When I consider just what it is that separates all the greats from the also-rans, I hope to look past the notion that luck is the major contributor. We make our own circumstances just as those situations we put ourselves define how we shall act.
Let's talk about Wonderwall Music, considered by many to be the first "Solo" Beatles album.
George Harrison was asked to score the soundtrack for a film that centers around a man's fixation with a couple who live in the flat next door that he can view through a hole in the wall.
The result is a sort of zygote of what would come to fruition on his future contributions to both The Beatles and in his impressive solo career. You can sense that Harrison lacked a proper outlet for his ideas, being that the Lennon-McCartney hegemony relegated him to outsider status when it came to what actually got released as Beatles tracks. Harrison has always been tabbed as a series of contradictions; the most spiritual, but (I'm not quite sure how one might go about measuring the egos of the biggest names in Pop music history, but I'll just say it for the sake of sounding academic) the most egotistical, and perhaps material member of the group.
I mentioned in my last post that this album dropped in 1968, a great year to go unheard with the abundance of great releases. This album is particularly obscure in the sense that Harrison does not actually play on a single track, rather, a mixed bag of Indian and British session musicians play his arrangements.
There are some very interesting tracks that manage to successfully blend the two unique sounds, but in comparison with tracks like "Within You Without You" and "Love You Too", there is nothing particularly groundbreaking going on here. That said, the musicianship is absolutely splendid.
You can find a high quality copy here.
Love you all.
2008/07/08
Secret Sauce
Jesus Christ is our lord and savior. If I write this and, I die, will you think I was a religious man?
I'm worried about the potential to not be taken seriously, because people can't take a joke.
It's kind of hard to listen to frank Zappa, that is to say, it's not as easy as listening to Neil Young, or what, my favorite A Tribe Called Quest beats. It's not the weirdest music I have, but it's pretty weird.
Is 1968 an important year to me? Let's take a look at the months first:
January: Alexander Dubček was elected President of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. (The events that followed led to what scholars refer to, in this day and age, as the Prague Spring)
February: Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Probably more places than this, but these were big Public Universities of high academic prestige)
March: Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah. (SLC Punk was born five days later)
April: Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain. (Oh Clovis, we'll always remember you for being able to commandeer those fancy roads of the greater Paris metropolitan area)
May: "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government. (Bernardo Bertolluci employs this as the backdrop to his film The Dreamers)
June: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured. (While probably had to an asado a huge group of fans headed for a blocked exit, and the numbers kind of speak for themselves)
July: Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control. Many American Catholics defy it. (This of course is to not be confused with the popular beverage bottled by The Glaçeau Company, Vitamin Water)
August: France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power. (Remember May 1968? You better, because it officially became a distant memory when the central government got a nuke.)
September: A 13 year-old Trudy Sugiura, may have heard Ry Cooder's handy mandolin playing on the Rolling Stones record, Let it Bleed. (See Relevant Albums)
October: Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country. (Los Angeles County Police would forever feel shame for assuming that Rodney King was this very Jamaican expatriot)
November:The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score two late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest. (How are blogs affecting journalistic integrity? What about Bob?)
December: Mao Zedong advocates educated youth in urban China to be re-educated in the country. It marks the start of the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement. (Chinese Success explained in layman's terms?)
Musical Highlights from z-O:
The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle probably obscure because of the poor spelling by a graphic designer friend of the band. (I don't understand why anyone would want to see a 61 year-old Colin Blunstone crooning numbers like or
Blood Sweat & Tears debuted with Child is The Father to the Man
Creedence Clearwater Revival dropped a s/t album.
George Harrison released the Wonderwall original soundtrack.
Otis Redding releases Dock of the Bay and Macon, Georgia is on the map baby!
I'm worried about the potential to not be taken seriously, because people can't take a joke.
It's kind of hard to listen to frank Zappa, that is to say, it's not as easy as listening to Neil Young, or what, my favorite A Tribe Called Quest beats. It's not the weirdest music I have, but it's pretty weird.
Is 1968 an important year to me? Let's take a look at the months first:
January: Alexander Dubček was elected President of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. (The events that followed led to what scholars refer to, in this day and age, as the Prague Spring)
February: Civil rights disturbances occur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Probably more places than this, but these were big Public Universities of high academic prestige)
March: Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah. (SLC Punk was born five days later)
April: Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain. (Oh Clovis, we'll always remember you for being able to commandeer those fancy roads of the greater Paris metropolitan area)
May: "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government. (Bernardo Bertolluci employs this as the backdrop to his film The Dreamers)
June: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured. (While probably had to an asado a huge group of fans headed for a blocked exit, and the numbers kind of speak for themselves)
July: Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control. Many American Catholics defy it. (This of course is to not be confused with the popular beverage bottled by The Glaçeau Company, Vitamin Water)
August: France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power. (Remember May 1968? You better, because it officially became a distant memory when the central government got a nuke.)
September: A 13 year-old Trudy Sugiura, may have heard Ry Cooder's handy mandolin playing on the Rolling Stones record, Let it Bleed. (See Relevant Albums)
October: Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country. (Los Angeles County Police would forever feel shame for assuming that Rodney King was this very Jamaican expatriot)
November:The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score two late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest. (How are blogs affecting journalistic integrity? What about Bob?)
December: Mao Zedong advocates educated youth in urban China to be re-educated in the country. It marks the start of the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement. (Chinese Success explained in layman's terms?)
Musical Highlights from z-O:
The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle probably obscure because of the poor spelling by a graphic designer friend of the band. (I don't understand why anyone would want to see a 61 year-old Colin Blunstone crooning numbers like or 
Blood Sweat & Tears debuted with Child is The Father to the Man
Creedence Clearwater Revival dropped a s/t album.
George Harrison released the Wonderwall original soundtrack.
Otis Redding releases Dock of the Bay and Macon, Georgia is on the map baby!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
