Endnu en nærmest berusende stærk sang, denne endda en single, fra Life’s Rich Pageant‘s perfekte side 1. R.E.M.’s bedrifter er skyggehistorie disse år, men en dag må de vel positivt blive genetableret som bandet uden hvem den alternative indie-musik aldrig var blevet sund mainstream.

Life’s Rich Pageant, det fjerde og måske allerbedste R.E.M.-album, blev som en dengang supervital sommerplade udsendt i går for 36 år siden. Her en af perfekte side 1’s centrale sange, hvor Michael Stipe synger om ‘hope despite the times’. Haha, han skulle bare have vidst, hvad fremtiden herude til sammenligning ville byde på af rædsel, bullshit og nedbrud. Ventes der stadig på det Stipe-soloalbum, der aldrig kommer, eller er vi holdt op?

Alle kender billedeserien foran NYC-politibilen, der afkastede det nocturnale cover til Plastic Letters (1977), Blondie’s andet album. Men ifølge guitarist/bandleader Chris Stein var der oprindeligt helt andre artworkplaner, som blev skrottet da Blondie’s pladeselskab Chrysalis var bange for et for punket look. Her billedet der ifølge Stein vistnok skulle have været på frontcoveret. Oh, what could have been…

Et nyt Joe Strummer-boxset er blevet annonceret i dag. Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years udkommer til september og vil som antydet indholde remastrede udgaver af The Clash-frontmandens tre albums med The Mescaleros, samt 15 hidtil uudgivne tracks, deriblandt denne demo-version af ‘The Road To Rock’n’Roll’…

…On the road to rock ‘n’ roll
The lonely sing a soulful song
Leave a little light in the wilderness
For somebody to come upon
On the road to rock ‘n’ roll
With everybody deep in their dreams
And the snow is falling on the city
Ask the music what it means
On the road to rock ‘n’ roll
Come on everybody drift away
On the road to rock ‘n’ roll
Where I learned to play
Rock ‘n’ roll, rock ‘n’ roll
Rock ‘n’ roll where I learned to play
On the road

Har hørt det nye album med Interpol de seneste aftener, og må tilstå endelig at kunne blive løftet op igen af en musik, der fremstår mere klar og visionær end meget længe fra NYC-bandet. Tag nu bare ‘Into The Night’ her, knivskarp i lyd og tone…

Således annoncen for Echo and the Bunnymen’s debutalbum Crocodiles i de tre engelske musikaviser (herover Sounds) 26. juli 1980. Og hvilken dugfrisk og fremragende samling sange det da var og stadig er.

“The Beatles were hard men too. Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia; a hard, sea-faring town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo is from the Dingle, which is like the f***ing Bronx.

The Rolling Stones were the mummys boys they were all college students from the outskirts of London. They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability. I did like the Stones, but they were never anywhere near the Beatles not for humour, not for originality, not for songs, not for presentation. All they had was Mick Jagger dancing about. Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always s**t on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.”

— Lemmy Kilmister