music, music and a bit more music, then. in keeping with the trend thus far, which is to comment on the vibes today that i listened to the day before, look you see, i thought it best to push onwards with an in recent times unprecedented third post on the day today. sorry if the quality of text diminishes, which i suspect might not be saying all that much.
and what was it, or rather who was it, that i listened to? two artists, no less. one that should have a much wider audience than he does, and another chap who i am fairly sure is reasonably well known already and doesn't particularly require me or anyone else to worry about how many of the kids are listening to what it is that he does.
ostensibly these ten songs are about, or partially inspired by, certain people known by the artist. that's not to say these are heavy handed private statements of no meaning - every song, ever, when you think about it, was inspired by someone or something somewhere.
they are all very accessible tunes indeed thanks to the usual wonderful, witty lyrical musings on the go here. these are enhanced by some truly amazing musicianship, with Jonny doing all the instruments and that by himself. presumably not at the same time, of course, otherwise the poor lad would have to set up some sort of amazing one man band rigging; something likely to make him somewhat top heavy and fall over from time to time during recording sessions.
i've got the song Need on at the moment. it features the line "i've got a PhD in misery". that's the kind of line that the Manics would like to have done, and several other lesser bands, that.
best way to describe the music? well, if like me you are a keen music lover, every now and then you get an idea in your head about how awesome a sound would be, expanded into a song. if, like me, you have no practical talent at all, you have no idea how to actually do that conversion. Jonny does; and then some.
if for some reason it's too much trouble for you to click on the above link and you want a quick sample here, well then here you go. here's a snippet of Elephant.
man i love that bass sound. what's the right way to describe it? sort of an echoing, cavernous, psychedelic voyage into the realm of just how awesome bass is.
go on, save me from saying it again - click here and go give the album a try. it's not like it has to cost you anything to do so.
onwards then, but first a pause. here's a dude that was on the repeat of Bullseye tonight.
that dude is amazing, man. he's like a cross between Borat and the prototype of the personification of an Australian. he doesn't look like he should be on a gameshow answering questions about Roy Orbison; he should be in a studio at Channel 9 speaking of the meat of the bat and hard and fast.
the copy i listened to is off a first generation CD issue of it from the 80s, making it some 30 years old. i picked it up for 49p, and it goes with the various other reissues and "remasters" that i have locked up in storage. along with, yes, the vinyl.
which version is best? some would argue that this version of the CD is better than that one, etc, etc. ripped to files to play on the ipod for convenience, this sounds pretty good, thanks.
the kids have always taken a surface level based dim view of this album. due to the name of it, many make the assumption that Aladdin Sane is or was merely Bowie attempting to emulate the trick and success of his previous "character album", the rather widely celebrated record that is Ziggy Stardust. that's not really the case at all. there's not much in the way of a thematic link to the songs here, and it's certainly not any sort or form of "concept" album. it is, basically, a collection of some really, really good songs.
my favourites off of it? creating an "all time top ten best Bowie songs of all time" is a tough thing to do, but Panic In Detroit and Time off of this album would always be in consideration, with at least one featuring. which one? depended what mood i was in when i was asked i suppose.
i half expect Derek to get his people on to me for some sort of royalties for this snippet, but let's see. i can tell him to write it off against the many coins of money i have given him over the last 30 or so years.
if you were reading this, right, and you had not heard any Bowie before, would this be the album that i suggest you start your journey into the world of his music with? possibly not, no, as the lyrics get somewhat darker here at certain points. for Bowie starters, and we all need to start somewhere, i would say you can't go wrong with any one of the dozen or so best of / greatest hits things out there.
so, that's a week in vibes on the bus, then. back to reading next week, or more vibes? i haven't quite decided, in truth. i have at last got this Child 44 book that i am keen to read, so we shall see. for some reason these vibes posts have been rather widely read (thank you for taking the time to do so), so i may continue on for another week.
i do have some other music to listen to, which may well be the subject of my next post.....
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment