"Brian Eno? Isn't he that guy who invented 'ambient music'?"
Well....yeah, I guess.
"Isn't he that bald guy who produced U2 and fucking Coldplay?"
Well....yeah, guilty as charged...BUT he also made four outstanding albums of art rock back in the seventies that he, quite frankly, just doesn't get enough love for.
While all the pseuds and hipsters wax poetic about 'Discreet Music' and 'Music For Airports', I'm diggin' his non-ambient work with Robert Fripp, his pre-Talking Heads Talking Heads-isms and his bold attempt to find a genuine use for Phil Collins (which he DOES, with aplomb).
I mean, I ask you, LOOK at the dude! Does he look like some po-faced chinstroking pseudo-intellectual? in THAT jacket??*
No, when Eno left Roxy Music in 1973, taking all their mojo with him, he did what people didn't really expect him to do, considering he was the 'non-musician' (his words) and resident brain box of the band...he made an absolutely KILLER solo album that, in MY humble opinion, totally outshines anything Roxy Music EVER did.
So, in order to edumacate youse heathen scum, I'll be posting up the first four Eno 'vocal' albums here over the course of the week, possibly followed by a li'l treat in the shape of an 'odds and ends' comp of singles, radio session tracks and whatnot, if you're all good li'l ladies 'n' germs.
Here Come The Warm Jets was something that I don't think anyone was expecting. Despite Eno's rep as a ladies man and top shagger, he was commonly regarded as an arty oddball who made bleepy-bloopy noises, and so any kind of solo album he made would probably be 'difficult'. '...Jets' totally blows that notion out of the water by being chock-full of arty funk, off-kilter pop-rock and possibly Robert Fripp's finest recorded guitar solo...
'Baby's On Fire' was actually the first thing Eno wrote for this record and the damn thing sounds fresh as a daisy today. Minimal, artful loping groove, odd, camply-arch lyrics and vocal and THAT solo. It's a total WINNER, as is the entire record. A stone-cold classic. Oh, and for lovers of bleepy-bloopy Eno, check out the end of the exceptionally English 'Dead Finks Tell No Tales'. Sounds like a malfunctioning Cylon.
*actually, he looks totally like Elrond
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14 comments:
Great post! Looking forward to listening to this, never delved that far back into Eno's discography. I do have a whole lot of love from Fripp/Eno's 'No Pussyfooting'. It's masterful.
I love Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno. The first thing he did after unceremoniously leaving Roxy Music was produce Hawkwind's Robert Calvert's (no relation... I could only dream) first album.
My friend has a theory that Dead Finks Don't Talk is about Brian Ferry... it sounds like he's making fun of his singing in it; and the title...
I love all his work up until his bad techno/fractal blah blah bullshit. I think most of his production sounds dated and they're clearly done for the money but you can't win 'em all.
Also check out the long clock of the now, it's one of those things that only a rich insane person would think up.
I was about to mention he looked like Elrond until I saw you made the comparison at the end there! Never had much thought of listening to Eno but I might check out that record, as the video is quite catchy! Cheers!
Michael!
Whoops! Forgot to edit out the cover to the next album! This was originally gonna be a megapost, but I decided against it as I'm pretty busy and wanted to get something up here quicker.
EVERYONE needs to hear this album. It's a work of art, literally.
Magma, I also thought that about Dead Finks, but he swears blind it isn't, and he's usually painfully honest.
Got much love for both Roxy Music and Eno's solo projects.
Same, I love Another Green World.
Brian Eno's early shit is some of my favorite music ever. Good work.
here come the warm jets = im going to pee on you (btw)
Here Come The Warm Jets, I'm Going To Pee On You = title of the new Chaki album.
Not heard Brian's stuff - but I like that track - good solo sound - apart from the odd duff note.
I like Roger Eno myself.
He improvised an album with Peter Hammill called the appointed hour Its one hour long - and they were in their own respective studios improvising completely separately - until they sent each other their tapes and combined the two disparate pieces of music.
I love smartarsed shit like that!
You have the combo of Roger and Brian to thank for the 'prophecy theme' from Dune. Sure it's only ostensibly 4 notes, but it don't 'alf stick in your head!
Pete Hammill is ALSO a genius. Flash Fact.
You're not wrong about Hammill matey.
I could write books about his work! I've seen him live dozens of times and he never disappoints. Likewise with Van Der Graaf Generator - now as a trio. Saw them a few months back round your neck of the woods - in the Manchester academy. They were LOUD! The drums were the heaviest I'd heard in years - and kept shaking the lyric sheets to the floor!
I'm ashamed to admit I gave the last VDGG tour a swerve as I'm not overly enamoured of 'A Grounding In Numbers', and, well, it was an expense I felt I could live without. Saw 'em thrice beforehand though and they were, indeed, majestic.
Tell you what though, I still prefer the original Daryl Hall vocal takes on Fripp's 'Exposure' to Hammill's version...which is probably heresy.
Grounding... grew on me. And in the live environment - the tracks off it do sit well within their mental ouevre!
Scorched Earth was the best I'd ever heard at that gig!
Not heard Hall's version. Will have to google it.
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