#022

1978

Esta semana escolhi como tema a data precisa do ano de 1978. Estava para ser o ano seguinte e a escolha musical teria sido ainda mais inebriante mas o oitavo ano dessa década que agora parece longínqua serviu como trampolim de quase tudo o que ouvimos e vimos nos dez anos seguintes e deixou marcas que se sentem ainda hoje.

A 14 de Janeiro desse ano os Sex Pistols dariam o seu ultimo concerto no Winterland Ballroom em São Francisco declarando assim oficial a utilização do termo post punk.

Costumo dizer que sou um “filho da Disco e do Punk” e não estou propriamente a navegar fora de pé nessa afirmação. Simon Reynolds no seu magnífico livro Rip it Up and Start Again define uma timeline imaginada entre 1978 e 1984 onde a música teve um papel primordial na concepção do mundo no qual vivemos actualmente. Um mundo onde todos tiveram acesso aos dogmas e sofismas inventariados pelo punk que entretanto já era uma caso de DOA antes da maior parte das pessoas poderem sequer perceber o que se tinha passado. 

O Grã-Vizir Lydon já andava a ensaiar a sua “imagem pública” e o seu mestre McLaren iria espremer só um pouco mais a vaca antes de ir para diferentes pastagens desenhar outro tipo de looney tunes. Tudo isto com a Disco prestes a fechar para obras e os punk rockers mais audazes a querem fazer pop mais estruturada e complexa com o funk e o jazz a apimentarem a receita, as primeiras tapes de hip-hop a chegarem às mãos de quem já andava desnorteado com a “promiscuidade de estilos” a que a pop se  ia entregando neste ano do Cavalo que a ONU denominou como Ano Internacional Anti-Apartheid, num mundo que assim iria ver a inception da New Wave e da No Wave, do punk-funk e da mutant disco, dando importância às vozes de cidades fabris como Akron no Ohio e Manchester no norte do Reino Unido. No ano em que uma art college band se mete com Brian Eno pela primeira vez é porque alguma coisa anda no ar…

Em Fevereiro de 1978 fui jogar em Twickenham pela selecção de rugby juvenil. Londres era uma cidade tão diferente nesses tempos que nas farmácias podia-se comprar azeite. Na noite a seguir ao jogo acabei em Soho. Algures no bairro eu e o António Moita do CDUL fomos parar a um pequeno clube que deixou entrar dois miúdos frustrados que tinham visto goradas as intenções de ver o Frank Zappa no então Hammersmith Palais (Zappa no dia anterior tinha abandonado o palco ao fim de dois temas e cancelou o concerto para o qual tínhamos comprado bilhetes). Na pista ouvia-se muita coisa que não conhecia de lado nenhum mas houve uma que me ficou marcada, um bump funk branco tingido de guitarras glam rock. Eram os Japan em Suburban Love, faixa do seu album de estreia Adolescent Sex. Isso ficou comigo para todo o sempre, daí que incluo essa canção posicionada em quinto lugar na escuta desta escolha.

Antes disso já tinha começado com Just for a Moment dos Ultravox que Denis Leigh, conhecido como John Foxx havia criado em 1973 com Billy Currie, Warren Cann e Chris Cross sob o nome de Tiger Lily. Começa com o som do bater de um coração e assim cria aqui mais uma regra para deleite de quem ouça semanalmente estas minhas M4we: uma ligação umbilical entre cada uma, já que a #021 da semana passada acabava também com um pulsar cardíaco. Foxx iria no ano seguinte procurar um solo spotlight a ver o seu lugar substituído por Midge Ure.

Sigo logo para Heiss, tema do album de estreia da Nina Hagen Band, junção improvável de Nina Hagen, cantora de potentes dotes lírico-operáticos com os Lokomotive Kreuzberg, banda polit-rock apadrinhada pelos pioneiros krautrock Floh de Cologne. A cantora havia emigrado recentemente de Berlim Leste para o outro lado da cidade e este seu primeiro album teve sucesso imediato mas rodeado de querelas financeiras e diferenças artísticas que levaram a que o segundo e derradeiro album Unbehagen fosse gravado pela banda já sem Nina, para esta gravar as vozes em separado e assim cumprir obrigações contractuais.   

Eu que nunca liguei nenhuma ao futebol lembro-me do Mundial de Futebol desse ano com a Argentina a derrotar o totaalvoetbal da Laranja Mecânica holandesa. Lembro-me também de ter dançado que nem um louco no Centro 12, na SMUP ou no 2001 do Autódromo do Estoril, as músicas dos Gruppo Sportivo liderados por Hans Vandenburg. Em 1978 editaram o album Back to 78 (toda a carreira deste grupo é suportada por uma enorme quantia de tongue in cheek) de onde fui buscar este maravilhoso Bottom of the Class apesar de lá estarem incluídos temas como Tokyo, Blah Blah Magazines e One Way Love (From Me To You) que tiveram muito mais difusão radiofónica.

A partir dos Japan é um verdadeiro smorgasbörd de tendências musicais bem representativas da excelência vintage da safra de 78: a estreia de Prince e de Green Gartside (mais conhecido como Scritti Politti), um clássico de Herbie Hancock, a chegada à estratosfera da pop dos Kraftwerk com o album Die Mensch·Maschineo ou soft loungecore dos italianos The Cotton Flocks. Passo revista a alguns últimos extertores da Disco como por exemplo Hot Shot de Karen Young e que talvez seja a música que mais vezes me tenha feito gingar em pista de dança, o inevitável Warm Leatherette, único single de The Normal, o aka de Daniel Miller, boss da Mute Records e responsável por tanto peso pesado na balança do pós-punk. Siouxsie, Costello, Lovich e Stranglers, todos com direito a passagens por Lisboa, à mistura com Vanelli, Dafé, Blake e Ruphus como exemplos da “velha guarda” que não se tinha deixado ficar na plataforma a ver o comboio passar.

Entro na recta final com Nimele Bolo, uma escolha do único album oficial que Charly Kingson gravou e que foi re-editado em 2018 pela Africa Seven. Sigo logo para a cover de I Saw Her Standing There dos Beatles pelos americanos The Tubes que vi no Dramático de Cascais quando vieram cá tocar. Estava eu no meio daquela confusão vestido de branco e acorrentado a um amigo meu vestido de preto. Na primeira parte estavam os Corpo Diplomático, banda protagonista de tudo o que falo nesta M4we. Passo pelos Throbbing Gristle numa blueprint do que viria a ser o som da coldwave e da synthpop nos anos seguintes. Quase a chegar ao fim Saravah!, tema que dá titulo ao album de estreia da carreira paralela que Yukihiro Takahashi faz quando não estava entretido a tocar bateria nos Yellow Magic Orchestra.

E acabo com Joe Jackson. Quando cá veio em 1979 estava eu já quase a começar a sair à noite em Lisboa, onde as tendências eram absorvidas mais rapidamente. Já na altura percebia-se que o músico era muito mais erudito do que a “caixa” em que a imprensa o havia metido. Os tempos estavam a mudar e música iria durante uns anos fazer toda a diferença na vida de quem a ouvia com atenção.

NOTA: a imagem é uma foto tirada em 1978 por Terence Donovan da modelo Clotilde para a colecção Outono Inverno da Chloe desenhada por Karl Lagerfeld.

Tenham um fim de semana em que a diferença seja um mote de unificação.

#staysafe #musicfortheweekend

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This week I chose the precise date of 1978 as this week’s theme. It was due to be the following year of 1979 as the musical choice would have been even more intoxicating, but the eighth year of this decade that now seems so distant served as a springboard for almost everything we heard and saw in the following ten years and left marks still felt today.

On January 14th of that year the Sex Pistols would perform for the very last time at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, thus declaring official the use of the term post punk.

I usually say that I am a “son of disco and punk” and I am not exactly sailing away from that statement. Simon Reynolds in his magnificent book Rip it Up and Start Again sets an imagined timeline between 1978 and 1984 where music played a major role in the conception of the world in which we currently live. A world where everyone had access to the dogmas and sophisms shortlisted by punk, which in the meantime was already a case of DOA before most people could even understand what had happened.

Grand Vizier Lydon was already rehearsing his “public image” and his master McLaren was going to squeeze the cow just a little more before going to different pastures to draw another type of looney tunes. All of this with Disco about to close shop and the most daring punk rockers burning with desire to make a more structured and complex pop with funk and jazz spicing up the recipe, the first hip-hop tapes reaching the hands of those already bewildered by the “promiscuity of styles” in which pop was indulging in this year of the Horse that the UN called as the International Anti-Apartheid Year, in a world that would thus see the inception of New Wave and No Wave, of punk-funk and mutant disco, giving importance to the voices of industrial cities like Akron in Ohio and Manchester in the north of the United Kingdom. The same year that an art college band gets in bed for the first time with Brian Eno, it could only mean something in the air…

In February 1978 I went to play in Twickenham with the National youth rugby team. London was such a different city at that time that in pharmacies you could buy olive oil. The night after the game I ended up in Soho. Somewhere in the neighborhood me and António Moita from CDUL ended up in a small club that let in two frustrated kids who had seen the intentions of seeing Frank Zappa in the then Hammersmith Palais overturned (Zappa had left the stage the day before after playing just two songs and canceled the concert for which we had purchased tickets). On the dance floor there was a lot of things that I didn’t know at all, but there was one that struck me, a white bump funk tinged with glam rock guitars. It was Japan on Suburban Love, track on their debut album Adolescent Sex. That stayed with me forever, so I include this song in the listening fifth place of this choice.

Before that I started with Just for a Moment by Ultravox that Denis Leigh, known as John Foxx, had created in 1973 with Billy Currie, Warren Cann and Chris Cross under the name Tiger Lily. It starts with the sound of a heartbeat and thus creates here another rule for the delight of those who hear weekly these M4we of mine: an umbilical connection between each one, since # 021 from last week also ended with a heartbeat. The next year Foxx would look for a solo spotlight and have his place replaced by Midge Ure.

I move on to Heiss, track from the debut album by the Nina Hagen Band, an unlikely junction of Nina Hagen, singer of powerful lyrical-operatic skills with the Lokomotive Kreuzberg, a polit-rock band inthusiastically helped by the pioneering krautrockers Floh of Cologne. The singer had recently emigrated from East Berlin to the other side of the city and this first album was immediately successful but surrounded by financial quarrels and artistic differences that led to the second and final album Unbehagen being made by the band without Nina, leaving her to record the vocals separately and thus fulfill her contractual obligations.

I, who never indulged in football, remember the Football World Cup that year with Argentina defeating the the totaalvoetbal of the Dutch clockwork orange team. I also remember having danced like crazy at Centro 12, SMUP or 2001 at Autodromo do Estoril, the songs by Hans Vandenburg’s Gruppo Sportivo. In 1978 they released the album Back to 78 (the entire career of this group is supported by a huge amount of tongue in cheek) from where I went to get this wonderful Bottom of the Class despite the inclusion of themes like Tokyo, Blah Blah Magazines and One Way Love (From Me To You) that had a lot more radio airplay.

From Japan onwards it is a veritable smorgasbörd of musical trends well representative of the vintage excellence of the 78 season: the debut of Prince and Green Gartside (better known as Scritti Politti), a classic by Herbie Hancock, the arrival in the stratosphere of pop by Kraftwerk with the album Die Mensch – Maschineo or the soft loungecore by italian group The Cotton Flocks. I go over some last Disco dying pains, such as Karen Young’s Hot Shot, which is perhaps the song that most often made me swing on the dance floor, the inevitable Warm Leatherette, the only single from The Normal, aka Daniel Miller , boss of Mute Records and responsible for so much heavy weight in the balance of post-punk. Siouxsie, Costello, Lovich and Stranglers, all entitled to safe passage through Lisbon, mixed with Vanelli, Dafé, Blake and Ruphus as examples of the “old guard” who had not let themself stay on the platform watching the train go by.

I enter the final stretch with Nimele Bolo, a choice from the only officially recorded album by Charly Kingson and which was re-released in 2018 by Africa Seven. Soon after I jump to the Beatles cover of I Saw Her Standing There by The Tubes, that I saw at Dramático de Cascais when they came here to play. I was bang in the middle of that mess dressed in white and chained to a friend of mine dressed in black. In the first part were the Corpo Diplomatico, a Portuguese band protagonist of everything I present on this M4we. I pass Throbbing Gristle in a blueprint of what would become the sound of coldwave and synthpop in the following years. Almost coming to an end Saravah!,  theme that gives title to the debut album of the parallel career that Yukihiro Takahashi had when he was not playing drums with the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

And I end with Joe Jackson. When he came here in 1979, I was almost starting to go out at night in Lisboa, where trends were absorbed more quickly. At the time, it was clear that the musician was much more versatile than the “box” where the music press had put him in. Times were changing and music would for a few years make all the difference in the lives of those who listened to it attentively.

NOTE: the image is a photo taken in 1978 by Terence Donovan of model Clotilde for the Chloe Autumn Winter collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld.

Have a weekend where difference is a motto for unification.

#staysafe #musicfortheweekend

Ultravox – Just For A Moment

Nina Hagen Band – Heiss

Gruppo Sportivo – Bottom of the Class

Japan – Suburban Love

Devo – Mongoloid

Carlos Dafé – Escorpião

Prince – Soft And Wet

Siouxsie & The Banshees – Hong Kong Garden

Talking Heads – Artist Only

Karen Young – Hot Shot (Vocal)

Tim Blake – Lighthouse

Thomas Leer – International

Blondie – Heart Of Glass (Oliver & Thee Mike B Remix)

Herbie Hancock – I Thought It Was You

Alternative TV – Love Lies Limp

Gino Vannelli – People I Belong To

Scritti Politti – In and Ought the Western World

Squeeze – Take Me I’m Yours

Ronnie Foster – Happy Song

Dinosaur – Kiss Me Again

The Normal – Warm Leatherette

Lene Lovich – Lucky Number

Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Pump It Up

The Stranglers – Sweden (All Quiet On The Eastern Front)

Disguise – Hey Baby

Mistral – Starship 109

JUJU & The Space Rangers – Plastic

Ruphus – Joy

Moon Birds – Net Work

Kraftwerk – Das Modell

The Cars – My Best Friend’s Girl

Chilly – Dance With Me

The Only Ones – Another Girl Another Planet

Devil’s Dykes – Fruitless

The Cotton Flocks – Sophisticated Bossa

Charly Kingson – Nimele Bolo

The Tubes – I Saw Her Standing There

Throbbing Gristle – AB;7A (Alt Mix)

Yukihiro Takahashi – Saravah!

Joe Jackson – Fools in Love