Week 52 - The Zombies

The Zombies -
Odessey and Oracle
Released April, 1968

Tommy by The Who

Review forthcoming

Merry Christmas y'all

Let us pretend for the sake of this post that I wasn't too full to move let alone post this yesterday when it actually was Christmas day. It seems kind of fitting that the album we are currently listening to is Tommy by The Who. The song Christmas off that album is actually one of my favourite tracks.

I quite often make mixed cds (rembemember mix tapes? I used to make them once) for friends as gifts. This year I've decided to throw the latest up for you to download. It's called "Songs So Pretty They Might Just Break your Heart". Nawwww. A cd that opens with the track "The Big Ship" by Brian Eno can't be all that bad I reckon. There's quite a few Aussie artists on it too.

Tracklist:
The Big Ship - Brian Eno
Nicotine - Ani DiFranco
Time - Tom Waits
Good Woman - Cat Power
Every Time I Try - Spain
Doing the Wrong Thing - Kaki King
Oh My Sweet Carolina - Ryan Adams
Let Him Fly - Patti Griffin
Jolene - Ray LaMontagne
Blue - Joni Mitchell
I Could Die Looking At You (live) - Jordie Lane
Lord, I Have Made You a Place in my Heart - Greg Brown
Swing On - Holly Throsby
Song One - Gorgeous
Accordingly - Chris Whitley
No Good Answers (live) - Jeff Lang
Everything's Fucked - The Dirty Three
Intuition - Feist

Download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?okndmqbntzj

It saddened me yesterday when I checked Twitter (how did we ever used to find out information so quickly?) to read that Vic Chesnutt had passed away. I first became aware of Vic's work on the Soundtrack to the movie The End of Violence (the movie is a bit shit but the soundtrack is awesome). In fact the song 'Everytime I Try' by Spain on the above comp is the reason I bought that soundtrack. I tracked down some of his work and quickly fell in love. I try not to get too political on this blog and stick to the music but Vic's story saddens me. He was left parapelegic from a car accident when he was 18. Despite this he still relearnt to play guitar and wrote beautiful, honest music. In America they don't have a public health system and I am consantly reminded how lucky I am to live in Australia where I know my needs will be met if I fall ill. Vic had health insurance but it still wasn't enough. His hospital was suing him for a large sum of money for expenses, money he didn't have. Vic commited suicide because the weight of the pain of his injuries and the weight of his financial trouble simply became too much for him. I can't help but think that the system let down a beautiful soul. And the sad part is that he is just one page of a very big story of people in the same situation.

If you would like to donate to a fund set up to help his family pay off his medical bills, for which they are now responsible, please visit the dedication page set up by musician Kristn Hersh.

http://kristinhersh.cashmusic.org/vic/



Now go tell everyone you love how much you love them.

Merry Christmas

Week 51 - The Who

The Who -
Tommy
Released May, 1969

The Velvet Underground and Nico by The Velvet Underground and Nico

Review forthcoming

Week 50 - The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground and Nico -
The Velvet Underground and Nico
Released March, 1967

Astral Weeks by Van Morrison

Week 49 gives us Van Morrison and his second solo album “Astral Weeks” released November, 1968. In order to understand this album we first need to look at a little bit of what was going on for Morrison before this album was released. His debut solo album “Blowin’ Your Mind” was released on Bang Records in 1967. The album was compiled and released without Morrison’s consent, to which he was a little pissed about (and that’s why you should always read the fine print kids). This led to a dispute with label guy and producer Bert Burns. In a misfortunate turn of events Burns had a heart attack and died, making the whole shebang much more complicated. Morrison then signed with Warner Bros. who helped him deal with his contractual obligations to Bang Records.

Signing to Warner Bros. meant the Morrison finally had artistic control over his work. His previous work was soul and R&B influenced but for this album he enlisted several session musicians with jazz backgrounds. Most of the album is recorded live and largely improvised around the framework that Morrison gave them. The album incorporates folk, jazz, blues and classical music. It’s one of those albums that’s hard to categorize as it doesn’t really fit into one genre. It is often referred to a ‘song cycle’ rather than a concept album. Wikipedia puts it best: “The album embraces a form of symbolism that would eventually become a staple of Morrison's songs, equating earthly love and heaven, or as close as a living being can approach it.”

“Astral Weeks” received great critical response upon its release but despite this was never really commercially successful. The album has gone on to be considered not only Morrison’s greatest recording but also is now a massive influence and many genres of music. It was ranked #19 on Rolling Stone magazines “500 Greatest Albums of all Time” list.

I first came aware of this album many years ago through the work of Jeff Buckley. He was a massive Morrison fan and often covered his songs. His live version of ‘The Way Young Lovers Do’ from the “Live at the Sine ep” was good enough to make me go and buy this album. It’s an album I’ve always loved. I can’t explain why I like it so much. When I listen I can hear the obvious pain but there is also this beautiful hope that swells around the pain the way the instruments swell around the vocals. It is one of those that works better as a whole, yet each track stands strong on its own, unlike some concept albums. I don’t necessarily understand what he’s singing about on some of the songs but it doesn’t matter because I feel it. It’s almost a mediative experience listening to “Astral Weeks”. I’m reluctant to break down this album song by song as I feel it would do an injustice to the album as a whole. Instead I’m just going to say that ‘Sweet Thing’ is one of the most joyous things I’ve ever heard.

A haiku for you Mr Morrison:
how do you describe
indescribable music?
you don’t. you listen.