Doug on Demand - Episode 9
Added 2024-06-25 02:16:07 +0000 UTCI'm pleased to share the zoom recording from our 9th session of the Doug on Demand series. We heard 11 songs over two hours that were all outstanding and unique. We hold these zoom sessions every 3 weeks on Sundays with members of the Council of Dougs and Doug's Angels tiers. Here's a rundown of the music:
The Faith Healer - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
The Sermon - Mickey Hart Band
Crumbling Land - Pink Floyd
To My Creator - Coppelius
Renaissance - Tony Banks
Something's Coming - Yes
21st Century Schizoid Man - Crimson Jazz Trio
Tubular Bells & Pins 'n Mould - Square Wild
Thru The Silence - Nova
Directly from my Heart to You - Frank Zappa
Starless - The Unthanks
Comments
Managed to miss the link to reply directly. See my adjacent post.
George Davis-Stewart
2024-06-29 21:58:36 +0000 UTCGood reasoning for me. As for the Won’t Get Fooled Again keyboard track, aside from a lack of hands to play it live, it was a pretty complex bit of work in its time. The other option is to miss it out all together, which I seem to recall they did for the 45 version that lurks somewhere in my collection. Thinking of a Scottish band with more textured arrangements around that time, try Stone The Crows if you haven’t already.
George Davis-Stewart
2024-06-29 21:55:31 +0000 UTCThat all makes sense to me. One aspect of the bass pulse (at least the way I hear it) is that there is an ambiguity in the beginning of where the first beat is, what the time signature is, and where there is syncopation. That makes it mesmerising (and I agree it is trance-like so that it brings you into the subject matter of the song). I think that, if the song were to be extended, it would make sense to return to the rhythmic ambiguities and build on them further with more and more syncopation and time signature twists, perhaps using the other instruments in the same way. Mind you, I can't see SAHB wanting to go in that direction. For me, there is a possible parallel in Won't Get Fooled Again, where the organ+ARP solo just before the end goes on for quite a time. I always loved that part, and, of course it was never tampered with for live shows by the Who. They just always used a tape of the original. There would have been lots of possibilities to vary and extend that section, but it would have taken the Who away from the rock band idiom too much.
Adie
2024-06-29 21:44:00 +0000 UTCMost welcome you are. My turn to agree with you. The dilemma for a band: to play it note-for-note, or to extend a song in some way which will incentivise attendance at live gigs, sell that live album etc., but can the song take it? Is there more to be achieved or expressed musically with some variation of the original arrangement? In the case of Faith Healer, I don't think there is - its rhythmic repetition is part of a trance (of belief in the healing) and its music is actually rather simple, without room to develop it. Ravel's Bolero works because it engrosses and binds you with its spell, and tinkering with it would break the spell. With both of these pieces of music, the listener is enchanted by the first incantation, and that becomes a binding agreement with the composer(s).
George Davis-Stewart
2024-06-28 22:30:35 +0000 UTCThanks for these links. I have the live album somewhere on vinyl, and haven't listened to it for a few decades! While I've always liked Hugh McKenna's touch on the minimoog, for me the feel of the love album version is looser, and doesn't get the bite of the album version. In any of the alternative versions I always miss the extended intro of the album in a pretty disciplined beat. That puts me in the right 'wound uptight' kind of mood for the song.
Adie
2024-06-27 22:51:22 +0000 UTCAll that makes a lot of sense to me. It seems to me that the orchestras with the big names like LSO develop their own cultural tradition, which can work against some music as much as it preserves important understanding from the past. I can imagine Tony having an uphill battle with LSO, which he might not have had with the London Philharmonic (for example) and certainly not with one of the excellent eastern European orchestras.
Adie
2024-06-27 22:36:17 +0000 UTCThe version that we saw and heard here seems to have been rather clumsily edited in a copy and paste kind of way. Here's a link to a straight take of TOGWT which sounds pretty much per the original studio album: https://youtu.be/svSV_G65CF4?si=w-z_8mNzjTmqE_RG There is a live album from the band, but on this The Faith Healer is a more elaborate and extended piece that doesn't seem to correspond to anything we have just heard. It does however show more musical sensibility than to merely repeat chords ad infinitum. https://youtu.be/kR63tbQXGT8?si=sZ2pgDqhr0d0_-0e
George Davis-Stewart
2024-06-25 23:20:52 +0000 UTCSeven is my least favorite as well. It being Tony's first try at classical music is probably part of it. But Tony also said they struggled getting what they wanted out of the London Symphony Orchestra. This led to him going out of country to other orchestras and I think that helped. Five also had a great balance in the mix due to how they recorded the winds, brass, strings, choir separately.
Steve Esterle
2024-06-25 23:06:22 +0000 UTCThanks for the recommendation Steve. I had listened to Seven, and not really enjoyed it, but this was wonderful, and I'm now keen to hear the rest of Five, and, who knows, may ascend through Six back to Seven.
Adie
2024-06-25 22:33:10 +0000 UTCI agree very much re the KC tracks. I'm slightly confused re SAHB - I was sure this was a collection of video excerpts calibrated with the album track audio. Do you think the audio is a live version?
Adie
2024-06-25 22:30:09 +0000 UTCI know the Alex Harvey Band song of old, but I think they overcooked things with too many 'you should-have-been-there' extended passages. The album version is much more to the point in its grasp of dynamics. I have both of the Crimson Jazz Trio albums, great sources of pleasure; it's interesting to find Ian Wallace from KC's jazzier phase applying his principles to the rest of the repertoire. An oblique request for 'Islands' I'd say. I very much enjoyed The Unthanks, slightly reminiscent of the work of Mr. McFall's Chamber in the re-imagination of well known music. Or again, I may be thinking of The Poozies.
George Davis-Stewart
2024-06-25 16:40:24 +0000 UTCAlso I had no clue that Faither Healer was not a Fish original. That is the only version of it I had heard prior to this. I think he did a faithful (if shortened) cover.
Steve Esterle
2024-06-25 16:16:41 +0000 UTCThanks for listening to my recommendation of Tony Banks. I'm glad you and others enjoyed it.
Steve Esterle
2024-06-25 16:15:45 +0000 UTCAnd next time The Unthanks play, I'll buy you guys a couple of tickets for London and you can jump on a plane to visit...😉
Ralph Darvill
2024-06-25 09:19:58 +0000 UTCWow Doug, you have some great Patrons...I have been keen for you to hear The Unthanks for ages. They are always a live favourite of mine, heavenly sisterly harmonies and a great arranger. Nova contains members of Premiata Forneria Marconi, the great Italian prog band, alongside Phil and Percy from Brand X. Great selection of songs.
Ralph Darvill
2024-06-25 09:17:36 +0000 UTCI've just dipped into this to hear Starless and Doug's response to it. Thanks to Lashers for suggesting that. I was in the live audience for that 2017 festival gig and had not realised that the recording was now on YouTube. Not all are, though most are streamed live with high production value. It is still an amazing arrangement and performance.
Brian Collins
2024-06-25 07:41:31 +0000 UTCI see someone suggested Nova. Love the album Vimana, saw them supporting Caravan in '77. I'll listen in later to the rest.
FallingLeaf
2024-06-25 07:09:36 +0000 UTCLove Crimson Jazz Trio. Their version of Matte Kudasai is amazing
Brett Lehman
2024-06-25 03:57:23 +0000 UTCThat was great fun!! Terrific batch of tunes - looking forward to the next DoD!!
Margaret Barnes
2024-06-25 02:35:37 +0000 UTC
