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bijouxcarys · 26 days

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Queen's Hot Space Era: A Deep Dive

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I’ve been thinking over this album and era more than usual lately, and decided that I’d write this up. Perhaps as a way to extricate all the Queen knowledge from my head, and the era in question takes up quite a lot of RAM.

The Hot Space album, and era, is very controversial and to this day garners a polarising set of opinions amongst fans and critics alike. So I just thought what the hell, let’s let everyone know what the hell was going on with Queen in the early 80s.

The Hot Space album was the 10th studio album by Queen and was released on the 21st May 1982. It had elements of disco, funk, R&B, dance, and pop, which was very different to what Queen had been doing throughout previous albums. The dance elements of this album was supposedly inspired by the success of Another One Bites The Dust, released in 1980.

Another One Bites The Dust was extremely successful in the US and the UK, the two largest marketing countries in the Western world, at least at the time—and Queen aimed to prolong that success.

The band started recording for Hot Space in June of 1981, and spent a gruelling 10 months on the project before wrapping up the production element in March of 1982. Upon its release, fans and critics found it disappointing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said “the band that once proudly proclaimed not to use synthesisers on their albums now dramatically reversed course, dedicating the entire first side of the album to robotic, new wave dance pop, all driven by drum machines and coloured by keyboards with Brian May’s guitar coming in as flavour only on occasion.”

The fourth track on Hot Space, Body Language, has been dubbed the worst song in Queen’s discography by fans, and the whole album received no more than a 3-star rating overall.

Rolling Stone gave them a 3-star, whilst the Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave a 1-star… Yikes.

Hot Space is one of the more obscure Queen albums to those who are not currently, or have ever been, active within the fandom. So we’re going to break it down a little bit, and let’s just talk about the background and context of what the hell was going on with them.

So in 1981, Queen recorded Under Pressure with David Bowie, and it’s still considered one of Queen’s staple and most popular songs. It was recorded in Montreux, and was a completely separate project to Hot Space. The band had met up with Bowie and jammed together for a while, just to see if they could come up with something to lay down and master. Of course, as most people know, bassist John Deacon came up with the iconic Under Pressure bass riff, just before they all went out to get some pizza. And by the time they’d returned to the studio, he’d forgotten it! But luckily drummer Roger Taylor remembered it.

Now, this was the first time Queen weren’t working alone; they were used to working only with their producers, never having had anyone else’s input. The two artists merged as one for the song and it pointed in the direction of a potential new road for Queen—it was looking like an exciting one.

But what went wrong during the recording of Hot Space?

Brian May recalls that there was a total change of life for all of them. They travelled to Munich and according to Brian, that’s when things started to go downhill.

Let’s talk a little bit about the studio in which they recorded the album in Munich. It was situated in the basement of a hotel, and it was called Musicland Studios. It closed in the 90s due to some road issues, so it’s no longer open. But Brian remembers this place being grim and depressing.

The band’s mental health started to deteriorate after learning some unsettling details about the place. In Brian’s words:

“A lot of people used to jump off the top of the building and kill themselves off that particular building. We didn’t know that until we got there.”

The urge to finish recording grew, and they spent months at the hotel.

The aim was to create an album that focused more on the dance elements of music due to the success of Another One Bites The Dust, as I mentioned before. They seemed to be in luck, as Freddie Mercury’s entourage at the time was concentrated with dance influences in the form of Paul Prenter.

Now, who was Paul Prenter, you ask? If you’ve seen the film, you’ll kind of already know, but here’s a bit more of an in-depth look at him.

Paul Prenter was Freddie Mercury’s personal manager from 1977 to 1986. Despite their professional relationship, the two also engaged in intimate relations, and Prenter had a huge influence over Freddie’s life during the time he worked for him. He held partial responsibility for Freddie’s excessive involvement in drugs, alcohol, and his growing promiscuity.

Freddie was known to have fired Prenter in 1986, and shortly after it was plastered all over the news. It turns out Paul Prenter had sold personal stories to the press about Freddie… What a dick.

After receiving money from multiple press outlets, he moved back to his hometown of Belfast and spent it all—smart. He then asked Freddie for more money! After all that, he went back and asked him for money! But it’s okay, he did succumb to complications from AIDS a few months before Freddie. So… Freddie got the last laugh, it seemed.

You’re probably wondering what Paul Prenter had to do with Hot Space. After all, he wasn’t part of the band, right?

Well, Freddie’s life was ruled by the New York-inspired gay lifestyle of the 80s, particularly engaging in extreme partying and extreme promiscuity. And at the time, Freddie had suggested to the band that the music on their new album should sound like that of which they’d play in a gay bar, but those words had initially come from Paul Prenter.

It’s said that Prenter despised guitars and relentlessly referred to Brian May as old-fashioned. Roger Taylor recalled that Prenter was a “very bad influence” on the band:

“He was a very, very bad influence upon Freddie, and hence on the band. He very much wanted our music to sound like you just walked in a gay club, and I didn’t.”

The strain and tension became inevitable with the four personalities—and we all know that John, Freddie, Brian, and Roger have massive personalities. Whilst they had always experienced bickering, as most bands do, they now with the added tension, the production of the album isn’t going to go as smoothly.

“Arguments would start off as creative, but slowly became personal.”

Brian recalls that less and less time was spent in the studio and more time was spent arguing.

To put it into perspective about what life was like for the 10 months they spent recording Hot Space in Munich…A regular day recording this album went a little bit like the following:

The entourage recall waking up at 3am, working for hours, having dinner, and then roadies would mix up cocktails and other things would pursue. The band got mixed up in cocaine and various other drugs. Random women, and relentless drinking, and as any sane person will tell you, that is not a good thing.

Roger described it as an exhausting cycle day after day. Imagine doing that for 9 whole months.

Brian remembers them getting into “deep trouble emotionally” in Munich, which possibly explains why their mental states deteriorated.

Now, the Hot Space era didn’t just end when the album came out. Obviously, when an album comes out, you have to do interviews to promote your album and after months and months of bad influences and arguments, the band’s relationship had kind of broken down. Things continued in quite a tense fashion.

In fact, Freddie was left very unhappy and depressed after Hot Space wrapped up—it lasted a while, and he was completely immersed in places and habits that remained detrimental to his fate. Freddie became passive during interviews and defensive on certain questions concerning anything but current projects.

His attitude during the 1982 press conference in Europe was already standoffish and it was extremely obvious that he didn’t want to be there. The body language of the others, especially Brian, speaks volumes. The mood is low and they all seem exhausted.

Another nationwide interview the band gave in promotion for the album presented the group separated; Freddie was notably disinterested as the others spoke. There was even a moment where Freddie responds to the interviewer’s question with “let’s break up tomorrow” as a joke. But, watching it, you can’t help but feel there’s some truth to his words. Nobody laughed, even Roger looked uncomfortable by it!

One of the more well-known interviews from this era was with Brian and Roger, which displayed multiple moments of awkwardness with them both trying to make jokes and seem like they’re happy with what they’d produced, making up amateur excuses as to why they created something with a different sound. In my opinion, they just didn’t seem very happy. Do we even need to mention the “shut up” from Roger, and then the succeeding comment from Brian about Mack having the best drum sound?

Then, we have the iconic 1984 Freddie interview, where he left viewers stunned with his answers:

“I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you,” “I’m not an artist, I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”

The long-term effects of what happened behind the scenes of Hot Space were everlasting and turned the group into four completely different people than they were prior to 1982.

As I’ve already mentioned, Hot Space wasn’t received well upon its release, and there are still very strong opinions about it today. Brian stated in 2014 that it isn’t the band’s worst album, but the timing of its release was just wrong. As time goes on, more people begin to accept the Hot Space album as just another reason why Queen is one of the most versatile groups of all time, with them branching out into very different styles to what they’d done earlier in their career, like Sheer Heart Attack, News Of The World, etc…

80s culture looked down upon disco and funk, so reception for Hot Space was bound to be less than amazing. However, today, all styles of music are simultaneously celebrated, and people enjoy the album more now than they did 40 years ago.

So in conclusion, recording Hot Space was a difficult period for Queen. It’s horrible to think about your idols going through the kind of thing they did in the early-mid 80s, influenced by not very nice people. But focusing on the album itself, it’s truly not a bad album at all. Granted, the timing of the release wasn’t the best for Queen, but it holds up as a fan favourite today.

If you haven’t heard any of the songs from Hot Space, besides Under Pressure, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s very different to what Queen usually did and I think it’s worth a listen.

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. Let me know if you liked this little… post, whatever the hell it is, and if I should do more posts like this. I enjoy throwing all my useless knowledge onto a page lol.

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freddieraimbow74 · 17 days

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ON THIS DAY In Queen History - 2 April

QUEEN: 1974 Barbarellas, Birmingham, UK;

1975 Kinsmen Field House, Edmonton; 1976 Miyagi-Ken Sports Centre, Sendai;

1984 ‘I Want to Break Free’/‘Machines (Back to Humans)’ released UK.

FREDDIE MERCURY: 1984 Rehearsing with Royal Ballett for ‘I Want To Break Free’ video;

1985 Began filming ‘I Was Born To Love You’ single Limehouse Studio, Docklands, London.

BRIAN MAY: 2000 + Roger Taylor Filming video ‘We Will Rock You’ single with 5ive.

2003 Invited by Tim Staffell to record on “aMIGO” album ‘Earth’ and ‘Doin’ Alright’.

Q+PR: 2005 Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona;

BRIAN: 2012 + Kerry Ellis Ft in Award & Birthday Souvenir Ed Whatsonstage magazine on 12th Annual WOS Awards;

2013 Mystery Guest Chris Evan Breakfast Show BBC R2.

Q+AL: 2014 Announced as headliners “Supersonic 2014”, Korea;

2014 Announced as headliners “Summer Sonic 2014”, Tokyo.�BRIAN: 2014 + Kerry Yamaha Music released “The Candlelight Concerts Live At Montreux 2013” DVD+CD, Japan;

2014: Announced as a speaker for “Starmus 2014”, Abama Golf & Spa Resort, Tenerife.

MORE FOR THE DAY: https://brianmay.com/on-this-day/on-this-day-in-queen-history-2-april/

#freddie mercury #queen band #brian may #roger taylor #jhon deacon #musique #music #queen #original character #j’adore

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copperbadge · 2 years

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Shivadhverse: “drumming in the middle of personal time”😆🤣😂 🎼 CLASSIC. And as relevant as “Smoke on the Water” or any other “recording studio” song; there’s actually a TRADITION. 😆🎸🥁🎶🎼🚿🧼🛀

Holy shit, I was not familiar with Smoke On The Water (well, ok, passingly with the song) or the story behind it and I was unprepared for the wikipedia entry to go as hard as it did.

Blackmore later claimed that the main riff is an interpretation of inversion of Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and that "I owe him a lot of money".

…the place suddenly caught fire when somebody in the audience fired a flare gun towards the rattan-covered ceiling […] the resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers' equipment. The "smoke on the water" that became the title of the song referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched from their hotel.

Because of the incident and the exposure Montreux received when "Smoke on the Water" became an international hit, Deep Purple formed a lasting bond with the town. The song was honoured in Montreux by a sculpture along the lake shore (right next to the statue of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury on the concrete wall right below the Marche couvert) with the band's name, the song title, and the riff in musical notes. However, this monument has been removed and has not been there since at least 2017.

My favorite part is that the monument was removed but it doesn't say why, precisely when, or how.

It's actually a very Buck Havard style song, Smoke On The Water. Caleb describes his music as "If a bluesman was asked to play Black Sabbath."

#shivadhverse

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natromanxoff · 1 year

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JOHN DEACON of Queen, and musician/engineer Henry Crallan are partners in a new recording studio venture — Milo Music, a 24-track recording facility in North London, which is part of a complex that also houses video and design studios plus other related businesses.

Here, Deacon and Crallan, a former keyboards player with the Kevin Ayres band, talk about the project which is now up and running and open for business.

MW: Is this your first venture into the commercial studio world?

JD: Yes, for me it is. As a group we've been involved with Mountain Studios in Switzerland for quite a few years now, but unlike a lot of bigger UK bands where the individual members have their own studios at home and that sort of thing, none of us has ever really got into that before, got involved with a 24-track professional studio, though I used to have a 16-track at home. Henry and I first discussed this project about two years ago.

How did the partnership come about?

HC: We've known each other for about eight years. I used to work with Edwin Shirley, the trucking company, and worked on a number of Queen tours which used to have a reputation among all the crews as being a bit special, which, retrospectively, I think they were. For three years I managed the staging department at Edwin Shirley and did further Queen tours including Mexico and South America. To build a studio was an age-old dream that I had. I think I first discussed it with John on a flight to Japan, and it's grown from there.

How does Mountain Studios fit into the scheme of things?

JD: Montreux is something we got involved with some years ago, at a time when UK taxes were quite crippling. It was a group investment we made. Jim Beach (Queen's management) basically runs that studio, and the four of us don't really have a lot to do with it, though we have recorded there, and Roger did a lot of his solo projects there.

In a way, we began to find it was becoming very difficult to do group investments — all four of us have got such different ideas about what we want to do. We've really started venturing out, doing more things individually, whereas in the old days we all used to work solidly on Queen 52 weeks a year. We have actually slowed down the work rate now so it gives us all time to work on other projects.

I have always enjoyed studios and that side of the business - I did electronics at college and have always wanted to learn. That's why I got a 16-track at home — but it was only a back-bedroom sort of affair. It was a development from this that Henry and I started this project really. Henry had said he wanted to build a studio, and I said I had the equipment which would be better suited to a proper studio than to a bedroom...

[Photo caption: JOHN DEACON and Henry Crallan take stock of the newly-completed studio area at Milo. The studio measures 24’ x 14’ and is fully isolated with hard and dead ends. There is also a 7’ x 7’ isolation booth. The resident piano is a Steck Baby Grand. A number of instruments are available for hire at discount subject to availability, including Linn Drum, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Korg CX-3. Yamaha DX-7 keyboards, Fender and Gibson guitars.]

[Photo caption: FEATURES OF Milo's control room (14’ x 15’) include 24-track Studer A80 Mk IV. Studer 810 1/4" and Sony F1 digital, an Amek Angela 28:24 console in-line with extended patch-bay. Monitoring is Sean Davies 3-way LS 841, power amplifiers by BGW, Turner and Quad. Mini monitors are Auratones and Visonik Davids. There is the usual range of microphones, compressors and limiters, reverberation & delay effects and processors.]

#queen #queen band #john deacon #queen scans #magazine’s title is unknown

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lil-melody-moon · 5 months

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ho ho ho! it's santa pickle to offer you wishes for a happy first day of december!

do you have any all time favorite drum solos or performances? i absolutely adore your love for drummers/drumming! :D

-pickle

Oh, hello! <3 And thank you, wishes right back at ya!

Oh My God, question about drumming! Umn, for drum solos as in recorded in studio I go for "Bonzo's Montreux" without even thinking. Like there's such a good melody in this one, the rhytm is so nice, the breaks right timed, drums so good - it's John Bonham we're talking about! - just a honey for my ears really <3 Tho I have to mention "Cobwebs and Strange" by The Who. It's not technically a drum solo, far from that, but it has the part where there's "answer-question" by drums and guitar. And MY GOD the drums in this one! The tiny solos! This is the song that ultimately kicked John Bonham on the second place on my list of favorite drummers, making Keith Moon take the first one, so yeah. You can imagine my reaction when I heard this masterpiece for the first time XD

For performances I'm going for "Moby Dick" from The Song Remains The Same. I bought the entire concert on DVD at my birthday and once this started I just got myself glued to tv, it was so good! Not to mention it played today in the car and me and my father were like "MOBY DICK, OMFG!" while blasting it XD

I may be a little bit crazy about drummers and drumming but hey, thank you! <3

#srs23

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burlveneer-music · 1 year

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Fumio Itabashi / Henrik Schwarz / Kuniyuki - Watarase - if I have this right, this is Joe Claussell’s remix of both Schwarz & Kuniyuki’s respective mixes of Itabashi’s rerecording of his song “Watarase,” and it is amazing. With an orchestral/minyo performance on the B-side.

after great rework of jan jazz classic “watarase” by fumio itabashi,henrik schwarz,kuniyuki, joe claussell reconstructed “watarase”. it’s an epic cosmic jazz fusion.joe claussell meets kuniyuki are always best. on b side, it’s a rare minyo(japanese folk song) version of watarase. it’s a live version that fumio itabashi played with the local orchestra and minyo singer. a lot of diggers have been wishing to be released on vinyl. so this release is one of the most important catalogue on studio mule.

Here are the original mixes of Itabashi’s rerecording:

Watarase by Fumio Itabashi / Henrik Schwarz / Kuniyuki

best japanese jazz pianist “fumio itabashi”,german house producer “henrik schwarz”, one of best japanese electronic music producer “kuniyuki” made the re-recording of japanese jazz classic “watarase” together in japan few years ago. they have played together at montreux jazz festival in tokyo and everyone thought we should make the record together. now finally we’re going to release this excellent record. henrik schwarz and kuniyuki made the own version. the musics are simply gorgeous!

And here is the original from 1982:

youtube

#jazz #japan #fumio itabashi #watarase #covers #house music #remix #kuniyuki #henrik schwarz #joe claussell #1982 #2021 #2022 #spiritual jazz

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scotianostra · 1 year

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Happy 36th Birthday singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini born January 9th 1987 in Paisley.

He is the oldest child of two and attended St Andrews Academy in Paisley where his career and love for music began, when an artist was late to perform in his school, Paolo was asked by the music teacher to go up and sing a song.

As a teenager, in between writing songs, Paolo used to work a Saturday shift in the family fish and chip shop business, and was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and enter the business full time, but always knew he wanted to pursue singing.

Paolo found work as a roadie for the band Speedway, as well as performing live himself. He performed solo, as well as with Dome and Dick from The Dongues. Paolo also went on to work at Glasgow’s Park Lane Studio.

Paolo Nutini’s big break was quite an unusual one. During a homecoming concert for David Sneddon, staged by local radio station 102.5 Clyde 1, Paolo won an impromptu quiz. He was given the chance to get onstage and perform a couple of his own songs, whilst the crowd waited for Sneddon’s arrival. A member of the audience was so impressed with the performance that he offered to become Paolo’s manager.

Nutini was then invited to perform on BBC Radio Scotland after a journalist from the Daily Record saw him perform at the Queen Margaret Union. At the age of 17, Nutini moved to London and performed regularly at Balham’s Bedford pub. He was soon offered support slots with KT Tunstall and Amy Winehouse, he signed for Atlantic and began work on his first album, working with Coldplay and Badly Drawn Boy producer Ken Nelson, Nutini generated an impressive amount of buzz before his first single, “Last Request,” was released in the early summer of 2006.

He appeared at special Atlantic Records showcases at Carnegie Hall and the Montreux Jazz Festival, as well as opening for the Rolling Stones and Paul Weller. These Streets, was ultimately released in July 2006 alongside his second single, “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty.” The album fared quite well climbing to double-platinum status and sent four singles into the Top 40. Accordingly, an American release followed in January 2007.In his singing his Scottish accent, shines through, he doesn’t try to sing in an American accent like most singers do, Paolo automatically sounded like no one else.His second album, Sunny Side Up, appeared in June 2009, featuring increased contributions from Nutini’s backing band and a bright, sprightly disposition. Sunny Side Up was a number one hit, and one of the biggest-selling albums of the year – and went on to claim Best Album at the Ivor Novello Awards.

The past few years Nutini has been living in his home town of Paisley, there has been the odd appearance on Karaoke posted on social media, but little news of any new materials as yet. He did however buy the Chewbacca mask worn by Lewis Capaldi on stage at TRNSMT festival, the original bidder pulled out of the auction. Paolo also donated tent thousand pound to mental health charity Tiny Changes and plans to raffle the mask to raise even more.

The Tiny Changes charity was set up in memory of Frightened Rabbit’s front man Scott Hutchison, who took his own life in 2018 after struggles with depression.

A wee Paolo story from 2020 is when he paid for a man’s food shop at Aldi after he’d forgot to bring his wallet. Apparently the embarrassed shopper went to shake Paolo’s hand, to be told: “You can’t do that just now.” it was during the first wave of the Coronavirus.

Paolo was back witha bang this year with his new album, Last Night in the Bittersweet, it is his first release in eight years. Last Night in Bittersweet received a more than respectable score of 87 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic from four critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim"

The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart dated 8 July 2022, and by midweek, was outselling the album at number two by a ratio of 4:1.[10] It is Nutini's third consecutive UK number-one album.

The Paisley singer recently played 5 sold out gigs at the Glasgow OVO Hydro, he is kicking off a world tour in Canada with gigs in North America beefore heading to Australia, he then comes back to Europe for a series of shows.

The song is from the new album.

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#scottish #scotland #singersongwriter #singer.#paisley #happy birhtday #musician

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debdarkpetal · 1 year

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The band with David Richards and Mike Moran during the recording sessions of 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗹𝗲 album, 1988, Mountain Studios.

Source: 𝖥𝗋𝖾𝖽𝖽𝗂𝖾 𝖬𝖾𝗋𝖼𝗎𝗋𝗒 - 𝖫𝖾𝗀𝖾𝗇𝖽 𝖠𝖻𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝖫𝖾𝗀𝖾𝗇𝖽s (Facebook).

#queen #freddie mercury #roger taylor #john deacon #brian may #queen band #recording studio #david richards #mike moran #montreux #switzerland #1988 #80s #ms

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freddiemercurylegendabovelegends · 4 months

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December 11th, 1995 - Queen Story!

Queen released ‘A Winter's Tale’/‘Thank God It's Christmas’/'Rock In Rio Blues’ in UK

🔸"Freddie wrote the song in Montreux, in a little house on the lake that we called The Duck House. The extraordinary thing is he's talking about life and its beauty at a time when he knows he hasn't got very long to go, yet there's no wallowing in emotion, it's just absolutely purely observed.

So that's the way I wanted my solo to be. It was one of those things where I could hear it in my head, long before I actually got to play it. And when I recorded it, at my home studio, in my head I was there with Freddie in Montreux in those moments, even though this was happening long after he was gone."

- Brian May, Mojo magazine

🔸🔸The statue is now a permanent fixture by the lake, with Freddie standing proud, purveyor of a spectacular landscape and the many people that come to visit him there. The effigy is every bit as imposing as Freddie was on stage and has become a great tourist attraction. Queen's inimitable front man stands tall, overseeing the view he himself enjoyed so much and indeed captured in the lyrics of one of his final songs, A Winter's Tale; swans floating by, sea-gulls flying over, a silky moon up in the sky, mountains zoomin' higher, quiet and peaceful, tranquil and blissful, a kind of magic in the air, a truly magnificent view, a breathtaking scene, an extraordinary place!

(queenonline.com)

Pic: November 1990 - Freddie Mercury photo session 'Headlong'

Full Officiale Video 👇

https://youtu.be/CjWQZBmJf6M

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tidalwavesmusic · 1 year

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PAUL JACKSON ‘BLACK OCTOPUS’ (1978)

Paul Jackson (born in Oakland, California in 1947) needs little introduction. Paul began playing bass at the age of nine and was considered by many of his teachers to be a musical prodigy. Jackson was known as a “Musician’s Musician” and shaped a sound that launched a new direction in contemporary music: the so-called ‘Pulse Playing’, a trademark sound of close-meshed funk grooves combined with sensational rhythms. With this innovative approach, he influenced entire generations of jazz and funk musicians to come. Paul’s compositions were sampled by big acts from the likes of Prince, TLC, Mobb Deep and NWA…just to name a few.

Paul Jackson was a founding member of the Headhunters under Herbie Hancock (THEgroup responsible for their ground-breaking fusion and jazz-funk compositions that took the world by storm in the 70’s). The solid union between Hancock and Jackson has been especially evident in the many international tours they have made together…not to mention that he participated on most of the Headhunters albums and Herbie’s solo albums.

Paul has also worked as a producer and as a studio/live musician alongside acts such as Santana, Sonny Rollins and The Pointer Sisters. He was a frequent guest performer at renowned international festivals such as the Montreux and Newport events. Jackson’s composing has not gone without recognition and was nominated for Grammy Awards in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Like other highly talented, creatively motivated engineers of music, Paul has expanded his career to other mediums such as playing on blockbuster movie soundtracks such as “Death wish” and “Dirty Harry”.

Paul Jackson also wrote five solo albums worth listening to – including the monster of an album that is known as “Black Octopus” which is considered to be a kind of lost Headhunters album.

His debut album “Black Octopus” saw the light of day in 1978 and is a total piece of art filled with abstract sticky funky grooves, floating electric piano playing, strong thumping bass lines, raw heavy drums and amazing vocal acrobatics (Jackson himself takes vocals in 3 out of 5 songs, and his soulful singing voice strikes an emotional chord that does not go unnoticed).

On “Black Octopus” you’ll also find some of the best all-star musicians from the likes of Alphonse Mouzon (Roy Ayers, Betty Davis, Azar Lawrence)…and last but not least fellow Headhunters Bennie Maupin and Herbie Hancock himself.

With “Black Octopus” Paul Jackson wrote the book on how a jazz-funk-fusion album should sound like. The fact that the album was only distributed in Japan at the time (Jackson resided in Tokyo since the late 70’s, where he passed away in 2021) continues to increase its reputation as an album that is VERY hard to find. This is a must-have gem…not only for fans of jazz, funk and rare grooves, but also for DJs and collectors around the globe.

Tidal Waves Music in collaboration with Totown Records now proudly presents the first ever official reissue outside of Japan of this fantastic Jazz-Funk masterpiece (originally released in 1978 on Eastworld/Toshiba EMI). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (limited to 500 copies) complete with the original artwork and obi strip. Also included is a double-sided insert containing rare pictures of the band.

Available in stores July 28, 2023. Pre-order now from www.lightintheattic.net

An exclusive variant (#300 numbered copies GOLD COLORED Vinyl) is also available from www.vinylmeplease.com

#paul jackson #black octopus #1978 #headhunters #herbie hancock #jazzfunk #japan #totownrecords #tidalwavesmusic #lightintheattic #VMP #vinylmeplease

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randomvarious · 1 year

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Today’s compilation:

Louisiana Scrapbook 1987 Blues / R&B / Jazz / Brass Band

Well, the Rykodisc label really did try with this one. We've got a good mix of genres here from both established entities as well as up-and-comers to present a 1980s snapshot of one of the most musically unique and diverse places in all of America: the great state of Louisiana. Louisiana's a place that seemingly likes to put its own spin on any genre that it can get its hands on; New Orleans jazz is different from regular jazz, New Orleans R&B is different from regular R&B, etc., etc. And sure, every locality tends to develop its own sound when they build their own genre-specific scene, but Louisianan ones are often deserving of their own distinct category, because a lot of times what they pump out is not just a mere slight regional difference; it can tend to be damn near evolutionary. Go listen to people like Professor Longhair, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint if you need some convincing.

So, on this release you can find a blend of Louisianan styles, from blues, to R&B, to jazz, to brass band, and even a little zydeco too. A lot of it doesn't sound like music that could come from any other place in the world, but a lot of it also unfortunately happens to be cursed by the dreaded and soullessly sanitized 80s studio sound™ that hasn't aged well at all. It's a sound that you know when you hear it; one that somehow manages to suck almost all of the life out of almost all of the instruments that it captures; the warmth of the 70s completely dissipated in its midst. Of course, not every 80s song suffers from this malady, but there are a whole lot that do, and that rings true for most of the songs on this CD.

But when you're not in that stuffy studio, that's when it's good. And such is the case for the pair of live performances from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band that were recorded in Montreux, Switzerland. The DDBB ends up providing an excellent jazz-blues opener, and then for the album's penultimate track, a lighthearted medley that alternates between The Flintstones theme, "The Star Spangled Banner," and that military bugle wake-up song, "Reveille." Go ahead and make that silly thing a fixture of your 4th of July playlists, because as much as I find most "patriotic" music to be mindlessly eyeroll-inducing, that one's really just plain fun.

And don't sleep on Jo-El Sonnier's "Louisiana Blues" either. It's recorded in studio, but dude's got a good voice and he plays both accordion and harmonica on it. Plus, there's a nice soft touch of steel guitar on there as well.

Really love what so much of the 80s had to offer, but we also need to have a conversation about all the songs that it managed to mar. Not even the uniqueness of Louisiana could really overcome it 😔.

Highlights:

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" Jo-El Sonnier - "Louisiana Blues" The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - "The Flintstones Meets the President (Meets The Dirty Dozen)"

#blues #r&b #rhythm & blues #rhythm and blues #r & b #jazz #brass band #louisiana #new orleans #music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #the blues

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