Guy Berger Posted May 22, 2005 Report Share Posted May 22, 2005 (edited) I was going to do the first Mahavishnu album, but Nate D suggested that to spur interest in the AOTW we pick controversial albums. Well, here's one. I don't think this is a great or even good album, but it IS interesting. (In fact, I think it's a lot more interesting than 8:30 or Night Passage.) I'll write more once we finish up with Una Mas, but looking forward to people's thoughts on this one. Guy Edited May 22, 2005 by Guy Berger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest akanalog Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 "river people" is a great tune. i need to relisten to the album, but i have always dug that song. sounds like nintendo music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 I vividly remember the down beat review: * Joe Zawinul reacted like a primadonna. An awful album. Tossed together without much of a concept, one the greatest disappointements making me realize the glorious days of fusion were a thing of the past, like Herbie Hancock's Secrets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted May 25, 2005 Report Share Posted May 25, 2005 I too remember that db review and Joe Z's (over) response to it. If I remember correctly, they gave it one star out of five; I thought it was 'bout twice that good! Seriously, it was the first, but sadly not the last, Weather Report album to disappoint me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Dorward Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 Hm, so you can blame this one on me . I've never heard this one.... but I've, uh, always heard it's the dividing line between "good" & "bad" Weather Report. Good choice, I think--in that I think that even thought it's not necessarily a good disc a lot of people have it/have heard it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted May 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 "Anyone who gives this record 1 star has got to be insane!" -- Joe Zawinul Here is a very comprehensive summary of the brouhaha surrounding this album. Here's my (really pretentious) review of this album for amazon: Weather Report's credibility with the critics was finally shattered with Mr. Gone. Not only did it feature the occasional concession to disco (this was 1978, after all), but the entire album had an electronic, studio-project feel that didn't fit in too well with the jazz ideal. Yet this album isn't all that bad: "The Elders" is an eerie Wayne Shorter piece in the b-movie soundtrack style, and "Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat" is a decent world-fusion piece descended from the Tale Spinnin' days. As far as clunkers -- well, the ballad "Young and Fine" is a quintessential elevator tune. The meat of the album, though, lies in the experimental oddities. They range from mildly weird (Shorter's "Pinocchio", rearranged from the Miles Davis days but faded out after just 2 minutes, Jaco's "Punk Jazz", which begins with a speedy bass-drums duet but switches into a somewhat cheesy ballad after a minute) to humorous (try not to crack a smile during the goofy disco-from-outer-space of Jaco's "River People") to downright bizarre (the title track, an avant-garde (?) attempt to reproduce jazz swing, walking bassline and all, using analogue synths). This album also has "And Then", a "song" featuring the vocals of Maurice White that never quite develops a direction but just fades out. Very strange. Anyway, a lot of Weather Report fans dismiss this as a one-off failure, preferring the chops-heavy 8:30 and Night Passage. But this album is also the last Weather Report album to feature really interesting experiments with sound. To add to the review -- if you approach this album expecting to hear "good music" you'll probably be disappointed, because there isn't much of it here. (Though "The Elders" is very cool.) If you approach it thinking that you're going to hear a bunch of off-the-wall studio experiments that are frequently unsuccessful but are sometimes quite interesting and even entertaining. It's fun to listen to occasionally just so you can remember what kind of crazy stuff creative people were capable of recording back in 1978. I can understand why some people, particularly those who bought it when it first came out, have strong feelings about it. I guess I was lucky enough to pick it up, out of morbid curiosity, 2 decades after the fact. (My favorite WR albums are Live in Tokyo and Sweetnighter, and I think the band's most interesting music came before Heavy Weather.) Apparently there are some people who LIKE this album A LOT -- if there are any on this board, I hope they step up and make a case for it this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonym Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 Do you know? I've never heard this one; I might hold out until there are a few more responses here . I'll be checking this thread daily! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 I'll need to relisten again, but I played this one a few months ago, and was struck by how thrown together the whole thing felt. Other than "The Elders", not a lot of the type of things that made WR such a great band before and (less often, but often enough) after. Apparently the album was put together at a time when the band was undergoing one of it's regular bouts of personnel instabiltiy and unlike other such periods, when the touring schedule and other demands weren't as intense and a good album could be assembled using a rotating cast, this one was put together under pressure to follow up the surprise(?) success of Heavy Weather. Not a bad record (certainly not a * record), but it could have been better, a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted May 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 * What's up with that weird intro to "Mr. Gone"? * "Young and Fine" has a decent Wayne solo. Too bad the song sucks. Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 I need to dig this up and spin it again. At the time of its release, I had seen WR several times and I was INTO them. Shortly after this one my interest flagged, and it seems now that I really don't "get into" the work that follows this as much as the work that preceded this. . . . So in a way this being a dividing line makes some sense in my own situation. Also though there is the fact that this and the following lps sound much better on vinyl than on cd, and I haven't heard the vinyl in a long time. In reflection on the most recent hearings I had of this I sort of agree with Jim. Could have been better, they did better things on stage around this time, but then again they also had a lot of fog machines and a lot of just groovin' on stage going on too. My expectations of "GREAT MUSIC" from WR are not great these days, but when I'm in the mood I can enjoy a good "non critical" listen. Sure wish they would release a big box set of "Live in Tokyo" and concerts around that date! I would critically listen and enjoy that stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonym Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Guy, you've just reminded me of a past conversation: A friend of mine told me a while back, when I was first getting into WR (and couldn't quite love the whole bouyant, dense feel of the track 'Nubian Sundance') that Mr. Gone was the high point of the band's entire output. First he raved about Shorter's solos on 'The Elders' and 'Young & Fine', saying that they were on "another level" to what he had done beforehand; he hadn't, I should add, heard any of Wayne's stuff from his tenure at Blue Note, the Plugged Nickel set or from his entire association with Miles . Secondly, he would rave about Pastorious. Then again he just raves about Pastorious anyway. To the exclusion of all other bass players. Lastly, the use of all those drummers seemed to fascinate him. For some reason. I really should hear this album to get what he, and forum members are on about. To be honest I'd be amazed if it hit, for me, any of the high points of 'Tale Spinnin' ' or 'Mysterious Traveller'. Not a slight at the album, since the aforementioned are fantastic albums from any band or any genre, and furthermore, the AOTW should allow us uninformed to be exposed to these more 'idiosyncratic' or controversial sides. Sounds like a good choice for this week Guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gone Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Sure wish they would release a big box set of "Live in Tokyo" and concerts around that date! I would critically listen and enjoy that stuff! ← Weather Report Boxed Set in the Works February 8, 2005 A small blurb in the recent issue of Down Beat magazine mentioned that Sony/Legacy Recordings is working on a Weather Report boxed set. My sources tell me that current plans call for three CDs and a DVD. The CDs will be an overview of Weather Report's existing catalog. Also included will be a remix of "125th Street Congress," an unissued version of "Directions" with Eric Gravatt from November 1971, a complete version of "Eurydice," and a live performance of "Mysterious Traveller" from December 1974. The DVD might be the 1978 Offenbach concert. No word on when this might be released. As we know, plans can change, so we'll just have to stay tuned! http://www.binkie.net/zawinul/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gone Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 http://www.binkie.net/wrdisc/Mr.%20Gone.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Hmmm . . . figures. . . they'll cook up a big overview box set and throw in a few tracks I'd be interested in hearing and haven't bought already several times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest akanalog Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Birnbaum: Hearing the band live last night I was really struck by the heavy rock feel, especially in the bass and drums. Pastorius: Well then you got a total misconception of the music... Zawinul: I think so. Pastorius: ...because if there's a heavy feel, it's r&b, not rock. There's a difference between rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll. I grew up playing nothing but colored music all my life and that's it. Zawinul: That's the difference, we don't play no white music, because rock 'n' roll is a white music. Birnbaum: What about Chuck Berry? Zawinul: That ain't no rock 'n' roll, Chuck Berry, that's r&b. Pastorius: I don't play nothing but r&b. It ain't no rock 'n' roll. Zawinul: English music is rock 'n' roll. Pastorius: Yeah, if we did an album with "Penny Lane" on it you could say we were playing rock 'n' roll. [DB79b] fellas.....relax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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