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Go Team Go!
by Jordan
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.
Burning Spear - "Down By The Riverside" Today, as a birthday present, my friend Kyle gave me the complete Studio One Burning Spear recordings. It was an impulse purchase, based on the front cover: a picture of Burning Spear looking straight ahead, his eyes smouldering, burning his pain into us, hotter than the serene sun setting behind his left shoulder. He is playing an ancient-looking guitar, dwarfed by his impressive, confident hands. And, man, the music is so hot. It's intimate to the point of inducing claustrophobia. This gut-wrenching soul reggae, although for the most part concerned with Jamaican politics and the living of a righteous Rastafarian life, is astoundingly expressive of a broad range of human emotion, from desperate depression to manic joy. "Down By The Riverside" is the intoxication of new love and the fragility and vulnerability that comes with it. A guitar plays the steady familiar reggae rhythm. The organ sings the newborn connection. And the muted lead guitar line is the ecstatic beating heart of Burning Spear. He pulls his love into him and points to the beating heart: "Don't break this heart that loves you." The heart is not within his control. It loves without his permission. And so he pleads. Not only an acknowledgement of love, it's an expression of his complete vulnerability. It is with the same passion and focus that he sings of Jah and of Jamaica.
Arthur Lee was (and is still) a true pop auteur: the intricacy of his arrangements and the full realization of his vision are here to be heard on "Alone Again Or." The sunny folk of the acoustic guitar, the Spanish tinged solo and trumpet, the restraint of the ascending strings and the seamless vocal harmonies all combine to create a piece of elegant, transparent pop. Lee puts on a songwriting clinic in Forever Changes. Nothing is out of place. It is a truly ambitious and ingeniously constructed record. Love was unjustly overshadowed by their California psych-pop rivals, the Byrds (as great as they are, is there not room for two genius jangle bands?). Posted by Jordan at November 25, 2004 1:44 AMComments
Same URL problem that plagued you yesterday, dude. Posted by Brian Nicholson at November 25, 2004 1:46 AMNow fixed. Posted by Brian Nicholson at November 25, 2004 3:11 AMEven you, Jordan, could not convert me to Love. There is...something leaden and haughty about *that* famous album. Maybe I've tasted too much BeachBoys honey-coated gorgeous pop to like this... but hey that's just me. I love you for picking Alone Again Or, but (isn't there always a but?) it's one of the only songs on the album not written by Arthur Lee. Bryan MacLean is the man responsible for what is certainly my favourite track off 'forever changes', though liner notes do suggest that Arthur Lee did the harmonies believing that MacLean's voice wasn't up to the task. Posted by kieran at November 25, 2004 7:06 AMMac Lean makes a "cover" of this track on one of his solo album ... He was supposed to sing the main lines and Arthur Lee to do the back-up vocals, but as the story goes he was so high during recording that he could not reach the higher notes. what we hear on the track is thus what was supposed to be the backing vocals as Mac lean's part was deleted by Lee ... Posted by garrincha at November 25, 2004 8:49 AMhi jordy! im interne-stalking you! anyway, have you heard the calexico cover of "alone again or"? it's really good. Posted by claire at November 26, 2004 12:03 AMooh, I would love to hear that Calexico version. Posted by rodii at November 26, 2004 12:55 PMyou know what's totally weird. after the Fairport Convention song was posted I was totally thinking "man they should really post a Love song" and then Bam! My wish was granted... Posted by Alex at November 26, 2004 2:20 PMOh my. I got a chance to see Arthur Lee last year with the Brian Jonestown Massacre... I swear I was the youngest person there. I didn't even know who he was when I showed up (my friend told me to go), and was floored. Though, they played for about 2.5 hours and I got damn tired by the end of the show. Posted by eric at November 26, 2004 11:58 PMPost a comment |
 about said the gramophone
this is a daily sampler of really good songs. all tracks are posted out of love. please go out and buy the records!
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all songs are removed within a week or two of posting. said the gramophone launched in march 2003, and added songs in november of that year. it was one of the world's very first mp3blogs. if you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch: montreal, canada: sean toronto, canada: jordan montreal, canada: dan please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, use a service like MailBigFile. if you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. please do not direct link to any of these tracks. please love and wonder. "and i shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and i will never grow so old again." we are a member of MBV.
about the authors
Sean Michaels lives in Montreal, where he is writing a novel. His work also occasionally appears at McSweeney's. Follow him on Twitter or reach him here.
Dan Beirne is an actor and writer living in Montreal. He writes fiction fiction fiction on here. It may feel true, but it is never True. He is most proud of his most recent project The Bitter End. Email him here Jordan Himelfarb lives in Toronto, where he is editor in chief of The Mark. Jordan's posts appear at Said the Gramophone only on the last Wednesday of every month. Email him here. Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by . 
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