GnetRadio and app, Friday 28/2 6-8pm

Third Stone From The Sun

by Keith Pengelley

Unexpected Gothic – A View from The Edge of Despair.

I have rather surprisingly, had Gothic on my mind…

Recently, having conceived of a gothic shaped pit in my life I did what all marginally interested people should do …. I looked into it….

I researched the usual definitions of Gothic…or Gofik and it is also known and ascertained that the term is of a loose literary aesthetic…one of fear and haunting and indeed romantic elements of horror, gloom and even death…

Coupled to all of that I detect doses and vapours of nature, individuality and emotion.

Is this all though just a load of bollox…probably….

But anyway…here is my take on the genre in a series of cobwebbed episodes exploring the Gothic lying feebly within my record collection.

Be afraid why dontcha…

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath – 1970

Regarded by some as the first Heavy Metal and / or Doom Metal album but I’m now claiming as an early stab (pun intended) at Goth. 

Features, thunder, rain, and bells. I rest my case…. 

Nico – These Days – Chelsea Girl – 1966

Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, actress, and model. When Nico was two years old, she moved with her mother and grandfather to the Spreewald forest outside Berlin to escape the WW2 bombing of Cologne.

Her father had been conscripted into the German Army and met an untimely end. 

The say Nico had an interesting life is a huge understatement.

She eventually made her way to New York and became part of Andy Warhol’s circle and of course went on to feature with The Velvet Underground – more of whom later.

This track is from her first solo album Chelsea Girl and the song was written by boyfriend at the time…one Jackson Browne.

The Doors – The End of The Night – The Doors – 1967

From the band’s first album, rarely played live it does show of their Goth tendancies…The line “Some are born to sweet delight; some are born to endless night” are lifted from a William Blake poem “Auguries of Innocence“, written in 1803 and published in 1863.

Scott Walker – The Big Hurt – Scott – 1967

Taken from Walker’s debut album Scott or Scott 1 and was written by American writers David Gold and Stan Ross. It was covered by a number of jazz musicians and even Del Shannon. This however is  Walkers lugubrious take and very  fine it is too.

The Velvet Undergound & Nico – I’ll Be Your Mirror – The Velvet Underground & Nico – 1967

No music programme referencing Goth is going to ignore either Nico or The Velvet Underground and here they are together on the VU’s first album.

Produced by sometime Dylan producer Tom Wilson it was allegedly co-produced by Andy Warhol. 

Although the album sold slowly and poorly (only 30,000 copies) it was hugely influential. Brian Eno once claimed that “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band”.

Hmm…

Anyway…Here’s I’ll Be Your Mirror from the album but it had in fact been a B-side to All Tomorrow’s Parties released a year earlier. Warhol has the interesting idea of having the album deliberately scratched so that the line I’ll Be Your Mirror would repeat for ever unless the listener moved the needle. Well…you know…Any Warhol…

Kevin Ayers – The Lady Rachel – Joy of A Toy – 1969

Former founder member of Soft Machine, Ayers left the band after just one album having been disillusioned with touring; even with The Jimi Hendrix Experience …which just goes to show that one can have too much of a good thing.

This track is from his first of many solo albums.

The song describes the aforementioned Lady climbing the stairs to bed then having a dream about finding a castle in a box.

Perhaps the gorgonzola sandwich just before bedtime may have been a mistake…

David Bowie – The Cygnet Committee – Space Oddity – 1969

The tale of a future dystopia …or the world we live in (?).

Not one of Bowie’s most hummable ditties but well worth staying with it.

The genesis of Diamond Dogs woz here.

Features a pal of mine. Keith Christmas on 12 string guitar.

The Velvet Undergound – I’m Set Free – The Velvet Underground – 1969

The VU’s third album and by now Lou Reed had jettisoned both Nico and John Cale and brought I Doug Yule.

In the song, Reed claims that he is free from a relationship, though he eventually discovers that this is untrue.

John Cale – Amsterdam – Vintage Violence – 1970

The debut album from Cale – on the cover he is seen with his face obscured by a glass mask over a nylon stocking.

Cale would later claim in his autobiography that this wassymbolic of the content of the record: “You’re not really seeing the personality”. 

The Stooges – Dirt – Fun House – 1970

Not the most literate of lyrics…but deeply felt. Still dreaming…still burning…

Van Der Graff Generator – Out Of My Book – The Least We Could Do Is Wave At Each Other – 1970

From an album that addresses many themes including witchcraft, apocalypse (various) and catastrophes (general).

The perfect album for relaxing by the lake…

Kevin Ayers – Red Green And You Blue – Shooting At The Moon – 1970

Just a song about Kevin hearing music and whispers…from inside his cage…..

Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan – Paranoid – 1970

Ozzie floating through his (and possibly our) universe with his lover accompanied by multi tracked flute.

This track was actually used as wake-up music for the crew of a SpaceX craft bound for the International Space Station. Cosmic.

Alice Cooper – Hallowed Be Thy Name – Love It To Death – 1971

Cooper’s first sustained lurch towards the macabre…and not of course his last.

“The lords and the ladies were fixing their hairdos… cursing their lovers… cursing the bible”

Nick Cave..eat your heart out…or somebody else’s.

David Bowie – All The Madmen – The Man Who Sold The World – 1970

One of the several tracks on the album that reference the fragility of mental health.

The final lyrics are in French and are thought to be a cryptic allusion to the Kabbalah.

The Doors – Riders On The Storm – LA Woman – 1971

Lyrics by Jim Morrison who based them on the character Billy “Cockeyed” Cook who was the subject of the 1953 film The Hitchhiker.

A brave subject given the then recent Manson murders.

Chilling and still timeless though perhaps blunted by familiarity. 

Alice Kooper – Halo Of Flies – Killer – 1971

An epic track from an album full of shady dudes..but with lyrics hymning “glimmering nightgowns and poisonous cobras” it earns its place in tonight’s show.

Groundhogs – A Year In The Life – Split – 1972

A track lamenting the passing of summer, full of wistful contemplation of the coming of wintertime souls. At ear liquefying volume.

Lou Reed Ocean – Lou Reed – 1972

Reed came to London in order to record this his first solo album following his departure from The Velvet Underground. Musicians such as Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe guested.

Reed sings of castles that glow at night and decapitated Warlocks and so seals his first place this evening.

Genesis – The Twilight Alehouse – Single B-Side – 1973

One of rocks greatest b-sides.

A lonely man. In an alehouse. Glancing at a church. At twilight. Whilst trying to pretend that there is someone….

John Cale – The Endless Plain of Fortune – Paris, 1919 – 1973

Like Lou Reed, Cale had to maintain a solo career and this track from his second album was on the surface an incoherent ramble…but read through a number of times, the miasma of a fever dream starts to edge through.

A dream where crocodiles and men fight on.

Lou Reed – Caroline Says No Pt 2 – Berlin – 1973

Reed’s second album and he is not quite ready to walk on the wild side.  The album was panned upon release but now has been reappraised.

Themes of “paranoia, schizophrenia, degradation, pill-induced violence and suicide” all embraced by a future Goth sensibility. 

Nico – You Forgot To Answer – The End – 1974

Another set text for the Future Goths and of course a commercial failure.

Doom laden songs and morbid harmonium. The end track was of course was a cover of The Doors The End.

Described as suitably morbid and exotic.

Genesis – Entangled – A Trick Of The Tale – 1976

A madrigal filled tale of mesmerised children sentenced to drift far away.

Pass the chloroform..

Thus ends our first Goth show – join me in two weeks for the next instalment. Look out for the bat shit…