August 31 - Downtown Train

After having been somewhat sinister, I think it is time to get poetic. Tom Waits' Rain Dogs album is a great collection of songs, but most of them are building up to punchlines and climactic moments. However, the song Downtown Train is a notable exception to this, as it opens up with a pretty nice image of the moon at night:

"Outside another yellow moon

Punched a hole in the nighttime"

I know many may have heard Rod Stewart's version, but I still prefer the original gritty version.

August 30 - The Medicine Show

I am sensing a theme forming around opening lines - or even verses - this week. I have always thought that the key to drawing an audience in is a strong opening line, and today's is quite possibly my all-time favorite lines because we really don't know exactly what's going on - but my imagination is surely going...

When Dream Syndicate started to percolate and bubble more and more, they decided it was time for a bigger record company. They went to A&M, and they hired in Sandy Pearlman to produce the album. He had worked with Blue Oyster Cult on their megahit (Don't Fear) The Reaper, and he had worked with latter day The Clash, so his pedigree was well established. Dream Syndicate was still led by Steve Wynn, with Paul Cutler on lead guitar and Dennis Duck on drums, but Dave Provost had taken over the bass duties from Kendra Smith - and what these four went on to record is in my book the ultimate Dream Syndicate album: The Medicine Show.

I've already played John Coltrane Stereo Blues, which found its way on to the album, and there is great storytelling in the songs Burn and Merrittville, but nothing tops the opening lines of the title track:

"I've got a page one story buried in my yard
I've got a troubled mind"

I can't think of more menacing sounding lines - and the delivery is very fitting. The rest of the lyrics are unfortunately not quite up to that standard, although he comes close with a couple of lines (he being Steve Wynn, who wrote most of the music and lyrics). I have had the pleasure of seeing Steve Wynn perform The Medicine Show with his on band and solo acoustic, and I am blown away every single time I hear the shuffle start.

August 29 - Nothing To Say

Today's song is yet another example of how important Motorpsycho has been for my musical tastes. I keep coming back to the album Demon Box, not only because it was my first meeting with Motorpsycho  but also because it has become my go-to album.  It is an album that spans so widely in genres and musical moods  that it doesn't really matter what kind of mood I am in, there is always something on Demon Box that will match it. If I am angry, the title track or Mountain, both songs that already have been featured as songs of the day, are great outlets of energy. If I'm a little bit melancholic, the psychedelic sounds of Come On In and Tuesday Morning match that mood perfectly - or Plan #1 if I want to go dark. And if I want an uplifting song, well, there is Nothing To Say.

Although uplifting may be taking it a little too far... The lyrics open with the perfect description of Donald Trump:

"With words big as headlines,
The gospel according to you
Is broadcast on frequencies
To frequent to see through

But you got nothing to say to me"

Cue ultra cheesy and funny video.

August 28 - The Wheel

Today's song is all about riffs and crescendos. The opening riff of The Wheel, my personal favorite track from Motorpsycho's Timothy's Monster, starts very dreamlike, with bass, guitar and electric piano (Fender Rhodes, I believe), repeating as if it is a revolving wheel. The vocals come in before the drums, and a secondary guitar riff is added on top of the already existing texture. The Wheel just keeps on rolling, gathering more and more momentum for 5 minutes and 24 seconds before it turns into a monstrous two note riff. By then I am in a trance. The two note riff is so hypnotic and so heavy that it moves my entire body (and that's quite a feat). There is probably my favorite use of tambourine ever, there are dynamics (it quietens down to the opening riff), and, at the end, when the two note riff returns, there is a beautiful melody figure that is being repeated to take it all the way.

The Wheel is a masterful composition. It is a song without a solo, where the entire band is the focus throughout and the buildups and quiet times sound like they are negotiated in real time, as a full band improvisation in structure more than melody. It is so good. Soooo good.

August 27 - Karaim

John Zorn is a certified musical genius - and by that I mean that he is one of the recipients of the McArthur so-called genius grant. I first heard about him when he was doing the Naked City project, which really tested the limits of the rock band format and experimentation. I also enjoyed his FilmWorks take on Ennio Morricone, but I didn't become an outright fan of his work until I heard his Masada compositions. He has by now composed more than 500 short pieces that all are rooted in Jewish musical tradition.

So what does a short composition do in a theme of long songs? Well, this is the beauty of jazz to me. This version of Karaim was performed by the Electric Masada constellation and starts out with improvisation over the song's two chords. It starts with electric piano (Jamie Saft) and electronics (Ikue Mori), then drummers are coming in (Kenny Wollesen and Joey Baron), and they in turn are gradually joined by Cyro Baptista (percussion), Trevor Dunn (bass), Marc Ribot (guitar), and John Zorn himself on saxophone. The improvisation continues for nearly 6 minutes before the theme is introduced at 5:58. There are two sections to the theme - and after 30 seconds, the first section of the theme is repeated and at 6:46 they go back to improvisations again.

This performance of Karaim is my personal favorite - and I have been scouring his works for this specific song. It is such a powerful vehicle for improvisation - and it is all done completely in line with my personal taste. I really like Marc Ribot's solo, but I can just get lost in it. The dynamics are also great throughout, especially the drum driven crescendo that starts about 10:30 and builds along the keyboard solo until it resolves at around 11:45. The theme reappears at 14:26 and wraps up at 15:14 (although there is a soft theme resolution following it to the end of the piece just like there was one leading up to the improvisation earlier in the piece as well). In other words, in a musical number that is 16 minutes and 15 seconds long, 96 seconds is devoted to the written theme. To me, this makes for a blissful piece of music that I easily get lost in every time I hear it.

August 26 - Raider II

Steven Wilson is so clearly one of my absolute favorite musician these days, and he is no stranger to long songs. Today's song, Raider II, was originally on the album Grace for Drowning, which so far is unsurpassed as his crowning achievement - although I am positive he has more up his sleeve. I really like that it really has a jazzy quality to it, along with featuring an array of stellar musicians, rooted in the drums of Marco Minneman, who was completely unknown to me prior to his work with Steven Wilson.

My relationship to the music of Steven Wilson is a testament to the power of liner notes on records. I have said before that the reason I am listening to him and Porcupine Tree is that he produced Opeth, and this is not unique in my musical exploration. The above mentioned Marco Minneman, for instance, formed a trio with Tony Levin, whose session work I mainly know of because of reading record covers (I have followed him since before the world wide web made it really easy to find all this information) and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess. I also discovered Emmylou Harris because she worked with the producer Daniel Lanois - I had, of course, heard the name before, but it was country and I was uninterested. But I was a big enough fan of Lanois' productions that I gave her a shot and I was hooked. I love her voice. I could go on - but reading record covers and finding connections has been so rewarding for me over the years. That is one of the reasons I tried for as long as I could to hang on to the physical copies of music - most recently in cd form - but it's getting more and more difficult to hold on to that - it takes way too much space.

Anyway, back to Steven Wilson. I am lucky enough to have a live document of the Grace for Drowning tour in the bluray/cd box set Get What You Deserve, and Steven Wilson himself gets a chance to introduce this beautiful and long song. AND - we get to watch great musicians perform great music!

August 25 - Anesthetize

8 days. That's how long it took from me introducing Porcupine Tree to playing them for a second time. It might be because I am getting just about full frontal prog right now - after all, that's where a lot of the long songs come from - but regardless, this is a beauty. Anesthetize from Fear of a Blank Planet lasts 17:42, and not a second is wasted in building up and calming down - and then there is Alex Lifeson of Rush with a guitar solo that starts right around 4:04.

The first part sets the song up - and frankly, if that was all there was to this song, it would still be a winner. However, the second part further enhances the song, providing a heavier edge, before the anesthesia sets in with a coda that ebbs and flows in sedated waves. The musicianship is stellar throughout. Gavin Harrison switches between establishing rolling grooves and intricate embellishments, Colin Edwin's bass drives it forward, and Richard Barbieri's use of soundscapes and organs alternates between atmospherics and adding pure fatness to the sound. John Wesley is heard especially in the third part which is more atmospheric in general - and Steven Wilson is all over this beauty of a song.

I believe this is one of the very best prog songs ever written - it is my personal Porcupine Tree highlight and well worth listening all the way through. Prepare to be sedated.

August 24 - Tubular Bells Part One

The early 70s was the golden age for progressive rock. Yesterday I played Genesis for you - today I am playing a one-man band. At least mostly. Mike Oldfield was 19 years old when he holed up in Richard Branson and his Virgin Records' studio The Manor to record Tubular Bells, a very remarkable piece of music. He did have help on drums, string bass, and flutes, but all other instruments were played by him. Most people may be familiar with the first theme, which was used to great effect in the movie The Exorcist, but the part I first got familiar with starts at 17:20, which was the excerpt featured on the very poorly named The Complete Mike Oldfield (should be considered sarcasm) - and I still love that section, where the instruments are introduced one by one.

This album was released in 1973, a year after yesterday's Foxtrot album, and it stayed on the British charts for 279 weeks - that's almost five and a half years. It is a highly enjoyable masterpiece - Tubular Bells Part One is one of the cornerstones in progressive rock.

August 23 - Supper's Ready

At almost 23 minutes, the closing track of Foxtrot, still stands as the longest piece of music Genesis recorded. Foxtrot was the second album recorded by the classic line-up featuring Peter Gabriel on vocals (and flute, don't forget about the flute), Steve Hackett on guitars, Phil Collins on drums, Tony Banks on keyboards, and Mike Rutherford on bass. to me, this is my favorite lineup of theirs - I think their music was the most exciting when these five got together - and I am positive that when I get around to doing my series of bands that were better before (they got famous), which I am certain is about to happen, I will have to feature even more Genesis. However, today we are talking about longer songs, and Supper's Ready is a song in seven parts:

a. "Lover's Leap" (3:47)
b. "The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man" (1:56)
c. "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men" (3:59)
d. "How Dare I Be So Beautiful?" (1:22)
e. "Willow Farm" (4:33)
f. "Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)" (5:13)
g. "As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet)"  (2:04)

Of course, the parts of the different parts are as delightfully whimsical as Genesis' stage shows were at that point in their career, with Peter Gabriel in full dress-up mode. I will strongly encourage you to go on this little journey with Genesis - just remember, Supper's Ready.

August 22 - You Fool No One

I want to go gong this week. Really long. No song will be under 10 minutes long. Just to prepare you.

I have drawn to long songs for a very long time. I think I'll blame Rush and their 2112, as I think that was the starting point, along with Iron Maiden's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Both of those songs were scripted, and while that is the case with a lot of the music this week, I'll start out with a song that reaches past the 15-minute mark through improvisation. I love that side of Deep Purple, and while I love the Mark II line-up of Richie Blackmore on guitar, Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums, Ian Gillan on vocals, and the late, great Jon Lord on keyboards, I really like Mark III as well, with David Coverdale on vocals and Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals.

As a matter of fact, this line-up's Made In Europe was my very first meeting with Deep Purple. Today's song was one it took me a long time to like, but when it clicked for me, it really stuck. Here is Deep Purple with You Fool No One.