Sic Semper Tyrannis

Whatcha Listenin' To?

Boston Boston

By many objective standards: album sales, ubiquity on radio, name-recognition, etc. this is a near perfect album. Every single song on this album is a staple of classic rock radio. And what’s most amazing is the fact this absolute “classic” is largely the result of the input of two guys-Tom Scholz’s engineering and Brad Delp’s transcendent vocals. There is just a Boston “sound,” that to me is similar in conception to that of Queen: take your vocals and guitars and layer them ad nauseum and then layer them some more for good measure. It’s a very warm, full sound that I gotta admit- still gets me. I’m a sucker for memorable melodies and this album delivers the goods. Also, I like the idea of an over-educated mad scientist nobody tinkering anonymously in his basement to create a grand masterpiece. Not that this album itself is all that ambitious or epic. It’s really just a bunch of individual songs, (with the exception of the pairing of “Foreplay/Long Time”), polished to a sheen. Its status as “masterpiece” would come later. I really don’t know why this isn’t on that Rolling Stone Top 100 List.

The Kinks The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

I dare you to try to get the title track out of your head after hearing it! I’ve said before, I’m listening to a lot of classics lately from a pretty tight time period- 1966 to around 1974 or so. This album is full of brit-pop that reminds me of the Zombies’ Odessey & Oracle, but it takes a little bit more time for the melodies to sink in. Lyrically they are looking back at simpler times and places, which is a genius move. If you want the message of your music to remain timeless, simply look back on the past fondly. That will always be an appropriate sentiment for the majority of people!

Mahavishnu Orchestra with John Mclaughlin The Inner Mounting Flame

Hearing this album for the first time I am realizing a choice I unconsciously made about twelve years ago when pursuing musical aesthetics. When I chose to immerse myself in the 70s prog-rock of bands like Yes, Genesis and King Crimson, I excluded a whole other world of similar music: jazz-rock fusion. On one hand, the sounds on this album are VERY familiar to me—distorted guitars, weird harmonies, even weirder time signatures and no vocals. But I wonder if these two schools of musicians hated each other for their differences. They seem to be worshipping two different gods, both of which demanding technique from their followers. But the prog version of “difficult” music seems to be in service of some grand, universal message that they may or may not be communicating whereas the fusion version of “difficulty” seems to be more clinical here. Like I’ve said elsewhere, it’s the difference between rock slobs being ambitious and jazz intellectuals “slumming it.”

And this album’s liner notes and artwork seem to want to ascribe some sort of spiritual component that I just don’t hear. Which is not to say I don’t like this music. I really do. There is a hard-edged angularity to the sounds that can only come from musicians who know what they are doing yet are still playing their amps loudly! And I’m a guy who likes a musical puzzle every now and then. I came very close to getting in a car wreck trying to figure out what time signature one of the songs was in. (I never did.) I can’t wait to hear the other fusion from the era- Weather Report and Return to Forever being at the top of the list, but who knows who else I will discover in the process!

I’ve got lots and lots of other stuff I’m thinking about. Just can’t find the time right now. Be patient, my babies.

posted by Mike @ 6:55 AM