she's a star

Whiplash was a 1997 album from the band James. It was two years in the making, two tumultuous years during which most of the original sessions were scrapped, guitarist Larry Gott left the band, and James discovered that due to financial mismanagement, they owed nearly half a million in unpaid taxes. Not the best of times. Yet they emerged with their most successful album ever, a stunning melange of danceable pop, anthemic singalongs and weirdly dark, techno tinged ambience. 

The initial sessions in early 1995 saw James reunite with producer Brian Eno. But all the band could come up with was unfocussed jams and songs that didn't really spark. Eno was disappointed and much of this work was eventually dropped. Later sessions found the band carrying on without singer Tim Booth who was in America working with composer Angelo Badalamenti. But his busman's holiday rejuvenated Booth who returned to the band bristling with bright ideas. Previously unpromising song fragments were revisited. "Star", a meandering, muddy track, became the defiantly positive "She's A Star", "Whiplash" which began life as little more than pounding techno track, was transformed by some wistful strings and a beautiful new melody into "Play Dead". And so on. Many of the songs that had been worked on during Tim's absence plowed a more trance / dance furrow than James had approached before. Heavy programming took the place of Dave Baynton-Power's usual light drumming. The lack of Larry Gott's guitar was covered by more emphasis on keyboards and violin. Eno guided many of these sessions but the final mix and glossy sheen that coated the finished album was down to Stephen Hague (a man who knew a thing or two about how to get a synth pop hit - his resume included production for OMD, Pet Shop Boys and New Order, as well as PiL and Siouxsie and the Banshees amongst many many others).

The album opens with perhaps the strongest four songs in James' history. "Tomorrow" was recycled from the Laid sessions in 1993, but whereas the earlier version is tentative, this version is totally in control. A hugely powerful opening for the album, pounding drums, manically strummed guitars and a wonderful vocal.

"Lost A Friend" takes it down a notch and is another of those peculiar songs that only James seem to do, namely a song that appears to have two choruses. And Tim sings in that defiantly English way of his, not a hint of the mid Atlantic voice that so many singers adopt, not a sign of any blues scales or obvious rock star flourishes. His yearning vocal is terrific. Similarly "Waltzing Along" continues this utterly English trend. The guitars swing with the slightly clumpy beat and there's lots of excellent Booth and Eno backing vocals. Eno once reckoned that most of the worlds problems could be solved with backing vocals. It's when you hear the delightful vocals here that you kind of know what he means.

The first single from the album was "She's A Star", a glorious return for James after the previous couple of years of hassle. It's so wonderfully upbeat and positive and perfect to sing along with. No wonder it was one of their biggest hits. The guitar work, from new member Adrian Oxaal, is an unforgettable sliding series of notes that apes, but doesn't copy, the guitar lines that Robert Fripp played on David Bowie's "Heroes".

After "She's A Star" the album takes a turn into more experimental waters. "Greenpeace" is a weird mash up of an ambient verse, all gently chiming bells and stray piano notes, and a stridently chattering techno chorus. The verses seem to be a dialogue between a whispering Tim who at first seems indifferent to what's happening to the world and a sinister alter ego who speak / sings in a distorted voice and who wishes to destroy the environment. Then Booth turns into some sort of falsetto choir boy over the pounding and clattering choruses. And, you know, it works!

"Go To The Bank" is perhaps the weakest song here, losing it's focus about halfway through, but the following "Play Dead" is stunning. After Eno's voice saying 'music depresses me' we're catapulted into a terrifically powerful drum loop but just as you think you've got the measure of the piece it calms down somewhat and Tim croons over some gorgeous keyboards and synthetic strings which mesh with the stomping beats extremely successfully. The chorus is something that U2 would have given their right arms for, a keening melancholy that is also devastatingly beautiful.

"Avalanche" and "Homeboy" are more straightforward and are the most obvious links to the initial sessions. Both are great fun, perfectly played and contain some clever lyrics, with "Homeboy" rewriting some of Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" rather cheekily.

Then we're back in darker territory. "Watering Hole" is all atmosphere and ambience with Booth crooning very quietly at times. The closer, "Blue Pastures" finds Booth ready to fade back into obscurity. Musically it's very pretty and a cousin to the similarly arranged "Out To Get You" on Laid. But where "Out To Get You" is shot through with steely determination "Blue Pastures" is resigned and tired - 'it doesn't really matter if I fade away' whispers Booth at the end of the song. It's a rather unsettling ending.

As usual with James the singles from Whiplash contained loads of great b-sides, many of which were at least the equal of the album tracks. Notably "Your Story" which is one of my favourite James songs - another song with multiple choruses and a truly stirring vocal; this should have been on the album, or a single a-side as it is way too good to be lost on the back of a single. Although nothing like as commercial, the wonderfully weird "Fishknives" is great fun, as is the eerie "Van Gogh's Dog". "Chunney Chops" is little more than an Eno processed jam, but there's a huge sense of the band having a ball with this track.

James would never achieve such sustained success again. Although subsequent albums and singles were every bit as good as those from the Whiplash era the public didn't embrace them in the same way. However I did, and James remain one of my most cherished bands.

There is another reason why Whiplash and the accompanying extra tracks have such a special place in my heart. "She's A Star" was issued at the start of April 1997 with the album coming out mid month.

This coincided exactly with Lucy's birth.

For perhaps the only time in her life she was early, about 5 weeks early, which was a huge shock for Nicky and for me. Worries about potential infections and concerns for her size meant that Lucy (and Nicky) stayed in the special care unit for nearly a month. During that time I went back to work, getting the train home from London each evening, grabbing something to eat, then driving 40 minutes up to Cambridge desperate to see them. I would stay until I was kicked out by the nurses and sadly drive back home. I did a lot of driving and worrying that month. And I listened to Whiplash in the car, a lot. And I sang along at the top of my voice to keep myself awake. So many of the lines in those James songs resonated with me. Off the top of my head - "Tomorrow" had lines like 'got to keep faith that your luck will change' and 'now your grip's so strong' which seemed so right for Lucy. "Waltzing Along" had these - 'may your heart beat strong', 'may your heart lead you on', and the title of "She's A Star" just seemed so perfect.

She IS a star. Happy Birthday, lovely Lucy. xx

rock 'n' roll animal - lou reed live in 1973

Lou Reed's Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal is simply a brilliant live album, but it could have been even better.

A few years ago I basically restored the whole gig into the proper song order by combining R’n’RA and Lou Reed Live. But even with the magic of CoolEdit it was a tricky job as, despite both albums coming from the same 21st December 1973 concert, the mix on Lou Reed Live is noticeably different to that on R’n’RA. I think actually that that Animal has received slightly more post production as the whole album sounds terrific compared with what are more likely the rawer tapes on Live. Lou Reed Live was an album that was quickly tossed out by RCA to make some money following the debacle of Metal Machine Music - they simply dug out tapes from a two year old gig and issued them in late 1975, and I can’t believe that anyone spent more than a few minutes working on Live.

Anyway CoolEdit and a few evenings’ work sorted out the differences in levels and smoothed over the audience transitions. I also had to flip the channels back on Live as, for reasons that no-one can explain, the stereo image is reversed compared with Animal. Guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner are rather neatly split into each speaker and their twin guitar attack is pretty spectacular at times. But Live has them the wrong way round. So I put it right.

Anyway, in the correct order, this is a stunningly good show. Lou is really on form - at times he’s perhaps a little, shall we say, over-excited, but on the whole he delivers a fine vocal performance. The band is just awesome. All of the musicians bar keyboard player Ray Colcord would decamp to Alice Cooper’s band in 1975. (Colcord is interesting – he’d previously been in Don Maclean’s band and plays on American Pie. Since the Lou Reed tour he’s composed hundreds of TV themes. 

Best track – the opening guitar wig out which then dives straight into "Sweet Jane" - that takes some beating. Though the super funky "Rock And Roll" is mighty fine too (it’s worth noting that much of the funkiness of Reed’s bands between 1973 and 1975 is down to bass player Prakash John – he was born in Bombay, but moved to Canada as a child and had worked alongside Bootsy Collins and George Clinton for a few years in the early 1970s, hence the funk).

In between, there are excellent renditions of Transformer tracks ("Walk On The Wild Side" is almost identical to the studio version but "Vicious" is a full on assault rather than the somewhat fey original), some slightly ragged attempts Berlin tunes (notably "Caroline Says" on which Lou attacks the song with rather more enthusiasm than accuracy, although the lengthy "Oh Jim" and "Sad Song" are both pretty spectacular), and some souped up blasts through Velvet Underground songs. Although the amped up take on "Waiting For The Man" is perhaps a little too over the top, the other Velvets tunes are superb. "White Light / White Heat" takes David Bowie's cover as its template and Lou reclaims the song as his own. "Heroin" is a real tour de force. Stunning organ work combines with the majestic guitars of Steve and Dick to create a song that is both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. As mentioned before the extended "Rock And Roll" is another masterpiece and is a wonderful conclusion to 90 minutes of Lou Reed at his very best.

The next few years would see Lou descend the depths of addiction and issue some wildly variable records (along with some worryingly schizophrenic concerts). When he was up to it the 1974 / 75 gigs could be brilliant, with Lou really delivering the goods onstage (despite the turmoil of his personal life), but there were just as many gigs where Lou was all but incapable of performing.

I have a cracking show from Paris in May 1974 - his singing and phrasing is spot on; he sounds like a man possessed and urges the band to really deliver as well. The Sydney gig from August 1974 is one of my favourites and a recording that I first got as a tape off Chelmsford market, back when I was still at school. It's a terrific gig, and a very decent recording too - there's a truly chilling and very spooky version of "Heroin" with a creepy organ dominating the song, a firey "Vicious" and a full on "White Light / White Heat" although it all ends with a very messy and ramshackle encore of "Rock And Roll" which sounds completely unrehearsed (but it was played as an encore at virtually every gig that year, so there's really no excuse!)

Lou Reed at his best was pretty much unbeatable.

  

hunky dory - david bowie

Hunky Dory isn't my favourite David Bowie album, and although I understand the praise that this record rightly receives, I prefer many of his other records. But… having said that I really can’t fault anything about Hunky Dory. And listening to it again recently, every track reveals itself to be a little marvel.

“Changes”, for all its iconic status in Bowie’s canon (and virtually every feature writer can’t help themselves in referencing this song) but it’s perhaps my least favourite on the record. It’s beautifully put together, the lovely piano work, the dreamy saxophone, the overlapping vocals, it’s all good, but there’s something about this song that I’ve never warmed to.

“Oh! You Pretty Things” is better for me. The twisted sci fi lyrics could have come from The Man Who Sold The World, but music most definitely couldn’t, what with that tremendous clumping piano in the style of Macca’s “Martha My Dear” and a soaring vocal as DB hits some very high notes.

“Eight Line Poem” I always found rather Dylanesque – oblique and obtuse to the point of incomprehension. But it’s a very pretty little interlude before…

“Life On Mars?” which is truly epic. Mick Ronson’s gorgeous orchestral arrangement is astonishing (check out the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" timpani at the end) and Rick Wakeman’s lyrical piano is beautiful. But both are swept along by one of Bowie’s most stirring melodies in what is surely one of his most mature songs thus far.

“Kooks” takes it down a step with this charmingly gauche dedication his newborn son. Never mind that it’s largely a steal from Neil Young’s “Till The Morning Comes” even down to the playful trumpet. There’s another stirring string arrangement here too. And on the next song –

“Quicksand” which battles with “Life On Mars?” for the most beautiful song on the album. For my money “Quicksand” wins as it’s less obvious and the chorus creeps up but totally floors me every time.

“Fill Your Heart” – a throwaway cover, but a cheery, summery one. Bowie’s gleeful vocal stays just on the right side of twee.

Then we get the three tribute songs for Bowie’s 1971 heroes.

“Andy Warhol” is brilliantly constructed, all overamped acoustic anger and some cracking bass. The instrumental coda is marvellous.

“Song For Bob Dylan” is perhaps the most conventional song here. Straightforward 1971 rock and instrumentation, but it stands out because little else on this album is recorded this way.

“Queen Batch” was ostensibly inspired by Lou Reed - ‘some white light returned with thanks’ say the sleeve notes, but musically it owes more to songs like “Sweet Jane”. I love the way that Bowie’s 12 string is doubled by Ronson’s trusty ‘Black Beauty’ (a Gibson Les Paul that stuck with him for most of the 1970s) and at times Ronno overdubs a further guitar line. The superbly overdriven sound simply makes the song.

“The Bewlay Brothers” – no-one ever got a sensible explanation of this song from Bowie. One of his earliest comments about it ‘Star Trek in a leather jacket’ makes as much sense as anything. It is clearly about him and his older step brother Terry, a fact that was tacitly acknowledged many years later, but DB refused to go any further with that line of questioning. Terry had lived with David and Angie for quite some time during 1970 but despite their best efforts it was clear that his schizophrenia and manic depression were no longer manageable in the real world. One of the reasons that David would never discuss the song was that, by early 1971, Terry had been committed to the Cane Hill asylum. (This was a vast Victorian hospital in Coulsdon in South London, which could house 2,000 patients. Cane Hill closed in 1991 and was partially demolished a few years ago to allow for redevelopment but before work could begin the rest of the building was destroyed in a fire in 2010.) Anyway, Terry would call Cane Hill his home for the next 14 years; he never recovered sadly, and he took his life in 1985 by laying on the railway tracks nearby.

The song itself dislocates the mind of the listener, the disparate and fragmentary imagery exactly mirroring the frightening visions in Terry’s mind. (Many of the wilder lyrics on The Man Who Sold The World were also influenced by what Terry could apparently ‘see’.) That “The Bewlay Brothers” is underpinned by a gently strummed and very beautiful melody makes that song all the more sad. Ronno’s backwards guitar is another melancholy and disturbing touch. But it’s the astonishing coda that is really chilling. A myriad of varispeeded voices takes the cheekiness of the Laughing Gnome into altogether darker territory. A genuinely unsettling and discomforting end to this album. 

dead can dance - the early stuff

A recent encounter with some very early Dead Can Dance material prompted these thoughts -

Now I love Dead Can Dance, their music has sondtracked much of my life, but quite honestly the early demos and early John Peel sessions are pretty rubbish. In fact, apart from a couple of songs the demos are atrocious, and I’ve no idea why I’ve kept them. I think that these will be deleted from the iPod fairly soon… The Peel sessions are better, though, like the debut album, they are the sound of a band struggling to find an identity. The spectre of Joy Division – the same sort of heavy bass and frantic drumming, plus an identical guitar sound - hangs heavy over many of these tracks, particularly Brendan Perry’s.

But then you get Lisa Gerrard’s pieces. Her songs are similarly naïve and unstructured, and occasionally veer very close to early Cocteau Twins (especially stuff from the Garlands album). Lisa’s voice is sometimes uncomfortably close to Elizabeth Fraser’s too, so you can see why Ivo Watts-Russell was so keen to sign them to 4AD. But then, just occasionally, Lisa does something miraculous with her voice which lifts the song from a not terribly good second rate indie goth rip off into… what? Something magical and out of this world.

From the Peel sessions and also from the first album it’s impossible to tell which way DCD were heading, (even the later Garden Of Arcane Delights EP doesn’t really offer hints, though it is at least a step away from rubbish indie drumming and incessantly throbbing bass). I can’t imagine that anyone would have guessed that the majesty that is Spleen And Ideal would have followed just a year later. It’s another one of those bafflingly massive quantum leaps forward that occasionally happen. Spleen And Ideal lays the foundation for virtually everything that DCD would subsequently do and ignores virtually everything that came previously. Where this huge leap of imagination came from is anyone’s guess, but how fantastic that it happened.