- Jethro Tull: Aqualung. You know, I've always hated this, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention. I love Tull's lighter, folkier stuff, and the phased vocals, light guitar, and formal piano in the second parts of the verses aren't too far off from what I prefer. But then the heaviness picks back up again. Maybe I've just heard this too many times over the years for it to have much impact for me. And I've been tuning it out after those first few notes for a long time.... Decent show-offy guitar from Martin Barre in the middle. Too bad they then play the whole thing over....
- Jethro Tull: Cross-Eyed Mary, from AQUALUNG. And of course one of the big problems with Tull is you've got to get past Ian Anderson's voice. But some nice flute work in the opening and middle. Too bad about Ian's ugly vocal tone.... And it's all so deliberately heavy and ugly.
- Jethro Tull: Wond'ring Aloud, from AQUALUNG. This isn't bad, but it sounds just like "Nursie" on LIVING IN THE PAST. Except it's longer.
- Jethro Tull: Hymn 43, from AQUALUNG. Heard this too many times, too. They're trying so hard to be heavy. Can't see why anyone would want to hear something this ugly more than once. "But it ROCKS!" they scream. And if you think I'm gonna play "Locomotive Breath," you're nuts.
- Kayak: I Want You to be Mine, from STARLIGHT DANCER. On the other hand, ugly's better than bland. This sounds like bad early-'80s Genesis (same thing, right?). I remember this album getting a big push when it came out back in '77 -- saw a couple record stores with posters of the album-cover in their front windows. Wonder why? This isn't truly terrible, but it's way light -- dinky keyboard sound, bouncy little rhythm, and lame attempts at hooks. Perfect for MOR radio!
- Kayak: Ballad for a Lost Friend, from STARLIGHT DANCER. Rather nice dramatic guitar and keyboards up front, then a thin Phil Collins-like vocal. Then more cheezy keyboard. Guitar's not bad, though. That repeating guitar fanfare's the best part. Get this: Their music-publishing company was called Heavy Music. Haha. OK, not bad.
- Strawbs: The Promised Land, from NOMADNESS. Not bad -- the big sound the fans loved, and a built-in contrast from Dave Cousins' weedy, sometimes grating vocals. Then some VERY grandiose piano. Equally show-offy guitar. At least it's fairly short.
- Strawbs: Back on the Farm, from NOMADNESS. Hey, acoustic! Lighter, not as heavy as they often were during this period. And on the album it follows "Absent Friend (How I Need You)," so it comes as a real blessing after that overwrought piece of crap. Nice little English-country feel.
- Strawbs: Alexander the Great, from BURNING FOR YOU. Believe it or not, this seems to be the story of a has-been rocker who tries for a big comeback. Yoked to a heavier, bouncier production than on the last album. Too bad about Dave Cousins' over-the-top vocal. Some piercing heavy guitar. Kinda pushy, bad-time music.
- Strawbs: Barcarole (for the death of Venice), from BURNING FOR YOU. Pretty, simple chorale-and-keyboard piece. Not overwrought. Kind of soothing. But as precious as anything they ever did.
- Strawbs: Burning for Me, from BURNING FOR YOU. Not bad. Hushed, dramatic ballad. Could actually see playing it again sometime in the future. The best thing here.
- The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis. Taking you back to 1968! ...Wow, sounds just like ELP! I really like Keith Emerson's squiggly keyboards. But what's that ORCHESTRA doing in there? ...They're not gonna mess this up by SINGING are they? Yes, they are, eventually. Nice prelude -- but they're only three minutes in, and they go into a drum solo? They were kidding, right? ... Yeezus, and it's a really LONG drum solo.... Then into a long, jazzy keybs-and-drums interlude ... then a keybs-and-orchestra movement, some of the tune stolen from Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto." Some of this is OK, especially for the time, and the production seems clear enough, which is kind of a surprise. Emerson's keyboards are really pretty bouncy and enjoyable. And that orchestra swings! If they'd taken out that drum solo, I'd be pretty enthusiastic. Then Emerson gets five more minutes to show off. Overall, not completely awful. "Art will still be there, even if life terminates." -- Keith Emerson.
- The Nice: Daddy Where Did I Come From?, from ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS. No, I'm not gonna play "America," because even with its awful muddy production, I still think it's pretty freakin' great, so it doesn't fit in here. THIS, however, is just silly. A musical bad joke, with spoken-word interjections and spacey phasing on the backing vocals. Also some nice keyboards even though they don't take center-stage. And The Question never really gets answered....
- Todd Rundgren's Utopia: Another Life, from ANOTHER LIVE. Hey, I like the wobbly three-keyboards-and-guitar sound. I like the five-minute introduction. Not sure about the group vocals, they're a little operatic. Sounds kinda like THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. Could almost be Magma.
- Utopia: The Wheel, from ANOTHER LIVE. This is way more down-to-earth. Pretty gutsy to try a simple acoustic singalong like this after that opening.... This sounds like an above-average Todd ballad. How'd it slip in here? Todd goes on a little long on the solo vocal at the end. But it had its moments.
- Procol Harum: Typewriter Torment, from PROCOL'S NINTH. Lyricist Keith Reid whines about having to write words for this overbearing classic-rock band. But he would have been happier if they'd sold more records. Very small laughs. This isn't as overbearing as I'd expected. Bit of a bluesy undercurrent, and you can hear the piano loud and clear -- organ's mixed down so it doesn't get in the way, except on the middle break. Fairly lively, not completely terrible. Produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
- Procol Harum: Eight Days a Week, from PROCOL'S NINTH. Yes, THAT "Eight Days a Week." Flattened out, not joyous like the original, almost sounds like the Strawbs. Singer/pianist Gary Brooker sounds pretty uninspired. Not the worst version of a Beatles song ever, but ... Pretty bad.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
John Wetton of King Crimson, U.K., Asia, dead at 67
John Wetton, the smokey-voiced singer, songwriter and bassist for Asia, King Crimson, U.K. and other progressive-rock bands, has died at 67 from colon cancer.
King Crimson guitarist/leader Bob Fripp once called Wetton the best bassist of his generation.
Wetton also played with Roxy Music, Family, Uriah Heep, Wetton/Manzanera, Mogul Thrash and others.
My buddy Crabby has compiled some farewells to John from his colleagues Carl Palmer, Phil Manzanera, Geoff Downes and others. Radio will probably play some Asia hits as a farewell. Instead, I'd recommend hearing John's voice and bass on tracks like King Crimson's awesome "Starless" (or any mid-'70s Crimson album; their RED album would likely never have been finished without Wetton), "The Great Deceiver," "The Night Watch," "Easy Money," "Exiles," "Lament," or anything on KC's huge 4-CD GREAT DECEIVER/LIVE box set -- and on U.K.'s great "Time to Kill," "Mental Medication," or the "In the Dead of Night" suite off their first album.
And I still think somebody better get that oral history of Prog done before we lose someone else....
King Crimson guitarist/leader Bob Fripp once called Wetton the best bassist of his generation.
Wetton also played with Roxy Music, Family, Uriah Heep, Wetton/Manzanera, Mogul Thrash and others.
My buddy Crabby has compiled some farewells to John from his colleagues Carl Palmer, Phil Manzanera, Geoff Downes and others. Radio will probably play some Asia hits as a farewell. Instead, I'd recommend hearing John's voice and bass on tracks like King Crimson's awesome "Starless" (or any mid-'70s Crimson album; their RED album would likely never have been finished without Wetton), "The Great Deceiver," "The Night Watch," "Easy Money," "Exiles," "Lament," or anything on KC's huge 4-CD GREAT DECEIVER/LIVE box set -- and on U.K.'s great "Time to Kill," "Mental Medication," or the "In the Dead of Night" suite off their first album.
And I still think somebody better get that oral history of Prog done before we lose someone else....
Monday, January 30, 2017
More new-to-me Prog
* Gordon Giltrap: Awakening, Robes and Crowns, from VISIONARY. Mildly New-Agey guitar-led Prog instrumental background music from English guitarist. "Awakening" has a flamenco-style feel to it, "Robes" is more pastoral. Nice, though the tunes aren't real distinctive. Clear production. Songs supposedly inspired by the works of William Blake.
* Gordon Giltrap: From the Four Winds, from VISIONARY. The production is stronger than the tunes. Again featuring keyboards by Rod Edwards, John G. Perry (from middle-period Caravan) on bass, Simon Phillips on drums, plus an orchestra. Unlike Giltrap's later PERILOUS JOURNEY, which seemed to highlight Edwards' keyboards, the focus here seems squarely on Giltrap's guitars.
* Gordon Giltrap: Lucifer's Cage, Revelation, from VISIONARY. "Lucifer's Cage" adds a wordless vocal at the end and picks up a little intensity. Overall, a really short side. Very pleasant and enjoyable. Nice work, though I'm not stunned by the tunes.
* Journey: Destiny, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. Opens with nice pastoral guitar and flute(?), then a thinly-mixed orchestra leaning way too far to the treble side. Then Steve Perry's airy vocals, sounding like he might have a lisp. But at least he's not looking at himself in the mirror. Then some airy choral vocals. Originally this was a high-priced Japanese import, the soundtrack for a Japanese love-story film. Then was released as a budget-priced album in America. Haven't heard this since about 1980. Doesn't sound like commercial Journey at all -- no rock progressions, no catchy choruses. For the first five minutes or so. Then the heavy bass kicks in ... and the excitement picks up. This sounds more like Journey.... Little bit of Neal Schon showing off on guitar, but it's all sparkly, glittery. Not bad, really. Clear high-tech production from Kevin Elson and the band. If you like Journey's album tracks "Daydream" and "People and Places," you'll probably like this.
* Journey: Snow Theme, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. This really does sound like soundtrack music. The orchestra takes over, except from solo passages from Gregg Rolie's piano. Pretty, but it doesn't do much.
* Journey: Sandcastles, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. Still moody, airy soundtrack music, with more light Perry vocals (though not as high-pitched as some he did on EVOLUTION), and added sax played by nobody in the band. Perry's vocals sound kind of tired, like he did on the first track. Not bad, but way light.
* Journey: A Few Coins, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. Lasts about 40 seconds.
* Bruford: Hell's Bells, from THE BRUFORD TAPES. No, not THAT "Hell's Bells." Have Bruford's best-of, but have never heard this, a concert recorded for a New York City radio station in 1979. At first the crowd is louder than the players, but they finally step it up, and Dave Stewart's (no, not THAT Dave Stewart) keyboards actually sound fairly normal and rock pretty good. Sounds a little like King Crimson with added keyboards, no surprise. Little keyboard phrases repeated over and over with minor variations -- you might almost call that a hook....
* Bruford: Sample and Hold, from THE BRUFORD TAPES. Now you can tell Bill Bruford's on here, you almost couldn't hear him on "Hell's Bells." Nobody else has that sort of boxy drum sound. Quick melodic shifts and moves, little phrases from Stewart's keyboards bounced around and elaborated on by the band. Nice, OK, very deft and athletic, not sure if the tunes ever quite grab and hold, but nice moves. Brief guitar freakouts by "the unknown" John Clark, who had a tough act to follow by having to replace Allan Holdsworth in this band. But a lot of talent on display here....
* Bruford: Fainting in Coils, from THE BRUFORD TAPES. Complex, Crimson-y, with some low-end, farty guitar and keyboards. I swear Allan Holdsworth is still playing guitar with this band.... And what is this mechanical, staccato keyboard-and-guitar riff? Thank Ghod they come out of that with more soaring guitar.... Then a silly fake-ending that gets the crowd off.
* Colosseum: The Kettle, from THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU. Noise from this late-'60s jazz-rock jam-band. Heavy. But they're better when nobody's singing. Hendrixy guitar from James Litherland. Where's the sax?
* Colosseum: Those Who Are About to Die Salute You. Dated organ-and-sax jam, SO 1968. Then the fuzz-guitar comes in. Guess you had to be there. Yeezus, their "Valentyne Suite" sounds WAY better than this. Gets a little more rhythmic and a little better later on, but still....
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Davy's on the Road Again, from WATCH. Written by Robbie Robertson of The Band and producer John Simon. Not bad, moves nicely, Manfred shows off on keybs in the middle, apparently was a good-sized hit single in England. OK. Why had I never heard this before?
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Martha's Madman, from WATCH. Good moody drama, builds nicely. Chris Thompson's vocals sure made a difference for the EB. And Mann's keybs, of course. Manfred has that ghostly keyboard sound down in the middle-section here. Would have made a good follow-up to "Blinded by the Light."
* Brand X: Why Should I Lend You Mine When You've Broken Yours Off Already?, from MOROCCAN ROLL. At first it's spacey noise, written by The Phil Collins. Twinkly keybs from Robin Lumley, the usual funky bass from Percy Jones. Gets airy-er and more atmospheric as it goes. Pretty and spacey, airy wordless vocals at the end set it off nicely. A kinda washy but very pleasant 11 minutes.
* Brand X: Hate Zone, from MOROCCAN ROLL. Starts with a drum solo, then some funky bass from Percy Jones and spacey guitar from John Goodsall. Lots of activity, lots going on here, not much in the way of melody, but funky and bouncy enough.
* Brand X: Collapsar, from MOROCCAN ROLL. Spacey keyboards, pleasant but short. Sounds like a work in progress. Fades out too soon.
* Gordon Giltrap: From the Four Winds, from VISIONARY. The production is stronger than the tunes. Again featuring keyboards by Rod Edwards, John G. Perry (from middle-period Caravan) on bass, Simon Phillips on drums, plus an orchestra. Unlike Giltrap's later PERILOUS JOURNEY, which seemed to highlight Edwards' keyboards, the focus here seems squarely on Giltrap's guitars.
* Gordon Giltrap: Lucifer's Cage, Revelation, from VISIONARY. "Lucifer's Cage" adds a wordless vocal at the end and picks up a little intensity. Overall, a really short side. Very pleasant and enjoyable. Nice work, though I'm not stunned by the tunes.
* Journey: Destiny, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. Opens with nice pastoral guitar and flute(?), then a thinly-mixed orchestra leaning way too far to the treble side. Then Steve Perry's airy vocals, sounding like he might have a lisp. But at least he's not looking at himself in the mirror. Then some airy choral vocals. Originally this was a high-priced Japanese import, the soundtrack for a Japanese love-story film. Then was released as a budget-priced album in America. Haven't heard this since about 1980. Doesn't sound like commercial Journey at all -- no rock progressions, no catchy choruses. For the first five minutes or so. Then the heavy bass kicks in ... and the excitement picks up. This sounds more like Journey.... Little bit of Neal Schon showing off on guitar, but it's all sparkly, glittery. Not bad, really. Clear high-tech production from Kevin Elson and the band. If you like Journey's album tracks "Daydream" and "People and Places," you'll probably like this.
* Journey: Snow Theme, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. This really does sound like soundtrack music. The orchestra takes over, except from solo passages from Gregg Rolie's piano. Pretty, but it doesn't do much.
* Journey: Sandcastles, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. Still moody, airy soundtrack music, with more light Perry vocals (though not as high-pitched as some he did on EVOLUTION), and added sax played by nobody in the band. Perry's vocals sound kind of tired, like he did on the first track. Not bad, but way light.
* Journey: A Few Coins, from DREAM AFTER DREAM. Lasts about 40 seconds.
* Bruford: Hell's Bells, from THE BRUFORD TAPES. No, not THAT "Hell's Bells." Have Bruford's best-of, but have never heard this, a concert recorded for a New York City radio station in 1979. At first the crowd is louder than the players, but they finally step it up, and Dave Stewart's (no, not THAT Dave Stewart) keyboards actually sound fairly normal and rock pretty good. Sounds a little like King Crimson with added keyboards, no surprise. Little keyboard phrases repeated over and over with minor variations -- you might almost call that a hook....
* Bruford: Sample and Hold, from THE BRUFORD TAPES. Now you can tell Bill Bruford's on here, you almost couldn't hear him on "Hell's Bells." Nobody else has that sort of boxy drum sound. Quick melodic shifts and moves, little phrases from Stewart's keyboards bounced around and elaborated on by the band. Nice, OK, very deft and athletic, not sure if the tunes ever quite grab and hold, but nice moves. Brief guitar freakouts by "the unknown" John Clark, who had a tough act to follow by having to replace Allan Holdsworth in this band. But a lot of talent on display here....
* Bruford: Fainting in Coils, from THE BRUFORD TAPES. Complex, Crimson-y, with some low-end, farty guitar and keyboards. I swear Allan Holdsworth is still playing guitar with this band.... And what is this mechanical, staccato keyboard-and-guitar riff? Thank Ghod they come out of that with more soaring guitar.... Then a silly fake-ending that gets the crowd off.
* Colosseum: The Kettle, from THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU. Noise from this late-'60s jazz-rock jam-band. Heavy. But they're better when nobody's singing. Hendrixy guitar from James Litherland. Where's the sax?
* Colosseum: Those Who Are About to Die Salute You. Dated organ-and-sax jam, SO 1968. Then the fuzz-guitar comes in. Guess you had to be there. Yeezus, their "Valentyne Suite" sounds WAY better than this. Gets a little more rhythmic and a little better later on, but still....
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Davy's on the Road Again, from WATCH. Written by Robbie Robertson of The Band and producer John Simon. Not bad, moves nicely, Manfred shows off on keybs in the middle, apparently was a good-sized hit single in England. OK. Why had I never heard this before?
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Martha's Madman, from WATCH. Good moody drama, builds nicely. Chris Thompson's vocals sure made a difference for the EB. And Mann's keybs, of course. Manfred has that ghostly keyboard sound down in the middle-section here. Would have made a good follow-up to "Blinded by the Light."
* Brand X: Why Should I Lend You Mine When You've Broken Yours Off Already?, from MOROCCAN ROLL. At first it's spacey noise, written by The Phil Collins. Twinkly keybs from Robin Lumley, the usual funky bass from Percy Jones. Gets airy-er and more atmospheric as it goes. Pretty and spacey, airy wordless vocals at the end set it off nicely. A kinda washy but very pleasant 11 minutes.
* Brand X: Hate Zone, from MOROCCAN ROLL. Starts with a drum solo, then some funky bass from Percy Jones and spacey guitar from John Goodsall. Lots of activity, lots going on here, not much in the way of melody, but funky and bouncy enough.
* Brand X: Collapsar, from MOROCCAN ROLL. Spacey keyboards, pleasant but short. Sounds like a work in progress. Fades out too soon.
The former home of Really Bad Prog
Hey, recent news got you down? Worried about the fate of the world? Thinking about emigrating to Canada? Need some laughs? Check out The Progressive Rock Hall of Infamy, here. If you're a big Prog fan, these guys are freaking hilarious. And even if you're not.
At their blog, you'll find hilarious (and REALLY long-winded) reviews of some of the worst Prog albums ever, their readers' choices for The Five Worst Prog Bands Ever (and the bloggers' 20 nominees for this ultimate dishonor), long reviews of obscure Prog albums no one's ever heard of, lots of hilarious cheap shots, and even reports of death threats the writers received for their reviews. Really great fun, and they're even from Seattle.
Only one problem -- they stopped writing in 2010. But don't let that stop you. Their blog shows clearly that being devoted to Prog is A Mission. And it's amazing how much crap they listened to in order to carry out a public service.
Plus they're funny as hell, besides.
Yes, they love King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator. Yes, they hate Yes. And ELP. And Styx. And Camel. Don't let this stop you. If you're a Prog fan, you need to check 'em out. And you can thank me after you finish laughing. That may take awhile....
At their blog, you'll find hilarious (and REALLY long-winded) reviews of some of the worst Prog albums ever, their readers' choices for The Five Worst Prog Bands Ever (and the bloggers' 20 nominees for this ultimate dishonor), long reviews of obscure Prog albums no one's ever heard of, lots of hilarious cheap shots, and even reports of death threats the writers received for their reviews. Really great fun, and they're even from Seattle.
Only one problem -- they stopped writing in 2010. But don't let that stop you. Their blog shows clearly that being devoted to Prog is A Mission. And it's amazing how much crap they listened to in order to carry out a public service.
Plus they're funny as hell, besides.
Yes, they love King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator. Yes, they hate Yes. And ELP. And Styx. And Camel. Don't let this stop you. If you're a Prog fan, you need to check 'em out. And you can thank me after you finish laughing. That may take awhile....
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Your daily birdcage-liner
It shouldn't be a surprise, and I'm sure someone's pointed it out way before me, but it's really pretty amazing how quickly the Internet has replaced the morning newspaper -- in just the way science-fiction writers predicted that computers would Totally Change Our Lives, years ago. These days if I'm too groggy even to try reading a real book, I can still pop open the laptop and suck up the latest news feeds.
Makes me wonder how I ever thought "published on the Internet" was a contradiction in terms.
Now, by the time I see a newspaper at work, I hardly ever look beyond the headlines. I've usually heard all the front-page stories on the radio or seen all the latest updates over the Internet.
Of course, newspapers can provide some DEPTH to the big stories -- or provide some opinions and humor with their columnists -- but thanks to blogs and all the people expressing opinions or joking around on-line, the Net's pretty-much got newspapers beat there, too.
So I wonder how long it'll be before all newspapers go on-line only, like the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER did, and NEWSWEEK magazine.
Probably not long.
I can't remember the last time I read something in a newspaper that really surprised me. Not in this 24-hour world, where you can get The Latest on your TV, smartphone, laptop, through texts, etc etc. Really pretty amazing. And addictive.
This past week I got back on Facebook after figuring it wasn't worth the trouble six months ago. And now that I've finally discovered (and figured out how to work) the SHARE button, I'm spending a few minutes each day trying to find OUTRAGEOUS news stories to share with my seven(?) Facebook followers worldwide.
It's addictive.
And luckily, outrageous news stories haven't been that hard to find lately.
It's pretty amazing, this multi-media behemoth we have all around us these days. Word about happenings spreads quicker than ever before, reactions come in faster, the hype builds up bigger. It's hard not to get carried away by all of it. Even if it would be better to sit back and take a breath and try to figure out what it all means.
I'm as guilty of this as anyone, and Ghod knows there's a lot to talk about these days. (Still haven't found any evidence that there are demonstrations and riots in Seattle EVERY DAY -- though it must sometimes SEEM like it, if you live there. If there's something to protest, Seattle people will hit the streets to do it. And there's been lots to protest, lately.)
...No deep thoughts here, just surprising to me that things have changed so quickly. Sometimes you get pushed into the High-Tech Space Age before you're even aware of it.
...By the way, have you re-read 1984 lately...?
Makes me wonder how I ever thought "published on the Internet" was a contradiction in terms.
Now, by the time I see a newspaper at work, I hardly ever look beyond the headlines. I've usually heard all the front-page stories on the radio or seen all the latest updates over the Internet.
Of course, newspapers can provide some DEPTH to the big stories -- or provide some opinions and humor with their columnists -- but thanks to blogs and all the people expressing opinions or joking around on-line, the Net's pretty-much got newspapers beat there, too.
So I wonder how long it'll be before all newspapers go on-line only, like the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER did, and NEWSWEEK magazine.
Probably not long.
I can't remember the last time I read something in a newspaper that really surprised me. Not in this 24-hour world, where you can get The Latest on your TV, smartphone, laptop, through texts, etc etc. Really pretty amazing. And addictive.
This past week I got back on Facebook after figuring it wasn't worth the trouble six months ago. And now that I've finally discovered (and figured out how to work) the SHARE button, I'm spending a few minutes each day trying to find OUTRAGEOUS news stories to share with my seven(?) Facebook followers worldwide.
It's addictive.
And luckily, outrageous news stories haven't been that hard to find lately.
It's pretty amazing, this multi-media behemoth we have all around us these days. Word about happenings spreads quicker than ever before, reactions come in faster, the hype builds up bigger. It's hard not to get carried away by all of it. Even if it would be better to sit back and take a breath and try to figure out what it all means.
I'm as guilty of this as anyone, and Ghod knows there's a lot to talk about these days. (Still haven't found any evidence that there are demonstrations and riots in Seattle EVERY DAY -- though it must sometimes SEEM like it, if you live there. If there's something to protest, Seattle people will hit the streets to do it. And there's been lots to protest, lately.)
...No deep thoughts here, just surprising to me that things have changed so quickly. Sometimes you get pushed into the High-Tech Space Age before you're even aware of it.
...By the way, have you re-read 1984 lately...?
Saturday, January 28, 2017
"You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet"
There was always a push for More Gas. If you wanted to go cruisin' with Jay in the Impala, you had to pony up some cash for More Gas. Any girls who went riding around with Jay would be asked to contribute to the Gas Fund. I tossed in the lunch money I got from Mom and Dad. Jay dropped out after three days in high school, and had a job for a few weeks as a car-detailer, but after he quit that job it was a constant scramble for More Gas Money.
And there were other ways to get gas for the car....
During our aimless drives around west Boise, we started looking for gas cans. We'd grab jerry-cans off the sides of Jeeps or out of the backs of boats. If Jay found a car without a locking gas-cap on a dark side-street, he'd get out and try to siphon some gas out of it with his "Oklahoma credit card" -- a beat-up hunk of old garden hose. This was back when locking gas-caps were still pretty uncommon. I'm sure we boosted the sales of them through our efforts.
If the little needle was pointing to "E" on the gas gauge, sometimes we got more desperate. We'd cruise around looking for open garage doors, and would slow down while looking for gas cans to grab.
This may sound kind of desperate -- it actually wasn't that bad a time. The radio was always going, playing great '70s stuff like BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," the J. Geils Band's "I Musta Got Lost," Eric Burdon's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood/Nina's School," Mike McGear's "Leave It," Wings's "Junior's Farm," various Al Green hits, and lots more. There were almost always girls around, who wanted to go cruising with the outlaw with the long black hair and the hot car. They were always charming, even if they were hanging all over my brother.
Sometimes Jay sent me to investigate the gas-can situation a little more closely. Hey, I had to do something -- I wasn't old enough to drive.
Cruising slowly through a subdivision, we spotted a five-gallon gas can sitting right at the front of a dark, open garage. There was only one light on in the house. Seemed pretty quiet here, so Jay sent me to grab the gas can. He rolled the car slowly down the street, saying he'd circle back to pick me up.
I tiptoed up across the lawn to the side of the garage, grabbed the gas-can by the handle on top, and lifted. And I started laughing uncontrollably when I realized how heavy it was. The can was FULL. This was going to make Jay so happy. I'd done something worthwhile, for once.
Turning away from the garage, I thought I heard a low growl behind me....
Laughing out loud, heavy gas can in hand, I ran across the front yard to the street. I couldn't stop laughing. Jay was gonna be so proud of me! Maybe he'd get off my back for awhile....
I didn't know it, but behind me lights were coming on in the house.
The street was empty as I made my way across the lawn, but suddenly the Impala pulled up in front of me with a SCREECH.
Jay was leaning across the front seat and opening the passenger-side door.
"GET IN THE CAR!!!" he yelled.
Laughing, the gas can clanging and sloshing against my legs, I climbed in the car and we screeched down the street.
We all screamed and laughed as Jay tore through the subdivision, much faster than usual. A few blocks away, he turned a corner, pulled over, shut off the car and turned off the headlights.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Ssssh," he said. "I'm listening for the sirens."
There weren't any.
"Jesus," he said, turning to me. "You scared the SHIT out of me. Right as I pulled up in front of the house, a light came on in the garage and some BIG GUY came out.... And there was a BIG DOG in the garage...."
I started laughing hysterically. "I didn't see any of that."
"I KNOW," he said. "You were just tip-toein' across the lawn like you were walkin' in the park, everything's cool ... ya fuckin' dumbass. But you done good."
That full five-gallon gas can would fuel cruising sessions for at least the next couple of nights.
Later on, things would get a lot uglier. Jay would stop coming home -- and when he did come home, when no one else was around, he'd steal money from our folks. Then he started breaking into our friends' houses, looking for more gas money....
And there were other ways to get gas for the car....
During our aimless drives around west Boise, we started looking for gas cans. We'd grab jerry-cans off the sides of Jeeps or out of the backs of boats. If Jay found a car without a locking gas-cap on a dark side-street, he'd get out and try to siphon some gas out of it with his "Oklahoma credit card" -- a beat-up hunk of old garden hose. This was back when locking gas-caps were still pretty uncommon. I'm sure we boosted the sales of them through our efforts.
If the little needle was pointing to "E" on the gas gauge, sometimes we got more desperate. We'd cruise around looking for open garage doors, and would slow down while looking for gas cans to grab.
This may sound kind of desperate -- it actually wasn't that bad a time. The radio was always going, playing great '70s stuff like BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," the J. Geils Band's "I Musta Got Lost," Eric Burdon's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood/Nina's School," Mike McGear's "Leave It," Wings's "Junior's Farm," various Al Green hits, and lots more. There were almost always girls around, who wanted to go cruising with the outlaw with the long black hair and the hot car. They were always charming, even if they were hanging all over my brother.
Sometimes Jay sent me to investigate the gas-can situation a little more closely. Hey, I had to do something -- I wasn't old enough to drive.
Cruising slowly through a subdivision, we spotted a five-gallon gas can sitting right at the front of a dark, open garage. There was only one light on in the house. Seemed pretty quiet here, so Jay sent me to grab the gas can. He rolled the car slowly down the street, saying he'd circle back to pick me up.
I tiptoed up across the lawn to the side of the garage, grabbed the gas-can by the handle on top, and lifted. And I started laughing uncontrollably when I realized how heavy it was. The can was FULL. This was going to make Jay so happy. I'd done something worthwhile, for once.
Turning away from the garage, I thought I heard a low growl behind me....
Laughing out loud, heavy gas can in hand, I ran across the front yard to the street. I couldn't stop laughing. Jay was gonna be so proud of me! Maybe he'd get off my back for awhile....
I didn't know it, but behind me lights were coming on in the house.
The street was empty as I made my way across the lawn, but suddenly the Impala pulled up in front of me with a SCREECH.
Jay was leaning across the front seat and opening the passenger-side door.
"GET IN THE CAR!!!" he yelled.
Laughing, the gas can clanging and sloshing against my legs, I climbed in the car and we screeched down the street.
We all screamed and laughed as Jay tore through the subdivision, much faster than usual. A few blocks away, he turned a corner, pulled over, shut off the car and turned off the headlights.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Ssssh," he said. "I'm listening for the sirens."
There weren't any.
"Jesus," he said, turning to me. "You scared the SHIT out of me. Right as I pulled up in front of the house, a light came on in the garage and some BIG GUY came out.... And there was a BIG DOG in the garage...."
I started laughing hysterically. "I didn't see any of that."
"I KNOW," he said. "You were just tip-toein' across the lawn like you were walkin' in the park, everything's cool ... ya fuckin' dumbass. But you done good."
That full five-gallon gas can would fuel cruising sessions for at least the next couple of nights.
Later on, things would get a lot uglier. Jay would stop coming home -- and when he did come home, when no one else was around, he'd steal money from our folks. Then he started breaking into our friends' houses, looking for more gas money....
Friday, January 27, 2017
Trump's biggest fans
I might be better able to handle Donald Trump, more willing to give him time to mess up on his own, if it weren't for some of his followers.
I used to rent a room from one, and I've met several more through my job. I went to a concert with one last fall -- before I realized he was a Trump-backer. Before that I thought he was just a rock and roll fan like me.
Some of these men -- and they're all aging middle- or lower-class white men -- are even more disconnected from Reality than Trump is. And they think he's going to be their savior.
All these men think there's something really wrong with America -- something that's been wrong for years. They look around and see minorities getting breaks they were never offered, getting help they never asked for, getting opportunities these men squandered when they were younger -- and they think that's wrong. They think Trump will help get them all the things they never had or were too lazy to go after. Trump will balance things out, give America back to real Americans.
Trump will make America great again. And put aging white men back in charge.
One of these guys came into work last night, threatening to run over protesters in Seattle if they get in his way when he's over there today. I told him nobody'd get in his way, he didn't need to worry. The only protests were a week ago, after the inauguration.
He said "There are protests every day in Seattle. People are setting fires and damaging businesses -- and the liberal Media LibTards won't cover it."
I called bullshit on this, asked him where he heard this. He said his brother lives in Seattle and sees this rioting happening EVERY DAY.
Now, Seattle-area media's pretty solid -- and I've never met a reporter who WOULDN'T cover a riot if there was one going on close by. So I don't know what to think, except that this guy's deranged. And so's his brother. Of course I could be wrong. And then I started wondering about how much I don't know and never hear....
This guy said he'd already talked to the Seattle Police about his intentions toward LibTard protesters. Well, at least the police know he's coming....
Back before the election, I had another guy come into the store late at night -- in his 60's, heavy, tired, grumpy, probably a little achey. While I was ringing up his purchase, he started announcing: "You know, Donald Trump's gonna make this country great again! He's gonna take us back to when things worked RIGHT! You know, like when kids could pray in schools!"
And I wanted to ask: What year was that? Because I started school in 1965, and we sure weren't praying then. And do you know any schoolkid who'd make a prayer any more complex than "Oh God, please let me pass this test"? Or maybe "God, please don't let me get bullied again today."
I wanted to engage with this guy, but I let it go -- because I could tell by his ANNOUNCING that he was just looking for someone to argue with.
My old roommate and I used to argue for HOURS about the world's problems, and about which political party could best help the country tackle them -- or whether either party made any difference, whether it was too late for ANYONE to rescue the country from its many difficulties.
If my old roommate could have been bothered to vote, he would have voted for Trump -- because Trump was in favor of all the things my roommate went on about: Put women back in their place (at home, in the kitchen), no more breaks for minorities and immigrants, too many people on food stamps, too many slackers getting free food and money when they've done nothing to earn it, women getting money and food stamps just for having kids, none of these slackers ever work, they should all be drug tested, etc. etc. etc.
You have no IDEA how wearying it got hearing this stuff day after day....
The guy who took me to the Tedeschi-Trucks Band concert last September (it was a present, because I notified him they were going to be back in Seattle) seemed like a rock fan just like me -- 10 years older than me, former drummer, played in bands when he was younger, partied heavily, slept around a lot, almost went to Woodstock. A big blues fan. He even still listened to Savoy Brown!
The concert was great -- but on the way home I got a 45-minute lecture about what's wrong with America and how Donald Trump's going to fix it. I didn't see this coming.
This guy was CONVINCED the Black Lives Matter people were going to kick down his door and take his guns away. SOON. And he wasn't going to let that happen -- in fact, he had a loaded pistol right there IN THE TRUCK, just in case someone messed with him.
He was POSITIVE that Trump was going to take us back to the glory days of Ronald Reagan, "back when you could feel proud to be an American." He knew Trump had the answers to all of our problems -- starting with establishing law and order above all, putting the slackers to work, and cutting off the border so those Mexicans stop taking real Americans' jobs.
I tried to be polite -- he'd taken me to the concert, and it would be an awfully long walk home. I didn't want to engage this guy, or offend him. But he kept hammering on that only the Republicans had the answers, and all the answers involved a sharp turn to the Right.
I suggested maybe if large groups of people could sit down and set aside their differences and TALK OVER our problems, maybe we could reach a consensus that would work for everyone....
"We don't have TIME for that!" he shouted. "Don't you know that blacks and Hispanics are already rioting in all the big cities...?"
Oh. I wanted to ask what happened to him -- what changed him. How he'd gone from the partying drummer who wanted to go to Woodstock, to this scared little old man who thought Black Lives Matter was going to break down his front door at any second. But I also didn't want to walk home.
We ended up shaking hands when he dropped me off, and I've only seen him a couple times since. He's had some health problems. The last time I saw him was just after the inauguration. "Trump's picks for Cabinet posts," he told me, "absolute cream of the crop. Best of the best. We are gonna get some work done."
Hey, I think a lot of things are wrong with this country. But I don't think we're going to fix it by putting guys like these in charge. Because they'll only fix it for themselves.
I used to rent a room from one, and I've met several more through my job. I went to a concert with one last fall -- before I realized he was a Trump-backer. Before that I thought he was just a rock and roll fan like me.
Some of these men -- and they're all aging middle- or lower-class white men -- are even more disconnected from Reality than Trump is. And they think he's going to be their savior.
All these men think there's something really wrong with America -- something that's been wrong for years. They look around and see minorities getting breaks they were never offered, getting help they never asked for, getting opportunities these men squandered when they were younger -- and they think that's wrong. They think Trump will help get them all the things they never had or were too lazy to go after. Trump will balance things out, give America back to real Americans.
Trump will make America great again. And put aging white men back in charge.
One of these guys came into work last night, threatening to run over protesters in Seattle if they get in his way when he's over there today. I told him nobody'd get in his way, he didn't need to worry. The only protests were a week ago, after the inauguration.
He said "There are protests every day in Seattle. People are setting fires and damaging businesses -- and the liberal Media LibTards won't cover it."
I called bullshit on this, asked him where he heard this. He said his brother lives in Seattle and sees this rioting happening EVERY DAY.
Now, Seattle-area media's pretty solid -- and I've never met a reporter who WOULDN'T cover a riot if there was one going on close by. So I don't know what to think, except that this guy's deranged. And so's his brother. Of course I could be wrong. And then I started wondering about how much I don't know and never hear....
This guy said he'd already talked to the Seattle Police about his intentions toward LibTard protesters. Well, at least the police know he's coming....
Back before the election, I had another guy come into the store late at night -- in his 60's, heavy, tired, grumpy, probably a little achey. While I was ringing up his purchase, he started announcing: "You know, Donald Trump's gonna make this country great again! He's gonna take us back to when things worked RIGHT! You know, like when kids could pray in schools!"
And I wanted to ask: What year was that? Because I started school in 1965, and we sure weren't praying then. And do you know any schoolkid who'd make a prayer any more complex than "Oh God, please let me pass this test"? Or maybe "God, please don't let me get bullied again today."
I wanted to engage with this guy, but I let it go -- because I could tell by his ANNOUNCING that he was just looking for someone to argue with.
My old roommate and I used to argue for HOURS about the world's problems, and about which political party could best help the country tackle them -- or whether either party made any difference, whether it was too late for ANYONE to rescue the country from its many difficulties.
If my old roommate could have been bothered to vote, he would have voted for Trump -- because Trump was in favor of all the things my roommate went on about: Put women back in their place (at home, in the kitchen), no more breaks for minorities and immigrants, too many people on food stamps, too many slackers getting free food and money when they've done nothing to earn it, women getting money and food stamps just for having kids, none of these slackers ever work, they should all be drug tested, etc. etc. etc.
You have no IDEA how wearying it got hearing this stuff day after day....
The guy who took me to the Tedeschi-Trucks Band concert last September (it was a present, because I notified him they were going to be back in Seattle) seemed like a rock fan just like me -- 10 years older than me, former drummer, played in bands when he was younger, partied heavily, slept around a lot, almost went to Woodstock. A big blues fan. He even still listened to Savoy Brown!
The concert was great -- but on the way home I got a 45-minute lecture about what's wrong with America and how Donald Trump's going to fix it. I didn't see this coming.
This guy was CONVINCED the Black Lives Matter people were going to kick down his door and take his guns away. SOON. And he wasn't going to let that happen -- in fact, he had a loaded pistol right there IN THE TRUCK, just in case someone messed with him.
He was POSITIVE that Trump was going to take us back to the glory days of Ronald Reagan, "back when you could feel proud to be an American." He knew Trump had the answers to all of our problems -- starting with establishing law and order above all, putting the slackers to work, and cutting off the border so those Mexicans stop taking real Americans' jobs.
I tried to be polite -- he'd taken me to the concert, and it would be an awfully long walk home. I didn't want to engage this guy, or offend him. But he kept hammering on that only the Republicans had the answers, and all the answers involved a sharp turn to the Right.
I suggested maybe if large groups of people could sit down and set aside their differences and TALK OVER our problems, maybe we could reach a consensus that would work for everyone....
"We don't have TIME for that!" he shouted. "Don't you know that blacks and Hispanics are already rioting in all the big cities...?"
Oh. I wanted to ask what happened to him -- what changed him. How he'd gone from the partying drummer who wanted to go to Woodstock, to this scared little old man who thought Black Lives Matter was going to break down his front door at any second. But I also didn't want to walk home.
We ended up shaking hands when he dropped me off, and I've only seen him a couple times since. He's had some health problems. The last time I saw him was just after the inauguration. "Trump's picks for Cabinet posts," he told me, "absolute cream of the crop. Best of the best. We are gonna get some work done."
Hey, I think a lot of things are wrong with this country. But I don't think we're going to fix it by putting guys like these in charge. Because they'll only fix it for themselves.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
More new music with no coffee!
OK, so I see that the wall Trump wants to build between us and Mexico could cost U.S. taxpayers $15 billion! You KNOW Mexico isn't going to pay for it. So if this proceeds, we'll have something ELSE in common with the Russians. Remember the Berlin Wall? There's ANOTHER country that spent billions on Protecting The Homeland and building weapons, and comparatively nothing on its people and upgrading its infrastructure.
But who cares about all that political stuff, right? On with the music!
* Gordon Giltrap: Quest, from PERILOUS JOURNEY. Pleasant, lite, bouncy guitar-based progressive-rock instrumentals. Even more than Giltrap's guitars, the star here seems to be Rod Edwards' keyboards. John G. Perry, formerly of Caravan, on bass. All-star Simon Phillips on drums. Pretty and lively. Not real distinctive. Gets mellower and more ... lyrical(?) at the end. Only Giltrap album I've heard much of is THE PEACOCK'S PARTY, which is pretty great -- but I found JOURNEY and VISIONARY dirt-cheap at Half-Price Books in Tacoma, so what the hey....
* Gordon Giltrap: The Deserter, from JOURNEY. This focuses more on Giltrap's guitar, and has a stronger tune. It's also orchestrated. Nice.
* Gordon Giltrap: "Pastoral" and "Marbio Gorge" from JOURNEY. Well, these start off pastoral. Then the instruments kick in, and "Marbio Gorge" almost rocks. Classy soundtrack music. or, as they say in England, "One for the late-night wine-and-cheese-and-good-friends crowd." Nice, though. Different. No wonder he never made it in America.
* Colosseum: Walking in the Park, from THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU. Late-'60s/early-'70s jazz-rock keyboards-and-horns jam-band from England. Swinging big-band sound not too far from WATERLOO LILY-era Caravan. production's a bit primitive. They've got the energy, though. Series of brief solos from the two keyboardists, sax, and guitar. Dick Heckstall-Smith's sax stands out most. Least attractive is whoever's doing the singing.
* Colosseum: Valentyne Suite, from THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO.... Ok, we'll see how far I can get into this 15-minute three-part thing. Opening has nice mystical keyboards and lots of energy. This ain't no laid-back New Age stuff. More good sax from Dick Heckstall-Smith. Riffy, with lots of activity -- drums, vibes, that sax, guitar and those double keyboards, all busy doing something. Jon Hiseman's a good drummer, too. They sound way better when no one's singing. Kinda dated organ sound, but I don't care. The organ really takes off in the second part, then the heavy riffing starts. I'm reminded a bit of Caravan's "For Richard." Then Keith Emerson comes in and shows off! Shocking! These guys rock! ... Then a sorta chorale section for contrast, then more riffing. If there's gotta be jazz-rock, it should all sound like this. Then there's a mellower closing section that sounds vaguely like "A Whiter Shade of Pale".... Then a noisy ending with LOTS of sax. Not bad, could grow on me. Probably will, thanks to the heavy riffing.
-- Maggie Roche of The Roches died over the weekend. She was 65. I bought the first Roches album back in '79 -- was convinced as soon as I heard Bob Fripp's guitar in the middle of the gorgeous "Hammond Song," which Maggie wrote. Fripp's guitar was what sold me, but it's the luminous vocal harmonies that mean the most to me now. Maggie also wrote a couple other highlights on that album -- "Quitting Time" and "The Married Men." Linda Ronstadt and Pheobe Snow teamed up to sing "Married Men" on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE around the same time. Only other Roches album I heard much of was NURDS, which was pretty loopy. No suprise they never got really famous. But "Hammond Song" is amazing -- you should try to track it down.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Get Your Rocks Off, from GET YOUR ROCKS OFF. Bob Dylan wrote this heavy riffer with the crude lyrics? Shocking. Sure it helped him win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nice guitar from Mick Rogers.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Buddah, from ROCKS. Dreamy verses, heavy choruses, then it gets spacey in the midsection and manfred shows off a little. What did I expect? Nice keyboard sounds. Gains momentum in the middle as it goes. OK, but somehow I expected more.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Pretty Good, from ROCKS. This is a John Prine song. Nice guitar work, and a catchy chorus. Manfred messes around just a little in the middle, but overall pretty straight-forward for these guys. And the chorus'll grow on ya.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Messin', from ROCKS. They sure were heavier when Mick Rogers was around. This has an ecology theme, sort of a mantra for choruses. Ten minutes of this? Time for lunch! ... The midsection starts spacey, then leads into a long Mick Rogers guitar freakout, which is worth hearing. Doubt if anybody got the ecology message -- they were probly too busy gettin' off on the heavy sounds, man.
* Argent: Lothlorien, from RING OF HANDS. Though not as great as their mantra-like "Dance in the Smoke," this has lots of excellent show-offy keyboard, and the vocals are nice. Melodic, too. I still think these guys are underrated.
* Argent: Cast Your Spell Uranus, from RING OF HANDS. Uh, er, um, hang on. I might've spoken too soon. This is just silly. Both the song and the lyrics are worthy of Klaatu. More nice keybs from Rod Argent, though.
* Argent: Celebration. More nice keyboards from Rod Argent, and a catchy chorus.
* Intergalactic Touring Band: Love Station, from their only album. Gimmicky sci-fi disco, with Ben E. King on vocals as intergalactic DJ Romeo Jones. Some nice playing, but the album package and concept is more entertaining than the music.
* Intergalactic Touring Band: A Planet Called Monday. OK, a low-rent Alan Parsons Project. Not terrible, but pretty light.
* Intergalactic Touring Band: Approach. Synergy's Larry Fast on keyboards and mellotron, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Cosmic enough, I guess. A real oddity. Recommended to 55-year-old STAR WARS fans.
* John Tropea: The Funk You See is the Funk You Do!, from SHORT TRIP TO SPACE. More sci-fi disco, tho way funkier. Tropea's a jazz guitarist, played on Deodato's hit "2001," among many other sessions. Starts out sounding a little like Earth, Wind and Fire, then gets lighter. Nice guitar solo. Too bad about the singing. "Can't Hide Love," which follows, was an EWF track first, and sounds just like them, I recognized it right off ... so what's the point?
* John Tropea: Short Trip to Space. This is more like it. Spacey, but bouncy, so it moves and doesn't get boring. Nice keyboards by Don Grolnick, good trumpet solo from Mike Brecker, and Tropea ain't slouchin' around either. OK background music. Yes, I admit I bought this album because of the outer-space cover....
But who cares about all that political stuff, right? On with the music!
* Gordon Giltrap: Quest, from PERILOUS JOURNEY. Pleasant, lite, bouncy guitar-based progressive-rock instrumentals. Even more than Giltrap's guitars, the star here seems to be Rod Edwards' keyboards. John G. Perry, formerly of Caravan, on bass. All-star Simon Phillips on drums. Pretty and lively. Not real distinctive. Gets mellower and more ... lyrical(?) at the end. Only Giltrap album I've heard much of is THE PEACOCK'S PARTY, which is pretty great -- but I found JOURNEY and VISIONARY dirt-cheap at Half-Price Books in Tacoma, so what the hey....
* Gordon Giltrap: The Deserter, from JOURNEY. This focuses more on Giltrap's guitar, and has a stronger tune. It's also orchestrated. Nice.
* Gordon Giltrap: "Pastoral" and "Marbio Gorge" from JOURNEY. Well, these start off pastoral. Then the instruments kick in, and "Marbio Gorge" almost rocks. Classy soundtrack music. or, as they say in England, "One for the late-night wine-and-cheese-and-good-friends crowd." Nice, though. Different. No wonder he never made it in America.
* Colosseum: Walking in the Park, from THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE SALUTE YOU. Late-'60s/early-'70s jazz-rock keyboards-and-horns jam-band from England. Swinging big-band sound not too far from WATERLOO LILY-era Caravan. production's a bit primitive. They've got the energy, though. Series of brief solos from the two keyboardists, sax, and guitar. Dick Heckstall-Smith's sax stands out most. Least attractive is whoever's doing the singing.
* Colosseum: Valentyne Suite, from THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO.... Ok, we'll see how far I can get into this 15-minute three-part thing. Opening has nice mystical keyboards and lots of energy. This ain't no laid-back New Age stuff. More good sax from Dick Heckstall-Smith. Riffy, with lots of activity -- drums, vibes, that sax, guitar and those double keyboards, all busy doing something. Jon Hiseman's a good drummer, too. They sound way better when no one's singing. Kinda dated organ sound, but I don't care. The organ really takes off in the second part, then the heavy riffing starts. I'm reminded a bit of Caravan's "For Richard." Then Keith Emerson comes in and shows off! Shocking! These guys rock! ... Then a sorta chorale section for contrast, then more riffing. If there's gotta be jazz-rock, it should all sound like this. Then there's a mellower closing section that sounds vaguely like "A Whiter Shade of Pale".... Then a noisy ending with LOTS of sax. Not bad, could grow on me. Probably will, thanks to the heavy riffing.
-- Maggie Roche of The Roches died over the weekend. She was 65. I bought the first Roches album back in '79 -- was convinced as soon as I heard Bob Fripp's guitar in the middle of the gorgeous "Hammond Song," which Maggie wrote. Fripp's guitar was what sold me, but it's the luminous vocal harmonies that mean the most to me now. Maggie also wrote a couple other highlights on that album -- "Quitting Time" and "The Married Men." Linda Ronstadt and Pheobe Snow teamed up to sing "Married Men" on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE around the same time. Only other Roches album I heard much of was NURDS, which was pretty loopy. No suprise they never got really famous. But "Hammond Song" is amazing -- you should try to track it down.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Get Your Rocks Off, from GET YOUR ROCKS OFF. Bob Dylan wrote this heavy riffer with the crude lyrics? Shocking. Sure it helped him win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nice guitar from Mick Rogers.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Buddah, from ROCKS. Dreamy verses, heavy choruses, then it gets spacey in the midsection and manfred shows off a little. What did I expect? Nice keyboard sounds. Gains momentum in the middle as it goes. OK, but somehow I expected more.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Pretty Good, from ROCKS. This is a John Prine song. Nice guitar work, and a catchy chorus. Manfred messes around just a little in the middle, but overall pretty straight-forward for these guys. And the chorus'll grow on ya.
* Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Messin', from ROCKS. They sure were heavier when Mick Rogers was around. This has an ecology theme, sort of a mantra for choruses. Ten minutes of this? Time for lunch! ... The midsection starts spacey, then leads into a long Mick Rogers guitar freakout, which is worth hearing. Doubt if anybody got the ecology message -- they were probly too busy gettin' off on the heavy sounds, man.
* Argent: Lothlorien, from RING OF HANDS. Though not as great as their mantra-like "Dance in the Smoke," this has lots of excellent show-offy keyboard, and the vocals are nice. Melodic, too. I still think these guys are underrated.
* Argent: Cast Your Spell Uranus, from RING OF HANDS. Uh, er, um, hang on. I might've spoken too soon. This is just silly. Both the song and the lyrics are worthy of Klaatu. More nice keybs from Rod Argent, though.
* Argent: Celebration. More nice keyboards from Rod Argent, and a catchy chorus.
* Intergalactic Touring Band: Love Station, from their only album. Gimmicky sci-fi disco, with Ben E. King on vocals as intergalactic DJ Romeo Jones. Some nice playing, but the album package and concept is more entertaining than the music.
* Intergalactic Touring Band: A Planet Called Monday. OK, a low-rent Alan Parsons Project. Not terrible, but pretty light.
* Intergalactic Touring Band: Approach. Synergy's Larry Fast on keyboards and mellotron, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Cosmic enough, I guess. A real oddity. Recommended to 55-year-old STAR WARS fans.
* John Tropea: The Funk You See is the Funk You Do!, from SHORT TRIP TO SPACE. More sci-fi disco, tho way funkier. Tropea's a jazz guitarist, played on Deodato's hit "2001," among many other sessions. Starts out sounding a little like Earth, Wind and Fire, then gets lighter. Nice guitar solo. Too bad about the singing. "Can't Hide Love," which follows, was an EWF track first, and sounds just like them, I recognized it right off ... so what's the point?
* John Tropea: Short Trip to Space. This is more like it. Spacey, but bouncy, so it moves and doesn't get boring. Nice keyboards by Don Grolnick, good trumpet solo from Mike Brecker, and Tropea ain't slouchin' around either. OK background music. Yes, I admit I bought this album because of the outer-space cover....
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Truth ... or bullshit?
It can't be easy these days to be a White House reporter. It's hard enough to do the job when you work in a small town. But at the top level the pressure must be so much more intense -- either you get The Story or you could lose your job.
It must be even harder when the people you're trying to get your story from are clearly nuts.
It's one thing when the new President refuses to let a reporter ask a question and calls the reporter's news agency "fake news." It's another when the President's press secretary admonishes the media for pointing out that the crowd at the new President's inauguration was noticeably smaller than the attendance at the previous President's inauguration.
Now the new administration is trying to place a gag order on federal agencies. Staffers for the Environmental Protection Agency have been told not to express their opinions on social media -- possibly because the EPA's facing a shake-out under the new administration. Today, researchers for the Department of Agriculture were told to stop issuing news releases about any studies they're working on. A senior official with the Secret Service may face some sort of punishment for allegedly saying on Facebook that she wouldn't be willing to take a bullet for Donald Trump.
Awww, did my OPINION hurt the President's feelings?
Couldn't have. I'm not convinced that he HAS any feelings.
Here's the thing that bugs me most about our new President:
He lies. Almost every day.
He overstates. He makes claims that he knows aren't true. Constantly.
And he seems to expect that we're so dumb, or so involved with our own lives, or have such limited attention spans, that we either won't REMEMBER the facts he's distorting or we won't be bothered enough to go track them down.
Like when he said he won the election by the biggest margin in history. Just for an example.
Like when he compared the CIA releasing information -- on a dossier of compromising behavior the Russians apparently compiled about him -- to something the Nazis might have done. And then a few days later he denied that he'd said it. Apparently there's never been a rift between Trump and the intelligence agencies. That was something the media cooked up.
That media. Man, those guys are a pain in the ass.
So here's what we'll do. Anytime we don't like a question the media asks, we'll call them out as fake news. We won't take their questions. We'll have them thrown out of the press conference.
The other reporters will get the message quick. Either they play nice ... or they lose access to the White House. They won't be able to do their jobs. THAT'll shut them up. Either they'll publish the news we want ... or they'll have no news at all.
THAT'll keep 'em in line.
Cut off the media, dumb down the public, and keep that rock rolling downhill. And pretty soon we'll be getting all our "news" from the Ministry of Information.
In Newspeak.
To keep us all from thinking Unthinkable Thoughts.
That would be Double-Plus-Ungood.
I didn't vote for Trump. I voted for Hillary. I wasn't thrilled about it. But that's water under the bridge. So's the election. Hillary lost in the wrong states. Apparently.
But we've got bigger fish to fry now.
I was -- maybe until tonight -- still leaning 60/40 toward giving Trump a chance, seeing what he was going to do, seeing if he could maybe grow into the job, giving him time to mess up on his own.
I didn't watch the inauguration, but I read Trump's speech later, and heard parts of it on the radio while I was working. I read the media's analysis of the speech the same day, and was kind of shocked. Actually, I thought some of the media kind of went apeshit crazy.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC compared the speech to something Hitler might have said. George F. Will -- who's been covering politics for places like TIME Magazine for more than 40 years -- called it the worst inauguration speech in American history.
The speech was pretty short. And Trump used some fairly dark imagery in it. But he used that imagery to illustrate where he thinks America is RIGHT NOW -- NOT where he wants to take it.
I thought.
I didn't think his speech was that bad. But it wasn't an obvious attempt to unite the American people, or even to encourage us to pull together for the good of the country.
He could have done better. He could have made an appeal to the people who voted against him. He could maybe have shown he's not as bad as some people think, that people have no reason to worry. But he didn't even try.
He blew another chance at the Women's March on Washington a couple days ago. He could have embraced that huge, concerned audience. He could have said "I see you, I hear you -- and I'm with you."
But he was mending fences with the CIA at the time.
Now I read that Trump may order that border wall -- you know, the one Mexico's going to pay for -- to start construction on Wednesday. And you know who's going to pay for it -- we are.
That wall will be built for NO REASON. It will be built as a symbol. To keep illegal immigrants out so they won't take our jobs? How many of you Out There have lost your job to someone from somewhere else? Most jobs being done by immigrants are jobs Americans are either educationally unqualified for ... or jobs Americans refuse to do for less than $15 an hour. ...And by the way, where are YOU from?
Faced again with an administration that clearly feels the media is The Enemy, just like Nixon did, I hope the media will get tough, stand up for each other, hold Trump's feet to the fire, hold him accountable for everything he says. So far they've done OK. We need them to keep doing it.
It shouldn't be hard to hold him accountable. He'll say something stupid again tomorrow. Or there will be some fresh new outrage that he'll try to twist and spin to suit his own purposes.
As for me, I'd still like to see him grow into the job. Don't we all hope for the best for our country? I'm still willing to give him a chance.
But if -- no, WHEN -- he REALLY messes up, then I'll be jumping on him, just like the reporter I used to be.
It must be even harder when the people you're trying to get your story from are clearly nuts.
It's one thing when the new President refuses to let a reporter ask a question and calls the reporter's news agency "fake news." It's another when the President's press secretary admonishes the media for pointing out that the crowd at the new President's inauguration was noticeably smaller than the attendance at the previous President's inauguration.
Now the new administration is trying to place a gag order on federal agencies. Staffers for the Environmental Protection Agency have been told not to express their opinions on social media -- possibly because the EPA's facing a shake-out under the new administration. Today, researchers for the Department of Agriculture were told to stop issuing news releases about any studies they're working on. A senior official with the Secret Service may face some sort of punishment for allegedly saying on Facebook that she wouldn't be willing to take a bullet for Donald Trump.
Awww, did my OPINION hurt the President's feelings?
Couldn't have. I'm not convinced that he HAS any feelings.
Here's the thing that bugs me most about our new President:
He lies. Almost every day.
He overstates. He makes claims that he knows aren't true. Constantly.
And he seems to expect that we're so dumb, or so involved with our own lives, or have such limited attention spans, that we either won't REMEMBER the facts he's distorting or we won't be bothered enough to go track them down.
Like when he said he won the election by the biggest margin in history. Just for an example.
Like when he compared the CIA releasing information -- on a dossier of compromising behavior the Russians apparently compiled about him -- to something the Nazis might have done. And then a few days later he denied that he'd said it. Apparently there's never been a rift between Trump and the intelligence agencies. That was something the media cooked up.
That media. Man, those guys are a pain in the ass.
So here's what we'll do. Anytime we don't like a question the media asks, we'll call them out as fake news. We won't take their questions. We'll have them thrown out of the press conference.
The other reporters will get the message quick. Either they play nice ... or they lose access to the White House. They won't be able to do their jobs. THAT'll shut them up. Either they'll publish the news we want ... or they'll have no news at all.
THAT'll keep 'em in line.
Cut off the media, dumb down the public, and keep that rock rolling downhill. And pretty soon we'll be getting all our "news" from the Ministry of Information.
In Newspeak.
To keep us all from thinking Unthinkable Thoughts.
That would be Double-Plus-Ungood.
I didn't vote for Trump. I voted for Hillary. I wasn't thrilled about it. But that's water under the bridge. So's the election. Hillary lost in the wrong states. Apparently.
But we've got bigger fish to fry now.
I was -- maybe until tonight -- still leaning 60/40 toward giving Trump a chance, seeing what he was going to do, seeing if he could maybe grow into the job, giving him time to mess up on his own.
I didn't watch the inauguration, but I read Trump's speech later, and heard parts of it on the radio while I was working. I read the media's analysis of the speech the same day, and was kind of shocked. Actually, I thought some of the media kind of went apeshit crazy.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC compared the speech to something Hitler might have said. George F. Will -- who's been covering politics for places like TIME Magazine for more than 40 years -- called it the worst inauguration speech in American history.
The speech was pretty short. And Trump used some fairly dark imagery in it. But he used that imagery to illustrate where he thinks America is RIGHT NOW -- NOT where he wants to take it.
I thought.
I didn't think his speech was that bad. But it wasn't an obvious attempt to unite the American people, or even to encourage us to pull together for the good of the country.
He could have done better. He could have made an appeal to the people who voted against him. He could maybe have shown he's not as bad as some people think, that people have no reason to worry. But he didn't even try.
He blew another chance at the Women's March on Washington a couple days ago. He could have embraced that huge, concerned audience. He could have said "I see you, I hear you -- and I'm with you."
But he was mending fences with the CIA at the time.
Now I read that Trump may order that border wall -- you know, the one Mexico's going to pay for -- to start construction on Wednesday. And you know who's going to pay for it -- we are.
That wall will be built for NO REASON. It will be built as a symbol. To keep illegal immigrants out so they won't take our jobs? How many of you Out There have lost your job to someone from somewhere else? Most jobs being done by immigrants are jobs Americans are either educationally unqualified for ... or jobs Americans refuse to do for less than $15 an hour. ...And by the way, where are YOU from?
Faced again with an administration that clearly feels the media is The Enemy, just like Nixon did, I hope the media will get tough, stand up for each other, hold Trump's feet to the fire, hold him accountable for everything he says. So far they've done OK. We need them to keep doing it.
It shouldn't be hard to hold him accountable. He'll say something stupid again tomorrow. Or there will be some fresh new outrage that he'll try to twist and spin to suit his own purposes.
As for me, I'd still like to see him grow into the job. Don't we all hope for the best for our country? I'm still willing to give him a chance.
But if -- no, WHEN -- he REALLY messes up, then I'll be jumping on him, just like the reporter I used to be.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Monday afternoon Strange Music blowout!
* Billy Cobham: Moon Germs, The Moon Ain't Made of Green Cheese, Sea of Tranquility, all from TOTAL ECLIPSE. Upbeat mid-'70s jazz-rock from the Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer and a backup band full of stars. Nice keyboards and sax, actually better when it's quieter. Reminded in places of David Sancious, Soft Machine. And Mahavishnu, or course. The sparkly parts are nice. Cobham's band included Mike Brecker on saxes, John Abercrombie on guitar. Never heard of the keyboard-player, Milcho Leviev. "Sea of Tranquility" runs almost 11 minutes and gets pretty loud. OK, not offensive -- it all moves nicely despite the lack of tunes.
-- Read at Sid Smith's POSTCARDS FROM THE YELLOW ROOM website that Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit died today. He was pretty propulsive. He really made early Can tracks like "Father Cannot Yell" and "Yoo Doo Right" MOVE. Amazing, complex, hypnotic rhythms. On some of their later stuff I get lost in the noise, but the early tracks really do it. Some of their best stuff is on their 2-disc ANTHOLOGY.
* Billy Cobham: "Last Frontier" from TOTAL ECLIPSE. Uh oh, here comes The Dreaded Drum Solo. Think I'll probably make it through this side anyway....
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: A Lotus on Irish Streams, from THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME. Always had a soft spot for these guys' softer moments. If they'd done more stuff like this, I woulda been a bigger fan.
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: Awakening, from INNER MOUNTING FLAME. And here's the big beast coming to life again, with lightning-fast runs on the guitar and torturous high-speed unison riffs. And as pretty as Jerry Goodman's viola was on the last track, here he screeches along with everybody else. The mix of Goodman and Jan Hammer's keyboards grates a bit. Then John McLaughlin comes in and out-screeches everybody, Billy Cobham thrashing all over the drum kit in the background. What are those -- 67th notes? This is played in 67/4 time. At least it's over fast.
* Brand X: Born Ugly, from UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOUR. Starts out pretty funky for a bunch of English white guys. They play the same riff over and OVER for so long that after the 97th repeat I was CONVINCED the record was stuck -- and it wasn't. Tricky. That made me laugh out loud. Nice sparkly keyboards from Robin Lumley. The drummer hardly sounds like The Phil Collins we came to know and ... uh.... Then a nice spacey, dreamy midsection. I'm actually enjoying this more than Mahavishnu. Nice guitar from John Goodsall, more blinding-fast runs. Nice unison riff at the end. Very nice. A quick eight minutes.
* Brand X: Euthanasia Waltz, from BEHAVIOUR. More sparkly keyboards, with very active drumming behind. These guys are very lively, and don't mainly seem worried about how fast they can play, like Mahavishnu did. A light touch, with varying moods on display in each song.
* Brand X: Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria, from BEHAVIOUR. Despite the title, this is a little more standard jazz-rock, though nice. Punchy bass from Percy Jones, standout guitar from John Goodsall. More sparkly, atmospheric keybs from Robin Lumley. You can tell The Phil Collins drums on this, he brings a little more attention to himself. But these guys work well together, and everybody gets a bit in the spotlight. Nicely balanced. Not worried about being pretty, not afraid to be abrasive.
* Matrix: King Weasel Stomp, from WIZARD. This is way-lighter jazz-rock, from a nine-man band with lots of horns. Very lite keyboards. OK background music, not actually that far from Brand X. In the midsection, the horns pick it up and it starts to sound like something by Maynard Ferguson. Or Chuck Mangione. Six horn players, no guitar. But ... not bad. Hmmm.
* Peter Bardens: The Answer, from THE ANSWER. Nice dreamy keyboards lead into some hot guitar allegedly played by Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green under a pseudonym. Then some maybe-too-passionate over-the-top vocals that certainly aren't by Bardens -- he was much more laid-back than this. He might be doing the murmured backing vocal. The words mean nothing. This was done back around 1970, before Bardens helped form Camel.
* Peter Bardens: I Don't Want to Go Home, from THE ANSWER. More nice guitar, some pretty good flute, laid-back vocal, later a girlie chorus joins in on the vocals. The guitar's pretty good, I don't hear much of Bardens' keyboards on this, though there is a LONG flute break -- which made The Girlfriend's dog howl. The singing pretty much sucks.
* Renaissance: Jekyll and Hyde, from AZURE D'OR. The Return of Really Bad Prog? This is too streamlined, there's no contrast between the verses and choruses, they relied too much on Annie Haslam's vocals to carry the song. It sounds like they're rushing it, caught up in the New Wave. Where's their sense of drama? First time I've heard this since about 1979....
* Renaissance: Forever Changing, from AZURE D'OR. Co-written by drummer Terry Sullivan. This is actually pretty, though it's way lower-key than they usually were.
* Renaissance: The Flood at Lyons, from AZURE D'OR. The Big Finish? Starts off all complicated like Gentle Giant. Then Annie Haslam's voice used for color. If the keyboards had more depth, the choruses might have a little majesty to them. Then back to the jumpy verses. Doesn't build much, because the production has nowhere else to go. Was any band ever LESS prepared for the invasion of the barbarians?
* Mott the Hoople: Death May be Your Santa Claus, from BRAIN CAPERS. OK, this keeps trying to turn into Kiss's "Rock and Roll All Nite." Guy Stevens' production is muddy, but the choruses are kinda funny. There might be some cool things going on here, but the sound's so bass-heavy, how can you tell? Some nice keybs from Ian Hunter, but that Kiss hook keeps coming through....
* Mott the Hoople: Your Own Back Yard, from BRAIN CAPERS. Dion's anti-addiction song. Moving, but it would help if the production was clearer, so I could actually HEAR what all's going on....
* Dory Previn: Lady With a Braid, from MYTHICAL KINGS AND IGUANAS. Sounds a little like Janis Ian.... Pretty direct-though-light seduction song. Produced by Nik Venet, who allegedly produced the first few Beach Boys singles, among other things.
* Dory Previn: Her Mother's Daughter, from MYTHICAL KINGS. Now THIS is twisted.
* Curved Air: Vivaldi, from LIVE. Genuinely noisy. You should check it out if you like screechy violins. But it got the crowd off. Sonja Kristina's bluesy voice comes in about halfway through. I've never liked her much. Not sure a blues singer actually works in this arty context. Then some noise from my hero Francis Monkman's synthesizers. This is weird -- Sky does a superior version of this piece with no violins, and Monkman plays on that. But he started out here. Ferociously fast in places. Then it gets faster. More Really Bad Prog. I've yet to hear one good song by Curved Air. Heard they were popular back in the day....
* Kayak: Turn the Tide, from STARLIGHT DANCER. Pleasant, almost straight pop. Sounds vaguely like 1978-era Genesis. Some mildly arty lite keyboards. Attempt at a hit single?
* Kayak: Irene, from STARLIGHT DANCER. Instrumental. Lightly pretty. A little nice guitar toward the end, but still. Very light background music.
* Jade Warrior: WAVES. Two full sides of mostly VERY mellow flute and guitar music, with fake environmental sounds (instrumentally-imitated whale songs, etc). A low-key vocal or two by Steve Winwood. Gets funky near the end of Side 2, then drifts off. Very pleasant and enjoyable mood music, but not high-energy.
* Flash: Lifetime, from IN THE CAN. Instrumentally, sounds very much like early Yes, where lead guitarist Peter Banks came from. Lead singer Colin Carter's voice is lower and gruffer than Yes's Jon Anderson. Some nice guitar work, as you might expect. Not bad. Keep hearing sections that tune-wise and development-wise remind me of Yes's general sound. Might be more impressive if this album-opening track didn't last 10 minutes.
* Flash: Monday Morning Eyes, from IN THE CAN. Shorter, at least, and not so Yes-like. OK, but not distinctive. Forgettable. Ends abruptly.
* Synergy: On Presuming to be Modern, from CORDS. Ice-cold synthesizer tones from keyboard whiz Larry Fast. Like looking out over a glacial landscape.... Nice, dramatic pounding-drums ending.
* Synergy: Phobos and Deimos Go to Mars, from CORDS. More fun.... Rather bouncy, with bits of a nice tune.
* Synergy: Sketches of Mythical Beasts, from CORDS. This is kind of icy and gothic. Synergy usually features synthesizer works that are actual TUNES. I especially recommend "Warriors" on ELECTRONIC REALIZATIONS FOR ROCK ORCHESTRA, and "S-Scape" and "Classical Gas" on SEQUENCER.
* Synergy: "Disruption in World Communications," from CORDS. This is tricky and sneaky, and mildly annoying. But at least there's more going on here than icy musical landscapes. Has a vaguely Middle-Eastern tune buried among the shrieking keyboards....
* Synergy: On Presuming to be Modern II, from CORDS. And I just sat through an entire side. Fairly melodic. Been awhile since I'd heard any of Mr. Fast's work. This is not bad, if you're into synthesized stuff.
-- Read at Sid Smith's POSTCARDS FROM THE YELLOW ROOM website that Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit died today. He was pretty propulsive. He really made early Can tracks like "Father Cannot Yell" and "Yoo Doo Right" MOVE. Amazing, complex, hypnotic rhythms. On some of their later stuff I get lost in the noise, but the early tracks really do it. Some of their best stuff is on their 2-disc ANTHOLOGY.
* Billy Cobham: "Last Frontier" from TOTAL ECLIPSE. Uh oh, here comes The Dreaded Drum Solo. Think I'll probably make it through this side anyway....
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: A Lotus on Irish Streams, from THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME. Always had a soft spot for these guys' softer moments. If they'd done more stuff like this, I woulda been a bigger fan.
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: Awakening, from INNER MOUNTING FLAME. And here's the big beast coming to life again, with lightning-fast runs on the guitar and torturous high-speed unison riffs. And as pretty as Jerry Goodman's viola was on the last track, here he screeches along with everybody else. The mix of Goodman and Jan Hammer's keyboards grates a bit. Then John McLaughlin comes in and out-screeches everybody, Billy Cobham thrashing all over the drum kit in the background. What are those -- 67th notes? This is played in 67/4 time. At least it's over fast.
* Brand X: Born Ugly, from UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOUR. Starts out pretty funky for a bunch of English white guys. They play the same riff over and OVER for so long that after the 97th repeat I was CONVINCED the record was stuck -- and it wasn't. Tricky. That made me laugh out loud. Nice sparkly keyboards from Robin Lumley. The drummer hardly sounds like The Phil Collins we came to know and ... uh.... Then a nice spacey, dreamy midsection. I'm actually enjoying this more than Mahavishnu. Nice guitar from John Goodsall, more blinding-fast runs. Nice unison riff at the end. Very nice. A quick eight minutes.
* Brand X: Euthanasia Waltz, from BEHAVIOUR. More sparkly keyboards, with very active drumming behind. These guys are very lively, and don't mainly seem worried about how fast they can play, like Mahavishnu did. A light touch, with varying moods on display in each song.
* Brand X: Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria, from BEHAVIOUR. Despite the title, this is a little more standard jazz-rock, though nice. Punchy bass from Percy Jones, standout guitar from John Goodsall. More sparkly, atmospheric keybs from Robin Lumley. You can tell The Phil Collins drums on this, he brings a little more attention to himself. But these guys work well together, and everybody gets a bit in the spotlight. Nicely balanced. Not worried about being pretty, not afraid to be abrasive.
* Matrix: King Weasel Stomp, from WIZARD. This is way-lighter jazz-rock, from a nine-man band with lots of horns. Very lite keyboards. OK background music, not actually that far from Brand X. In the midsection, the horns pick it up and it starts to sound like something by Maynard Ferguson. Or Chuck Mangione. Six horn players, no guitar. But ... not bad. Hmmm.
* Peter Bardens: The Answer, from THE ANSWER. Nice dreamy keyboards lead into some hot guitar allegedly played by Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green under a pseudonym. Then some maybe-too-passionate over-the-top vocals that certainly aren't by Bardens -- he was much more laid-back than this. He might be doing the murmured backing vocal. The words mean nothing. This was done back around 1970, before Bardens helped form Camel.
* Peter Bardens: I Don't Want to Go Home, from THE ANSWER. More nice guitar, some pretty good flute, laid-back vocal, later a girlie chorus joins in on the vocals. The guitar's pretty good, I don't hear much of Bardens' keyboards on this, though there is a LONG flute break -- which made The Girlfriend's dog howl. The singing pretty much sucks.
* Renaissance: Jekyll and Hyde, from AZURE D'OR. The Return of Really Bad Prog? This is too streamlined, there's no contrast between the verses and choruses, they relied too much on Annie Haslam's vocals to carry the song. It sounds like they're rushing it, caught up in the New Wave. Where's their sense of drama? First time I've heard this since about 1979....
* Renaissance: Forever Changing, from AZURE D'OR. Co-written by drummer Terry Sullivan. This is actually pretty, though it's way lower-key than they usually were.
* Renaissance: The Flood at Lyons, from AZURE D'OR. The Big Finish? Starts off all complicated like Gentle Giant. Then Annie Haslam's voice used for color. If the keyboards had more depth, the choruses might have a little majesty to them. Then back to the jumpy verses. Doesn't build much, because the production has nowhere else to go. Was any band ever LESS prepared for the invasion of the barbarians?
* Mott the Hoople: Death May be Your Santa Claus, from BRAIN CAPERS. OK, this keeps trying to turn into Kiss's "Rock and Roll All Nite." Guy Stevens' production is muddy, but the choruses are kinda funny. There might be some cool things going on here, but the sound's so bass-heavy, how can you tell? Some nice keybs from Ian Hunter, but that Kiss hook keeps coming through....
* Mott the Hoople: Your Own Back Yard, from BRAIN CAPERS. Dion's anti-addiction song. Moving, but it would help if the production was clearer, so I could actually HEAR what all's going on....
* Dory Previn: Lady With a Braid, from MYTHICAL KINGS AND IGUANAS. Sounds a little like Janis Ian.... Pretty direct-though-light seduction song. Produced by Nik Venet, who allegedly produced the first few Beach Boys singles, among other things.
* Dory Previn: Her Mother's Daughter, from MYTHICAL KINGS. Now THIS is twisted.
* Curved Air: Vivaldi, from LIVE. Genuinely noisy. You should check it out if you like screechy violins. But it got the crowd off. Sonja Kristina's bluesy voice comes in about halfway through. I've never liked her much. Not sure a blues singer actually works in this arty context. Then some noise from my hero Francis Monkman's synthesizers. This is weird -- Sky does a superior version of this piece with no violins, and Monkman plays on that. But he started out here. Ferociously fast in places. Then it gets faster. More Really Bad Prog. I've yet to hear one good song by Curved Air. Heard they were popular back in the day....
* Kayak: Turn the Tide, from STARLIGHT DANCER. Pleasant, almost straight pop. Sounds vaguely like 1978-era Genesis. Some mildly arty lite keyboards. Attempt at a hit single?
* Kayak: Irene, from STARLIGHT DANCER. Instrumental. Lightly pretty. A little nice guitar toward the end, but still. Very light background music.
* Jade Warrior: WAVES. Two full sides of mostly VERY mellow flute and guitar music, with fake environmental sounds (instrumentally-imitated whale songs, etc). A low-key vocal or two by Steve Winwood. Gets funky near the end of Side 2, then drifts off. Very pleasant and enjoyable mood music, but not high-energy.
* Flash: Lifetime, from IN THE CAN. Instrumentally, sounds very much like early Yes, where lead guitarist Peter Banks came from. Lead singer Colin Carter's voice is lower and gruffer than Yes's Jon Anderson. Some nice guitar work, as you might expect. Not bad. Keep hearing sections that tune-wise and development-wise remind me of Yes's general sound. Might be more impressive if this album-opening track didn't last 10 minutes.
* Flash: Monday Morning Eyes, from IN THE CAN. Shorter, at least, and not so Yes-like. OK, but not distinctive. Forgettable. Ends abruptly.
* Synergy: On Presuming to be Modern, from CORDS. Ice-cold synthesizer tones from keyboard whiz Larry Fast. Like looking out over a glacial landscape.... Nice, dramatic pounding-drums ending.
* Synergy: Phobos and Deimos Go to Mars, from CORDS. More fun.... Rather bouncy, with bits of a nice tune.
* Synergy: Sketches of Mythical Beasts, from CORDS. This is kind of icy and gothic. Synergy usually features synthesizer works that are actual TUNES. I especially recommend "Warriors" on ELECTRONIC REALIZATIONS FOR ROCK ORCHESTRA, and "S-Scape" and "Classical Gas" on SEQUENCER.
* Synergy: "Disruption in World Communications," from CORDS. This is tricky and sneaky, and mildly annoying. But at least there's more going on here than icy musical landscapes. Has a vaguely Middle-Eastern tune buried among the shrieking keyboards....
* Synergy: On Presuming to be Modern II, from CORDS. And I just sat through an entire side. Fairly melodic. Been awhile since I'd heard any of Mr. Fast's work. This is not bad, if you're into synthesized stuff.
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