After this week's news reports about HOT summer temps in the U.S. & heavy, choking smog in Moscow, & other long-term smog issues in places like LA, Beijing, Mexico City, London, Ankara, Istanbul, Athens, Denver, Boise & other places, it's intresting how timely John Brunner's 1972 science-fiction pollution-death novel THE SHEEP LOOK UP still is.
The past week's thick smog in Moscow could be straight outta the pages of this book, with its filtermasks 4 the air you can't breathe, purifiers 4 the water you can't drink, heavy clouds that block out the sun 4 weeks or months at a time, insect pests that are immune to every known kind of insecticide, waves of ongoing nagging diseases that EVERYBODY gets sooner or later, etc. etc. etc.
I remember being outraged & moved by this book when I 1st read it back in 1975 when I was 15 years old -- & again when I re-read it in the mid-'80s. Even then, tho the book is fiction, I KNEW there were things LIKE THIS happening out there in the Real World. & tho we've become a LOT more environmentally conscious since then, even tho more & more people R "goin Green" than ever before, we're still in Bad Shape. Tho not as bad as the folks in this novel.
Brunner was pretty brilliant, at times. His earlier epic SF novel STAND ON ZANZIBAR (1968, 650 pgs) showed the Earth being brot 2 the brink of disaster due to overpopulation. Brunner juggled a fairly simple plot focusing on a handful of characters, slammed in a massive amount of background detail thru isolated scenes, newspaper clippings, TV commercials & etc., & made it all work brilliantly almost all the way up to the end ... when the melodrama & plottiness got kinda obvious. Still, among my Top 10 fave SF novels ever.
Brunner followed it up with THE JAGGED ORBIT (1969, about 1/2 as long), another disaster novel about race-relations crises -- I read it 1nce years ago & barely remember a word -- it's waiting on my shelf 4 re-reading. He later wrote another epic, THE SHOCKWAVE RIDER (1975), which is sposta B a precursor of cyberpunk. I got about 50 pgs in2 it a coupla yrs back & wasn't gripped.
All these big novels didn't make Brunner rich. He was always very open about how ZANZIBAR did not make a fortune & how he still hadta crank-out a coupla potboiler SF novels each yr 2 pay the bills. When he died a decade ago he reportedly had less than $1,000 in his bank account. Which maybe shows that you won't get rich by predicting the future frighteningly -- even if you're pretty accurate.
If you're a big fan of Irony & Poetic Justice, you'll probably like SHEEP. In some ways it's probly on Al Gore's 10 Best list. At the most basic level it follows how 1 unforeseen disaster can mushroom & impact millions. But it's also obvious that the disaster that kicks-off the story is just more fuel 4 a fire that's already out of control.
SHEEP flows more smoothly than ZANZIBAR -- the approach is almost streamlined. Brunner has a lot 2 cover in 430 pgs. But its tough 2 read a novel in which almost all the characters you meet & are encouraged to identify-with get blown-away 1 by 1 as the story proceeds.
In ZANZIBAR & ORBIT there was hope left at the end, a little optimism, no matter how bad things were. There is no happy ending 4 anyone in this story. Ecologist Austin Train's final speech isn't long enuf or moving enuf -- the whole book leads up to it & it coulda gone on MUCH longer. & when a scientist reveals that a computer program he's been working on 4 the entire book has concluded that the human race CAN be saved -- IF we exterminate the 200 million most wasteful & greedy of our species ... then that's exactly what happens.
Not exactly lite, EZ reading. But I thot I would be carried away by the story, could admire Brunner's technique & get outraged again. Instead, it took me almost a month 2 get thru it (with interruptions, including a vacation). Worth reading, but not the acidic, outrageous, painful explosion that I remembered....
CURRENTLY TRYING TO DIGEST: Colin Greenland's THE ENTROPY EXHIBITION, about SF's "New Wave" of the late '60s & specifically about the fiction published in Michael Moorcock's NEW WORLDS magazine. Some of this is very heavy going, very dry -- not suprising; the book was originally Greenland's college master's thesis.
There is good stuff here on the writings of Moorcock, J.G. Ballard & Brian W. Aldiss. But there isn't enuf about the history or day-to-day workings of the magazine (Charles Platt has some great stories about working on NW included in his DREAM MAKERS books of interviews w/ SF writers). I grabbed this thinking it was going to B a HISTORY of NW -- which woulda been right up my alley, & I love reading writing ABOUT writing.
Greenland nailed 1 item tho, which made me laff out loud: At 1 point he describes some of the work of late-'60s British SF writer Langdon Jones as "sick." & I laffed because Greenland's RIGHT -- Jones's work does come across as feverish, diseased, lurid -- something very twisted that hadta explode out 4 the author's own good. You can read Jones's "The Coming of the Sun" in Damon Knight's THE BEST FROM ORBIT....
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Back to the Roots!
When all else fails, try Nostalgia....
My earliest musical memories go back to 1962-63, when my Mom & I shared an apartment in Boise, Idaho's "Hills Village" apartment complex with my Uncle Loren. My Uncle was a big jazz fan -- 1 of the record albums my Mom inherited from him was a copy of COLTRANE TIME on Columbia, with a gritty monochromatic cover painting showing a giant saxophone hanging down between some apartment buildings, & 1 harassed-looking tenant poking his head out the window with his hands clamped over his ears.
I don't think I ever heard THAT album, but there was almost always SOME kind of music playing in the house. My Mom liked the symphonic stuff -- Beethoven's 5th, Franz Liszt, Rachmaninoff -- I'm sure I must've heard Aaron Copland 1st back in those days. She was also a big fan of Christmas music; lots of Christmas albums in the house.
The first 45-rpm single I remember ever having was Mitch Miller's "March from the River Kwai" on Columbia -- on gold vinyl! Don't remember for sure how I got ahold of it. I seem to remember something about my Mom winning it in some radio-station contest on Boise's KBOI-AM.
In '64 we moved to a duplex on 27th Street in Boise, which we shared with my Cousin Carol & her son Ritchie -- who always useta beat me up; I musta been about 5 years old. Cousin Carol was a BIG Elvis fan. Eventually, before we moved again, I nagged her enuf that she let me take away a handful of 45's to my new home, where I was told I'd be allowed to have a record player. I musta nagged her to DEATH. (Sorry, Carol.) Tho I remember her telling me to keep my grubby hands off the Elvis, I actually got away with 2: "You're the Devil in Disguise" (not bad I guess) & "Kiss Me Quick." 1 of these was backed with the moody ballad "Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello" (also not bad). Can't remember what the other song was. Overall, I remember Elvis didn't do much 4 me then -- seemed kinda show-bizzy & not 2 exciting to my 5-year-old musical tastes.
The others I picked out were mostly WAY better: Freddy Cannon's GREAT "Palisades Park" (written by Chuck Barris!), backed with the screamer "June, July and August" -- whenever I hear either 1 now I think of summer & they cheer me up. Up until I was about 10 years old I thot "Palisades Park" was the greatest song ever.
Also: The Everly Brothers' "Walk Right Back" -- great stuff! Great harmonies! & so sad....
And: Johnny Rivers' "Memphis," b/w "It Wouldn't Happen With Me." "Memphis" is of course 1 of Chuck Berry's classics with an extra kick in the punchline at the end; "It Wouldn't Happen With Me" is 1 of the great forgotten comedy songs of the rock era.
And: Nino Tempo & April Stevens' "Deep Purple," b/w "I've Been Carrying a Torch for You So Long That I've Burned a Great Big Hole in My Heart." (I'm NOT making this up!) "Deep Purple" is weird enuf, w/ its foggy-nite ambience & its foghorn harmonica followed by April's pure-whitebread voiceover near the end -- but "Hole in My Heart" is like some unimaginable, raving field holler from some other planet....
There was Floyd Cramer's kinda weepy piano instrumental "Last Date" -- which had a WAY better B-side, almost a rocker, but I've forgotten its title over the years....
There were others I've mostly forgotten (like the Four Preps' silly "Susie Cockroach," b/w the even-more-silly "Big Draft" medley of outrageous military songs), some that DESERVE to be forgotten (Terry Stafford's "I'll Touch a Star") -- as I remember my choices had nothing to do with the SONGS. The records I picked out were based ENTIRELY on how cool the record-labels looked.... Obviously Elvis wasn't gonna intrest me much w/ that dull RCA label: Nipper the Dog staring at a gramophone against a black background....
It took about 6 years before I started buying 45-rpm singles on my own, & almost as long to figure out that there was such a thing as a RADIO, & it had STATIONS on it that played MUSIC, sometimes around the clock....
It took even longer before I started buying record albums, tho I was aware of them soon after I'd discovered 45's. Problem was, I didn't have the attention-span 4 albums -- I couldn't even get thru a 15-minute side of music unless it was something really great. Example: My favorite part of my Mom's album of Beethoven's 5th was the discussion by conductor Leonard Bernstein at the end. I could get thru the symphony's 1st movement OK ("Dit-dit-dit-DAH"), but after that I'd just drift off & ask "to hear the guy talk at the end."
But I latched-onto some of my Mom's albums, when she allowed me to. Like The Kingston Trio's COLLEGE CONCERT (1963) -- great stuff! Great songs, some jokes I'm STILL trying to figure out, & MAN could they SING! Both sides were full of classics: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Ballad of the Shapes of Things," "Coplas Revisited," "MTA," "Little Light," & a blowout called "Going Away for to Leave You" -- just add their hit "Greenback Dollar" & you'd have everything I'd ever wanna hear by these guys.
Or there was Peter, Paul and Mary's MOVING (1963). Loved it at 1st 4 "Puff the Magic Dragon," of course, but it's also got the greatest version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" that you'll ever hear, plus killers like "Settle Down," "Gone the Rainbow," "Man Come Into Egypt," and a wondrous little closing Halloween/Christmas # called "A'Soulin'"....
Or how bout the Rip Chords' HEY LITTLE COBRA (1964)? Great watered-down Beach Boys-style car songs by future BBoy Bruce Johnston & future Byrds & Raiders producer Terry Melcher. GREAT soaring harmonies & some AMAZING songs: "Here I Stand" is a forgotten acapella classic, & "Gone," "The Queen" & "Ding Dong" are nearly as great. Even the average stuff (like the title hit) is still pretty good -- no wonder I was a sucker for the Beach Boys a few years later....
Or there was the soundtrack from THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), about the 2nd movie I ever saw. Sure, there's some mush, but how can you say no to "I Have Confidence" or "Do-Re-Mi" or "Maria" or "Climb Every Mountain" or "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"? & "So Long, Farewell" coulda been a huge hit! "Edelweiss" rips me up every time. & how bout the real sleeper: "Something Good"...? & how could you forget "The Lonely Goatherd"...?
Or how 'bout Henry Mancini's soundtrack from THE PINK PANTHER (1964)? This was probly my Mom's influence -- lotsa orchestrated stuff. But the title track's a classic, "It Had Better be Tonight" sounds just as great w/ a vocal as it does as an instrumental, & "The Village Inn" sounds like your basic Parisian background music until an evil, ominous chorus interrupts with all kinds of shakers & rattles & bizaare percussion....
Or Bill Justis's PLAYS ALLEY CAT, GREEN ONIONS & OTHER BIG INSTRUMENTAL HITS (1963)? Freakin amazing -- who knew Lawrence Welk's "Calcutta" was so freakin great?! + great forgotten instrumentals like "Rinky Dink," "A Swingin' Safari," "Theme from 'A Summer Place'," etc. Last time I saw a copy of this album a year or so ago they wanted $8 for it. I shoulda grabbed it....
Or if you haven't given up yet, how 'bout Ray Conniff's INVISIBLE TEARS (1963)? DEFinitely not rock&roll -- but Ray & his gang do a KILLER version of the old Weavers' folk chestnut "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," a marvelous version of the '50s hit "Singin' the Blues," some rather nice MOR stuff like "Far Away Places" & "Waitin' for the Evening Train," a spirited workout on Jimmie Rodgers' old hit "Honeycomb" ... & a closing fantasy about being stranded on a desert island with a girl named "Marianne" that any GILLIGAN'S ISLAND fan would love.
The 1st album I remember being bought for me was THE CHIPMUNKS SING THE BEATLES HITS (1964) -- a classic! Back then I thot Alvin, Simon & Theodore did a better job on "Please Please Me" & "All My Loving" than even the Fab 4 did....
Despite my exposure to all this music when I was around 5 or 6, it took me a LONG time to realize what a radio was for, & that you could make music come out of it. It's strange -- at my Cousin Jim's house he & his brother David woke up to an alarm clock that greeted them every morning with the latest hits from the local #1 rock&roll station (KFXD-AM 580). Jim & Dave had lotsa albums in the house -- including the Moody Blues' DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED & The Monkees' 1st 3, not to mention stuff by the Turtles, Mamas & Papas, Count Five's PSYCHOTIC REACTION & MUCH more -- but it took YEARS for me to notice this stuff.
While the grownups were listening to the Smothers Brothers & the Lamplighters, my Cousin Anna was a big Neil Young fan (slightly later). I also seem to remember my Uncle Cliff (Anna, Jim & Dave's dad) announcing that there would be NO Bob Dylan music played in his house -- & who can blame him? -- tho I may be misremembering this....
Took me years to catch on. Guess I was too busy growing up. I remember singing along with Jim & Anna when the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" came on the radio, & I remember seeing copies of the HELP! album lying around in neighbors' houses in the summer of '65, so I musta known who the Beatles were, & I remember seeing their Saturday morning cartoon show, but....
Mosta the above-listed albums I've been able to track down over the years & I've got them in the house now, if I ever wanna hear them again. But not all of them. Got a copy of Bill Justis or HEY LITTLE COBRA out there? I'm sure unexpectedly stumbling over either of them would turn me back into that 6-year-old kid again....
My earliest musical memories go back to 1962-63, when my Mom & I shared an apartment in Boise, Idaho's "Hills Village" apartment complex with my Uncle Loren. My Uncle was a big jazz fan -- 1 of the record albums my Mom inherited from him was a copy of COLTRANE TIME on Columbia, with a gritty monochromatic cover painting showing a giant saxophone hanging down between some apartment buildings, & 1 harassed-looking tenant poking his head out the window with his hands clamped over his ears.
I don't think I ever heard THAT album, but there was almost always SOME kind of music playing in the house. My Mom liked the symphonic stuff -- Beethoven's 5th, Franz Liszt, Rachmaninoff -- I'm sure I must've heard Aaron Copland 1st back in those days. She was also a big fan of Christmas music; lots of Christmas albums in the house.
The first 45-rpm single I remember ever having was Mitch Miller's "March from the River Kwai" on Columbia -- on gold vinyl! Don't remember for sure how I got ahold of it. I seem to remember something about my Mom winning it in some radio-station contest on Boise's KBOI-AM.
In '64 we moved to a duplex on 27th Street in Boise, which we shared with my Cousin Carol & her son Ritchie -- who always useta beat me up; I musta been about 5 years old. Cousin Carol was a BIG Elvis fan. Eventually, before we moved again, I nagged her enuf that she let me take away a handful of 45's to my new home, where I was told I'd be allowed to have a record player. I musta nagged her to DEATH. (Sorry, Carol.) Tho I remember her telling me to keep my grubby hands off the Elvis, I actually got away with 2: "You're the Devil in Disguise" (not bad I guess) & "Kiss Me Quick." 1 of these was backed with the moody ballad "Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello" (also not bad). Can't remember what the other song was. Overall, I remember Elvis didn't do much 4 me then -- seemed kinda show-bizzy & not 2 exciting to my 5-year-old musical tastes.
The others I picked out were mostly WAY better: Freddy Cannon's GREAT "Palisades Park" (written by Chuck Barris!), backed with the screamer "June, July and August" -- whenever I hear either 1 now I think of summer & they cheer me up. Up until I was about 10 years old I thot "Palisades Park" was the greatest song ever.
Also: The Everly Brothers' "Walk Right Back" -- great stuff! Great harmonies! & so sad....
And: Johnny Rivers' "Memphis," b/w "It Wouldn't Happen With Me." "Memphis" is of course 1 of Chuck Berry's classics with an extra kick in the punchline at the end; "It Wouldn't Happen With Me" is 1 of the great forgotten comedy songs of the rock era.
And: Nino Tempo & April Stevens' "Deep Purple," b/w "I've Been Carrying a Torch for You So Long That I've Burned a Great Big Hole in My Heart." (I'm NOT making this up!) "Deep Purple" is weird enuf, w/ its foggy-nite ambience & its foghorn harmonica followed by April's pure-whitebread voiceover near the end -- but "Hole in My Heart" is like some unimaginable, raving field holler from some other planet....
There was Floyd Cramer's kinda weepy piano instrumental "Last Date" -- which had a WAY better B-side, almost a rocker, but I've forgotten its title over the years....
There were others I've mostly forgotten (like the Four Preps' silly "Susie Cockroach," b/w the even-more-silly "Big Draft" medley of outrageous military songs), some that DESERVE to be forgotten (Terry Stafford's "I'll Touch a Star") -- as I remember my choices had nothing to do with the SONGS. The records I picked out were based ENTIRELY on how cool the record-labels looked.... Obviously Elvis wasn't gonna intrest me much w/ that dull RCA label: Nipper the Dog staring at a gramophone against a black background....
It took about 6 years before I started buying 45-rpm singles on my own, & almost as long to figure out that there was such a thing as a RADIO, & it had STATIONS on it that played MUSIC, sometimes around the clock....
It took even longer before I started buying record albums, tho I was aware of them soon after I'd discovered 45's. Problem was, I didn't have the attention-span 4 albums -- I couldn't even get thru a 15-minute side of music unless it was something really great. Example: My favorite part of my Mom's album of Beethoven's 5th was the discussion by conductor Leonard Bernstein at the end. I could get thru the symphony's 1st movement OK ("Dit-dit-dit-DAH"), but after that I'd just drift off & ask "to hear the guy talk at the end."
But I latched-onto some of my Mom's albums, when she allowed me to. Like The Kingston Trio's COLLEGE CONCERT (1963) -- great stuff! Great songs, some jokes I'm STILL trying to figure out, & MAN could they SING! Both sides were full of classics: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Ballad of the Shapes of Things," "Coplas Revisited," "MTA," "Little Light," & a blowout called "Going Away for to Leave You" -- just add their hit "Greenback Dollar" & you'd have everything I'd ever wanna hear by these guys.
Or there was Peter, Paul and Mary's MOVING (1963). Loved it at 1st 4 "Puff the Magic Dragon," of course, but it's also got the greatest version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" that you'll ever hear, plus killers like "Settle Down," "Gone the Rainbow," "Man Come Into Egypt," and a wondrous little closing Halloween/Christmas # called "A'Soulin'"....
Or how bout the Rip Chords' HEY LITTLE COBRA (1964)? Great watered-down Beach Boys-style car songs by future BBoy Bruce Johnston & future Byrds & Raiders producer Terry Melcher. GREAT soaring harmonies & some AMAZING songs: "Here I Stand" is a forgotten acapella classic, & "Gone," "The Queen" & "Ding Dong" are nearly as great. Even the average stuff (like the title hit) is still pretty good -- no wonder I was a sucker for the Beach Boys a few years later....
Or there was the soundtrack from THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), about the 2nd movie I ever saw. Sure, there's some mush, but how can you say no to "I Have Confidence" or "Do-Re-Mi" or "Maria" or "Climb Every Mountain" or "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"? & "So Long, Farewell" coulda been a huge hit! "Edelweiss" rips me up every time. & how bout the real sleeper: "Something Good"...? & how could you forget "The Lonely Goatherd"...?
Or how 'bout Henry Mancini's soundtrack from THE PINK PANTHER (1964)? This was probly my Mom's influence -- lotsa orchestrated stuff. But the title track's a classic, "It Had Better be Tonight" sounds just as great w/ a vocal as it does as an instrumental, & "The Village Inn" sounds like your basic Parisian background music until an evil, ominous chorus interrupts with all kinds of shakers & rattles & bizaare percussion....
Or Bill Justis's PLAYS ALLEY CAT, GREEN ONIONS & OTHER BIG INSTRUMENTAL HITS (1963)? Freakin amazing -- who knew Lawrence Welk's "Calcutta" was so freakin great?! + great forgotten instrumentals like "Rinky Dink," "A Swingin' Safari," "Theme from 'A Summer Place'," etc. Last time I saw a copy of this album a year or so ago they wanted $8 for it. I shoulda grabbed it....
Or if you haven't given up yet, how 'bout Ray Conniff's INVISIBLE TEARS (1963)? DEFinitely not rock&roll -- but Ray & his gang do a KILLER version of the old Weavers' folk chestnut "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," a marvelous version of the '50s hit "Singin' the Blues," some rather nice MOR stuff like "Far Away Places" & "Waitin' for the Evening Train," a spirited workout on Jimmie Rodgers' old hit "Honeycomb" ... & a closing fantasy about being stranded on a desert island with a girl named "Marianne" that any GILLIGAN'S ISLAND fan would love.
The 1st album I remember being bought for me was THE CHIPMUNKS SING THE BEATLES HITS (1964) -- a classic! Back then I thot Alvin, Simon & Theodore did a better job on "Please Please Me" & "All My Loving" than even the Fab 4 did....
Despite my exposure to all this music when I was around 5 or 6, it took me a LONG time to realize what a radio was for, & that you could make music come out of it. It's strange -- at my Cousin Jim's house he & his brother David woke up to an alarm clock that greeted them every morning with the latest hits from the local #1 rock&roll station (KFXD-AM 580). Jim & Dave had lotsa albums in the house -- including the Moody Blues' DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED & The Monkees' 1st 3, not to mention stuff by the Turtles, Mamas & Papas, Count Five's PSYCHOTIC REACTION & MUCH more -- but it took YEARS for me to notice this stuff.
While the grownups were listening to the Smothers Brothers & the Lamplighters, my Cousin Anna was a big Neil Young fan (slightly later). I also seem to remember my Uncle Cliff (Anna, Jim & Dave's dad) announcing that there would be NO Bob Dylan music played in his house -- & who can blame him? -- tho I may be misremembering this....
Took me years to catch on. Guess I was too busy growing up. I remember singing along with Jim & Anna when the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" came on the radio, & I remember seeing copies of the HELP! album lying around in neighbors' houses in the summer of '65, so I musta known who the Beatles were, & I remember seeing their Saturday morning cartoon show, but....
Mosta the above-listed albums I've been able to track down over the years & I've got them in the house now, if I ever wanna hear them again. But not all of them. Got a copy of Bill Justis or HEY LITTLE COBRA out there? I'm sure unexpectedly stumbling over either of them would turn me back into that 6-year-old kid again....
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