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A Song For One and A Song For Two, Too
by Jordan

John Fahey - "When The Springtime Comes Again"

John Fahey's project was not to unite classical guitar playing with American roots music, rather, that union was one of many ingenious tools he devised in his tireless and brave efforts to realize and perfect his own unique aesthetic.

Fahey started recording music near the end of John Coltrane's life, and, perhaps, there was a cosmic purpose for that. Most restless artists are untrustworthy; they'll take as many steps in the wrong direction as in the right one. But Fahey, like Coltrane, pushed, approached from different angles, increasingly oblique angles, but always successfully, without exception, brilliantly. Don't be afraid of a John Fahey Christmas album. Listen to it. He knows what is good in a very deep way.

"When The Springtime Comes Again" is simultaneously a Bach Concerto, a Joplin rag, and a Spanish folk song. But it transcends all classification when, at 2:33, (the bass note missed slightly) the mist clears away and we're left with a bright cold day. What was merely lovely and impressive starts to ache. His syncopated playing presents a question. What now? This is what we've been waiting for, but what now? The question is repeated until it becomes its own answer, until it is no longer asked, but asserted confidently. And then we start again. It is the springtime after all, and what should we do in the springtime, if not start again. [Buy]

***

Al Green - "Simply Beautiful"

Shhh. All right.

"Simply Beautiful" is an unfocussed, unstructured self-directed monologue on love. Green is organizing his thoughts, getting ready to discuss his situation, maybe call his girl, maybe write a song about it. His attempts at expressing his feelings in words are abortive, he often resorts to 'mmm's and 'aaah's, 'baby'. His words fail him again and again:

"What about the way you love me and... the way you love me"

"When you get right down to it..."

What? He doesn't know. There are no words.

Finally, he's so emotional, so overcome by the power of his love that he's ready to talk, ready for his song to start. He squeals, "When you feel the love..." (the drums come in (you thought the song was over, but it's just beginning)) "all you've got to do is call me."

"There are so many good things I could say about you, girl. I could say that you really, really..."

And he's said it all. [Buy]

10:38 PM on Sep 23, 2004.
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Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
by Jordan

Genesis - "Back In New York City"

I'm not going to claim that Genesis is a popular band, or that the majority (or a large minority, for that matter) of you will like this song, but can we all please set aside our petty biases and misguided opinions for one moment and admit that this shit is objectively awesome.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is a concept double album chronicling a young man's search for self (the plot is a bizarre, semi-religious contrivance, peripherally involving Marshall McLuhan). In this installment, the protagonist gets involved in a gang and explores the seedy underbelly of New York City. He then - and this is to be taken literally - cuddles a porcupine to sleep while lamenting that his hairy heart is getting in the way of his romantic pursuits. You will be relieved to find out that, over the course of the next two songs, his heart is removed, shaved and replaced and, consequently, he is able to (and with panache) lose his virginity.

O.K., so that's ridiculous. But they really mean it, and they sure can play. Peter Gabriel sings with a growl, the vitality of violent youth. Tony Banks (keyboards) and Phil Collins (drums (Phil Collins!)) propel, stop, backtrack, change often and without warning. In high school, my friends and I would drive around listening to this album, embarrassingly playing air-keyboards every time Banks let loose (have I said too much?).

Genesis, while adhering to every laughable prog stereotype (epic songs, wild time signatures, general showing off, magical and otherworldly subject matter (wizards, enchanted forests, special doctors, etc.)), manage to do so while still making actual a unique and integral artistic vision. Feeling skeptical? I myself am dubious. But does my bravado shake your confidence? I need only reach one uninitiated soul. [Buy]

***

Destroyer - "I Want This Cyclops"

This song contains the word 'cyclops' as well as the word 'sasquatch'. "What could be bad?," as my grandmother used to say.

"I Want This Cyclops" is a lazy, distracted walk away from the listener. The vocal and snare drum look back over their shoulders, whispering to us, increasingly insistent, ?imagine it?. Until they finally turn away for good and the eager but narcoleptic horns take over.

I picture a field and heavy flannel, a three sided barn, but I don?t require you to think of the same things. Think what you want.

Does this song make you like me again? [Buy]

9:44 PM on Sep 22, 2004.
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The Love Song
by Jordan

John Coltrane - "Acknowledgment (A Love Supreme)"

During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. - From the liner notes

"Acknowledgment" is a description of Coltrane's "spiritual awakening". At first there is serenity; simply an acknowledgment of newness. And then the substance of the realization is hinted at by Jimmy Garrison's bass line. Elvin Jones surrounds the band with his ride cymbal and snare, and gets under them with his toms and bass drum. Coltrane's playing is too bright for McCoy Tyner, so he looks away, occasionally turning back towards the piano to throw in his delicately timed and harmonically complex chords. Coltrane hurts, but blows through it, occasionally overblowing slightly, losing control. And then he puts into words what Garrison's been steadfastly playing throughout, that this is a love supreme.

Even more than a love song to god, A Love Supreme is also a tribute to music's capacity to express that love. [Buy]

***

John Ellison - "Lost The Will To Live"

This is a different kind of love song and a classic of Philadelphia soul. Ellison?s lyrics are an unabashed testament to the destructive power of love lost. Since his girlfriend left him, he?s stopped eating, he can?t go outside for fear of a public outburst of weeping, and he is utterly convinced that he will be ?taken away? (to an asylum?). He can?t even make it through the song without breaking down and crying in harmony with the organ , begging alongside the desperate guitar.

The horn section, like those two bad dudes from the Muppet Show peanut gallery, comments throughout: ?It?s true. He?s in real bad shape.?

Take joy in his suffering. [Buy]

11:36 PM on Sep 21, 2004.
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Talking Heads and Wooden Stars
by Jordan

I'm Jordan Himelfarb and I will be taking care of Said The Gramophone for the next several months.

Is everything working?

Sean had to teach me how to use a computer last week, so that I would be able to do this. I don't want to speak for Sean, but I think it's safe to say that we were both shocked by my general ineptitude in the operation of the ordinateur.

If anyone notices any technical problems, please let me know and I will have one of my many capable friends (Dan Beirne) fix it.

There is also another area in which I hope that you, Sean's readers, will help me. Over the course of this week I'm going to post ten songs which hopefully will communicate my background as a music listener and the breadth of my taste. You might notice two things:

1) That it seems that many of these songs are not commiserate with Sean's taste; and
2) That most of these songs are old.

After this week I plan to keep as in line as possible with what I think Sean would like, while still only writing about songs I love. I also plan to post as many new songs as old ones, and it is in this respect that I hope you will help. I know significantly less contemporary music than Sean does and most new artists who excite me, I either found out about through (Joanna Newsom) or love slightly less than (The Arcade Fire) Sean. So, if you would like to hear more contemporary indie rock and less free-jazz and prog-rock, then I urge you to send me good songs. I'm excited about this aspect of the job, for despite my various incompetencies and lacunas of knowledge, I do love music. I spend a good part of my days playing, listening to, thinking and writing about music.

Talking Heads - "Stay Hungry"

Last night I dreamt that my friend Zach was telling me that the lyrics I write are "moronic." He used that word. It cut real deep. In my elaborate (and highly articulate) defence I referred to the lyrics of David Byrne and the power of this invocation was such that Zach immediately abandoned his position and my words were vindicated. Byrne's lyrics, grounded in mundane everyday life, obliquely hint at something more. Even if we can't agree on an interpretation, we all feel it (don't we?).

Stay Hungry may be more disco than is representative of the Talking Heads' oeuvre, but when, at 1:56, Brian Eno's impressionistic keyboard line emerges from the dueling disco guitars, it brings with it a perfect example of an obscure Byrne lyric. My friend Joel (typically)
is convinced the song is about sex.

Here's that rhythm again
Here's my shoulder blade
Here's the sound I made
Here's the picture I saved

Like a strobe lit memory of a sexual encounter. He actually seems kind of bashful about the picture he saved. [buy]

Wooden Stars - "Baby Barn"

If at first you think Baby Barn is ugly, listen closer. The verse is taut contained energy with electric guitars providing a clunky metallic framework busting open suddenly into the quickly ascending, surprisingly tender and even more surprisingly catchy chorus.

This song is from the Wooden Stars' first album, The Very Same. Though possibly harder to get into than subsequent albums, their debut is their most rewarding. Throughout The Very Same, the Stars do what they do best; berate us with an onslaught of nearly falling apart instruments and clumsy words and just when we're most confused, they reveal the answer which was submerged just beneath the surface the whole time: a gossamer image ("I can see your breath") and a clear melody.

Notably, I think they were, like, six years old when they recorded this (or, at least really young), adding a certain precocity to their question "How can I reconcile myself to die?" [order from label]

I, like the rest of you, will be missing Sean's writing and sage advice. I hope to provide something of the same service. Any advice at all would be much appreciated.

I would also like to thank Sean for this opportunity. In addition to having had the pleasure of reading his writing every day, I've been lucky enough to have him as a friend and worthy Scrabble opponent. Both he and his trusty traveling companion will be missed.

9:29 PM on Sep 20, 2004.
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