Monday 🌔 May the 1st OT - Wildcat Strike

Not really about the IWW. Sorry for misleading you. I'm not in the mood at all today. Sleepy.

I've been listening to this John and Brian album from 1990 a lot lately. The whole album is Pop. This song has been a constant companion, via ear worm, since the early 90s when I first heard it.

I thought listening to it again would purge it, but the whole album is packed with ear worms, and now I've got five more songs cycling up in my head. Maybe the most notable thing about it is that somewhere between Before and After Science and Wrong Way Up, he learned to use his chest voice instead of his head voice - less nasal and strident, he sounds good. So I listened to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts ('81) by Byrne and Eno to clear the palate. That album's crazy and also crazy good. There were and still are so many copyright issues. Eno taped radio and tv broadcasts and field recordings of various musicians of the world. Early sampling, cut and paste. Some of the artists who were used on the album still haven't been paid, and one song was removed from the original release due to its use being considered an offensive to the Islamic world. Appropriation in other words. It was a warmup act to Remain in Light, though it was released a year after due to the aforementioned copyright issues. Incidentally, I think I read that the Talking Heads started fracturing at around this time due to Byrne preferring to work with Eno over Harrison, Weymouth, and Franz. 

The title of the Byrne & Eno album is from Nigerian author Amos Tutuola's novel of the same name. Neither of them had read the book but thought the title evoked the spirit of their album. Recently I learned that REM's early 2000s hit "Imitation of Life" got its title from the '59 Douglas Sirk melodrama. They hadn't watched it either. The Zombies also wrote a song called "A Rose for Emily" taken from Faulkner's short story which they never read so the song has nothing to do with the grisly Southern Gothic. What the heck? A short book, a two hour movie, a very short story. I'm not saying they should be required to know the sources, but it seems lazy, and a bit gross in Byrne and Eno's case, and they could have picked different titles. At least so I wouldn't be confused.

Anyway, I hope your day went well. And that the people you saw today didn't try to gaslight you into thinking they're smarter than they actually are. How'd it go? What are you lying about knowing that you don't really know anything about? What would you like me to lie about?

Some of the album tracks referred to here:

Sampled exorcism recordings are not as exciting as one would think.

This is John Cale reading words from a Spanish phrasebook, arranged by Eno in a way that gives it a film noir feel.