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Bobber:
George Harrison - Wonderwall Music



Released 1. November, 1968

Wikipedia has some great info on this album: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderwall_Music

01 Microbes
George and the Indian thing. Microbes sounds like an exercise of the Indian flute called Shehnai. Anyone who’d expected a nice soundtrack from George will be disappointed directly. Stuff like this is pretty hard to listen to for most Westerners. Certainly for me. I try to remember it is a soundtrack for a film. In the meantime, I’m downloading the film to see how music like this works out.

02 Red Lady Too
Ah! A melody! The Remo Four is involved and at least this track is listenable. The piano plays a little and simple melody, nothing more, nothing less. Not a thing to remember tho.

03 Tabla And Pakavaj
The song title gives it all away. A thing with tabla and pakavaj. Even worse than Love You To.

04 In The Park
I can hear the different Indian instruments link with each other and make some sort of song out of it. Still, full of Indian stuff.

05 Drilling A Home
This is fun. Some honkytonk piano and banjo, supposedly played by the Monkees Peter Tork. Funny sounding brass section, coming in at 0.53. Sounds like a piece of music that could very well be put under a Benny Hill sketch, complete with the sounds of thunder and rain. The ‘song’ consists of more or less three different parts, with the same sound and feel but with a slightly different approach.

06 Guru Vandana
The only good thing about this song is that it’s short, just over a minute. Another Indian thingy.

07 Greasy Legs
With a title like this, I expected a little bit more fun. This song starts with a long monotonious sound from mellotron and harmonium, lasting over thirty seconds. At 0.33 seconds some light notes come in, producing a nice little ditty. Nothing special and certainly not reminding me of greasy legs.

08 Ski-ing
One of the more interesting songs on this album, for guitarist Eric Clapton plays a heavily fuzzed guitar riff over some Indian instrumentation. The guitar’s switching from left to right and back. Stereo! George is putting some guitar in the song as well. It’s not that it makes a great song alltogether, but at least something is happening.

09 Gat Kirwani
A fast Indian piece. By the speed one can tell that is kind of virtuoso.

10 Dream Scene
Sound like a dream indeed, at least one of George’s dreams I guess. Dream Scene starts off with a part of mostly backwards recorded Indian instruments. And there’s singing! At 0.43 a man and woman start some kind of duet, using the stereo effect as well.  At 2.26 the second part of this song comes in with a jangling piano. Is that a flute and electric guitar playing along? Drums joining as well. This is a haunting piece of music, abruptly ending at 3.22. The third part starts off with a trumpet solo, followed by a random played mouthorgan, police siren, and all kinds of different sounds. As a critic on Wikipedia notes: this was months before the Beatles recorded Revolution #9. The idea is similar.

11 Party Seacombe
A more listenable song, recorded with the Remo Four. The intro of the drums at 0.10 sounds exactly like Ringo on Flying. The whole song is like Flying with wahwah. All in all it is too long to remain interesting (4.35).

12 Love Scene
I would have to watch the movie to see how this Indian piece of music is used in a love scene. I’ll give it a go with Mrs Bobber sooner or later. I expect her to be distracted.

13 Crying
The title is alright: it sounds like Yoko Ono on an Indian instrument, not sure what it is. It is even more painful to the ears than Yoko herself.

14 Cowboy Music
What a relief after the previous song. A little country style, horsebackriding piece of music. Featuring The Remo Four once again. There’s a nice mouthorgan as well.

15 Fantasy Sequins
By now I’ve grown a little tired of the Indian stuff. At 0.41 a harmonium and some percussion is joining the Indian stuff and it gets a little better.

16 On The Bed
George himself on the piano, joined pretty soon by trumpet. Some nice tension building up. Drums at 0.55 (Remo Four). The song has some tension which makes it an interesting listen.

17 Glassbox
More Indian stuff. Nothing to remember.

18 Wonderwall To Be Here
This is what film music is supposed to be, creating an atmosphere that is understandable. Nice piano variations and building up with drums and acoustic guitar. The little bell is out of rhythm every now and then. Nevertheless, it is the best listenable track on the album and is therefore rewarded as the best song on the album, for what’s it worth.

19 Singing Om
Sigh. The end is near. Thank God. Or Krishna or whoever.

All in all
Interesting for its historic value. The album was rereleased recently, adding take 1 of The Inner Light as one of the album tracks. Is it worth having? Not for music, unless you like jangling piano’s and lots of Indian music. Most remarkable songs: Drilling A Home, Ski-ing and Wonderwall To Be Here.

Rating:

Moogmodule:
Interesting review Bobber. I think you've picked out the more listenable/interesting tracks. Most soundtracks don't work that well away from the film they're supporting. Nothing unusual that most of this is incidental music that can sound a bit blah on it's own. But there are a few decent moments. I have a few of the better ones  (ski-ing, party seacombe, Wonderwall to be here)  on playlists.

Hardly a great record. But it's unfairly bracketed with Electronic Sounds, Two Virgins, Unfinished Music etc  as a throwaway experimental thing. I think it deserves a bit better than that.

 

Bobber:

--- Quote from: Moogmodule on November 12, 2014, 09:40:24 AM ---Hardly a great record. But it's unfairly bracketed with Electronic Sounds, Two Virgins, Unfinished Music etc  as a throwaway experimental thing. I think it deserves a bit better than that.

--- End quote ---

I agree. I'm currently listening to Electronic Sounds. And compared to that album, Wonderwall is at least an album that seems to be made with enthousiasm and an idea.

oldbrownshoe:
I've always adored 'Wonderwall Music' and, with the three bonus tracks, there's even more reason to love it now.
The demo of 'The Inner Light' is beautiful.

Next to the pop of 'She Loves You' or 'Ticket To Ride' it may seem out of reach, but place it in its (fantastic) context.....swingin' 60s cinema, the politics of 1968, the experimental zeal of the time, the counter-culture, Eastern influence, psychedelic imagery.....and it's a bon-fide five star jewel of record. 

In the last twenty five years I reckon I've played it on vinyl (and recently on CD) thirty times to every one time of 'Sgt. Pepper's.' It has dated far less and, if you trawl the internet for specialist 60s film/experimental music sites you'll find that it's highly rated, as is 'Electronic Sound' (no, really!).

Bobber:
I guess it's all a matter of taste. I've noticed that 's it's highly rated, but it didn't change my mind. I will discuss Electronic Sound later, but it is of course nothing more than a 'sound'. There's not even an attempt to create anything. It's not a creation. It's nothing. George had the opportunity and access to a moog and recording equipment. That's all. Wonderwall Music is admittedly a much better album than Electronic Sound. At least it's music. Still, I prefer Sgt Pepper if you don't mind.

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