Gas Giants: Recent Episodes
Tom Worster
All of culture explained by two fat old men, one artifact at a time. Gav and Tom gas about music, movies, TV, books and their creators attempting to understand what they mean about everything else in the world. New episodes every other week Fridays.
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With fake news very much in the...ahem..need, we look at one of the great media upsets of history...
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"The most persistently individualistic Portuguese filmmaker" sits down with us to talk about Pessoa, Lovecraft, poetry, film making and the subtle art of manipulating the algorithm.
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John Zorn's 1989 homage to Ornette Coleman's Oeuvre is still available, if you look hard enough. We tell you why it's worth the effort
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Tom & Gav chat about a green drink, a 5000 dollar bill, and the great American novel
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Neatly attired in fetching Hi-Vis yellow Vests, the Gas Giants enter the world of Michael Houellebecq
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The Gas Giants sit down to chat co-creator of one of the most underrated albums of the 1980's
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Ghost Dog was apparently the moment when Jim Jarmusch achieved “Mainstream Recognition”, but what does this fundamentally mournful reflection on the end of things have to tell us?
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"If you want a vision of the future, imagine classrooms of teenagers being made to read Orwell's 1984 forever". Other Dystopian Fiction is available.
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Keeping abreast of current events as always, Tom & Gav look at a film from 1970, based on a novel from 1951.
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With Eric Dolphy's landmark album celebrating 60 years this year, Tom& Gav decide on Birthday cake for lunch.
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Before plunging into the cultural maelstrom of 2025, our heroes pause to cast their eyes over the rapidly receding landscape of 2024.
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One of the first things that Luca turned up was this rarity, which features the father of Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay….but which one of those masked men is he?
The Businesses
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8mm Records itself is all over Instagram and you can see their Discogs page HERE.
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Fiasco Porto is a Tokyo Jazz Kissaten in the Heroismo quarter of Porto.
HERE is an article from a Portuguese lifestyle magazine, which has some great photos.
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HERE is the Discogs page for 8mm records, the label.
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8mm in Barcelona can be located through their instagram 8mm_bcn.
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From Jan 1st the new website should be up. Link HERE
The Music
We talked a lot of Music with Luca and it would be impractical to list everything, but there are some highlights to point out…
- HERE is a long dissertation about New Music during the Estado Novo, which we touched upon during our conversation.
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Miles plays Cascais…
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…then Charlie Haden plays Cascais with Ornette Coleman and runs in to a little problem with the PIDE…
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We also mentioned Sonoscopia, which has done a lot for “Outsider” Music. Link
HERE
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A record from the Quarteto Smoog turned up in a crate…
…and this one is planned as a reissue.
Other Record Shops in Porto
Aside from Luca’s operation, the invincible city has much to offer the record collector. Here are some of Gav’s favourites…
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Porto Calling. A great city centre shop tucked into a 60’s era arcade. Good selection of second hand and new vinyl, which changes regularly. Great website with a full mail order catalogue available HERE.
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Discos do Bau. Not far from the Miquel Bombarda gallery quarter. Good selection of Rock, Pop, Jazz and even some Classical; all second hand. Full website available HERE.
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Louie Louie, also city centre location. I have yet to go into this shop without coming out with something. Website HERE.
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Away from Porto, we also mentioned this combination of Air bnb and Record shop in London, HERE.
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It's not every day you get and invitation to "the Savage Interzone at the heart of contemporary music", so Tom & Gav set off to investigate
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Which medium should you use to decode messages from outer space? Tom & Gav review the options
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Could I get a definition of Podcast here? Tom and Gav sit down for a portion of Alphabet soup with Donald Rumsfeld in Errol Morris's movie "Unknown Known"
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Tom & Gav begin an examination of Narcissistic Psychopathy with a look at Hitchcock's 1948 classic
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Our Easter Special; for all those planning on getting struck by lightning this weekend, stay at home and listen to this instead. People have actually started Podcasts specifically to talk about how much they hate this movie, but we like it. Are we the only ones?
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Nucleus finally talk about it…
….later.
How does this all work? Annoying people is fun!
Sam Kriss noted that “something annoying is both fascinating and unbearable,” in I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves (Damage 2021). “But it’s interesting how it seems to be impossible to object to something annoying simply on the basis that it’s annoying. Annoyances are small, they’re not important; you can swat a fly if it buzzes too close, but it’s hardly worth getting out of your chair. At the same time, any annoyance left alone too long becomes maddening, and the more minor the annoyance, the crazier it makes you.”
In the Gas Giants episode Gong – The Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy, Gav set forth a theory of Prog: “The trap for Prog Rock that it must not fall into is that it end up being basically Chuck Berry carried out by grotesquely huge means. It has to have a certain amount of complexity otherwise it's just a lot of noodling and not actually very much content.”
He explained that Prog makes Chuck Berry go on forever. “Wheres a Chuck Berry guitar solo would maybe be 40 or 30 seconds long, be very simple and to the point and actually really good, in the world of prog, if everything's gone wrong, it will be 18 minutes long.”
Recordings, etc…
A playlist of the main albums of the Ian Carr / Don Rendell Quintet that preceded Nucleus, with some additional material from other pre-Nucleus projects
Here’s one with most of the Nucleus studio albums, but sadly missing Out of The Long Dark and The Pretty Redhead.
So there’s Out of the Long Dark…
and here’s Awakening…
Don’t look at it too long, it’ll make you lose your mind! The famous Vertigo Swirl, very much the stuff of legends…
Interviews, Video, etc…
Chris Spedding gives valuable insight into the beginning of Nucleus and why he left. We’ve put the interview, which is a long one, to the exact spot where he discusses this, but he’s an interesting guy and it is well worth listening to the whole thing. For guitar heads, there is also a discussion of equipment.
In case you were curious after we’d spoken about both Pete Brown and Graham Bond, here they both are.
Here’s another one set up for the exact moment when Nucleus is discussed, but the entire show is worth a look…
Check out the Snakehips era band on German TV with a wildly enthusiastic Alexis Korner somehow in charge of the proceedings. Who knew he spoke German?
This is maybe around the time of Under the Sun, a really great show in Norway. There is an interview at about the 27 minute mark.
Do we recognise this?
Oh Yes!
Print, etc…
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"Out Of The Long Dark", Alan Shipton's dry but at least factual account of Ian's Life
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"Music Outside" Nobody wrote better about Ian Carr than Ian Carr, but this 1973 book, long out of print but now available in a 2nd edition, saves only the last chapter for an account of the founding of Nucleus and devotes the rest of the space to wonderful portraits of the British Musicians who were effectively trying to find a British identity in Jazz. Highly recommended
Nucleus & Next, A Personal Odyssey, etc…
The relaxed blues number, Easy Does It Now.
...and here's an early version of the Band, without Tom , playing a tune which was very much based on "Easy Does It Now". 1982, I Think…
Was this ,perhaps…
Visions Of Ra, the Next demo from December of 1983
The origin of this bass line? Clue: This is the Christmas of 1983.
Robert’s account of how Next happened
My memory insists that in 1982 Gavin came to our youth orchestra rehearsals wearing a corduroy suit and a Paisley bow tie. Now I’m sure he didn’t, and I’m also pretty sure that this impression settled in over the years thanks to 1) an anecdote of James’s in which a 13- or maybe 14-year-old Gavin did indeed turn up to Sunday afternoon Crusaders classes in a green velvet suit, and 2) his uncanny resemblance at the time to television’s Doctor Jonathan Miller.
At these rehearsals our Gav impressed me as being witty, self-confident and slightly eccentric, traits he displayed flamboyantly when he showed up at Glasgow Airport wearing a nipple-chafing gondolier’s t-shirt the day we jetted off on our life-changing world tour of Nuremberg. Needless to say, the rest of us were very Scottishly attired in v-necks and parkas, except for one poor guy, a low-ranking percussionist named Martin, who turned up in a cobalt blue three-piece suit bought by yokel parents expressly for his first time on a plane. Hilariously, a couple of years later this same percussionist quite unintentionally became the mainspring of no small amount of anguish for our Ken, because this chap Martin, you see, was at the time going steady with a hot-blooded young lass that Ken would subsequently and devotedly squire, and, from those very same times at the orchestra, you see, Ken just happened to be privy to the fact that Big Martin the drummer, his amatory predecessor, was appallingly well-endowed… well, it was never going to work.
Anyway, to Bavaria we flew, much fun was had, and I got to see Gavin perform free jazz in his mamilla-flaying Venetianesque t-shirt in the cellar of a Baader-Meinhof-backed community centre called The Komm. The following day, to the beat of Ian Carr’s In Flagrante Delicto, I collared him on the tour bus with the proposition that we form a band, which we most certainly did, a little over a year later…
To be Continued…
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Where to start with Sun Ra's massive discography? Tom & Gav have a suggestion...
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Taking arms against a sea of mithering, Gav tries to convince a sceptical Tom of the worth of John Updike's 1981 novel. Did you read it? Write in and tell us how you got on!
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Exposure - The Album
- Before we even get started, massive respect is due to Eric Tamm, whose exhaustive work “Robert Fripp - From King Crimson to Guitar Craft” is available online HERE and was a big help in preparing this episode.
As we explain in more detail, there are several versions of this album, but this is basically what the listener was presented with in 1979
About the lyricist on Exposure, Discogs has this to say:
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Joanna WaltonReal Name: Joan Sheree LichtensteinAmerican poet, born 26 December 1942 in New York, New York, New York. Lyricist and one-time girlfriend of Robert Fripp. In 1982, she married George L. Sheanshang. She was killed on 21 December 1988 in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, U.K.In the liner notes of the Roches 1989 album, Speak, Terre Roche wrote “to the memory” of Walton, with whom she had worked on Robert Fripp’s 1979 album, Exposure. HERE is another Fripp/Walton collaboration
It’s worth heading over to YouTube for this half-hour video of Fripp being interviewed on something called “Boffomondo” in the middle of his tour promoting Exposure
What Came Before…
The later CD edit has the applause at the end of 21st Century Schizoid Man fading out gently; for the full force of the door being slammed in the audiences face, you have to go back to the vinyl version…
…but Fripp had already been collaborating with Brian Eno. This is one of Tom’s Favourites -
…I think we all know about the David Bowie stuff, but did you know about this?
…and everybody knows the second Peter Gabriel album, but had you heard this?
…or even this?
…which brings us to this. Fripp joins Blondie in a live performance of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, which the best disco song ever. This was to be on Exposure but … record labels.
…And what came after…The Promotional Tour
…which is the bit that really interests us. Armed with a farcically small amount of money from the record company, the “Small Intelligent Mobile Unit” set off with a guitar and two tape recorders to promote his new album by playing music that wasn’t on the album in a selection of unusual venues…
We both really love Hainbach, so here he is demonstrating how to do Frippertonics in the comfort of your own home.
…and here’s a breathless reaction video
It’s about time that the League of Gentlemen album was re-issued
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Somewhere in a galaxy far away, there is a man behind the counter of a convenience store...join us for a jointly curated double bill of whacky comedy movies!
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Tom & Gav look back in bewilderment at a year full of STUFF and ask what it all meant
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Join us for the round-up of Gav's 2023 Vinyl Haul! An annual Festive special for the record nerds amongst our listeners.
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Before the Matrix came The World on a Wire. Tom & Gav opt for a couple of quiet nights in with some mind-bending 70's television
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What is Hauntology and are we all doing it without realising it? Tom & Gav climb aboard the Ghost Train for a trip through Mark Fisher's collection of essays
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Tom & Gav meet at the confluence of Noise Music, Electronica and Religious Mysticism
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We would like to point out that the incidental music used in this episode is NOT by Jon Hassell, who never played the Bassoon…
OK, let’s start here. This is a film of the night before the one that ended up on the record.
…and here’s an interview with Hassell about the album that the concert was kind of based on.
Here’s another live concert that Tom recommends…
…and, although this page is starting to get very YouTube video heavy, here is the album that got Gav into an altered state.
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HERE is a link to Jon Hassell’s website.
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HERE is Hassell’s obituary, which provides a succinct overview of his life and work.
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…and here is Tom’s sampler -
The Elephant and the Orchid - Power Spot
Voiceprint (Blind From the Facts) - City: Works of Fiction
Buzzsaw - Bluescreen: Dressing for Pleasure
Abu Gil (Live) - Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street
Caravanesque - Jon Hassell & Ry Cooder: Fascinoma
Viva Shona - Vernal Equinox
Paris I - The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Things by the Power of Sound
You might have to look around for these, we’re not sure if all of them are available on the same platform.
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Eileen Chang's Short Story was made into a 2 1/2 hour film by Ang Lee....why?..and who was that mysterious lady with John the Baptists head?
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In their new jobs as concerned Microsoft technicians, Gav & and Tom need all your passwords and your bank details...welcome to the world of social engineering.
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Ever needed to make a soufflé, treat snakebite or perform an exorcism? Chances are, you reached for a Youtube 'Splainer video! We discuss what this means culturally, but it's funnier than that, honest.
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That's The Way I Feel Now - Gav leads Tom through Hal Willner's 1984 Thelonius Monk tribute. Do you know this album? Have you listened to it as a result of listening to our podcast? Was Tom scared by Big Sid Catlett as a child? Write to us at gasgiants.substack.com and let us know!
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Throughout his career, Miles Davis contributed to five film projects, all of them very different. Taking Lift to the Scaffold, Jack Johnson, Siesta, The Hot Spot and Dingo into consideration, we examine the solutions he found with relation to the place that his music was at at each particular moment.
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The recent inclusion of a Channel 4 documentary series from the early 90's in a music festival in Austin, Texas moved Gav & Tom to take a closer look...
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The arrival of the first English translation of a Brigitte Reimann novel 60 years after it was written seems as good a moment as any for Tom & Gav to take a closer look.
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Tom & Gav indulge in a smorgasbord of all things Purple by linking Prince's first Film with Mdou Moctar's later vehicle.
Tom's sampler playlist of Mdou Moctar on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQrwNq6USRXjz7P0lDN-uqa7i4MCecaLb
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Part Two of our eagerly awaited conversation with del Amitri sticksman Paul Tyagi. We catch up with him as he talks us through the ups and downs of touring America on no money, the aesthetic conundrum of the mid 1980's and his final assessment of the first album.
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Part 1 of our conversation with Paul Tyagi, drummer with Del Amitri for most of the 1980. This episode brings us from formation of the band to their departure for America in 1986. Join us next episode for Part 2.
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Tom and Gav listen to the astonishing BBC radio drama adaptation of Len Deighton's Bomber.
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These are pretty paranoid times we're in right now...There must be some way to get out of here, said the...wait a minute...weren't we here before?
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J.G.Ballard's High Rise was recently made into a compelling film, but Tom & Gav go back to the book to say "There goes the neighbourhood"
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German Art Rockers Einstürzende Neubauten once attacked the Stage at London's ICA in a search for secret tunnels. Tom & Gav examine their penultimate album and ask; are they still trying to find a way out?
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Tom & Gav count themselves lucky to have been around when Composer/Author/Linguist/Critic/ all round Ninja in the culture wars Anthony Burgess was still alive and creating. In this episode they use one of Burgess's books to try to get to the bottom of why he was so appealing and what message he still has for today's troubled times
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A 2nd attempt to publish this podcast episode. The 1st didn’t push out to the podcast apps. Please visit this substack page for all the extras.
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Surely a collaboration between an excellent Hard-Bop trumpet player and a composer of electronic music should have something for everyone? Tom & Gav compare notes on multi-media productions in general and Freddie Hubbard's 1971 album with Ilhan Mimaroglu in particular
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Gav and Tom complete their brief survey of Art Documentaries with an Examination of Banksy's 2010 adventure in celluloid. Is there anything at the centre of the onion?
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Whether you're chilling the champers or just chilling at home, the Gas Giants: Tall, Dark and , (in a certain light) handsome are chapping on your door to be your first foot! Lump of coal optional.
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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CkRkv6nA_kK7EE_uYPjnQkM-Qu0T4tZ
Seeing as it's Christmas, Gav reveals to Tom the full depths of his record buying habit. Above is a playlist of tracks from all of the albums which had to be on YouTube as not everything is available on Spotify. A groove this funky must be on the run!
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What was the KLF's deal? Are we any closer to working it out? Join Tom and Gav as they rake through the embers of a burnt million pounds and discover The Wicker Man, the 1973 Brit horror film (that surely inspired The KLF's Jura journo party) starting Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, and Christopher Lee.
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Tom and Gav break a lance for a writer that they both admire; is Kurt Vonnegut well served by the latest Documentary about him?
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Gav & Tom look back at Iain Banks "Millennium Novel" Dead Air in which the hero is a highly political left-wing Scots shock jock on a London daytime radio station (?) who clumsily gets himself into all kinds of trouble with spelunking gangsters, buffoonish kidnappers, and civil and criminal law.
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Gav and Tom bring you another double feature film episode: two films that at first sight don't go together and show how they contributed to where we are now.
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Liquid Sky (1982) directed by Slava Tsukerman with Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan Doukas, Otto von Wernherr.
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After Hours (1985) directed byMartin Scorsese with Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Linda Fiorentino, Catherine O'Hara, and Cheech & Chong.
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Random stuff mentioned….
As I think I say at the start of the episode, the problem here is not finding stuff to put up, but the fact that there is SO MUCH stuff to choose from. This must mean that people coming to Zappa for the first time, perhaps through this podcast, even, is not going to know where to start. I have done my best to include some of the things that aren’t included or aren’t complete in the film.
In the film, a lot of discussion is given over to Frank’s testimony to the senate committee on regulating the lyrics of Rock music. His entire testimony is here and deserves watching.
That 1993 BBC doco
I’m Frank….
Zappa’s music is so diverse that almost everybody can find a track, or even an album, that appeals to them…
Even this guy…but for the rest of you, we have cobbled together twelve of our favourites…
This is a VERY brief overview, not even that really…after selecting these both Tom & I were saying “Oh crap, I can’t believe we left this or that off. Maybe you’ll get the Zappa tennis match after all, but who’s going to judge that?
Interviews…
In the episode, we seem to have made rather a lot of references to various interviews
This podcast, which is often well worth listening to, has conducted interviews with almost all of Zappa’s kids separately, The Dweezil one is linked here because it’s the one that specifically deals with Frank as a guitar player and musical thinker, but the others are also worth a listen…
…like this one, for instance, which includes an interview with Zappa bass player Arthur Barrow.
This amazing film covers many years of Zappa drummers. Watch it whilst it’s still there!
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Tom and Gav try Anthropomorphism on for size in this discussion of Jonathan Lethem's breakthrough debut novel.
It’s difficult to separate Jonathan Lethem from this exhaustive podcast series about Bennington College and it’s influence on American literature of the 80’s/90’s, but this is the episode that deals specifically with the publication of Gun, with occasional music and Motherless Brooklyn. You can dive as deeply as you like…
...and here's Jonathan Lethem talking about his favourite books with a big helping of Non-Bennington Autobiography to go along.
Lethem's article, The Ecstasy of Influence, which he talks about at the top of the above interview.
German listeners will already be familiar with this very successful example of anthropomorphic comedy involving, coincidentally, a Kangaroo.
Metcalf’s world was probably shaped in large part by Flexians, the professional fixers of tawdry privatized and outsourced government policies that meet the needs of the private sector.
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Listen now | Discovering a distress signal from one of the Mother Ship's escape pods, Tom and Gav beam down, having first set their phasers for "Funky".
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Satie’s Vexations… was Meredith Monk there at the 1963 complete performance? Did she stay there long enough to get the show for free?
You never really need an excuse for introducing the Ursonate of Kurt Schwitters into the conversation, but could Monk’s vocalising style have anything to do with this?
DJ Shadow’s 1996 track Midnight in a perfect world is one of the better known uses of a Meredith Monk sample
Death will come for all of us, sooner or later, but if it speaks to me like this, I might have a hard time resisting…
Here's a later interview
...and a recent Guardian article
Tom also mentions this in the Podcast.
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A very detailed article about the book, including some of the locations
A Guardian article about the book from 2016 which gives a brief overview
There is a film of Hangover Square, which has nothing to do with the book whatsoever. The best thing about it is the Bernard Hermann score…
Patrick Hamilton was an expert curator of thoroughly unpleasant people. Here’s a short animated extract of a radio play to make your skin crawl.
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Just Another Elephant Boy's Saturday Graveyard Game. Chewin’ the Fat’s brilliant take on gritty 1970’s TV Drama…
...and I managed to find the entire Play on Youtube! Look’s like the drink order wasn’t burned on my brain like I thought, it’s a triple Pernod and Southern Comfort.
There's always space for this wonderful performance of Give My Compliments to the Chef!
...and the power of 80's advertising.
Here's an interesting article that Tom found, about a French photographer pitching up in 80's Glasgow
Don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourselves!
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Some of the cells from Alasdair Gray’s storyboard for the still unrealised film version of Lanark.
Gray reads perhaps the most famous passage from Lanark, concerning Glasgow's unrealised magnificence.
The Gray Day broadcast, which celebrated 40 years since the publishing of Lanark.
I really can’t get enough of these storyboard images…should we crowdfund the film?
Here’s a shot of Tom’s much thumbed copy of Lanark, presented to him by Bandmate Robert Armstrong…
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Rekursiv chip (pretty long), byJames Lothian (1993). A beautifully-written story about Linn’s 1980s venture in computing.
Paul Buchannan visits the old rehearsal space and talks about Tinseltown in the Rain
This 1990 Documentary about the band's tour of America was somehow regarded as "lost", perhaps because it's completely infuriating!
For the curious, here is del amitri's 1985 self-titled album, which led to Gav discovering the Blue Nile
You often see the Blue Nile's habit of describing a scene in photographic detail compared to something like this...
Linn records is still going strong, although The Blue Nile's back catalogue is on Virgin now
Win! 's Hi-NRG Banger becomes the world's first anti-capitalist Beer Commercial.
We can't leave without talking in some way about Postcard records. This documentary goes into a lot of detail...
Volume Magazine Compilation CDs (ootoob) and Rob Deacon obit (The Independent)
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There's a lot of stuff about John Byrne on Youtube, but this funny, gentle interview catches the man at his best...
Think the episode where the band go to Buckie is far-fetched? Check out this story...
An interesting interview with the cast of the stage adaptation
Before doing Tutti Frutti, Thompson and Coltrane were involved in a sketch show called "Alfresco"
Here's a news report from BBC Scotland about Tam White
We've no idea how long this is going to stay up, but Tom has uploaded a few clips of Janice and Eddie Clockerty
Owning Tutti Frutti
If you look for this online, be prepared to come face to face with the ludicrous eighties gameshow with topless girls. Assuming that you don’t give up there, as of writing I think one episode is up on Youtube. It is possible to buy a region 2 DVD of the show for a reasonable price, but we have to ask why it isn’t available on a streaming service
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Here's a taste of what's coming up...
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Node recordings on Discogs
2020 interview with Dave Bessell
1995 interview with Ed Buller & Gary Stout about the making of the EP
2014 Interview about the making of Node 2
David Bessell's Youtube Channel has a few videos of Node in the studio
Terminus
Olivine
Here’s a TV feature about the whole event
The only way to own the Media is to search around for a second-hand copy, however Tom had some FLAC files and loaded the up to YouTube. Let’s see how long they stay up there!
After the 1995 EP and album, Node made a second album in 2015 that is on Spotify etc. and there’s a recording of a concert at RCM. That’s all folks!
Hold the press. what’s this!?!?
Speaking of trains
Hautologists on Parade - Who’s getting spooked by the ghosts in the machine?
Radiohead discover the Ondes Martenot
LCD Soundsystem like a blend of new and old, it seems...
See what I mean...?
Hot Chip, a band that looks like the staff-room of a mid-seventies comprehensive, also like a blend of old and new
...but how did they get the hottest girl in school to play drums with them?
Three examples vintage-synth nostalgia-pop
Not to imply that Node sounds like pop music, ofc.
That Minimoog solo style
In which, for only a few seconds at the end, Coldcut deploy that rapid legato Minimoog solo style with pota, mod and filter sweep, so popular with certain players in both jazz and rock.
Do You Mean Like This, Tom?
We couldn’t leave this discussion without some honourable mentions…
This, obviously…
…and here’s the Turangalila that Gav was talking about…
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Billy Berg’s
The Club as it might have appeared at the end of 1945…
….it was no party running a Jazz club back then.
All that remains of the Finale Club, where Parker organised a steady engagement after Dizzy and the rest of the band went back to New York. The club closed soon after as a result of LAPD corruption, then tried to open again as a kind of musician’s cooperative. Quite a few of the bootleg recordings of Parker in California were made at the Finale.
The Recordings.
A recording from Billy Berg’s does exist, a take of “Salt Peanuts” done for the radio station WEAF on the 24th of Jan, but I couldn’t find it. It’s out there if you really search.
Bird & Diz in light-hearted mood with Slim Gaillard, 29th Dec 1945.
”Got to cut out? Gotta make a Jubilee? Well, All Reet!”
Compare it with this version after Camarillo..
The solo from Moose the Mooche…
The Alto break from Night in Tunisia…
…then it all goes wrong.
After Camarillo…
Camarillo State Mental Hospital
The hospital then…
…and now, as California State University Channel Islands.
Did Bird get Electro-shock treatment? Russell says no.
Tom interjects to ask: So what if he did?
Some of the other characters in the story.
Surely William “Bill” Claxton needs no introduction, but here’s the original of the photo in the book.
Julie Macdonald’s haunting sculpture of Bird from 1956.
Jirayr Zorthian with one of his sculptures.
An article about the Zorthian Ranch.
The recording of the jams at the party at Zorthian Ranch in which Charlie Parker takes part.
The by now famous image of Bird and Diz, with Trane waiting in the wings….
Here’s Trane’s second recorded solo, with Dizzy Gillespie from 1951….
Bird with the young Ross Russell.
Maybe we should leave the last word to Sonny Rollins…
Not quite final, sorry Sonny, ‘cus Tom did manage to identify that comic book serious graphic novel about nuclear war in the UK in the early 80s was Raymond Briggs When the Wind Blows.
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Is “Gulpful” a word?…I suppose it is now.
Not everybody loves you…
not even Orson…
Spike Lee Likes you, though!
Andy Griffith explains the fascination with Lonesome Rhodes…
Some Vitajex, anyone?
Watkins explains how they mess with your head…
The Elder Paul Jones on the UK Sunday night TV show “Songs of Praise”
If you, like Tom, want to check out The War Game, you’ll have to buy it; the equally shocking Punishment Park could be easier, however. Here’s the trailer; depending on where you live you might be able to see the whole thing on Youtube.
Here’s a career ending moment.
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A slow afternoon in the Interzone…
We talked about A LOT of music on this episode…all of it is worth further investigation, but if you just need a place to start, here’s a playlist.
Ornette Coleman talks about sound as language.
The Other’s Language: Jacques Derrida interviews Ornette Coleman, 23 June 1997. In this fascinating conversation, Ornette Coleman asked Jacques Derrida “Do you ever ask yourself if the language that you speak now interferes with your actual thoughts? Can a language of origin influence your thoughts?”
Just by the way, does Derrida here explain why the French can’t do jazz?
Revisiting the Master Musicians, a very interesting article on the blog On An Overgrown Path.
Ornette Coleman and the Circle With a Hole in the Middle, by Robert Palmer, in The Atlantic 1972.
Tom mentioned this 2xLP recorded in 1971 in the ep, finally got a copy and made a digital transfer available here…
Beginnings…
Howard Shore gets his first break…
The first stirrings of Free Jazz?
Does this explain anything?
Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine with the Master Musicians of Jajouka
Interestingly, just as we were about to drop the episode, this happened...
Brion Gysin doing scary Be-Bop with Steve Lacy. Everything is connected.
In 2010 Ornette was a surprise guest at Sonny Rollins 80th birthday party concert in Now York, heard here in a 20-minute long workout of Rollin’s Sonnymoon For Two.
Ornette jams with The Greatful Dead in 1993 (The Internet Archive)
…How this all started…
This sparked off a search for alternatives..
This is Buchla 200e synthesizer…
Morton Subotnick made Silver Apples of the Moon in 1967 using the older Buchla 100 instrument. Sam Shepard made Promises in 2021 using Pharoah Sanders, the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra, a Piano, a Harpsichord, a Celesta, a Fender Rhodes, a Hammond B3, an Oberheim 4 voice, an Oberheim OB-Xa, a Solina String Ensemble, a Therevox ET-4.3, an EMS Synthi, an ARP 2600, and a Buchla 200e, ffs.
This was one…
Frank Zappa reads the man who taught his a***e to talk, the very same that Bill Lee recites in the movie.
Just for the Hell of it (!) here’s Burroughs narrating a Swedish Movie with a great Jazz Soundtrack about witchcraft.
The fascination for a particular author's typewriter is explored futher in this extremely imaginative and well crafted Hörspiel from the WDR
...and here's a typewriter that could have kicked the s**t out of all the others
Tom’s specific Naked Lunch special interest
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22
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Oskar Kokoschka - The Power of Music (1918/20)
Thomas Bernhard
A Scrupulous Fidelity, On Thomas Bernhard’s The Loser – The Brooklyn Rail
A short extract from a staged version of the novel.
Thomas Bernhard as a patient, described by his half-brother.
Losers, f**k-ups and vampires
You know the types…
The Glenn Gould less Travelled….
Gould as a cultural critic…
Gould and Liberace - The Music Show - ABC Radio National
Gould and his Nemesis…..
Gould as a Sound Artist…there’s a version of this with images as well.
…and finally, Gould slips into another persona the better to take on Mozart.
Speaking of which…
…and the one more traveled.
Owning Der Untergeher.
In German Der Untergeher. Buch von Thomas Bernhard (Suhrkamp Verlag)
In English The Loser - Thomas Bernhard Reissues - Books | Faber & Faber
Em Portuguese O NÁUFRAGO - - Grupo Companhia das Letras
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PANIC - The Dithyramb Dissected
Where it all started…
The Concert used on the CD, (thanks to Casa da Musica), complete with the score, (thanks to Tom)
Poetry and Influences ( Some Dubious)
The Poem the H.B. used as the initial inspiration for the work.
At the beginning of the 20th century, many composers turned to the folk music of their countries in a search for a national cultural identity. In Britain the folk music was inextricably linked with the pre-Christian, or pagan past, which gave rise to quite a few pieces in which Pan appears, like this…
or this…
…and perhaps this takes us too far afield, but isn’t it interesting to see the Saxophone turn up in the role of one of Job’s comforters in Vaughan William’s “Job - A Masque for Dancing”?
Some background to the great God Pan. Contains a discussion of Occult matters.
Arthur Machen’s masterpiece “The Great God Pan” , that H.B. specifically told Gav he’d never heard of, let alone read.
…from there it’s just a short step to The Fall’s Leave the Capitol, with many Pan references. I’d put money on Birtwistle being completely unaware of this.
The Dionysian Saxophone, a Short Study
Paul Gonsalves’s 27 choruses of Crescendo and Diminuendo in Blue at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival are a good example of Dionysian energy embracing an entire crowd. Even with the sound quality and lack of image, it’s still quite easy to hear how the audience is gradually moved out of itself into an ecstatic state.
Newport again, but a very different Saxophonist. Out of all of Coltrane’s outpourings, this is one of the closest to the Birtwistle, I think. It’s not difficult to imagine Trane as the Great God Pan
…Or maybe this. This is certainly the acid test for me to see if a piece of Contemporary Classical music is any good.
Then again, it’s not just Coltrane. One of the most shamefully overlooked players in this field was Sun Ra’s tenor player John Gilmore. Listen to how this solo builds into an ecstatic explosion…
Other Notable mentions should include…
…and also this. Is this why Birtwistle wrote for the alto instead of the far more expressive tenor saxophone?
Night’s Black Bird (2002)
Albrecht Dürer’s Engraving featuring something that looks suspiciously like the Casa da Musica on it’s side…..everything is connected.
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs! Exiled for ever, let me mourn; Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings, There let me live forlorn. Down vain lights, shine you no more! No nights are dark enough for those That in despair their last fortunes deplore. Light doth but shame disclose. Never may my woes be relieved, Since pity is fled; And tears and sighs and groans my weary days, my weary days Of all joys have deprived. From the highest spire of contentment My fortune is thrown; And fear and grief and pain for my deserts, for my deserts Are my hopes, since hope is gone. Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell, Learn to contemn light Happy, happy they that in hell Feel not the world's despite.
Why Ken Ueno?
Tom and Ken were once in a band together with Jon Whitney called Blood Money
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Spotify Playlist
Unfortunately, neither the Scientist Record, or Felix Kubin’s release were available on Spotify, so I chose other tracks by these artists to make sure they were represented.
List of Purchases
Oxfam - Byers Road, Glasgow
Archie Shepp - Fire Music. Impulse IMP 158
Art Tatum - The V Discs. Black Lion BLP 30203
Love Music- Glasgow
Scientist - Scientist At The Controls Of Dub. Jamaica Recordings JBLP029
Mono- Glasgow
Felix Kubin - 1:17. Gargarin GR2032
Vinyl Planet UK-Macclesfield
Bill Bruford - The Bruford Tapes. EGS 106
David Bowie - Young Americans. RS 1006
Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Virgin 202.968-320
Lester Bowie - The Great Pretender. ECM 1209.2301.209
Ändrä - Dortmund
Joe Harriot Quintet - Jazz For Moderns. Gearbox GB1503
Gordon Beck - Seven Steps To Evans. Stop Jazz JS-073 (H)
George Adams/ Don Pullen Quartet - Earthbeams. TI SJP 147
50x Plastic Sleeves.
(We never got round to discussing the Gordon Beck LP.)
It’s also worth mentioning that I bought a copy of The Wire which included The Wire Tapper 56 and the great guy at MONO, (Tom could be more enthusiastic about the NAME, at least), gave me a free compilation CD called Muscles of Joy. It seems to comprise different works written and recorded over several years. Thanks again, MONO!
The opening of Mahler 9…
…and a strange similarity with this track.
Japan live…
Joe Harriot In a Sentimental Mood….
…and if this doesn’t brighten your day, nothing will!
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Direction, camera work, even actors…where had we seen that before?
Well, maybe the strongest contender…
A few years before Dogme 95 too.
The cast and crew chat about the film in 2018….
…and Jennifer Beals checks that Mom got her money back.
…so is Seymour Cassel really The Great God Pan dressed as Santa Claus?
So, Do You Want To Be In The Soup?
In The Soup can be bought for under 10 lousy bucks. At the moment you can also rent it on Amazon Prime.
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Nikel Pallat of Ton, Steine, Scherben explains the dangers of expecting the media to act as an instrument of change….
The complete documentary under discussion…
This is what Curtis is really famous for…
…and we felt that this was a kind of afterthought to HyperNormalisation, but it can’t be denied that for a certain kind of person everything stood still when this came out on the BBC iPlayer.
There are a number of good podcast interviews, but this one is generaly available for free
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SPOILERS coming…
If you want to watch the movie without prejudice, watch for the spoiler warnings below.
Photography examples
Tom especially admires these of examples of photography in Strozek…
Music
Sonny Terry, Old Lost John featured two of Herzog’s movies. One with a dancing truck in flames, the other with the breakdancing soul of a gangster.
Spoiler warning!
Spoiler warning!
I’m not really sure why I included this here, apart from it’s an example of very strange German storytelling…there is, surely, something of the Moritaten aesthetic here, surely? Or is it a bit of a stretch , maybe?
Moritäten Briefly Discussed
A Moritäten Vorträger at work in Augsburg.
Auction chant
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck – Beobachtungen zu einer neuen Sprache (1976 Herzog film for TV)
The art of Adolf Wölfli
The fascination held by “outsider art” over the artsy intelecual class makes Tom uncomfortable. The art of Adolf Wölfli is a well known example.
The Cast
Eva Mattes
Bruno S.
Der Fremde ist der Tod
2003 documentary film by Miron Zownir. Version with English titles and subtitles “Bruno S. – Estrangement is Death”.
Tom thinks these moments are especially notable
3:02 Lars Bruno relates a story in which Bruno is rejected by the Cannes crowd from the premiere of his own film.
38:00 Fritz Schuler and Hans Krause talk about how people were ashamed of Bruno except when they learned of his art, at which point he became an object of intense interest.
A short film clip in which Bruno. S will freeze your blood
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Further reading
Yanis Varoufakis, And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future (2017). Puts the 21c economic and financial crises in the context of the history of the USA’s global financial and military hegemony. In particular it explains how the US economy shifted from productive capital to finance capital in the 70s and 80s and how it manages to maintain its hegemony despite consistently running both trade and budget deficits.
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005). Explains what Harvey calls accumulation by dispossession, the policies, practices, and ideology of what’s come to be known as neoliberalism.
Jeff Schmidt, Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-battering System That Shapes Their Lives (2001). Details the power of class politics and class loyalty in the professional/managerial class and the sadomasochism that holds it together and separate from the rest of us. (PDF of whole book.)
Thomas Frank, everything he has written is relevant to this discussion. He has lots of articles in The Guardian that you can read for free. Recent books include Listen Liberal or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People and The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism.
David Graeber, Debt, the First 5000 Years (2011) and lots of articles and a number of books by Michael Hudson describe our current financial and economic power arrangements relative to a broad historical view of human social organizations.
Randal Wray, A Great Leap Forward: Heterodox Economic Policy for the 21st Century (2020) and Stephanie Kelton, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy (2020). Both explain how money really works and debunk the neoclassical economic theology that serves accumulation by dispossession.
Pods
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One – BILL BLACK on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay. A nine-part series explaining standard forms of control fraud, i.e. more-or-less legally robbing the bank you work for or own.
Why Biden Won’t Cancel Student Debt – Michael Hudson on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay.
Debt Deflation and the Neofeudal Empire with Michael Hudson on Macro n Cheese with Geoff Ginter.
The Black Vote and The Bernie Sanders Movement with Glen Ford on Macro n Cheese with Geoff Ginter.
You should really watch the whole thing, but here’s the headlines….
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“I’ve Known A Few Performers In My Time…” Documentaries & Interviews
A very thorough BBC documentary on Donald Cammell
From the restored DVD of the movie.
From the BBC Series Hollywood UK, this has some interviews that don’t appear elsewhere.
Sandy Lieberson with some insights into the relationship between Cammell and Roeg.
From the Timeline series a hair-raising documentary about Performance actor John Bindon.
When the Sixties went wrong…
…and finally, a moment from about ten years after Performance, when Mick, perhaps unknowingly, suddenly becomes Turner.
“I Need A Bohemian Atmosphere.” A Selection of Locations
The Film
The fascinating life of the owner of Lowndes Square
The Locations
“Correspondence Not Answered!” Print
Colin MacCabe’s Excellent commentary on the film: Performance (BFI Film Classics)
Interview including many photos: 'Performance? I still don't fully understand it' – behind the scenes photos from the cult classic (The Guardian)
The Cult of Violence - John Pearson - Excellent first-hand account of the Kray twins, not directly connected with Performance, but full of background. Pearson didn’t like Performance, find out why!
I haven’t read this… "Performance": The Ultimate A-Z (Bloomsbury Movie Guide)
Or this… Performance: Donald Cammell: Nic Roeg: Pocket Movie Guide by Jeremy Mark Robinson
Or even this… Performance: A Biography Of The Classic Sixties Film by Paul Buck
Or… Performance: The Making of a Classic by Jay Glennie …and this costs almost seventy Quid, so no wonder. Is there any end to books about this movie?
On the other hand, rather than buying ANOTHER book about performance, you could attack it from another angle with this biography of Jack the Lad: Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock’n’Roll Underworld by Keiron Pim
Memo From Turner - Films Similar to Performance.
Almost every Gangster Movie made after 1970 owes something to Performance in some shape or form, but there are some notable mentions…
Very Entertaining. This time it’s a reclusive actress and not a Rock star
Eureka by Anthony Quinn. OK, this is a book and not a film, except it’s a book ABOUT a film. Gangsters, LSD, BDSM and an enigmatic movie. Enjoyable fluff, but well written enjoyable fluff.
Satanic bikers, time portals and the Fall: the story of Mark E Smith’s secret screenplay (The Guardian)
It wouldn’t be Gas Giants without a Mark E. Smith moment!
John Bindon with a brief character role in Quadrophenia.
“Here’s To Old England” Owning Performance
Performance is available to stream or buy through Amazon. It is also readily available on DVD or Blu Ray for less than a tenner. That’s more than equitable, surely? WE’VE BEEN COURTEOUS!!!!
“Ee ‘ad three number 1’s, two number two’s and a number four”
The soundtrack to Performance is also readily available in all formats
It’s also worth mentioning that Performance was a big favourite of the Happy Mondays…
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We faced an unprecedented crisis, but tens of thousands of second wave Covid deaths were avoidable – and unforgivable | Keir Starmer | The Guardian Sat 29 May 2021
BBC Radio 4 - The Corbyn Story - Available now
“With enterprises struggling, the Conservatives have lost their trust. Labour can now be the party of business.” Keir Starmer is right to oppose a Tory corporation tax increase | Alan Johnson | The Guardian Mon 1 Mar 2021
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Interviews and Elaborate Explanations.
In this short interview, BEE sets out a brief outline of his stump speech.
Filmography
I’ve put a MTV video here because the movie is an MTV video…
The Bateman brother discuss finances in this unused outtake…
…and Patrick talks music.
Do we really want to go this far? Tom: YES. After all, “design” worship is everywhere. Apple. This guy is awesome. YouTube explainers are so fucked up.
“The last frames of Control, but not in black and white…”
L.A. and other noir fascinations…
I couldn’t resist it…
https://www.wired.com/1994/10/godwin-if-2/
Since we were talking about Whitney Houston, here’s Material and Archie Shepp
OMG, I LOVE this!!!!
…and finally, VIBRATO IS A VARIATION IN INTENSITY; NOT IN PITCH!!!!!!
(1) I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) (Remastered) - YouTube
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Tony Palmer
In the News again! Arts figures leap to BBC’s defence over classical music TV output.
Not a great print, but if you needed any encouragement to buy this film, here it is.
…and here’s Gav’s Mum…
John Cage?
Tom thinks that Cage was onto something important here:
Recounting a conversation regarding Cage’s reaction to Handel’s Messiah.“I had just heard The Messiah (sic] with Mrs. Henry Allen Moe, and she said, “Don’t you love the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’” and I said, “No, I can’t stand it.” So she said, “Don’t you like to be moved?” and I said, “I don’t mind being moved but I don’t like to be pushed.” When asked, “Is it possible to listen to The Messiah [sic] in such a way that the sounds can be taken simply as themselves?” Cage answered, “I think so. But you’d have to listen to a lot of other music at the same time, in some kind of Apartment House situation. Then it might be very entertaining. You can get rid of intention by multiplying intention. That’s what’s at the basis of my work with Musicircus.” Recounted in Conversing with Cage, 234.
John Cage Empty Words Milan 2 Dec 1977
And finally…
Your and our palate cleanser after 7 and a half hours of high-art film documenting the most ambitious high-art music theater, and after this endless podcast is this short but marvelous excerpt of low culture contained in another work of over-baked high-art, Heaven’s Gate.
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Interviews, Written Word, etc…
Tales from Topographic Oceans - Wikipedia with a surprisingly good account of its creation.
Gong (band) - Wikipedia with the all-important flow chart.
Sound & Vision
Igor does it straight….
National Health does it Prog!
Meanwhile, on the dark side…
The start of the fascination.
Gong shows us their Jazz chops…
…and for those of you watching in black and white, here is the Jazz version we played an excerpt from
Stan Tracey Quartet – Arcadia from South East Assignment – Steam SJ108
One of the greatest moments in music.
The Origins of M. Malherbe’s unusual nickname…
We need to talk about Pierre Moerlin.
They’re still listening to Jazz…
“We were doing asymmetrical rhythmic patterns…”
The Bass moves the first beat of the bar. Here’s the same riff from Steve Hillage’s later solo album
The Salmon Song includes a bassoon
Shout out to Lindsay Cooper!
The Fall and Gong?
Unknown to us at the time of recording, on the Oh! Brother podcast, Grant Showbiz outlines the connection between The Fall and Gong …really…
How to get closer to the Planet Gong
(Owning the Media)
Because the Planet is, you realize, one of the spots before your eyes…seriously, part of the fun of the trilogy is the art work which is best appreciated as it was intended - on a record sleeve. Hit up Discogs, trawl 2nd hand record shops, flea markets, record fairs, you should be able to find the separate records for around €20 each, earlier pressings obviously bringing more. For the non vinylist, however, it is worth considering this: Gong’s brilliant but wayward history is reflected in its history of the slings and arrows of outrageous record companies. All of the albums can be found on CD with one or other cover on the front, sometimes albums that don’t have anything to to with each other are paired together or broken up into rather lop-sided compilations. There are a number of live records out there, some of which have some studio rarities mixed in as well. There have been two attempts to put everything into some kind of order to give a serious overview to the work of the band -
The Charly Boxed set (2015) is a four CD set with a remixed version of all the albums and an extra CD of alternate mixes. It comes complete with a very nicely assembled book of photos, sketches, articles, tickets, flyers, etc. This edition was NOT authorized by the band. It currently retails at €70 or so on Amazon.
Love From the Planet Gong - The Virgin Years 1973-75 is a much more ambitious affair comprising 13 CDs, artwork and a book. Each CD has the album in question followed by a selection of outtakes and alternate versions. Also included is the Album “Shamal” (1976) which was not part of the Radio Gnome Invisible story, but was an album for Virgin, but for some reason does not include the earlier album Camembert Electrique. which predated the trilogy, but was released by Virgin in 1974. The entire collection has been curated by Steve Hillage and includes sessions for the BBC some live concerts, etc. It is very extensive, but not cheap and you can expect to pay around €130 for it.
Of course, it goes without saying that all of this is available on Spotify to stream online, but where’s the fun in that?
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Early inspiration
Träume - Günter Eich
An extremely scary radio play from 1951 which, despite being preceded by a warning, caused a storm of protest from traumatised listeners. “Who is this man Eich?”, wrote one, “ Can’t you lock him up?”
Generation Kassette - Die Stimmen unserer Kindheit
Available in Spotify.
WDR Hörspiel-Speicher. Less controversial than Träume, a radio documentary about the German tradition of recorded plays (Hörspiele) for children which formed an important part of Felix’s childhood.
Deutsche Kassettentäter #1
Part 1 of Felix’s lovingly curated collection of the work of German bands from the early 1980’s. Info. Listen on Radio Web MACBA. Very cool.
Hörspiele / Radio Plays
Paralektronoia
Even for the non German speaker, Paralektronoia is fairly easy to follow.
Mother In The Fridge
Felix subjects his poor mother to a series of audio indignities.
Liedertafel Margot Honecker
Felix’s responsibility in the Kommunistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Communist Unity Party of Germany) was music and he directed the Liedertafel Margot Honecker. MP3s of this post-Soviet German communist musical propaganda are available at, of all things, WFMU (and, ofc, the tubes of you).
Don’t miss the short film Rote Grütze.
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Films of Films within Films…
Hellzapoppin’ (1941)
Interestingly, the narrative is almost as confusing here as in Inland Empire, but for very different reasons.
The Mistress (1992)
Is Film as serious as your life?
The other Side of the Wind (2018, kind of)
Is Life as serious as your Film?
Ed Wood (1994)
Are You Serious?
The Stunt Man (1980)
Are You Alive?
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
What is Real?
Atame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) (1989)
What is that dance?
Owning the Empire
Inland Empire should be available on either DVD or Blueray from most places at a cost of around €10 or so. At the time of writing it doesn’t seem to be available to be streamed legally.
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Gav’s personal copy of Vineland, which has been with him since the dark days of 1990…
Newspaper Articles.
“The Novel And The Secret Police”. Peter Coviello takes a look at the novel from a 2020 perspective
“Rereading Vineland by Thomas Pynchon” Andy Becket , The Guardian 31/07/2010
Wikipedia Page about the Industrial Workers of the World
Sound and Vision.
Easy Rider - ( 1969 ) Ending
Musical References in Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland”
A wonderfully complete youtube playlist that saved us a lot of work!
T.V., Documentaries, Interviews, etc
Inside the mind of P.
A Swiss / German TV Doc
Thomas Pynchon - The Late Show 31/1/1990, BBC TV
A feature about Pynchon put together by the BBC for the publication of Vineland
Owning Vineland.
Vineland is available in paperback for about the best 10 bucks you’ve ever spent, pardner.
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Gav and Tom listen to Side B of In A Silent Way, a milestone album in the music of Miles Davis and a monument marking the beginning of the era of jazz-rock.
Media discussed in the show.
In the case of recordings, if it says “available in all formats”, that usually means that it’s been repressed on vinyl recently. “Available in most formats” will mean that the record is available as a CD, on Spotify or, as a last resort, on Youtube; vinyl will usually be available secondhand through Discogs or your friendly neighborhood record shop.
RECORDINGS
1969 Miles Davis - The Complete “In A Silent Way” Sessions - Sony
These are in a boxed set of three CD's for, I kid you not, 129 US dollars on Amazon, although they can be found online for around 50. The complete material is available to stream for the usual Price. The version of “In A Silent Way” that was issued in 1969 is available in all formats.
1968 Miles Davis - Miles In The Sky - Legacy
Easily available in all formats
1968 Miles Davis - Filles de Kilimanjaro - Legacy
Easily available in all formats
1981 Miles Davis - We Want Miles
Easily available in all formats
1964 Miles Davis - Miles Davis Live in Europe. Columbia (and others)
Easily available in most formats.
1967 Miles Davis - Circle in the Round (Album released 1979)
Still available in most formats.
1985 Miles Davis - Aura (Album released 1989)
Available on most formats
YOUTUBE
Miles Davis- Live in Tokyo 1981
The band that made “We Want Miles” on Japanese TV. Taken from a VHS, but quite acceptable sound quality.
It's About That Time - The Evolution of the Groove 2007
A remixed version of the track, featuring Santana. By all rights, we should hate this, but we really love it!
1968 Gordon Beck Quartet - Experiments With Pops
Originally released on Major Minor Records in the UK, was remastered and released on CD by CD Baby in the UK and in the US by Art of Life Records. Well worth a listen. A good candidate for a re-release on 180 gram vinyl, if anyone’s looking for an idea for a Record Day Drop!
Danny Thompson Trio BBC 1967
It looks like this, or something like it, was released on CD but might now not be available. There is, however, a video on YouTube at the moment, a BBC broadcast and well worth a listen.
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage, Acts 1,2,3. 1978. Zappa Records
Available in any format.
Frank Zappa - Shut Up An’ Play Yer Guitar 1981. Zappa Records
Available in any format.
Ilhan Mimaroglu/Freddie Hubbard- Sing Me A Song Of Songmy - Atlantic 1971
Was out of print for a while, but is now available in CD and Vinyl format, but you need it in vinyl so that you can read the interior of that gate-fold inner sleeve!
Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon came dropping its Clothes in the street - ECM Records 2008
Available as stream or mp3 download - CD and Vinyl commanding impressive prices secondhand!
BOOKS , INTERVIEWS AND OTHER MEDIA
Miles - The Autobiography. Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe
Simon and Schuster. 1989
So What: The Life of Miles Davis. John Szwed
Arrow Books. 2002
Interview with John Mclaughlin about the recording of "In a Silent Way"
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In Gas Giants, Gav and Tom discover and explain truth and meaning in the world by examining our cultures artifacts one at a time.
This trailer should make things clear enough.
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