7 posts tagged “favorite groups”
Years ago, a cool friend of mine named Christl made me a tape mix of a peculiar new group by the name of IVY. They struck me as a sort of 4AD sounding band, and of course I fell in love with them immediately. The tape she'd made for me was from Ivy's first EP LATELY, and songs like "Wish it All away" and " Can't Even Fake it" are faves even to this day! From there I got their album REALISTIC which featured even more delectable songs like “Get Enough” and “No Guarantee” , ensuring me that this was a group to keep abreast of! I spent many afternoons wallowing in their dreamy, ethereal sounds...loving it all!
IVY was a group comprised of Dominique Durand, Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger, the latter most well known for his group “Fountains of Wayne” as well as those super-catchy Beatlesly songs off of the “That Thing You Do” Soundtrack. With all this stuff going on, its no wonder we didn’t hear very much from IVY for a while…
Fast forward to 2001, and suddenly, after we’d all but given up on them, we heard word that Ivy was coming out with a new album called LONG DISTANCE! We all gave a collected sigh of relief- we’d really convinced ourselves that IVY was nothing more than a one-time side group for the talented artists that was never to be again!
This being 7 years since their last album had me wondering if the group would still sound the same- I didn't quite know what to expect, but NOTHING could have prepared me for their "new" sound- HUGE, droning, saturated and TOTALLY ATMOSPHERIC!
Songs Like "Blame it on Yourself","Lucy Doesn't Love You"and "Digging Your Scene" still retained that jangly IVY sound a bit, but it was in songs like "Edge of the Ocean", "Midnight Sun" and the incredible album opener called "Undertow" that I realized just how much IVY had "evolved" from its earlier days, and in a totally good way!
Heck, the short-lived Sci-Fi series of alien abduction returnees THE 4400 even used one of Ivy’s songs on the show because their moody, mysterious sound fit the theme of the show so well!
The group then released a package of songs they’d covered by other artists like Steely Dan, The Go-Betweens and the Cure, which seemed to be a throwback to their “earlier” sound, but they were back in fine form for the awesome albums APARTMENT LIFE and IN THE CLEAR, as well as shining in side groups like PACO, which seems to be a real “offshoot” of the IVY sound, developing more into electronica than the IVY albums proper!
The wistful song that stole my heart and made me an IVY fan for life!
Jangly, upbeat opening track for their album “Realistic”..I just love Dominique's delivery, especially in the bridge where she sings: "I can be a monster if I want to be, but he's got me beaten by a landslide...He's just crazy!"
The song that redefined IVY’s sound and opened up a whole new avenue in their style...
Incredibly moody and atmospheric!
Sassy song with a very “4AD” flavored guitar refrain!
Another dreamy pop masterpiece..suitable for long drives at night!
Visit IVY at their website at
thebandIvy
Remember that John Cusack character in High Fidelity who explained in great detail about the finer points to consider when making a cassette mix for someone? I had a friend named James who was a master in that field. In fact, just about every six months he would come up with a new “mix” for me and my friends to get into, tapes made with care and careful research, featuring both new groups and obscure older groups,both made it onto the mixes carefully orchestrated for a complete “piece” of music!
I can’t begin to count all the different artists he introduced me to, but one of the most significant groups that he brought to my attention was a new folk / rock unit with the peculiar name of 10,000 Maniacs, with a powerful little tune of theirs called “Scorpio Rising”.
From the very first time I listened to the tape, the song stuck out for me and became my favorite track, and that’s saying something when you consider that cassette also featured great groups like TSOL, The March Violets, Naked Raygun, and The Jesus and Mary Chain!
I immediately wanted to know more about them, and on my next visit to James’ house, was introduced to 10,000 Maniacs album The Wishing Chair. For the first time, I got to hear such wonderful songs as “Just as The Tide Was A Flowing” , “Can’t Ignore The Train”, “Back O’ The Moon”, and the incredible album closer “My Mother The War”.
I was also finally able to see just what the group looked like, and I’ll never forget standing in their living room, looking at the little thumbnail pic of the lead singer Natalie Merchant for the first time! They looked so cool- really like a little Bohemian Beatnik group, a look that fit nicely with the songs they were singing - In fact, I was happy to discover that The Wishing Chair was produced by Joe Boyd, the man who oversaw such artists as Fairport Convention, Cat Stevens and Nick Drake!
Fast forward a few years later, and I’m reading the latest Rolling Stone magazine, and glancing on the College Album Chart, I’m informed that the Maniacs have released a new album! I hurried down to the record store and picked up a cassette (yes! Cassette!) of their new release, a strange covered album called In My Tribe.
Words cannot aptly describe what I felt the first time I heard the opening track “ What’s The Matter Here?” This song was just incredible, from its driving drum beat and melodic guitars showcasing Natalie singing about the helplessness of witnessing child abuse…I still think this is one of the finest tunes ever written! But it didn’t stop there…. one after another, the perfect pop tunes kept coming at me!
If I hadn’t already associated the band with the beat poet/coffee house scene, the Maniacs’ ode to the tragic Jack Kerouac certainly would’ve done the trick! Awesome Beat and melody, this one!
The very first video I ever saw of the group, on the brand new VH1 video station, of all places. At the time I remember thinking Natalie looked a LOT older than the pic on the back of The Wishing Chair! This song is probably their first biggie.
Hmmm…That ending never bothered me! In fact, it was pretty upbeat!
The Painted Desert
Lots of echo effect on the guitar chords really give this song the feel of the vast, wide-open space of the desert.
A real rocking song. They performed this one on Late Night with David Letterman one night, and it just knocked me OUT! As for the topic of this song; of not wanting to argue with someone who’s drunk off his ass, haven’t we all been in this kind of situation at one time or another? Heh Heh!
A sweet, feel-good song, I remember being really bummed out when I heard they were removing this song off future CD releases of In My Tribe, but in recent times it seems that it has been re-instated into its proper place. And if not, you can always still get it off the terrific “Campfire Songs” collection.
There’s a video for this song out there somewhere, but to this day I’ve only seen snippets on Youtube, scenes of Natalie and the boys floating down a river on a raft like Huckleberry Finn…Enjoy this Tonight Show performance instead!
Obligatory Michael Stipe appearance here. It was around this time that everyone was buzzing about the two of them as an item, and boy does that seem silly in this day and age. A song that I didn't really like til I got a concert where Nat "duets" with a befuddled audience member!
A Powerful song, another that, Like “Painted Desert”,uses echo and effects to really create the feeling of a HUGE, VAST CITY, buildings towering over you,looking down endless streets…The drums really pack a wallop here, too. A song about the allure of the big city, and the dregs of failures who came to “make it” and didn’t succeed. I just LOVE Natalie's voice in this one, for some reason... one of my faves.
And then we have Natalie’s epic closing song, the incredible “Verdi Cries”. Melancholy and moving- with wonderful picturesque lyrics giving you at once the feeling of yearning, loneliness and homesickness!!! When you have an album open with a song like “What’s the Matter Here”, and end it with a song like “Verdi Cries”, it’s no wonder this album is so highly regarded as the Maniacs’ finest, an opinion I WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT!
It was a great time to be a Maniacs fan. Of course, I had to pick up The Wishing Chair and In My Tribe when they were released on CD as well (side note: In My Tribe’s the first ever DDD CD release I got!), but soon came Blind Man’s Zoo, as well as a rather significant release called “Hope Chest”, which contained songs from the Maniacs first two LPs Human Conflict Number Five and Secrets of The I Ching. FANTASTIC!!
These were SOOOOOO good, and before I could catch my breath, Elektra Records had ALSO released a VIDEO collection of the Maniacs, featuring all their videos as well as early days footage and home movies!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I was.
Over time I managed to get not only The Wishing Chair and In My Tribe in the original vinyl, but also the Human Conflict Number Five LP and also two different releases of the Maniacs Secrets of the I Çhing albums. I also managed to acquire a terrific double LP Live Album called (humorously enough) 10,000 Maniacs Can’t Be Wrong and a few concert videos, where I got to see DAKTARI performed for the very first time!!
There was a while there when Wishing Chair, In My Tribe, Blind Man’s Zoo and Hope Chest were (just about) the only CDs I was listening to, and those songs really remind me about that specific time in my life!
Speaking of the Wishing Chair on CD, when they released that album on CD, I was pleased to find that they’d given three bonus songs for the release, but was horrified to find that they’d actually mixed it into the order of the songs. The Original chronology was already perfect, and It was hard to listen to the songs in this strange new way, and worst of all, they’d placed ”Arbor Day” at the end where My Mother The War was supposed to close the album!
By the time 10,000 Maniacs released Our Time In Eden, they had sort of changed into a different group (at least for me)… While I did love the album (and have some terrific live performances from the album, as well), I got a different vibe from the band, there were rumors that Natalie was going to leave the group, and I wasn’t too surprised when they broke up a few years after. From that point, Natalie Merchant would go solo, and the remaining maniacs would bring back original guitarist John Lombardo and his new partner Mary Ramsey as a new 10,000 Maniacs of sorts. Both groups are fine in their own way, and I like that these new ventures are keeping the spirit of the group alive, But for me, the magic time for 10,000 Maniacs was those first few years…that stuff is priceless to me!
If I had to say once and for all which group (of the many, many groups that I love) that I love the most of all, It would have to be THE WHO. No other group has had the profound effect on my life like the works of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.
As a kid, my favorite artist was Paul McCartney and Wings ( first single ever bought: Band On The Run). This led to a love (read: obsession) of the Beatles as well, and by the time I was eight grade, my world was saturated with the lush sounds and melodies of The Fab Four.
This in turn led to an overall hunger for all the “British Invasion” groups, and I remember picking up a few albums of groups like The Rolling Stones,The Yardbirds, The Kinks, and yes, THE WHO. At the time, I was just in love with the Rickenbacker sound and that whole sixties "mod" scene.
Around that time, I had purchased a magazine called Best Of Rock Stars
for a cover story they were featuring on British groups, and while
perusing the issue, came across an article they had done on The Who
called simply, “The Who: Then and Now”. It was your standard
article, covering the basics of The Who with a brief synopsis of their
beginnings and discography, but the thing that really caught my
attention was the PICTURES. I couldn’t believe how COOL this group
looked! They showed The Who from 1964 all the way through 1978, from
Mods, to Hippies and finally to their long-haired bearded hard rocking
70’s look. I was just amazed at the different phases the group went
through, and they looked WAY cool in every variation they undertook!
I mentioned The Who to my friend James, (who was a Beatlemaniac like me) and he offered, “Oh yeah, The Who…they’re alright…Ringo’s in that movie of theirs, “The Kids Are Alright”…” I asked what songs he’d recommend and off the top of his head, he said “Well… there’s “My Generation” …” I made up my mind that the next time I was over at Tower Records, I’d pick up the album of the Who that had My Generation on it.
When
I eventually moseyed on down to the record store, I was disappointed to
discover that the “My Generation” album by the Who was out of print,
and the only way you could get it was by buying a double album set,
featuring both “The Who sings My Generation” and “A Quick One”. Well, I
didn’t feel like springing for a double album, and was deciding what to
do, when I found that the import section of Tower Records had the
British version of My Generation for sale! This was truly destiny, for
the cover for this import edition was Cool, Colorful and VERY MOD, just
the kind of music and style I was really into at the time! I excitedly
bought the LP and spent the whole bus ride home poring over the
pictures of the Who on the cover, and on the back, They looked so cool,
and I was reminded why I was interested in them in the first place!
Riding in my Dad’s car one afternoon, the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” came on. I loved this song, as well as its counterpart Baba O’Riley (although I didn’t know the names of the song at the time) because both of them featured the looping Moog synthesizer organ in the intros. Imagine my surprise when the song ended, and the DJ said “That was “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who!!!” I sat up in shock! This synth-driven Prog-Rock song was the same band that had released My Generation?! Then I thought of The Best of Rock Stars article, and was reminded that The Who ran the entire musical gamut, from wide-eyed mop-headed teens to the stadium giants of the 70’s. This band’s diversity was much, much more vast than I would have imagined, and I knew that I had to investigate further, and so on my next visit to the record store, I immediately snatched up the album featuring both Baba O’Riley and “Won’t Get Fooled Again, the classic Who’s Next.
I don’t think I can say anything about this album that hasn’t already been said a million times over, suffice it to say that it was one of the most incredible albums I’d ever heard, with songs like Baba O Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Bargain, Getting In Tune, and the incredible “Behind Blue Eyes”, every song was just epic in sound and the lyrics just took me away to a futuristic “Teenage Wasteland”! Like most fans, this quickly became my favorite WHO album, and remained such for years, til time eventually turned ALL my Who Discs onto an even playing field of equal appreciation!
By now I had fallen in love with Pete Townshend’s Concept Pieces thanks to Who’s Next, and the natural progression (for me at least) was to move on to the much-celebrated Rock Opera classic Tommy. I remember cutting class one day, going down to the record store and buying the album, and then spending the rest of the day listening to the majestic album and trying to analyze the musical story of Tommy Walker. It just blew me away, and it got to the point where I had created the whole “movie” in my head to accompany the album! For awhile there It was all about TOMMY, and I remember trying to turn many of my friends onto it, especially songs like “Go To The Mirror” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. Come to think of it, I DID convince them to buy one or two WHO albums, at that!
Around the time I got around to finally purchasing the two double albums featuring (respectively) My Generation / Magic Bus and A Quick One / The Who Sell Out, a wonderful, wonderful thing happened. I found out that a community college was going to have a showing of The Kids Are Alright,
the must-see movie for any fan of the Who! The only problem was that
the college was practically on the other side of the island, easily a
two-hour bus ride with a transfer in town and add in that I knew
absolutely NOTHING about exactly WHERE this school was, it promised to
be quite a trek! I asked my good friend Jas if he would mind
accompanying me on my journey to see the Holy Grail for Who fans, and,
trooper that he is, said, “Sure”. By the time we got there, it was
almost time for the show to start. I’ll never forget that feeling, of
being in this huge, empty college during sunset-time, excited beyond
belief waiting for that show to start!
From the opening scene where Keith detonates his Drum Kit on the Smothers Brothers during a performance of “My Generation” through the historical Woodstock appearance to the sensational “A Quick One” on Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus ,the shattering Monterey Pop performance and ending with Keith’s very last live performance onstage with “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, there was never a moment to catch your breath!
Well, the next few months was spent in a WHO frenzy, with me attempting to acquire all the albums in The Who’s catalog, The Who By Numbers, Live At Leeds, Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy, Who Are You, and even Face Dances, scouring the imports section for discs like Story of The Who and Perfect Collection, even poring through the used record shops for the LPs that were out of print, like The Who Sings My Generation, Sell Out, Magic Bus, Happy Jack and (strangely hard to find) Odds And Sods. Eventually I had a pretty nice collection of WHO releases, but the “Hardcore Collecting” was still to come!
That Summer of 1982, I was with my family at an electronics store so my brother could look at stereo equipment. I was wandering around, when I came upon a display of Gene Kelly promoting a new video format that had just come out, a system called a Videodisc. They were displaying a few players, and had a few rows of Videodiscs to choose from. And right there on a spindle rack, right in front of my eyes, sat the Holy Grail:
I couldn’t believe it! There is was, The fr*cking Kids Are Alright, for chrissakes! I remember standing there, holding the videodisc in my hands, thinking “The price tag for this is around $25 which I think I can handle, but I don’t have a Videodisc Player! How The HECK am I ever gonna watch this?” It didn't matter- I was sure I was gonna buy the disc even if I couldn't play it, simply so I could OWN it!
But then my parents came to my rescue and made a deal with me- If I
bought the disc myself, they’d buy the Player for me…DEAL! And so I
walked out of there with Player and Video in hand, and that was the
beginning of my “Summer Of The Who”. For the next two months
straight, I watched that damn disc almost EVERY DAY, and sometimes even
TWICE! This is no joke, as my poor suffering siblings can attest. Every
person living in that house got to know The Who’s songs as well as me,
and every friend I had was forced to watch the disc with me, This was
quite simply The Most Obsessive thing I’ve ever been obsessed with, and brother, that’s saying a lot.
I was now clearly into maniac fan territory, and having completed all
the domestic albums I could, began my next level of collecting, the
obscure (and oblique!) releases of the Who. Through a mail-order
catalog I acquired a bunch of great WHO books, including the WHO
collecting Bible, a book called “The Illustrated Discography” by Ed
Hanel. This book listed ALL the Who releases, including pictures of the
covers, I got to know all the US releases, all the UK releases, all
the singles, and it was through this book that I discovered the
wonderful world of WHO Bootlegs. With Its strange titles and beautiful
covers, these albums became the new things to set my eyes on.
The “Summer Of the Who” only got better as the band released their tenth studio album, an angst filled rocker called It’s Hard! There is something about any new album that comes out by a band when you are frothing at the mouth high on fandom, and I really took that album to heart! Listening to it every night, it became the unofficial soundtrack to that summer, and despite what people may say about It’s Hard, it remains a top-notch album in MY book!
the nights we spent apart alone,
I need to get back home to cool, cool rain
I can’t sleep and I lay and I think…the night is hot and black as ink
Oh God, I need a drink of cool, cool rain…”
I
remember it was at that exact moment It really hit me. I said to
myself: “ I AM SEEING THE WHO WITH MY OWN EYES! AFTER ALMOST 25 YEARS,
I AM WATCHING ROGER DALTREY SING AND PETE TOWNSHEND PLAY THE GUITAR, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!”
It was the “At Last, Now I Can Die In Peace!” Moment!
We are now in 2007 and I’m still over here in WHO land, enjoying The Who’s Endless Wire
CD, still taking in the majesty that is The Who. While the days of
Bookstore hunting are probably behind me, It seems like the fan in me
will always be here, ready for the latest Who album to lift me up! Long
Live The Who!
• • • • • • • • • • • •
MY WHO COLLECTION!
here's what still exists of my fragmented WHO collection.
Who CD's
Videodisc / Laserdisc / VHS
DVD
Books
Magazines
Whew! I think that does it!
• • • • • • • • • • • •
but all of them represent the best of what I consider The Who “Sound”…
Notice how different the group sounds from album to album...this was a group that was constantly evolving!
“Faith In Something Bigger”
“Getting In Tune”
“Instant Party (Circles)”
“We’re Not Gonna Take It”
I Can’t Explain
Baba O’Riley
Young Man Blues
See Me Feel Me
• • • • • • • • • • • •
A year or so ago, a quirky pop chanteuse named Petra Haden released what must be one of the most unusual and interesting WHO tributes of them all, by recording the entire “Who Sell Out” album completely accapella, with her vocals supplying the guitars, bass lines, drums and effects! If it wasn’t enough how talented she is here, even more importantly is her great attention to the details in the WHO songs, you can tell she loves them as much as we do! Here’s an incredible clip of her in concert performing her own variation of “I Can See For Miles”…
Okay, Okay, I know that after watching Petra’s version, you’'ll want to check out the original Who version, right? Here’s the psychedelic flower power promotional video with clips from a performance on the Smothers Brothers show!
I’ve always liked the 5th Dimension’s easygoing style of Pop. To me they had the same sound that The Carpenters and The Association had, lush arrangements and beautiful harmonies that evoked images of life in California in the late sixties / early seventies.
I enjoyed listening to their earlier pop tunes as well as their more soulful later singles, but it wasn’t until 1985, when American Bandstand aired an Anniversary Special that I stood up and really took notice of the awesome vocal group.
The AB show featuring clips from the many, many artists and groups that appeared on the show during its long television run, and I have to say it was REALLY interesting to see the gamut of groups and styles that had graced the stages of the show over the years.
So anyway there I was watching the show, and somewhere between Martha & The Vandellas and the O’Jays, I saw a performance of The 5th Dimension singing “Up, Up and Away”. Now, this was a song I had known practically all my life, and I can even remember watching the Muppets singing it on Sesame Street (!), but this was the first time I really paid attention to it - This is in no small part due to the fact that I was taken aback by how GREAT the group looked performing it! They were outfitted in pretty hip sixties outfits, and Marilyn in particular looked just GORGEOUS in a very sexy mod skirt complete with go-go boots! I remember turning to my friend and exclaiming “Whoa! I never knew the Fifth Dimension were so…COOL!”
After that, every time I heard one of their songs on the radio, the image of that smooth group I saw on American Bandstand would appear, and I would love their songs more and more! I eventually broke down and purchased “5th Dimension’s Greatest Hits on Earth” and that’s about where it stood. You see, at that time, most of the other original 5th Dimension titles were out of print, and so I was unable to investigate the group further.
Happily for me and the multitudes of other 5D fans, in 1999, Buddha Records announced that they would be releasing a handful of Fifth Dimension albums out on CD, and to put it mildly, I was beside myself! They released Up, Up and Away, The Magic Garden, Age Of Aquarius, Portrait and Stoned Soul Picnic, and needless to say, I snatched every one of them up! Thus for the first time, I was treated to the full Fifth Dimension experience, and I was blown away, every album was SO GOOD!
Also around this time, Ed Sullivan released a boxed Set of Music Performances from his infamous show, and I was treated with several terrific songs from the 5D! Besides Up, Up and Away and Age Of Aquarius, I also got to see an incredible performance of “One Less Bell To Answer”...
In the meantime, enjoy some of my favorite 5th Dimension tunes…
Another listen to their previous albums - beginning with the last two, the superb A Kind Of Hush and the sublime Horizon, then continuing all the way back to their debut LP, Ticket To Ride - will reinforce the conclusion that Karen and Richard's records have of course always had the qualities listed above, combined with impeccable taste and a quality of production that made their work a standard against which to measure that of their contemporaries. Taken as a whole, the Carpenters' recorded output makes up an oeuvre in which all pieces fit, in which daring adventurousness and taste have equal place.
Be that as it may ...
This is STILL the most daring, innovative, surprising, serendipitous and satisfying Carpenters album yet."
The first Carpenters album I ever bought with my own money was The Singles 1969-1973. I remember making my friends listen to it every day after school! But it wasn’t until a bit later that my interest in them turned into a full-blown obsession!
It was only after years of collecting all things Carpenters that I realized two things : One: Passage was one of my favorite albums by The Carpenters, and Two: It didn’t really seem to be anyone ELSE’S favorite!
Strictly speaking, my two favorite albums by The Carpenters are “a Song For You”, and “Passage”… While “Song” is rightly hailed as the great album it is (even getting the Mobile Fidelity “Gold Disc” treatment), Passage seems to remain largely unknown to the general public.
In fact, I remember one day talking to a fellow employee at Tower Records about Passage, and when he didn’t know what album I was talking about, we went to look for it, only to find out that PASSAGE had been discontinued! ☹
At some point the CD was re-released and remastered along with most of their other albums, but even THAT version is currently unavailable, and that is a real shame -
To me, PASSAGE is the dividing album that marked the end of the 70’s “Pop Icon” Carpenters and the beginning of the “Adult Contemporary” Carpenters that appeared next on the “Made In America” LP. There is no other album like PASSAGE in their catalog, and it remains one of my favorite albums to this day!
1. B'wana She No Home
From the opening tune, you knew you were in for “something completely different” ! This rocking South African flavored song was unlike ANYTHING the Carpenters had done before…low, growly voices from Karen and a jazzy sax & flute accompaniment by Tom Scott!
Lots of Carpenters fans have expressed a dislike of this song, but I liked it tremendously from the first time I heard it, and have only grown to love it more!
2. All You Get From Love Is A Love Song
When I was growing up, my mother was a HUGE fan of the Carpenters and most of the early songs I learned listening to her singles, but this was the first single I liked by them on my own. Whenever the song played on our tinny old AM car radio, I remember always quietly sitting there listening intently to the tune, the chorus was so catchy!
“It’s such a dirty old shame when all you get from love is a love song…”
3. I Just Fall In Love Again
One of only two songs on this album that sound like ‘traditional” Carpenters fare!
Also done by Anne “Snowbird” Murray in ‘79.
4. On The Balcony Of The Casa Rosada / Don't Cry For Me Argentina
When I first heard this song, I expected to be bored out of my skull listening to it - but surprisingly, I really took to it, and would always find myself singing along to the song.
I didn’t realize how much I liked the Carpenters version of this song until Madonna went through her “Evita” phase and I had to listen to HER version all the time in the record store! Only then did I realize how honest and pure Karen’s take had been!
5. Sweet, Sweet Smile
Carpenters enter the Country charts with this catchy Juice ”Queen Of Hearts” Newton song! Another song I love to blast and sing along to!
6. Two Sides
The only other song on “Passage” that sounds like “Traditional” Carpenters fare…in fact, this song sounds like it would fit right in with the playlist of the HORIZON album.
7. Man Smart, Woman Smarter
Zany Harry Belafonte song made even zanier by Richard’s arrangement.
I always get the vision of a band of monkeys and birds playing the music in this song.
Beginning with them playing their jungle whistles and flutes, and ending with the animals forming a noisy parade as the song fades out segueing into…
8. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
(The Recognized Anthem Of World-Contact Day)
While this is surely the wackiest song The Carpenters ever recorded, at the same time, I feel this is one of the best produced and arranged tracks they’ve ever put to disc!
Originally written and recorded by the group KLAATU only a few months earlier, Richard took the song and gave it the Carpenters treatment, and what resulted was what I consider their finest album-closer of them all!
Calling Occupants.
Listening to it now, it is hard to believe this song ever made it to the radio! And yet, it DID, even making Top 40 on the US charts! Even as a kid, the song was funny, and yet, it never failed to captivate me whenever it was on.
I know that it is hard to believe NOW, but I remember that back in the 70’s (what with 2001, Star Trek and Star Wars) there really was this feeling like Earth was on the verge of making contact with extraterrestrial beings, and I’ve always loved that the song proclaimed itself “The Recognized Anthem Of World-Contact Day”!
My obsession with the song.
When I finally got my hands on a copy of PASSAGE, I hadn’t heard “Occupants” in years, but listening to it again, I was blown away by how WELL the song was done. This was no jokey-silly song, SERIOUS production went into crafting this tune, and the more I listened to it, the more I picked things out that really made the song special to me…. I cannot put enough emphasis on how WELL this song has been arranged! EVERY single verse has some kind of embellishment that adds to the song’s overall impact…at least to MY obsessive perception!
The production is so melodramatic and overblown, I think people might have perceived it as a bit contemptuous if it wasn’t for the fact that they introduced the song with Carpenters lead guitarist Tony Peluso as a wackily befuddled Radio DJ conferring with the “listeners” before launching into the majesty that IS “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft”!
[The song starts out with Karen’s lone voice gently singing with Richard’s keyboards softly backing her up. She sounds like she is in the middle of a field or on the top of a mountain (and in fact, the original KLAATU version has the sound of someone walking through grass before the song starts) staring into the sky, letting us in on a little secret:]
In your mind, you have capacities, you know,
To telepath messages through the vast unknown.
Please close your eyes and concentrate with every thought you think…
Upon the recitation we’re about to SING….
[at this point , the piano chord strikes down, to give attention to the message:]
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft…
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary most extraordinary craft!
[The effect here is great…you can feel Karen’s voice projecting into the huge empty vastness of the sky…then the song kicks in!]
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary most extraordinary Craft
[Then Karen in a dreamy wistful voice sings out:]
You’ve been observing our earth,
And we’d like to make a contact with you…
[then they say the simplest message they can give:]
“We Are Your Friends.”
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary ultra-emmisaries!
[here with distorted voice, Richard acts out an alien voice responding back:]
“We’ve been observing your earth…and one night, we’ll make a contact with you.”
“We are your Friends”
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary quite extraordinary craft!
[Then the bridge, and the music turns fanciful as Karen and Richard start playfully adding more and more requests to the message!]
And please come in peace, we beseech you!
Only a landing will teach them
Our earth may never survive - so do come, we beg you!
Please, interstellar policeman!
Won’t you give us a sign (give us a sign) that we’ve reached you?
Oh!
{then the music has this inquisitive sound to it, as if the message is going out into the vast space, around planets and beyond, before the piano pounds back in and leads us to a huge crescendo, until the music cuts back…and suddenly, we’re back on that mountain top, alone with Karen again.]
With your mind, you have ability to form
and transmit thought energy far beyond the norm
[here, a fanfare type of music starts playing in the background, as she reiterates:]
You close your eyes, you concentrate, together, that’s the way!
To send the message:
“WE DECLARE WORLD-CONTACT DAY”
[then the music comes in full, with Tony Peluso’s awesome guitar zooming in to strengthen the passage…]
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary most-extraordinary craft!
[I love this part…first Richard’s lone voice singing:]
Aa-a-ah-ah…
[then Karen comes in:]
AA A AH AH!
[This seems to be demonstrating how one lone voice can become powerful and strong when we all take the time to concentrate the message together!]
Ahhhh Ah Ah Ahhhhhh….
Calling Occupants
Calling Occupants
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary anti-adversary craft!
[Then the patriotic music swells up, as if to say we ALL stand together to represent Planet Earth!]
[Then they fade out with the symphony blaring and the choir singing out,
as Karen leaves us again with the single most important message we can send:]
“We are Your Friends”
* * * * * * * * *
One of the most cherished artists in my collection.
I’m writing about them because I feel even now they’ve gone severely unnoticed in music, even though the sound, style and arrangements October Project was honing back in 1993 can be heard in a lot of current artists out now who are enjoying great respect and success today. It’s time to give October Project props for being the musical visionaries they are! ☺
October Project never got a lot of airtime on the radio or MTV / VH-1 style shows. Their live TV performances were few and far between, and there really weren’t a lot of places October Project could connect with people who might dig their style of music. In fact, if not for a chance listen to their debut CD, I might never have discovered them myself!
Ironically enough, the first time I ever heard October Project WAS in October. I’d walked down to my local Tower Records store, and the brisk weather really had me in the Halloween mood. After perusing the singles and latest video releases, I moseyed on to the Tower Records Listening Station. This was back when there were only four or five stations unlike the scan and listen machines record stores have now. Anyway, on one of the listening stations, there was a CD with a vintage-looking Halloween cover on it. The artists proclaimed themselves “October Project”. This piqued my curiosity! What WAS this group about? Did they sing Halloween songs? So I put on the earphones and gave a listen to the first song…
The song was “Bury My Lovely”. Even today I can’t fully describe what it was like hearing them for the first time. The haunting piano opening and that mysterious operatic voice just hit me at once. Then the band kicked in with drums, keyboards and a swelling vocal chorus…! It was the most haunting, lonesome song I had ever heard! I listened to a few other songs, wondering just who these people were. I guessed they must be chamber music vocalists like CLANNAD. The back cover gave no clue as to who they were, and I surmised they were a Classical group compromised of opera singers or something!
I went home that night but couldn’t get Bury My Lovely out of my head. The next night I went back to listen to the tracks again, and made up my mind to purchase the CD that night! Even though I believed the songs were recorded by a bunch of 60-year-old singers... I DIDN”T CARE! I went home and I remember sitting in my room, listening to the CD, and feeling like I was in another time. I felt like I was listening to vintage fairy-tale music- (albeit vintage fairy tale music with rocking drums and guitar!) and those haunting vocals sounded both bohemian and gothic all at the same time!…OK, OK…I know all of this sound ridiculously sappy and corny and a bit Foo-Foo… but like I said, It is impossible for me to describe the effect October Project had for me. I’m trying to put feelings into words, and they’re coming out quite corny indeed!
Another thing… When I finally got the CD, the booklet inside wasn’t any help shedding light upon the mystery that was October Project. The pictures of the members were all blurry, and taken in that same vintage style. So even then I couldn’t tell what kind of people they were. Even worse, they seemed to have different credits for the performing musicians onstage and on the album! I was utterly baffled. This was before anyone heard of Google or Wikipedia - there just wasn’t any way to get info about them.
I found out later that I wasn’t alone in this confusion. Reviewers actually say that this could be the reason October Project never made it big…they were uncategorizable: They sounded like a mix of Gothic, Chamber Music, New Age and Rock all together, and their anonymity made it even harder for fans to associate with them. Remember, even I thought I was listening to a bunch of Older People!
Anyway, so the CD got put into my collection, and every time I felt like relaxing with dreamy atmospheric music, I would put it on. And every time I would listen to the music, I would fall in love with them all over again.
A few years later, I was now WORKING at Tower, and one night I happened to see buried in the stack of new releases a NEW October Project CD, a nicely packaged album titled “Falling Farther In”.
I remember being quite surprised to see a new release from them because since I hadn’t heard anything about them, I had convinced myself that the first CD was a one-shot album made up of session vocalists.
So I bought the CD and after a few listens, promptly got right back into being obsessed with October Project. What a terrific album! Then of Coure I had to break out my first album...just great! Every time I would listen to the CDs, I would remember how much I loved them.
One great thing about "Falling Farther In" was that they finally got around to shooting proper pictures of the band in the CD booklet… I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were ALL young, hip, and extremely cool artists! Like their music, the look of the band reflected Folk, San Francisco rock, Goth, Vocals and World music all at once! And this time, hunting on the Internet brought some success, and I was able to find a few bits of information out there about my beloved group. I was even able to read reviews of concerts and the current events surrounding the band...(Special mention to Alan, a true OP guru) I was totally hooked on them again!
Sadly, this would be the last album that October Project released. Soon after the release of Falling Farther In,
Sony/ Epic would drop the group, right in the midst of a tour!
Please lend an ear to these wonderful songs…who knows? You may end up loving them as much as I, and it all started for me with a simple listen…
Mary Fahl: Vocals
Marina Belica: Vocals/Keyboards
Emil Adler: Vocals/Keyboards
David Sabatino: Guitar/Vocals
Urbano Sanchez: Drums/Percussion
Julie Flanders: Lyrics
The first Moody Blues album I ever owned was the amazing Long Distance Voyager, featuring the rocker “The Voice”. A friend of mine saw this interest I had with the group, and turned me onto the Moody Blues double album anthology “This Is The Moody Blues”. This album covered the Moody Blues’ first seven albums, from "Days of Future Passed" to "Seventh Sojourn". At the time I dug it for the songs you’d expect the casual Moodies fan to like: “Nights In White Satin”, “Tuesday Afternoon”, and “The Question” among others.
But once I started listening to the entire anthology as a whole, I began to realize that EVERY song on the album was great. Great enough that I was curious as to what the individual albums themselves might hold! So I took the leap into the “classic” Moody Blues catalog, and I’ve been a MAJOR fan ever since!
I love everything the group’s done, from “Days Of Future Passed” through “Octave” to “Strange Times”, but my hands down favorite album of all is their incredible “To Our Children’s Children’s Children”.
This was the Moody Blues’ fourth album proper, and although ALL Moodies Albums have some kind of theme, this seems to be the most cohesive as a concept album. This album was released in1969, right as mankind had just set foot on the moon, and this album reflects the wonder and excitement of the amazing “leap for mankind”.
The album opens with the thundering sound of a rocket taking off, leading us into the song “Higher and Higher”, about the amazing opportunities technology can take us. "Man with his flaming pyre has conquered the wayward breezes!"
Then off into “Eyes of A Child”, reflecting how small man is when thrust into the vastness of outer space. Then some fun moon dancing on the song “Floating” before the ultimate light-speed instrumental “Beyond”… Whenever I hear this song, I always get the rush of flying through space! This was terrific to hear for the first time in its entirety because on "This Is The Moody Blues", it was played only as a backing track to the poem "Om".
For some reason, probably my favorite song here is Mike Pinder's “Sun is Still Shining”, a sitar-driven groover singing about enjoying life in outer space rather than being stuck bored at home on Earth. A cool song!
The second half of the album sees the Moody Blues getting quite philosophical with songs like “Gypsy”, ”Eternity Road” “Candle of Life” and the song Justin Hayward labeled the worthy successor to Nights In White Satin, “Watching and Waiting”.
I remember when I first heard “Gypsy”, I thought it was about real gypsies moving from town to town, always looking for a place to call home. Then one day I realized it was about how in the future we will be constantly travelling to find new planets to colonize.
And with “Eternity Road”, I’d always imagined some Biblical road that led to the Pearly Gates, but upon closer listening, I realized they were singing about how space exploration is limitless in the infinite universe.
Then there’s the epic “Watching and Waiting”. MAN, this is an awesome song. There was this great book writer George Gaylord Simpson penned called “The Dechronization of Sam MacGruder”.
This novel was about a scientist who time-slipped back to the prehistoric age, and spent the rest of his life alone, knowing it would be millions of years before the creatures populating Earth would evolve into mankind…this song really seems to fit the theme of this story…It’s like Adam being born into a perfect planet, waiting for someone to share and appreciate life with him. An incredible closer to the album.
Here are a few cuts off of this fantastic album to lend an ear to.
Justin Hayward: Vocals /Guitar
John Lodge: Vocals / Bass
Ray Thomas: Vocals / Flute,Wind Instruments
Mike Pinder: Vocals / Keyboards
Graeme Edge: Drums and Percussion
The Moody Blues semi-miming the song "Gypsy" to a French audience.
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