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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 8, 2021 20:02:04 GMT
I've always thought fairly highly of Venus and Mars - that it was one of my favorites, and one his best, of his solo career (just below Ram and Band on the Run). I still feel that way, more or less, but my high '8' has dipped to a low '8' and I think I finally feel comfortable placing Run Devil Run above it as my enjoyment of that album continues to standup to repeated listens. I'm a little amused that Kapitan is calling for "Call Me Back Again" and "Letting Go" to be replaced...those are my two favorite songs!!! Of the entire album, I continue to get the most joy out of Paul's vocal performance on "Call Me Back Again". I absolutely love it. And, as @robesimo described it, I think "Letting Go" is killer, too. The rest of my favorites have been singled out by others: "Rock Show", "Love In Song", and "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People". "Magneto and Titanium Man" has been growing on me. Even when the lyrics get silly or someone other than Paul sings lead (which I find more distracting than welcomed), there's a lot to like musically. And, as others have already said, there's just a lot of "fun", of good-to-great performances. So, I really do like this album. I like "Listen To What The Man Said"; though, I don't love it. "Venus and Mars" is good, "Crossroads" is fine. "You Gave Me The Answer" is really wearing on me, though. By the way, when I say other lead vocalist can be distracting, it's just that Paul's voice, especially during this period, is so strong, and so beautiful when singing ballads, I mean, he's a legend, and so the other singers just sound so bland by comparison. There's just too much of a disparity. It comes off like Paul's doing them a favor by letting them sing a few lines here or a song there. Look on the bright side - at least he's not having to compete with John, George and Ringo for space on an album.
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Post by B.E. on Aug 8, 2021 20:58:32 GMT
Look on the bright side - at least he's not having to compete with John, George and Ringo for space on an album. Not sure what you mean, but it's not until Wings at the Speed of Sound that I get the impression as a listener that Wings is a democratic band as opposed to Paul McCartney and his backing group (even if he did still write 9 of the 11 songs). For instance, when I listen to Red Rose Speedway and it's Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul and Denny in unison, Paul, Paul, Paul, my ears dart to that other voice and I think, "Who's that? Was that Paul?" That's what I mean by distraction. That said, no, I don't think there's a competition between Paul and the other members of Wings, not like there was with an equal like John Lennon. And George and Ringo's contributions were solidified and expected from the onset of the Beatles. They presented themselves as a group of equals. I get the sense that Wings were, understandably, caught somewhere in between. First they were "Wings", then "Paul McCartney & Wings", then "Wings" again, then they were no more...
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 9, 2021 2:33:21 GMT
Look on the bright side - at least he's not having to compete with John, George and Ringo for space on an album. Not sure what you mean, but it's not until Wings at the Speed of Sound that I get the impression as a listener that Wings is a democratic band as opposed to Paul McCartney and his backing group (even if he did still write 9 of the 11 songs). For instance, when I listen to Red Rose Speedway and it's Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul and Denny in unison, Paul, Paul, Paul, my ears dart to that other voice and I think, "Who's that? Was that Paul?" That's what I mean by distraction. That said, no, I don't think there's a competition between Paul and the other members of Wings, not like there was with an equal like John Lennon. And George and Ringo's contributions were solidified and expected from the onset of the Beatles. They presented themselves as a group of equals. I get the sense that Wings were, understandably, caught somewhere in between. First they were "Wings", then "Paul McCartney & Wings", then "Wings" again, then they were no more... I don't find it a distraction at all. Part of Wings' sound was the blend of Paul, Linda and Denny harmonizing. I know there are a lot of McCartney fans who aren't interested at all in the other members of his 70's band. They would have been happier if Paul had just kept on making albums like McCartney - playing everything, singing everything, writing everything. The common knock against Wings is that they were "just a backup band for Paul McCartney". The first question that brings to mind, then, is "were they good at backing Paul? Did you find yourself wishing they had a better drummer? A better guitar player? Did you feel that they impeded Paul's abilities as a singer, musician, songwriter, or producer?" Nothing wrong with being a backing band. Part of what makes those early Elvis Presley records so exciting is the contributions of Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana. There are Paul fans who immediately skip over any song he's not singing lead on. Do the same people skip over the Dave Davies songs on Kinks albums? Do they leave the room when Pete Townsend sings on The Who's albums? I've never bought into the idea of "one guy did it all", "one guy was a genius and the rest of the band weren't worthy of shining his shoes" (I see this in Badfinger discussions now). Speaking as someone with a lifetime in bands (as lead singer, main songwriter), it takes the full group to make things happen. I might sing more than the other guys because that is my strength, but that doesn't mean the other guys aren't worth jack. I'd rather have someone on lead guitar that is better than I am at that. It's pretty hard to play all the instruments at the same time!
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 10, 2021 11:19:48 GMT
Today is the last day to rate Venus and Mars. If you haven't listened and rated it, I recommend you do. It's an enjoyable album and is freely available on YouTube and Spotify.
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Post by B.E. on Aug 10, 2021 23:10:41 GMT
Nothing wrong with being a backing band. I agree.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 11:14:52 GMT
Five voters rated Wings' Venus and Mars an average score of 7.8.
I'll update the first post with the rating, and our next album will be up for discussion soon.
Thank you for participating.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 11:16:45 GMT
George Harrison, Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
George Harrison did not wait long to move on from his poorly received album Dark Horse and the supporting tour. Just nine months after Dark Horse—the least amount of time Harrison ever took between studio albums—he released his fourth studio album, Extra Texture (Read All About It).
He was not otherwise lacking things to do: during this same period, Harrison spent time working on the Dark Horse label, on other musicians’ albums, on film production projects, and on the dissolution of his relationship with Apple/EMI. In fact, Extra Texture was to be the final original studio album released by Apple.
Author Simon Leng says this rush was no coincidence: in his “While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison” (as quoted at the album’s Wikipedia page) he says that despite not having written many songs in the previous six months, Harrison wanted "to cut a new album as soon as possible, to extricate himself from the Capitol/EMI contract.”
The musicians assembled in Los Angeles—where most of the recording was done, for the only time in Harrison’s solo career—were mostly familiar. The core of old friends most prominently represented were drummer Jim Keltner, keyboardist Gary Wright, and guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, as well as Harrison himself. Keyboardist David Foster, who was then in a band with Keltner, was also prominent on keyboard instruments and string arrangements. Tom Scott, who had been a key figure on Dark Horse and the tour bandleader, was again present, though without his L.A. Express bandmates.
Bassist Klaus Voorsman is on the album, but only on three songs. The substance abuse issues on the scene led him to distance himself. Speaking about the sessions years later, he told journalist Mat Snow for a Mojo magazine story, "In LA I was not happy about the way George was developing, and I think he felt embarrassed about that. When they do too much cocaine, people lose their reliability ... It was not the old George.” In his absence, Harrison performed several bass parts on synthesizers, while using Keltner’s and Foster’s bandmate Paul Stallworth on others.
Most of the recording took place beginning in April 1975 in Los Angeles and carried on through the summer. The lyrics were devoid of the explicit Hindu religious references, while the music tended toward American soul music. Harrison’s voice had recovered from the damage suffered during the recording and promotion of his previous outing, for a stronger performance in that respect.
One song had been recorded years earlier in a session for an anticipated Ronnie Spector solo record to be released on Apple. “You” was never finished or released in 1971, but Harrison completed it and used it for both the lead track and, in mid-September 1975, as the initial single, as well as in a brief instrumental version to open side two.
After having received serious criticism on Dark Horse for his hoarse voice and through the past several albums for excessive religiosity, Extra Texture actually fared no better despite neither of these perceived flaws. Words such as “aimless,” “sketchy,” “feeble” and “plodding” come up in contemporaneous reviews.
The album did reach #8 in the US and #16 in the UK, and went gold in the US. The leadoff single “You” reached #20 in the US but did not chart in the UK. “This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying),” a sort of follow-up to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” was released as the final Apple single (backed with “Maya Love” from Dark Horse!) but failed to chart in the US or UK. A remake of the song was done over the span of more than a decade beginning in 1992 with Dave Stewart, and was eventually released in 2006. It is found as a bonus track on reissues of Extra Texture.
Please listen to, discuss, and rate George Harrison’s Extra Texture (Read All About It).
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 12:52:42 GMT
Here is Dave Marsh's November 1975 Rolling Stone review of Extra Texture. It's negative, though the repeated complaints about Harrison's tedious religiosity seem misplaced on an album that doesn't really veer that direction.
But I do have to agree, more or less, with this: "Finally, we are faced with the fact that Harrison’s records are nothing so much as boring. They drone, and while chants and mantras may be paths to glory in other realms, in pop music they are only routes to tedium."
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 13:40:12 GMT
I had never listened to this album until yesterday, and I've still only listened to it that one time. So I don't want to rate it or even speak too definitively about it yet. But my initial impression...
What a bore. As it went on, I almost got irritated at this album. It really felt half-baked, with mostly weak songs compounded by being overlong (a regular issue with Harrison, I've learned). What's more, for somebody who was apparently using a lot of coke at the time, oughtn't there be a little energy? It felt more like an album from somebody on opiates.
While I wouldn't have guessed I'd say this about a George Harrison album a few weeks ago, I'd actually rather listen to Dark Horse than this.
But the AllMusic.com review by Richard Ginell (3.5/5 stars) says "despite its stretches of treadmill material, Extra Texture has worn better as a whole than its Apple neighbors Dark Horse and even much of Living in the Material World, for even the lesser tunes reveal a few musical blossoms upon re-listening and the front-loaded songs are among the best of his solo career." If that's true, perhaps I'll sweeten on it a little over the next few days of listens.
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Post by kds on Aug 11, 2021 14:56:01 GMT
There's a feeling of deja vu on Extra Texture. I think it's a continuation of Dark Horse, in that, it's a group of OK songs, but no real great songs. That makes Extra Texture a bit of a slog to get through. I actually do like You and This Guitar Can't Keep From Crying, but if I were to make an ultimate George playlist, I'm not sure I'd add either to be honest.
George seemed like he was spinning his wheels around this point.
I'm going with a low six, since it's well played, and I think the vox are better here than Dark Horse, but there's still a bit of a blah to it all.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 15:06:00 GMT
I think that Dark Horse had at least a few more songs with a little more life, and (ironically) maybe some slightly better melodies, though George couldn't sing them. On this one, he can sing better again, but the songs are more of a slog.
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 11, 2021 19:25:45 GMT
I think it's a well crafted album; the production is better than on Dark Horse, and his voice sounds a lot better; the songs are well written, but everything is slow, and then gets a bit tedious after a few songs. I need to think about what I am going to rate this. It's better than Dark Horse, but it's a depressing listen - reflecting, apparently, his state of mind at the time. People keep bringing up the drug thing - I don't hear it. He sounds much healthier here than on Dark Horse. I am guessing he was pretty unhappy about his marriage falling apart. The religious angle may be less explicit here, but I still hear the same worldview expressed on his previous albums. 'You' stands out because it's the only uptempo song on the album. 'The Answer's At the End' is personal favorite. Most of the rest took repeated listenings to sink in. I will probably go with a 6 for this one.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 19:27:38 GMT
People keep bringing up the drug thing - I don't hear it. I only brought it up to explain Klaus Voorman's relative absence, and noted his comments along those lines as the reason. As I said in my first comments, it actually sounds like the opposite of what I'd think of with a "cocaine album" ... but then again, I've never done cocaine, so what do I know?
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 12, 2021 5:04:40 GMT
People keep bringing up the drug thing - I don't hear it. I only brought it up to explain Klaus Voorman's relative absence, and noted his comments along those lines as the reason. As I said in my first comments, it actually sounds like the opposite of what I'd think of with a "cocaine album" ... but then again, I've never done cocaine, so what do I know? I think George's problem was with alcohol. The only thing I know about George and "drugs" in the 70's was he tried magic mushrooms, and liked them. That experience even inspired a song we'll discuss in a couple more albums.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2021 15:36:24 GMT
I just finished my second listen of this one.
For the second time, I think it was during "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" that I first felt like punching my laptop (which isn't fair, since while Spotify was up on the laptop, the music was coming through speakers across the room; they're to blame, too!). I hate it. And then it just keeps going, occasionally with little moments I don't quite dislike, but certainly don't like.
I hear something like "Can't Stop Thinking About You" and wonder, where's the rest of the song? Why didn't you finish it? It's a decent little demo of an idea, but surely you're going to finish it, right? You're going to get a good performance recorded, right?
Then I get to "Tired of Midnight Blue" and think it's a decent filler track. Not a standout, but pretty decent.
But these are highlights after the album's opening sequence. A solid 2/3 of this album, I just don't want to hear at all, and the rest of it could be easily improved upon, just based on George's own previous recordings. The only song on the whole album that I really like is "You," which of course is a touched-up version of a half-decade old song. "The Answer's At the End" might be my second favorite, that or "Tired of Midnight Blue." And I hate using the word "favorite" in that expression, frankly, because neither qualifies at all, even with the qualifier of "second."
This album is not for me. I have a hard time imagining it's going to get more than a 4, but I'll try a little more before finalizing, since we've got most of a week to go.
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