Fluxblog Weekly #42: David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Eurythmics, Daryl Hall, Siouxsie and the Banshees
I'm going to be spending some time only writing about older music for a while, i.e., music from before the '00s. This has been very fun for me so far! I feel more energetic about writing the side than I have been in a little while, and it's nice to feel like I've got a lot of songs I'm excited to write about it in the near future. I've got a bunch of songs in mind, but if you have any requests, let me know – it might spark an idea! That's what happened with Siouxsie and the Banshees this week.
February 15th, 2016
More Idols Than Realities
David Bowie “Up the Hill Backwards”
It’s funny to me that David Bowie recorded three albums in a row with Brian Eno, but waited until the record after that run was completed to make “Up the Hill Backwards,” basically his own version of an Eno rock song. It’s there in the melody, in the affect on Bowie’s vocal performance, and that solo from Robert Fripp. It’s there in the sentiment of the lyrics too, which approach complicated emotions from a cold, logical perspective without losing touch with humanity.
“Up the Hill Backwards” was written in the aftermath of Bowie’s divorce from his first wife, and he acknowledges the feeling of adjusting to a new status quo at the top of the song: “The vacuum created by the arrival of freedom and the possibilities it seems to offer.” It’s a peculiar turn of phrase, but very evocative. The language is so passive and indecisive, and the construction of the line emphasizes the “vacuum” rather than the freedom or possibilities. The melody seems vaguely upbeat, but paired with the lyric, you get the sense that any optimism in the song has been arrived at by a process of elimination. (“Well, I don’t feel miserable or angry or scared, so I must be feeling OK.”)
The rest of the song is like he’s talking himself out of having an ego. “It’s got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it,” he sings in the refrain, seeming a bit like he’s overcompensating for being self-centered and narcissistic in the past. After all, if this is in fact about his divorce, it has something to do with him, right? The passive voice continues through the song, with Bowie singing about the world moving on regardless of what happens to him or anyone else and sounding rather calmed by the notion that nothing really matters, including the difficulties ahead of him.
The odd neutrality of Bowie’s voice in this is countered by Fripp’s guitar part, which is by far the most expressive element of the song. His solo is very melodic, and starts off with this sort of casual bearing before escalating to this frantic peak that suggests a stronger feeling buried beneath the self-imposed rationality of the song – somewhat ecstatic, and more than a little bit terrified.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 16th, 2016
Red Hot Magneto
Peter Gabriel “Modern Love”
If you’re only familiar with Peter Gabriel’s most popular work – “In Your Eyes,” “Sledgehammer,” “Don’t Give Up,” “Games Without Frontiers,” “Biko” – it may come as a surprise that he actually rocked at one point in the late ‘70s. It was certainly a revelation to me, anyway.
“Modern Love” was released on Gabriel’s first solo album in 1977, which came out a few years after he departed from Genesis after touring for their definitive prog masterwork The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I suppose some of that record ~rocks~, but certainly not in the lusty, thrusting, straightforward way that “Modern Love” rocks. It’s hard to imagine that this song wasn’t directly influenced by Led Zeppelin – the main riff feels veryHouses of the Holy/Physical Graffiti-era Jimmy Page to me, and those records came out only a few years before this was recorded. The guitar part – played by Robert Fripp, of course! – is offset by an organ part that nods in the general direction of soul music. This all suits Gabriel’s voice very well, so it’s a shame he didn’t really explore this sound more after the late ‘70s.
Gabriel’s vocal performance is about as raw and passionate as he ever got on tape. He’s howling, he’s shouting, he’s rasping like he’s all tapped out but can’t stop going. There’s a lot of self-deprecating humor in this song, with him portraying himself as this grand romantic fool while dropping witty lines about Venus, Lady Godiva, and the Mona Lisa. This is basically a song about being exasperated by sexual frustration, and while that could be played straight, it’s a lot more sympathetic as a farce.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 17th, 2016
So It’s An Obsession
Eurythmics “Love Is A Stranger”
Annie Lennox is doing her best to warn people off of love in this song, hard-selling the addictive and destructive side-effects of falling in love the way you might advise someone to stay away from crack or heroin. She is so insistent and specific about what it does to you that at some point it feels like a reverse psychology ploy – why yes, I would like to be distorted and deranged and wrenched up and left like a zombie! It sounds a lot more interesting than this totally blah life I’ve got going at the moment.
Dave Stewart’s track is built around this steady pulse that feels overtly sexual, but also paranoid and anxious. It sounds like the obsession Lennox is singing about, suggesting a one track mind that’s plagued by doubt and guilt. There’s flashes of delicacy and loveliness, and Lennox’s voice is often totally gorgeous, but it mostly sounds dark and lurid, like getting inside the mind of someone kinda gross and scary. And I think that’s the point here – you’re supposed to see yourself in this feeling, and recognize how icky and damaged it is. This isn’t really about “love,” of course – love isn’t like this at all – but it’s a very accurate depiction of something it’s often confused with.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 18th, 2016
Your Life Is Your Act
Daryl Hall “Something In 4/4 Time”
This is a track from Daryl Hall’s Sacred Songs, which he made in collaboration with Robert Fripp in 1977 shortly after Fripp worked with David Bowie on”Heroes”, but was shelved by Hall’s label RCA until 1980 because they figured it was too uncommercial. That last bit is confusing to me because even with Fripp’s atmospheric guitar parts, it’s a fairly straightforward pop-soul record, and the late ‘70s is clearly the time when it would’ve had the greatest commercial impact. At this point in Hall’s career, he’d only had a few hits with John Oates – “Rich Girl” in 1976, “Sara Smile” in 1975, and “She’s Gone” in 1973. He wasn’t quite as defined as he would be in the ‘80s, when the duo had a string of major hits between 1980 and 1982. “Something In 4/4 Time” sounds like a hit to me, so I wonder what RCA didn’t like about it. Was it too rock for an artist who had been previously sold as a soul singer? Was it too meta?
It’s definitely meta. Hall’s lyrics are specifically about trying to appease a record label while holding on to his identity. “You’re selling yourself and it’s a matter of fact,” he sings. “Your love is your life and your life is your act.” He’s being very transparent and self-aware here, but also quite idealistic. The verses start out rather cynical and pragmatic, but he always come to the conclusion that he can only succeed by being himself, and by being truly passionate. Hall’s vocal sounds very confident and optimistic, and you only really get a sense of his doubt on the breakdown, when Fripp plays a solo that contrasts Hall by seeming a bit cold and distant. Fripp makes his guitar seem analytical somehow, like something taking in all of Hall’s data and figuring out what it all means. When it snaps back to the soulful, cheerful hook about knowing you’ve got to make something people can relate to, it’s like Fripp’s guitar has decided that it agrees.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 19th, 2016
The Arriving Beauty Queen
Siouxsie and the Banshees “Kiss Them for Me”
“Kiss Them for Me” is a song about the life and death of Jayne Mansfield, full of specific references to her career and public persona. But more than that, it’s a song about glamor that can give the listener a contact high sensation of glamorousness. The music, which pulls in elements of bhangra, hip-hop, dance music, and orchestral pop, has a slick, trebly tone that feels like being sucked into a fantasy world where everything is gleaming and perfect. It’s like every beat and note in coated glitter.
A lot of Siouxsie’s music and art is in some way about embracing forms of glamor, and creating an alternate reality for yourself. I’ve never felt like this was an option for me, given the circumstances of my body and life, but when I listen to “Kiss Them for Me,” I am grateful to feel it vicariously. Which is funny, because the song itself is doing the same thing, about a woman who willed herself into this glamorous life. Maybe glamor is really just some idea of a life that’s more beautiful than your own, and claiming a part of it for yourself. You need to be defiant. I’m too willing to accept my lot, but people like Jayne and Siouxsie aren’t, so they remake themselves and the world around them. Even Jayne’s gruesome car crash death, which Siouxsie sings about in the fourth verse, becomes lovely and romantic.
“Kiss Them for Me” is one of those songs in which the best hook is not the chorus itself, but rather the pre-chorus – “nothing or no one will ever make me let you down.” The melody on this part is just glorious, and I love the way it seems to ascend dramatically up to the proper chorus, as if that’s some other physical plane. I imagine that it’s like walking up a staircase to a terrace overlooking some incredible view of a city, and looking down at everything, feeling like you’re truly someone special.
Buy it from Amazon.