Tuning, tune in and tune to the future

While Terje Rypdal tunes his guitar to help this violin bow work better, I shall do so research to more posts.  There are three on the hopper now that need some added material to post.  Sorry For the long delay.  I should have a few soon.  Please stay tuned.  

New Posts Coming!

Hey everybody, I have a rare three day weekend coming up and I will do a few posts to get me up and moving and you to get up and reading! 

 

Talk soon!  Hope you can stand the wait!  

TUSKA-RIFFIC

There are too many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac that I cannot count them and even if I could count that high, it would bore you to tears and wonder if I was really foaming at the mouth. I will admit to anyone that the music of Fleetwood Mac that I love is their first era. This beginning period of Fleetwood Mac was when they played pure Blues. Some of this music is the stuff of legend. I posted a while back about the time I picked up a greatest hits collection of their first few years. The music on that is quite amazing. It's raw and quite fun to see the differences of the evolution of Fleetwood Mac. I am a person who believes that the music of Fleetwood Mac early years should be played more often. It does not get the credit rightly deserves. Peter Green (the first guitarist) is a wonderful player. His gift and his starting Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood is something that is quite a treasure. To me the point where he left the band is about the same time is where I stop listening to the band.

I say that and then I regret those same words. I could listen to Rumours and go a bit crazy. There is one song I could listen again and again on that album it's called "Never Going Back Again" that is a wonderful Lindsey Buckingham song. Then I face the truth and mention If I could choose any Fleetwood Mac album from the later years I would chose Tusk. This thought did not materialize till my first year back at college. I would be extremely discriminatory towards anything that Fleetwood Mac did in the 70's and beyond. I did pick up later albums like the somewhat bad Behind the Mask or Tango in the Night and eventually did get Rumors, but I figure another simple Greatest Hits would cover my ignorance or for that matter hatred for a period to me that was too commercial. Having this in the collection would make anybody think that I was just keeping it because of their wide catalog of stuff during this period.



While at school I was approached on my flaw of only having a greatest hits collection and the early albums. I was asked where is the album Tusk. I had a copy at home on record, but really did not listen to it all that much. I mean the two singles were covered on the Greatest Hits that I had, and why on earth did I have to listen to a supposedly long and drawn out album such as Tusk. I made the grave mistake of not bringing it with me. I was told by this person that next time I go home for the weekend from school I should bring up that copy and he will show my what songs are the better album tracks. It was odd thinking of me that Tusk could be much better then Rumours.

When I brought the record up I sat and listened to with this person and more and more the layers of the album appeared. It was more complex then Rumours and most of all it was the more songwriting and much better song writing as well. It was an album that reviled to me as a much more classic in everything that Fleetwood Mac has ever done. This time for Fleetwood Mac it was personal. There are songs that just make you shake your head and wonder what they were thinking. "Save Me A Place" for instance is my favorite song on the album. "Never Make Me Cry" is a song that creeps up on you when you least suspect it. That's just the part of it. Lindsey's songwriting on this album is pretty close to brilliant. In 2004 I picked up the Rumours and Tusk re-issue. Both of these were deluxe 2CD sets.



I picked up these 2CD sets and to my surprise the second Tusk CD could be an album on their own. The experiment of this album worked for all parties involved, but the album was a failure. At present time I am reading a book about Tusk and it reveals to me how much it costs to work on. This album costs over million dollars to work on. That might sound cheap, but back when this album came out, that was more then any album at the time. This album could only come out after Rumours allmusic pointed out. I could not agree more.

So, If you are trying to add to your collection more then a greatest hits of Fleetwood Mac and you know if you hold Rumours up to your friends and go "I've got the classic," Think again. Pick up Tusk and I am sure you will understand that this is the one to own. Many critics and musicians alike think this is the better one. Enjoy and I am sure you will get it like I did. It's an album that bleeds greatness. I know after listening to this you will hear what I hear. Turn it up and hear the brillience of an album first would pass you by, but after one listen you will understand why I can hold this album in my hand and say how wonderful it is to listen.

NEW POST

coming soon, this weekend will be a post! I hope. If I don't work too hard the rest of the week!

Soon enough!

Hey all, I have a new job that takes the better part of my day, but fear not! The blog will back to working order soon. Getting some ideas on what to post and other things to talk about. Any comments or suggestions feel free to send them along! Thanks Matt

Bremerhaven's Heaven 1971

Ever since I started liking music, I would find artists that had live shows. I would tape live performances off the radio or ask friends if they had bootlegs. I would prize these albums because they were never officially released, but it was a good chance that I would have been part of a great group of people who could enjoy an unreleased product. One of those was Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions. Disc one on the commercial release I had in the late 1980's and would play it all the time. I was wishing it would really come out, but that was only hope. It did and I was happy to hear that my crappy tape was cleaned up.

In other instances I wish the music on the bootleg was more. Case in point was the one I am going to talk about today. This show recorded in Bremerhaven in 1971 is a crisp A+ recording. It features two tracks, but the tracks have three songs to them each. The Jan Garbarek music of this era is his most Avant-Garde. It's the music I like a lot and shows that the quartet he had was a band not to be messed with. I mean if you listen closely to Afric Pepperbird or Sart. This band is in fine form. Another turn in back time moment to catch this group could strangle you and take you away from whatever you were listening to at the time. The abrasiveness of Terje Rypdal's guitar to the thunder of Arild Andersen bass and Jan's saxophone playing is crisp to the crash of Jon Christensen drums. This is where the wonderful gift of early ECM records gained their reputation on. I get so happy just talking about it.



If you ever asked me what makes a musical group I would answer you in quartet's. One of these quartets would be this group here. They are so tight and so good at what they do, they know each others movements before we have a chance to catch up. The funny part of this quartet is that the band would never be like this ever again. In the early years of Jan Garbarek his quartet was one of the most blinding and the staple that ECM records had in their catalog. All four of the members to this day still work for ECM and put out some great stuff. I am always eager to hear what each person puts out because some of the music they do put out brings me back to when ECM and themselves are the most daring. Maybe that is why I chose this lone bootleg.



If you hunt and peck around the internet you can find this and see why I sing the praise. The music is way out there, but the fun part is just hearing how different even for 1971 Jazz was. I did a huge paper in college on what Jazz was doing in terms of direction in the 1960's. I should added more about what was doing in the early 70's. This is proof that some of the stuff was just as out there as it was in the 60's and still kept some people like me at interest. Enjoy and remember the music is not your normal Jazz, but it shows what really can happen if you give an artist his own space and let them create the wonderful colours that they can and should! By the way listen closely to the opening first track. It really sounds like a Rock band. Terje Rypdal can really scream. You will see why I love his guitar playing.