Out, Jezebel, out! In Jesus' name!
May 4, 2019 7:53 PM Subscribe
Sometimes something so entirely foreign at the time influences everything that comes after it. This argument could easily be made about David Byrne and Brian Eno's 1981 collaboration My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. Based on repetition and vocal samples, it strongly foreshadows an entire branch of the development of pop music. Back then, it might have been used to clear people out at the end of a party. Today, it feels like it belongs. Side A: America Is Waiting, Mea Culpa, Regiment, Help Me Somebody, The Jezebel Spirit
Side B: Qu'Ran, Moonlight In Glory, The Carrier, A Secret Life, Come With Us, Mountain Of Needles
Side B: Qu'Ran, Moonlight In Glory, The Carrier, A Secret Life, Come With Us, Mountain Of Needles
Yesssssss!
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:40 PM on May 4, 2019
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:40 PM on May 4, 2019
i'm sorry, i committed a sin, i made a mistake
posted by murphy slaw at 8:43 PM on May 4, 2019
posted by murphy slaw at 8:43 PM on May 4, 2019
No will what so ever!
posted by boilermonster at 8:58 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by boilermonster at 8:58 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
The Jezebel Spirit is chilling and amazing. I listen to it, and I love it. But it’s built on a recording of an exorcism. You can hear this woman being exhorted by this man of god to vomit up the evil spirits from her. He commands the spirit directly, but we never hear the spirit. We hear the woman, in gasps and moans that can be heard as erotic if you ignore the context. And above and behind it all is the relentless beat, the rhythm and the little decorations that surround this frightening recording of a woman being abused in the name of purification and god. And it’s beautiful and terrible simultaneously in a way that I usually associate with great paintings and sculpture
posted by bigbigdog at 9:06 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 9:06 PM on May 4, 2019 [5 favorites]
Regiment is my favorite track.
Qu'Ran is missing from many later copies of the album. Per Wikipedia:
Qu'Ran is missing from many later copies of the album. Per Wikipedia:
In the 1982 second edition, the track "Qu'ran"—which features samples of Qur'anic recital—was removed at the request of the Islamic Council of Great Britain. In its place "Very, Very Hungry" (the B-side of "The Jezebel Spirit" 12" EP)[32] was substituted. The first edition of the CD (1986) included both tracks, with "Very, Very Hungry" as a bonus track. Later editions (1990 and later) followed the revised LP track order without "Qu'ran."posted by Nerd of the North at 9:30 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Does anyone remember in 2006 when Byrne and Eno released, under a Creative Commons license, the original audio source files from two of the albums’ songs? They aren’t up anymore, unfortunately, and there’s nothing on Archive.org/the Wayback Machine either.
Curious if there’s still a way to access these?
posted by nightrecordings at 9:42 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Curious if there’s still a way to access these?
posted by nightrecordings at 9:42 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
One of the best albums ever made.
posted by quazichimp at 10:13 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by quazichimp at 10:13 PM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Byrne/Eno completionists might be interested in Ghosts a collection of unused tracks and alternate takes released in 1992 or possibly 1993.
I have to say, Qu'ran is pretty much my favorite track (owned the album on vinyl when it was first released) and it led me to discover works by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who was featured on one of the early Real World Records releases by Peter Gabriel. And of course, a bunch of that stuff winds up on Passion which formed the basis for the score of The Last Temptation of Christ. Lots of cross-polination there.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 10:18 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
I have to say, Qu'ran is pretty much my favorite track (owned the album on vinyl when it was first released) and it led me to discover works by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who was featured on one of the early Real World Records releases by Peter Gabriel. And of course, a bunch of that stuff winds up on Passion which formed the basis for the score of The Last Temptation of Christ. Lots of cross-polination there.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 10:18 PM on May 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Fine record. If you like, also try Eno and Budd's The Plateaux of Mirror, Budd's The Pavilion of Dreams, and Eno/Fripp collaboration Evening Star.
Atmospheric/ambient works like these created a genre with hundreds of artists, ably documented ever since by Berkeley radio show 'Hearts of Space' ... still in syndication. IIRC they still stream shows from that era.
posted by Twang at 1:47 AM on May 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
Atmospheric/ambient works like these created a genre with hundreds of artists, ably documented ever since by Berkeley radio show 'Hearts of Space' ... still in syndication. IIRC they still stream shows from that era.
posted by Twang at 1:47 AM on May 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
Noticed some sliding fretless bass harmonics on "America Is Waiting" and wondered, did Bill Laswell work on this? Nailed it! Wikipedia credits him on that track.
posted by thelonius at 3:12 AM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 3:12 AM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
a bunch of that stuff winds up on Passion which formed the basis for the score of The Last Temptation of Christ
Literally the wrong way round. The score for Last Temptation was composed by Gabriel and he then further developed the pieces into his album Passion which was not really a soundtrack or score album but was based on the score for Last Temptation.
Also, Passion -- Sources, which were songs and sounds that Gabriel used as the basis for his score and later album.
posted by hippybear at 3:21 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Literally the wrong way round. The score for Last Temptation was composed by Gabriel and he then further developed the pieces into his album Passion which was not really a soundtrack or score album but was based on the score for Last Temptation.
Also, Passion -- Sources, which were songs and sounds that Gabriel used as the basis for his score and later album.
posted by hippybear at 3:21 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Also, I don't think that Hearts Of Space would have featured any track off of Bush Of Ghosts. I could be wrong, but I used to listen to Hearts Of Space nearly religiously during the 80s because of my fascination with the soundtrack to the television series Cosmos and how that introduced me to the works of Vangelis and Kitaro and other such artists. Bush Of Ghosts has pretty aggressive music, and Hearts Of Space was way more about atmosphere and floaty-ness than aggression.
But yes, the same impulses that led to the creation of Bush Of Ghosts are evident in the Hearts Of Space program. Just maybe with the dials tuned a bit differently.
posted by hippybear at 3:27 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
But yes, the same impulses that led to the creation of Bush Of Ghosts are evident in the Hearts Of Space program. Just maybe with the dials tuned a bit differently.
posted by hippybear at 3:27 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I was curious if David Byrne had spoken to the appropriative aspects of this record, since thinking on that stuff has changed a lot since 1981, and he seems like a pretty thoughtful guy generally. I was interested to read his comments in this Rolling Stone interview:
You were an early target of cultural-appropriation debates, particularly with 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which sampled Lebanese and Egyptian singers. How do you see all that now?
As a performer, even early on, I thought, “It’s a rock & roll thing,” but I’m not gonna go out and pretend to be a black man – you’re aware of people where the appropriation seems a little too close, so it seems more like imitation. What would be the challenge is if I can take the ideas floating all around us and put them into an awkward white-man attitude and body. But The Bush of Ghosts is particularly thorny. It’s not even somebody learning another culture’s guitar style or whatever, which to me is totally legitimate – I mean, a lot of African guitar bands are imitating Cuban music. But on that album, you actually hear the voices of people from other cultures. When it’s somebody’s voice, some part of a soul has been appropriated. I’m not talking shit about my own album, but I totally understand why it might feel that way.
--
I also found this article citing comments Byrne made about the album on its reissue in 2006:
“Way back when the record first came out… we got a request from an Islamic organization in London, and they said, ‘We consider this blasphemy that you put grooves to the chanting of the Holy Book.’ And we thought, ‘Okay, in deference to somebody’s religion, we’ll take it off.’ You could probably argue for and against monkeying with something like that. But I think we were certainly feeling very cautious about this whole thing. We made a big effort to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything. Because we thought, ‘We’re going to get accused of all kinds of things, and so we want to cover our asses as best we can.’ So I think in that sense we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to. But that’s the way it was.”
--
It's a beautiful album and I used to really love it, but it's not one I'd feel comfortable listening to it now-- I don't think people's religious experiences, however ~colourful and exotic~ they seem to you, are available for consumption and reuse. I know Byrne has also done a lot of work to raise the profile of musicians from other traditions, but I don't think that cancels out or excuses that this record is a pretty weird move.
If anyone's come across writing from folks who actually come from the traditions this record draws on, about their thoughts on this, I'd be really interested to read them.
posted by ITheCosmos at 4:50 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
You were an early target of cultural-appropriation debates, particularly with 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which sampled Lebanese and Egyptian singers. How do you see all that now?
As a performer, even early on, I thought, “It’s a rock & roll thing,” but I’m not gonna go out and pretend to be a black man – you’re aware of people where the appropriation seems a little too close, so it seems more like imitation. What would be the challenge is if I can take the ideas floating all around us and put them into an awkward white-man attitude and body. But The Bush of Ghosts is particularly thorny. It’s not even somebody learning another culture’s guitar style or whatever, which to me is totally legitimate – I mean, a lot of African guitar bands are imitating Cuban music. But on that album, you actually hear the voices of people from other cultures. When it’s somebody’s voice, some part of a soul has been appropriated. I’m not talking shit about my own album, but I totally understand why it might feel that way.
--
I also found this article citing comments Byrne made about the album on its reissue in 2006:
“Way back when the record first came out… we got a request from an Islamic organization in London, and they said, ‘We consider this blasphemy that you put grooves to the chanting of the Holy Book.’ And we thought, ‘Okay, in deference to somebody’s religion, we’ll take it off.’ You could probably argue for and against monkeying with something like that. But I think we were certainly feeling very cautious about this whole thing. We made a big effort to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything. Because we thought, ‘We’re going to get accused of all kinds of things, and so we want to cover our asses as best we can.’ So I think in that sense we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to. But that’s the way it was.”
--
It's a beautiful album and I used to really love it, but it's not one I'd feel comfortable listening to it now-- I don't think people's religious experiences, however ~colourful and exotic~ they seem to you, are available for consumption and reuse. I know Byrne has also done a lot of work to raise the profile of musicians from other traditions, but I don't think that cancels out or excuses that this record is a pretty weird move.
If anyone's come across writing from folks who actually come from the traditions this record draws on, about their thoughts on this, I'd be really interested to read them.
posted by ITheCosmos at 4:50 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Amos Tutuola, author of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
posted by glasseyes at 4:58 AM on May 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by glasseyes at 4:58 AM on May 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
I've been trying to find Dylan Thomas's review of Tutuola's Palm Wine Drinkard (Observer 1952). Someone better at googling than I am might be able to.
'This is the brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching story, or series of stories, written in young English by a West African, about the journey of an expert and devoted palm wine drinkard...'
posted by glasseyes at 5:13 AM on May 5, 2019
'This is the brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching story, or series of stories, written in young English by a West African, about the journey of an expert and devoted palm wine drinkard...'
posted by glasseyes at 5:13 AM on May 5, 2019
Amos Tutuola is a really interesting writer, highly recommended. He was an influence on one of my favourite authors, Ben Okri.
posted by ovvl at 7:13 AM on May 5, 2019
posted by ovvl at 7:13 AM on May 5, 2019
… Not to be confused with "My Life in the Ghost of Bush" by Lydhode, a band(?) sufficiently obscure as to not possess a wikipedia page (at least in English), but which also consists largely of samples … and which I discovered entirely by accident in Apple Music. Weird.
posted by cstross at 7:26 AM on May 5, 2019
posted by cstross at 7:26 AM on May 5, 2019
Okay, if we're going to do that, then here: My Life In The Ghost Of Bush from Lydhode [45m]
posted by hippybear at 8:01 AM on May 5, 2019
posted by hippybear at 8:01 AM on May 5, 2019
Does anyone remember in 2006 when Byrne and Eno released, under a Creative Commons license, the original audio source files from two of the albums’ songs? They aren’t up anymore, unfortunately, and there’s nothing on Archive.org/the Wayback Machine either.
I downloaded those stems when they were made available. I might still have them, although I did have an "oh shit I just erased 1.5 TB of data on an external drive" accident a few years ago, and I lost a lot of stuff much of which I don't even remember what it was. It's possible they went away at that point. I'll poke around.
posted by hippybear at 8:05 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I downloaded those stems when they were made available. I might still have them, although I did have an "oh shit I just erased 1.5 TB of data on an external drive" accident a few years ago, and I lost a lot of stuff much of which I don't even remember what it was. It's possible they went away at that point. I'll poke around.
posted by hippybear at 8:05 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Plunks my personal magic twanger (Froggy) because:
1) I was a college DJ (AOR Radio) in the '70s and used to play Eno and Cale and Piper at the Gates of Dawn type stuff. I was also arrested and charged with Aiding and Abetting felons for announcing a police raid on my college's dorms...but that's another story.
2) My first honors English "college paper" was on Cultural Appropriation. However, it was a reversal; my thesis statement was that Tutuola had appropriated English to portray the history and cultural traditions of his country in a manner English speakers could comprehend, albeit with a pidgin English that had caused many to dismiss the 1954 novel as nonsense. My English teacher wrote on the paper, "This is not how cultural appropriation usually works..." (but I still got an "A").
Bush of Ghosts and Palm Wine Drinkard are high on my recommend list to this day (as is Eno stuff for low background, contemplative, non-intrusive, mood altering environment when wanted)
posted by CrowGoat at 8:09 AM on May 5, 2019
1) I was a college DJ (AOR Radio) in the '70s and used to play Eno and Cale and Piper at the Gates of Dawn type stuff. I was also arrested and charged with Aiding and Abetting felons for announcing a police raid on my college's dorms...but that's another story.
2) My first honors English "college paper" was on Cultural Appropriation. However, it was a reversal; my thesis statement was that Tutuola had appropriated English to portray the history and cultural traditions of his country in a manner English speakers could comprehend, albeit with a pidgin English that had caused many to dismiss the 1954 novel as nonsense. My English teacher wrote on the paper, "This is not how cultural appropriation usually works..." (but I still got an "A").
Bush of Ghosts and Palm Wine Drinkard are high on my recommend list to this day (as is Eno stuff for low background, contemplative, non-intrusive, mood altering environment when wanted)
posted by CrowGoat at 8:09 AM on May 5, 2019
Okay, so there are a bunch of shockwave files available at archive.org which I think are the stems for Help me Somebody that were released for remixing. I don't feel like fucking around with shockwave to find out what they are, but there is material there if one really wants.
posted by hippybear at 8:23 AM on May 5, 2019
posted by hippybear at 8:23 AM on May 5, 2019
I love My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, but listen more often to Eno's Drums Between the Bells with Rick Holland. So great and underrated.
posted by dobbs at 10:04 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by dobbs at 10:04 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is one of greatest albums of the 33 1/3 era. When I first heard it, my mind just blew wiiide open. Like Laurie Anderson's debut (and United States I-IV tour), it was, like, wait, you can do that?? From the get-go, it was a DID for me, along with Bitches Brew and a few others that similarly create a world and a mindscape for listeners to explore. Just brilliant. And it did point me at Tutuola and his book, which is a trippy and very interesting read. This album, for me, crystallized everything that was great in music in 1981, particularly coming out of the downtown scene in my hometown.
Thanks for posting, hippybear. I never tire of hearing it or others' reactions to it.
posted by the sobsister at 10:51 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Thanks for posting, hippybear. I never tire of hearing it or others' reactions to it.
posted by the sobsister at 10:51 AM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Not sure what has taken me all this time, I love Talking Heads and David Byrne, and this has been sitting on my hard drive for a decade.
Wow, yes, of course it is excellent. Thank you, Metafilter!
posted by Meatbomb at 11:17 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Wow, yes, of course it is excellent. Thank you, Metafilter!
posted by Meatbomb at 11:17 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don’t have much to add other than how hugely influential this was on me when it came out. This, Remain in Light & The Catherine Wheel all kinda hit me around the same time & life became one monster abstract groove. It was important work.
The book by Amost Tutuola, which I finally got in the mid 90’s is every bit as weird as the album. Hugely interesting that they found & chose it as the album title.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:57 AM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
The book by Amost Tutuola, which I finally got in the mid 90’s is every bit as weird as the album. Hugely interesting that they found & chose it as the album title.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:57 AM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Love this album. I've always been interested in the bass line to Regiment, which to me is identical to Notorious BIG's Hypnotize. Biggie sampled that from Herb Alpert's Rise, but I can't find anything connecting Regiment to Rise other than blog posts reporting that it was "appropriated" by Byrne and Eno for that track.
posted by deliquescent at 11:58 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by deliquescent at 11:58 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Qu'Ran is missing from many later copies of the album.
Yeah, they ran afoul of copyrights & religious sentiment, & its inclusion was hugely offensive to the singer, but damn, that groove. I have the vinyl & the CD that include that track, & I grasp it desperately.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:03 PM on May 5, 2019
Yeah, they ran afoul of copyrights & religious sentiment, & its inclusion was hugely offensive to the singer, but damn, that groove. I have the vinyl & the CD that include that track, & I grasp it desperately.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:03 PM on May 5, 2019
This, Remain in Light & The Catherine Wheel all kinda hit me around the same time & life became one monster abstract groove. It was important work.
all three released within about fourteen months (October-90 through December-81), which continues to astonish me, and they all still sound remarkably fresh. We hear a lot about how this artist or that album or some particular scene forever changed the face of popular music, but not near enough, I think, about what David Byrne was up to in those days (with a little help from his friends).
posted by philip-random at 1:04 PM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
all three released within about fourteen months (October-90 through December-81), which continues to astonish me, and they all still sound remarkably fresh. We hear a lot about how this artist or that album or some particular scene forever changed the face of popular music, but not near enough, I think, about what David Byrne was up to in those days (with a little help from his friends).
posted by philip-random at 1:04 PM on May 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yeah, this album was a mind blower back when it came out. It, along with the Peter Gabriel's third solo album and Gabriel's involvement with the Music and Rhythm double album, that would help spark his WOMAD (World of Music and Dance), were some of the mainstays of my listening back then (along with other Eno Collaborators like Fripp and Bowie).
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Music and Rhythm really helped open up my interest in music that wasn't just the usual US/UK stuff while also fanning my already existent interest in more experimental avenues of/from popular music that eventually grew to looking more into other forms of new music derived from other traditions. Can't really overstate the influence this album and these artists had on my appreciation for music.
posted by gusottertrout at 3:41 PM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Music and Rhythm really helped open up my interest in music that wasn't just the usual US/UK stuff while also fanning my already existent interest in more experimental avenues of/from popular music that eventually grew to looking more into other forms of new music derived from other traditions. Can't really overstate the influence this album and these artists had on my appreciation for music.
posted by gusottertrout at 3:41 PM on May 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
I was just "singing" "America is Waiting" at work just this past week.
A forever classic, so much of everything that they were doing is reflected in modern music, the wrong way, these days.
posted by djrock3k at 4:01 PM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
A forever classic, so much of everything that they were doing is reflected in modern music, the wrong way, these days.
posted by djrock3k at 4:01 PM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
One interesting thing about this album is that Eno & Byrne were experimenting with a new style of composition by improvising layers of riffs onto tracks over beats on multi-track tapes. (Many artists have used multi-track layering, like Todd Rundgren, but they usually followed planned arrangements). This approach really came forth on 'Remain In Light'. Eno was kinda obsessed with Fela Kuti at the time.
posted by ovvl at 6:28 PM on May 5, 2019
posted by ovvl at 6:28 PM on May 5, 2019
Holger Czukay from Can had also been doing some work along similar lines. I've heard some say Eno took the idea from him, but I've no clue if that's true or not. Czukay's song Persian Love came out in '79, and was also included on the Music and Rhythm album I mentioned above. Whether or not that influenced Eno, I think Ghosts certainly created a different aesthetic of its own that added a depth of emotional resonance to the work for how thoroughly they meshed the samples and their own sound.
posted by gusottertrout at 11:30 PM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by gusottertrout at 11:30 PM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have a copy of the stems from A Secret Life and Help Me Somebody... I'm away for the next week but will upload them when back....
Also worth a listen is the remix album on Disquiet:
https://disquiet.com/2009/03/03/enobyrne-re-mix-our-lives-in-the-bush-of-disquiet/
https://archive.org/details/OurLivesInTheBushOfDisquiet
posted by subbasshead at 8:34 PM on May 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also worth a listen is the remix album on Disquiet:
https://disquiet.com/2009/03/03/enobyrne-re-mix-our-lives-in-the-bush-of-disquiet/
https://archive.org/details/OurLivesInTheBushOfDisquiet
posted by subbasshead at 8:34 PM on May 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Holger Czukay from Can had also been doing some work along similar lines. I've heard some say Eno took the idea from him, but I've no clue if that's true or not.
From the wiki
In 2001, Eno denied that he and Byrne had invented sampling, citing Holger Czukay's experiments with dictaphones and short-wave radios as earlier examples. He felt that the "difference was, I suppose, that I decided to make [sampling] the lead vocal".[11]
posted by philip-random at 9:23 PM on May 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
From the wiki
In 2001, Eno denied that he and Byrne had invented sampling, citing Holger Czukay's experiments with dictaphones and short-wave radios as earlier examples. He felt that the "difference was, I suppose, that I decided to make [sampling] the lead vocal".[11]
posted by philip-random at 9:23 PM on May 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
« Older “Be a force for good, even when others aren’t.” | Building a Cathedral Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
He’s so high you can’t get over him! He’s so low you can’t get under him! If you make your bed in heaven he’s there! If you make your bed in hell he’s there!
He’s everywhere!
— and the world is so simple that way. And so complicated, because it’s all being used all in a giant mishmash to change how we see things. The radio preacher tells us how it is and the music tells us how it is and together it’s something completely different but still, how it is.
posted by bigbigdog at 8:33 PM on May 4, 2019 [3 favorites]