From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V6 #90 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, December 7 1997 Volume 06 : Number 090 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Freebird -- a possible history [SydneyC33 ] Airscape + Marc Bolan ["Matthew Knights" ] Minimalist cheeps [The Great Quail ] sometimes a bomb is not enough [Jeff Rosedale ] Robyn Hitchcock at the Joiners Arms, Southampton [squeaky watson ] Embarassing "I Met Robyn!" story ["Matthew Knights" Subject: Re: Freebird -- a possible history Tom writes: << There has yet to be established any form of traceable "Dead Wife gene" since Robyn's response to "requests" is usually either total indifference or the occasional "What did you say?"followed by a spontaneous song based on the misheard request. >> And then there's the occasional request that sparks a flat denial, albeit entertaining... At the San Francisco show in June, Robyn said, "What shall we do?" Using Robyn's Coded Acronyms (tm), I suggested, "EJ" (Elizabeth Jade), to which Robyn smiled and said in a rather crisp, comical voice: "No, we're not going to do EJ at all now, EVER; not for y-e-a-r-s. We're never going to do it in the Bay Area until it's obsolete, and when we finally do it, you'll go, 'NOT EJ! You should've done that three years ago. Return to your homeland and pen other ditties, for EJ shall serenade my ears no more! It is too late...a tardy song. I ESCHEW it!' " Then...Eddie Tews writes me: i can't remember if i told you this or not but, the night after robyn was in san francisco (where you'd unsucessfully requested "EJ") he played Elizabeth Jade in eugene. and he said, "this is for the person who requested this last night in san francisco where we didn't play it." how 'bout that? you're surely one of the few fegs who's had a song dedicated to them by the man himself. :) Sydney ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 10:41:10 -0000 From: "Matthew Knights" Subject: Airscape + Marc Bolan Tom wrote: Towards the end of last month's Jazz Cafe gig some fans near the bar (makes sense) shouted "Airscape! Airscape! Airscape!". This was duly acknowledged by Robyn who teased "You want Airscape ?" before he played it. Who knows if it was spontaneous or planned. Either way Airscape could be Robyns Freebird. I remember a really odd audience contribution at a Robyn gig : "What about Marc Bolan !" "What about Marc Bolan !" "What about Marc Bolan !" This sounded strange and inappropriate at the time. Were the fans at the right gig ? But on reflection Marc's early TRex output sounds very similar (IMO) to the Incredible String Band who Robyn favours. So maybe Robyn could think about doing a Marc cover or two in the future (Debra/Zebra ?) Matt _________________________________________________________________ Matthew Knights mknights@harrywasp.prestel.co.uk `Ton ame est un lac d'amour dont mes desirs sont les cygnes...' _________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 03:09:40 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Airscape + Marc Bolan Once I went to a Peter Gabriel concert where someone yelled "Here Comes the Flood" between every song.... Once I went to a Replacements concert where someone yelled "Run It" between every song.... If there's a connection here, I can't find it. ;) Eb ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Dec 97 12:25:24 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: Minimalist cheeps This has no Robyn content at all, not even a token connection like Philip Glass --> Martin Scorsese --> Harvey Keitel --> Kevin Bacon --> Tom Hanks - --> Jonathan Demme -- Robyn. So beware. Natalie says: >Michael Nyman is the Man. He is, I suppose, technically a minimalist, >except that his pieces actually have tunes and structure, rather than the >endless two or three-note diddling of Mr. Glass. And Eb adds: >And my favorite minimalist will always be Steve Reich. Reich rochs! First let me produce my credentials as Philip Glass Fan of the Millenium . . . hang on, I got the card here somewhere . . . yes, there. See? So I am very very biased: I love Reich, Riley, Nyman, and Adams; but Phil Glass has a wit, intelligence, style and heart that I've only ever heard in Beethoven and Wagner. So Natalie (and I still love you, dear!) and her "three note diddling" comment has left me permanently scarred. And twitching slightly. As a matter of fact, I am writing this from the Stone Temple Pilots Center of Ego Recovery After a Bout of Tramatic Criticism right now. (Orderly, pass me some orange juice, please.) So all my comments an modern contempory "classical" will be, of course, enormously biased. OK, that out of the way, let me get to the point, which is essentially to cheerfully disagree with everyone. Back to Natalie: >Unfortunately, since his break with >Peter Greenaway, it seems that Nyman has lost his touch - his soundtrack >for "Carrington" was so bland that I couldn't listen to more than a few >minutes - but I haven't heard anything really recent by him, so I suppose I >shouldn't pass judgement, even though I just did. Anyway, check out >http://www.december.org/nyman/ for more info. Personally I think these days Nyman has finally come into his own unique style completely, his earlier Greenaway works having a definite American Minimalist influence. Not that that's bad, mind you -- they were hardly derivative, just *influenced.* And still wonderful, especially "The Cook" and "Prospero's Books." (His songs were always where he had staked out a more individualistic style.) "The Piano" was a break from this, and I personally love both the soundtrack and the "Piano Concerto," which incorporates his work on the soundtrack into an integrated whole. Very lovely, and packaged on CD with "MGV," a choppy, terse, rapid piece commissioned to dedicated the French MGV train thingie. I do agree with Natalie in that "Carrington" was one of his weaker efforts, but his latest CD (EMI Concertos) is wonderful, especially the "Trombone Concerto." He casts it as a very agonistic affair: the trombone is being hunted and opressed by the orchestra, and every time they pin it down it "escapes." Finally it expires at the end under a rage of percussion -- not just any percussion, but filing cabinets! Yep, Mike scores a bunch of filing cabinets, and they do sound pretty when beaten. (Maybe he's been listening to too much Einsturzende Neubauten?) And Ebby: >I like Nyman's stuff (particularly his score for The Cook, The Thief, The >Wife & Her Lover), but agreeing with your "lost his touch" comment above, I >thought his score was the worst thing about The Piano. It was pretty music >on its own, but it made no sense in that context. Didn't fit the >timeframe/setting of the story at all. But . . . it really wasn't suppose to. It was intended to be a bit otherworldy. Nyamn used a base of period Scottish music and transformed it, allowing it to evolve around lines he thought would express her personal style. The result was music with a displaced, timeless, haunting quality . . . personally, I think the music was one of the *best* things about the movie. That and Harvey Keitel. I always love Harvey, whether he's showing Farrah Fawcett a robot, yelling at Jesus (or statues of Jesus), or butchering vampires. Ah, Harvey. Here's that orange juice. . . . - --The Quail - ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- The Great Quail, K.S.C. | Literature Site - The Libyrinth: TheQuail@cthulhu.microserve.com | www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth www.rpg.net/quail | Vampire Site - New York by Night: riverrun Discordian Society | www.rpg.net/quail/NYBN 73 De Chirico Street | Arkham, Orbis Tertius 2112-42 | ** What is FEGMANIA? ** "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. Lovecraft ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Dec 97 11:32:04 EST From: Jeff Rosedale Subject: sometimes a bomb is not enough Just a green note to chant out in frost crystals my exploding desire to have Daisy Bomb with the Janes on backup vox. Seeing it on a recent set list rekindled that fuse. Also a backwards-forwards reminiscence that I hope surfaces at the Storefront: Robyn with a sheepish grin by the light of a candelabra, orangy glow against the backdrop, singing Glass Hotel. Dedicated to the lost celebrity guest fuit, the Lime, known in some romance languages only as the green lemon (limon vert), and that lamp!!! --Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 14:15:27 -0500 From: squeaky watson Subject: Robyn Hitchcock at the Joiners Arms, Southampton thought that some of you might be interested in this: >Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 00:31:29 +0000 >From: Isle of Wight Rock/Vaguely Sunny >To: woj@remus.rutgers.edu >Subject: Robyn Hitchcock at the Joiners Arms, Southampton > >Hi Woj >Weird scenes at the Joiners. Full review at: > >http://www.iowrock.demon.co.uk/frames/clearspot_stacks_frame.html > >pictures will probably be up after next weekend > >Best > >Mike P > > ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 16:42:11 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Minimalist cheeps Quail writes: >First let me produce my credentials as Philip Glass Fan of the Millenium >. . . hang on, I got the card here somewhere . . . yes, there. See? So I >am very very biased: I love Reich, Riley, Nyman, and Adams; but Phil >Glass has a wit, intelligence, style and heart that I've only ever heard >in Beethoven and Wagner. I just don't hear it. I've never heard anything by Glass which I would rate above "passably intriguing." Maybe the Koyaanisqatsi score. Maybe. On the other hand, there is plenty of Reich music which I find utterly thrilling. >But . . . it really wasn't suppose to. It was intended to be a bit >otherworldy. Nyamn used a base of period Scottish music and transformed >it, allowing it to evolve around lines he thought would express her >personal style. The result was music with a displaced, timeless, haunting >quality . . . Ehhh, I didn't buy it at all. It just seemed like a good way to contemporize the film for marketing purposes. Any of you minimalist folks like Daniel Lentz? I rarely hear mention of this guy anywhere, but I have a couple of records of his that are really beautiful. I think they're called The Crack of the Bell and On the Leopard Altar. Eb, who saw the Steve Reich Ensemble live once and didn't hear one cry of "Freebird!" during the whole show ;) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 06:22:34 -0000 From: "Matthew Knights" Subject: Embarassing "I Met Robyn!" story Months ago Karen Reichstein wrote: In 1989, I worked in Soho, central London. One lunch break I was walking back to the office, heading west down Great Marlborough Street - a 300 year old road where Isaac Newton used to live - when I recognised Robyn in the distance, walking east towards me. Robyn was alone, tall and gaunt in an elegant long dark coat which seemed to exaggerate his height to something approaching seven feet tall ! He looked haggard, worn, tired, preoccupied and in a very serious mood. As the distance between us shrank my mind froze in anticipation. I couldn’t think what to say. It was broad daylight. There were no crowds. Nobody else was on the street. As our paths crossed Robyn psyched me out completely and I choked. I say choked in the sense of a tennis pro who needs to serve an ace to win a championship and just hits the net. I missed the opportunity to speak and have always regretted it. But the question remains. If you are a stranger, outside Robyn's inner circle, how exactly should a mere fan ‘nobody’ address a sophisticated, educated rock ‘somebody’ ? “Hi Robyn ......” Too informal, presumptious, rude “Hello, Mr Hitchcock ......” Too formal, stuffy, almost sarcastic Maybe the solution is to greet Robyn with a reference from one of his songs. For example: “Have a heart Betty, I’m not fireproof!.......” Too cryptic "I'm just trash!........" Why the self-denigration ? "I'm an old pervert man......" Errrrr no ! On balance, if I had the chance again I’d say “Hi. I feel like asking a tree for an autograph” - Perfect ! Matt PS Life is so much easier for female fans. You just say “I got the hots for you!” _________________________________________________________________ Matthew Knights mknights@harrywasp.prestel.co.uk `Ton ame est un lac d'amour dont mes desirs sont les cygnes...' _________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V6 #90 ******************************