December 11, 2008
It took me a while to figure out the queerness of the album cover - it’s like “Where’s Waldo?” Hint: some say the eyes are windows to the soul. Anyway, I attended a warehouse sale of records and pretty much crossed off half of my wish-list. I also picked up an excellent copy of one of my Holy Grails: Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” from 1971. I’ll blog about that little slice of funk-apocalypse soon enough. “Heroes” came out the same year as “Low” and also repeats the half-pop, half-prog formula. Still have yet to dip into the second side, though. But the songs on the first side are kind of what I would imagine Freedom circa 1977 would sound like. Made in West Berlin at a studio called “Hansa by the Wall,” an institution that played a part in the cultural component of the cold war. Recently, I heard an anecdote about Robert Fripp’s trippy guitar riff on the title track: it’s actually a series of shaky out-takes that were spliced together. Each track was a throwaway, but together they made one of the most iconic melodies of the ’70s.

It took me a while to figure out the queerness of the album cover - it’s like “Where’s Waldo?” Hint: some say the eyes are windows to the soul.

Anyway, I attended a warehouse sale of records and pretty much crossed off half of my wish-list. I also picked up an excellent copy of one of my Holy Grails: Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” from 1971. I’ll blog about that little slice of funk-apocalypse soon enough.

“Heroes” came out the same year as “Low” and also repeats the half-pop, half-prog formula. Still have yet to dip into the second side, though. But the songs on the first side are kind of what I would imagine Freedom circa 1977 would sound like. Made in West Berlin at a studio called “Hansa by the Wall,” an institution that played a part in the cultural component of the cold war. Recently, I heard an anecdote about Robert Fripp’s trippy guitar riff on the title track: it’s actually a series of shaky out-takes that were spliced together. Each track was a throwaway, but together they made one of the most iconic melodies of the ’70s.

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