Wrecking ball

One of the things that I'm trying to do is listen to albums that I buy. That may sound a bit daft, but my iTunes library is littered with albums that I've bought, because it's so easy to do it in the digital age. Then I have maybe, only listened to it  once, or worse still I forget that I bought it and find it days, weeks or months later and then I can't be bothered to make the effort!

This week I bought the latest Bruce Springsteen album, Wrecking Ball, and it has been on heavy rotation* ever since.

Here's what I think. Every so often, Springsteen nails the current mood in the USA (as it appears to me in England!), he did it with "Born in the USA", then again with "The Rising" (post 9/11), then the Seeger sessions tapped into the rich vein of American roots music and now "Wrecking Ball" is his view on a post Occupy world.

It starts with "We take care of our own", an anthemic rocker which puts all the markers down. Bruce is angry and has a message for you and it will not be subtle. Great stuff.

The album also returns to the music of the Seeger Sessions with plenty of accordion, fiddle and bits of brass.

Subjects covered include, being shackled to our lives which are going nowhere, (Shackled and Drawn), how as the man of the house the writer will do anything to make ends meet (Jack of all trades), that our towns have been stripped bare (Death to my Hometown) and how in this depression, love is what will get you through (This depression).

Half way through Bruce drops in "Wrecking ball" his tribute to the demolition of Giants stadium, which works on a number of levels in the current climate. There's a great video of him playing it in Giants stadium which you can watch here.

The second half starts the climb back out of the abyss. "Rocky ground" is about as urban as Bruce gets, with a brief RAP,. It's about faith and doubt and is full of religious symbolism. This is followed by an old song "Land of hopes and dreams" which was written 10 years or so ago and was part of his live show at that time. It fits perfectly and features probably the last recorded sax solo by Clarence Clemons, Bruce's  "big man" who died last year and who gets a great side of liner notes on the album.

"We are alive" has a cowboy feel to the music and deals with the fact that after we die, we are alive! (I think). And that's it!

Although it's not as the extended version has two more songs, the first of which Swallowed UP (in the belly of the Whale), takes its theme from the Biblical story of Jonah. But when Bruce sings the refrain "we've been swallowed up" it suddenly works on a number of levels. Is he referring to America's world position, the plight of the man of the street, Christianity in a secular world or the music industry in the digital age? Who knows but it's very haunting.

Finally another older song, American Land, which in case we wondered is why we he loves America. This was written around the times of the Seeger Sessions and again featured in his lives shows so it's well worn already. A hooting, singing, twirling finale, which you see being sung in bars on Independence Day.

Overall a real return to form and I wish I could get to see him this summer but it's unlikely, he's only playing four dates here!

* refers to a time when we used play records on a record player!

Back together again

There's a fairly strong argument that Twitter and Facebook are slowly killing blogging. Certainly since I got the "Twitter bug" in particular, this blog has seemed just too much like hard work.

I know that my feeds in Google Reader have a number of blogs that are no longer updated yet I follow/am friends with the writers on Twitter/Facebook and they are active on both, so clearly I'm not alone. I also know of some people who have had to drop both Twitter & Facebook so that they can continue/return to their blog.

In my case I have had ideas for blogs, it's just that the moment passes and it's then easier to make a 140 character pithy remark on Twitter instead! (Well that's the theory any way!)

So what have I "nearly blogged" about?

1. I watched the film comedy "Paul" starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Good film, but why, I wondered, did a film so "down" on Christianity end with sacrificial death and then a resurrection? 
2. Why is it that bands I grew up with, and whose music I still adore and listen to regularly, have to make complete idiots of themselves and their fans by touring with lead singers from tribute bands or American Idol. Yes & Queen step forward. The former has now got to farcical levels, with a second such singer now joining them, when the original singer, Jon Anderson, is now fit and well enough to be in the band. The latter just isn't Queen. A good rock band yes, as was Taylor May and Rodgers*, but NOT Queen! Freddie's dead and John Deacon has retired (or knows Freddie's dead and wants no part of kicking his legacy to death) so IT WILL NEVER BE QUEEN.
3. Football and more importantly that Saints are currently top of the Championship and have been for most of the season. The last three seasons  have in fact been a great time to be a Saints fan, with a promotion, winning a trophy at Wembley and now the realistic chance of a return to the Premier League. 
4. Football teams not paying taxes. I'm trying to be impartial here and ignore the fact that it's Pompey, but surely some kind of root and branch investigation needs to be undertaken to see how, so quickly after HMRC were denied a large chunk of tax in the first Administration, that a second chunk is now owing and likely to remain unpaid. 

So there we go, some of my nearly blogs and now let's see how long it is before my next entry!

*That's what they're called in my iTunes library as opposed to Queen+ Paul Rodgers.

Funny looking angels

One of the things about music that I love is its ability to transform "the time and the place" that you're in.

I had such an experience this week.

Wednesday morning, while getting ready for work, I happened across a TV interview with Tom Smith from the Editors and Andy Burrows who used to be in Razorlight. They were discussing their "Christmas" album, Funny Looking Angels, which has just been released and they played parts of the video for the main single "When the Thames Froze".

I was amazed. This is a genuine new Christmas hit single and deserves to be the Christmas No 1 (except I also want the Army wives to be No 1 too). It evokes modern day images of Britain but with a nod and a wink to Victorian Christmas scenes and finishes with a wonderful refrain about having "hope in your heart" and telling everyone if you have. The music is piano driven with a brass arrangement and thus has a hint of "Fairytale of New York" to it. It builds majestically and the ending should have you singing along, particularly if in a party/friends environment. A new Christmas classic, just when you thought all we had to look forward to was the X Factor winner's latest cover version.

The even better news is that the album is as good.  This too has a strong Christmas theme, starting with a beautiful stripped back version of "In the bleak mid-winter", which is followed by "When the Thames Froze".

Next up is "As the snowflakes fall" an Andy Burrows written pop song, piano and drums based, with a sixties feel to it and is fun. This is then followed by a cover of a song by indie band Delta, which is  the title track. This is an upbeat sing along version, backed by sax and  Phil Spector big but not deafening drums. It reminds me of "Never let her slip away" by Andrew Gold for feel.

Two more well known covers follow. Firstly "Wonderful Life" the Black song. A little more up beat than the original but faithful to it and it uses, acoustic guitar, violins and a background drum/hand-clap rhythm. Tom Smith's voice is perfect for this song. The play on words with the title and the Christmas film of the same name means it fits the overall mood superbly.

The second cover is "Only You" a Christmas Number one for The Flying Pickets and originally by Yazoo. This version has a "we will rock you" drum hand clap backing too (Burrows is after all a drummer!) but takes the best bits the two other versions to create a worthy version in its own right.

With both these covers versions, if you had never heard the originals they would be great tracks in their own right.

The final cover is of the Longpigs "On and on", which I didn't know, but is again a great song well produced, again piano, brass and harmonies to the fore.

The last three tracks bring us back to Christmas again. First up is "Rosslyn" an instrumental that at one point had vocals and lyrics, but was felt best left without either. Piano and orchestra based it'll be on an advert soon!

The last original song is "This ain't New Jersey" which doffs it's cap very firmly at Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is coming to Town". It's a conversation between a couple arguing over Christmas, who are snowed in and fall out over whether "Santa Claus" or "Father Christmas" is coming to town. The dialogue also has a touch of Meat Loaf to it, the music drives along with again Phil Spector drums and as an added Christmas bonus, tubular bells!

The album finishes with a cover of "The Christmas Song" which Tom Smith starts and then leads into a beautiful version when he is joined by by Danish singer Agnes Obel. It ends the album with that warm glow with which a Christmas album should leave you.

The Masterplan

And we're back!

In the interim period, in terms of my football club Southampton F C (the Saints), life could not be better.

You'll remember that at the end of last season, Saints were promoted from League One as runners up so this season we embarked, nervously, on a new life in The Championship.

Well as I write this we are currently top of the league, five points clear of the second place team and our home record reads played eight, won eight! Away from St Mary's we have not fared quite as well but we have still scored 16 goals and only let in 12. Overall we have a positive goal difference of +20, +5 better than anyone else in the league.

As we are now one third of the way through the season, we are starting to begin to think about the possibility of maybe playing Premier League football next season.

It could all go horribly wrong but at present, we are the team that everybody else is talking about.

Awaken

And so, dear reader, our journey through my top 8 songs (as per the Desert Island Disc format) comes to a close, with 15 minutes and 31 seconds of prog rock joy courtesy of Yes. You can listen to the song here.


I've blogged previously about my thoughts on both the soap opera that is the regular changes in the Yes line-up here and what I think of their last album here.

In the same way that much of my affection for 1970's music was acquired, by listening to albums over and over again at a friends house, I first remember listening to Yes following my friend Nigel having a Damascus Road type conversion to their music. This was after "The Old Grey Whistle Test" (a British rock show) broadcast a 1975 concert. The gig was live at QPR's football stadium and Nigel went straight out and bought "Yessongs" the band's triple live album from a previous tour and played it to us at every opportunity. As it was six sides of music, there was always a side to listen to, that we hadn't heard for a couple of days!

Awaken comes from the band's 1977 album "Going for the one" (GFTO), which was the band's first new release since I became a "fan" and it was issued on 7/7/77 which was just before I started work! This meant that I had money and could actually buy the album some weeks later rather tape someone else's. In fact I could also go and buy the two 12" singles released at the same time, which still have pride of place in my vinyl collection.

GTFO was very much a re-launch for Yes, as it marked the return to the line-up of keyboard player, Rick Wakeman, who had found the excesses of Tales of Topographic Oceans, too much. but when he heard the working demo's for this album, returned reinvigorated! It was also the first album for five plus years not produced by Eddie Offord (the band produced it themselves) and the album cover was by design company Hipnosis (best known for their work with Pink Floyd), not long time album artist, Roger Dean. It was also recorded in Montreux, at Mountain Studios, which Queen would later use to record among other songs, Under Pressure, with local resident David Bowie!

GFTO is a fairly short (39 minutes) five track album, but in my view, it is the high point in the Yes canon.  I will never tire of listening to it and Awaken as the last track brings the album to a stunning climax.

If someone asked me to play them a song that for me defined "prog rock", I would be hard pressed to play them a better example than Awaken. For a start is effectively two pieces of music, moulded together with an introductory and end section that bookend the piece superbly. The song starts with Wakeman on the piano showing off and then leads into Anderson singing about "high vibrations" over ethereal keyboards and guitar. This then leads to a guitar track that starts the the first half of the song which is a rock workout with Steve Howe's guitar work showing what a great player he is. Over the top Jon Anderson sings about "the workings of man" and bass and drums thunder around with a church organ in the mix as well!

It's the second half of the song, however, that takes it to epic proportions. In the mix, Yes add, timbrels and harp, with the church organ now quietly over the top. This church organ part builds as Rick Wakeman puts the organ at Eglise des Planches, Montreux through it's paces. Added to this then comes Howe with some beautifully fluid guitar soloing. The rest of band join in, with again some great soloing from Howe and Anderson's voice adds his falsetto/angelic magic (including the lyric from which this blog gets its name!) and then the church choir (yes really) put a choral harmony over the top to which Wakeman now playing thunderous organ takes the whole experience to a truly spiritual level. Howe then solos for his country and the songs just builds and builds until THE chord change at 12' 48" just makes you punch the air. The track finishes with the choir and Anderson reprising the beginning of the song in a gentle angelic way that finishes the track and album off perfectly.

Music like this just makes the world a wonderful place.

The Prophet's song

There's a theory regularly expressed on the excellent Word podcast that you develop your taste in music by the time that you're in your late teens. These last two entries in my Desert Island Disc series confirm that that was indeed the case for me.

The penultimate entry comes from Queen's 1975 magnum opus, "A Night at the Opera". On the back of a career defining single, Bohemian Rhapsody, ANATO (as it is known by Queen fans) lifted the band several levels in rocks hierarchy and for me this was the stand out track on it.

Before, however, I talk about this song, I feel that I should explain exactly how important Queen were to me as I navigated my way through my mid-teens.

I first really became aware of them, when they performed Seven Seas of Rhye on Top of the Pops. I think my mate Gray bought that single and then Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack were bought by school mates, sorry I can't remember who had what and as one did, we hung out and played them to death. Very soon Queen were my favourite band and any edition of Sounds, Melody Maker or NME (1970's music papers that had any article or interview was purchased and read and re-read. Similarly any appearance on Top of the Pops was to be watched and the sheer joy of the bands live performance, even in the TOTP studio, kept me going for weeks. My best mate Gray and I would discuss them for hours, what songs meant, what they were wearing and why Freddie wearing black nail polish didn't mean that he was gay!

Then one Sunday afternoon while writing an essay for my homework and listening to Annie Nightingale (I think), she played the new Queen single. Didn't catch the title and wasn't listening properly so actually thought that she had messed up and played two album tracks! That was of course "Bo Rhap" and when the album came out, my friend Ian bought it and we listened to it over and over while playing Risk and Colditz.

I distinctly remember their 1975 Christmas concert being broadcast live on BBC2 and a bank of cassette players being set up in front of Gray's parents TV while we tried to record it for prosperity. Even now any clip of that great concert brings that night in his lounge back to me like it was yesterday!

The Prophet's Song opens side 2 of the album and you can listen to it here if you have Spotify. At 8 minutes 21 seconds it is the longest studio song that the band recorded and to me it sums up why I love Queen. Firstly it has a great guitar work, it has great lyrics (biblical references always a good thing), Freddie sings his heart out, the choral bit is exactly right for the song and the end is a stunning climax, including a stereo effect that bounced across the speakers. Very lame in these days of 5.1 surround sound, but at the time, to my teenage ears, it was the very cutting edge of audio technology. It is probably the closest to prog rock that the band came, which also explains my love for this song!

The first 5 Queen albums are faultless in my view and I will never tire of hearing any of them, but this track is, to me, the high water mark.

Ára bátur

My sixth track for Desert Island Discs comes from what may prove to be the last album by Sigur Rós, the fabulously named "Meõ suõ í eyrum viõ spilum endalaust"! In English it means, "With a buzz in our ears we play Endlessly" I say last as the band are on a "hiatus" so who knows if they'll record together again?

The title to the song means "Row boat" and you can listen to it here. It is as glorious a 9 minutes of music to which you can hope to listen.

The album came out in June 2008 and I bought it and listened to it first in around November that year. This co-incided with my Dad being in hospital and one night I hit play on my iPod in the car after I had dropped my Mum off home. She lives about 10 minutes from my house with quiet roads. I was a bit emotional as Dad was fairly poorly and slowly as the song built on the journey home so did my spirits. At the final crescendo when Orchestra and Choir go into overdrive, I was driving down the slip road to the motorway with the most wonderful sunset view across Hampshire in front of me and the meeting of sound and vision was just heart stopping.

The song now always reminds me of my Dad, who died the following February, but as a result of that journey home, in a good, uplifting way.