I'm almost finished reading Tim Lawerance's excellent Arthur Russell biography Hold On To Your Dreams and it's safe to say that I've learned a lot of insight into the music and life of this incredible artist. One of my favorite sections of the book is the sub-chapter that discusses the recording sessions for Arthur's Dinosaur L album, 24→24 Music. The 1981 record consists of funky left-field classics like "#5 (Go Bang!)", "#1 (You're Gonna Be Clean On Your Bean)", and "#3 (In The Corn Belt)". That being said, the song that has always intrigued me is the album's only live recorded track "#7". This funky live track was recording during the group's 1979 live performance at the avant-garde venue, The Kitchen. The show was slated as a live performance of a disco orchestra, which was a bit controversial at the time, due to the idea of disco being performed at a dedicated avant-garde venue. Never the less, the show went off with mixed results from the people attending the show and "#7" is the only track to have been released from the performance. The funky track is a solid cut that has a lot of energy similar to the other songs that appear on 24→24 Music. My only real complaint about the live track is that it's a bit too short, registering in just over two minutes in length. After listening to this track, I would love to hear the entire recording of that Kitchen performance. I suppose that unless the entire live recording surfaces, "#7" will have to serve as our only artifact to that unique event. Enjoy! Dinosaur L - #7
7 comments:
Cool post - have been digging your edit of Make 1,2 all afternoon in my Arthur Russell Monday!
Great post and love your blog. I read the book and it's so amazing. Have you read Tim Lawrence's Love Saves The Day"? it's also a great read. Thank you for sharing such amazing music.
My favorite cut from 24-24 also. A lot of raw energy going on there is right! Great blog! keep it up.
I still have not read the AR biography yet so thanks for reminding me of it, I must have watched the Arthur Russell documentary a dozen times now and I think the saddest thing of all is that time has finally caught up with him musically speaking and his true genius has been recognised on a wider cultural level (he was just so far into the future sonically speaking) and yet he died so tragically young.
One of my favourite albums from last year was the Love Is Overtaking Me compilation, completely different from say this Dinosaur L release and yet on a meta-level, it all fits together.
Like Carly, I have been grooving to your Make 1,2 edit for some time, I think Arthur would have approved!
Thanks for this. Here's a link to a Village Voice write up of an Arthur Russell tribute a few weeks back at Santos Party House in NYC. *sigh* I missed it, but this article alerted me to the band Arthur's Landing (ex- Loose Joints) who help to maintain his legacy in a live way.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2010/03/live_arthur_rus.php
the end part of the ^ above link.
/live_arthur_rus.php
So glad you posted a lil' insight to this track. I had written it down years ago after hearing it on wfmu and just recently looked it up again...... I've always wanted more of it! Always looking for bouncey things.
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