#689: Easily bored

VERY easily bored, these days. Been awhile since any new-to-me music grabbed me by the throat. But I'm still looking & listening ... even though when I get too bored & tired I still give up on CD's & go back to cassettes of Olde Favorites to keep me motivated & moving at work.
From the job to the car to home, here's SOME of what I've been listening to over the past couple weeks:

Waterboys -- A Life of Sundays.
Journey -- Majestic, Too Late, Destiny, Snow Theme, Sandcastles, A Few Coins.
Blue Oyster Cult -- Astronomy, Magna of Illusion, Blue Oyster Cult.
Dusty Springfield -- You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Little by Little.
Roches -- The Death of Suzzy Roche, My Sick Mind, Nurds, It's Bad for Me.
Eric Burdon -- Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood/Nina's School.
Laura Nyro & Labelle -- I Met Him on a Sunday, The Bells, Desiree, Wind, It's Gonna Take a Miracle.
Elton John -- Solar Prestige a Gammon.
Patrick Moraz -- Impact.
Jean Michel Jarre -- Oxygene Part 4.
Miles Davis/Bill Laswell -- PANTHALASSA: He Loved Him Madly, Black Satin/What If?/Agharta Prelude Dub, Rated X/Billy Preston, In a Silent Way/Shhh/Peaceful/It's About That Time.
Beach Boys -- Our Prayer, Gee, Heroes and Villains, Do You Like Worms?, I'm in Great Shape, Barnyard, The Old Master Painter/My Only Sunshine, Cabin Essence.
Kansas -- Bringing it Back (live), Miracles Out of Nowhere (live).
Return to Forever -- ANTHOLOGY: Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, After the Cosmic Rain, Captain Senor Mouse, Theme to the Mothership, Space Circus, The Game Maker, Vulcan Worlds, The Shadow of Lo, Beyond the Seventh Galaxy, Song to the Pharaoh Kings, Dayride, Sofistifunk, No Mystery, Celebration Suite, Medieval Overture, Sorceress, The Romantic Warrior, Majestic Dance, The Magician, Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant.
Soft Machine -- Out-Bloody-Rageous (live), Esther's Nose Job (live).
Ian Dury -- Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, Wake Up and Make Love With Me, You're More Than Fair.

Though not much of the Waterboys' stuff grabbed me, there's a fresh breeze blowing through "A Life of Sundays," especially in Mike Scott's singing & guitar solo, & Anto Thistlethwaite's sax & backing vocals. Another song that lightened-up two hot & dusty years in Turkey....
Journey's "Majestic" is just a fanfare, but it DOES get your attention. "Too Late" is the exact moment when Steve Perry became too impressed with his own vocals & started spending more time looking in the mirror; the version on their live CAPTURED is better than the original on EVOLUTION. "Destiny" & the rest are from Journey's rather short 1979 Japanese movie soundtrack DREAM AFTER DREAM, & there's some solid non-cliched guitar from Neil Schon & nice keyboards from Gregg Rolie. Singing is kept to a minimum. I should probably try to play Side 2 again someday....
I've always loved BOC's IMAGINOS version of "Astronomy," & thought I'd see how much further into that album I could get. The album is produced for maximum dramatic impact, even if the songs aren't all that strong. "Magna of Illusion" is OK, & the idea of naming an album track after the band is ... kinda silly. I couldn't cut through the narrative overview of the album's song-cycle, either. Compelling writing, but what does it MEAN?
"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" -- My Ghod, the MELODRAMA! Who produced this?! You could cut through the drama with a knife, but it doesn't matter on those great kitchen-sink choruses. "Little By Little" is pleasant enough, if not exactly a Lost Classic. Might grow on me with repeated listenings....
The Roches, awww. "The Death of Suzzy Roche" is a funny recap of the contemplated murder of that clueless heroine, performed with the usual sisterly harmonies, of course. "My Sick Mind" & "Nurds" are pleasant enough, & "It's Bad for Me" is a cover of an old Cole Porter song. Nice as this all is, it's nowhere near as pretty or gripping as "Hammond Song" or "Quitting Time" or even "The Married Men" from their First Album. Some indiosyncratic, angular electric-guitar solos probably would've helped....
Hadn't heard Eric Burdon's solo "Misunderstood" in probably 35 years -- now he sounds almost vulnerable on most of it, until the very end where he goes into full-on raving, gibbering & babbling -- great stuff! His guitarist was pretty great, too. Interesting how the part of this song that I hated & which almost scared me back in 1974 is now the part I look forward to....
Bought Laura Nyro's GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE because I'd never heard her voice before, though she wrote late-'60s hits for Three Dog Night, BS&T, Fifth Dimension, etc. MIRACLE is a collection of old Soul/R&B numbers on which Laura & Labelle perform vocal workouts -- I started with the song titles I didn't recognize: "The Bells" is especially haunting & I look forward to hearing it again. The rest of these are nice enough -- I should probably play the rest of the record....
Critic Robert Christgau nailed "Solar Prestige a Gammon" 30 years ago, when he noted that Elton was as sincere about enunciating the nonsense lyrics on this as he was on any hit ballad -- meaning that maybe the words weren't all THAT important to his success. Part of this almost sounds French....
Patrick Moraz's "Impact" has about 9 million different keyboards squiggling all over it -- nice enough, though I admit I turned the album off when the vocals on the next song started.... Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene Part 4" is bouncy & poppy enough that it could've been a hit in America. I should try to play the rest of the album someday....
Critic Lester Bangs might've been wrong about Miles Davis's '70s work -- the tracks from ON THE CORNER and GET UP WITH IT remixed on PANTHALASSA do in fact express something: I love the deep bass tones & the overall vibe on "He Loved Him Madly," even though it does sound like Miles & the band were recorded at the bottom of a very deep, dark cave -- the production & echo is cavernous....
Elsewhere, on "Rated X" & "What If?," you can hear the electronic squiggles Bangs wrote about -- the little motifs that dart in & out of the music only to reappear again a few minutes later, like characters in the ongoing drama of the neighborhood.... Have never heard the originals of most of this stuff, but might have to look into ON THE CORNER and GET UP WITH IT. The IN A SILENT WAY suite still sounds great....
In contrast, what could possibly be lighter & brighter than the Beach Boys? The first half of SMiLE sounds great, especially all those polished-up bootleg tracks we never thought we'd get to hear Officially ("Barnyard," "My Only Sunshine," "I'm in Great Shape," "Do You Like Worms," etc). "Cabin Essence" is still breathtaking. & with its Old West/Frontier setting, most of SMiLE would've sounded as out of place in 1967 as it does now....
"Bringing it Back" has some great wild fiddle-playing from Robbie Steinhardt. "Miracles" has some different keyboard sounds but lacks the drama and dynamics of the gorgeous original studio version.
I dreaded putting on Return To Forever's ANTHOLOGY best-of because I figured they'd be Just Another '70s Jazz-Rock Band. & I was wrong. Through most of the collection they are quite upbeat and lively, with melody lines WAY easier to follow than those of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Whenever Al DiMeola's or Bill Connors' guitar lines got too screechy, Chick Corea's keyboards were there to bring things back down to earth, melody-wise. Lenny White was ALL OVER the drum kit. Sometimes I could even hear Stanley Clarke's bass. They did at least keep me moving at work, which was all I asked.
However, by the time of "Dayride" & "Sofistifunk" (from their NO MYSTERY album), RTF's instant-cliches helped create the lite-jazz genre that became a scourge in the late '70s & early '80s (remember Spyro Gyra? Jeff Lorber? Hiroshima? Pierre Moerlen's Gong? Of COURSE you do, even if you've tried to block them out). Corea's keyboards got a little TOO tinkly & chirpy. & I expected more of "Sofistifunk" than just light jazzy background music.
They partially recovered with ROMANTIC WARRIOR -- the earlier freshness is gone, but the tunes are stronger, especially the title track & "Sorceress." My old buddy Don Vincent used to like these guys quite a bit -- to the point of buying the members' solo albums. So now I can hear what some of the attraction was. Doesn't explain why RTF's Columbia best-of sucked so bad -- except for the cuts from ROMANTIC WARRIOR. Probably because the version of the band that Corea kept going with after this was pretty-much a whole different group....
Elton Dean has a beautiful sax solo in the middle of "Esther's Nose Job." & the sax-led opening theme of "Out-Bloody-Rageous" still sounds great. Still can't get through the screechy-feedback opening of "Facelift," though....
Hard to believe now that Ian Dury was a figure of some controversy back in '78. The 3 songs listed above are funny & charming, & not the slightest bit threatening. They almost sound like British music-hall -- WAY closer to Benny Hill than the Sex Pistols or the Clash. But I remember there was a lot of controversy about Elvis Costello & The Cars, too....
More soon!