From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V7 #247 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Tuesday, July 23 2002 Volume 07 : Number 247 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [AVALON] Making a stand on sitting it out [Chandla911@aol.com] [AVALON] hallo Byran - Italian Article ["M" ] Re: [AVALON] hallo Byran - Italian Article ["the bogus man" ] Re: [AVALON] Tribute Band ["Simon Galloway" ] [AVALON] A Really Good Time ["David Firmin" ] Re: [AVALON] Tribute Band ["Judy Kaufman" ] [AVALON] FRANTIC thoughts ["Tim Kendrick" ] Re: [AVALON] FRANTIC thoughts ["Mark Yates" ] Re: [AVALON] Lazy Ass Bryan: No More Live Performances ["Mark Yates" ] Re: [AVALON] Making a stand on sitting it out [KB Porter ] To leave the list, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon-digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 06:02:13 -0400 From: Chandla911@aol.com Subject: [AVALON] Making a stand on sitting it out >"... Ferry's management... PLEASE consider the roped off >dance area in front of >the stage for these concerts." I think this WOULD be an excellent idea IF the standing at the front did not mean that everyone behind is then OBLIGED to stand also. For info, I chose to be further back at Belvoir and, by the time you got that far back, no-one there could choose to do one thing or the other. If you wanted to see the stage, you had to stand. Avalon has been through this wringer several times but, no matter how frenetic the action onstage, not everybody wants to spend their evening standing. So if there was a natural bowl/pit in which the people standing could do so without forcing the thousands behind them to do likewise, that would be great. For me, seeing the audience between me and the stage enjoying themselves is one of the joys of being further back. But deciding that everyone should stand because you want to is just "designer fascism". For example, I went to see the Pet Shop Boys in Oxford on Sunday ("poor you", I hear you cry). A couple in row three of the stalls decided they just had to stand from the beginning, despite the rather ballady loping nature of the opening material, mainly because the guy had a luminous digital counter ticking seconds away on the chest of his shirt and he wanted Neil and Chris onstage to notice him. What gets me is this guy didn't so much as dance not once during the whole rather short set (only 10 minutes longer than BF's). But two people in every row behind him had to spend the night craning their heads round them, causing more than a little kerpuffle for the first few songs with their attempts to get the couple to sit down. I'm all for people sitting or standing as they wish. But I don't believe their choices should dictate to others... Best wishes Richard Mills n/p David Bowie - Tonight (spec I Keep Forgetting - still so excited by Bowie's more experimental approach to setlists and enthusiastic approach to playing live, I'm working my way through every album and even the ones he considers with regret are good). ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 07:24:03 -0400 From: "M" Subject: [AVALON] hallo Byran - Italian Article "Passato e presente li canto in Sicilia" Ferry, star degli anni Ottanta, stasera al velodromo con i successi dei Roxy Music e i brani del nuovo cd concerti/1 hallo bryan GIUSY LA PIANA ILARIA VENTURA http://www.palermo.repubblica.it/archivio/20020723/giorno_notte/10pal10re.ht ml M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A young New Yorker called M Was frequently seen with old men Described as fantastic She preferred lots of plastic Especially Barbie and Ken. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ironing and Star Trek, a perfect afternoon. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 14:50:43 +0200 From: "the bogus man" Subject: Re: [AVALON] hallo Byran - Italian Article Hi kids Ciao a tutti long time gone .... i was in a sort of wasteland hope u r well and kicking i will be in a week in rome with cecilia and all the italian bunch hope to meet ya there since i was outta from the list i don't know about the summer gigs cd recording who is the european branch?? and what are the titles available???? greetings from mediterranean way of life hope to be in New york after rome vacations are coming after all :-D ciaooooo danilo ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 14:55:11 +0000 From: "Christian H. Soetemann" Subject: Re: [AVALON] SOTW: "No Strange Delight" This is one of F&B's sonically most interesting tracks, because of the ethereal, dream-like quality KBP mentioned. And did anyone notice it's the only F&B track to feature Andy playing oboe? I particularly like the descending bass line. In addition to the typical Ferry domain of 'it's all lost in the past', there could be an interpretation suggesting the dr*g topic. Could 'your poor heart skips a beat' be referring to symptoms of abuse, or is that too clinical? The music is a bit like a suction. Although I quite like the album, you can't say that about most of the material, but at least about NSD (oh imagine it would be called 'Low Strange Delight', ha, ha). Good stuff. I mean, the song. Christian NP: Philip Adams - Don't NP! - ---------- >Von: Colleen Matan >An: avalon@smoe.org >Betreff: [AVALON] SOTW: "No Strange Delight" >Datum: Son, 21. Jul 2002 14:40 Uhr > >The song of the what/whenever is "No Strange Delight" from _Flesh & >Blood_. (I needed a counterpoint as we're going to see Phil Lesh, Bob >Weir, et. al. this afternoon (ironically, at the same place I saw the >first Roxy show last summer [exactly one year after I saw the second Roxy >show last summer!]).) > >As before the discussion is open to anything related to the song, and >these are only suggestions: > > love it? hate it? > lyrics/music > it changed my life > live vs. studio version(s) (if applicable) > the video (if any) > that reminds me... > > >No Strange Delight > >so there goes your life >disappeared from ever loving friends >and now a slave to obsession >your strange delight >you lie awake >how your senses ache >shaking off the night >is there more strange delight? > >there goes your self >in the clear forever out of line >and there you'll stray through obsession >your strange delight >can't bear this heat >your poor heart skips a beat >tearing off the years >to when you really cared > >so where's your soul? >in the field where every story ends >and then how plain your obsession >your strange delight >so this is hell >not so hard to tell >better men than I >have tried your strange delight >is there no strange delight? > > >___________________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon >Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 16:08:51 +0100 From: "Nigel Hollis" Subject: [AVALON] Tribute Band JB asked :- Does anyone know if any roxy tribute bands exist in the uk ................... Yes, You can find Bryan Ferry tour dates at :- http://www.bryanferry.com/tour.html N. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 16:06:08 +0100 From: "Simon Galloway" Subject: Re: [AVALON] Tribute Band arf! I just cut myself on Nigel's reply, very sharp, sir! SimonG >>> "Nigel Hollis" 07/23 4:08 pm >>> JB asked :- Does anyone know if any roxy tribute bands exist in the uk ................... Yes, You can find Bryan Ferry tour dates at :- http://www.bryanferry.com/tour.html N. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 09:02:36 -0700 From: "David Firmin" Subject: [AVALON] A Really Good Time S. T. Karnick on Bryan Ferry's Frantic on National Review Online Rock-and-roll music, like American popular song craft in general since the beginning of the past century, has always been a highly sexual phenomenon. By the late 1960s and the '70s, rock music had taken that sexual content to levels previously unvisited if not unimagined. Little Richard, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, and Jimi Hendrix had led unerringly to Lou Reed, David Bowie, T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Alice Cooper, and the like, and glam rock, with its overt sexuality and disdain for distinctions between the sexes, was on the rise. Given the pervasiveness of popular music, people holding more normal social attitudes had few options among the most fashionable and talented acts of the time. Unless one abandoned all aesthetic hope and settled for the Partridge Family, the Carpenters, or the Osmonds, or took up the difficult challenge of understanding and enjoying progressive rock, or stuck to country rock or southern groups, the only way to appreciate much pop music by the early 1970s was simply to accept that although it sounded very nice, the lyrics went directly counter to everything you believed. Not a pleasing situation. That all began to change in 1972, when a strange English band called Roxy Music appeared on the scene. Although some members of the group occasionally dressed in outlandish costumes of the sort then de rigueur, the band's movie-star-handsome singer, Bryan Ferry, sported a well-groomed, glamorous, 1940s-movie-star look, complete with a long shock of dark hair hanging over his forehead. Backed by artful arrangements incorporating strong rock-oriented hooks spiced with avant-garde touches that seldom became annoying or overly pretentious, Ferry sang in a deep, often crooning baritone that seemed equal parts Elvis, Sinatra, Charles Aznavour, and Wilson Pickett. There was nothing feminine or sexually ambiguous about him or the band's songs (with occasional exceptions clearly meant as satire of rock conventions), and that was a huge difference from his contemporaries. The songs varied widely in style, including straightforward, hard-edged guitar rock, shimmering pop tunes, slick Euro-style ballads, soul songs, country-influenced pieces, and avant-garde experimental passages, but they always included a strong melodic core. The band was highly adventurous both musically and lyrically, and Ferry was the main songwriter and undisputed leader. Ferry's vocal style was simply unique; he nearly always sang with either highly affected languor or exaggerated emotion, hewing a large gap of irony between the songs and their performances. This irony made great sense, given the silly clothing and sexual fashions of the time and Ferry's roots as a former art student and son of an English coal miner, and it was quite a tonic for those drawn to the musical creativity of glam rock but unsympathetic to its (often deliberately exaggerated) immorality. Ferry's style was innately conservative, and his lyrics were sophisticated and intelligent (even to the point of ironically quoting Nietzsche and including foreign-language passages), and his approach to music was restlessly inventive. The band immediately generated a large following in Britain and a devoted fan base in the United States. David Bowie soon offered Ferry the sincerest form of flattery by changing his own style to accord with Ferry's, taking on the crooning soul-singer and "Thin White Duke" personae he has largely hewn to ever since. By the 1980s, Ferry's influence was everywhere, in popular acts such as ABC, the Fixx, the Style Council, the Human League, Depeche Mode, New Order, Ultravox, and the rest of the New Romantic movement. That legacy is still observable in current acts ranging from Oasis to Radiohead. While achieving increasing popularity and influence, Roxy Music underwent numerous personnel changes in the 1970s. Ferry further developed his persona in a series of interesting solo albums, the first few of which mainly presented his eccentric performances of other people's songs. In the early '80s, Ferry disbanded the group to concentrate on his solo career, releasing far fewer albums than during his 1970s heyday, but always seeking new sounds to juxtapose against his still-glamorous, simultaneously passionate and detached persona. Like the glam rockers, Ferry's major theme was the allure of romance, passion, and sexual freedom, but in his works these thrills, when divorced from love, are thoroughly unsatisfying, bringing on an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction and ennui which he reflects in his disaffected vocals. "The Thrill of It All" and "A Really Good Time," both from the 1974 Roxy Music release Country Life, epitomize this world weariness. Throughout his career, Ferry's voice has usually been either overly controlled and unemotional, reflecting the ennui brought on by empty passion and sexual flings, or overly anxious, expressing the loss of control one feels when in the thrall of passion. Only occasionally does a sincere tone break through, in songs such as "Three and Nine," "That's How Strong My Love Is," "Kiss and Tell," "In Your Mind," and "September Song," when his characters break through their self-made wall of egotism and reflect on what is truly important in life - real love, loyalty, simple pleasures, and having a strong sense of one's proper place in the world. Now 56 years old, Ferry has just released one of his finest albums, Frantic. All the major themes of his career are there, and even former Roxy member Brian Eno joins in, for the first time in nearly three decades. The songs are uniformly excellent, including highly creative and evocative versions of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and an improbably pleasing rendition of the blues shouter "Goin' Down." The Ferry-Dave Stewart collaborations "San Simeon" and "Goddess of Love" and the Ferry-penned "Hiroshima" use the singer's world-weary persona in plaints against selfish passion, but most of the album is strikingly direct and sincere. "Cruel," "Nobody Loves Me," and "A Fool for Love" are particularly poignant. Nearing 60, Ferry has created his most mature album and one of this most cohesive. The closing song, "I Thought," uses both sides of Ferry's personae to highly moving effect. The chorus presents his cynical side in a way rather poignant coming from a man in his late fifties: All night - out looking for new love Impossible true love - nothing at all Looking for new gods - looking for new blood Looking for you But he concludes with a hopeful note incorporating a lovely final image: Hold on - the flower says reach out The thunder says no shout is greater than mine Listen and hold on - till the day fades out Smothered in gold That is as good as popular music gets. *** ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 11:59:16 -0500 From: "Judy Kaufman" Subject: Re: [AVALON] Tribute Band My monitor is covered with soda! Judy NP: Pretty Mess - Vanity > JB asked :- > > Does anyone know if any roxy tribute bands exist in > the uk ................... > > Yes, > > You can find Bryan Ferry tour dates at :- > > http://www.bryanferry.com/tour.html > >> Nigel Hollis ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 14:51:42 -0400 From: "Tim Kendrick" Subject: [AVALON] FRANTIC thoughts I thought I'd throw in some remarks about FRANTIC, having lived with it for a couple of months. I've left it until now both to give it time to seep into my head, and also to put out of my mind earlier versions of a handful of the songs I happen to have heard. I wanted to hear FRANTIC completely in its own right. This is nothing as complete ( or self-important!) as a review, simply a collection of loose-hanging impressions. Perhaps I should forewarn the whining and opining, the weary and the dreary, that the following is all horribly enthusiastic. i have absolutely no problem with the 'mixed bag' quality of the record, and in fact I wish more performers would take this sort of approach more often. I'm not convinced that an 'epic' album is the only, or the best, sort of album. Call me old-fashioned. I've always liked the eclecticism of Ferry's taste, and it's never been more in evidence than here. He's always chosen terrific songs to cover, of course, but much as I've liked all his versions of other people's stuff, there has sometimes been an obvious gap between his ambition and the sheer vocal inflexibility. Not here. The covers work quite wonderfully. Both the Dylans are superb, particularly DON'T THINK TWICE. (I suppose I think Dylan the towering songwriter of our times, while not loving his work as much as I admire it.) Ferry draws them into his own vocal universe while maintaining their purity and integrity absolutely. But we know from past evidence that Ferry is comfortable with Dylan. The other covers are more surprising. GOING DOWN is, I think ( without checking my CDs) the first pure blues he's ever tried. Simple as this piece sounds, I'm not sure he could have made it work a few years ago. It relies entirely on direct, unironic feeling, on trusting its emotional clarity.GOODNIGHT IRENE seems to be cropping up everywhere at the moment - I can think of two other versions from just the past year or so - Van Morrison, and Odetta on an all-Leadbelly album, which incidentally I can't recommend too highly. The Ferry version, with fiddle and rough-hewn folkie background, is as good as either. What's happening on these tracks is a newly subtle, gradual but utterly confident expansion of his range, so that a vast new horizon of potential material opens up. It goes without saying that all decent musicians have a wide musical appreciation, and he's joining the ranks of such fabulous performers as Van Morrison and even (to flatter him shamelessly) Ray Charles in his willingness to jump into any area of popular music and to pull it without strain into his own style. I would like him to explore these areas at album length, as on AS TIME GOES BY: an all-blues album, an all-(good)-country album. Of course, he can only do projects like those, which some people will like and some will not, if he is willing to put out work frequently and regularly. I would myself be happy for him to dump straightforward rock entirely, because he's done everything he can do with it and there are too many other, better things he hasn't done and he is capable now of doing.( Arguably, he dumped straightforward rock in 1974 anyway.) I'kll skip JA NON HONS PRIS because it really belongs in the 'new songs' section. There is, of course, ONE WAY LOVE to come to terms with. I have tried to like it, and have succeeded to a certain extent, but I don't think he should be bothering with material like this. It is the only element of the 'mixed bag' that realy does jar, breaking up the atmosphere of HROSHIMA and SAN SIMEON like a dog barking at chamber music concert. I'm prepared to allow that it's a piece of commercial pop, and why shouldn't he do it? But the production is tinny, and there isn't the lightness of touch I htink it needs to work as bubblegum fun. Odd that the most throwaway, lightweight thing on the album should also seem the most laboured. But this has been promoted primarily as an album of new material,and maybe it stands or falls on that. If so, it stands. These are, en masse and individually, among his best work, in my view. Is CRUEL his first ever (mildly) political song? And if it is, is it not a little fake? Or, not fake exactly, but is it, in fact, not a political song at all? Well, Ferry has recently shown himself willing to be unexpectedly (and,by the light of what passes as an acceptable view from a pop star, utterly misguidedly) political. And in this song he seems to empathise sincerely enough with the Native Americans who've lost their land and their lives. But the widescreen image of the "Iron Horse come", the "blades of grass" cut down," all yellows and green and blood-reds, narrows to black-and-white English Kitchen sink drama, the 'girl in the factory,' the tongue-tied boy without money. And to confirm that we are in the world of fantasy, of cinema, not wading in real blood at all, the people who are to rescue us are, apparently, movie actors and glam icons, poor tear-stained Johnny Ray. I don't think this lyric stands too much thought, but I like the pictures in it, new pictures for Ferry, a different territory. And the question at its heart is always worth asking. I would quite happily have lived without yet another song about Marilyn Monroe, but if there has to be one this is as good as it gets. I love the line "Platinum blonde- is it true that you have more fun?" But the words here are more ambiguous than they at first seem. Is the song actually directed to Marilyn? Is she the Godess of Love, the one the singer can't go on without? Marilyn's name disappears from the lyric halfway through, and I'm not sure that the person who 'twists and tears' his heart out is her at all. Is the singer alone in a movie theatre fantasising about being marilyn's lover, or is he making allusions to her, regarding a real flesh-and-blood relationship? Either works, but the movie house dreamer with his masturbatory fantasy seems the saddest of the two possibilities. I'm not sure how many words I've written, but I don't want to madden Colleen with an endless post, so I'll send this and conclude with a part two! Tim ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 20:13:54 +0100 From: "Mark Yates" Subject: Re: [AVALON] FRANTIC thoughts Tim Your " Old fashioned" . But your making sense. Mark - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Kendrick" To: "Avalonia" Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 7:51 PM Subject: [AVALON] FRANTIC thoughts > I thought I'd throw in some remarks about FRANTIC, having lived with it for > a couple of months. I've left it until now both to give it time to seep into > my head, and also to put out of my mind earlier versions of a handful > of the songs I happen to have heard. I wanted to hear FRANTIC completely > in its own right. This is nothing as complete ( or self-important!) as > a review, simply a collection of loose-hanging impressions. Perhaps I > should forewarn the whining and opining, the weary and the dreary, > that the following is all horribly enthusiastic. > > i have absolutely no problem with the 'mixed bag' quality of the record, and > in fact I wish more performers would take this sort of approach more often. > I'm not > convinced that an 'epic' album is the only, or the best, sort of album. Call > me > old-fashioned. > > I've always liked the eclecticism of Ferry's taste, and it's never been more > in > evidence than here. He's always chosen terrific songs to cover, of course, > but much > as I've liked all his versions of other people's stuff, there has sometimes > been > an obvious gap between his ambition and the sheer vocal inflexibility. Not > here. > The covers work quite wonderfully. Both the Dylans are superb, particularly > DON'T THINK TWICE. (I suppose I think Dylan the towering songwriter of our > times, while not loving his work as much as I admire it.) Ferry draws them > into his > own vocal universe while maintaining their purity and integrity absolutely. > > But we know from past evidence that Ferry is comfortable with Dylan. The > other > covers are more surprising. GOING DOWN is, I think ( without checking my > CDs) the first pure blues he's ever tried. Simple as this piece sounds, I'm > not sure he > could have made it work a few years ago. It relies entirely on direct, > unironic > feeling, on trusting its emotional clarity.GOODNIGHT IRENE seems to be > cropping > up everywhere at the moment - I can think of two other versions from just > the > past year or so - Van Morrison, and Odetta on an all-Leadbelly album, which > incidentally > I can't recommend too highly. The Ferry version, with fiddle and rough-hewn > folkie > background, is as good as either. What's happening on these tracks is a > newly subtle, > gradual but utterly confident expansion of his range, so that a vast new > horizon of > potential material opens up. It goes without saying that all decent > musicians have > a wide musical appreciation, and he's joining the ranks of such fabulous > performers > as Van Morrison and even (to flatter him shamelessly) Ray Charles in his > willingness to jump into any area of popular music and to pull it without > strain > into his own style. I would like him to explore these areas at album length, > as on > AS TIME GOES BY: an all-blues album, an all-(good)-country album. Of > course, he can only do projects like those, which some people will like and > some will not, if he is willing to put out work frequently and regularly. I > would > myself be happy for him to dump straightforward rock entirely, because he's > done > everything he can do with it and there are too many other, better things he > hasn't done > and he is capable now of doing.( Arguably, he dumped straightforward rock in > 1974 > anyway.) > > I'kll skip JA NON HONS PRIS because it really belongs in the 'new songs' > section. > > There is, of course, ONE WAY LOVE to come to terms with. I have tried to > like > it, and have succeeded to a certain extent, but I don't think he should be > bothering with material like this. It is the only element of the 'mixed bag' > that > realy does jar, breaking up the atmosphere of HROSHIMA and SAN SIMEON > like a dog barking at chamber music concert. I'm prepared to allow that it's > a piece of commercial pop, and why shouldn't he do it? But the production is > tinny, and there isn't the lightness of touch I htink it needs to work as > bubblegum > fun. Odd that the most throwaway, lightweight thing on the album should > also seem the most laboured. > > But this has been promoted primarily as an album of new material,and maybe > it stands > or falls on that. If so, it stands. These are, en masse and individually, > among his best > work, in my view. Is CRUEL his first ever (mildly) political song? And if it > is, is it > not a little fake? Or, not fake exactly, but is it, in fact, not a political > song at all? Well, Ferry > has recently shown himself willing to be unexpectedly (and,by the light of > what passes as an > acceptable view from a pop star, utterly misguidedly) political. And in this > song > he seems to empathise sincerely enough > with the Native Americans who've lost their land and their lives. But the > widescreen image > of the "Iron Horse come", the "blades of grass" cut down," all yellows and > green > and blood-reds, narrows to black-and-white English Kitchen sink drama, the > 'girl in the factory,' the tongue-tied boy without > money. And to confirm that we are in the world of fantasy, of cinema, not > wading > in real blood at all, the people who are to rescue us are, apparently, movie > actors and glam icons, poor tear-stained Johnny Ray. I don't think this > lyric stands > too much thought, but I like the pictures in it, new pictures for Ferry, a > different > territory. And the question at its heart is always worth asking. > > > I would quite happily have lived without yet another song about Marilyn > Monroe, > but if there has to be one this is as good as it gets. I love the line > "Platinum blonde- > is it true that you have more fun?" But the words here are more ambiguous > than they > at first seem. Is the song actually directed to Marilyn? Is she the Godess > of Love, the > one the singer can't go on without? Marilyn's name disappears from the lyric > halfway through, and I'm not sure that the person who 'twists and tears' his > heart out > is her at all. Is the singer alone in a movie theatre fantasising about > being marilyn's > lover, or is he making allusions to her, regarding a real flesh-and-blood > relationship? Either works, but the movie house dreamer with his > masturbatory fantasy > seems the saddest of the two possibilities. > > > I'm not sure how many words I've written, but I don't want to madden Colleen > with > an endless post, so I'll send this and conclude with a part two! > > Tim > > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon > Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 20:16:31 +0100 From: "Mark Yates" Subject: Re: [AVALON] Lazy Ass Bryan: No More Live Performances Are you sure this is a SPOOF??. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "M" To: Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 2:32 AM Subject: [AVALON] Lazy Ass Bryan: No More Live Performances > SPOOF! > > > Lazy Ass Bryan: No More Live Performances > by M > > England - A riot broke out at a recent Bryan Ferry concert, when fans were > shocked to discover that they were not watching their beloved idol onstage. > A sudden gust of wind swept through the outdoor venue, causing what fans > thought was Mr. Ferry, to fall to the ground. It was revealed that a > life-size cardboard cutout of the singer had been placed onstage at the last > two concerts while a "live" recording was played. The musicians > pretended that they were playing their instruments and even pretended to > banter with the cardboard Mr. Ferry, taking care not to knock him over. > Pandemonium ensued and police were quickly brought to the scene to restrain > outraged fans. No ticket refunds were offered. > > "I thought he looked less animated," stated one fan. "Now we know why. His > arthritis couldn't have gotten that bad." > > "First, a shrinking set list and now this," complained another fan. "Why > does he bother anymore? The lazy rat bastard should just retire. I would > have been better off watching a live video at home." > > The future of Mr. Ferry's tour to promote his album Frantic is uncertain and > Mr. Ferry and his management could not be reached for comment > > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon > Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 14:36:36 -0500 From: "Paula Brown" Subject: Re: [AVALON] FRANTIC thoughts >I suppose I think Dylan the towering songwriter of our times, while not loving his work as much as I admire it.< First, may I just say I very much enjoyed your take on Frantic. About Dylan, that's a good way to put it, though I would say he's ONE of the towering songwriters. He was important to an era, but I was never a Dylan worshipper and could do without the covers, though I agree Don't Think Twice is nice enough. I really don't like Baby Blue, but I know others do, so Ferry must have been right in doing it. >There is, of course, ONE WAY LOVE to come to terms with. I have tried to like it, and have succeeded to a certain extent, but I don't think he should be bothering with material like this. It is the only element of the 'mixed bag' that realy does jar, breaking up the atmosphere of HROSHIMA and SAN SIMEON like a dog barking at chamber music concert. < Hmmm, I like it fine, but I agree it wasn't exactly indispensible. It's cute though, and unlike some, I like the retro touches on it, including the tamped down drum. >Is CRUEL his first ever (mildly) political song? And if it is, is it not a little fake? Or, not fake exactly, but is it, in fact, not a political song at all? < Cruel does indeed have that quality. I'm a registered Cherokee (a small percentage though) and I like it that he did this song and I like the song itself and consider it, as you do, ground-breaking for him in an aspect or two. It is a bit bewildering in some respects and I don't pretend to know what he (and Dave Stewart?) was/were up to on it, but I just relax and enjoy it. I get the idea that song has grown on people. >Is the song actually directed to Marilyn? Is she the Godess of Love, the one the singer can't go on without? Marilyn's name disappears from the lyric halfway through, and I'm not sure that the person who 'twists and tears' his heart out is her at all.< Bryan said in a recent interview, in which the interviewer noted that his living room (at his auxilliary home, I think, not his estate) was hung with enormous Marilyns, that he was interested in her primarily as a pop icon. I think he relates to her on that note and that the song is mainly about him and why he empathizes with her on several levels. It's very revealing, really. Thanks for the interesting review! Paula ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 15:28:14 -0400 From: KB Porter Subject: Re: [AVALON] Making a stand on sitting it out "I think this WOULD be an excellent idea IF the standing at the front did not mean that everyone behind is then OBLIGED to stand also." Excellent point, Richard! I totally agree - a mosh pit is a must for dancers and standees. All seating should be elevated row by row. If a venue doesn't offer these features, then the price of tickets should reflect the inherent deficiency, regardless if the venue is a state home or historic field. Best wishes. KBP ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 15:49:16 -0400 From: "Tim Kendrick" Subject: [AVALON] son of FRANTIC thoughts So where was I? Oh yeah, more movie stuff. HIROSHIMA... ( That's MON AMOUR.) One of the most beautiful pieces on the record, an entirely abstract lyric as far as I can see, but stuffed full of strange and lovely images. I did at first have doubts about suddenly coming across on a pop album a song about one of the darkest moments in human history. ( Yes, a thousand suns indeed.) I still have reservations about it, in truth, - all of us in the West think of only one thing when that city is mentioned, and I'm not utterly comfortable with the sheer gorgeousness of this song in that context, the exquisiteness of it. Sure, this is a reference to a piece of cinema yet again, not to anything as concrete and ugly as mass extermination... but if you're going to refer to it, perhaps it should have been. You can't help at least questioning it. But, bloody hell, this is one of my favourite tracks on the album. NOBODY LOVES ME strikes me as the most orthodox song here, orthodox in terms of Ferry emotional territory, and lyrically too. ( " On the flaggy shore I watch the waves." Vermillion sky, I don't think so/ a cigarette and voices low".) As with much late Ferry, the words are a series of independent images that are beyond interpretation, don't seem to relate particularly to each other, yet somehow make a successful whole. I think he avoids self-parody here, but comes closer to it than elsewhere on FRANTIC. It crossed my mind that the title might have come from the standard moan of a teenager to their parents, and his house is full of recently-teenagers, actual teenagers and soon-to-be teenagers! Just a thought. The emotional context of the song itself, however, is entirely adult, worn out, tired, aging. Everybody has already remarked that SAN SIMEON is really DREAMHOME II. I seem to remember that Colleen had doubts about it, and I think there is reason for questioning the wisdom of picking up thirty-year-old lyrics and setting them. There's a danger that, if it's a sequel to that extraordinary early song, it must be, like all sequels, a pale imitation. I think I believe this to be the case, and yet I find t it so evocative, so magical, I can picture each moment, each room, each incident, so completely that I simply throw away all reservations and love it. I've referred to cinema earlier. This is a song that does not echo any specific movie that I know of, and yet seems most convincingly cinematic in its own right. A hermetically-sealed, complete experience. Only one small problem, the double entendres ("My wand doth wake you," " Drink at my fountain...") pull me out of the song, momentarily break the atmosphere. But it's a glittering gem. Which leavers only two songs left to talk about, my favourites, JA NUN HONS PRIS/ A FOOL FOR LOVE and I THOUGHT. I refuse to think of the first as two things, it's obviously welded into one whole. I simply love the soprano, a gorgeous voice and evocative, and ( on first hearing) a surprise. Dreamy and rich. like the song into which it leads, which contains my single favourite line on the album: " Red Ruby lips/Don't touch me eyes/ a fool for love/ and love is blind." An astonishing, compact verse, packed with a range of sensation: Yearning, melancholic, erotic, tender, forbidding. Maybe the best fifteen words ferry has yet written. The song as a whole floats between a vaguely historical setting of Avalonian/Arthurian myth (like pre-hits Chris De Burgh, all those knights and maidens! But without Chris' inclination to overwroughtness!) and a sharp wrench into the modern urban jungle. ( "A crowded street/ an empty train,/ a fool for love,/ and love is vain." Another example, incidentally, of the brilliant, precise, understated lyrics this song has.) A phenomenal bit of work. And then, lastly, there's the big-news reunion with Eno, everyone's favourite it seems and perhaps mine too. A lyric full of Ferry smartness. More bloody movies, and I'm not sure that " I thought you'd be my streetcar named desire " really deserves to work, but somehow, my God, it does. And then the standard Ferry moment we all know: " All night, looking for new love/ impossible true love - nothing at all." The keyboard like some player-piano or fairground carousel, mechanical and seemingly expressing nothing, successful because backing a vocal of intense emotional truth. And the ending! A a beautiful final verse, sunset-like, SUNSET-like. Yes, another familiar Ferry image to end with, but again made new and fresh in this song, and bringing both the song and one of the best albums he's ever made to a close. Now if only we can get him to put out an album a year, every year. What wonders he can still do! Tim ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon Avalonians on tour 2002: http://helios.unive.it/~tcecilia/meetup.html ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V7 #247 **************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest