Manafonistas

Unknown engines underneath the city
Steam pushing up in billows through the grates
Frankie Lymon’s tracking „Seabreeze“ in a studio in Harlem
Its 1968.
Just a pair of tunes to hammer out.
Everybody’s off the clock by 10.

The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you’re never going to see again.

Feels so free when I hit the avenue.
Nothing like a New York summer night.
Every dream’s a good dream,
Even awful dreams are good dreams,
If you’re doing it right.

Remember soaring higher than a cloud.
Get pretty sentimental now and then.

The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you’re never going to see again.

And four hours north of Portland, a radio flips on.
And some no one from the future remembers that you’re gone.

Armies massing in the dusky distance.
Ghosted in the ribbon microphone.
Leave a little mark on something, maybe,
Take the secret circuit home.

Nothing in the shadows but the shadow hands.
Reaching out to sad, young, frightened men.

The loneliest people in the whole wide word are the ones you’re never going to see again.

Background: Traveling to New York in 1968, Frank Lymon was signed by manager Sam Bray to his Big Apple label, and the singer returned to recording. Roulette Records expressed interest in releasing Lymon’s records in conjunction with Big Apple and scheduled a recording session for February 28. Lymon, staying at his grandmother’s house in Harlem where he had grown up, celebrated his good fortune by taking heroin; he had remained clean ever since entering the Army three years prior. On February 28, 1968, Lymon was found dead of a heroin overdose at age 25 in his grandmother’s bathroom. „I’m Sorry“ and „Seabreeze“, the two sides Lymon had recorded for Big Apple before his death, were released later in the year. (Wikipedia)
 
 
Clips:

• Frankie Lymon – „Seabreeze“
• The Mountain Goats – „Harlem Roulette“
• John Darnielle explains and performs „Harlem Roulette“

• Jan Garbarek / Charlie Haden / Egberto Gismonti: Magico
• Bettye Lavette: Thankful n‘ Thoughtful
• The Sea and Cake: Runner
• Jason Lytle: Dept. Of Disappearance
• Swans: The Seer
• Dead Western: Everything, Eternally
• The Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth
• John Cale: Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood
• Jan Garbarek / Charlie Haden / Egberto Gismonti: Magico – Carta de Amor

“I’m happy to share what I know with you.
It’s not much, but sometimes a little can do.”
(first words of “Everything, Eternally”)

Hailing from the “New Weird America” and the Psychfolk-scene of the US-Westcoast, Dead Western was never really easy to categorize: A troubadour, a dandy or an artsy hippie? Who knows – who cares? In fact he’s one of the most interesting and impressive characters in the guild. Not only his heartcrushing deep timbre or his theatrical appearance on and off stage, but his engaging lyrical strength or the simply wonderful arrangements in his music are the major attractions of the little band Dead Western.

• John Cale on NPR

I found my love ’neath the gasworks croft falls
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town, dirty old town

Clouds are drifting across the moon
Cats are prowling on their beat
Springs a girl in the streets at night
Dirty old town, dirty old town

Heard a siren from the dock
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town, dirty old town

I’m going to take a good sharp ax
Shining steel tempered in the fire
We’ll chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town, dirty old town

© Stormking Music
 
„The most stunning track here is LaVette’s reinvention of the old folk song „Dirty Old Town,“ best known in the version by the Pogues. She fills it with disgust and ominous menace — there’s also a slower version of „Dirty Old Town“ that lets a measure of sadness creep back in at the close of the album.“

Track Listing:
A: Novaya Zemlya 1 11:15
B: Novaya Zemlya 2 12:46
C: Novaya Zemlya 3 12:20
D: [blank vinyl]

The artwork includes an essay by Thierry Charollais, „Thomas Köner’s Novaya Zemlya: towards a metaphysical geography“… „Of course we find the unique Koneresque glowing drones that we know from his previous works. But we will also be touched by an unrevealed, barely perceptible sense of melody and harmony that Köner gradually developed since Kaamos (1998) and Nuuk (2004).“

Novaya Zemlya (Russian: Но́вая Земля́; IPA: [ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲæ], lit. New Land), also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as Gåselandet (lit. the Goose Land), is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe, lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island.

(to be ordererd at Touch (see blogroll)

Das Buch des Jahres lese ich gerade, ich muss schmunzeln, lachen, ich kriege Gänsehaut, ich bin erschrocken, mir steigen (sonst, ja, ja, nicht nah am Wasser gebaut) Tränen in die Augen, das ist ein Trip durch ganz unterschiedliche amerikanische Lebenswelten, von der bekloppten Tea  Party-Bewegung über ein nicht minder schräges Christenrock-Festival, das Comeback von Axl Rose, vergessene Naturforscher, verfasst von einem Schriftsteller, der Dokumentarisches und Privates, Himmel und Hölle in den entlegensten Zonen ausfindig macht, und immer wieder über ganz alltägliche Sehnsüchte und verlorene Illusionen stolpert, ohne je die armseligsten Figuren billigem Spott auszuliefern. Dieses Buch von John Jeremiah Sullivan über das Ende Amerikas ist von einsamer Klasse.

1 Jan Bang & Erik Honore: Uncommon Deities
2 Eivind Aarset: Dream Logic  (VÖ: 9.11.2012) 
3 Keith Jarrett: Sleeper
4 Swans: The Seer
5 Jason Lytle: Dept. Of Disappearance
6 Jan Garbarek / Egberto Gismonti / Charlie Haden: Magico – Carta di amor 
7 Stian Westerhus: The Matriarch and the Wrong Kind of Flowers
8 Getchajew Merkuria, The Ex & Friends: Y’Anbessa Tezeta
9 James Yorkston: I am a Cat from a Book
10 Antony and the Johnsons: Cut The World
11 Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin: Live 
12 Frank Ocean: channel ORANGE
13 Michael Formanek: Small Places 
14 Bettye Lavette: Thankful ’n‘ Thoughtful (VÖ: 21.10.2012) 
15 Ivar Grydeland: Bathymetric Modes 
16 Emanuele de Raymondi:  Buyukberber Variations
17 Elina Duni Quartet: Matane Malit 
18 Dead Western: Everything, Eternally
19 The Mountain Goats: Colossal Youth
20 Christian Fennesz: AUM

 
 
 

 
 
 
„Hangtown … sing a final song
It’s called „The Tree From Which You Hang Has Done No Wrong“
Hangtown … the birds have not yet gone
They’re waitin‘ round to see you fly on“
 

Robin Hilton was right. And he was wrong. In the latest edition of „All Things Considered“, the „Fall Preview“ of NPR, he told us what he likes about Jason Lytle’s forthcoming album. Lytle wouldn’t see himself as a songwriter with big messages about big issues like politics, global warming etc. Robin Hilton says what he really loves about these songs  is that, by their dreamy atmosphere, they create a space to vanish into them. So „Dept. Of Disappearance“ seems to be the perfect title for this kind of escapism.

And, right on, there are lovely moods, great noises, funny breaks, playful keyboard arpeggios, a slightly drunken Chopin quote, heartbreaking melodies, catchy lyrics, vintage synthesizer sounds etc. Nearly everything played by Grandaddy’s mastermind himself.

But Robin Hilton was wrong, too. Nearly every song is telling a story about death, and dying. Not in an existenzialist way a la John Cale’s „Music For A New Society“ or Neil Young’s „Tonight’s The Night“. More playful, uplifting, that’s for sure. Full of wonder, but never in a naive way. Thanks god, there’s fucking no one being soaked up by some golden light. In the last song, „Gimme Click, Gimme Grid“, Jason closes this beautiful album with a childhood memory and another way of disappearing. I said this before, I say it again: heartbreaking.

„Do it again!“ Das lässt man sich nicht zweimal sagen, wenn es darum geht, Songs von Steely Dan zu analysieren und als Gitarrenmusik zu antizipieren resp. transskribieren. Mangels eigener Plattensammlung – aber mittels Wikipedia habe ich mal recherchiert, um diese Songs, die mich seit Urzeiten (The Caves Of Altamira) begleiten, chronologisch zuzuordnen. Angegeben sind meine persönlichen Favoriten. Mein Tipp: die Kompilation SHOW BIZ KIDS hört sich gut an – und hat für den selbst Musizierenden den Vorteil, dass die alten Lieder dort auf den aktuellen Kammerton A „geeicht“ sind.

 
 
Cant Buy A Thrill (1972)

• Do It Again
• Dirty Work
• Only A Fool Would Say That

Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)

• Bodhisattva
• Show Biz Kids

Pretzel Logic (1974)

• Ricky Dont Loose That Number
• Any Major Dude

Katy Lied (1975)

• Black Friday
• Bad Sneakers
• Doctor Wu

The Royal Scam (1976)

• Kid Charlemagne
• The Caves Of Altamira
• Dont Take Me Alive
• The Fez
• Green Earrings
• Haitian Divorce

Aja (1977)

• Deacon Blues
• Peg
• Josie

Gaucho (1980)

• Hey Nineteen

Two Against Nature (2000)

• What a Shame About Me
• Two Against Nature
• Jack of Speed
• Cousin Dupree