Back in the Box

Back in the Box, David Byrne, 1994

After the breakup of Talking Heads, David Byrne pursued his interest in world music in a serious way. He founded a record label, Luaka Bop, for the purpose of showcasing world artists. One famous act signed to Luaka Bop is Zap Mama. During the 80s Byrne also recorded a series of solos albums experimenting with a variety of genres from Afrobeat to salsa to  mambo and anywhere in between, all the while still sounding distinctly like David Byrne. Released in 1994 the album David Byrne is a return to a more familiar pop style, including on this song, lots of electronic beeps and bubbles.

Back in Judy’s Jungle

That’s Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno to you, mister.

This is from Eno’s second solo album, Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) released 1974. When I attempted to purchase this album on Amazon a few years ago I recieved something unexpected. It was Taking Tiger Mountain all right. Only it wasn’t Brian Eno. It was the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra and included tracks with titles along the lines of The Happy Worker Returns From the Fields. It wasn’t exactly bad, but I had to send it back. As it turned out, I had erronously purchased the original Taking Tiger Mountain, which was a ‘model play’ glorifying the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Brian Eno had taken inspiration from a series of notecards of the opera.

Back Door Man

When you think that the Doors were one of the most iconic groups of the sixties it’s surprising that they are not more widely copied. Think about it – how many bands slavishly ape the Beatles? How many bands emulate the Rolling Stones? But how many bands sound like the Doors? No one sounds like the Doors. Especially considering that the Doors were also relatively understaffed. They were a working band with only three functional musicians. Jim couldn’t even master the harmonica.

 Back Door Man was written by Willie Dixon and originally performed by Howlin’ Wolf. The term back-door man refers to the lover leaving through the back before the husband returns through the front. Or alternately, someone who enjoys sodomy.  Here we have two live performances of the song, one early and one from a later date. In the early clip, there’s nothing left of the original song but the backbeat, as Jim Morrison imrovises verses. Jim had many deep ideas about the spiritual power of the shaman, and he saw himself as a kind of shaman liberating the minds of his audience. And he was successful in this, appearing as a magnetic, magical figure. In the second clip, Jim sticks to the original lyrics and the effect is considerably less transfixing. After years of pursuing chemical paths to ecstasy, Jim’s body was beginning to suffer. He had terrible mood swings. He gained weight. He felt trapped and frustrated in his role of rock star. He grew a beard and resembled a cleaner Charles Manson. On an ironic note, let’s discuss Jim’s hair. Jim did not cut his own hair. In fact his famous hair was specifically styled to resemble Alexander the Great’s. By none other than celebrity stylist Jay Sebring, who was very very unfortunate to have been in love with Sharon Tate.

Back Door Angels

Back Door Angels, Jethro Tull, War Child, 1974

I have no idea what this song is about…

In and out of the front door, ran twelve back-door angels.
Their hair was a golden-brown —
they didn’t see me wink my eye.
`Tis said they put we men to sleep with just a whisper,
And touch the heads of dying dogs — and make them linger.
They carry their candles high — and they light the dark hours.
And sweep all the country clean with pressed and scented wild-flowers.
They grow all their roses red, and paint our skies blue —
drop one penny in every second bowl —
make half the beggars lose,
why do the faithful have such a will to believe in something?
And call it the name they choose,
having chosen nothing.
Think I’ll sit down and invent some fool —
some Grand Court Jester.
And next time the die is cast, he’ll throw a six or two.
In and out of the back-door, ran one front-door angel,
Her hair was a golden-brown —
she smiled and I think she winked her eye.

Babylon Sisters

Babylon Sisters, Steely Dan, Gaucho, 1980

Gaucho was for a long time Steely Dan’s last album, until their reuinion in 2000. As other Steely Dan albums it is a showcase of virtuoso musicianship from all participants.

Babylon

Babylon, Don McLean, American Pie, 1971

Rock may be ‘the devil’s music’, but it is also an omniglot absorbing ideas wherever they can be found. That is how rock fans find themselves humming along to Biblical passages. This, for example is an adaptation of Psalm 137.  The Babylon refered to in this case is not metaphorical, but the actual Babylonian empire, invaders of Jerusalem. The pined for Zion is the Jewish homeland. The terms Zion and Babylon later became popular themes in Reggae music as well.

Baby’s On Fire

Baby’s On Fire, Brian Eno, Here Come the Warm Jets, 1973.

Here Come the Warm Jets was Eno’s first solo album after ditching Roxy Music. It set the standard for a string of similarly quirky yet melodic pop albums. The Eno embraced ambient music, music for airports, electronic experimantation and otherwise instrumental ventures. I recently downloaded what feel like the complete Brian Eno discography, but probably isn’t. His song-based albums are but a small fraction of his total output. I don’t know when and how I’ll listen to it all or if I even need to.

I’ve also included a clip from Todd Haynes awesome 1998 movie Velvet Goldmine. The film is a very thinly fictionalized dramatization of David Bowie’s early career, starring the very hot Jonathan Rhys Myers as ‘Bowie’ and the also very hot Ewan McGregor as a sort of all purpose Iggy Pop/Lou Reed/Mick Ronson/Mick Jagger figure. Haynes could not secure the rights to use any of Bowie’s music, so he used the music of his closest contemporaries. It’s a bit silly, but also sexy and appropriately glam. Great fashions abound!

Baby’s In Black

The Beatles For Sale was their fourth studio album, and from the title to the contents it reflected the boys’ weariness with the fame machine. Aside from constand touring, promotion, and endless harassment by crazed fans, The Beatles were also working nonstop writing and recording. The demand for fresh material was constant. At the time, bands were expected to churn out new singles every few months. The Beatles put out an average of two albums a year throughout their brief career. They put out 12 albums between 1963 and 1970. This was a typical workpace for a popular band. Today, even an in-demand artist can wait several years between albums, raking in cash from royalties, side projects, and liscensing their names. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, The Beatles and their peers did not have the luxury of marketing their own energy drinks, nor were they invited to ‘design’ lines of clothing, ‘produce’ perfume or sell pictures of their newborns.

Oh, and enjoy Paul McCartney’s amazing public speaking skillz!

Books: More Women’s Issues

I’ve been educating myself about all kinds of cultural issues, and one of them is the proliferation of pornography. As you may have noticed, our culture has grown to accept something that used to be considered shameful. Today mainstream magazines of all stripes routinely flaunt cover images of semi-nude women in provocative poses, thong underwear is marketed to pre-adolescent girls, and the ambitious but untalented can parlay a sex video ‘leak’ into worldwide fame. Is this good or bad? Is pornography empowering or degrading?

Pamela Paul doesn’t have an agenda. Her viewpoint is neither religious or political. She merely tries to tally the effects of pornography by interviewing its consumers. While Paul does make some interesting observations, in the end her book comes as less than revelatory. For one, Paul devotes much page space to answering the question ‘why is pornography so popular?’ Now, you don’t need a Phd to answer that one. Pornography is increasingly popular because it’s fun, it’s freely available online, and it allows users to vicariously enjoy things that would be off the menu in real life. The interviews with heavy users, are mildy enlightening but soon grow repetitive. It’s no secret that most boys (and girls) get their first taste of porn from older siblings, friends and sneaky-peeks at their fathers’ stash. It’s also no surprise that many men become compulsive users and often lose touch with reality, becoming alienated from their real life relationships. Then there’s the earth-shattering revelation that the majority of users are male, and that men weaned during the internet age are particularly heavy users.  There’s plenty of statistics about the high number of users. Paul finds it disturbing that porn addiction is not uncommon, and can be debilitating. However none of this comes as any surprise. Paul deliberately avoids discussing the greater evils occuring on the production end of the porn spectrum. While it is unfortunate that watching large doses of porn can negatively affect a man’s perception of normal sexual behavior that is hardly a crisis. This book ignores the very real crisis that while a select few porn stars do amass great personal wealth and widespread fame, a large bulk of performers in the industry suffer abuse and coercion. The link between the tidal wave of porngraphy and the problem of human trafficing and prostitution is undeclared.

The one perceptive observation comes towards the end of the book. Paul points out that any attempts to regulate the porn industry are struck down by free speech activists. Free speech supporters fear that any attempt to regulate sexually explicit materials would lead to the suppression of sex education. This is a valid point, but there is no reason that legislators wouldn’t be able to distinguish educational and pornographic materials. The fears of the free speech faction are misplaced. How, one asks, does hardcore pornography even qualify as speech? And although porn for-women-by-women does exist, the majority of pornography is anything but empowering. If pornography is to count as speech, it would surely be considered as hate speech. Why do feminists, liberals, and human rights activist continue to support what is in essence hate speech against women? This is a very good question, and it merits a book. Asking men why they like pornography so much does not.

Yesss!!! My Favorite Models

Another sign that the celebrity cover girl trend might just be ending. It’s been going on for the better part of a decade, and I am frankly getting sick of it.  Vogue hasn’t ran a model cover in a long time and they’ve been averaging about one a year throughout the last decade. So I am so happy to see a whole issue devoted entirely to all things model. All the usual suspects are featured. The cover girls are Liya Kebede, Natalia Vodianova, Anna Jagodzinska, Isabeli Fontana, Lara Stone, Jourdan Dunn, Raquel Zimmerman, Caroline Trentini and Natasha Poly. Like I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think many of the new girls are very super. That said, this is a great batch of faces. I would have traded Anna Jagodzinska and Natasha Poly for Daria Werbowy and Jessica Stam, but I’m not complaining.

Liya Kebede is not exactly a new face. She’s been Vogue’s token woman of color since the turn of the century. I think she’s been in nearly every issue for the past ten years, so I’m a little tired of her. She is Ethiopian, but she has highly Westernized features, which is probably why she has such popular appeal in America. She is undeniably stunning, and a great model, but I wish Vogue would feature African models who actaully look African, like Alek Wek.

I can’t believe Natalia Vodianova is 27. And she has three children. She still looks like a doe-eyed vestal virgin. I love Natalia. She is one of a handful of bona-fide supermodels to come along in the recent past. Vogue recently did a story starring Natalia as Alice in Wonderland, and that is so appropriate. It is the perfect role for her wise-child looks. Natalia is from Nizhniy Novgorod, which makes her all the more endearing to me.

Frankly, before today I had no idea who Anna Jagodzinska was. Apparently she’s been doing some very high profile editorial work  for a while now. That just shows what I’ve been saying about the new girls. Gorgeous, yes, but anonymous and interchangeable. Anna is Polish.

I remember the first time I saw Isabeli Fontana. She appeared in a Teen Vogue profile in, um, 1999, I think. She a fifteen-year-old adjusting to her first season in fashion. This was when Gisele ushered in a wave of all things Brazillian. I recall that Isabeli was struggling with her English and trying to find time to do her homework. Now she’s one of the top-ranked models in the world.

I like Lara Stone because she’s willing to do racy, artistic work. She’s an editorial favorite at W, even sharing a cover with Kate Moss and Daria Werbowy. Although she’s from the Netherlands, she has an all-American look, and a willingness to get naked, making her that appealing creature, the naughty girl next door.

Jourdan Dunn is new. I do think she’s a little bland but I like her more that Chanel Iman, who I think has the makings of a pretentious diva.

Raquel Zimmerman reminds me of young Jerry Hall – a big, bold blonde with a truckload of personality. I believe she’s got potential to become one of the greats. She’s powerfully charismatic, dramatic, instantly recognizable, strong and healthy - in short, everything a supermodel needs to be.

I’m undecided about Caroline Trentini. She’s cute, what with the freckles and all, but she looks too much like an ordinary American girl (she’s from Brazil) and if I wanted to see one of those I’d go to the mall.

And Natasha Poly, I think is really bland. I keep seeing her in all the magazines and I can’t ever remember who she is.