Randy Burns And The Sky Dog Band (1971)

Some artists should get a Grammy, or at least the Polar Music Prize, just because they have such a cool artist or band name. Should anyone ask me if I wanted to play in a band called The Sky Dog Band, I wouldn't hesitate long. Looking at the exterior - a number of long-haired, smiling dudes (Randy also with equally long beard), the year 1971, the band's groovy name - this record must be something extra and probably quite druggy. It must be PSYCHEDELIA. Or maybe ACID ROCK. At least some laid-back west coast pop with songs about female beauty, beaches and sunshine.

I bought this album the other week through Blocket.se, Sweden's biggest internet site for selling and buying used stuff. A nice man sold a stack of albums (about 65 of them) for an affordable price. Moreover, he lived within a five minute walk from my job, of course it was an offer I couldn't refuse. Fun to buy a bunch of records where you have no idea what at least half of them are.

When I started spinning the album on the stereo it gave me the biggest surprise. It was Country & Western.

Randy Burns was born in 1948 and as a 17-year-old ran away from home. He ended up in New York where, after some time, he signed a contract with the legendary record company ESP-Disk. And yes, his second album, Evening Of The Magician, is a classic acid folk album. He made another album for the same company before changing to Mercury, who released Randy Burns And The Sky Dog Band, his only album on that company. It didn't sell very well, and Randy never became a particularly big name in the music world. He still plays today and in 2010 he released the album Hobos And Kings.

I've never been a fan of Country & Western. Apart from a fairly large number of albums with Lee Hazlewood, who surely must count as some sort of Country & Western music, at least sometimes, I've never owned a Country & Western album and have never had the desire to do so. However, a few months ago, when I saved some records from my parents' collection (see previous post) some Kris Kristofferson albums came along. And now Randy Burns. And who knows how many more Country & Western albums are hidden in the bags with records I bought last week? If you're positive, you can argue that this is a new unexplored world for me, waiting to deliver hidden gems.

Randy today

Randy Burns And The Sky Dog Band is not my kind of record, since I'm not a Country & Western man. The songs are played with electrical instruments, so there are no songs with just an acoustic guitar and a whiny whisky hoarse voice, which at least opens up the soundscape a bit. I find some beauty in two songs, To The Women Of My Life and Song To Vermont. The former Lee Hazlewood should have done a cover of, it would have fit him well. The latter is a rather sweeping song with a beautiful melody and cool background singing. Otherwise, the band's name is the greatest benefit to the album, but also a good enough reason to own this record..

Other cool band names:
Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Acid Mothers Temple

Tracklist


Side A
1. August Woman 2:33
2. Seventeen Years On The River 4:32
3. Livin' In The Country 3:30
4. The Streets Of Montreal 2:52
5. Merrilee 3:15

Side B
1. Life's Begun 4:20
2. Blue Line 2:05
3. To The Women Of My Life 3:15
4. Song To Vermont 4:02
5. Waiting For An Old Friend 3:32

Although you can find some videos with Randy Burns on Youtube, I couldn't find any songs from this album,

Miriam Makeba - "Makeba!" (1968)

About a month ago I visited my parents' attic, where they had placed their vinyl records for a final storage. They didn't do any good there so I went through the collection and saved a relatively large number of albums from the darkness and sadness in the closed boxes. That day's good deed. One of these albums were Makeba!, a record with the legendary South African artist.

Since my father during his record buying days tended to buy most classical music and jazz, I suspect my mother bought this album, unless it was a gift from someone. In my CD and mp3 collection I have lot of music from the African continent, the emphasis is on music from the west - Senegal and Mali are two countries a lot of music have found its way out from. In terms of folk music, West African music has always been a favorite genre of mine, even if some other albums from this continent also exist in the (digital) record shelf. It felt great to expand this section of the collection, especially in form of a vinyl album, as it's very empty in terms of folk music, regardless of geographic area, among my vinyls.

Miriam Makeba (aka Mama Africa) was born in 1932 in South Africa but wasn't allowed to continue living there after being involved in anti-apartheid activities. Her passport and South African citizenship was revoked in 1963, instead Belgium, Ghana and Guinea arranges international passports for her.

In the '60s, she lived a lot in the U.S. where she recorded a lot of records. 1968 she married Stokely Carmichael, who was active in the Black Panthers. This was very controversial in the U.S. and as a consequence, her record deal and tours were cancelled. The couple therefore moved to Guinea where Miriam lived for 15 years before moving on to Brussels. Apparently she had nine passports during her life and become an honorary citizen in ten countries. She described herself as a world citizen. Miriam has recorded music with a lot of different artists including Harry Belafonte and Paul Simon, and in 2002 she received the Polar Music Prize from the hands of the Swedish king. She died in Italy 2008.

So, what about the music on Makeba!? Well, there are some quite beautiful gems hidden on the album. Generally, it's catchy, energy filled and some songs have both beautiful melodies and harmonies. Then there are other songs that tend to be more bland. I don't listen a lot to Miriam Makeba, or South African music in general, and I can have a tendency to think that the songs sound a bit alike. Through out the album it's the same instruments used, kind of the same rhythms, the same sound, and the melodies and their structure are similar. But often you feel this way about music you don't really know. I usually say this about opera and countless people have said the same thing to me about electronic dance music as acid and trance (as it was called in the 90s, anyway) despite each song's clear uniqueness!

Miriam sings in a language I don't understand, therefore a large and important part of the music is lost to me. The Bantu language is mentioned in the text on the cover, so possibly this is the language she sings in. I understand from the description (in English) on the back cover that the texts are important, and kindly enough some of them are explained. There are songs about how to awaken the warrior in men, about the farmer and his crops, or saying goodbye to your home. Given the situation of the black population in South Africa in 1968, and by all means in the U.S., there are surely a lot of political symbolism in the lyrics that I don't get. The text on the back cover describes the album as "subtle and deep" in terms of the messages being communicated. I will limit myself to have an understanding that the content is important, but more than that I can't do anything but focus on the melodies, which I usually prefer to do anyway. This applies, for that matter, to all folk music I listen to where people sing in their native language. Worst case scenario is that I happily dance and jump around to a song on the subject of a hundred children's gruesome deaths.

This kind of album is a typical album I listen to when I clean up the house. The activity is so boring that I need get motivation and energy from something else, and at the same time not always being present in the room where the music is played and therefore sometimes only hearing the basic rhythm of the song. Maybe this wasn't what Miriam had in mind when she recorded this (from what I understand) rather politically aware album, I don't know, but there's not much to do about it. I still think Miriam would be happy knowing that a Swedish guy, in a little town far up north, finds some joy in her creation, even if her messages are not always picked up.

Overall, it's an OK album, although I would prefer a little more variety. My favorite track is Singa Madoda, from what I understand a traditional song which is normally sung by men.

Last but not least I must mention the cover, I think it's fantastic. It would be perfect as a piece of art on my living room wall.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Umoya 3:05
2. Uyadela 2:25
3. Asilimanga 1:53
4. Umquokozo 3:20
5. U-Mngoma 2:30
6. Emavungwini (Down In The Dumps) 2:09

Side B
1. Iphi Ndilela 3:40
2. Singa Madoda 2:45
3. Magwala Ndini 2:35
4. Sibongile 2:20
5. Hamba Naye 2:31

Roxy Music - "For Your Pleasure" (1973)

Roxy Music is one of those bands that I think I know so well. I mean, everyone knows about Roxy Music. That Bryan Ferry sings in the band is common knowledge, that Brian Eno was a member for some time is also an interesting fact that you don't have to be a music expert to know. Their album covers with (sometimes lightly dressed) ladies are also public domain. But when push comes to shove, I don't really know much about how they actually sound. In my youth, I bought their album Avalon on CD, but have never really liked it, and therefore not listened to it a lot. I have a Greatest Hits collection on CD focusing on their early years, but since the emphasis is on (in my opnion) pretty rowdy songs, it hasn't been played a lot on the stereo. So I realize that I in reality don't know much about the band. They have been something like the principal in my elementary school, everyone knew who he was and had great respect for him, even some fear, we knew what he looked like and where his office was, but no one had ever talked to him and hadn't really an idea of how or who he was. Maybe he was really nice? Only the thugs knew, but I was not of them.

I bought this album a few months ago, it was Roxy Music's second album and the last Brian Eno took part in, before he started his successful solo career as a musician and producer. It's a very good album, surprisingly good actually considering my half-reluctant attitude of the reasons mentioned above. Yes, I would even say it's a fantastic album which, in this moment, I'm ready to give a spot on my top-10 list. In any case the top-15.

It starts out with the somewhat rowdy rock number Do The Strand. I mentioned earlier that I usually don't like their more noisy songs, but this opening track works really well. Another highlight on the A-side is the closing track, the beautiful and strange In Every Dream Home A Heartache, an ode to an inflatable doll. A dark song that breathes tragedy and isolation while, at the same time, somewhere there's lurking some sort of humor - "I blew up your body, but you blew my mind." Isn't a song dedicated to an inflatable doll humor in itself?

The B-side starts with the album's longest track, a piece that leans heavily toward art-rock, The Bogus Man, a dark and hypnotic creation that clocks in at just over nine minutes. Maybe a few minutes too long, if I must complain on something.
The B-side's, and thus the album's, closing track is this record's climax. The title track is a fantastic song that made me realize that Bryan Ferry is a song and text writer that not many can compete with. The other songs on this album provides enough information to prove this, the title track is more of the final confirmation of this. A beautiful first third, and then an end with an extended instrumental passage that one suspects Brian Eno being the creator of. A perfect farewell from him.

Other non-mentioned songs on the album are also really good creations, if I should mention some weaker spots it's the more noisy Editions of You, and the track Grey Lagoons on the B-side is also of a little lesser quality.
The woman on the cover was Bryan Ferry's girlfriend at the time, they used to be on the band's album covers.

Apparently, the reason for Brian Eno's exit from the band were artistic conflicts with Bryan Ferry. While Eno wanted to develop the group further into an art-rock direction, working more with sound collage, sound layers and textures, Ferry wanted to see a movement toward more traditional rockn'roll. These diverse interests can be heard on For Your Pleasure, as many songs contain both, making it an exciting and interesting album. A record I really recommend.

Should I finally resort to some gossip, I have read (online course) that Bryan Ferry's current wife is one of his son's former girlfriends. It feels a bit strange and many questions arise. One can for example consider how this affects the father-son relationship, personally I would feel very weird about my dad getting together with one of my ex girlfriends. But maybe I'm just being narrow-minded?

Tracklist

Side A
1. Do The Strand 4:00
2. Beauty Queen 4:35
3. Strictly Confidential 3:42
4. Editions Of You 3:40
5. In Every Dream Home A Heartache 6:25

Side B
1. The Bogus Man 9:22
2. Grey Lagoons 4:11
3. For Your Pleasure 6:58


Usually I link to the original album versions, if possible, but this live version from 2001 is great. What a way to end a concert!