Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Thu, 8 Oct 1992 14:11:40 EDT
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Une reve sans consequence speciale

From:         "(Russ Gelinas)" <R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU>
Subject:      debut albums (not really)

>   So I'm out 2 days and had to delete 100 Allmusic messages.  None of them
> had Sinead O'Connor for a subject.  I'm surprised.  Do you all hate the pope
> as much as she?  Anyone see her interview on empTV?  She gave a pretty
> convincing explanation of why she believes organized religion is responsible
> for a good chunk of the world's woes.

Stated thus, I can't find it in my heart to disagree. I didn't see the segment
myself, so I can't say anything about its aesthetics, but what gets to me about
Sinead is stridency. On the other hand, it has been truthfully said, anyone who
can piss off both Frank Sinatra and Prince has to be doing something right!

>   Personally, I think one must really be an artist to be able to stun a
> Saturday Night Live crowd into silence.  Performance art at it's best.

At the Urban Ambience show I told you about already, Inner Beauty had a whole
bunch of fliers printed up that said "Fight the Real Enemy" under pictures of
Batman, Mickey Mouse, Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle, and other cultural icons,
and tore them up during their set. Pretty good theatre (although C.C.C.C.
certainly had the edge there).

From:         Paul Heroy <HEROY@LSUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: DebUT ABLUMS

> had a very tough time putting any jazz artists on the list, since by the first
> album recorded under a jazz player's own name is usually not really a debut -
> there've usually been many albums as a sideman. With those caveats, forthwith:

True of a lot of rock'n'roll as well. Somebody listed the Band, who'd already
recorded as Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks. Blue Oyster Cult, who you mentioned,
had already recorded as Soft White Underbelly. (Besides, their second and third
albums cut the debut to ribbons IMHO). Jimmy Page had logged more hours in
recording studios than on stage by the time of the first Led Zeppelin sessions,
and John Paul Jones was no spring chicken either. I think the Boston album was
a real rare phenomenon, an artist coming out of nowhere (in terms of previous
music industry experience) with a sound and a concept capable of setting the
industry on its ear, and spawning countless imitations; who else has
approached that sort of success?

> REM

Well, okay. I still loathe them though.

From:         "(Jeff Beer)" <ujwb@UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU>
Subject:      London Composers Orchestra

>                         ...  Evan Parker played a soprano solo on a
> kaleidoscopic circular breathed drone, and it got quite a rousing
> response.  He also played in his trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton.
> That was absolutely fierce, with Parker on tenor.

I've seen Parker play on several occasions, and he's always been exhilarating.
Last time I saw him, it was supposed to be the trio, but Lytton was ill, so he
and Barry Guy played as a duo, just lovely. You spoke of his visa problems
(there's a thread worth starting, the pinhead policies of the US Immigration
and Naturalization "Service" toward international artists)-- the reason he got
in that time was because Charlie Watts was doing his big band thing! Parker
got his visa for that absurd circus, which advanced the craft of big band
arrangement not a whit, but featured a pop star who'd demonstrated real artistic
merit, as measured in dollars. So Parker showed up early and did some musically
valid gigs that the INS would never have let him do if not for a philanthropic
and musically savvy Stone...

From:         MCINTYRE@MSUPA.BITNET
Subject:      live King Crimson

> I think the live recording in Amsterdam is a bootleg.  There are quite
> a few King Crimson bootlegs.  As for officially released live albums,
> the only one besides _USA_ is _Earthbound_, recorded on the American
> tour supporting _Islands_ but not released in America, naturally.
> _Earthbound_ was recorded on a cassette machine, so the sound quality
> is a bit lacking, but I quite like the performance.

Fripp once told an interviewer that _Earthbound_ was released specifically to
prove that the _Islands_ band should have broken up sooner. I think that he's
being unfair (as he so often is); I've heard bootlegs of that band that were
just terrific performances (one of "Cirkus" where Mel Collins sticks in the
lick from "Thunder and Blazes" in the third verse, just hilarious) and the
recording quality, even on an nth generation cassette copy, wipes the floor
with _Earthbound_.

For the record, Fripp has announced his disinclination to make _Earthbound_
available on CD-- or _USA_ either, the parting shot (contractual obligation?)
of the Fripp/Cross/Wetton/Bruford band, although a couple of those performances
appear on the _Frame By Frame_ live disc. Of course, aficionados know that
much of _Starless and Bible Black_ was in fact recorded live in concert-- it
was cheaper than studio time, and that band was more than good enough to get
away with it.

Anyway, what's supposed to happen is, as John said, live CD collections of
Fripp's favorite performances, at least one for each major incarnation of the
band. The _Great Deceiver_ set is due any day now.

From:         MCINTYRE@MSUPA.BITNET
Subject:      re: music to boat by

> As for sailing music, well, there is always the album _Sea Shanties_ by
> High Tide. 8-)
>
> P.S. For those unfamiliar with the album, the smiley is due to the deceptive
> nature of the packaging.  I mean, given the album title and the group name,
> wouldn't you expect traditional sea shanties, probably sung acapella?
> Instead the album is light on vocals and extremely heavy on instrumentation
> with burning guitar and the electric violin of Simon House who later played
> with Hawkwind and David Bowie.  I wonder how many sales they lost because
> people drew the wrong assumption, and I wonder how many stores mistakenly
> filed it under "Traditional" and lost the custom of people who bought it. 8-)

Anybody who'd fall for that misrepresentation deserves it. The correct spelling
is "Chantey," from the French "chant" (the English "chant" too, for that
matter). A "shanty" is a small outbuilding, although some pundits claim it's
also a mixture of beer and lemonade :-) Remember _Space Shanty_ by Khan,
featuring an orbiting cottage in the cover art (not to be confused with
Steeleye Span's _Rocket Cottage_)?