Week 3: 25 best live record of all time.

[Swish]

I know that everyone was waiting waiting on pins and needles and with bated breath, or in Bobsticks' case, with baited breath, so here is the third exciting entry in this series.

Behind The Iron Curtain--Nico: Nico didn’t record much. This German chanteuse wasn’t the most prolific artist and she was labeled pretty much a cult artist, even though she predated the Goth movement by over a decade and should have been anointed its Queen. Since she had a limited repertoire, her albums tend to have the same songs on them. Deciding which versions you like best is half the fun and really confusing.


Well, this certainly doesn't tell you much about the content of the record, but here are the tracks on this record:

1. "All Saints' Night" - 9:14
2. "Procession" - 3:48
3. "Secret Side" - 3:33 (Nico)
4. "Das Lied vom einsamen Mädchen" - 6:08 (Robert Gilbert, Heyman)
5. "Win a Few" - 8:55 (Nico)
6. "König" - 4:27 (Nico)
7. "Purple Lips" - 4:32 (Nico)
8. "All Tomorrow's Parties" - 3:03 (Lou Reed)
9. "Fearfully in Danger" - 6:49 (Nico)
10. "The End" - 10:10 (The Doors)
11. "My Funny Valentine" - 4:15 (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)
12. "Sixty/Forty" - 2:26 (Nico)
13. "Tananore" - 4:06 (Nico)
14. "Janitor of Lunacy" - 4:19 (Nico)
15. "My Heart Is Empty" - 5:15 (Nico)
16. "Femme Fatale" - 3:48 (Lou Reed

One notable missing tune is Chelsea Girls, so here is the link to a You Tube video, albeit a strange one, with Nico performing the song in, of all places, the Chelsea Hotel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ype6Hw_Hmjo

Nico is an acquired taste, but I liked her quite a bit, especially her work with VU. She was a mess and died at 'about' 50 years of age, since the year of her birth has been widely disputed but thought to be 1938 while her death was in 1988.

Comments?

Swishbaby

[Stone]

Now I'm three for three. I've never heard this one either, although I do have her first two albums which I like very much.

[Swish]

...but when you view the thread list is still shows 'record'. WTF is up with that?

Swish - should take more time when posting

[jasn]

Second in a row for me that I don't know. I guess this will be more of a learning experience.

[MindGoneHaywire]

I can still remember the beginning of a review of a Nico record from 1985:

"Nico's so much of a whale that she should be making LPs with Judy Collins. As it is, her mobyness stops two pounds short of legal whaleheft, though..."

I've never heard this rec.

Chalk another one up to mydumbopinion.blogsquat.com or some such.

I love this list.

[Troy]

Message for the compiler of this list:

1. Being a self destructive junkie does not make your art deeper and more important. It simply makes you a self destructive junkie.

2. Being willfully obscure doesn't make you good. I did a search for this album to try and preview a few tracks and even AMG doesn't list this album! How can a disc that virtually no one, even Nico fanatics, has ever heard be one of the best live albums of all time? Ditto last week too. It just smacks of elitist hipster douchebaggery.

You're wrong Jay, it's a tedious list because few can actually participate in it.

[Swish]

Message for the compiler of this list:

1. Being a self destructive junkie does not make your art deeper and more important. It simply makes you a self destructive junkie.

2. Being willfully obscure doesn't make you good. I did a search for this album to try and preview a few tracks and even AMG doesn't list this album! How can a disc that virtually no one, even Nico fanatics, has ever heard be one of the best live albums of all time? Ditto last week too. It just smacks of elitist hipster douchebaggery.

You're wrong Jay, it's a tedious list because few can actually participate in it.

Most of the artists on the list are basically mainstream, or artists that EVERYONE knows, although I don't want to start naming them at this point. What's wrong with having a few obscure titles? If they were all widely accepted 'top 25' material, I doubt this would draw much interest at all. Who needs 'same old, same old" all the time? That's what attracted me to this board in the first place; people who appreciated stuff that wasn't on MOR radio fare or 'classic' rock, perish the thought.

Swish

[Stone]

I am still holding out judgment on the list, and while it does seem to be a bit out there so far, just because one of the few people on this board or I don't know it, does not make an album super obscure.

AMG's writeup of the album is here.

[ForeverAutumn]

Now I'm three for three. I've never heard this one either,

Same here. Three for three. Although to be fair, I've never been a big fan of live albums so I wasn't expecting to have heard very many on the list.

I am enjoying reading everyone else's comments though.

[Mr MidFi]

Three points:

1. I don't care much for Nico.

2. Even people who do like her stuff don't seem to be aware that this album exists, and have never heard it.

3. I hope this list starts getting better. And soon.

That is all.

[GMichael]

I feel so uninformed.

[MindGoneHaywire]

Leave it to elitist hipster douchebaggery to expose that Troy can't find a rec on AMG.

What's entertaining about this for me, actually, is wondering whether or not this guy actually believes this list. The '50 Albums that Changed Wallpaper" list was written by people who believed, but whose knowledge and/or experience seemed limited (evidenced more than anything else by their inclusion of any jazz at all, but, having done so, only choosing 2 or 3 or whatever & ignoring recs far more worthy by virtually any other standard). If this guy is nothing but an elitist hipster douchebag, well, he got Troy to want to hear one of his choices.

Which in itself is evidence that Swish chose a good, offbeat list for plenty of controversy & discussion. Troy actually wanted to try to listen to this album to offer something; I'm content just posting a rather vile & snide snippet of an insult of a review of the record she was touring when this album was recorded.

Hell, this works on more levels than I realized. But don't worry, there are familiar choices to come. I'll leave it at that.

[Swish]

Three points:

1. I don't care much for Nico.

2. Even people who do like her stuff don't seem to be aware that this album exists, and have never heard it.

3. I hope this list starts getting better. And soon.

That is all.

I happen to like Nico, as well as the Allman Brothers, so 2 out of 3 for me so far. If this had your top 25, would that make it better? I would recommend you create your own list and post them each week and see what happens. You would probably get skewered as much as the composer of this list, point being we all have different tastes and this is just an example of that.

Swish

[Mr MidFi]

I didn't mean to sound too harsh there, Swish. I think your inclusion of this list is a swell addition to our little roundtable here, and I hope you aren't taking my last comment as criticism of you in any way.

It's not that I don't like Nico, either. I don't, but that's beside the point.

It just seems to me that the last 2 selections have been needlessly obscure. True, as you say, we all do have different tastes and differing opinions. I'm just sharing mine.

Peace.

[Swish]

I didn't mean to sound too harsh there, Swish. I think your inclusion of this list is a swell addition to our little roundtable here, and I hope you aren't taking my last comment as criticism of you in any way.

It's not that I don't like Nico, either. I don't, but that's beside the point.

It just seems to me that the last 2 selections have been needlessly obscure. True, as you say, we all do have different tastes and differing opinions. I'm just sharing mine.

Peace.

...Bobsticks gives me so much that the rest just slides off me.

I was just trying to state that everyone is entitled to their own opinion of what is and what is not 'good'. I like Niko and don't think she's an obscure artist, but if I mentioned her in many of the circles of friends I have, I would get a blank stare, while some of my closest friends probably have most of her stuff.

Again, as J pointed out, it's nice to see something that's a little left of center, musically speaking. This is simply one guy's point of view, and I don't think he picked stuff for the shear 'huh?' factor. I think he really likes this stuff and has a healthy, if eclectic, taste in music.

Swish

[Slosh]

The only live album I listen to over studio stuff is Alice In Chains - Unplugged. There are a handful of others I like too but not as much as the studio albums. Well, then there's that Calexico Stockholm show that's awesome as hell but it isn't an official album so I guess it ain't gonna count. Concert DVDs are much more interesting to me (especially when they have a tasteful DTS mix). IOW, I couldn't give a good fuck about this thread

NP: Andrew Bird - Soldier On

[bobsticks]

Which in itself is evidence that Swish chose a good, offbeat list for plenty of controversy & discussion...

Which is true if only judging by the number of response...and the fact that it made me pull out some old Cult albums. I first became aware of Nico from the song of the same name. Now, I'm pretty sure that terms like "chantreuse" or otherwise equating her with the Goth movement could get a fella a pale fist to the face in many a dark lit chamber...accomplished succinctly by any self-respecting wraith not wallowing hip deep in smack vomit

As it turns out I seem to like songs about Nico much better than the real thing. It isn't necessarily true "that being a self destructive junkie does not make your art deeper and more important. It simply makes you a self destructive junkie.", however Nico advances the theory.

...but if I mentioned her in many of the circles of friends I have, I would get a blank stare, while some of my closest friends probably have most of her stuff.

Many...plural? Now your just makin' stuff up.


Tres appropos on so many levels that the term "douchebaggery" has worked it's way into this thread, though I am interested in the rest of the list. There's an off-kilter paternoster to it, not dissimilar to a worbly series of rorschach tests that all look like Jack Ruby offering Lee Harvey Oswald a TUMS.

[MindGoneHaywire]

[bobsticks]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds_TRSoQkJ0

[Stone]

Such a great photo(shop). I especially like the DK spray painted on the wall behind them.

[3-LockBox]

I've only heard one album by Nico, one that came out in the 90s. Someone recommended it to me saying, "you have to like it". Now there's some rockum sockum motivation for owning an album. Never heard the live album though, and quite frankly, after hearing that one album, won't.

I have to halfway agree with Troy, being a self destructive junkie should not make your art deeper and more important. But music's most lauded, over hyped, and hip-to-like performers were self destructive junkies, or at the very least, poor swimmers.

Somewhere in between self destructive junkies and poor swimmers are self-choking masturbators. just sayin

[kexodusc]

I actually own this album, and quite frankly it sucks. Boo!

[Swish]

.



Many...plural? Now your just makin' stuff up.

Swish - has way more friends than you, and I should since I pay them so well