- Reflections on Learning
- My play excerpt at the Playwright's Festival
- Robert Wallace and Total Rhythm
- Reaffirming a committment
- State of Grace
- The Holy Trinity of Music's Appeal
- Cold weather and drumming don't mix
- Cheb-i-Sabbah and the spirituality of the musical moment
- Refound: The English Beat's "I Just Can't Stop It"
- Lessons from a yogi
Refound: The English Beat's "I Just Can't Stop It"
Submitted by Palmito on March 26, 2008 - 4:55pm.I recently indulged in a musical flashback - the English Beat's first album. It's only now, listening to it in retrospect, that I appreciate what it taught me about rhythm. A tight tick-track drum sound permeates the entire album, and it's really the accents that create the effect - and pleasure of listening.
In addition, apart from early Police records, and UB40's first (European) hit "Food for Thought", this was the album that prepared me for reggae and ska without me ever realizing it. The first three songs kick off to an early eighties rock sound, so it's only when you get to "Twist and Crawl" does the Caribbean influence make itself felt, and that's what I tuned into, without even really knowing what it was that made it different. I just knew that this was much more interesting listening than the Joe Jackson album I had been given at the same time (note: future drummer, not melody person).
The US version of the album, which includes two songs not on the UK release - has one of my favorite "audio illusions." It's not so much an illusion as a "trap" that you are trained to fall into. The last song on Side A (I had this as a tape) was "Click Click" - a song about playing Russian Roulette. The uptempo quasi-punk song ends with the refrain "Faster, faster, faster, STOP" - and the song ends.
The first song on Side B was "Sir Rankin Full Stop", a breezy ska song. The song contains the refrain "Are you ready to stop? I said STOP!". At the end of the song, the singer says, "I said STOP!..... I'm dead."
It takes about 8-10 listens through the album before you find yourself careening along with the Russian Roulette song, and as the song comes to its abrupt end, "Faster, faster, faster STOP" you find yourself - alone - adding the words "I'm dead." Yes, like a ghost, at the end of the song about a suicide game.
Awesome.
In addition, apart from early Police records, and UB40's first (European) hit "Food for Thought", this was the album that prepared me for reggae and ska without me ever realizing it. The first three songs kick off to an early eighties rock sound, so it's only when you get to "Twist and Crawl" does the Caribbean influence make itself felt, and that's what I tuned into, without even really knowing what it was that made it different. I just knew that this was much more interesting listening than the Joe Jackson album I had been given at the same time (note: future drummer, not melody person).
The US version of the album, which includes two songs not on the UK release - has one of my favorite "audio illusions." It's not so much an illusion as a "trap" that you are trained to fall into. The last song on Side A (I had this as a tape) was "Click Click" - a song about playing Russian Roulette. The uptempo quasi-punk song ends with the refrain "Faster, faster, faster, STOP" - and the song ends.
The first song on Side B was "Sir Rankin Full Stop", a breezy ska song. The song contains the refrain "Are you ready to stop? I said STOP!". At the end of the song, the singer says, "I said STOP!..... I'm dead."
It takes about 8-10 listens through the album before you find yourself careening along with the Russian Roulette song, and as the song comes to its abrupt end, "Faster, faster, faster STOP" you find yourself - alone - adding the words "I'm dead." Yes, like a ghost, at the end of the song about a suicide game.
Awesome.
