1053. life without buildings

The band known as Japan may have started out as a second rate (late to the game) glam outfit more famous for looking good than sounding good, but by the time the time they called it quits (for the first time), they were making a music that was entirely their own, as elegant as it was mysterious. Which perhaps speaks to Life Without Buildings being relegated to a limited edition flexi-disc and b-side, until finally showing up on 1984’s Exorcising Ghosts, one of the better compilation albums of any era.

1054. I don’t wanna be a soldier Mama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqJITIvdmHE

Imagine was the big deal John Lennon song of the moment (all that pie-in-the-sky god-free utoptianism). But I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama was selling a harder, louder 1971 truth. Because the Vietnam War just kept dragging on, and even if it did end soon, everybody knew there’d be another one coming along soon to keep all the young boys busy tearing each other apart, so they wouldn’t have time to wise up, turn on the old men whose corrupt souls kept conjuring the f***ing things.

(photo: Iain Macmillan © Yoko Ono)

1055. there’s a planet in my kitchen

Wherein original punk Siouxsie Sioux (and her loyal Banshees), get carried away in the recording studio to great and delirious effect as this b-side to an okay Beatles cover attests. There was a lot of this kind of stuff in those weird days, old school punks re-reinventing themselves, being fearlessly strange where before they’d just been fearless.

(image source)

4. The Solid Time of Change

Part four of The Solid Time of Change aired Saturday May-28, 2016 c/o CiTR.FM.101.9.

 

Youtube playlist (possibly not the exact versions that were played). Podcast.

Also known as as the  661 Greatest Records of the so-called Prog Rock era, the Solid Time of Change is Randophonic’s latest countdown — an overlong yet incomplete history of whatever the hell happened between 1965 and 1979 – not in all music, not even in most of it, but definitely in a bunch of it.

What is Prog Rock? Is it different from progressive rock, or for that matter, rock that merely progresses? Four programs in and sixty-five selections down and you’d think we’d have a solid answer to these questions, but like the proverbial zoom into an old photograph, the closer we look, the murkier things get. Which isn’t to say the music isn’t great and thus, here’s to the best kind of confusion and a year’s worth of radio to figure it all out.

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Part four of our journey went as follows:

  1. Focus – harem scarem
  2. Frank Zappa + The Mothers – Inca Roads
  3. Strawbs- tomorrow
  4. Rick Wakeman – Catherine of Aragorn [+ excerpts]
  5. Rick Wakeman – Anne of Cleves
  6. King Crimson – moonchild (part 1)
  7. Moody Blues – the word
  8. Justin Hayward + John Lodge – nights winters years
  9. Sweet – love is like oxygen
  10. Procol Harum – Grand Hotel
  11. Klaatu – prelude
  12. Klaatu – so said the lighthouse keeper
  13. Klaatu – hope
  14. Gentle Giant – Mister Class + Quality
  15. Gentle Giant – three friends
  16. Steve Hillage – om nam Shivaya
  17. Steve Hillage – hurdy gurdy glissando
  18. Cream – as you said

Installment #5 of The Solid Time of Change airs Saturday, June 4th at 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options available within twenty-four hours.

1056. the arrangement

Ryuichi Sakamoto started out inspired by Kraftwerk, and by 1988 would have an Academy Award in his pocket for his soundtrack work. Somewhere in between, he found himself messing around with such cool and cutting edge western musical friends as Adrian Belew (the new guy at King Crimson), and Robin Scott (the guy who sang that Pop Muzik song). The album was called Left-Handed Dream and it’s definitely one of those lost gems.

RyuichiSakamoto

1057. beautiful new born child

This one’s from the second and last album Eric Burdon recorded with War, and a sprawling four-sided epic it was. But Mr. Burdon, who’d lived the 1960s the way you were supposed to (ie: beyond the limit), just wasn’t up to it. He crashed and burned one night on stage and showbiz being showbiz, War carried on without him, because they were really just getting started, like a beautiful new born child.

EricBurdonWar-01