141 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
141 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
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SPIRITUAL, MUSIC ADVICE, 'n' STUFF
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by Rev. Richard Visage
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Let us begin with a short prayer:
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"Law-w-d, for this brand New Year of Our Lord, 1995, please
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give us the music to sooth our souls, and Rock our socks off!"
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It's resolution time again, isn't it? Damn, it's particularly
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poignant to start off the year with a kiss goodbye to all those
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nasty habits, especially since some of us can usually count on
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spending the first part of January in some variant of intensive
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care due to Christmas, New Year's, etc., etc. parties and the
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associated liver damage.
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Some of the Christmas "genre" music can leave you feeling worse
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than a three-day JD binge, too. Did you happen to be subjected to
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Kenny G's Christmas Album? Natalie Cole's? Those would be two very
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valid reasons to drink to forget.
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Oh, I know . . . I'm rambling again. Scary, isn't it? Anyway,
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Ms. Labamba and myself have happily migrated over to the all new
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DREAM FORGE magazine, and we'll be hanging out there with our CD
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player for the year. So, I guess I'll have to decide between New
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Year's resolutions of (a) meeting my deadlines, or (b) peeling
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Ms. Labamba out of her red lace bodysuit with my teeth. While I
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think on this serious life decision, let's spin a CD or two.
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SLIPPIN' IN
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Buddy Guy
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=-=-=-=-=-=
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Anyone out there have any idea how old Buddy Guy is? I may have
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been hallucinating, but it seems to me I first saw him live almost
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20 years ago. One is not surprised to find Black Bluesmen still
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charging in the later years of their lives, but Buddy plays young.
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Fresh, and real young.
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Blues is magic music, it can make the whole world levitate
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around you, and Buddy Guy is a master magician. It's hard to recall
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an album that is so consistent, so well played, and so full of the
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real blues as this one.
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Let's look for a criticism. Hmm, great choice of tunes, super
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vocals, outstanding instrumentation, it's wonderfully produced,
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and you really should see Ms. Labamba wriggling in her red lace
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bodysuit when this CD is on. Incidentally, writing music reviews
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is hard work. Really.
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Look for standout guitar work by Guy throughout, most notably
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on "Please Don't Drive Me Away," and the coolest trick piano work
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I've ever heard on "7-11" by Johnnie Johnson.
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My guess will be that the most common reaction to this album
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will be to listen to two tracks, get up, pick up Clapton's "Back
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to the Cradle" and throw it into the fireplace.
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MONSTER
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R.E.M.
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There's a retentive urge among reviewers to find labels for
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groups. This is perhaps more difficult for someone of my vintage.
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I recently mistook something in the "Neo-Crypto-Post-Industrial-Rave"
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category for being something I know as "Disco". Shows how much I
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know.
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The first categorization I ever heard of R.E.M. was that they
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were "more U than U2", and came without all the posing, preaching
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and dumbshit stage names. That's probably unfair to R.E.M., which
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has always struck me as a very unique band, with powerful and
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original vocals and character. That said, the third track on this
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album, "King of Comedy", could have been put on a U2 album, and
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it might have fooled me.
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After listening to the first couple of tracks, one might find
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that R.E.M. is best fit by inventing a new label indicating a
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discovery of fuzzboxes, feedback, and flipping the switch between
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guitar pickups. And damn, they do it well.
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"What's the Frequency, Kenneth" is the brilliant lead off
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tune, followed by "Crush With Eyeliner", both driving Neo-Fuzzbox
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((c)1994, Rev. R.V. --hey, I told you I'd invent a label) tunes
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that fairly cause the CD player to smoke right from the beginning.
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Check your sub-woofer before you light these puppies up, I'm sure
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you don't want an unexpected detonation in your living room. There
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are more typical R.E.M. tunes on the album as well, and a blend of
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the Neo-Fuzzbox (tm) sound with the more usual R.E.M. fare,
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suggesting something of a musical evolution.
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Thematically, the album has a powerful undertone about love and
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relationships, and the difficulties that go with them. Not exactly
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an original theme, but the treatment here has all the freshness
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and wit that has come to be associated with R.E.M. From the smoking
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infatuation of "Crush with Eyeliner" to the bilious "I Took Your
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Name" and the virtual pleading of "Strange Currencies" this CD seems
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to be an exploration of some of the most twitch-inducing aspects of
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relationships.
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My favorite is "Star 69", an ode to telephone call display.
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This authenticates the theme of the album to me. The folks in R.E.M
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have obviously been there to note the power of a telephone option
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during a time of tension between two people. You just can't hide
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from a woman with call display -- not that I'd know or anything.
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Really.
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As your spiritual advisor, might I suggest that you check out the
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New Year's sales and pick these two CD's up, they're well worth it.
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(Note to the Editors: after some serious deliberation, I chose the
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red-lace-bodysuit option in the resolution department. Like it's
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a big surprise, right?)
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(Note from the Editors, to the Rev.: since we editors only read the
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first and last paragraphs of received manuscripts (we ARE very busy
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people, you know!); I'm forced to assume (and one should never assume
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anything, except for command and responsibiity) that you will look
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lovely in your choice of Holiday attire -- BUT, may encounter some
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strange glances from other red-nosed party goers. Happy Holidays,
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and btw, do those things have zippers? Just wondering . . . .
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Religiously yours,
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Rev. Richard Visage
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rv@visage.jammys.net
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Copyright Rev. Richard Visage
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---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Rev. Richard Visage is the official Spiritual Advisor to Fidonet, and
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is listed in the Fidonews masthead, where his correspondence with the
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infamous Doc Logger is published regularly. The Reverend operates
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1:163/409 on a laptop from various hotel rooms, and is bankrolled by
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expense accounts from unsuspecting publications who showed the poor
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judgment of hiring him. Canadian Government officials list him and
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his semi-clad secretary, Ms. LaBamba, as officially being "at large"
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somewhere in North America.
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=====================================================================
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