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Rating: There are albums that, once you start listening to them, you can’t stop. They stay in your player, on whatever device you use, for months. And you can't remove them. Until everyone who knows you, everyone who shares your life, can’t take it anymore. And others that don't. Others that sit there, on a shelf, perhaps for months, perhaps for years. And you don't listen to them anymore. Yet they are fundamental. Yet, if you had to say what you would save on a hypothetical deserted island, one of the top ten albums would be it. This one. On the Road by Traffic. Perhaps not their best album (but here I really can't quite say, not exactly my cup of tea, as the English say). Certainly not the best album I own. A live album, from the German parts, if I remember correctly. A title that opens up worlds. And good music, of course. Recorded poorly. Like in that one (can you do cross-reviews?) which I continue to regard as the best album, the best live track ever recorded, that 21st Century Schizoid Man from Usa by King Crimson, distorted and hallucinated, by choice and due to technical problems. Close parenthesis. I resume. Good music. And something unforgettable. It's called (Sometimes I feel so) Uninspired. The parenthesis is not mine. It's in the title. And I, the parenthesis, love them. There’s a voice, distant, that begins to cradle you. It's not an unforgettable voice. It's an almost subdued voice. That sings to you softly. Almost as if to give you a pat on the shoulder. And it tells you a story. What, to tell the truth, I don't know, I've never quite understood. But the words are not important. The words pass. The music arrives. And what is special about the music of this piece, I can't say. Yet it is. If I had to strain, I would say it feels like those playing it are doing so as if it’s the last time. As if it's the time that counts for everything. And then another thing. They play it while listening to what the others are playing. And you can tell. When it happens, you can feel it. The voice resumes. It’s not the best voice I know. I certainly know a thousand better. Yet it pampers you, cradles you, tells you a story. What story I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It tells you another couple of phrases, then fades away, disappearing softly. And the piano starts again, the sax, the guitar, everything. A deluge. And now you know. They are really playing as if their life depended on it. They are playing as if it’s the last thing they will ever do. They are playing - all together - as if they want to tell you something.
What, I don’t know.
That’s why this piece, though it's not in my player, though I haven't heard it for ages, I will never forget it, it is always with me.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Freedom Rider (20:49)
Like a hurricane around your heart when earth and sky are torn apartHe comes gathering up the bits while hoping that the puzzle fitsHe leaves you, he leaves you.Freedom riderWith a silver star between his eyes that open up at hidden liesBig man crying with defeat, see people gathering in the streetYou feel him, you feel good.Freedom riderWhen lightning strikes you to the bone, you turn around, you're allaloneBy the time you hear that silent (or siren?) sound, then your soul isin thelost and foundForever, forever.Freedom riderHere it comes
06 Light Up Or Leave Me Alone (10:30)
Sometimes I feel like I'm fading away
You're looking at me, I've got nothing to say
Don't make me angry with the games that you play
Either light up or leave me alone
You walk in my room, you lie in my bed
You open your mouth, shoot someone dead
All of a sudden you're inside my head
Either light up or leave me alone
Spending my bread like it grew on a tree
You're trying to tell me 'bout the birds and the bees
The skirt that you're wearing is way past your knees
Either light up or leave me alone
You're up all night preaching your mind
Come home in the morning with your latest find
I'm gonna have to lay it to you straight on the line
Either light up or leave me alone
07 Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (17:35)
If you see something that looks like a star
And its shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar
And you just cant escape from the sound
Dont worry too much, itll happen to you
We were children once, playing with toys
And the thing that youre hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys
The percentage youre paying is too high priced
While youre living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit hes made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didnt make any noise
But it wasnt the bullet that laid him to rest was
The low spark of high-heeled boys
If you had just a minute to breathe and they granted you one final wish
Would you ask for something like another chance?
Or something similar as this? dont worry too much
Itll happen to you as sure as your sorrows are joys
And the thing that disturbs you is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys
If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, and strip me of everything including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that Im hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys
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Other reviews
By AndreaSalce
The very first characteristic of the record... is the astonishing length of the tracks, where pure, raw improvisation reigns supreme.
A testimony of a musically historic, unreachable, and unrepeatable period, of a way of doing and conceiving music that is now practically non-existent.
