IT'S JUST MUSIC
I thought, y'know, just for the novelty, for the cheap kicks of it all, I'd put rock music on this tape, y'know- songs with lyrics and shit. Not that you'd ever catch me listening to it anymore or anything. Really, I wanted to do y'all a ninety minute comp of hard to find jungle dubplate released on single sided vinyl in editions of five hundred or less within the last two months. I mean, that's where music is at, right ? Hah! - no, that was all bullshit. The reason there's guitars on this tape is that I spit on your Macintosh music and your acid jazz that sounds like a bad funk joke to me. I hate all that soulless crap churned out by zombies who don't even know the chords to Roadrunner or Sweet Jane for chrissakes. Frankly I hope the next outbreak of ebola takes place in the Temple of Sound, real soon now. But to get back to the tape.
In the beginning there was the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan and the Byrds and a small mountain of drugs. Afterwards there was a couple of corpses, a lot of bumouts and rock music. I'm so tired demonstrates that John Lennon could crap better songs than most, even when he was tossing off some filler tracks for a parltry double album. The byrds gave up their improvised '8 miles high is about a plane journey' stance to embrace whitepowder rush on 'Artificial Energy' - and can be held single handily to blame for the Boo Radleys obsession with trumpets. 'Wild Horses' is the stones in vintage coked out immaculately wasted form while it would take Bob Dylan to assemble a band of crack session men and make them sound like a crew of bums who just walked in off the street ( sound later popularised by Pavement et al ). The Box Tops were Alex Chilton in pre-big Star days making inside efforts to sound like a soul singer. Glam rock had a lot to answer for - Roxy Music unleashed Brian Eno (godhead or dickhead? the debate continues) on an unsuspecting world. The gatefold on the LP has the band dressed as Dr. Who extras - it's hard to say if this is worse than Bryan Ferry's eternal attempts to convince the world that it's possible to be suave and a geordie. And the NY Dolls - well, suffice it to say that one Stephen Patrick Morrissey used to run the British fan club for these prematurely burnt out tranny stones clones.
Then there was punk rock - Richard Hell was part of the US incarnation , kicked out of Television and the heartbreakers for being an obnoxious egomaniac, these days he's an embittered old man who sits around whinging about how he invented it all. Over in Britain John Lydon shucked off his Rotten persona for P.I.L. retaining nothing more than an irritating whine, only to come crawling back years later realising that it's never too late to cash in. The Clash played the man of the people card everytime they could, tipping the hat to real starving musicians by covering old reggae hits while discreetly trying not to let on they were really middle class and wanted to be huge in America. Wire are probably making more money from Elastica's appropiation of 'I am the Fly' and Three Girl Rumba' for 'Line Up' and 'Connection' respectively than they ever did from peddling their own stripped down egghead punk. The Fall should just shut the fuck up and be grateful that after twenty albums of the same old shit they're still making a living that doesn't involve carrying hods. Elvis Costello once motivated entirely by hate and spite eventually revealed his colours by recording with Paul Mc Cartney. Miserable self-satisfied mummy's boy that he is.
And then the Diaspora. Rock music continued unabated - the Go Betweens proved that in Australia a complete inability to play or sing need be no barrier to success. Stateside the Replacements, did much the same, sliding by on a schtick involving dresses, falling drunkenly off stages and covering songs from The Wizard of Oz. Greg Dulli from Afgan Whigs should be congratulated for having the neck to write a song honestly expressing the truth behind 90% of love songs. Or cremated for being crass enough etc.etc. The choice is yours. Hardcore danced in the ruins of punk, beginning with the Minutemen who freely admitted that most hardcore songs were only worth playing for sixty seconds or less. A lesson lost on Flipper whose music can be accurately dated by the presence of bomb sound effect from 'Scramble on their imaginatively entitled debut album 'Album'. Hardcore ended up with Fugazi, a band so honsetly po-faced that you can kick them in the knackers without seeing them blink.
Jeff Buckley is the son of dead folkie legend Tim Buckley which seems to give him the impression that it's okay turn out albums of sub Robert Plant posering with Van Morrison backing. In this he is quite staggeringly incorrect. New York art fags Sonic youth have made an inability to tune a guitar into a considerable asset using amazing spin control on the world's music press (who, in fairness, really aren't that bright). Which just leaves a slough of bands who use violins. Camper Van Beethhoven started it all but I'm inclined to show some leniency since they did have the goodness to stop covering dodgy early Pink Floyd numbers towards the end of their career and have shown no signs of subsequent recidivism. If only the same could be said of Pavement who threw out one asylum candidate drummer only to replace him with another. But at least there's no violin on 'Gold sounds'. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the Tindersticks is that considering their cigarette intakeres to about 60 a day each probably won't be playing the world with their morose dirges too much longer. And Can were a bunch of German hippies which should be all most of you need to know.
Y'know maybe I should have stuck to the jungle idea.
Eoghan Barry April '95.
Track Listing
SIDE 1
go betweens - Cattle & cane
box tops - The Letter
wire - Three Girl Rhumba
can - Dizzy Dizzy
byrds - Artificial Energy
tindesticks - City Sickness
elvis costello - I want You
afghan whigs - Be Sweet
roxy music - Editions of you
p.i.l. - Public Image
fugazi - Blue Print
flipper - Sex Bomb
SIDE 2
the fall - Totally Wired
richard hell - Love Comes in Spurts
minutemen - I Felt Like a Gringo
jeff buckley - Eternal Life
sonic youth - Expressway to your Skull
camper van beethoven - Eye of Fatima Pt.1
bob dylan - If it takes a lot to laugh, It takes a Train to Cry.
new york dolls - Trash
the clash - Pressure Drop
pavement - Gold Sounds
replacements - Unsatisfied
rolling stones - Wild Horses
beatles - I'm so Tired.
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