From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V9 #311 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Friday, December 10 2004 Volume 09 : Number 311 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [AVALON] In Your Mind/Least Played ["Simon Galloway" ] To leave the list, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon-digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 17:38:19 +0000 From: "Simon Galloway" Subject: [AVALON] In Your Mind/Least Played I think IYM was a continuation of Ferry commercializing his whole style, from the songwriting to the performance, a process that began on Stranded and continued. It's quite easy to see the progression (?!?!) from Siren to IYM. It's also the one where Ferry really displayed his 60s influences by incorporating them into his songs rather than covering them! It strikes me as being very heavily Stax influenced - horn section, clipped bluesy guitar and watertight rhythm section. Add a touch of Spector to the backing vocals and strings, and there's the IYM formula. And to get that sound, you need a roll call of musicians. It's by no means excessive, in fact, the sound is quite economical, simplified almost. But it didn't happen overnight. Both TFT and ATAP display these influences, mainly through the choice of songs, and more so the funky reworkings of You Go To My Head/Re-Make Re-Model from 1975 (YGTMH could almost be Barry White). The Let's Stick Together single went even further down that road, and The Bride Stripped Bare even went as far as including Stax songs on it. Why on earth he didn't just go to Memphis and cut IYM with Booker T & The MGs I'll never know! Maybe he should do that now - write the songs, rehearse the band and cut the album, just like in the old days. That would be a novelty! I was listening to IYM days before this thread kicked off. On vinyl. It really does pack a punch, and although the likes of Party Doll and All Night Operator may not be his greatest songs, there is a passion and conviction rarely heard before or since. And although it's something I didn't witness first-hand (I was only 3 at the time), the tour had a Stax Revue feel to it. And Ferry always talks about hitch-hiking to see that tour in the 60s, and the impression it made on him. That's my take on it anyway. As for least played album, well, try everything since (and including) Bete Noire. Each successive album a letdown, with the exception of As Time Goes By, which although it was treading water, it did so with style and grace. TTFN SimonG ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 12:08:47 -0600 From: "Rod LeCloux" Subject: [AVALON] test test ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V9 #311 **************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest