This is true, but the really weird thing about King Crimson is that, when they started out, they were a band where the band leader (Fripp), the composer of the music (Ian McDonald), the lyricist (Peter Sinfield) and the singer (Greg Lake) were all different people. I can't think of any other band where that was the case.
The Detroit Metro Times had Bryan Ferry answer readers' questions in 2019: Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry answers our — and your — emails via email Stranded is the first Roxy record without Eno and is also Eno's favorite record, released the same year as the very different For Your Pleasure. How different do you imagine Stranded would have sounded with Eno's input? —Fred Thomas, Ann Arbor I think Eno would have had a great time playing on the Stranded album, especially on "Sunset" and "Mother Of Pearl." We had such fun working together on those early Roxy records. Maybe one day...!
From Johnny Rogan's "Roxy Music" book (subtitled "Style with substance - Roxy's first ten years): ...Following the split, Mackay and Eno intended to release a single, 'Never A Light Without A Shadow', but after a long period of hesitation, the idea was abandoned. Mackay continued to fight for Eno, however, and for a time refused to consider the possibility of replacing him with a new member. It was evident that Andy seriously questioned the sanity of Ferry's decision to oust Eno, whom he regarded as the most musically adventurous personality in the group. Whatever animosity remained after the split, however, was ingeniously diffused when Ferry introduced replacement Eddie Jobs on. Was that song ever released?
And, ..., 3 2 1 GO!!!!!! Today we start discussing No Pussyfooting. BE's first full album after he left Roxy Music: a collaboration with Robert Fripp. Wikipedia page here: (No Pussyfooting) - Wikipedia Discogs: Fripp & Eno - (No Pussyfooting) The track listing and credits are quite simple: Credits from ProgArchives.com: Robert Fripp / Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, pedal Fx, composer & producer Brian Eno / VCS3 synthesizer, sequencer, tapes, composer & producer Track Listing 1. The Heavenly Music Corporation (Fripp/Eno) 2. Swastika Girls (Fripp/Eno) 2008 remaster bonus tracks The Heavenly Music Corporation (Reversed) (Fripp/Eno) The Heavenly Music Corporation (Half-Speed) (Fripp/Eno) Swastika Girls (Reversed) (Fripp/Eno) with each bonus track being exactly as described. Like other song by song threads, I'm going to post material on the album. This will typically be taken from a source. For this album, I'm going to quote the review on ProgArchives.com by Syzgy from the aforementioned link. As per the previous plans posted, we'll go straight onto the first song, and discuss the album at the end. Where I can find YouTube videos, I will post them - but one song in and no YouTube that I found. Spotify very annoyingly splits The Heavenly Music Corporation into five tracks and Swastika girls into two as per the 2008 remaster, but no bonus tracks. That *might* be described as the worst of all possible worlds. So, here are those five tracks: Pt 1. https://open.spotify.com/track/4jtmi6X0S8GcPZv7rsqXaL?si=35691b5af8414018 Pt 2. https://open.spotify.com/track/037IxNBxdSo620UQM54tzy?si=81df8d5284564db2 Pt 3. https://open.spotify.com/track/6gvXOPYWuAe21S4j6Zm8s6?si=bd2a095feb9f4377 Pt 4. The Heavenly Music Corporation IV Pt 5. https://open.spotify.com/track/6FRE8unMRR0tC4g0pMHBB8?si=c6de85f0f3c4482b I'm not going to try embedding Spotify into posts. And, if anyone knows better sources for the tracks please feel free to post. Oh, and the album title anagram for today is: 'No Pussyfooting' = 'Fusions Got Pony' I'm not sure how best to introduce the album and the day's song. I've seen examples of other threads, and sometimes it's a regular quote from Wikipedia, or so on. I was hoping to find interesting reviews from different sources and post (with credit). I'm wondering if I should do the 'if you quote from one source it's plagiarism, but if you quote from 20 sources it's research' thing and write my own intro. If anyone has better intros, knows better methods by which the tracks can be listened to (e.g. a YouTube video I missed, entirely different sources), wants to give further information on the album/song, or has a better anagram, then please post.
Basically (No Pussyfooting) is a stone cold masterpiece. And yes I think the brackets are part of the title. I first heard this in 1982. I was fifteen. I loved Bowie and Roxy and as Eno was a link between the two I started exploring his catalogue too. For some reason my local record shop had (NP) cheaper than other Eno albums so I took the plunge. Utterly unprepared. No Internet, no background on this album at all. After just a couple of minutes I was totally hooked. It was like nothing I’d ever heard before but I knew instantly that I loved it and that this would be an album I would always love. Nearly forty years later I still adore it and marvel at how Fripp and Eno managed to create such music from another dimension. I like the fact that two tracks, recorded nearly a year apart make such a satisfying whole. Fripp loved it so much that he used it as intro music for King Crimson’s live shows in 1973 and 1974. You can hear snippets of it, before the band crashes in, on many of the live gigs available from Fripp’s DGM site. My favourite (No Pussyfooting) fact… in the late summer of 1976 Eno travelled to Paris to meet David Bowie to begin work on Low. Bowie was accompanied by Iggy Pop who was thrilled to meet Eno as (No Pussyfooting) was a favourite of his. And to prove it, Iggy apparently hummed the whole of The Heavenly Music Corporation to the astonished Eno.
John Peel playing it backwards by mistake on his show and no-one noticing is a well known story. I assume it's true as I've heard it so many times.
Not only is it true but there is a recording of that show. My favourite part of the story as told by Peel producer John Walters: "Eno heard it and phoned the BBC: "I must speak to John Peel, I think he's playing my album backwards". "That's what they all say" said the switchboard and refused to put him through!". It came about because the tape Eno supplied was stored `tail out' (common practice to prevent `print through'). The BBC did NOT generally store their tapes this way, where you have to spool the tape onto another reel first, so they played it from the end forwards. Interesting to note that this happened with both pieces despite them appearing at different times in the show.
I discovered (No Pussyfooting) in 1980 when I was 17, it's £1.99 price tag was helpful too. It was a year when Fripp had gone on to develop the Frippertronics tape delay idea via his `God Save The Queen' album, and I was keen to hear more. `Heavenly Music Corporation' is indeed 20 minutes of bliss, but nothing could prepare the ears for `Swastika Girls'. The strange cycling VCS3 basically playing itself and then the guitar solo....IMHO one of Fripp's finest of all time. Corruscating and searing, it is stunning even now.
Festival Records in Australia also released records in NZ - the disc you refer to is the first issue (IK-4820) (with the Pink label) - it was later reissued (K5956) on the palm tree label. Same label matrices, though I can't recall if it's also mono - I thought the reissue was stereo. Have you determined if it's just a fold of the stereo mix or not? It's unlikely that Festival received anything other than the standard UK Island tapes for cutting purposes.
(No Pussyfooting) - This is one I've not spent much time with, and one that I've not listened to in some time, as well...and, to quote Timothy B Schmit, I can't tell you why. As already stated, this album is amazing, building and weaving back and forth on itself, both droning and melodic, a true web of wonder. I'm on my third spin of it today and finding new things to appreciate with each listen, like how the first part of Swastika Girls sounds like a harp collapsing and detuning on itself in loop. Definitely one of Fripp's best solos, with Eno anyway, only surpassed by St. Elmo's Fire and one with Andy Summer's that escapes me right now, something on I Advance Masked. Anyway...textures are the key, and creating rhythm by use of repetition instead of percussion still flattens me. An A+ outing.
I love (No Pussyfooting), although I have to admit I mainly play it now at bedtime. Something about those evolving textures that sends me off to sleep in no time. From Johnny Rogan's book: Although he met strong resistance from both E.G. Management and Island Records, Eno insisted on the release of No Pussyfooting in November 1973. It was a brave move since the album would undoubtedly prove too esoteric for the average record buyer and might have effectively ended Eno's career before it had a chance to begin. His confidence in the work was justified to a certain degree in commercial terms and a Top 30 entry was sufficient to quell any future reservations from his management and record company. Eno later admitted that the release of No Pussyfooting was probably a wrong move in career terms, but it established his reputation as an artiste fully in control of his own destiny. In the wake of the album's minimal success Fripp and Eno hastily organized a tour. The result was confusing for those members of the audience accustomed to the rock 'n' roll circus. Fripp had decided to take his notions of first-take spontaneity to their logical extremes in live performance. This meant that five minutes before they appeared on stage Fripp and Eno could be discovered in the wings drinking scotch and making preliminary enquiries as to what they might consider performing. At the first gig, a half hour set was agreed upon, but their self-enforced spontaneity ensured that the entire performance lasted an astonishing 10 minutes. And instead of the brightly coloured plumage of the androgynous Eno late of Roxy Music, the audience saw only a couple of dark shadows. Fripp, ever paranoid about the vampiric and rapacious nature of concert goers had insisted that the duo perform in total darkness with film loops projected behind them. It was probably the most bizarre concert ever given by a former 'rock star'. This was the first indication that Eno was ready to abandon the bi-sexual and strongly visual role that he had masterminded for himself in Roxy Music.
(No Pussyfooting) Favorite tracks: The Heavenly Music Corporation Swastika Girls But seriously, this is a fantastic album and way ahead of its time.
Haven't listened to (NP) for years. It's great isn't it? Love Fripp on this - particularly Swastika etc. What an amazing way for BE to launch his solo persona though. Like he gave himself permission to fail which opened the door to him being able to do whatever he wanted.
Just for clarity, is today the day to discuss NP or Heavenly Music Corporation? It's fine either way, but want to be sure I'm on the same track as everyone else. The Heavenly Music Corporation I own Eno's major albums, but there's a ton I'm completely unfamiliar with, including NP. So it was cool to hear it for the first time (and several times since). I will admit I'm coming at this catalog with not nearly the knowledge and experience with the music that others bring, so my comments will be more from the perspective of an enthusiastic fan, but somewhat of a newbie too. "The Heavenly Music Corporation" is a style of track that almost always grabs me. I love songs that are spare to start and add/build layers over a consistent theme until you're transported out of your reality and into that of the song. THMC does that perfectly. It's such a fantastic slow burn, yet it flies by because it's so absorbing. Great official start to the thread! I saw that OP indicated the use of a 1-5 rating scale, which I haven't seen posters using. But I love rating tracks, so a strong 4/5 to begin the journey. That said, I'm not shy about using the '1' where warranted and raking songs over the coals if deserved. So if this is meant as more of an appreciation thread, let me know and I'll hold my tongue in those instances.
No, it's a different mix, with a different intro (starts with the drums, not the bit that sounds like a series of false starts). The balance of the sax and synth is different too. The A-side is the regular stereo mix of 'Virginia Plain' (unfortunately!)
Great start! I don't often play (NP), but do like it. And I've already learned something LOL. I didn't know it came out before Warm Jets.
"The Heavenly Music Corporation" is made for large spaces, imo. Accordingly, Fripp used it for opening/walk-on music for all King Crimson shows in 1973/1974. I don't believe you've heard it unless you've heard it blasting from a giant stack of speakers outdoors. I lived in the country when I was young (with family) and had ample free time to perform this ritual a few times while no one was home. It reminds me of the "Music Communications" scene in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind as it has such a huge presence to me, and there are sections which seem to be like a back-and-forth between listener and music.
I bought this in 86 or 87 when I was first getting into Eno and the Crimson trilogy. I love Fripp's tone, and when I want to hear it, I look to this album over Crimson's. I don't really separate the two songs in my head. Standard 6/5 because, well, it's one better than all others id'nit?
I remember you talking about this in a previous post and thread, so I tried it out. Highly recommended.
NP came to me several years after HCTWJ. It is a zeitgeist recording of BE & RF and that alone is what I admire about the record. Over the last couple of days, I have dived back into it. It's not my go to for Eno. Fripp's tone is amazing and that is the highlight of the record. 3/5. Some of the stories/quotes so far have been hilarious, not something I expected from an Eno thread!
The Heavenly Music Corporation (No Pussyfooting) - now I add the brackets - is an album I've heard before, but haven't really given a proper listening. In previous listens it sounded to me a bit like a crude start to the ambient side of Eno (& Fripp) but a slightly primitive/cruder version of what would later be refined. However, on listening to THMC a number of times - including several aborted attempts to write this post today where life intervened - it really has grown on me. Fripp's guitar tone is, as mentioned, very nice indeed. I also like that the piece has a definite structure, with a beginning, an end, and development/variation between that start and end. There really is something for Iggy Pop to vocalise which isn't just an extended note lasting until the Igster asphyxiates. I like the way the track beats between the left and right sides with little in the middle. At least that is what it sounds like to me on headphones. There are new layers of guitars added all the time, providing new and interesting textures. For me, BE's ambient music either works (the majority of it) or doesn't (a minority). And, this track absolutely does. It's not as ambient as later tracks, and in other ways is clear 'early' Eno ambient or Frippertronics. But, it's not that far 'behind' later works sonically and has its own strong points. Sadly I've never really managed to get into King Crimson. I'm told it will be because I haven't heard the right album or haven't spent long enough listening to one. But I've always found that Robert Fripp is a brilliant collaborator who seems to know exactly what to add when working with others. This will be something I'll be mentioning again soon on this thread. 4/5 BTW: While other threads I've been in numerically rated songs and albums on a 1-5 scale, that doesn't mean that we have to. I personally have a laid-back approach to things and while 'rules' work well in other threads, I'm happy with a single rule that we discuss the song/album of the day - and everything else is left to individual posters. If very few people want to numerically rate songs, then maybe we stop doing so. If only a few people rate songs, then maybe I won't collect and post statistics as the data will be sparse. If lots of people rate songs then I will. I think that the bottom line is that as long as there are people who want to discuss the music, the thread will continue. And, we can work out what works for us as we go along.
I didn't know about the deluxe version of (NP). Reversed and Half speed sound like something I could do myself? Until an earlier post, I didn't know Eno was on The Catherine Wheel. Here's what I gathered from wikipedia. Ade and Two Soldiers - Byrne and Eno wrote these 2 tracks. Two Soldiers, The Red House and Eggs in a Briar Patch - Eno plays on these 3 tracks. The instruments Eno plays on the 3 tracks. bass guitar, guitar, piano, keyboards, background vocals, vibraphone, Prophet synthesizer, screams
Ha! I didn't mention that myself because I didn't want to appear uncool, LOL, but I'm not much of a KC fan, either. I've started at the beginning, I've jumped to when Belew joined, etc, etc, but no real click yet. Recently I did enjoy Lizard, so will try that one again. But yes, as a collaborator, I think he's fantastic. Eno, Bowie, Summers, etc.
(NP) has been on my list for a while now, I think it just went to the top. Something I'm hoping to get out of this thread is a better insight into BE's extensive catalogue. I was introduced to him by a schoolfriend-we were both in to Bowie-and over the years I've come to know the four "vocal" albums, and gained a new appreciation of the Roxy my brothers raised me on. After reading the Sheppard biography a couple of years ago I've gained a real appreciation of just how prolific he's been. I'm looking forward to getting some "ears-on" perspective on his body of work.
