There's a new program on ABC television
(the Australian channel!) called
'Take 5', based on a podcast series by host Zan Rowe, inspired by her original radio segment of the same name, where she asks various musicians & other well-known people what 5 songs are most important to them or represent life-changing events...
I'm never going to be famous enough to be on the show, but I love this kind of thing - being a bit of a music fan, so here's version 1 of 5 songs that have meant something to me over the last 50 years or so...
'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' - the Beatles: One of the first songs I can remember hearing as a child - my Father used to play the Abbey Road & Sgt Pepper's albums a
lot, along with other interesting things like the Electric Prunes &
'In A Gadda Da Vida' by Iron Butterfly, as well as Pink Floyd's Relics album - a collection of songs & singles from the Syd Barrett era. But even though 'I Want You...' has a kind of scary ending when you're 4-5yrs old, with that Moog synthesiser storm drowning out the music, I was still kind of fascinated & would always sit & listen when Father would put it on. It's still my favourite track on that album, along with
'She's Leaving Home' from Sgt Pepper's, so I have a foot firmly planted in both the Lennon & McCartney camps. In the mid-70s there was a new radio station
2JJ that used to regularly trot out obscure
(to me, certainly & to most Australians at that time too, I'd say) & esoteric things like 'Roundabout' & 'Close To The Edge' by Yes, 'Autobahn' & 'The Model' by Kraftwerk & on one memorably long occasion, the entire 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' album by Genesis. All that 60s-70s sonic experimentation would obviously have an influence on my first band 12 years later...
'This Is Tomorrow' - Bryan Ferry: The lead single from his 'In Your Mind' album, which was the first record I 'bought' - though really it was the first record I actually requested be bought for me, as opposed to always getting those hit parade compilation albums. In hindsight, I may have actually wanted the
'Let's Stick Together' album, released about a year before, as the video for its title song had made quite an impression on me, with Jerry Hall slinking around her then boyfriend Bryan in a gold lamé dress & guitarist Chris Spedding all in leather, portraying the epitome of 'cool guitarist'. I ended up getting that album not long after as my 2nd album I 'bought'. But the 'In Your Mind' album, while less immediately appealing as its precursor, has some great stuff on there beyond 'This Is Tomorrow'
(which I used to play in one of many covers bands in the 80s-90s), including the epic 'Love Me Madly', which became my favourite track on the album & probably still is. It was through both these albums that I discovered Roxy Music, through which I learned about Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera & the myriad side projects of the band, which included
'The Rock Follies' - a UK series that launched the careers of Julie Covington, Rula Lenska & others, featuring music by Andy Mckay of Roxy Music
Heroes' - David Bowie: The first song of Bowie's I really remember hearing. Living in Australia in the 70s, Bowie's whole Ziggy/Thin White Duke progression hadn't troubled the local radio stations at all - I don't even remember any of it on 2JJ, so I assumed at the time, this song was his follow-up to 'Space Oddity', which was the only other Bowie song I'd heard... When the video for this song was first played on 'Countdown'
(the Australian equivalent of the UK's 'Top Of The Pops', only less formulaic & professional & more anarchic & interesting), I was hooked, not only by Bowie's performance, but by the otherworldly music. When Father bought the album, I found at least one familiar name in its credits - Brian Eno, but was wholly captivated by the guitar work of Robert Fripp. A few years later, when I used to save my lunch money all week to buy records instead, I picked up several Brian Eno albums that also had Robert Fripp on them & decided to investigate this guy a bit more. Which led me to...
'Waiting Man' - King Crimson: Though it was probably 'Neal & Jack & Me', the opening track on the 'Beat' album, which was the first time I heard the band & was instantly smitten, why let the truth get in the way of a good story & besides, it's certainly 'Waiting Man' that has stuck with me in more ways than just a username - it opened & twisted my mind regarding what music could be. It was around this time that I met my longest-standing musical partner, the other Pelican Daughter, at my high school. We were introduced by a mutual friend because we were both into that 'weird' music. He introduced me to a swathe of British bands I'd never heard, or heard of & also to the nascent Industrial/Experimental works of bands like Australia's SPK & Severed Heads, the pan-Atlantic Throbbing Gristle & European outfits like Liaisons Dangereuses, Nocturnal Emissions &
Einstürzende Neubauten. Marrying all these new sounds & approaches with my love of King Crimson & Eno's minimalist albums 'Before & After Science' & 'Another Green World'
(both featuring a certain R. Fripp), my mind was set on the kind of music I wanted to make. In a sign of both the times & how isolated Australia is, it was only in the late 90s
(long before YouTube!!!) that I saw my first video footage of King Crimson in concert & their opening song was
'Waiting Man'. Finally I could see how they made all those wonderful sounds & found out what a Chapman Stick was... & how Tony Levin was playing a lot of things on it I'd assumed were guitars. And speaking of guitars...
'Have You Ever Loved A Woman' - Derek & The Dominos: Truth be told, I can't remember the first time I heard Eric Clapton & he awoke an overwhelming desire to play guitar like THAT!! So I'll pick this track for 2 reasons - it has what I still consider to be his best guitar solo on it & it also features Duane Allman - no slouch in the guitar stakes himself - Before that unknown transformative Clapton song, I was a lacklustre & lackadaisical piano player, being forced to go through the grades playing classical pieces I had no interest in - I wanted to play like Jerry Lee Lewis &
Dr John, not Richard Clayderman!! Soon I'd laid hands on first an acoustic guitar, then an electric one
(thanks Stuart, I'll never forget!!) & was buying up Blues & Jazz albums like a teenager possessed & learning to play along. This also led me to the Rolling Stones & then the glam/r&b/rock bands of the 70s, mostly because it was all blues-based, but being in a band that played
'Ballroom Blitz' was much more fun than yet another staid & earnest version of 'Ramblin' On My Mind'... & people used to dance!! To this day, I have 2 different approaches to the guitar & to music in general - the 'player' side & the experimental 'tone generator' side. I've played in many bands & projects using one or the other, but my only 2 attempts to have a band that allowed me to use both, ended in indifference & failure. Maybe one day... or maybe not!!
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