Gary Numan I Die You Die: 3 Minutes 48 Seconds: 1980
Well I’ve been waiting for a place to fit Gary Numan in to this mix tape and I think this is probably the best place. I could have gone Side 1 after or before Kraftwerk, but it seemed too obvious. So here we are, from Numan’s second (or 4th depending on how you are counting) studio album and a number 6 single in the UK, back when you had to sell crap loads to get into the charts.
This track should most definitely be filed under the category “People Are Stupid” as, when released, it was banned by the BBC. It is, of course, a song about the Hiroshima bombing but listeners assumed it was some sort of gay anthem. The track was banned from being played on popular BBC1 program Swap Shop for fear that it would serve as a corrupting sexual influence on children.
Also, check out the dancing in the video, it’s godawfull bad!
‘The Lexicon Of Love’ is an incredibly good album, good songwriting, great production, and this single from it is a highlight. I really wasn’t listening to this sort of thing back in 1982, but even then I just couldn’t help but like it.
I was delighted to find an old copy of one of my favourite Dylan albums in the used vinyl crate at Head records in Leamington Spa. ‘Bringing it all back home’ is from that period when Dylan turned electric and received rather a lot of abuse for doing so, however, I’ve always thought this was a little bit of false indignation by the fans. It all kicked off at the Newport folk festival in July 1965 when, it was reported, that the audience was shocked and appalled by the noise coming from the stage. It may well not have been that good a noise as the stage was set up for acoustic performances, thought the crowd probably wouldn’t have considered or cared about this, and booed Dylan. The thing is, the album had been out for 4 months, it was his latest, of course he was going to do tracks from it, and, if I remember rightly (and I may not) it was only the second half of the set that was electric (checked this and I was wrong). Here is a good quote from somebody both integral and there:
Al Kooper:“The reason they booed is because he only played for 15 minutes and everybody else played for 45 minutes to an hour.” , and he was the headliner of the festival… The fact that he was playing electric… I don’t know. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (who had played earlier) had played electric and the crowd didn’t seem too incensed.”
The album isn’t entirely electric, with the four tracks of side 2 being entirely acoustic and side 1’s closer, ‘115th Dream’. Album opener is probably the best known track on the album just from the film that has been often credited as being the genesis of music video, taken from D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary,Don’t Look Back, here it is, you probably know it:
My copy of the album does play really nicely, that’s it over there, in the picture. It’s always a risk buying used vinyl, as even if it looks fine to the naked eye, it could play really badly. I have, for the most part, been lucky with my purchases so far, though I do have a few that are fit for melting into fruit bowls that were advertised as VG++.
Trawling around the internet I see the word ‘Underrated’ applied to this album, but I really don’t think that’s the case at all, it’s just that with so many albums from Dylan, over such a long period of time and with a lot of brilliant tracks it may go somewhat unnoticed, but it isn’t underrated. It’s a brilliant album, one of his most celebrated and often hailed as one of the best albums in the history of modern music, just look at what we have:
1. “Mr. Tambourine Man” 5:30
2. “Gates of Eden” 5:40
3. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” 7:29
4. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” 4:12
There’s not a bad track on there and there are so many that are just wonderful. As a collection of songs it is pretty damn close to being about as good as it gets. I’m surmising a little here but it often seems to me that ‘Filler’ wasn’t quite as prevalent as it seems to be today. Every song was more likely to be fully completed and to match the quality of those around it. In recent years, a couple of singles and seven or eight make weights is much more the norm, in popular music at least. Perhaps there was more competition in the market, or perhaps the performers just had more pride in what they did and didn’t just look at it as a money making exercise. Maybe it was felt that it had to be good or it wouldn’t sell, before the industry discovered the current model. I don’t know, it’s something I feel emotionally rather than intellectually.
There has been a lot written about this album, and a lot of it can be found here in this wiki article:
I’m not going to regurgitate it all, follow the link if it’s something you are interested in knowing more about, I will just take a brief moment for a direct lift about the cover though, as I do love covers that were designed for the large format:
The album’s cover, photographed by Daniel Kramer with an edge-softened lens, features Sally Grossman (wife of Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman) lounging in the background. There are also artifacts scattered around the room, including LPs by The Impressions (Keep on Pushing), Robert Johnson (King of the Delta Blues Singers), Ravi Shankar (India’s Master Musician), Lotte Lenya (Sings Berlin Theatre Songs by Kurt Weill) and Eric Von Schmidt (The Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt). Dylan had “met” Schmidt “one day in the green pastures of Harvard University and would later mimic his album cover pose (tipping his hat) for his own Nashville Skyline four years later. A further record, Françoise Hardy’s EP J’suis D’accord was on the floor near Dylan’s feet but can only be seen in other shots from the same photo session.
Visible behind Grossman is the top of Dylan’s head from the cover of Another Side of Bob Dylan; under her right arm is the magazine Time with President Lyndon B. Johnson on the cover of the January 1, 1965 issue. There is a harmonica resting on a table with a fallout shelter(capacity 80) sign leaning against it. Above the fireplace on the mantle directly to the left of the painting is the Lord Buckley album The Best of Lord Buckley. Next to Lord Buckley is a copy of GNAOUA, a magazine devoted to exorcism and Beat Generation poetry edited by poet Ira Cohen, and a glass collage by Dylan called ‘The Clown’ made for Bernard Paturel from coloured glass Bernard was about to discard.
Dylan sits forward holding his cat (named Rolling Stone) and has an opened magazine featuring an advertisement on Jean Harlow’s Life Story by the columnist Louella Parsons resting on his crossed leg. The cufflinks Dylan wore in the picture were a gift from Joan Baez, as she later referenced in her 1975 song “Diamonds & Rust”.
On the back cover, the girl massaging Dylan’s scalp is the filmmaker and performance artist Barbara Rubin.
I should think that, at the time, the artifacts mentioned above were the well spring for a hundred different theories on their significance, because people really used to care much more about this sort of thing than they do now, even though it is probably meaningless. What we used to do (even in the late 70’s when vinyl was still the format of choice) was put on an album and lounge around, discussing it, discussing the cover, the lyrics and their meaning and generally socially interacting while actually in the same room, hearing the same thing at the same time. I remember going to a friend’s house and spending an entire afternoon listening to 7” inch singles, one after the other, each having to be removed and replaced with the next one, after we’d also listened to the B Side of course. ‘Tommy Gun’ by the Clash (‘1-2 Crush On You’ on the B) was played several times before we moved on, as was ‘Alternative Ulster’ by Stiff Little Fingers (78 R.P.M on the B). At another friend’s house we listened to Foreigner 4, I knew nothing about them but strongly suspected they’d made three other albums. The number of times I listened to ‘Suppers Ready by Genesis at my friend Dave’s house is definitely in double figures. It’s something most people, teenagers and early twenties, did, we had no internet then so it was that or hang around in the park being dicks for most of us.
I’ve meandered way off track, so getting back to it, if you have never just sat and listened to this album all the way through, I heartily recommend that you do, the whole thing is below from Spotify. It’s not the vinyl so you don’t get the pleasure of the 12×12 cover, or turning the disc over for the second side, but the songs are there and your ears could not ask for a better meal.
Yesterday I signed up to Pledge Music to pre-order the Gary Numan album that will be released in about a years time. I went for the double vinyl, with extra track, which comes with a download code, so the best of both really. You also receive an access pass for updates on album progress. Below is the launch video which explains how it will all work. It was £33 all in, which is, admittedly, steep for a vinyl, but the extras even that out I think and it’s about right for what I’d be willing to pay. CD or just download is cheaper of course.
Some time ago I did some Spotify ‘Now! That’s what I call music’ playlists based on them being pre 1983, when the first Now! appeared. It’s what I think would be on them if they had existed earlier.
Record shopping yesterday, where I picked up an album by ‘Nosaj Thing’, who I knew very little about, but sometimes you have to just take a chance. I had stumbled across one track which I had added to the ‘Infinite Playlist‘ so I wasn’t completely in the dark and the album was a little less than most vinyl, at £15.50. I haven’t had a chance to play it until now, as I’m writing this, and I’m liking it a lot. The quality of the physical product is not as good as it could be, but the music that’s on it is very good, ticking a lot of boxes for me. Look at the centre of the label at the spindle, bit shoddy, and the grey marks on the white vinyl? I don’t think they are actually supposed to be there.
Apparently Nosaj Thing is a guy called Jason Chung who is an American electronic musician based in Los Angeles, California, who has produced tracks for Kendrick Lamar, Kid Cudi, Busdriver, Nocando, and most recently, Chance the Rapper. Being entirely honest, until a week ago I’d never heard of him and had I not seen the album as I was browsing in Seismic records, I would never have bought it, or at least, it would be extremely unlikely that I would have bought it.
This album, ‘Fated’ is his third, and I may well have to look out the other two. I do like the section of the pitchfork review which says, “So many of Nosaj Thing’s contemporaries deal with in-the-red maximalism, all hyper-compressed drums and lens-flare dynamics. But while FlyLo looked at Blade Runner and saw great plumes of fire and neon street fights, Nosaj Thing saw something else: two robots falling in love. Accordingly, Fated’s deeply electronic soundscape is most striking for its humanity.“, which rings true to me. The tracks on this album are not in your face, they bubble away beneath the surface without breaking it, they have subtlety.
The album is coming to a close and it doesn’t skip or jump, it plays fine, so while it is not a perfect condition product, I’m still glad I bought it as it is lovely to listen to.
Thompson Twins: Hold Me Now: 4 Minutes 47 Seconds: 1983
So things are, perhaps, getting a bit random at this point, but when I listen to the tracks back all together they seem to work for me, although maybe because I was there when they were new. I have mentioned before that I saw the Thompson Twins live, as a support act, and they put on quite an upbeat and lively show, I enjoyed it, though back in 1983 I probably didn’t appreciate it. They put out a lot of good pop songs but weren’t a success with the critics, which is a shame as they clearly had the knack of writing a good hook. In 1991, long after they had faded from the scene, they released a single “Come Inside” under the name ‘Feedback Max’, it reached No. 7 in the US Dance Chart and No. 1 in the UK Dance Chart. However, once it was discovered that the Thompson Twins were behind the record, sales dropped and the album it was taken from never had a UK release. Just goes to show that it isn’t all about the music.
Tom Tom Club: Wordy Rappinghood: 6 Minutes 27 Seconds: 1982
Honestly, I’ve no idea, I just always liked this track even though there was something about it that suggested I shouldn’t, but I did anyway. I’m sure I saw an official video for this once, when it was released, but I can’t seem to find it (33 years later!).
Audio:
Video:
1. The Smiths – This Charming Man
The first time I saw the Smiths was on regional TV, it was a feature on them but was somehow rather tongue in cheek, as in, ‘look at this bunch of weirdos’. With Morrisey and his NHS hearing aid and glasses, waving daffodils around, I can see why, but I liked them straight away. They were different, and I like different.
2. Primal Scream – Ivy Ivy Ivy
It’s only just the 80’s but so what. I saw Primal Scream at the Assembly in Leamington Spa a couple of years ago when they performed the whole of Screamadelica and it was amazing. So they are in, had to be really.
3.The Stone Roses – Sally Cinnamon
The band hated the video that accompanies this track, they thought it cheap and, I believe, trashed the record company offices having seen it. This was early on in the life of The Stone Roses, 1987, and it was they’re second single.
4. Orange Juice – Rip It Up
Perhaps quite inexplicably in the context of this mix tape, jump back five years and you have this track, which to my mind fits quite nicely, but perhaps not everybody would agree.
5. Talking Heads – Burning Down The House
and right away here’s another addition, again from 1983, which was in my head as I recently bought a couple of Talking Heads vinyl albums, the one that this track was taken from isn’t one of them, but it will be, one of these days.
Talking Heads: Burning Down The House: 4 Minutes 02 Seconds: 1983
and right away here’s another addition, again from 1983, which was in my head as I recently bought a couple of Talking Heads vinyl albums, the one that this track was taken from isn’t one of them, but it will be, one of these days.
Audio:
Video:
1. The Smiths – This Charming Man
The first time I saw the Smiths was on regional TV, it was a feature on them but was somehow rather tongue in cheek, as in, ‘look at this bunch of weirdos’. With Morrisey and his NHS hearing aid and glasses, waving daffodils around, I can see why, but I liked them straight away. They were different, and I like different.
2. Primal Scream – Ivy Ivy Ivy
It’s only just the 80’s but so what. I saw Primal Scream at the Assembly in Leamington Spa a couple of years ago when they performed the whole of Screamadelica and it was amazing. So they are in, had to be really.
3.The Stone Roses – Sally Cinnamon
The band hated the video that accompanies this track, they thought it cheap and, I believe, trashed the record company offices having seen it. This was early on in the life of The Stone Roses, 1987, and it was they’re second single.
4. Orange Juice – Rip It Up
Perhaps quite inexplicably in the context of this mix tape, jump back five years and you have this track, which to my mind fits quite nicely, but perhaps not everybody would agree.
Orange Juice: Rip It Up: 5 Minutes 20 Seconds: 1983
Perhaps quite inexplicably in the context of this mix tape, jump back five years and you have this track, which to my mind fits quite nicely, but perhaps not everybody would agree.
Audio:
Video:
1. The Smiths – This Charming Man
The first time I saw the Smiths was on regional TV, it was a feature on them but was somehow rather tongue in cheek, as in, ‘look at this bunch of weirdos’. With Morrisey and his NHS hearing aid and glasses, waving daffodils around, I can see why, but I liked them straight away. They were different, and I like different.
2. Primal Scream – Ivy Ivy Ivy
It’s only just the 80’s but so what. I saw Primal Scream at the Assembly in Leamington Spa a couple of years ago when they performed the whole of Screamadelica and it was amazing. So they are in, had to be really.
3.The Stone Roses – Sally Cinnamon
The band hated the video that accompanies this track, they thought it cheap and, I believe, trashed the record company offices having seen it. This was early on in the life of The Stone Roses, 1987, and it was they’re second single.
My copy of the album does play really nicely, that’s it over there, in the picture. It’s always a risk buying used vinyl, as even if it looks fine to the naked eye, it could play really badly. I have, for the most part, been lucky with my purchases so far, though I do have a few that are fit for melting into fruit bowls that were advertised as VG++.
Record shopping yesterday, where I picked up an album by ‘Nosaj Thing’, who I knew very little about, but sometimes you have to just take a chance. I had stumbled across one track which I had added to the ‘
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