Comments on Fragments of a Cale Season: Jack the Ripper

Oh, it's coming, I'm sure."Oeuvreblog" is a great ...

2007-06-13T08:50:00.000-04:00

Oh, it's coming, I'm sure.

"Oeuvreblog" is a great word, BTW. Now that this phenomenon has a name, old-media attention is sure to follow!

Now that you mention it... "triumph of tones" is a...

2007-06-12T19:33:00.000-04:00

Now that you mention it... "triumph of tones" is a good way to put it! I wish I had more musical knowledge. (I don't know a lot about music, but I like what I know.) I wouldn't have thought to make the "free reed" observation, but I think I hear what you mean. Thanks for the assist.

I've long read and admired Alan W. Pollack's Notes on the Beatles, which was sort of the Ur-oeuvreblog, even if it was more academic and songcraft-oriented.

Jack the Ripper always sounded very familiar, but it doesn't sound anything like Sunny Afternoon to me.

Where's the Kinks oeuvreblog, anyway?

Musically, it's a triumph of tones, isn't it? The ...

2007-06-12T16:14:00.000-04:00

Musically, it's a triumph of tones, isn't it? The Beatlesque vox, the opening riff (is that an electric guitar, or a distorted harpsichord?), the floaty electric piano, even that squiggly synth; the tone is plit, almost but not quite in perfect octaves, giving it a free reed quality—an accordion, to wit, for that Parisian ambience.

And the drummer really shines on this one—endlessly inventive fills on the stop-time bits.

The liner notes on SDDT say the record company spiked this one because they thought it sounded too much like the Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon." I dunno bout that: but it sounds like something. I can't quite place it, though. Maybe it's just one of those instantly-familiar songs...