Get Behind Me Satan is the fifth album by The White Stripes, released on June 7, 2005. We clearly recognize the “White Stripes sound”, but it is also very different from the earlier albums from the band.It relies much more on piano-driven melodies and experimentation with marimba on “The Nurse” and “Forever For Her (Is Over For Me)”, Get Behind Me Satan plays down the punk, garage rock and blues influences (a little bit…) that dominated earlier White Stripes albums.
The White Stripes at Glastonbury 2005 – Blue Orchid:
I leaned back on my radio Some cat was layin’ down some rock ‘n’ roll ‘lotta soul, he said Then the loud sound did seem to fade Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase That weren’t no D.J. that was hazy cosmic jive.
– Starman
Ziggy the glam androgynous alien messiah fell to Earth, he changed Bowie from a prodigy to a superstar who transformed music forever. His impact still lingers after 42 years and will continue to do so as long as there is music. No less.
My favourite Bowie album is Hunky Dory, but Ziggy sure comes close.
“Everybody wants to be somebody’s something Ain’t nobody wants to be blue”
Transcendental realism: “…is a concept stemming from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant that implies individuals have a perfect understanding of the limitations of their own minds.” (-wikipedia)
Blues: “…refers to the “blue devils”, meaning melancholy and sadness…a depressed mood.” (-wikipedia)
Transcendental Blues: A philosophy that implies individuals have a perfect understanding of their own sadness and the limitations of their own minds (- me)
“transcendence is about being still enough long enough to know when it’s time to move on.” (- Steve Earle, liner notes)
A slightly altered cover of …The Further Out You Get
Johannasvisions: What would you say is the biggest difference from the previous album? Alexander Pettersen: I guess you could call it “the evil twin”…
The follow-up to The South’s 2013 album “The Further Inside You Go…” is a more demanding affair, but also an even more rewarding one. It opens with the 11 minute song, No Escape/Don’t Let Go, a track that is quite a departure for the band.
We’re no longer in the southern parts of the USA (well, not all the time anyway) it sounds like an Alan Parsons produced english band from around 1973. It swirls and changes its course as we listen, and this is something that we will encounter on the following songs as well. It starts off with gentle guitar and vocal, the sound is very delicate. The vocals are repeated and doubled, we get a subtle choir. The mood gets darker, but at about 2:40 into the song the drums and electric guitar lifts us up. The Keyboard echoes the melody. The pedal steel comes in, but it has no country-twang, it is airy and elegant. What a great start!
JV: The country-sound is all but gone, is this a conscious choice or did it “just happen”? AP: It is not something we decided, it is a natural progression for us, I think.
I write the songs I do, the only decision-making concerns choosing songs for the record, and the way we put them together to form a complete album.
This time I wanted to do something new, something else than before. And we did, we managed to pull off something special, something “more” than we’ve done before. I think we have succeeded in this, especially on the tracks, 1,2/3,5 and 6.
The South, Mono, Oslo, 2013
Desert Sounds takes us into more familiar territory, to the breezy Californian coast line. It starts off with a strumming acoustic guitar and then a beautiful melody hovers over the acoustic. The guitar is doubled and the keyboard fills in. It is a very finely arranged intro to the track, Glimpse of what we had. The South is in no hurry, they take their time and it builds up wonderfully. I see it as one song.
The second part of the track has a more up-beat melody, but the lyrics are filled with longing for past times and are bittersweet in tone. The electric guitar in the song is an Allman Brothers/Grateful Dead mix, but new and fresh and not retro in feel at all. The bass is subtly restrained and incredibly well played.
Glimpse of what we had (Spotify):
Now, The South takes us for a ride into, well, “The South” as in the musical landscape of the Southern US. They give us a superb Muscle Shoals sounding song, We Got Lucky. A lover reassure his girlfriend that all will be all right and we believe him. The track has some very fine horn arrangements (by Bendik Brænne) and both The Band and Little Feat would have been proud to include it in their catalogue.
Then we’re back on the road, we get a rousing boogie/Texas shuffle in the raw, Psb6u-blues. A steady “motor rhythm” of an accord on el-guitar lays the foundation, and we get a playful guitar that’s just “all over the place” above the steady beat. And then more guitar and keyboard. It reminds me of driving or taking the train, traveling. The vocal starts at 3:35(!) and it is no sweet blues, it is aggressive and insisting. It ends in a wild crescendo and I long to see it in a live setting. It is just fabulous, so far this is my favorite song on the record along with the last track, …The Further Out You Get.
The Idiot is the debut solo album by Iggy Pop. It was the first of two LPs released in 1977 which Pop wrote and recorded in collaboration with David Bowie. Although issued after Low, the opening installment of Bowie’s so-called Berlin Trilogy, the pair began writing and recording songs for The Idiot in mid-1976, before Bowie started work on his own album. As such, The Idiot has been claimed as heralding the unofficial beginning of Bowie’s ‘Berlin’ period, being compared particularly to Low and “Heroes” in its electronic effects, treated instrument sounds, and introspective atmosphere. A departure from the hard rock of his former band the Stooges, the album is regarded by critics as one of Pop’s best works. Its title was inspired by Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot, three of the participants in the recording—Bowie, Pop and Tony Visconti—being familiar with the book. I will argue that there’s really a “Berlin-quintet” consisting of: The Idiot, Low, “Heroes”, Lust for life and Lodger.
Iggy Pop’s The Idiot, is equally a David Bowie album as a guest singer/composer; Davis Bowie co-wrote all the songs (except Sister Midnight that was co-written with Carlos Alomar and David Bowie) , played many of the instruments and produced it (kind of…). Tony Visconti tried to salvage the over-modulated tapes at the mixing stage.
Released
March 18, 1977
Recorded
July 1976 – February 1977,Château d’Hérouville, Hérouville, France, Musicland Studios, Munich, Hansa by the Wall, Berlin
Genre
Post-punk, art rock
Length
38:49
Label
RCA
Producer
David Bowie (and Tony Visconti)
Iggy Pop (w/ David Bowie) – Funtime and Sister Midnight (live 1977):
“Poor Jim, in a way, became a guinea pig for what I wanted to do with sound. I didn’t have the material at the time, and I didn’t feel like writing at all. I felt much more like laying back and getting behind someone else’s work, so that album was opportune, creatively”
– David Bowie
So, Iggy Pop acted as a guinea pig. David Bowie seemed tired of his ever-changing narrative or masks, so he used the opportunity making an Iggy solo record as a way to start re-inventing himself as well as Iggy. Iggy Pop and David Bowie worked extremely well as a team.
Personell:
Iggy Pop – vocals
David Bowie – keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, piano, saxophone, xylophone, backing vocals
Carlos Alomar – guitar
Dennis Davis – drums
George Murray – bass
Phil Palmer – guitar
Michel Santangeli – drums
Laurent Thibault – bass Continue reading Today: Iggy Pop released The Idiot in 1977→
