Taking Tiger Mountain By a Poll - Eno

'the true wheel' is like the giddy high point of all this early eno stuff. the last two songs sound so exhausted compared to it!

Voted "True Wheel," though I've found myself listening to "The Great Pretender" a lot, and it was originally my least favorite. I hate not to vote for "Taking Tiger Mountain" - it sounds like an old man, reflecting back on the one great accomplishment of his life.

Yo, it's the title track all the way. The 5.5 most beautiful minutes in popular music!

For me, the "best tune" concept doesn't fit this album. If one song's an apple, another's an orange, knowwhatImean? I will say that "Mother Whale Eyeless" and "The True Wheel" are the only two I had to listen to again to remember how they go.

"Burning Airlines"

I remember China, My China, being my favorite, so that's what I'm gonna vote, but this reminds me to listen to the album again when I get home.

The True Wheel. Eno's best song.

the one that has the "...and this is the sound that they heard" followed by bizarro synth solo

That's "Back In Judy's Jungle". For a long time I had a hard time getting into this album, because I didn't like that song at all, and it's the second song on the album. I'm glad to read something about what's good about that song, because I just listened to it again and thought it was terrible, a real momentum killer after the first song. Luckily it picks up again with "The Fat Lady of Limbourg".

oh I like the whole vibe of it - the plucky British lads going off to a foreign land to be massacred, whistling all the while. Its like a psychedelic war movie.

still hard to argue that anything is better than the True Wheel on this one

right now I'm thinking "Great Pretender" or "Third Uncle," need to give this one a full relisten though. Awesome album.

True Wheel which has the greatest lyrics ever.

^^^ cosign

the true wheel easy

The True Wheel

I played air piano to it at a bar!

wow!

"China My China", 'cause you can sit at your computer keyboard and play along during the typewriter solo. But I can't overlook "Third Uncle" (Velvets add a 2nd drummer and go prog) or the engulfed-and-consumed-alive-by-aphids climax of "Great Pretender" or Phil Manzanera.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I was just listening to this album! This is really hard. So many good songs. But "Burning Airlines" it is.

I voted for Third Uncle, which I didn't even realise was a Brian Eno song til I heard this album - I have the Bauhaus cover but didn't know it was a cover.

"didn't even realise was a Brian Eno song til I heard this album "

ahead of it's time,like many other eno songs from that period.
nobody sounded like that in the early 70s.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow, 67 votes is about twice what I expected.

sratisfying results at last.

Results like this make me question my typical deference for the ILM crowd.

You pollsters and your faith in "results."
So what?
I voted for Mother Whale Eyeless.

Too late to change my vote now. "Mother Whale Eyeless" and "Taking Tiger Mountain" both deserve far more than 4 votes.

Other favorites now that the results are in are obv. "Burning Airlines" but also "China My China" and "Great Pretender." What a great album.

props to everyone that voted 'fat lady of limbourg'!!

I agree with the top 2, but "Mother Whale Eyeless" should have been higher.

if u think "cyndi tells me" is the best in "warm jets" you will love "tiger mountain" more - cause it's a little poppier and lighter,like "cyndi" is.

This is true in my case.

"Taking Tiger Mountain" – 5:33 3 votes

somedays (like today) i like it more than "the true wheel"

wow, Sabbath Vol. 4, Pisces Iscariot, now this...ILM has been all about my favourite albums lately..

Was gonna post some predictable shit about how MWE deserved more votes but the True Wheel def. was the winner, but that seems to be consensus around here, so...

True Wheel sounds like Kyuss to me.

WTF does Tizer taste like, anyway?!?

i decided to practice "the true wheel" for my drum teacher
hope he knows it
True Wheel sounds like Kyuss to me.
no idea what this is about

aww @ no votes for "put a straw under baby"

I mean I wouldn't have voted for it as the best track either but I do really like it

Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind

I'm a sucker for any song that says "This is the sound that they heard" before a big melody. See also Genesis "Lurker"

Lol I meant Third Uncle and I was talking about the tone if the lead guitar, tho listening to it again perhaps the first QOTSA album mught be more appropriate as a comparison point

Xp to La Lechera

This is another album where I p much love every song

Ding ding!
We are the 801.

(I've listened to this song probably 12x today?)

ILM got this one right fer sure. Eno's best song? Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap I haven't listened to this in at least a decade (I can tell because I've never imported it to iTunes...)

can't believe mother whale eyeless only got 4 votes

that might be my favorite eno song.

the second half of this song is so addictive, such an amazing maelstrom drawing me in. third uncle is almost as good. just a little more free-flowing. and the tune isn't quite as strong. one of his best albums, that's for sure. haven't listened to it for ages as well. why the hell? life is too short to listen to rubbish.

we saw the lovers, the modern lovers
and they looked very good
they looked as if they could

i have no idea -- that's why i posted it
it totally sounds like kitchen soufflé to me and i enjoy the lol wut eno-ness of it

I've never managed to catch half the words in that song and I've listened to it a billion times

i have listened to it a billion times too and only just now heard kitchen soufflé
i love how he uses the sound of words rather than their meaning and STILL manages to write songs that kinda make enough sense
it's a technique that is close to my <3

just relistened to this, I loove the part where it goes "and this is the sound that they heard..." on "Back in Judy's Jungle"

are there any other albums remotely like this one?

There are moments in the first 4 Kevin ayers that sound akin. Also search "A Stitch in Time" off one of Anthony Moore's solo records, very very tiger mtn

were I to vote now it would probably be for BIJJ

but there is not one track here that is anything other than excellent

argh who am I kidding, title track

idk

pulled this out tonight for the first time in years. i'm usually an AGW guy. i'd forgotten just how awesome this disc is. pretty sure i voted for the fat lady of limbourg in the poll. tonight, maybe mother whale eyeless or china my china.

Now we're on the telephone
Making final arrangements
ding ding

"Taking Tiger Mountain" – 5:33 3

this is sick and wrong!

I still listen to this all the time, but this thread revival has inspired me to listen to it again.

Everything getting a vote except "Put a Straw Under Baby" = OTM

mother whale eyeless still takes it for me. maybe the most roxy-sounding thing on here. nothing beats the switchup 2 minutes in ("In my town, there is a raincoat under a tree..."), which i've raved about elsewhere on ilx i think. one of eno's career best moments imo

it really blows my mind that this is from 1974 - same year as like Relayer, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Rock Bottom, etc. etc...just sounds like it's from a totally different world

put a straw under baby is great and deserves at least a few votes

yes, if only for the Robert Wyatt backing vocals

So was it ever unveiled who Randi and The Pyramids are? (credited w/ (backing) vocals on 'The True Wheel' ["we are the 801!"]? I know he named her/the lot after a girl he was seeing back then and says he dreamt up the name, but who is the woman singing that?

Multitracked Polly Eltes?

Could be! We know she's on Mother Whale Eyeless, but I've never come across any source attributing the True Wheel vocal to her?

it really blows my mind that this is from 1974 - same year as like Relayer, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Rock Bottom, etc. etc...just sounds like it's from a totally different world

― frogbs, Tuesday, November 1, 2016 11:41 AM (two years ago)

Spot on! Feel like this album is its own genre.

eno was a massive jerk for abandoning that genre tbrr

ooh look at me i invented ambient

otm

xp have you heard "Wrong Way Up"? also some stuff on "My Squelchy Life" is a bit similar, none of it is as bonkers and multilayered though

title track, bitches

was just thinking about this album yesterday because i was super feeling the lyrics to "mother whale eyeless"
his pop songs have more replay value for me than, say, the apollo soundtrack

Not heard xxp! Thanks...