A great story to happily hear again! Q. Little Red Corvette is released and it's long before people really know who Prince is, really?
State Of Confusion A perceptive write up by @mark winstanley especially with the dream/wake confusion and Ray's mental issues and perhaps how he views others may perhaps happen to view them. But i must say Mark that his girlfriend left because after the video broke down she recalled just why she watched it so much as she was now reduced to communicating with Ray which she was content doing only in smaller doses before! N.b. Ok it's easier (& less personally bruising) for the protagonist to say it was boredom that drew her away from him. I somehow missed the Clash opening but I do hear it. When the song goes into the "I don't know if i am coming or going" lyric I find it anticlimactic and that it doesn't suit the song, not the lyric but moreso the vocal melody and especially the musical backing. I like the line "It gets worse, the older that you get" and note with concern that Ray is basically double the age he was when he recorded it! This is a decent opener but it does feel a bit forced and it can't be missed that the tag/title line is not melodic but that may be tough when you're trying to sound confused!
Catching up - in 1983 I was in third year university (aged 22) and I was still listening to the old guard - Stones Undercover (first two songs were ok but downhill from there), Lou Reed's Legendary Hearts (contains "Alcohol" companion, "The Last Shot" - one of my fave Lou songs) and Bob Dylan's Infidels (my fave guitarist Mick Taylor and Peter Tosh/Black Uhuru rhythm section Robbie & Sly really elevated this for me), Newer stuff - definitely got into Echo & The Bunnymen around this time ("The Cutter" and "The Back Of Love") and the Psychedelic Furs (Forever Now). U2's War was big, The The's Soul Mining. Definitely got into Prince around here with the 1999 album from the previous year. Rap started entering my orbit with Grandmaster Flash and "The Message" - maybe I heard my first Run D.MC record around here. The Beat (add an "English" in North America) Special Beat Service with one of Pete Townshend's fave songs "Save It For Later". I remember working an English Beat show in early 1983 and their opening act pulled up in a California-plated station wagon and out got Susannah Hoffs (three years before Prince went crazy for her and wrote "Manic Monday") but I always liked the jangly pop from this era with R.E.M. and Let's Active soon catching my attention. Probably was listening to UB40 before "Red, Red Wine" and their dub influences (might have been influenced by what I was smoking)..
"Stat Of Confusion" - a good solid rocker to start the album - another song that was elevated in intensity in a concert setting (usually placed really early in the show) so I am more familiar with this one because I have heard it on numerous concert tapes from this era. I hear the "London Calling" resemblance (interesting - the full studio take of Bob Dylan's "Neighborhood Bully" begins with Bob muttering "this is for the Clash" before the take). At this point, the Clash were my fave band (outside the old guard) so I was into anything that had similarities with that band.
That's a great nugget on Neighborhood Bully. And to tie in to our discussion of dreams from State Of Confusion - I was just getting in to Dylan with the purchase of the Biograph set when I had a dream about buying Infidels - so I went out and bought it. It's one of my top tier Dylan favorites.
1983, I was just starting to buy new records. And as one would do, I would typically buy new records by older artists. So for me it was the year of Infidels, Pipes of Peace, Let's Dance, Undercover, Genesis, Two Low for Zero and the Final Cut. The McCartney one was the big head scratcher and a kind of life lesson (like Gone Troppo that I bought around the same time): having to deal with bad records from big idols, trying to figure out why they were panned everywhere and to decide whether I had to stand by them or recognize their failure. I did both, which is what any good completist fan would/should do. This was a year of great initiation. I saw the Dylan/Santana tour near Paris, in the biggest outdoors site where they organized concerts then (le Parc de Sceaux). Joan Baez was supposed to open but called in sick, so she was replaced at the very last minute by Van Morrison… to the most lukewarm reception you could ever imagine. Almost no one knew of him then, he'd been all but forgotten in France at the time, and I remember him playing for the first two rows, while the rest of the tens of thousands (30000 ? 40 ? I've never known) were eating sandwiches and waiting for the real big names to come on stage… French singer (and Dylan translator) Hughes Aufray came on during the encores and was received more enthusiastically than Van!! Anyway, maybe it was 1984, now that I think of it. But 1983, I know I couldn't go to the same place (Parc de Sceaux) for the very last Supertramp concert with Roger Hodgson… because it was the day of my bar-mitzvah. I remember some cousins leaving the party to go see the band. I've never forgiven them, and not because I wanted them to stay, but because I wanted to leave as well!! I think that was the end of any religious spirit in me. If religion is gonna make you miss out on the farewell concert of your favorite band, forget it!
It's only from reading this thread that I've become aware of the slight similarity of the intro to London Calling, a song which I feel gets a bit too much credit these days for being 'not bad'. There again, I've always considered Costello immensely over-rated too, so I'm obviously in the minority. Or maybe just in a bad mood from being at work on a Sunday when no bugger is coming in to buy anything!
Avid Fortuleo, interesting to hear about the reception Van Morrison received in Paris. It's not like he was never in France before: Also, why were you surprised about the reception that Hughes Aufray received. After all, he is, wait for it, French . I liked his performance in Surprise Partie, which I just saw again w/a friend of mine, who was digging into his half remembered high school French to decipher the words. Anyway, he was great in calming down Keith Moon who threatened to act like a jackass several times during his performance. As for Supertramp, after many years of liking their hits, I finally picked up a compilation of theirs that popped up at my library for free.
Avid Zerox, I'm also a bit surprised about my fellow Avids comparing the title track to "London Calling", especially since I've been listening to it ever since it came out. Ditto on EC, speaking as a former big fan. Finally, where do you work? A store? Is it a beautiful day over there in Olde England as it is here in New England?
I was about to ask which of the 3 artists you mentionned earlier ceased to be a favorite, and I suspected it was Costello (who ceases to like Otis Redding?). I'm not as much of a fan as I used to be myself, mainly for want of time, but may I ask why he fell out of your love? Has it something to do with excessive verbosity? I really enjoyed his last 2 or 3 albums, after nearly 2 decades of disappointment.
Wow, you were so much more musically mature than I was. I believe I was listening to Brassens, Béart, Joe Dassin (director Jules Dassin's son, for the English-speaking crowd) and my own father's and sister's privately recorded songs. I believe Gone Troppo's B-side is really good though (I may have said it already). Wow The Dylan factor may explain, but still Best un-conversion story ever.
Free form Sunday and you’ve got me searching the depths of my memory to recall my own “favorites” over the years. I’ve scratched out the names of about 30…but noticed that there’s a lot of other bands/artists I’ve liked, even liked a lot, but can’t recall ever putting them in literally The Favorite category (if asked at any given time). For instance, Dylan or the Stones. Yet I am unquestionably a Dylan fan (not at Hoffman forum levels, but at a level where I’m always aware of what he’s up to). Anyway, kinda interesting how we all decide on favorites or just old comrades (so to speak). Ah…which makes me realize that favorites can be cast asunder (Bob Seeger, The Doobie Brothers) while comrades stay around forever!
Avid Pyrrhicvictory, did you get these clippings from the magazine that Doug Hinman put together for the Kinks Fan Club regarding the history of the Kinks' Australian tours? I have this and actually sent copies of it to our Aussie Avids. If anyone else is interested, please PM me.
Yes; I never noticed Doug Hinman’s fingerprints on it, though that makes perfect sense. I had completely forgotten about even having this collection.
Costello is one of those artists that were never an automatic buy for me, yet I’m always hoping for another great one. In my little world, his last “darn near” masterpiece is “ King Of America”. I still enjoy the Bacharach album and like you I like the last few. I saw him live last fall and it was a tremendous show. As we head for the tail end of our Kinks catalog, I’m looking forward to these last few albums and finding some great music I’ve missed. I’m also wanting to find out about solo Ray. I was totally absorbed with alt-country when those records started coming out.
Since it's free-form Sunday, I'll mention that for the first time in months I went back and listened to the Lola album, which I had tentatively tagged my favorite Kinks album. I have to say, at least to these failing ears, the mix is even more of a mess than I remembered; for starters, the vocals are usually buried. It does make me appreciate the mixes on these Arista albums even if the arrangements are sometimes same-y or some production choices haven't aged well. I've been a consistent critic of mixing choices up until Schoolboys, but am I the only one who has that impression of the Lola album? Or is it my failing ears? Not sure what to say about Costello. I was a big fan up until Goodbye Cruel World and though I've bought a few albums and liked a few songs along the way, something about his work stopped grabbing me. Maybe I got tired of his voice or his worldview? Or maybe I had a strong preference for Nick Lowe's production? But I should put more effort into listening to his most acclaimed stuff from the past 40 years!
Sorry about being late in replying, but today was rather lovely here and it's also Memorial Day weekend here in the US. I needed to get away for a bit. Anyway, my once high opinion of Elvis Costello first took a hit in 1991 with the Mighty Like A Rose album and that beard that he was wearing at that time. A few years later, I heard that he did a cover of "Days" and I was looking forward to listening to it. I read in the UK music press that it was a great cover. When I finally heard it on the Kojak Variety album, I was rather disappointed to say the least. My fandom then decreased bit by bit until the last album of his that I bought was North in 2003. I still have his albums until the Bacharach one. I did read his autobiography but it didn't revive my former interest in him; if anything it increased my disdain, especially the disparaging remarks he made towards Wrekless Eric.
EC was best as an angry, sexually frustrated, rebellious young man. I can admire stuff here and there after Imperial Bedroom but really it's that and the first three LPs that do it for me. Free form: Huge thank you to @Fortuleo and others for name-checking David Mead here. I have had Nashville on repeat ever since. & his cover of Human Nature is how the song was meant to be sung.
I can't really say... many albums from many artists could probably do with a remix in many ways, but I have a tendency to just take things as they are .... I have never particularly disliked the way that album sounds
It’s not a popular opinion, but that’s my favorite Elvis Costello album and one of my favorite albums of the 90s. I think it’s genius and can’t understand the lukewarm reception it still receives. I recently listened through every Elvis Costello album because I had missed a few over the last twenty years. He had some rough patches and, in my opinion, he lost something soon after Mighty Like A Rose. I still enjoy songs on almost every album, and think his most recent may be his best in 15-20 years.
Elvis Costello.... I was drawn in by Oliver's Army all those years ago, but it took me a long time to get any of his albums. In the early 2000's I bought the first eleven, and I don't dislike any of them. King Of America and Blood And Chocolate may be my favourites, but it has been a while since I gave them a close listen
