HONOURED 2

Friday, November 30, 2007

HONOURED 2

After the praise lavished on Join Hands last week, felt compelled to lay my hands on The Scream. This really brought back pleasant memories. I even recall once being inspired to learn every guitar note of this album - and indeed, whatever happened to those brilliant original members?

Most times, nostalgia is best left for the memory as the reality can disappoint. Not here though - this is a perfect timeless album with inspired production, performances, compositions, and presentation. If only The Velvet Underground had been this good.

Also, returning to the original theme, it's clear the musically inferior Joy Division (to name but one band) snatched a great many ideas from The Scream.

And lastly, that rarest of things, a cover version that blows the original out of the fucking water, or out of the fairground in the case of Helter Skelter. The other best example of that which occurs to me was The Residents' Satisfaction.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...: :-).........waiting; 3:51 PM
h3o said...: hearing the first track for the first time showed me that "something else" was possible other than thrashing around, without control - the norm at the time. there is a reserve in it (and much of the rest of the record) which is more resonant than any of the "letting it all hang out" efforts of their contemporaries, even now. there is an identity, a "flavour" here in this record that I never encountered again, anywhere, and wished always that I had. Joy Division wanted to do this, as you note, but I could never understand why the singer was singing with a (so obviously fake) US accent - which I never quite could take 100% seriously. when you read the descriptions of what Joy Division were before hearing them, "the scream" is something like what you were hoping for. instead, you got rock and roll weediness, music seeking validation for its proponents' record collections. oh, and the drummer on "the scream", Kenny Morris made a 12" for GP-O's label, Temple Records - http://www.discogs.com/release/168996; 6:56 PM
_Black_Acrylic said...: Amazing band, criminally underrated by the great rock patriarchy. All the early output (checks also Kaleidoscope and Juju) is great. There were some photos of Siouxsie modelling Dior Homme in the Guardian's fashion pages a few months back, still looking totally iconic.; 7:56 PM
Sypha said...: Oh yeah, I loved the new Siouxsie Sioux album. And I loved the Banshees. Though by the late 80's I think the well had started to run a little dry.; 9:51 PM
William Bennett said...: the mullah - some great points, isn't the US voice in question a rather affected Jim Morrison? first I knew of the KM single, intrigued to know what it's like; 10:17 PM
h3o said...: Jim Morrison would be my guess, wih a dash of Iggy Pop. and that's without seeing the film or reading the biographies...or...anyway, I have always found it totally unconvincing. that, and the fact that most of the tracks are (mostly, especially in the latter period) in keys just too low for him - very evident live that he couldn't "croon" low enough.

I have just located my copy of the Kenny Morris record, which I will send to you at some point in the near future. note that the record features one John Maybury, one of the TOPY/Derek Jarman hangers-on, later to be known for Sinead O'Connor video work, and the Francis Bacon-based film "Love is the Devil".; 10:56 PM
Anonymous said...: John McKay was, up until recently to be found selling his missus' faux fur hats at Spitalfields Market in London.; 2:13 PM
11person said...: Always been a lurker of your blog and a fan of what you are doing and was happy to run across this. just wanted to share the link in case no one else bought it to your attention. Two days of Whitehouse courtesy of Dennis Cooper.
http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/; 4:30 PM
Richo said...: Whilst I completely agree with most of the comments concerning the Banshees (they were creating fantastic pop music well into the '80s, I reckon), all of this sparring now going on here reeks of contrary bastardism. Joy Division have their place, and you all know it, really. The only shame is that certain bands have suffered in the wake of Joy Division's forever fanned 'legacy'. And the Banshees are a testament to this.

As far as I'm concerned, the Banshees and Joy Division both stand out as two of the better bands from this vibrant period of music. And, let's never forget they both ultimately owe something to the Pistols...; 11:05 AM
Odile Lee said...: There was a point in time when the banshees better works, provided a back tracking to some of the most lush fantasy worlds I've ever dwelt in.
i went along with this, and wore all sorts of masks, costumes, cloaks, hats, you name it- in tribute to that art.inspired much sewing.

I myself, found Joy Division, the best band ever ( which kept me from really killing myself, sad to say to wanted to )when trapped in a dank, urban place full of post industrial revolution poisoning in the soil and water(supremely evil ways) and being churned out of the places right next to where I lived. Plus some terrifying physical chemical problems, that were chipping away at my ability to work and no one who cared or could really, understand what it was like to be physically unable to fix this.
And as it goes with, not wanting to be a burden.
Ian Curtis's lyrics were a long voice in the chaos, that made me feel that if I was alone at least someone had made some art, feeling the same ( even though i had no true idea what his lyrics were about, the emotion is true.)
That and some of the songs, no matter how many times I hear, their musical comp makes me shiver in ways only Stravinsky has done.

But the Banshees were something uniquely amazing. In another less ominous, although quite scary way.; 11:53 PM