| Author | Message | ||
     Michael |
Having just read (and really enjoyed) David's book I wonder if he has considered an enterprise similar to the two titles I've mentioned? It would be great to have a book that looked in real detail at the songs themselves: how they were recorded, lyrical ideas etc. If ever a group's songs was deserving of the attention... | ||
| david nichols |
I agree this is a great idea. There has been reserved criticism of my book that I am not as analytical as I could be of the actual songs in question - I guess if anything my experience of studying literature and history and knowing the difference prompted me to take a hands-off approach by and large in my history, except where I thought the songs' content impacted on the development of the story (i.e. I go on quite a bit about 'Karen', as I recall, because it seemed so groundbreaking). Also I was a little cautious about how much of a song you can quote in a book without having to pay songwriter royalties, though in retrospect I was probably TOO cautious. And I think maybe this is a work that someone else with a better background in literature could, and should take up. It's time. I would encourage anyone who wanted to investigate such a study and aid them in any way I could. The original book took shape in '93-'95, i.e. just before the internet really changed all our lives. By the end of writing the original - '95 - I actually utilised the hot new technology of e-mail to do a couple of interviews. The reason I bring this up is I'm sure that the internet would make researching the actual songs a hell of a lot easier - at least in terms of finding clues, references, sources. Now I'm making assumptions about how someone would go about writing a Revolution in the Head-styled book. Come on, we're all smart people here, and everyone's got one book in them - at least! | ||
| Mark |
I am eager to discuss lyrics with anyone and I think we don't do enough of it at 'go-betweens.net'. It seems like an obvious point of discussion and something that we can all participate in. I don't want to limit the discussions only to the lyrics of R&G. | ||
| david nichols |
OK we can also discuss Cleopatra Wong and Apartments lyrics | ||
| Mark |
Yes we can, but I didn't mean it quite like that. | ||
| jeff |
My only real criticism of the book is that I'd have liked a little more detail on how the albums were recorded. For example, I mentioned this in a previous post, but I came across an article via the internet several years ago in which Robert talked extensively about recording Liberty Belle. He mentioned recording it in a very low-key basement type studio, and that he became very ill when it was time to do vocals, so by the time he was well, he had like a day to finish them all, stuff like that. I guess David actually does go into detail about the recordings (there's nice info in there about Rachel Worth, and some of the agonizing Tallulah sessions), but it seems Liberty Belle gets the least amount of attention, which is odd to me since so many of us tend to think it's their masterpiece. It would've been cool to learn even more about Dean B. Speedwell's (real name: Richard Broderick) role in the recording, since he had a profund influence on the outcome of that album, having done all the snazzy arrangements. It's probably just 'cause I'm a musician and a total recording geek, but I could read all day about that kind of stuff. As for the lyrics - David, if you ever do a third edition, it'd be interesting to include some of the ideas thrown around in the "Is Grant a junkie thread?" with regards to the lyrics of Hammer the Hammer. If anything it would fuel the rumours. | ||
| david nichols |
I agree, the information put forward about the recording of Liberty Belle is very interesting and I wish I'd been able to include it. Essentially this was one of the areas where the group was not that forthcoming. I was very interested in LB&TBDE and wanted to know as much as I could. However at this point no-one was interested in talking about that stuff. G&R's main point about LB was that it was a kind of financial coup, essentially a 'free' album due to the vagaries of record label politics - Elektra paid for it, but the UK arm of Elektra withered before it could release it. Here's a semi-interesting story partially about LB. Just before it came out the Go-Bs toured Australia and somehow I was talking to Lindy, which occasionally happened, and she said they had recorded their best album ever, and she would lend me a cassette of it. Which she did, but she made me promise to return it. They were staying at the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Bondi. When I went there she wasn't there so I left it at reception. At the same time, in reception was Nico, who was touring at that time. She was sitting on a couch with a completely blank expression on her face, eating corn chips. Someone came and took her by the arm and led her away to a taxi. She was still just poking those cornchips into her mouth. It was disturbing. I later discovered that Lindy and Nico had had something of a discussion about sex with Jim Morrison... damn, I can't recall the gist of it. | ||
| Mark |
"with Jim Morrison" ..of the Doors? Surely not. He must be a 'dead root'. | ||
| david nichols |
Well, no-one had told Nico. Actually I now recall she dyed her hair for him, I can't remember what colour though. I hope that in the last minutes of my life when everything passes before my eyes, that I do actually get some of my own life in there, not just Nico's affair with Jim as told to Lindy, etc... | ||
| Mark |
Oh, Nico the rock slut and Jim Morrison. Do tell! | ||
| david nichols |
I think Morrison was more of a rock slut! Anyway, that's all I remember. | ||
| Steve Connell |
I don't know who was a bigger slut, and I doubt it's even relevant, but there's no doubt in my mind that Nico was involved in more good records than Jim Morrison, even if you leave out the first Velvet Underground album, which she probably didn't have a whole hell of a lot to do with. But "The Marble Index" alone wipes the floor with the entire Doors catalogue, which is surely little more than an extended set of clichés bellowed to the accompaniment of consistently overblown music. And Nico scores extra points for not having published any, er, "poetry" . . . | ||
| Mark |
Yes, I've read favorable opinions about Nico's "The Marble Index" before, so I suppose I should give it a try. The frequency with which Nico's sexual encounters became the subject of 'rock journo' scribblings gives me the impression that she rooted like a rattle snake. I don't suppose that promiscuity and artistic merit are mutually exclusive characteristics, but I am fucking jealous of anybody who has both! | ||
| Cherrycoke |
Thanks, Steve, my thoughts about the Dooors, exactly. If you listen to "The End" on 45 rpm it is quite ok, though. And to Mark: You should only listen to "The Marble Index" if it happens so that you are a very stable person, firmly grounded in life etc. This is about staring into the abyss and the abyss staring back. At least Lester Bangs said something to that effect, I seem to remember... Best, Cherrycoke | ||
| jeanie |
for those unfamiliar with nico i'd buy chelsea girls as a starting point, its a lot more tunefull than marble index (though eulogy for lenny bruce is perhaps the most depressing song ever (in a good way though)). | ||
| Mark |
I never stare into an abyss, I've always dived strait in. As for my stability? Ermm, ..rock solid! *cough* *cough* Anyway, it's only the ride that counts. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1 Registered: 08-2004 |
This is confusing! | ||
| Randy Adams Unregistered guest |
Damn! Wish I'd been paying attention to this one. I always thought the Doors ripped off their sound from the Seeds, an earlier Sunset Strip band. |