Eno/Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts Reissued?

But hey, why should I have to hold people's hands in expressing themselves. This is the legendary ilx. Let's see some substance!

I remember reading an interview with Byrne from two years back in which he was talking about the reissue, and that they'd have bonus tracks. I know that people either love or hate this record, but I would totally go for a 2CD version a la the London Calling reissue that included sessions, worktapes, etc.

I adore Bush of Ghosts, but I have a hard time touting its 'historical relevance' - things were definitely done 'first' on that LP, but how many people were listening at the time?

Sound quality on this is wretched, and if anyone can turn me on to a better quality version, let me know. All the Ghosts bootleg material that I've heard is like this.

the LP is much better with the inclusion of Qu'ran as Very Very Hungry is a dull track, I think. I remember Mountain of Needles not being on early pressings, either.

An Eno/Byrne record to look up if you dig Ghosts is The Catherine Wheel.

from enoweb.co.uk's Eno music FAQ:

"There was a version of this circulating as a bootleg tape long before the lp was released. One story explains this as delays in getting rights to use some of the material, which resulted in the track "The Jezebel Spirit" having a different radio evangelist used. Another rumor is that David Byrne's label stalled the release of a solo project by Byrne until the label released the next Talking Heads release, Remain in Light, which was actually recorded after MLitBoG using similar studio techniques but released before it. The original mixes were released as a bootleg in various forms over the years. Those include some different mixes and material not on the offical release.

The track Qu'ran was later left off the UK cd (and other euro pressings?) over concerns about its religous implications - the track includes a recording of a reading of the Koran and it may be considered insulting some followers of the Koran. It can still be found on the US releases.

On "Qu'ran" -- Qu'ran is the proper spelling of the Muslim book of scripture; "Koran" is an anglicized misspelling as is "Moslem."

"Very Very Hungry" was subsituted for Qu'ran. This was originally a b-side to a 12" EP.

Opal Information 12 (Spring 1989) explained: "A year or so after its release (1980) EG received a serious letter from the World Council of Islam in the UK stating that they considered the recording offensive. Brian Eno and David Byrne explained that no disrespect was intended and immediately agreed to remove the track." To put this in context, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, with the fatwah declared shortly after.

Gregory Taylor elaborates:

The Islamic Council of Great Britain had approached the record company with a complaint about the use of the "found" material [a ritual chanting of the Holy Koran. Actually, I'm surprised that anyone got permission to even tape it in the first place]; There are some expressions of Islam in which *all* music is considered "haram" [I think that's the Arabic term, anyway] - or against the teachings of the Koran. There is an argument about whether or not Mohammed (pbuh) stated that "music" for use in certain Islamic festivals or special occasions *is* allowable, but that's for folks who know the Surahs better than I.

At any rate, the Islamic Council voiced its strong disapproval of having the original source material used in the way it was used [in some ways, the objection is really quite similar to that raised by Kathryn Kuhlman's estate when they wanted her sermon on Lot and the angels removed from what finally became "The Jezebel Spirit"], and in the days of watching the Fatwahs [pronouncements of death] fly back and forth, Eno and his pals deemed it meet to exclude it. "Very Very Hungry" was added instead. However, my copy of it includes both, so some other judgements must have been made later [I think that my copy is a domestic one, so perhaps that's why]. {The track could for many years be found on the US releases of the cd.}"

IMO "The Catherine Wheel" is the single best thing that Byrne has ever done.

True Stories is shit.

True Stories is shit.

OTM. Bush of Ghosts is funky as hell, compellingly weird, and deeply spacious. The production and editing throughout are phenomenal. Didn't the Bomb Squad cite it as an influence?

"Something fishy's going on when unassuming swell-heads like these dabblers start releasing their worktapes. As cluttered and undistinguished as the MOR fusion and prog-rock it brings to the mind's ear, this album has none of the songful sweep of Remain in Light or the austere weirdness of Jon Hassell, and the vocal overlays only intensify its feckless aura. C+"

That's rich. Xgau has never been more off point.

But I AM ugly.

It appears that Nonesuch will revisit the classic Brian Eno/David Byrne album, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. But wait..there's definitely more. This will be an expanded version. I don't know about you but that was one of my favourite albums for quite a long time. In fact, I still listen to it from time to time, so you already know what a madman I'm going to be awaiting this one. Someone straitjacket me. My Life In the Bush of Ghosts arrives on March 28. Watch these pages for info as it becomes available.

"The CD contains remastered versions of the original album tracks (sans "Qu'ran", which was only available on the first issues of the album and removed for later pressings because of sampled parts from the Quran) plus previously unreleased bonus tracks:

1. America Is Waiting
2. Mea Culpa
3. Regiment
4. Help Me Somebody
5. The Jezebel Spirit
6. Very, Very Hungry
7. Moonlight in Glory
8. The Carrier
9. A Secret Life
10. Come with Us
11. Mountain of Needles

Bonus tracks:
12. Pitch to Voltage
13. Two Against Three
14. Vocal Outtakes
15. New Feet
16. Defiant
17. Number 8 Mix
18. Solo Guitar with Tin Foil

When MLITBOG was originally released, a bootleg LP surfaced with some unreleased tracks (including the original version of "Jezebel Spirit" with Kathrin Kuhlman smaples) and alternative versions with weird titles. It's not sure if these tracks are featured on the new CD or if this is 'new' unreleased material."

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000E5N634.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

there were four non-album tracks on the original bootleg, including the Kuhlman version of 'jezebel spirit' (and I'd be surprised if that track is one of these new tracks). so there's lots of new stuff here, even for those who already have the lo-fidelity bootleg.

Well, I've got both "Q'uran" and "Very, Very Hongro" on my version and it's not like the disc I have is some Holy Grail -- it's just the normal Sire edition. I was wondering if it might've had something to do--oh, I dunno--with the fact that it's 2006, there's a perceived war against Islam going on, and the likes of France and Denmark are being burned to the ground.

The thing about Bush of Ghosts is that it's exactly what the fanboys say it is and what the critics gripe about as well. Which is to say that it's this largely unprecedented fusion of musics and cultures while also being a tinny, unholy mashup that isn't the sum of its parts.

I'd argue that latter part of that probably wasn't intentional--there's no denying it does sound like it was thrown together by a couple of nerdy white guys who know their electronics a hell of a lot better than they do their African music--but the record is more about authenticity than it is authentic. I mean, fuck taking "Music in the World of Islam" or Dunya Yusin without permission -- the whole Bush of Ghosts concept was thieved from Jon Hassell!

The bad:
Another one of these damn cheap cardboard sleeves. You know, the ones that are so tight that it's a bitch to extract the jewel case and you're going to end up destroying it anyway or throwing it out since it has nothing inherently useful.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/The_Medium_is_the_Massage_cover.jpg

I first heard it when I was 20 (in 2000) and it was quite possibly the record that made the fact that something special had been doing on "post-punk," that the Talking Heads and Elvis Costello and Siouxsie & the Banshees and Gang of Four and Wire records I loved weren't abberitions. I think it startled me because it was borrowing from music from around the world *without* being awful hippie "world music," which I didn't know was the modus operandi of art/underground music of the time.

It probably says something that your ears are no so accustomed to the hybridisation this record captures that because of its relative simplicity you associate it with hippie appropriation from an earlier time (a la Beatles re: sitars, hippies re: drum circles, Paul Simon a la "Me and Julio").

which is why I'm so allergic to the packaging on this reissue putting so much energy into making a case for it's 'importance', the new digital cover, the essays, the many boring pictures of them in the studio taking up full pages... the original packaging was perfect and author-anonymous. the new record ditches the sample attribtions in favor of a long winded toop essay about how important this record is. it's a fine essay, but bundling it with the record even puts me off and I love this record.

also... the new tracks are worth hearing but they're even more ephemeral and inconclusive... great to hear, but they do dilute the impact of the original record. calling them 'side 3' instead of 'auxillary' is going pretty far.

I've been enjoying the bad reviews the reissue's gotten though, they're validating... this record still isn't for anyone

well, ok then. for me the sound design is the main appeal on this record. I'm hooked three seconds into the first track.

George Harrison was actually a fairly decent player - nowhere near the way that Hindustani classical players can play, but I think the Beatles used sitar well and he wrote some good songs after having studied No. Indian classical music some. Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band was also a decent player.

How is this album a more "intelligent" use of world music elements?

Well, for starters, Eno & Byrne don't attempt to sing the melodies themselves, knowing they couldn't do it as well as the music that was inspiring them. For me that differenciates it from appropriation--they aren't standing off from afar worshiping the purity of something, they're unafraid of recontextualisation, but they're not going to try to pretend to be the source. It's like the way hip-hop musicians can respect the originality of the breakbeats sampled, but not be afraid of creating something new. Much as I enjoy the Beatles cute use of the "exotic," it comes off as basically an adornment, rather than an integral element.

It's like a record I heard of my parents' friend, wherein a group of aging white hippie women decided they wanted to create a record of "Native American" songs and chants, out of some (to my mind) misguided desire to honour "the" culture. When you want to recreate "world musics" like that, it seems to me you've got to bear an incredible responsibility to understand the music on its own terms--which if you did might make it clear you aren't in a position to recreate it. Eno and Byrne aren't beholden to that responsibility because what they're creating is overtly a fantasy--not a facsimile. I imagine they hoped that if someone were pulled most especially to the vocal melodies in the pieces, that person would seek out original recordings. They weren't seeking to replace the originals--whereas plenty of people only know the Sitar as a sound in the Beatles music (though I'm not sure that's entirely the Beatles fault).

I also wasn't really so much thinking of the early hippie indulgences in "Eastern" music as just bad drum circles I observed in college. And I was also thinking of bad "World" music artists that seem to think their unique blend of hip-hop elements and traditional Kora music, or whatever, is really innovative. I give Byrne and Eno more credit than that in terms of their inentions, but the sonic results of the former and the latter aren't all that different to my ears.

I'd venture that the difference between Harrison and Byrne in this case has more to do with the type of "recontextualization" they're interested in -- with Harrison it seems like it had more to do with experimentation and spirituality, with Byrne it seems to be more about anxiety and dislocation.

.... pretty please....?

How is this album a more "intelligent" use of world music elements?

-- Tim Ellison (thefriendlyfriendlybubbl...), April 26th, 2006.

This is only tangentially related, but Jon Pareles and David Lewiston (Nonesuch Explorer series dude) were just on Soundcheck on WNYC talking about what "world music" is and George Harrison figured heavily in the discussion. The really interesting bits, though, are the parts where Lewiston talks about his first trip to Bali to record gamelan music:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2006/05/10

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WSwpm0N8yMA/T8TAFLnG1mI/AAAAAAAAANY/tEZrq_u-Wxw/s1600/scan0001.jpg

http://mywalloftapes.blogspot.com/2012/05/life.html

still hissy, mastered very quiet, but still, better fidelity than the Ghosts bootleg

Unfortunately, that's gone.

I recently pulled this out again as I got interested in finding out how Eno was using his AMS DMX delay box to do the cut-up vocals on this (that's been unsuccessful).

But a few days ago, I found an interview from 1980 with Eno in which he talks about MLitBoG a bit -- and plays a few rough mixes he'd done of "America Is Waiting" (sans vocals, which he calls "Garbage Disco"), "Mea Culpa" (just the synth arpeggio and vocals), and a very early version of "The Carrier" (I think -- I get some of those tracks on the second side mixed up). Pretty interesting stuff:

http://ubu.com/sound/eno.html

oh, cool, think i've just heard an excerpt of that interview. thanks!

Rough mixes supposedly from a cassette Byrne gave to a guy when he was living in Alphabet City in the late 70s/early 80s. By far the best quality boots I've heard of this material.

http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1121

Holy shit, this sound pretty familiar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIas_yxduDw

Admittedly late but what am I missing here, Josh? Is that supposed to be a groove Eno and Byrne appropriated?

Kind of reminiscent of Regiment?

No resemblance at all. A groove's a groove's a groove.

So this is being reissued again, on vinyl this time, with additional bonus tracks:

http://hhhhappy.com/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-set-for-vinyl-reissue-with-new-surprises/

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/11/better-late-than-never-how-brian-eno-and-david-byrne-finally-laid-a-musical-ghost-to-rest

that's really interesting, thanks!

The Rolling Stone article mentioned towards the end is fascinating as well:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-252823/

I was expecting "sampling isn't real music" but it's a lot more nuanced, and encapsulates all of the criticisms that were levelled at world music many years later. Eno and Byrne just brush it off in their article.

So, I guess people from the past weren't a bunch of stupid racists after all. It also reminds me that I haven't read anything at all by Marshall McLuhan. He was huge before I was born, but when I was young it was all No Logo and whatever else you were supposed to pretend to read to be hip. McLuhan was a bit old-hat back then. I learn from the internet that he wasn't a real Marshall. That was just his name.

I never thought that Pareles review was able to land a convincing blow. Like: "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts does make me wonder, though, how Byrne or Eno would react if Dunya Yusin spliced together a little of 'Animals' and a bit of 'The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch,' then added her idea of a suitable backup. Does this global village have two-way traffic?"... Is he really suggesting he thinks they'd be upset? Seems like they would each have died to hear what that would have sounded like!

No Dunya Younes albums on Spotify

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR715ql1-Fk

that is awesome