S is for…Scorpions! ‘Lovedrive’

Scorpions are a hard rock band that started in the former West Germany. In the nineteen sixties, their earlier incarnations were more of a ‘beat’ group than anything close to what they are known for now. Their debut album, ‘Lonesome Crow’ wasn’t released until 1972, and perhaps owes more to experimental German bands of the time than straight forward rock’n’roll or hard rock, being a stepping stone to what would become a signature sound for Scorpions through the seventies. The first album featured the founding members Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker, who would go on to be the core of the band through many line-up changes. Rudolph’s brother Michael Schenker plays lead guitar on this album and would later become an international superstar with UFO and his own band, returning briefly to record a Scorpions album in 1979, more of which later in this piece…

From 1974 to 1978, the band were prolific in their output, releasing four amazing studio albums, ‘Fly To The Rainbow’, ‘In Trance’, ‘Virgin Killer’ and ‘Taken By Force’, then the live double LP ‘Tokyo Tapes’. The latter was to become one of the classic live rock albums, sitting up there with Deep Purple’s ‘Made In Japan’, Thin Lizzy’s ‘Live And Dangerous’, Judas Priest’s ‘Unleashed In The East’ and Cheap Trick’s ‘At Budokan’. There’s a theme through some of those, and it’s the case that a number of bands over the years would choose to record their concerts in Japan, because rock music was received so well there [4.]. Unfortunately, ‘Tokyo Tapes’ was the last Scorpions album to include virtuoso lead guitarist Ulrich Roth (later known as Uli Jon Roth), a big miss for the band. Through the years noted above, Roth contributed immensely to the recordings, through his songwriting, vocals and of course his fantastic guitar work, inspired by his hero Jimi Hendrix. He wrote powerful, memorable songs such as ‘Dark Lady, ‘Evening Wind’, ‘Virgin Killer’, the epic ‘Polar Nights’, beautiful ballad ‘Yellow Raven’ and the dark mystical ‘The Sails Of Charon’, amongst others and co-wrote a number of tunes over that prolific four-year period. Bassist Francis Buchholz was also a constant during that time and would stay with the band until 1992.


The author saw Uli Jon Roth live in Edinburgh in 2017 on his ‘Tokyo Tapes Revisited’ tour and wrote this about the guitarist’s originality:

“Uli can use a ‘whammy bar’ like no other, as demonstrated in the mid section of ‘Fly To The Rainbow’, transporting us to another world: “Well I lived in a magic solitude of cloudy-looking mountains, and the lake, made out of crystal raindrops..Roaming through Space ten thousand years ago, I’ve seen the giant city of Atlantis sinking to eternal waves of darkness…” Yes, indeed!” [5.]

Roth had said since that he had no hesitation in leaving the Scorpions, saying it was what he felt he had to do, and the right thing at the time. Roth has also explained that it took a long time, because he told the band to look for another guitar player, but apparently they didn’t, continuing to book gigs until Roth confirmed he was going. Time tells that the decision was musical, Roth having used his freedom to explore many avenues for his guitar playing and songwriting, and amicable, Roth having remained friends with original band members and joining them on stage over the years.

If you listen to ‘Earthquake’, the first album by Uli Jon Roth’s band Electric Sun, released in April 1979, a couple of months after ‘Lovedrive’, you can appreciate how Roth’s musical direction diverges from that of the Scorpions. ‘Earthquake’ has elements of classical, fusion and progressive material which are signs of things to come, the three-piece a vehicle for Roth to stretch out and expand his musical ideas, in a similar vein to his hero Hendrix. Of course, we’ll never know how things might have transpired had Roth stayed in the Scorpions – Would his guitar style and dark songwriting have tempered the more commercial aspects of the band’s output? Would the band still have broken big and ‘conquered’ the US market? These are interesting but somewhat pointless questions. I would say that the albums which Roth contributed to are a fascinating wealth of material demonstrating what the individual members brought to the Scorpions’ musical table.

The cover of ‘Lovedrive’ attracted some controversy, particularly in the USA, where a somewhat staid alternative had to be found – a silver scorpion on top of extruded lettering of the band name on a black background. The original was created by English graphic artist Storm Thorgerson, most famous for founding Hipgnosis and his work with Pink Floyd. Its subject is a couple in formal dress in the back of a car, the woman’s dress off her shoulder to reveal her right breast, which the man is pulling chewing gum from, the woman staring straight ahead as if she is not aware. On the back cover, the couple are smiling, holding a framed picture of the Scorpions. It wasn’t the first Scorpions cover to attract criticism – The photo of a young girl used for their ‘Virgin Killer’ album and the photo of children playing with guns in a military cemetery for their ‘Taken By Force’ album both had to be substituted in some countries, the former with a band photo and the later with a black cover adorned with photos of individual band members.

Michael Schenker, who played on the band’s debut album, released in 1972, returned after a seven year hiatus, during which he had become a household name in rock with British band UFO, to play rhythm and lead guitar on ‘Lovedrive’. It seemed as if he would also become a full-time member and Mattias Jabs, who the band had lined up for the spot vacated by Uli Jon Roth was temporarily let go, being brought back in after Schenker decided to forge his own musical path instead. This ‘kerfuffle’ explains the presence of both Schenker and Jabs on this recording, certainly at no detriment to the playing or the cohesion of the overall production. 

The album opens strongly with ‘Loving You Sunday Morning’, the distorted lone guitar figure leading to full band riffing in the key of A, the picking of the open A-string a key part of the sound in the verse rock-outs, relieved by the slower repeated choruses, the stops/restarts and the ‘ooh ah, bap bap bap bap’ parts. Sinews of lead wind their way round the riffing and respond to the call of the singing. The lyrics are about a relationship which sounds like it’s in trouble, Meine singing that he will change, asking his lover to “believe in me my love, I’m coming home”.

I bought the ‘Is There Anybody There?’/’Another Piece Of Meat’ double A-side 45prm single when it came out and certainly played the latter to death, a bludgeoning, full-on rock out which takes off after ‘Loving You Sunday Morning’ on the album. The words find the hapless male protagonist being treated as ‘just another piece of meat’ by his female lover, apparently inspired by a girlfriend of Herman Rarebell who was obsessed with kickboxing. ‘Is There Anybody There?’ appears as the second track on Side Two and crosses genres, Scorpions playing a reggae beat with some power-chord choruses. There was just so much authentic reggae around at the time, so was this a nod of reverence to that, or just enjoyment in stepping into another musical territory? In any case, it does work and is catchy.

‘Always Somewhere’ is a wistful ballad which could be about a musician on the road who misses his lover back home. It provides a reduced tempo, a contrast to the previous rock-out, with some cool vocal harmonies, nice picking on arpeggios and a lush production.

Instrumental ‘Coast To Coast’ closes the first side of the original LP, a memorable rocker with strong riffs and meaty basslines. The track was chosen as the b-side of the title track, which was one of the five tracks from the album released as a single – I used to own the 12” version in red vinyl. 

‘Can’t Get Enough’ blasts off the second side of the vinyl – No, not a cover of the old Bad Company classic, but something a tad faster, featuring screaming vocals by Klause Meine, a simple, repetitive, effective riff and an exciting short guitar solo. The aforementioned ‘Is There Anybody There?’ takes things in a different direction with great vocal harmonies, particularly effective on the lines ‘in the darkness of these days’ and ‘Is there anybody there?’.  

The gallop rhythm of title track ‘Lovedrive’ is infectious – more good driving music. The lyrics compare a woman and a car, not the first or last rock song to ever do that. Rock’n’roll was never politically correct, was it, and the Scorpions certainly aren’t! 

Closing track ‘Holiday’ starts as a ballad with acoustic guitar – “Let me take you far away” sings Meine, offering a holiday ‘exchanging cold days for the sun’. The tune rocks out later, is a good way to end the album and would become a live favourite for the band. 

‘Lovedrive’ is a glowing gem in the Scorpions archive, Dieter Derks’ wall of sound production bringing the best out of the strong, rocking collection of songs. The album, in many ways, marked the end of an era. After that period, Scorpions would tread a different path, their material more mainstream rock-oriented, the huge selling ‘Love At First Sting’ being a case in point, including the hit ‘Rock.You Like A Hurricane’, which is now one of their best known tunes. ‘Animal Magnetism’, which followed ‘Lovedrive’ in 1980 had some memorable moments for sure, particularly opening track ‘Make It Real’, penned by Herman Rarebell, with its palm-muted verse guitar riffing and catchy chorus and ‘The Zoo’, an insistent chug with uplifting choruses, lyrics by Meine allegedly inspired by New York City. It was however to be a song released in 1990 which started with an unlikely whistled melody line that would become their most famous, ‘Wind Of Change’, a sentimental, sing along ballad about ‘Die Wende’, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bringing down of the ‘Iron Curtain’ and the massive shift across Europe that resulted. When you change, you lose old fans and gain new ones. Personally, I much prefer the Scorpions music from the seventies to anything that came after – The period from 1974-79 showcases amazing music, and demonstrates how prolific the band were at that time – These days, you could wait five years for a rock band to release one album! 

‘Lovedrive’
Released: 25th February 1979
Label: Harvest/EMI
Recorded at: Dierks Studios, Stommeln, West Germany
Producer: Dieter Dierks

tracklisting:
Side 1
Loving You Sunday Morning
Another Piece Of Meat
Always Somewhere
Coast To Coast

Side 2
Can’t Get Enough
Is There Anybody There?
Lovedrive
Holiday

personnel:
Klaus Meine – vocals
Rudolf Schenker – lead and rhythm guitars
Matthias Jabs – lead and rhythm guitars
Michael Schenker – lead and rhythm guitars (lead on ‘Another Piece of Meat’, ‘Coast to Coast’ and ‘Lovedrive’)
Francis Buchholz – bass
Herman Rarebell – drums

References:
1. ‘Lovedrive’ LP and CD – author’s own collection.
2. Scorpions CDs – author’s own collection.
3. Popoff, M. (2013). ‘Scorpions: Top Of The Bill’. Toronto: Power Chord Press.
4. C is for…Cheap Trick! ‘At The Budokan’ Eddies Rock Music A-Z – blog post https://eddiesrockmusic.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/c-is-forcheap-trick-at-the-budokan/ 
5. Uli Jon Roth – Tokyo Tapes Revisited live at Bannerman’s Bar in Edinburgh, Scotland 7th May 2017 – Eddies Rock Music A-Z – blog post Uli Jon Roth – Tokyo Tapes Revisited – Eddie’s Rock Music A-Z (wordpress.com)
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovedrive

Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride live at St George’s Hall, Bradford, 14th December 2023

I’m heading to Bradford from rural Scottish Borders…Arriving at Bradford Interchange is a bit of a culture shock. I pass Saint George’s Hall on the way into town, arriving at Centenary Square. I went searching for the remains of the Bradford Canal, which joined the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Shipley and was eventually closed in the 19th Century, due to it being a public health hazard [5.]. The obvious place to start was along what is now Canal Road, but there’s nothing there for most of the way because the canal was later filled in and is now just water flowing through an underground tunnel. When you get out to the Edge of Town, the canal appears but only has a cutting bounded by a stone wall with dense vegetation on the other side. Broken fences and barbed wire along the walk and heavy traffic coming in and out of town. It’s a post-industrial wasteland and missed heritage opportunities to bring back life to what the Victorians built…Some of the historic mill buildings also still stand by the canal, bringing to mind William Blake’s verse from 1804:

“And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?” [3]

Whether Blake was referring to the mills of industry or using the language symbolically to mean churches is a debate that continues between scholars of poetry. Sometimes it’s hard to find anything poetic about modern life, but the bands playing tonight know how to for sure, sometimes drawing references from the romantic poets, biblical inspiration and their roots here in West Yorkshire.


Post-industrial remnants of the Bradford Canal

It’s obvious that I’m not going to see a towpath today, so I turn around and head for Frizinghall metro station, where two women in hijabs help me with digital ticketing. We all wait but the train doesn’t come…announcements over the tannoy say that objects have hit the overhead power lines…train after train is cancelled and we have to find our own ways back to Bradford centre.

Stuck in Frizinghall
Objects on the power lines
All trains are cancelled
[6.]

I hoof it in the dark, back past the warehouses and car showrooms, lit up by the oncoming headlights from a steady stream of traffic.

Thanks to ‘Smorgasbord Coffee Bar’ and ‘Falafel ‘n’ Juice’ for the vegetarian and vegan sustenance today – welcome oases with plant-based offerings for a veggie leper wandering in a mostly-carnivorous desert! The hall is a short walk from my digs in a traditional hotel and there’s a queue outside for the gig, punters separated into seating and standing by roving stewards. It’s early days but it soon gets busy. The schedule is displayed outside – tight time scales for tonight.

St. George’s Hall and the band timings

My haiku for the gig:

Dark December night
Paradise Lost in Bradford
With My Dying Bride
[6.]



My Dying Bride came on as planned at 8. Aaron Stainthorpe resplendent in black shirt with white collar and cuffs – How dandy to wear cufflinks when you front a doom metal band! The guitar players are stage left (Neil Blanchett) and right (Andrew Craighan) with bass player Lena Abé on stage left, violin, keyboard player Shaun MacGowan on stage right and Dan Mullins on drums. “We are My Dying Bride, all the way from Bradford!” says Aaron by way of introduction. It’s a fantastic, atmospheric set, opening with ‘The Thrash Of Naked Limbs’, from their second EP. ‘Catherine Blake’, from their most recent album, ‘The Ghost Of Orion’, released in 2020, is the only nod to the recent past, as My Dying Bride mine the deep, rich veins of their doom metal archive. Aaron sings with much feeling throughout, crouching down like he’s in pain at times and comfortable switching between clean and growled vocals. ‘Like Gods Of The Sun’ is the highlight for me, reaching absolute perfection and raising things to a new level. The iconic ‘The Cry Of Mankind’, opening track from ‘The Angel and The Dark River’, follows that, the elegant tapped guitar melody running through the whole piece. They ‘Turn Loose The Swans’ just before the end of the set, Aaron noting the constraints of the timing and that they’ll play either one or two more. The lyrics behind the deep growl delivered in this song of crushing doom are beautiful poetry:

“My quill it aches
Turn loose the swans that drew my poets craft
I’ll dwell in desolate cities
You burned my wings
I leave this ode, splendid victorious through the carnage”

They finish with what we’re told is ‘one of our fastest songs’, ‘The Forever People’ from their debut album ‘As The Flower Withers’, and the high energy rock-out is a blistering way to finish the set. A brilliant performance and let’s hope My Dying Bride return to UK stages soon!

Embrace the darkness
Let the music wash over
Lose yourself in the black sound
[6.]

We have time to appreciate the majesty of the auditorium in St. George’s Hall while waiting for the headliners – It is truly the perfect setting for this special ‘homecoming’. As the house lights go down, the intro music ‘Deus Misereatur’ starts, the end at the beginning? Paradise Lost play the whole of their 1993 ‘Icon’ album, as advertised, and vocalist Nick Holmes makes jokes about how the audience know the setlist in advance: “There’s no need to shout out”, he says, “We knew what we were doing”. When the band first come on, Holmes greets the crowd with “Ey up! Are you a’ right?” and later says he spent most of his life in Bradford, his ‘miserable, shitty life’, he says, noting that he lived some of his time in Halifax – Worlds away? Well, not really for us folks from out with the area, but to locals, probably yes. “Is there anyone here from Frizinghall?” he says, and I think back to my afternoon activities above.

It’s quite a contrast to the My Dying Bride setlist – ‘Icon’ was somewhat a change in direction for the band at the time, moving away from their gothic doom sound and inviting comparisons to Metallica due to Holmes’ vocal delivery being reminiscent of James Hetfield’s. As it happens, Nick Holmes references a Metallica gig tonight, one he went to at St George’s Hall in 1986 – “Who was there?”, he asks the audience, and accuses some of lying when the response is too numerous. 

The last time Paradise Lost played in Bradford was 1995, recalls Holmes, noting how beautiful the building is – “I forgot”, he says. It’s a great performance of the album, not completely cold, as Holmes engages with the crowd between songs. Greg Mackintosh, lead guitarist, who is standing on stage right, definitely shines. Aaron Aedy, rhythm guitar and Stephen Edmondson, bass, take up stage left with ‘new boy’ Guido Montanarini on drums – Guido joined in 2022 and all other musicians have been members since the original band formed in 1988 – fairly unusual staying power in the world of rock’n’roll. Holmes jokes about their former drummer joining them for one song but says he’s f***ed off home home. Holmes says they have lots of friends in Bradford but none of them came to the gig – “They’re probably down the Wetherspoons in Centenary Square”, he jokes. The band go off after ‘Christendom’, unfortunately the female vocals delivered on a backing tape instead of live for that song, original session singer Denise Bernard not being present. A bit of crowd noise signals an encore, pre-planned of course, and Paradise Lost come back on for a few very well-chosen tunes: ‘Sweetness’, which was a bonus track on reissues of ‘Icon’, then the uptempo ‘Pity The Sadness’ from their third album ‘Shades Of God’ from 1992, with it’s infectious guitar riffing and the wrenching lyrics – “Life is there for me, Hell is there for me…I cried for God and I’ve cried for you”. The powerful, heavy, dark ‘No Hope In Sight’, opening track of 2015’s ‘The Plague Within’ is the penultimate, the band finishing with the fantastic ‘Ghosts’ from their excellent, most recent, album ‘Obsidian’, which is, in my opinion the best song of the night by Paradise Lost, driving, evocative and melodic:

“For the fire burns, deep within mistrust
For the ghosts, the ones to break me
For Jesus Christ”

[5.]
Then it’s over and we herd back out into the West Yorkshire night, dazed after this fantastic homecoming gig for two iconic doom and gothic metal bands. This was well worth travelling a long distance for, and the memory will linger on… 

“I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
Taught by the heav’nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend…”
John Milton, from ‘Paradise Lost’, 1667 [4.]

My Dying Bride setlist:

The Thrash of Naked Limbs
The Songless Bird
Catherine Blake
Like Gods of the Sun
The Cry of Mankind
She Is the Dark
Turn Loose the Swans
The Forever People

My Dying Bride – band:
Aaron Stainthorpe – vocals 
Andrew Craighan – lead guitar 
Lena Abé – bass 
Shaun MacGowan – violin, keyboards 
Neil Blanchett – guitar 
Dan Mullins – drums 

Paradise Lost setlist:
Intro music: Deus Misereatur
Embers Fire
Remembrance
Forging Sympathy
Joys of the Emptiness
Dying Freedom
Widow
Colossal Rains
Weeping Words
Poison
True Belief
Shallow Seasons
Christendom

Encore:
Sweetness
Pity the Sadness
No Hope in Sight
Ghosts

Paradise Lost – band:
Nick Holmes – vocals 
Gregor Mackintosh – lead guitar
Aaron Aedy – rhythm guitar 
Stephen Edmondson – bass 
Guido Montanarini – drums 

References:
1.https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/my-dying-bride/2023/st-georges-hall-bradford-england-5bae03f8.html
2. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paradise-lost/2023/st-georges-hall-bradford-england-4bae03fa.html 
3. Blake, William (1804) ‘Jerusalem’
4. Milton, John (1667) ‘Paradise Lost’ 5. Bradford Canal – Wikipedia
5. Paradise Lost Facebook page

R is for…Rush! ‘Caress Of Steel’

‘Caress Of Steel’ is the third Rush album, and the second to feature virtuoso drummer and lyricist Neil Peart (born Neil Ellwood Peart), who joined Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib – bass and vocals) and Alex Lifeson (born Aleksandar Živojinović – guitars). The progression from their debut ‘Rush’, with John Rutsey on drums to ‘Fly By Night’ is startling, and from ‘Fly By Night’ to ‘Caress Of Steel’ is another expansion of their musical horizons. The second album hinted at longer concept pieces, featuring the fantastic ‘By-Tor And The Snow Dog’, which clocks in at 8 minutes and 37 seconds and is split into five sections. 

Rush have been referred to as a ‘power trio’, being, as there were, only three members, as compared to a lot of rock bands with four, usually an additional guitarist or keyboard player. In terms of their recordings, the ‘trio’ aspect of the band is a moot point, because Lee, Lifeson and Peart have often added to the multi layered sound with more than one part – Lee with keyboards/synthesisers as well as bass and vocals, Lifeson with acoustic guitar, electric rhythm and lead parts and Peart with drums, percussion and spoken word. This is obviously not so much the case in live performance, but Lee has used foot pedals to generate keyboard sounds on stage.

In a similar way to Pink Floyd before and after ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, there was Rush before and after ‘2112’. Most rock bands have a ‘seminal’ album, one that they are best known for, a watershed in their career, albeit which record can be subject to debate by fans and critics’. The fact that it precedes ‘2112’, puts ‘Caress Of Steel’ in a different light to ‘A Farewell To Kings’, which followed their futuristic masterpiece. ‘Caress Of Steel’ is an album by a band that is hungry for change, ambitious and not afraid to experiment, ambivalent to any external influences and confident in forging their own path. The record was not generally well-received on release by reviewers and the public, deemed by some to be a critical and commercial failure, but adored by fans of the band and much better appreciated with hindsight. Mercury, the group’s label at the time, considered dropping Rush after ‘Caress Of Steel’ and urging them to consider more commercial material for their next album, which could have been their last. As it happens, the trio stuck to their guns and wrote ‘2112’, which is a long way from what could be described as ‘commercial’, but was their breakthrough. Seeds of ‘2112’ were sown during the band’s recording sessions for ‘Caress Of Steel’ at Toronto Sound. In a 1980 interview, Neil Peart explained that ‘2112’ was filled with ‘a great amount of frustration and anger’ because the band felt that they had been ‘shat upon’ by the music industry regarding ‘Caress Of Steel’ [4.]. Mercury, by all accounts, just didn’t know what to make of the third album or how to market it. Thankfully, the artistic vision of the band won out over record company short-sightedness, and the Rush back catalogue from the seventies evidences that they were right! 

In 1978, Mercury released the ‘Archives’ three-record set which brought together ‘Rush’, ‘Fly By Night’ and ‘Caress Of Steel’ in a grey gatefold sleeve with sparing white text and the band logo on the front. It was perhaps an attempt to capitalise on the group’s success and remind the world that Rush had a life before ‘2112’. It was also the band’s reaction to the poor promotion of ‘Caress Of Steel’ – In 1978, Lee said that the prime purpose of ‘Archives’ was to give ‘Caress Of Steel’, a record the boys still believed in, a second life…

The ‘starman’ logo was created by Hugh Syme, who designed the artwork for ‘Caress Of Steel’, the beginning of a long partnership with the band, lasting forty years or so. Syme was a musician himself – He was keyboard player and singer in The Ian Thomas Band when he first met Rush. The iconic logo first appeared on ‘2112’ in 1976. Hugh Syme described its origin in an interview with ‘udiscovermusic’ in 2020:

“The evolution of the star and man was Neil’s and mine’s first true collaboration. He simply described the Red Star Of The Solar Federation as being all that is contrary to free thought and creativity, and the man as our hero. I simply combined the two. Never was this intended to be the band’s brand or logo, with such a strong and enduring association with all things Rush.” [6.]

It is appropriate that the logo has a philosophical symbolism, given the depth of Peart’s lyrical imagery over the years. In the inclusion of the naked man, there is reference to Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous ‘Vitruvian Man’ drawing which places man in a circle, the position with legs apart creating five touch points on the circumference, alluding to the five-point star, known as a ‘pentagram’ (or ‘pentacle’), an ancient symbol prevalent in a number of civilisations throughout history. The logo places the human race in a universal context and the stance of the naked person (viewed from behind – Is it a man or androgynous?) suggests standing in awe, and perhaps fear, of the pentagram (the five senses, the world, the universe?) and an uncertain future…

Hugh Syme’s artwork for ‘Caress Of Steel’ features a drawing of a mysterious, cloaked character standing on a crumbling stone staircase, carrying a skull and seemingly taken aback by the light from a prism while a snake coils at their feet. Syme was not overly enamoured with the way his original graphic was manipulated, as he explained in an interview in 2021:

“I was a huge M.C. Escher fan,” he told Ultimate Classic Rock. “My original drawings were in pencil: clean, monochromatic, simple homages to Escher. But when the record label got ahold of these, they thought it wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll enough, so they added this chromium lettering and swung the tint of the whole image over to a brown sepia tone — none of which was requested or under my purview at the time.” [7.]

The album cover has an olde worlde, somewhat traditional feel in its final form, the sepia tone of the drawing, the dark green background and the gold lettering contributing to this. The title, ‘Caress Of Steel’, juxtaposes tenderness with a metal grip and the music bears this out, ranging from full on hard rock with shrieking vocals to soft acoustic passages.



Opener ‘Bastille Day’ is a concise rocker, in the vein of the likes of ‘Anthem’ and ‘Beneath, Between and Behind’ that graced the first side of ‘Fly By Night’, and would become a live staple for the band. The song is about the 14th July, which is celebrated annually in France and other nations with French heritage/language, Canada amongst them, as the anniversary of the day in 1789 that the French citizens stormed the Bastille prison in Paris and started the French Revolution. The lyrics start with “There’s no bread, let them eat cake”, referring to a quote often attributed to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the revolution. This is in part a translation of the French phrase “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”, and historians argue that it is unlikely that Marie Antoinette ever uttered these words.

Allegedly, second track ‘I Think I’m Going Bald’ was about Alex Lifeson, who Neil Peart noted was concerned about losing his hair (a considerable length at that time), even though he wasn’t, and insisted on putting various products on his scalp as prevention. The band have also said that the song was a parody of Kiss’ ‘Goin’ Blind’ track from their 1974 ‘Hotter Than Hell’ LP. Rush were supporting the platform-heeled face-painted foursome on tour at that time and that inspiration makes sense, because this tongue-in-cheek rocker is somewhat out of kilter with the rest of the album, described by the band as ‘goofy’.

Neil Peart wrote ‘Lakeside Park’ about a park of the same name in the town that he grew up in on the shores of Lake Ontario, Canada – a waterfront district called Port Dalhousie in St. Catharines. It is a piece of nostalgia, which acts well as a bridge between the playful, riff-driven rock of ‘I Think I’m Going Bald’ and the twelve and a half-minute concept piece to follow. We have to remember that Peart was only 22 years old when this album was written and recorded, putting the way that ‘Lakeside Park’ looks back on times gone by like a more senior person might into perspective. Lifeson and Lee were of a similar age, all having been born in 1953, which also makes the considerable musical prowess evident in their music at that time (and something which would continue throughout their career) as amazing.

‘The Necromancer’ is a dark fantasy piece which creates an other-wordly atmosphere that takes the listener into sometimes disturbing and gloom-ridden territory, no doubt influencing many rock and metal bands since, in their search for a black, gothic musical landscape. 

Peart and Rush may also have been influenced by writers like Tolkein and other bands travelling in science fiction and fantasy territory in the early seventies, like Yes and Hawkwind, the latter having based some of their music on books by Michael Moorcock, the writer even joining the band on recordings, on stage and collaborating with them on his own musical projects. Sadly, despite others forging similar links with literature, Rush were accused of being pretentious when ‘Caress Of Steel’ was released. 

‘The Necromancer’ starts with atmospheric sounds and Neil Peart, voice slowed in pitch and with added effects, narrating an intro, introducing the three travellers, ‘men of Willowdale’, the name taken from a suburb of Toronto, Canada (which started as the village ‘Willow Dale’) in which Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson both grew up.

The piece is split into three sections: I Into The Darkness which describes the three travellers journeying into the unknown, II Under The Shadow introduces The Necromancer and III Return Of The Prince hails Prince By-Tor as the hero who slays The Necromancer and banishes his spirit, freeing the citizens. Interestingly, By-Tor is a force for good in this tale, whereas in ‘By-Tor And The Snow Dog’, which the song links to, he is the evil one defeated by the snow dog and ‘retreats to hell’. Peart has since been questioned on this point in interviews and has said that By-Tor is no different to the rest of us, having good and bad sides to our personalities and lives.

Lee’s vocals starting verse one are sublime:

“Silence shrouds the forest
As the birds announce the dawn
Three trav’llers ford the river
And southward journey on”

The middle section gets dark, to suit the story, a necromancer being someone who communicates with the dead and summons their spirits. Things become more hopeful, musically and lyrically, in the third and final part, Lee’s singing optimistic over a folk-rock backing which becomes heavier to end Side One:

“Stealthily attacking
By-Tor slays his foe
The men are free to run now
From labyrinths below”


‘The Fountain Of Lamneth’, which takes up the whole of Side Two of ‘Caress Of Steel’, could be seen as a pilot, in advance of the futuristic concept opus ‘2112’ that would fill one side of their next record, which would be a breakthrough in terms of popularity and long-lasting ‘classic’ status. ‘No One At The Bridge’ stands out for me, and it’s the track I keep revisiting, to listen to, play on guitar/sing and to reflect on philosophically:

“Crying back to consciousness
The coldness grips my skin
The sky is pitching violently
Drawn by shrieking winds
Seaspray blurs my vision
Waves roll by so fast
Save my ship of freedom
I’m lashed helpless to the mast”

It’s a very evocative scene-painting, sung over a beautiful, haunting guitar figure played in the first position then moved up the fretboard.

‘Didacts and Narpets’ is a short experimental drum driven track, building to a climax with multi tracked vocals at the end exclaiming ‘listen!’, this being linked to the title, which refers to overly instructive teachers and parents (the second word is an anagram of ‘parents’). [2.]

There are a lot of dynamics at play throughout the six parts of this long composition, the likes of the intro and ‘Panacea’ contrasting with ‘Didacts and Narpets’ and the rockier ‘Bacchus Plateau’. Overall, a very satisfying piece, akin to the musical equivalent of a novel, condensed to grace the second half of the album.

Terry Brown, the producer who forged a long term relationship with Rush, deserves much credit for his significant achievement on this record, as the sound quality is amazing, the production doing the writing and performing justice. ‘Broon’, as he was affectionately known by the band, was like a fourth member of Rush, with Hugh Syme a candidate for a fifth.

After ‘Caress Of Steel’ was released, Rush went on tour to promote it, but they went from playing small venues to even smaller ones, experiencing what Geddy Lee called “negative and disappointing attitudes every step of the way.” Neil Peart described the album as “so close to our hearts, but the public never shared our enthusiasm.” [2.]

Supporting Kiss and Ted Nugent meant the band were perhaps not reaching the right audience for their new, lengthier, progressive material, their shorter rockers having more in common with material by these acts. In ‘Contents Under Pressure’, Martin Popoff notes that “Back home at Massey Hall (Toronto) on January 10th, 1976, to close the tour, the band even trotted out ‘The Fountain Of Lambeth’.” [3.]

On an introduction to some rare live footage of Rush promoting ‘Caress Of Steel’ on the infamous ‘Down The Tubes’ tour in North America, 1975, Neil Peart recalls:

“We always refer to that tour as the ‘Down The Tubes’ tour, because we were, like, opening for Hawkwind last tour, we were playing to, like eh, half full small halls and we were going to all the little clubs and bars, like in the suburbs around Chicago for instance, we couldn’t get a gig in Chicago so we played Elgin, Illinois, and Niles, Illinois, all these little suburbs around the city and it was a very depressing tour and we had nothing going for us…” [9.]

This live recording, rough though it is, is a gem for fans which shows what the band were like at that time, very powerful and driven, and it includes a performance of ‘The Necromancer’, which is a rarity indeed! 

I got into Rush when I was in my mid teens and still listen to them now, ‘Caress Of Steel’ being one of my ‘go to’ albums. At the time I first discovered their music, ‘Hemispheres’ had not yet come out so I eagerly awaited that, purchased on vinyl and played to death. ‘Moving Pictures’ was a change of direction and I had the fortune to see the band on that tour, with friends, at Ingliston in Edinburgh. That was a memorable night, when we missed the late night coach back to Aberdeen and had to wait until morning, getting into trouble for ‘unauthorised absence’ from school – all worth it in the name of rock’n’roll!

When questioned about this period in the band’s history, Neil Peart has suggested it should be dismissed, painting a scenario where ‘Moving Pictures’ is the first Rush album. Sorry Neil, but we will have to agree to disagree on that! In my opinion, the best period of music by Rush is from ‘Fly By Night’ to ‘Moving Pictures’ (1975-1981) and I would wholeheartedly recommend listening to these albums. A lot of Rush’s eighties output was very synthesiser-oriented and perhaps tried too hard to fit in with what other bands were doing at the time. Not to say that they haven’t produced good music since – I would single out these as highlights over the intervening years: ‘The Pass’ from 1989’s ‘Presto’ album, the ‘Vapor Trails’ album from 2022, particularly the song ‘Ghost Rider’, the reflective and brilliant album ‘Snakes And Arrows’, released in 2007 and their final studio release in 2012, the powerful concept ‘Clockwork Angels’, which science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson, a friend of Peart’s, used as inspiration for a novel of the same name. 

Neil Peart sadly passed away in 2020. He experienced some very difficult later life family tragedies, as recounted in his philosophical book ‘Ghost Rider – Travels On The Healing Road’, which is a story well worth reading [8.]. The band ended after Peart’s passing but Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are still active in life. Although the majority of their creative output has been with Rush, they have both released solo albums and have been involved in musical side projects, as well as film, TV and writing for books and media. 

‘Caress Of Steel’
Originally released: 24th September 1975

Label: Mercury

Recorded at: Toronto Sound, Toronto, Canada
Produced by: Terry Brown
Cover art: Hugh Syme

‘Caress Of Steel’ tracklisting (as original LP):

Side One
1. Bastille Day
2. I Think I’m Going Bald
3. Lakeside Park
4. The Necromancer
I Into The Darkness
II Under The Shadow
III Return Of The Prince

Side Two
5. The Fountain Of Lamneth
I In The Valley
II Didacts and Narpets
III No One At The Bridge
IV Panacea
V Bacchus Plateau
VI The Fountain

‘Caress Of Steel’ personnel:
Geddy Lee: vocals, bass guitar

Alex Lifeson: 6 and 12-string electric and acoustic guitars, classical guitar, steel guitar

Neil Peart: drums, percussion, lyrics, spoken word on ‘The Necromancer’

References and photographs:
1. Rush ‘Caress Of Steel’ LP and CD (author’s own collection)
2. Collins, J. (2005). ‘Rush CHemist(r)y’. London: Helter Skelter.
3. Popoff, M. (2004). ‘Contents Under Pressure – 30 Years Of Rush At Home And Away’. Toronto: ECW Press.
4. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/classic-rush-album-neil-peart-filled-anger-and-frustration
(retrieved 22nd October 2023)
5. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/rush-caress-of-steel-album/ (retrieved 22nd October 2023)
6. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/qa-with-rush-starman-hugh-syme/ (retrieved 22nd October 2023)
7. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/rush-album-cover-stories/ (retrieved 22nd October 2023)
8. Peart, N. (2002). ‘Ghost Rider – Travels On The Healing Road’. Toronto: ECW Press.9. Live performance of ‘Caress Of Steel’ on the ‘Down The Tubes’ tour, 1975: https://youtu.be/ul8P4uULKtc?feature=shared

Interview with Swans, 1987

Introduction


This post is dedicated to my good friend Steve Morrison, who sadly passed away suddenly in April 2023. Steve was a lifelong Swans fan. Back in the ‘80s, as well as Swans, he was into bands who were ‘new on the scene’ at the time, like Big Black, Head Of David, The Bambi Slam and Sonic Youth, as well as worshipping Scottish duo The Cocteau Twins and nurturing a fascination for US musical legends like Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Television and Suicide. We started a fanzine together in summer 1986 in Aberdeen, Scotland, with the catchy name of ‘Positive Noise’, so called because we thought that the music press were often too critical in their treatment of bands and music, so the title was a reaction against negative reviews, the ‘noise’ part capturing the main type of bands we wanted to include and referring to what we might generate in terms of content and buzz. The idea was that those actually involved in the bands and organisations would write articles themselves, offering a first-hand perspective.



Steve was a collector and die-hard music enthusiast, a musician and a writer. He wrote to labels like Blast First and they sent him records to review. The first release reviewed in ‘Positive Noise’ was a 4-song 12” EP by Big Stick – ‘Shoot The President’, ‘Drag Racing’, ‘I Look Like Shit’ and the classic ‘Jesus Was Born (On An Indian Reservation)’, released as Blast First BFFP 6. Later issues would feature, amongst much more, reviews of Sonic Youth, Ciccone Youth, Head Of David, Big Black and a piece on Blast First Records. 

Positive Noise No. 2, which hit the shelves in October 1986 for the princely sum of 20p, had a page titled ‘Racket U.S.A.’, a pun on the electronic gem ‘Rocket U.S.A.’ by legendary New York City duo Suicide. It started with a review by Steve M of Swans LP ‘Holy Money’, released in March 1986, and their 12” EP ‘A Screw’, released in May 1986, both on the label K.422 Records, transcribed as follows:

S.W.A.N.S. 12” A Screw (K.422 Records KDE 312)
S.W.A.N.S. l.p. Holy Money (K.422 Records KCC 3)

“Swansongs are as blunt as a booted foot in the face. They are so intense that they make you reel from side to side: A to B to A to B. This is music that you really feel: it bruises the brain and breaks bones, and it also proves the point that silence is as much a part of the structure of music as noise. Swansilence is what makes them so much more powerful than any hardcore band: noise…silence…noise…etc. Repetition: like your heartbeat or your breathing, or your sex. Listen to these in the dark and add a battered better meaning to the phrase “night-clubbing”.”


Racket U.S.A. – Steve’s original typed review of ‘A Screw’ and ‘Holy Money’ from ‘Positive Noise’

Jarboe is credited with vocals, backing vocals and ‘mirage’ on ‘A Screw’, having joined the band in 1985.

‘Positive Noise’ No. 4 featured a review of ‘One Thousand Years’ by Skin, later to rename themselves World Of Skin, a collaboration between Michael Gira and Jarboe, emanating from Swans, their main band at the time. This song would open their debut album ‘Blood, Women, Roses’, which would be released in 1987. This is the review by Steve M, or ‘The Very Reverend ALBERT ALBINO’ as he inexplicably called himself in this issue, transcribed as follows:

SKIN “One Thousand Years” (Product Inc. PROD 3.12) 12”

“Skin contains Swans’ vital organs: the brain (Michael Gira) and the heart (Jarboe) and this, their first release, merely scratches the surface of what’s to come over the next few months (2 albums and 2 more singles). “One Thousand Years” and “My Own Hands” highlight for the first time the haunting vocals of Jarboe, performance artist turned musician with the world’s most powerful rock band, Swans. Her voice is thick as blood, and it leads us through a forest of strings, accompanied by the presence of Gira – in the lyrics, in the slow rhythms and in the overall atmosphere of the music. The most beautiful and near-classical record this side of the Cocteaus, it’s black as hell and white as the driven snow.”


Steve’s (aka The Very Reverend ALBERT ALBINO) original typed review of ‘One Thousand Years’

So, those reviews give you a good idea what Steve Morrison thought of Swans and Skin/World Of Skin. He was dedicated enough to their music and adventurous enough to reach out to the creators themselves, by initiating this interview, which, to my knowledge, has never seen the public light of day, until now. It is a gem, a time capsule. Thank you for sharing this with me to publish Steve – You knew it would take me a long time to get to ‘S’ in my rock music A-Z and my original intention was to include the interview in my review of ‘The Burning World’ album by Swans, but, looking at it now, I think it warrants a piece on its own. I’m just sorry that you are no longer here to see it in print…

Steve Morrison – Interview with Michael Gira and Jarboe, Swans, 1987 (Questions prepared on 3rd May 1987 – pre-internet – This was a handwritten postal interview!)

Questions: Steve Morrison
Answers: Michael Gira/Jarboe

Q1: Is Skin a personal reaction against the intensity of Swans?
A1: No, we both had simply been planning, for a long time, to do music centred around the voice, the words, the song. “Blood Women Roses” is the first product of that effort. Besides, why should we “react against”?

Q2: Is Skin a deliberate move by yourselves to be more accessible/commercial?
A2: I don’t know about the words “accessible, commercial”. The idea is simply to make music that enters the mind a little easier than our past efforts with Swans. These are songs.

Q3: Would you describe your music as being avante-garde or as being ‘mainstream’?
A3: I wouldn’t describe it.

Q4: What are the underlying themes behind the Skin project?
A4: Love, murder, lust, incest.

Q5: Where does the inspiration to make such powerful music come from?
A5: —————————–

Q6: Are all the songs based on personal experience or do you also turn to stories and other people’s experiences (like Big Black do)?
A5: I don’t know anything about other groups. They (the songs) are situations described in an hopefully abstract fashion, so as to afford the listener the opportunity to identify with them or use them as a stepping off point for imagination and/or desire. It’s no one’s business if they are or are not autobiographical to begin with.

Q7: Do people treat you as being extreme because of the nature of your music?
A7: [answer scored out] No

Q8: Will the forthcoming Swans material reflect the subtlety of Skin?
A8: Yes, indeed, as well as the continuing subtlety of Swans.

Q9: Have you ever been involved in any other mediums and if not would you like to become so?
A9: Jarboe has been an actress and I have been a writer (of dubious merit).

Q10: What plans have you for the future?
A10: More work, new Swans double album out in September. It’s called ‘Children Of God’ and it ranges from soft songs to epic hard guitar. We tour for 6 months to support it, through Europe, Britain, States, Japan.

Best, M. Gira and Jarboe

The original handwritten interview questions by Steve M and answers by Michael G and Jarboe


Stephen Allan Gray Morrison (25th October 1965 – 29th April 2023)

Jarboe La Salle Devereaux (birth date unknown – )

Michael Rolfe Gira (19th February 1954 – )

References and photos:
1. Handwritten interview questions: Steve Morrison
2. Handwritten interview answers from Michael Gira and Jarboe: Steve Morrison
3. Swans review, originally published in ‘Positive Noise’ No. 2, October 1986
4. Skin/World Of Skin review, originally published in ‘Positive Noise’ No. 4
5. ‘Positive Noise’ No 1 – scans
6. Swans ‘Children Of God’ CD cover – author’s own collection
7. Jarboe photo circa 2020: Jarboe selects tracks from her back catalogue – The Wire
8. Michael Gira photo circa 2022 Michael Gira Concert Tickets: 2023 Live Tour Dates | Bandsintown
9. Michael Gira and Jarboe 1987 – Pinterest

Jarboe live 2022, Michael Gira live 2022, Swans live 2023

Jarboe live in Newcastle 2022, Michael Gira live in Glasgow 2022 and Swans live in Glasgow 2023
This was part of some kind of pilgrimage for me, four acts of a very strange play, acted out over ten months, with its roots deep in the past and focus on an unknown dystopian future…To understand it, we have to go back to the Swans period between the late 1980s and the late 1990s, a time when performance artist Jarboe was Michael Gira’s co-collaborator and lover. From ‘Children Of God’ through to ‘Soundtracks For The Blind’, the fires of creativity were burning brightly in New York City. Jarboe and Gira’s ‘side project’, initially called Skin, then World Of Skin, also produced some wonderful material, the 1990 album ‘Ten Songs For Another World’ being my favourite. It’s a cornucopia that I often revisit, for musical and spiritual nourishment…Here is my recollection of a timeline of a series of somewhat disparate, but somehow connected, events that took me from autumn 2022 through to the end of summer 2023, a journey that takes us to post-industrial landscapes on rivers running through northern cities…

When you set out, you don’t always know where you’re going or where you’re going to end up, do you? It’s the evening of 2nd November 2022 and I’m messaging my good friend Steve M, a lifelong Swans fan, and there’s a germ of an idea forming:
“Hi Steve, Just listening to Jozef Van Wissem and Jarboe ‘Vox Populi, Vox Dei’ and watching the dark video – up your street I think…Might take a trip down to Newcastle to see them at The Lubber Fiend next Friday. Also love Jozef’s collaboration with Jim Jarmusch on the ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ soundtrack. E x”

“…Now on to P Emerson Williams who is supporting Jarboe and Jozef on tour – pretty cool, dark stuff…”

With some encouragement from Steve, talking of Van Wissem’s musical palindromes performed on the lute and the fact that they would form an interesting combination with Jarboe – “She’s still got an amazing voice. Sx” – the idea became a reality: “Bought tickets for Jarboe…Looking forward to a night of culture! Might take some stuff in case she’s up for signing, then get Michael Gira to sign it when I see him!” Well, a sneaky kind of way of getting the two legends back together, something that would be very unlikely to happen in real life – Ahh, the best laid plans…


Jarboe, P Emerson Williams and Jozef Van Wissem live at The Lubber Fiend, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Friday 11th November 2022

It’s Friday 11th November 2022 and I’m in Newcastle, north-east England, with my wife, who I have persuaded to come with me to see musical legend Jarboe. The Lubber Fiend is an obscure, ‘right on’ but very ‘rough ’n’ ready’ community venue in the heart of ‘the toon’, across the main traffic artery, which is tough to navigate as a pedestrian, then down a dimly-lit back street.

This is what we were promised:
“Jarboe draws from a variety of sources: childhood in the Mississippi delta and New Orleans, life in NYC’s east village during the post no-wave scene as member of the band Swans, university studies in literature and theatre, global travels, and a history of extensive recordings, collaborations (Attila Csihar, Blixa Bargeld, J.G. Thirlwell, Merzbow, PanSonic, Chris Connelly, Neurosis and many others), and performances (clubs, theaters, art galleries, cathedrals, festivals, live radio, television, film).

Jarboe’s voice and music is known for bold experimental as well as melodic diversity and expression. Over the course of her life through efforts in past and present disciplines, Jarboe explores the rebuilding / reinventing of identity and the elemental structures of personae.

Jozef van Wissem is an avant-garde composer and lutenist playing his (their) all black, one-of-a-kind custom-made baroque lute all around the world. The titles and the nature of his (their) works often have a Christian-mystical appeal and the music he (they) creates is simply timeless. In 2013 van Wissem won the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive “. In December 2017 Jozef van Wissem was invited to perform the madrigal depicted in Caravaggio’s painting The Lute Player (1596) at the Hermitage museum of Saint Petersburg.” [5.]

It’s a dimly-lit venue, offering a choice of non-gender-specific toilets, and mostly empty in the main performance space, with not many places to sit. We perch on a bench near the side wall and wait. There’s a thin, wasted-looking older guy wearing a ‘Filth’ t-shirt, a reminder of when Swans were famously noisy, industrial – back in the 1980s…Eventually, the stage is taken by a tall enigmatic character with long hair, dressed in black with a crucifix round his neck and a black lute in their hand, inscribed with ‘ex mortis’ – perhaps some padre from the church of the forgotten? Perhaps, they are (the non-binary) Jozef Van Wissem, ‘liberator of the lute’. Ordinarily, Jozef may have been the ‘warm-up’ or ‘support’ act, but they have more of the persona of the undead, appropriate given their association with vampires – having written a soundtrack for the 1922 German silent expressionist film ‘Nosferatu’ and having collaborated with Jim Jarmusch on the soundtrack for the 2013 inventive film about musical vampires ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’. They stayed mostly silent between tracks, staring into the crowd, playing repetitive, minimalist pieces on the classical instrument of their choice. It was a mesmerising, unforgettable performance. Jozef was happy to greet fans after the show at the merchandise stall, and sign my CD booklet for ‘Only Lovers…’ as well as ‘Nosferatu – Call Of The Deathbird’, which I duly purchased on the night. I asked them about his lute and they said it had been hand-made, but that their lute maker of choice had gone blind and they’d had to find another – oh, the pain and sadness of this life!
Blow-by-blow accounts were duly delivered to my friend:
“Hi Steve, At The Lubber Fiend – just saw Jozef Van Wissem play, met him (them) and got a couple of things signed. Jarboe on next. E”

Gira and Jarboe were two Swans who, unlike their Anitadaen namesakes, did not mate for life, having gone their separate ways in the late nineteen-nineties…Both forged driven careers thereafter, both as solo artists and collaborators, the former fronting Angels Of Light and reinvented line-ups of Swans, the latter mainly concentrating on her own projects and singing with bands as diverse as Blackmouth and Neurosis. I could have been forgiven for expecting Jarboe to sing for at least part of her set, as her 2020 release ‘A Tupla’ contained plenty of her distinctive vocals, and even the video trailer for the tour included her singing tones, but it was not to be that night in Newcastle, as the alternative diva stuck to the medium of spoken word…
This was my somewhat damning verdict of the Jarboe’s performance, in the aftermath:

“Jarboe was pretty awful – no interaction, no singing, just talking…and the guitarist on stage with her (may have been P Emerson Williams) wasn’t up to much either so we walked out before the end. Never mind, Jozef was good…”

As it turned out, my wife was less-than-impressed with Jarboe’s spoken word rhetoric over the droning tones of P Emerson Williams electric-guitar-and-effects-driven soundscape and neither was I, so we left part way through that performance:

“No singing to the point we left for sure. I had an open mind because I knew there would be an element of ‘performance art’, but it just wasn’t enjoyable. Her ‘stage entrance’ was bizarre too – she wheeled a cabin bag round the front of the stage as if she’d just got off a flight, or been shopping – no drama or introduction…I had also asked the ‘merch’ guy whether Jarboe would be doing signing/greeting and he sounded doubtful so I didn’t think it was worth hanging around.”

Michael Gira live at Cottiers, Glasgow, Friday 25th November 2022

A couple of weeks have passed since the Jarboe gig…I’ve persuaded my friend D that it’s a good idea to go and see Michael Gira, the creative force behind Swans, even though he’s not a fan of ‘art rock’, ‘noise rock’, however you would wish to pigeonhole the band’s best-known creative output. D is, however, a fan of folk and folk-rock, and this will be a guy on stage with just an acoustic guitar and his voice, so how far away from that can it be? D is a good friend and we are faithful gig companions, enjoying catching up on life and exploring new experiences. We meet in the transformed Queen Street Station, now a glass bubble with panoramic views out to George Square and the grid pattern cityscape that is Glasgow City Centre. It’s there we catch the train out to the suburb of Milngavie (the ‘avie’ pronounced ‘eye’), now a commuter town about ten kilometres from the heart of the metropolis.

We walked the route along the Allander Water then the River Kelvin between Milngavie and Glasgow which was billed as ‘feels surprisingly rural when walked from North to South, with the hustle and bustle of the city becoming more apparent the further along you go…Expect a mixture of earth paths, pavements, cycle tracks and some mud!’ That was about right in reality…We didn’t encounter a soul. Call me paranoid, but I wore steel-toe-capped boots and carried a disguised weapon – a fold-up black umbrella! It was Scotland of course, so the ubiquitous rain jacket, cap and sunglasses were all necessary apparel to have! From the pastoral landscape along the Kelvin, we eventually approached the edge of the city, heading off the riverside path and wandering through housing estates, past shopping complexes deeper into the urban sprawl, targeting Maryhill train station but ending up at Summerston in the rain. The train took us into the west end, bedraggled hungry walkers with muddy boots to be wiped off, to become semi-respectable culture vultures, devourers of authentic Chinese cuisine and gig-goers…

It was a tour of former churches…Gira had played St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 23rd, St. Ann’s Church in Dublin, Ireland, on 24th before coming here to Cottiers, the former 19th century Dowanhill Parish Church in Glasgow.

The month before, wandering the streets of Oslo, Norway, I came across posters suitably pasted on to the graffitied hoarding of a construction site, with the black and white face of Gira obscured by his hands, finger poking into his eye, either in some kind of despair or just a way of hiding a face he’d rather we’d not see. These were advertising his solo performance at the Kulturkirken Jakob in the country’s capital, ironically the city home to the black metal movement which spawned a spate of church burnings and a catalogue of recordings sold out of the basement of the ‘Helvete’ (Norwegian for ‘Hell’) record shop which was run by ‘Euronymous’, guitar player for black metal pioneers Mayhem, and infamously stabbed to death by fellow black metal musician Varg Vikernes, from Bergen. Whether Gira is familiar with the anti-Christian background to that alternative scene in Norway I do not know, but his choice of venues is likely to be more about atmosphere than any kind of statement.

It’s been Gira’s business plan typology over recent years – to play a solo tour and release limited edition ‘product’ through his vehicle, Young God Records, in order to generate cash to fund the recording and production of the next Swans album. ‘The Beggar’ was no exception. As well as this tour, Gira released the demo album ‘Is There Really a Mind?’ in February 2022.


Kristof Hahn’s support set was good – an unsettling feeling throughout, and Hahn’s stage demeanour plays to this (Gira later gives thanks to ‘that little ol’ Kristof Hahn’ – oh, how he joked : ). The Swans member revealed his slide guitar was tuned to the oboe part on ‘If There Is Something’ from the first Roxy Music album, then proceeded to play a sinister version of it! His ethereal soundscapes in this blue-lit spectral ecclesiastical architectural backdrop are a fine build-up for the stripped back sermons that are to come.



Michael Gira delivered a very intense performance, including songs from the soon-to-be released Swans album ‘The  Beggar’. Gira’s imposing persona on stage included policing those audience member who dared to try and photograph him – Those who were caught were offered a ‘Paddington stare’ and a ‘when you’re finished’ retort, as the artist cut off where he’d played to and waited for the interruption to cease before starting again.

Gira opened with ‘The Parasite’ and it was as if a very dark priest had taken to the lectern with leather-bound bible in hand to deliver an uncompromising sermon of doom. Online, there’s a recording of that song from the same tour that a fan sneaked from a gig in Italy (if Gira had seen them, they’d have been in trouble!) – It seemed so much scarier when watching Giral play it live in Glasgow…

He finished with ‘New Mind’, opener of Swans 1987 classic ‘Children Of God’ and ‘Blind’, from his 1995 solo album ‘Drainland’, both familiar to Swans fans, so a welcome treat to end with.

I was fortunate to meet Mr Gira after the show (both of us masked up) – as Steve said ‘He loves his fans’ – and he signed a number of CD booklets from my Swans collection that I had brought. Thanks Michael!

Likely Michael Gira setlist:
The Parasite
The Memorious
Unforming
The Beggar
When Will I Return? (Swans song)
Two Women (Angels of Light song)
New Mind (Swans song)
Blind (Swans song)

Saturday 29th April 2023 – Death of a friend…
I didn’t know it yet, but you were already dead, I messaged you about a crippled black phoenix, perhaps some kind of premonition…

Darkness is coming
The loneliness and despair
A long cold black night


A very sad day – My good friend since school days, Steve M, passed away suddenly in his home up north. A lifelong Swans fan, he was looking forward to the release of ‘The Beggar’ – It’s so strange to think that he will never hear it…We had messaged back and forth about last year’s Gira gig and the upcoming Swans tour. Jarboe and Michael Gira, if this reaches you by chance, you have lost one of your strongest and most loyal supporters…

Goodbye my old friend
Peace be with you in heaven
Rest after this life

Swans ‘The Beggar’, released on Friday 23rd June 2023
The long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s well-received opus ‘Leaving Meaning’ arrived on the planet…and, as I am ‘old school’ in preferring hard copy, complete with artwork that you can touch and booklets that you can read, the two-disc CD arrives through my letterbox, familiar in its cardboard and printed red graphic, similar to recent Swans packaging. As might have been predicted, the recordings of the songs are very different from the very bare bones of the versions performed by Gira back in November of the previous year, although the opening track ‘The Parasite’ was the opener of his set at Cottiers in Glasgow:

“Breathe my breath into your head
Righteous, pure and sour with death
Here I am, just empty skin
There is no way out, there is no way in

Feed on me, feed on me,
Feed on me now”

The five other members of the band that accompany Gira on this musical trip – Kristof Hahn, Larry Mullins, Dana Schechter, Christopher Pravdica and Phil Puleo – are augmented by a further five guest musicians, creating an eclectic, sometimes lush, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes swirling, sometimes rocking out, always engaging soundscape. Occasionally, the music sounds like Swans ‘of old’, as in ‘Los Angeles; City Of Death’, the pounding, insistent beat and backing vocals somewhat reminiscent of the Jarboe era. At times, this recording is absolutely sublime – just have a listen to ‘The Beggar Lover (Three)’ and see how those orchestral vocal parts move you…

‘The Beggar’ tracklisting:

Disc One
The Parasite
Paradise Is Mine
Los Angeles: City of Death
Michael Is Done
Unforming
The Beggar
No More of This
Ebbing
Why Can’t I Have What I Want Any Time That I Want?

Disc Two
The Beggar Lover (Three)
The Memorious

St. Luke’s website, Sunday 23rd July 2023
Fast forward to 23rd July 2023, and I’m looking forward to seeing Swans at St. Luke’s in Glasgow – I’ve checked their website and it irritates me enough to contact the venue:

“Having looked at the listing on your website, I would note that the information is out of date and misleading – The photo is from a much earlier incarnation of the band and includes Jarboe, who was a member from 1986 to 1997. The text is from the early days of the band and doesn’t refer at all to recent albums or the current lineup. Hasn’t the promoter or Michael Gira sent you a press pack?”

A friendly reply comes back saying that they’ll contact the promoter and will update soon, which takes place – Thanks Eilidh at St. Luke’s!

The listing is furnished with the current EU/UK tour poster and this inspiring description:

“Unleashing a tempest of raw, unbridled emotion, SWANS emerges as an enigmatic force in the realm of experimental rock. Formed in the early ’80s, this genre-defying band has been sculpting soundscapes that push the boundaries of music and delve into the depths of the human psyche. Their groundbreaking performances and hauntingly intense compositions have earned them a devoted global following, and on the 16th of August, they will take to the stage @ Saint Luke’s!

Led by the visionary Michael Gira, SWANS’ music is an ever-evolving journey, transcending traditional genre constraints. From their early post-punk origins to their ventures into industrial, avant-garde, and beyond, each phase has borne witness to their relentless exploration of sonic territories. Their live shows are immersive experiences, where the audience is plunged into a swirling vortex of sound and emotion, carried away on waves of unyielding intensity and catharsis.

With a penchant for hypnotic repetition, sweeping crescendos, and otherworldly harmonies, SWANS’ performances are known to leave audiences transfixed, their souls laid bare by the sheer force of the music. Unafraid to confront the darkest corners of human existence, their lyrics and sonic tapestries grapple with themes of love, pain, spirituality, and the human condition, stirring something primal within each listener.

SWANS’ visit to Saint Luke’s promises to be an extraordinary evening, where time will lose its meaning, and the boundaries between performer and audience will blur.” [4.]

Swans live at St. Luke’s, Glasgow, Wednesday 16th August 2023

The trip over was the wrong kind of eventful, as I had a few mishaps on the way, as I wrote in this haiku at the time:

Running for the train
Fell down then lost my wallet
Bad things come in threes…

Made it on to the train to Glasgow Queen Street, though…palms of my hands grazed, my leg hurts from the impact, feel shaken and bruised…

Going to Saint Luke’s Church
In the east end of Glasgow
A rare gig by Swans

St. Luke’s is just around the corner from the iconic Barrowlands, the ballroom-turned music venue that has hosted so many classic gigs and is so well-loved by many bands. From the path in front you can see one of the entrances to the Barrowland market, known locally as ‘The Barras’.

There’s a man sitting outside the venue on a bench smoking a fag (that’s British-English for ‘cigarette’ for the benefit of you North Americans out there). He looks a bit like Swans’ guitarist Kristof Hahn…Hold on, he is Swans guitarist Kristof Hahn! Being as I am, I decide to engage “I hear there’s a good band on tonight”, I call out to him, “Are you going to see them?” He gets up and walks over. “I hear they’re loud”, he says, smiling, “too loud for me”, he laughs, still puffing on his cigarette. The lady in the couple in front tries to take a surreptitious selfie with Hahn in it over her shoulder, much to the musician’s amusement, who joins them to chat and allow a proper photo. I ask Kristof about another tour of former churches and he says that, yes, this is something Mr. Gira requested of the promoters.
Support came from Norman Westberg, a case of ‘keep it in the family’, as the man himself is a former guitarist with Swans, during their incarnation from early eighties to early nineties and after they reformed in 2010. Outside, Kristof Hahn had corrected me when I mistakenly said ‘Westerberg’ to another fan asking who was supporting – must have been recalling musician Paul Westerberg. Norman Westberg also played on Jarboe’s solo recordings and offshoot projects from the band, a kind of musical glue for this disjointed sculpture that I am trying to concoct here. Norman is an enigmatic stage presence, using his guitar and effects to create hypnotic and ethereal soundscapes which form a perfect introduction to the evening.
Like the bird, there are many extinct species of Swans and some that are still living. Gira has previously said that he named the band after the bird, because their majestic look and ugly temperament seemed to suit at that time. Things develop over time, but another analogy is that swans look calm on the surface, whilst paddling hard beneath the water, which can be applied to the band’s live performance – even in the maelstrom of building a cacophony of sound, there appears to be calm, as there is in the eye of a hurricane, with Gira as shamanic conductor somehow completely at home raising his hands with his eyes closed, in a spiritual trance…

“He sounds a bit like Jim Morrison”, I remark to my friend D, as Gira dredges up memories of listening to ‘When The Music’s Over’ or ‘Celebration Of The Lizard’, perhaps some of the lyrical imagery reminiscent of The Lizard King’s poetic visions, but definitely in the tone of Gira’s voice and the way that he is barking out the words.

The band played four songs from new album ‘The Beggar’: ‘Ebbing’, ‘No More Of This’, ‘The Memorious’ and ‘The Beggar’, interspersed with three from the last release ‘Leaving Meaning’ – ‘The Hanging Man’, ‘Cathedrals Of Heaven’ and ‘Leaving Meaning’, along with ‘Introduction’ and ‘Birthing’. Sometimes it’s hard to remember which track they are playing, as the music drifts into freeform jam territory, the band zoning out as their conductor builds them up and eventually draws them to a close. It certainly feels very different to the chilled, spacey vibe of much of the recorded album ‘The Beggar’ but, with Swans, there has always been that distance between the studio product and what transpires on stage. It’s been a fitting end to Act Four of this lengthy and dysfunctional theatrical production, as we file out of the old church into an East End Glasgow night, D and I going our separate ways, east and north. After such an esoteric experience, the gritty real life walk back to Queen Street station takes on a dream-like quality. We’re coming to the end of my slightly psychotic, umbilical diary of musical memorabilia, filed in my mind under ‘Swans, experimental rock band from New York City’, days torn from pages in 2022 and 2023. It’s late on a Wednesday night but still there are people everywhere, ant-like in their scurrying around this electric-lit urban sprawl, comfort found in a rattling train compartment rocked into broken sleep as we head back east into the night…



Swans setlist:
Introduction
(with break before The Beggar)
The Beggar
The Hanging Man
Ebbing
The Memorious
Cathedrals of Heaven
No More of This
Leaving Meaning
(played in full with no break before Birthing)
Birthing

Swans personnel:
Michael Gira – vocals, acoustic guitar
Kristof Hahn – lap steel guitar
Larry Mullins – drums, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, vibes, keyboards, backing vocals
Dana Schechter – bass guitar, lap steel, vocals
Christopher Pravdica – bass guitar, sounds, keyboards, vocals
Phil Puleo – drums, percussion, vocals

References and photos:
1. Photos: Author’s own
2. Swans Setlist:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/swans/2023/saint-lukes-glasgow-scotland-73a59ad5.html
3. Michael Gira ‘The Parasite’, live in Bologna, Italy: https://youtu.be/wP_TKgWpEuA
4. Swans at St. Luke’s event listing: https://www.stlukesglasgow.com/events/swans/ 
5. Jarboe event listing: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Newcastle-on-Tyne/The-Lubber-Fiend/Jarboe–Jozef-Van-Wissem/36116061/?hasNewTicketBox=1&reviews=1#recommendedEvents 

R is for…The Rolling Stones! ‘Sticky Fingers’

The start of a new decade…Recorded from March 1969 to October 1970, ‘Sticky Fingers’ was the Stones first studio album of the nineteen seventies, moving them into their second period, leaving behind the sixties, a decade which ended somewhat darkly for the band – the passing of founding member/multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones in mysterious circumstances in July 1969 and the Altamont free concert in California, USA, in December 1969, which was marred by the stabbing of Meredith Hunter and three other deaths. 

The Stones saw out the sixties with some amazing music, the albums ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ and ‘Let It Bleed’ showcasing groundbreaking songwriting and recordings. The song ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ was a milestone, with Jagger channelling a first person historical chronicle from Lucifer himself and the band building an infectious groove as a backdrop, augmented by the infamous ‘wooh wooh’ backing vocals. Subject of a film by Jean-Luc Godard (released in 1970), the studio recording was a challenge by all accounts but resulted in a masterpiece. Singer songwriter Don McLean captured this song being performed at the aforementioned Altamont, as a murder was carried out, in his classic ‘American Pie’:

“as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in Hell, could break that Satan’s spell…” [7.]

Another highlight of this time was the opening track of the ‘Let It Bleed’ LP, ‘Gimme Shelter’, featuring the considerable vocal talents of soul diva Merry Clayton, giving the song the extra feel and power that drives it, transcending from rock into an all-time classic that sends tingles down the spine, right from the first hearing of the opening guitar arpeggios.

As a tribute to Brian Jones’ passing, the Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park in London, England, releasing a sackful of white butterflies as a memorial. It was Mick Taylor’s first gig with the band. Keith Richards waxed lyrical about the new addition: “Everything was there in his playing – the melodic touch, a beautiful sustain and a way of reading a song. He had a lovely sound, very soulful stuff.” [4.]


It’s in the jeans…The Andy Warhol-designed sleeve

With a cover design conceived by icon Andy Warhol, a screenprint of the torso of a male wearing jeans complete with working zip revealing underwear, delivered by his co-collaborators Billy Name and Craig Braun and being the first album released on Rolling Stones records, the band then free of their contract with London and Decca, ‘Sticky Fingers’ symbolised new beginnings in a number of ways. Although guitarist Mick Taylor had played on some of ‘Let It Bleed’, the Stones’ acclaimed final studio album of the sixties, he was now a fully-fledged member of the band, soon to be tax exiles living in France. Rolling Stones Records were to be distributed by Atlantic Records and headed up by Marshall Chess, both strong links to the soul and blues genealogy.

Lips inc. – The iconic Stones’ logo, born in the 70s

Keith Richards described the move to France in philosophical fashion: “In England we were stymied and we suddenly felt the whole weight of this dead empire coming down on us. So the only thing to do was to go away and reconstruct everything and say, “We’re all going to do this boys, we’re going to move out – let’s be a family”. In a way, it was energising…” [5.]

It’s hard to put your (sticky) finger on exactly why this is such a great, long lasting album. It’s a release that covers a number of genres and atmospheres, which could have made it somewhat disjointed, but didn’t. Although the band recorded the music at four different studios over a period of seventeen months, the songwriting, feel and Jimmy Miller’s production somehow bring it all together in a satisfying way for the listener.
Charlie Watts recalled a ‘fantastic week’ at the famous Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama, where the Stones recorded during a tour of the States: “We cut some great tracks, which appeared on ‘Sticky Fingers’ – ‘You Gotta Move’, ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Wild Horses’ – and we did them without Jimmy Miller, which was equally amazing. It worked very well: It’s one of Keith’s things to go in and record while you’re in the middle of a tour and your playing is in good shape.” [5]

“You live in a fancy apartment, off the Boulevard Saint Michel…Where you keep your Rolling Stones records…” [8.]

Against much of the ‘up’ feel of some of the songs, side openers ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Bitch’ for example, there is that ‘coming down’ feel on a number of the tracks, heroin and other drug use probably fuelling that. This is personified on ‘Sister Morphine’, co-written by Jagger with his former lover Marianne Faithfull, which introduces a whole family of Class A pharmaceuticals, through the voice of the protagonist, a patient on his death bed in a hospital. Other lyrical references evidence the drug culture: ‘With a head full of snow’, croons Jagger metaphorically on ‘Moonlight Mile’, singing more graphically ‘I’ll be in my basement room, with a needle and a spoon’ in the country tune ‘Dead Flowers’.

Regarding album closer, ‘Moonlight Mile’, Victor Bockris claims that Keith was “so out of it that he didn’t play on the track at all”. Bockris records that “Keith, who had been so angered by Brian’s habit of missing sessions or showing up too stoned to perform, started to do the same thing.” Allegedly, the song was composed by the two Micks, Jagger and Taylor in a late night session, but Taylor was never given credit and the song is listed on the album as  written by Jagger-Richards. Keith was the one who ‘imported’ like-minded musicians, like Bobby Keys and the country singer-songwriter Gram Parsons, who brought his influence to Stones songs like ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Dead Flowers’ from this album, earlier material such as ‘Country Honk’ (a hoedown version of ‘Honky Tonk Women’) and later material such as ‘Sweet Virginia’ and ‘Faraway Eyes’. 

Side Two – “It’s a bitch…and I’m just about at Moonlight Mile…”

Victor Bockris noted that the ‘Sticky Fingers’ sessions “inaugurated the new period in which the rest of the band would be forced to live on ‘Keith Richards time’.” Andy Johns, recording engineer, recalls that Keith “worked on his own emotional rhythm pattern…If Keith thought it was necessary to spend three hours working on a riff, he’d do it while everyone else picked their nose.” [4.] Bockris paints Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman as a members of the band who rarely took drugs, although noting that Wyman did enjoy imbibing alcohol, noting that they were accordingly “dubbed the straightest rhythm section in rock and roll”, remaining “passively in the background, going about their tasks with extraordinary efficiency, considering the extreme aggravation caused them by the new Keith.” [4.]

The Stones hop genres with ease on the record, segueing from rock to soul, through country, blues and even drifting into jazz territory on ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’, their saxophone-playing pal Bobby Keys stretching out over the band backing groove. Charlie Watts noted that “Sticky Fingers was the first time we added horns – that was the influence of people like Otis Redding and James Brown, and also Delaney and Bonnie, who Bobby Keys and Jim Price played with. It was to add an extra dimension, a different colour, not to make the band sound any different.” [5.]

‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Wild Horses’ are the two tracks from the album that make it to Stones compilations and probably the ones that are considered classics in their canon, but for me it’s the lesser known pieces that make ‘Sticky Fingers’ special, and there’s something about the downbeat chemistry that unites them in a coherent whole, as unlikely as their sequencing might initially seem. The performance and feel generated by the core band and additional personnel lifts all the songs and has inspired a number of musical subgenres since. Jagger expounds his fake Southern US drawl throughout, an actor mastering our suspension of disbelief – Could you tell he hails from Dartford, Kent, England, listening to this? 

This album was the first in a ‘purple patch’ for studio recordings by this line-up of The Stones in the early 70s, with ‘Exile On Main Street’, ‘Goat’s Head Soup’ and ‘It’s Only Rock’N’Roll’ following in 1972, 1973 and 1974 respectively, after which Mick Taylor quit the band, ushering in a new era. ‘Black And Blue’ got that off to a shaky start in 1976, but Ronnie Wood, ex-Faces guitarist, settled into the band thereafter and they released ‘Some Girls’ in 1978, arguably one of their strongest ever albums. That incarnation of The Stones was constant until 1991, when Bill Wyman left the band. Up to 2005, the band continued to release original music and have been a touring act since. Charlie Watts passed away in 2021 but the four other band members who played on ‘Sticky Fingers’ are still alive and kicking at the time of writing. 

The Stones ‘Sticky Fingers’ line-up: Mick, Keef, Charlie, Mick and Bill

‘Sticky Fingers’
Originally released: 23rd April 1971
Label: Rolling Stones Recorded at: Muscle Shoals Sound (Alabama, USA), Olympic and Trident (London, UK), Stargroves (Newbury, UK)
Produced by: Jimmy Miller
Cover art: Conceived by Andy Warhol, photography by Billy Name, design by Craig Braun

‘Sticky Fingers’ tracklisting (as original LP):

Side One
1. Brown Sugar (Jagger, Richards)
2. Sway (Jagger, Richards)
3. Wild Horses (Jagger, Richards)
4. Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Jagger, Richards)
5. You Gotta Move (Fred McDowell, Gary Davis)

Side Two
6. Bitch (Jagger, Richards)
7. I Got The Blues (Jagger, Richards)
8. Sister Morphine (Jagger, Richards, Marianne Faithfull)
9. Dead Flowers (Jagger, Richards)
10. Moonlight Mile (Jagger, Richards)

‘Sticky Fingers personnel:
Mick Jagger – lead vocals, backing vocals, guitars, percussion
Keith Richards – guitars, backing vocals
Mick Taylor – guitars
Bill Wyman – bass, electric piano
Charlie Watts – drums

Additional personnel:
Paul Buckmaster – string arrangement (2, 10)
Ry Cooder – slide guitar (8)
Jim Dickinson – piano (3)
Rocky Dijon – congas (4)
Nicky Hopkins – piano (2, 4)
Bobby Keys – tenor saxophone (1, 4, 6, 7)
Jimmy Miller – percussion (4,6)
Jack Nitzsche – piano (8)
Billy Preston – organ (4, 7)
Jim Price – trumpet, piano (7,10)
Ian Stewart – piano (1, 9)

References and photographs:
1. The Rolling Stones ‘Sticky Fingers’ LP and CD (author’s own collection)
2. Norman, P. (2001). ‘The Stones’. London: Pan Macmillan.
3. Bockris, V. (1993). ‘Keith Richards – The Biography’. London: Penguin.
4. Richards, K. (2011). ‘Life’. London: Orion.
5. Jagger, M.; Richards, K.; Watts, C.; Wood, R. (2004). ‘According To The Rolling Stones’. London: Orion.
6. Dalton, D. (Ed.) (1972) ‘Rolling Stones – An unauthorized biography in words, photographs and music’. New York: Amsco. 
7. Don McLean ‘American Pie’
8. Peter Sarstedt ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely’

Swallow The Sun, Draconian and Shores Of Null at Slay, Glasgow, 9th April 2023

It’s Easter Sunday, 9th April 2023 and I’m on my way to see a trio of great metal bands: Swallow The Sun from Finland, Draconian from Sweden and Shores Of Null from Italy. The venue is Slay, Glassford Street, Glasgow, Scotland, part of a European co-headlining two by the first two aforementioned, with the third opening. Whoever was responsible for bringing these three international acts together has to be congratulated for their stroke of genius – The back catalogue of recordings by the bands is a cornucopia of high quality dark metal, associated by writers and fans to a number of subgenres: doom, death-doom, melodic death, gothic and sometimes verging on black metal. The train trip from Edinburgh through west allows time for writing a couple of haikus:

Doom metal tonight
Sounds from the endless darkness
Ethereal bliss

Finns Swallow The Sun
Draconian from Sweden
Shores Of Null from Rome

Having read numerous musings by fans, writers and musicians online, I know for certain that I am not alone in finding dark, reflective, melancholic music uplifting and inspiring, so I’m very much looking forward to tonight’s live experience. It’s a short walk from Queen Street station across George Square and south-east through the grid of streets to Slay on Glassford Street, where there’s already a queue formed outside in anticipation of doors opening at 7. From the centre of the road, an intoxicated local is admonishing whoever will listen for various misdemeanours that he has concocted – always a joy to have a ‘tour guide’ to help us through life in Scotland! A stamp on the inside of the wrist, a ticket-check, another wrist-stamp and we’re in, down the stairs to the black basement that is the club, the small stage adorned with a drum kit, mic stands and a plethora of Orange amplifiers. 

Showtime rolls around quickly and what light there is dims to spotlight the stage, where openers Shores Of Null are here: Davide Straccione – vocals, Gabriele Giaccari – guitars, Raffaele Colace – guitars, Matteo Capozucca – bass and Emiliano Cantiano – drums. Based in Rome, Italy, they have been forging their own distinctive musical path since 2013. Their set is focused on their new album ‘The Loss Of Beauty’, released only a couple of weeks before the gig and recorded at the same time as their masterpiece ‘Beyond The Shores (On Death And Dying)’, a single-track concept piece on the five stages of grief which was exposed to the world in 2020. Out of the seven songs they play, five are from the new album, the set completed by ‘Quiescent’ from their debut 2014 release ‘Quiescence’ and the title track from ‘Black Drapes For Tomorrow’. Davide Straccione is a striking frontman, with long flowing black locks and beard atop his black garb, the other band members dressed in black tones, Gabriele Giaccari and Raffaele Colace sporting black guitars, with Matteo Capozucca’s bass the only coloured axe on show. 

“Hello Glasgow, we are Shores Of Null, from Italy”, Straccione informs us, before they crash into ‘Destination Woe’, aptly named given the night we have ahead of us. In a world where it is hard to be original, given the huge volume of music that now exists, Shores Of Null succeed, their compositions, particularly the vocal harmonies overlaying the driving wall of sound, offer a welcome fresh take on dark metal. Their lyrical take on life is heavy and gloomy, Straccione singing on ‘Black Drapes For Tomorrow’ that “Every day we celebrate the funeral of mankind” and:

“Dead end maze, are we the ones to follow?
Black drapes for tomorrow” [7.]



Shores Of Null’s raw, engaging live performance complements their accomplished, moody studio recordings well, and they come across as likeable generally, as do all three bands, Straccione citing this as ‘a good tour’ thus far..

The bands are sharing gear and so set-up is much faster than often the case, which is good news for the audience and Draconian are soon treading the boards: Johan Ericson – lead guitar, Jerry Torstensson – drums, Daniel Arvidsson – bass and Niklas Nord – rhythm guitar swiftly followed by vocalists Anders Jacobsson and Lisa Johansson, the former providing the ‘harsh’ and ‘growling’ parts and the latter the ‘clean’ singing, an effect sometimes described as ‘beauty and the beast’ and a key component of this band’s signature sound. Lisa Johansson was with the band from 2002 to 2011, and is now back on stage, having re-joined Draconian in 2022, after Heike Langhan ended her ten year tenure. Lisa performed songs from the newest album flawlessly, the setlist featuring five pieces from the stunning ‘Under A Godless Veil’, which was released in 2020, with vocals recorded by Heike. The excellent, ethereal ‘Sleepwalking’ is a standout:

“We’re sleepwalking
Piercing, hateful eyes are watching
We’re sleepwalking

The hungry ghosts are never patient
Look at me
Oh, wretched Creator
This is what I’ve become” [6.]

Three songs from 2015’s ‘Sovran’, also recorded with Heike, are also in the set, leaving only three songs composed when Lisa was originally in the band. 

The Swedes open with ‘The Sacrificial Flame’, the epic second track from ‘Under A Godless Veil’. It’s Anders who does most of the talking to the crowd, saying that they are happy to be in ‘your beautiful city’. Anders deep growls start ‘Elysian Night’ over driving guitars before the band drop it down and Lisa’s vocal comes in ‘I am so far away…’ A woman right at the front seems to know all the words to the songs which grace this atmospheric set, the dynamics of the music creating much interest and theatre. The experience and musical prowess of Draconian shines through their performance. 

Electronic candles are burning and the gothic scene is set for Swallow The Sun, who enter to the acoustic part of ‘The Fight Of Your Life’, from their phenomenal latest album ‘Moonflowers’,  played over the PA. The group were founded in Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2000 by Juha Raivio, who plays lead guitar and sings backing vocals tonight. Juha composes most of the band’s music and drives their melancholic metal creativity, joined by Mikko Kotamäki – lead vocals, Juho Räihä – rhythm guitar, Matti Honkonen – bass guitar and Juuso Raatikainen – drums. Juho, Matti and Juuso are wearing black hooded cloaks, resembling grim reapers, three horsemen or Nazgûl. Singer Mikki is wearing a Type O Negative t-shirt, the Brooklyn goth lords’ music forming part of the soundtrack between acts tonight. As the acoustic intro fades, the band kick into ‘Enemy’, the second track from 2021’s  ‘Moonflowers’, the lyrics an expression of Raivio’s inner torment, delivered in a beautiful clean vocal melody::

“Enemy, inside of me
Torn from a trail of light
Grail of serpents lies
Enemy inside of me
No redemption in sight
In this tomb of light
Enemy” [4.]

Mikko notes that “It’s been a long time – I think ten years since we were last here” – We are fortunate indeed to witness this performance. It’s a powerful, menacing set, contrasting the clean vocal melodies and subtleties of some of the newer material with full-on rock out and black metal. ‘Falling World’, from the brilliant 2009 ‘New Moon’ album, is a highlight, the waves of sound washing over the venue. 

“Wish I could end this all today, 
but like all good, our hope fades away.” [5.]

Band leader Juha Raivio tries to spur on the crowd to make some noise and interact but it’s Mikko that does all the talking: 

“I’m sure you’re having a long Easter weekend with lots of drinking…” no reaction “Well, maybe you’re not Finnish” Reminiscent of some of their videos, the ‘Nazgûl’ rock out and the crowd headbang in time. The music isn’t consistently conducive to a ‘circle’ but a couple of drunken crowd members try to initiate something, which is not well-received by the majority. It’s a mixed demographic and the audience are however obviously enjoying the music. A couple of songs from the 2019 album ‘When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light’ are very memorable, the melodic ‘Firelights’, during which Juha encourages a sing along, and ‘Stone Wings’.

“We’re going back to our first albums for the last two songs – No more clean vocals bullshit!” spits out Mikko. One of these is ‘Swallow (Horror Pt. 1), from their 2003 debut album ‘The Morning Never Came’, very much darker and more brutal, but still with melodic guitar lines and the melancholic atmospheric soundtrack that Swallow The Sun are well known for.

It’s the end of a perfect dark metal gig, three amazing bands haven given their all, and time to head out into a Sunday night in Glasgow, which, due to holiday weekend mayhem, resembles a Saturday night in the city. It’s hard to come down from the sublime and ethereal into the mundane and predictable but life’s needs must…

Shores Of Null – probable setlist:
Destination Woe
Nothing Left to Burn
Quiescent
The Last Flower
Black Drapes for Tomorrow
Darkness Won’t Take Me
My Darkest Years

Draconian – probable setlist:
The Sacrificial Flame
Lustrous Heart
The Sethian
Sleepwalkers
Stellar Tombs
Seasons Apart
Sorrow of Sophia
Elysian Night
Dishearten
Pale Tortured Blue
Daylight Misery

Swallow The Sun – probable setlist:
Enemy
10 Silver Bullets
Falling World
Keep Your Heart Safe From Me
Firelights
Woven Into Sorrow
Stone Wings
New Moon
This House Has No Home
Swallow (Horror, Part 1)
Descending Winters

Photographs by the author

References:

1. Bio & Discography | Shores Of Null
2. Shores of Null Concert Setlists | setlist.fm
3. Draconian Concert Setlists | setlist.fm
4. Swallow The Sun ‘Moonflowers’ CD
5. Swallow The Sun ‘New Moon’ CD
6. Draconian ‘Under A Godless Veil’ CD
7. Shores Of Null ‘Black Drapes For Tomorrow’ CD

R is for…Ramones! ‘It’s Alive’

1 2 3 4….

“New York, ice cream, TV, travel, good times
Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times”
So sang Phil Oakey, lead singer of The Human League in ‘The Things That Dreams Are Made Of’’, a song from their 1981 hit LP ‘Dare’. This lyric definitely got the ‘good times’ part right, as this celebration of the Ramones will testify. Referencing Norman Wisdom in the same line as the Ramones members might seem incongruous to those familiar with the English actor, who featured in comedy films in the 50s and 60s, but Wisdom in fact has an NYC connection, in common with the punk rockers, later forging a career on Broadway and as a TV actor in the USA.

The essence of the Ramones is contained within their first three studio albums, debut ‘Ramones’, sophomore ‘Leave Home’ and ‘Rocket To Russia’. The band started in the Forest Hills area of Queens, New York City, USA. The original ‘classic’ band line-up was Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman in Forest Hills, Queens, NYC, USA, 1951), Johnny Ramone (born John Cummings in Long Island, USA, 1948), Dee Dee Ramone (born Douglas Glenn Colvin in Fort Lee, Virginia, USA, 1951) and Tommy Ramone (born Tommy Erdelyi in Budapest, Hungary, 1949). The adopted surname united the four as brothers in a dysfunctional punk rock family, changing music and fashion forever. ‘It’s Alive’ captures the original band live in London, England on 31st December 1977, when they blasted out high octane versions of songs from their first three LPs at breakneck speed. These recordings would be the last to include drummer Tommy, a key ingredient to their sound. Tommy left of his own accord citing, amongst other reasons, that he found touring depressing.

The double vinyl live album was named after the 1974 science fiction horror film of the same name, directed by Larry Cohen, about a couple whose child turns out to be a vicious mutant – perhaps the band found some resonance in that! That film’s soundtrack is by veteran composer and conductor Bernard Hermann, who also scored ‘Taxi Driver’, Martin Scorsese’s film set in a ‘decaying and morally bankrupt’ New York City, another strong connection to the ‘brothers’ from Queens.

The recordings were chosen from four UK concerts recorded on that tour, allegedly chosen because of the excessive vandalism at the New Year’s Eve gig – ten rows of seats were thrown at the stage by fans after the performance. The ‘brothers’ blast through 28 songs in 53 minutes and 49 seconds with the shortest song, ‘Judy Is A Punk’, clocking in at 1:14 and the longest song, ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’, at 2:55, still under 3 minutes!

It’s notable that there are four covers on the record, a nod to some of the band’s influences: ‘Surfin’ Bird’ was a 1963 single by The Trashmen, written by Al Frazier, Sonny Harris, Carl White, Turner Wilson who combined two R&B hits by The Rivingtons, ‘Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow’ and ‘The Bird’s the Word’. An excellent, if somewhat unhinged version of this psychobilly ditty was also recorded by The Cramps. ‘California Sun’ is a 1960 surf song written by Henry Glover and recorded by Joe Jones – The most commercially successful version was by The Riveras in 1964 and it slots in perfectly to the Ramones set, alongside originals like ‘Rockaway Beach’, which evoke this era. ‘Do You Wanna Dance?’ was written by Bobby Freeman, who recorded it in 1958, and notable later versions were hits for Cliff Richard & The Shadows and The Beach Boys. Chris Montez had a 1962 hit with ‘Let’s Dance’, written by Jim Leem, the Montez 45 featuring a catchy keyboard hook, which doesn’t appear on the Ramones version, just buzzsaw power chords bludgeoning through! Most original songs on the album were written by Joey or Dee Dee, or co-written by both. ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ was written by Dee Dee and Tommy and five songs are credited to ‘Ramones’.

In his book ‘Wicked Game – The True Story Of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey’, Michael Goldberg records how the Ramones four-night residency in the back room of the Savoy Tivoli bar in North Beach, San Francisco, in August 1976 was a catalyst for the founding of West Coast punk band The Avengers, which featured Wilsey on bass. Danny Furious, co-founder of that band described the Ramones gig he went to as “the sonic life-changing experience of a lifetime!” Goldberg reviewed the gig he saw with his wife Leslie in the Berkeley Barb and described the essence of the band perfectly:
“The music is loud and raw – Tommy Ramone’s frenzied drumming, the vicious buzz-saw power chording of the guitar and the jack-hammer-like bass. It strikes like a juggernaut storming through the New York streets, literally destroying audio comprehension of everyone in range.” [4.]

Pre-hardcore and speed metal, the Ramones played fast, and even faster live. Tommy has said that “We were the only ones doing that” [2.], accrediting the tempo to Johnny, saying that he saw speed as virtuosity. It obviously made Tommy’s job a challenge, as keeper of the beat, but also affected Joey, who had to slur and miss words just to be able to deliver the vocal lines, with Dee Dee citing using lots of black coffee to boost his energy levels. 

Bizarrely, ‘It’s Alive’ didn’t come out in the USA until the nineties, despite it capturing the band and the zeitgeist at its peak. In his book ‘Poison Heart’, Dee Dee Ramone explains that, in the late 70s, the band “made a far greater impact in England” [3.], partly due to DJ John Peel’s evening radio show and the emerging UK punk movement (note: It is common for our North American cousins to refer to the UK as ‘England’, something which can cause annoyance in the rest of the UK, but let’s give Dee Dee the benefit of the doubt, as the UK punk scene was centred in London). Dee Dee goes on to document the connections made in the UK, the venues the band played being larger than in the US, and the relationships with key characters from the punk movement such as Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen and the Sex Pistols. This chaos must have had some influence on Dee Dee’s lifestyle, and possibly his substance abuse (!) although New York no doubt also played its part in that. From a UK perspective, NYC is held in high regard in alternative music circles, as home to CBGBs, The New York Dolls, Television, Patti Smith, The Ramones et al, as is the USA generally for punk roots which pre-date the UK chapter, as exhibited by The Stooges, MC5, The Velvet Underground and the aforementioned Dolls. The tough, cool, street look of the Ramones – torn jeans, t-shirts, black leather motorbike jackets and trainers (sneakers in the USA) – was in contrast to the UK punk attire, which was much more flamboyant and expressive, but the brothers style has arguably had more longevity. Successive waves of so-called ‘punk’ and ‘post punk’ movements have risen and fallen since, such is the circular nature of music and society.

None of the original members of the Ramones are still living: Joey passed away in 2001 in New York City, Dee Dee in 2002 in Los Angeles, California, Johnny in 2004 in Los Angeles and Tommy in 2014 in New York City, being the longest-surviving original member of the band. Dee Dee forged a solo career, releasing five albums of material. Tommy became a music producer and contributed to the 2006 LP by Uncle Monk. Two Joey Ramone solo albums were released posthumously. After ‘It’s Alive’, the band went on to record ten further studio albums, from 1980 to 1995, continued touring and released nine more live albums. I had the fortune to be at the Ramones gig on 14th  May 1986 at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland, when they played a total of 33 songs! (see setlist at the end of this article – Fourteen of those songs were on the ‘It’s Alive’ album) It was a tour to promote their 1986 album ‘Animal Boy’, with Richie Ramone (aka Richard Reinhardt on drums and backing vocals), a time when Dee Dee was still in the band (1, 2, 3, 4….). Although Dee left the band in 1989, he continued to write songs for them, including three for the album ‘Mondo Bizarro’, released in 1992, which included ‘Poison Heart’, one of their best recordings, somewhat autobiographical in nature and the title of Dee Dee’s book, published in 1997.

The four later Ramones members, Marky, Richie, Elvis (aka Clem Burke, drummer from Blondie) and C.J., are still alive at the time of writing. The music of the Ramones lives on, as does the influence they have had on other bands, in recording, performance, fashion and attitude. 1, 2, 3, 4….Gabba Gabba Hey, Gabba Gabba Hey…

‘It’s Alive’
Originally released: April 1979
Label: Sire
Recorded at: The Rainbow Theatre, London, England, 31st December 1977
Produced by: Tommy Ramone and Ed Stasium
Cover art directed by Spencer Drate and John Gillespie 

‘It’s Alive’ personnel:
Joey Ramone – lead vocals
Johnny Ramone – guitar
Dee Dee Ramone – bass, backing vocals
Tommy Ramone – drums

‘It’s Alive’ tracklisting (as original double LP):
Side 1
1. Rockaway Beach
2. Teenage Lobotomy
3. Blitzkrieg Bop
4. I Wanna Be Well
5. Glad To See You Go
6. Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
7. You’re Gonna Kill That Girl

Side 2
8. I Don’t Care
9. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
10. Havana Affair
11. Commando
12. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
13. Surfin’ Bird
14. Cretin Hop

Side 3
15. Listen To My Heart
16. California Sun
17. I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
18. Pinhead
19. Do You Wanna Dance?
20. Chain Saw
21. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World

Side 4
22. Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy
23. Judy Is A Punk
24. Suzy Is A Headbanger
25. Let’s Dance
26. Oh, Oh, I Love Her So
27. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
28. We’re A Happy Family

Ramones (1976) 3,10, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25, 27
Leave Home (1977) 5, 6, 7, 11, 16, 18, 22, 24, 26
Rocket To Russia (1977) 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 19, 28

References and photographs:
1. Ramones ‘It’s Alive’’ CD (author’s own collection)
2. True, E. (2002). ‘Hey Ho, Let’s Go – The Story Of The Ramones’. London: Omnibus Press.
3. Ramone, D. D. (Colvin, D.), with Kofman, V. (1997). ‘Poison Heart – Surviving The Ramones’. Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Cromwell Press.
4. Goldberg, M. (2022). ‘Wicked Game – The True Story Of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey’. Chicago, USA: Hozac Books. P101
5. Ramones concert setlist, 14th May 1986, Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/ramones/1986/edinburgh-playhouse-edinburgh-scotland-2bd5d026.html

Ramones concert setlist, 14th May 1986, Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland [5.]:

Eat That Rat
Teenage Lobotomy
Psycho Therapy
Blitzkrieg Bop
Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?
Freak of Nature
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School
I Wanna Be Sedated
The KKK Took My Baby Away
Crummy Stuff
Loudmouth
Love Kills
Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
Glad to See You Go
I Just Want to Have Something to Do
Too Tough to Die
Mama’s Boy
Animal Boy
Wart Hog
Surfin’ Bird
Cretin Hop
I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You
Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World
Pinhead

Encore:
Chinese Rocks
Somebody Put Something in My Drink
Rockaway Beach

Encore 2:
Do You Wanna Dance?
California Sun
We’re a Happy Family

Encore 3:
Go Mental
Judy Is a Punk

R is for…Rammstein! ‘Reise Reise’

Could you base a whole album around an air disaster in Japan, with all lyrics delivered in the German language? Die antwort ist ‘ja’! Rammstein, an industrial metal band occupying their own niche in the subgenre ‘Neue Deutsche Härte’, did just that and released ‘Reise Reise’ to an unsuspecting public in 2004. 

On 12th August 1985, Japan Airlines flight 123 crashed into Mount Takamagahara near Mount Osutaka in the Kantō Range in southern Gumma district, northwest of the capital Tokyo. 520 people lost their lives that day and the incident remains the single deadliest single-plane crash in history. According to Britannica: “The plane had left Tokyo airspace and had ascended to 24,000 feet (7,300 metres) when the first distress calls came from the plane’s pilot, who initially reported losing altitude and then reported difficulty controlling the plane. The plane fell to around 10,000 feet (3,000 metres). The pilot continued to send distress calls and asked to be rerouted to the Tokyo airport. But about 45 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into Mount Takamagahara…Rescue attempts were made difficult by the remote and treacherous location of the crash site. Not until 14 hours after the crash were emergency rescue crews able to reach the area. Paratroopers descended from helicopters onto the scene, and some rescue volunteers reached the remote area on foot. Of the 524 people on the plane, 4 survived. The crash was attributed to a missing tail fin that was likely structurally weakened because of frequent landings and takeoffs. Many aviation experts credited the pilot for keeping the damaged plane in the air for almost a half hour after reporting difficulty.” [5.]

The cover artwork for the album, by Plantage and Alex Brunner, is based on the salvaged ‘black box’ flight recorder, captioned ‘Flugrekorder, nicht öffnen’ on the front, which translates into English as ‘Flight Recorder, Do Not Open’. The orange and white colours are based on the livery of the fated plane, with photos in the booklet taken of the twisted metal remains of the fuselage.



The members of Rammstein originally hail from the former East Germany and the band was formed in Berlin. This was their fourth studio album, after debut ‘Herzeleid’ (‘Heartbreak’) released in 1995, the amazing ‘Sehnsucht’ (‘Longing’) which consolidated their sound and reputation in 1997 and ‘Mutter’ (‘Mother’) which followed in 2001. As such, the band’s reputation had already been established and they had been successful in creating their own subgenre ‘Neue Deutsche Härte’ within the rock and metal world, adhering to their ‘punk rock’ principles.

The band’s original lineup – lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph ‘Doom’ Schneider, and keyboardist ‘Doktor’ Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz—has remained constant throughout their career. Their songwriting, which consists of Lindemann writing and singing the lyrics over instrumental pieces the rest of the band has worked on previously, has also been a constant, creating a very recognisable sound. 

In her book ‘Little Black Rammbook’, Jackie White refers to the band’s trademark rhyming song lyrics as built “on a strong German literary heritage. During medieval times German poets toured the Royal Courts to entertain crowds with rhyming verse. Rammstein’s songs have a similar style, presented in a modern setting, appealing to a wide age range.” White also points out that “To a trained ear, you can hear Lindemann’s Berlin/East German dialect, particularly in how he says the word I, or ich…”, going on to contrast his soft ‘eee-shhh’ pronunciation in the song ‘Ich Will’ with the hard ‘eee-uch’ sound of the ‘Hochdeutsch’ pronunciation. One key tenet of ‘Little Black Rammbook’ is to convey to the reader the sense and meaning of the verses in the original German language of Rammstein’s music, which Jackie White considers are often lost in literal translations of the lyrics. An example is fan and live favourite ‘Ich Will’ (from the ‘Mutter’ album), which translates to English as ‘I want’. White carefully selects English lyrical equivalents which rhyme and also notes that the ‘ihr’ in German, the plural ‘you’ (which a word doesn’t exist for in English) is a key part of the song, inviting in the audience, possibly a reason why it is such a successful live piece [3.]

“Ich will eure Stimmen hören
Ich will die Ruhe stören
Ich will, dass ihr mich gut seht
Ich will, dass ihr mich versteht

I want your voices to be heard
I want peace shaken and peace stirred
I want, that you see me clearly
I want, that you hold me dearly” [3.]


Jackie White explores the context of Rammstein’s music in her book, the background being a Germany where East and West were peacefully reunited after ‘Glasnost’ and the fall of the Berlin Wall: “The economic and social problems of such a merger would be vast. Germany could not heal without its two sides reunited. It was still suffering the trauma of lost generations forty years after the war ended, and continuing guilt as a nation for causing two World Wars.” [3.] White goes on to focus on the frontman and songwriter’s personal circumstances: “Till Lindemann, Rammstein’s lead singer, was born in January 1963. He lived in East Germany, close to Berlin. He was roughly the same age as Christiane F. [drug addict and prostitute working along the Ku’Damm in Berlin in the late 70s and subject of a 1981 film with soundtrack by David Bowie]. He also had a difficult relationship with his father. He was a child of a male generation still full of anger, suffering from the historical legacy of their forefathers and feeling punished as a nation by the entire world. Lindemann was looking for a voice, an outlet. And in Rammstein and his lyrics, he found it.”  White demonstrates, through a number of examples in her book, the wordplay and clever hidden meanings behind the choice of vocabulary by Lindemann, drawings the listener into a deeper level that exists behind the seemingly straightforward rock facade presented [3.]

‘Reise Reise’, the album title and opening track appropriate a wake-up call used in the German military, translating as ‘arise arise’, or as it perhaps would have been adapted with a hint of sarcasm in British army camps ‘rise and shine’. It’s certainly a majestic opener for the proceedings. 

‘Los’ is probably my favourite cut on the album, unusual as it is for a Rammstein song in being powered by an acoustic guitar riff. It is none less powerful for that, with a great rhythmic feel and dynamics, clean-toned electric guitar adding to the layering later in the song. The lyrics have the repeated ‘los’, an ending to a number of the words chosen, and there’s an autobiographical, humorous reflection in the song, despite it’s dark, phrygian feel:

“Wir waren namenlos
Und ohne Lieder
Recht wortlos
Waren wir nie wieder
Etwas sanglos
Sind wir immer noch
Dafür nicht klanglos
Man hört uns doch
Nach einem Windstoss
Ging ein Sturm los
Einfach beispiellos
Es wurde Zeit
Los” [7.]

(This translates into English as:
“We were nameless
and without songs
We were never again
really wordless
Still we are
a little songless
Yet we’re not toneless
You can hear us
After a gust of wind
began a storm
Simply matchless
It was time
-less”) [7.]

There are no ‘weak’ tracks on the record, all songs offering musical sustenance and ideas in their own way. ‘Amerika’ is noteworthy in that it is one of the very few Rammstein tunes where Lindemann sings in English, only in the chorus, and for amusing effect. Take lines like ‘We’re all living in Amerika, Coca-cola, sometimes war’, for example, or a combination of English and Deutsch ‘Amerika ist wunderbar’ or just Deutsch: ‘Nach Afrika kommt Santa Claus, Und vor Paris steht Micky Maus’! Spelling ‘America’ with a ‘k’ makes it somewhat ambiguous doesn’t it, and of course we have to bear in mind that ‘America’ is not ‘The United States Of America’ – perhaps the more vague the better, if you’re looking for your listeners to find their own meanings? The line in the bridge ‘This is not a love song’ may have been taken from John Lydon’s PIL but the partnering ‘I don’t speak my mother’s tongue’ is definitely a jibe at all those bands who decide that their music will sell better of they sing in English rather than their native ‘sprache’. 

‘Ohne Dich’ is one of the album’s strongest and most memorable songs, a ballad of love and loss, with some very evocative lyrics. Perhaps you could link this yearning for a lost loved one to flight 123. It starts with Lindemann going into the pine forest, the last place that he saw ‘her’, the subject of the song. Evening is descending over the country and sorrow is gripping his heart as he mourns the one that he cannot live without, in a world where the birds no longer sing:

“Ich werde in die Tannen gehen
Dahin, wo ich sie zuletzt gesehen
Doch der Abend wirft ein Tuch aufs Land
Und auf die Wege hinterm Waldesrand
Und der Wald, er steht so schwarz und leer
Weh mir, oh weh
Und die Vögel singen nicht mehr…

Ohne dich kann ich nicht sein, ohne dich
Mit dir bin ich auch allein, ohne dich
Ohne dich zähl’ ich die Stunden ohne dich
Mit dir stehen die Sekunden, lohnen nicht”

The music is a beautiful repeated chord progression in minor keys and Lindemann’s lyrics complement well, painting the personal heartbreak over the sad nordic landscape.



‘Doktor’ Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz, Rammstein keyboard player describes one of the more unusual parts of the band’s stage show in his autobiographical book ‘It’s The World’s Birthday Today’:
“On the last tour, I still had to ride in the inflatable boat. I was always terrified beforehand. Now, you might be asking yourself just what I was doing in an inflatable boat, since in a concert venue there’s no water anywhere. Yes, well, as perverse as it sounds, I sail the boat over people. Or rather, sailed…” [2. P155 on] Flake goes on to trace the origins of this ‘stunt’ back to a spontaneous move on stage of a dingy used to slide large amps around, employed when the band played their song ‘Seemann’ (‘seaman’ or ‘sailor’ in English), which was one of the singles from their debut album ‘Herzeleid’. Flake was the band member chosen for this gimmick, being as he was ‘the fall guy’ and the only one who didn’t play in part of the song. During the Sehnsucht tour, during this song, Flake sat in a small inflatable boat and sailed over the crowd, who passed it around like the waves of an ocean, eventually bringing the boat back to the stage. Even after ‘Seemann’ was dropped from the live set, the stunt continued and featured in the tour for ‘Reise Reise’. 

Flake’s book tells a lot of tales of life over the years with Rammstein, sometimes humorous, in many cases uncomfortable, occasionally downright dangerous, often as a result of fate, and always adding to a richer tapestry than people might expect from what appears on the surface to be very serious music with a dark, somewhat twisted public image.

On the 16th July 2005, we were in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, to see Rammstein perform as part of a tour to promote their new album ‘Reise Reise’. The setlist was dosed heavily with material from that album:

Setlist:
Reise, Reise
Links 2-3-4
Keine Lust
Feuer frei!
Asche zu Asche
Morgenstern
Mein Teil
Stein um Stein
Los
Du riechst so gut
Benzin
Du hast
Sehnsucht
Amerika

Encore:
Rammstein
Sonne
Ich will

Encore 2:
Ohne dich
Stripped (Depeche Mode cover)

Audio recording of concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1baqgRHtVU4

It wouldn’t have been a Rammstein gig without fire and even in a venue of that size, you could feel the flames wherever you were, Till Lindemann brandishing a flamethrower and firing out over the crowd. High energy power ensued after the ‘surrogate band’ roused the audience from a stage entrance, preying on the fact that bands on large stages are faceless from a distance, with maybe a nod to Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ and their references to such in that cynical, satirical rock music opera.

It was perhaps slightly surprising that a band with such strength in their own material chose to finish the set on this tour with a cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Stripped’ from their 1986 ‘Black Celebration’ album, the original being a relatively poppy piece of electronica, albeit Depeche Mode well down a road which would take their material into darker territory. Rammstein certainly bring the darkness to the song, Till Lindemann’s creepy vocal delivery at the start heralding their familiar dance beat with chainsaw guitars: “Take my hand, come back to the land…Let me see you stripped”

More than eighteen years have passed by since ‘Reise Reise’ was released. Rammstein are still very much a going concern at the end of 2022. Their studio output has been somewhat sporadic over that time, but always worth waiting for. Four albums have ensued since: ‘Rosenrot’ in 2005, ‘Liebe ist für alle da’ in 2009, the eponymously titled ‘Rammstein’ ten years later in 2019 and ‘Zeit’ in April this year (2022). Zeit vergeht…I would recommend that you go back to relocate that particular ‘black box’, the one encased in the orange and white livery of the doomed flight 123, disobey the ‘nicht öffnen’ warning on the front and revisit an inspired recording by the pioneers of ‘Neue Deutsche Härte’. 

‘Reise Reise’ Rammstein personnel:
Till Lindemann – lead vocals
Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein  – lead guitar, backing vocals
Paul Landers – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Oliver Riedel – bass guitar
Christoph ‘Doom’ Schneider – drums
‘Doktor’ Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz – keyboards

Additional musicians
Viktoria Fersh – vocals (track 7)
Bärbel Bühler – oboe (track 10)
Michael Kaden – accordion (tracks 1, 7)
Olsen Involtini – string arrangements (tracks 9, 10)
Sven Helbig – string arrangements (tracks 1, 9), choir arrangements (tracks 2, 6, 8)
Kinderchor Canzonetta – choir (track 6)
Dresdner Kammerchor – choir (tracks 2, 6, 8), conducted by Andreas Pabst
Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg – Orchestra parts, conducted by Wolf Kerschek, coordination by Nucleus, Jens Kuphal
Köpenicker Zupforchester – Mandolin (track 10)

‘Reise Reise’
Originally released: 27th September 2004
Label: Universal
Recorded at: El Cortjo Studio, Malaga, Spain; Drums recorded at Studios 301, Stockholm, Spain
Produced by: Jacob Hellner and Rammstein
Cover art: Photography by Olaf Heine, A. Brunner, U. Kuhn; Concept and sleeve design by Plantage and Alex Brunner

‘Reise Reise’ tracklisting:
1. Reise Reise
2. Mein Teil
3. Dalai Lama
4. Keine Lust
5. Los
6. Amerika
7. Moskau
8. Morgenstern
9. Stein Um Stein
10. Ohne Dich
11. Amour

References and photographs:
1. Rammstein ‘Reise Reise’ CD (author’s own collection)
2. Flake, translated by Yarborough, M. (2020). ‘It’s The World’s Birthday Today’. Los Angeles: Rare Bird Books.

3. ‘White, J. (2011) ‘Little Black Rammbook’. Oxon: Diamond Distinction.
4. Rammstein live at the SECC, Glasgow, 16th July 2005 – setlist:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rammstein/2005/scottish-exhibition-and-conference-centre-glasgow-scotland-2bdfac06.html
5. Japan Airlines flight 123: https://www.britannica.com/event/Mount-Osutaka-airline-disaster
6. Japan Airlines flight 123: https://smisnta.blogspot.com/2021/06/japan-airlines-flight-123-latroce-sorte.html
7. Rammstein Los lyric with English translation – Affenknecht

R is for…Rainbow! ‘Rising’

In ‘Smoke On The Water’, his book on Deep Purple, Dave Thompson describes the background to the formation of Rainbow in a chapter titled ‘A Rainbow After The Storm’. In 1974, the ‘Mark III’ line-up of Deep Purple released two studio albums, ‘Burn’ and ‘Stormbringer’. Interviewed backstage after a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon in May of that year, Ritchie Blackmore expressed his discontent at the pressure being put on the band to release material and the lack of any break in a touring schedule. The support for Purple on the tour at the time were a US band called Elf, fronted by a certain Ronnie James Dio, who would be key to Blackmore’s next career move. Dio remarked that Blackmore liked Elf’s ‘devil-may-care’ attitude, in contrast to what he felt was a lack of fun in the Purple camp. Blackmore was also allegedly incensed that other Purple members vetoed his idea of covering songs by Quatermass and The Yardbirds, tunes he would succeed in recording with his new outfit. Purple singer David Coverdale could not be persuaded by Blackmore to change his lyrical focus from rock’n’roll relationships and lifestyle to more literary, fantastical and historical imagery. All of these issues fuelled Ritchie Blackmore’s quest for change, leading him to leaving Deep Purple in 1975, playing his last show with the band on 7th April at the Paris Parlay de Sports. [2.]

Rainbow, the name Blackmore gave to his new band, had all the connotations of a new start, vivid colours appearing for the man in black as he left the storms of the past behind and the sun shone on his new venture. Originally called ‘Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow’, to let the public know it was indeed he at the helm, the famed lead guitarist of the ‘classic’ Deep Purple line-up, the band’s first album featured Blackmore with most of the members of blues-rock band Elf, fronted by Ronnie James Dio, who had supported Purple on tour. Starting with the now classic ‘Man On The Silver Mountain, the debut also included gems ‘Temple Of The King’ and ‘Catch The Rainbow’, which would become a lengthy live piece. 

Never content with the musical personnel who joined him, Blackmore rang the changes after the debut. The lineup on second album Rainbow ‘Rising’ was a ‘supergroup’ of sorts: Joining Blackmore and Dio were Cozy Powell on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass and Tony Carey on keyboards. Englishman Powell, aka Colin Flooks, had spent the early seventies playing with The Jeff Beck Group, a short lived band called Bedlam and his own outfit, Cozy Powell’s Hammer. He’d even scored a ‘solo’ hit with single ‘Dance With The Devil’, a drum-powered instrumental based around the melody from Jimi Hendrix’ ‘Third Stone From The Sun’. Bain, born in Scotland, had had ventured to Canada, played in bands Street Noise and Harlot and was spotted live in London by Blackmor, which resulted in him being asked to join Rainbow. US-born Tony Carey had limited experience, allegedly heard by Blackmore whilst recording a debut album with his band Blessings in an adjoining studio to where the guitarist was at work…

Dio wrote all the lyrics on this release and that is one aspect that distances Rainbow from Deep Purple, with subject matter more ethereal and taking us into the realms of fantasy. The fantasy tabletop game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ was first published in 1974 and the ‘D&D’ moniker is one that would be used when describing music which drew on the likes of medieval history and fantasy literature, such inspiration spawning many subgenres in the folk and metal canons in years to come.

Having read the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Arthurian tales and science fiction when he was a youngster, Dio had already incorporated elements of these writings into his lyrics for Elf and would progress these themes through Rainbow, Black Sabbath mark two and Dio, the band he would form in 1982.

 
The Rainbow ‘Rising’ album is only 33 minutes and 28 seconds long, short even by the standards of the time, in the era of black vinyl records, and extremely so when compared to the digital albums of today. The quality is however high, the record showcasing the epic ‘Stargazer’, the most precious jewel in this crown. Throughout, the playing is top notch and Dio, as with all his work, never gives less than 110% in his vocal performance.

Opening track ‘Tarot Woman’ tells the story of a man who doesn’t want to have his fortune read but ‘traces in the sand’ and lines on his hand lead him to change his mind.

The chorus is uplifting, with a hint of menace:
“Beware of a place
A smile on a bright shining face
I’ll never return, how do you know?
Tarot woman
I don’t know…”

The imagery is from the funfair with a carousel and of course the fortune teller’s tent. Romany culture and cliche is a much-referenced subject in rock’n’roll, from Allen Tousaint’s oft-covered 1962 tune ‘Fortune Teller’, to Jimi Hendrix’ ‘Gypsy Eyes’. Hard rockers Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep both released songs called ‘Gypsy’ and Blackmore’s former band Deep Purple included ‘The Gypsy’ on their 1974 ‘Stormbringer’ album. The circus and the carnival have also inspired many a tune over the years, and there seems to be a deep fascination with what may be gleaned about the future from looking into a crystal ball or reading tealeaves…

Likely inspired and drawn from traditional stories in folklore, wolves are another subject common in rock and metal. Metallica explored the theme in their song ‘Of Wolf And Man’ on ‘the black album’, drawing out the key elements of the connotation, that man has lost his wild spirit, tamed by modern life, and needs to ‘get back to the meaning of life’. Dio’s take in second track ‘Run With The Wolf’ seems to be tribal, with those who are ready for the life change being taken by the wild ones like some kind of initiation ceremony:

“In the light of the day
You can hear the old ones say
Was the sound last night the wind?
Can you feel the change begin?”

It does however go further than folklore, perhaps into the realms of horror, a genre where werewolves are in abundance, as the chosen people are snatched through a ‘hole in the sky’ by ‘something evil passing by’…later through the ground opening up or dragged down in the ‘swirling waters’.

In any event, it’s another catchy and powerful piece, driven by an insistent Blackmore riff and Powell’s drum march, cymbals accenting Dio’s words in call and response mode. 

‘Starstruck’ keeps the hooks coming, starting with a keyboard figure by Tony Carey, punctuated by the rythmn section until a turnaround takes us into the song:

“If I’m high on a hill
She’d still been looking down at me
What does she see that brings her closer every day to my heart”

The theme here is a woman chasing a celebrity, and it’s unrequited, the said star deeming her ‘nothing but bad luck’, but there is no escape, as she will always find her prey. It’s a tune with an upbeat feel, despite the ‘stalking’ theme!

In my opinion, ‘Do Your Close Your Eyes’, the Side One closer, is the weakest link on the album, not so much musically but lyrically. It has a recognisable, memorable, riff but the repetitive lyrics are a bit of a letdown compared to the preceding songs, with their fantastic, at times mystical, imagery, and the inspired material on Side Two. That said, Dio is convincing in being interested in solving that particular mystery, to find out whether the subject of his desires closes their eyes when making love to him. I suppose that’s a lyrical tack you’d expect from David Coverdale, and perhaps something more fantasy-based would have slotted in better on this record.



A dynamic drum solo by Cozy Powell with swirling effects introduces Side Two of the LP, and ‘Stargazer‘ as the main event, an epic piece of eight minutes and twenty-six seconds duration. The band’s talents gel here in wondrous fashion, the result a recording which sits at the top of Rainbow’s canon. After the intro, the majestic main riff kicks in, Powell’s thunderous drumming and Bain’s bass driving the relatively slow and powerful groove in E minor, allowing Blackmore and Carey to stretch out, creating a mystical sonic landscape with eastern influence, a perfect backdrop for Dio to sing his lyrical imagery over:

“High noon, oh I’d sell my soul for water
Nine years worth of breakin’ my back
There’s no sun in the shadow of the wizard
See how he glides, why he’s lighter than air?
Oh I see his face!”

As with many of the band’s tunes, there’s a repeated vocal hook, on this tune a long piece delivered strongly by Dio, and giving him the material to ad lib on the themes later in the song:

“Where is your star?
Is it far, is it far, is it far?
When do we leave?
I believe, yes, I believe”

“In heat and rain
With the whips and chains
To see him fly
So many died
We built a tower of stone
With our flesh and bone
To see him fly”

In his ad-libbing towards the end of the song, Dio namechecks the album title: “I see a rainbow rising, look back on the horizon” – Was the album named after this line or did the singer incorporate the line in the album’s ‘signature’ tune? 

Perhaps poignant in the Rainbow context, album closer ‘A Light In The Black’ is about spending life serving someone else’s vision, something likely to be familiar to musicians working under Ritchie Blackmore’s band leadership:

“All my life it seems
Just a crazy dream
Reaching for somebody’s star”

There is however opportunity to forge your own path, as the optimism in the song reflects its title:

“Like an open door
That you’ve passed before
But you’ve never had the key
Something’s calling me back
There’s a light in the black
Am I ready to go?
I’m coming home, I’m coming home, yeah
I’m going back to my home”

It’s an uptempo, high energy rocker which serves as a perfect ending to a great record. Perhaps taking heed of the lyrics, all the musicians would go on to create their own niche in the musical world. 

‘Rising’ was to be the only album with this line-up. Dio, Blackmore and Powell went on to make one more Rainbow album together, 1978’s ‘Long Live Rock’n’Roll’, with Bob Daisley replacing Jimmy Bain on bass. Blackmore kept the band going, recording with various lineups through the years until the mid 1990s, achieving significant commercial success, but, in my humble opinion, never equalling the quality of the music on their first three studio albums. Jimmy Bain formed Wild Horses with Brian Robertson, who were moderately successful, sustaining a rock career throughout his life, spending many years with Dio, playing on Phil Lynott’s solo albums, amongst others. Cozy Powell went on to play with a number of top rock bands, including Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and The Michael Schenker Group, until his untimely death at 50 years old in a motorcycle accident in 1998. Ronnie James Dio forged a metal path with his own band Dio and and notably fronted the second incarnation of Black Sabbath. Tony Carey is still in the music business, having pursued a solo career after leaving Rainbow, also becoming a successful producer and composer of film soundtracks. Ritchie Blackmore spent many years away from the metal and rock universe, playing various acoustic instruments in Blackmore’s Night,  the folk group he formed with his American wife Candice Night, still active at the time of writing. The guitarist ‘reformed’ Rainbow in 2016 with a new lineup, playing archive Deep Purple and Rainbow material over a few years.

‘Rising’ personnel:

Bass: Jimmy Bain
Guitar: Ritchie Blackmore
Keyboards: Tony Carey
Vocals: Ronnie James Dio
Drums: Cozy Powell

Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted and scored by Rainer Pietsch

Music Written and Arranged: Blackmore/Dio
Lyrics: Ronnie James Dio

‘Rising’’
Originally released: 17th May 1976
Label: Polydor

Recorded at: Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany, February 1976
Produced by: Martin Birch
Cover painting: Ken Kelley
Art Direction and Photography: Fin Costello

‘Rising’ tracklisting:

Side One
Tarot Woman (5:58)
Run With The Wolf (3:48)
Starstruck (4:06)
Do You Close Your Eyes (2:58)

Side Two
Stargazer (8:26)
A Light In The Black (8:12)

References and photographs:
1. Rainbow ‘Rising’ LP and CD (author’s own collection)
2. Thompson, D. (2013). ‘Smoke On The Water – The Deep Purple Story’. Toronto: ECW.
3. Frame, P. (1993). ‘Rock Family Trees’. London: Omnibus Press.