The "The Beatles Ramble", Pt. 1.

A lot of the time I think that bands and artists that are supposed to be 'the best' are overhyped and not quite as good as people make out. Led Zeppelin - overshadowed by other bands of similar line ups, too plagiarist and too pretentious. Bob Dylan - his earlier stuff does very little to me. Red Hot Chili Peppers - again, doesn't do very much for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I think they're BAD, I don't. I love listening to Zeppelin and a lot of Dylan's later stuff, I just think they're overrated. I genuinely don't like RHCP, but that's just how I feel.

But one group I feel actually DOES deserve all the plaudits they get is...The Beatles. There's very little they've musically attempted that hasn't worked. For a band to start off making some of the most popular pop music in history (and for it to actually be musically GOOD - just listen to the harmonies and chord sequences), and move into the slightly folk-influenced Rubber Soul period, the experimental psychedelia of 'Tomorrow Never Knows', Indian influenced music (courtesy of George Harrison - 'Within You and Without You' is a great example), Musique Concrete sound collages (Revolution 9), country, children's songs, seriously hard rock and emotional ballads all in the space of under 10 years is incredible. To understand just how good the Beatles were, just listen to any recording by another band from the 60s. Listen to anything from 1966, then listen to Revolver. It's frightening how far ahead of most other bands they were, both in terms of songwriting and production (George Martin is rightly regarded as one of the best). The only group at the time that could compete on a level footing were the Beach Boys, but after Brian Wilson's breakdown, even they couldn't keep up. Luckily for them, after Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles were in decline. Not much of a decline, but a decline nevertheless.

After they split up, most people look at 'perfect' John Lennon and 'diabolical' Wings, and again we're back to the original problem. Lennon is the perfect Rock martyr: sung about peace and died young. Paul McCartney - who had the audacity to SURVIVE - has curiously (in the eyes of popular culture) managed to produce 20 years of rubbish music. You have to put in some effort to hear George Harrison's solo material, and even more to find Ringo's. I'll touch on George Harrison's albums in the next blog, but I want to look at Paul's second-most-recent album.

Goodness me. All that rambling, and we're only just at the point of this blog. I'm doing well...
Anyway...
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Memory Almost Full - Paul McCartney
In this album, McCartney manages to constantly surprise and mislead the listener. His songwriting ability is incredible, and the touch of class shows in a number of places. The album opens with the light, ukulele driven 'Dance Tonight'. The well-known single, given exposure through iPod adverts and adverts for the album, really sets you up for a lighter more simplistic album. I was actually surprised when 'Ever Present Past' started. A sparse intro but with a driving drumbeat, then the most unexpected melody, it's a real surprise that may take a few listens to properly appreciate. The choruses featuring Paul's falsetto edge towards the overriding feel of the album - more poppy than the previous album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.
Track 4 - Only Mama Knows - is a real highlight of the album. The grinding guitar riffs, Paul's screaming vocals and the George Martin-esque intro and outro give the song a real touch of class and make it enjoyable on any level. It's easy to visualise stadiums jumping about to it. But on another level, the lyrics are really powerful. I don't normally get affected by lyrics, but the bitter, venomous anger in the lyrics is really potent. It's a bit subtle, but if you listen to it, I reckon you'll be blown away.
The flavour of Only Mama Knows is contrasted only a song later with the utterly sublime Mr. Bellamy. Superficially, it's more suited to the West End than a pop album, but it's uncompromising feel and quirky, dark mood really appeals. Very exciting.
The last song I'll go into any detail on is the last one - Nod Your Head. With a wonderfully retro beat and the classic Paul McCartney rock 'n roll screech (think I Saw Her Standing There), it's very easy to just tap your feet and nod your head along to it. Then Paul sings "If you really love me baby, nod your head". Clever sod, it got me. Song craft at its best, methinks.
Finally, just a quick word on a couple of titles. 'Memory Almost Full' and "Mister Bellamy" are eerily constructed anagrams. You can work them out, but they're quite anti-Heather Mills...

Key Tracks
They're all fantastic, but Only Mama Knows, Mr Bellamy and Nod Your Head are the big three. But Ever Present Past, That Was Me and House Of Wax are also wonderful.
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Wow, that took a while. The Beatles bit was a bit of a ramble, I'll admit, but it took so long to write, I don't want to get rid of it.
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The Wicker Man

Just a quick musing today. Caught a glimpse of the soundtrack for the Wicker Man today, and it reminded me of how worth buying it is, and how worth watching the film is. Part of what makes the film so unique effective is the soundtrack. Paul Giovanni took charge of the composition, arrangement and compilation of the soundtrack, which comprises middle-English folk songs, Robert Burns ballads, nursery rhymes and original compositions. It's a textbook example of how to successfully ignore the textbook when it comes to writing a film score. At points, it can make a drive in the car feel sinister. I would advise against playing it in the car if you're driving through some unfamiliar countryside - you will be scared.

The wonderful Corn Rigs and the mighty, climactic Sumer Is A-Cumen In are two highlights, but don't limit yourself to these.

Oh, some comments and followers would be greatly appreciated. It's nice to know you're being recieved. ;)

A little bit later on

OK, a few months after I said I'd start this, comes the first musicy post. Go tthe idea for this one from something F. Zappa said: "Great music is available with NO WORDS at all!". Or something like that. But, I guess you can figure out where this is going. A couple of picks of INSTRUMENTAL music! Don't fall asleep, this stuff is great.

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The Grand Wazoo - Frank Zappa
This WILL NOT become an FZ tribute blog, don't worry, but I do need to start with something, and this was one of the best ideas I had. What appeals to me about this album is that it manages to, in a typically Zappa way, fuse so many genres but mainly rock and jazz while making it sound very good, more than merely 'passable' and can actually stand on its own amoung his more 'celebrated' works without sounding cliched or like 'just another album'. When you hear the words 'rock fused with jazz', the dreadful jazz fusion noises of people trying too hard to be clever. Zappa's Varese influences are also prominent on the album, and do a good job of blurring the jazz and rock boundaries. The result is a beautiful cocktail of genre-defying sound that you'd be hard pushed to compare to anything.

Key Tracks:
As there's only five tracks, it's hard, but the track that sums up the album best, I feel, is "The Grand Wazoo" title track. The easiest to get into is probably the fourth track, "Eat That Question".

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Bitches Brew - Miles Davis
This is a seminal masterpiece. Again, on this album, Miles is never afraid to experiment with different, conventionally 'wrong' time signatures and modal scales. A lot of the album is improvised and uses modal scales to great effect. Along with Zappa, Davis was a master band leader in the studio. His way of working (giving instrumentalists minimal instructions - a tempo, chord progression etc) led to a very tight band operation on the sme wavelength as each other and quickly able to adapt to any changes that Davis indicated. Some of the quieter passages have Davis' instructions (such as 'keep it tight', etc) audible. I love this almost underproduced feel and the real feel of spontanaity on the album

Key Tracks:
Again, very hard to chose from as there's only six of them (and this is a double album!), but the 27-minute title track is a must.

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Obscured By Clouds - Pink Floyd
Today's last selection is not a completely instrumental album, but the non-vocal tracks are superb. There is a higher volume of instrumental tracks as this is effectively a soundtrack album - Pink Floyd had scored music for the french film 'La Valee'. 'Scored' is a bit of a loose term, as, at this point, Floyd were very much into long studio improvisations before Roger Waters took a greater degree of control. Caught in between the landmarks of 'Meddle' and 'Dark Side of the Moon', I feel that Obscured By Clouds is very much a neglected and forgotten album. The album was written during the earlier DSOTM sessions, and is to my mind of very equal quality. Some truly wonderful Pink Floyd improvisation in this album, and an almost out-of-character more rocky feel sets this album apart for me.

Key Tracks:
Obscured By Clouds, When You're In

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Or at least, that's what I feel.

Let's get this started, then...

Music journalists are a bunch of arses, right? They think it's their job to tell you what is good and what is bad, and you're supposed to agree with them, etc etc. Well, that's not what this is for. This quiet little corner of the world wide interweb is just going to be my place to air m views on music. I'll just be telling you what I think. You don't have to subscribe to anything I say, and if you want to comment on any of the articles, feel free. So, mission statement over, let's get down to business.

There's a place for every sort of music in this world. To me, good music is music that manages to move you in some good way. Whether it's a spiritual sort of way, a "how did he write that" kind of way or just a "hey, bangin' tune!" kind of way, if this song moves you, by all means enjoy it! It just so happens that a lot of music, particularly a lot of that released recently, that fails to move me in any way whatsoever. Music means a lot to me, it's my best means of expression, so when mediocrity creeps into my ears, I don't really like it. Actually, I can't say it doesn't move me, it does. It annoys me. So those of you who know me and think I have a narrow, absolute view of what I like and what I don't, you're sort of right. I don't like mediocrity, but what I term to be mediocre is the subject of debate. (Nice and convoluted so far James, keep it going...) Actually, let's start that again.

My musical tastes are very diverse, ranging from The Who, Frank Zappa, Jethro Tull to Faure, Mozart, Beethoven... Each of these artists' work really does something for me, so what I'll try and do - note "try" - is go through pieces and explain why I like them. And I might go into some Lethal Bizzle, Damien Rice and Alexandra Burke and explain why I don't. And I'm not going to insist that my opinion is the truth, because it probably won't be for you.

Hope you understand that better than I do.

So, whaddya say? Let's boogie!