Gentle Giant - "Octopus" (1972)

A deep dive into the prog world via Gentle Giant's fourth album Octopus. Can that be something? In the prog world, it's often a balancing act between the beautiful, a bit difficult and too difficult. I usually argue that Gentle Giant always manages to stay on the right side of the balance point. Even their regular excursions into the more complex and strange soundscapes are nice to listen to, and are relatively accessible, at least at Octopus. That said, it should be mentioned that the Gentle Giant is considered one of the more experimental bands within the 70's progressive music, and the music they made was unusually complex. So they should not be underestimated. 

Gentle Giant consisted at the time of the recording of the three brother Shulmans, Kerry Minnear, Gary Green and the new drummer John Weathers. Almost all members were multi-instrumentalists and extremely adept at their respective instruments. It's fun to watch concert clips of the band on Youtube, then they unconcerned switch instruments in the middle of songs and seamlessly continues playing. On the album, they often play up to three instruments each in the songs.

Octopus is considered by many to be the start of Gentle Giants best musical period, Ray Shulman argue that it is their best album (possibly second behind Acquiring The Taste). And as mentioned, I like Octopus. It is varied and fun to listen to. Although it can be very complex arrangements and creations that are often outside  the normal musical box, it is never too difficult. Which is one of the things that makes me like Gentle Giant. Many other bands within the same genre sometimes make music that one suspects is difficult just for the sake of it, and it becomes hard to appreciate what you hear. Gentle Giant does not fall into that trap on Octopus.

One of my favorites on the album is Think Of Me With Kindness. A beautiful song that is perhaps the least "progressive" on the record. If you like progressive music the album can absolutely be recommended, almost a must-have. If you like more accessible and "normal" rock and pop maybe Octopus will seem a bit too difficult and strange. A funny detail is that Gentle Giant, before the Octopus tour, was a supporting act for Black Sabbath  on a number of concerts. This combination did not go down well with the audience, one can safely say, which loudly expressed its displeasure with the prog band on stage.

The album I have is the North American pressing, I found it for 4 dollars in good condition in a local vinyl store, here in Montreal, which I of course couldn't resist (I have it on CD since long). The European cover looks like this:

Tracklist 

Side A 

1. Adevent Of Panurge 4:42
2. Raconteur, Troubadou 4:03
3. A Cry For Everyone 4:06
4. Knots 4.10

Side B 
1. The Boys In The Band 4:33
2. Dog's Life 3:12
3. Think Of Me With Kindness 3:32
4. River 5:51

Wire - "154" (1979)

Here's a really nice album - The English band Wire's album named after the number of concerts they had performed at the time of recording. This was their third album, and many pundits believe it's their best creation. Personally I haven't heard enough from their voluminous record catalog in order to express an opinion on this, but no doubt it's high quality music.

Wire was born in the punk movement and their music is often defined as post-punk or art punk. Personally I think it often sounds like a punkier version of Roxy Music, for example the opening track I Should Have Known Better, I can easily hear Bryan Ferry sing. Add some the Stranglers and the mix is complete (I say this without having heard too much of the Stranglers). And maybe a little Blondie ...? Or am I delirious now?

Wire often creates a pretty dark soundscape that can sometimes feel a bit heavy. They mix atmospheric sound collages à la Brian Eno with punk songs as well as some more radio-friendly songs. An example of the latter is one of my favorites, the fabulous The 15th, which sounds a lot like my new hometown Montreal's pride Arcade Fire. Another favorite is the B-side's opening track. A Mutual Friend, where Wire's artistic ambitions are perfectly balanced with the slightly more accessible and very beautiful.

Wire is considered one of the more influential bands in the 70s and 80s, although their record sales didn't reach the same heights. Scores of bands and artists mention Wire as one of their major sources of inspiration and influence. Especially their first three albums are mentioned in this context. Wire is still active and released their last album in 2013.

The first edition of 154 also contained an EP, but I haven't got this one in my possession. In summary, an album I can recommend, but perhaps not for everyone since parts of the album are quite inaccessible. I like the mix of punk, pop and the more artistic sound excursions. It becomes an exciting and varied experience. On the other side of the coin, I find the sometimes too neurotic and dark moods that are created.

Tracklist

Side A
1. I Should Have Knowm Better 3.52
2. Two People In A Room 2.10
3. The 15th 3.05
4. The Other Window 2.07
5. Single K.O. 2.23
6. A Touching Display 6.55
7. On Returning 2.06

Side B
1. A Mutual Friende 4.28
2. Blessed State 3.28
3. Once Is Enough 3.23
4. Map Ref. 41 N 93 W 3.40
5. Indirect Enquiries 3.36
6. 40 Versions 3.28

Beck - "Morning Phase" (2014)

Some may have thought the blog had died? Not at all. Life has been occupied by other things for some time, namely an emigration to Canada, Montreal to be precise. Existence has demanded other priorities, but now I'm back. Nice to see you again.

Today's post is the first album I bought after moving here. We had dinner at a neighbour's house, and a record that was played in the background gave me spontaneous associations with David Gilmour / Pink Floyd. The neighbour told me that it was Beck, I was surprised as I linked Beck with a completely different kind of music, I'll admit that it's I'm a loser that pops up in my head, which was a hit as early as the first half of the 90s... I have in other words rather weak knowledge of Beck. It probably means that I missed a lot of interesting creations. That's the way it is when you're stuck in the past and the sounds from an even earlier yesterday. Perhaps I'm a loser, baby.

This is certainly a really great album. Relaxed, beautiful and I think the word mellow may fit well. Maybe a somewhat melancholic album. It's Beck's 12th studio album, and it passed six years between this and the record before. Everywhere it's described as a companion to the 2002 acclaimed album Sea Change, which Beck also himself describes it as. I like Morning Phase so much that I promptly went and got Sea Change as well (which, however, I have not had the time to listen to yet).

Lots of acoustic guitars, shimmering harmonies, beautiful melodies and large soundscapes - it still reminds me of Pink Floyd. For me an album that fits well in the summer's last trembling weeks, when nature is preparing for its winter rest, reality has a touch of some sadness but twilight is still warm and golden.

Not much to talk about - Morning Phase can be warmly recommended to all and everyone.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Cycle 0.40
2. Morning 5.19
3. Heart Is A Drum 4.31
4. Say Goodbye 3.29
5. Blue Moon 4.02
6. Unforgiven 4.34

Side B
1. Wave 3.40
2. Don't Let It Go 3.09
3. Blackbird Chain 4.26
4. Phase 1.03
5. Turn Away 3.05
6. Country Down 4.00
7. Waking Light 5.02

Greatful Dead – ”American Beauty” (1970)

Let's continue the last post's theme with country & western inspired music. At the same time continuing with my process to come out as a country & western lover, a process that isn’t easy. I still haven’t dared to tell my parents.

Greatful Dead was in my world the ultimate dope band - the band used mindbending substances, the audience used mindbending substances, the band's most fanatical fans, the deadheads, seemed to be a psychedelic cult with Jerry Garcia as Messiah. They were the house band for Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on their LSD events, the acid tests.

The songs I had heard contradicted to some extent this picture. The music seemed to be more of long blues jams, and not the druggy acid rock that I had expected. I must admit that in addition to today's theme and Terrapin Station, I have just heard a few songs here and there by the band, so my picture is far from complete. But it seems like other bands did more uninhibited musical experiments.

My first album I bought with GD was Terrapin Station, which I like very much. The second was American Beauty, almost a classic when it comes to GD. On American Beauty GD gives us music with a lot of country & western influences. Garcia plays some groovy pedal steel guitar and on the song Candyman, solid dope country, we get to hear a really nice solo on that instrument. I didn’t know that steel guitar could sound so druggy and dreamy.

 

Country & western hasn’t been a favourite genre of mine, with some rare exceptions. To some extent I am willing to let American Beauty become a part of this group of exceptions. It should be clarified that this is not a pure country & western album, it’s a mix of rock, folk, country and probably some other genres. Country & western, however, is the most obvious influence. There are lots of vocal harmonies and acoustic elements, and some songs are no doubt pure country & western.

One of the album’s best tracks is the opening song Box Of Rain. It's a song you want to play again and again. A beautiful and slightly melancholic song the bassist Phil Lesh sings. He asked lyricist Robert Hunter to write a text he could sing to his dying father, which he allegedly did. Another favourite is the mentioned Candyman, where country music becomes dope music, which perhaps is a contradiction. Sugar Magnolia is a fast-paced rock / country song that is one of the most famous GD songs, and one of the most frequently played at concerts.

 

On the B-side is Attics Of My Life where beautiful vocal harmonies dominate and creates almost a hymn. It’s different from the other songs with its acapella arrangement. The closing song Truckin is a classic GD song that became a huge hit. It has since the album was released been the 8th most played song in concerts (520 times) and the song many associate with GD. Personally, I don’t like it at all, a boogie song I think CCR or some such band could have done. I don’t understand why it has become such a big song.

 

The text on the cover is an ambigram, which means that the text also can be read when you rotate it, or change perspective (such as the background becomes the foreground). With the same content, or a new one. Here American Beauty can also be read as American Reality. And reportedly one can turn the cover upside down and hold it up against a mirror, and then read Devil's Kingdom in the mirror. I can’t deny that this sounds a bit like a tale, much like all the backwards messages that supposedly appear on numerous albums. But who knows? I haven't tried.

 

In summary, an OK album, with its highs and lows. Some songs are a bit too much country & western for me, but with its highlights in the form of eg Box Of Rain and Candyman, I think it has its place in the collection. I'm a bit fascinated by GD exploring country & western. I've always imagined country & western and LSD-inspired hippie music as opposites, but apparently a band can without any major problems move between these extremes. Also bands like The Byrds made ​​excursions into the country & western world, so perhaps it is as some people say - it's not a line but a circle. At the extremes you meet. The hippie takes the hillbilly’s hands and unite in harmony.

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Box Of Rain 5:18
2. Friend Of The  Devil 3:24
3. Sugar Magnolia 3:19
4. Operator 2:25
5. Candyman 6:14

Side B

1. Ripple 4:09
2. Brokedown Palace 4:09
3. Till The Morning Comes 3:08
4. Attics Of My Life 5:12
5. Truckin 5:03

 

Bob Dylan – ”Nashville Skyline” (1969)
 

What if I’m someone who likes country & western. Cowboy hat, boots with spurs and a pickup truck around the corner. When people ask me what kind of music I like, it has often been easier to say what I don’t like. Opera and country & western is included on that list. I've always made ​​an exception for Lee Hazlewood. His version of country & western is OK, but the others ...

Bob Dylan hasn’t been a great favourite of mine, either. Sure, he has undoubtedly written amazing songs, but his voice and the songs’ sound have never appealed to me. Bob Dylan, I often think, is one of the few artists where the covers are better than the original songs.

Nashville Skyline has caused me to doubt myself and question different aspects of my identity and history. What if I simply haven’t come out of the closet? What if I’m a country & western lover? What would my parents say?

Nashville Skyline was Dylan's ninth studio album and quite different than the previous ones. The first time I heard Lay Lady Lay (on a compilation CD I have), I refused to believe it was Dylan. It must be a cover or a lousy attempt to fool people with a home recording purported to be Dylan. However, undoubtedly a nice song which I immediately fell for, and which I later realized, of course, was Dylan. Although he sounded so... different.

On Nashville Skyline Dylan sings with a very different voice than his usual, it’s deeper, softer and better (according to me). And the music is country & western recorded in Nashville. On the opening track Girl From The North Country, he even sings a duet with Johnny Cash. Cash spent some time in the studio with Dylan and they recorded more duets, however, only one was used on the album. Dylan had on the previous record, John Wesley Harding, some country & western inspired songs, but on Nashville Skyline he took it all the way.

 

Nashville Skyline is a different Dylan album I can recommend, even to those who don’t like country & western. Here you get a pretty relaxed country album without the whining southern accent, banjos or fiddles. It's a nice sound and many great songs. The classic Lay Lady Lay is a favourite, as are the before mentioned opening track, I Threw It All Away and Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You. It’s certainly heard now and then it’s Dylan, he is not completely free from his heritage.

I still maintain that country & western isn’t my favourite kind of music, but I have in Nashville Skyline found yet an exception. The album was well received by the audience and press and got high rankings on lists, including a number 1 spot in England. My copy has a golden text where it says it’s forbidden to sell, it’s only for promotional use. This makes it almost illegal to own, which speaks to the rebel inside me.

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Girl From The North Country 3:41

2. Nashville Skyline Rag 3:12

3. To Be Alone With You 2:07

4. I Threw It All Away 2:23

5. Peggy Day 2:01

Side B

1. Lay Lady Lay 3:18

2. One More Night 2:23

3. Tell Me That It Isn’t True 2:41

4. Country Pie 1:37

5. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You 3:23

 

 

 

David Bowie - "Hunky Dory" (1971)

The first time this album was in my possession was my 11th or 12th birthday. I owned it for a few days, until I returned it to the store. I had wished for Let's Dance, which my father was not really aware of. A Bowie album is a Bowie album, I guess he thought, and obeyed the staff's recommendation that this was the album to have.

At the time, Let's Dance surely was the right album for me, but seen in a larger perspective, I without a doubt prefer Hunky Dory. It's relatively new in my collection, but since my older brother owned it and played it regularly during my younger years, it has been in my life for many years. So it doesn't feel like a new album to me.

The version I have is a Spanish reissue with the addition of  A Pedir De Boca in the title, and I don't know how official it is. What's different with it is that it's a brown vinyl, which when held up to the light becomes almost purple in color. I have read online about Spanish editions with different colors, but the brown one I have found difficult to find information on. But the other colored Spanish editions are usually mentioned as non official releases, so I guess this goes for mine as well.

This is almost a classic and it's a really good album. Songs like Changes, Life On Mars? or Andy Warhol are well known to the public (I think anyway). This was Bowie's fourth album but the first on his new record company RCA. When he began the recording he was actually without a contract, but RCA heard a demo tape and signed him.

Hunky Dory sold quite OK initially, but it wasn't until Bowie's big break the following year, with the album Ziggy Stardust, it began selling in higher numbers. It is on countless lists of best album ever made, best album from the 70's and so on. Bowie himself considers it one of his most important album throughout his career.

It's relatively easily-accessible music, while at the same time not mainstream. I think it can suite quite a lot of people, whether you identify yourself as a music connoisseur and a knower of great stature or prefer to listen to today's radio with more impersonal computer-generated music. Should I mention something negative, it's Bowie's voice, at the time a little thin and nasal, which I can't say I'm overly fond of. It gives the songs a touch that feels on the verge of somewhat neurotic. Nevertheless a really good album that should probably be in every person's album collection.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Changes 3:37
2. Oh! You Pretty Things 3:12
3. Eight Line Poem 2:55
4. Life On Mars? 3:53
5. Kooks 2:53
6. Quicksand 5:08

Side B
1. Fill Your Heart 3:07
2. Andy Warhol 3:56
3. Song For Bob Dylan 4:12
4. Quen Bitch 3:18
5. The Bewlay Brothers 5:22

Pink Floyd - "The Best Of Pink Floyd" (1970)

As a true Pink Floyd fan, I couldn't resist buying this album when I stumbled upon it the other week in a record store, although it was a bit expensive. But the chance of getting Pink Floyd's early single releases on vinyl was too tempting to resist, songs that are not found on any of their LPs (I have the songs on CD, though, since many years) .

Besides the single releases there are some songs from their first album The Piper Of The Gates Of Dawn. A string of psychedelic creations, most written by Syd Barrett. Why then is David Gilmour on the cover and where is Syd, man of order probably wonders? The songs are from the years 1967-68 and recorded before Gilmour came into the picture. According to sources on the internet, he only appears (in secret) on Julia Dream. EMI, which released the album, probably thought it was better to show the 1970 version of the band, I suppose. But fact is that the album was reissued later with Syd Barrett instead of Gilmour on the cover. After the crazy succcess with Dark Side Of The Moon the record company wanted to earn even more money on Pink Floyd, and re-released The Best Of Pink Floyd under the new name, Masters Of Rock, a serie that was made under the same name with a number of artists. That's when Syd got a spot on the cover.

The songs are of course quite different from the Dark Side Of The Moon and Pink Floyd's other 70's creations. This is the very definition of psychedelia, often with a dark touch, as if the music predicts Syd's future fate. Some might dismiss a few songs as a bit whimsical, but not me. I think all the creations are really groovy. Apples And Oranges is perhaps the song that most reminds of the music on Syd's solo albums that were released a few years later, with a peculiar timing of the vocals. Rich Wright and Roger Waters also contributes with a few songs. One might miss Point Me At The Sky, it was created , however, when Syd in practice had left the band, so perhaps it's OK. But personally, I would prefer it got a spot on the album instead of some song from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

The Best Of Pink Floyd invites the listener to the band in its younger years, filled with youthful energy and experimentation. Fun, trippy, sad and somewhat dark. Knowledge of Syd's later fate surely enhances this darkness.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Chapter 24 3:36

2. Mathilda Mother 3:03

3. Arnold Layne 2:51

4. Candy And A Currant Bun 2:38

5. The Scarecrow 2:07

Side B

1. Apples And Oranges 3:01

2. It WouldBe So Nice 3:39

3. Paint Box 3:27

4. Julia Dream 2:28

5. See Emily Play 2:50