This is the third of my what-if-the-Beatles-hadn't-broken-up Beatles albums, the first two of which were 1970's What Is Life and 1971's Working Class Heroes. This one would have been released in early 1972. As noted below and in my post on Working Class Heroes, I should have put "It's So Hard" on this album and "I Found Out" on this one, but until I have time to redo all of them, I'm just posting my original track listing and liner notes. The title for this one was the first to violate my original intention to avoid using the titles of any actual solo albums, but it proved to hard to resist in this case (and in the case of one later album in the series).
Imagine
Imagine (Lennon) 3:06 (1971/09/09)
Isn't It A Pity (Harrison) 7:08 (1970/11/27)
Tomorrow (McCartney/McCartney) 3:24 (1971/12/07)
Jealous Guy (Lennon) 4:17 (1971/09/09)
Bangla Desh (Harrison) (1971/07/28)
Another Day (McCartney/McCartney) 3:41 (1971/02/19)
Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Harrison) 3:04
Ram On (McCartney) (1971/05/17)
Crippled Inside (Lennon) (1971/09/09)
I Found Out (Lennon) 3:36 (1970/12/11)
Back Off Boogaloo (Starkey) 3:24 (1972/03/17)
Mumbo (McCartney/McCartney) (1971/12/07)
Give Me Some Truth (Lennon) 3:18 (1971/09/09)
Total Time - 49:21
Imagine
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1971/06-07; Released 1971/09/09
From Imagine
Isn't It A Pity
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Tomorrow
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Wings
Recorded 1971/07; Released 1971/12/07
From Wild Life
Jealous Guy
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1971/06-07; Released 1971/09/09
From Imagine
Bangla Desh
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1971/07; Released 1971/07/28
Single
Another Day
Written and Performed by Paul and Linda McCartney
Recorded 1971/01; Released 1971/02/19
Single
Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Ram On
Written and Performed by Paul and Linda McCartney
Recorded 1971/01-03; Released 1971/05/17
From Ram
Crippled Inside
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Dobro: George Harrison
Recorded 1971/06-07; Released 1971/09/09
From Imagine
I Found Out
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Drums: Ringo Starr
Recorded 1970/09-10; Released 1970/12/11
From Plastic Ono Band
Back Off Boogaloo
Written and Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Guitar and Production: George Harrison
Recorded 1971-2?; Released 1972/03/17
Single
Mumbo
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Wings
Recorded 1971/07; Released 1971/12/07
From Wild Life
Give Me Some Truth
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Guitar: George Harrison
Recorded 1971/06-07; Released 1971/09/09
From Imagine
The third post-Beatles "Beatles" album is powered mainly by songs from John, specifically from his second solo album Imagine, which along with Plastic Ono Band is generally regarded as one of his two best solo albums. Strictly speaking "I Found Out" (a track from Plastic Ono Band) should have been on Working Class Heroes, while "It's So Hard" (a track from Imagine which I put on Working Class Heroes) should have been on this one. But it was only after I did Working Class Heroes that I decided to make use of more tracks from Plastic Ono Band. Originally I had limited myself to four tracks from any particular album (except George's All Things Must Pass, since it was a triple album), but afterward I decided that it would be a shame not to include more from the better albums, especially since many of the later albums by the various ex-Beatles lacked so much strong material. Another track that was a particularly strong contender from Plastic Ono Band was "Look At Me", which is one of the older compositions on the album (John noted that it was "pre-Janov", referring to the primal scream therapy he went through with Arthur Janov which led to most of the other soul-searching tracks on the album). But since it is a quiet, more ballad-like tune and this album already had two ballads from John ("Jealous Guy" and "Imagine"), I decided it made more sense to include a heavier song like "I Found Out".
"Imagine" and "Jealous Guy" were fairly obvious choices. Regardless of how one feels about the idealistic lyrics (which John later said Yoko should have been co-credited for, as he based them on something she had written), "Imagine" unquestionably had the greatest impact of all of John's post-1970 efforts and is in fact one of the most well known songs he ever wrote. "Jealous Guy" is also one of his best-known tracks. The music for this song dates back to the White Album period, though at the time it had different lyrics and was entitled "Child Of Nature". "Give Me Some Truth" is one of the best rockers on Imagine and, along with "I Found Out", makes a good counterbalance to the ballads. For the final selection from Imagine, I ended up choosing "Crippled Inside" over "How?" (another ballad), mainly because the jaunty music is something of a departure for John, but also because the lyrics, while vicious, are pretty well written. The song is obviously an attack on hypocrisy, and a few critics view it as an attack on Paul in particular (presumably because of the line about looking cute), though most do not. As far as I know, no one ever asked John to clarify his target, perhaps because all attention was focused on the song from Imagine which clearly was an attack on Paul, "How Do You Sleep?" (not the same as the song "How?" mentioned above). In that case there was no question about who the song was about ("The only thing you ever did was yesterday, now you're just another day"), though John defended it as a response to songs on Ram like "Too Many People". [And he later made clear that the hostility in the song was a spur of the moment emotional thing; in later years he and Paul even hung out together.]
Paul, meanwhile was going through a relatively fallow period, though as by far the most prolific of the four, he still had plenty of songs to choose from, some of which are not bad. "Another Day" was written in 1969 and was actually released before Ram, having been recorded at the beginning of the Ram sessions, and was Paul's first post-Beatles single. While I don't think it's quite as good as the best material on his first two albums, it's catchy and has a lyric which is better than many others he wrote. From Ram I decided to include one more song, and the short but pleasant "Ram On" was my choice (I also considered "Smile Away").
Paul followed Ram with his first Wings album, Wild Life. This is commonly rated as one of the worst albums of his career. This is not without justification, as it is sloppily recorded and contains some pretty poor material. Despite this, it is not entirely without merit. All Music Guide, while generally negative, calls it "frustrating and amazing", and "a pop record like no other", and Mojo gives a revisionist view, actually including it in The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time. "Tomorrow" is a standout track, and the opening track, "Mumbo", while not containing any actual lyrics (considering the kind of lyrics Paul sometimes wrote, this may not be a bad thing), is a decent rocker. Other tracks from the album which I considered were the title track and "Dear Friend", with the latter an especially strong contender, but unfortunately both were a little too long.
George's contributions include two more tracks from All Things Must Pass, and a single from the summer of 1971. "Isn't It A Pity" is one of the best known album tracks from All Things Must Pass, and "Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp" is one of the other many solid songs from the album. "Bangla Desh", meanwhile, was George's first effort to help that country recover from the aftereffects of the war in which it became independent. He followed this with his massive Concert For Bangladesh, which was the first major rock charity concert and an inspiration for later concerts such as Live Aid, though its actual effectiveness was limited by red tape and record company greed. The friend mentioned in the song who asked George to help was of course Ravi Shankar (he was not actually from Bangladesh, but was from neighboring West Bengal).
As for Ringo, he still hadn't come out with a regular pop album, but he did release a single in 1972 to follow up "It Don't Come Easy". This song, "Back Off Boogaloo", was another hit. At the time, some interpreted it as being about Paul (supposedly "Boogaloo" was a nickname the other Beatles sometimes called him, though I haven't seen any reliable source for this), but while the lyrics do lend themselves somewhat to that interpretation, Ringo later said it was based on something his friend Marc Bolan used to say. In any case, while it's hardly as good as his previous single, it is a fair effort and is a credible contribution to the album.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
My Top Fifteen Rolling Stones Songs
I’ve never been nearly as huge a fan of the Rolling Stones as I am of their friendly rivals from the 1960s, the Beatles. For that matter, there are a lot of other rock bands I listen to considerably more often than the Stones. I can only claim familiarity with a limited part of their catalog. I only own two studio albums (Let It Bleed and Exile on Main St.), the Hot Rocks compilation, and a promotional sampler with half a dozen classic tracks and half a dozen from A Bigger Bang, their most recent studio album. Other than the songs appearing on these albums, I am familiar with a few other frequently played songs from throughout their career, but that’s about it. However, out of the songs I know, there are a lot of good ones and quite a few great ones. Recently I wrote a retrospective on the Stones for an online music service (unfortunately only members can view the articles and reviews, though I will eventually post them here, after I’ve let the website have exclusive use of them for a sufficient period of time). Before doing so, I listened to the 50-track version of their new compilation GRRR! through the music service I was writing for, and was reminded of how many good songs they’ve had throughout their career. This inspired me to try to come up with a list of my fifteen favorite Rolling Stones songs.
I always have a lot of difficulty with this kind of list, because I often like a lot of songs (or albums) more or less equally, but for very different reasons, making it very hard to choose one over another. Also, my preferences will vary to some extent depending on my mood. In fact, I think it would be nearly impossible for me to make a list of my fifteen or even twenty favorite Beatles songs, because I think so many of their songs are equally great (I wasn’t even able to limit myself to twenty songs when only choosing from those written by Paul McCartney or those written by John Lennon). I might be able to make such a list for some other favorite artists like Queen, Genesis, Randy Newman or Sting, but it would be pretty hard in those cases too. It wasn’t even easy to do it for the Rolling Stones. In one respect, the difficulty was the same – choosing between several songs that I liked more or less equally well. But for the Stones, another difficulty was that problem was that there were some songs, particularly from later in their career, that I couldn’t remember well enough to decide whether I should include them. On the other hand, of course, they have a lot of songs that I’ve never even heard (the majority of the songs they’ve recorded, in fact) and therefore didn’t even consider, which at least narrowed down the field a lot. I originally intended to make a list of ten, but considering the size of the Stones’ catalog (even considering only the parts I’m familiar with), I ended up expanding that to fifteen. The first three songs are the ones that nine times out of ten I would name as my favorites, though the exact order might vary. The others I would say I have a decided preference for, but on any given day they might be in a different order or even replaced by other Stones songs that didn’t quite make the list this time.
Some might observe that few of my choices are the straight-ahead rock and roll songs that the Rolling Stones are best known for. Actually, I like that kind of song a lot as well, but in a catalog as huge as that of the Stones, it’s easier for a song to stand out if there is something unusual or quirky about it. I like clever arrangements and unusual sounds, and so these things are common features in many of my favorite songs by whatever artist. “Paint It Black”, “Sympathy for the Devil”, and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” are not what might be called typical Rolling Stones songs, but they are in my opinion the best ones they ever recorded. I’m also quite fond of the psychedelic “2000 Light Years from Home”, which probably wouldn’t be ranked among the group’s top 15 or 20 songs by most Stones fans (it didn’t even make the 50-track version of GRRR!, unlike every other song here, though it is on the 80-track version). On the other hand, I also like some more stereotypical Stones songs like “Street Fighting Man”, “19th Nervous Breakdown”, and “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. While I imagine many ardent Stones fans would strongly disagree with some of my choices, this is after all a list of my own subjective preferences as a casual fan of the group. Maybe when I have the opportunity to listen to more of their songs, my preferences will change.
My Top Fifteen Rolling Stones Songs
Sympathy for the Devil
Paint It Black
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Ruby Tuesday
Mother’s Little Helper
2000 Light Years from Home
Street Fighting Man
Miss You
Tumbling Dice
Honky Tonk Women
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
19th Nervous Breakdown
Let’s Spend the Night Together
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Gimmie Shelter
Honorable Mentions: The Last Time, We Love You, She’s a Rainbow, Jigsaw Puzzle, Rocks Off, Angie, It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It), Beast of Burden, Start Me Up, Streets of Love, Doom and Gloom
Note on Song Authorship: All of these songs were officially attributed to the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. However, this may not be accurate in all cases. While the two collaborated much more than Lennon and McCartney, who despite sharing credits wrote many songs entirely separately, a number of Jagger/Richards songs were mostly written by one or the other, and some songs apparently had input from other members of the band, even though they didn’t get credit (though I should note that most of the information I’ve seen about the songwriting is secondhand, rather than being based on direct quotes by band members). As it happens, it seems Jagger was mainly responsible for writing two of my three favorite Stones songs. Both “Sympathy for the Devil” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” were mainly his work, and he really outdid himself on these two songs. Bill Wyman apparently claimed that the third song in my top three, “Paint It Black”, was a group composition that should have been attributed to “Nanker/Phelge”, the collective pseudonym the Stones used for songs written by the whole group. Whether this was true or not, Brian Jones’s sitar riff is one of the main reasons the song is as good as it is, a point that has been acknowledged by Richards. Of the other tracks, “Ruby Tuesday” apparently was written mainly by Richards with some help from Jones (one of the few instances of Jones playing a major role in writing a song). Wyman has claimed to have written the riff for “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. “Gimme Shelter” was mainly written by Richards. As far as I know, the other songs on the main list are genuine Jagger/Richards collaborations (of the honorable mentions, the chorus of "The Last Time" was lifted from the traditional gospel song "This May Be the Last Time", recorded by the Staple Singers).
I always have a lot of difficulty with this kind of list, because I often like a lot of songs (or albums) more or less equally, but for very different reasons, making it very hard to choose one over another. Also, my preferences will vary to some extent depending on my mood. In fact, I think it would be nearly impossible for me to make a list of my fifteen or even twenty favorite Beatles songs, because I think so many of their songs are equally great (I wasn’t even able to limit myself to twenty songs when only choosing from those written by Paul McCartney or those written by John Lennon). I might be able to make such a list for some other favorite artists like Queen, Genesis, Randy Newman or Sting, but it would be pretty hard in those cases too. It wasn’t even easy to do it for the Rolling Stones. In one respect, the difficulty was the same – choosing between several songs that I liked more or less equally well. But for the Stones, another difficulty was that problem was that there were some songs, particularly from later in their career, that I couldn’t remember well enough to decide whether I should include them. On the other hand, of course, they have a lot of songs that I’ve never even heard (the majority of the songs they’ve recorded, in fact) and therefore didn’t even consider, which at least narrowed down the field a lot. I originally intended to make a list of ten, but considering the size of the Stones’ catalog (even considering only the parts I’m familiar with), I ended up expanding that to fifteen. The first three songs are the ones that nine times out of ten I would name as my favorites, though the exact order might vary. The others I would say I have a decided preference for, but on any given day they might be in a different order or even replaced by other Stones songs that didn’t quite make the list this time.
Some might observe that few of my choices are the straight-ahead rock and roll songs that the Rolling Stones are best known for. Actually, I like that kind of song a lot as well, but in a catalog as huge as that of the Stones, it’s easier for a song to stand out if there is something unusual or quirky about it. I like clever arrangements and unusual sounds, and so these things are common features in many of my favorite songs by whatever artist. “Paint It Black”, “Sympathy for the Devil”, and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” are not what might be called typical Rolling Stones songs, but they are in my opinion the best ones they ever recorded. I’m also quite fond of the psychedelic “2000 Light Years from Home”, which probably wouldn’t be ranked among the group’s top 15 or 20 songs by most Stones fans (it didn’t even make the 50-track version of GRRR!, unlike every other song here, though it is on the 80-track version). On the other hand, I also like some more stereotypical Stones songs like “Street Fighting Man”, “19th Nervous Breakdown”, and “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. While I imagine many ardent Stones fans would strongly disagree with some of my choices, this is after all a list of my own subjective preferences as a casual fan of the group. Maybe when I have the opportunity to listen to more of their songs, my preferences will change.
My Top Fifteen Rolling Stones Songs
Sympathy for the Devil
Paint It Black
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Ruby Tuesday
Mother’s Little Helper
2000 Light Years from Home
Street Fighting Man
Miss You
Tumbling Dice
Honky Tonk Women
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
19th Nervous Breakdown
Let’s Spend the Night Together
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Gimmie Shelter
Honorable Mentions: The Last Time, We Love You, She’s a Rainbow, Jigsaw Puzzle, Rocks Off, Angie, It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It), Beast of Burden, Start Me Up, Streets of Love, Doom and Gloom
Note on Song Authorship: All of these songs were officially attributed to the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. However, this may not be accurate in all cases. While the two collaborated much more than Lennon and McCartney, who despite sharing credits wrote many songs entirely separately, a number of Jagger/Richards songs were mostly written by one or the other, and some songs apparently had input from other members of the band, even though they didn’t get credit (though I should note that most of the information I’ve seen about the songwriting is secondhand, rather than being based on direct quotes by band members). As it happens, it seems Jagger was mainly responsible for writing two of my three favorite Stones songs. Both “Sympathy for the Devil” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” were mainly his work, and he really outdid himself on these two songs. Bill Wyman apparently claimed that the third song in my top three, “Paint It Black”, was a group composition that should have been attributed to “Nanker/Phelge”, the collective pseudonym the Stones used for songs written by the whole group. Whether this was true or not, Brian Jones’s sitar riff is one of the main reasons the song is as good as it is, a point that has been acknowledged by Richards. Of the other tracks, “Ruby Tuesday” apparently was written mainly by Richards with some help from Jones (one of the few instances of Jones playing a major role in writing a song). Wyman has claimed to have written the riff for “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. “Gimme Shelter” was mainly written by Richards. As far as I know, the other songs on the main list are genuine Jagger/Richards collaborations (of the honorable mentions, the chorus of "The Last Time" was lifted from the traditional gospel song "This May Be the Last Time", recorded by the Staple Singers).
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Lou Reed: Walking on the Wild Side
As most people probably have heard by now, Lou Reed died on October 27, at the age of 71. His unique, monotone voice and his lyrics about outcasts, drug addicts and others on the fringes of society made him one of the most important and influential artists of his day, though commercial success mostly eluded him. There was a time many years ago when the only song of his I knew was his 1972 hit "Walk on the Wild Side", which used as the closing track on the original version of my compilation A Generation Lost In Space - Rock Classics of the Psychedelic Era that I put together in college. It wasn't until many years later that I borrowed the Velvet Underground boxed set from someone and had the chance to listen to all of their music, eventually acquiring their debut and a selection of other tracks. The Velvet Underground, of course, were the seminal 1960s band that Reed was the chief songwriter and primary vocalist for. The group was a commercial failure but went on to become incredibly influential, with their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico now being regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and their other three albums before Reed's departure being almost as highly rated. It didn't take much listening for me to appreciate the band's originality and the high quality of Reed's writing. As for his solo career, I still can't claim to heard many of his songs other than "Walk on the Wild Side", but I recently acquired The Very Best of Lou Reed and so have made a start at familiarizing myself with his post-VU work. Still, the following selection of songs is necessarily heavily slanted towards Reed's VU songs, because they are what I know best. I also stuck to songs Reed wrote on his own, which meant leaving out songs like the VU's "Sunday Morning", which he co-wrote with John Cale. [Update: Having had the opportunity to listen to a little more of Reed's solo work, I've added a few songs to the list.]
Songs by Lou Reed (1942-2013)
I'm Waiting for the Man
Run Run Run
All Tomorrow's Parties (vocals: Nico)
Heroin
White Light/White Heat
I Heard Her Call My Name
What Goes On
Pale Blue Eyes
Beginning to See the Light
Sweet Jane
Rock & Roll
Walk on the Wild Side
Satellite of Love
Vicious
Caroline Says (II)
Coney Island Baby
Rock and Roll Heart
Street Hassle
The Blue Mask
Romeo Had Juliette
Dirty Blvd.
Perfect Day (vocals: Lou Reed and many other artists)
Songs by Lou Reed (1942-2013)
I'm Waiting for the Man
Run Run Run
All Tomorrow's Parties (vocals: Nico)
Heroin
White Light/White Heat
I Heard Her Call My Name
What Goes On
Pale Blue Eyes
Beginning to See the Light
Sweet Jane
Rock & Roll
Walk on the Wild Side
Satellite of Love
Vicious
Caroline Says (II)
Coney Island Baby
Rock and Roll Heart
Street Hassle
The Blue Mask
Romeo Had Juliette
Dirty Blvd.
Perfect Day (vocals: Lou Reed and many other artists)
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Music News Brief: New Albums from Sting and Paul McCartney
In the past few weeks, two of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters have released new studio albums of original songs. In late September, Sting released The Last Ship, his first new album since 2003 to be made up entirely of original material. The songs were apparently composed for a play of the same name that Sting wrote (the play is supposed to debut on Broadway next year). The play is said to have been inspired in part by Sting's childhood in Newcastle, England, and by his earlier album The Soul Cages. Also, in the past few days, Paul McCartney released his first new album of original material since 2007, entitled, ahem, New. He has been fairly active in promoting it, with a release party performance being broadcast by Yahoo! just last night. While I haven't gotten these albums yet, I intend to do so in the near future, and eventually I hope to review them properly. I did listen to The Last Ship once online, which was enough to hear that there is a definite relationship to The Soul Cages (one song even mentions "the soul cages"). Since the songs were written for a play, there is a particular emphasis on the lyrics, which in places are often spoken as much as sung. Though the result is material that seems less immediate than his work with the Police or even some of his earlier solo material, it seemed to be up to his usual high standards, and he didn't neglect to include some good musical hooks. Certainly it struck me as being worth repeated listening. As for McCartney, I've only listened to two songs from New, the title track and another song called "Queenie Eye", and both sounded excellent. If they are a fair indication of the quality of the album, Paul will have managed to keep up his streak of good to great studio albums that he's been on since Flaming Pie way back in 1997.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Album Review – Selling England by the Pound by Genesis
Album Title: Selling England by the Pound
Artist: Genesis
Release Date: October 12, 1973
Side One
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (Music: Hackett/Banks/Gabriel/Collins; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Firth of Fifth (Music/Lyrics: Banks)
More Fool Me (Music/Lyrics: Rutherford/Collins)
Side Two
The Battle of Epping Forest (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
After the Ordeal (Music: Hackett/Rutherford)
The Cinema Show (Music: Rutherford/Banks/Collins; Lyrics: Rutherford/Banks)
Aisle of Plenty (Music/Lyrics: Gabriel?)
Note on Song Authorship: Credit is given based on what members of the band have revealed in interviews about the writing of the songs and may not be complete. In most cases the primary writer(s) of the music are listed first, though in the case of “I Know What I Like”, Hackett just came up with the riff the song was built upon, while the others wrote different parts of the melody. In some cases, deduction or guesswork are involved, such as in the case of “Aisle of Plenty”, which is musically a reprise of the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, which was written by Gabriel. On the original album, all songs were credited to the entire band.
Few bands had as long and varied a career as Genesis. After starting out as a sort of songwriting collective writing slightly quirky pop songs, they quickly morphed into a progressive rock (or “art rock” as it was often called then) band before slowly evolving into a very popular pop rock band with a progressive edge. They also went through quite a few personnel changes in the process, particularly the departure of original lead singer Peter Gabriel and then guitarist Steve Hackett, reducing the band to the core of keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and drummer/vocalist Phil Collins. While as I explained in my review of the group’s 1983 album Genesis, I like the later pop incarnation of the band as much as the earlier progressive one, there are many fans with a decided preference for the “classic” five man lineup, and I would not deny that they produced some great music which has virtues that that the more concise and direct later songs lack. A good place to hear what the early Genesis sounded like is the 1973 album Selling England by the Pound, which contains some of the best music recorded by the five-man lineup of the group.
Interestingly, even though there are quite a few fans and critics who consider Selling England the best album Genesis ever released, the only member of the group who seems to consider it their favorite is Steve Hackett, though Phil Collins has said it was enjoyable to record. Peter Gabriel unsurprisingly seems to prefer The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, while Tony Banks (who has named Foxtrot as his favorite early album) and Mike Rutherford were slightly disappointed with it. Banks has said that he thinks the material was slightly uneven, with a few great songs and a few that are not so great. I can see his point, since while “Firth of Fifth”, “The Cinema Show”, and “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” are among the band’s very best songs, some of the others don’t work quite as well. In terms of the average quality of the songs, Foxtrot may be slightly stronger. But Hackett and to lesser extent Collins also rightly feel that the album features some of the group’s best playing. This in part explains the differing opinions about the album expressed by the band members, since for Banks and Rutherford (and Gabriel as well) songwriting was always the most important thing, whereas Hackett and Collins placed more emphasis on playing, particular in those days.
For myself, though I agree with Banks and Rutherford that good songwriting is ultimately more important than virtuoso playing – which is why I like Genesis better than Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer – the crisp sounds and excellent performances on this album make even the lesser tracks sound good, and make the best ones sound outstanding. While there may be times when I prefer Foxtrot or The Lamb or even Nursery Cryme, to speak only of the Gabriel-era albums (and I should emphasize that I like several of the later albums as much as any of these), Selling England is almost always near the top of my list of favorite Genesis albums, and if I were to recommend one album from this period to someone who’d never heard the five-man lineup of Genesis, chances are it would be this one.
Selling England by the Pound Song by Song
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight: The album’s opening track begins with a line sung acapella by Gabriel. The instrumentation slowly builds through the first few minutes of the song, centered on a repeated riff. Eventually it goes into an instrumental section featuring some great playing by the band before reprising the vocal section and concluding with another instrumental bit. The music for the first part of the song was written by Gabriel (who wrote the lyrics as well), though the entire band contributed to the instrumental sections. This is definitely one of the stronger tracks on the album and a great opening.
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe): This quirky, slightly Beatlesque song was the first Genesis song to make the pop charts in the UK, narrowly missing the top 20. It was developed from a riff Hackett had come up with, while Banks wrote the chorus melody and Gabriel and Collins wrote the verse melody. While it’s not quite the equal of the songs before and after it, it’s a fun track that pointed the way to the band’s future pop success, and it remains one of the best known songs from their early days.
Firth of Fifth: This nine and a half minute song opens with a very cool minute-long piano solo by Banks followed by the main vocal section, then a lengthy instrumental featuring flute, piano and guitar in turn, and finally another vocal section. The music, all of which was written by Banks, is brilliant and performed very well by the band. Hackett’s guitar solo, which is basically his interpretation of the flute melody, is justly praised, though credit for writing the melody itself goes to Banks. The lyrics, which were mainly written by Banks (though some sources claim Rutherford helped) have been criticized, even by Banks himself, but while they are certainly not the best he ever wrote, they aren’t all that bad except for one or two weak lines. In any case, the music alone makes this the best song on the album and one of the best songs Genesis ever released.
More Fool Me: In a complete contrast to “Firth of Fifth”, this is a short, gentle acoustic song sung by Phil Collins with only Mike Rutherford’s guitar as accompaniment. Many of the “fans” with a pathological dislike of the 1980s incarnation of the band also hate this song, because they see it as a harbinger of the future. I would say that while it may not be anything spectacular, it’s a pleasant song that makes a nice break from the lengthy, heavily arranged tracks that surround it.
The Battle of Epping Forest: At almost twelve minutes in length, this track is the longest on the album (though since “The Cinema Show” segues directly into “Aisle of Plenty”, the two together could be considered longer). The music was written mostly by Banks and Gabriel, and the lyrics, a long, elaborate tale about a gangland fight, were written by Gabriel. Both the music and the lyrics have a lot to recommend them, but as Banks, Collins, Rutherford and even Gabriel have said in interviews, the song is far too busy, with the dense lyrics clashing with the music. As a result, though the song is interesting and even fairly entertaining, it doesn’t work nearly as well as the other long songs on the album.
After the Ordeal: This classical-flavored instrumental was mainly written by Hackett, with a little help from Rutherford. Banks and apparently Gabriel as well disliked it and wanted to drop it from the album, though Banks once admitted that one of his objections to it was that he thought his own playing on it was poor. I’d say it’s a decent piece of music, though perhaps not the most successful instrumental bit on the album.
The Cinema Show: The guitar-based song that makes up the first few minutes of this eleven-minute track was written by Rutherford, with help from Banks on the lyrics (Gabriel also made a few suggestions lyrically). The second half of the song is an instrumental written by Banks, Collins and Rutherford and featuring a lengthy solo by Banks. The song part is one of Rutherford’s best compositions, and the instrumental part is one of the strongest Genesis ever did, one that they were still playing live decades later. The lyrics are also quite good. The combination of these elements makes this one of the band’s best songs, though I would give the edge to “Firth of Fifth” as the best track on the album.
Aisle of Plenty: “The Cinema Show” segues directly into this short song, which musically speaking is basically a reprise of the first part of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” and so can be credited to Gabriel, who presumably wrote the lyrics as well. By returning to the album’s opening musical theme it brings the listener round full circle and so makes a good closing number.
Artist: Genesis
Release Date: October 12, 1973
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (Music: Hackett/Banks/Gabriel/Collins; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Firth of Fifth (Music/Lyrics: Banks)
More Fool Me (Music/Lyrics: Rutherford/Collins)
Side Two
The Battle of Epping Forest (Music: Gabriel/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
After the Ordeal (Music: Hackett/Rutherford)
The Cinema Show (Music: Rutherford/Banks/Collins; Lyrics: Rutherford/Banks)
Aisle of Plenty (Music/Lyrics: Gabriel?)
Note on Song Authorship: Credit is given based on what members of the band have revealed in interviews about the writing of the songs and may not be complete. In most cases the primary writer(s) of the music are listed first, though in the case of “I Know What I Like”, Hackett just came up with the riff the song was built upon, while the others wrote different parts of the melody. In some cases, deduction or guesswork are involved, such as in the case of “Aisle of Plenty”, which is musically a reprise of the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, which was written by Gabriel. On the original album, all songs were credited to the entire band.
Few bands had as long and varied a career as Genesis. After starting out as a sort of songwriting collective writing slightly quirky pop songs, they quickly morphed into a progressive rock (or “art rock” as it was often called then) band before slowly evolving into a very popular pop rock band with a progressive edge. They also went through quite a few personnel changes in the process, particularly the departure of original lead singer Peter Gabriel and then guitarist Steve Hackett, reducing the band to the core of keyboardist Tony Banks, guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and drummer/vocalist Phil Collins. While as I explained in my review of the group’s 1983 album Genesis, I like the later pop incarnation of the band as much as the earlier progressive one, there are many fans with a decided preference for the “classic” five man lineup, and I would not deny that they produced some great music which has virtues that that the more concise and direct later songs lack. A good place to hear what the early Genesis sounded like is the 1973 album Selling England by the Pound, which contains some of the best music recorded by the five-man lineup of the group.
Interestingly, even though there are quite a few fans and critics who consider Selling England the best album Genesis ever released, the only member of the group who seems to consider it their favorite is Steve Hackett, though Phil Collins has said it was enjoyable to record. Peter Gabriel unsurprisingly seems to prefer The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, while Tony Banks (who has named Foxtrot as his favorite early album) and Mike Rutherford were slightly disappointed with it. Banks has said that he thinks the material was slightly uneven, with a few great songs and a few that are not so great. I can see his point, since while “Firth of Fifth”, “The Cinema Show”, and “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” are among the band’s very best songs, some of the others don’t work quite as well. In terms of the average quality of the songs, Foxtrot may be slightly stronger. But Hackett and to lesser extent Collins also rightly feel that the album features some of the group’s best playing. This in part explains the differing opinions about the album expressed by the band members, since for Banks and Rutherford (and Gabriel as well) songwriting was always the most important thing, whereas Hackett and Collins placed more emphasis on playing, particular in those days.
For myself, though I agree with Banks and Rutherford that good songwriting is ultimately more important than virtuoso playing – which is why I like Genesis better than Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer – the crisp sounds and excellent performances on this album make even the lesser tracks sound good, and make the best ones sound outstanding. While there may be times when I prefer Foxtrot or The Lamb or even Nursery Cryme, to speak only of the Gabriel-era albums (and I should emphasize that I like several of the later albums as much as any of these), Selling England is almost always near the top of my list of favorite Genesis albums, and if I were to recommend one album from this period to someone who’d never heard the five-man lineup of Genesis, chances are it would be this one.
Selling England by the Pound Song by Song
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight: The album’s opening track begins with a line sung acapella by Gabriel. The instrumentation slowly builds through the first few minutes of the song, centered on a repeated riff. Eventually it goes into an instrumental section featuring some great playing by the band before reprising the vocal section and concluding with another instrumental bit. The music for the first part of the song was written by Gabriel (who wrote the lyrics as well), though the entire band contributed to the instrumental sections. This is definitely one of the stronger tracks on the album and a great opening.
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe): This quirky, slightly Beatlesque song was the first Genesis song to make the pop charts in the UK, narrowly missing the top 20. It was developed from a riff Hackett had come up with, while Banks wrote the chorus melody and Gabriel and Collins wrote the verse melody. While it’s not quite the equal of the songs before and after it, it’s a fun track that pointed the way to the band’s future pop success, and it remains one of the best known songs from their early days.
Firth of Fifth: This nine and a half minute song opens with a very cool minute-long piano solo by Banks followed by the main vocal section, then a lengthy instrumental featuring flute, piano and guitar in turn, and finally another vocal section. The music, all of which was written by Banks, is brilliant and performed very well by the band. Hackett’s guitar solo, which is basically his interpretation of the flute melody, is justly praised, though credit for writing the melody itself goes to Banks. The lyrics, which were mainly written by Banks (though some sources claim Rutherford helped) have been criticized, even by Banks himself, but while they are certainly not the best he ever wrote, they aren’t all that bad except for one or two weak lines. In any case, the music alone makes this the best song on the album and one of the best songs Genesis ever released.
More Fool Me: In a complete contrast to “Firth of Fifth”, this is a short, gentle acoustic song sung by Phil Collins with only Mike Rutherford’s guitar as accompaniment. Many of the “fans” with a pathological dislike of the 1980s incarnation of the band also hate this song, because they see it as a harbinger of the future. I would say that while it may not be anything spectacular, it’s a pleasant song that makes a nice break from the lengthy, heavily arranged tracks that surround it.
The Battle of Epping Forest: At almost twelve minutes in length, this track is the longest on the album (though since “The Cinema Show” segues directly into “Aisle of Plenty”, the two together could be considered longer). The music was written mostly by Banks and Gabriel, and the lyrics, a long, elaborate tale about a gangland fight, were written by Gabriel. Both the music and the lyrics have a lot to recommend them, but as Banks, Collins, Rutherford and even Gabriel have said in interviews, the song is far too busy, with the dense lyrics clashing with the music. As a result, though the song is interesting and even fairly entertaining, it doesn’t work nearly as well as the other long songs on the album.
After the Ordeal: This classical-flavored instrumental was mainly written by Hackett, with a little help from Rutherford. Banks and apparently Gabriel as well disliked it and wanted to drop it from the album, though Banks once admitted that one of his objections to it was that he thought his own playing on it was poor. I’d say it’s a decent piece of music, though perhaps not the most successful instrumental bit on the album.
The Cinema Show: The guitar-based song that makes up the first few minutes of this eleven-minute track was written by Rutherford, with help from Banks on the lyrics (Gabriel also made a few suggestions lyrically). The second half of the song is an instrumental written by Banks, Collins and Rutherford and featuring a lengthy solo by Banks. The song part is one of Rutherford’s best compositions, and the instrumental part is one of the strongest Genesis ever did, one that they were still playing live decades later. The lyrics are also quite good. The combination of these elements makes this one of the band’s best songs, though I would give the edge to “Firth of Fifth” as the best track on the album.
Aisle of Plenty: “The Cinema Show” segues directly into this short song, which musically speaking is basically a reprise of the first part of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” and so can be credited to Gabriel, who presumably wrote the lyrics as well. By returning to the album’s opening musical theme it brings the listener round full circle and so makes a good closing number.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Two Books on Music
I recently acquired a pair of books on music-related topics, both of which I thought were worth commenting on.
The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk by James Fuld
This is a very interesting book that contains a lot of information about some of the world’s best known songs and compositions. Fuld’s focus is on the earliest publication of the various pieces of music he discusses, primarily in the form of sheet music. He seems to be an avid collector of sheet music, and indeed seems to have an enormous collection of rare, early editions of the sheet music for many songs, but in the process of compiling the information for his book he also examined numerous archives around the world, such as that of the Library of Congress, and consulted with many other music historians. Flipping through the book, I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t known previously about the origins of such songs as “Auld Lang Syne”, “Away in a Manger”, “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly” (“Nos Galan”), “Dixie”, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (“Malbrouk”), “Go Down, Moses”, “Home Sweet Home”, “Jingle Bells”, “L’Internationale”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “Three Blind Mice”, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (“Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman”), “We Shall Overcome” and many more. Just to take a few examples, while I had read about the French origins of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, I hadn’t known that “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” was originally French also, or that “Deck the Halls” was originally Welsh, or that “Three Blind Mice” dates back to 1609, or that an uncle of the the banker J. P. Morgan wrote “Jingle Bells”. The book also contains information about the first publications of many famous classical pieces, a number of Stephen Foster songs, and 20th century popular music by songwriters such as George M. Cohen, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and George Gershwin.
Though the book covers a wide variety of songs and compositions, there are still a lot of well-known ones missing. Fuld does address this issue in the introduction, pointing out that he couldn’t include everything, and he states that the book is intended to present “a fair-sampling of well-known melodies”, which is reasonable enough – though I still can’t help wishing songs like “Amazing Grace”, “House of the Rising Sun”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, “Ten Little Indians”, “This Land Is Your Land” and “You Are My Sunshine”, among others, were also included in the book. There is next to nothing from the rock era; there is one Beatles song, “Michelle”, (which while a very good song, would not be my first choice as the sole representative of their oeuvre), the Burt Bacharach/ Hal David song “What’s New Pussycat”, and a reference to “Love Me Tender” in the entry on the song from which it was derived (“Aura Lea”), but that’s about it. This is perhaps understandable, given that the first edition of the book was published in 1965 (he states that “more old than recent compositions [were] included”, quoting the remark by Brahms that “a piece of music that is still alive after fifty years is immortal”). However, though perhaps simply updating previous entries was a sufficiently major task, it might have been nice to see a few more songs added to the later editions.
Since Fuld’s main focus is on sheet music, he doesn’t always delve deeply into debates over authorship. In many cases he settles for letting the published credits speak for themselves, which is reasonable enough absent other evidence, but for me personally learning the true origins of the songs are the most interesting aspect of their histories. In fact, relying solely on sheet music can lead to errors in attribution; for instance Fuld mentions that “Aura Lea” was rewritten as “Love Me Tender” by Vera Matson and Elvis Presley, when actually it was Ken Darby who rewrote the song and signed over the rights to his wife (Matson), with Presley also getting a credit despite not doing any of the writing (though he did do a lot of the arranging). Fuld does sometimes mention cases where the published credits are questionable due to additional information, and for some songs he even spoke to the writers himself.
Though Fuld is generally quite cautious in making definite attributions, which is very sensible, there are still a few questionable statements in the book. For instance, under “Adeste Fideles” (“Come, All Ye Faithful”), he mentions that the earliest written appearance of the music and Latin words were in manuscripts by John Francis Wade in about 1750, and yet, while dismissing several claims about the song, he says that a claim that “John Reading…composed the melody in 1780 cannot be ruled out”. The latter date is clearly an error, though perhaps it is merely a typo (there were two John Readings, a father and son, the latter of whom died in 1764). Also, under “When the Saints Go Marching In”, he states that the words and music of J.M. Black’s 1896 composition “When the Saints Are Marching In” are “quite similar” to the latter song. However, there is a midi version of the latter on a website that also has the words, and while I don’t agree with the website that the two songs are completely dissimilar – the melody of the title phrase is somewhat similar, and as Fuld says the echo is present – they are otherwise quite different. The impression Fuld gives is that they are substantially the same song, but if the website version is correct, the older song at best influenced the composition of the later one. However, this is a rare lapse on Fuld’s part. Generally, if anything, he is very reluctant to accept claims that a song is based on another, and he dismisses many such claims rather forcefully (he is particularly scathing about suggestions that Stephen Foster got his melodies from prior songs, as he reasonably objects that there is no actual evidence for this).
Overall, despite the points I mentioned above and Fuld’s slightly odd prose style, this is a great reference book for anyone interested in music history. Indeed, anyone who is familiar with the songs and melodies in question – which is almost everyone – will probably find at least a few interesting facts within. Certainly for anyone with a serious interest in music, whether as a musician or a fan, it is worth having around.
Randy Newman’s American Dreams by Kevin Courrier
I got a used copy of this account of Randy Newman’s career in music from an online bookstore for basically the cost of the postage, so it was sure to be a decent value unless it was really terrible. As it turned out, it is pretty good, though it has its flaws. Courrier covers Newman’s career fairly well, going through all his albums up to the retrospective The Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1 (2003). Though he doesn’t talk about every song Newman wrote (there are at least a few early ones he doesn’t mention), he does at least touch on most of them, including a few Newman songs or covers of Newman songs that I hadn’t been aware of. He also provides some bibliographic details, particularly about Newman’s childhood and youth.
Courrier is quite opinionated, and while he is obviously a fan of Newman’s work, there is still plenty of it that he is negative about. For example, while he speaks positively of some of Newman’s soundtracks and movie songs, overall he is fairly dismissive of much of Newman’s movie work. He also doesn’t think much of Little Criminals or Randy Newman's Faust (though he is hardly the only critic to consider them among Newman’s less successful albums), and there are a number of other songs from throughout Newman’s career that he doesn’t think much of, including some fairly popular ones. I tend to agree with him more often than not, but almost inevitably there are songs that I am quite fond of which he dismisses, and a few he likes that hadn’t really made an impression on me. Courrier is similarly opinionated about covers of Newman’s songs by other artists, being fairly critical of many of them. Again, he is far from the only critic to assert that many who perform Newman’s songs miss the irony completely, a criticism which I can appreciate. However, for my part, I can still get some pleasure out of Three Dog Night’s version of “Mama Told Me Not to Come”, Judy Collins’ version of “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”, or Joe Cocker’s version of “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, even if they do miss the point.
Another point worth noting about the book is Courrier’s tendency to go off on tangents about other artists or non-musical topics, especially movies (the latter particularly when discussing Newman’s soundtrack work). To be sure, he connects all his tangents to Newman and his work in some way, but in some cases the relationship is rather distant. I don’t really mind this myself, as much of what he talks about is interesting, but it does mean that anyone expecting the book to be entirely about Newman will be disappointed. Of course, he is fairly opinionated about these other things he discusses as well (he is a film critic, so it is not surprising that he has definite opinions about movies), though again I don’t agree with him on everything.
Finally, it should be mentioned that while many of Courrier’s interpretations of the meanings of Newman’s songs are based on quotes from Newman himself or are at least backed up by the opinions of other critics, in some cases they seem to be entirely his own and thus should be taken with the usual grain of salt. Regrettably, he apparently never interviewed Newman himself (whether he didn’t attempt to contact Newman for an interview – perhaps in order to maintain some distance from his subject – or tried to and was turned down, he doesn’t say), so his quotes from Newman, which are still fairly numerous, are all derived from interviews done by others. Perhaps a more obvious flaw is that in several places his chronology seems confused. Despite these drawbacks, however, the book still has plenty to recommend it. Considering that Newman is one of my favorite artists and I didn’t pay much for the book, I definitely regard it as a very worthwhile purchase.
The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk by James Fuld
This is a very interesting book that contains a lot of information about some of the world’s best known songs and compositions. Fuld’s focus is on the earliest publication of the various pieces of music he discusses, primarily in the form of sheet music. He seems to be an avid collector of sheet music, and indeed seems to have an enormous collection of rare, early editions of the sheet music for many songs, but in the process of compiling the information for his book he also examined numerous archives around the world, such as that of the Library of Congress, and consulted with many other music historians. Flipping through the book, I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t known previously about the origins of such songs as “Auld Lang Syne”, “Away in a Manger”, “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly” (“Nos Galan”), “Dixie”, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” (“Malbrouk”), “Go Down, Moses”, “Home Sweet Home”, “Jingle Bells”, “L’Internationale”, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, “Three Blind Mice”, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (“Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman”), “We Shall Overcome” and many more. Just to take a few examples, while I had read about the French origins of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, I hadn’t known that “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” was originally French also, or that “Deck the Halls” was originally Welsh, or that “Three Blind Mice” dates back to 1609, or that an uncle of the the banker J. P. Morgan wrote “Jingle Bells”. The book also contains information about the first publications of many famous classical pieces, a number of Stephen Foster songs, and 20th century popular music by songwriters such as George M. Cohen, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and George Gershwin.
Though the book covers a wide variety of songs and compositions, there are still a lot of well-known ones missing. Fuld does address this issue in the introduction, pointing out that he couldn’t include everything, and he states that the book is intended to present “a fair-sampling of well-known melodies”, which is reasonable enough – though I still can’t help wishing songs like “Amazing Grace”, “House of the Rising Sun”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, “Ten Little Indians”, “This Land Is Your Land” and “You Are My Sunshine”, among others, were also included in the book. There is next to nothing from the rock era; there is one Beatles song, “Michelle”, (which while a very good song, would not be my first choice as the sole representative of their oeuvre), the Burt Bacharach/ Hal David song “What’s New Pussycat”, and a reference to “Love Me Tender” in the entry on the song from which it was derived (“Aura Lea”), but that’s about it. This is perhaps understandable, given that the first edition of the book was published in 1965 (he states that “more old than recent compositions [were] included”, quoting the remark by Brahms that “a piece of music that is still alive after fifty years is immortal”). However, though perhaps simply updating previous entries was a sufficiently major task, it might have been nice to see a few more songs added to the later editions.
Since Fuld’s main focus is on sheet music, he doesn’t always delve deeply into debates over authorship. In many cases he settles for letting the published credits speak for themselves, which is reasonable enough absent other evidence, but for me personally learning the true origins of the songs are the most interesting aspect of their histories. In fact, relying solely on sheet music can lead to errors in attribution; for instance Fuld mentions that “Aura Lea” was rewritten as “Love Me Tender” by Vera Matson and Elvis Presley, when actually it was Ken Darby who rewrote the song and signed over the rights to his wife (Matson), with Presley also getting a credit despite not doing any of the writing (though he did do a lot of the arranging). Fuld does sometimes mention cases where the published credits are questionable due to additional information, and for some songs he even spoke to the writers himself.
Though Fuld is generally quite cautious in making definite attributions, which is very sensible, there are still a few questionable statements in the book. For instance, under “Adeste Fideles” (“Come, All Ye Faithful”), he mentions that the earliest written appearance of the music and Latin words were in manuscripts by John Francis Wade in about 1750, and yet, while dismissing several claims about the song, he says that a claim that “John Reading…composed the melody in 1780 cannot be ruled out”. The latter date is clearly an error, though perhaps it is merely a typo (there were two John Readings, a father and son, the latter of whom died in 1764). Also, under “When the Saints Go Marching In”, he states that the words and music of J.M. Black’s 1896 composition “When the Saints Are Marching In” are “quite similar” to the latter song. However, there is a midi version of the latter on a website that also has the words, and while I don’t agree with the website that the two songs are completely dissimilar – the melody of the title phrase is somewhat similar, and as Fuld says the echo is present – they are otherwise quite different. The impression Fuld gives is that they are substantially the same song, but if the website version is correct, the older song at best influenced the composition of the later one. However, this is a rare lapse on Fuld’s part. Generally, if anything, he is very reluctant to accept claims that a song is based on another, and he dismisses many such claims rather forcefully (he is particularly scathing about suggestions that Stephen Foster got his melodies from prior songs, as he reasonably objects that there is no actual evidence for this).
Overall, despite the points I mentioned above and Fuld’s slightly odd prose style, this is a great reference book for anyone interested in music history. Indeed, anyone who is familiar with the songs and melodies in question – which is almost everyone – will probably find at least a few interesting facts within. Certainly for anyone with a serious interest in music, whether as a musician or a fan, it is worth having around.
Randy Newman’s American Dreams by Kevin Courrier
I got a used copy of this account of Randy Newman’s career in music from an online bookstore for basically the cost of the postage, so it was sure to be a decent value unless it was really terrible. As it turned out, it is pretty good, though it has its flaws. Courrier covers Newman’s career fairly well, going through all his albums up to the retrospective The Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1 (2003). Though he doesn’t talk about every song Newman wrote (there are at least a few early ones he doesn’t mention), he does at least touch on most of them, including a few Newman songs or covers of Newman songs that I hadn’t been aware of. He also provides some bibliographic details, particularly about Newman’s childhood and youth.
Courrier is quite opinionated, and while he is obviously a fan of Newman’s work, there is still plenty of it that he is negative about. For example, while he speaks positively of some of Newman’s soundtracks and movie songs, overall he is fairly dismissive of much of Newman’s movie work. He also doesn’t think much of Little Criminals or Randy Newman's Faust (though he is hardly the only critic to consider them among Newman’s less successful albums), and there are a number of other songs from throughout Newman’s career that he doesn’t think much of, including some fairly popular ones. I tend to agree with him more often than not, but almost inevitably there are songs that I am quite fond of which he dismisses, and a few he likes that hadn’t really made an impression on me. Courrier is similarly opinionated about covers of Newman’s songs by other artists, being fairly critical of many of them. Again, he is far from the only critic to assert that many who perform Newman’s songs miss the irony completely, a criticism which I can appreciate. However, for my part, I can still get some pleasure out of Three Dog Night’s version of “Mama Told Me Not to Come”, Judy Collins’ version of “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”, or Joe Cocker’s version of “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, even if they do miss the point.
Another point worth noting about the book is Courrier’s tendency to go off on tangents about other artists or non-musical topics, especially movies (the latter particularly when discussing Newman’s soundtrack work). To be sure, he connects all his tangents to Newman and his work in some way, but in some cases the relationship is rather distant. I don’t really mind this myself, as much of what he talks about is interesting, but it does mean that anyone expecting the book to be entirely about Newman will be disappointed. Of course, he is fairly opinionated about these other things he discusses as well (he is a film critic, so it is not surprising that he has definite opinions about movies), though again I don’t agree with him on everything.
Finally, it should be mentioned that while many of Courrier’s interpretations of the meanings of Newman’s songs are based on quotes from Newman himself or are at least backed up by the opinions of other critics, in some cases they seem to be entirely his own and thus should be taken with the usual grain of salt. Regrettably, he apparently never interviewed Newman himself (whether he didn’t attempt to contact Newman for an interview – perhaps in order to maintain some distance from his subject – or tried to and was turned down, he doesn’t say), so his quotes from Newman, which are still fairly numerous, are all derived from interviews done by others. Perhaps a more obvious flaw is that in several places his chronology seems confused. Despite these drawbacks, however, the book still has plenty to recommend it. Considering that Newman is one of my favorite artists and I didn’t pay much for the book, I definitely regard it as a very worthwhile purchase.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Album Review – Ten Summoner's Tales by Sting
Album Title: Ten Summoner's Tales
Artist: Sting
Release Date: March 5, 1993
If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)
Fields of Gold
Heavy Cloud No Rain
She’s Too Good for Me
Seven Days
Saint Augustine in Hell
It's Probably Me (Sting, Eric Clapton, Michael Kamen)
Everybody Laughed But You
Shape of My Heart (Sting, Dominic Miller)
Something the Boy Said
Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)
All songs written by Sting except where otherwise noted
As most music fans know, Sting first came to prominence as a member of the Police. While Andy Sumner and Stewart Copeland are great musicians and played important roles in the group, Sting was clearly the main force behind their success, as, aside from being the group’s vocalist and bassist, he wrote the vast majority of their songs and every one of their hits. While there are many who still consider the music released by the Police superior to anything that Sting has released as a solo artist, I don’t agree. While I do sometimes miss the compact, hard-hitting sound that the trio generated even on later, more sophisticated albums such as Synchronicity, I think that the very best of Sting’s solo material is by no means inferior to what he did with the Police. One album in particular stands out as being his best overall effort since the Police broke up, and that is Ten Summoner's Tales, which he released in 1993. While many of the songs I’d rate among Sting’s very best – such as “Fragile”, “All This Time” and “Fortress Around Your Heart” – are on other albums, Ten Summoner's Tales (the title refers to Sting's family name, Sumner, and the summoner's tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales) is his most consistently excellent release.
Ten Summoner's Tales Song by Song
If I Ever Lose My Faith in You: The opening track on Ten Summoner's Tales was also the first single from the album. I was not overly impressed with it at first, perhaps because it fell short of the very high standard set by “All This Time”, the lead single from Sting’s previous album The Soul Cages. The song grew on me, however, particularly its well-written lyrics, and I think it makes a very good opening track. I still like several other songs from the album better, however.
Love Is Stronger than Justice (The Munificent Seven): This is a clever, tongue-in-cheek tale modeled on the western The Magnificent Seven (which was in turn a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai). In Sting’s version, the seven gunfighters are brothers who are asked to save a town in return for brides for each of them, and when they learn that there is in fact only one bride, the narrator (the seventh brother) bumps off the others. Musically and lyrically, it’s one of the high quality album tracks that help make this Sting’s best album.
Fields of Gold: This was the second single off the album and is probably the most popular song on it, except perhaps for “Shape of My Heart”. It has been covered many times, including versions in many different languages. My initial impression was that it was good but not great; however it grew on me and now I’d rate it among the best songs on the album, though probably not my absolute favorite. It also has an excellent music video.
Heavy Cloud No Rain: A humorous track in which a variety of characters in desperate situations pray in vain for rain. Like “Love Is Stronger than Justice”, this is a good album track that shows Sting’s writing was at a consistently high level for this album.
She’s Too Good for Me: This song is even more humorous than “Heavy Cloud No Rain”, with some lines that are downright hilarious. I also like the dramatic contrast between the quiet bridge and the rest of the song, which is much heavier. This is one of my favorite songs on the album.
Seven Days: Another great track, and one that received considerable airplay (it was released as a single in some places and has been included on some greatest hits compilations). Like the songs preceding it, it has witty, humorous lyrics (Sting was seemingly in a cheerful mood when he wrote much of this album, in contrast to the much darker mood seen in his songs on The Soul Cages), and these clever lyrics combined with a very good melody and a great arrangement make it perhaps my favorite song on the album, though there are a few other contenders.
Saint Augustine in Hell: This is another one of my favorites. Like “Mad About You” from The Soul Cages (which was based on the story of David and Bathsheba), it tells of the lustful side of a famous Judeo-Christian religious figure. It features an excellent arrangement, performed to perfection by Sting’s band, and the break in the middle with the Devil enumerating the inhabitants of Hell – including of course music critics – is great (the music playing in the background of this part is the bridge section from "I Miss You Kate", an instrumental B-side to "All This Time").
It's Probably Me: This song had been previously released on the Lethal Weapon 3 soundtrack in version featuring Eric Clapton, but Sting rerecorded it for this album. It’s not clear what Clapton and Kamen’s contributions were to the writing of the song, but the lyrics were probably mostly or entirely Sting’s. It’s a very good song regardless of who wrote what.
Everybody Laughed But You: This song was apparently not included on the original North American release of the album, though it was on the later reissue. While it can’t equal the tracks that preceded it, it is nevertheless a solid album track. Sting wrote an alternate set of lyrics to the same music and released that version as a B-side on two singles from the album under the title “January Stars”.
Shape of My Heart: This song, along with “Fields of Gold”, has become the best known song from the album, with numerous artists doing covers of it. It has also become a popular sample in hip hop and what’s known as “contemporary R&B”. Ironically, the music for this song was not written by Sting but by his guitarist Dominic Miller, though Sting wrote the excellent if slightly abstruse lyrics. This is another one of my favorites from the album.
Something the Boy Said: This song tells a very dark tale about an expedition that was slaughtered as prophesied by the son of their captain. While quite different in mood from the songs that make up the bulk of the album, it fits in quite well after “Shape of My Heart” and makes a solid album track.
Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me): The final track on the album is a brilliantly written riposte to all the critics and writers who try to analyze Sting (and for that matter anyone) on the basis of his work and other publicly available information. The dry wit of the lyrics is matched with an excellent, upbeat tune. This track is another contender for my favorite on the album, with only “Seven Days” and possibly “Saint Augustine in Hell” and “Shape of My Heart” equaling it. It certainly closes the album on a high point, and along with “Fortress Around My Heart” (from The Dream of the Blue Turtles) and “Brand New Day” (from Brand New Day) is one of the best closing tracks on any Sting album.
Artist: Sting
Release Date: March 5, 1993
If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)
Fields of Gold
Heavy Cloud No Rain
She’s Too Good for Me
Seven Days
Saint Augustine in Hell
It's Probably Me (Sting, Eric Clapton, Michael Kamen)
Everybody Laughed But You
Shape of My Heart (Sting, Dominic Miller)
Something the Boy Said
Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)
All songs written by Sting except where otherwise noted
As most music fans know, Sting first came to prominence as a member of the Police. While Andy Sumner and Stewart Copeland are great musicians and played important roles in the group, Sting was clearly the main force behind their success, as, aside from being the group’s vocalist and bassist, he wrote the vast majority of their songs and every one of their hits. While there are many who still consider the music released by the Police superior to anything that Sting has released as a solo artist, I don’t agree. While I do sometimes miss the compact, hard-hitting sound that the trio generated even on later, more sophisticated albums such as Synchronicity, I think that the very best of Sting’s solo material is by no means inferior to what he did with the Police. One album in particular stands out as being his best overall effort since the Police broke up, and that is Ten Summoner's Tales, which he released in 1993. While many of the songs I’d rate among Sting’s very best – such as “Fragile”, “All This Time” and “Fortress Around Your Heart” – are on other albums, Ten Summoner's Tales (the title refers to Sting's family name, Sumner, and the summoner's tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales) is his most consistently excellent release.
Ten Summoner's Tales Song by Song
If I Ever Lose My Faith in You: The opening track on Ten Summoner's Tales was also the first single from the album. I was not overly impressed with it at first, perhaps because it fell short of the very high standard set by “All This Time”, the lead single from Sting’s previous album The Soul Cages. The song grew on me, however, particularly its well-written lyrics, and I think it makes a very good opening track. I still like several other songs from the album better, however.
Love Is Stronger than Justice (The Munificent Seven): This is a clever, tongue-in-cheek tale modeled on the western The Magnificent Seven (which was in turn a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai). In Sting’s version, the seven gunfighters are brothers who are asked to save a town in return for brides for each of them, and when they learn that there is in fact only one bride, the narrator (the seventh brother) bumps off the others. Musically and lyrically, it’s one of the high quality album tracks that help make this Sting’s best album.
Fields of Gold: This was the second single off the album and is probably the most popular song on it, except perhaps for “Shape of My Heart”. It has been covered many times, including versions in many different languages. My initial impression was that it was good but not great; however it grew on me and now I’d rate it among the best songs on the album, though probably not my absolute favorite. It also has an excellent music video.
Heavy Cloud No Rain: A humorous track in which a variety of characters in desperate situations pray in vain for rain. Like “Love Is Stronger than Justice”, this is a good album track that shows Sting’s writing was at a consistently high level for this album.
She’s Too Good for Me: This song is even more humorous than “Heavy Cloud No Rain”, with some lines that are downright hilarious. I also like the dramatic contrast between the quiet bridge and the rest of the song, which is much heavier. This is one of my favorite songs on the album.
Seven Days: Another great track, and one that received considerable airplay (it was released as a single in some places and has been included on some greatest hits compilations). Like the songs preceding it, it has witty, humorous lyrics (Sting was seemingly in a cheerful mood when he wrote much of this album, in contrast to the much darker mood seen in his songs on The Soul Cages), and these clever lyrics combined with a very good melody and a great arrangement make it perhaps my favorite song on the album, though there are a few other contenders.
Saint Augustine in Hell: This is another one of my favorites. Like “Mad About You” from The Soul Cages (which was based on the story of David and Bathsheba), it tells of the lustful side of a famous Judeo-Christian religious figure. It features an excellent arrangement, performed to perfection by Sting’s band, and the break in the middle with the Devil enumerating the inhabitants of Hell – including of course music critics – is great (the music playing in the background of this part is the bridge section from "I Miss You Kate", an instrumental B-side to "All This Time").
It's Probably Me: This song had been previously released on the Lethal Weapon 3 soundtrack in version featuring Eric Clapton, but Sting rerecorded it for this album. It’s not clear what Clapton and Kamen’s contributions were to the writing of the song, but the lyrics were probably mostly or entirely Sting’s. It’s a very good song regardless of who wrote what.
Everybody Laughed But You: This song was apparently not included on the original North American release of the album, though it was on the later reissue. While it can’t equal the tracks that preceded it, it is nevertheless a solid album track. Sting wrote an alternate set of lyrics to the same music and released that version as a B-side on two singles from the album under the title “January Stars”.
Shape of My Heart: This song, along with “Fields of Gold”, has become the best known song from the album, with numerous artists doing covers of it. It has also become a popular sample in hip hop and what’s known as “contemporary R&B”. Ironically, the music for this song was not written by Sting but by his guitarist Dominic Miller, though Sting wrote the excellent if slightly abstruse lyrics. This is another one of my favorites from the album.
Something the Boy Said: This song tells a very dark tale about an expedition that was slaughtered as prophesied by the son of their captain. While quite different in mood from the songs that make up the bulk of the album, it fits in quite well after “Shape of My Heart” and makes a solid album track.
Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me): The final track on the album is a brilliantly written riposte to all the critics and writers who try to analyze Sting (and for that matter anyone) on the basis of his work and other publicly available information. The dry wit of the lyrics is matched with an excellent, upbeat tune. This track is another contender for my favorite on the album, with only “Seven Days” and possibly “Saint Augustine in Hell” and “Shape of My Heart” equaling it. It certainly closes the album on a high point, and along with “Fortress Around My Heart” (from The Dream of the Blue Turtles) and “Brand New Day” (from Brand New Day) is one of the best closing tracks on any Sting album.
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