and unleashed rapturous homages to pop culture. “Loudly and wildly the music played,” went one, “always pointing to the light, to the way out, or the way in, to individualism, and to the remarkable if unsettling notion that life could possibly be lived as you might wish it to be lived.”

Appropriately, since he professed to be “more impressed with [Dean’s] life off the screen,” the video, directed by Tom Broad, sees Morrissey making a pilgrimage to his hero’s birthplace, Fairmount, Indiana. There, the singer walks the town’s snow-blown streets, snaps pictures, and visits Dean’s old hangouts from a cafe to a drugstore to his now-abandoned high school. “To [the town’s] locals, I must seem like a bit of nonsense from Montague Square,” he later wrote in Autobiography. He calls on the farm owned by Dean’s surviving relatives, Marcus and Ortense Winslow, and in the barn, does a bit of light reading—as a young Jimmy Dean used to do—before surveying the handprint and initials his idol left in the cement floor. (The film crew later departed the farm under some awkwardness, after Dean’s cousin Markie discovers Morrissey’s hand in James Dean is Not Dead.)

The film culminates with a beautifully shot segment at Park Cemetery, where Moz visits—and apparently, wept at—the graves of the fictitious Cal Dean (Dean played Cal Trask in East of Eden) and the real James Dean. As the video fades out, an image of Dean appears, floating above the proceedings, handsomely brooding over Moz’s vigil by his grave.

The subject of the “Suedehead” video, though, seems less James Dean than the act of homage itself. Note all the meditative gazes, for one. Here, Morrissey doesn’t just underscore his obsession with the actor right down to the minutest detail (Byron is Dean’s middle name; The Little Prince, which Morrissey brandishes, is Dean’s favorite book), but literally walks in his hero’s footsteps, reliving his “magnificently perfect” life. At one point, he’s pictured astride a motorbike, in a pose not at all different from Dean’s stance as depicted on the cover of “Bigmouth Strikes Again”.

If you have avoided Morrissey’s music because of his views and political allegiances, then I would say that you are missing out on so much great music. Rather than it being a guilty pleasure, Suedehead is a beautiful, witty and fascinating song that introduced the post-Smiths song to the world. One could forgive Morrissey for taking a while to get going after The Smiths split. There was no danger with his debut single. Suedehead is a confident and incredible track. It is one of those songs that you can listen to once and it will come back to mind…

OVER and over again.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Ten: Joy Division

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

 Part Ten: Joy Division

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FOR the tenth part…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Collection Christophel/Alamy Stock Photo

of Inspired By…, I wanted to feature a legendary band who has influenced a generation of artists. Formed in Salford in 1976, I also wanted to mark forty-five years of Joy Division. In the playlist at the bottom of this feature, I have put together songs from artists either influenced by Joy Division or that have followed on from them – just to get a view of the range and depth of the band’s legacy. Prior to that, I wanted to bring in a biography of Joy Division from AllMusic:

“Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s. Though the group's raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of '70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis. While the British punk movement shocked the world during the late '70s, Joy Division's quiet storm of musical restraint and emotive power proved to be just as important to independent music in the 1980s.

The band was founded in 1976, soon after the Sex Pistols had made their first appearance in Manchester. Guitarist Bernard Albrecht (b. Bernard Dicken, January 4, 1956) and bassist Peter Hook (b. February 13, 1956) had met while at the show and later formed a band called the Stiff Kittens; after placing an ad through a Manchester record store, they added vocalist Ian Curtis (b. July 15, 1956) and drummer Steve Brotherdale. Renamed Warsaw (from David Bowie's "Warszawa"), the band made its live debut the following May, supporting the Buzzcocks and Penetration at Manchester's Electric Circus. After the recording of several demos, Brotherdale quit the group in August 1977, prompting the hire of Stephen Morris (b. October 28, 1957). A name change to Joy Division in late 1977 -- necessitated by the punk band Warsaw Pakt -- was inspired by Karol Cetinsky's World War II novel The House of Dolls. (In the book, the term "joy division" was used as slang for concentration camp units wherein female inmates were forced to prostitute themselves for the enjoyment of Nazi soldiers.).

Playing frequently in the north country during early 1978, the quartet gained the respect of several influential figures: Rob Gretton, a Manchester club DJ who became the group's manager; Tony Wilson, a TV/print journalist and owner of the Factory Records label; and Derek Branwood, a record executive with RCA Northwest, who recorded sessions in May 1978, for what was planned to be Joy Division's self-titled debut LP. Though several songs bounded with punk energy, the rest of the album showed at an early age the band's later trademarks: Curtis' themes of post-industrial restlessness and emotional despair, Hook's droning bass lines, and the jagged guitar riffs of Albrecht.

The album should have been hailed as a punk classic, but when a studio engineer added synthesizers to several tracks -- believing that the punk movement had to move on and embrace new sounds -- Joy Division scrapped the entire LP. (Titled Warsaw for a 1982 bootleg, the album was finally given wide issue ten years later.) The first actual Joy Division release came in June 1978, when the initial mid-1977 demos were released as the EP An Ideal for Living, on the band's own Enigma label. Early in 1979, the buzz surrounding Joy Division increased with a session recorded for John Peel's BBC radio show.

Unknown PleasuresThe group began recording with producer Martin Hannett and released Unknown Pleasures on old friend Tony Wilson's Factory label in July 1979. The album enjoyed immense critical acclaim and a long stay on the U.K.'s independent charts. Encouraged by the punk buzz, the American Warner Bros. label offered a large distribution contract that fall. The band ignored it but did record another radio session for John Peel on November 26th. (Both sessions were later collected on the Peel Sessions album.).

During late 1979, Joy Division's manic live show gained many converts, partly due to rumors of Curtis' ill health. An epilepsy sufferer, he was prone to breakdowns and seizures while on stage -- it soon grew difficult to distinguish the fits from his usual on-stage jerkiness and manic behavior. As the live dates continued and the new decade approached, Curtis grew weaker and more prone to seizures. After a short rest over the Christmas holiday, Joy Division embarked on a European tour during January, though several dates were cancelled because of Curtis. The group began recording its second LP after the tour ended (again with Hannett), and released "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in April. The single was again praised but failed to move beyond the independent charts. After one gig in early May, the members of Joy Division were given two weeks of rest before beginning the group's first U.S. tour. Two days before the scheduled flight, however, Curtis was found dead in his home, the victim of a self-inflicted hanging.

CloserBefore Curtis' death, the band had agreed that Joy Division would cease to exist if any member left, for any reason. Ironically though, the summer of 1980 proved to be the blooming of the band's commercial status, when a re-release of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" rose to number 13 on the British singles chart. In August, the release of Closer finally united critics' positivity with glowing sales, as the album peaked at number six. Before the end of the summer, Unknown Pleasures was charting as well.

Here is a playlist of songs from artists who are similar to Joy Division or have been inspired by them in some form. As you can see and hear, they cover quite…

A wide spectrum of sounds.

FEATURE: Station to Station: Part Ten: Zoe Ball (BBC Radio 2)

FEATURE:

 

 

Station to Station

Part Ten: Zoe Ball (BBC Radio 2)

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TAKING this feature into double digits…

 PHOTO CREDIT: David Gubert for Red

I am including the legendary Zoe Ball. The first female host of both BBC Radio 1 Breakfast and the Radio 2 breakfast show for the BBC, she also presented the 1990s children's show, Live & Kicking, alongside Jamie Theakston from 1996 to 1999. In 2018, Ball was announced as the Radio 2 Breakfast Show host. She replaced Chris Evans in January 2019. I think that The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show is one of the best of radio. Ball is a national broadcasting treasure and someone that we will hear for many years. There are a couple of features/interviews that I want to bring in soon. You can follow Ball on Instagram and Twitter. Such a funny, warm and talented broadcaster, I think that Zoe Ball is one of our very best. I want to first talk about Ball’s appearance on Desert Island Discs prior to the pandemic kicking in last year. I love listening to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show. One can learn a lot about her from that. With relatively few interviews online, I think things like Desert Island Discs is useful when it comes to discovering more. Among things discussed with host Lauren Laverne, as this article from Stylist outlines, the sad loss of her partner, Billy Yates, was covered:

“There’s no right or wrong way to grieve the loss of a romantic partner, but listening to the experiences of other people who have been through it can offer comfort and understanding. That’s why Zoe Ball’s recent podcast interview about how she grieved for her partner Billy Yates – who died by suicide in 2018 – are such an important listen to anyone who relates.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on Desert Island Discs, Ball explained the part that music can play while grieving, and how it helps to celebrate the lives of those who have passed.

After picking Frank Wilson’s Do I Love You as one of her discs, Ball told Laverne: “I wanted to play something for Billy. Billy was my partner, we’d been friends for a few years and we got together. He suffered with depression for a huge chunk of his life. And it’s so hard to sit and watch someone you love and care for struggle with mental health.

“Losing him was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.

“I think something that’s really important to share, having spoken now to lots of people who work within mental health support networks or people trying to make a difference, is that there is hope. There is help available. There are ways. We’re still learning.”

She then went on to describe depression, saying: “For some people the drugs work, for some people that isn’t the case. But it’s so isolating to be trapped like that, where you doubt everything you’ve ever known. You doubt if your family love you, you doubt that your friends care for you.”

She continued: “I think something else that happens if you lose someone in a situation like this is that I don’t want people to remember him for how he died. I want people to remember him for how he lived his life. He was so full of love. He would help anyone in need. He was always there for all his friends. He brought so much into my life, so much into his family and friends’ lives.

“And I wanted to play a piece of music that reflected him for who he was. He loved to dance and he loved to laugh. And this track will always remind me of him.”

After selecting another track, Kamasi Washington’s Truth, Ball went on to explain how listening to music has helped with her grief.

“It moved me to tears,” she said. “That’s something else I learned through grieving is how music can play such a role in that. And I’ll take some photographs, and pieces of music, and I can listen to that and help that little process. Sometimes you can make those tears come and think of somebody and take yourself through that little process and I think that’s really good for you. And you come out of the other side of that and you feel a little bit stronger again”.

I have been following Zoe Ball’s career since the 1990s. She is such an exceptional broadcaster and a hugely influential figure. I am not sure how many more years she will be in her current slot at BBC Radio 2 - though she has commanded a loyal and large audience. Ball definitely sounds very comfortable and happy at breakfast.

I shall wrap things up in a bit. Go and follow Ball and listen to her BBC Radio 2 show. Alongside her broadcasting career, she was a contestant in the third series of Strictly Come Dancing. Following this, in 2011, she took over from Claudia Winkleman as host of the BBC Two spin-off show, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. There was an interesting interview of quickfire questions published in The Guardian late last year. I have selected a few questions from it:

“What is your earliest memory?
My dad wrapping me up in his coat on a cold, rainy night in the 1970s when our car broke down and we had to wait by the road for help.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
All the NHS workers, care home staff and teachers who are the real superheroes of 2020.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Telling people the ending of films, books or plays. I have to stop myself from letting slip spoilers on the radio.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
Having a menopausal hot flush while interviewing Al Pacino and Robert De Niro last year. My glasses steamed up and slowly slid down my nose.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Eating Christmas pudding when it’s not Christmas. Everything seems to taste better when you aren’t allowed it yet.

What do you owe your parents?

A strong back and gallows humour.

What is the worst job you’ve done?

The failed attempt at a home perm on myself in the 80s. I wanted to look like Kelly McGillis in Top Gun.

How do you relax?

Watching Gardeners’ World in front of the fire on a Friday night. There is nothing better than an evening with Monty Don and the gang. It’s pure “warm hug” TV.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being mum to my awesome children, Woody and Nelly. They make my day, every day. I do joke with them that I’m happy to pay for the therapy they’ll inevitably need in later years due to my terrible parenting.

How would you like to be remembered?

As Naughty Grandma – you know, the one who is always causing mischief at Christmas.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

To hold those you love close, as we’re never sure how long we’re going to get on this crazy, beautiful planet.

Where would you most like to be right now?

At Glastonbury, singing and dancing with my kids and best friends. I have everything crossed for 2021”.

I shall leave things there. I am a big fan of Zoe Ball, and I think that she is one of our most enduring and popular broadcasters. She is inspiring so many people to get into radio - and, as the years go by, I feel Ball will take on new responsibilities and receive huge honours. The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show is the perfect way to wake up weekdays. She is an amazing and passionate host; someone people regard in high affection. I have so much respect and praise for…

A broadcasting legend.