New York, both the backdrop and inspiration to some of Lou Reed's finest work, from the Velvet Underground's debut and right through his solo work,with the exception of the hard listening,and at times upsetting 'Berlin' album.
In 1989 however, Reed stunned both critics and fans with the release of the loose conceptual album simply titled 'New York'.
This was Reeds finest album as a solo artist and nobody seen it coming,having released albums of moderate appeal but poor reviews in the 1980s.
After his clean up and stint in rehab Reed was written off as a has been, hanging onto the shirttails of cult success with the Velvet Underground, which at this point was at its highest.
As the decade closed however Reed found himself on the cusp of both artistic integrity with mainstream success. The fourteen track album,a journey through the grime and good of New York City, cited as an almost spoken novel weighted in at a little under an hour ,with minimal production to add to the raw sound ,this was Lou Reed at his very best.
A band made up of two guitars,bass and drums,the vehicle he thrived on to snarl his vocals over both sides of the record,indeed ex-Velvet Mo Tucker contributed drums on parts of the album.
The sudden change and obvious maturity that fired Reed can be contributed to by two factors,or two losses rather,the death of Andy Warhol in February 1987 during a routine gallbladder surgery.
Warhols was of course the one time artistic guru of Reeds who not only encouraged his dark , twisted songwriting but influenced it and his ex-Velvets bandmate and muse Nico who suffered a heart attack and died in July 1988 in Ibiza.
These two losses in a short space of time made Lou Reed question his own mortality, instead of grieving he in turn threw himself into his songwriting, evident in the song cycle that this is clearly a man who had seen it and done it all and was now launching himself at the top of his game with an almost rebirth.
The album stutters to a start with one of Reed’s greatest songs,'Romeo Had Juliette', here he clearly sets the scene and prologues all that is to come;
"Caught between the twisted stars the plotted lines the faulty map
that brought Columbus to New York".
This vivid imagery used very easily paints pictures in the listeners mind in almost fictional noir movie.
The second single release ,'Dirty Boulevard’ reached the top of the modern rock U.S Billboard charts, a song starkly pointing the divide between the rich and poor of New York,but again widely praised and receiving airplay both through FM and MTV, this was not selling out however, grunge was right around the corner and Reed was already lighting the fires hailing the clever lyrics and guitar driven raw music which was to come.His friend and one time collaborator David Bowie,was already working in the same direction with the cyberpunk of Tin Machine.
The song subjects are both stark and nostalgic and at times the imagery can become overpowering, he keeps it together however through the pumping sound being delivered,'The last great American whale', Reed hits out at both the NRA and the treatment of native Americans,fearlessly without hiding either fact;
"The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
spit on Indians and lots worse,
The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
life compared to death for him seemed worse".
Halfway through the album you soon discover that Reeds newfound leather skinned,sobriety suits him,a fact pointed to on the third single release ‘A Busload Of Faith', it's not a song of regret but more so of acceptance and the importance of his own life;
"You can't depend on your drinking,
You can't depend on your dope".
At last Reed was living up to the cult image created through his groundbreaking and highly influential releases with the Velvet Underground, this new found energy would continue right up until his death in 2013, leaving behind a more worthwhile legacy for a man who through his work in the 60's inspired more bands than the Beatles.
[Kevin Burke]
Exactly 20 years ago, Nine Inch Nails officially released the third single ‘Into the Void’ which was taken from their third studio album The Fragile (1999). Although some promo copies of this single where released in the US and Germany by the end of 1999, it’s only and officially released was in Australia on 10 January 2000. It peaked at 72nd position on the Australian singles chart.
This Australian release lacks the typical NIN halo number, making it the only commercial Nine Inch Nails release at that time with that distinction and much wanted by fans and collectors.
‘Into The Void’ features the same guitar and bass lines as the song ‘La Mer’ also on The Fragile.
The version of ‘The Perfect Drug’ included on this single is slightly longer than the one released on the Lost Highway soundtrack. It fades out at the end instead of ending abruptly
Into the Void, directed by Walter Stern and Jeff Richter, was nominated for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards Breakthrough Video award, but lost out to Björk's All Is Full of Love.
The song was featured in the 2000 film Final Destination, being played on the radio in Carter Horton's '71 Chevy Nova, before one of the characters is killed. Even though the song was not written for the movie, the words final destination appear in the song ("...pictures in my head of the final destination...").
In the US the single peeked at #11 on the Modern Rock Tracks Billboard and at #27 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks Billboard.
Into The Void (MCD
01. Into The Void 4:52
02. We're In This Together 7:18
03. The Perfect Drug 5:43
04. The New Flesh 3:40
DISCOGS
Into The Void (lyrics)
Tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away
Talking to myself all the way to the station
Pictures in my head of the final destination all lined up
(all the one's that aren't allowed to stay)
Tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away
Tried to save a place from the cuts and the scratches
Tried to overcome the complications and the catches
Nothing ever grows and the sun doesn't shine all day
Tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away
Tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away
Songwriter: Trent Reznor
On this day, exactly 32 years ago Nitzer Ebb released their second studio album Belief. On this album, released by Mute Records and produced by Flood, drummer Julian Beeston took over from David Gooday.
The album features one of NEB's most know dancefloor classics, Control I’m Here. This single was released almost three months before whilst the video got frequent rotation on MTV. Later that same year, the singles Hearts & Minds and Shame followed.
The track T.W.A. is said to be inspired by the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847. While listening very carefully one can hear a crowd chanting ”Marg Bar Amrika" which means "Death to America”.
Belief
Mute Records - STUMM 61
Released: 9 January 1989
Track listing:
- Hearts & Minds 3:45
- For Fun 3:03
- Control, I'm Here 3:52
- Captivate 3:57
- T.W.A. 5:00
- Blood Money 4:29
- Shame 4:03
- Drive 5:07
- Without Belief 4:16
Post-punk innovators Jah Wobble and Youth have teamed up to release a new album called Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse!
Post-punk innovators Jah Wobble and Youth have teamed up to release a new album on Cadiz Music licensed exclusively from the Youth Sounds label on the 28th of February 2020.
'Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse' was recorded over the last year by the former Public Image Ltd founder together with the renowned producer and Killing Joke bassist and features a host of special guests and collaborations. Released on CD, vinyl and available digitally, the album is eleven new tracks and includes the lead single 'Breaking Shells' which features West London singer and musician Hollie Cook.
A truly inspired collection of tracks, the new long player also includes singers and players such as Rhiannon, Blue Pearl, Aurora Dawn, Lara Smiles, broadcaster and author Vivien Goldman and The Orb's Alex Paterson.
ACID PUNK DUB APOCALYPSE - Track Listing:
01. 'Breaking Shells' (feat. Hollie Cook)
02. 'Burnt Umber' (feat. Alex Paterson)
03. 'Inspector Out Of Space' (feat. Rhiannon)
04. 'Full Metal Dub'
05. 'Rhino' (feat Vivian Goldman)
06. 'Rise Me Up' (feat. Blue Pearl)
07. 'Chariot Sky'
08. 'Keep On Moving' (feat. Aurora Dawn)
09. 'Lunar Dawn'
10. 'Panzer Dub'
11. 'Blades' (feat. Lara Smiles)
Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart have also just announced a UK Tour throughout January, February and March 2020.
The legendary bass player and his band begin the dates at The Cavern in Liverpool on the 16th of January before ending up in the Norwich Art Centre on the 21st of March. The run of seventeen shows will include a London date at the Jazz Café in Camden Town on Thursday the 23rd of January 2020.
Today we celebrate the birth of David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016) better known as David Bowie.
It is hard for people to comprehend what music would be like without the influence of “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”, even harder again to comprehend life simply without David Bowie.
The effect on music that album has had pulses through even today's releases forty six years later.
One compact disc remaster had one of the most honest statements made by a record company, sometimes known to embellish how good a release actually is, it reads: 'Whether you know it or not, this album changed your life!’
On July the 6th 1972, at 7:30 pm, a time before video recorders, without Sky Plus, we can pinpoint precisely what the likes of Morrissey, Ian Curtis, Ian McCulloch, Gary Numan, Johnny Lydon, Boy George and Adam Ant were doing. They were watching David Bowie on Top Of The Pops performing the song 'Starman', dressed as a Punk-rainbow astronaut with a red mullet, looking like something that arrived from another universe, draping his arm across Mick Ronson's shoulder in a bromance meets almost homoerotic display. This must have sent quivers through the stiff upper lip post war generation. What the kids must have thought, when Bowie pointing at the camera sang the line; "I had to phone someone so I picked on you".
It only took those four minutes to transform David Bowie from a meandering folk style artist to the most scandalous rock star Britain ever produced. The future had finally arrived, every kid who watched that performance felt their calling to become a musician. In some respect this was the musical equivalent of a 'JFK' moment, an event which resonated around the world, a time engrained in people's minds. The kids who felt like outsiders, bullied or teased, now had their messiah, their role model and their friend when they felt alone.
"Let the children lose it,
Let the children use it,
Let all the children boogie."
The album itself, “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars", released a month before the Top Of The Pops performance is an unequivocal masterpiece, one of those rarities where every track could be a single, no filler. From the slow drum intro of 'Five Years' to the last orchestral breath of 'Rock N Roll Suicide', this is the album which would define what the decade was to become.
Bowies previous two albums with Mick Ronson,the garage rock 'Man Who Sold The World' and the mixed folk-pop-rock of his 'ode to influences' album 'Hunky Dory', were merely paving the way for what was to come. The lineup of The Spiders made up by Ronson, Trevor Bolder on bass and Mick Woodmansey on drums.As for the album itself produced by Bowie along with Ken Scott, some complained that it didn't sound heavy enough, the drums flat and the guitar at times not loud enough, without realising this was the intention as it was a glam rock album made by Ziggy and the Spiders, not by David Bowie. The character 'Ziggy Stardust',a composition of two of Bowies influences, Iggy Pop and the musician and LSD lunatic the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (Norman Carl Odam).
Ziggy became Bowie's alter ego and vehicle for the very loose concept album based on a bisexual alien landing to earth, who became a famous rock star and was eventually killed by his fans. In some ways Bowie saw Ziggy as a mirror image of himself, “Ziggy played it left hand”- the mirror image of Bowie,a right handed guitar player.
A dangerous mix for Bowie as the line between art and reality would sometimes become blurred and drive him to the depths of insanity. This may explain the short longevity of the Ziggy character.
The song cycle itself is strong and there again is evidence of tributes to other musicians, such as the song “Lady Stardust” a tribute in sorts to Marc Bolan,the pair friends as well as competitors. A surreal opener opener in “Five Years”, the time the earth had left before it's destroyed, the very reason Ziggy is sent to earth is to save it, but, instead he becomes a rock star.
This flows into “Soul Love”, what the alien sees his fate as being and his reasons for his saving the human race. All very sci-fi,and 'Moonage Daydream', a song which describes all parts of the alien is in fact one of the best examples of Bowies cut and shut lyrics,where he would once write lines out individually (cut them out and arrange them until they formed some sense); “I'm an Alligator,I'm a mama-papa”. “Suffragette City”, is a mixture of themes from the book 'A Clockwork Orange', again the sci-fi future is touched upon but here he also ask questions of his own sexuality.
But what holds the album together are the steady glam rock songs which lighten the sci-fi themes making the album more accessible, “Hang Onto Yourself”, “Star” and the cover version “It Ain't Easy”. These are the perfect non-complicated songs to break the serious mood and prevents the album turning into a meandering concept mess. The albums closer and one of Bowie's strongest songs is “Rock And Roll Suicide”, this closes the album by detailing the character Ziggy Stardust's implosion and becoming a burnt out, washed up rock star.
"You're too old to lose it, too young to choose it
And the clock waits so patiently on your song
You walk past a cafe, but you don't eat when you've lived too long
Oh, no, no, no, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide"
All the while the other band members and his ego are trying to tell him how he's not finished, "You're not alone!" and he reminisces about the legions of fans he once had; “Gimme your hands,cause you're wonderful". The perfect closer, the perfect end to the Ziggy Stardust saga.
David Bowie would continue changing styles from soul to electronic music, he would create better albums but none would ever be as appealing as the one surrounding his first alter-ego character Ziggy.
Kevin Burke Dec ‘18
