The Joshua Tree, March 1987. On a train. On a yellow (!) Phillips personal stereo.
U2 are now 'bleedin' massive', ubiquitous, a major global brand. However, in the early part of 1987, I was only just starting to hear whispers about them. Almost none of my classmates were fans or champions for this Irish Rock band, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were tense to say the least. I can't possibly say if these things were related, but the musical tide was certainly about to change in a big way. My perception of Ireland would be tested directly a couple of years later in a Maths class. A visiting Irish teacher took the class and as an ice-breaker asked each of us to list the first 3 things that came to mind when we thought of Ireland. Me? Pat Jennings, Green...and U2. You may imagine the debate that ensued in a classroom in a Tory stronghold in Thatcher's Britain, but I digress.
While in those days especially U2 were unafraid to share their social and political opinions freely, it was the musical backdrop that I found completely mesmerising. How can you not be moved by the epic rising intro to 'Where the Streets have No Name', let alone the soaring anthem that it becomes? At a time when I was starting to get some interest in Heavy Metal, here seemed to be something altogether less direct, but so much more sophisticated. It seemed to be sincere, honest, raw, pained, euphoric, anthemic, sparse, eery, celebratory, fierce, mellow, historic - all at once. The next 2 tracks ('I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking for' and 'With or Without You') further cemented my feelings that this was monumental, legendary material unfolding right before me. It's still their benchmark album.
So much has been written about U2 that I won't even attempt to explain their place in music history, only to say it's a place that's richly deserved. Though I would continue to enjoy the relatively safe sounds of Dire Straits, The Eagles and Eric Clapton for a couple more years, listening to U2 offered something altogether more awakening and spiritual. The world was about to agree.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
My First Memories Volume 2 - Van Halen
Not surprisingly for a man of my age, my introduction to Van Halen came in the mid 80s with the massive hit...and then again in the slightly later 80s with the other massive hit.
'Jump' and 'Why Can't This Be Love?' are both fine pop tunes in their own right, and in the privacy of my own home (sometimes in public!) I can't help but switch from air guitar to air keyboard and back again when I hear these songs - still! The fact that one song was from VH MkI and one from VH MkII made this pretty confusing for me as I naively wondered how they could still be the same band if the personnel were different. In the years since, of course, this has turned the band's story into the stuff of Rock Legend.
I consider VH to be my No. 1 guilty pleasure musically speaking, because they do sit at odds with the very large, very intense, very serious, not very Rock 'n' Roll section of my CD collection. There is no doubt that Edward is simply one of the finest exponents of the electric guitar that we will ever see. Alex is a groove king with riotously OTT kits. Michael can wield the bass ably enough for this brand of Rock, and sing nice harmonies, too. Dave is one the most entertaining front men in Rock history. Sammy possesses one of the top 5 Rock voices of all time. The band have sold millions of albums etc. etc. But, it's still just disposable Glam Pop Rock with tongue planted firmly in cheek. How could I possibly like it?
Here's the rub. I was not a teenager in the US in the late 70s / early 80s, but if I had been I would have known that the aforementioned tunes represent so little of what Van Halen is about. It was only in the very late 80s, as my tastes transitioned from Adult-Orientated Soft Rock to Hard Rock, that I first heard Van Halen. Turns out they had much more in common with Led Zeppelin, Kiss and Queen than with Duran Duran, The Human League or The Thompson Twins.
I can't remember which album was the very first that I borrowed from my VH-championing school chum*, but I'm pretty sure it was the band's debut album, Van Halen I - being mathematical fiends, we were also fans of chronology, and proper order, and things like that ;) As with so many impressionable kids before me, and probably a few more since, this felt like real Rock music. It was BIG but not overwhelming, it was HEAVY but not stodgy, it was FUN but not silly (ok - it was silly!). And, man, the guitars were from another planet. Truly, WTF? Jimi who? This was the kind of music I wanted at my parties from now on!
It wasn't very much like other bands that often get mentioned in the same breath: Kiss, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Motley Crue, and so on. There were definitely more progressive and quirky elements at play, and this would become more pronounced on subsequent albums. It's not really possible to get away from the fact that Van Halen were a good-time, arena-sized bar band. They played a ferocious brand of RAWK, and stole lyrics from a teenage male fantasist's diary. It would be possible to say that they contributed massively to the Rock soundtrack of late 70s / early 80s USA. The release of 'Jump' and the following album, '1984', broadened their appeal to mainstream Pop audiences. And it stretched even further into the late 80s - to different continents and different generations. For me, music has a particular ability to be able to create timestamps in my life. I felt transported to another time and place, and doesn't that demonstrate the power of art, no matter how disposable?
*I also had fellow champions for Rush and Kiss during this time. Iron Maiden were my chosen Kings for those days, so we had lots of grounds for debate....and a wealth of Classic Rock material to trade!
'Jump' and 'Why Can't This Be Love?' are both fine pop tunes in their own right, and in the privacy of my own home (sometimes in public!) I can't help but switch from air guitar to air keyboard and back again when I hear these songs - still! The fact that one song was from VH MkI and one from VH MkII made this pretty confusing for me as I naively wondered how they could still be the same band if the personnel were different. In the years since, of course, this has turned the band's story into the stuff of Rock Legend.
I consider VH to be my No. 1 guilty pleasure musically speaking, because they do sit at odds with the very large, very intense, very serious, not very Rock 'n' Roll section of my CD collection. There is no doubt that Edward is simply one of the finest exponents of the electric guitar that we will ever see. Alex is a groove king with riotously OTT kits. Michael can wield the bass ably enough for this brand of Rock, and sing nice harmonies, too. Dave is one the most entertaining front men in Rock history. Sammy possesses one of the top 5 Rock voices of all time. The band have sold millions of albums etc. etc. But, it's still just disposable Glam Pop Rock with tongue planted firmly in cheek. How could I possibly like it?
Here's the rub. I was not a teenager in the US in the late 70s / early 80s, but if I had been I would have known that the aforementioned tunes represent so little of what Van Halen is about. It was only in the very late 80s, as my tastes transitioned from Adult-Orientated Soft Rock to Hard Rock, that I first heard Van Halen. Turns out they had much more in common with Led Zeppelin, Kiss and Queen than with Duran Duran, The Human League or The Thompson Twins.
I can't remember which album was the very first that I borrowed from my VH-championing school chum*, but I'm pretty sure it was the band's debut album, Van Halen I - being mathematical fiends, we were also fans of chronology, and proper order, and things like that ;) As with so many impressionable kids before me, and probably a few more since, this felt like real Rock music. It was BIG but not overwhelming, it was HEAVY but not stodgy, it was FUN but not silly (ok - it was silly!). And, man, the guitars were from another planet. Truly, WTF? Jimi who? This was the kind of music I wanted at my parties from now on!
It wasn't very much like other bands that often get mentioned in the same breath: Kiss, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Motley Crue, and so on. There were definitely more progressive and quirky elements at play, and this would become more pronounced on subsequent albums. It's not really possible to get away from the fact that Van Halen were a good-time, arena-sized bar band. They played a ferocious brand of RAWK, and stole lyrics from a teenage male fantasist's diary. It would be possible to say that they contributed massively to the Rock soundtrack of late 70s / early 80s USA. The release of 'Jump' and the following album, '1984', broadened their appeal to mainstream Pop audiences. And it stretched even further into the late 80s - to different continents and different generations. For me, music has a particular ability to be able to create timestamps in my life. I felt transported to another time and place, and doesn't that demonstrate the power of art, no matter how disposable?
*I also had fellow champions for Rush and Kiss during this time. Iron Maiden were my chosen Kings for those days, so we had lots of grounds for debate....and a wealth of Classic Rock material to trade!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
My First Memories Volume 1 - Elbow
First sighted performing 'Grounds for Divorce' on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2008.
This track is one of the pillars of Elbow's mega-selling, mega-celebrated album, The Seldom Seen Kid. A mighty fine album it is too. However, in February 2008, Elbow was the given name of some band that I was only vaguely aware of - I thought they were a 'new Coldplay' or something like. Since that time, the band have gone on to achieve the kind of success you feel they deserve, and I have become a fan - realising that they have very little in common with Coldplay, or just about any other band.
To find such a gem on a TV chat show is something of a minor miracle. I expect to discover something worthy of follow-up on music driven shows such as Jools Holland's long running series, or on Sky Arts. However, it is a rare thing these days that I will be genuinely impressed by 'tonight's musical guest'. It's not even very Rock 'n' Roll to admit to watching chat shows at all, I suppose! If I go back to my youth I'd have to say TV was a very important medium for shelling out new talent. Though sometimes the talent wasn't that apparent, or maybe the talent wasn't even that new. It turns out that Elbow wasn't a very new phenomenon to the initiated, either. I'm just glad to have seen these seemingly working class heroes deliver something so well-crafted at a live TV performance. I'm not sure if this hit the screen just before the band's popularity went into overdrive, but it felt like it for me. Perhaps their invitation to the show was inspired by an evident sense that something special was happening for these Manchester men. That was neither here nor there for me - the main thing was that I wanted to hear more. I bought all their albums in the following weeks and was rewarded with music that was heavy on emotion, and richly arranged to boot.
I finally got my first glimpse of the live version of the band at last year's Electric Picnic, and they did not disappoint. Once again, when that riff kicked in, I was reminded of the beautifully controlled power that exists in all of the band's work - and especially in this song.
This track is one of the pillars of Elbow's mega-selling, mega-celebrated album, The Seldom Seen Kid. A mighty fine album it is too. However, in February 2008, Elbow was the given name of some band that I was only vaguely aware of - I thought they were a 'new Coldplay' or something like. Since that time, the band have gone on to achieve the kind of success you feel they deserve, and I have become a fan - realising that they have very little in common with Coldplay, or just about any other band.
To find such a gem on a TV chat show is something of a minor miracle. I expect to discover something worthy of follow-up on music driven shows such as Jools Holland's long running series, or on Sky Arts. However, it is a rare thing these days that I will be genuinely impressed by 'tonight's musical guest'. It's not even very Rock 'n' Roll to admit to watching chat shows at all, I suppose! If I go back to my youth I'd have to say TV was a very important medium for shelling out new talent. Though sometimes the talent wasn't that apparent, or maybe the talent wasn't even that new. It turns out that Elbow wasn't a very new phenomenon to the initiated, either. I'm just glad to have seen these seemingly working class heroes deliver something so well-crafted at a live TV performance. I'm not sure if this hit the screen just before the band's popularity went into overdrive, but it felt like it for me. Perhaps their invitation to the show was inspired by an evident sense that something special was happening for these Manchester men. That was neither here nor there for me - the main thing was that I wanted to hear more. I bought all their albums in the following weeks and was rewarded with music that was heavy on emotion, and richly arranged to boot.
I finally got my first glimpse of the live version of the band at last year's Electric Picnic, and they did not disappoint. Once again, when that riff kicked in, I was reminded of the beautifully controlled power that exists in all of the band's work - and especially in this song.
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