Neglected Albums of the Week #3

Started Fri aft w/ 2 trax from Gong's YOU (1974), sorta 1 last chance B4 I take the album 2 the big trade-in record store in the sky.
"Master Builder" has some nice gruff sax by Didier Mahlerbe, & "A Sprinkling of Clouds" has some nice synth from Tim Blake, good guitar riffage from Steve Hillage, & later some pleasantly airy Mahlerbe flute. But the rest is just sorta directionless jamming, tho it does build-up some in10sity. The actual tuneage is a little thin, diffuse, elusive -- & tho I've tried 2 hear it, what's here just isn't ENUF, somehow, & the cluttered production & thick mix doesn't help. There's a lot going on w/ this ensemble, & I can't hear enuf of it. & the vocals R still dumb.
So, after 2 yrs & lotsa plays, my verdict is: OK music 4 waking-up or folding the laundry. Otherwise.... YOU will B traded-off soon unless some1 out there wants it. & U can have my card as a 4mer on-the-edge music-listening-guy w/ it, I guess....
Moving then slowly, ponderously, w/ interruptions, on my way 2 this wk's obvious choice 4 Neglected Album of the Week....
Canadian folksinger Bruce Cockburn has an un4tun8 last name (it's pronounced Co-burn), but RESUME (1981, which is, of course, pronounced re-zoom-ay, best I can do w/ this silly laptop, can't do an accent over the E w/o Nding-up in some other dimension) is a pretty solid+ 9-track best-of collection of summa Bruce's earlier work, from the 4 albums that were released in America B4 he sorta hadda breakthru w/ 1979's DANCING IN THE DRAGON'S JAWS & the minor hit "Wondering Where the Lions Are." But Cockburn released something like 10 albums B4 DANCING, many of them only in Canada.
There's nothing on RESUME that's as dramatic & catchy as "Incandescent Blue" or as haunting as "Badlands Flashback" offa DANCING (both of which I played B4 putting-on RESUME), but there's lotsa stuff that's close. (If it helps, the best songs on DANCING R the longer 1's, & "Badlands Flashback" is worth hearing just 4 Pat Godfrey's superb cascading-waterfall piano & the cosmic mood Bruce conjures-up even while singing in French! ... Doesn't matter, U can tell he's Seeing Things....)
The best stuff on RESUME is at the start & finish. "Silver Wheels" is a Dtailed trip from the placid country in2 the huge, bustling city until the Dtail piles-up & Xplodes & it sounds like Bruce is losing his grip. Xcellent dramatic piece w/ nice gtr work -- all it lacks 2 B really superb is a contrasting mood-break in the middle; Bruce's backing band almost succeeds in this w/ a sorta fluttery flugelhorn solo at the Nd, but the break shoulda happened earlier....
"The Coldest Night of the Year" is pleasant but leans a bit 2 much toward lite vocal jazz in an apparent attempt at another single 2 follow-up "Lions." This was a mistake -- U can't soften-up Bruce cos mosta the time he can't get much softer.
"Can I Go With You?" is pleasant & has some nice gtr work. "Laughter" really will make U laff, at least at 1st. It's Bruce Bing obviously ironic, which apparently took him awhile -- usually he's very straight4ward & earnest.
"Water into Wine" is a 5-min acoustic-gtr showcase, nice but not stunning. "Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long" is pretty Mbarrassing. "Lord of the Starfields" (which immediately follows) is pleasant, but minor compared 2 what follows it.
"Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand" is Bruce Bing cosmically freaky again, & has some great spacey lyrics ("I've got planets in my palm/There's a red smear in the sky...."). Nice chimy gtr work here, 2. "Dialogue With the Devil" is a dramatic 8-min solo live tightrope walk w/ a beautiful Nding.
...& that's all. Personally, I woulda bn OK w/ a 2-record set, cos (if U haven't noticed already) I'm a sucker 4 this folk-based stuff (I have work by Fairport Convention & Nick Drake waiting in the wings). & apparently RESUME has never bn issued on CD. I hadn't heard it since about 1982 myself. Worth trackin down....
Bruce got More Political & angrier after this, scoring almost-hits w/ "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" & "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," + releasing a whole string of albums -- & he's still releasing albums. & there's 2 2-CD packages of singles that avoid mosta the songs listed above. So there's plenty out there 2 choose from.... Bruce is practically a Canadian institution now, & has even had a tribute album of his works issued. Bare Naked Ladies covered "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," & their version sounds like 5 overdubbed Bruce's singing....
Ran outta time & finished-off w/ Eno's "The True Wheel" offa TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY), mainly so I could vote in Rastro's poll over at LA HISTORIA DE LA MUSICA ROCK (R U reading Rastro? U SHOULD B -- now he's writing poetry sorta based on blues-singer Robert Johnson's life & mystique, & it's freaking BRILLIANT -- go check it out right now, it's WAY better than my babblings) ... where was I? Oh yeah.... "The True Wheel" is as cute & odd as NEthing else I've heard by Eno so far, but Phil Manzanera's gtr solo, which is what I was listening-4, sounds kinda flat & clanky -- mayB Eno "treated" it? It sure didn't jump outta the speakers at me.
Course it could B that my cheap, tinny, no-bass, 3-inch-speaker CD player isn't playing me everything it should B -- tho everything else sounds normal. I've gotta test coming up 4 it, tho: I'll put on Fairport's "Tale in Hard Time" or "Meet on the Ledge" or "Come All Ye" or "I'll Keep it With Mine" or "Sloth," turn it up loud & C how it sounds.... More of this soon, I promise.
CURRENTLY READING: Norman Spinrad's SCIENCE FICTION IN THE REAL WORLD and STAYING ALIVE: A WRITER'S GUIDE, both of which R funny & abrasive enuf 2 keep me laffing out-loud....
& BTW, now over 100 posts since I opened-up shop here at Blogger last Aug. I don't Blieve it either....