23-10-2019 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 1978-1973

Pere Ubu

23-10-2019 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 1978-1973  >>Pere Ubu, Rory Gallagher, Peter Gabriel, The Stranglers, Van Der Graaf Generator, Soft Machine, Roxy Music, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Bill Withers, Pink Floyd, Betty Davis<<

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1978-1973

Influential art punk band whose experimental sound harnessed self-destructing melodies, scattershot rhythms, and industrial-strength dissonance.

Pere Ubu

The Modern Dance (Tom Herman / Scott Krauss / Tony Maimone / Allen Ravenstine / David Thomas / Pere Ubu) 3:28

Laughing (Tom Herman / Scott Krauss / Tony Maimone / Allen Ravenstine / David Thomas / Pere Ubu) 4:35

from The Modern Dance 1978

There isn't a Pere Ubu recording you can imagine living without. The Modern Dance remains the essential Ubu purchase (as does the follow-up, Dub Housing). For sure, Mercury had no idea what they had on their hands when they released this as part of their punk rock offshoot label Blank, but it remains a classic slice of art-punk. It announces itself quite boldly: the first sound you hear is a painfully high-pitched whine of feedback, but then Tom Herman's postmodern Chuck Berry riffing kicks off the brilliant "Non-Alignment Pact," and you soon realize that this is punk rock unlike any you've ever heard. David Thomas' caterwauling is funny and moving, Scott Krauss (drums) and Tony Maimone (bass) are one of the great unheralded rhythm sections in all of rock...

Skilled Irish blues-rock guitarist whose stripped-down brand of blues rock touched everyone who heard it.

Rory Gallagher

Shadow Play (Rory Gallagher) 4:45

Fuel to the Fire (Rory Gallagher) 6:16

from Photo-Finish 1978

...Reverting back to a trio, Gallagher toughens up his sound and blazes through some robust blues rockers  like "Last of the Independents," "Shadow Play," and "Brute Force & Ignorance" (one of his best hard rock riffs) with nervy energy... Still, the album has a samey feel due to some of the songwriting not being quite up to snuff, and a few tracks, like the moody, slow-burning "Fuel to the Fire," stretched well past its breaking point to over six minutes...

Theatrical leader of '70s-era Genesis and a bona fide pop star by the '80s despite his experimental, often exotic, material.

Peter Gabriel

Moribund the Burgermeister  (Peter Gabriel) 4:20

Solsbury Hill  (Peter Gabriel) 4:21

from Peter Gabriel 1 1977

Peter Gabriel tells why he left Genesis in "Solsbury Hill," the key track on his 1977 solo debut. Majestically opening with an acoustic guitar, the song finds Gabriel's talents gelling, as the words and music feed off each other, turning into true poetry. It stands out dramatically on this record, not because the music doesn't work, but because it brilliantly illustrates why Gabriel had to fly on his own. Though this is undeniably the work of the same man behind The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, he's turned his artiness inward, making his music coiled, dense, vibrant. There is still some excess, naturally, yet it's the sound of a musician unleashed, finally able to bend the rules as he wishes. That means there are less atmospheric instrumental sections than there were on his last few records with Genesis, as the unhinged bizarreness in the arrangements, compositions, and productions...

Stars of Brit punk's class of 1976-1977 who garnered headlines for their sexist posturing, drug use, occasional arrests, and irresistible singles.The Stranglers formed as the Guildford Stranglers in the southern England village of Chiddingfold (near Guildford) in 1974, plowing a heavily Doors-influenced furrow through the local pub rock scene -- such as it was.

The Stranglers

I Feel Like a Wog (The Stranglers) 3:16

Something Better Change  (Jet Black / Jean-Jacques Burnel / Hugh Cornwell / Dave Greenfield) 3:34

No More Heroes  (Jet Black / Jean-Jacques Burnel / Hugh Cornwell / Dave Greenfield) 3:28

from No More Heroes 1977

Rattus Norvegicus, the Stranglers' first album (and first of two in 1977), was hardly a punk rock classic, but it outsold every other punk album and remains a pretty good chunk of art-punk. On the other hand, No More Heroes, recorded three months later and released in September 1977, is faster, nastier, and better. At this point the Stranglers were on top of their game, and the ferocity and anger that suffuses this record would never be repeated. Hugh Cornwell's testosterone level is very high, but it's still an enjoyable bit of noise that holds up better than anyone would have guessed at the time.

Art rock unit led by Peter Hammill, distinguished for a dynamic range rivaled only by King Crimson and for their surprising influence on British punk. An eye-opening trip to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the summer of 1967 inspired British-born drummer Chris Judge Smith to compose a list of possible names for the rock group he wished to form. Upon his return to Manchester University, he began performing with singer/songwriter Peter Hammill and keyboardist Nick Peame; employing one of the names from Judge Smith's list, the band dubbed itself Van der Graaf Generator (after a machine that creates static electricity), eventually earning an intense cult following as one of the era's preeminent art rock groups.

Van Der Graaf Generator

Pilgrims  (Peter Hammill / David Jackson) 7:11

Still Life (Peter Hammill) 7:24

La Rossa (Peter Hammill)

from Still Life 1976

VDGG's second step on the mid-'70s comeback trail saw Peter Hammill attempting to meld the introspective and the cosmic throughout... The theme of humane cooperation informs the opening "Pilgrims," while "La Rossa" is an epic tale of desire fulfilled (a story that would be concluded on Hammill's solo album, Over)...

User Ratings (270) = 5 stars says it all.

To a VdGG fan, this is their defining album, their perfect album.

This is the album where the lyrics, tunes, arrangements, and performance passion all come together at once, in harmony.

A pioneering Canterbury psychedelic group that initially featured Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers, later developing into an experimental jazz-rock unit.

Soft Machine

Out of Season (Kevin Cronin / Karl Jenkins / Tom Kelly) 5:31

The Camden Tandem (John Etheridge / Jack Marshall) 2:01

from Softs 1976

At this point in the band's history, Soft Machine's lineup might raise the question of Theseus' paradox: if all the pieces of something are replaced, bit by bit over time, does the identity of the original something still remain? On Softs, Mike Ratledge, the only original bandmember present on Bundles, the group's preceding Harvest LP, was relegated to guest status... Otherwise, keyboard duties fell completely to Karl Jenkins, who joined the group prior to the recording of Six and had gradually taken over the conceptual reins as the Softs finished their tenure with Columbia and moved over to Harvest. On Softs more than ever before, Soft Machine was Jenkins' band; he composed fully seven of the LP's 11 tracks, making the album a vehicle for his own artistic conception. And yet, as Soft Machine albums go, this one is just fine, thank you. Jenkins had always put his own personal stamp on the material he wrote for the band, but he also retained elements of a Soft Machine style that emerged around the time Ratledge began penning LP side-long opuses on Third: a marriage of modalism and minimalism with memorable themes in layered counterpoint and an occasional backdrop of rippling, echoey overdubbed electric keyboards, giving the music a trippy, trance-inducing quality. Nimble keyboard and reed solos were also an important element of the Soft Machine sound, although, as the group entered its Harvest fusion period, they tended to take a back seat to the work of fleet-fingered electric guitarists, first Allan Holdsworth on Bundles and then John Etheridge here.With Etheridge proving that Holdsworth wasn't England's only blindingly fast fusion guitar riff-meister, and with new saxophonist Alan Wakeman being a somewhat heftier reedman than Jenkins, the Softs lineup was plenty strong enough in the soloing department, so Jenkins could concentrate on overdubbing an arsenal of keyboards to give the music its overall structure and mood. Meanwhile, the Roy Babbington (bass) and John Marshall (drums) rhythm-section team, intact since Seven, was as fine as ever, kicking the band into overdrive at the drop of a hi-hat. While Softs has plenty to satisfy the Canterbury and jazz-rock fusion fan, another stylistic element -- new age -- can be heard blowing in with the synthesized wind and strings...Softs is adventurous listening, yet accessible and engaging enough to have broad appeal, and its stylistic links to the past maintain Soft Machine's distinctive identity -- even if this particular machine is constructed of replacement parts.

Soft Machine with John Etheridge

Cult favorites, and perhaps the quintessential art rock band, who transitioned from hard-edged glam to sophisticated rock.
Roxy Music
Love Is the Drug  (Bryan Ferry / Andy Mackay) 4:11
End of the Line (Bryan Ferry) 5:14
Sentimental Fool (Bryan Ferry / Andy Mackay) 6:14
from Siren 1975
Abandoning the intoxicating blend of art rock and glam-pop that distinguished Stranded and Country Life, Roxy Music concentrate on Bryan Ferry's suave, charming crooner persona for the elegantly modern Siren. As the disco-fied opener "Love Is the Drug" makes clear, Roxy embrace dance and unabashed pop on Siren, weaving them into their sleek, arty sound. It does come at the expense of their artier inclinations, which is part of what distinguished Roxy, but the end result is captivating...

A neo-beatnik songwriter who grew weirder and wilder in the '80s, earning a cult following that only grew larger as the years passed.
Tom Waits
Eggs & Sausage (Tom Waits) 3:04
Semi Suite (Tom Waits) 6:27
Warm Beer & Cold Women  (Tom Waits) 5:47
from 'Round Midnight: The Minneapolis Broadcast 1975
...In December, Tom entered the studios of KQRS Minneapolis for his first ever FM broadcast, floated across the airwaves by that very station and syndicated by many others nationwide. Now considered the holy grail of Waits broadcasts amongst serious collectors of the great mans work, this performance featuring Tom Waits alone at his piano with just his magnificent voice as accompaniment, the way he should be heard, is nothing short of staggering. This CD contains the full KQRS broadcast in perfect FM stereo quality, during which Tom performs a range of songs taken from his first three records Closing Time , The Heart Of Saturday Night and the aforementioned Nighthawks...

Cerebral yet sensual Canadian poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter who is acknowledged as one of the greatest lyricists of all time.
Leonard Cohen
Is This What You Wanted (Leonard Cohen) 4:13
Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (Leonard Cohen) 3:06
Lover, Lover, Lover (Leonard Cohen) 3:19
from New Skin For The Old Ceremony 1974
Leonard Cohen was a poet long before he decided to pick up a guitar. Despite singing in a dry baritone over spare arrangements, Cohen is a gifted lyricist who captivates the listener. New Skin for the Old Ceremony may be Leonard Cohen's most musical album, as he is accompanied by violas, mandolins, banjos, and percussion that give his music more texture than usual. The fact that Cohen does more real singing on this album can be seen as both a blessing and a curse -- while his voice sounds more strained, the songs are delivered with more passion than usual...

Songwriter/singer/guitarist Bill Withers is best remembered for the classic "Lean on Me" and his other million-selling singles "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Use Me," but he has a sizable cache of great songs to his credit.
Bill Withers
You (Bill Withers) 5:23
Ruby Lee (Melvin Dunlap / Bill Withers) 3:17
Heartbreak Road (Bill Withers) 3:09
from +'Justments 1974
Back in March 2004 music magazine Mojo included Withers' fourth album on a list of "67 Lost Albums You Must Own." Whether 'Justments is indeed the stuff of legend remains debatable. Surely no holy grail like the similarly mentioned Cold Fact by Sussex labelmate Sixto Rodriguez, it seems at least unfairly ignored. Nothing here might be as compelling as "Grandma's Hands" or "I Can't Write Left-Handed," but there are plenty of melancholy reflections from a genuine soulman who came across more as a West coast singer/songwriter. Replacing the hired hands of his debut with former employees of Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band proved equally important in shaping Withers' identity...

One of the most predominant and celebrated rock bands of all time, prog- and space-rock legends, known for superlative musicianship.
Pink Floyd
Breathe (In the Air) (David Gilmour / Roger Waters / Richard Wright) 2:49
On the Run (David Gilmour / Roger Waters) 3:45
Time  (David Gilmour / Nick Mason / Roger Waters / Richard Wright) 6:53
The Great Gig in the Sky  (Clare Torry / Richard Wright) 4:43
from Dark Side of the Moon 1973
By condensing the sonic explorations of Meddle to actual songs and adding a lush, immaculate production to their trippiest instrumental sections, Pink Floyd inadvertently designed their commercial breakthrough with Dark Side of the Moon. The primary revelation of Dark Side of the Moon is what a little focus does for the band. Roger Waters wrote a series of songs about mundane, everyday details which aren't that impressive by themselves, but when given the sonic backdrop of Floyd's slow, atmospheric soundscapes and carefully placed sound effects, they achieve an emotional resonance...

Arguably the wildest and most flamboyant funk singer of the 1970s, once married to Miles Davis. A wildly flamboyant funk diva with few equals even three decades after her debut, Betty Davis combined the gritty emotional realism of Tina Turner, the futurist fashion sense of David Bowie, and the trendsetting flair of Miles Davis, her husband for a year.
Betty Davis
If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up (Betty Davis) 5:00
Anti Love Song (Betty Davis) 4:32
Your Man My Man (Betty Davis) 3:35
from Betty Davis 1973
Betty Davis' debut was an outstanding funk record, driven by her aggressive, no-nonsense songs and a set of howling performances from a crack band. Listeners wouldn't know it from the song's title, but for the opener, "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up," Davis certainly doesn't play the wallflower; she's a woman on the prowl, positively luring the men in and, best of all, explaining exactly how she does it: "I said I'm wigglin' my fanny, I'm raunchy dancing, I'm-a-doing it doing it/This is my night out."...