Everyone is posting their lists of the best LPs/albums/whatever and singles of 2008. I'm going to do something different. The other day http://terrapinlistens2.blogspot.com/2008/12/magazine-give-me-everything.html I said I had rated Magazine's "Give Me Everything" the best single of 1978 at the time. To my enormous surprise (I consistently rate a brain age in the mid-seventies on Nintendo Brain Training) I managed to dredge up the whole Top 10 from the corners of my addled mind and here it is.
1. Magazine - "Give Me Everything"
2. The Clash - "White Man In Hammersmith Palais"
3. Sham 69 - "If The Kids Are United"
4. The Clash - "Tommy Gun"
5. Ian Dury & the Blockheads - "What A Waste"
6. Gang Of Four - Damaged Goods EP
7. The Cure - "Killing An Arab"
8. Magazine - "Shot By Both Sides"
9. Rezillos - "Destination Venus"
10. Flying Lizards - "Summertime Blues".
I'm not saying that I would choose them now as the best singles of 1978 (the Flying Lizards single is an especially embarrassing choice) but it's interesting. Conspicuous by their absence are The Fall, whom I discovered the following year. Also Siouxsie & the Banshees - I thought "Hong Kong Garden" was rubbish, but their album "The Scream" was the best of the year.
Happy Xmas and New Year everyone!
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Monday, 22 December 2008
Love – Forever Changes
In the summer of 1967 we planned to go to Llandudno on holiday, but my brother got rubella (which everyone called German measles back then), and instead we spent a week at Westward Ho!, which, though not as exciting as north Wales, I really enjoyed. In the same summer, Arthur Lee’s band Love recorded this wonderful, wonderful album.
I heard this for the first time last year, and loved it. I thought that on coming back to it I might be disappointed, but I’m not. It’s as wonderful as ever. So I played it a second and third time. I said I loved “Forever Changes” the first time. Actually, when I heard the opening track, “Alone Again Or”, I hated it – I remember thinking “This sounds like CAT BLOODY STEVENS” and I nearly didn’t listen to any more. I’m glad I did.
The songs which stand out for me are still “The Red Telephone” (harrowing and beautiful: I still haven’t got completely to the bottom of the lyrics, beyond that it is sort of about madness in a mad world) and “You Set The Scene”. But also “Andmoreagain”, which deserves a place on the pantheon of Great Neurotic Love Songs, (alongside the likes of Talking Heads’ “The Book I Read” and, of course, Syd Barrett’s “Terrapin”). As does the aforesaid “Alone Again Or”. And the audaciously cheesy arrangements, which somehow add another dimension to the music.
None of the tracks could be called weak: the least strong are the unconvincingly callous-sounding “Bummer In The Summer” (though it is growing on me), and “Maybe The People (etc)” (I do NOT pander on this blog to unnecessarily long song titles – come and haunt me if you don’t like it, Mr Lee), which is sorely in need of a middle eight.
But the songs that fascinate me the most were the ones that defy gravity. “The Good Humor Man (etc)” should have collapsed under the weight of its own tweeness even before it acquired the pizzicato strings, but somehow it doesn’t. And “The Old Man”, which should simply be too weird to work, but isn’t.
I heard this for the first time last year, and loved it. I thought that on coming back to it I might be disappointed, but I’m not. It’s as wonderful as ever. So I played it a second and third time. I said I loved “Forever Changes” the first time. Actually, when I heard the opening track, “Alone Again Or”, I hated it – I remember thinking “This sounds like CAT BLOODY STEVENS” and I nearly didn’t listen to any more. I’m glad I did.
The songs which stand out for me are still “The Red Telephone” (harrowing and beautiful: I still haven’t got completely to the bottom of the lyrics, beyond that it is sort of about madness in a mad world) and “You Set The Scene”. But also “Andmoreagain”, which deserves a place on the pantheon of Great Neurotic Love Songs, (alongside the likes of Talking Heads’ “The Book I Read” and, of course, Syd Barrett’s “Terrapin”). As does the aforesaid “Alone Again Or”. And the audaciously cheesy arrangements, which somehow add another dimension to the music.
None of the tracks could be called weak: the least strong are the unconvincingly callous-sounding “Bummer In The Summer” (though it is growing on me), and “Maybe The People (etc)” (I do NOT pander on this blog to unnecessarily long song titles – come and haunt me if you don’t like it, Mr Lee), which is sorely in need of a middle eight.
But the songs that fascinate me the most were the ones that defy gravity. “The Good Humor Man (etc)” should have collapsed under the weight of its own tweeness even before it acquired the pizzicato strings, but somehow it doesn’t. And “The Old Man”, which should simply be too weird to work, but isn’t.
Magazine – “Give Me Everything”
I was interested to read the reports of Magazine’s reunion: it’s just a shame that John McGeoch didn’t live to be there. I really liked Magazine, although I never actually get around to buying any of their albums. The song I remember most is not “Shot By Both Sides”, but “Give Me Everything”, which I remember voting the best single of 1978. I thought I must have been mistaken thinking it was even better than (for example) The Clash’s “White Man In Hammersmith Palais”, so I listened to it on Last FM. No mistake – this is an absolutely awesome song.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Schönberg – Five Pieces for Orchestra, op 16
The first time I have heard this, it’s brilliant. Schoenberg isn’t atonal yet, but as with the Berg piano sonata you can discern the (to use the modish expression) direction of travel. Here the tonal uncertainty is used to express extreme and often violent emotions. Reminds me of bits of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.
You lose the quiet bits travelling on the bus, though. Still well worthwhile. Highly recommended (unless you want something restful).
You lose the quiet bits travelling on the bus, though. Still well worthwhile. Highly recommended (unless you want something restful).
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Oliver Postgate: nice man but his work is overrated, shock horror (children’s television)
Straying off the usual topics. I’m sorry to hear about the death of Oliver Postgate, especially because he always seemed such a nice person. I ought to be able to join the chorus of people saying how wonderful his and Peter Firmin’s programmes were, but to tell the truth I was never particularly keen on Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Pogle’s Wood or the Clangers (I was a bit too old by the time Bagpuss came out).
I think the feeling I got from all of these was that somehow there was a grown-up talking down to me in an ironic, quizzical way, and I didn’t like it. I much preferred Camberwick Green / Trumpton / Chigley. (I switched on the radio a few months ago and heard someone talking about the “genius of Cant”, and thought he was talking about the great Brian, until I realised that he was talking about Kant.).
Most of the discussion of Postgate’s merits assumes the conventional wisdom that all children television nowadays is “dumbed down”. That’s rubbish (IMHO). For example, the surreal, slightly unsettling beauty of “In the Night Garden” is miles better than anything Smallfilms ever produced. Agreeable and intelligent though their programmes may have been, they never invented, for example, any character as complexly weird as Makka-Pakka.
I think the feeling I got from all of these was that somehow there was a grown-up talking down to me in an ironic, quizzical way, and I didn’t like it. I much preferred Camberwick Green / Trumpton / Chigley. (I switched on the radio a few months ago and heard someone talking about the “genius of Cant”, and thought he was talking about the great Brian, until I realised that he was talking about Kant.).
Most of the discussion of Postgate’s merits assumes the conventional wisdom that all children television nowadays is “dumbed down”. That’s rubbish (IMHO). For example, the surreal, slightly unsettling beauty of “In the Night Garden” is miles better than anything Smallfilms ever produced. Agreeable and intelligent though their programmes may have been, they never invented, for example, any character as complexly weird as Makka-Pakka.
Tom Robinson Introducing (08.12.08 edition)
BBC 6 Radio podcast http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/trintro/.
This is actually the first time I’ve listened to TRI since starting this blog and, looking back, the last time I heard it was back in May, when it featured the brilliant neo-progressive Future Kings of England (see http://www.myspace.com/thefuturekingsofengland).
This time there isn’t anything quite as special, although 7 Dollar Taxi and their muscular guitar-based Britpoppish rock are worth a mention. I thought their singer’s mockney accent sounded a bit dodgy, before we were informed that the band were (at least originally) from Switzerland. But if they are working on their second album do they actually belong on TRI? Also good were the guitar atmospherics of Two Skies (yet another band from Sheffield).
Worth mentioning for sheer awfulness was the grand guignol of Fireworks Night.
This is actually the first time I’ve listened to TRI since starting this blog and, looking back, the last time I heard it was back in May, when it featured the brilliant neo-progressive Future Kings of England (see http://www.myspace.com/thefuturekingsofengland).
This time there isn’t anything quite as special, although 7 Dollar Taxi and their muscular guitar-based Britpoppish rock are worth a mention. I thought their singer’s mockney accent sounded a bit dodgy, before we were informed that the band were (at least originally) from Switzerland. But if they are working on their second album do they actually belong on TRI? Also good were the guitar atmospherics of Two Skies (yet another band from Sheffield).
Worth mentioning for sheer awfulness was the grand guignol of Fireworks Night.
Monday, 8 December 2008
Charlie Parker – The Ultimate Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker’s “One Night At Birdland” was the first jazz record I ever bought (I’ve still only got 4*). I think I only played it once or twice because I thought the sound quality was so bad (yes, stupid, I know). I thought recently that I should listen again to Parker because I’ve neglected him badly. I thought I was going to have a big epiphany experience and love this but it has been a bit more complicated. I found I wasn’t really warming to the music as much as I could, or should, do. Part of the problem is the apparent effortlessness of the playing. It is easy to let it go completely over my head. It’s almost like someone talking naturally. Once I listen more carefully, mindfully, I find myself thinking what amazing playing this is. But I still haven’t felt connected to it, in the way I felt connected to Thelonious Monk the first time I heard him. But I am starting to “get” it – especially “After You’ve Gone”, “Oh Lady Be Good” and “I Got Rhythm”.
Maybe the reason why I’m not more wild about this is that I just don’t listen to enough jazz – plus having flu doesn’t help (the second time this winter and it isn’t even bloody Christmas yet). I’m also not sure if this is the perfect collection. It seems rather biased towards Parker’s work with bigger bands and strings, which I hadn’t heard before, and is interesting but somehow to me isn’t the “real” Bird.
* the other 3 being Monk’s “Genius of Modern Music Volume 1”, Miles Davis’s “Birth Of The Cool” and John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme”.
Maybe the reason why I’m not more wild about this is that I just don’t listen to enough jazz – plus having flu doesn’t help (the second time this winter and it isn’t even bloody Christmas yet). I’m also not sure if this is the perfect collection. It seems rather biased towards Parker’s work with bigger bands and strings, which I hadn’t heard before, and is interesting but somehow to me isn’t the “real” Bird.
* the other 3 being Monk’s “Genius of Modern Music Volume 1”, Miles Davis’s “Birth Of The Cool” and John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme”.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Haydn – Symphonies Nos 100 (Military) and 94 (Surprise)
After enjoying Haydn’s quartets a few weeks ago (http://terrapinlistens2.blogspot.com/2008/08/haydn-string-quartets.html) I wanted to go back to his symphonies. When I had listened to them before they had made very little positive impression. Maybe it was because of Haydn’s accustomed place on orchestral concert programmes as a hors d’oeuvre rather than a main course. (Then again, the same applies to chamber music.) This time (I promised myself) it would be different.
Only it wasn’t. I am still underwhelmed. The one positive thing I got was realising how beautiful Haydn’s woodwind scoring is. But the brass and percussion, when used full-on, is so heavy handed, as in the slow movement of No 100, or the (in)famous “surprise” in No 94. I thought about listening to this again, in case I changed my mind, but I just couldn’t be bothered.
I hope I come back to these Haydn symphonies (or perhaps others) in a few months’ time and eat my words.
Only it wasn’t. I am still underwhelmed. The one positive thing I got was realising how beautiful Haydn’s woodwind scoring is. But the brass and percussion, when used full-on, is so heavy handed, as in the slow movement of No 100, or the (in)famous “surprise” in No 94. I thought about listening to this again, in case I changed my mind, but I just couldn’t be bothered.
I hope I come back to these Haydn symphonies (or perhaps others) in a few months’ time and eat my words.
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