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Rating: Shortly before Brian Eno decided to definitively abandon any live performances and gently but firmly refused every invitation to take the stage, something wonderful happened.
It was 1976 and the Roxy Music adventure was already over for Eno for a few years. Phil Manzanera found the "song" dimension towards which the group had flowed, now almost entirely under the elegant directives of Brian Ferry, to be frustrating, so he tended to "exercise his compositional-executive mastery" in parallel projects. He moved effortlessly from the Canterbury and avant-garde psychedelia of Quiet Sun to the more direct Rock of his first solo album "Diamond Head", and collaborated with artists spanning various genres, including South Americans.
As we said, 1976, when Manzanera and Eno, around a table, decided to embark on a brief tour, bringing to the stage some tracks from both of their solo careers and some famous covers revisited and corrected with new stylistic elements. They also decided that the arrangements would be rock, but not immediate rock, as both preferred harmonizations that could also highlight their performance abilities. Part of the band was already seasoned and taken from studio albums, especially that of Quiet Sun, thus confirming the great Bill MacCormick on bass (Matching Mole). Then the two side men who were to support the keyboard and guitar parts, respectively Francis Monkman, who would later join Sky, and Lloyd Watson. The happiest choice was to complete the rhythm section with the young and promising Simon Phillips, a monster of technique, speed, and rhythmic intelligence.
The tour began and was so successful that the group found themselves forced to extend it, adding numerous new dates and eventually releasing a live album. This one.
The concert opens electrically, and the darkness is gradually saturated by the notes of Manzanera’s guitar, which alone introduces the evening with the riff of "Lagrima", a few minutes in and the Beatles-like "Tomorrow Never Now" comes in a psychedelic and intense version, enriched by a rocking rhythm and made distinctive by Brian Eno's voice, very different from Lennon’s. The exhilarating finale leads to the standout track of the album: an impressive "East of Asteroid" where the rhythm section showcases extraordinary technical prowess and quality in marking the time for Manzanera's extended solo. Next comes "Rongwrong" by Quiet Sun, also markedly different from the original due to Eno’s voice compared to Hayward, but also for the different approach given by the band during the performance. Then, two tracks from Eno's discography: "Sombre Reptiles", a kind of jazz-psychedelic fusion, and "Baby’s On Fire", strong and dreamy. Manzanera’s "Diamond Head" is very faithful to the original, maintaining the studio track's electric-nocturnal atmosphere. Eno’s "Miss Shapiro" becomes an engaging rock song interspersed with well-crafted instrumental sections amidst the vocals. Towards the end, the second cover performed is "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, a song covered by dozens and dozens of artists, but, I would say, never as intelligently as here. To close is another Eno track "Third Uncle" for a dynamic concert finale with an impressive sound wall.
A classic not only of prog, a genre it is closely tied to by many affinities, but also of Rock in general, an album that should not be missing from any discography. A reissue with a couple more tracks has recently been released, but it doesn't change the outcome much.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
04 Rongwrong (05:04)
I'm looking in my little black book
to see if I was right or rongwrong
within the confines of whoremonger logic
to even try to sing this song
I could have asked the I Ching
but that would have taken up too much time
And with the time before [Fall]
I didn't see there was no time to lose
If things got bad it could always turn into a blues
Like they do back home on the Delta –
grunt and groan
I'm looking in my little black book of European logic
Still I can't make head or tail of it
Ah, if I could only read between the lines
Think of all the treasures I might find
Learn the secret of trance and levitation
Liberate my soul in six easy lessons
Meanwhile I'll stay at home, listen to Schönberg in the bath
and leave you to the geometry of my laugh
to which you're welcome if it helps you at all
to get your rocks off and have a ball
Could there really be a thought that we have nothing to share?
We drink the same water and we breathe the same air
Deep down inside we need each other just the same
You need me to laugh at and I need you to blame
08 Baby's on Fire (04:59)
(B. Eno)
Baby's on fire
Better throw her in the water
Look at her laughing
Like a heifer to the slaughter
Baby's on fire
And all the laughing boys are bitching
Waiting for photos
Oh the plot is so bewitching
Rescuers row row
Do your best to change the subject
Blow the wind blow blow
Lend some assistance to the object
Photographers snip snap
Take your time she's only burning
This kind of experience
Is necessary for her learning
If you'll be my flotsam
I could be half the man I used to
They said you were hot stuff
And that's what baby's been reduced to
Juanita and Juan
Very clever with maracas
Making their fortunes
Selling secondhand tobaccoes
Juan dances at Chico's
And when the clients are evicted
He empties the ashtrays
And pockets all that he's collected
But baby's on fire
And all the instruments agree that
Her temperature's rising
But any idiot would know that
12 Third Uncle (05:09)
There are tins
There was pork
There are legs
There are sharks
There was John
There are cliffs
There was mother
There's a poker
There was you
Then there was you.
There are scenes
There are blues
There are boots
There are shoes
There are Turks
There are fools
They're in lockers
They're in schools
There in you
Then there was you.
Burn my fingers
Burn my toes
Burn my uncle
Burn his books
Burn his shoes
Cook the leather
Put it on me
Does it fit me
Or you?
It looks tight on you.
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