thursday shuffling songs

A random collection of tunes for a Thursday:

 

"Temple Of Love" - the original 1983 12" from the Sisters Of Mercy. Entirely bonkers, but also entirely brilliant. Doktor Avalanche the drum machine is working overtime on this one. 

 

"Fur Immer" from the second NEU! album. Solid motorik drumming (not a million miles from the Sisters were doing with the good Doktor 10 years later) and lotsa wibbly guitar stuff. Perfect for driving to. 

 

"Way Out Of Here" from Porcupine Tree's Fear Of A Blank Planet. One of my absolute favourite PT songs. I love the way that Wilson sketches out the desire of the teen to disappear completely (something of a preoccupation in his lyrics I feel). If you get a chance to see it, the video is rather good too. Some stunning soundscapes from That Awful Man Fripp over the lengthy fade out. 

 

"Helen Of Troy" - a not very good live recording of Cale teetering on the edge of sanity in 1984. He sounds dangerous and scary to be quite honest, like someone you'd really want to avoid. The rough garage band approach of his musicians doesn't really suit this song either. 

 

"The Man In The Moon" - Adrian Belew's rather touching song about how he wants to be reunited on the moon with his recently departed father. 

 

"In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated" - surely one of the best tracks Dead Can Dance ever recorded, certainly one of Brendan Perry's career highlights. Just brilliant. 

 

"Utopia" - speaking of whom - this was a live recording of Brendan Perry in 2011 with this cracker from his Ark album. Great recording, off the soundboard, and a stunning performance too. As a young man, earnest, bearded, floppy hair, BP's rich baritone didin't really seem to suit how he looked. Now, stockier, bald, with greying goatee and stern expression, his voice seems to suit him rather better. 

"Slave To Love" - Bryan Ferry live in 2014. It sounds a little rushed, but then Ferry often seems to speed up songs in concert, as if he's in hurry to get home to watch Newsnight. This is always a popular live track, and Ferry and his band(s) always do it justice.

"Nowhere Man" from a bunch of unknown scousers who never amounted to much. What a very pretty, and sad, melody this song has.
 

"1917" - a 1999 b-side from Mr Bowie. An odd, synthy instrumental from the …hours sessions which kind of nicks the riff from Led Zep's "Kashmir". It's very inconsequential but very likeable. 

 

"I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea" - I only have a handful of Elvis Costello songs on the iPod, and this is one of the best. It sounds very dated, very much a late 1970s new wave sound, but Elvis' sneer is at it's peak here, which is always good. 

 

"How Does It Feel?" - yup, Slade. Noddy and the boys going all ballad-y for a change. Reminds me of my childhood - I really loved Slade when I was 6 and 7. 

 

"A Fire In The Forest" - Sylvian live in 2004 in Tokyo. This is a soundboard recording, and is better than the Blemish studio version I reckon. Great vocal from DS, deeply emotional.

"In Vogue" - another of those weird coincidences - there's no way the iPod could know that there's a link between Japan and Sylvian (just as it couldn't possibly guess the link between Brendan Perry and DCD) but here we go. This is Japan live in Tokyo in 1980. Another soundboard recording too, but one that has suffered a little over the years. It's pretty good, but a little wobbly in places and with a bit of hiss. But what a cracking version of "In Vogue".

 

"God Only Knows" - Bowie's slow and string laden version of the Beach Boys' song from the Tonight album in 1984. Most critics really really hate this, and offer it as proof that Bowie had really lost his way in the 1980s, but I have something of a soft spot for this version. And, it can't be denied, Bowie really sings his socks off on this one.

 

Speaking of Brian Wilson, I read this fascinating story about him the other day. It's from an interview with Alice Cooper and relates to a situation at the 1974 Grammy's, a period when Wilson was probably at his most, er, lost.

 

“I was sitting backstage after the 1974 Grammys with Bernie Taupin and John Lennon.

Brian Wilson came up to the table, bent down and whispered in my ear ‘Hey Alice, introduce me to John Lennon.’

I couldn’t BELIEVE that these two men had never met! They were virtually neck and neck in the 60’s as the greatest bands on the planet, and I’m SURE they must have crossed paths at some point. But then I thought to myself, ‘Wow, if they REALLY have never met, I’m going to be the one to introduce them and become a part of rock history!’ So I merely said, ‘Brian Wilson, this is John Lennon. John Lennon, this is Brian Wilson.’

Lennon was very cordial and polite, saying things like ‘Hello Brian, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I’ve always admired your work, and Paul and I considered Pet Sounds one of the best albums ever made.’ Brian thanked him and walked away, at which point Lennon went right back to his conversation like nothing had happened.

About ten minutes later, Brian came by our table again, leaned down and whispered something to Bernie, and all of a sudden, Bernie was saying ‘Brian Wilson, this is John Lennon. John Lennon, Brian Wilson.’ Lennon was just as cordial and polite as the first time, saying essentially the same thing about always wanting to meet him.

As soon as Brian walked away, John looked at both of us and casually said in his typical Liverpudlian accent, ‘I’ve actually met him hundreds of times. He’s not well, you know."

 

And here's another story about Wilson that dates from around the same sort of time, but isn't quite as sad as the above... 

Somehow Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper got invited to Brian Wilson's place for a party. How on earth did THAT happen? But Wilson's idea of a party was a good ol' sing-song around the piano. He allocated parts to everyone and got Alice and Iggy singing specific parts of the folksong 'Shortnin' Bread'. After about an hour of singing the same song, over and over and over and over, Iggy and Alice realised that this wasn't quite what they'd had in mind and made their excuses and left - Iggy later said that he'd been to some weird parties, but this was simply the weirdest night he'd ever had! 

 

 

★ david bowie's new single, 'blackstar'

Well, after quite a few listens last night and this morning I can honestly say that I love this new song, ★.

Vocally, Bowie is on fine form, eerie, haunted vocals giving way to the stunning middle section. This part seems like it's harking back to the soulful Bowie of Young Americans with some lovely, clear and beautifully pitched vocals, but there's still the unsettling electronic backing voices too. The long chanting aaaahhhhs have been described as vaguely Gregorian chant, but there's also a link back to the similar aaaahhhhs in 1970's "The Supermen". It's odd that the song seems disjointed at first but gradually the structure of the three parts melds together and now it obviously fits together, and couldn't be any other way.

The lyrics are a series of seemingly disconnected images that add up to an overriding feeling of dread and foreboding. In this there are echoes of Scott Walker, as he makes his words work in a similar way. Much has been made of the musical similarity between "Blackstar" and recent Scott Walker music, but I can't really hear it - yes both are resolutely ploughing their own furrows, making the sort of music that they want, unencumbered by commercial requirements, but Bowie's music is certainly lighter and more playful. The skittering percussion is superb, as are the little squelchy stabs of synth.

The video is something else - the shaking dancing was apparently inspired by old cartoons (where background figures would always keep moving in a shuddering three second loop, because static figures would catch your eye too much), the skull stuff lifts from myths about the Templars (something Bowie has touched on before) but makes it all much more sci-fi (and there's even a couple of steals from the film Moon (directed by Bowie's son Duncan Jones). And by sticking the skeleton in a space suit there's inevitably going to be links to Major Tom, last heard of strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all time low...

Bowie himself is on terrific form, lots of freaky dancing, and the character with the bandages across his face and the buttons for eyes is rather disturbing. Yes it's all terribly pretentious and bordering on silly - but then so was the video to "Ashes To Ashes", or "Loving The Alien" or "Little Wonder" or frankly 90% of all the videos he's ever made, and to be honest, I'd be extremely disappointed if a Bowie video wasn't pretentious and faintly silly.

Above all though, David Bowie looks and sounds very fit and healthy, dispelling all the stories of poor health. Yes he had heart problems ten years ago, but various unpleasant rumours of debilitating strokes and limited movement seem to have been utterly unfounded. Thank goodness.

So, a big thumbs up from me. Really looking forward to the album now!