brian eno - the ship

Earlier this year Brian Eno released his latest album, called The Ship. 

I revisited this album recently after initial plays left me rather underwhelmed, and I'm still unsure of this record. 

The title track is 21 minutes of ambient burbles and bleeps and bloops which is rather good, but then Eno kind of speak sings some stuff over the middle part using that sort of electronic effect on his voice that he’s so fond of, but which I find gets a bit tiresome after a while. And the vocal part is rather repetitive, which doesn’t help matters. Much of The Drums Between The Bells improved after a few listens, and this is like a 21 minute track from that record but with Eno’s voice. I thought it would grow on me, but it didn't and still hasn't.

The rest of the album is better though – I was very impressed with “Fickle Sun” straight away - it is ambient and noisy all at the same time. It’s odd, but entertainingly so. “Fickle Sun” has some surprising horns, some weird chanting sort of singing near the end with strings which is all a bit Tilt-era Scott Walkerish, and Eno’s vocals on the earlier part of the piece are terrific, none of the electronic trickery you get on “The Ship” – he’s also singing in a very deep voice which works really well. The vocal melody comes across as a sort of weird folk song, as if it’s really old somehow, though I don’t think it is.. “Fickle Sun II” is good too – gentle piano underpinning Peter Serafinowicz reciting some sort of baffling poetry.

Then we get Eno’s version of “I’m Set Free”, the VU song. And frankly it’s worth the price of the album just for this song. I love it. A fairly faithful rendition, Eno in really fine voice, with some gorgeous strings replacing the emotional guitar solo of the original. The wonderfully named Nell Catchpole is responsible for those, as she has been on many other Eno records. I would really welcome an album of songs like this; how about an Eno sings VU Classics record?! He recorded a version of “White Light / White Heat” about ten years ago and then auctioned off the only copy of it, so only one person has ever heard it! 

Anyway, as with all recentish Eno albums it’s good, but apart from “I’m Set Free” it’s not (so far) outstanding in the way Eno records used to be. 

I’m still not convinced by the title piece. To me it’s overlong and doesn’t really justify it’s 21 minutes length. Half the length would have done it I think.

But “I’m Set Free” is just brilliant! Really, really brilliant.

david bowie / dana gillespie - BOWPROMO 1

Today’s music comes from the summer of 1971. 

Before David Bowie had signed to RCA his management team, (then called GEM, but soon to be re-christened MainMan), put together a promo disc. Only a few dozen copies were pressed, and were sent round various record companies and DJs to drum up support and interest. 

At this point Bowie and his band had only recorded about half of what became Hunky Dory, and so, to fill out side two of the disc GEM compiled a few tracks from their other new client, Dana Gillespie. She was quite a star in London, having recently completed a lengthy run in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar in which she played Mary Magdalene. She had previously released a couple of folk albums in the late 1960s but Bowie’s manager, Tony DeFries, hoped to relaunch Dana as a sort of female Bowie and to that end Bowie and Mick Ronson had worked up some of her songs which she then recorded with the Spiders. Bowie had written “Andy Warhol” for her. 

So BOWPROMO 1 was pressed and did it's job in impressing RCA enough to sign both David and Dana on the spot. Dana’s theatrical commitments prevented her from finishing her album until 1973 and when Weren’t Born A Man was issued it was an uneasy mix of the 1971 songs and more recent recordings. 

Bowie, as we know, quickly finished his record off and was on such a roll that by the time Hunky Dory was released in late 1971 he’d already recorded nearly all of the next record – Ziggy Stardust. 

Anyway, both Bowie and Dana had two copies each of the promo disc and a few years back Dana sold one of hers on eBay. It sold for nearly £2,000 and was rapidly digitized and made available for download...And so I downloaded. And it’s fantastic. 

Superb quality, and all the Bowie tracks are different from what ended up on Hunky Dory, so a real treat for me. 

“Oh! You Pretty Things” is basically the same recording but the vocal mix is different and frankly the song sounds clearer all round. 

“Eight Line Poem” features an entirely different vocal take. 

“Kooks” has some vocal differences, the acoustic guitar is different and the strings aren’t complete. 

“It Ain’t Easy” was held over until the Ziggy album, and sounds pretty much the same. 

“Queen Bitch” features some different overdriven Ronson electric guitar, and the stereo separation is way more pronounced with acoustic guitar in one side and electric in the other. There are less multitracked vocals too. The whole thing leaps out of the speakers at you. It's absolutely marvellous. 

“Quicksand” – like “Pretty Things” there is more clarity here, although it’s lacking some of the strings of the finished version. 

“Bombers” – never released until the Ryko reissues in 1990, but this is a much better mix than the tinny Ryko issue, with lovely crisp drumming and lots more backing vocals. What the hell did Ryko do to the song? This is way better. And it segues into the intro to “Andy Warhol” (that’s Warhol, as in hols…) which indicates that it was replaced at the very last minute by “Fill Your Heart”. 

The rest of side two consists of five Dana Gillespie songs, which are uniformly brilliant. What a find! Neither of her RCA albums seem to be available anymore though a compilation of the two, called Andy Warhol, was issued about 15 years ago and is still available on Amazon. Dana’s roots in folk and musical theatre are obvious when she sings – she has a lovely theatrical manner and clearly enunciates every word. But it’s a very likeable and emotional voice too. I’m most impressed. 

As far as I can tell, she spent the rest of the seventies in stage productions and films before resuming her singing career as a blues woman. The last thirty plus years have found Dana carving out a niche in the blues market where she remains very successful. 

Anyway, her tracks on the promo include her take on “Andy Warhol” – backed by the Spiders, this is a much rockier version than Bowie’s acoustic one, and is, frankly, better. A storming Ronno solo at the end is criminally faded out. 

“Mother Don’t Be Frightened” also features Bowie and the boys but is a beautiful ballad. 

“All Cut Up On You” is another cracking song, which is quite funky. 

All three of those songs appeared on 1973’s Weren’t Born A Man, though the versions on BOWPROMO 1 are different. 

“Lavender Hill” is another gorgeous ballad, arranged by Ronno who is also an excellent pianist, but which sadly never ended up anywhere else. 

And the best track “Never Knew” is a simple piano song with the prettiest melody I’ve heard in years, topped with heartbreaking singing. I LOVE this song. It’s superb. A version of this played by a full band is on her second RCA album 1974’s Ain’t Gonna Play Second Fiddle (surely a comment on how she was never given the right attention by RCA or MainMan…), but that full band version doesn't better the simplicity of this.

Well worth tracking down.