Log #220 - Animals Is Pink Floyd's Best Album

My recent listening to the likes of Opeth, and Eloy in particular, plus a spin of Atom Heart Mother last week, has led me back to some more Pink Floyd this week. 

Wish You Were Here was my favourite album of theirs when I was younger (in fact, my favourite album of all time by anyone for a while). It's still excellent with the centrepiece of Shine On You Crazy Diamond of course, the futuristic Welcome To The Machine, and the rock of Have A Cigar. Objectively the title track is undoubtedly a great song too with brilliant lyrics and a catchy acoustic progression, but now a tad over familiar. 

Meddle is a little aged but quite a step up from its predecessor Atom Heart Mother. The celebrated side long track Echoes is more fully formed than the bombastic Atom Heart Mother Suite and the acoustic songs are better than that album's comparatives.

But actually I now think Animals is the best Pink Floyd album. It's just well, so cool. It's one of the band's heaviest albums, and angriest... pointing the way to the more bloated The Wall which followed, but with only 3 long songs simply bookended by a matching acoustic intro and outro it's a lot more focused. One senses Roger Waters was really beginning to take over the song writing with some of his most politically charged lyrics:

You got to be crazy, gotta have a real need
Got to sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
Got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
Then moving in silently down wind and out of sight
You got to strike when the moment is right, without thinking

Johnny Rotten in his I Hate Pink Floyd T-Shirt

In the face of political and economic turmoil and the burgeoning punk movement (in actual fact there was mutual respect between quite a few of the old dinosaur rock bands and the new wave of young punk bands - Johnny Rotten actually said some years later that he loved Dark Side Of The Moon) this powerful album released in January 1977 and described by NME as...

one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music to have been made available this side of the sun

...couldn't have been better timed.

 ~

Van Morrison - Hard Nose The Highway
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Animals
Opeth - Damnation

~

The famous Pink Floyd pig still floating over Battersea Power Station during the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

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Log #217 - Splashdown (Into the Ocean from the Stratosfear)

After the success of Lateralus last week I doubled down with TOOL's most recent album Fear Inoculum.

Invincible sounds very much like Rush with the picked guitar and latter period Geddy Lee like vocals.

7empest is epic and the opener is very powerful.

The drumming is obviously very busy and front of mix in this style of full on nu-metal and the guitars are generally of the chugging variety - not an awful lot of soloing even in such lengthy songs.

Could it be a bit samey after a while? Not so far, plenty to enjoy here, and I think I even prefer this album to Lateralus. These boys should go far.

Tool - Lateralus
Tool - Fear Inoculum

Tangerine Dream - Stratosfear

The Enid - Aerie Faerie Nonsense

Eloy - Ocean

Van Morrison - Into The Music

I was slightly disappointed with Stratosfear though coming as it did (1976) slap bang in the middle of TANGERINE DREAM's "heyday". It doesn't seem to develop their sound much and gives me the impression of treading water with "random" synth melodies over trademark pulses. 

The title track which kicks off the album is one of the band's most commercial pieces with a predictable melody and one of those Edgar Froese guitar solos which sound a bit random to me without adding anything to a track.

I respect their synthesizer textures in theory, but these guys should leave the accessibility to Kraftwerk. When they program in received semiclassical melodies and set the automatic drummer on 'bouncy swing,' the result is the soundtrack for a space travelogue you don't want to see.

Robert Christgau 

Stratosfear points the way towards the more developed rock sound TD would master on Force Majeure 3 years later.

Years ago I had an album by English classical prog group THE ENID called Six Pieces (1980). I can't remember much about it apart from it didn't really grab me (by definition presumably). 

Aerie Faerie Nonsense was the group's second album released in 1977. It's an oddity. It actually sounds like symphonic classical pop music (the emphasis on pop meaning the music is awash with upbeat melodies). I can't even tell if they actually recorded with an orchestra (there doesn't seem to be a mention of this in the sleeve notes but it certainly sounds like it). Other than that the music centres around founder keyboardist Robert John Godfrey, with some rock guitar and drums, but it's mostly orchestral and entirely instrumental (the slimmed down parts consisting of just a conventional rock band appeal to me more than the overblown orchestral flourishes). 

There are moments that remind me of some of Camel's instrumental work, especially The Snow Goose. Perhaps this was the sort of music the naff instrumental "supergroup" Sky were striving for?

Apparently some of their albums did have vocals and I'll source one of them before filing the group away in the "tried that once" drawer.

The ELOY album is more to my liking. This German prog rock band is, surprisingly, new to me. Of course I've heard the name but this is the first time I've ever heard any of their music... and it's pretty good. 

It isn't massively new or different - many comparisons to Nektar and Pink Floyd can be made (and Grobschnitt too but I'm undecided if that is just because of the vocals), but nevertheless Ocean (their 6th album, also from 1977) is excellent at what it does and can take its place proudly among the offerings of those 2 (or 3) contemporary prog bands.

Both Eloy and The Enid are still going in various forms. Two bands I'd mixed up together in my mind's eye (most likely just because of the similar names, as the actual music is quite different).

VAN MORRISON is currently my second favourite artist (as judged by frequency of plays in my CD player!). However I am yet to hear all of his albums and at my age time may be running out (I should at least commit to hearing everything up to the end of the '80s). I came to Into The Music (his 1979 offering) after reading an album ranking that, surprisingly, put this at No.1.

There is no doubt that Van, as always, has a crack band behind him as they race through these jaunty tunes - both of the string (Astral Weeks template) and brass (Moondance template) variety, often employed together in these tracks.  

I prefer Astral Weeks to Moondance and generally therefore like his stringy folky albums (like Veedon Fleece) more than his souley brassy ones (more prevalent in the '80s and beyond). In fact the strings on this album remind me of the raw fiddle playing of Scarlet Rivera from Bob Dylan's superb Desire album especially on one of my Van favourites the life affirming And The Healing Has Begun, albeit they do dip into The Chieftains territory on one or two of the lighter weight songs..

He's in fine voice too, a little more age and gravel, supplemented by abundant choir.

Into The Music is a good "later period" more commercial Van album, but certainly not his best.

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Log #214 - Van Morrison's Uncommon One

Common One from 1980 is a bit of a forgotten outlier in the Van Morrison catalogue. For me it sounds like a mix of Astral Weeks* and Avalon Sunset ie. the freeform stringy impro of the former (especially on the extended stream of consciousness Summertime In England) merging with the sax and organ groove commerciality of the latter (like on Satisfied). I can forgive Van banging on about all his favourite poets again in the former (Joyce, Blake, Eliot, Wordsworth, Coleridge etc).

*Having said that the dynamic brassy Spirit with its strident chorus reminds me more of the Moondance tracks.

The album ends with the ambient When Heart Is Open. This lengthy peaceful piece has elements of Small Hours by John Martyn.

No wonder the rock critics of the time didn't get it; this is music outside the pop mainstream, and even Morrison's own earlier musical territory. 

Allmusic

There's no doubt that Van Morrison was attempting something a bit different with this easy listening laid back jazz infused album. An approach that yields mixed results. Critics were initially unimpressed but over the years Common One has become a bit of a lost Morrison classic. I wouldn't quite go that far but it's certainly a pleasant unobtrusive record that I can imagine putting on in the background on a rainy Sunday afternoon (like a lot of his others actually). 

I love the cover, and it graces this week's post.

Van Morrison - Common One

Depeche Mode - Violator

Chicago - Greatest Hits

Weather Report - Heavy Weather

The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Mounting Flame

Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior

The beginning of Romantic Warrior surprised me. Medieval Overture opens with a Terry Riley like keyboard pattern, before it veers off on a number of tangents. Just in this 5 minute track alone I can hear so much: Yes, Rush, Philip Glass, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Pat Metheny, King Crimson and Frank Zappa. The musicianship is astounding - a particular shout out for the drummer Lenny White who ratta-tats away like a maniac.

Who were they? - well, as it turns out although I've never heard of the band I have heard of the individuals (and I have seen the album cover around before, although I may be mixing it up with the Quicksilver Messenger Service one?). 

Chick Corea – keyboards
Stanley Clarke – bass
Lenny White – drums
Al Di Meola – guitar

It's somewhere in between my other jazz fusion discoveries of recent weeks - Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, but much nearer the latter.

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Log #173 - Fireflies By Night - Rush With Nick Cave

It's not hard to remember why Rush were so exciting to a teenage boy - the music is so fast and tight, it's heavy yet progressive, with grand concepts, titles like By-Tor And The Snow Dog *, fabulous album covers, and a lead singer with the ultimate scream of the day. It was the thinking man's (or boy's) heavy metal.

Fly By Night was the band's second album, and the first with the late Neil Peart on drums.

* This track, although a modest 8 minutes in prog terms, has the following parts to give it its full title!:

By-Tor & the Snow Dog
I. "At the Tobes of Hades"
II. "Across the Styx"
III. "Of the Battle"
i. "Challenge and Defiance"
ii. "7/4 War Furor"
iii. "Aftermath"
iv. "Hymn of Triumph"
IV. "Epilogue"

Note part III (roman numerals of course) was sub divided into a further 4 parts. Such prog ostentations would only gather pace with Rush on subsequent albums throughout the 70s until, like a lot of rock and prog bands, they scaled down their sound and scope in the 80s with albums like Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures which have generally stood the test of time relatively better.

So what does one think 40 years later? Well, the musicianship is astounding, still. The pace is frenetic, not only on the rock numbers as you'd expect, which take up the whole of the first side, apart from a brief gentle passage around the "Aftermath" (I'm guessing) section of said By-Tor... but also on the acoustic based numbers that start Side Two.

But then there is something very different - penultimate track Rivendell is a lovely unexpected piece (save for the Lord Of The Rings lyrics that is, which was of course all the rage at the time). Backed by classical guitar and flute/recorder good old screamer Geddy even sings in a normal register and sounds lovely: 

You feel there’s something calling you
You’re wanting to return
To where the misty mountains rise
And friendly fires burn
A place you can escape the world
Where the dark lord cannot go
Peace of mind and sanctuary
By loudwater’s flow

Rivendell then segues into the monster In The End guitar riff, one of Rush's greatest rock masterpieces (this one for me echoed the brilliant Working Man from their debut album - all the best rock albums from the 70s had to end with a monumental extended rifftastic rocker didn't they?). And that's it. 8 tracks, barely 35 minutes and it's all done and dusted, in the can. Who needs these hour plus albums of 15 tracks these days?

Johnny Flynn A Larum
Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway

Pink Floyd Meddle

Rush Fly By Night
Nick Cave Skeleton Tree

Nick Cave Ghosteen

And now Nick Cave. The tragic circumstances surrounding his last two records are well documented. But apparently the majority of the first of these, Skeleton Tree (2016), was actually written before the death of his son in 2015, and the trajectory of the music through this album, to the new one Ghosteen, does seem to follow a logical path which began on the preceding Push The Sky Away. It was on that 2013 album Nick Cave (and Warren Ellis) started experimenting with unusual song forms and new instrumentation. Skeleton Tree continues this drift towards electronics, ambience, spoken word and choirs. Ghosteen takes it further: the tracks are even less song based, characterised more by sounds, space, stillness and poetry.

And everything is distant as the stars, and I am here and you are where you are.

Fireflies

I heard Ghosteen first and it was pretty much what I expected. It's relentlessly down and a hard listen. It's an atmosphere piece - one that may begin to make sense after half a dozen plays, preferably at 3am with wine. There are long chords and drones, distorted synthesizers, single line piano lines, and wailing backing vocals. It feels a bit like David Bowie's Black Star, but slowed down, like a 33 1/3 rpm played at 16. The album comes on two CDs, the second containing a couple of tracks over 12 minutes long. Having said that some tracks seem to have unexpectedly early fade outs. I've played it three or four times and must say it does improve with familiarity (there's a lot more here than first meets the ear but I couldn't help thinking I'd stick to Gas or Eno if I wanted to hear this sort of music). 

With trepidation I moved to Skeleton Tree which I imagined might be even rawer, but actually was pleasantly surprised. It is more song based and I think I like it better than Ghosteen, and certainly better than I was expecting. It is easier to get into on the first few listens. 

Neither are as good as Push The Sky Away in my opinion, but in the circumstances, and in the face of the universal acclaim bestowed upon both Ghosteen and Skeleton Tree it is difficult to be objective and just assess the albums on their musical merits. I have no idea whether I will revisit these albums as masterpieces in the years to come or they will just burn bright for the briefest of moments... like fireflies. I'm actually looking forward to finding out.

At the opposite end of the depression scale comes the brilliant Johnny Flynn. Like many fans (and I'm certain he's sick of hearing this) I came to him through the brilliant theme tune to the brilliant Detectorists TV series. I wanted to find him at his most raw and solo, and haven't quite achieved this aim just yet with A Larum but nevertheless it's a brilliant rootsy folk record. Flynn has an amazingly strong and authentic voice for one so young. A brilliant new find to start 2020.

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Log #172 - Also Sprach A New Generation Of Songwriters

A mixed bag, as you'd expect, from Mojo's presentation of "A New Generation of Songwriters"; a compilation from the "Communion" label given away with their magazine in 2011. This "generation" mostly refers to the folk revival of the end of the noughties led by artists represented on this disc:

Johnny Flynn, Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard, and Matthew And The Atlas, plus a few other singer songwriter types outside of folk like Michael Kiwanuka.

There are also bunch of artists I've not heard of on this 15 track CD. Tell you what - see for yourself:

Tell me a tale (Michael Kiwanuka) -- Three tree town (Ben Howard) -- Circle in the square (Marcus Foster) -- Vintage red (Jay Jay Pistolet) -- More than letters (Benjamin Francis Leftwich) -- Sister (Mumford & Sons) -- Walk through walls (Communion version) (Kyla La Grange) -- In the honour of industry (Johnny Flynn) -- Hands in the sink (Alessi's Ark) -- Fictional state (To Kill a King) -- Emily Rose (Three Blind Wolves) -- I will remain (Matthew and the Atlas) -- Sculptor and the stone (Jesse Quin and the Mets) -- Peter (Daughter) -- Early spring till (Nathaniel Rateliff)

Which of this new generation has gone on to great things a decade later? Probably about half a dozen of them, which isn't a bad hit rate. The classiest tracks I've noticed on the record have tended to be from these now established artists - Kiwanuka, Howard, and Flynn. The Marcus Foster is a good track too - an artist I may explore. Same too for To Kill A King - their Wiki profile says they have been compared to Grizzly Bear and Frightened Rabbit, and they've toured in support of Dog is Dead (I just found all that slightly amusing).

Mojo Presents Communion
Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway

Pink Floyd Meddle

Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
Holger Czukay Moving Pictures

Nucleus Elastic Rock

Richard (1864 - 1949) is the Strauss who wrote the main theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey: Dahhh Dahhh Dahhh... Da Da!!! Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom - you know the one.

One of the most famous riffs in classical music

He is not Johann Strauss (strictly II) (1825 - 99), who did write a lot of the famous waltzes also used in the 2001 film. They are not related, although Johann was related to other composers - his father (strictly known as Johann Strauss I, and brothers Josef and Eduard) - just to add to the confusion.

There's some rock trivia for you then.

The title translates as Thus Spoke Zarathustra as inspired by the book of the same name by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Who was Zarathustra? He was a religious prophet type geezer who hung out around Persia (now modern day Iran) we think around 600 BC or so. Dates and details are a bit sketchy. He also goes by the name Zoroaster.

More rock trivia.

By the way what a great film, and story, 2001 was: such a brilliant concept. Intelligent aliens arrive at Earth 2 million years ago. Find a bunch of apes scrabbling around in the dirt. Decide to run an experiment to see how long it takes them to reach the moon, but not before giving them a shot of intelligence via the mysterious monolith. Jump to present day, the apes have evolved into space explorers. Man uncovers a monolith on the moon which sends an (alerting) signal into space and the mission begins to track its source.

All the more amazing that the film came out just a few months before the real moon landing in July 1969. What perfect timing. Talk about the planets aligning.

Meanwhile back on earth much delight is being had hearing Meddle again. Not just the brilliant Echoes, but the nice acoustic songs (and they are real songs) on Side One. And the Van Morrison is a long lost (to me) classic (1973) which is pitched between St. Dominic's Preview (1972) and Veedon Fleece (1974) in chronology, and sounds exactly like it should. Not particularly like either of them, but a perfect transformation between those two most excellent records.

Moving Pictures is typically obscure and odd, from Holger Czukay. Some spoken word over lots of ambience. Not as invigorating as, and not to be confused with, his classic album in my opinion, Movies. No songs here, but a nice background listen which is as unique as most things Czukay did.

Also loving Elastic Rock from 1970. A superb jazz fusion album with lots of electric guitar riffs, hypnotic walking bass guitar, and Ian Carr's trumpet melodies over the top. Nucleus should have been a lot more famous than they were. No songs here either, just great instrumentals.

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Log #171 - A new decade, a new Van

Thinking Roxy Music were just a glam pop outfit? Think again after hearing For Your Pleasure - their second album released in 1973 and one containing as much rock and electronic experimentation as your next serious rock band.

Roxy Music For Your Pleasure
Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway

Pink Floyd Meddle

Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell
Holger Czukay Moving Pictures

Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid

Then there's Meddle. Some people's favourite Pink Floyd album. It's not my favourite but it's up there in the top 3 or 4. I'm not sure what my favourite is actually. It used to be Wish You Were Here but I probably play Animals the most. Then again The Wall is an amazing project and I've recently spent some time discovering some of the band's groundbreaking early records like Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother. Meddle's greatness lies in some excellent acoustic songwriting songs on Side 1 and then of course the epic Echoes on Side 2 which could be their greatest achievement. This track was just mind-blowing for a school kid growing up in the 70s - with its submarine sonar opening, it's beautiful theme, and the funky heavy bit in the middle. #TopClass

Talking of prog Elbow offer something a little different. This is the only album I have heard of theirs. It seems to offer a very gentle laid back version of prog rock with subtle dynamic changes employed instead of the usual pyrotechnics associated with the genre. The Seldom Seen Kid is the Manchester band's 4th album and won the Mercury Prize in 2008. This is Elbow's first appearance at the blog.

Speaking of gentle we move to Sufjan Stevens' very very gentle Carrie & Lowell album. Whispered singing and sparse instrumentation it's gentle... and lovely, although you have to be in the right mood. The album is an ode to Stevens' parents, pictured on the cover. Interesting to note as Log #171 brings us into a new decade, Carrie & Lowell appeared in my first ever blog post Log #1 back in October 2016 along with Suede, Afro Celts, Paolo Nutini, Carole King and Badly Drawn Boy.

Final word to the great Van the Man. I have no idea why I have not heard this classic Van album before. It's up there with the best of his first 8 albums which took him on a golden run from Astral Weeks through to Veedon Fleece, the album with which this one shares its tone the most. [Astral was actually his 2nd album but the first one doesn't really count and was not officially sanctioned by Morrison. Ed]. It's a joy to discover a new Morrison album from his hey day and as this one is going to be less familiar to me (and I expect other fans too who may not have gone much beyond Astral and Moondance) I feel it is going to get a fair number of appearances this year/decade.

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Log #164 - Living With Young

Felice Brothers Favorite Waitress

Van Morrison Too Late To Stop Now (cd 1)

Mark Ronson Uptown Special

Mike Oldfield Ommadawn
Neil Young Living With War

Neil Young Greendale

I've been recommencing some concentrated Neil Young research towards a forthcoming album ranking - as he has about 50 albums to his name and is showing no sign of letting up any time soon (Young's latest Colorado has just come out) this is a mammoth undertaking. Luckily I know a lot of them well already but there are a lot of new ones to wade through too (I gave up purchasing every Neil Young album released around 1985). Despite his Quality Control Department largely going AWOL for much of the new millenium (and for all the 80s) there are some undiscovered gems which will reveal themselves once I finally get the ranking out. Neither of the above really come into that category - they seem very similar to me for a number of reasons - from the guitar rock riffing and basic backing to the chronology (2002 and 2006 respectively) and even the buff brown covers. 

A Frank Sampredo-less Crazy Horse provide the backing on the earlier Greendale; for Living With War Young turned to regular recent contributors the late Rick Rosas on bass and Chad Cromwell on drums - both backing bands sound practically the same on these two records. Interestingly when Young toured Living With War he somehow persuaded Crosby Stills and Nash to join him. The infamous "Freedom Of Speech" tour was captured on film:

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Log #163 - Celebrating Enlightened Irish Waitresses

Felice Brothers Favorite Waitress

Van Morrison Astral Weeks

Van Morrison Days Like This

Van Morrison Irish Heartbeat
Van Morrison Enlightenment

Felice Brothers Celebration, Florida

4 more Van Morrison albums this week book-ended by a couple of new Felice Brothers albums. 

3 of the VM albums are from his "mid-period" if you like - 

Days Like This 1995 (his 23rd)

Irish Heartbeat 1988 (his 18th)

Enlightenment 1990 (his 20th)

Oddly I remember Enlightenment was either the first or second CD I ever bought after acquiring my first CD player around about the time this CD was issued - a NAD I think it was (always recommended at Richer Sounds!). I do remember a friend having the first CD player I had seen when I was a student in about 1983, and another friend who owned a music shop in my hometown of Chichester demonstrating Dark Side Of The Moon on one probably slightly before that (actually I read they were introduced in 1982).

The other album I had on CD was Without A Net by The Grateful Dead (not a band who have appeared much at the blog yet, if at all - actually let's see... actually 3 times #22, #23 and #49 all back in 2017).

Enlightenment is easily the best of these 3 Morrison albums with some super smooth tracks including the single Real Real Gone, the title track, In The Days Before Rock N Roll, and the gorgeous So Quiet In Here:

This must be what paradise is like

The Irish Heartbeat one was made with the Chieftains and is obviously more fiddly twiddly traditional, and the other one is more easy listening bluesy, neither exceptional (Astral Weeks is of course exceptional and essential for anyone's collection).

When The Felice Brothers released Celebration, Florida (actually a real town developed by the Walt Disney company) the reviews were mixed. Some commentators thought the band had strayed too far from their Dylan/Band ramshackle americana with a more driving rock based format and even some synthesizers. I actually think it's a storming album - the heavier instrumentation underpinned by a driving bass and honky piano may be different but Ian Felice's vocals and lyrics are the same, and the melodies are as strong as ever. Two standouts are the opening track which I love with it's shouted kids' chorus - 

12456789 Thousand
Fire, fire at the pageant
Would everybody calm down please stop shouting
Go on the run call 911Calm down, calm down, calm down

Please stop shouting!

and the single Ponzi:

He's the chair of the company

Such a great band, who always surprise.

Yet to get into Favorite Waitress so far but anyone who can write lines like "all I want to eat is Cherry Licorice, I don't care if it sounds ridiculous" is alright in my songbook:

Even the birds and bees

Eat how they damn well please

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Log #162 - The Veedon Fleece Brothers Undress

Some treats this week. We spin Beck's latest (although a new album Hyperspace is out later this month) and also The Felice Brothers' latest. Top of the magazine we have two classic albums in the smooth jazz rock form of Steely Dan and Donald Fagen (one half of Steely Dan of course and Donald's first appearance solo at the blog). Centre midfield is taken up by one of Van Morrison's greatest albums and the revolutionary samplefest debut from DJ Shadow.

Steely Dan Aja

Donald Fagen The Nightfly

Van Morrison Veedon Fleece

DJ Shadow Endtroducing
The Felice Brothers Undress

Beck Colors

Compiled almost entirely from samples DJ Shadow's groundbreaking Endtroducing received critical acclaim on its release in 1996. No doubt a technical achievement the fear might be that the means trumps the end, but actually the album is very cohesive and contains excellent tracks of down tempo trip hop.

A full list of samples used track by track is shown at this website -  http://www.musicismysanctuary.com/dj-shadows-endtroducing-sample-list

Of most interest to me the list includes artists Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and Nirvana, not that you'd be able to tell.

Veedon Fleece is a truly beautiful album. Somewhat over(dj)shadowed by the greatness of its surroundings. Released in 1974 Veedon Fleece was possibly Van Morrison's last great album (for a while at least) following in the footsteps of a run of classics like Moondance, Astral Weeks of course, and St. Dominic's Preview, plus the live double Too Late To Stop Now which came out earlier the same year. It would be another three years before the underwhelming A Period Of Transition would demonstrate a change in style.

Live, human, and dynamic. Richly atmospheric loose-limbed arrangements that parallel ‘Van the Man’s’ tenderly gentle and wildly explosive deliveries. 

Griffin Anthony

Veedon though is slow and easy with Van at his most soulful - I don't think I've heard his voice pitched so high on any other album, possibly channelling his Al Green or Marvin Gaye. Where Astral Weeks is stringy and Moondance is brassy, this one is pianoey.

Some artists sing about individual personal feelings, some are more outward looking and will comment on the state of the world and politics for instance. Then you get the uniqueness of an artist like Dylan who tells long dense stories littered with proper nouns (for better or worse Ian Felice is similar). But I don't think I know of an artist whose songs recall such a sense of place. 

Often this is implicit, 

but sometimes explicit 

as in Streets Of Arklow. Arklow is a town on the east coast of Ireland Morrison visited in 1973 (he was living in the US at the time):

And as we walked
Through the streets of Arklow
In a drenching beauty
Rolling back 'til the day
And I saw your eyes
They was shining, sparkling crystal clear
And our souls were clean
And the grass did grow

I'm also intrigued what Linden Arden Stole The Highlights means:

Linden Arden stole the highlights
With one hand tied behind his back
Loved the morning sun, and whiskey
Ran like water in his veins
Loved to go to church on Sunday
Even though he was a drinking man
When the boys came to San Francisco
They were looking for his life

Morrison described this made up character as "an image of an Irish American living in San Francisco - it's really a hard man type of thing".

I still don't understand how he stole "highlights".

Reviewing Van's discography I'm frankly shocked to realise there are 2 albums up to Veedon Fleece that I don't think I've actually heard in their entirety. They being Hard Nose The Highway and His Band And The Street Choir. I don't know how this has happened and I  promise to rectify immediately Ed. with a visit to ebay. Sure I'd find these for £3 or so at World of Books or Music Magpie.

Undress is the latest album from The Felice Brothers. The band, being generally media darlings, usually get great reviews for both their studio work and their live shows, and this is no exception. However on initial listens I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. Of the dozen tracks there are 4 or 5 that are up to the Brothers' usual high standards, which ain't bad by anyone's measure, but also two or three that are on the weak side. The balance are literally middle of the road.

The lyrics, mostly from Ian Felice who is often compared to Dylan, are important in the Felice Brothers' songs, and many reviews highlight a shift from introspection to a more outward looking view on the state of our political world such as in the sing-a-long Special Announcement:

I can promise more berries
On Blueberry Hill
I can promise you this
Charlie Parker on the ten dollar bill
I'll gather up all the cash
Toss it to the birds
Burn down the Stock Exchange
The Federal Reserve (It's going down)
I'm saving up my money
To be president

and the title track:

Smell the chrysanthemums
Republicans and Democrats
Undress
Even the evangelicals
Yeah, you
Lighten up, undress
Shake the maracas
Everyone's nude on Family Feud
Undress
Under the mushroom cloud
The Pentagon
Undress
Lady Liberty
Crimes against humanity
Undress
Caesars of Wall Street
Brooklyn Bridge
Undress
Comanche and Iroquois
Exploitation, genocide
Undress
Bank of America
Kellyanne
Undress
Read me the Riot Act
Vice President and President
French Kiss

Many of the songs on the new album are motivated by a shift from private to public concerns. It isn’t hard to find worthwhile things to write about these days, there are a lot of storms blooming on the horizon and a lot of chaos that permeates our lives.  The hard part is finding simple and direct ways to address them.

Ian Felice

However, like Dylan, it's the odd genius line of juxtaposition that delights in Felice's lyrics, like exchanging pleasantries under pleasant trees.

Despite my lukewarm feelings about the album the Felices, to be fair, are a band who have rarely stood still, each release pushing new boundaries which can confuse their fans at first. Here original brothers Ian and Felice are joined by new bassist Jesske Hume and drummer Will Lawrence (third brother Simone left in 2009 - his subsequent output as The Duke and The King and as a solo artist are due an examination at a later date). They've also lost long term fiddle player Greg Farley which goes some way to explaining how this record has taken a step away from their popular ramshackle brand of rootsy americana (never more ramshackle as on the previous release Life In The Dark) into a more polished mainstream rock sound.  

The Brothers are touring the UK in January and I also see The Black Deer Festival have pulled off a blinder for next summer:

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Log #136 - Living In The Live Age

Ah, the Live album! Love 'em or hate 'em they were a staple of 70s rock. Most of the stalwarts of the rock scene in that decade had a live album in them. Many had two. For some artists (Frampton, Cheap Trick, and Bob Seger, their live album became their career defining moment far surpassing anything they produced in the studio).

That was just the official ones: There used to be a major trade in bootleg live recordings too. Most bands didn't appreciate the inferior quality of the bootlegs that surfaced on the market - not surprisingly when you consider many such recordings were literally made by an audience member standing in the crowd with a cassette recorder, albeit some better recordings did emerge from sound desks. (The Grateful Dead however were unusual in being the one band that positively encouraged recordings of their shows and many high quality semi official releases exist).

The unofficial recordings nevertheless served a useful purpose for the fans. Bootlegs would present full concerts from one venue on one night, with all the songs in the intended order, and all the warts, fluffs, inter song banter, and audience coughs present. To relay the experience of actually being there these usually surpassed official releases.

Official live albums were usually variously enhanced with edits and overdubs, which meant the tracks were sonically better but this did defeat the object somewhat - one didn't really want to hear a live album where the songs were identical to the studio recordings.

For me the most interesting live albums were from artists that would perform significant reinterpretations of their studio recordings. An electric track would be played acoustically on stage, or a short track would be extended for instance. Bob Dylan and Neil Young were the obvious masters at reinventing their material. Sometimes an artist would present a live recording of entirely new songs.

While the 70s was probably the heyday of the live album many artists have recently begun to release multiple recordings of live concerts from their vaults. Young for example is releasing a series of live concert recordings, many (mostly inferior versions) of which had appeared as unofficial bootlegs previously.

Not all 70s rock artists released live albums. There are some surprising omissions, whether by contractual restriction or other reason. Some artists have recorded albums live of course, but in the studio without an audience. And not all live albums work, whether by poor design or recording, or the music simply not being reproducible or suited to live performance - some of the more complicated prog rock music for instance doesn't always seem to translate so well live.

Great cover, dated film, disappointing recording

Sometimes bands would make a hash of the multi venue edits or the crowd noise - rendering the live album devoid of atmosphere or continuity. The live offerings from some very revered live bands disappoint (evidence from youtube footage would suggest that classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath were exciting particularly in their early days, but even the most loyal fan would be hard pushed to argue The Song Remains The Same, or Live Evil, are good albums - perhaps their live albums just caught them on off days (or off tours), or simply past their peaks). Drugs certainly played a part with some bands who couldn't get it together live (although I always think not as much as you would have expected - if the lifestyles of these bands were as incessantly "rock n roll" as reported the bands would rarely have been able to turn up let alone play anything).

This week Eddy revisits 6 classic live albums from the era - there were of course 100s to choose from and the subject, like the Roger Dean covers log, probably deserves a series in future, but for now he has steered clear of some of the more obvious albums (like Live in Leeds and the aforementioned The Song Remains The Same) to present a Frampton Comes Alive Free Zone below):

Why is this album so famous? Right place right time? I honestly don't know (having never heard it).

Van Morrison / Too Late To Stop Now

Wishbone Ash / Live Dates

UFO / Strangers In The Night

Rory Gallagher / Irish Tour '74

Tom Waits / Nighthawks At The Diner

Scorpions / Live In Tokyo

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