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Reading
I’ve mentioned here before that I read lots of books for Netgalley which provides advanced reader copies for new releases. Earlier this year I found I had reached over 20 books and it got to be a bit unwieldy for a while. Also, some requested books didn’t get sent until much later than the request was made and I had to fit those in too. I finally got to under ten books and now I’m down to three books and there are still four that I requested that I haven’t had answers on. One of them I requested in March and still haven’t heard back. Today is the release date. So far the only reviews for it seem to be from librarians so maybe they are the only ones to have access before release.
One of the books I am currently slogging through is a particularly long one from a Nigerian writer who was the first black winner of the Nobel prize in literature many years ago. I say slogging because it’s quite long and perhaps a bit too wordy. I have pondered whether to give it up and not finish but I feel obliged to carry on to some degree. There was a book about genes I read a while back that I had for many months but it was really tough to get through. I didn’t quite finish that one but I felt I had read enough to write a fair review on it.
I haven’t added too many books recently because I need a slow period for a little while. Unless a lot of really good books happen to turn up.
I have also started listening to audiobooks a lot more, mostly from the library. I find it works out well there because I can easily return it if it doesn’t work for me. The first book I listened to early this year was a sequel and that was tough. I don’t think it was the narrator but just the fact I already had preconceived notions from reading the first book and it clashed a bit. I found once I had read it for real, I was able to go back and listen again without too much issue. At the moment I am listening to two audiobooks. One is The Queen’s Gambit, which is a book that was turned into a series on Netflix. The Scientist and I had seen the first episode and it was good. At the same time, I ran across it in the library listing and put it on hold. So far I think the series is a bit better than the book for me. I find the narrator okay when she’s speaking for Beth, the girl in the story. And not too bad for a couple of female characters. But all the male ones sound very similar and often alike and they all sound kind of dumb and slow. I think some of these are supposed to be a southern accent but it doesn’t work for me. I still have half the book to go and only a few days left until it goes back so I don’t know if I will carry on or not. One thing I will note is the tv series doesn’t seem to have anyone with a southern accent despite mostly being set in Kentucky. Strange.
The second book I listened to was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and it was just wonderful. Julia Whelan narrated and she really brought it all to life. I didn’t write a review when I finished but I plan to get an ebook and read it and will do a review then. I am curious as to whether I would have liked this as well had I read first it or not. I will never know for sure though since I am sure I will have the memory of the audiobook in mind while reading.
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Audiobooks
For almost my entire reading life, I’ve always read to myself. I have no recollection of ever having books read to me as a child. That’s not to say it didn’t happen but possibly once I learned to read it stopped happening. Or something along those lines.
The one exception on this was when I was in fourth grade and our English teacher read Charlotte’s Web out loud to our class in preparation for us to take a field trip to see the animated film. I don’t remember it that well aside from us sitting on a rug or something while she read. That was the only teacher who I recall doing that.
I didn’t go to kindergarten but once I was in first grade I was super-ready to read. I was in the top reading group from early on and stayed that way throughout my primary years. So again I read to myself and there was never any notion that I would be read to.
I few years ago I read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker and I really adored it. I read it a couple of times and still go back and read parts occasionally. Barker just released a sequel this week, but it’s currently only on audiobook. I was quite torn because I want to know what happens next but I really prefer to read for myself.
I read books on Netgalley which provides advanced reader copies in exchange for reviews. Occasionally something good comes along and this time the audiobook for the sequel showed up. I went ahead and requested it and happily, I succeeded.
I’ve been listening for the past three days now. It’s really weird to listen to the book instead of reading it for myself. The worst part is I have my own imagined voices and images of the story and now I’ve got someone else inflicting a different version on me. Of course there’s no way around this but it makes for a totally new “reading” experience. I did find the first couple of chapters to be a bit rough and didn’t find the reader did so good of a job at differentiating characters voices. It’s gotten better as it’s gone on. What’s really funny is that one character has a longish name and it’s pronounced fully each time. But when I read for myself, I tend to create a mental shortcut while reading so as not to take up so much time. It’s really funny to keep hearing this long name spoken.
I’m only up to chapter ten and there’s a lot more to go. I am kind of getting into it a bit more now. Initially I was listening with earphones but last night I connected with a bluetooth speaker and just let it play continuously. I’ve also played it in the car but I find it gets stuck after each chapter ends. I think I listened to three or four last night without pause, so that set up seems to work okay for me. It says I’m about a quarter of the way through the book so progress is happening.
I really look forward to the ebook/print versions being released in June or July so I can read it again with my own personal voices and images. One thing that I do wonder about is whether this would have been an issue had this been the first book or a standalone story. I might have to try it out some time just to see.
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Led Zeppelin: In Through the Out Door
I know this was supposed to be ten albums but I decided to make a bonus, especially because it doesn’t fit neatly in with the others on the list.
I’ve liked the music of Led Zeppelin music pretty much as far as I can remember. But I’ve not really gone looking for it because for most of my memory, it was always there. When I was a teenager expanding my musical tastes more into the realm of rock music, this band was played all the time on the rock and album station I used to listen to. They even played full albums of their music at times since they were an album station. I never actually bought any of the albums until more recently. To be honest, I thought the Scientist had several of them in his collection. But on cd that’s not the case. And the vinyl we have is in a box at the back of our closet, not to mention there’s the lack of a turntable.
When I moved to Australia there was the distinct lack of a rock station in Perth. I’m not sure what the situation was in other areas but here the closest we got were a couple of stations that seemed to want to please everyone by covering a wider variety of music. That all changed for us several months ago when we got digital radio in our car. I discovered there was a classic rock station and access to music got much better. I was finally hearing music that I’d missed for the better part of 25 years. Of course they do play a lot of Led Zeppelin so it reignited my interest in the band.
Around the same time, I started streaming music on my phone while cycling. My phone provider gives free data for the music provider and I took advantage. I went out riding one day and chose a compilation of Led Zeppelin music and it was a brilliant experience. These songs were more of the well-known rocking songs that made me want to pedal just a bit harder. I had no idea it would work so well.
After listening to that collection, I was no longer satisfied and started listening to the full albums. This helped me file songs into the right compartments as I went along. I found a lot of music I didn’t know. But surprisingly, I found a whole lot that I did know. I’d been hearing them all my life but couldn’t tell you the titles of songs or which album they came from. With a few exceptions, of course. I actually knew the entire album of the Untitled IV, which probably shouldn’t be too surprising since that had got a lot of attention over the years.
Anyway, I’m not sure where my favoritism lies in the catalogue except to say that “Kashmir” from Physical Graffiti has been my favorite song for quite a few years after seeing a video of them playing it live. But as for albums, it’s too hard to choose right now.
So how did I settle on this record? Well it’s the only one of theirs that I became acquainted with in real time. When I revisited the album it all came rushing back to me that I knew this as a teenager. And aside from a couple of songs, I knew them all. I imagine that I must have heard this played on radio a few times during that time. It was quite a huge thing when the album was released. It was much like hearing The Wall by Pink Floyd or Some Girls by the Rolling Stones or Queen’s The Game because it was part of the memory of growing up.
In Through the Out Door isn’t exactly a fan favorite but I argue it does have some merit and for me it is associated with that time of my life when I was still in junior high and nearly ready to start high school.
Compared to other tracks on the record, “In the Evening” is a bit more like a standard Led Zeppelin track. It has an exotic sounding opening leading into a rocking track that goes on for a while.
“Fool in the Rain” is an enjoyable song that incorporates a bit of a Latin sound into the rock context. I remember this being played a lot back when it was released and it still stands up for me these days.
“All of My Love” is a ballad written in memory of Robert Plant’s son Karac who died a couple years earlier at age five from a stomach virus. I was aware of this back when it came out but I’d forgotten over the years. It’s a beautiful song but listening again, I can feel the love and pain for a lost child when I hear it.
“I’m Gonna Crawl” closes out the album and it harkens back to the bluesy sound of their earlier work. It’s not a song I remember well but I do recall hearing sometimes when the album was released.
I think part of the reason I remember this album is because it was the last studio album by the band before drummer John Bonham died in 1980. I do remember hearing about his death but it didn’t really affect me so much, particularly as it seemed mixed in with various other deaths in rockdom due to drugs and alcohol. I was far more affected a bit later when John Lennon was gunned down in New York.
The other part of this album that brings back memories is the packaging which was meant to appear like a bootleg, wrapped in brown paper to hide its identity. It was kind of cool looking in its way but I hadn’t thought of that package for a long time until I saw the deluxe release of it in the shops a while back.
While this will likely never be my favorite album by the band, I think it will always have some nostalgia for me and its part of the development of my musical tastes in real time is quite relevant to my interest today.
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Peter Gabriel: Us
My first memories of Peter Gabriel are mostly connected with mentions of his previous association with the band Genesis, and then with some of his early solo work, like “Solsbury Hill” and “Games without Frontiers”. Most of what I heard was was good but it’s not like I sought out his music. Then in the mid-80s he put out his most successful album, So, and became more of a mainstream star, partly thanks to that legendary video animation for “Sledgehammer”. I was listening right along with his music at this time and I did like it a lot although it wasn’t one of my priorities when it came to the record store.
It was 1992 and I’d been out of college and working for a few years and I guess you could say I was out in the real world by now. No it wasn’t my ideal plan to work in a call center, but it was a full-time job and I was pretty good at it and it did allow me a bit of space to indulge myself in my own interests. The Scientist and I were sharing an apartment and sometimes we would travel off together. We’d made three trips to Florida to Disney World within a few years. The Scientist’s parents were in Maryland and I would drive us to visit occasionally.
There was one instance when the Scientist went to Maryland separately and I joined them later on. I’d had to work so the plan was for me to drive up after my shift. I can’t recall specifics on the occasion but maybe it was around Christmas time. It was definitely winter time. My hours went until around 1am but I was a night owl and so I took off after work one night and drove. It just happened that there had been ice and snow on the roads going up through the top end of North Carolina and into Virginia. I particular recall getting close to Lynchburg and the roads being really slick and slippery. A truck had jackknifed along the way and traffic was held up. It was slow going the whole way. I didn’t have a car phone and I was on my own. Not an ideal time to be driving.
My only company was the radio and I remember hearing a few songs during that drive. One of them was the Spin Doctors’ “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” which I really liked. I think there was also a U2 song in there and then there was “Digging in the Dirt” by Peter Gabriel. I already knew the song but it has stuck in my mind that it played that night/morning. It was a song I really liked and the video for it was pretty cool too and it came to mind when it played, evoking thoughts of Peter Gabriel being buried alive and then covered with foliage and so on. The song kept me going in the middle of that night. I obviously did make it to my destination with great relief on my part and for those waiting for me.
At some point I came to own the album and it was an oft listened to cd. The song “Steam” became another big hit single and had another popular video. This song was more reminiscent in sound of “Sledgehammer” and I think was more successful than “Digging in the Dirt”. For my part I prefer “Digging in the Dirt” for the video and the song although I do like this song too.
“Kiss that Frog” is another interesting song that was released as a single. I don’t remember the video for that one but the song sticks in my mind as being one of my favorites from the album. It’s mainly a pop song with catchy tune and lyrics, obviously taking some inspiration from the fairy tale frog prince.
A lot of songs on this album are about relationships with others. “Come Talk to Me” is about a difficult time Gabriel had with the relationship with his daughter. It’s one of only a couple songs I know that features bagpipes. Another favorite for me is “Love to be Loved” which is kind of straightforward in its meaning. It’s filled with that very human longing for love and need.
I listened to this album again before writing and I remember why I liked this so much. I don’t have a lot of Peter Gabriel music in my collection but I like his music and this one is surely my favorite. I think the feelings expressed are kind of universal to people and their relationships. The music is also filled with nice little touches like the bagpipes and chill rhythms that you can relax into.
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Crowded House: Together Alone
A long time ago, I was a mere college student who lived in a dorm on campus. There was a college radio station that played a lot of music I’d never hear on mainstream radio. I wasn’t a regular listener but occasionally I would turn it on out of curiosity and one day I heard a song by this group called Split Enz. I’d never heard of them before and I don’t know what song it was. But the name of the group stayed in my mind long afterwards.
A couple years went by and we had a new student in the dorm, called the Scientist, who was from Australia. This would have been not too many years after “Down Under” by Men at Work came out so it still had a far away feel and exotic feel in North Carolina. Australia was a long way away, after all. After a time, the Scientist would share some of his interests and one of them was this group called Split Enz from New Zealand, which was hugely popular back home. I liked the music well enough but it didn’t hook me and life carried on.
More time passed and a new group entered the scene called Crowded House. The Scientist proudly mentioned how it was formed by one of the former members of Split Enz. Crowded House actually got a fair bit of radio play and eventually its signature song, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” became a thing of sorts. I liked the songs from Crowded House but I wasn’t hooked and life went on for many more years.
In 1993 the Scientist and I got married and plans were made to move to Australia. This was the year Crowded House released their major creative album, Together Alone. I still wasn’t hooked but I did take note of one song that year, “Locked Out” which was getting some decent play on the local rock station. I liked the song and I remember seeing the video often during that time. Any other songs from the record didn’t make too much of an impression at that time.
The following year, we moved to Australia and a few months later my first son was born. Life was pretty busy and there wasn’t much time for anything other than meeting the needs of this new person. I was still coming to know this new place where I lived. With regard to music, I soon understood how Split Enz were considered an iconic Australian band. Even though they were from New Zealand. I was hearing quite a lot more Crowded House on the radio and my knowledge of their catalogue increased a bit.
In November 1996, the band performed at a concert referred to as Farewell to the World. It was staged on the steps of the Sydney Opera House and was broadcast live on television here. At least for those living on the east coast. The band was breaking up and this was their last hurrah. When it was broadcast, the tv was on but I wasn’t watching that closely. It happened I was talking on the phone to my family, a not very frequent occurrence back then thanks to the expensive call rates, not to mention the time difference. While talking I would occasionally pay attention to what was happening on-screen but it wasn’t until we finished that I devoted any big attention. This was the first time I had put faces to the band and they put on a very entertaining show filled with music, chatter and lots of humor. By the end of that show I was finally hooked and I’m still a big fan of the band and its predecessor, Split Enz all these years later. The Scientist was nearly certain I would write about the third album, Woodface, for this challenge. It’s definitely one of their best works but I think I’m going to surprise him with something else.
When deciding which album to use here, I looked to the first real attention I paid to their music, the aforementioned “Locked Out”. The band was known more as a pop band but this was a more rocking song and maybe that’s where the seed was planted. After all it got a lot of play on the rock station I listened to so my exposure was considerably higher than it might have been from other stations. Funnily enough, this isn’t a song that I’ve heard often on the radio here in Australia.
The bigger candidate from that album is “Distant Sun”, a song I’m sure I had heard before I came here but probably not a lot. I discovered when checking details of the album that this song only reached number 23 on the charts when it was released here, a fact I find pretty amazing given the airplay it has now. This one is a great pop love song that makes for wonderful sing-alongs at shows.
Once when leader Neil Finn’s son was young and suffering from a fever, he came out with some curious words and phrases which inspired him to write the great song, “Pineapple Head”. It really does have that feeling of being not quite there and only catching some of the details of what’s happening around and threatening to pull you further away from reality.
There’s no chance I’d write about this album without mentioning my favorite Crowded House song. “Private Universe” was released in October 1994, the same month my son was born. I don’t remember ever hearing this on the radio back then but I loved it when I heard it the first time I played the album. I wouldn’t say this is a dreamy song but it does put me in mind of otherworldly and secret places and things. And it never fails to take me away from the real world for a few minutes when I hear this. This is one of those songs that gets played at almost all the live shows they do and it’s always fun to hear what sort of arrangement will be played. Once they started the show with this song and it came out all big and bold with lots of drumming and other percussion. It really did sound good that time but it was almost too soon. There wasn’t that feeling of anticipation while other songs were being performed and then basking in the joy of the crowd and the feeling of the song.
The last song I will mention is “Together Alone” the title track. It’s quite a moving piece beginning with Neil singing the first verse and a Maori choir and log drummers joining in as the song continues.
Over the past ten to fifteen years, I’ve seen several shows with the band and several related to the band. I’ve seen Neil Finn solo a few times too, and he always puts on a good show. He once played a show here, just off a long flight from the UK with just him playing guitar. It was still pretty amazing. Even “Don’t Dream It’s Over” came off really well without the seemingly integral organ playing.
Anyway, this group is one of my top bands/performers ever and being in Australia has leant itself to making them even bigger for me since I’ve been privileged to see them much more often than I would if I lived elsewhere. The charismatic drummer Paul Hester was a major factor in catching my attention back in 1996. It was due to his desire to get out that the band stopped at that point. Sadly Paul took his life in 2005 after struggling with mental health issues for many years. His death became a bit of a spark to restart the band, albeit with slight changes to personnel. Very recently the band has had a bit of a shake up and personnel have been upended quite a bit. I’m not sure how I feel about those changes but I feel pretty certain that I’ll like whatever they produce.
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Augie March: Strange Bird
If you live outside Australia, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of this indie band, formed in 1996 in Shepparton, Victoria here in Australia. For those here in Australia, you still may not know them but you might remember their one big hit, “One Crowded Hour”, which was released in 2006 and is notable for being the number one song on the Triple J Hottest 100 list. This is a publicly voted music poll that is done once a year on the nation’s youth radio station.
That song was the first I ever heard of Augie March and it actually was on that radio station, which is kind of interesting since I don’t listen to it all that often. That was a song I really liked and subsequently I bought the album, Moo, You Bloody Cow, which I also liked a lot. But delving into the band a bit more I discovered they had earlier albums that were unfamiliar to me.
Sunset Studies was their debut album and is pretty amazing, but it’s their second album, Strange Bird, that really resonates with me. It’s full of lush, complex music and beautifully dark lyrics which touch on a continuing theme of death. Apparently the keyboardist for the band had died in a car crash at the beginning of work on this album and it seems death was on the mind of songwriter Glenn Richards during the writing of the songs. I would direct anyone interested to https://augiemarch.com/strange-bird-lyrics as it’s some wonderful poetry just on its own.
There are so many beautiful songs on this album but I am going to start with “This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers”, which is the most rocking song in the collection. This is one of the first songs I ever heard the band play live and it filled the gardens where the band were playing with the drawn out “Traiiiiiin! that starts the song. The song calls out the government on its corruption along with a few references to some Australian personalities and events.
” Little Wonder” is a beautiful song but, like many of the songs on this album, the lyrics are not quite so beautiful. It speaks of drunkenness and dark alleys and violence. But it sounds lovely.
“There’s Something at the Bottom of the Black Pool” for me conjures the feeling of a bubbling, dark pool where all the ugliness is hidden. The music, is again lush and beautiful but at times there are a few unpleasant sounds that remind us it’s not all so beautiful.In “Addle Brains” Glenn Richards waxes lyrical about the homeless and the inaction of government to help these people, one of many themes still relevant today.
“The Drowning Dream” is my favorite on this album. Musically it’s so very soothing and does make me feel like I’m in a dream. And I’m a bit of a sucker for dreamy songs so I really, really like it. Of course, there’s the juxtaposition of those dark lyrics.
“Sunstroke House” is the minimalist song on the album, musically speaking. The mixture of the simple strumming and the vocals is a perfect match.
Along with the theme of death, we see birds appear frequently on this album. Two songs include the titled strange bird and there is mention of ravens, crows and even chickens.
It’s a pretty amazing album and it’s one I listen to often. Strangely in times when I feel despair, it gives me comfort. Maybe it’s the beautiful music and maybe it’s more than that. But it has been one of those pieces of work to keep moving me along when it feels hard to do more than stand still.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this band three times. The first time they were the second support act for Crowded House and there were about half a dozen songs played. The second time was a few years later in a theater as the headliner and that was a strange experience because the crowd seemed a bit dead even though they were putting on a good show. The best was last December when we saw them in a club in Fremantle. It was a nice and relaxed show and we could sit back and let the music wash over us. There was a good vibe between the band and crowd and to top it off they did an amazing version of “One Crowded Hour”.
Anyway, I really love this album in case it’s not obvious. I highly recommend it since it’s unlikely that many reading this will be aware of its existence.
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The Eagles: Hotel California
I spent a long time deciding on whether to include Hotel California on this list. I don’t actually own a physical copy of the album and my only album by the group is a compilation I bought a few years ago and it’s not even the best-selling one from the 1970s. Still this group and album are very much part of my musical life so I am going to put this here. One of these days I will definitely get a proper copy but meanwhile I listen on streaming services.
When I think of the Eagles, I think of my growing up years spent near Atlanta. We lived there for about a decade from the time I was a toddler until we moved away at the end of 1976. The songs by this group were well-played throughout the early 1970s and I remember hearing their country-rock melodies regularly. There was a period of time in the mid-’70s when my parents were part of a bowling league as were the parents of our closest friends. While the parents bowled we kids would roam around the premises doing whatever we did. Music was always playing and I remember hearing a lot of Eagles songs there.
To go off on a bit of a tangent, one of the songs I remember hearing at the bowling alley wasn’t anything related to the Eagles but the song “Love Rollercoaster” by the Ohio Players. The reason I recall this is the urban legend associated with the song about a scream in the song being that of someone being murdered. It’s kind of interesting to think of how quickly that rumor spread, well before the internet came along. If not for the urban legend, I imagine this song wouldn’t be more than a blip in my memory. But it was in there along with lots of other popular music from that time.
Around that time the Eagles put out their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975) compilation and it got a lot of play. It’s one of the few greatest hits albums that’s so iconic in my memory. I’d grown up hearing most of these songs but they all became big again and my musical memory is of re-engaging with these songs. Not in in any conscious way but I think it primed me for what was coming.
I was eleven years old when we moved from the Atlanta area to Charlotte, NC on December 10, 1976. Three days before that the song “New Kid in Town” was released. Back then I wasn’t playing very close attention the lyrics but the title of it definitely hooked me seeing that I was a new kid. It wasn’t until I was much older I came to understand the song for what it really was. This song still has a bit of the country-rock feel but it’s definitely moving away from the country part of it. It’s another one of those sentimental favorites that takes me back to a place and time.
By the time “Hotel California” was released early the next year, we were a bit more established in North Carolina. This song was something totally different and the imagery evoked was amazing. Even now when I hear the tune begin, I feel taken to another place. It’s an alien place which is kind of surreal, much like it must have seemed to be, going into that scene of Hollywood at the time and even now. It’s a mixture of Twilight Zone and horror movie, made especially clear by the final lyrics:
“Relax”, said the night man
“We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave”“Life in the Fast Lane” is sort of a continuation on the theme of Hotel California and Hollywood excess but taking on a harder, rockier edge for me. When I think of this song, I think of the opening guitar riff and it really does embrace that feeling of living to excess and on the edge.
The final song on this album is “Last Resort” and it’s one of my favorite songs by the Eagles. It’s still related to the theme of excess but it targets the way humans seem happy to pillage and plunder the earth and warns of running out of spaces to destroy. It’s very much a song of activism and is just as relevant today as it was then.
Again I find myself in the year 1977 when there was so much amazing music coming out. I find it really fascinating that Rumours by Fleetwood Mac was released during this time and yet it doesn’t figure into my memory of that year much. But “Hotel California” is firmly down in my mind as one of many essential parts of that musical year.
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U2: All That You Can’t Leave Behind
I’ve been a U2 fan since I was a teenager and bought my first album in 1985, Unforgettable Fire. I’ve bought many of their subsequent albums over the years. So how to explain why it’s this album from 2000 that I’m including?
I know the obvious album for most of us is The Joshua Tree and I really love that album. The Unforgettable Fire is probably my second choice, being my first U2 album. Both have some amazing songs on them and I have listened to them both repeatedly over the years. In fact, I revisited both while making decisions on which album to list here. In the end, I decided it was as much about my attachments to the music as to the influence. Anyway, you can still be shaped by the same artist at any time and on any work. All That You Can’t Leave Behind was where my mind went almost every time I considered it and so here I am.
I will say again I’ve been a fan since my teenage years, most specifically high school (again!). The album War was out and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Years Day” particularly were part of the background of my senior year of high school. The Unforgettable Fire became that bridging album from them bursting into the mainstream arena to becoming superstars as they did with The Joshua Tree. They were one of the biggest bands in the world and Bono’s head was swollen to a great size by then. :D The next couple of albums came and went and then there was Pop. I applaud them for shaking things up but that album didn’t work for me even though there are one or two songs I like on it. They’d already made a lot of albums so I thought maybe this was the beginning of the end.
But along comes the year 2000 and U2 were back with a new album and a return to rock. It wasn’t quite the same as earlier U2 but instead was a modern take on the band of old. Near the end of the year, they released the first single off the album, “Beautiful Day” and for me it was a like a renewal of my love of the band. The song is about finding joy in the life, even when everything seems to be against you. It’s one of those positive songs that just makes you feel good when you hear it and here in Australia was hugely popular.
Fast forward to the middle of 2001 and our family found ourselves flying across the world to live in Canada for six months. We arrived in early July to a very foggy Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (across the harbour from Halifax) and we couldn’t see much of anything until the following day when the clouds cleared away. There were a few snafus along the way but we were soon settled in for the long haul, which turned out to be nearly a year instead of the six months. It was here that I finally got a copy of the album for myself.
The next song of interest is “Elevation”. I can’t go into the specifics in public but this song is a sentimental favorite and the association I have with it will always come back to me when I hear it. The song itself comes off big and loud and strong but somehow it comes together to make an enjoyable song. It’s a song made for being played in arenas, at least as far as I’ve seen on dvds of concerts. Alas, I’ve yet to see this band play live so totally testing it out perhaps isn’t in the cards for me.
Dartmouth was where we were when the events of September 11, 2001 unfolded and it was a strange time indeed. Game Fanatic was in school that day and I was home snuggling with Lego Lover in bed when children’s programs on CBC were interrupted with the news of the New York attack. I remember planes disappearing from the skies almost immediately and how quiet it was. Stranded airline passengers were put up in the high school across the road from the elementary school. We had the news on all the time for days and weeks on end. It was a chaotic and horrific time.
This brings me to the song “Peace on Earth”, whose lyrics were inspired by the 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland. It’s a sad song and it’s an angry and fed up song and it took on more significance after the attacks that occurred in 2001. One of the best songs on the album, in my opinion.
“In a Little While” is a sweet little love song to Bono’s wife. His voice isn’t the best in it but it kind of works anyway.
“New York” is essentially an ode to the city and was another song from the album that took on more meaning after the events of September 11, 2001. Even though I’ve not been there, it does seem to capture some of the essence of the city as have understood it from afar.
I had a bit of a surprise when I listened again before writing this. Apparently here in Australia there was a bonus track called “The Ground Beneath Her Feet” that appears at the end of the album and I never heard it before now. It’s an interesting song and the lyrics were adapted from something in a Salman Rushdie book. But it feels a bit alien to hear when I’ve only listened to the version I had from Canada. I always thought the last song was “Grace”, another song that is really beautiful and moving. As an ending that song works well. I’m not too sure how I feel about this other song’s intrusion on my connections since it messes around with the order of things in my mind and it doesn’t quite fit for me.
This album is so intrinsically intertwined with this period of my life that I imagine that none of the other U2 albums will ever quite compete. That’s saying a lot considering The Joshua Tree came out the year I finished college and embarked on my journey into the real world for the first time. And in times like we are in now, I think songs like “Beautiful Day” are really needed to help us find our way through.
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The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Although I think I’d been hearing the occasional Beatles song all my life, I didn’t focus much on them when I was younger. I do remember that Ob-la-di, ob-la-da” was the first song I remember hearing and “Hello, Goodbye” not far behind it. I’m sure these were songs getting regular play back in the early ’70s so I would hear them a lot on the radio. My parents had the album Meet the Beatles, which in my memory was just the vinyl record because “somebody” had destroyed the album cover. I’m not admitting to anything but I’m pretty sure there are some fingers pointing my way from the parents. If there is any guilt on my part, it’s long before my recollections began. I do remember listening to the record sometimes while growing up so I did kind of know those songs.
I don’t know exactly what got me started into Beatles fandom but my interest was piqued in 1977 when Capitol Records put out The Beatles: Love Songs compilation. It was packaged with a brown pseudo-leather cover embossed with a gold image of the band and it comprised of two discs. There was a large-sized booklet inside included with the lyrics to the songs printed on “parchment paper” using calligraphy. It was very pretty stuff and I think I still have it in that box filled with vinyl records hidden at the back of the closet. I remember it being said at the time that all Beatles songs were love songs which surely must have been part of the marketing of that album since it wasn’t true. I bought this album and I listened to it often and this was what got me interested in the band. But I could never use that compilation as my influential album. It would just be so wrong.
So instead I look to an album that I found in a roundabout way, thanks to the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, who starred in that great classic movie “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. :D It’s embarrassing now but I saw that movie and really liked it. I think I was interested because of the Bee Gees and also partly due to my beginning interest in the Beatles. I even went on to buy the soundtrack album. I haven’t seen the film in decades but I daresay I would cringe to watch it today. But to early teenaged me, it was good fun.
So there I was listening to the Bee Gees sing their versions of Beatles songs and enjoying them for what they were. But somewhere along the way I felt compelled to find out about the original and this led me to buying my first real Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
I’m a Beatles fan and I love this album although I wouldn’t call it my favorite. That honor varies according to mood, day, weather, etc. :D But again I do love this album a lot and as I grew older I grew to appreciate this a lot more. Even today as I listened again, I discovered new things. It didn’t take terribly long once I listened to this to relegate that pale imitation to distant memory.
So how to choose just a few songs to highlight? I think it’s possible I could write about just about every song but I will try to narrow it down.
The title song includes about ten seconds of the combined sounds of an orchestra warming up along with the crowd anticipating the start of a concert. The song is a combination of modern day rock band with electric instrumentation and a horn section reminiscent of the old brass bands playing outdoor shows, all creating the iconic opening. It ends with McCartney as emcee announcing the singer, Billy Shears, before segueing into our next track.
“With a Little Help from my Friends” is sung by Ringo Starr, something of a rarity on their records. It works for this song due to the sincerity and earnestness of his voice. The song lends itself to sing-alongs while listening to it on the radio, particularly with the question and answer dialogue occurring through the song. I know the Joe Cocker version became much bigger than this album track but there’s a simplicity to the way this is sung that really appeals to me. Really, both versions have their merits but I know this one is very much overshadowed by the Cocker version.
I heard the version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by Elton John long before I heard this version. It was released in 1974 and Lennon even plays on that version under a pseudonym. I liked that version but it doesn’t compare to the original with Lennon’s vocals. This song is a trip through psychedelia and includes Lewis Carroll Wonderland-type imagery. That said, the idea this is a song about lsd has been refuted many times and Lennon said the title was inspired by his four-year old son’s drawing.
“She’s Leaving Home” is a beautiful, lush piece about a daughter leaving home, reaching her way to freedom from the tyranny of her parents. It’s a very touching piece and you can feel for parents and daughter both. The music features a nonet of stringed instruments and a harp and no guitar or drums.
Moving to side two, we begin with “Within You, Without You” a lush piece written by George Harrison. It’s composition is inspired by Hindustani classical music and it was recorded using Indian musicians rather than the band. This is yet another walk in the realm of psychedelia, albeit a totally different sound to Lucy in the Sky.
Just before the final song we get a reprise of the title song. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Reprise” is a shorter and more rocking version that loses the horn section altogether and leads into the monumental finale.
“A Day in the Life” is the finale to this album and what a smash it is. It’s primarily a Lennon composition but McCartney wrote the upbeat middle section. It starts off with the mundanity of reading the newspaper and then moves into a session of psychedelia that leads into an almost surreal pop section by McCartney which shifts into a dream before crashing down on the final chord, which reverberates at length before moving to the end bit with a fair bit of background sounds from the studio and some gibberish words being repeated. It’s a fantastic piece of music as a whole and possibly the best song on the album, at least in my opinion.
One last thought on this album is the iconic cover. I tend to picture the cover when I hear songs from the record, particularly the title track. I remember when I bought this album it was neat to look at the cover and see how many people I recognized. There were quite a few I knew but just as many I didn’t at the time. I haven’t examined it so closely in recent years so I wonder how many would be familiar now? Also cool was the fact they printed the lyrics on the back cover, which apparently was the first time it had been done on a rock album before.
So that is my entry into fandom of the Beatles. If I hadn’t gotten there the way I did, I presume it might have happened another way. So it’s worth having gone through some dross to get to the treasure in the end.
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The Police: Synchronicity
I first heard the band as a teenager. I’m not sure which songs were the first on local radio playlists but I know the first album I bought by them was Ghost in the Machine mostly because I really liked “Everything She Does is Magic” when it came out. I think I probably bought that from Grapevine records and tapes in Charlotte where I bought most of my music during my teenage years. I wasn’t a die-hard fan but I really liked the band. I think I eventually owned four of their five albums. For some reason I never bought the first one, which included Roxanne, one of the best songs. One of the albums disappeared “mysteriously” at one point so I only had three in the end. Actually these days I don’t think I have any of them as they were all vinyl and I got rid of most of those when I came to Australia. It’s on my to-buy list to replace some of those with cd versions.
I graduated high school on June 3rd, 1983. A few days later I boarded a plane for Europe for my high school graduation present. I spent about five weeks there, visiting pen pals in France, Germany and the UK. It was in the middle of this trip that Synchronicity was released but I will admit that it doesn’t form a part of my European memories. It was after I returned home in July and during those weeks before I started college that I mostly remember it becoming a part of my summer. But mostly I remember this from my early days as a college student.
There are a few songs that often remind me of those hot August days when I moved into the dorm. I remember having to clean the blinds and standing on the window sill to reach the top. They were pretty tall windows so there was a lot to clean. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler was on the radio along with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by the Eurythmics and “Every Breath You Take” by the Police. This was the era of watching Friday Night Videos on the dorm television. I remember the black and white video of the band playing this song with Sting playing an upright bass.
“Every Breath You Take” is essentially a ballad and I love the song but it’s not exactly the comforting love song it sounds like at first. I mean, really, it’s rather dark and sinister when you think about it. Even Sting admits it’s not a gentle love song but thoughts of an obsessed person on the one “loved”.
“Wrapped Around Your Finger” is another classic ballad that wasn’t quite the love song it sounds like at first. The mythological references of this song are the highlights for me.
“Synchronicity II” (yes, there is a Synchronicity I to start the album) is a pop-new wave song that speaks of some of the domesticities of life as they become too much. The music does well to reflect the impending crisis one reaches, building and building till ready to burst.
“King of Pain” is a somewhat reflective song for Sting, about his feelings after separating from his first wife. Like so many of his songs, it’s filled with metaphor and the music is a sort of slow and reflective song.
“Walking in Your Footsteps” is a strongly percussive ode to the dinosaur while “Miss Gradenko” is a catchy tune about forbidden love in a military regime written by Stewart Copeland. Then there’s “Murder by Numbers”, a jazzy number about the evil deeds of politicians. There are a lot of good songs on this album and it’s great to sit back and listen with earphones.
This brings me back again to early 1984 and going to see the band on the tour for this album in February. I went with a friend and her boyfriend at the time and it was a great show. In hindsight, I think I was lucky to have been able to go as the flu had rapidly spread through the dorm and I was one of the few who hadn’t got it at that time. Alas, I did finally succumb to the illness after this show. It was my first time having the flu so I guess I had a good run before then.