February 15 - For The Beauty Of Wynona

While I embraced the challenge of having themed weeks, I think it is time to let loose for a little bit and choose songs that simply speak to me at the moment. The early 90s were an interesting period in my life. I graduated high school in 1991, and that was the same time I became very active in the two teetotaling youth organization that eventually merged and became Juvente in 1992. At the same time, while my radio activity was on hiatus, I kept on exploring music, reading record covers like others read news papers, and becoming very curious on people in different roles on the records.

I knew about Brian Eno from loving music of both David Bowie and U2, but the one person I really started paying attention to was Daniel Lanois. As a producer, he worked with a lot of artists I really respected and loved. He was there with U2 through The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby!, he worked with Peter Gabriel on So and Us, Bob Dylan on Oh Mercy (although at this point I was still convinced that Bob Dylan was a great songwriter but a lousy performer - how wrong could I be), and Robbie Robertson on his solo debut that found its way to the studios of Radio Ung, where I discovered this underrated member of The Band. In the midst of all this, he also started recording his own music, and while I remember taping a copy of Acadie, which he released in 1989, it wasn't until quite a bit later I really discovered him as a musician.

I remember the cover from the album For The Beauty Of Wynona. It was hanging as a poster at Innova Musikk in Trondheim on the corner of Dronningens Gate and Nordre, if I remember correctly, and it depicted a naked skinny woman with a knife. The picture was taken from the side, so only the profile was showing, but yes, she was indeed naked. This must have been in 1993, when the album was released. A little while after the release, probably later that year or the following year, I found the tape at Innova, but in a bargain bin. I think I paid 19 NOK (2-3 dollars) for the tape, but for quite some time it was just laying around in my collection. When I finally took it out, I brought it with me in the car, and the opening track, The Messenger, was mesmerizing with its slow moving guitar riff and Lanois' hoarse voice on it, and I was thinking this was pretty good. I kept on listening, and eventually the tape turned and hit side 2. A few pretty good songs ensued, and then... The title track.

The percussion starts. The guitar limps in, but then... The guitar finds the groove and starts the riff, a riff that is even more hypnotic than The Messenger had been to begin the tape. The same hoarse voice... "The ingots are burning red, I'm working time and a half..." Then the bass enters, punching the song forward, to the very clear statement: "I tripped and then I fell for the beauty of Wynona." The song keeps adding layers. Electric guitar with e-bow and feedback come in and stay through the song. The guitar solo is haunting and beautiful. And then it ends. Just like that. And I am left emotionally drained, but I play it again. And again. And again. And today I am sharing it again. I have shared this song with a lot of people through the years, and listening to it again in preparation for this, I am once again feeling the emotional impact on the song.

Radio Days: Resurrection

My last stint in radio was another spectacularly great one - at least for me. In 1995, I finally packed my bags and record collection and left Hustad Leir (see earlier blogposts here and here for more about that time) for Bergen, where I joined Studentradioen i Bergen. I started as an engineer mainly for the shows Skumma Kultur hosted by Svein Tore Bergestuen, Høydepunktum, and Plog. Three very different shows with very different demands: Skumma Kultur was a cultural program in a magazine format, but with Svein Tore, they covered quite a bit of breaking news, and he had high technical standards, which in turn made me a better engineer. Høydepunktum was probably my favorite show to work on - a highlight show of the week that was. As an engineer, I was challenged in reediting a lot of the pieces so they were shorter and fit a new flow. This was also in the days of reel-to-reel tape editing, so I had to physically manipulate the tapes. I loved every minute of it. And I had the fortune of working with great young women (they would probably say girls at that time): Line Hegna, Tonje Aursland, Kathrine Synnes, and, I believe, Vibecke Spjeld. Some of them have gone on to careers in NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Company. The last show, Plog, was the music magazine dedicated to "roots" music, artists like The Louvin Brothers, Tom Waits, and Richard Thompson were among Thomas Ekrene's favorites, and he was the host of the show. Johan Ludvig Brattås was also involved, and he brought his eclectic taste for international traditional music to the show as well. I was introduced to Mongolian throat singing and Finnish traditional music - and I actually started liking it.

While Mongolian throat singing surely is interesting, I have to confess that Hedningarna is higher on my list of favorites. I got a chance to see them live in 1999, not too long before I moved to the US. They are a Finnish/Swedish band, and their last studio album, Karelia Visa, explores traditional music from Karelia, a historical Finnish region that largely now is part of Russia following the Winter War of 1940. The liner notes are extremely interesting - describing their experiences researching this music in a region that appears not to have changed much at all. The following song, Mitä Minä, is from Karelia Visa (Karelian Songs).

However, I started getting restless being in the control room at all times, so I asked if there was any chance that I could start a show of my own. I had a name and a concept for it that I really liked. The name was Undertoner (undertones), and it was about all the unsung heroes of music - the producers and session musicians. The people in charge liked the concept and I got my half-hour time slot. I remember shows about Rick Rubin, Daniel Lanois, Tessa Niles, and Tony Levin. However, I also remember being chastised for having one half-hour show featuring one song only, with my voice in the intro and in the middle, hovering over the effects. The song was Echoes by Pink Floyd. It was and remains my favorite Pink Floyd composition, and it showcases so many of the elements I like in music. It is droning, it is dissonant at times, yet it has dreamy, ethereal beauty in the vocal harmonies, it is slow building, and it uses dynamics effectively. "And I am you and what I see is me." However, playing one song for close to 30 minutes is not the most radio friendly thing to do...

I worked in Studentradioen until I left Bergen in 1996, then again from fall of 1997 until I left Bergen in the fall of 1998; however, I had one final ambitious project: I wanted to create a series about the history of rock music. Coda was the name of the series, and I had close to 30 parts, each at about 30 minutes (I have to check the number of episodes, but it was scheduled for the full year). When I left Bergen, I was around week 10 or so of the series, so the final 20 episodes or so were made at a high pace, trying to get it all wrapped up so they could keep broadcasting the show. It was a great project for me, and while I wish that I could have spent more time on the last episodes, I am incredibly proud that I did create it. I tried making copies of the show for myself when I recorded all of them onto DATs (they had been recorded on a computer workstation at this point - we finally had one), but I messed up a few of them - but I believe I have them on MiniDisc still.

When I left Bergen for the second time, I also left my radio days behind. However, I met a lot of great people that way, both in Radio Ung and in Studentradioen. I learned a lot about sound and music, and my musical tastes were significantly expanded. The final song this time is one that I believe I played during the Undertoner show about Tony Levin, a spectacular bass player, here with King Crimson. This six-piece version of King Crimson was spectacular - and the use of Midi with Adrian Belew's guitar is interesting. But listen to Tony Levin's deep bass singing (he is the bald bass player with a mustache) and pay attention to his bass. Robert Fripp's tritonus is creating a spectacular dissonance throughout the song, and having two drummers in Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto and then Trey Gunn on the Chapman stick (which also really is Tony Levin's instrument)... The double trio created very interesting music!

For the Beauty of Wynona

Two years - no blogs. Why? Because it is hard to find the time? Probably. But even more because there hasn't been a passion to get it going. But - on my way home from work on Friday, I listened to NPR as usual, and they featured the writer of the blog Total Music Geek and his ranking of 20 James Bond theme songs. After reading his blog, I realized exactly what I need to do. He has been writing about songs that he wants to highlight, often with a focus on musical, lyrical, and production aspects, and often in a historical perspective. About a decade ago, I used to do something similar on the radio, working at Studentradioen i Bergen. My weekly show was Undertoner - which was turned into Coda, where I over the course of a year explored the history of rock music. Before then, I also hosted a rock show at Radio Ung in Trondheim (Flazz, which turned into Metal Rendez-Vous, which became Madhouse in its final incarnation) over a five year span from 1985-1990 (I was 18 when the radio station had to call it a day). 

Anyway, thanks to Total Music Geek I realized that this blog could be a great way for me to continue exploring (and exploiting) my passion for music of any and all kind - so here it goes, my first attempt in a long time...

When I first saw Daniel Lanois' For The Beauty of Wynona in the music stores, there was a poster with the cover artwork on it, and the naked girl with the knife looked pretty edgy to me. All I knew about him at the time was that he produced U2 and other great artists - and he did that exceedingly well (after all, this was a couple of years after Achtung Baby! was released, an album I still consider groundbreaking). Anyway, I didn't buy the album until I saw it in the clearance bin in a gas station a few years later. I played it through, and wasn't necessarily all that impressed, but the title track was spectacular, and I kept rewinding my tape to listen to it over and over again. 

The song is deceptively simple. It is designed around a G-major chord, which is kept througout the entire verse and bridge with tension being built around the chord. This tension is finally released by the C-major chord that finally that introduces the chorus. A single guitar and a drum loop start the song out, with more guitars, percussion and layers of feedback being added to create a tension that to me is unbelievably cathartic. There are no flashy solos - the electric guitar part has taken a page from the Neil Young one-note solo, and keeps adding to the tension as the song nears the end. If play this song at full volume, I end up both physically and mentally worn out at the end from the varying tensions that are being built - and after the final chorus, there is no additional release - it is all built around the G-major chord. On the album, the song is followed by the quiet and laid-back ballad Rocky World, which gives the ability to breathe normally back to me again. 

I know that my words can't do the song justice, so I would love for you to hear it. However, the only version I have found of it is by Dave Matthews Band. It is a good version, but it belies the droning quality of the original. Download the song (legally, of course) or buy the album - but you should hear this song.