Kategoriarkiv: Blog

52 sekunder fra 1978

Fra samme solbeskinnede amerikanske stat og selvsamme år som som The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’, men der er en verden til forskel. Heldigvis.

WASTED

I was so wasted
I was a hippie
I was a burnout
I was a dropout, I was out of my head
I was a surfer
I had a skateboard
I was so heavy man, I lived on the strand
I was so wasted
I was so fucked up
I was so messed up
I was so screwed up, I was out of my head
I was so jacked up
I was so drunk up
I was so knocked out, I was out of my head
I was so wasted
I was wasted

© Black Flag

Goodbye sweet dreams

Denne sang, fra dette års albumsamarbejde mellem Roky Erickson og Okkervil River, minder mig positivt om ‘I’m The Ocean’, den helt centrale sang på Neil Young’s alt for undervurderede album Mirror Ball fra 1995. Det gør nærmest ondt her i den følgende video, at opleve Erickson’s insisterende illusionsløse men bittersøde farvel til alt det gode i livet sat op mod Mr. Quilty’s indsugende øjeblikssnapshots. Roky Ericksson er iøvrigt på scenen i Lille Vega lørdag aften…

Like a school boy loves his pet…

RIVER DEEP, MOUNTAIN HIGH

When I was a little girl
I had a rag doll
Only doll I’ve ever owned
Now I love you just the way I loved that rag doll
But only now my love has grown

And it gets stronger, in every way
And it gets deeper, let me say
And it gets higher, day by day

And do I love you my oh my
Yeah river deep mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

When you were a young boy
Did you have a puppy
That always followed you around
Well I’m gonna be as faithful as that puppy
No I’ll never let you down

Cause it grows stronger, like a river flows
And it gets bigger baby, and heaven knows
And it gets sweeter baby, as it grows

And do I love you my oh my
Yeh river deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

I love you baby like a flower loves the spring
And I love you baby just like Tina loves to sing
And I love you baby like a school boy loves his pet
And I love you baby, river deep mountain high
Oh yeah you’ve gotta believe me
River deep, mountain high
Do I love you my oh my, oh baby
River deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby…

© Spector, Barry, Greenwich

Little symphonies for the kids…

Overskriften Phil Spectors egen beskrivelse af sine sange, som nu den herunder; massive sansebombardementer på under 3 minutter, med crashende trommer, mol-melodisk melodrama, insisterende vokal og en dybde i reverb som kun Marianergravens. Guderne skal vide Tina Turner gennem de seneste mindst 30 år har gjort meget for at få verden til at glemme hvor fantastisk hun var, da hun sammen med daværende ægtemand Ike Turner først bragede igennem lydmuren. Men musikken fra dengang taler heldigvis sit eget sprog. Hør nu bare her…

Syv minutter til midnat

Overskriften hentyder både til den predominerende koldkrigsskabte dommedagsstemning, der gennemsyrede startfirsernes ungdom, og til en alt for ukendt sang fra Liverpool, lidt længere nede her. I går postede vi en David Bowie-top-15, U2’s Bono Vox er kommet op med på foranledning af Rolling Stone. Hans sidekick og musikalske kaptajn The Edge har også måttet i tænkebox i samme sags ærinde, for det amerikanske  musikmagasins seneste playlist-specialudgave. Ud af det er kommet hans personlige top-19 (!) indenfor den mest af alt tidsbestemte genre post-punk, altså al den meget forskellige undergrundsrock, der på begge sider af 1980 udsprang i alverdens musikalske retninger, efter den første punkbølge havde skyllet en ny tid ind og sat rocknroll-stopuret på 0 igen. The Edge vil altid være en interessant mand at høre på, så her hans valg som indledende ord…

– Post-punk is an era that was very formative for me. I was 15 in 1976. I just caught the tail end of punk, but this was the music that made an impact on me, in the late Seventies and the early Eighties. It was a moment when the entire world of music was being turned upside down and given a good shake. It got a lot of people excited to start making music for the first time. But these records also had a galvanizing effect on people who were already in bands to reassess themselves and try something different. We were looking for new ways of using rock instruments like the guitar, but not in the blues tradition.

01. “Fiction Romance” Buzzcocks, 1978

02. “The Light Pours Out of Me” Magazine, 1978

03. “A Forest” The Cure, 1980
When David Bowie came back from Germany with these krautrock influences, it got a lot of his U.K. fans excited. It enabled bands like these to separate themselves from rock tradition — to use the same instruments with a different perspective. You suddenly had a pop culture injected with avant-garde ideas.

04. “Don’t Worry About the Government” Talking Heads, 1977
One of their favorite artists was James Brown. The funk element was important for them. I listened to this album nonstop as I was doing my high school graduation exams. I listened to it a hundred times in those few months.

05. “Into the Valley” The Skids, 1979

06. “Party Fears Two” The Associates, 1982
These Scottish bands were happening creatively at the time we made our first album. The bagpipes summed up Stuart Adamson’s guitar style in the Skids. Drones are a big part of Celtic- music tradition. When you attempt to create something unique to your world, you inevitably draw on what’s around you. And it seemed like everybody was adopting outlandish singing styles. Billy Mackenzie of the Associates took it as far as it could possibly go.

07. “She’s Lost Control” Joy Division, 1979
They had a huge impact on us. We were lucky to use their producer, Martin Hannett, on our single “11 O’Clock Tick Tock.” We went to London for him to interview us, and we met him in the studio as Joy Division were recording “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” We had no idea what that song would become for them.

08. “Ex Lion Tamer” Wire, 1977
They were so intent on keeping it simple — down to the wire, I guess. That was one of the punk ideals they embodied: Avoid grandiosity, keep it raw.

09. “Reward” The Teardrop Explodes, 1981
One thing we didn’t catch, because we were over the sea in Dublin, was the Jamaican influence — the ska thing, the 2 Tone stuff. The brass in this record — I remember hearing it and thinking, “What a cool move.”

10. “Seven Minutes to Midnight” Wah! Heat, 1980
We always seemed to be on the same early festivals with Wah! Heat. They were one of the great talents that got away. It’s a fantastic 45, a quintessential snapshot of the time.

11. “Teenage Kicks” The Undertones, 1978
We did a kids’ daytime TV show with the Undertones. It would have been for this, their first single, and for ours. And they were the same as us — snot-nosed, pimply teenagers. But they were writing great songs.

12. “Public Image” Public Image Ltd., 1978
There were great characters in that original band, like [guitarist] Keith Levene. They were reaching, in an unconscious way, for things — Can, Neu! — that caused them to produce powerful work.

13. “Dream Baby Dream” Suicide, 1979
It’s so simple. It’s machine-age, for sure. That’s why I was drawn to certain guitar-effects units. With synths and drum machines, suddenly you’re having this tension between the ultramodern and the traditional. It almost makes the song more fragile.

14. “Non-Alignment Pact” Pere Ubu, 1978
My older brother had rooms at Trinity College, and we used to listen to records there. The Modern Dance was one of those records that got played over and over, because it was so challenging. This song in particular stuck with me.

15. “Elevation” Television, 1977
I’d never heard guitar like it. I was intrigued by the composition — it was so sophisticated, yet so straightforward. It was like a light going on for me. I could play pretty much everything on the album, but I was blown away by where they had taken guitar-playing, while the sound was pure and simple. I said to myself, “This is what is possible.”

16. “Hong Kong Garden” Siouxsie and the Banshees, 1978

17. “Someone, Somewhere in Summertime” Simple Minds, 1982

18. “Over the Wall” Echo and the Bunnymen, 1981

19. “Release the Bats” The Birthday Party, 1981
The Birthday Party were an Australian band led by Nick Cave. This was such a racket. It was like punk had gone Down Under, and the echoes of it were even more extreme than punk had been.

Achtung Bowie

Rolling Stone Magazine har spurgt et hav af artister om at lave playlister udfra individuelt givne temavalg. Her en af de mere interessante; U2’s Bono er blevet bedt om at lave sin David Bowie top-10. Det er der kommet følgende inspirerende top-15 ud af. Vi giver forklaringens ord til Bono Vox…

– What I’ve chosen from David Bowie is very strict. It’s my teenage life as a Bowie fan. I am still a Bowie fan. But this was when my heart and mind were very vulnerable to music. And these songs had a real impact. U2 owe him a lot. He introduced us to Berlin and Hansa Studios, to collaborating with Brian Eno. It’s the high singing, beyond your ‘man’ voice into the feminine. And there’s the staging, the attempt to be innovative. It has been pointed out that the Claw [the 360˚ stage] looks like the Glass Spider. Bowie wasn’t afraid to use scale, to dramatize things. His set list was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama.

01. “Space Oddity” 1969
We walk onstage to this every night — like four astronauts.

02. “The Man Who Sold the World” 1970
America fell in love with that song because of Kurt Cobain — a man who wouldn’t sell the world anything.

03. “Changes” 1971
It’s not exaggerating to say, what Elvis meant to America, David Bowie meant to the U.K. and Ireland. It was that radical a shift in consciousness.

04. “Five Years” 1972
This sounds like it’s coming from the chanson tradition. Elsewhere on Ziggy Stardust, he talks about William Burroughs. I bought Naked Lunch, which is a hard read at 15. But Bowie made important introductions, just by talking about what turned him on.

05. “Life on Mars” 1971
Bowie’s world was always full of intellectual and artistic static. Where he lived was a long way from where I lived in Dublin.

06. “Starman” 1972
The first time I saw him was singing “Starman” on Top of the Pops. It was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space — with an Irish mother.

07. “Lady Grinning Soul” 1973
This is a beguiling and unusual David Bowie song. It’s already there, the black influence that would be on the next album. I’d be interested to hear what Roy Bittan [of the E Street Band] would think of that operatic piano part. Bowie was a big fan of Springsteen.

08. “The Jean Genie” 1973
Every so often, Bowie goes up against Jagger. I love his take on blues and R&B — the discipline, that swing beat. The Smiths are born in that song too.

09. “John, I’m Only Dancing” 1972
Again, I love the economy, this rockabilly beat. It’s not enough to be a great songwriter. You have to turn that song into a record, and that requires production and arrangement of a high order..

10. “Young Americans” 1975
The great moment in this is that beautifully out-of-tune guitar break. I loved that.

11. “Fame” 1975
I was fascinated by Bowie’s predicament in this song. This was a precious and precocious talent, wanting not to die stupid.

12. “Warszawa” 1977
I have powerful memories of meeting with my friend Gavin Friday in his living room on Monday nights to play music. We created our own world, listening to this album and trying to find out what it was about.

13. “Heroes” 1977
It encapsulates the thought that all lovers go through: They’re not alone and can take on the world. And it has Robert Fripp’s furious contribution on guitar.

14. “Ashes to Ashes” 1980
The sonic innovation of Low and Heroes is becoming more pop. I remember figuring out how they got that ping-ping-ping piano sound — we ended up using it on “Lemon.”

15. “Up the Hill Backwards” 1980
I chose this because it’s like my life.

London calling to the faraway towns…

Tripleaffæren Sandinista rundede 30 år i forgårs, men glem nu det, for i dag fylder dobbelalbummet London Calling 31. 65 minutter og 13 sekunders magtdemonstration i hvilke uimodståelige ting bare 2 x elektrisk guitar, bas, trommer, keys, samt lidt jamaicansk-lydende horn hist og her, kan skabe. En veritabel jukebox af forskellige genrer, stilarter og finter, kædet sammen af Strummer/Jones’ distinkte stemmer, undfanget og sendt afsted med frit sind i levende balance. Nyd den i aften!

Bluegrass

Vi skal ud på landet i USA, derud hvor kragerne forlængst er vendt om. Fra delstaten Minnesota, der gav os The Replacements, Hüsker Dü og Prince, kommer bluegrass-kvintetten Trampled By Turtles, der nu har deres 5. album ude, og det hedder Palomino. De hurtige numre (som f.eks. “Wait So Long” ovenfor) går over stok og sten, mens de langsommere numre som f.eks. “Separate” viser gruppens mere sensitive side. Trampled By Turtles er bluegrass, men de viser i deres sangskrivning en rock-agtig sensibilitet, som nok vil tiltrække en del mennesker uden for bluegrass-musikkens territorium, lidt som irske The Pogues også tiltrak et stort publikum uden for folk-musikkens rækker, bl.a. Elvis Costello og selveste Joe Strummer.

Hent deres Daytrotter-session med sange fra det nye album her.

Dagen derpå

Har ovenpå gårsdagens røde sammenbrud i Newcastle – hvordan ialverden kunne Liverpool tabe 3-1 til et beskedent hjemmehold – netop læst på et LFC-forum, at Roy Hodgson’s personlige udebanestatistik i Premier League (for Blackburn, Fulham, Liverpool) nu lyder på 13 sejre i 107 udekampe…! Tager den lige igen: kun 13 sejre ud af 107 mulige!

Ved ikke om der findes nogen anden PL-manager med en så skidt statistik, men det er egentlig også underordnet. Afgørende for Liverpool nu synes ikke ‘bare’ tiltrængt januar-forstærkning af truppen, men så sandelig også at få Roy Hodgson – et caretaker-levn fra Hicks/Gillett-tiden – afløst af en fremtidens mand. Der naturligvis har en helt anderledes brugbar plan til, hvordan man vinder på udebane.

When saturday comes

Supermac!

Liverpool har forbløffet de seneste uger ved at gøre, hvad ikke mange af os længere troede det muligt, nemlig at ligne et fodboldhold. Sejre er blevet taget hjem og man er langsomt men forholdsvis sikkert kravlet op i Premier League-tabellen, bort fra den skrækindjagende 18. plads, som var realitet efter de første par måneder af sæsonen.

Og selv når LFC har tabt, som senest i Tottenham forrige uge, er det sket med ærgelse fordi spillet på dagen var til meget mere end det, snarere end som tidligere, hvor nederlagene faldt fortjent og frustrationen kom af  holdets absolutte middelmådighed i kampaktion.

Flere er inde på at Gerrard’s fravær lige nu har frigjort, at de andre røde nu ikke kan skubbe bolden hen til ham og vente på miraklet, men selv må skabe det. Senest – i 3-0-sejren over Villa i mandags – var Torres heller ikke med (pga. en kongesøns fødsel), og den hovedrollechance tog både Ngog og især Babel overbevisende.

Derfor meget interessan hvilket Liverpool – både på holdkortet og mentalt – der løber ind på St. James Park tidligt lørdag aften, mod et hjemmehold der endnu engang er i kaos.

Efter weekendens 1-3  ude mod West Bromwich har den kontroversielt egenrådige klubejer Mike Ashley følt sig nødsaget til at fyre manager Chris Hughton og istedet ansætte – hans 6. trænderskifte på 3 år – den af NUFC-tilhængerne allerede på forhånd forhadte Alan Pardew, som mest huskes for sin lange nedtur med West Ham for tre-fire år siden.

Så jo, der er mere end meget på spil for begge klubber oppe nordpå lørdag aften – det bliver spændende!

Newcastle United – Liverpool, lørdag, kl. 18.30, 6’eren/downthelocal

Punk rock

Canadiske Crystal Castles optrådte i går aftes på ABC-showet Jimmy Kimmel Live med deres ‘Baptism’. Som altid, i deres specielt insisterende fremfærd, er de også her, på den ene eller anden måde, ret svære ikke at blive anfægtet af. Mig, jeg synes de gør det fantastisk minimalistisk smukt. God fredag aften/nat – go easy on the schnapps, y’all!