Various ‎– "Mister Melody - Les Interprètes De Serge Gainsbourg" 4 CD Box Set, 2006 (Mercury)

Amazing box set of Serge Gainsbourg's music, but performed by other artists besides the mighty and great Serge.   Hours of Serge music throughout his career.  A lot of the recordings on this collection he actually partakes in their production or arrangement.  So, his presence is very much felt throughout every song here.  The famous and iconic recordings with Birkin, Bardot and France Gall is here, but also artists like Les Frères Jacques, Michèle Arnaud, Juliette Gréco, Philippe Clay, and even Petula Clark.   There are no bad tracks here and very much essential listening and ownership. If I have to choose a favorite it is probably Nico's "Strip-Tease."  Very well thought out with song selection and excellent packaging.  

I have to presume the songs here are what brought money to the Gainsbourg pocket.  As a hired songwriter, he brought the tunes to these artists, but all of them have the Serge wit and bite.  He didn't compromise or cheapen his work when he wrote these songs for other artists.  I sense respect between singer and songwriter here.  Love this package of goodies. 

Iggy Pop - "The Idiot" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2009/1977 (4 Men with Beards)

At the time of its release, in 1977, this album was a mystery to me.  The cover was minimal and no musician credits, except the name "David Bowie" had appeared on its back cover.  Beyond that, I really didn't have a clue what the music would be like.  I knew of the Stooges, but I couldn't really imagine Bowie in the mix for some odd reason.  And I knew he mixed the great "Raw Power" album, but still, what would new Bowie/Iggy music be like?

Once I heard the album I came to the conclusion that this is very much an original piece of work.  Not sure if it was more Bowie than Iggy or the other way around, but the combination of the two made something new to my ears.  I got the feeling that the music was made in a small room without windows.  Very thick and dense sounding.  The lyrics, on the other hand, were total Iggy to me.  Pop has that great quality of skill to make every lyric sound like a throw-away piece of work.  Which is part of his genius and charm.   First thought is the best thought.  Or does Iggy spend a great deal of time working on the lyrics?  I don't know.  What I do know is that he's naturally brilliant.  "Nightclubbing" and "Funtime" are brilliant pieces of work.  "China Girl" is funny but also disturbing under the Iggy version, and the way he drops Marlon Brando's name in the mix was shocking to me at that time. 

My favorite song on the album is "Tiny Girl."  I love the long introduction with what I presume is Bowie's sax playing, and then Iggy drops in with this incredible lyric and resigned style of singing.  I find it brutally romantic.   Listening to it now I still think back when I first heard the album.  It still sounds fresh and demented at the same time.  "Lust for Life" is a great Iggy/Bowie album as well, but "The Idiot" is something special.  Once in a lifetime recording. It can't be done again.  As they say, it is capturing lightning in a jar.  How many times can one do that?

With respect to this reissue, it seems the sound came from Virgin Records mastering of the CD.  To me it sounds fine, but of course one would want a reissue to come from the original analog tapes.  Why that didn't happen could be economic reasons or maybe the tape doesn't exist?  Nevertheless, this album works on very medium. 

Swing Low - "Swing Low" CD, Album, Japan, 1996 (Mercury)

"Swing Low" is an album by Haruomi Hosono (or known as Harry here) and singer Miharu Koshi. Hosono is a combination of Brian Eno, Brian Wilson, Les Paul, Ry Cooder (in his knowledge of music history),  and a touch of Van Dyke Parks.  He's electronic and ambient and then on another album, he's a music historian focusing on how Western music has affected the Japanese landscape.  Smart, elegant, and on top of that,  his grandfather was on the Titanic and survived that ordeal.   

Swing Low focuses on the odd mixture of classic American songwriting with touches of Electronica here and there.  Real instruments as well as computer technology.   In Japan, he's a huge influence and figure in contemporary music.  In the West, not that much and that is truly a shame.  For the fan of Hosono outside of Japan, it's a hard road to locate his recordings, unless you go to Japan.  One can usually find his solo albums in the YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) section of a large record store.  It's worth the adventure because the listening experience is so great. 

Hosono works in themes or concepts.   Rarely is there a solo album by him that is not attached to a bigger idea or comment on a certain aspect of music.  He's hard to define in the Western sense, and to recommend a specific album is not difficult, but you have to keep in mind that is records change from one to another in an entirely different manner.  Swing Low plays with the 1950s image of American lounge music/Space Age with traces going back to Europe. One becomes a world traveler through Hosono's recordings and music. 

I think what makes Hosono so amazing is that since he's a Tokyo personality, so he looks at the world as an "other" and doesn't hesitate to borrow cultures here and there.  He's truly a world musician.  His partner-in-crime, Ryuichi Sakamoto, follows similar roots as Hosono, but the big difference to me is that Sakamoto has lived in New York City for numerous years,  and although hot American, I think he understands the American landscape through his personal experiences.  Hosono I feel gets his information through books and recordings.  And for sure, as a traveler, but Hosono is never far away from the aesthetics of Tokyo life and music.  "Swing Low" is a take on the 1950s, with its kitsch aesthetic, but also the beauty of exploring another universe, which is a weird hybrid of American, European, and Japanese pop culture.  "Swing Low" is a great album. Difficult to find, but as I mentioned above, worth the adventure.  Also, you can hear the album here on YouTube. https://youtu.be/06HcFuiHWZ4

Barbara Lewis - "Baby, I'm Yours" b/w "I Say Love" 45 rpm vinyl single, 1965 (Atlantic Records)

I first heard this song as a child, and I was living in Beverly Glenn, which is a canyon area between Sunset Blvd and the San Fernando Valley.   Songs tend to place one in a specific era or location.  Barbara Lewis' "Baby, I'm Yours" places me in the spring time and even now listening to the record, I can feel the sunshine of that time in March 1965.  We were months away from a natural disaster (our house was destroyed in a mudslide that December), but before that life was good for me.  "Baby I'm Yours" represent the good times for me before the change took its place which to this day still have an affect on me. 

"Baby, I'm Yours" is a song written by Van McCoy, who had hits in the disco era in the 1970s.  Both the A and B-Side was directed by Bert Berns, which is different from the credit "An Ollie McLaughlin Production."  Does that mean Berns was in the studio or was it McLaughlin, or both?  It sounds like a film, and perhaps to Berns and McLaughlin, it was cinematic than aural  - or, it's a work that gives one a visual.  If that's the case, it works for me, because very few songs bring me to my childhood in such a vivid manner.   I can remember the heat and the chocolate Bosco drinks that our neighbor made for us kids on the block.  The romantic yearning of "Baby, I'm Yours" captured my young and curious heart.  I didn't know love, but I did notice the pretty girls I went to school with at Nora Sterry Elementary School.   This is the theme song of that time and place.  Perhaps my personal soundtrack of a memory. 

Stockhausen/ The London Sinfoniettta - "Stop" / "Ylem" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1974 (Deutsche Grammophon)

There is a method to his madness, and Stockhausen is clearly the man who was holding the keys to his incredible compositions.  Conceptually minded, these two pieces "Stop" and "Ylem" are made for live performance where the musicians are both on the stage as well as in the audience.  The music on both pieces are textural with quietness, but also a great deal of intensity.  Reading the liner notes I'm aware that perhaps this music is not really made for a recording, but for one to experience it in a concert hall.  Stockhausen seems to have an interest in architecture - both in the sense of space, such as a concert hall, but as well as the openess or space that is in music.  There is a 3D effect in the works that draws one into the aural world of Stockhausen.

The Beach Boys - "Don't Worry Baby" b/w "I Get Around" 45 rpm vinyl single, 1964 (Capital Records)

"Don't Worry Baby" is a great and kind of a sad song as well.  In fact, everything Brian Wilson wrote has that touch of sadness or tainted with failure.  Even the classic Beach Boys rocking tunes has a sense of regret or loss of innocence.  Roger Christian wrote the lyrics to this song, and in its narrative, it's a guy who is going to race his car, but there is a hint of either an accident or even death that may take place.  His girl tells him "Don't Worry Baby, Everything will turn out alright."  Yet, is that true? 

Kenneth Anger had the genius to capture the death aspect of hot rod culture.  A mixture of eros and death are partners in crime with respect to the teenage drag race pop song.   Brian & company were experts or the poets of that genre.   The song works as a beautiful statement regarding faith and believing in love.  Yet there is the flip of the coin where disaster can enter the narrative.  The listener can choose their own narration to "Don't Worry Baby."  Popular music works best when there is that cloud of mystery or the story being not totally clear.  We're invited to put our two-cents into the mix, and that is how the song sticks to the listener. 

"I Get Around" is a gang song.  A hot-rod or car culture gang.  One of the best songs about boredom and moving on.  It has that Mike Love swagger, and he's very much an underrated lyricist. He conveys a world /landscape where one has to conquer the others to keep his stance as number one.   It's interesting that he makes the distinction that they are the good guys and not the bad kids in town. Interesting piece of work.  My love for this song is the organ that gets a tad louder toward the end.  It's the little things that give me the greatest pleasure. 

Paul McCartney - "Another Day" b/w "Oh Woman, Oh Why" 45 rpm vinyl single, 1971 (Apple Records)

When comparing Paul McCartney's early solo recordings with Lennon's early solo works, it seems like there is this hidden layer where they communicate with each other through their individual recordings.   And not just by the songs themselves, but how they packaged their work.  Of course, there is the famous image of Lennon, on the "Imagine" album,  holding, what I think is a pig's ears (this is all from memory) to make fun of McCartney's main image for "Ram."   "Another Day" came out in 1971, after a series of John & Yoko recordings.  What's interesting is the songwriting credits to that song:  "Mr. & Mrs. McCartney."   The album that came out of these sessions, "Ram" is credited to Paul & Linda McCartney.  I wonder if John & Yoko didn't share credit, would Paul still credit his future recordings as Paul & Linda? 

"Another Day" is not a brilliant record, but an exquisite one.  As I write, I can hear the melody so clearly in my head.  That is Paul's genius at work.  Yet, the song has no bite or passion. It's very studied and in control.  A narrative about a housewife living her life, is a good subject matter - but it has no Ray Davies bite or wit.   And Lennon would never write such a song.  I don't think he ever wrote a narrative tune in such a manner.  His 'narrative' works are always had a touch of fantasy.  McCartney is a songwriter who believes in narration, beginning, middle, and end.  His thinking is very straight forward.  John Lennon was narrative to a certain degree, but it goes from A to C, and may end in B.   And with respect to Linda, I do wonder what she contributed to this song?   

"Oh Woman, Oh Why" is the song for me with respect to this single.  Technically the B-Side, but to me this should have been the A-Side.  Primative Paul at his best.   I actually like the first Wings album because of its roughness.  I like rough Paul more than neat and precise Paul.