BOC-L Digest - 17 Jan 2003 to 18 Jan 2003 (#2003-22)

[t.byrne]

>
> Date:    Sat, 18 Jan 2003 04:34:16 +0000
> From:    Ben Fagin <vulcanfoundry at BLUEYONDER.CO.UK>
> Subject: Re: HW: Other Bands
>
> Nobody has mentioned Devo yet, are you reading this Tom?   :)
>



Hi Ben & all

Yes, Devo - "It's a Beautiful World" track and video could have come
straight out of the "25 Years" tour. I remember seeing them several times,
in Manchester but most notably at Knebworth in 1978 when they were liberally
showered with beer cans by the audience who wished that they would retire so
that the enormously overblown (4 guitarists - 10 musicians on stage)
Jefferson Starship could come on.

Devo's concept of "De-evolution" - that just as slavering wolves de-evolved
into slobbering dogs, so society is forcing all of us to become Woody Allen
lookalikes, is pretty clever and makes for some striking and fun videos. Say
what you like, I'm sure it influenced Calvert's 25 years concept. I saw the
Hawklords tour in 78 and still have the programme - it looks pretty Devoish
to me. "God made man, but he used the monkey to do it/Ape's in the blood,
we're all here to prove it/I can walk like an ape, talk like an ape, do what
monkeys do/God made man, but monkeys are in the brew - Are we not men? We
are Devo - etc" - from Devo's Jocko Homo

I notice some overlap in the lists of favourite bands

My favourites:

Van Der Graaf Generator (esp "Pawn Hearts" & "Still Life" - Peter Hammill's
complex lyrics and tortured delivery combined with the raucous sax of David
Jackson are spellbinding - also some excursions into SF - The track "Still
Life" is about immortality - "At the time it seemed a reasonable course to
harness all of the force of life wthout the threat of death, but soon we
found that boredom and inertia are not negatives, but all the law we know."
Terrific.

Magma - (I recommend the majestic "Mekanik Destructiw Kommandoh" &
"Attahk" - do not play these at a tea dance!). Drummer Christian Vander's
epic set of albums centres on the war between an evil earth and the utopian
Kobaia - at least I think so - the whole lot is in his own artificial
language.

Nektar - especially "Recycled" - a powerful yet somewhat confused album.

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - neo-psychedelia - some very melodic and cleverly
constructed tunes - especially the album "Barafundle". I also admire the
uncompromising attitude they show by singing most of their songs in Welsh.

Mr Quimby's Beard - The Unsolved Mysteries - awsome - I can't convince the
wife it's not Hawkwind.

Cockney Rebel - (believe it or not!) - Have you heard "Sebastian" and "Death
Trip" from 1973's "Human Menagerie" album? - amazing orchestrations - "Death
Trip" is a 10 minute account of a fatal overdose - very boppy.

Wagner - The Ring Cycle and Parzival. If the hippies had discovered Wagner
before LSD there would not have been a drugs boom. A mighty trip.

His scion, Adrian Wagner - I'm listening to "Realm of the Ring Lords" at the
moment - very melodic.

Alan Stivell - especially "Live at the Dublin Olympia" and "Before
Landing" - Breton folk rock - "Before Landing" is a concept album which
tells the story of the Breton people.

Yes - "Relayer". Indeed, they are pretentious, I agree Anderson's lyrics are
meaningless, but they know how to develop and arrange a good tune.

Rimsky-Korsakoff - "Scheherezade". This piece of music is staggeringly well
orchestrated. R_K served in the Russian navy, and his evocation of the sea
in the 4th movement is unsurpassed. If you like music that provokes imagery,
I can't recommend this highly enough.

High Tide - Simon House's band before Hawkwind. I have two albums from 1970
and 1971 which are years before their time - "High Tide" and "Sea Shanties".
Tony Hill's guitar playing is sometimes a little too prominent and
indulgent, but both of these albums display rough genius.

Michael Moorcock - "Fair Dealer" from "New World's Fair". In my opinion the
best thing he's ever done, and I include all his novels with the exception
of "The Warlord of the Air" which is excellent SF in the style of Conan Doyl
e.

The Albion Band - "Stella Maris" Side 2 is a wonderful concept track about a
man who is admiring in an art gallery a portrait by Reynolds of a lady done
up as a shepherdess. He then has a vision of what went into the production
of the portrait- the portrait is a sham, how the lady is really a rich
dowager and her outfit is produced by the local tenants at he whim, etc.
Very clever.

Alien Dream's Dogon Dance - well done Michael. I'm looking forward to the
next one.

Mirrors, Neutron Star - good music for concentration, but definitely not
muzak.

The Magic Mushroom Band - I would have thought that this fast, psychedelic
rock would have appealed to most Hawkwind fans. Shockingly, a lot of their
songs appear to be about getting high.

Arthur Brown "Journey" - "Time Captives" is of course special - but the rest
of the tracks on this album are also innovative and would appeal to lovers
of space rock.

Brian Eno - "Another Green World", "Before and After Science", "Taking Tiger
Mountain by Strategy". All very evocative albums.

There you are.

And I haven't mentioned "The Last Druids" once - D'oh!

Regards

Tom Byrne