DAY 265.
Alice Cooper...............................................Schools Out   (1972)









Signing for Frank Zappa's Straight label, and two infamous albums of psychedelic pandemonium later, they moved to Detroit, and befreinded The Stooges, whose Motor City roar was as vital in their evolution as Bob Ezrin's cinematic sense of production.


Alice Cooper's mainly visual appeal was fully transferred to vinyl with "Schools Out", the new album preceded by the hit single of the same name. The single was their most popular to date, a graphic riot of stabbing riffs and seditious slogans that became a punk anthem for every drop out teen of the early 1970s.


They had found their sound, and were now actively reinforcing their popularity by means of the Grand Guignol antics of their high-camp live shows.

 Pat, what a great pair for peacocking around the playground, which I did as I had both albums.

Will double post the night.

DAY 264.
Roxy Music.......................................Roxy Music   (1972)









This was one of the first albums I bought, 1972 what the fuck was this? never heard anything like it but certainly new straight away I liked it, I've been told it has been classified as Art-Rock which is a genre I think they must have invented/inspired.


The first time I heard Ferry's vocals melding wit the rest of the group, I thought this is a band I really want to keep an eye on,the only downside for me was a lot of the Eno stuff just didn't enhance, but then again didn't hinder this album too much either, top tracks in my humbles were, "Re-make/Re-model," "2H.B." but by far the best track I think is "Ladytron" an absolutely brilliant song.


As alluded to before I had this album, but found out today not any longer, I thought they were still in my old mans loft but found out the day, that my Mum (God rest her soul) gave them away to a charity fundraiser  of some kind several years ago, it's a funny bitter sweet feeling I have at the moment, gutted they're all gone but glad they went to a worthy cause, they went to the Macmillan Nurses who, in later years helped my Mum and family so "what goes around" I guess, anyone who knows a Macmillan Nurse please give them a hug and a big thank you, that's a hard job they do, but you would never know from the ones I met, they really are worth their weight in gold.


So have to start my collection with bands out of this book (at least for starters) This album is probably one of the finest debut albums I have ever heard, but in saying that it's not the best Roxy Music album I have ever heard, so I'm going to put this on the subbies bench, and if Roxy Music's next two albums (their finest work, in my humbles) are not in this book, I'm going to be totally fucked off with this author, but will buy this one and add it to my collection.



Bits & Bobs;


In the winter of 1970/71, Bryan Ferry (ceramics teacher) advertises for a keyboard player to join with him and Graham Simpson a bass player he knew from his college band, The Gas Board. Andy Mackay replied to the advertisement, not as a keyboard player but as a saxophonist and oboist, however, he did posses a VCS3 synthesiser. Andy met Brian Eno during university days, as both were interested in avant-guard and electronic music. It was some time later that they met again, and as Brian could use a synthesizer and owned a Revox reel to reel tape machine, Andy co-opted him to join the fledgling band as a technical advisor. It wasn't long before Eno was a performing member of the group. Dexter Lloyd a classically trained timpanist joined the group as a drummer.


 The first line up of the band: Bryan Ferry vocals/keyboards, Graham Simpson bass, Andy Mackay sax and oboe, Brian Eno synth and treatments, Roger Bunn guitar and Dextor Lloyd percussion recorded a the first demo tape of the embryonic stages of the Bryan Ferry songs The Bob (Medlay) Ladytron, Chance Meeting, 2HB and Grey Lagoons,


 With some line up changes along the way an advertisement was placed seeking a 'wonder drummer'. It was in November of 1971 that Paul Thompson joined the line-up. Paul had played in a number of Newcastle bands, and he had moved to London with the band Smokestack.


 After a succession of guitarists including Roger Bunn who left in September 1971, Phil Manzanera arrived via yet another advertisement, but failed the audition. He was passed over for David O'List. Ferry had admired David's work with the group The Nice. Phil Manzanera found a place with the band as road manager and assistant sound mix engineer. So by November 1971 there is a band that is formed, and initially called itself  Roxy, after Bryan's passion for going to the movie theatres. He wanted to instill a sense of drama, theatre, and glamour. Doubtless the name Roxy would have sufficed, but there was already a band of that name in the US, so it was changed to Roxy Music. 



 By the end of 1971, they hadn't managed to get a recording contract. But they had a favourable review in the December 12th issue of Melody Maker, as journalist Richard Williams (a fan of O'List's work with The Nice) had been impressed with a demo tape he'd acquired. It was while they were playing gigs they were noticed by John Peel in a club where they were billed with Genesis. On the strength of what he saw, Roxy were booked for four sessions with John Peel on his Sound of the Seventies show at the beginning of January 1972. Davy O'List left the band soon after these sessions.


 
It took Phil Manzanera three days of auditions to be accepted as replacement guitarist. The band still isn't making money, Mackay and Ferry are still teaching, and Thompson is working on a building site. So Ferry enlists the help of Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and goes to E.G. Management in pursuit of a recording contract. Reluctantly they are persuaded to give the band an audition and on the strength of that, they sign the band and E'G orchestrate a deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records label.
Island Records gave a large advance payment, which went towards the purchase of some glamorous outfits for the band. Roxy's stage outfits were designed by Antony Price, Jim O'Connor, Pamla Motown but it was Carol McNichol who designed some of the memorably outrageous costumes worn by Eno.


 In March of 1972, the first album is complete, suitably entitled "Roxy Music". The album is released in June 1972 to rave reviews after the departure of bassist Graham Simpson replaced with Rik Kenton for live work. The bassist in Roxy Music would take the trend of coming to Roxy through a revolving door over the rest of the life of the band. A set of dates around UK and the release of their first single "Virginia Plain" (c/w new piece "The Numberer") found them the wider audience they were looking for.



A review I found QI;



There’s a fleeting glimpse of something delectable at the start of Roxy Music’s first album, and yet just out of reach.


 “I tried but I could not find a way,” Bryan Ferry sings as he gazes longingly at what-might-have-been disappearing in his rear-view mirror. The chorus, such as it is, is a recurring chant: “CPL593H” — a car registration number, intoned with deadpan cool by guitarist Phil Manzanera and tape manipulator Brian Eno.


 The song hurtles ahead, Ferry rattling on — “I could talk, talk, talk myself to death” — at the futility of it all, while Eno’s synthesizer splatters mud on his windshield. A series of brief tongue-in-cheek solos quotes the Beatles, “Peter Gunn” and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” while Paul Thompson’s drums and Graham Simpson’s bass turn the arrangement into an exuberant rush. It is a song of longing and frustration dolled up in blue eye shadow and tiger-skin vests. The title couldn’t be more droll: “Re-Make/Re-Model.” It’s a love song, but to what exactly? The car? The girl? The illusion of the girl? The idea of the girl driving off in a machine that may be even more desirable than she is?


 Here was a postmodern love song dished out with attitude and verve by a band that seemed to come out of nowhere. Indeed, Roxy Music had played only a handful of gigs before this unlikely collection of former art-school students (Ferry, Eno, Simpson), a classically trained woodwind player (Andy Mackay), a roadie-turned-guitarist (Manzanera) and a veteran rock drummer (Thompson) began recording its first album in London in March 1972.


  When they were done, the U.K. sextet created one of the signature debuts in rock history, at once postmodern, strange, sensual and thrilling. In 1972 it mapped out a new frontier, even as bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin dominated the rock landscape. It still sounds remarkably fresh. Its mix of art-rock ambition and glam flamboyance left its mark on artists across generations: Grace Jones, Morrissey, Duran Duran, the Pixies, Chic, Eurythmics, Pulp, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and countless others.


 Even the debut album’s cover image made waves. Rather than representing the band as virile rock gods, it featured what looked like a cheesecake pin-up from a glamour magazine. Yet the model, Kari-Ann Muller, is less a pouting ingenue than a knowing predator, teeth bared, who is laying a trap, a gold record peeking out from behind her wrap. Some even speculated (wrongly) that she was a drag queen, which only added to the allure: What exactly was going on here?


 Though Roxy drew on various hallowed rock touchstones — blues, rockabilly, doo-wop — they also reached far outside its traditional margins. “Re-Make/Re-Model” wasn’t just the first song on the first Roxy album, it was a manifesto, a musical blueprint of what was to come — subverting the love song (fetishizing a machine’s license plate) and pop-song structure itself (where’s the chorus?), while winking at their musical influences (classical to rock to you-name-it). Then there was the idea of juxtaposing noise and melody, of trying to pull a musical arrangement out of the chaotic soup that was Eno’s synthesizer and tape treatments, Manzanera’s scorched-earth guitar, Mackay’s array of treated woodwinds.


  Ferry was the pushiest of them of all. He casually dropped high- and pop-art references into his lyrics, and crooned with an exaggerated vibrato that made him sound like a decadent lounge singer, unlike most of his British peers who slavishly imitated American blues and soul vocalists. When he did channel the torn-and-frayed emoting of the R&B greats, he made it indelibly his own. As “If There is Something” shifts from country twang into desperate pleading more akin to Otis Redding, Ferry mines wicked humor: “I would put roses round our door, sit in the garden, growing potatoes by the score.”


 Roxy Music tried to couple rock’s serious ambitions (the band members were big fans of arty predecessors such as the Velvet Underground and King Crimson, for whom Ferry once auditioned) with pop’s fizziness. Ferry, by nature shy and self-effacing, reinvented himself as a fop with issues. He saw infinite possibility in the music, and while the Beatles and David Bowie got there before him in terms of layering rock with irony, ambiguity, theatricality and alter-egos, he brought a formidable intellect and subversive sensibility that stamped Roxy Music as innovators. For all his movie-star handsomeness and outwardly stylish presentation, Ferry also projected a creepiness that would never allow him to become the corporate pop idol he sometimes resembled.


 Like Ferry, Eno wasn’t a musician so much as an artist who painted with sound, and found the perfect tools in reel-to-reel tape recorders and the VCS3 synthesizer. His manipulations continually explode the arrangements. On “Ladytron,” Eno’s sci-fi transmissions merge with Mackay’s melancholy oboe as though bringing down an alien invasion, and in the live performances documented on the BBC Sessions, his synth swings like a wrecking ball through “Chance Meeting” and “The Bob (Medley).”




 The egos of Ferry and Eno couldn’t be contained by one band for much longer. Eno would exit after only one more album, the equally brilliant 1973 release “For Your Pleasure” — but not before Roxy Music turned rock inside out. As Eno later said, its debut album alone contained “about 12 different futures.” He was only slightly exaggerating.




"Re-Make/Re-Model"


 
The lyrics describe a man that likes the look of a woman, but is afraid to approach her. Brian Eno and Andy MacKay's backing vocal chorus of "CPL 593H" is the number plate of the car in which the woman is riding. Bryan Ferry explained to Uncut magazine January 2013 that he took inspiration for the hook from the actual number plate of a "very cool" Mini Clubman that he saw at the Reading festival. "I went with a friend and I was very attracted to this girl backstage who was wearing a fluffy jacket. Anyway, I then saw her when we were driving home in the terrible slow queue to get out of the site, and she was in the car in front. And I memorised the number of the car. So it was a kind of cry in the wild... I never met her."



 Former art student Bryan Ferry took inspiration for the title from Derek Boshier's 1962 painting Re-Think/Re-Entry.


 
This is guitarist Phil Manzanera's favourite track on Roxy Music's self-titled debut album. He told The Sun: "That sort of sums us up in a witty way with that ending, three chords, a lot of attack, a lot of enthusiasm."




"2H.B."


"2HB" is short for "To Humphrey Bogart." Frontman Brian Ferry employs in the lyrics the screen legend's famous line from Casablanca, "Here's looking at you, kid."



 
Ferry told The Sun: "I was a big fan of cinema and found a lot of inspiration there, as you can see in the song 2HB."


 
Other songs on the Roxy Music album that were inspired by classic movies include "Chance Meeting," which tips the hat to Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson's romantic 1940s film Brief Encounter and "The Bob (Medley)," which references the 1968 war epic Battle Of Britain.


 
Bryan Ferry recorded his own solo version of the song for his 1976 album Let's Stick Together.




"Sea Breezes"




Roxy Music's self-titled debut album was an innovative mix of diverse strands, which included '50s rock and space-age electronics. Frontman Bryan Ferry recalled to The Guardian in a January 2018 interview:




"Thinking about the songs, some of them are collage-like, with different sounds and moods within them – they will change abruptly into something else. For instance, 'Sea Breezes' is a slow song, and suddenly moves into this angular, quite opposite mood. I found that interesting, and this band was perfect for that; they were game for anything. We were constantly fiddling around, changing things. I was still trying to find my voice. I [now] think sometimes I'm singing too high, or I should have had another go at that."



 
 

PatReilly wrote:

I was trying to re-make/re-model myself on him for a time, looked fucking ridiculous with baggy short flares, fluorescent socks and platform soled shoes (which I sprayed gold). Long hair and collar and tie. 

There's a visual I coulda done without  but I've been there Pat, thought I looked the dogs 
 

DAY 267.
David Bowie.......................The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars   (1972)













With Ziggy....David Bowie abruptly redefined what being a male rock star was all about. The cover depicts Bowie as a skinny, cropped hair androgyne in a rainswept alley. Clutching an electric guitar he is an alien being beamed down to the drab Earth to bring us rock 'n' roll.


Bowie's vocals change with every song....by turns, reflective, preening, desperate and ecstatic, Ziggy contains a wealth of sexual ambiance and space-age imagery, but it is couched in solid songwriting, and carefully thought out arrangements.




This album is one of my favourites, this and "Transformer" vie for my most played album ever, but think Lou Reeds offering wins by a ba' hair.

Last edited by arabchanter (04/5/2018 10:31 am)

Good to see your back, Shedboy


It's a' aboot opinions my friend.

shedboy wrote:

arabchanter wrote:

DAY 267.
David Bowie.......................The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars   (1972)













With Ziggy....David Bowie abruptly redefined what being a male rock star was all about. The cover depicts Bowie as a skinny, cropped hair androgyne in a rainswept alley. Clutching an electric guitar he is an alien being beamed down to the drab Earth to bring us rock 'n' roll.


Bowie's vocals change with every song....by turns, reflective, preening, desperate and ecstatic, Ziggy contains a wealth of sexual ambiance and space-age imagery, but it is couched in solid songwriting, and carefully thought out arrangements.




This album is one of my favourites, this and "Transformer" vie for my most played album ever, but think Lou Reeds offering wins by a ba' hair.

LOL - TEK ... Bowie does some stuff here but my beliefs still stand strong about him (and the beatles btw).  He isnt a fucking alien being brought down to earth he is an average artist who did an elton john.

🆗
 

PatReilly wrote:

Some great albums recently: waiting for the (main)man to give his thoughts first.

Hey, shedboy, Bowie was a talent and a funny guy too. Elton? Pah.

I don't mind Elton John tbh.

But he's not a seminal artist who constantly evolved like Bowie.

Hell he even needed someone to write his lyrics for him.

Amazed that a music fan could make such claims tbh.

 

DAY 270.
The Rolling Stones..................................Exile On Main Street   (1972)









When they arrived at Keef's villa in the South of France, they brought with them only their hardiest compadres, but the 12 months it took to record then mix the album, took it's toll on all concerned, and eventually the band.


Drugs and booze were a given, the fractious hell of living and working en masse in an unsuitable mansion, once a Nazi headquarters, was their choice. Mick's decision to disappear with Bianca only added to the grumbling.


And the music? The band hated it, but if you like rock, it's entire DNA is here, spread over four sides, and better than The White Album. Not everything you hear about it is true, but believe the legends. The Stones never rolled this well again.

DAY 266.
The Temptations.................................All Directions   (1972)












A pleasant enough album, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, a cover originally done by  The Undisputed Truth, would have been the stand out track but coming in at just under 12 minutes is taking the pish, the rest of the tracks contains other covers of songs originally done by, Edwin Starr, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and also Isaac Hayes.


According to group leader Otis Williams, the Temptations fought "tooth and nail" not to record "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" or "Run Charlie Run", a socially conscious Black Power track (dealing primarily with the phenomenon of white flight) that called for them to repeatedly call out, in an affected Caucasian accent, "the niggers are comin'!" According to legend, lead singer Dennis Edwards didn't want to sing "Papa's" opening lines, because his own father had died on the third of September, but in actuality, Edwards' father had died on the third of October. In addition, his father was a minister, "a good, steady, religious man", not a "rolling stone"



"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was written by Ewan McColl folk singer and father of  Kirsty McColl, the song also beat Don McClean's American Pie to best Grammy song of 1973. It had been a massive No1 for Roberta Flack in 1972, 15 years after MacColl had written it for Peggy Seeger. His wife had rung him from America and asked for a song to put in a theatrical production. Within an hour he had composed the song and telephoned her to sing it to her.


Anyways I digress, this album wasn't at all painful to listen to apart from the longevity of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, but being honest, wasn't really my cup of tea, so this album wont be getting added to my collection.



Bits & Bobs;



They Were the Product of Merging.


 Before they were The Temptations, they were the Primes and the Distants. The two groups were based out of Detroit, and they joined together when the Distants lost some of its members, two members of the Primes were able to join them, and they then auditioned for Berry Gordy. They became the Temptations, and its members were Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Elbridge Bryant. Bryant was eventually replaced by David Ruffin.


 They Referred to Themselves as “Five Lead Vocalists.” 


The “classic five” temptations were all amazing singers. Kendricks sang a high tenor, Otis Williams was a middle tenor, Ruffin sung a raspy tenor, Paul Williams was a baritone, and Franklin had a deep bass.



 
 They Earned Three Grammys. 


Among their many accomplishments are three Grammy awards. The Temptations have also released an impressive four number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and 14 number one R&B singles. In fact, The Temptations were the very first Motown act to win a Grammy.



 
They Have an Interesting Connection to The Supremes.


 Remember our mention of the Primes above? Well, the Primes had a sister group called the Primettes, who later became the Supremes!


 
Ruffin Had a Mink-Lined Limo.


 When the Temptations became wildly famous, the celebrity status really got into David Ruffin’s head. As a result, he would ride to and from gigs in his private limousine that was lined with mink. This created a rift between himself and the other members. Because of Ruffin’s cocaine use and his missing a gig, he was fired and replaced by Dennis Edwards.


  Ruffin Kind of Became a Stalker.


 After he was let go from the group, Ruffin would continue to attend concerts in “support” of the group. However, after several instances wherein Ruffin jumped on stage, extra security was used to keep him out. It didn’t always work, though.


 
 Paul Williams Lip-Synced the End of His Career. 


Williams was a victim of sickle-cell anemia, and because of this, he also suffered from depression and, subsequently, alcoholism. He had to begin traveling with oxygen tanks, and his backup replacement, Richard Street, began singing most of his songs for him while he lip-synced on stage.


  Ricky Owens Only Lasted Two Shows Before He Was Fired.


 Have you heard of Ricky Owens? No? There’s a reason for that. Owens was hired after Kendricks left, but he only lasted two shows because he forgot his lines as a result of his nerves. This left the group sans a fifth member for a few weeks.


 
 Their Biggest Hit Was Written for Another Group. 


One of The Temptations’ most popular singles, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” was actually written for the Undisputed Truth. The song was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.


 
They Had a Miniseries Named After Them.


 In 1998, The Temptations, a four-hour long tv miniseries based on Otis Williams’ autobiography was produced. It was nominated for five Emmys, and it was released on VHS and DVD.


 
 They Were Inducted Into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.


 In 1999, The Temptations were at last officially inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, solidifying their status as an iconically memorable group.


 
 Their Last Motown Album Was Released in 2004.


 The album was called Legacy. After the album’s release, the group moved to New Door Records.


 
They Were Highly Influential.


 The Temptations were one of the most influential male vocal groups of their time, and their style has influenced groups like the Delfonics, Parliaments, the Chi-Lites, George Clinton, and even Hall & Oates! Their songs have also been covered by a litany of famous musicians, such as Bette Midler, Rod Steward, and Luther Vandross.


 
They Are One of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.


 In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine named The Temptations as number 67 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Judging from their career, they are definitely deserving of the title.


 
They Have Gone Through 22 Members. 


Since their inception in 1961, there have been an impressive 22 members of the Temptations. Present members include Otis Williams, who has been there since the very beginning, Terry Weeks, Joe Herndon, and Bruce Williamson.




"Papa Was A Rolling Stone"



 
This was written by the Motown songwriters Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, and produced by Whitfield. It was first recorded by The Undisputed Truth, but Whitfield also had The Temptations record it, with much greater success.


 
A story that is often circulated and is recounted in the 2001 miniseries The Temptations deals with the lines of this song: "It was the 3rd of September, that day I'll always remember, 'cause that was the day that my daddy died."



The story goes that lead singer Dennis Edwards hated the song and was incensed when he heard this line, since his father died on that date and he thought Norman Whitfield put that in to goad him. This tale made for good drama, but was considerably overblown. Edwards' father actually died on October third, and he was anything but a rolling stone. The elder Edwards was a minister, and gave his son a good upbringing. Whitfield chose the date simply because it fit well in the song; he had no idea when Edwards' father had died.


 
The album version of this song runs 11:46. The single was released with the song split into two parts: the A-side was the "vocal" version and runs 6:58; the B-side is the "instrumental" and goes 4:49.




Even truncated for single release, the A-side was exceptionally long and remains one of the longest chart-toppers in Hot 100 history. It was not, however, the longest #1 of 1972 - that was Don McLean's "American Pie," which clocked in at 8:33.


 
Both sides of the single was Grammy awards. The A-side won for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus, and the B-side took the award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.


 
Speaking about this song's writer/producer Norman Whitfield in a 1995 interview with Goldmine, Motown head Berry Gordy said: "He could take one chord, like on 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone,' and play the same chord and do all these different beautiful melodies and stuff that many people could not really imagine this guy doin'. And I would watch him and he did it all by himself as a producer. He would work with five guys in the Temps and he would change leads on each one. He would pick the right lead for the right song, ya know, and he'd utilize all five of those leads in a song that was just incredible. When I listen to 'em today, now that I have time to listen to 'em, I'm saying, "Wow! This guy was probably the most underrated producer we had."


 
This was the last big hit recorded in Motown's famous Studio A, located in a two-story house in Detroit. Most of Motown's studio work had moved to Los Angeles by then, but The Temptations still recorded in Detroit.

I'm losing track. But The Temptations album is a good one, though not one I've owned.

Been a lot of decent LPs between the Temptations and Lynyrd Skynyrd on this list.

DAY 272.
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band...........................Bongo Rock   (1973)












The Incredible Bongo Band were assembled from a variety of session musicians to provide chase music for the 1972 MGM B-movie "The Thing With Two Heads" they recorded two tracks, "Bongo Rock" and Bongolia"  MGM decided to release these two tracks as a double-sided 45, which went on to sell more than a million copies. An LP was hurriedly recorded to follow up on it's success.



Heard you mention this one Pat?



 

DAY 267.
David Bowie.......................The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars   (1972)







 




This is one of my most favourite albums, every track superbly written and wonderfully arranged and produced, I could drop the needle anywhere on this album and would never feel cheated.



 I was fortunate enough to see Bowie in May 1973 at the Caird Hall (my first ever concert, no' bad eh?) this was when he was morphing from "Ziggy" into "Aladin Sane" (some amount of clothes changes) so as he changed characters,he sang songs from both albums, and whether it was because I was their that night I don't know? but for me this was Bowie at his best.



This album is part of "my holy trinity" of albums, joining "Ziggy" are "Transformer" and " The Velvet Underground And Nico" these three albums are by far my favourite albums, having helped me through since '72, good times and bad.




I can't recommend this album highly enough, for something that's over 40 odd years old, it really doesn't sound dated to this listener, this album would definitely have gone into my collection if it wasn't in there already, whether this book deemed it fit to be in the 1001 or not, this would always be in my collection, and I believe yours would be the better for it to.




Bits & Bobs;

already posted about Bowie earlier (if interested)




Much has been written about the importance of David Bowie's album
Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars. His fantastical
creation of a futuristic, androgynous rock star named Ziggy and the
album's utterly unique-sounding songs influenced the look and music of
many artists after its 1972 release — from Queen, Suede and Mott
the Hoople to Lou Reed, The Cars and Elton John. Not only did Ziggy
Stardust establish Bowie as a major talent, it also cemented Ken
Scott's reputation as an important producer with a unique sonic and
artistic vision in the rock world.




A few years prior to making Ziggy Stardust, producer/engineer
Gus Dudgeon had invited Scott to leave Abbey Road and work at nearby
Trident Studios in London, one of the hottest new facilities in the
world at the time. It was there that Scott's working relationship with
Bowie started, during the making of the artist's Tony Visconti-produced
Man of Words/Man of Music album. (That album was later released
in the U.S. as Space Oddity and featured the hit by the same
name.) At the time, Dudgeon's own production career was just beginning,
too.

“David was working with Tony on the album, but Tony hated the
song ‘Space Oddity,’” Scott says, “so David
used Gus for that one song and Barry [Sheffield] engineered it. I ended
up doing all the other songs on the Space Oddity
album.”

 The album that preceded Ziggy Stardust was Hunky Dory,
which eventually featured the artist's first real stateside hit,
“Changes.” It was Bowie's debut on the RCA label and his
first production with Scott. It is hard to only address Ziggy
Stardust without some mention of Hunky Dory, as both albums
were recorded back-to-back within a several month period. “We
recorded Ziggy before Hunky Dory was released,”
says Scott. “Ziggy was recorded a month after Hunky
Dory. I think it was while we were recording Ziggy that they
actually signed the deal with RCA.”


 Ziggy Stardust was recorded over a two-week period during
November 1971 at Trident, which was located in the Soho area of London.
In this era, Trident was home to many high-visibility projects for
artists such as The Beatles, T. Rex, Elton John and others. The
Ziggy sessions would usually run from two in the afternoon to
just past midnight, Mondays through Saturdays.


 There are a number of songs off of Ziggy Stardust that
warrant “Classic Track” treatment, including the
pile-driver rock of “Suffragette City,”
“Starman” (the album's single) or the dramatic sweep of the
title track. Nevertheless, Ziggy's opening triptych of
“Five Years,” “Soul Love” and “Moonage
Daydream” is one of the greatest opening sequences ever committed
to vinyl. The three songs, seamlessly linked together, are not only
some of Bowie's best work, but they provide the emotional thrust for
what has become one of rock's truly epic releases.


 “Five Years,” the apocalyptic lead track, draws the
listener into the album's drama with the gradual fade-in of a spare
drum pattern that sets the stage for Ziggy's environment,
desperate people in a doomed world. Bowie's voice goes from numb
intonations to wailing (at anyone who would listen) that time is
running out. The song fades out in the same manner that it began, with
a lone drum track. Suddenly, a hi-hat kicks in a couple of beats and a
sensual percussion groove sets up the next tune, “Soul
Love.” The transitions between “Five Years,”
“Soul Love” and the following track, “Moonage
Daydream,” make these three songs work almost as a singular
piece. Much of this has to do with Scott's sequencing and sense of
timing between the tracks.


 “I was brought up working at Abbey Road, and one of the first
things you did there as a second engineer, when you weren't on
sessions, was something called banding,” says Scott. “When
American albums came into the studio, they were just straight copies of
the album, and you had to put white leader tape that was exactly five
seconds long in between each track. They were the rules, until The
Beatles came along. Having done the five seconds between every track, I
realized as I was doing Ziggy that this didn't feel right. So I
thought, ‘F*** the rules; if I can get it to continue when I'm
tapping my foot from one number, and I can tap it on the first beat of
the next track and continue, that's the way it's going to be.’ I
was very careful about doing that.” The idea for the fade-in on
the opening track came from Bowie. “David wanted it coming from
nothing and going to nothing,” says Scott.


 “The tracks were recorded on a Trident A Range — the
very first one — and upstairs in the mix room we mixed on the
Sound Techniques board. The monitor speakers at that time were Lockwood
cabinets with Tannoys in them.



 “It was so basic,” he continues. “There weren't
even pan pots on each channel on the console. I always had it set up so
you could switch the signal to go left, center or right. I then had two
of the pan pots set for half left and half right, and the third one was
just in case I wanted to move anything around.”Much of the effect of movement across the stereo spread was created
by pulling up the reverb on the sides. “I think what you're
hearing is more the spreading, because the reverb comes up much
louder,” Scott says. “So that would tend to pull it to the
sides more. When I pulled the guitar up and the reverb down, then it
would come more center.”


 Scott says that the reverbs he employed were “very simple
because there was so little to use back then. We had two plates and a
bunch of Studer tape machines, so it would all have been done by
changing the times on two plates and various tape machines for the
delays.”


 Bowie's vocal mic was a Neumann U67 run through a Trident mic pre
and compressed through an LA-2A. “We would have UREI compressors
over the overall mix. With Ziggy, the drums certainly weren't
limited or compressed, except being limited a bit on the overall mix.
There would have been some initial limiting or compression applied on
the bass, keyboards, vocal and sometimes the guitars,” says
Scott.


 Listening to Bowie's impassioned singing (especially on songs such
as “Five Years” and “Rock and Roll Suicide”),
it's amazing to consider that, as Scott says, “All of David's
vocals were first takes. ‘Okay, David, it's time to do a
vocal.’ ‘Oh, all right,’ he'd say, and down he would
go.”


 Actually, for “Five Years,” Bowie's vocal was done in
two takes for two sections. Scott used different settings to capture
the first half, which was sung very quietly. The second half required
different adjustments to compensate for Bowie's dramatic singing.


 Bowie's ability to knock off great single-take vocals still
impresses Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey, who says,
“They were first takes! And then he would go, ‘Okay, I'll
double it.’ I'd worked with other singers before, and I'd never
met any singers who could sing the same thing again so you couldn't
tell they were double-tracking it. David would do it, and you'd go,
‘Shit, are both the voices up, Ken?’ ‘Yeah.’ I
can't hear 'em!' I could only hear one. Ken would say, ‘They're
both up, look at the faders!’ It was wild.”


 While Bowie is unquestionably the star of the proceedings, it is
lead guitarist Mick Ronson who is the unsung hero of Ziggy (and
Hunky Dory), with his razor-sharp, lyrical guitar work and rich
string arrangements. (Ronson passed away in Nashville on April 30,
1993.) Even though some know Ronson as Bowie's guitarist, few know that
his string arrangements were not only a powerful factor on Bowie's
album, but also on a number of other artists' releases, ranging from
Pure Prairie League's Bustin' Out to Lou Reed's
Transformer, including “Walk on the Wild Side.”


 “Rono was amazing,” says Scott. “One of the best
things about those projects was that he was inside Dave's brain. He
knew what David wanted without David ever having to say it.”


 Listen to the concise, yet powerful string arrangements on
“Five Years” or the textural free-flights at the end of
“Moonage Daydream” (not to mention Ziggy's closer,
“Rock and Roll Suicide”), and it is surprising to learn
that much of the arranging work was often knocked out right before the
sessions. “[Ronno] was always late with his arrangements,”
Scott says with a laugh. “We would discuss what the arrangements
were going to be and that would all be taken care of. But he wouldn't
actually finish the arrangement until the session date. He would be
working on them the night before and probably fall asleep, or something
like that. The next morning, he'd make a beeline for the bathroom at
Trident and finish up there. We'd all be sort of standing there,
hanging around 15 minutes into the session, and then he'd come out and
say, ‘I got them finished. Here they are.’ It worked every
time.”


 One of Ziggy's other sonic trademarks was Woodmansey's
hard-driving, economical drum parts and Scott's dry, tight drum sounds.
“Woody didn't much like the drum sound on Hunky
Dory,” Scott recalls. “He thought it was too dead.




That same sound  on Ziggy wouldn't have worked because Ziggy is
edgier and it is a bit livelier. The change in sound is probably a
combination of Woody and myself — just less dampening and me
changing it slightly upstairs. We wanted it more rock 'n' roll. Woody
said he thought the drum sounds on Hunky Dory sounded like corn
flakes, cereal packets [boxes]. So the first day of recording for
Ziggy, I sent the tea boy at the studio out to get as many
different sizes of Kellogg's Corn Flakes that he could find. And then I
had the roadie set up the drum kit out of purely different-size Kellogg
Corn Flakes packets. So that's what confronted Woody when he walked in,
and he just fell out of the floor laughing. I wish I had a camera and
taken a picture of that fake drum kit made of corn flake
packets.”


 Woodmansey remembers working with Scott to arrive at Ziggy's
unique drum sound: “Ken would sometimes get me tuning a tom-tom
for an hour, so that when it came up through the desk, it was right. On
some tracks, he would have the snare tuned so flat and dead that it was
like hitting a potato chip bag. It was just soggy and the sound in the
drum booth was horrible. But what Ken was able to do with it when he
brought it up through the desk, you thought, ‘That sounds like a
really neat sound!’ And we hadn't really experimented on that
side of things until then.”


 Scott also deliberately downplayed the cymbals in the mix and
encouraged less cymbal work in Woodmansey's playing. In general, Scott
preferred a more minimal style of playing. “We all got into
streamlining what we played, so that what you played meant
something,” Woodmansey comments, “getting it all down to
the feel, not superfluous things going on. I also think David really
did the same on the song side of it.


 “We all lived in the same house, so David would be basically
writing. He had a piano in one room and he'd play guitar in another
room, and he'd just go, ‘Woody, come in and listen. I just
finished this one,’ and he'd play a song.”


 When it came time to record the material in the studio, there was
little done in the way of pre-production. “Nobody had worked that
much of an arrangement out, so a lot of the time, when we went for a
take, you were sort of riding on a knife's edge, because we had a thing
where you never went more than three takes,” Woodmansey says.
“If you were on the third take, you knew that that was it, this
was your last shot, because you knew you weren't gonna get a fourth.
That was really how the album was done.


 “I guess there was still a difference between us playing live
and sounding like we sounded on Ziggy. Ken Scott was one of the
master technicians at the time for getting quality sound that still
allowed a recording to breathe as a track. So he gave it a different
slant, really, and made it so it kept its own thing, but put it into a
new sound. It still rocks, but it's sort of been space-aged, you know
— it's been streamlined. There really was [no one] around at the
time that was particularly doing that, and I think Ken contributed to
it more than anything. What he did on the sound was just
incredible.”


 Of all the great songs on Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From
Mars, Scott, Woodmansey and bassist Trevor Bolder have all pointed
to “Moonage Daydream” as a personal favourite off of the
album.



"Five Years"


This is the opening track to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. An announcement airs that the world will end in five years' time because of a lack of natural resources. The song then proceeds to describe the frenzied aftermath of the announcement.


 
David Bowie chose five years as the length of time following a dream he had in 1971 in which his late father came to him and told him that he had only five years left to live and that he must never fly again.



 
This was recorded in November 1971 at London's Trident Studios. Bowie performed it on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test on February 8, 1972, five months before the album's release.


 
Bowie's lyric sheet for this song was part of an exhibition devoted to the British rock icon at London's V&A museum. It was interesting to note the scribbled tweaks that shifted "Five Years'" emotional impact. "I never thought I'd see so many people," for instance, became "...need so many people."


 

Woody Woodmansey was the drummer in Bowie's backing band, The Spiders From Mars, he explained why this song contains one of his proudest moments on Ziggy Stardust.

"What was wanted was a drum beat to introduce the song itself and to set an atmosphere for the whole album. The idea of the song is that the world is ending in five years, so it was about finding a drumbeat that got that across – which was quite a challenge! I remember going through drum rolls, cymbal crashes and I kind of thought: 'Well if it's the end of the world… I can't be bothered! Haha!' You wouldn't be excited and you wouldn't feel like doing a lot. So, that beat came out of sort of despair and apathy, and then when the band comes in and David starts singing, it just feels right. It felt like a really good beginning, so I was quite proud of that. I nailed the brief by all reports!"




"Moonage Daydream"



Bowie wrote "Moonage Daydream" specifically for fashion designer Fred Burrett, who Bowie met in The Sombrero gay bar and decided to groom for stardom. Burrett, who changed him name to Freddie Burretti, is credited as a vocalist on the song, but whatever contributions he might have made never actually made it onto the track.


 
This was originally the first single released by David Bowie's side-project Arnold Corns in 1971. It flopped but was subsequently dusted down to be the song that heralds the arrival of Ziggy Stardust on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.


 
The B-side of the 1971 single "Hang on to Yourself" also later appeared on the Ziggy Stardust album.


 
In a 2003 interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Bowie explained how the song "Sure Know a Lot About Love" by The Hollywood Argyles influenced this song. Said Bowie: "It was a combination of the baritone sax and the piccolo on the solo which I thought, 'Now there's a great thing to put in a rock song' (laughs). Which I nicked, then put in 'Moonage Daydream' later."



 
Mick Ronson's guitar work was vital to the sound of the Ziggy Stardust album, including this song's otherworldly sustain-drenched solo. Bowie summed up Ronson's contributions in David Buckley's essay in the booklet accompanying the 30th Anniversary 2-CD edition of the album: "A perfect foil and collaborator, Mick's raw, passionate Jeff Beck-style guitar was perfect for Ziggy and the Spiders. It had such integrity. You believed every note had been wrenched from his soul."





Bowie continued: "I would also literally draw out on paper with a crayon or felt tip pen the shape of a solo. The one in 'Moonage Daydream,' for instance, started as a flat line that became a fat megaphone type shape, and ended as sprays of disassociated and broken lines. I'd read somewhere that Frank Zappa used a series of drawn symbols to explain to his musicians how he wanted the shape of a composition to sound. Mick could take something like that and actually bloody play it, bring it to life."


 
The song's introductory guitar riff would be later incorporated into punk pop band Green Day's 2005 hit single, "Jesus Of Suburbia."




"Starman"



This forms part of the Ziggy Stardust story, in which the end of the world lingers just five years away. This song tells of a salvation waiting in the sky, as revealed through Starman's messenger, Ziggy Stardust. The song is told from the perspective of a person listening to Ziggy on the radio


 
Woody Woodmansey was the drummer in Bowie's backing band, The Spiders From Mars. In 2008, he spoke to Uncut magazine about his impressions of this song: "I love 'Starman' as it's the concept of hope that the song communicates. That 'we're not alone' and 'they' contact the kids, not the adults, and kind of say 'get on with it.' 'Let the children boogie': music and rock 'n' roll! It lifted the attention away from the depressing affairs in the '70s, made the future look better. 'Starman' was the first Bowie song since 'Space Oddity' with mass appeal. After 'Starman,' everything changed."

• In 1972, Bowie performed this on TOTP'S. Bowie appeared as the flame-haired Ziggy Stardust dressed in a multicolored jump suit. Bowie strummed a blue guitar while he moved flirtatiously alongside his guitarist, Mick Ronson. It was the first time many had seen Bowie and people were fascinated by his stage presence. This performance would catapult Bowie to stardom and prove wildly influential on the next generation of English rockers.




Among the many who have cited this specific appearance as a transformative moment is Lol Tolhurst of The Cure, who writes in his memoir, "I remember sitting on my couch at home with my mother, watching this spectacle unfold, and at the point where Bowie sang the line, 'I had to phone someone so I picked on you,' he pointed directly at the camera, and I knew he was singing that line to me and everyone like me. It was a call to arms that put me on the path that I would soon follow."



Bowie was influenced by the song "Over The Rainbow," which is most obvious during the chorus ("There's a Starman...").





This was the last song written for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, supposedly because nobody had heard a potential single on the album. It became Bowie's first UK hit in three years. His only previous chart entry had been "" in 1969.


"We'd finished recording the Ziggy Stardust album at that time and it went into the record company. They said: 'We can't release this. It doesn't have a single on it!'" Woody Woodmansey recalled  "So, we came out of the studio and in about a month he had written 'Starman' and we were back in the studio by January. It was an obvious single! I think Mick and I went out in the car after David played it for us the first time, and we were already singing it, having only heard it only once."




"At the time, we thought it might be a bit too poppy, a bit too commercial," he continued. "It might seem strange, but we just hadn't done anything that commercial before. I always thought Bowie had that ability, that any time he felt like it, he could write a hit single. He just had that about him. I think he chose not to right through his career. If he felt like it, he would write one, and if he didn't, he wouldn't. That was just the impression of working with him. It's not a fluke to be able to write all those amazing tunes."

"Lady Stardust"


This song is about Bowie's longtime friend Marc Bolan of the glam rock group T-Rex.


 
If you listen closely after the last verse of this song you hear Bowie say "Get some P_ssy now!"




"Suffragette City"


A "Suffragette" is a woman involved in the women's suffrage movement (trying to get the right to vote). A London newspaper was the first to use the term, and did so in a derogatory manner. In England, women got voting rights in 1918. In the US, it was 1920.


 
Bowie offered this to the band Mott The Hoople, but they turned it down. Bowie was a big fan of Mott The Hoople, but they weren't selling well and were about to break up. To keep them going, Bowie offered to produce their next album, and although they rejected this, they did record Bowie's "All The Young Dudes" which became a big hit and got them out of a financial mess.


 
The heavy saxophone backing sound is not a saxophone. It was created by an ARP synthesizer. Bowie wanted a larger-than-life sax sound, so they used the synth to create the sounds that a real sax couldn't.


 
The famous "Wham Bam Thank-you Ma'am" lyric was the title of one of the tracks on Charles Mingus' 1961 Oh Yeah album (according to Mingus it was also a phrase that his drummer, Max Roach, used when he was "unable to express his inner feelings") and most likely one which Bowie was aware of, being a jazz lover himself.



 
The word "droogie" (from the line "Aw, droogie, don't crash here") is from the book (later made into a movie) A Clockwork Orange. It means "friend." Like most of the words in the book's teen-slang language, Nadsat, it's based on Russian.


 
This is one of Bowie's all time personal favourites.


 
When Bowie played this live in 1972, he started doing a bit at the end of the song where he went underneath his guitarist, Mick Ronson, and played the guitar with his mouth. This made it look like Bowie was simulating oral sex, and it caused a stir when Bowie talked his Manager into buying a whole page of advertising space in the British magazine Melody Maker to get the infamous "oral sex" picture published immediately after it was shot at a show in Oxford Town Hall in June 72. That's the way photographer Mick Rock tells the tale in his book Blood And Glitter.



"Rock 'N' Roll Suicide"


This is about the collapse of Bowie's persona, Ziggy Stardust. This song closes The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and would also mark the climax of the Ziggy Stardust concerts between 1972-1973.


 
This dramatic and unusual song blends a variety of styles, which Bowie explained in his 2003 interview with Performing Songwriter: "What I enjoyed was being able to hybridize these different kinds of music somewhat. To go from a '50s rock flavored thing with an Edith Piaf nuance on it produced that. There was a sense of French chanson in there. It wasn't obviously a '50s pastiche, even though it had that rhythm that said total '50s. But it actually ends up as being a French chanson. That was purposeful. I wanted that blend, to see if that would be interesting. And it was interesting. Nobody was doing that, at least not in the same way. The same approach was being adopted by a certain number of artists from that era." 



 

Last edited by arabchanter (09/5/2018 7:10 am)

Rise and Fall is another album introduced to my house by my big sister, and it'd be in my top ten all time LPs.

One track I always skipped was Ron Davies' 'It ain't Easy', but nowadays I appreciate it as much as the others. Initially, I probably dismissed it because it wasn't a Bowie song, and I didn't notice the quality of the arrangement or Ronson's guitar work.

Great album (take note Shedboy  ).