Booth #1: Music

[JACkory]

As you walk into the Insect Lounge, the first booth you come to is my favourite, and it's where I usually hang out most often. It's the MUSIC booth, and it's where I wax poetic about the bands, songs and albums that are in heavy rotation 'round here.

Of course, I love to listen to patrons of the Lounge when they talk about the music they like, too, so take a load off...have a seat and let the music discussion begin!!!

[JACkory]

Tall Tales circa 1989


Tall Tales was a band I played in for about a year before being unceremoniously booted. These days I can say I'm glad it all went down that way, but I've become painfully aware that I still hold a bit of a grudge. I'm trying to work that out, but in the meantime I've been lurking on the message board at their website.
Anyway, a few days ago there was a post that read:

>>>You heard 'Pot Pie'? (*"Pot Pie" is the newly reformed band's current CD)
Put your take on it -- bad, good, indifferent -- on this link. The 'most enchanting' review, as deemed by Tall Tales Leprechaun*, gets a free copy of '69 Minutes' (by Bastille Day, 2004) and a card. Merit is not determined by favorable review, but by style and swagger and spirit.
Good luck.<<<


So I just couldn't resist posting this reply....

Hi, I'm Lester Bangs. I've been dead for several years, but at one time I was a rather prolific music reviewer. You ever seen "Almost Famous"? Phillip Seymour Hoffman played ME in that movie. Yeah, I'm quite a cult legend. Go to the library one of these days and check out one of the post-mortem compilations of my work from Creem, the Village Voice and various other music rags. I think you'll agree, after reading them, that I know a thing or two about music.

Maybe it's because I'm dead, but I just didn't like "Pot Pie" very much when I heard it (that guy from Drowning Pool who croaked a couple of years ago somehow procured a copy and he let me borrow it, anxious to get my valued opinion). It just didn't ring true, that's all. Maybe there's a market amongst the living for a band of geezers who are rapidly approaching middle age playing frat-boy party rock with sub-juvenile lyrics, but I guarantee it'll never sell in heaven or hell.

Musically it has it's strengths, I'll concede that. Must be nice to have that tuneful Reid fella back in the fold. What in the world did you think you were doing without him? But someone needs to tell him that Peter Buck still holds down the guitarist slot in REM...there's no need for Robbo to impress anyone with his ability to mimic Buck's style. If I want to re-live the glory days of jangle-pop, I'll give "Murmur" another spin.

Back in the days when I still breathed God's good air and my heart pumped blood through my veins I was plenty capable of ripping an album to shreds, mercilessly panning it in such an entertaining way that even the musicians who I was lambasting had to admit it was a pretty fun read. But now that I've mellowed out in the afterlife I don't really like to cut people down to size quite as much as I used to. So with that in mind, I'll save my true thoughts on the majority of "Pot Pie" and simply advise the guys in the band to place an ad in the Oklahoma Gazette or Urban Tulsa seeking out a TALENTED vocalist. This wailing and caterwauling method that Danny Fallis has cultivated may have been acceptable (and who knows, maybe even slightly enjoyable) back in the days when he was throwing stuffed animals to the crowd at Club Nitro, but Jesus, the guy's got to be close to 40 years old now, and he sounds almost as pathetic as Steven Tyler drooling about the "kitty in the middle" while waiting for the Geritol to kick in.

I don't mean to be a party pooper, but the plain truth is that I heard "69 Minutes" had a couple of mildly amusing tunes on it, and I really was hoping I'd win that free copy. You DID say that the winner would not be determined by whether or not the review was favourable. I can't help it if I'm dead and find absolutely no humour in the Beavis and Butthead level of the lyrics on "Pot Pie", nor is it my fault that I would rather just listen to old Replacements, REM & Meat Puppets albums than cut any slack to a third rate imitation of same, even if you guys are earnest. You asked for opinions, and you got mine.

Now, I don't know how you're going to get my free copy of "69 Minutes" to me, should I be the lucky reviewer to win it (and face it, my review is the best, hands down...all that come after it will pale in comparison, and furthermore I have it on the authority of a higher power that I am 100% RIGHT about "Pot Pie")...after all, the Postal Service doesn't generally deliver packages to St. Peter's Gate. So if you guys are honest and fair about your intent to judge on "style, swagger and spirit" (and that's about all there is left of me, ya know, "spirit"), you'll surely award the free CD to yours truly...and since I cannot recieve parcels where I am, may I donate my free copy to Steve Ray, the incredible vocalist for Pitbulls on Crack? And if he refuses it (as he very well may, seeing as how he always thought Tall Tales sucked) maybe Dave Cantrell would take it. I know for a fact that he sold the copy you gave him to Wherehouse Music for a buck several years ago, walked out the door whistling a snappy tune and considered the dollar in his pocket to be much more than what the CD was worth.
It's too bad Wherehouse Music went out of business...I heard they had at least 29 copies of "69 Minutes" that they were giving away free with each new Smash Mouth CD purchase. The theory was that when the customer listened to the Tall Tales CD they weren't quite so disappointed in the dismal Smash Mouth music and were less prone to return it for a refund.

Anyways, thanks for giving me this opportunity to critique "Pot Pie". Don't quit your day jobs, gentlemen, that's the best advice this dead rock critic can give you.

Peace on earth and goodwill to men,
Lester Bangs



The REAL Lester Bangs

[JACkory]

Sun Kil Moon...Ghosts Of The Great Highway
(2003, Jetset Records, TWA 53)

Sun Kil Moon mastermind Mark Kozelek kicks off the album Ghosts Of The Great Highway with a boxing reference. "Cassius Clay", he says, "was hated more than Sonny Liston". This he states matter-of- factly, as if it's a foregone conclusion. Then he moves into more subjective territory, allowing that some like Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing more than his Priest co-hort Glenn Tipton, and that, among those with a preference, Jim Nabors is sometimes favoured over Bobby Vinton.
Boxing legends, heavy metal axemen and easy-listening music crooners...what in the world do they have in common?
Kozelek fills us in..."I like 'em all," he sings.
And that's Mark Kozelek for you. An enigmatic, mixed-bag of a songwriter who is impossible to pin down. Just when you think he's perfected slo-core mope-rock with the Red House Painters he throws out Songs From A Blue Guitar, basically a solo album (none of the other RHP members were involved) and featuring an extremely repetitive distortion drenched droner, "Make Like Paper", which would have sounded perfectly at home on the loudest Neil Young/Crazy Horse LP never released. On that same album he managed to throw in references to Young's "Cortez The Killer" and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in a lengthy cover of Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" that bore even less resemblance to the original than Johnny Cash's reworking of "Rusty Cage" did to Soundgarden's blueprint. And if that weren't enough to convince you that Kozelek was out to confound his core audience, perhaps the head-bangin', fist-pumpin' version of Yes' "Long Distance Runaround" will do? Or maybe the gorgeous version of The Cars' "All Mixed Up" that makes the original sound contrived, turning it into a genuinely passionate, heart- rending ballad...
Kozelek followed Songs For A Blue Guitar with another Red House Painters album (this one featuring all but one original member), the bittersweet Old Ramon. Then he dropped two solo EPs (one of which consisted entirely of old Bon Scott- era AC/DC songs re-cast as tender folkie ballads...did I mention that Kozelek has a knack for absurdity?) and a lackluster but well-intentioned limited edition live LP (White Christmas Live).
So I wouldn't blame those RHP fans who fell in love with their first self- titled album (aka Rollercoaster) for maybe feeling like Kozelek had alienated himself somewhat from the very ones who put him on the map, as it were. After all, it's a long way from the dulcet tones of "Grace Cathedral Park" to the stripped-down starkness of his arrangement of "If You Want Blood".
But somehow I doubt that he lost too many true believers, because with the exception of his beautifully poetic lyrics, the man's greatest asset is his voice, pure, crystalline and melancholic. It's the kind of voice that bleeds passion, that exudes feeling, that sometimes, when it hits you just right, is almost cruel in it's ability to pierce through the hardened heart to elicit emotions not generally shared with everyone. Private sentiment, sheltered and barricaded, seeps through like blood on a thin white sheet at the sound of Mark Kozelek's singing.
Would it surprise you to know that Kozelek, he of the beguiling, angelic voice and intimate, sonnet-like lyrics, is a hardcore boxing fan?
Indeed, he is, and that brings us back to Ghosts Of The Great Highway, his most recent album using the moniker of Sun Kil Moon (though it features ex-members of Red House Painters, Black Lab & American Music Club, most Kozelek devotees focus primarily on his contribution, since all songs were written and arranged by him and his signature is stamped upon every moment).

Continued next post...

[JACkory]

Sun Kil Moon

The album references professional boxers in no less than 4 of it's most powerful songs, including the opener, "Glenn Tipton". It's a subdued introduction to an album that covers quite a bit of stylistic territory...an acoustic number remeniscent of the late John Denver's early work, but with a bizarre lyrical twist---after lamenting a lost father and a late friend, waxing poetic on the inevitability of change, the narrator goes on to confess, "I buried my first victim when I was nineteen, went through her bedroom and the pockets of her jeans". There, he says, "(I) found her letters that said so many things that really hurt me bad." And even though he insists that he's "never breathed her name again", he still concedes, "I like to dream about what could have been"... "Sunshine On My Shoulder" this AIN'T!
"Glenn Tipton" is actually a logical choice to begin this album, as it most resembles the solo work Kozelek has done on his Badman Recordings projects Rock And Roll Singer and What's Next To The Moon, more or less providing a sense of closure to that aspect of his work, at least at this point in time, clearing the way for the more lush soundscapes that follow.
Long-time Red House Painters fans who pine for the melancholy arpeggios of their seminal albums will likely think their wish has been granted with the subdued "Carry Me Ohio". Indeed, this is the closest to the formative "RHP sound" Kozelek has come since his departure from the 4AD label. Melodically simple, the intensity builds throughout the song with the addition of more instruments and more distortion (though distortion, as it is used here, is anything but noisy).
"Carry Me Ohio" is a love song that acknowledges a potential soulmate but bemoans a state of affairs that seems to sabotage any attempt to reciprocate affection, for whatever reason. "Sorry that I could never love you back, I could never care enough in these last days", Kozelek apologizes, while at the same time offering up the admission, "Can't count all the lovers I've burned through, so why do I still burn for you? I can't say". The chorus is a prayer to "heal her soul, and carry her my angel, Ohio", sung in a lilting falsetto that sends shivers down the spine. Glockenspiel and guitar bell-tones waft through the song like a soft breeze on calm waters. It's a mournful affair that longs for "words long gone" and "the star I just don't see anymore", but it's obvious that the real loss is the ability to love and to allow oneself to be loved in return...
The tranquility, however, is shattered with the sound of loud electric guitars as the next song, "Salvador Sanchez", blares from the speakers. Sorry, old-school RHP fans, but the nostalgia was short-lived. And as far as I'm concerned that's just fine, because "Salvador Sanchez" is one of the most moving and powerful songs Mark Kozelek has ever written and recorded. Once again he has channeled Neil Young & Crazy Horse with uncanny success in this loping peon to Latin American boxers who "fell by leather, all alone but bound together". Now I don't pretend to know the slightest thing about boxing and it's colourful history, but this song makes the subject seem so alluring that I'm almost tempted to delve into it.
Kozelek describes the song's namesake as a "sweet warrior, pure magic matador". He then proceeds to sing of several other fighters, including Pancho Villa and Gozo of the Phillipines (who I personally had never heard of until now, but no doubt they are long lost kings of "the Ring"). One he describes as "crying for suns lost on distant shores" until his opponent "struck him, delivered him". You can almost see the blood flying in a black-and-white slow motion instant replay.
The grunge of "Salvador Sanchez" fades out and gives way to a series of three delicate, pastoral pieces that benefit from lovely, unobtrusive string arrangements. "Last Tide"/"Floating" and "Gentle Moon" are the kind of songs that sound as if they were written especially to showcase the fragile, lovelorn quality of Kozelek's voice. He's proven many times in the past that he's capable of writing incredibly poetic lyrics, and the words to "Last Tide" are likely no exception, but his diction is so slurred here, almost mumbled, that they are barely decipherable. You'd think that would be a drawback, but no, it adds an elusive charm to the number (much like early R.E.M. and everything by Sigur Ros, you find yourself so caught up in the music that you don't even really care what the words are, or if it even has "real words").
When "Last Tide" segues into "Floating" the lyrics become more audible, but they're more or less just a repeated mantra of "Come to me my love, One more night, Come on" with a few variations. Still, it winds things down sweetly and leaves the listener wanting more of the same...
Which is exactly what you get. "Gentle Moon", like "Last Tide", is enhanced by a string quartet and delicate acoustic guitar picking, with a chiming, minimalistic electric guitar ringing a two-note pattern that adds a shimmering radiance throughout. The lyrics are mumbled again, quite difficult to decipher except in the chorus: "Our souls escape fire, they rise higher...Gentle moon, find them soon". I'm guilty of using the adjective "beautiful" way too much when I try to describe music that affects me like this does, but what else can I say? "Beautiful" fits "Gentle Moon" to a tee.

continued next post

[JACkory]

Mark Kozelek

The seventh track on the album, "Lily And Parrots", is the weakest, in my humble opinion, though I've read that the label was pushing it as a potential single when the album first came out around this time last year, with indie radio play and all. Perhaps it's my own personal taste that keeps me from appreciating the tune, but the hard rock stylings just don't ring true and sound completely out of place in the grand scheme of the album. I've listened to Ghosts Of The Great Highway at least a hundred times since it was released and I can honestly say that I've skipped over "Lily And Parrots" at least 90% of the time. And the thing is, it's NOT a bad song...there's an acoustic version tacked on at the end of White Christmas Live, as a bonus track, and it's quite nice actually. But the arrangement here sinks it.
Once again I must reiterate that this is my own personal opinion of the song...I've read many people praising it as one of Kozelek's best "rockers" on fan websites and e- mail groups. Needless to say, I disagree...I've also read reviews that pan "Salvador Sanchez" as the album's low point, and that just confounds me cuz it's the song I always crank up and sing along with. Different strokes, indeed.
Then again maybe another reason I skip "Lily And Parrots" is because by this time I'm ready to experience the centerpiece of Ghosts Of The Great Highway, the sprawling 14-minute epic "Duk Koo Kim".
The song is yet another ode to a prizefighter, this time an elegy to Korean contender Duk Koo Kim, who was killed by blows sustained in a boxing match with Ray Mancini (by the way, Mancini himself has been the subject of his own song, "'Boom Boom' Mancini" by Warren Zevon, which also mentions Duk Koo Kim). But to be honest, it's not really so much about Duk Koo Kim as it is a reflection on immortality and the love that allows us to face the inevitable, that we come to need every bit as much as the air we breathe.
Kozelek sings of watching a film of the Mancini/Kim fight and being deeply touched by the sight of the "boy from Seoul" laying alone in the square, "without face, without crown". "The angel who looked upon", he observes, "never came down". The sheer intensity of such a moment causes him to consider the seeming randomness of death, and he muses, "You never know what day could pick you... out of the air, out of nowhere".
Earlier in the song he sang of being woken from a dream the same night as he watched the fight film. It's not apparent if this sleep followed or preceeded the images of Duk Koo Kim's fatal loss, which he's witnessed on the screen. The dreams (or is it a single dream?) do seem inspired by something disturbing. In them he watches a typhoon from the roof of his house, "bringing the clouds down to the sea, making the world look gray and alone, taking all light from view". He also dreams of being "lost in war", unable to feel his feet or hands, knowing that he was dying, "but an angel came down", he says, "and brought me back to you". The same angel, perhaps, who looked upon the broken body of Duk Koo Kim, but chose not to descend for him.
It just seems to me that the tragedy of Duk Koo Kim is the inspiration for these reflections on death and how the Grim Reaper could care less about his victim's ambitions, aspirations or anything else he might have going for himself in life. And in the face of all these hard thoughts Kozelek comes around to a simple invocation, "Come to me once more my love, show me love I've never known...sing to me once more my love, words from your younger years"...
I've never been all that good at discerning the "meaning" of a song, and the interpretations that I've just shared may be wildly off the mark (pardon the pun), but then again, I'm not sure that it matters whether or not I really "get" it, because what I DO "get" is a flood of feeling as I listen to "Duk Koo Kim", and that's really what music is primarilly about, isn't it?
It took several hearings before the song really sank in for me, and I'm sure it's sheer length will be daunting to some, but there is no doubt in my mind that "Duk Koo Kim" is the awesome highlight of Ghosts Of The Great Highway. There's really no way to adequately follow it, but there are two more tracks left, and in their own way they underscore the impact of all that came before them.
"Si Paloma" is an instrumental track with a Latin American feel that sort of breezes along like a soft afterglow. Then the album concludes with "Pancho Villa", which is nothing more than "Salvador Sanchez" stolen from Crazy Horse and re-cast into a setting more akin to "Last Tide" and "Gentle Moon". It's a bit disarming when you first realize that it's the same song, because the arrangement totally alters the feel, but Mark Kozelek has been doing this ever since the beginning of his career with his own material ("Mistress", "New Jersey", "Have You Forgotten") and with others' work (Simon & Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock", the batch of AC/DC covers and even Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner"). This tactic, for the most part, has yielded striking results, and "Pancho Villa" is no exception. It reminds you of all that came before it and makes you want to listen again.
And so, as Sun Kil Moon, Mark Kozelek has outdone himself. All that there is to love in his work with Red House Painters as well as his solo efforts are here in abundance, along with something extra...something I can't quite describe, but which takes his music to a new level. I'm still not sure what any of it has to do with ghosts or a "great highway", but I do know this: Ghosts Of The Great Highway has proven to be the perfect soundtrack for those long road trips I've frequently embarked upon in the last year since I've had this album, so maybe it has something to do with that?

[JACkory]

JAC Reccomends
...for what it's worth, here are a few albums that I think are worth your time. Check in often, as this feature will be posted on a regular basis, and let me know what you think if you decide to check one of 'em out as a result of what you see here...for that matter, if you've already heard any of 'em, throw in your 2 cents worth on why you think I'm right or wrong to reccomend a particular album...


Sigur Ros
( )

Quite simply one of the most lush, gorgeous recordings I've ever experienced. It's likely you've never heard anyone do with his voice what Sigur Ros vocalist Jonsi does with his, transforming it into an instrument that makes the already ethereal music even more unique.


Daniel Amos
Mr. Buechner's Dream

Yes, I'm still plugging away for this great album. Lyrically and musically challenging, with some of the most inventive bass lines you're likely to hear. Don't let this one slip by...


Autechre
Incunabula

Hardcore Autechre fans may consider this, their debut, to be less demanding, but it's a great electronic album nevertheless, with deep bass grooves, inventive melodies and wicked beats. If you like Incunabula you just MIGHT like their later work, but I wouldn't guarantee it.


The Stooges
The Stooges and Fun House

I've always considered The Stooges' self-titled debut to be one of the great rock albums of all time, and I've only recently discovered that Fun House is every bit as worthy of the same accolade. Primal, sweaty fun. As essential as it gets for the connisseur of punk rock, and Iggy is CLASSIC!!!


Jonathan Elias (Composer)
The Prayer Circle

A symphonic and choral work that celebrates the idea of talking with Deity, ie. prayer. Artists as diverse as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Alanis Morissette, Perry Farrell, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Ofra Haza and Salif Keita are featured in this intensely spiritual composition. Reccomended to anyone looking for "something fresh"...

Till next time,
Enjoy!
JACkory

[Rit]

that fantasy Lester Bangs letter was great

and Funhouse is better, imo.

[rockysigman]

Funhouse is definately better.

[JACkory]

RockySigman said:

Funhouse is definately better.

Yeah, probably...I just haven't spent nearly as much time with it as I have with the debut. And there's nothing quite as spooky sounding as "We Will Fall" and my personal favourite "Ann".
Both albums are well worth checking out...

Now Playing:

Krishna Das
Breath Of The Heart
Produced by Rick Rubin, this is one of the most modern-sounding renderings of Hindu devotional chant I've ever heard. Very exotic.

[Meursault]

So Jac i couldn't read through all that review to lazy right now.

What are the essential Red House Painters and Sun Kill Moon, Mark Kozelek things to get?

[Thorngrub]

[glow=orange,2,300]Sun Kil Moon...Ghosts Of The Great Highway
(2003, Jetset Records, TWA 53) [/glow]


GREAT album

[maarts]

Even though I thoroughly love ( ), I believe Agaetis Byrjun is the more complete and overall more satisfying Sigur Ros-album. AE set the templates for what makes the band so great- () is not so diverse and less original in that sense, but that was to be expected after the impact AE made. But AE didn't stick to the post-rock idiom like it's follow-up did, it also borrowed from folklore (Olsen Olsen, my favourite track of the album) and simple pop.

Also I suspect that some of the vocal-lines Jonsi uses on ( ) are similar to each other. Not that it matters much but it grates sometimes. The whole of the album sounds still very deep, less constraint in songstyles and more open therefore. It's of an unearthly beauty, somewhere between the equally wonderfully undiscovered world of Dead Can Dance and the sophisticated post-rock of bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It's an album that simply forces you to emerge into rather than use it as background wallpaper...it demands your attention as it searches to connect with you and doesn't intend to sever that connection. Seldom do you hear that in modern music.

[JACkory]

JAC RECCOMENDS

Yep, I may be a hypocrite in the eyes of some, but even the nay-sayers, if they're being honest with themselves, will have to admit that I KNOW GOOD MUSIC WHEN I HEAR IT!!!
And with that in mind, I offer my latest batch of reccomendations, in hopes that even my harshest critics might be steered along a happy path to enjoyable listening...


Plaid
Trainer

If you're familiar with Autechre you will recognize how Plaid influenced them the first time you hear this album. It is not as sonically challenging as even Autechre's early efforts, but still is worth checking out, as it makes for some nice, bizarre background music for driving or whatever. 2 discs crammed full of original ideas, even if the repetition factor is perhaps too high...


Pole
Pole 1

Another electronic one-man effort, Steven Betke's Pole can also be placed in the stable of Autechre's influences, although his work is much more minimalistic than theirs. He's the kind of musician who can turn the sound of a scratched record into a killer beat and clothe it with the strangest sounds you've ever heard. Pole 2 is a nice companion piece, but alas, I have not heard Pole 3, or anything else from him, for that matter...


Red House Painters
Red House Painters (a.k.a. 'Rollercoaster')

I'm burning an RHP/Kozelek sampler for Ken Holzman at this very moment and listening to tracks from this album...I just HAD to include it here. This is the definitive Red House Painters album, and tracks like "Mistress", "Strawberry Hill" and "Grace Cathedral Park" will ensure that it remains one of my all-time favourites.


Aphrodite's Child
666: The Apocalypse of John

Nope, this is NOT one of my cherished Christian rock classics...It's a bombastic concept album by the group which gave us Vangelis ("Chariots of Fire", Jon & Vangelis, etc.). Theologically it's quite disturbing, but as a trippy thematic rock album it stands right up there with the best Pink Floyd ever had to offer. Apparently this album has just been issued on CD after many years of unavailability in ANY format, so I'm gonna have to seek it out, since the only copy I have is a cassette dubbed from a vinyl LP and it already sounds like it's ready to break...


Counting Crows
This Desert Life

I was listening to this for the first time in a couple of years the other day and noticed that it has really aged well. I hadn't heard any Counting Crows music in all that time, so I wasn't comparing it to their other work, and this might have worked in it's favour. Allow me to go on record as saying that Counting Crows recent version of "Big Yellow Taxi" came very close to making me completely boycott the band in general. It's THAT loathesome. And the opener on this record, "Hangin' Around" is almost as bad, but if you don't let that deter you there are a few excellent tracks to be found on This Desert Life ("Three Days", "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby")...

Enjoy, and I'll do my best not to be hypocritical...

[JACkory]

While I'm here I thought I'd post a few photos of Mark Kozelek and Red House Painters I found while surfing the net this evening...

[maarts]

Aphrodite's Child...

First off, that album is still available! I have it on stock through Universal's import service and it's pretty cheap too.
It always struck me as an odd kind of album but later on it made more sense to me. At first listen I loved the songs like The Four Horsemen (still my fave), Break an Aegian Sea (Vangelis proved to be such a great arranger on that disc!) and dismissed All The Seats Were Occupied (too long!) and the short songs at the end of disc one, but when I listened to the album more in its complete context, I appreciated the whole of it more. I must say lyrically it's fairly pompous in bits, as proven in the quote below...but is at times both eclectic (All The Seats), rocking (Horsemen) and tender in an almost spiritual fashion (Loud Loud Loud). And even though it's tough to subtract Demis Roussos from the aura of a fat bloke in a kaftan singing cheap Greek popular songs, on this album his vocals are sublime.

One thing- I still am not a fan of the hysterics in 'Infinite' (can't find that 'lie-down 8' on my keyboard!)...Irene Papas redeemed herself quite nicely on other discs like Odes and Rapsodies!

We are the people
the rolling people
the why people
the waiting people
the wanting people
the tambourine people
the alternative people
the angel people....