Monthly Archives: August 2016

970. oh no / weasels ripped my flesh

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Frank Zappa took no prisoners with the cover for 1970’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh. And fitting it was for the music found inside – equal parts brilliant and painful, particularly the suite of stuff that finishes Side Two, starting with doo-wop anti-flower power anthem Oh No! and then onward via Orange County Lumber Truck to the flesh tearing finale that was the title track. It has been argued that the whole hippie thing stopped right here. Certainly the Mothers of Invention already had, Weasels Ripped My Flesh being one of two albums to be released after their demise. Though Zappa would, of course, quickly reform them for further assaults upon society through the first half of the 1970s.

The Mothers of Invention, Engelse groep bij aankomst Schiphol *17 oktober 1968

The Mothers of Invention, Engelse groep bij aankomst Schiphol *17 oktober 1968

971. sand

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“When Einsturzende Neubauten recorded Sand, the Berlin Wall was still dividing their home town, a fact of geo-political nature if there ever was one. So yeah, here was a raw slab of pure, impossible to ignore Cold War soul. Little did I realize it was a Lee Hazelwood cover until a certain backyard BBQ maybe a decade later. The Wall was gone by then and even eight thousand miles away you could feel the overall decompression. Or maybe it was all the marijuana and tequila. Anyway, I was lying in a hammock counting the clouds or whatever and suddenly there was Nancy Sinatra doing an Einsturzende cover. It made perfect sense.” (Philip Random)

Einsturzende-1985

972. speed of life

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Fun, strong instrumental track from Low, the first of David Bowie’s post cocaine psychosis “Berlin albums“. Side two is mostly ambient and revolutionary in its way, but side one is where it all starts really: the big ass drum sound that came to define the 1980s (ultimately in a bad way). Credit usually goes to Phil Collins and/or Peter Gabriel, but that was three years after the fact.

bowie-1977

 

973. when you sleep

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“The problem with any My Bloody Valentine record is, however brilliant it may be, it can’t exist in same sonic universe of that same song performed live. Case in point, When You Sleep from Loveless. On record, it’s a superbly textured experimental pop song with a pronounced dreamy edge. Whereas live, in the Commodore Ballroom, 1992, it was a gauntlet thrown down by the gods. Swoon in our psychedelic power and complexity, it demanded. And maybe half the crowd did. The other half were gone by shows end, complaining about the noise.” (Philip Random)

974. poor people

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Alan Price (original Animal) delivers a smoothly evil little ditty about how poor people really only have themselves to blame. Found on the soundtrack to O Lucky Man, which is one those movies that everyone must see and hardly anyone has, because it illustrates in epic detail how the world actually works. And it’s funny.

revolutionOPIATE-big

975. liberty city

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In which Mark Stewart (and his Maffia) lay down a dubbed out dirge of struggle and truth, reminding us that George Orwell’s 1984 was spot on if you happened to find yourself on the wrong side of the poverty line in the year in question. “Trying to pay the rent, the main worry’s job security. The busier you are, the less you see.” Same as it ever was.