― the white goddess, Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:38 (nineteen years ago) link
71
points: 2621st place votes: 0total votes: 10
PARLIAMENT - THE MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00008RV1A.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:40 (nineteen years ago) link
First jazz album I can remember enjoying was Miles' Tribute To Jack Johnson - steady beat, plenty of rockin', lots of surprises. I still don't get Kind Of Blue to this day.
-- Patrick (calimer...), July 16th, 2001
Search: pretty much all the 70s electric stuff sans At Fillmore (no to be confused with Black Beauty: Live at Fillmore West). start with In a Silent Way ('69, but still; most beautiful), Jack Johnson (hardest-rocking), Dark Magus (most ferociously intense).
-- M Matos (michaelangelomato...), December 14th, 2002
Absolutely the best thing Miles Davis in the '70s, even greater than "Agartha" or the best of "Get Up With It."
-- eddie hurt (eddshur...), March 29th, 2004 6:45 PM.
and if you like the standard issue Jack Johnson, the complete sessions box is fascinating. Chockful of random beauty and killer guitar skronk. Really, it's not just another overstuffed ripoff.
-- lovebug starski (writeco...), March 28th, 2004 2:49 PM.
(In reply to "If you were boxer, what would your entrance music be):'Right Off' from Miles Davis' Tribute to Jack Johnson. Obv.
-- Jordan (jordancohe...) December 2nd, 2003
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:41 (nineteen years ago) link
funny you should ask.
70
points: 2631st place votes: 0total votes: 11
BRIAN ENO - TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY)
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00015TOCY.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:45 (nineteen years ago) link
I remmber my sister brought this album home (along with Clones of Dr.Funkenstein) sometime in the summer of 1976 or so, whetting my ten year old appetite for it by saying they were "like the black version of Kiss". Well, they sure did look as equally otherworldly as my beloved, grease-painted superheroes....and were on the same visionary record label....but oof were they ever different! For a start, there seemed to be about forty of them, and the sheer production and instrumentation of Mothership Connection was dizzying (Kiss wouldn't manage as varied and vast a sound until Destroyer). But damn....having heard nothing of any semblance of "funk" in any capacity (James Brown didn't get a lot of airplay in our mid-to-late 70's household), this was just a whole different brand of beast.
For a start, Clinton's narrative skills on the first two tracks are completley hilarious and bizarre, hooking me right in. Secondly, the grooves just seem to flow so effortlessly, morphing from full-on punch and then off into jazzy subtlety, buffered by at least three different voices at a time (Lollipop Man, "the Long Haired Sucka" being my favorite). The precise moment during "Mothership Connection (Star Child)," when the band switches back into the "Swing low sweet chariot..." refrain and the giant saucer gently lifts off again (I'm talking bout specificaly 5:13 into the song), it is truly a transcendent bit of music. Damn I love that.
"Unfunky UFO" seems to abduct the riff from Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" and takes it on a strange sci-fi episode involving an alien invasion prompted by a funk famine. Odd? You betcha, but it's wildy inventive and engaging stuff.
I remember especially enjoying "Handcuffs" as a kid, mistaking the chorus for being "Do I have to put my handcuffs on your mama?", which made precious little sense but prompted big laughs. The song, in retrospect, is actually a tad misogynist, but hey....this was the 70's after all.
"Give Up the Funk..." is of course a massive classic, and there's nothing I can say about it that will further its status as utterly brilliant. Even the arguable filler tracks ("Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples") are still completely awe inspiring.
If you don't own this record, you're exiling yourself in a world devoid of fun.
Who agrees? Who dares disagree?
-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), August 14th, 2003
Far and away their tightest, least indulgent funk alb, heavily plundered by Dr. Dre. One of the all-time great alb covers too!
-- Andrew L (andre...), July 15th, 2001
Something of a landmark, being one of the first r&b record that's back to back funk, with not a ballad in sight.
-- Shakey Mo Collier (audiobo...), February 4th, 2004
'Mothership Connection' - you won't believe how many bits you'll recognize, it's been sampled to infinity.
-- tarden (scrape10...), July 15th, 2001
There are some strange and tortured souls out there who prefer "Funkentelechy" but then as George himself said, "Mothership" is the one with "all the hits".
-- Dadaismus (kcoyne3...), August 14th, 2003
Around the age of 12 or 13 my best friend found his brother's Parliament CD and we listened to it on repeat for weeks, out on the porch, dancing. First time I ever really danced. That shit changed my life.
-- Sonny A. (newaddres...), August 16th, 2003 2:17 AM.
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 17 April 2005 22:57 (nineteen years ago) link
-- Juan (p1nk8c1...), November 7th, 2002
Taking Tiger Mountain: His second album. Quite strange surreal story. Somehow gripping. With singing.
-- alex in mainhattan (alex6...), July 17th, 2001
Eno is an underrated lyricist...the words on "Tiger Mountain" always struck me as very nice indeed.
-- Jess Hill (jesshil...), February 28th, 2003
"Tiger Mountain" contains some of the best words I know.
-- eddie hurt (eddshur...), July 21st, 2004
I was in a bar where this guy I know works and he was playing songs from his iPod over the stereo. At one point I asked him, Is this the Thinking Fellers? And he said, no it's Brian Eno. Then later another song came on, and I asked him if it was the Swell Maps. Again it was Eno. It turns out both songs were on TTM(BS). That's when I knew I needed to hear the rest of the album.
-- o. nate (syne_wav...), July 21st, 2004
One thing I don't think I've said about Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy is that I got a copy around the time that I had just about lost my belief in Christian doctrine, so it took on kind of a heavy symbolic weight of the scarey, uncertain, world of religious disbelief. (Obviously I hadn't only listened to Christian music up until then. That's not the point.) I want to exmphasize, this is a symbolic purpose I was giving it: I don't think it has much to do with the album itself (although it is kind of interesting in light of some things I've read by him essential outlining an anti-fundamentalism--of whatever source--stance). Just the cover itself took on a certain weight, and I wasn't totally happy about it. It didn't look like an especially happy world (and I've never been unambivalently attracted to hipster jadedness, if I've ever been attracted by it at all), but it seemed somewhat inevitable that I would be joining it. Graphically, it was: the cover of Taking Tiger Mountain vs. the dull blue cover of Cornelius Van Til's Defense of the Faith (given to me by my brother-in-law). I think I was more visually oriented then. Anyway, book covers or album covers could easily become suffused with an emotional coloring.
-- Rockist Scientist (heterophoni...), July 21st, 2004
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 17 April 2005 23:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 17 April 2005 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
(rolls in grave)
― poortheatre (poortheatre), Sunday, 17 April 2005 23:50 (nineteen years ago) link
I wouldn't call it an album. No need for it in the list as long as there is "Bad Girls" anyway
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 18 April 2005 00:02 (nineteen years ago) link
Davis' corpse was always going to be perturbed by the preferences of tiny samples of online listmaking geeks. But what can you do?
Nice work Hobart Paving. Even though many of my choices have already appeared!
― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 18 April 2005 00:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 18 April 2005 00:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 18 April 2005 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 18 April 2005 02:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 18 April 2005 02:10 (nineteen years ago) link
John Cale - Paris 1919
There was a lot of nostalgia in the early 70's. From Harry Nillson's drowsy take on easy listening to glam's rocket charged reworking of classic rock and roll memes, a whole generation of musicians were looking back to the carefree days of their youth.
If anyone should be immune to such revisionism then John Cale should be that man. Years spent with Lamonte Young and the Velvet's would be enough to prevent such indulgences . Even Cale wasn't immune, but preferred the richer emotional nostalgia of his youth rather than the callow retreads favoured elsewhere.
Paris 1919 was a work out of time, lush and poetic when elsewhere rock was going through a protracted adolescence. The sepia tinted Cover portrait hinted, like the Band's eponymous album, that this was a piece which would transcend fads and fashion.
Ignored at the time it nevertheless proved to be his most emotionally enduring work (though Music for a new society comes close). Playfully adult in it's themes of travel, mystery and nostalgia. A travelogue of the mind and the heart, a mystery which deepens through repeated listening.
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 18 April 2005 07:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 18 April 2005 10:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 18 April 2005 10:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― the todster (the todster), Monday, 18 April 2005 10:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― the todster (the todster), Monday, 18 April 2005 10:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 18 April 2005 12:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dan Beale, Monday, 18 April 2005 12:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 07:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 07:13 (nineteen years ago) link
points: 2661st place votes: 1total votes: 6
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER OFFICIAL SOUND TRACK
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000001FDV.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link
disco was thriving in the mainstream pre-Saturday Night Fever, but the movie and especially the soundtrack made the genre unavoidable leading to disco crossovers by everyone from Elton John to Ethel Merman and a big backlash. No Saturday Night fever - no overexposure, maybe disco doesn't die. Of course you can argue that disco never died, it just turned into electro, etc. but try telling that to all the disco acts who suddenly lost their record deals sometime in the early '80s.-- J Blount (littlejohnnyjewe...), April 29th, 2002.
I don't suppose this is really a negative comment. And the Ethel Merman disco albums is FANTASTIC!!
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:00 (nineteen years ago) link
-- helenfordsdale (helenfordsdal...), December 23rd, 2001.
err... a bit on the succinct side, that comment, but it serves the purpose, doesn't it?
x-post I could check if you voted for it if you want - remind me what name you'd have sent the e-mail under.
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:04 (nineteen years ago) link
points: 2691st place votes: 1total votes: 10
WIRE - CHAIRS MISSING
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000024E09.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:17 (nineteen years ago) link
points: 2691st place votes:1total votes: 8
LED ZEPPELIN - HOUSES OF THE HOLY
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002J0B.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
and I have a REAL BLURB SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION FOR THIS ONE. HURRAY!!
HERE IT IS:
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Electric guitar as orchestra.
---Sundar
Short, and to the point.
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:31 (nineteen years ago) link
points: 2701st place votes: 0total votes: 13
LED ZEPPELIN - IV
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002J09.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Led Zeppelin - IV
A couple favourite moments:- when Robert Plant's voice mutates into a bowed string at the end of "FourSticks"- that sort of crackling chord after "When the Levee Breaks"; the way the mosttraditional blues song is also the most studio-treated- the piles of overdubbed guitars pulling off suspensions of D before the"Stairway to Heaven" solo; the sighing slide guitar overdub in that solo
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:31 (nineteen years ago) link
I suppose it depends whether you think its more important that a few people really, really loved an album or that more people thought it was quite good, but not their favourite. I decided on the former in the end, but can see why you'd suggest the alternative.
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link
FUCK! No they haven't.
err... look away for a minute...
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:35 (nineteen years ago) link
WIRE - 154
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00000JR11.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
ahem... erm...note the subtle difference.
This is how that SHOULD have looked.
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:42 (nineteen years ago) link