Heard all of these in a four-hour musicking-out session a week ago and have yet to report on them here:
* Henry Cow with Slapp Happy: "In Praise of Learning" (1975) -- Loud, screechy, sometimes annoying, but not completely terrible. One track, "Beautiful as the Moon - Terrible as an Army With Banners" actually gets its political message across in a compelling portrait of The End Times. Most annoying thing about this band is Dagmar Krause's sing-song vocals, like some kind of German music-hall. Occasional nice piano, screechy guitar, wayward horns, but overall not too far from National Health or Hatfield and the North. I might even keep it.
* Badfinger: "Straight Up" (1972) -- "Perfection" is the hidden gem on this album, but even so it doesn't measure up to the awesome "Baby Blue" and the gorgeous "Day After Day," or even "Name of the Game" -- a stronger version of which is included on Apple's Badfinger best-of. The best of this is pleasant enough, but it comes nowhere near hitting as hard as the two hit singles.
* David Bowie: "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" (1972) -- Heard this once or twice before over the years and always thought it sounded cramped, pinched, uncomfortable. Listened to the whole thing from start to finish this time around, relaxed and enjoyed all of it, was no longer distracted by whatever Bowie was up to. Nor did I feel a need to connect the dots to make it all "make sense." Maybe I've finally gotten used to him?
* Bruce Springsteen: "Born to Run" (1975) -- I've loved the title hit since back in '75. I was the only person I knew who bought the single back in the day. But I'd never heard the whole album, so.... The title song's a classic of course, and I loved "She's the One." "Thunder Road"'s a good, solid opener and "Meeting Across the River" is a nice moody change of pace. But I admit I was starting to drift a bit by the time I got to "Backstreets" ... or whatever it was.
I also finished listening to Mott the Hoople's first album and "Brain Capers," both feature good, solid stuff on their Side 2's, but I admit the surprise and enjoyment I experienced when first hearing their early work awhile back has since worn off a little.
More soon!
2 comments:
David Bowie remains a acquired taste. I do have Ziggy Stardust but Hoky Dorky is the best of that era Bowie. I am glad I do have most of the Badfinger albums of that era, tho Ass bored me. Straight Up should have been a classic, Day After Day has been overplayed to death, likewise Baby Blue, but I liked Todd's mix better than the LP's stolic mix.
We can probably go back n forth on Mott's albums, tho I still find the Blonde On Blonde vocals of Ian Hunter on At The Crossroads and Laugh At Me hilarious. Rock and Roll Queen still leads off Side 2 on a bang and Half Moon Bay is a chore to listen through, however it has grown on me last time I played it. Brain Capers' Death May Be Your Santa Claus is as good, if not better than All The Young Dudes. I'm sure Guy Stevens is the problem of B.C, going for a one take feel, warts and all. The Journey is a 8 minute mess that becomes the side closer of side 2, which may have derailed that song from classic Crock radio. But we'll never know, Nobody plays MTH except that David Bowie song. Which I could take or leave.
In re the amusing Bowie comment, I do actually think you can get used to music that you hadn't immediately liked. Some bands, like, I don't know . . . Henry Cow . . . or the Velvet Underground, perhaps, bank on the fact.
That having been said, sometimes an appreciation never comes. I can say this because I have noted the very same situation with me and the music of Captain Beefheart. I think I've given up by now, but for a while there, every eight years or so I'd try again--but it would never happen for me. Maybe I need the actual trout mask, not just a replica?
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