Splendid!
Yes - that was a bit OTT. Mind you, wasnât that the tour with full orchestra and choir? Not quite so excessive if youâre talking about 100+ players. Knowing first hand how commercial airlines can treat musicians and their instruments, I donât blame them for making their own arrangements.
A big part of the problem in the 70s was primitive technology. Synths were not generally programmable, most could only produce one note at a time - hence the huge banks of keyboards that became the hallmark of prog excess, though it was actually born of necessity. In those pre-MIDI days, keeping them in tune and in sync was a nightmare, if it could be done at all. If parts became complicated, extra musicians had to be drafted in because one player simply couldnât manage to play even the simplest chord if each note had to be played on a separate keyboard. A case in point, from 1979:
Shame about the shite vision mix - it was being filmed for TV, but the plans were shelved and the master tapes wiped for reuse. All that survived was a rough vision mix done on the fly on the night. Half the time itâs spotlighting the wrong player. Still, at least the sound is pretty good.
These days, of course, all that could be managed by a single player with one or two MIDI controller keyboards and a laptop. With so much being synced and sequenced automatically, though, you lose a lot of the live feel, IMO.
Tangerine Dream live at Shepherdâs Bush were⊠more live than Iâd expected, actually. They did a fair bit of actual playing as well as just pressing the button and letting it go.
Because Iâm in that sort of mood, hereâs the unofficial barbecue anthem. No goats were harmed in the making of this video.
Love it!
If weâre in a party mood, anyone feel like hitting the dance floor?
Is there a single word for nostalgic paranoia?
Canât help brain subsituting âGlom of nitâ into the relevant line.
Wow.
Itâs been a long while since I heard that ⊠& saw the video. Itâs superbly crafted, but almost disturbing to watch. Certainly uncomfortable. But fascinating too.
I checked Google to confirm my memory that she was Mrs. Lou Reed and I was right but on checking saw just how much she had done and was far, far more than just âMrs. Somebodyâ.
Thank you Gus.
Youse lot are all snoring in yer scratchers, no doubt. Lightweights*.
Anyway, you can thank me later for this jukebox gem
*Which reminds me, something I need to discuss with that FIsh, but anyway, at some stage I must write The Lightweightsâ Dirge. Donât tell me someone already did but it is such an open goal they might have done. Bstarts.
I like Tom Waits a bit, but I havenât listened to him enough to like him a lot.
But the title immediately makes me think of
Oh, letâs all cut our throatsâŠ
That track is sponsored by Sparrerâs Bruvverâs Sharp Fings inna Hurry, for when you donât want to think things over.
Leonard Cohenâs âClosing Timeâ is rather cheery. This one is proper-job âslit yer throatâ Cohen, too gloomy even for this Leonard fan.
(How come my link doesnât show the Youtube picture?)
Maybe youâre only allowed one picture per post?
If you will go for things from the album You Want It Darker you canât expect cheerfulâŠ
(I have gone away and started to binge on Françoise Hardy as a reaction.)
Well, I wasnât expecting cheery, thatâs for sure! Mr Janie sent me a link to it and I thought: my goodness, even for Leonard ⊠but then, under the circs, he was dying at the time ⊠Leonard, that is, not Mr Janie I am thankful to say.
Good, innit.
Ah, in the dim and distant eighties, a number of us were slumped round the kitchen table, drink having been taken in some quantity, listening to LC . âUncle Charlesâ, who had been indulging in his usual Sunday night shirt-ironing frenzy as responsible young lawyers are wont to do, came down, surveyed the wreckage and in total silence, went to the knife block and handed each of us one before departing with his little spritzy bottle of water, no doubt to soak a rebellious collar into submission.
So we played it through again, turning it up when antipodean curses obtruded from upstairs.
Excellent stuff.
On the âtotally depressingâ mode I would default to the songs of Dory Previn. My fave being âBeware of Young Girlsâ which she wrote to expose the betrayal of her by husband AndrĂ© and Mia Farrow.
I canât find an available YouTube of it but found this rather odd delivery. It is far less pessimistic that la Previewâs version but tells the fuller story.
Now, be warned, this is a Christmas carol.
But itâs male voice a cappella, for which I have a particular fondness.
I have a soft spot for DP, Armers, although I canât quite work out why.