Brian Eno

Certain Songs #132: Brian Eno – “You Don’t Miss Your Water”

March 14, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Married to the Mob Soundtrack
Year: 1988

If I’m not mistaken, Eno’s surprise version of “You Don’t Miss Your Water” was his first lead vocal in over a decade. Sure, you could hear him singing on various Talking Heads and U2 tracks (especially the “Pride” b-side “Boomerang II,” which is clearly an Eno track in all by name), but the fact that he decided to cover an old soul classic for a film soundtrack was pretty mind-blowing.

Even more mind-blowing: just how gorgeous it was.

Featuring a rhythm guitar sound that wouldn’t sound out of place on Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) or Before and After Science and a ghostly some-might-say-“ambient” keyboard underneath, a heavenly chorus of Brian Enos slowly sing William Bell’s near perfect lyrics about losing a love through your own jackassery.

In the beginning you really loved me
But I was blind and I could not see
But when you left me, oh, how I cried
You don’t miss your water, till your well runs dry

There are some songs – “Indian Summer,” “Train From Kansas City” come to mind – for which it is impossible to record a bad version. Something about the song renders it impervious to destruction. “You Don’t Miss Your Water” is one of those songs. And though it’s been covered countless times – including by Otis Redding and The Byrds – since it was written in 1961, Eno’s is my favorite.

Maybe because the summer of 1988 was a weird and terrible time for me in the girl department, and I hadn’t really heard this song before this version, something about it completely resonated with me.

“You Don’t Miss Your Water”

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Certain Songs #131: Brian Eno – “The True Wheel”

March 13, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).

Year: 1974.

With Eno’s synths buzzing all around some serious John Cale-style (though not John Cale) piano, the opening section of “The True Wheel” sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday, instead of over 40 years ago. When the eerie Randi & The Pyramids group vocals come in to announce “We are the 801, we are the central shaft,” it sounds like it could have been recorded 40 years from now. By aliens.

(We are the 801, we are the central shaft)
And thus throughout two years
We’ve crossed the ocean in our little craft, (row, row, row!)
Now we’re on the telephone
Making final arrangements, ding ding!

This is followed by a crunchy guitar fueled call-and-response “chorus,” which has my favorite Eno lyric ever (not a large category, I know, but still):

(Looking for a certain ratio)
Someone must have left it underneath the carpet
(Looking up and down the radio)
Uh oh, nothing there this time

You guys, Brian Eno is having so much fun on this song! Sure, he lets Randi & The Pyramids sing “row row row,” but the “ding! ding!” is all his. And his singing on “Uh oh, nothing there this time” is hilariously knowing. And, of course, still true.

Nevertheless, as fun as the opening section of “The True Wheel” is, it’s all just set up.

Suddenly, as Eno gleefully cackles “Oh oh oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, here we go!" Phil Manzanera swoops in with his guitar sounding just like that ratio they’ve been looking for, and we suddenly know what that true wheel really sounds like. It sounds like forever.

After a while – guessing that both Eno and Manaznera figured that they needed to let that guitar part angle towards the infinity that it suggested – Eno starts singing again, and doubles down obliquely on the John Cale connection:

We saw the lovers The Modern Lovers
And they looked very good
They looked as if they could

Cale, of course, had already produced the majority the still unreleased Modern Lovers debut album, and Eno and Manzanera were playing on Cale’s mid-1970s records as well, so this just seems like a huge inside joke that has only gotten funnier over the years.

Video for "The True Wheel”

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Certain Songs #130: Brian Eno – “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More”

March 12, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).

Year: 1974.

There is a subcategory of “Certain Songs” that I’m going to call “The Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded” and I’m of the firm belief that this lead track from Brian Eno’s masterpiece Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is among those songs.

Eno? Really?

With Phil Manzanera playing a ghostly rhythm guitar while haunting and lovely keyboards frame a background chorus of Enos, I swear on all that’s true and holy that the second half of every verse of “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More” is as beautiful as anything that Brian Wilson ever put together. And ten times as weird.

When I got back home I found a message on the door
Sweet Regina’s gone to China cross legged on the floor
Of a burning jet that’s smoothly flying
Burning airlines give you so much more

Of course, there is almost no universe where a song like this would become a hit single, but I’ve loved it from the first time I heard it in the early 80s. Like nearly all of Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More” has been massively influential to just about anybody who wanted to make unconventional pop that is clearly both.

Video for “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More”

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Medialoper Bebop Episode 15: Skype Hunting

September 15, 2011 by Jim Connelly

This week, we’re working out some technical bugs as we’re recording the podcast via iChat instead of Skype. There’s a damn good reason for this, and Kirk explains why. (2:07 – 16:00)

Then, we take a look at the hype surrounding Windows 8, and Tim admits that there is nothing that Microsoft can ever ever do to make him appreciate them. Just like certain people with Obama. (16:00 – 23:04)

Finally, it’s the third inductee to the Medialoper Great Albums Hall of Fame: Brian Eno’s 1974 masterpiece Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (24:00 – 35:45)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:38 — 65.5MB)

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22 Musical Moments To Die For

November 14, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the fourth in a series. The first one had 25, the second one has 24, the third one had 23.

And good news! The latest version of Flash solves the problem that was going on with Windows, Flash and Firefox. You might wanna download it.

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.