18/12/2006 - Today's quote - Frank Sinatra

'Whatever has been said about me is unimportant. When I sing, I believe.'

Yesterday the ABC showed the BBC-documentary Sinatra: Dark Star, about Frank Sinatra's connections with the maffia and as such his role in John F. Kennedy's very close victory over Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. Great and very fascinating documentary that made clear how much Sinatra was a Dr.Jekyll and a Mr.Hyde. He could be tender and very considerate, making the woman he loved feel like she was the only woman in the world. His liberal attitudes clashed with conservative morals and he strongly opposed the racism that was abundant in American society at the end of the fifties. Black musicians were not allowed to stay in the Las Vegas hotels where they performed. Instead they had to go back to their trailers after the show. Sinatra's friend Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the victims of this rule.

At the same time Sinatra was fascinated by the power of the mob, and the documentary showed how much the maffia helped him, especially at the beginning of his career.

The program ended with the above quote. I definitely do not agree with the first part, but I can agree wholeheartedly with the second.

For more information about Frank Sinatra's tumultuous marriage with 'screen goddess' Ava Gardner, click on Archive and go to the entries for October, where you can find a review of Lee Server's Ava Gardner-biography that was published earlier this year.

2/12/2006 - Sound and Vision - David Bowie

When the ABC announced that it would offer the public a chance to vote their favourite album, I decided straight away to enjoy this opportunity. If anything, I think it would be great if all music lovers would do everything to stop bland crowd pleasers like Hotel California to reach the number one spot.

Whenever music magazines like Mojo, Uncut or Q have a readers poll about the 100 greatest albums of all time, I am always inclined to buy a copy of that month's issue. Lists are popular, it is an ideal topic of discussion. Something to agree or disagree with wholeheartedly.

I never have to think long to decide which is my favourite album of all time. It is always clear that it will have to be a David Bowie-album. Bowie is the only musician I play consistently several times a week. Hardly a day passes without Bowie. Whenever I look back from the moment I discovered music when I was about 10 years old, Bowie has been a major influence. And even though I love albums like Young Americans, Station to Station and Low (actually all his albums up to 1980's Scary Monsters, plus a few late highlights like 2002's Heathen), in the end it will always be a contest between Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory. The last one usually wins.

David Bowie is the ideal link between the sixties and the eighties and as such he is THE embodiment of the seventies. From folk to beat to glam to soul to ambient (avant la lettre) to pop: Bowie had it all and Bowie did it all. He became the man who invented how to re-invent himself, and as such he became an example for many. I wouldn't be surprised if Madonna learnt this trick from the man who invented Ziggy and the Thin White Duke. His 'American period', the 'plastic soul' of the mid-seventies albums Young Americans and Station to Station, paved the way for the New Romantics-invasion of the early eighties, with bands like Duran Duran, ABC and Spandau Ballet. When the audience was full of little Ziggys, the man himself had moved on to become Ziggy's darker alter-ego Alladin Sane. When everybody was still dancing to Golden Years, Bowie had re-invented himself once again and moved to Berlin to make the groundbreaking Low and "Heroes". The story never seemed to end.

I still don't know what I was waiting for

Hunky Dory's opening track Changes never made the charts when it was released as a single, but over the years it would become one of Bowie's trademark songs. That first verse says it all. When both the critics and the fans were still in awe about his latest character, Bowie had moved on to the next one. His alter-egos were a facade, but it is too easy to make out as if it was just that. I say this because Bowie has been accused of shallowness too many times. A quick look at the songs on Hunky Dory makes clear how wrong this perception is. Without any doubt Life on Mars? is one of his best songs (in a reader survey in a special Bowie edition of Mojo, this song ended as number 2, behind "Heroes"). This take on Frank Sinatra’s My Way has been covered by a range of artists, from American neo-psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips to Barbara Streisand and Abba‘s Frida. But nobody could ever compete with the original. Piano combined with a grand Wagner-like orchestral production (Mick Ronson's role was essential here). It's on Amerika's tortured brow/ Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow. The magic may very well be the fact that it sounds ridiculous and most intriguing at the same time. Mick Rock's accompanying video was revolutionary for its time. Bowie in a light blue suit, heavy make up on his face, behind a completely white background.

For me Hunky Dory (released in 1971) is one string of highlights, from the trademark Changes to the 'new age avant-la-lettre' in Quicksand (‘Knowledge comes with death's release‘) to the tributes Song for Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol (‘looks a scream’ - apparently Warhol himself was 'not amused' about these lyrics) to the Velvet Underground-inspired proto-glam and -punk of Queen Bitch before it all ends with the strangely beautiful The Bewlay Brothers, ethereal and unsettling at the same time. Hunky Dory can be seen as something like a 'transition'-album between sixties folk and seventies glam. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes indeed.

In the end there always remains something we can't explain, the magic of an album is based on so many personal things. When and where did we hear it for the first time? Which are our personal memories when we listen to it? Could we say how much impact it would have it we would hear it for the first time today? Etc.

It goes beyond logic, there is that element that tells you 'I don't really know'. But in the end your favourite album should be the album you would want to take with you if you were forced to make that ridiculous trip to a desert island, with just one album in your luggage, the album you can listen to again and again, and again, and again.

Well, for me there is no better candidate than this early Bowie masterpiece.

KC

My Favourite Album, ABC -3 December, 7.30 PM

P.S.: Please let me know which one is your favourite album and especially the reason why, always interesting. Thanks.

29/11/2006 - Today's quote - John Lennon

John Lennon - Beautiful Boy (on Double Fantasy, 1980)

It took me a while before I started to appreciate John Lennon's songs from Double Fantasy, the last album he made (a joint effort with wife Yoko Ono). The album was released just a few months before his death. At the time I thought this music was too soft, too sloppy even. This was music for 'old' people, Lennon had lost his edge and seemed no longer relevant.

These days I enjoy some of the songs as they appear on the greatest hits-album Lennon Legend, that over the years has become one of those albums I play at least once a month. Whenever I hear Beautiful Boy, the ode to his son Sean, I never fail to notice the above line. So simple, so true. Considering the fatal incident of December 8, 1980, we can replace the word 'life' with 'death', which would link this quote to Montaigne's essay To philosophize is to learn how to die (see entry 15 November). This also reminds me of David Bowie's prophetic line in the song It's no game: 'Put a bullet in my brain, and it makes all the papers'. The album with this song, Scary monsters, was released just a few months before Lennon was shot in front of his residence The Dakota Building in New York.

I am not a fan of John Lennon's simplistic 'peace'-messages, guess I'm too much of a cynic to take this serious. Even though I have to admit that Imagine is a very powerful song, I can't take the line Imagine no possessions serious, coming from the mouth of the man who at the time was one of the richest musicians in the world. But Lennon is also the Beatle who composed the psychedelica-classics Tomorrow never knows and I am the Walrus, not only my favourite Beatles-songs, but amongst some of the best songs written in the sixties. And last but not least, he is responsible for the ethereal beauty of Across the Universe and the heartbreaking, painful but oh so beautiful and powerful Mother.

The song Beautiful Boy also has the lines I can hardly wait/ To see you to come of age/ But I guess we'll both/ Just have to be patient. So sad.

KC

25/11/2006 - Sound and vision - New York Dolls

Ok, let's not call it a reunion. That word sounds just a touch too cynical when three of the five band members are dead, even though I somehow think they would have liked this touch of cynicism.

More than thirty years after their second and last official album Too much too soon, the two remaining New York Dolls, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, recorded a new album, assisted by four new band members. The album comes as quite a surprise, as Johansen always rejected the possibility of a reunion. It was thanks to the endless efforts by diehard New York Dolls-fan Morrissey (ex-The Smiths) that he finally gave in and in 2004 the Dolls re-formed, that is to say: Johansen and Sylvain were joined by original bass player Arthur 'Killer' Kane and some new band members. Kane was the one who wanted a reunion more than anyone. Tragically enough, he died of leukaemia only a month after the reunion. His legacy is documented on the DVD New York Doll.

[The Dolls then]

Apparently Johansen and Sylvain enjoyed the reunion enough to record a new album. Sylvain dedicates this album to 'the New York Dolls that are no longer around’. Lead guitarist Johnny Thunders died in 1991 under mysterious circumstances. Did the drugs finally knock him down or was it murder? Willy Deville, like Thunders at the time living in New Orleans, once said that Thunders died because he didn't know where to get the right stuff, unlike Deville himself. He also said they were planning to record some things together when Thunders died. Such a shame! Less than a year later, ex-Dolls drummer and Thunders’ buddy Jerry Nolan died of pneumonia. Thunders and Nolan, who together formed The Heartbreakers after quitting the Dolls in 1975, are buried side by side at a cemetery in Queens, New York.

Debut album New York Dolls (1973) is considered one of the most influential albums of the seventies. Rock & Roll, the sound of girl bands like the much beloved Shangri-La's and early seventies glam rock came together in an unprecedented mix of raw energy, well channelled by producer Todd Rundgren. On top of it all, the Dolls seemed to have stumbled into the dressing rooms of some transvestites. The result as shown on the album cover almost makes Marc Bolan and David Bowie look normal.

In the Don Watts Punk-documentary, Chrissie Hynde tells how in '76 every member of the British punk bands had a copy of both New York Dolls-albums. The Dolls were the final chapter of the triptych that started with The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, paving the way for the string of new bands, mainly from the CBGB-scene in New York, that would bring such a fresh 'new wave' to the American music scene in the second half of the seventies. Whenever music magazines look back upon this era and mention bands like The Ramones, Television, Blondie and Talking Heads, they often forget that Johnny Thunders made one of the best NY-albums of the seventies with his legendary album So Alone. And the very fine solo-albums by David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain are never mentioned at all.

After So Alone, Thunders more and more fell a prey to his intimate relationship with heroin and the other Dolls seemed to disappear into oblivion. Sylvain Sylvain even worked for some time as a NY cab driver. Only David Johansen had some minor success with his Buster Poindexter-act.

That is, until that famous reunion in 2004. And now we have the new album One day it will please us to remember even this. I have no doubt that this title will prove to be prophetic, because the album has some great songs. Some of the tracks are too predictable, lacking in melody and inventiveness, but more melodic  songs like Plenty of Music and Dancing on the lip of a Volcano (guest appearance by Michael Stipe of R.E.M.) are very good songs indeed. All lyrics were written by Johansen, whose voice is clearly older but as distinctive as ever. Most music was written by Sylvain, but there are also contributions by new band members Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), Steve Conte (the ‘new’ Thunders) and Brian Coonin.

[and the Dolls now]

Of course the stigma of nostalgia lurks around the corner of this album and I have to admit that especially watching the DVD ('the making of the album') took me back to the seventies. One day it will please us to remember even this may seem insignificant in comparison with the seminal debut-album and Thunders' classic solo-effort, but I don't doubt that many NY Dolls-fans will underline the words of the title.

KC

11/11/2006 - Sound and Vision - U2

'I can't stand the rain, against my window'. Bono throws in a few lines from this old hit when the first rain drops are starting to fall down on Telstra Stadium. For a few minutes, it seemed like the first of their three Sydney shows would be a very wet one, but fortunately the rain stopped after about ten minutes.

U2 had just started the show and the 70.000 strong audience responded more than enthusiastically to Vertigo and Elevation. There is a twenty year gap between New Year's Day and It's a beautiful day, it just goes to show how long U2 have been part of the music scene and especially how long they have been one of the world's most prolific bands with a string of both critically and commercially acclaimed albums.

Before yesterday I had seen U2 only once in my life. Amsterdam, October 1980. Four young Irishmen had just launched their debut album Boy. There was quite a buzz going around, it was said they might be one of the next big things. But at the time that was being said of many bands, so most people hardly paid any attention to the hype. U2 played their first Amsterdam concert in the Milky Way, best described as Amsterdam's version of The Basement in Sydney, for a crowd of about 600. But what I remember most is the echo machine that apparently was the new toy the engineer wanted to try out during the whole length of the concert. It ruined the sound, and more than that, it dampened my interest in U2. This wasn't my band, over the years I would start to get annoyed by Bono's Messiah-like image (remember Live Aid?). U2 was at best a band I wasn't particularly interested in.

That was until I discovered the U2 that had rediscovered itself. Achtung Baby meant a farewell to the 80's U2. Here was a band that dared to take a new look at itself, that dared both to re-shape its image and its music. I played Achtung Baby for days on end, it is one of those albums that contains only great songs. The Messiah-Bono had been replaced by The Fly. Paul Okenfeld did remixes of Even better than the real thing and it was clear that U2 had come of age in the nineties. Follow up Zooropa (actually not even an 'official' album, more a 'fun' thing they did in between two albums) and 1997's Pop didn't leave any doubt that U2 was a 90's band. The most uncharacteristic U2 song Lemon became my favourite and it has been my favourite U2 song until today (together with a handful of Achtung Baby songs). The 80's U2 seemed like a distant memory.

But then came the 21st century. The year 2000 brought a new image, that is: a more mature version of the 80's U2. Gone was the U2 of the 90's. U2 was making U2 music again. And because of my love for their work in the 90's, I had become a fan, I loved the new album All that you can't leave behind and in hindsight I even started to appreciate the 80's albums.

The Vertigo-tour is exactly this U2: a mix of the eighties and the 21st century, with only a few songs from the nineties. The magical One (without any doubt one of their best songs) and The Fly as part of the encore. But what did it matter? U2 gave us a wonderful show, and as much as they thanked the audience for giving them 'A wonderful life', the audience could thank U2 for giving us such a great and memorable show. Bono sent out his message via the 'Make Poverty History'-campaign and the 'War Child' project via the Passengers song Miss Sarajevo, with Bono taking on Pavarotti's part, proving once more his standout qualities both as a vocalist and a performer. The 70.000 could read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the gigantic screen behind the band and Sunday Bloody Sunday was dedicated to the victims of the Bali Bombings, to which Bono added the message: 'You don't have to become a monster to overcome a monster'.

If you happen to read this and don't have a ticket yet: apparently there are still some tickets left for Monday's show. You won't regret it; it would be hard to have a more memorable night than this.