|
Post by riggers on Feb 22, 2023 11:24:12 GMT
1975
Mostly recorded the previous year, the album of which this is the title track, with Spector at the helm, was held back and finished off in '75. A monumental set of songs, this opens proceedings nicely. Not a lot more to say, limited time and that but...what a record.
|
|
loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,815
|
Post by loveless on Feb 22, 2023 12:02:07 GMT
OK fine. 1975: The shifting pov. The shift from narrator to narrator (further expanded on live). And one of his best singing performances. Where the "Great American Song Tradition" and the hyperpersonal singer/songwriter one meet on a back road. This was a hit single. So expanded were the possibilities in 1975 that something like this could be a hit. The album, the track, the unexpected return to form. There's a lot going on here. Each verse offers a lot to dig into, an abnormally picturesque series of vignettes. Never was I so disappointed as to find that my long held "We split up on the docks at night" (stoically sad, but...again, evocative as anything) was actually "We split up on a dark, sad night" (not meaningless, but somehow less satisfying to me). He's in a dense, almost impenetrable period for many years prior, IMO, and...he comes blazing back with BOTT. To say nothing of "Idiot Wind". I feel like I'm definitely having a drastically different 1975 experience than a lot of folks. Punk IS going to happen (is happening), post-punk as well, and there will be plenty of attendant magic, but...by no means do I look at this year and feel as if I'm WAITING AROUND for it to happen. Some of the more (I dunno) "establishment acts" like Dylan, Elton, Neil, Bruce, Zeppelin, Joni, Bowie (fucking "Fame"!), Bee Gees, certain ex-Beatles are digging in pretty hard to some rep-making magic (songs that I still get a hell of a thrill from), and...in the world of pop (ephemeral as it may be), there's assuredly no shortage of solid gold powerhouse AM radio magic (I know no one is going to pick the kitchen sink pocket symphony drama of "SOS" on the heels of John's inspired 74 nomination of the comparatively high energy "Waterloo", but..."SOS" is objectively nothing to fuck with). The type of soul/funk I was now old enough to recognize on the ubiquitous radio? Yeah, that too. I'll throw some classics down in my "Contenders" post when we move on en masse, lest I muddy the current waters.
|
|
|
Post by DarknessFish on Feb 22, 2023 12:46:13 GMT
My problem with reggae, I think, is that it just seems to have lost the sheer joie de vivre in the move from ska and rocksteady. I normally dismiss it as too formulaic, but I'm not sure that isn't also a valid criticism of ska. For me it doesn't really capture that kind of spirit again until it gets to the mid 80s and the heap and cheerful energy of the likes of Barrington Levy. What about dub? Dub doesn't do it for me at all. I recognise the influence on a lot of music I listen to. But I just find it largely austere, and alienating in some way.
|
|
|
Post by tory on Feb 22, 2023 21:08:52 GMT
I'm a late convert to Dylan. His whole aesthetic totally passed me by; the voice, the sound etc. Then I head BOTT about 10 years ago, liked it but did not pursue it. About two years ago Tangled Up In Blue hit me like a thunderbolt.
|
|
|
Post by tory on Feb 22, 2023 21:17:06 GMT
1975
You can't really intellectualise Neu! in any way. What is there to talk about? E-Musik just a primal release of energy; the aural equivalent of jumping around after you've scored a diving header down the park. There's something delightfully innocent about it.
My late friend Peter and I once took ourselves down to a rain-smeared Dungeness and listened to this in the carpark. It was relentlessly bleak outside; the English Channel was blowing as hard as I can remember and apart from the power station and bleak little pub where sphincter-eyed denizens of New Romney would huddle around soapy pints of Directors, there was little, if anything to do. We sat back in the car and just let this and the whole album assail us. It just felt perfect.
|
|
rayge
Administrator
Invisible
Posts: 8,825
|
Post by rayge on Feb 24, 2023 15:05:51 GMT
From adam at the SS
|
|
|
Post by Stacy Heydon on Feb 24, 2023 21:26:51 GMT
Adam's 75 pick
|
|
|
Post by osgood on Feb 24, 2023 21:43:43 GMT
Released in 1974, I'm afraid.
|
|
|
Post by Stacy Heydon on Feb 25, 2023 15:12:02 GMT
Released in 1974, I'm afraid. Thanks -I'll tell him. He won't be happy, as I've already disallowed his James Brown "Payback" nomination!
|
|
|
Post by Stacy Heydon on Feb 25, 2023 15:25:09 GMT
He took it reasonably well.. "oh ffs! the amount of pedantry is starting to get on my tits..
i can see that it was released in november 74, but it certainly didn't hit until 75.
scratch it anyway and substitute it for 'she does it right', which i love equally and definitely was released as a single in 75.
and while you're at it ray, please convey my displeasure to oz for not including a single spanish song thus far.
he should be bloody ashamed of himself."
..but you may have to reacquaint yourself with the Los Bravos catalogue to win yourself back in Adam's good book. Anyway this is replacement.
|
|
|
Post by osgood on Feb 25, 2023 21:39:04 GMT
Some possible candidates for 66 and 67 could have been considered (Bravos, Brincos and maybe others) but no way they could replace my picks, Reach Out and Waterloo Sunset. I might consider changing my 68 pick, Eloise, a song I dearly love, though I seem to be on my own...
|
|
|
Post by Stacy Heydon on Feb 25, 2023 22:00:33 GMT
I might consider changing my 68 pick, Eloise, a song I dearly love, though I seem to be on my own... I'm a big fan of that song, as is JC.
|
|
|
Post by osgood on Feb 26, 2023 19:18:53 GMT
I'll post some 60s and 70s Spanish stuff on the contenders thread, I'll probably pick something for the canon from the early 80s, the best period for Spanish pop.
|
|
|
Post by oh oooh on May 2, 2023 18:25:01 GMT
I recorded a version of this within the past few years - I'm on bass, and the singer/guitarist/bandleader chose the material. I'm proud of what we made of it (generally, our modus operandi was to avoid exposure to the known recordings and treat these as our new songs), but...once our record was out, I heard Flack's canonical arrangement on the radio (as the number one record on the re-broadcast American Top 40), and was utterly moved by the ballsy minimalism of the track. It's...BOLDLY "no extra shit", and...the power that I derive from that treatment is major. And...you know, it's nice to think that a record that barren and "essentials only" made it to number one. Notice that it was all-but entirely excised from oldies radio formats. Whatever moment we were in in 1972 (when it finally became a hit), that moment is long gone now. Generally when I talk about this one, I talk about the tempo. The way it just seems to stop time. I don’t think that the radio or the Sirius XM folks actually want that. But as a kid, there was something epic and dreamy about a record like this. My attention would drift in and out of it. It felt like a constant that I could always return to. I’d love to hear your version. It’s a great song, so I’m sure that you made something beautiful out of it. But yeah - this is my favorite record in the world. The room sound. Ron Carter’s bass sound. Roberta Flack’s quiet strength and vulnerability. It’s perfect. I heard this today and time stopped still for me too. I did a search for the song because I wanted to see if we'd ever talked about it. It really is the most beautiful thing. I don't know if I even feel it as music. It's a universal sentiment perfectly expressed as a personal moment. I had tears in my eyes, it's so incredibly moving. My dad was a big fan - he couldn't hold a tune in a bucket but he loved this one. I can see why. I think the tears were for him too - we never really got on, and I didn't share his love for this, and now I do, and he's not around. So it goes, eh?
|
|
toomanyhatz
god
I've met him/her. He/she's great!!
Posts: 3,243
|
Post by toomanyhatz on May 2, 2023 18:30:03 GMT
Damn, that got me right in the feels.
It really is a spectacular record. And it couldn't have happened if not for everybody involved being totally 'in the moment.' After it was a huge hit they started to think about how to present her as an artist. But holy accidents can rarely be reproduced.
|
|