| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Omer
= Cult of Ray =
275 Posts |
 Posted - 08/21/2003 : 12:26:28
|
It's funny, because I've been thinking about how there are four stages in Frank Black's career, and then I saw a post by This Is It which expressed my feeling entirely.
The 'Phases' in Frank's career are hardly cut apart. Especially since Frank often releases songs in a different order then writing, the differences between the eras are less a matter of individual songs then a matter of frequencies, although occasionally clear boarders can be established - for example, I consider 'Pistolero' to be a different era of FB songwriting from 'Dog in the Sand', yet songs like 'You're Such a Wire' and 'Western Star' could have belonged to the 'DitS' era.
OK, so here goes:
Phase one - The Punk Rebel: Purple Tapes-Surfer Rosa-Doolittle
The focus is on fast, hard, unconventional songwriting. Lyrical obsessions are sex, various forms of perversity, death and the surreal generally. Doolittle I guess would be half part of this era and part half of the next - the sognwriting is 'Punk Rebel' style, but the production is more like the 'Space Hero'
Phase two - The Space Hero: Bossanova-Trompe Le Monde-Frank Black-Teenager of the Year. More Production, More Experimental music. Lyrics obsession: Astrophysics, UFO encounters (mostly taken literally as true), Musical Heroes (Alison, I Heard Ramona Sing, Ten Percenter), the power of Rock Music (Planet of Sound, U-Mass, Freedom Rock). Emergence of historical and biographical subject matters (Brackish Boy, Ole Mullholand)
Phase Three - The Cult of Frank: The Cult of Ray-Frank Black and the Catholics-Pistolero. Very little production and instruments. More straightforward songwriting. Lyrical obsessions: Astrophysics and UFOs, but now not taken at face value. Either Frank is telling SF stories, clearly not meant to be realistic ('Creature Crawling', 'Bily Radcliffe') or songs about Science Fiction and Science Fiction iconography ('Cult of Ray' 'Marsist' 'All My Ghosts'). Love Songs: ('I don't Wanna Hurt You, Bad Harmony), songs about Rock Music ('I Want Rock'n'Roll', 'The Man Who Was Too Loud' 'Dance War'), and very Urban music, often about California ('Jesus Was Right', 'All My Ghosts', 'So. Bay').
Phase Four - The Western Star: Dog in the Sand-Black Letter Days-Devil's Workshop-Show Me Your Tears(?)
Live to two tracks but with lots of instruments. Musically, significently less Punk then any point in the career. Relatively fewer guitar riffs and much more guitar solos. Country and Folk influences. Often Acoustic guitars appear. Songs structures are generally simpler, although there still lots of complex pieces ('Jane, the Queen of Love', 'Blast Off'). Lyrical obsessions: Travel ('The End of Miles', 'California Bound'), Heart Break ('Cold Heart of Stone', 'Are You Headed My Way', 'Stupid Me', How You Went So Far'), Travelling and life on the road ('Black Letter Days', 'If It Takes All Night'), and lots of historical topics ('21 Reasons', 'St. Francis Damn Disaster', 'Heloise')
So... what do other people think? |
|
|
bazza
* Dog in the Sand *
Ireland
1439 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 12:56:19
|
sir - i am intruiged by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. hmmm.... youre pretty accurate there - but i say BRING ON THE DRUM AND BASS! the fatboy slim remix of manitoba perhaps? maybe! nice one omer.
If there's one thing I've learned, it's that life is one crushing defeat after another until you just wish Flanders was dead.
|
 |
|
|
astrology
= Cult of Ray =
Saint Lucia
252 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 13:47:29
|
Dear brothers-in-Frank:
well i was out of franks music for years and when i came to internet i recovered the lost time, well mine with frank is a visceral thing related to his sound, note that i am spanish and until i came to his lyrics in internet I barely knew what he told in his songs. Well Don frank deserves alot fo time of research and effort to understand but it is very gratifying. to all lovers of literature and good writing find in his songs a dense well based cultural references that lets you know that EL HOMBRE has vibrated in the same wavelenght than you
to the same thing, for example mon aunt by jacques tati, each time I listen that song i see Mr. tati dancing. Well iam a year older than frank so we have gotten old and fat almost at the same time, well I have to say that franks music keep me still young, when you talk about stager in the carre i think that is a natural evolvement in someones life.
and frank I think is a humble guy that is still reading his most, watching the righ movies and listening to fine music he can go on putting in his music, I dont know how he manage to do it, i have seen his tour schedule. well i am eagering to meet him in madrid i hope i am close enough to him o vomit on his shoes. I think frank can be the johnny cash of the 21st century. go on torero
pd: I still consider pixies and frank work as a whole because it is consistent and coherent. i listen the same any song by frank, in fact I enjoy how he plays with his own songs and make so different versions of the same song
get me to lemouria |
|
|
|
frankblackphx
= Cult of Ray =
USA
287 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 14:21:25
|
What a great topic Omer. This is a topic I was also thinking about bringing to the table. I really agree with your choices. There is one album though that I feel doesn't fit into this mix and it was the reason I hadn't posted yet. That album is Devil's Workshop. I don't think that album fits into that category at all. It is so straight forward and much more rocking. I think it belongs more in Phase three than phase four. I think that is why I love that album so much. It seems to be different than what he is writing and recording since DITS.
Any thoughts?
Dan
I got me so down I got me a headache. |
|
|
|
JamesM
= Cult of Ray =
308 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 14:25:18
|
Song structures are simpler? Uh, one thing that has always been consistent about Frank (well, at least from Bossanova on forward) is that he has this uncanny knack for making about a kajillion chords sound very simple (I think that he mastered this on TotY and has been using it for the good of mankind and children everywhere ever since).
-Jimmy M. |
|
|
|
Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 14:36:26
|
| I agree completely, if only because one of the phases was named after me. :) |
|
|
|
astrology
= Cult of Ray =
Saint Lucia
252 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 14:49:53
|
Dear brothers-in-Frank:
I normally like to share Frank's songs with my friends at the chat, its the only way i have to ptomote him, also note everybody with alittle mucical taste knows pixies, frank is still unknown o general public in spain, well i use normally three songs
: true blue, thalassocracy and modern age, also western star if possible the question is always the same. Is he the same singer? I always answer : es que toca todos los palos (literallly he touches all the sticks, is a term related to flamenco and its different kinds) I like to show with this he is a versatile music man, he knows deeply the music of his country and he is also opne to other culktural infuences
saludos
david
sevilla
get me to lemouria |
|
|
|
El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 19:48:52
|
I think you're pretty nail-on-the-head there. Cult of Ray is an oddball in your lineup, though...I think Cult of Ray encompasses every part of Frank's future and past. The tracks are so varied on there, and it's the main gateway into his latter career.
The Punk = Dance War
The Spaceman = The Marsist
Cult of Frank = Men in Black
Western Star = Kicked in the Taco (you can't deny the twang in the intro), Shazeeb (it's two steps short of a pedal steel)
I feel like a total nerd now.
---------
FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
|
|
|
DaveWahl
- FB Fan -
11 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 20:21:14
|
frank black didnt write men in black wtf
KNOW YOUR ENEMY |
|
|
|
IceCream
= Quote Accumulator =
USA
1850 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 21:38:00
|
| Is is just me, or do a lot of people forget that "The Black Sessions: Live in Paris plus the Kitchen Tapes" is an album? Also, I would agree that the song structures were simpler in the Cult of Frank phase. There are certainly exceptions, but a lot of songs are in 4/4 time and not a lot of experimentation with the instruments....relative to the space hero phase, arrangements were simpler. Of course, not all the songs during the Cult of Frank phase were simple. |
|
|
|
El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2003 : 22:27:57
|
The Black Sessions would be considered a live album, therefore it falls more into the "compilation" category. It's not a regular album in his lineup. I went through this in great detail in some Oddballs thread...
---------
FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
|
|
|
Omer
= Cult of Ray =
275 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2003 : 03:04:03
|
Hi, first thank everyone for the positive reactions.
(blush:-)
As for 'The Cult of Ray', I think that the fact that people feel it isn't strongly part of any era actually strengthens my case. 'Cult of Ray' is a transformation album between the Space Hero and the Cult of Frank eras, and so it is bound to be an oddball.
Concerning Devil's Workshop, it's important to notice that at least four of the songs almost certainly predate Frank's 'Western Star' era (Velvety, Modern Age, Heloise and Fields of Marigold), so it makes sense they'll have a different feel.
And The Blacksession is a cool live album, but it doesn't teach you much about Frank's progress as a songwriter.
|
|
|
|
MikeW
- FB Fan -
USA
214 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2003 : 09:28:26
|
An aquaintance of mine said something similiar but referred more to the regions of where the records were made.
COP, SR, Doolittle- all east coast records, similiar topics, religion, sex, incest, puerto rico,etc...I'm Amazed, flirts with heading to Arizona, Vamos, says they'll move to California, Manta Ray-first space/alien song. prelude to the next chapter.
Bossanove, Trompe- West Coast records, Francis claims LA as the place where he is from. Writes Bossanova in the studio, his Pet Sounds(west coast)songs about space, aliens, california, arizona, surf music, all these topic related to the west coast/southwest, native americans.
Another point he made was that as time progressed Francis moved away from the east coast. Made LA his home. Part of reinventing himself as Frank Black and removing himself from the Boston/Pixies days was to find a better place, Los Angeles. Which was his first single as Frank Black. When I think of the Pixies, I now think of 2 stages, east and west coast. When I think of Frank Black as far as regions go, I think Los Angeles.
I am a horrible writer and lack the ability to explain topics explained to me, so if this makes no sense I understand.
|
Edited by - MikeW on 08/22/2003 09:40:05 |
|
|
|
neo
- FB Fan -
Canada
73 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2003 : 17:14:45
|
| is it possible to stay east coast and phase one into old age? i'm 27 now and that's what i'm trying to do. |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
Topic Locked
