The second track on Eno's 1st album is another three minute affair. Though not suited as a single this time. I guess it is allowed to call this piece an oddity. In the first minute Eno turns into his stilted opera singer like sprechgesang. Not my cup of tea at all. Unbearable and a real turn-off.

But then in the second minute Eno suddenly decides to stop pronouncing his absurdities and we can hear something like a dialogue between electronic rubber ducks. This is a release after Eno's gravely intoned weird lyrics. I could listen to the duck discussion for hours.

After 40 seconds or so it is over though and there is a strong rhythmic sound arriving which reminds me of a jew's harp as it seems to come from inside the mouth. This gets louder and louder and a percussion orchestra joins in turning the last minute into an African drumming jam session with some slight echoes of sitar. Very nice and totally unexpected after the totally false start of this ditty.

It all finishes with some kind of sine tone which then melds into the next track without transition.

1. Isn't this the most horrid cover in the history of recorded music?

2. Wouldn't the still life without the framed photograph and without the "Eno" writing in rainbow colours be just about ok?

3. Doesn't Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle alias Brian Eno look like a certain Christa Päffgen from Cologne aka Nico on the photo?

The first song on Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets which I mentioned yesterday. This record could have been Roxy Music's third album. If Eno had been the boss, I mean. Mackay, Thompson & Manzanera are all there. Only Bryan Ferry, Roxy's leader & its voice is missing.

On Needles in the Camel's Eye we can hear Eno singing for the first time on a record, I guess. And he has a splendid voice, an intense voice you'll never forget after having listened to it for the first time. It is piercing like a sun ray. There is a certain irresistibility to it. Almost like the voices of the sirens which drove Odysseus crazy.

In this first song on his first album Eno shows what a strong pop sensibility he already has. The tune is absolutely infectious, bright and reckless. Perfect to wake up to. A melody which then won't leave your inner ear all day long.

The song is grounded by the two electric guitars played by Phil Manzanera and Chris Spedding. They are the noise bed from which Eno's high-pitch voice can rise to the sky. Those two abrasive guitars sound very much like Lou Reed's and Sterling Morrison's a couple of years before and like those by the brothers Reid more than ten years later.

From listening I don't get the lyrics but they are not important anyways as Eno always writes them after the tune. So that they sound good to the music. Meaning is not intended. At least not on a conscious level. The last line which uses the title is interesting though:

This is a funny twist on the bible's story of the camel which rather goes through the eye of a needle than a rich to heaven. That is a rare and mysterious path for a camel. Needles in a camel's eye on the other hand are not unimaginable at all. If all mysteries are those needles then there are no mysteries at all. This is not necessarily nonsense though it could be.

After having read this well-written post on Brian Eno I had to listen to Eno's first album Here Come the Warm Jets from 1973 on the way to work, on the way back from work and several times at home. What a gorgeous record! It's full of ideas, changing all the time. From bubblegum to experimental to ambientish back to pop. It's totally crazy and funny at the same time. It's not serious and not shallow. It's as magic as life can be.

Don't give a woman advice; one should never give a woman anything she can't wear in the evening. — Oscar Wilde

(stolen from the pin board of the Baronesse)

I Love Music: Top 100 Albums & Tracks 2000-2004 (based on the nominations of ILMers)

My favourite albums (in order of pref.):

1. 45pts Montgolfier Brothers - The World Is Flat
2. 40pts Radiohead - Amnesiac
3. 36pts Cat Power - You Are Free
4. 32pts Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
5. 28pts Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
6. 24pts Okkervil River - Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See
7. 20pts Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
8. 16pts New Order - Get Ready
9. 13pts Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
10. 10pts Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
11. 7pts Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan
12. 5pts Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Pig Lib
13. 3pts Lambchop - Nixon
14. 2pts Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
15. 1pt Liars - They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top

My favourite tracks (in order of pref.):

1. 45pts Radiohead - Knives Out
2. 40pts Radiohead - There There
3. 36pts Radiohead - Pyramid Song
4. 32pts Deerhoof - L'amour Stories
5. 28pts Bardo Pond - Every Man
6. 24pts Blur - Out Of Time
7. 20pts Silver Jews - I Remember Me
8. 16pts Xiu Xiu - Sad Pony Guerilla
9. 13pts Mogwai - Hunted By A Freak
10. 10pts Flaming Lips - Fight Test
11. 7pts Lambchop - Up With People
12. 5pts Aimee Mann - Save Me
13. 3pts Radiohead - Like Spinning Plates
14. 2pts Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place
15. 1pt ?

Your MOST HATED album AND track from the nominations list: album: Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun track: ?

Your favourite track from the favourite album you voted for: Be Selfish

If willing, Include a few words on your favourite album OR track (may be published with the results should the release in question make the final 100): "If Nick Drake had lived a little longer and had had a broken up love story to sing about it would probably have sounded very much like this record."

P.S. The choice of the tracks might suggest that I am a huge Radiohead fan. That is slightly misleading. There were simply not enough good songs I knew on the list we could choose from.

What's the place you want to go to most? Before it's too late. Before either the place or you have vanished.

Mine is Venice. Never been past Mestre. There are still 60,000 people living inside the city. In a couple of years there will be only tourists and local criminals left.

better be too drunk to fuck than too fucked to drink.

Is there a word in English for the state you are in when you haven't smoked for a couple of weeks and you are desperate for a fag? Detox or deprivation won't do. Those are clinical terms which do not convey the strong physical longing I am talking of. The weird thing with "Schmacht" is that it goes away very quickly. When it is there it is almost killing yourself but it does not leave any traces afterwards.