Depeche Mode

This morning I read BBC news about the passing of Depeche Mode's keyboardist Andy Fletcher. I decided to dedicate this blog to his band

The first Depeche Mode's song that I listened was a song titled "Just Can't Get Enough". The song was released in 1981 but I recall that I listened to that song in 1982 as part of a compilation cassette issued by Aquarius titled New Wave 2. It was the first song in the cassette. I thought this upbeat song really brought the spirit of New Wave of that era.  

The next bunch of Depeche Mode songs that I listened to were from a cassette titled: The Singles 81-85. Obviously the year was around 1986. 

I did also watch their music videos. Back then we rented a bootleg VHS tape with titles like British Top Pop or something like that. I remember watching a music videos of songs like "Mater & Servant" and "People are people". I thought Dave Gahan voice is rather odd but somehow suit their music very well. 

Back to the mentioned cassette, I mostly loved the songs titled "Blasphemous Rumor" and secondly "See You". The first song is really capture the essence of the band as electronic music band. The second one reminds me of The Beatles. 

When I was studying in the US I watch MTV almost daily. Of course they do play Depeche Mode songs too. When I hear their song "Enjoy The Silence" I thought I have listened to their best ever song. I recalled buying their album "Violator" that contains that song. As a student that depends on scholarship I did not have a lot of money back then. I managed to found a discounted cassette through a mail order.

When I was studying English in California in preparation for taking TOEFL test I remember asking my teacher the meaning of "Depeche". She told me that it is a French word meaning "haste". Later when I learned French years later I found this French verb "se dépêcher". Later I found that Depeche Mode is named after the magazine and that name roughly translates as Fashion News.

Good bye Andy Fletcher, thank you for the music

References
https://www.eightyeightynine.com/music/depeche-mode.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violator_(album)

Goodbye Vangelis

 Vangelis died on May 17th 2022 at the age of 79 years old. This blog is the tribute of his memory.

As mentioned many times here I firstly knew his music after hearing Aquarius "The Best Of". I am sure it was released due to Vangelis newest soundtrack album at that time (1981) of a movie titled "Chariot of Fire". I didn't watch the movie but the soundtrack (song no. 2 on the cassette) is a great song. I remember watching a documentary years later that mentioned about Vangelis's break through in soundtrack music. I recall it was mentioned that Vangelis was the first in this genre of soundtrack. 

The first song in this cassette was more interesting. Turned out that for years it was used by Indonesian government television TVRI as the opening soundtrack of the news program called "Dunia Dalam Berita" (World News) which was aired at prime time. Back then TVRI was the sole TV channel in this country and I recall waiting for Dunia Dalam Berita each night. I have no idea if TVRI got permission from Vangelis to use his song for years. 

When that cassette was released "Jon and Vangelis" had issued two albums. From that collaboration, of the two songs in the cassettes I thought "I hear you know" was much nicer song (song no.3 of the cassette). But of course to me the best song of "Jon and Vangelis" is "Deborah", from their third album "Private Collection" which was issued in 1983.

I thought it has great chord progression. Took me years to find the chords. I did not google it but rely solely on my ears. When I got those I posted on my Facebook. Some kind achievement to me.

Good bye Vangelis

Thank you for the music 

References

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-61514850

Tales of Alan Parsons Projects

Like any other musicians that I had no clue about my first Alan Parsons Project music I heard from the pirated the best of produced by Aquarius. The cover was not as great but I thought 'The Eye in the Sky' is a great song. It started with simple power chord that I thought so great. I did not know the name of the guitarist back then but I learned that he played the solo in Kate Bush famous hit 'Wuthering Heights'

The next Alan Parson Project cassettes that I had were 'The Turn of a Friendly Card', 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' and 'Ammonia Avenue'. I thought 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' was an unique album. It did not have radio friendly poppy songs but the album was enjoyable to listen in a whole. The cassette was also great as it had one song titled  'Shadow of a Lonely Man'. In fact this song was part of another Alan Parsons album titled 'Pyramid'

I remembered one radio station in my home town play 'Time' each time they end their program. I could understand why they picked this song. The melancholy melody and romantic lyric is appropriate to usher listener to a deep slumber. The other song that I recognized is 'Sirius'. Chicago Bulls use this song to introduce the line up. 

However, I thought the best song of Alan Parsons Project is 'Days Are Numbers (The Traveler)'. When I travelled around Europe this song often came to my mind. 

The traveler is always leaving town

He never has the time to turn around

And if the road he's taken isn't leading anywhere

He seems to be completely unaware

How true

from genesis to the last domino

Like Yes I could not remember if I started following Genesis when Gabriel was the singer or Collins but I think like other bands I started by listening the best cassettes. Below we could see that this cassettes had both Gabriel and Collins fronted Genesis. I am amazed seeing the double necked guitar in the cover. I am sure it is Rutherford who played both bass and guitar after Hackett left the band    

I am sure I had both the second cassettes 

and the third one too

After listening to those compilations I decided to listen to each album. It was either Abacab or Duke. But both have different style in comparison the the last Gabriel era : The lamb lies down on broadway. In the beginning Gabriel era was too hard to stomach to me. However I thought Foxtrot was really great. I thought Hackett composition (Horizons) was great. I was able to play some part of the song. Of course if I had YouTube back then I would have added it to my routine. The other great was Supper's Ready. Specially those lines 

And it's hey babe your supper's waiting for you

Hey my baby, don't you know our love is true?

My next album in Gabriel era was Selling England by the Pound. If I had to pick just one song I would no doubt pick Firth of Fifth. I thought this song should be one of the the peaks of Gabriel era. Hackett solo was fantastic. His signature. It was pure Hackett. 

I guess the band were lucky to have Collins taking up the role of singing when Gabriel left. I thought Collins voice resembles Gabriel's in some sense For sure Collins has higher (or lighter) pitch? But Collins had no problem singing Gabriel's songs.

These are three songs that I love the most of the three albums after Gabriel left: A Trick of the Tail (album: A Trick of the Tail. Note: some says that Indonesian musicians "copy" this song),  One for the Vine (album: Wind and Wuthering) and Follow You Follow Me (Album: ...And Then There Were Three... Hackett left the band before this album, hence the title)

I am completely in agreement if one said Duke is a leap into the pop music but retained a heavy dose of progressive rock.  The departure to pop music was getting clearer on the next album Abacab. In this album we could even hear Earth Wind and Fire Horn section. Such radical concept for a once progressive rock band. I would vote Me and Sarah Jane as the best song from this album.

I thought the conversion to pop was completed in the next album: Genesis. You could hear many radio friendly songs in this album but I would pick It's Gonna Get Better as the best. I won't mention the next three albums as I do not think they could be called Genesis that was once had Gabriel singing lead. 

Between September 2021 and March 2022 Genesis did concert reunion tour called The Last Domino? Tour as after a 13-year hiatus. Collins senior would sing and Collins junior (his son) played the drums. (Collins (senior) said he can no longer play the drums due to his deteriorating health) Did they mean this would be the end of road for Genesis? 

 

Every thing they did were magic

Believe it or not, I ever played one cassette over and over until the tape lost the sound. Apparently each time we play a cassette the head of the tape player erodes a bit of the tape surface so that eventually nothing came out of the tape other than hissing noise. In my case that cassette was Aquarius produced The Best of The Police

I knew the band pretty late, well after Aquarius issued this cassette. Pretty bad for a person who thought he knew good popular music. This cassette was issued I guess around 1982. It  compiled best songs from The Police first four album. The Police had five studio albums. More on the last album later

When I was in my Junior High year I knew a guy who collected The Police album. I thought he was weird. At that time we were into discos and pops, but he collected this band's album with weird names like Outlandos d'Amour, Reggatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta. An the band called themselves The Police ? What a bunch of weirdos. But of course my weird friend (whom name I forgot, too bad, I wanted to congratulated him for his musical connoisseur) was all correct in a sense of collecting one great band's albums.  

Anyway I listened to this cassette over and over. I thought their music is great. I was crazy for the first two songs of Side A and one song on side B (Bring on The Night) were the highlights. I have never heard New Wave music before hence The Police was a complete novelty to me. They play reggae/ska, unique guitar sound, strange drum beat and of course great vocal from Sting. I tried to learn the chords but those songs were just too hard to me.

When the last album was issued it would not be possible to escape one day of radio listening without hearing Every Breath You Take. That song would appear in any compilation. Ask anyone who grew up as teenager in the 80s about this song and I am sure 90% would remember it. The Police were Gods.

Yes I learned the chords of this song, I thought it was strange that The Police played it in G# (standard guitar tuning) so I played it normal G. It required some kind of acrobatic fingering but it could still within my reach. When I saw the music video (pirated Beta videotape) I was blown away. The video was black and white. Sting played upright bass and it made the video more special.

When The Police were quiet and later disbanded I was really disappointed. How could a band so creative and successful would left the stage forever. There were reunions and remaking of an old song but of course The Police were over.

Of course nothing would last forever, I am grateful growing up in the 80s accompanied by these three musical geniuses who called themselves as The Police

Every little thing she does is magic

Everything she do just turns me on

Yessongs

 I could not remember exactly if I started to listen to Yes music started when it was radio friendly pop and easy (90125) or when it was complicated (Fragile) but I remember that Relayer was too hard to swallow when I first listened it back when I was around 14-15 years old. This album but three songs. The first song is 22 minutes long which one side of the LP. 

For sure when 90125 was released Owner of The Lonely Heart was immediately a hit. Yes became household name. I often resented band that turned pop but in case of Yes I listened to this band started with this radio friendly album then worked my way back to their older albums. 

Later I found out that this band changed personnel so often that in their 1991-1992 tour they had all eight members of the band performed on a revolving circular stage. Anyway I thought my favorite albums are Fragile, The Yes Album, Close to The Edge, Tormato and Going for the one. Obviously I prefer Anderson, Howe, Squire and Wakeman which is the classic line-up

My Yes favorite song however is Onward composed by Squire. The lyrics is so poetic
There's a love I feel for you
Proclaimed in everything I write
You're the light, burning brightly

Contained in everything I do

This love song was simple but deep - Onward to the night of my life. I would agree with Squire that it is the best song he ever wrote well in my case YES ever issued.

YESS relic

It was my friend who introduced me to the YESS cassettes. YESS cassettes were produced by a company in Bandung. The were two colors of the covers:  green and blue, the cassettes themselves were typically colored green (later white). The other unique feature is the logo. It looked like a combination of a plane and bird (later on I realized that it was stolen from the art of Roger Dean who was the artist who created my covers of YES albums). 

I always prioritized YESS cassettes over the other (pirated) products. Typically many producers issued a new album of an artist at the same time. Below I pasted the same album of YES produced by Aquarius and YESS. To me the one on the right looked better. 

  

(Notice that the cassette produced by YESS has another album about half of side B. Most pirated cassettes were C60 which has total 60 minutes duration from both sides about 20 minutes longer than LPs which have about 30-44 minutest total play duration consequently the producers had to fill these extra minutes by adding songs from other LP in the above we could see Chris Squire's album added to side B typically the added albums were from the same genre. Chris Squire was obviously the bassist of Yes and hence he would have sounded like YES. I typically listened to this part of cassettes to find out the next artists to listen to)

Back then there was a cassette store in Bandung that would allow us to exchange any cassettes bought there within 24 hours. I remember I exchanged Genesis' A Trick of A Tail album as it had a glitch on one of the songs. Looked like the original LP that they used was scratched 

 

One cassette that had typo was Dave Grusin album below. It was written live in Budukan - obviously the correct word was Budokan. Budukan itself means mangy. I was sure that it was a practical joke by the producer

I could not find YESS cassettes in the city where I spent my junior high school, Cirebon, however I could find those in Kuningan which is about 30 km from Cirebon. Kuningan is much smaller to Cirebon and yet one store had YESS cassettes there. I would bet that I was the only person who bought some of those. 

When pirated cassettes were banned in Indonesia YESS along with some others disappeared from the market. We could still buy them online or in some second hand market but of course we need to have tape player which also had disappeared too.  YESS cassettes are now relics of a past era. 

Van Halen was my name

After listening to Van Halen's 'Fair Warning' (not from Aquarius this time, too bad forgot already the producer of the pirated cassettes) I fell in love so much to the band that I add Van Halen to my name (written LOOQQAZT VAN HALEN)

The sound of Eddy's guitar was the perfect sound that I thought a rock band should be.  When David Lee Roth screamed his voice turned into some unique howling that was fantastic to my ears. I often day dreaming listening to the cassette when I got bored or distracted during class. My most favorite song was 'Unchained' 

As usual I hunted the other album of Van Halen. The one available one at that time was 'Women and Children First'. I did not know that Van Halen had two previous albums: Van Halen and Van Halen II. Of course 'Van Halen' has the phenomenal 'Eruption' which I listened much later 

The next album that I had was Diver Down.  I thought 'Hang 'Em High' was the highlight of the album. I had this album when I was in high school. At that time Van Halen was still obscure. Compilation (like 'The Best of" was not available yet). However I managed to find a poster of Van Halen (of course pirated). I proudly pasted it in my room

When 'Jump' was released I hated that now everyone knew Van Halen. Eddy's keyboard was catchy but to be honest I hated him for not solely playing guitar. Jump was released as part of 1984  album. It has one track that to me was still sound pure Van Halen 'Hot for teacher'  

The next Van Halen album, 5150, was a real surprise. Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth and Eddy played more keyboard. Now Van Halen was really departing their original path but it was a success. To quote Wikipedia: The album hit number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, surpassing the band's previous album, 1984. 5150 has more love songs and ballads. Van Halen turned pop. 

I did not buy or listen the next Van Halen albums. If anything I just watched them on MTV specially the album  For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge which was released in 1991. I was in the US at that time studying for my Master's Degree. I thought Right Now was the highlight of that album. The song was no original Van Halen but the piano sounded cool. Before I left the US I bought an original T shirt of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge as gift for my brother. 

Van Halen issued three more albums after that. I listened to none. I was amazed when Gary Cherone took over vocal duties from Sammy. I thought Eddy and Alex were completely mad. But of course I would not careless as to me the real Van Halen was the original line up without any keyboard sound. 

I listened nostalgically when David Lee Roth rejoined the band for their last album A Different Kind of Truth. It still did not sound like the Van Halen that I knew. Lately I learned that Michael Anthony the original bassist was not part of the band anymore.

When Eddy passed away I thought one milestone of my youth has gone too. Van Halen was my name. The Van Halen of the old era where Eddy's guitar sounded angry and rocky. I felt betrayed when he played keyboard or played love songs. I was lost completely amid newer albums. But still Eddy was my childhood hero.  

Queen were the champions

My first queen cassette was the compilation produced by (again) Aquarius. Wearing Flash T shirt Mercury jumped so high that I thought some kind of camera trick was applied. See below

May and Deacon must be more than 165 cm or so - hence Mercury would be more than 2 meter above the floor. Fantastic. The first song of the cassette was 'Love of My Life'. I tried to learn the chords but was stuck toward end, normally I just jumped to the end part:   

Love of my life

Love of my life

Ooh, ooh

When this cassette was released a pirated VHS tape titled "Rock Convert" was circulated. It had videos of Queen performing live. I remember when Mercury sang 'we will rock you' he was piggy backed by a guy wearing superman costume. Apparently it was shot in 1979-1980 during 'The Game' tour. Hence the queen crazed started.

My next Queen cassette was 'The Game'. My band mate wanted us to play 'Need Your Loving Tonight'. The other song that I would not miss was of course 'Crazy Thing Called Love'. I quickly found what the chords are and later I played the song with my Uni mates (1985-1990). 

I hunted all the old albums produced by Aquarius and Monalisa. I love all albums expect for the earlier albums (Queen I and Queen II). Later Aquarius issued the second best compilation of Queen. It contained 'Under Pressure' performed by Queen and David Bowie.

The other song that I remember in this cassette is 'You Take My Breath Away'. I learned the chords. It was easier to play the song on piano rather than guitar. In fact I am sure I didn't learn the chords using a guitar, even though I did not have a piano/keyboard until much later.

I watched Flash Gordon mostly because the sound track was produced by Queen. The movie was pretty cheesy but I still loved the sound tracks. Songs that I loved from the album are: Football fight, Battle Theme, The Wedding March and Flash's Theme Reprise (Victory Celebrations). 

I stopped listening to new Queen materials after listening to 'Hot Space'. It has two songs that were parts of Aquarius The Best 2 above: Under Pressure and 'Life is Real (Song for Lennon)' but the rest are -to me- did not sound like Queen that I knew (choir, rocking riff, etc). To quote Wikipedia ' a notable shoft in direction from their earlier work, the employed many elements of disco, funk, rhythm and blues, dance and pop music on the album'

I thought the only new Queen song that I loved was Radio Ga Ga. Nothing so Queen about it, but the song is catchy. 

When Queen (+ Adam Lambert) played live in Perth (August 2014) I watched them along with a bunch of friends. One of my friends brought Queen T shirts in Jakarta and we wore those to the show. Of course no one around us wore those. Buying T shirt sold during concert was costly - obviously much more to the ones my friend bought in Jakarta.  Of course Lambert is no Mercury and he didn't pretend to be one. But I was pretty satisfied watching (older) May and Taylor on stage

I watched Bohemian Rhapsody with a mixed emotions. Having read one bio book about Queen I did not think the movie was faithful enough to the real history of Queen but of course as entertainment the movie was pretty OK. 

Mercury was dead, Deacon is no longer public but long live Queen, they were one of the loves of my life.

  

with the beatles

I started to listen to The Beatles  pretty much when the pirating cassettes labels in Indonesia (in my case : Aquarius) reissuing their own compilation following the death of John Lennon in the 1980. My journey into Beatles catalogue pretty much followed what Aquarius issued.

I started with the pop-py songs like Hard Day's Night and later to more "serious" tunes like Strawberry field Forever. I was amazed by the range of their musical style. I had no access to any literature about The Beatles so I had to guess and appreciated little that I knew about them. 

Of course I learned how to finger pick their songs too. Aquarius included lyric and chords in the cassettes that really helped me. I also bought a special issue of song books and cassette from a (cassette pirating) company called AR. I am sure my guitar skill was much improved by learning Beatles songs.

I learned my first French lesson from The Beatles's Michelle.  

My Michelle

Michelle, ma belle

Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

Tres bien ensemble

Many years later (around 1996) I learned that Paul said the word bien the way it is spoken by people from southern part of French. Of course back then I had no clue, it was all French to me

To me the coolest of George's melody was in the tune of 'till there was you. I didn't know that it was a cover version. I was not able to play it until I saw how it was done on YouTube. Listening to the original version would convince listeners how brilliant were the Beatles 

One puzzle that remained a mystery to me until the internet is around was which Beatle played solo on In the end. The solos begin approximately 53 seconds into the song. It turned out that all the three guitarists. McCartney, George Harrison and Lennon perform a rotating sequence of three, two-bar guitar solos. What a fantastic solos they all did. In fact in this song we have the only Starr drum solo even though he disliked solos.

In the end is also special as it ends with a deep cosmic philosophical line

And in the end

The love you take

Is equal to the love you make

Burning Riff

My first hard rock album was Deep Purple's Made in Europe. I was about 13-14 years old and it was a pirated cassette which was freely (legally?)  distributed in Indonesia. The price was IDR 1000 or about USD 50 cents. I remember I was amazed seeing the drum kit shown on the cover of the album. I was in a band at that time. Our church has a set of musical equipment (including a sax which no one know to play it). I played keyboard. Our drum kit is an ordinary one. Nothing compared to Ian Paice's kit.

I love all the songs in the album but my favorite song was Burn. I thought the riff was fantastic. I did not know this 'riff' term at that time but  to me the sound was fantastic. It was imprinted rather deeply in my head that I was using it as the standard for other hard rock song. I would be disappointed not hearing that sound in any hard rock song. I would not think that a song deserves to be called hard rock without that riff.

At that time I was learning to play guitar. To my delight I was able to mimic that riff rather easily. To be honest I did not expect that. I did not know the term 'power chord' at that time but I observe that the riff was based on two notes of the chords progression. I quickly realized that this two notes appeared very frequently in many hard rock songs. 

Have listened to this album I wanted to hear more Deep Purple's songs. I adored Ritchie Blackmore guitar playing. I thought he was my first guitar god. Soon I discovered that David Coverdale was not Deep Purple only singer. There was another singer called Ian Gillan. Later I found in another cassette Gillan singing the life version of Lazy Gillan scream was great. I think both singers were great in their own ways. I would not think Deep Purple would be who they were if they only had one singer.

In the 80s I met some of my elementary school mates in a church youth gathering. We had a chance to play Deep Purple song called Black Night on stage. The song has great bassline and I really loved it as I played bass at that time. We did not rehearse before the show. But all of us knew the song so well that I remember the gig went OK.

I listened to many bands later on but Deep Purple had built the foundation of my love of hard rock.