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Wasn't this supposed to be a musical ?
On Fridays this year, we ask...
What's in the Box?
The Box in question is the glovebox of my car, home to my extremely motley tape collection. By the time I owned a car with a tape player tapes were on the way out and most of my music was in CD format. However, charity shops were practically giving tapes away, which meant that I bought rapaciously and eclectically. A half-remembered 80s band who once released a single I'd liked a little ? A band I'd vaguely heard of ? An unknown group with good cover art ? Bring them on.
Of course, the net result is that I've ended up with a tape collection which any music-lover would be slightly ashamed of. There was a relatively narrow window (late 70s to later 80s) when tapes were big news, and my horde represents that. However, in amongst the terrible pop I've found some gems and I reckon its time to come clean about my guilty musical secrets.
In The Box this week we have:
Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain
Ever since I was little, I've been a fan of songs with Words. Not just any words, but serious quantities of words, preferably all squashed up and tumbling over each other. The sort of songs that, even when you know the words, are a challenge to sing. G&S's Little List and Nightmare Song, the Barenaked Ladies' One Week, REM's It's The End of the World As We Know It, Cockersdale's Doin' The Manch... if it's got enough words to form a decent ten minute presentation, then wheel it out.
The only Billy Joel song which has ever really stuck in my head[*] is the extremely wordy We Didn't Start the Fire, which is almost certainly what I was thinking of when I handed over (according to the label) 50p for The Nylon Curtain on tape. As it turns out, the songs thereon are absolutely nothing like that anyway.
This album is a selection of almost ballad-y songs, some of which are really sounding very dated. But you know what ? I'm actually rather fond of it. The songs are interesting, with thoughtful lyrics and a lot of variation in tempo and instruments. Even in the course of one song it can swing from pleasant orchestral backing to full on 80s synths. In many ways, the construction of the album actually reminds me of a musical; it has the right kind of epic scope and a show-style structure, right down to the echoing of the opening theme in the closing track. The more I've listened to it, the more I've come to feel that actually it is a very respectable record.
Having swithered between Pressure and Surprises as my two favourite songs on the album, it's interesting to note that the blurb on the front suggests that they were the two big singles[**].
Billy Joel - Pressure [link expired]
NB Just at the moment of posting this, the server which hosts my webspace appears to have stopped responding. I've successfully pung it, but it doesn't seem to want to answer HTTP requests and attempts to ssh time out. Hopefully it'll be back shortly.
[Poll #1138919]
Update Please can the people who've expressed an opinion let me know whether they were able to download it successfully ? (Or whether they knew it already, or just voted blind ;)
[*] OK, having just consulted a discography, this is clearly untrue. But it's the only one that sticks in my head as a Billy Joel song.
[**] Although Wikipedia actually suggests that they weren't.
What's in the Box?
The Box in question is the glovebox of my car, home to my extremely motley tape collection. By the time I owned a car with a tape player tapes were on the way out and most of my music was in CD format. However, charity shops were practically giving tapes away, which meant that I bought rapaciously and eclectically. A half-remembered 80s band who once released a single I'd liked a little ? A band I'd vaguely heard of ? An unknown group with good cover art ? Bring them on.
Of course, the net result is that I've ended up with a tape collection which any music-lover would be slightly ashamed of. There was a relatively narrow window (late 70s to later 80s) when tapes were big news, and my horde represents that. However, in amongst the terrible pop I've found some gems and I reckon its time to come clean about my guilty musical secrets.
In The Box this week we have:
Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain
Ever since I was little, I've been a fan of songs with Words. Not just any words, but serious quantities of words, preferably all squashed up and tumbling over each other. The sort of songs that, even when you know the words, are a challenge to sing. G&S's Little List and Nightmare Song, the Barenaked Ladies' One Week, REM's It's The End of the World As We Know It, Cockersdale's Doin' The Manch... if it's got enough words to form a decent ten minute presentation, then wheel it out.
The only Billy Joel song which has ever really stuck in my head[*] is the extremely wordy We Didn't Start the Fire, which is almost certainly what I was thinking of when I handed over (according to the label) 50p for The Nylon Curtain on tape. As it turns out, the songs thereon are absolutely nothing like that anyway.
This album is a selection of almost ballad-y songs, some of which are really sounding very dated. But you know what ? I'm actually rather fond of it. The songs are interesting, with thoughtful lyrics and a lot of variation in tempo and instruments. Even in the course of one song it can swing from pleasant orchestral backing to full on 80s synths. In many ways, the construction of the album actually reminds me of a musical; it has the right kind of epic scope and a show-style structure, right down to the echoing of the opening theme in the closing track. The more I've listened to it, the more I've come to feel that actually it is a very respectable record.
Having swithered between Pressure and Surprises as my two favourite songs on the album, it's interesting to note that the blurb on the front suggests that they were the two big singles[**].
Billy Joel - Pressure [link expired]
NB Just at the moment of posting this, the server which hosts my webspace appears to have stopped responding. I've successfully pung it, but it doesn't seem to want to answer HTTP requests and attempts to ssh time out. Hopefully it'll be back shortly.
[Poll #1138919]
Update Please can the people who've expressed an opinion let me know whether they were able to download it successfully ? (Or whether they knew it already, or just voted blind ;)
[*] OK, having just consulted a discography, this is clearly untrue. But it's the only one that sticks in my head as a Billy Joel song.
[**] Although Wikipedia actually suggests that they weren't.
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My parents have a copy of Picking Sooty Blackberries, which has both lyrics and music. If you wanted some specific songs they might be prevailed upon to drop it in a photocopier and bring the resulting contraband to Whitby with them in April.
I must dig out the bootleg of Keith Marsden my parents have from Whitby folk week circa. early 80s which has him singing singing a song about Quasimodo to the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme. ("Will ye go, Quasimo/-do, a legend in your lunchtime.")
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Amazon have one copy of Picking Sooty Blackberries but it's £50! I guess it's out of print.
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(Anonymous) 2008-02-15 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)http://www.mudcat.org/
They have a stock of song lyrics, and a chance to request lyrics. If you know the song title, Keith Marsden's songs were popular enough that someone there might well know them.
W
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But I still didn't like it :)
That's OK, you're entitled to be wrong every now and again ;p
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I'm currently dead excited because I've tickets to see the Jonathon Miller revival of The Mikado at ENO next month. Even if they are in the vertigo-inducing section of the Gods...
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