POLL: Best Track on Eno & Cale's "Wrong Way Up"

My favorite Eno album. I could listen to "One Word" and "Empty Frame" on loop all day.

o bugger! cannot pick just 1, nohow. i love nearly all o'them.

And there, as the world rolls round
In the stars, in the stars
I draw, but the lines move round
In the stars, in the stars

One of the greatest pieces of music ever put on record.

Sugar Ray did a far-from-embarrassing cover of "Spinning Away" for The Beach soundtrack.

yep, they did. it was the only sugar ray song i knew at the time - ehich got me thinking that their other stuff might be equally decent :)

I had no idea "Spinning Away" was a Eno-track! But I remember really liking the Sugar Ray version, like a "guilty pleasure". Feels good to know I had cred all along.

A friend played me this in his car recently. That plus this poll plus the raving review on AMG forces me to buy this album.

I wrote a little something a while ago

I truly love this album.

Oh, and "Spinning Away" is the jam for me.

Worst album cover art ever, though.

"Grandfather's House" is an amazing little story delivered so emotionally by Cale, I often wonder if there's a backstory.

spinning away is a great song, I can't believe sugar ray covered it, that is weird. I've always felt this album was very very underrated and I seem to remember it got very lukewarm reviews on release, not sure why. The cover art is deceptively awful, sadly.

"Cordoba", although Cale did it better on 'Fragments'

I saw Cale in concert around the Fragments of a Rainy Season era, and I recall him saying that the basic lyrics to "Cordoba" and (I think) "Grandfather's House" were taken from practice exercises out of a 'learn a foreign language' book.

Cool review, Alfred

spinning away. i find the production on this record such hard going though.

spinning away for me with lay my love close behind. this album made me such an evangelist, I was making mixtapes for friends just to put "lay my love" on the tape.

i find the production on this record such hard going though.

how's the production a problem? My God, I could listen to those whirling gears, percussive clinkety-clanks, and Arabian keyboard melodies ALLL DAY.

"Crime in the Desert" - Barrelhouse minimalism!

("Spinning Away" a close close second.)

On Sugar Ray's "Spinning Away" cover, Mark McGrath adds these call and response harmonies not in the original but honoring Eno's intentions. I know McGrath's supposed to be a rock trivia expert, but, wow, it took real digging and gumption to cover this.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'm hearing this again now...it's weird cause it's an album I actually do know the songs on but I wouldn't have necessarily realized that until now. I used to work with a guy who played it over and over.

I'm a sucker for Eno's voice. It sounds great so far. I'm on track 4 now.

Album? More like Spinning Away and nine b-sides.

McGrath's supposed to be a rock trivia expert

he is? it is just mr. access hollywood host to me now

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

More like Spinning Away and nine b-sides.

Very superior b-sides.

I really don't get the love for Spinning Away. Feels pretty throwaway to me

Yeah, if I'd been around I would have voted for "Crime in the Desert." It never occurred to me that Spinning Away dwarfed the competition.

There was an EP that came out along with this album, but now I can't remember what the non-album songs were. I spent a lot of time looking for a copy, and I don't think there was anything earth shattering on it.

I've got that CD single - it has "Grandfather's House" and one other unique b-side, both added to the reissue.

"You Don't Miss Your Water" was the other one.

Actually all the album tracks deserved at least one vote. What a gem of an album.... I always thought Crime in the Desert could have come off Before and after Science.

I've never heard those extra songs.

I would've given love to "Been There Done That." Here's how that song developed. Eno to Cale: "Shit. I've spent the 1980s creating moonscapes. I better catch up on what's been happening in music. Hmmm. Let's see. New wave. That Tears For Fears is pretty good. The Cure too (at least when they're not too bummed out). House. Oooh - lovely piano hooks, Marshall. Gotta have those. CHR. I can make a record as bright and chirpy as the last two Scritti Polittis. Et voila! Been there. Done that. Now back to moonscaping."

I luvluvluv the production on this album – it's SO deliberately artificial and clanky. It's as if not hiring a real band freed these two master soundscapers to use everything they've learned about keyboards, MIDI technology, Fairlight programming, and sextuple-tracked vocals.

I think the other songs were on the single for One Word. You don't Miss Your water is on the reissue (which I don't have) along with another one I've never heard, "Palanquin". Looks like the reissue gives another shot at less-terrible cover art as well.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:djfpxqrsld0e

(2xpost)

Just listening to this today. Man, that "You Don't Miss Your Water" cover is fantastic.

Can't believe no one voted for "Lay My Love."

I can't believe three people voted for Cordoba!

"Cordoba" is classic Cale and fairly well-known due to his outstanding solo piano version on Fragments of a Rainy Season.

<3 <3 <3

shocked that no one voted lay my love---might be my favorite

i'd still like to hear an Aeroplane cover/treatment of spinning away

'spinning away' is possibly my favorite song of all time

also, alfred's stylus review (upthread) is really good and def worth reading!

this album!!!! god

<3 <3 <3

shocked that no one voted lay my love---might be my favorite

i'd still like to hear an Aeroplane cover/treatment of spinning away
--i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx)

can I just

this record is hilarious, forgot about it for years. middle-aged dudes get funky!

im surprised spinning away won in such a landslide. even the CD sounds like it was encoded as a 128 kbps MP3, and spinning away suffers the brunt of it

I don't follow either of these comments - hilarious? Sounds like 128kbps mp3s? It sounds frickin' great, both content and quality, to my ears.

It IS funny! "I am the termite of temptation"?

i'm talking mostly about the drum sounds. the beginning of "spinning away" sounds so compressed and full of recording artifacts.

Has anyone heard the recent-ish reissue, wrt the sound of the album?

Some great stuff in this thread.

I luvluvluv the production on this album – it's SO deliberately artificial and clanky. It's as if not hiring a real band freed these two master soundscapers to use everything they've learned about keyboards, MIDI technology, Fairlight programming, and sextuple-tracked vocals.

Completely agree. I'm obsessing a bit right now over Eno's late-80s-era production style, which this is in some ways an extension of.

I always thought Crime in the Desert could have come off Before and after Science.

Totally -- it's "Backwater" sung as a duet in a saloon.

the beginning of "spinning away" sounds so compressed and full of recording artifacts.

Eno treatments, dude. Go listen to "White Mustang" off Music for Films III if you don't believe me. He was into those kind of effects at the time.

I could listen to "One Word" and "Empty Frame" on loop all day.

It's true. I've read a couple of different accounts about how "Empty Frame" developed. One (Cale's),held that Eno laid down an incredible vocal that he was embarrassed by and insisted on re-recording it. Eno's insisted that it was just in a really high register and didn't fit the album, so he re-wrote the song completely after Cale left (at one point it was called "Waterloo"). Shame virtually no outtakes of Eno's work ever leak.

I would've given love to "Been There Done That." Here's how that song developed. Eno to Cale: "Shit. I've spent the 1980s creating moonscapes. I better catch up on what's been happening in music. Hmmm. Let's see. New wave. That Tears For Fears is pretty good. The Cure too (at least when they're not too bummed out). House. Oooh - lovely piano hooks, Marshall. Gotta have those. CHR. I can make a record as bright and chirpy as the last two Scritti Polittis. Et voila! Been there. Done that. Now back to moonscaping."

A lot was made at the time of how this record hailed Eno's return to vocals, given that he hadn't really sung anything for almost 15 years prior. But in reality, from Nerve Net/My Squelchy Life to all his background (even lead) vocals in James to Another Day on Earth (to Drums Between the Bells even), he's actually done quite a bit of vocal stuff in the decades since.

There was a great piece in Option Magazine that went into amazing detail regarding what a difficult recording this was. Doesn't seem to be online, however.

This is sooooo weird as I've been listening to this record on loop in my car.

NTI, can you post a couple of those interviews?

Here's one: http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/sos90b.html

In his "A year with swollen appendices" book, there's a line where he says he had just licensed "Spinning away" to be used in a British TV ad (Burtons, iirc) for £50,000. Nice.

Cale's side of the story of making Wrong Way Up is pretty grippingly written up, I recall, in What's Welsh For Zen:)

NTI, can you post a couple of those interviews?

Here's one: http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/sos90b.html

Cale's side of the story of making Wrong Way Up is pretty grippingly written up, I recall, in What's Welsh For Zen:)

It's interesting that the two of them were so inspired by "The Soul of Carmen Miranda" -- until recently, it was never a favorite of mine and generally representative to me of Cale's kind of monotone melodic style of the period (which continues to some extent on WWU). I like the sounds in it tho -- particularly the squiggly scratchy sound that stretches into infinity.

Just heard Sugar Ray's cover of "Spinning Away", surprisingly faithful. Anyone have the back story on this?

Yeah that always seemed odd to me. The only thing I can imagine is that whoever did the soundtrack citation was trying to match a popular act with a personal fave.

You walk towards the station.
I'll walk towards the bus

otm

I'd heard about the language-book lyrics for Cordoba - looked for the source today:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g8KlL80sQ-sC&q=%22according+to+his+father+he+is+very+ill%22&dq=%22according+to+his+father+he+is+very+ill%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGkK6jv-DJAhVEbRQKHbiECeMQ6AEIHzAA

that's awesome

Actually more likely this one in the same series, given the dates:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R43FKpfjAEAC&dq=%22according%20to%20his%20father%20he%20is%20very%20ill%22&source=gbs_book_other_versions

gah those are my favorite types of language instruction books too -- tons of drills, sentences that are written for their sounds, super old school methodology that's pretty useful when you're at the beginning stages of learning a language

Love Spinning Away so much, but a friend sort of pooped it up a bit for me by noting the simple chord progression is pretty much "Hey Soul Sister."

ilxor Tom D. just pointed out that "Spinning Away" is merely a rewrite of "The Big Ship"...

but I'd like to chime in that "Spinning Away" unfortunately replaces the original's heavily distorted synths & Frippotronics with late 80s flourishes like gated drums & world music cliches.

Spinning away is beautiful

yeah c'mon it's like top ten Eno

but I'd like to chime in that "Spinning Away" unfortunately replaces the original's heavily distorted synths & Frippotronics with late 80s flourishes like gated drums & world music cliches.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli),

Your imagination unfortunately was replaced by heavily distorted farts

Trying to imagine if Julien Baker* (or hell even Cale**) covered it on solo piano...

*a la her cover of "Accident Prone"
**a la his cover of "Frozen Warnings"

I love this album. Footsteps and been there are the 2 tracks I’m not so hot on, though I enjoy them - love all the rest

Eno did a lazy lugubrious cover of “ring of fire” in the style of “the river” around this time, I love it just for giving me more of that vibe

brb gonna listen to the oh-oh-ohs from "Empty Frame" again.

Had I been around I might have voted for that one itp

Listened to it today! Particularly love "Cordoba".

ilxor Tom D. just pointed out that "Spinning Away" is merely a rewrite of "The Big Ship"...

that's a cool observation, I think this tune fits in with those two as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycTSIC0aCA

(not Eno though)

Spinning Away is absolutely classic of course (even the Sugar Ray cover is good!!) but I'm still bothered by the drum loop sounding like a 96kbps MP3

It's a fairly standard chord sequence, probably been used lots of time. Eno only uses straightforward chord sequences, Cale often does too.

I wish I could vote on this to show Been There Done That some love

I'm finally home (!) and am here to tell you that:

"The Big Ship"
C - F - Am - F - C - G/B - Am - F
I | IV | vi | IV | I | V* | vi | IV *inversion

"Spinning Away"
A - E - F#m - D
I | V | vi | IV

so a slight difference, but in Tom D's defense, the reedy/overdriven DX-7 preset sounds remarkably similar in both tracks.

My big takeaways: "The Big Ship" uses the same chords as "No Woman No Cry" & "Spinning Away" uses the same chords as "Three Little Birds".

Is Eno a closet rasta?

Hasn't he just been working with Lee Perry?

I'm finally home (!) and am here to tell you that:

"The Big Ship"
C - F - Am - F - C - G/B - Am - F
I | IV | vi | IV | I | V* | vi | IV *inversion

"Spinning Away"
A - E - F#m - D
I | V | vi | IV

so a slight difference, but in Tom D's defense, the reedy/overdriven DX-7 preset sounds remarkably similar in both tracks.

bumping this thread for the "Spinning Away" chord progression soundalike... my wife's native ringtone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW6gUttBqpM