Culture Break: Fleetwood Mac: The Chain

In my humble opinion, this is one of their best songs:

Culture Break: Toto: Africa

Always been one of my favorite songs:

This is the first time I've ever seen the video. Weird.

Culture Break: Aretha Franklin: Respect

Believe it or not, it took some searching to come with a video of her performing the song. This is from 1967:

And in the news:

An ailing Aretha Franklin was visited on Tuesday at her home in Detroit by Stevie Wonder and her ex-husband Glynn Turman, as tributes to the Queen of Soul poured in from around the world.

A spokeswoman for the Franklin family confirmed the visits and said in a statement that Ms. Franklin, 76, is “seriously ill and surrounded by family members who appreciate the outpouring of love and support they have received.” Don Terry, a representative for the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said Mr. Jackson will be visiting Ms. Franklin on Wednesday.

No additional details of Ms. Franklin’s illness were given, and the spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Quinn, declined to answer further questions.

Via Joe.My.God.

Review: Dead Can Dance: Wake: The Best of Dead Can Dance

First published at Epinions.com.

I was first introduced to the music of Dead Can Dance a number of years ago, when cassette tapes were state of the art. (Yes, that many years ago.) With my interest in offbeat popular music and music from other cultures, they were a good fit, but it wasn't until I picked up their "best of" release, Wake, that I realized how much in tune (if you'll pardon the expression) we were.

Listening through this album again, the range of traditions embodied in the music is remarkable.

Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry met in Melbourne in 1980. Perry, according to Gerrard, was making music in the mold of the New York Dolls; she doesn't talk about what she was doing, but what happened when they got together was something very different than either had been doing before. The collection starts off with their first collaboration, "Frontier," which they used as their demo when they moved to London and managed, after four years of rejection, to link up with Ivo Watts-Russell of 4AD. The amazing thing about "Frontier" is that it is already full-blown DCD: Perry's instrumental collages flow over, under and around Gerrard's highly abstract vocalizations to produce something that it, indeed, unique -- in this case, a beat that is almost something you might find in pop music (and more about that later), and Perry's own supporting vocals that become an inextricable part of the instrumentals.

About that beat: Dimitri Ehrlich, in his essay put together from interviews with Gerrard, Perry, and Watts-Russell, notes that Gerrard grew up in East Prahran, Melbourne, with a mix of Greek, Italian, Turkish, Irish and Arab neighbors. The two also worked in a Lebanese restaurant while saving money for the move to London. It would be insane to say that these experiences had no influence on their music. (Keep in mind that both are Australian, and that Australia is historically as ethnically mixed as North America; the major groups of immigrants there today are Asian. When Australians go "overseas," they are much more likely to go to the Philippines, Indonesia, or Japan than Europe.) What is astonishing about the music is that, while one can point to a particular piece and say, "Indonesian influence," or "Arab influence," or "from medieval sources," when one backs away a step or two, those influences are submerged into a seamless whole that simply says "Dead Can Dance." I mean, how does one attribute influences to the high drama of "Summoning of the Muse," with its carillon and heavy synths supporting a multi-tracked Gerrard singing a chorale (and being Gerrard, of course, doing bizarre things with the harmonies that we almost notice).

It's clear, listening to this set (and one of the best parts of writing this review is that I'm sitting here listening while I'm writing, which I always do with music review), where the strengths are. Perry is a talented singer, but those songs on which he is featured are more "standard" fare, with a clear vocal line in song form. His strength is in the instrumentals that pull together all the diverse influences and introduce amazing subtleties -- toward the end of "In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed are Kings," for example, he introduces a very quiet pulse on the bass drum, barely audible, with the effect of throwing the entire soundscape into high relief.

Gerrard is The Voice. Ehrlich says in his essay that "Gerrard . . . made sounds with her voice and turned that experience into something much larger and more far-ranging than mere singing." I can't describe it any better myself. Take my favorite combination on this collection, "The Lotus Eaters" and "Rakim" on disc 2: In "Lotus Eaters," the vocals may or may not be in any known language. It doesn't matter -- I'm not even sure those are actual words (no lyrics are provided for that one). The song is an Iberian-Arabic influenced masterpiece instrumentally, and Gerrard's vocals, charged with raw heat, twine sinuously through, creating one of the most erotic pieces of music I've ever heard. "Rakim" is a very different animal, Perry fronting a lively, upbeat Afro-Caribbean-sounding piece while, starting about halfway through, Gerrard starts yodeling in the background. It sounds odd put like that, but that's what she's doing: yodeling. It's perfect, and it's fantastic.

This is not a chronological sequence, quite -- "The Lotus Eaters," from 2001, is near the beginning of the second CD, followed by "Rakim" from Toward the Within (1994); the set ends with "How Fortunate the Man with None" from Into the Labyrinth (1993). The design, by the way, is superb -- it's worth having this set for the booklet alone, which is just beautiful.

I think this really is "The Best of Dead Can Dance," and if you're going to have one album by this pair, this is the one to have, hands down.

(4AD, 2003)

Culture Break: Vinyl Underground: Kashmir

Because I published yesterday's entry instead of scheduling it for today, you get a freebie. Another version of LZ's iconic song by a group I know nothing about. It's a pretty good version, though.

Culture Break: Fleetwood Mac: The Chain

Earworm of the week. Seriously -- it keeps popping into my head, which is kind of weird: I haven't listened to Fleetwood Mac literally in years.

At any rate, one of my favorites -- with Japanese subtitles:

Culture Break: Led Zeppelin: Kashmir

A version of this came up on this morning's playlist, by a group called Guarneri Underground (who are definitely worth checking out). Sadly, I couldn't find a video of their performance, so I thought, "Let's go to the source."

Culture Break: Steely Dan: Deacon Blues

In Memoriam: Walter Becker

Culture Break: Moby: Extreme Ways

You may recognize this from the Bourne Trilogy movies -- closing titles.

Regrettably, I missed seeing the latest one when it came out.

He is a little strange, but that's what I like about him.

Culture Break: Backstreet Boys: I Want It That Way

I almost forgot to do a Culture Break post today, and when I remembered and sat down to do it, this song popped into my head. Yes, I like the Backstreet Boys.

So here's their somewhat weird video for "I Want It That Way":

It's from the Millennium album.

And now I think I'll listen to some Backstreet Boys.

Culture Break: Colter Wall: Sleeping on the Blacktop

This is from the movie Hell or High Water, which I confess I'd never heard of until a friend sent me the soundtrack. This one grabbed me right away. Colter Wall's voice is pretty amazing -- someone said he sounds about 90 and looks 17. Magic.

>

I think I'm about to become a fan.

Here's a trailer for the film.

Culture Break: Dead Can Dance: The Lotus Eaters

I was introduced to Dead Can Dance years ago by a friend whose taste in music was as eclectic as my own, although he was more plugged in to the club scene than I was. I think this one's just about my favorite DCD number. From fairly late, and if you're trying to make out the words, give up -- there aren't any. Lisa Gerrard got into just vocalizing, without any actual lyrics.

I ran into this one on Wake, their "best of" album. And of course, I reviewed it.

Culture Break: Nickelback: When We Stand Together

This one seems appropriate these days:

Yes, I like Nickelback. Deal with it.

(As I remarked to the music editor at the weekly we both worked at: You may not like what they do, but they do it very well.)

(I was going to post a live version, but the sound is not great -- it loses that particular raw, desperate quality in Kroeger's voice that is so important to their sound.)

Another Culture Break: Bill Withers: Ain't No Sunshine

This just popped into my head and I figured, why not?

Culture Break: Steve Goodman: City of New Orleans

Somehow this seemed appropriate for the time, as we watch what, barring a miracle, is our incoming administration floundering around while stacking the deck against most of us. The refrain, I think, is what does it: "Good morning, America, how are you? Don't you know me, I'm your native son."

This version is probably better known:

Culture Break: Kazaky: The Sun

I seem to be forgetting to post things until a day or two later this week. Anyway, we haven't featured Kazaky for a while, so here's "The Sun," with their usual mix of athleticism, eroticism, and abstraction:

Culture Break: Qntal: Name der Rose

Qntal is another of those medieval pop groups that were taking the Berlin club scene by storm a few years ago. It's a group on the order of Eurhythmics or Dead Can Dance -- a knock-out singer and a guy -- or in this case, two guys -- who do everything else. This is one of my favorite cuts of theirs, from their 2004 album Qntal III: Tristan und Isolde. It starts off a little slow, but be patient. It's worth it.

Culture Break: R.E.M.: Losing My Religion

Just because I like it.

I have no idea who those people in the initial image are, unless they're the band members all grown up. Must be.

And Just Because

of the last post's title, this;

Somehow, this seems to fit the season.

Culture Break: Oysterband: We Could Leave Right Now

This is hands down my favorite song by Oysterband. None of the videos available are perfect, but this has all the important stuff.