Showing posts with label The Jam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Jam. Show all posts

Thursday 19 July 2018

Demos


Today on my walk into work I decided to listen to the demos for the first Velvet Underground album from their "Peel Slowly And See" box set. I was surprised to see there are only six songs which I thought would be a waste of a CD , but the opener "Venus In Furs" last fifteen minutes with four takes. on acoustic guitar possibly sung by John Cale.

"Prominent Men" is almost Woody Guthrie-esque and "Heroin" is another acoustic demo reminded me how I'd introduce my new songs to bands I was playing with.

The problem with The Velvet Underground is that often some of their finshed product sounds like demo quality, but they are so vibrant that they are essential listening ranging from noise terrorism to gentle love songs to gothic menace. I still find the bass drum sound on "All Tomorrow's Parties" awesome and the menacing violin / cello backing Lou Reed's living dead vocals on "Venus in Furs" nerve tingling.

It's almost strage that the demos seem to be an almost country and western group, but they are completely transformed for the debut album release. I never saw "Waiting For The Man" as a country song.

While initially the album did not sell, it showed bands what could be done without going high tech. I've always gone for originality over technical ability and the ideal is both, but technical ability without originalty leaves me cold, Toto were prime examples of that scenario, which I think Boston and Rush were two examples of technique and originality.

The thing is the Velvet Underground showed YOU could do it. "Waiting For The Man" was one of the staples of The Bok's live set and we possibly sounded less together than the Velvet Underground but I love the main riff which was also appropriated for The Jam's "In The City" and The Sex Pistols' "Holidays In The Sun".

So that's what I've been listening to this morning and maybe will spin th evinyl tonight.

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Prime Time


Reading "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" by Jordan Ellenberg  and there are some complex concepts in there and we're talking prime numbers (or should that be Prime Numbers) and he make a stange but true point n and n+2 are more likely to be a pair of prime numbers than n and n+1.  Now given that after 1, 2 and 3 only odd numbers can be prime, it seems a strange point to make. 29 and 31 are prime but 30 isnt, 31 and 33 are not both prime but I think 131 and 133 are. It also talks about the apparent randomness of prime number distribution, which obviously cannot be random because the nature of numbers is set in stone ... sort of.

Below is one of my favourite TED talks on very large prime numbers by Australian DJ Adam Spencer. This talk held no interest for me, or so I though but it is a brilliant way to spend twenty minutes and you learn a lot as well.


So it's 7AM and we need a numerical song to go with it and what about The Jam's "Away From The Numbers" , my nay is spent dealing with numbers but there are times when maybe a rest would do me good


Saturday 3 September 2016

15


I called this 15 because my last post was 1111 . 1111 in binary is 15 . Some people are obsessed with numbers and lets face it life is very much affected my numbers in one way or another. Almost everything we do to fit into society is affected in one way or another by numbers.

I'm not a fan of money but it allows me to live as I need to, and science needs numbers too. We always need to measure one thing or another.

The computer you are reading this on (yes it may be a phone) , whan it gets down to basic still talks in binary. Without the concept of numbers we probably wouldn't be able to communicate like we can today.

Numbers provide a framework to allow us to actually enjoy life. If we smile at, hug , laugh with , socialise with someone we love or like , outside of that numbers are lurking somewhere. You may need to catch a bus , need your bus fare , money again. Numbers each the mundane things in life allowing us to concentrate on the good.

The post probably sounds pretentious but it's just meandering and thoughts about numbers giving me an excuse to call this post 15 even though it's post number 1,112 , one thousand one hundred and twelve.

Numbers are in music , numbers are used to let us see how time is measured, and lots of other things.
Once in a Blue Moon

Yesterday I put a bet on at ridiculous odds of 66/1 which gave me nearly £30 back for a 70p bet. See numbers and money again. I doubt that will ever happen again but it was a nice surprise from Ladbrokes  would have been really happy because the 1/5 favourite bombed.

Anyway it's almost time for tea so maybe an appropriate song will be "Away From The Numbers" by The Jam from their debut album "In The City".

Have a good night everybody and stay wonderfully positive.


Tuesday 3 November 2015

Foggy Morning - #37 - 1993 - House of Pain - Jump Around


We are into November , heading towards Guy Fawkes Night and wishing that maybe this year he could succeed. Outside the fog is making it look cold and grey and unwelcoming unlike yesterdays eventual sun. There is a Music Quiz Tonight that I am wandering out to which is bonfire night related and I was just thinking of how relatively civilized  that night has become. In the seventies idiots would think nothing of chucking lighted fireworks , bangers and worse through people's letter boxes. I was guilty of the odd gate swapping and pinching as well as playing knock-a-door run. So anyway it's over for this year and we can sleep without fear of door knocks with small people asking for sweets until we get the Christmas Carol singers round. Oh dear , it's only November and I have already mentioned the 'C' word.
Horse Race

Oh and Australia's Melbourne Cup ran a few hours back and I lost a few pennies as the favourite came in a out tenth and Pride of Penzance won , the first win by a lady rider in that race.









The Odyssey continues into year 37 and the 1993 charts contained a lot of rubbish , but Jump Around by House of Pain is a great record and was one of half a dozen possibilities , though as I write this the Jam's Eton Rifles is playing on Radio 6 so this morning is jammed full of amazing music.

Have a totally amazing Tuesday everyone.


Sunday 19 July 2015

The Genius of Simple


When I was at primary school my headmistress Mrs Walsh told us that a genius who could see and explain things very simply. She gave the example of a guy who went to a match company and said he could save them a great deal of money for actually stopping doing something.

In those days match boxes were sandpapered on two sides. He posited that people always checked for where they were goig to strike the match , so the boxes only needed one strip of sand
paper instead of two. At a stroke halving the company's sandpaper bill. It does sound obvious, but until he came along no one had thought about.

Genius at Work
I am currently reading Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time" , and there is no down in my mind that the guy is probably in the genius category. The book is less than two hundred pages, but is packed with content and not a word is wasted , which means it is slow going , but his style of writing comes across with a "Go On, You CAN Get This!"  message.

That's a long probably unconnected intro to what this post is actually about . I may have blogged about this or touched on this before but it is really about musical genius. If someone were to ask for an example , Jimi Hendrix , Brian Wilson , Lennon and McCartney are probably goig to come over in responses and there's no doubt that these  were musical Genii . I would add Joni Mitchell , PJ Harvey , Kate Bush and Sandy Denny to that list as well , but it's annoying that music is seen as a boy thing. Girls are good too.

The problem is that most of the music that these artists produced was complex, and taken to extremes by bands like King Crimson , Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes. One of the main ironies was that of Yes's initially simplest constructs "And You And I" is a lovely melody set to basically three acoustic chords , but by the time it's finihed it hits ten minutes with lots of additional bombast. I still love it though , and it was released , uncut as a seven inch single.


Ok we're here , real genius is to do something musically so simple that anyone can do it. Songs with three chords or less. The Velvet Underground's first album didn't initially sell many copies but everyone who bought it formed a band. The descening G riff from "I'm Waiting For The Man" can be heard in "White Riot " by the clash, "In The City" by The Jam and "Holidays In The Sun" by The Sex Pistols. The inspired Jonathan Richman , who's "Roadrunner" is only two chords  "D" and "A" which any one can learn on a guitar in minutes. Van Morrison's Gloria and The Who's "I Can't Explain" are more examples of easy to play songs , along with The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" a staple of any garage band's repertoire , and The Kinks "You Really Got Me" and  "All Day, and All Of The Night" also fall into this area.

Another example of genius is the one note guitar solo. If you can make one note sound good you are a true genius. To this day I am only aware of two examples of this "I'm A Hog For You Baby" by The Coasters and "Tommy Gun" by The Clash. To do that , is inspired genius.

So I've bookended this post with those two songs , sitting an Amazon MP3 selection in the middle for you to sample. Love to hear your thoughts on this , and sorry this one has gone on a bit