Brian Eno - Song by Song (& Album by Album) Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by HitAndRun, Oct 31, 2021.

  1. Raf

    Raf Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    There are many, many albums and songs where Eno was producer, collaborator or co-writer, such as Remain in Light and the Bowie trilogy. Many are great, but if we include those, we may never come to the end of this thread … and, like Summer of Malcontent, I really just don't want to open the door to discussing Coldplay.

    I suggest limiting this thread to albums and tracks where Eno has solo artist credit, where he is co-credited as an artist (such as Fourth World and Wah Wah), and where he is a band member (801, Passengers, and so on).

    Using those criteria, two questions occur to me:
    • Should the first two Roxy Music albums be discussed?
    • Should All Saints be removed from the list?
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2021
  2. William Gladstone

    William Gladstone I was a teenage daydreamer.

    Location:
    Panama City, FL
    I love me some Eno, listened to Warm Jets yesterday and the Roxy Music debut this morning, so he's usually around. I think I've heard most everything that's readily available, but not all of it exhaustively, so looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.
     
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  3. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    It's a great album, and Eno contributes to some tracks 9I think there are three co-writes), but it's not a full-on collaboration, more like Byrne's first solo album (with some of his best ever songs among the literal bells and whistles).
     
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  4. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    The band member demarcation makes sense to me. Include Roxy Music's first two albums and Passengers - and probably also The Million Dollar Hotel OST, as Eno was a member of The MDH Band, but not the albums he was only credited as producer on.

    All Saints doesn't belong (I didn't even notice it was there). There are plenty of Bowie compilations which include as many or more tracks with Eno, and we're not covering them.

    Rough running total of non-album tracks for 2000 - 2009: 61!
     
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  5. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    I think there's enough unique content on 801 Live to give it a few days.

    June 1, 1974 only has the two Eno tracks and can be covered in one day. I think a lot of the ambient and instrumental albums can be covered quickly as a whole, but maybe we can let you know ahead of time which ones we might want to do track by track. I think Music for Airports is important enough to do that way, and I'd put in my vote for On Land. Maybe some of the less distinctive / diverse ones can be considered an album side at a time? Apollo is kind of in between: should we do that one two or three tracks per day?

    No Pussyfooting catch-up day can cover the (not very interesting) bonus tracks on the reissue and the (much more interesting) b-side 'Later On' (a mash-up of both sides of the album), but once we've discussed each track, we've basically discussed the album, so maybe that can be condensed, or use two days to discuss both tracks and the album as a whole?
     
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  6. CRJ

    CRJ Ski Patrol

    Location:
    East Devon
    Man, this cat kept himself busy.

    I can never work out, even though I've read a lot about them, how much input Eno had in the Television demos.

    In the early 1980s I had the bootleg below. I think it was the first Eno boot.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Jamsterdammer

    Jamsterdammer The Great CD in the Sky

    Location:
    Málaga, Spain
    @HitAndRun, perhaps it might be a good idea to have a look at the Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, etc. album-by-album thread. Wilson's discography is also extremely eclectic, with tons of collaboration and side projects. The OP there managed to keep it flowing well by adjusting the tempo when needed, i.e. giving more time for people to reflect on main albums and main collaborations and go a bit quicker with the more obscure stuff. I believe he did everything chronologically, so one day you had a PT album, the next day an obscure EP, then a Blackfield album, etc., but somehow it worked. I guess this means pretty much monitoring the thread on the continuous basis. I've seen to many album-by-album or song-by-song threads die because the OP posts an album or song and then is nowhere to be seen until he posts the next one. Quite an investment of time and effort. Would also be good to have a backup if for some reason you need to take a break for a week or more...
     
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  8. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Another thought: For All Mankind should be considered as a new album from 2019, not an addendum to Apollo, since it was new material recorded then, not in the 80s.
     
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  9. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    And after my first rough trawl through Eno's non-album tracks, the total for the 2010s is a staggering 130 tracks. (Or 630, if you count all the different versions of Reflection that were released.) A lot of these are bonus tracks on deluxe editions of new or old albums, so don't panic about tracking them all down!
     
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  10. HitAndRun

    HitAndRun Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Thanks everyone. I will go through the list and remove Remain in Light and look at other suggestions. We might dedicate a catch-up day to it, and other productions. I think the same for the Berlin Trilogy. And whatever else people wish to discuss.

    I'm working on which albums should be covered at an accellerated rate. E.g. No Pussyfooting doesn't need a album catch up day. One day per track and then one day for the album, and then straight on with HCtWJ. Thanks @Jamsterdammer - I will look at the Porcupine Tree thread to see how things are done there. I do know that for the Stranger than Fiction thread which is an undertaking similar in size if not larger than this thread, that some albums are covered at an accellerated rate, and only tracks with a strong contribution from the featured songwriters/performers are covered in the thread when they are on a compilation album with other artists, etc. Apollo has many short tracks, so like the StF thread - I intend to group these into about 4-5 minutes per day.

    My informal pre-start plan in my head was to post various things BE had done before HCtWJ, now NP. We've had two posted already, and my plan for today was to post ... The Portsmouth Sinfonia. Here they are with the Wilheim Tell Overture written by Gioachino Rossini.



    On the album, according to discogs, BE is credited for clarinet and as the producer.

    The entire album is available on YT, but I don't want to listen to it.

    https://youtu.be/LsFFvthfEZg

    I find the pre-Roxy stuff very interesting. Particularly the tape loop/loops for Berlin Horse. To my ear there's a clear path from there to No Pussyfooting,

    The Portsmouth Sinfonia material is an interesting concept - but I must admit that I prefer reading about it to listening to it. There is another album where BE has the same credits, but I'm not minded to include it in this thread. Others are of course very welcome to do so.

    How about tomorrow, Thursday, to discuss BE's Roxy Music contributions? I thought of posting two of the most obvious tracks and mentioning what Bryan Ferry felt at the time and later on about BE according to interviews.

    My plan is to post a revised list of albums this evening UK time, and to update the first post in the thread tomorrow (Thursday) evening. Ready for all systems pussyfooting on Friday morning UK time.

    Thanks @Summer of Malcontent - that's a lot of extra tracks to cover. If we allocated one day per such track then that's over four months. Fitting some of them in here and there will help.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2021
  11. William Gladstone

    William Gladstone I was a teenage daydreamer.

    Location:
    Panama City, FL
    I would love know Bryan Ferry's take on what Eno brought to Roxy Music. I've never read much on Eno's departure from the band or how the others felt about it at the time, but they seemed to still get on pretty well since members would guest on Eno's albums now and again. And I remember seeing a VHS tape years ago for rent at a Tower Records in Nashville, and I believe it was a live Roxy Music set where they covered Needles in the Camel's Eye and maybe even another song from Warm Jets...so I guess Ferry was on good terms with him.
     
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  12. Captain Groovy

    Captain Groovy Senior Member

    Location:
    Freedonia, USA
    I was listening to my DSD early 2000s CDs of Warm Jets and Another Green World last week. I love those two albums. But after, I do tend to go right into Roxy Music. It's like after an albums' over I go "When was the last time I put on For Your Pleasure"? or whatever.

    Then I do.

    Were any singles released by Eno in the 70s? For times when I'd rather have some punchy cuts on a mix, I'm a little at a loss. "St. Elmo's Fire" obviously pops out as do others... but how did he promote these albums? Why no career "best of"? I realize he's difficult to boil down. I am still waiting to "get" the Ambient music, I still don't really, though I love Mike Oldfield so I'm used to long pieces that may not make perfect sense unless taken as a whole.

    Or is there a "singles set" I'm not aware of?
     
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  13. HitAndRun

    HitAndRun Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes. According to his Wikipedia discography, there were three singles released in the 70s. Seven Deadly Finns, The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh), and Kings Lead Hat - the last of which (at least) is a different mix from the album. Also, Baby's on Fire was released as a single, but in the 2000s not the 1970s. According to Discogs, there was also a promo single of 'Third Uncle'.

    For compilations, there is More Blank than Frank/Desert Island Selection, and Music for Airplay covering his initial vocal album period.

    Note that I don't claim to be a super-knowledgeable BE person. I'm practicing my google warrior skills in anticipation of this thread in general.
     
  14. William Gladstone

    William Gladstone I was a teenage daydreamer.

    Location:
    Panama City, FL
    I definitely know what you mean with Warm Jets and then deciding to put on some early RM, and almost always For Your Pleasure...though this week it was the debut. While Eno had his own thing going on with some songs on Warm Jets, others were definitely a bit from the Bryan Ferry playbook. And that's not a bad thing, cos he still has his mark all over them, just as he did with Roxy.

    I'm not aware of any singles, but I do know there was a Desert Island disc (something like that) with selections from the first four solo albums, I believe, and they were the more accessible ones, like St. Elmo's Fire.

    I also know there are some box sets that are pretty exhaustive in collecting every this and that over the years. Like a Music for Films III or something. I want to say they were limited 20 years ago, so probably difficult and expensive to find.

    Brian Eno and Steve Kilbey from the Church (I've always wanted Eno to produce them) are two of the most prolific, scattered, haphazard artists I'm aware of, with more stuff out there that even they can keep track of, and most all of it great. I met Kilbey once and asked if he had a copy of everything he's released, his laugh told me no. LOL
     
  15. Putrifiers II

    Putrifiers II Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    There was this one in 1986 but long OOP...

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Captain Groovy

    Captain Groovy Senior Member

    Location:
    Freedonia, USA
    That may be a good comp, I'll try to hunt it down though I think I have all the songs.

    But the question still remains is why he didn't release singles from these 70s albums as they were coming out?

    Why weren't there singles form the Here Come the Warm Jets and Another Green World when there were obvious radio-friendly songs to pluck from them?

    Roxy Music also release early non-LP singles as did a lot of now-famous groups, but when it came time for For Your Pleasure for example, also came "Do the Strand" which at least made some rumbling on the singles charts.
     
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  17. William Gladstone

    William Gladstone I was a teenage daydreamer.

    Location:
    Panama City, FL
    Lack of singles lifted from the album could have been a financial move from the label. Was that EG? I think so. Also, he might have felt these songs all worked better in the context of the album, and to lift one would diminish its artistic integrity. Just speculating. Likely he just consulted the Oblique Strategies cards and who knows what the results were. :)
     
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  18. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Roxy Music and Eno solo didn't release singles off albums at first (I'm talking about UK releases, which are the only ones they had control over). As you note, this was not an unusual practice for UK bands in the 60s and early 70s. The singles accompanying the first two Roxy Music albums were the non-album tracks 'Virginia Plain' and 'Pyjamarama' ('Do the Strand' was only released as a single later on, after the band had split up, to promote a greatest hits album). Likewise, Eno only released non-album tracks as singles to start with. The single for Here Come the Warm Jets was 'Seven Deadly Finns', and the single for Another Green World was 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' (backed by 'I'll Come Running' from the album). Roxy Music relented to the new industry norm with their third album, and Eno with his fourth. Then he stopped recording songs for a decade!
     
  19. Captain Groovy

    Captain Groovy Senior Member

    Location:
    Freedonia, USA
    All great material no matter the format!
     
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  20. AZRunner

    AZRunner Forum Resident

    Location:
    SW FL
    I have the original vinyl of this. It’s a great comp. Notes from the discogs listing: “Songs from the period 1973-1977, the compilation was released to mark the publication of 'More Dark Than Shark', a book based on Eno's lyrics and Russell Mills' illustrative interpretations of them. Initial copies came with a free colour print taken from the book.”
     
  21. mradmack

    mradmack Roxanne + Geoff.

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
    I'm looking forward to this thread. We're three pages in, establishing ground rules! Quite fitting with a polymath as Eno. Where to begin? Before we kick off, I'd like to drop this in. Top marks to these guys!
     
  22. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    That compilation was my introduction to Brian Eno. I read Alan Moore singing Eno's praises in an interview in the mid-eighties, and bought this album on cassette (as it was just out and was the only Eno album readily available in New Zealand - apart from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which had been a Top 10 hit here and nowhere else! - everything else was import-only). I loved it and plunged down the slippery slope we all find ourselves on today.

    I've just gone down a little discographical rabbit hole looking at Eno's chart performance, and that number 8 NZ listing seems to be his highest chart placing anywhere as a credited artist. Moreover, it looks like Eno was a far bigger star in New Zealand than anywhere else. He also reached the NZ Top 40 with Another Green World (#24 - though this was in 1979, no idea why: maybe a belated local release?), Before and After Science (#18), Music for Films (#27), and again this century with Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (#31). Apollo reached #48 on release.

    Eno's only UK top 40 placings seem to be Here Come the Warm Jets (#26) and The Ship (#28).
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2021
  23. Putrifiers II

    Putrifiers II Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Still got mine too - bit bashed up, but sound - first Eno purchase, followed by Taking Tiger Mountain on cassette. Did you get the RM print with your More Blank Than Frank?
     
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  24. HitAndRun

    HitAndRun Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I've received the list of Eno rarities from @Summer of Malcontent (thank you very much.) Fortunately it will be a few 'years' until we have enough rarities to make it difficult to fit them in.

    It's possible that I missed something, but I think that the last unified/interleaved list of albums I sent will work for the 1970s. I note mentions of later albums such as Sisters and Music for Future Installations, but we can work on them when/if we need to. We can always change things as we go along.

    Hence, I think that the first couple of weeks look like this:

    Friday 5th November: No Pussyfooting introduction and 'The Heavenly Music Corporation'.
    Saturday 6th November: 'Swastika Girls'
    Sunday 7th November: No Pussyfooting album, plus backwards/half-speed bonus tracks.
    Monday 8th November: Rest/Catch-Up, rarities that appear out of any woodwork (in a good way)

    Tuesday 9th November: Here Come the Warm Jets introduction and 'Needles in the Camel's Eye'
    Wednesday 10th November: 'The Paw-Paw Negro Blowtorch'
    Thursday 11th November: 'Baby's on Fire'
    Friday 12th November: 'Cindy Tells Me'
    Saturday 13th November: 'Driving Me Backwards'
    Sunday 14th November: 'On Some Faraway Beach'
    Monday 15th November: 'Blank Frank'
    Tuesday 16th November: 'Dead Finks Don't Talk'
    Wednesday 17th November: 'Some of Them are Old'
    Thursday 18th November: 'Here Come the Warm Jets' (track)
    Friday 19th November: Here Come the Warm Jets album
    Saturday 20th November: Rest/catch-up/rarities day including 'June 1, 1974' discussion (Driving Me Backwards/Baby's on Fire)

    Sunday 21st November: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) album introduction and 'Burning Airlines Give You So Much More'
    Monday 22nd November: 'Back in Judy's Jungle'
    Tuesday 23rd November: 'The Fat Lady of Limbourg'
    Wednesday 24th November: 'Mother Whale Eyeless'
    Thursday 25th November: 'The Great Pretender'
    Friday 26th November: 'Third Uncle'
    Saturday 27th November: 'Put a Straw under Baby'
    Sunday 28th November: 'The True Wheel'
    Monday 29th November: 'China My China'
    Tuesday 30th November: 'Taking Tiger Mountain'
    Wednesday 1st December: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) album discussion

    Thursday 2nd December: 'Seven Deadly Finns' (non-album single)
    Friday 3rd December: 'Later On' (Fripp/Eno b-side of previous)

    Saturday 4th December: Rest/catch-up/rarities day including Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy (Tunion/Optimism)

    Sunday 5th December: Phil Manzanera Diamond Head w/songs 'Big Day' and 'Miss Shapiro'

    Monday 6th December: Another Green World introduction and 'Sky Saw'
    Tuesday 7th December: 'Over Fire Island'
    Wednesday 8th December: 'St. Elmo's Fire'
    Thursday 9th ecember: 'In Dark Trees'
    Friday 10th December: 'The Big Ship'
    Saturday 11th December: 'I'll Come Running'
    Sunday 12th December: 'Another Green World'
    Monday 13th December: 'Sombre Reptiles'
    Tuesday 14th December 'Little Fishes'
    Wednesday 15th December: 'Golden Hours'
    Thursday 16th December: 'Becalmed'
    Friday 17th December: 'Zawinul/Lava'
    Saturday 18th December: 'Everything Merges with the Night'
    Sunday 19th December: 'Spirits Drifting'

    Monday 20th December: Another Green World album
    Tuesday 21st December: Rest/catch-up/rarities day

    Wednesday 22nd December 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)' (possibly out of order, but I'm not aiming for temporal perfection).

    Thursday 23rd December: Discreet Music album introduction and 'Discreet Music'
    Friday 24th December: 'Fullness of Wind
    Saturday 25th December: 'French Catalogues'
    Sunday 26th December: 'Brutal Ardour'
    Monday 27th December: Discreet Music (album)
    Tuesday 28th December: Rest/catch-up/rarities day

    Wednesday 29th December: Evening Star album introduction and 'Wind on Water'
    Thursday 30th December: 'Evening Star' (track)
    Friday 31st December: 'Evensong'
    Saturday 1st January 2022: Wind on Wind'
    Sunday 2nd January: 'An Index of Metals'
    Monday 3rd January: Evening Star album
    Tuesday 4th January: Rest/catch-up/rarities day

    Wednesday 5th January: Peter and the Wolf including tracks 'Wolf / Wolf and Duck / Wolf Stalks / Capture of Wolf'

    Have I missed anything/got anything wrong? Anything we notice after we start could be held until after Peter and the Wolf if it's not urgent.

    Hopefully this vaguely resembles a reasonable start for the thread.
     
  25. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    No, I bought it on cassette. (And played it to death.)
     
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