THAT'S WHAT IT SOUNDED LIKE WHEN SHE STARTED

It doesn’t matter how you approach Patti Smith’s Horses – whether through the lyrics, the iconic cover artwork or simply the sonic experience. All paths lead to a magnificent album that embodies the spirit of 1975 in New York.

Patti Smith spent a lot of time in small, trendy clubs reciting her poems, which were mainly inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who was all the rage at the time. Over time, she began accompanying her poems on the guitar, and it was only a matter of time before she recorded an album. 

The honorable task of producing this fell to John Cale, who knew how to offer something fresh in contrast to the FM West Coast sound that dominated at the time. Musically, she often draws on the old rock greats like the Velvet Underground, but her lyrics go further: using simple words, Patti Smith conjures up powerful images in the listener’s mind. Images of sex, anarchy, suicide, aliens. Her voice has neither a wide range nor a beautiful tone – but it exudes a kind of uncanny charm.

The album is often cited as a precursor to punk, which is a bit of a stretch. But it makes a statement about what is musically possible, and in that sense, it is indeed punk.

Patti Smith - Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)

Patti Smith - Redondo Beach

Patti Smith - Kimberley

Patti Smith - Horses/Land of a Thousend Dances/La Mer Dances

Monday's Long Song

 

In 1975 Patti Smith released her debut Horses, an album that changed a lot. Mainstream music was mostly on his deathbed and punk wasn't there yet. At that point, she appeared with her band and made an impact with her expansive lyrics and exuberant garage sound, which at its best was reminiscent of Velvet Underground. This may also have been due to John Cale, who produced her debut album. 

Horses shows all the power with which she impressed me back then and still does today. Angry guitars push Patti Smith forward, her voice occasionally breaks and reflects the musical departure into new realms that was to come in the following years. It is still an album that captivates and is almost perfect. What else can one say about an album that has accompanied me throughout my life? 

Patti Smith - Horses

Another Green World

 

50 years ago Brian Eno released Another Green World, another step away from what Roxy Music made famous. Legend has it that he had to go to hospital and his girlfriend at the time played him harp music, which combined with the raindrops on the window to create a sound that left a lasting impression on him.

With Another Green World, he also took his final step into ambient music, creating soundscapes that later artists still draw on today. These compositions were interrupted by John Cale's viola and Robert Fripp's superb guitar playing. 

For me it is a record that still sounds fresh after all these years and the more I listen to it I discover new fascinating ideas in these songs.

Brian Eno - Everything Merges With The Night

Brian Eno - Sky Saw

Brian Eno - I'll Come Running

Brian Eno - In Dark Trees

Wrong Way Up

 

It happens that I occasionally run out of inspiration for this little blog. I usually grab my external hard drive and scroll through the individual files (which I should have reorganized a long time ago). This is how I came across an album that I haven't listened to for a long time and has never been mentioned here.

After working together on and off for years, Brian Eno and John Cale released their only album Wrong Way Up in 1990 and concentrated on songwriting. After a good decade of pushing himself musically to the limits of the esoteric, it seems to have done him good to record a semi-electronic album with Cale. 

Nothing and nobody sounded like this back then. Eno makes the synths shimmer and twitch, Cale plays a funky guitar and shows that a viola can only be beneficial to the music. Ultimately, it is a forgotten masterpiece that set the standard for pop songs.

Brian Eno & John Cale - One Word

Brian Eno & John Cale - Lay My Love

Brian Eno & John Cale - Spinning Away

Brian Eno & John Cale - Been There Done That

Paris 1919

 

A few days ago I rediscovered John Cale's third solo album after not having listened to it for years. It's probably well known that Cale was a founding member of the Velvet Underground. But that he had a classical training as a musician is probably less so. 

He has always tried to explore the boundaries of music. His musical spectrum ranges from the deconstruction of listening habits to avant-garde pop. And he achieved the latter with Paris 1919. Rarely has his music been so catchy and fascinating. A timeless masterpiece that in many places is reminiscent of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter, which was produced by Cale at almost the same time.

Grace

 

It's been 30 years since Jeff Buckley released his only studio album and he hasn't lost any of his brilliance since then. In the broadest sense, it is alternative rock with long, quiet passages in which Buckley's voice spans several octaves and often ends in falsetto. What makes this record exceptional is the intensity with which he performs his songs, most of which are about loss. As he didn't have enough of his own songs for a complete album, the record also includes cover versions such as Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. His version is based on John Cale's interpretation, but the way he performs it with a reduced rhythm and his extraordinary voice gives us an idea of what other masterpieces we could have expected had he not died far too early.

My Mum Was Nico's Driver

 

A few days ago a song by a band I've never heard before came to my ears and never let me go since. HANN is a Manchester based indie-pop band and derived by the singers first name Hannah. I don't know if the story of the song is true but it is clever using name dropping in a good pop song. Of course nothing new and exciting but just another good song for the upcoming summer.

The brilliance of the song's lyrics is that I remembered Nico once again. Born in Germany as Christa Päffgen before the war she became a model and moved to New York where Andy Warhol got aware of her. He also was the one who introduced her to Velvet Underground where she got a member of. Although she couldn't sing her voice fitted together perfectly with the Velvet's sound. In 1967 she released her first solo album Chelsea Girl a little masterpiece by her. With the help of her bandmates Reed and Cale and Jackson Browne she created probably the blueprint of doom and gothic sounds that should became decades later famous. On 18 July 1988 Nico swings on her bike; dressed in black leather trousers and other heavy clothes, her emaciated body collapses in the shade at 40 degrees in Ibiza. The woman, who turned the head of many of the most desirable men of the 60s and also became an icon musically, leaves her life on a roadside in the bright sun of Spain. 

Nico - These Days

Monday's Long Song

 

A few weeks ago Kelly Lee Owens released some reworks of songs from her latest album Inner Song. I like Kelly Lee because she never made a record that is dull or not worth to listen a second time. She also is able to create something new on things she did once. So I was surprised to hear that John Cale appeared on a song on Inner Song. Now it is out as a rework by London based musician and DJ Coby Sey. The vocal reminds me to the late albums by Gil Scott-Heron talking over a skittering drum workout but it is fascinating.

Ghost Box

The news that New York based band SUSS is going to release a new album made to listen to their debut album released one year ago. The music is hard to describe but ambient country music comes very close to it. The quintet is led by Bob Holmes a multi-instrumentalist and member of a cowpunk band called Rubber Rodeo. All the members of the band had worked with different artists like B 52's, Lydia Lunch, David Bowie, John Cale, Burt Bacharach and many others. SUSS once asked What would it sound like if Brian Eno had produced the Western film scores of Ennio Morricone? Certainly like SUSS but I can also hear a bit of Boards of Canada in their music. The songs are quiet and slow but showing great musicians doing a fantastic job.

Back To Schooldays

A few days ago I noticed that a music magazine had a free CD inside with artists and songs from an era long gone by. And it made me smile to got remembered to this music that was played in my very younger days. Some of those artists are forgotten or didn't got the critical acclaim that they should have got. Here are two of them I would like to bring to your attention. First one was Quintessence, a band from London that made a unique sound in the late 60's/early 70's. Their style was a crossover from progressive rock, psychedelic and jazz with influences of music from India. Hippie-sound of course but far better than the average of this genre.

The other one is from an artist I featured several times during the last years and I can't stop doing it further. John Cale is one of those artists I follow from the beginnings of his career and his music has the perfect balance of testing noisy borders in music and peaceful and relaxed piano sounds.

Wrong Way Up

It  is almost 30 years ago when Brian Eno and John Cale finished their collaboration with Wrong Way Up, an album no one expected from them. Most of the people thought that these two artists will make an ambitious record with sounds from the future. But they made a record that was more mainstream than they ever expected. It is an album that sounds very fresh after all the years and I found it in my collection a few weeks ago and it is still on rotation since then. These songs are very clever and leads us to sophisticated pop sound but listening to them you can realize the fine arrangements both built to their songs. It is worth to feature them after a long time.

Brian Eno & John Cale - Spinning Away
Brian Eno & John Cale - Lay Me Love

Paris 1919

While listening to Velvet Underground the recent days I remembered John Cale's third album. Although the title of his record remains the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 where they established a new partitioning of new Europe and the fixing of the war reparation that led us finally to The Third Reich the album is still on of the best of this period. Planed as a mixture of rock and pop it is filled with great and timeless songs. Maybe the reason for this perfect album is that Cale got the chance to play with great musicians like Lowell George and Wilton Felder.

John Cale - Half Past France
John Cale - Andalucia