Bless This Space

There’s been a problem with Eno lately. He’s been very Eno, but the wrong kind of Eno. Enough with the ambiance, we say, ambiance is boring. You’ve made your point, now go back to being weird like you were in ’74. Eno’s been poring his pop sensibility into the objects of his production, that is, recording artists who are not Brian Eno. Well, finally he’s given us some weird-Eno. Drums Between the Bells is a collaboration with poet Rick Holland, so not a straight-out Eno album but close enough. There’s some Eno vocals, and plenty of Eno presence. A variety of voices read Holland’s poetry over a soundscape of synthy, glitchy, electronica like Eno himself helped invent. Some of the words are about scientific stuff like cell division, some don’t particularly make sense, but it’s all very atmospheric. It’s what I’ve been needing; Eno being eccentric but recognizably pop. Because all that ambiance puts me to sleep.

Get It On (Bang a Gong)

So much Marc Bolan goodness, and Elton John is there too! Bolan is shiny! This song was renamed for single release from the straightforward Get It On to Bang A Gong (Get It On), which is nominally less suggestive and blunts the core message not at all. Like they knew getting it on was bad, but they didn’t know what banging was. The title matters not a whit, for it remains one of the most propulsively sexy tunes ever written. Bolan added a note at the end – “Meanwhile, I’m still thinking” – in tribute to Chuck Berry. Whatever his inspiration that chugging boogie is all his own. Those opening notes took Marc Bolan away from any hippie, bedsitter, folkie past and straight into superstardom. The fey early songs about unicorns and elves were great, Slider was great, the later soul-inflected stuff was great, but nothing approached the 39 minutes of Electric Warrior in greatness. That album and this song are just the ultimate in T-rextasy. What’s he singing? Though he’s expressing himself in his usual corkscrewey way, for once there’s no shimmer of a doubt. We know what he’s on about, and we are with him.  ”You’re built like a car” is my favorite line of all time. I like to apply it as the highest possible compliment.