King Crimson - "Islands" (1971)

In the last post I took a look at a record from the Swedish, political, progressive scene. In this post I change the focus to one of the giants in the international progressive scene - King Crimson. I bought this album in 1990 during a visit to New York, I had never heard of King Crimson, but thought the cover was promising. A record with the universe as a cover design must contain music that was deep, mysterious and generally druggy. I liked this kind of music at the time. At the same occasion, I bought Dark Side of the Moon (see a previous post), the combination may have gotten the store owner to think that I was a real prog geek. But as I said, the truth was that I had no idea of who or what King Crimson was.

King Crimson was founded in 1969 and has over the years had a variety of different members, where the constant member has been Robert Fripp. At the time of recording of Islands the band consisted of Robert Fripp, Peter Sinfield, Boz Burrell, Mel Collins and Ian Wallace.

A young Robert Fripp

An older Robert Fripp

The music on the album was not quite what I had hoped for. Expectations of large, floating arrangements where the listener was taken on a cosmic journey was quickly shattered. There are three songs on each side, four with vocals, two without. I have always experienced the atmosphere of the record as quite dark, almost a little neurotic. There is something in the mix that creates relatively muddled inner images. I don't know if this has to do with the production or my record player, but sometimes it seems to me as the band sit in a dark tin can and play.

The opening track Formentera Lady is over ten minutes long, maybe a little too long. The song is so-so but the chorus is quite uplifting and nice. At the end of the song Paulina Lucas sings in the background and this part of the song gives me some spontaneous Piper At the Gates Of Dawn-vibes. The subsequent song Sailor's Tale is a creation of Robert Fripp that I haven't previously enjoyed, but which I now appreciate more. A mellotron and Fripp's guitar is a fun combination. In many ways, a highlight on the album. Another song worth mentioning is Ladies Of the Road, where again the chorus breaks off and almost sounds a little like the Beatles. Apparently this song is the only one that all members of the band liked.

The title track was previously my favorite, an 11-minute song which is perhaps a little too long. It's a more delicate song and quite beautiful, even if the neurotic feeling is lurking somewhere. I still think it's an OK song even if it's a bit uneventful and could gain in being somewhat shorter. I've gotten the idea that I hear a mistake on the piano in this song, and maybe also on the trumpet. At the same time, I wonder if the fantastically talented musicians of King Crimson would play wrong in a relatively simple piece like this, and if they really would have kept a possible error on the album. Do I dare trust my feelings and say that these giants make a mistake?
Apparently, someone in the band said that the more delicate and softer parts of the album mostly was "airy-fairy shit." I guess the title song belongs to this category.

Besides the classic rock intruments you hear trumpet, oboe, different string instruments, flute, sax, etc. on the record. Compared to many other creations King Crimson did in the 70s, I think Islands is a relatively accessible album. Sailor's Tale is probably the song that's most similar to the more difficult music King Crimson did during this time. On the other hand, I am no great connoisseur of King Crimson, so I let this be a little unsaid.

The cover is available in a few different versions, the original European version had only the cosmos on the front, with no band name or title. The North American version was a painting by Peter Sinfield. The album I have with the cosmos + band name and title is a re-release of EG.

In summary, no need to have your record collection, in my opinion.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Formentera Lady 10:14
2. Sailor's Tale 7:21
3. The Letters 4:26

Side B
1. Ladies of the Road 5:28
2. Prelude: Song of the Gulls 4:14
3. Islands 11:51

Nationalteatern - "Barn av vår tid" (1978)
The National Theatre - "Children of our time"

Thinnertrasan vandrar mellan husen
Thinnertrasan tänder alla ljusen
Thinnertrasan tar mig till ett annat land...
(The cloth with Thinner Solution goes around the houses
The cloth with Thinner Solution lights up all the candles
The cloth with Thinner Solution takes me to another land...)

(Especially in the 70s in Sweden, teenagers uses to sniff on cloths with Thinner Solution to get high).

My 20s. The eternal pre-club party. Sing-alongs. Alcohol.

Vi slängde i oss varsin dubbeltripp och var påtända så det räckte
(Each of us took a double trip and were high enough)

My 20s. Drug romantic days. The desperate desire for women. The constant frustration of that lonely walk home.

Jag hamnade i en park
och levde på att sälja...
Haderadandadoopapa
Får man inte göra inte bra
(I ended up in a park
and survived by selling...
Haderadandadoopapa
That's not allowed, not good)

My 20s. An illusion of external security, the reality of inner chaos. The time when it was difficult to talk with strangers and women. Sober.

Jag skjuter en meter, pavar en öl
(I shoot up one meter, drinks a beer)

At this time in my life, Nationalteatern was a significant part in the soundtrack. They accompanied the parties, the drinking and the drug-induced ecstasy. Are you saying that there were political messages in the lyrics? That they were critical of society and how things were run? The 20-year-old Markus had little understanding of this (although, far away, I had heard of it). These were songs that called for drug use and which said that life was a party. That life was an adventure. I had friends who each took "a double trip" just because Nationalteatern sang about it. Their music wasn't the only thing I misunderstood at this time.

Nationalteatern began as a theater group and the band was formed as an offshoot to this (the theater group continued until 1993). The band must be defined as one of the greatest in the Swedish progressive scene. It must here be said that the 70s Swedish prog scene was something else than what we usually define as prog. In Sweden it was a politically colored (left) rock music and had nothing to do with bands like Gentle Giant or King Crimson. Why this is so, I don't know. It obviously hightens the risk of misunderstandings and leads to eternal clarifications on which kind of prog you're talking about, at least when you're in Sweden. Swedish 70s prog or the international prog? And since there are a lot of Swedish bands playing the international kind of prog it gets even more confusing.

Anyway, Barn Av Vår Tid is certainly a really good album and is absolutely on my top list on Swedish albums. The A-side consists of a trio of classics, it opens hard with Popens Mussolinis (The Mussolinis of Pop), and continues with Kolla kolla (Look Look) to finish with Spisa (a slang word, means eat or listen (to records)). All three Swedish masterpieces that I can still sing along to. The police criticism in Spisa is almost as brutal as in the NWA classic Fuck tha Police.

The B-side revolves around the epic diamond Barn Av Vår Tid, a little over seven minutes long exercise in creativity. Am I exaggerating when I say this is probably one of the best songs the Swedish music movement has created? The song consists of several parts, each part has its own character, and where the whole becomes greater than the individual parts (to resort to some clichés).

The B-side's first song Ingelas sång (Ingela's song) is mostly a warm up for the title track, and after Barn Av Vår Tid the rest of the album gets in the shadow. The Dylan cover Om Bara Min Älskade Väntar (If Only My Beloved Is Waiting) is pretty boring, but the last Ge Mig Mitt Liv Nu! (Give Me My Life Now!) deserves better, it's actually quite nice and melancholy. But after the experience of the title song, I had seldom any inspiration for the rest of the album. I was emotionally drained.

A short period I played in some sort of cover band, we made an attempt to play Barn Av Vår Tid, but we never got it as good as the original (of course). Perhaps it was my bass playing that was to blame.

Speaking of the drug romance I heard the music, Ulf Dageby, the main musical motor in Nationalteatern for a long time, says:

"The drugs will eat your soul, destroy your body and your soul, they become a beast that no one can defeat. No one can resist. No, many of the Nationalteatern's classics such as "Kolla Kolla" and "Spisa" journeys to the underworld, to the hell of unrealistic dreams."

Ulf Dageby

That's obviously quite different from the bawling singing on pre-parties in the company of friends and liquor, when we thought that Nationalteatern was on our side and approved of what we did. Anyway, a good album that I really don't listen to today. It is too closely linked to another part of my life.

Kom igen lilla Svensson sätta hårt mot hårt
Det är vår stil
Hatar du oss så hatar vi dig
Betongfeeling
(Come on little Svensson* meet tough with tough
That's our style
If you hate us, we hate you
Concrete feeling)

Unbeatable!

*Svensson = In Swedish, this name is used for describing the average, boring man, caught in the rat race.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Popens Mussolinis 4:30
2. Kolla kolla 4:42
3. Spisa 7:05

Side B
1. Ingelas sång 3:06
2. Barn av vår tid 7:20
3. Men bara om min älskade väntar 2:45
4. Ge mig mitt liv nu! 3:10

Sufjan Stevens - "Illinoise" (2005)

or "Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise"

I have noticed that there has been a predominance of records from the 60s and 70's lately, hence a need to prove to the world that there are also some newer records in the collection, although they are not many. A record from 2005 must be considered brand new when it comes to my record shelf.

I totally missed Sufjan Stevens at the time for this release, instead I discovered him last year in Quebec when my neighbor Marc played this album for me. Fantastic, I thought spontaneously about the music, and felt happy for the discovery of a new obscure artist who confirmed the image of myself as a man of deep knowledge of the musical world. Now I've finally understood that Sufjan is not particularly obscure, far from it, and that rather, I'm having an extremely poor knowledge of "modern" music (or thump-thump as I call it).

This is a really good album. I have no idea how to define the music, allmusic.com defines it overall as Rock / Pop, and in more detail as Alternative / Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Progressive Folk, Americana and Indie Rock. Say what you will about the construction of genres, but a genre I've never understood is Indie. How do you know when a song is Indie? Of course I know a lot of Indie bands, but I don't really know what defines an Indie band or song. That they're indie (independent) doesn't correlate well to the reality. And Alternative? What is this genre? All the music that doesn't fit anywhere else? Should I create a definition regarding the music on Illinoise it's going to be Quality.

Well, Illinoise was Sufjans fifth studio album and the second of the albums on the theme of American States. He told the world that he would make 50 records, one on each U.S. state, but later he acknowledged that this was kind of a joke and mostly a marketing gimmick. Sufjan has been very ambitious in the creation of the songs and made a lot of research regarding Illinoise. He went through lot of archives, visited sites, interviewed people, visited the forums on the Internet asking people to come up with personal stories, etc. The result is a set of songs about different people and events from the Illinoise history. (And I know that you spell the State of Illinois without an "e" at the end, but I let the spelling on the album be my guiding light today).

Sufjan is a multi-instrumentalist and has recorded and produced most of the album all by himself, although a lot of fellow musicians are named on the album cover. For several months he was virtually isolated from the outside world and worked in a studio somewhere in New York. It is a low-fi production, to keep costs down Sufjan used relatively simple equipment, personally I don't think you can hear this on the result (although I understand that it may be supposed to be heard).

I really only have good things to say about the songs - they are well written, beautiful, interesting and fun to listen to. There are often small details in the songs that make it exciting to listen to them, not once did I find myself being bored when I listened to this album. What I also appreciate is the cover. The album is a double LP on vinyl with a really great cover designed by Divya Srinivasan. I suspect that, as vinyl records are released in relatively small numbers today, the artists work even harder on the covers. The covers are so to say, rather exclusive today compared to previous decades when they were created in enormous quantities and were more of an everyday thing. I think some artists want to reward people who buy vinyl instead of CDs or data files with a really nice cover. Basically, if you release an album on vinyl today, one makes sure it has a nice cover.

This is a record that I with a good conscience can recommend, it's music of high quality that I think most people can enjoy, although Alternative may be used to describe it. If nothing else, you can always have fun reading the song titles. It got great reviews on its release and went fast to top positions on lists like "Album of the year" or even "Album of the decade".

Finally, the reason why Illinoise is spelled with an "e" is that it hints to the fact that people often mistakenly pronounce this name as ill-i-noyz when you really should say ill-i-noy. It is also an allusion to Slades song Cum On Feel the Noize.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois 2:08

2. The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Going To Have To Leave Now, Or, "I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!" 2:14

3. Come On! Feel The Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream 6:45

4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. 3:19

5. Jacksonville 5:24

6. A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons 0:47

Side B

1. Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother! 3:03

2 One Last "Whoo-Hoo!" For The Pullman 0:06

3 Chicago 6:04

4 Casimir Pulaski Day 5:53

5 To The Workers Of The Rock River Valley Region, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament 1:40

Side C
1. The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts 6:17

2. Prairie Fire That Wanders About 2:11

 
3. A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze 0:19

4. The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us! 5:23

5. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh! 5:09

6. Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell 0:40

7. In This Temple As In The Hearts Of Man For Whom He Saved The Earth 0:35

Side D

1. The Seer's Tower 3:53

2. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders Part 1: The Great Frontier Part II: Come To Me Only With Playthings Now 7:02

3. Riffs And Variations On A Single Note For Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, And The King Of Swing, To Name A Few 0:46

4. Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run 4:21

5. The Ava Lanche 3:14

The Byrds - "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" (1968)

A recording full of internal tensions within the band. Members who were fired, came back, and were sacked again. Former members who came back and then were fired. A band that at the start of recording was a quartet, but at the end was reduced to a duo. Studio musician who had to help out. Yes, a minor chaos seems to have accompanied Crosby, McGuinn, Clarke and Hillman the latter part of 1967, when the album was recorded. The result? One of the best albums that came out of the psychedelic era.

The Byrds has always been a band that I haven’t really gotten to know. Of course I’ve heard some of their songs, who can’t hum to Turn! Turn! Turn! or their version of Mr. Tambourine Man? And Eight Miles High, most people with a taste for the 60s psychedelia can sing along to. But I've never owned any of their records, except for a Greatest Hits on CD. I’ve never really known whether they were primarily a cover band or if they created their own songs. And their sound with a sea of guitars and ethereal vocals in harmonies I've always been a bit ambivalent to. After a while, their sound gets a bit monotonous, how beautiful it may be.

Again, it was the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, which opened my eyes to this album. I've been looking for it for a while and finally found it this weekend for an affordable price in one of Uppsala’s stores for used records. My copy is a re-release from 1971, as good as new. I was very pleased with my bargain, and was even happier when I listened to it.

It opens strongly with the amphetamine song Artificial Energy, which may sound like a tribute to this chemical until the final line is sung, I'm coming down off amphetamines, and I'm in jail 'cause I killed a queen. But maybe the guys put this line into the song so not to be accused of anything. The album then continues with one amazing song after another, those who own the soundtrack to Easy Rider recognize the song Wasn’t Born To Follow. We hear songs in 5/4, a futuristic moog spiced song in the form of Space Odyssey, here and there you get glimpses of country & western that hints to the Byrd's future development as a country & western band. Many of the songs are treated with electronic effects, this could be a bad thing considering it was the year of 1967-68 (and the technology wasn’t always ripe yet), but it works wonderful on this record.

There were a lot from the psychedelic years that weren’t good, boring songs where the fuzzy/psychedelic effects were trying to make them interesting. Sometimes it could also be really good songs, but the psychedelic seasoning was too strong so that the quality of the song stood back for all the effects. On The Notorious Byrd Brothers the band and the producer Gary Usher manages to find a perfect balance. The songs' beauty is very clear for the listener and the psychedelic production is exactly on the level that it makes the songs even more fun and interesting to listen to. The quality of the songs and the psychedelic framing brotherly share the stage.

It may be mentioned that David Crosby was fired part way through recording 1967. Before his firing he did, however, help with both songwriting and guitar / bass-playing. His face is missing, though, on the album cover. Crosby continued with a successful career with the band Crosby, Stills & Nash so perhaps he didn’t suffer that much. Drummer Michael Clarke was fired midway through the recording, came back but was fired again shortly after the album was finished. At this point it was only Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman still in the band. The Byrds then recruited new members and a new era in the band's career began.

Final words: Today's album is highly recommended, the epitome of 60s psychedelia

Tracklist

Side A1. Artificial Energy 2:18
2. Goin' Back 2:11
3. Draft Morning 2:42
4. Wasn't Born To Follow 2:04
5. Get To You 2:39

Side B1. Change is Now 3:21
2. Old John Robertson 1:49
3. Tribal Gathering 2:03
4. Dolphin's Smile 2:00
5. Space Odyssey 3:52