DAVID BOWIE - LODGER @ 45

 

Marking its 45th anniversary today is David Bowie's 13th studio LP, and last of the "Berlin Trilogy", Lodger, which was released on May 25th, 1979. Though the bromance between Bowie & Eno was cooling off, tempering the reception of the LP at the time of its release, retrospectively, it has become recognized as one of his most underrated albums.

The "Berlin" era began when Bowie and Iggy Pop recused themselves from the rock 'n' roll fast-lane and escaped to France and then Germany near the end of 1976. Both were looking to dry out from their respective bad habits. In the case of Bowie, it was a gargantuan cocaine addiction that left him emotionally hollow and physically whittled down to a frail stick. Iggy, on the other hand, had become a professional junkie, with the result being that his band, The Stooges, had disintegrated by the middle of the decade. Their efforts to get their shit together ended up resulting in a string of remarkable albums, including The Idiot and Lust For Life, for Iggy, and Low and "Heroes" for Bowie. But by the back end of 1978, Bowie and principal collaborator Brian Eno's creative jive was starting to run out of gas, albeit they were still committed to knocking out one more album to cap off their adventures.

Work on Lodger began in September of 1978 with a four month break from touring giving them the chance to get back into the studio. They assembled essentially the same creative team as the previous album: Tony Visconti, Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray. A new addition was future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, who Bowie had "poached" from Frank Zappa's latest tour.

In order to push the creative boundaries of the album, Bowie and Eno leaned heavily into Eno's Oblique Strategies system, which was a collection of customized playing cards containing vague suggestions that could be randomly drawn whenever anyone felt they were hitting a creative wall and needed a nudge in an unanticipated direction. Using this process, the musicians would receive instructions such as to swap instruments or play a familiar musical theme backwards. Belew was, at one point, asked to record guitar solos without listening to any of the music or having even an indication of the key to play in. While this methodology could spur innovation, it was not always popular with some of the musicians, who were pushed to work well outside their comfort zones. None of the songs would even have lyrics until the very end of the process, when Bowie took all the musical backings to the Record Plant studio to record his vocals.

The results of these sessions turned out to be rather different than the preceding two LPs and their mix of vocal and instrumental tracks. All the songs used for Lodger ended up with vocals, and the focus was on more pop song structures, though the feel was decidedly subversive throughout. Musically, the tracks ventured into a variety of styles, including Afro-rhythms, reggae, atonal post-punk discord and Middle Eastern motifs. The lyrical themes were split on each side of the record between concepts of travel on the first side and social critiques on the second.

For the album's cover, photographer Brian Duffy shot Bowie in a tiled bathroom looking like an accident victim, heavily made up with an apparently broken nose and a bandaged hand. This was inspired by the self-portraits of Egon Schiele. While the facial injuries were achieved with makeup and prosthetic appliances, the hand bandage was covering a real burn wound Bowie acquired earlier that day from some hot coffee. Call it a bit of a "happy accident"? Bowie was supported by a metal frame while the camera was positioned overhead in order to create the gravity defying final image, with Bowie looking like a fly that's been smacked by a giant swatter. At Bowie's request, the image was taken in low resolution by a Polaroid SX-70 type camera.

For the album's singles, innovative videos were shot for both D.J. and Boys Keep Swinging, the latter featuring Bowie in a series of drag outfits ranging from a '50s bobby-soxer, to a movie glamour queen to a matronly "Betty Davis" type character, all of whom end the video ripping off their wigs and smearing their lipstick in a show of defiance. It's gender bending at a time when drag was nowhere near the mainstream form of entertainment it is today.

At the time of its release, the pendulum of critical opinion had shifted from the universal praise bestowed on "Heroes" to a muddle of middling approval or outright disdain from some who felt it was a stop-gap album and dismissed it as a faltering miss-step after the previous album's confident successes. The consensus was that it was the weakest of the triptych of Berlin LPs, losing the focus and clarity of the previous releases. Yet it has undergone significant reappraisal in later years, with critics and fans giving it a second listen. The album received a complete remix in 2017, which helped to revive interests. Both Bowie and Visconti were never quite satisfied with the original mix, and the updated version does actually offer some clarity and body that is lacking in the original.

A few years ago, I wrote a piece on this album from a more personal perspective, looking at my relationship with it, how it was my first Bowie record and how it has remained one of my favourites throughout his career. You can find that piece here.

https://ugohere.blogspot.com/.../influential-album-david...

DAVID BOWIE - DIAMOND DOGS @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee today at 50 years old is the 8th studio LP from David Bowie, Diamond Dogs. It would mark the end of his glam-rock, Ziggy Stardust era and point the way to his transition to his next incarnation the soulful "Thin White Duke".

After completing his previous LP, Pin-Ups, a collection of covers recorded to satisfy record label obligations, Bowie was beginning to waffle in terms of the clarity of his vision for the direction of his career. He was running out of runway with the Ziggy persona, and had disbanded The Spiders From Mars band lead by guitarist, Mick Ronson. Ronson had moved on to record a solo album, so Bowie opted to assume the position of lead guitarist for the recording of Diamond Dogs. Bowie's more rudimentary guitar technique ended up working in his favour in some respects because it necessitated a raunchier, more primitive performing style, something that, in retrospect, became a bit of inspiration for the punk scene that would start bubbling up in the UK within the following year. Those kids, like Sid Vicious, were ardent Bowie fans, and the link between the punk explosion in the UK and Diamond Dogs cannot be overlooked.

However, as pivotal as the album may have been towards inspiring the musical revolution around the corner, Bowie was still in a state of flux, part way between shedding the Ziggy skin and emerging in a new form. In that sense, Diamond Dogs was a bit of a chrysalis, with the artist beginning to embrace the R&B and soul influences that would overtake his sound on his next record, Young Americans. Because of that, critics of the day saw Bowie as loosing focus, so some of the contemporary reviews of the day were quite critical of his stylistic floundering. That didn't stop the record from smashing its way the top of the charts in the UK and getting near there in the US at a respectable number five position at its peak.

The themes explored on the album were equally a hodgepodge of half grasped concepts, some stemming from a planned Ziggy Stardust stage musical Bowie had been contemplating, others inspired by William Burroughs apocalyptic visions, and who's "cut-up" technique Bowie had been actively exploiting to help with his creative process. Bowie was also toying with an adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, all of which meant the overall vibe of the album was decidedly nihilistic, a disposition that, along with the thrashing guitar work, dovetailed with the mindset that would inform the aforementioned punk aesthetic. Even Bowie's look, still within the Ziggy framework, took on a spiky visage, another element predicting the near future.

In many respects, Diamond Dogs serves as a fitting capstone to the glam-rock era of the first half of the 1970s, putting a final punctuation on the scene and queuing up the punk era around the corner, though Bowie himself was about to shift gears into something slick and sophisticated for his shift to LA, along with a serious cocaine addiction and some funky grooves.

THROBBING GRISTLE - RE:TG | TG NOW @ 20

 

May 16th marks the 20th anniversary of the first reunion performance in 2004 by Throbbing Gristle, after a near exact 23 year gap since the band's original "mission" was "terminated". The event also saw the release of a brand new mini album of studio recordings by the group, TG NOW, which was available for sale at the show and sold online in a limited edition afterwards. 

 

The unlikely reunion of TG began in 2002 with the release of the massive TG24 CD box set of live recordings, which was effectively a reissue of the group's self released cassette box set, 24 Hours of TG. The process of putting that release together facilitated communications between the group members which had not occurred since their breakup. An art exhibit of TG memorabilia, custom gear and other artifacts offered an opportunity for the group to get together in the same place for the first time in years. Things went well enough that Mute proposed the group reform and an agreement was made to do a single, one-off performance as part of All Tomorrow's Parties annual music festival to be held in May of 2004 at the Camber Sands resort. A great deal of publicity was put into the event, with TG fans bursting with excitement at the possibility of the band's reunion, but those balloons were burst when the news broke that the event had to be cancelled due to organizational issues with the promoter, a situation that was entirely outside the control of the band. 

 

But TG had built up too much momentum by this point to simply let this reunion be stifled by circumstance. They'd issued a collection of remixes, Mutant TG, and a new "Best Of" album, The Taste of TG, and had even recorded new music to release on special limited edition CDs and perform at the show. So the group quickly managed to secure an alternate venue at the Astoria in London where they could perform their set on their own on May 16th. The event was promoted as something rather similar to when they recorded Heathen Earth in front of an invited audience in their Studio back in 1980. For this, guests who had purchased tickets for RE:TG could use them for the Astoria show and, during the event, no one was allowed to enter or leave the building while the band performed, and the entire performance would be recorded and videotaped. 

 

The band had prepared a set that mixed brand new compositions with impromptu live improvisations and a sprinkling of classics from their original incarnation. Above all, they were determined that this would NOT be about nostalgia or looking back. This, as the album of new recordings proclaimed, was TG NOW! They were taking all of their skills and experience they'd gathered from the intervening 23 years and applying them to the essence of the band in order to create something fresh and new, Industrial Music for the 21st century. Their determination paid off and when you observe the audience reaction to the band in the live video, you can see why. There are people who are visibly moved to tears by the immense sound of the band as their pulverizing PA system throttled them with sounds. 

 

The TG NOW CD clearly demonstrated that there was still chemistry between the four members and that the sound of TG in the 21st century was capable of going in some surprising new directions. The tools had changed and the level of skills had evolved, but nonetheless, there was that "thing", that recognizable essence coming through that was unmistakably Throbbing Gristle, a whole that was unquestionably greater than the sum of its parts. 

 

Though this was intended to be a one-off performance, ATP eventually rescheduled their festival at Camber Sands for December of that year, though tragedy would befall the group with the accidental death of Jhon Balance (Geoff Ruston) after a drunken tumble from his home's balcony that summer. The group would then embark on a renewed collaboration that would last until the end of 2010, abruptly coming to a halt when Genesis P-Orridge walked away from a European tour without explanation. That event was followed by Peter Christopherson's sudden death in Bangkok a few weeks later, effectively sealing the group's fate and terminating its renewed mission, yet again. 

 

GEORGE HARRISON - ELECTRONIC SOUND @ 55

 

Released on May 9th, 1969, George Harrison's second solo album, Electronic Sound, is turning 55 years old today. It was the first LP of entirely electronic music released by a rock musician, breaking new creative ground, though perhaps lacking in sophistication or any true understanding of how to use the instrument.

In the late 1960s, the MOOG modular system was a novelty, for the most part. Micky Dolenz of The Monkees had purchased one and it was used on the group's fourth LP, released in 1967, one of the first pop music appearances of the instrument. George Harrison became fascinated by the MOOG soon after and purchased his own the following year. While in California making the purchase, he recorded a demonstration session by Bernie Krause (of Beaver & Krause) which ended up becoming No Time For Space on Harrison's album. This recording was done without Krause's permission or knowledge and its release undermined Krause's plan for his upcoming collaboration with Paul Beaver because he'd utilized a number of themes they were planning on incorporating into their project during his demo for Harrison. Harrison initially had Krause's name on the LP cover, but it was painted over at the insistence of Krause, who was offended by the use of his demo without permission as well as subsequent interactions with Harrison which he found disrespectful and insulting.

The second piece recorded for the album was done by Harrison in England after receiving delivery of the synth. Under the Mersey Wall displays Harrison's lack of understanding of the device, a situation aggravated by the lack of a user manual included with the unit, something about which Harrison complained to Krause, further aggravating their already strained relationship. The recording amounts to little more than childlike noodling with the synthesizer, with little in the way of nuance or clear intention.

The album was released in tandem with John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, the second album in their trilogy of experimental recording releases. Both were issued on the same day by Zapple Records, a short lived subsidiary of Apple Records that was set up for the purpose of issuing budget priced spoken word and experimental sound recordings. The sub-label, however, was quickly folded after these releases, with a third title being shelved before being released. The cover for Electronic Sound featured a childlike painting created by Harrison himself, which quite nicely suited the amateurish innocence of the music on the record.

At the time of its release, it was mostly dismissed or ridiculed by serious music critics, though some found it oddly amusing or confounding, yet fascinating. However, despite its crudeness and the issues with the questionable provenance of one of its recordings, it has managed to become something of a cult favourite in some quarters. As with the Lennon/Ono releases, and Harrison's previous debut solo release, these flew in the face of expectations for The Beatles, as a collective, and were nonetheless expanding the boundaries of pop music. In the case of Electronic Sound, it cracked open territory that would later be properly explored by the likes of artist like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Cluster. The concept of abstract electronic ambience was just getting started, and Electronic Sound was the first foot in the door of that genre in many respects. As crude as it was, it still managed to carve out a place as a cornerstone album.

JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 2: LIFE WITH THE LIONS @ 55

 

Marking its 55th anniversary today is the second in John Lennon & Yoko Ono's trilogy of experimental albums, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, which was released on May 9th, 1969. It was released in tandem with George Harrison's second solo outing, Electronic Sound, with both titles released on the short lived Apple Records subsidiary, Zapple, which was intended to function as a budget priced outlet for spoken word and sound experiments. The label was quickly shut down after this pair of inaugural releases, however.

Life with the Lions continued John & Yoko's attempts to push the boundaries of what pop musicians could get away with. With Ono coming from a background in Fluxus performance art, she was setting the example for John to follow. The album kicks off with a side long live improvised performance recorded on March 2nd, 1969, at Cambridge University. Cambridge 1969 features Yoko wailing away in her trademark high pitched vibrato while John, who performed the entire show with his back to the audience, accompanied with electric guitar feedback. It was his first live performance without the Beatles. Near the end of the piece, some other musicians chime in to finish it off. The second side includes recordings of John & Yoko reading press clippings in the hospital where Yoko stayed during her miscarriage, and the unborn baby's heartbeat before it was miscarried, which is followed by 2 minutes of silence. The record closes off with a recording of John scrolling through random radio signals. The cover photograph shows the couple in the hospital during Yoko's miscarriage. As with the nude photo of the couple on the cover of Two Virgins, the image and the record's contents clearly show how open the pair were to sharing their most intimate moments with the public.

The trilogy would be closed out with the release of The Wedding Album later that year. Public reception for these releases was certainly not enthusiastic, though they have acquired cult audiences since their release. While many consider them something of a grand joke by Lennon, he is quoted as saying their intent was to activate people into becoming contributing participants in the listening experience, finishing off what he and Yoko had started expressing, thus the series title of "Unfinished Music". These works may lack a certain sophistication in some senses, but they do set a precedent that creators are NOT bound by anyone's expectations and that expression can occur in many forms and address even the most traumatic subjects.

MICHAEL NESMITH - INFINITE RIDER ON THE BIG DOGMA @ 45

Released 45 years ago this month, in May of 1979, is Michael Nesmith's capstone LP for his 1970s musical career, Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma. After spending the decade attempting to establish himself as a solo musical artist in the shadow of his 1960s fame with The Monkees, Nesmith's focus was rapidly shifting into another medium, with his Pacific Arts media production and distribution company quickly moving into the realm of home video, with ambitions towards feature film production.

While Nesmith's releases during the first half of the decade had gone for a laid-back, country tinged coolness, his two albums in the latter half of the decade began to skew back into the more energetic realms of rock 'n' roll and upbeat pop music. With his previous album, From A Radio Engine to a Photon Wing (1976), its single, Rio, had inadvertently invented a new format for the presentation of music in video form, becoming the first music video to include a coherent narrative, effectively functioning as what Nesmith termed a "mini-movie". Rather than simply performing the song in front of the cameras, Nesmith had conceived of the idea that you could tell a story with the music, complete with character development and a narrative arc. This approach would become the blueprint for the explosion of music videos that was looming on the horizon for the coming decade, something he also had a hand in by helping to create MTV.

Building on the foundations laid by Rio, Nesmith's original plan for this album was that it would be a full video album, with videos produced for all the songs. That plan never quite managed to come to fruition for these songs, however the concept did end up leading to the production of the Grammy winning video release Elephant Parts (1981), an hour long assemblage of comedy sketches, fake commercials and musical interludes. Several of the songs used for that production were taken from Infinite Rider.

Ultimately, the draw of the video distribution market and film making would distract Nesmith from music making throughout the 1980s as Pacific arts focused on building a massive library of VHS titles it would market and sell, as well as producing a few feature films such as Timerider, Repo Man and Tapeheads. As a result, Nesmith didn't release any albums of new music throughout the decade, with his next collection of new music not coming along until 1992 with his acclaimed Tropical Campfires album. As such, Infinite Rider stands as a capstone to Nesmith's musical output for the 1970s, book-ending a decade that had begun with The First National Band, leaving an under appreciated legacy of music that continues to find new fans as the years roll on, with this album being a prime example of Nesmith's skill at crafting a catchy pop song.