SOUNDTRACK: BLACK SABBATH-Black Sabbath (1970).
I’ve talked about Black Sabbath quite a bit, so why not take a look at their records directly?
One of the fun surprises about their first disc is the stereo mix (although it was 1970, so maybe one shouldn’t be surprised). Guitar in one ear, bass in the other and sometimes only a guitar solo in one ear with nothing else going on! The other surprise is that even though Tony Iommi’s guitar is on fire and he has huge lengthy guitar solos (the one in “Warning” is like 8 minutes long), the other members, especially the drums, really come to the fore.
What can one says about the title track? The opening thunderstorm (with creepy bell tolling) sets the mood perfectly and then the killer riff kicks in and Ozzy Osbourne’s weird, loud, somewhat whiny and frighteningly frightened voice asks “What is this that stands before me?” It’s a slow song, especially for one that spawned a genre of fast heavy metal, but it sense of ominousness is tangible.
“The Wizard” undermines everything you think you know about heavy metal since it begins with a harmonica. However, it is a pretty creepy harmonica, and the melody is certainly spooky. What’s so fascinating about the song is the drums. While the whole band plays the somewhat odd riff, the drums have a huge place of prominence in the song, with little snare drum solos after each line (and a prominent cowbell at one point). There are some wild guitar solos, but you wouldn’t be crazy thinking that this was the drummer’s band.
The next song is listed as four songs: “Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B.” “Wasp” is a short, fairly upbeat instrumental, but “Behind the Wall of Sleep” is where the words kick in. It’s a pretty explicitly anti-drug song (“turns your body to a corpse”). And I’m fairly certain there are two vocal tracks, one in each ear. “Bassically” is the wild bass solo (again, taking away the dominance from the lead guitar). Which leads to “N.I.B”., one of the great, classic Sabbath songs. An awesome bass riff that propels the song to its climax of “My name is Lucifer please take my hand.” Although it also features a strangely plaintive refrain of “Your love for me has just got to be real.”
“Wicked World” comes in a little preachy and kind of out of place. But mostly because it’s got a strangely jazzy feel. It’s not out of the ordinary in concept, it’s just a little less subtle than some of the other tracks.
“A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning” is the ending trio of tracks (14 minutes in all) that are really hard to distinguish. “A Bit of Finger” is a very short acoustic guitar solo (I assume, I mean, the “Sleeping Village” lyrics kick in pretty quickly). But I love that there’s a Jew’s harp in the background. Then there’s a crazily long guitar solo. Or, should I say there are two guitar solos: a different one in each ear. I think that the solo is part of “Warning” (it’s the same melody after all) but who can tell. “Warning” is another fantastic Sabbath song. The bass line is great and Ozzy sings one of his oddly plaintive songs of loss: (“the feelings were a little bit too strong”). But the middle section is an astonishingly long guitar solo, or should I say solos. This solo even stops at one point and he comes out with a whole new melody/solo after that. And then another solo. Most of the soloing is in the right ear, which leaves the left ear struggling in vain to hear what’s going on (it’s fun to listen with just the left ear phone in). With about a minute to go, the song proper returns. It’s pretty bizarre. And maybe that’s when Tony Iommi’s ego was placated.
Despite this being one of the first really heavy albums, it still retains a bluesy/jam feel to it. The songs are long, there’s wild freewheeling guitar solos, and the sound itself isn’t a constant bludgeoning (like later heavy metal), it comes in bursts, which somehow makes it more ominous!
It’s really tremendous.
[READ: November 27, 2009] “Midnight in Dostoevsky”
Although I don’t know where this story is set exactly, I can totally picture the scene. And I am superimposing it directly onto a location from where I went to college. I realize that’s totally wrong, but I couldn’t resist. This story had very weird overtones to me and actually inspired me to want to write a story that has apparently been percolating in my head for years. We’ll see about that.
Anyhow, as for the story itself, I confirmed my suspicion that DeLillo doesn’t write short stories too often. According to his Wikipedia site, he wrote one short story in 2002, another in 2007 and then this one.
DeLillo is a postmodern master, which leads one to think that his stories will be convoluted and difficult. But this story is pretty straightforward. Two college kids, walking around on a cold winter day spot an old man walking toward them. They create a backstory for the man and, in the end, attempt to confirm or deny what they have concocted. Fairly straightforward.
But as with any great story, the real action happens in the characters’ heads, or in this case, in the narrator’s mind and his spoken dialogue with his compatriot. (more…)
Read Full Post »
There’s a new (reasonably) new show called “Minute to Win It.” The premise was so delightful, so “I want to do that” that I of course set up a TiVo Season Pass for it.
SOUNDTRACK: BBC Sessions (various).
Many many bands that I like have recorded tracks for the BBC. And after several sessions, they tend to get released as BBC Live or BBC Sessions discs. In the last few years, I’ve gotten discs from the Cocteau Twins, Tindersticks, The Beautiful South, Belle and Sebastian and Therapy? One of the first ones I’d every gotten was The Smiths’ Hatful of Hollow. 
SOUNDTRACK: My Volkwagen Jetta hates The Beatles. 
SOUNDTRACK: The Believer June/July 2007 Music Issue Compilation CD: Cue the Bugle Turbulent (2007).
The 2007 Believer disc smashes the mold of folkie songs that they have established with the previous discs in the series. The theme for this disc is that there’s no theme, although the liner notes give this amusing story:
I found out about 
Okay, so this magazine doesn’t really count. 
I’m not sure how I first learned about 
I Just Read About That... 