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Post by Will/P.P. on Jan 20, 2022 15:48:22 GMT -5
a wonderful joining of two of my very favorite Sondheim songs from two different shows woven together. Including my very favorite version of "Children Will Listen" by Betty Buckley.
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Post by sneakypete77 on Jan 21, 2022 9:59:18 GMT -5
Although not a huge fan of much of their output, I couldn’t resist buying the single in 1981 when it briefly breached the UK Top 20. It was the explosive opening note of Tina’s bass that first grabbed me – I still flinch when waiting for it to come in at the beginning of the music video. Which, by the way in my humble opinion is the coolest ever made (besides also being one of the cheapest). Her bass lines hardly deviate throughout the song, and she has remarked down the years that her playing can be “infinitely minimalist”, which certainly applies here. Apart from the choruses Byrne’s lyric was improvised – why spend hours agonising over words on a page when you can do stuff like this straight off the cuff? It’s timeless….same as it ever was.
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Post by jk on Jan 21, 2022 17:28:29 GMT -5
Although not a huge fan of much of their output, I couldn’t resist buying the single in 1981 when it briefly breached the UK Top 20. It was the explosive opening note of Tina’s bass that first grabbed me – I still flinch when waiting for it to come in at the beginning of the music video. Which, by the way in my humble opinion is the coolest ever made (besides also being one of the cheapest). Her bass lines hardly deviate throughout the song, and she has remarked down the years that her playing can be “infinitely minimalist”, which certainly applies here. Apart from the choruses Byrne’s lyric was improvised – why spend hours agonising over words on a page when you can do stuff like this straight off the cuff? It’s timeless….same as it ever was.
Oh yes -- wonderful stuff. I gave the rest of Remain in Light a listen years ago but just couldn't warm to it. Maybe I should give it another try. I seem to recall liking its two predecessors (which I heard much later). Peter, are you familiar with the album David Byrne made with Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts? This is "Regiment", featuring the sampled vocals of Dunya Yunis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts_(album)
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Post by sneakypete77 on Jan 22, 2022 9:55:33 GMT -5
Same here John. I borrowed the Remain In Light LP from a co-worker back in the day and to me, Once In a Lifetime seemed to have been flown in from somewhere else entirely. Most of the rest of the album could have featured Ian Curtis on vocals and I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Curiously, my mate at work was a huge Joy Division fan and had bought the LP for that reason - he usually skipped OIAL because he also thought it didn't fit. I haven't been tempted to check out much of Byrne's work since then, I think he became very much an acquired taste, but thanks for the link.
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Post by bluemarble on Feb 12, 2022 11:42:45 GMT -5
Really enjoyed listening to Blondie Chaplin's Fragile Thread today, excellent songs and incredible vocals, shame it's not officially available:
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Post by jk on Feb 21, 2022 9:10:37 GMT -5
My go-to listen when doing jigsaw puzzles, cleaning my desk, feeling bored late at night or just needing to opt out and chill is this YouTube channel devoted to the music of Alexander Yakovlev, whom I've probably mentioned before on this forum. Starting in 1987 with his first band, Bioconstructor, it is almost exclusively given over to its long-standing successor, BIO, with occasional forays into his ambient instrumental project Geotronika. There are many live performances, some very recent. His long-time musical (and maybe life? *) partner Olga Voskonyan also features heavily in a solo capacity. [* Edit: I learnt today that they're married] www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUP66MvmI409gOq_Hvw3X_Cg
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Post by sneakypete77 on Feb 23, 2022 7:07:37 GMT -5
I’ve been giving the somewhat bogus ‘Original Soundtrack to A Teenage Opera’ a spin of late. The Opera was conceived by Mark Wirtz and only partially completed before the project was abandoned in 1967, this disc containing almost everything he recorded during that period, including songs for various bands that were not meant for inclusion in the Opera but which seemed a cohesive fit anyway.
This one is a bit of a mystery, very few production notes survived, so who knows if it was destined for the Opera or not? Different themes are explored here, the opening 30 seconds for me scream “Thunderbirds are go!”, then after another half minute of a very 60’s pop interlude we get a snatch of what is possibly the best James Bond orchestral score that John Barry never composed:
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Post by jk on Feb 23, 2022 8:52:29 GMT -5
I’ve been giving the somewhat bogus ‘Original Soundtrack to A Teenage Opera’ a spin of late. The Opera was conceived by Mark Wirtz and only partially completed before the project was abandoned in 1967, this disc containing almost everything he recorded during that period, including songs for various bands that were not meant for inclusion in the Opera but which seemed a cohesive fit anyway.
This one is a bit of a mystery, very few production notes survived, so who knows if it was destined for the Opera or not? Different themes are explored here, the opening 30 seconds for me scream “Thunderbirds are go!”, then after another half minute of a very 60’s pop interlude we get a snatch of what is possibly the best James Bond orchestral score that John Barry never composed:
This sounds like an overture stringing together all the themes to be heard later in whatever it's an overture to. I doubt very much whether it had anything to do with an opera, teenage or otherwise. Your description rings true -- and it's a fun piece to listen to. I heard the initially impressive "Excerpt To A Teenage Opera" (sung by Keith West) at the time -- maybe you did too, Peter. I thought it was a great title for a song and hoped against hope that this was it. But no, apparently there was an opera in the works. Damn. And the song itself began to pall rather quickly. Anyway, here is that song, mainly for those folks who wonder what the heck we're talking about: ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excerpt_from_A_Teenage_Opera
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Post by sneakypete77 on Feb 23, 2022 9:28:14 GMT -5
The Excerpt… reached No 2 in the UK singles chart in 1967, which prompted EMI to advance a stingy amount of money to Wirtz hoping for an equally successful follow-up. This was it, but it failed to dent the Top 30 even though IMHO it is a more accomplished production.
Interesting factoid – even though the label gave up on the Opera, Beatles’ sound engineer Geoff Emerick was a big fan of the concept and provided his services free of charge at Abbey Road studios. Geoff was working with the Fabs at the time during the recording of Sgt Pepper, and once they had finished work for the day he would let Wirtz and the musicians in to record during the night, availing themselves of any Beatles’ hardware left behind. The most prominent example is around 2.57 when the calliope kicks in, the very same one that the moptops were using on Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite. And Wirtz was a huge fan of Brian, so I'm thinking that possibly that bit beginning around the 4.11 mark might just be a respectful nod to Pet Sounds?
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Post by jk on Feb 23, 2022 16:21:49 GMT -5
The Excerpt… reached No 2 in the UK singles chart in 1967, which prompted EMI to advance a stingy amount of money to Wirtz hoping for an equally successful follow-up. This was it, but it failed to dent the Top 30 even though IMHO it is a more accomplished production.
Interesting factoid – even though the label gave up on the Opera, Beatles’ sound engineer Geoff Emerick was a big fan of the concept and provided his services free of charge at Abbey Road studios. Geoff was working with the Fabs at the time during the recording of Sgt Pepper, and once they had finished work for the day he would let Wirtz and the musicians in to record during the night, availing themselves of any Beatles’ hardware left behind. The most prominent example is around 2.57 when the calliope kicks in, the very same one that the moptops were using on Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite. And Wirtz was a huge fan of Brian, so I'm thinking that possibly that bit beginning around the 4.11 mark might just be a respectful nod to Pet Sounds? I don't believe I've ever heard "Sam" before -- and I heard pretty well everything in those days (no life!). Maybe "the powers that be" felt it was too much like "Excerpt" and simply refused to promote it. I remember a similar fate befalling "Accidents", Thunderclap Newman's excellent follow-up to "Something In The Air", although the lugubrious subject matter must have played a part there too. You may well be right about the train sounds towards the end.
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Post by AGD on Feb 23, 2022 16:27:14 GMT -5
The Excerpt… reached No 2 in the UK singles chart in 1967, which prompted EMI to advance a stingy amount of money to Wirtz hoping for an equally successful follow-up. This was it, but it failed to dent the Top 30 even though IMHO it is a more accomplished production.
Interesting factoid – even though the label gave up on the Opera, Beatles’ sound engineer Geoff Emerick was a big fan of the concept and provided his services free of charge at Abbey Road studios. Geoff was working with the Fabs at the time during the recording of Sgt Pepper, and once they had finished work for the day he would let Wirtz and the musicians in to record during the night, availing themselves of any Beatles’ hardware left behind. The most prominent example is around 2.57 when the calliope kicks in, the very same one that the moptops were using on Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite. And Wirtz was a huge fan of Brian, so I'm thinking that possibly that bit beginning around the 4.11 mark might just be a respectful nod to Pet Sounds?
Have to correct you there, old bean: The Beatles weren't "using a calliope", because it would have taken too long to programme back then (and they couldn't find one for hire in London anyway). What we hear on "Kite" is a recording of a calliope that George Martin then cut up into strips, threw up into the air and edited back together... and then did it all again as the first attempt sounded very similar to the original version ! A Hammond organ was also used (played by Martin and sped up). Don't know what Mark used on "Sam", but it was nothing to do with The Beatles. Concerning the "soundtrack" as issued by RPM, Wirtz was a bit of a bugger about it: he took their money, helped compile and sequence it, supplying demos to help fill the album out... then when it was released distanced himself from it, saying it was nothing like the original intention. Whatever, the album stands as a primo slice of mid-sixties English psychedelia... or as someone once sagely noted, "it sounds like Camberwick Green as scored by Phil Spector on acid".
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Post by sneakypete77 on Feb 24, 2022 14:06:55 GMT -5
Dear heart, that wasn’t speculation on my part but something that came from the horse’s mouth way back when. My memory unfortunately isn’t what it used to be, but I’m pretty sure you and I had a conversation on the Blooey about The Opera, maybe sometime around the BWPS era. I think I mentioned that I’d been in contact with Mark Wirtz several times and that he was not a happy bunny over the way the RPM release had been handled. He told me that the original agreement was to preface the work with the only three songs that he’d ever completed for the Opera in 1967, then to include a compilation of instrumental tracks from the project together with some unrelated outside productions that hadn’t been wildly successful. His express wish was that it shouldn’t be marketed as A Teenage Opera, but unfortunately they went ahead and did it anyway. He claimed to have kicked up such a stink that it ended with him not receiving a penny from RPM, all of which is somewhat at odds with your account. Of course, if you do have some skinny on more up to date info than mine, which admittedly is the neck end of twenty years old, then maybe we can take it to PMs, 'cos I'd hate to get on John's bad side through hijacking his thread.
During one of our exchanges we touched on the instrumental track to Sam, entitled Glory’s Theme (All Aboard) which is a wonderful production but it’s missing some overdubs, including the calliope solo. I have nothing more to offer in respect of the calliope conundrum other than what he told me at the time. Maybe it was his belated attempt to add some gravitas to the effort he’d expelled on the Opera at Abbey Road in parallel with the Beatles’ work on Pepper around the same period (and he did stress that every note of the Opera had been recorded there). What intrigues me is the notion that The Fabs, the biggest band in the world with unlimited funds at their disposal, apparently couldn’t find a calliope or at least one in time to complete Pepper. Whereas Wirtz, with much more meagre resources appears to have sourced one with ease.
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Post by jk on Feb 24, 2022 15:23:33 GMT -5
Of course, if you do have some skinny on more up to date info than mine, which admittedly is the neck end of twenty years old, then maybe we can take it to PMs, 'cos I'd hate to get on John's bad side through hijacking his thread.
Good grief, man -- John is only too pleased to have his thread hijacked, as you describe it. The more action this remote corner of the forum gets the better, particularly from folks addressing each other as old bean and dear heart.
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Post by sneakypete77 on Feb 25, 2022 13:42:45 GMT -5
Firstly John, an apology for a clumsy use of words on my part – I meant to say ‘I’d hate to get on the wrong side of John…', because I’m not sure you even have a bad side. And secondly, you can pop those eyeballs back in, there’s no bromance going on here; believe me, Andrew and I have probably said much worse things to each other down the years than old bean and dear heart. It’s been an honour and a pleasure (almost all of the time), to call him a friend for nigh on four decades, but he’ll get stuck into something like a dog with a bone if you give him a sliver of a chance, and I wasn’t sure if you and your thread were ready for a five minute argument or the full half hour.
But anyhoo, I shall wrap up my brief discourse on the Teenage Opera with the third and final song that Mark Wirtz completed for the project in 1967. He was forced to sing the lead vocal himself because his part time vocalist Keith West as well as most of the players, including guitarist Steve Howe had already departed, keen to concentrate on their own careers when it became obvious that the Opera was going nowhere fast.
(He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman had a pedigree stretching back to the previous year when one of his outside productions failed to chart but created a bona fide Beach Boys collectable, using many elements of this fabulous 45 sung by Peanut (aka the gorgeous multi talented and much beloved Katie Kissoon):
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Post by jk on Feb 26, 2022 4:27:02 GMT -5
Firstly John, an apology for a clumsy use of words on my part – I meant to say ‘I’d hate to get on the wrong side of John…', because I’m not sure you even have a bad side. And secondly, you can pop those eyeballs back in, there’s no bromance going on here; believe me, Andrew and I have probably said much worse things to each other down the years than old bean and dear heart. It’s been an honour and a pleasure (almost all of the time), to call him a friend for nigh on four decades, but he’ll get stuck into something like a dog with a bone if you give him a sliver of a chance, and I wasn’t sure if you and your thread were ready for a five minute argument or the full half hour.
(He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman had a pedigree stretching back to the previous year when one of his outside productions failed to chart but created a bona fide Beach Boys collectable, using many elements of this fabulous 45 sung by Peanut (aka the gorgeous multi talented and much beloved Katie Kissoon):
No apology necessary, Peter. And my thread, like all my threads, is ready for anything, believe me. Great cover there, by the way. I recall Katie and her brother Mac Kissoon had a string of hits here on the mainland, often covers that never made it past the original in charting terms, amongst them "Love Will Keep Us Together". And I see she has sung backup for a whole bunch of famous folks. \ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_and_Katie_Kissoon
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Post by jk on Mar 2, 2022 5:49:41 GMT -5
We are listening, on and off, to the Dutch radio top 2000, voted for by listeners. It ends at just before midnight on the 31st with the #1, which is almost invariably "Bohemian Rhapsody". It's a very mixed bag, as you'll see: cms-assets.nporadio.nl/npoRadio2/Top-2000-2021.pdf?v=1639653148Good to see new things making the chart, up to and including Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino. ( Not too sure what to think of the Dutch stuff.) Several Beach Boys songs are in there too, if you care to look for them. People often come up to me in the street and say, "JK, as a Brit living in NL for many years, you must have formed an opinion of Dutch pop music during that time." I always respond by telling them that my two all-time favourite Dutch pop singles are "You" by Ten Sharp… …and "Never Be Clever" by Herman Brood... …and now would they please go away.
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Post by jk on Mar 2, 2022 13:57:36 GMT -5
While on the subject of Dutch pop… Twentieth-century French composer Olivier Messiaen made extensive use of what he called the "modes of limited transposition". These are scales that may be transposed to all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, but where at least two of these transpositions must share the exact same notes, hence the term "limited” (see the link for a more comprehensible explanation). Queen hinted at these modes in "Bicycle Race" but Dutch hip-hoppers De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig (the kids of today, in a pejorative sense) take it all a stage further in their second single "Voorjekijkendoorlopen" (look ahead and keep walking). The video was banned by MTV (not quite sure why) and unlike their Dutch chart-topping debut single it was only a minor national hit. The use of those modes is first heard at the start: soundcloud.com/magnetronmusic/de-jeugd-van-tegenwoordig-4?in=van-der-sluis-noesies%2Fsets%2Fjeugd-van-tegenwoordig en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_of_limited_transposition
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Post by jk on Mar 6, 2022 5:20:02 GMT -5
Many happies to lizzielooziani! Here's Allen Toussaint to sing for you on your birthday:
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Post by lizzielooziani on Mar 6, 2022 13:41:54 GMT -5
Thank you so much, John! I love that song - Allen Toussaint was (and will always be) a treasure. spending a lazy, warm afternoon, planning my garden. I’m officially an old lady lol. Am on the US Medicare program now.
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Post by jk on Mar 6, 2022 16:18:43 GMT -5
Thank you so much, John! I love that song - Allen Toussaint was (and will always be) a treasure. spending a lazy, warm afternoon, planning my garden. I’m officially an old lady lol. Am on the US Medicare program now. You're welcome, Lizzie. Make the most of your garden, stay safe, and stay healthy! Here's Mr Toussaint in another role, supplying the charts for the five-man horn section joining The Band for their series of concerts at The New York Academy of Music at the tail end of 1971: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Ages_(The_Band_album)
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Post by jk on Mar 8, 2022 4:48:59 GMT -5
I bumped into this great video on a Soviet/ex-Yu channel while working on a jigsaw puzzle. "Give Fire!" is by the then-Soviet synth-pop band Alyans (Альянс = Alliance). I already knew them from their studio performance of "Na zare" of a year earlier, which I still watch regularly. I thought nothing else of theirs could possibly come up to that standard, but this one does: The performers are Igor Zhuravlev, who wrote the song (lead vocals, guitar), Andrey Tumanov (bass), Konstantin Gavrilov (keyboards, on our left) and Oleg Parastaev, uploader of both videos (keyboards; RIP).
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Post by jk on Mar 9, 2022 13:37:52 GMT -5
For those of you who watched the Live Aid concert in 1985, you may recall seeing this surreal entry by the Soviet Union, representing the entire Eastern Bloc. If my spies are right, this was not telecast in Russia and Eastern Europe at the time, if ever. "Let me now present… the top of the pops: Autograph!" It seemed so fake at the time, and it still does. From three years later, the video in the previous post of Alyans performing "Give Fire!" -- my go-to, end-of-evening watch/listen these days in these tragic and unpredictable times -- gives a much better picture of the anger felt by young people in the USSR then and (much less explicitly for fear of reprisals) now.
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Post by jk on Mar 12, 2022 18:02:41 GMT -5
This is the most compact and satisfying selection of '80s Russian/Soviet synthpop tracks I've found so far. The two Alyans songs are fantastic and nothing else is less than compelling.
For your information, Bioconstructor mastermind Alexander Yakovlev of #12 is married to Olga Voskonyan of #7. They performed together until recently (maybe they still do) as one incarnation of Bioconstructor's longer-lived successor BIO. NRG stands for New Russian Group.
01. Alyans - Na Zare (At Dawn) / Альянс - На заре (0:00) 02. NRG - Trevozhnyye Sny (Disturbing Dreams) / НРГ - Тревожные сны (5:40) 03. Alyans - Dayte Ognya! (Give Fire!) / Альянс - Дайте огня! (8:40) 04. Forum - Davayte Sozvonimsya (Let's Call Each Other) / Форум - Давайте созвонимся (12:51) 05. Russya - Ne Stiy pid Viknom (Don't Stand Under the Window) / Руся - Не стій під вікном (16:29) 06. Filippa - Visioner av Dig (Visions of You) (19:45) 07. Olga Voskonyan - Avtomobili (Cars) / Ольга Восконьян - автомобили (23:10) 08. Max & Intro - Loš Je Dan (It's a Bad Day) (25:53) 09. Max & Intro - Beogradska Devojka (Belgrade Girl) (29:13) 10. Max & Intro - Ostavi Sve (Leave Everything) (32:10) 11. Kino - Leto (Summer) / Кино - Лето (35:51) 12. Bioconstructor - Bureaucrat / Биоконструктор - Бюрократ (41:46) 13. NRG - Belyy Gorod (White City) / НРГ - Белый город (46:04)
Edit: I've since learned that not all acts are from the USSR (Max & Intro are from Belgrade) or even from behind the Iron Curtain (Filippa is Swedish).
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Post by jk on Mar 14, 2022 15:39:30 GMT -5
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Post by nts1drums on Mar 15, 2022 17:12:52 GMT -5
This Supertramp song (written & sung by Rick Davies) is a wonderful combination of beautifully crafted music, absolutely mesmerizing. Even if he himself has said in interviews that he doesn’t feel a thing from this song and Goodbye Stranger (another great song), this is still one heck of a song.
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