The 500 - #424 - The Rising - Bruce Springsteen

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 424

Album Title: The Rising
Artist: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
Genre: Rock, Heartland Rock
Recorded: January - March 2002, Bruce's Home Studio
Released: July, 2002
My age at release: 37
How familiar was I with it before this week: A little 
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: My City of Ruins
Selected by my friend Jeff Lewis, who also Guest Blogs below.

The Rising is the tweflth studio album by Bruce Springsteen and one of eight records he has on The 500 List. It was also his first record with the E Street Band since the 1984 release, Born in the USA. The reunion between Springsteen and his supporting players was intentional. Many of the songs on the record were based on Springsteen's reflections following the September 11 Terrorist Attacks in 2001. Many of the themes focus on pain, struggle and existential heartache, but there are also moments of hope, social uplift and unity. Reuniting with his long-time bandmates and dear friends was natural and, many would say, necessary.

The Rising album Cover Bruce Springsteen

The album was a critical and commercial success and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2003. Critic Thom Jurek of AllMusic, an American music database, hailed it wonderfully when he wrote:

"The Rising is one of the very best examples in recent history of how popular art can evoke a time period and all of its confusing and often contradictory notions, feelings and impulses."

When I saw this record on The 500 List, I reached out to my good friend Jeff Lewis who is one of the biggest Springsteen fans I know. 

Jeff Lewis with his daughter Stella (2016)

He shared the following as a guest blogger.

The Rising is an album that has achieved great acclaim and deserves its place on The 500 List. It contains a catalog of songs that any music lover would embrace. It shows the depth of Springsteen’s maturity as a songwriter, but also as a human. 

There is one story about the creation of The Rising that has always resonated with me. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, the New Jersey, was walking a city street. A car pulled up beside him and a stranger rolled down the window and said only four words to him: “We need you now.”   

Springsteen was moved. He had been feeling the pain that so many were struggling with and had intended to write a song. So far, he had been unsuccessful.  After many attempts he realized he had already written and recorded a song that fit the situation perfectly: My City of Ruins. 

I’ve always seen Springsteen as a kind of lyrical prophet, writing a song that somehow finds its connection rather than using an event to inspire his art. Sometimes, it is an event that no one could possibly have imagined. The lyrics to My City of Ruins are touching and powerful. I imagine they must be painful for the families of victims to hear. But there is also hopefulness, especially in the call-to-action at the song’s dynamic conclusion when he challenges the listener to “rise up”.

He and many other well-known musicians performed at the America: A Tribute to Heroes Benefit Concert on December 4, 2011.  He chose to perform a simplified version of My City of Ruin, only accompanied by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and a small choral group. It can be seen here. As I watched and listened to those lyrics I couldn’t help but think of the countless New York City citizens and their stories of loss, heartache and tragedy. Bruce the prophet became Bruce the healer. He absorbed the pain and stood as a figure of inspiration for the people who were still reeling from this tragedy. In five, short minutes he gave them permission to relate to one another and come together. This song, and the album The Rising, inspired the battered to crawl from the ashes of their city of ruin and rise up to become something greater than they were.

The 500 - #425 - Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

The 500 - #426 - Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick at Budakon

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 426

Album Title: Cheap Trick at Budakon
Artist: Cheap Trick
Genre: Hard Rock, Power Pop
Recorded: April 29 and 30, 1978 at the Budakon Arena in Tokyo, Japan
Released: October, 1978 (Japan) February, 1979 (U.S.)
My age at release: 13
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very 
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Need Your Love

There is a famous Canadian short story by Roch Carrier called The Hockey Sweater. It centres on a young boy in Quebec during the winter of 1946 who is obsessed with hockey -- specifically the Montreal Canadiens and their superstar Maurice "Rocket" Richard. It is such an important part of Canadian identity that the opening sentence was on our five dollar bill for years.

"The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places—the school, the church and the skating rink—but our real life was on the skating rink."

I've read it aloud to many of my students (in my faux Quebecois accent) and, when I do, I reflect on my own childhood. Hockey was an obsession during my elementary school days in a rural Ontario farming town. We played at the local rink and on Lake Erie, back in a time when the Great Lakes froze during the winter months. But, road hockey was a year-round diversion. We even brought our retired ice-hockey sticks for recess at school, cutting them to exactly 50 inches to fit inside our lockers. 

In every group of adolescents there is always "the spoiled kid" -- in our group that was Donny. Donny had the best of everything, the latest hockey skates, a real leather jacket and, in the spring of 1979, a portable, cassette boom-box.

Panasonic Portable Cassette Player
(I think this was the model Donny owned)

I was jealous. We all were. It was bigger, louder and cooler than the smaller version I had received for Christmas. Donny was also allowed to bring it outside and it blasted on the sidelines of Clovelly Drive where we battled daily for road-hockey supremacy. 

Cheap Trick at Budakon album cover

The cassette that got the most play that spring and summer was Cheap Trick at Budakon. This coincided with massive airplay on Canadian and Detroit radio for the singles I Want You To Want Me, Ain't That A Shame and Surrender.  

Live at Budakon was everything a thirteen-year old brain imagined a rock and roll life to be -- high-energy drums, incredible guitar solos, soaring vocals, pitch-perfect harmonies and all those screaming Japanese girls.

Forty-one years later, It was a blast from the past to listen to this record again. It transported me back to a simpler time when, like the protagonist in Carrier's Canadian tale, my life was three places: home, school and anywhere a puck could be hit with a stick.

The 500 - - #427 - Peter Wolf - Sleepless

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 427

Album Title: Sleepless
Artist: Peter Wolf
Genre: Rock, Blues
Recorded: Sear Sound, New York City
Released: September, 2002
My age at release: 37
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Oh Marianne

Sleepless is the sixth solo record by New York-raised rock, blues and soul songer Peter Wolf (born Peter Blankfield). Wolf is likely most familiar to music listeners as the frontman and vocalist for the J. Geils Band whose 1991 album Freeze Frame reached multi-platinum status, selling over three million copies.

Freeze Frame (1981) by The J. Geils Band

As a teen, I was a J. Geils Band fan. Their 1978 release Blow Your Face Out was my vicarious substitute to live music at a time before I was old enough to attend rock concerts. I listened, awestruck by the raw energy of these blues-rock performances. However, it was the charismatic, exuberant, often comedic performance of Wolf that had me spellbound. His rap about Rapunzel (aka: Raputah the Beautah at the start of Musta Got Lost was part showmanship, part absurdist comedy. And I was hooked. 

Blow Your Face Out (1978) by J. Geils Band

As with many artists from my youth, my interest in J. Geils and Peter Wolf faded. Consequently, Wolf's 2002 Sleepless was a mystery to me before this week. I was aware that he had left the J. Geils band in the mid-eighties but I had no idea that this was his sixth album. Furthermore, I wasn't expecting a record as diverse, soulful and mature. 

Sleepless by Peter Wolf (2002)

I had stuck a pin in "the idea of Peter Wolf" in 1984 and didn't give it another thought. This record made me remove that pin and, as it turns out, he wasn't there anymore...he had grown and moved on. On The 500 Podcast episode for Sleepless Meyer's guest, comedian and actor Bill Burr, summed this up perfectly. 

"When a guy in his twenties dresses like a guy in his twenties, it looks cool. If he tries to do that in his forties, it just looks creepy....it's what I love about The Rolling Stones, their material aged with them, so they never looked foolish."

Wolf himself addressed the eclectic spirit of Sleepless with the following quote:

"I have a lot of different interests, a lot of different roots, and this is the painting I feel like painting right now. And what’s the single? There is no single. I wasn’t thinking of hooks."

Now I have two versions of Peter Wolf residing in my conscience: The mature singer and songwriter who created this terrific album and the leaping, dancing, fast-talking jester of my youth. It's nice to have both flavours.

Addendum

I couldn't fit this into my post but, in case you haven't heard it, check out No Anchovies Please.

This three-minute, absurd, crime-noir style cautionary tale about curious housewives, diabolical experiments, bowling balls and anchovies is a perfect snapshot of Wolf's delightfully absurd sense of humour. The fact that he slipped it on to the end of side one of his band's most commercially successful album is a little bit of genius. 

Covid Passion Project - Guest Blogger Rachael

Throughout the last two months of distance learning for my students, Passion Projects have been encouraged. Choosing to pursue a curiosity or create something meaningful is certainly more valuable and enjoyable than simply completing ten hours of prescribed tasks -- regardless of how engaging I attempt to make them. 

Wonderfully, several have embraced this challenge. Some explored this Canadian History Choice Board to spark their creativity. Their efforts have been posted to our class web page. One student has analyzed the deeper meaning behind the lyrics from her favourite songs, sharing her throughts through well-crafted essays and engaging Flipgrid presentations. 

Today, I present the work of Rachael, who has created fabric bookmarks for Mother's Day. She has also documented the  procedure through photographs and text and is a guest blogger on this site. Enjoy.

This is a passion project I did with my aunt. I was hoping it could contribute to my art mark. It uses the colour wheel and the elements of design. I have explained the processes and methods I used below.

For Mother’s Day, I made my mom, my grandma and my great-grandma fabric bookmarks. Because of the virus, we had to think of a creative way to make gifts, especially since we can’t go to the store and buy something.

I made a template out of hard, clear plastic, because I wanted the triangles in my pattern to be the same. I had to account for the seam allowance, and that’s why there's a smaller triangle within the template. The middle vertical line is to show where the bookmark loops around. The middle horizontal line is for the top and bottom half triangles that I needed for the top and bottom of the bookmark to ensure they had parallel edges with the pages of a book. The other horizontal line is for the seam allowance.

The last step in making the bookmarks was putting names on them.

Here are all the finished bookmarks.

As you can see, beyond the obvious engagement, passion projects have the following advantages:

• It is an activity that threads through multiple curriculum areas -- Art, Math, Writing & Media Literacy.
• Several Learning Skill expectations from the Ontario Report Card are addressed -- Independent Work, Initiative and Responsibility.
• Rather than just submitting work to a teacher, Rachael has chosen to share her work with an authentic audience.
• (a) The mothers in her world who receive the bookmarks and...
• (b) the people who read this blog.

Thanks for reading, any comments or feedback you provide here or through my social media accounts will be directed back to Rachael.

The 500 - #428 - The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 428

Album Title: Outlandos D'Amour
Artist: The Police
Genre: Post Punk, New Wave, Reggae Rock
Recorded: January - June 1978
Released: November, 1978
My age at release: 13
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Roxanne
(Selected by my friend Oscar Macedo who also added insight as guest blogger)

My early teenage years were energized by three specific events that felt like seismic cultural shifts:

• The arrival of The Golden Age of Arcade Video Games. A time when aging pinball machines, pool or billiard tables were being rapidly replaced by arcade gaming consoles for Space Invaders, Asteroid, PacMan and Donkey Kong. 
• New Wave and Post Punk music began gaining mainstream acceptance. The commercial success of Blondie, The Cars and The Talking Heads resulted in the rebranding of 60s and 70s music as Classic Rock. 
• Music videos became wildly popular and became the format in which bands, particularly less established ones, promoted their material.

In Southwestern Ontario, access to music videos was spotty. In a time before MTV and MuchMusic, a weekly culture and news program out of Toronto called The New Music featuring hosts Jeanne Becker and J.D. Roberts. The program exposed me to a world of music different from the things I was hearing on Classic Rock radio from Detroit. I am almost certain that it was on an episode of The New Music that I first heard about The Police.

The New Music hosts JD Roberts & Jeanne Becker
photographed on Yonge Street, Toronto.

My adolescent hometown of Kingsville, Ontario, had a pool hall called, The Rak 'n Snak. Populated almost exclusively by pre-teens and teens, it had a jukebox, a half-dozen pool/billiard tables, pinball machines and two video games, Space Invaders and my personal favourite, Asteroids. If the the Asteroids machine cost Rak 'n Snak $500, I'm pretty sure I returned half their investment during the 78/79 school year... one quarter at a time. 

Asteroids Stand-up Console

The Rak 'n Snak also had a metal carousel beside the cash register with popular music for sale on cassette tape and I browsed it regularly. It was here that I saw my first copy of Outlandos D'Amour by The Police. 

Ironically, many of my views about The Police were captured by my friend Oscar, when he shared his thoughts about this album in a recent Facebook post. Oscar is my age and grew up in Sarnia. Consequently, we existed in a cultural ethos dominated by the same Detroit media. He agreed to have his views reposted here. 

Oscar "Porchee" Macedo
Plays Bass, Fishes Bass

This is what he said:
This band and this particular album was one that set that my young brain on fire. Is it rock? Is it punk? Is it reggae? I dunno...I love it...but, help!

To pigeon-hole it, I guess it was my first taste of New Wave. I was late, by all accounts, to this album. Local AM radio, dominated by the likes Melissa Manchester and Chicago, didn't have The Police on their rotation. Growing up in Sarnia, my proximity to Detroit FM radio only offered Foghat and Ted Nugent basically. The Police were too "punk" for rock radio. So, due to the limited available sources, I was a late bloomer to The Police.

Our "Internet" to music back then was The New Music television program. Again, I saw another band on there that intrigued me. It was The Police and it was Roxanne that grabbed my ear. What a song. Perhaps, arguably, Reggatta de Blanc was a better album but the impact of Outlandos stuck. As a young kid just learning bass, this was a biggie. Sting was a beast on the bass and an early inspiration to me. A singer AND bass player. Something I still have a tough time doing today. This album is most certainly very relevant still in my books.

Like Oscar, I "too" was a late-comer to Outlandos. It was be the third record by the band, Zenyatta Mondatta, that would be the first in my collection. There is an undeniable electricity this trio generates. Infact, I didn't need to listen to this record in order to write this post but, much like the game of Asteroids, I kept playing it over and over again.

The 500 - #429 - Brian Eno - Another Green World

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 429

Album Title: Another Green World
Artist: Brian Eno
Genre: Art Rock, Ambient Electro-Pop, Avant Pop
Recorded: July - August 1975
Released: September, 1975
My age at release: 10
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Sky Saw

There is little doubt about Brian Eno's impact on modern music. He produced a dozen records on The 500 List. He also has two of his own recordings appearing, Another Green World being the second. Indeed, this is the third album involving Eno that I have written about in the past two months.  

• In late April, I wrote about Eno's first record, Here Come The Warm Jets. 
• In mid-March, I penned a post about an album Eno produced, Are We Not Men? We Are Devo.
• This time, we explore his 1975 innovative and experimental work, Another Green World.

Here is what I learned:

Green is a departure from the glam-pop sound of his first album as Eno embraces a minimalist sound that would become his trademark through the rest of the 70s.

Another Green World by Eno

Eno plays most of the instruments on the record but, he recruited a small group of talented musicians to contribute to the songs. These included innovative guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp of King Crimson, Genesis drummer Phil Collins, Jazz fusion bassist Percy Jones and John Cale of The Velvet Underground on viola.

Eno wanted the record to be a sound experiment. He brought these musicians to the studio with little prepared material. Instead, he spent three expensive, and sometimes frustrating, weeks allowing the songs to ferment while he and the musicians kicked around ideas.

To generate new ideas, Eno began using his now legendary Oblique Strategies (O.S.) Cards. These were 7 x 9 centimeter white cards kept in a black box. 

According to Eno:

"Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists (particularly musicians) break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking."

Each card contained a suggestion or remark intended to either resolve a deadlock or inspire creativity. Some are specific to music composition but many are general. Examples include:

• You are making a brick, not a wall.
• Try faking it.
• Honour thy error as hidden intention.
• Ask your body.
• Gardening, not architecture.
• Look closely at the most embarassing details and amplify.

Unlike Mozart who could compose in his head, Eno used this technique to inspire collaboration.These statements might seem strange but Eno is an unusual individual. His goal was to help artists work outside the box when trying to solve a dilemma or inspire creativity. Since their creation, Eno has employed the cards during recording sessions with Coldplay, REM and David Bowie. 

During the interview about Green on The 500 Podcast, Host Meyers discussed the O.S. cards with his guest Gerard Casale. Casale, a founding member of Devo, worked with Eno on his band's first record. Casale said: 

"I think he wanted to soften our sound. He made us try to use them (the cards) to change things on the songs. But, you have to understand...we walked into that studio with some songs that were four years old and we'd played them hundreds of times. We couldn't imagine playing them "pretty". That was an abomination to us. We were all about being transgressive aesthetically. But, we weren't punks that were angry and nihlistic. I mean, we were angry, but with an informed epistemology. We genuinely thought that the de-evolution of society was real back then"

After listening to Green four times and reflecting on the podcast, I still couldn't connect with it. Then, I put on headphones to remove distractions. As the music washed over me, my appreciation grew. It isn't a record I will listen to often, but I welcomed the insight into the rich, unapologetic creativity of Eno. He is a quirky individual but his fingerprints are all over The 500 list. Obviously, he is doing something right.

  

The 500 - #430 - Vampire Weekend - Debut

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 430

Album Title: Debut
Artist: Vampire Weekend
Genre: Indie Pop, Chamber Pop, Afro-Beat, World Beat
Recorded: 2007
Released: January, 2008
My age at release: 42
How familiar was I with it before this week: One song
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Oxford Comma 
(Selected by my good friend, James Spangenberg)

I'll admit, I pre-judged the band Vampire Weekend based on their name. Can you blame me? Doesn't their moniker evoke thoughts of gothic horror rock or early aughts emo? I was expecting something like Siouxsie & the Banshees or My Chemical Romance when I first heard the name. I was wrong on all fronts. 

Vampire Weekend Debut Album Cover

My good friend James Spangenberg shared the band's music with me about a year ago and it took me by surprise. Vampire Weekend's sound might best be described as bouyant and cheery pop melodies infused with African and West Indian rhythms.  However, they also dabble in a genre dubbed "chamber pop", a style of music which incorporates elements (such as contrapuntal melody) and instrumentation (violins, harpsichords, oboes and french horns) typically found in classical music. Two well-known examples are In My Life from The Beatles and The Beach Boys' classic, God Only Knows.

Vampire Weekend was formed in 2006 when four white, New York students met at Columbia University. They have sometimes characterized their music as "Upper West Side Soweto". This is a cheeky nod to their New York roots (Upper West Side) and the South Western Township (SoWeTo) of Johannesberg, South African -- which was the birthplace of the Mbaqanga sound of the 1960s. A sound that influences several of the this album's tracks.

The Indestructable Beat of Soweto (1985) an album that would influence both
Paul Simon & Peter Gabriel, both of whom have records on The 500 List.

As one might expect, the appearance of well-off, Ivy League graduates "borrowing" their sound from an historically marginalized and racially segregated people did not sit well with some.  A few leveled criticisms of "cultural appropriation" with one critic calling them "the whitest band in the world". A song named Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa doesn't look great from a public relations perspective -- even if the song "namechecks" respected world music visionary Peter Gabriel.

This is an interesting debate. What is the difference between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation?

A few years ago, while teaching Grade a 5/6 class, we looked at the legends and art of the Pacific Northwest indigenous people called the Haida. Their art style is distinct and immediately recognizable.

Examples of Haida Art

I had made the choice to share the stories because it was in the Ontario Curriculum. However, I opted against doing an art activity because I didn't feel it was appropriate, notwithstanding that I didn't know enough about it. The optics of a fifty-ish, white educator of British heritage teaching an indigenous art form also seemed like a potential P.C. minefield. 

However, one of my students (a Syrian girl who had recently arrived in Canada and was learning English) was an exceptional artist. A few days after the lesson she showed me some of her drawings and I was awestruck. She had mimicked the style wonderfully. Certainly her innocent decision to celebrate an art form she had seen in class is not cultural appropriation. So, what is?

This online article from an organization known as The Greenheart Club defines the difference as follows:

Appreciation is when someone seeks to understand and learn about another culture in an effort to broaden their perspective and connect with others cross-culturally.  Appropriation on the other hand, is simply taking one aspect of a culture that is not your own and using it for your own personal interest.

Unfortunately, that definition is vague and ignores a myriad of nuanced situations. In the case of my student and Vampire Weekend, I sincerely feel that their artistic efforts are a celebration of another culture. 

Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend

Ezra Koenig, the singer/guitarist/songwriter for Vampire Weekend, bristles at any perceived image of the band as "as privileged, upper-class Ivy League graduates stealing from foreign musicians". In an interview he said:

"Nobody in our band is a WASP..." (given their Ukrainian, Persian, Italian, and Hungarian heritages). Furthermore, "we got into Columbia on scholarships and used student loans." Koeng was still paying off student loans during this 2009 interview.

As I listen to the album again, while writing this post, I am struck by the simple, jaunty levity of the music which resonates with me despite some of the unusual lyric choices. Mansard Roof, for example, closes with a rumination on the Falkland Island War of 1982, while Oxford Comma ponders the relevance of a seldom-used punctuation mark.

I can't help but feel that this is a band of young, intelligent and talented musicians who are celebrating their influences. Much like my young Syrian artist, there is no sinister agenda at work here. It's just fun music. 

However, I am open to alternate perspectives. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. 

The 500 - #431 - PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 431

Album Title: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
Artist: PJ Harvey
Genre: Alternative Rock
Recorded: March - April, 2000
Released: October, 2000
My age at release: 35
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Big Exit

This is a record and an artist about whom I knew nothing. Consequently, this post will be dedicated to things I learned about her and this record, with a lengthy title: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. 

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea Album Cover

Thanks, as always, to The 500 Podcast where Josh, his research team and this week's guest, actor and comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub, provided important context and insight.

Mary Lynn Rajskub and Josh Adam Meyers

Things I Learned

This is the fifth release by Dorset, England, native (Polly Jean) PJ Harvey. As a child, she was surrounded by music. Her parents shared their vast music library with her and introduced her to musicians, including family friend Ian Stewart -- the co-founder and keyboardist for The Rolling Stones.

She is a songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bass, piano, violin, cello, saxophone, harmonica, accordian and drums.

PJ Harvey at The Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago 2008

As a teen, she joined an eight-piece instrumental band called Bologne as a saxophonist. Later, she was a guitarist and singer with the folk duo Polekats, where her songwriting began.

The trio, PJ Harvey, was formed in 1991 when she was 22. The band's debut performance was, according to Harvey, disasterous. The band were playing at a "skittle alley" (aka: a lawn bowling club). In one song, they had nearly cleared the hall and, shortly after, the club owner came up to say:

"Don't you realize, We don't like you. You can stop playing. We'll still pay you...just stop playing."

With the passage of time the story has become a humorous anecdote. As the saying goes, "tragedy + time = comedy". 

Obviously, the band soldiered on and released their debut record Dry in 1992. It received positive critical press including Rolling Stone magazine naming her Songwriter of the Year.

Rid of Me Album Cover

The second album, Rid Of Me, was recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota with Steve Albini at the helm producing. Those who read my recent post on Nirvana's In Utero album may recall that name and location. Rid Of Me appears on The 500 list at #406. So, more on that at a later date.

Unfortunately, friction during the North American tour led to the band disolution. PJ Harvey went solo, retaining the band name (which only makes sense) and released two more records To Bring You My Love (1995) and Is This Desire? (1998), both to critical and commercial success.

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, was released in the autumn of 2000. It won the prestigeous Mercury Prize (a British equivalent to The Grammy). The ceremony was held on September 11, 2001 and Harvey was in Washington while on tour. She witnessed the terrorist attack on The Pentagon from her hotel room window. When accepting the award, by telephone, she said, quite fittingly,

 "It has been a very surreal day. All I can say is thank you very much, I am absolutely stunned."

I listened to the record a half-dozen times this week, either while connecting with my students online or holding a ladder for my wife who is painting the interior of our home. To use an expression I recently learned -- "this record plows". Harvey's voice reminds me of one of my favourite vocalists, Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders. 

Harvey also includes a number of songs featuring Thom Yorke of Radiohead -- even one where he sings lead. In itself, it is unusual for a singer to choose to choose harmonies rather than lead on their own album. I like this record and look forward to hearing Rid Of Me in a few months.