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Bob Geldof - Album Review
Review
written, and kindly submitted on June 22nd, 2002 When yesterday I said I might not be able to write this review because of most of my CDs being stashed away in boxes after my roof burned down from being hit by a rather substantial bolt of lightning, it later made me think about the whole situation I am living in at the moment... I know I'm beginning to include all this personal stuff into the review again, but since I am writing about something which is rather personal to me, too, I think I might as well do it... Should I bore anyone with this, just skip down a bit. So: I'm sitting in my living-room which fortunately wasn't not affected by the fire in the first place. My flat's got a top floor so only the one room up there is - let's face it - gone. Initially the fire only ruined a tiny attic room, accessible from the hallway outside my flat, but when the builders started demolishing that room, they soon realised that the smoke had crawled thought almost the entire roof. Although the structure was still supporting the roof, they said that any time the sun would heat it up, the smell of burned wood and isolating fabric would come back. Consequently the decision was made to do things properly and just re-build the whole roof. This was the point, when the fire did start to affect my whole flat. It's impossibly to build a new roof without making a LOT of dirt and dust, and the builders advised me to store all my belongings into boxes and put them into one of the two tiny downstairs-rooms that have doors which can be closed. Be sure, I did. To cut a
long story short, my place is virtually empty, except for some furniture
which I couldn't store anywhere. My sofa is still there and so it the
stereo - although I wrapped each part of it in a bin-liner, cutting small
hole into the backs of the bin-liners to be able to re-connect all its
wiring. I now have to zip them open every time I listen to music. It's
a weird construction but it does the job. I was also lucky to find the CD all this is about in the top box of one of my piles of boxes, so here we (finally) go: Room
19 (Sha La La La Lee) Once everyone's clapping synchronises, the song kicks in, starting right with the chorus of Sha La La La Lees. A brave beginning to an album, I think. These days most bands think really carefully about the possible album-opener, making sure it's a song that gets the listener's attention right from the first note. No so with this song. I'm sure some people, when hearing the tuning-up, might wonder if maybe the CD or the player is kaput! Then again, that might be how to get someone's attention, too! The
song picks up things from where they were put down on The Vegetarians
of Love. It's the same folky approach, the same line-up of musicians
and instruments played and generally the same cheerful and slightly nonchalant
feel. The lyrics are typically Geldof: Looking at a political or cultural issue of relevance with a mix of knowledge and stubborn arrogance, but always with a great sense of irony, too. In Soviet days there was a room in Moscow's university used to store the brains of various famous people. They were sliced Carpaccio-style to try and find some clues as to why these brains were able to think up the extraordinary. Now
Geldof wonders if - given the odd chance he were to die in Russia - his
brain might end of this shelf, tucked in right between Lenin, Tchaikovsky
and Pasternak. (To me this does not make sense at all, because even in
Russia I am sure the brains are stashed in alphabetical order, so Geldof
would rather end up between Galileo and Gorbachev - but what the heck!) Back to the music, Bob says that the song is terribly Country & Western but - according to him - "when you die, it's all Country & Western" so that's why. Attitude
Chicken In my younger
days, at live gigs, this song always got me to find some space to dance
like a spinning-top - admittedly, I think when in the right mood, it might
still do the trick for me. The beat's just too good to sit still to! I also love
Bob's voice in that song. It's really rumbley and hoarse. Apart from
all that, the lyrics to Attitude Chicken include some absolutely marvellous
lines: I
ordered up some dew-soaked lettuce And Now
when she comes she screams designer screams Simply fab! The
Soft Soil Reading what lots of you wrote about this song when Bob first played it live on his recent tour, it might do the trick for most of you. But isn't that why music in general is so great?! The fact that I might get all emotional about a song like Fool's Garden's Lemon Tree that sure got voted most-hated-and-overrated-song of the decade, while hating The Scorpions Wind Of Change with a vengeance - it could be right the other way, for someone else... Some times a single note or a single word does the trick - other times, a whole album fails to do it! A
Hole To Fill Eddie suggested the lyrics are about being gay, but since the songs was written well before the Channel 4's TV series Queer As Folk (which I spent watching all last night) I don't think it is. That'd be too palpable, wouldn't it? Instead my suggestion is that it's about everyone having a place in life. Something, just anything, that this one person is destined for. Albeit all the chaos in my flat, I just managed to find some reference: This song was originally written for 1990s album "One World, One Voice", an album which "was first played to over a billion people around the world in May 1990 - The climax of the "One World" series on television. It is the ultimate global mix, the brainchild of Kevin Godley. Filmed and recorded on the road, it is a chain tape, each of the musicians adding a new theme to the mix as Kevin's team toured the world." On this album
only a portion of this song is featured and it is played in a very different
way: Much slower, in a musically more harmonic version and underlain by
a choir, repeatedly singing the line we will meet again which is also
the bridge leading into the next snipped of music - I much prefer this
version. En contraire, the album version on The Happy Club the second verse and this features another of my favourite lyrics: I
left the pub last night I just love that line about Bob's feminine side taking a morning coffee break! I will take a break now, too. Not to drink a coffee, though, but to watch Senegal and Turkey kick it out on this summer's Football World Cup! See ya in about two hours... While it's
half-time for Senegal - Turkey (0:0), I'd like to recommend the last album
of Kirsty McColl who so tragically and unnecessarily died in a swimming
accident last summer, to you: It's a wonderful album, called "Tropical
Brainstorm", quite Carribean-sounding in lots of songs, one of them
including the line "now it's England 2 - Columbia Nil"; not
relating to football in Kirsty's case but I guess that's why I remembered
the song just now. OK, Turkey are through to the semi-final, I've had a jubilation SMS from my Turkish builder and outside, typically, all the Turks of Hamburg have jumped into their cars to spend the rest of the day circling the city hooting their car-horns... J The
Song Of The Emergent Nationalist The drums
are keeping this song grounded, while a swirling violin is taking it up
to a more spherical level. Most other instruments are granted several
ear-rising solos to make the song really interesting to listen to. Musically
this must be one of the most ambitious songs of the album. It's a real album song in the sense that this would never work as a single on the radio - instead I could even imagine this song to find its way into the soundtrack of a movie. My
Hippy Angel This is another song that effectively benefits from Bob's choice of musician. Including violin, viola, accordion, mandolin, ukulele and tin-whistle into his orchestra opens up a whole catalogue of new flavours and colours to add to the normal rock 'n' roll line-up of guitar, bass, drums and voice. As far as I know, all of Bob's musicians have originally taken a more classical approach to learning their instruments, and this is still audible in lots of small inserts they keep adding to the songs, which otherwise might remain rather ordinary. Again, Bob's lyrical ability is rather striking: Who else could be singing about birdies and fishies without sounding like an over-ambitious sissy? A few lines later the lyrics are about the EEC, the USSR and the USA and at the end of the day, this song is nothing but a love song. Amazing, isn't it? The
Happy Club If I remember correctly, it's the story of a girl Bob used to know back in his Dublin days who used to force her younger siblings to join her Happy Club who's members were not allowed to having anything but a happy time. Probably no-one knows if becoming happy by just pretending to be happy, worked for this girl or anyone in her family, but at least it's worth a try, isn't it? The music
of this song definitely helps to cheer the mood up. Background-noise from outside: Hooooot - Hooooot!! - Hooooot!!! Like
Down On Me Just like Room 19 this song starts really slowly with some weird noise slowly blending into each other to mark the beginning of the song. When Bob starts singing the first verse, all the instruments break-off again, just the piano is accompanying Bob singing. His phrasing is really surprising, very off-beat through most of the verse. I think that only someone who does not think theoretically about the music he's composing but just sings / writes whatever feels good can come up with a song like this. Writing it down as sheet music seems like an impossible task to me. Even more surprisingly, each verse ends with a sharp "YEP" marking the launch into the chorus which is totally contradictory to the verses. Filled to the brim with music, very loud, very strong, very melodic. From verse
to verse more of the plying instruments playing the chorus, keep on playing,
so the song's really building. The lyrics are getting longer from verse
to verse, too until eventually I keep wondering how Bob would remember
all that he has to sing - but he does! Great song! Too
Late God Very folky, Country & Western. A catchy melody, pushed forward by the rhythm section of the band (bass and drums). An electric guitar which is oh-so Jamie Moses! Merely because of the fact that Jamie Moses is no longer part of Bob's band, but was replaced by Johnny Turnbull, this song sounds totally different when played live these days. Singing like some soccer hooligans. Not only does this perfectly resemble the Hamburg atmosphere of this afternoon, it also captures the feel of the song, which is sung and played very snottily - very spontaneously. Lovely! The
Roads Of Germany Personally, I don't share this view as my typical Germany is the landscape of the North of the country which is all lush green meadows, cows, wind-bend trees and endless horizons. Still, I can understand why the Black Forest stand as the typical image. Although it is not part of Bavaria, it's older population fits the image of knee-slapping, lederhosen-wearing, beer-drinking conservatives very well. The cuckoo-clock was born down there and the trunks of the forest's tall, dark trees built many a house. This song is as political as it is historical. It was written during a time when - shortly after the wall came down and Germany was flooded with former East-Germans looking for a new life - there was, for the first time after World War II, a rather strong national movement going on. In parts understandably, a lot of Germans in search of work or a better life, too, couldn't come to terms with the fact that their situation was becoming harder and harder, while some newly-arrived found it rather easy to slip into the system and settle down. Sadly, a lot of violence - almost exclusively aimed against Turks, who never had anything to do with the events of the early 90s but had been living and working in Germany for many years - broke out. I'm not a
very political person so I don't really dare to make a strong statement
here, but this - I think - is the background for this song. It's an amazing
piece of music. Starting with a very simple, repetitive chorus, recalling the historical events around the times of Hitler the song eventually slips into the second part in which Bob having a kind of nightmare, thinking about recent events and what the might lead to. The picture
he paints is absolutely haunting! He's talking of falling asleep in some
dappled sunlit glade, dreaming of something obscenely old stirring
and shaking and awaking in its putrid pit... Urgh! The things - according to Bob - you can't help thinking about when you're driving on the roads of Germany. At the time of the release of this album, there were talks about the release of a German version of this song. I still think this would have been a very good idea. Not only would it have brought many more people's attention to the song, it also would have helped a lot of Germans to understand the explosive nature of what this song is about. Bob's got
the most amazing range of vocabulary and he does not hesitate to use it
either. Admittedly, even being quite fluent in English, he's often using
words and phrases I have never heard before and have to look up in the
dictionary. When trying
to bring across a rather important message, this might not be the easy
approach... A German version of the song (maybe even to be included on
a local version of the album) really would have helped. [Bob, in case
you're still interested, I still got the translation of it - somewhere
in a box - haha!] To add a funny note to this otherwise not very cheerful song: Right in the middle of it you can hear on of the strings on Bob's guitar going with a great PLOP! Remaining true to his image of the filthy popstar he is, he never even bothered to re-records that part of the song! A
Sex Thing The beat
is the heart-beat, beating its way through the whole song, while the other
instruments portrait the emotions coming and going on a hot night. The
urge and urgency, the passion and the lust but also the uncertainty and
the fear. Not to forget the climax! You don't understand what I've written here? Have you ever understood anyone writing about sex?! Listen to the song! The
House At The Top Of The Hill The lyrics
are spoken rather than song and there isn't a real musical score to the
song either, just spherical instruments underlining Bobs story of the
past. Right then - time for me to join a bit of the party the Turks are having tonight. Na, not quite true. I'll go to see a musical twin-highlight tonight: Garbage and New Order are playing the same festival tonight! Something to definitely look forward to! Corinna,
June 22nd 2002 All
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This
song and thus the whole album starts off with something which sounds like
a classical orchestra tuning up its instruments before a concert. Alun
Dunn is letting out the remaining air of the accordion, Bob Loveday and
Geoffrey Richardson are tuning up their violin and viola respectively,
and everyone else is clapping, trying to find the rhythm of the song.
My
Hippy Angel on the other side could well have worked as a single (ed-
it was released as a single but didn't make the charts). A catchy melody
with an even catchier chorus.