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(ambient music)
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- Eno's someone who has crossed many worlds
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and has lived and worked kind of at the interstices
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between the worlds.
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- He seemed to know or have this knack
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for being involved in the right group at the right time.
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Knowing where to go and he had such a good ear
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of knowing what sounded good, of what would work
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in a pop, in a rock context.
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- Brian Eno is an anomaly because he just happened
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to be born in a certain time, in a certain place,
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in a certain number of events and creative nodal points
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coincided with where he was and who he knew.
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Perhaps people don't, younger people, don't realize
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quite what an anomaly in the 70s,
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he was an alien not only because he made these weird sounds
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but because he seemed to act in a way
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that nobody else could prescribe.
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It's a one-off.
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(upbeat music)
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♪ I tried but I could not a find a way ♪
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- [Narrator] In 1972, a band appeared from out of nowhere
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to take the British music scene storm.
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Roxy Music had existed for just over a year
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and had not toured the live circuit.
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Yet their defiantly different music had won the support
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of key allies in the music press
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and their ascension to stardom rewrote the rule book
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in how to make it as a rock band.
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Unique conceptually, visually, and musically,
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this was a new kind of act for a new decade.
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♪ She's as sweet as a queen I ever seen ♪
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- We were into the 70s, if you talked about 1970 to '71,
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obviously the 60s has ended but most people
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were still waiting for the 70s to begin
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and looking around for something that might indicate
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that the 70s had begun.
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And Roxy Music, possibly along with Bowie,
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were the first indicator that something new
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was maybe happening in the UK anyway.
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There was a schism within popular music
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as far as the UK was concerned at the time.
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The first thing that probably emerged in the 70s
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which was distinctive was so-called glam rock.
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If you look at the major stars in the firmament at the time,
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it was Gary Glitter, it was Sweet, it was Slade,
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it was T-Rex,
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all making singles, all aimed specifically
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at a predominantly young teenage market.
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♪ Get it on, bang a gong, get it on ♪
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The music press at the time, which incidentally
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was incredibly powerful and that should not be
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underestimated, we're talking about sales figures
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of 200,000 plus for Melody and the NME too.
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Their remit was predominantly to report on so-called
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progressive music and the major exponents
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would be the big acts like Jethro Tull, Yes,
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Pink Floyd, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
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♪ Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human race ♪
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♪ On a sailing ship to nowhere
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♪ Leaving any place
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♪ In the summer change to winter ♪
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♪ Yours is no disgrace
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- Progressive rock was basically
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musicians were really good at playing their instruments.
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Who were up to classical standards or beyond.
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The bulk of the bands who were playing,
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they all had long hair, beards and denims.
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Obviously its appeal was male.
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The incredible thing about Roxy Music
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is that from the very beginning,
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from the very word go, they appealed to women as well.
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- [Narrator] The brain child of singer
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and songwriter, Bryan Ferry,
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the group were unlike anything on the musical
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landscape at the time.
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The majority of its members were art school graduates.
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And together they re-imagined the very concept
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of the rock band and the music it could create.
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And key to this synth player, Brian Eno.
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Then known only as Eno,
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whose striking image and experiments
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with new technology would further distance
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the band from their contemporaries.
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In June 1972, their debut album was released.
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Introducing an act who seemed a response
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to rock and roll's past, as well as a beacon
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for its possible future.
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- Roxy Music's first album is
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one of the great debut albums in the history of music.
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Just the cover, the cover of the album alone
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sets it completely apart from anything else.
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It was erotic, but it wasn't porn,
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but it was something else, it was more lifestyle.
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This is a world of glasses of champagne,
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flowers, gold records, incredible looking women,
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pink and blue were those kind of colors
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that you'd never see that were,
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sort of thing in women's magazines.
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It was very striking, but then you open
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the album up and you see these weird
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characters inside, you think,
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God, what do these guys look like?
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They look so weird-looking.
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♪ You got me girl on the run, run around ♪
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♪ Got me all around town
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♪ You've got me girl on the run around ♪
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♪ And it's getting me down, getting me down ♪
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♪ Lady if you wanna find a lover ♪
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♪ Then you look no further
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♪ For I'm gonna be you're only
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♪ Searching at the start of the season ♪
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- The Roxy Music concept was almost
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post-modern in a sense.
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It was difficult to classify them for a start.
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They presented themselves as
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in some ways as the ultimate glam rock group.
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But they seemed to borrow things
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from different eras, both musically
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and in terms of the visual image.
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You had Bryan Ferry with a 50's quiff,
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and also with a Lurex jacket,
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so he wasn't quite the 50's Elvis,
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he was Elvis with a sort of 70's look about him.
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Then you had Eno.
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Eno was unique, visually, he was
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beyond flamboyance.
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Eno was more flamboyant than probably
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anybody else in rock, even Bowie,
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I think he was more flamboyant than Bowie.
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There was Eno with feathers,
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apricot lipstick, this mauve kind of
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over the top eyeshadow.
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He was androgynous, he could have just
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walked out of a hospital he was so thin.
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So he embodied a new glam rock of the 70's.
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The others you could see elements of the 50's.
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They didn't quite seem to fit together,
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and yet they did.
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And part of the reason that they did was
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that the music reflected the image, in a strange sense.
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♪ Throw me a line
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♪ I'm sinking fast, clutching at straws ♪
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♪ Can't make it
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♪ Havana sound we're trying
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♪ A hard edge, a hipster jiving through ♪
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♪ Last picture show's down the drive-in ♪
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♪ You're so sheer, you're so chic ♪
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♪ Teenage rebel of the week
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♪ Pictures of the mountain streamline ♪
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♪ Midnight blues casino floors. ♪
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There was definitely a 40's and 50's
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element to the music.
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The notion of Roxy Music, it was originally
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gonna be called Roxy.
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They wanted to be named after a cinema,
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it could have been the Realto,
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but it became Roxy, it had a ring to it.
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And it was again, instantly predomniant
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of almost post-war Britain,
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immediate post-war Britain.
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So you had that whole 50's thing.
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But at the same time you had
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synthesizers in there courtesy of Eno.
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The musical approach was incredibly modern,
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it was electronic, it was all about the 70's.
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You also had via the saxophone and the car,
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you always had to add 60's rhythms in there as well.
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So both the music and the image suggested
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50's, 60's, 70's,
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three different decades, possibly
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even the 40's if you wanna throw that in as well.
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I think only Bowie and Roxy were doing
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this kind of mixing and matching
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of different styles.
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And a lot of it did come from their art school
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backgrounds as well.
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If you throw all that into the mix,
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you've got a unique concept, and
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that's what made Roxy very special at that time.
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- [Narrator] And Brian Eno's art school
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background in particular was key to
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making him such an unconventional figure
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within popular music.
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A graduate of both Ipswich and Winchester,
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where had studied to become a painter,
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he main areas of interest musically
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prior to joining Roxy had been in the avant-garde,
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and in the technical aspects of sound recording
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and audio manipulation.
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Although he had been interested in rock and roll
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and doo wop from an early age,
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and had been involved in a band during
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his grammar school days,
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he had never seriously considered
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entering the rock world until he
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was introduced into Roxy Music
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by one of its founding members,
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saxophonist and oboe-player, Andy MacKay,
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whom he had met while at art school.
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Eno's original role was as the
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group's technical advisor.
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Brought into record demos due to this knowledge
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of tape recorders and his stash of amps
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and equipment, his use of techniques
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drawn from the avant-garde allowed him
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to process and alter the band's conventional instruments.
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And his job title was upgraded to sound manipulator.
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Over time, these techniques would be key
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in making Roxy Music such a unique outfit.
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- I think from today's perspective,
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it's actually quite difficult to understand
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the sheer weirdness that was processing
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other instruments, even the idea of treatments
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which later became called process,
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these were alien terms.
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And in the initial Roxy Music shows,
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Brian wasn't even on stage, he was at
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the back of the hall at the mixing desk,
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with his tape recorders, and delay units, et cetera.
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Feeding the guitar, the saxophone,
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sometimes Bryan Ferry's keyboard,
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sometimes even the vocal.
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Through these tape recorders to create
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two signals, so you've got the signal
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of the actual instrument but then
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you also had the effected signal,
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and he would then mix at mixing desks
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between these two so that you could turn
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an ordinary-ish guitar chord into something
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very, very strange, something that reverberates
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and repeated.
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And had a completely different character.
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So much so that some of the,
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like Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay
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were rather ruefully noted that sometimes
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they'd hit a chord or a note and
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they wouldn't hear it back the first
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10 seconds or something because it had
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been taking so long to go through
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Brian's various systems.
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It's taking what is essentially
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an orthodox rock band, however,
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artfully clothed and shaped.
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Roxy Music, and giving this patena
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of other-worldliness.
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And I think he probably hasn't even today
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received enough credit for that.
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- [Narrator] Eno also became proficient
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on Andy Mackay's rare VCS3 synthesizer.
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And not only would his experimental input
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become a dominant element in their recorded work,
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but by 1972, when the band were performing
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their first major life concerts,
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he had managed to become an essential
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part of their stage show.
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- He wasn't going to be the general keyboard player
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which a bit like Bryan was, sitting
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on the piano, playing, he wasn't going to be like that,
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he was going to be in his own little box,
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as part of what was going part of the group,
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00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:02,566
but doing something completely different.
263
00:12:02,566 --> 00:12:04,366
And he developed this idea where he
264
00:12:04,366 --> 00:12:06,133
was like a controller at an airport,
265
00:12:06,133 --> 00:12:07,833
with all the controls around him,
266
00:12:07,833 --> 00:12:09,633
and they would sit in at the,
267
00:12:09,633 --> 00:12:12,666
well he sat himself at the mixer in front of the group,
268
00:12:12,666 --> 00:12:14,366
so people would be looking at the group
269
00:12:14,366 --> 00:12:15,900
and see this guy at the mixer
270
00:12:15,900 --> 00:12:17,900
playing along with his synthesizer,
271
00:12:17,900 --> 00:12:18,800
which was extraordinary, they'd never
272
00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:20,166
seen anything like that.
273
00:12:20,166 --> 00:12:21,700
Because usually people at mixers
274
00:12:21,700 --> 00:12:23,900
were people you didn't really look at them.
275
00:12:23,900 --> 00:12:25,366
They'd just be dressed in black and not,
276
00:12:25,366 --> 00:12:27,233
they'd sort of out.
277
00:12:27,233 --> 00:12:30,333
But this was now part of the scenery.
278
00:12:30,333 --> 00:12:33,733
(psychedelic rock music)
279
00:12:51,066 --> 00:12:52,966
- When Roxy Music first emerged,
280
00:12:52,966 --> 00:12:55,266
I think what made them stand out
281
00:12:55,266 --> 00:12:59,133
was the way that the music was treated.
282
00:12:59,133 --> 00:13:00,633
It was really like the only person
283
00:13:00,633 --> 00:13:03,200
who was doing anything, okay other people
284
00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:06,033
were playing synthesizers, but they
285
00:13:06,033 --> 00:13:09,266
were playing them just as the instrument itself.
286
00:13:09,266 --> 00:13:11,633
He was molding and re-molding,
287
00:13:11,633 --> 00:13:13,866
and texturing and layering.
288
00:13:24,133 --> 00:13:25,466
He wasn't a musician.
289
00:13:25,466 --> 00:13:27,866
He could play a little bit of guitar,
290
00:13:27,866 --> 00:13:29,766
but his forte was
291
00:13:29,766 --> 00:13:31,800
taking it all and molding it,
292
00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:35,033
and making it into Roxy Music.
293
00:13:35,033 --> 00:13:37,233
He was doing something new,
294
00:13:37,233 --> 00:13:39,066
and it took people a little while to
295
00:13:39,066 --> 00:13:41,200
understand, hey look, here's a guy,
296
00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:43,433
he's not a virtuoso musician,
297
00:13:43,433 --> 00:13:47,000
but he's got something, and he's able to do
298
00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:47,833
something.
299
00:13:49,133 --> 00:13:50,833
- [Narrator] For the record-buying public however,
300
00:13:50,833 --> 00:13:53,600
this something was both alien and mysterious,
301
00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:57,600
upon the release of Roxy Music's debut in June 1972,
302
00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,133
the sonic experience of the album was so novel
303
00:14:00,133 --> 00:14:01,933
that many could not discern exactly
304
00:14:01,933 --> 00:14:04,033
what instruments they were listening to,
305
00:14:04,033 --> 00:14:07,033
and how much of this was due to the contribution of Eno.
306
00:14:07,033 --> 00:14:08,866
- From the opener of Remake/Remodel,
307
00:14:08,866 --> 00:14:10,600
this is a sound that was obviously gonna
308
00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:12,100
be very different.
309
00:14:12,100 --> 00:14:15,233
Determining Eno's role in it has never been easy.
310
00:14:15,233 --> 00:14:17,500
Consistently in Roxy Music,
311
00:14:17,500 --> 00:14:20,566
and perhaps even at later stages,
312
00:14:20,566 --> 00:14:22,800
Eno often gets credited for things
313
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:25,166
he didn't actually do, by his own admission.
314
00:14:25,166 --> 00:14:28,666
Anything that was sonically odd or different,
315
00:14:28,666 --> 00:14:32,200
any particular effect on any of those albums,
316
00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:35,600
the man you look at instantly was Eno.
317
00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,133
The beauty of it was that you never quite knew.
318
00:14:38,133 --> 00:14:40,666
There was a certain mysterious quality about Eno
319
00:14:40,666 --> 00:14:42,566
as precisely what he did.
320
00:14:42,566 --> 00:14:44,133
And where he did it.
321
00:14:44,133 --> 00:14:46,733
- Eno's presence on the first Roxy album is
322
00:14:46,733 --> 00:14:50,533
perhaps not as palpable as it would have been
323
00:14:50,533 --> 00:14:52,233
on stage at that time.
324
00:14:52,233 --> 00:14:54,066
I think it's there, it did,
325
00:14:54,066 --> 00:14:56,166
it's sort of background and it's kind of subtle,
326
00:14:56,166 --> 00:14:59,100
and like on Ladytron, there's perhaps more of it
327
00:14:59,100 --> 00:15:02,333
where I think Ferry famously asked him to
328
00:15:02,333 --> 00:15:05,466
create some lunar quality music,
329
00:15:05,466 --> 00:15:07,933
and Brian said, oh I have just the thing.
330
00:15:07,933 --> 00:15:09,866
He'd already made something.
331
00:15:09,866 --> 00:15:11,466
And that's quite high in the mix,
332
00:15:11,466 --> 00:15:13,366
and there are a few treatments of oboes
333
00:15:13,366 --> 00:15:15,900
and guitars throughout the album,
334
00:15:15,900 --> 00:15:17,833
which is where his presence is palpable
335
00:15:17,833 --> 00:15:21,166
obviously and it's wobbly and weird,
336
00:15:21,166 --> 00:15:23,433
and you know when it's wobbly and weird,
337
00:15:23,433 --> 00:15:25,100
Brian Eno is nearby.
338
00:15:26,466 --> 00:15:27,700
- [Narrator] Yet the fact that Eno represented
339
00:15:27,700 --> 00:15:29,900
a new kind of musician, posed a problem
340
00:15:29,900 --> 00:15:32,400
in some quarters of the rock fraternity.
341
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:34,266
As the band's profile grew,
342
00:15:34,266 --> 00:15:35,933
in interview Eno was more than happy
343
00:15:35,933 --> 00:15:38,666
to admit that he wasn't a classically trained virtuoso.
344
00:15:38,666 --> 00:15:42,566
And instead began to label himself a non-musician.
345
00:15:42,566 --> 00:15:45,000
This term was incredibly sell-effacing,
346
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:46,666
but the notion that a blooming figure
347
00:15:46,666 --> 00:15:49,433
in popular music was advocating invention over ability
348
00:15:49,433 --> 00:15:52,333
was both baffling and threatening to some.
349
00:15:52,333 --> 00:15:54,533
- Probably the most heretical idea that Eno
350
00:15:54,533 --> 00:15:56,333
had in the early 70's was this idea that
351
00:15:56,333 --> 00:15:58,500
he wasn't a musician, didn't need to
352
00:15:58,500 --> 00:16:02,133
toil away in a room learning all these
353
00:16:02,133 --> 00:16:04,966
techniques and there was a kind of
354
00:16:06,133 --> 00:16:08,366
joyous gleeful contempt for
355
00:16:09,466 --> 00:16:12,500
craft, which was really a radical break
356
00:16:13,700 --> 00:16:16,133
with the 60's, there was a lot of people
357
00:16:16,133 --> 00:16:18,100
who went to art school, Eric Clapton
358
00:16:18,100 --> 00:16:19,933
went to art school, but they all had
359
00:16:19,933 --> 00:16:22,033
subscribed to this idea of learn your instrument
360
00:16:22,033 --> 00:16:25,266
and practicing and virtuosity.
361
00:16:25,266 --> 00:16:28,300
But what Eno introduced from the
362
00:16:28,300 --> 00:16:30,233
sort of radical art school environment
363
00:16:30,233 --> 00:16:31,533
was this idea that it wasn't,
364
00:16:31,533 --> 00:16:32,500
you could be an artist but you didn't
365
00:16:32,500 --> 00:16:34,000
necessarily have to have skill.
366
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:35,466
- Here was this guy who plays synthesizer
367
00:16:35,466 --> 00:16:39,133
in Roxy Music, but he doesn't so much play it
368
00:16:39,133 --> 00:16:41,133
as he plays with it.
369
00:16:41,133 --> 00:16:43,233
He uses it as an effect.
370
00:16:43,233 --> 00:16:44,933
He uses it as a stage prop.
371
00:16:44,933 --> 00:16:47,433
It was all very visual,
372
00:16:47,433 --> 00:16:49,633
what he was wearing on stage with Roxy Music
373
00:16:49,633 --> 00:16:52,633
was outrageous even by the standards of the time,
374
00:16:52,633 --> 00:16:54,200
and that was the whole point
375
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,233
to attract a lot of attention with this big
376
00:16:56,233 --> 00:16:58,566
as he put, a shake you by the lapels
377
00:16:58,566 --> 00:17:00,866
kind of musical statement.
378
00:17:00,866 --> 00:17:02,833
But again, he wasn't a musician,
379
00:17:02,833 --> 00:17:06,333
he didn't practice, he didn't hae a lot of chops.
380
00:17:06,333 --> 00:17:08,866
As far as I know, he still doesn't today.
381
00:17:08,866 --> 00:17:10,933
If you look at Keith Emerson,
382
00:17:10,933 --> 00:17:14,666
or Rick Wakeman, these guys have chops up the whazoo,
383
00:17:14,666 --> 00:17:16,300
they are classically trained musicians,
384
00:17:16,300 --> 00:17:17,800
they can play anything.
385
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:21,300
(progressive synth music)
386
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,466
- If you compare him to the Rick Wakeman's
387
00:17:41,466 --> 00:17:44,133
of this world, or the Keith Emerson's of this world,
388
00:17:44,133 --> 00:17:45,866
who were the predominant keyboardists in
389
00:17:45,866 --> 00:17:47,600
progressive rock at the time,
390
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:50,066
these were music school guys essentially.
391
00:17:50,066 --> 00:17:51,766
They could play with their eyes closed.
392
00:17:51,766 --> 00:17:53,333
Eno needed to have dots on the keyboard
393
00:17:53,333 --> 00:17:56,333
to actually even make anything.
394
00:17:56,333 --> 00:17:59,133
So you had the non-musician versus the musician,
395
00:17:59,133 --> 00:18:01,266
and it was understandable there were
396
00:18:01,266 --> 00:18:04,400
certain suspicion and prejudice against it
397
00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,900
because he wasn't a player, and they were.
398
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,233
He wasn't interested in virtuosity,
399
00:18:11,233 --> 00:18:13,900
or playing, or technical ability.
400
00:18:13,900 --> 00:18:16,633
The musicians use music to make music.
401
00:18:16,633 --> 00:18:19,166
For Eno, music was a function of art,
402
00:18:19,166 --> 00:18:20,666
it was the function of something else.
403
00:18:20,666 --> 00:18:22,866
It wasn't just music for music's sake.
404
00:18:22,866 --> 00:18:24,033
And inevitably that's gonna create
405
00:18:24,033 --> 00:18:26,700
jealousy from somebody who's been
406
00:18:28,300 --> 00:18:29,966
playing an instrument 15 hours a day
407
00:18:29,966 --> 00:18:31,233
since they were 10 years old.
408
00:18:31,233 --> 00:18:33,600
To see somebody come along from an art school
409
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:34,800
and just tinker with the thing
410
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,200
as if it was nothing more than a play thing,
411
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,833
and also to be given great critical
412
00:18:39,833 --> 00:18:44,366
kudos as a result, it must be very frustrating.
413
00:18:44,366 --> 00:18:45,600
- [Narrator] And although Eno's status
414
00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:47,333
as a non-musician may have antagonized
415
00:18:47,333 --> 00:18:49,533
some of the old guard, as he persisted
416
00:18:49,533 --> 00:18:51,733
with the VCS3 synth, he grew accomplished
417
00:18:51,733 --> 00:18:54,266
in using what was a complex machine.
418
00:18:54,266 --> 00:18:56,733
The music press became intrigued by his
419
00:18:56,733 --> 00:18:59,166
technical activities, which he would discuss
420
00:18:59,166 --> 00:19:01,233
enthusiastically in interviews,
421
00:19:01,233 --> 00:19:02,900
and a picture began forming of Eno
422
00:19:02,900 --> 00:19:05,000
as the mad professor of rock.
423
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:09,600
A new kind of musician mastering emerging technology.
424
00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,700
- At the time, the only other people
425
00:19:11,700 --> 00:19:14,266
that used a VS3 were Pink Floyd
426
00:19:14,266 --> 00:19:15,966
who had one in the studio, 'cause
427
00:19:15,966 --> 00:19:18,200
they were recording Dark Side of the Moon at the time.
428
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:22,066
And they were starting to experiment with this thing.
429
00:19:22,066 --> 00:19:25,266
And the other people who had this
430
00:19:25,266 --> 00:19:29,033
were say Germans like Klaus Schulze.
431
00:19:29,033 --> 00:19:31,366
Eno was the most interested in using
432
00:19:31,366 --> 00:19:32,966
it all the time, the others only
433
00:19:32,966 --> 00:19:34,866
wanted to use it for say a track,
434
00:19:34,866 --> 00:19:37,166
or this, and maybe then put it away,
435
00:19:37,166 --> 00:19:40,733
but Eno wanted to use it out front.
436
00:19:40,733 --> 00:19:42,933
So he was the one who became
437
00:19:42,933 --> 00:19:47,200
associated with the VCS3, it was his baby.
438
00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,566
- With a synthesizer you build up a pattern
439
00:19:49,566 --> 00:19:52,000
of maybe three or four sections which
440
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:53,800
virtually make one sound,
441
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,466
and it's not very easy, you had to
442
00:19:56,466 --> 00:19:58,833
on a special course, or have someone to teach you
443
00:19:58,833 --> 00:20:00,833
how to actually do this because it's
444
00:20:00,833 --> 00:20:03,500
quite advanced sort of work.
445
00:20:03,500 --> 00:20:05,900
And he had got past the initial stages,
446
00:20:05,900 --> 00:20:07,933
and he was in an advanced stage of it.
447
00:20:07,933 --> 00:20:09,433
So he was getting very good at combining
448
00:20:09,433 --> 00:20:12,466
different sounds from these synthesizers together
449
00:20:12,466 --> 00:20:13,866
and together, and together,
450
00:20:13,866 --> 00:20:15,866
and even putting things like
451
00:20:15,866 --> 00:20:18,400
cow bells through at the same time,
452
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:21,933
or he had built this rather interesting instrument
453
00:20:21,933 --> 00:20:23,900
which was a piece of wood,
454
00:20:23,900 --> 00:20:27,066
with a paperclips stuck into it,
455
00:20:27,066 --> 00:20:29,166
so there was all these paperclips,
456
00:20:29,166 --> 00:20:30,566
all at various heights, and if you
457
00:20:30,566 --> 00:20:33,600
prong them, put them through the synthesizer,
458
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,700
it made this weird sound.
459
00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:37,933
I don't think he actually recorded that
460
00:20:37,933 --> 00:20:40,300
for Roxy Music, but he was interested in
461
00:20:40,300 --> 00:20:42,966
making new types of instruments.
462
00:20:43,866 --> 00:20:45,600
- [Narrator] By the end of 1972,
463
00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:47,700
having conquered the UK, Roxy took
464
00:20:47,700 --> 00:20:50,533
their inimitable show to America.
465
00:20:50,533 --> 00:20:52,966
Advanced word had traveled across the Atlantic,
466
00:20:52,966 --> 00:20:54,500
and the US press were eagerly awaiting
467
00:20:54,500 --> 00:20:56,766
not only the band's iconic front man,
468
00:20:56,766 --> 00:20:59,133
Bryan Ferry, but the unique visual and
469
00:20:59,133 --> 00:21:01,600
musical presence of Eno.
470
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,533
- Roxy Music was hot as a firecracker
471
00:21:03,533 --> 00:21:04,866
from the get go.
472
00:21:06,266 --> 00:21:08,866
If I'm not mistaken, the first time I ever saw them,
473
00:21:08,866 --> 00:21:12,433
it certainly is something I remember,
474
00:21:12,433 --> 00:21:15,800
they initially opened for another Warner Bros. Band,
475
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,333
Jethro Tull at Madison Square Garden,
476
00:21:19,333 --> 00:21:22,466
and it was this whole phalanx of rock critics,
477
00:21:22,466 --> 00:21:23,833
and there weren't so many of this at this time,
478
00:21:23,833 --> 00:21:27,433
so say a dozen people at least that I knew.
479
00:21:27,433 --> 00:21:28,866
We'd get to Madison Square Garden at
480
00:21:28,866 --> 00:21:30,733
eight o'clock sharp, they put on their
481
00:21:30,733 --> 00:21:34,100
32 minute opening act, we cheer,
482
00:21:34,100 --> 00:21:36,666
we look at all the time because he
483
00:21:36,666 --> 00:21:38,433
is the visual center of the show,
484
00:21:38,433 --> 00:21:40,500
as much as Bryan Ferry.
485
00:21:40,500 --> 00:21:43,000
They go off, we all get up and leave.
486
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:44,600
(laughs)
487
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:45,933
Whole row, gone.
488
00:21:46,900 --> 00:21:49,633
We just wanted to see this band.
489
00:21:49,633 --> 00:21:50,766
- [Narrator] Not only were the US press
490
00:21:50,766 --> 00:21:52,733
primed for the spectacle of Eno,
491
00:21:52,733 --> 00:21:55,333
but also for his growing fame.
492
00:21:55,333 --> 00:21:57,500
Articulate and relaxed, he had become
493
00:21:57,500 --> 00:21:59,566
a much sought after interviewee.
494
00:21:59,566 --> 00:22:01,666
While his notorious sexual antics on the road
495
00:22:01,666 --> 00:22:03,766
were making him an unlikely icon,
496
00:22:03,766 --> 00:22:05,366
and his profile was beginning to eclipse that
497
00:22:05,366 --> 00:22:06,933
of front man Ferry.
498
00:22:08,300 --> 00:22:10,433
Roxy toured with support from blues guitarist,
499
00:22:10,433 --> 00:22:12,600
Lloyd Watson, who was a witness to Eno's
500
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:15,966
embracing of the rock and roll lifestyle.
501
00:22:15,966 --> 00:22:18,166
- Me and Eno, we sort of
502
00:22:18,166 --> 00:22:20,633
got a bit of a reputation as the looners
503
00:22:20,633 --> 00:22:22,700
in the party, as it were.
504
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:25,600
Well it was the age of the
505
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:28,033
Polaroid camera at that time.
506
00:22:29,433 --> 00:22:31,166
So of course there'd be girls in the dressing room,
507
00:22:31,166 --> 00:22:33,266
and Eno would be snapping,
508
00:22:33,266 --> 00:22:35,933
and then in the morning, showing us his collection.
509
00:22:35,933 --> 00:22:39,000
Yeah, I'm sure he won't mind me saying this now.
510
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:43,366
And also like the song, The Fat Lady of Limbourg
511
00:22:43,366 --> 00:22:45,700
is an actual experience of a
512
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,866
night in a hotel room when
513
00:22:49,866 --> 00:22:52,566
I had at that time I would say it
514
00:22:52,566 --> 00:22:54,666
was the misfortune to be in the
515
00:22:54,666 --> 00:22:58,733
next bed on my own, and not able to sleep.
516
00:22:58,733 --> 00:23:00,566
Because of what was going on but
517
00:23:00,566 --> 00:23:03,133
it's rock and roll innit? (laughs)
518
00:23:03,133 --> 00:23:05,666
- There was a lot of photographs of Brian Eno
519
00:23:05,666 --> 00:23:07,333
surrounded by lots of women. (laughs)
520
00:23:07,333 --> 00:23:09,333
He was getting a lot of attention though,
521
00:23:09,333 --> 00:23:10,866
and he relished that attention,
522
00:23:10,866 --> 00:23:12,333
he thought it was fantastic.
523
00:23:12,333 --> 00:23:14,300
Once he was asked, what are his interested in life?
524
00:23:14,300 --> 00:23:16,266
"My interests in Roxy are sex and music",
525
00:23:16,266 --> 00:23:19,100
so he was saying what people felt.
526
00:23:20,233 --> 00:23:22,333
I think, it may sound a bit strange,
527
00:23:22,333 --> 00:23:24,900
I think Bryan Ferry has always come across
528
00:23:24,900 --> 00:23:26,933
as quite a shy person,
529
00:23:26,933 --> 00:23:29,666
and someone who actually doesn't like
530
00:23:29,666 --> 00:23:33,600
socializing and talking outside the fantasy
531
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:35,600
which he made in Roxy Music.
532
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,100
I think personally he seems quite shy.
533
00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:42,533
And very self-conscious, where Eno wasn't self-conscious.
534
00:23:42,533 --> 00:23:44,533
- Went Eno went to America,
535
00:23:44,533 --> 00:23:46,133
they all loved him.
536
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:48,633
He gave good copy.
537
00:23:48,633 --> 00:23:50,433
And he was a natural entertainer.
538
00:23:50,433 --> 00:23:52,166
He was incredible garrulous,
539
00:23:52,166 --> 00:23:54,133
and he'd talk to any journalist.
540
00:23:54,133 --> 00:23:56,533
Ferry was more elitist.
541
00:23:56,533 --> 00:23:58,700
Even his choice of women seemed elitist.
542
00:23:58,700 --> 00:24:03,366
When he did get involved it was with fashion models.
543
00:24:03,366 --> 00:24:06,033
You got the impression Eno would sleep with anybody,
544
00:24:06,033 --> 00:24:07,966
was always the impression he gave,
545
00:24:07,966 --> 00:24:11,433
and on that level, there was a distinction between them.
546
00:24:11,433 --> 00:24:12,833
- [Narrator] The band returned to the studio
547
00:24:12,833 --> 00:24:14,800
in February 1973.
548
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:16,833
And the resultant LP, For Your Pleasure,
549
00:24:16,833 --> 00:24:18,833
was greeted even more enthusiastically
550
00:24:18,833 --> 00:24:20,633
than their debut.
551
00:24:20,633 --> 00:24:22,400
During the recording, Eno began to take
552
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,366
a more active role in the studio,
553
00:24:24,366 --> 00:24:26,033
and was able to imbue the album
554
00:24:26,033 --> 00:24:27,700
with inspiration he was taking from
555
00:24:27,700 --> 00:24:29,633
the new sounds emerging from the flourishing
556
00:24:29,633 --> 00:24:34,033
but little known German experimental scene of the time.
557
00:24:34,033 --> 00:24:35,833
- On For Your Pleasure, Brian does become
558
00:24:35,833 --> 00:24:37,433
more involved in the production process,
559
00:24:37,433 --> 00:24:39,200
definitely more so than the first album,
560
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:41,333
which was recorded really fast.
561
00:24:41,333 --> 00:24:43,966
They had much more time on the second one.
562
00:24:43,966 --> 00:24:46,666
Apart from anything else, he started to
563
00:24:46,666 --> 00:24:49,266
make notes about different ways
564
00:24:49,266 --> 00:24:51,133
of approaching the recording studio,
565
00:24:51,133 --> 00:24:52,700
some of which would have significance
566
00:24:52,700 --> 00:24:54,066
for him later on.
567
00:24:54,066 --> 00:24:55,500
I remember him saying something about
568
00:24:55,500 --> 00:24:57,966
if you listen to the studio playback from outside
569
00:24:57,966 --> 00:25:00,800
the control room, you picked out only
570
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:03,133
so many frequencies, and you could hear it
571
00:25:03,133 --> 00:25:04,366
in a completely different way,
572
00:25:04,366 --> 00:25:05,566
and sometimes gave him great ideas
573
00:25:05,566 --> 00:25:06,500
for mixing.
574
00:25:08,300 --> 00:25:11,233
He also on the track, The Bogus Man,
575
00:25:11,233 --> 00:25:13,533
he had a lot of impact on that one,
576
00:25:13,533 --> 00:25:16,866
and was influenced by Can, particularly.
577
00:25:16,866 --> 00:25:19,166
And he bought that kind of German,
578
00:25:19,166 --> 00:25:22,233
what later became known as Krautrock, sensibility
579
00:25:22,233 --> 00:25:23,700
to that track in particular.
580
00:25:23,700 --> 00:25:26,566
It does have this metoric
581
00:25:26,566 --> 00:25:30,566
quality kind of, but shrouded in weird textures.
582
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,066
♪ The Bogus Man is on his way
583
00:25:36,066 --> 00:25:39,000
♪ He's fast as he can run
584
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,633
♪ He's tired but he got you
585
00:25:41,633 --> 00:25:45,200
♪ And show you lots of fun
586
00:26:09,566 --> 00:26:11,133
So he was actually now rather
587
00:26:11,133 --> 00:26:12,466
than just bringing weird sounds,
588
00:26:12,466 --> 00:26:14,966
he was slightly more targeted,
589
00:26:14,966 --> 00:26:17,266
and I think the problem that he had
590
00:26:17,266 --> 00:26:20,166
on that album with the relationship with Bryan Ferry
591
00:26:20,166 --> 00:26:22,733
was that Ferry was kind of drifting
592
00:26:22,733 --> 00:26:25,600
towards the orthodox, to the classic,
593
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,366
and Eno was definitely wanting to
594
00:26:28,366 --> 00:26:32,466
put more of the avant-garde into Roxy Music,
595
00:26:32,466 --> 00:26:35,000
and that album, For Your Pleasure,
596
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,066
is perhaps a very finely balanced
597
00:26:37,066 --> 00:26:40,166
version of these two things,
598
00:26:40,166 --> 00:26:42,633
kind of keeping each other in equilibrium.
599
00:26:42,633 --> 00:26:45,000
But that's perhaps why it's for many people
600
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:46,833
the finest Roxy album.
601
00:26:48,266 --> 00:26:50,333
- [Narrator] Yet despite the success of For Your Pleasure,
602
00:26:50,333 --> 00:26:52,233
the equilibrium found on the album
603
00:26:52,233 --> 00:26:54,633
between the clashing personalities of Eno and Ferry
604
00:26:54,633 --> 00:26:57,233
could not be sustained elsewhere.
605
00:26:57,233 --> 00:26:58,900
Not only were they disagreeing about
606
00:26:58,900 --> 00:27:00,200
the direction of the band,
607
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,566
but a power struggle had developed.
608
00:27:02,566 --> 00:27:04,300
As they hit the road, Eno had become
609
00:27:04,300 --> 00:27:05,900
such a draw in his own right,
610
00:27:05,900 --> 00:27:07,100
that a baying crowd would chant his name
611
00:27:07,100 --> 00:27:09,300
throughout the set, while a neglected Ferry
612
00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:11,633
was continually having to remind the press
613
00:27:11,633 --> 00:27:14,566
that he was in fact the brains behind the outfit.
614
00:27:14,566 --> 00:27:16,133
And the sole songwriter, and not his
615
00:27:16,133 --> 00:27:17,900
flamboyant colleague.
616
00:27:18,866 --> 00:27:20,200
Yet any confusion came to an end
617
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:21,666
while promoting the new album,
618
00:27:21,666 --> 00:27:23,833
as Ferry chose to step out from behind his piano
619
00:27:23,833 --> 00:27:26,533
and on stage became the focal point.
620
00:27:26,533 --> 00:27:29,533
- Bryan Ferry had founded the group,
621
00:27:30,733 --> 00:27:32,466
and it's the same with anybody like
622
00:27:32,466 --> 00:27:34,766
with Brian Jones, he formed the Stones,
623
00:27:34,766 --> 00:27:37,866
and then finds himself getting marginalized.
624
00:27:37,866 --> 00:27:40,366
I mean it didn't happen to extent with Bryan Ferry,
625
00:27:40,366 --> 00:27:41,766
because he was the vocalist, so
626
00:27:41,766 --> 00:27:44,200
he was always in the forefront,
627
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:45,566
but the attention wasn't always going
628
00:27:45,566 --> 00:27:48,266
that way, it was sometimes going there,
629
00:27:48,266 --> 00:27:50,066
and let's see what Eno's doing
630
00:27:50,066 --> 00:27:52,066
and oh, he's singing, we better
631
00:27:52,066 --> 00:27:54,066
get back and look at him now.
632
00:27:54,066 --> 00:27:55,633
So I think that's just about
633
00:27:55,633 --> 00:27:59,200
how it was, yeah. (laughs)
634
00:28:00,366 --> 00:28:03,600
♪ There's a new sensation
635
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:06,600
♪ A fabulous creation
636
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,000
♪ A danceable solution
637
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,633
♪ To teenage revolution
638
00:28:13,633 --> 00:28:15,633
♪ Do the strand
639
00:28:15,633 --> 00:28:17,566
- Once Ferry took center stage,
640
00:28:17,566 --> 00:28:20,800
Eno's flamboyance and his role as
641
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,200
the clown of the group, but also the
642
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:24,933
genius of the group is thrust somewhat
643
00:28:24,933 --> 00:28:27,633
into the background, and so what's he left with?
644
00:28:27,633 --> 00:28:29,566
Once Ferry took center stage then they
645
00:28:29,566 --> 00:28:31,600
become a much more traditional group,
646
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:33,366
it didn't look so odd on stage,
647
00:28:33,366 --> 00:28:34,833
it was the right thing to do,
648
00:28:34,833 --> 00:28:36,766
the management wanted Ferry to be center stage.
649
00:28:36,766 --> 00:28:38,300
But then it becomes increasingly
650
00:28:38,300 --> 00:28:40,233
to look like Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music
651
00:28:40,233 --> 00:28:41,966
as opposed to just Roxy Music.
652
00:28:41,966 --> 00:28:44,466
And that's the direction it started going in.
653
00:28:44,466 --> 00:28:47,200
♪ They're playing our tune
654
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,666
♪ By the pale moon
655
00:28:50,666 --> 00:28:54,066
♪ We're incognito
656
00:28:54,066 --> 00:28:57,233
♪ Down the Lido
657
00:28:57,233 --> 00:29:01,033
♪ And we like the strand
658
00:29:01,033 --> 00:29:03,366
- That was really, I think the catalyst,
659
00:29:03,366 --> 00:29:06,000
it was never really the same after that.
660
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,733
And I think Eno felt he was being ousted,
661
00:29:08,733 --> 00:29:10,600
and he beat them to it in the end
662
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:12,733
by saying, okay look, I'm resigning,
663
00:29:12,733 --> 00:29:14,300
he left Roxy Music.
664
00:29:15,533 --> 00:29:17,200
And he left it in jubilation.
665
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,600
Once he made that decision, he ran out
666
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,000
singing and dancing down King's Road.
667
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:23,500
And I think that gives you an indication
668
00:29:23,500 --> 00:29:25,766
on the degree of tension that there must have been
669
00:29:25,766 --> 00:29:28,000
and the sense of release he felt,
670
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:29,333
that he could finally go off and do
671
00:29:29,333 --> 00:29:30,900
what he wanted to do, and was free
672
00:29:30,900 --> 00:29:34,633
from the constraints of Roxy Music.
673
00:29:34,633 --> 00:29:37,033
- Roxy Music really was Bryan's band,
674
00:29:37,033 --> 00:29:39,633
it was his vision, and it was one that
675
00:29:39,633 --> 00:29:42,466
I'm sure I contributed quite a lot to,
676
00:29:42,466 --> 00:29:44,900
but without a doubt, it was
677
00:29:44,900 --> 00:29:48,633
the whole construction was his in conception.
678
00:29:50,733 --> 00:29:53,300
He had this idea for this band and
679
00:29:53,300 --> 00:29:57,033
as I said, I was very happy to be part of it,
680
00:29:57,033 --> 00:30:00,166
but I think it wouldn't have been
681
00:30:00,166 --> 00:30:03,200
such an interesting band if
682
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,600
I had been able to sort of co-opt it
683
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,733
to go in my direction.
684
00:30:07,733 --> 00:30:10,300
- They lost that edge when Eno left,
685
00:30:10,300 --> 00:30:13,466
the experimentation seemed to die out.
686
00:30:14,733 --> 00:30:17,366
And the records became
687
00:30:17,366 --> 00:30:18,433
more refined.
688
00:30:20,100 --> 00:30:21,933
Still very good, still very good,
689
00:30:21,933 --> 00:30:25,700
but I say that sense of danger or excitement,
690
00:30:27,566 --> 00:30:30,500
or experimentation, when Eno left,
691
00:30:30,500 --> 00:30:32,833
a lot of that went with him.
692
00:30:34,500 --> 00:30:36,366
- There's no doubt about it that the minute
693
00:30:36,366 --> 00:30:37,900
that Eno left Roxy Music, it became
694
00:30:37,900 --> 00:30:39,733
a conventional rock band.
695
00:30:39,733 --> 00:30:42,000
But with Eno in it, the actual songs
696
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,533
are not allowed to fall into that
697
00:30:44,533 --> 00:30:46,366
kind of easy thing.
698
00:30:46,366 --> 00:30:48,600
They're going places that you just,
699
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,066
you don't know what's going to happen next,
700
00:30:50,066 --> 00:30:52,066
and that's what makes it so tense.
701
00:30:52,066 --> 00:30:54,466
And makes, particularly the first record very powerful,
702
00:30:54,466 --> 00:30:56,566
it's an amazing record.
703
00:30:56,566 --> 00:30:58,900
It's the classic Roxy Music album.
704
00:30:58,900 --> 00:31:00,466
- I think it's a mistake to say,
705
00:31:00,466 --> 00:31:03,533
oh, he's the great genius, and Ferry, baloney.
706
00:31:03,533 --> 00:31:05,866
Baloney, Ferry was a brilliant creation,
707
00:31:05,866 --> 00:31:08,133
and it was really Ferry's creation.
708
00:31:08,133 --> 00:31:11,566
Sure, we were aware of Eno, as he was called then.
709
00:31:11,566 --> 00:31:15,700
But finally Ferry's concept did not need Eno.
710
00:31:15,700 --> 00:31:17,700
And Eno had plenty clearly that he could do
711
00:31:17,700 --> 00:31:20,133
without Ferry's concept.
712
00:31:20,133 --> 00:31:21,700
- [Narrator] Without Roxy Music however,
713
00:31:21,700 --> 00:31:23,800
Eno's future was uncertain.
714
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,733
Despite his profile in the music press
715
00:31:25,733 --> 00:31:27,666
as a strange, brilliant anomaly.
716
00:31:27,666 --> 00:31:29,400
Whether this non-musician could produce
717
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,566
significant work of this own remained to be seen.
718
00:31:32,566 --> 00:31:34,400
And his finances were hardly conducive
719
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:35,933
to a fresh start.
720
00:31:35,933 --> 00:31:38,200
- When Brian quit Roxy Music,
721
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,500
he was famously felt incredibly liberated by this,
722
00:31:41,500 --> 00:31:44,033
and went off dancing down King's Road.
723
00:31:44,033 --> 00:31:48,266
But he was in debt to the management company.
724
00:31:48,266 --> 00:31:50,200
To the tune of £15,000.
725
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:55,966
Which was a not-insignificant sum in 1973 obviously.
726
00:31:59,100 --> 00:32:01,566
So he was in a very uncertain position.
727
00:32:01,566 --> 00:32:02,900
Of course he'd now left Roxy Music,
728
00:32:02,900 --> 00:32:04,800
and he didn't write the songs in Roxy Music,
729
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,033
he contributed to them, so
730
00:32:07,033 --> 00:32:09,300
what he presented to Island Records
731
00:32:09,300 --> 00:32:12,566
was the most improbable career project.
732
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,200
What did he actually have to do?
733
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:17,733
It wasn't a great situation to be in,
734
00:32:17,733 --> 00:32:19,766
but I think creatively it was a huge spur
735
00:32:19,766 --> 00:32:21,666
because he had to do something.
736
00:32:21,666 --> 00:32:24,233
He had to focus in, he couldn't just be
737
00:32:24,233 --> 00:32:26,366
this kind of dilettante figure
738
00:32:26,366 --> 00:32:29,033
hanging around the speakeasy and other
739
00:32:29,033 --> 00:32:32,133
London rock venues where he was always be
740
00:32:32,133 --> 00:32:34,533
guaranteed lots of attention.
741
00:32:36,166 --> 00:32:38,733
And a kind of rock star status.
742
00:32:40,333 --> 00:32:42,933
But he now had to actually prove it,
743
00:32:42,933 --> 00:32:45,233
'cause he didn't have the lifeboat of Roxy Music,
744
00:32:45,233 --> 00:32:48,033
so I think whilst it was obviously
745
00:32:48,033 --> 00:32:50,466
there was pressure, he was still a
746
00:32:50,466 --> 00:32:52,400
relatively young and had the institutions
747
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,866
of a young man, oh right okay I'll do something.
748
00:32:55,866 --> 00:32:59,566
Although his initial efforts weren't that great,
749
00:32:59,566 --> 00:33:01,466
and didn't actually come to anything,
750
00:33:01,466 --> 00:33:04,700
it did galvanize him into work.
751
00:33:04,700 --> 00:33:06,266
- [Narrator] Without the group around him,
752
00:33:06,266 --> 00:33:08,133
Eno was far from stranded.
753
00:33:08,133 --> 00:33:10,466
He had been active ever since his graduation
754
00:33:10,466 --> 00:33:12,133
within a community of artists,
755
00:33:12,133 --> 00:33:14,200
and while in Roxy Music had produced work
756
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:15,633
and been involved in performances
757
00:33:15,633 --> 00:33:18,033
unreleated to the musical mainstream.
758
00:33:18,033 --> 00:33:20,766
Eno was first and foremost an artist,
759
00:33:20,766 --> 00:33:23,333
and this loose collective of like-minded individuals
760
00:33:23,333 --> 00:33:26,600
included the painters Tom Philips and Peter Schmidt.
761
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,200
Prog rockers Robert Fripp, and Robert Wyatt,
762
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,133
and avant-garde musicians and composers,
763
00:33:31,133 --> 00:33:34,033
Gavin Bryars and Corneulius Cardew.
764
00:33:35,100 --> 00:33:36,866
Without his commitment to Roxy Music,
765
00:33:36,866 --> 00:33:39,600
it was to this community that Eno returned.
766
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:41,233
- One of the frustrations that Bryan Ferry
767
00:33:41,233 --> 00:33:42,800
had with Eno was that he had
768
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:44,966
all these other things going on.
769
00:33:44,966 --> 00:33:46,866
And he would things which he'd bring to
770
00:33:46,866 --> 00:33:48,833
interviews in the NME and the Melody Maker,
771
00:33:48,833 --> 00:33:50,733
he'd been talking about John Cage,
772
00:33:50,733 --> 00:33:52,666
he'd be talking about the scratch orchestra
773
00:33:52,666 --> 00:33:54,733
that he played with briefly,
774
00:33:54,733 --> 00:33:56,266
or the Portsmouth Symphonia,
775
00:33:56,266 --> 00:33:59,500
this kind of joke amateur art orchestra
776
00:34:00,733 --> 00:34:03,433
which was overseen by Gavin Bryars.
777
00:34:03,433 --> 00:34:07,100
And various other, he had all these concepts
778
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:10,500
with his former tutors like Tom Philips
779
00:34:10,500 --> 00:34:13,600
and Peter Schmidt who were quite well known
780
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:17,900
and established art world figures actually.
781
00:34:17,900 --> 00:34:21,333
And of course soon but Brian would
782
00:34:21,333 --> 00:34:23,866
take up school lecturing himself
783
00:34:23,866 --> 00:34:25,866
in very much in their model.
784
00:34:25,866 --> 00:34:27,133
So all this was
785
00:34:28,566 --> 00:34:31,333
in the background of the Roxy Music rock star world
786
00:34:31,333 --> 00:34:33,866
that he also inhabited with some panache
787
00:34:33,866 --> 00:34:35,900
and with a great deal of zeal.
788
00:34:35,900 --> 00:34:37,833
But to his credit I think he always
789
00:34:37,833 --> 00:34:40,533
kept his hand in the art world, generally.
790
00:34:40,533 --> 00:34:42,733
Not through any kind of dilettante
791
00:34:42,733 --> 00:34:45,033
opportunism, because just because that's
792
00:34:45,033 --> 00:34:46,633
what he was genuinely interested in.
793
00:34:46,633 --> 00:34:48,233
And that's genuinely what he wanted to
794
00:34:48,233 --> 00:34:49,500
bring to Roxy Music.
795
00:34:49,500 --> 00:34:51,866
So I think when that became
796
00:34:51,866 --> 00:34:54,500
hit the buffers essentially then
797
00:34:54,500 --> 00:34:56,966
he inevitably returned to the rest of
798
00:34:56,966 --> 00:34:59,500
the stuff he did which was
799
00:34:59,500 --> 00:35:01,633
more avant-garde.
800
00:35:01,633 --> 00:35:03,533
- [Narrator] And this immersion in the avant-garde
801
00:35:03,533 --> 00:35:06,233
would be vital for Eno's career outside of Roxy.
802
00:35:06,233 --> 00:35:08,133
Allowing him to focus on concepts
803
00:35:08,133 --> 00:35:09,866
that he had been developing since
804
00:35:09,866 --> 00:35:13,266
his radical art school education in the late 1960s.
805
00:35:13,266 --> 00:35:16,433
Having grown up in quiet and conservative rural Suffolk,
806
00:35:16,433 --> 00:35:19,066
the inspirational lessons learned at Winchester
807
00:35:19,066 --> 00:35:21,433
and particularly at Ipswich had been
808
00:35:21,433 --> 00:35:23,633
fundamental in introducing him to progressive
809
00:35:23,633 --> 00:35:25,266
approaches to art, that would now become
810
00:35:25,266 --> 00:35:28,266
the foundation of his future work.
811
00:35:28,266 --> 00:35:30,800
- They had introduced him to a whole new set of ideas
812
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,600
that he otherwise would not have been exposed to.
813
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:35,533
Ideas that he described as well,
814
00:35:35,533 --> 00:35:38,633
avant-garde, using value systems that
815
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:41,266
he didn't understand and none of the other
816
00:35:41,266 --> 00:35:44,333
students understood, really making them
817
00:35:44,333 --> 00:35:46,933
think about not just here I am creating
818
00:35:46,933 --> 00:35:48,766
a piece of art, or a piece of music,
819
00:35:48,766 --> 00:35:50,900
but what am I doing in the process of doing that?
820
00:35:50,900 --> 00:35:54,766
More of an emphasis on process versus product,
821
00:35:54,766 --> 00:35:56,133
if you will.
822
00:35:56,133 --> 00:35:57,733
- Well when Brian went to art school,
823
00:35:57,733 --> 00:36:00,133
he initially went to be a painter.
824
00:36:00,133 --> 00:36:03,600
And very quickly he was disabused of that idea
825
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:06,666
by the regime at Ipswich Art School,
826
00:36:06,666 --> 00:36:10,000
the regime was administered by a man
827
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,433
called Roy Ascott, and one of Ascott's
828
00:36:12,433 --> 00:36:14,533
abiding principles was to
829
00:36:15,900 --> 00:36:17,933
remove preconceptions about what art education was
830
00:36:17,933 --> 00:36:19,866
for the young students.
831
00:36:21,166 --> 00:36:22,900
And these were foundation level students,
832
00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:25,266
very young, come from a very formal school
833
00:36:25,266 --> 00:36:27,833
education which Brian had done.
834
00:36:27,833 --> 00:36:30,233
And were plonked into this environment
835
00:36:30,233 --> 00:36:33,233
that involved all sorts of disorienting games.
836
00:36:33,233 --> 00:36:35,766
I think designed to just remove all
837
00:36:35,766 --> 00:36:37,800
these preconceptions about being a painter
838
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,466
with a tin of water colors.
839
00:36:40,466 --> 00:36:43,200
A number of the teachers there had come from London.
840
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:45,766
And they were bringing this, including Tom Philips,
841
00:36:45,766 --> 00:36:48,433
who was a painter, and composer.
842
00:36:49,766 --> 00:36:53,033
And he introduced ideas to Eno
843
00:36:53,033 --> 00:36:57,100
very early on about how music could be art.
844
00:36:57,100 --> 00:37:00,633
Particularly with regard to John Cage,
845
00:37:00,633 --> 00:37:03,500
and the book that he'd written called Silence.
846
00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:05,300
Which was sort of a bible for the
847
00:37:05,300 --> 00:37:06,933
avant-garde at that time.
848
00:37:06,933 --> 00:37:08,666
And this was something that immediately struck
849
00:37:08,666 --> 00:37:10,800
Brian as something he could get into
850
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,500
'cause he had already had an affair
851
00:37:13,500 --> 00:37:16,366
as it were, with sound, since was a kid.
852
00:37:16,366 --> 00:37:18,333
- [Narrator] Cage was a revolutionary composer
853
00:37:18,333 --> 00:37:21,266
and theorist whose development of aleatoric
854
00:37:21,266 --> 00:37:22,966
or chance-controlled music
855
00:37:22,966 --> 00:37:25,400
would have significant impact on Eno.
856
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,333
Another painter turned musician
857
00:37:27,333 --> 00:37:28,966
who had studied under one of the towering
858
00:37:28,966 --> 00:37:31,500
figures of 20th Century classical composition
859
00:37:31,500 --> 00:37:33,733
Arnold Schoenberg, by the 1950s,
860
00:37:33,733 --> 00:37:35,833
Cage had turned his back on conventional
861
00:37:35,833 --> 00:37:38,300
notions of musical creation, and instead
862
00:37:38,300 --> 00:37:40,433
looked to reappraise the role of composer
863
00:37:40,433 --> 00:37:42,000
and to reexamine the very definition
864
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,233
of what constituted music itself.
865
00:37:45,233 --> 00:37:47,700
Yet he would not only be a theoretical influence
866
00:37:47,700 --> 00:37:52,200
on Eno, his music too would become an inspiration.
867
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:54,366
- He was about drawing attention to the experience
868
00:37:54,366 --> 00:37:57,033
of listening to music, as opposed to
869
00:37:57,033 --> 00:37:58,966
having the attention being focused on
870
00:37:58,966 --> 00:38:01,200
the sacrosanct score that the composer
871
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:03,433
had written out note for note.
872
00:38:03,433 --> 00:38:07,000
Traditional musicology had music studies in general
873
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,433
focus on that score, on the intention
874
00:38:09,433 --> 00:38:11,633
and the will of the composer.
875
00:38:11,633 --> 00:38:13,366
Cage turns that whole thing on its head
876
00:38:13,366 --> 00:38:16,466
and says, it's great that Beethoven was Beethoven,
877
00:38:16,466 --> 00:38:19,000
but at the same time, I wanna have a Beethoven
878
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:20,800
like experience if I'm listening
879
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,533
to the sound of water on the beach,
880
00:38:23,533 --> 00:38:26,166
or the wind in the trees.
881
00:38:26,166 --> 00:38:28,400
It's about the experience.
882
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:31,066
Yes, Beethoven can bring up feelings like in me,
883
00:38:31,066 --> 00:38:32,966
but I wanna have those experiences
884
00:38:32,966 --> 00:38:35,166
when I'm not listening to beautiful classical music
885
00:38:35,166 --> 00:38:36,866
as well. (laughs)
886
00:38:36,866 --> 00:38:39,300
So that aesthetic, that whole complex,
887
00:38:39,300 --> 00:38:43,200
Eno heard that, and he was like, I'm there.
888
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:44,666
- I think John Cage for Brian Eno
889
00:38:44,666 --> 00:38:47,533
was an important exemplar of how you
890
00:38:47,533 --> 00:38:50,333
bring art and music together and
891
00:38:50,333 --> 00:38:52,666
how music can be art, and not necessarily
892
00:38:52,666 --> 00:38:55,166
just entertainment, with Cage a lot of
893
00:38:55,166 --> 00:38:57,733
these experiments obviously were quite dissonant
894
00:38:57,733 --> 00:38:59,633
and difficult to listen to or
895
00:38:59,633 --> 00:39:01,833
silent, in one famous case.
896
00:39:01,833 --> 00:39:05,733
But often, they were also quite beautiful to listen to,
897
00:39:05,733 --> 00:39:09,833
and I think that definitely resonated with Brian.
898
00:39:11,333 --> 00:39:14,500
(ambient piano music)
899
00:39:42,533 --> 00:39:44,133
I think the thing with Cage's works
900
00:39:44,133 --> 00:39:45,833
like Landscape is that although
901
00:39:45,833 --> 00:39:47,733
it was a system piece, it was created
902
00:39:47,733 --> 00:39:50,633
using the formal devices, its sound
903
00:39:51,866 --> 00:39:53,233
does have a kind of romantic quality
904
00:39:53,233 --> 00:39:55,366
and a lyrical quality.
905
00:39:55,366 --> 00:39:57,733
I think with Brian being brought up
906
00:39:57,733 --> 00:39:59,466
with rock and roll records and
907
00:39:59,466 --> 00:40:02,200
do woop and Elvis Presley,
908
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,933
I think melody has always been something
909
00:40:04,933 --> 00:40:07,100
that's been important to him,
910
00:40:07,100 --> 00:40:08,566
and it's something that's kind of
911
00:40:08,566 --> 00:40:10,133
seeped into his work, even at it's most
912
00:40:10,133 --> 00:40:11,800
austere and ambient.
913
00:40:13,366 --> 00:40:14,700
He's a melodist.
914
00:40:16,633 --> 00:40:18,300
- [Narrator] With Cage, Eno became intrigued
915
00:40:18,300 --> 00:40:19,766
by the potential of music as a creative
916
00:40:19,766 --> 00:40:21,300
artistic medium.
917
00:40:21,300 --> 00:40:22,900
Yet his lack of any training
918
00:40:22,900 --> 00:40:25,266
presented a seemingly impenetrable barrier
919
00:40:25,266 --> 00:40:26,833
to this realm.
920
00:40:26,833 --> 00:40:29,300
His discovery, again through tutor Tom Philips
921
00:40:29,300 --> 00:40:31,500
of the American Experimental Composer Steve Reich
922
00:40:31,500 --> 00:40:34,200
was therefore life-changing.
923
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,266
A pioneer, along with fellow Americans
924
00:40:36,266 --> 00:40:38,300
Terry Riley and Philip Glass
925
00:40:38,300 --> 00:40:40,133
of a musical style that would late
926
00:40:40,133 --> 00:40:42,600
be termed minimalism, Reich was a formally
927
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:44,566
trained composer, who in the mid 1960s
928
00:40:44,566 --> 00:40:46,900
began to use tape recorders as his
929
00:40:46,900 --> 00:40:49,233
instrument of choice.
930
00:40:49,233 --> 00:40:51,233
- I never stopped saying that without Steve Reich
931
00:40:51,233 --> 00:40:52,966
I probably wouldn't have had an interesting
932
00:40:52,966 --> 00:40:55,133
composing career, it was very much
933
00:40:55,133 --> 00:40:58,200
to do with ideas from his early work.
934
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,766
- He was a kind of, a well educated composer
935
00:41:00,766 --> 00:41:03,133
in the traditional sense, but he had this
936
00:41:03,133 --> 00:41:06,800
vision of a kind of creating a modern
937
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:10,300
compositional node that was inspired
938
00:41:10,300 --> 00:41:13,733
as much by jazz and Motown, the sort
939
00:41:13,733 --> 00:41:15,800
of steady beat of Motown.
940
00:41:17,100 --> 00:41:19,500
As it was more avant-garde influences like
941
00:41:19,500 --> 00:41:21,566
Terry Riley, for example, who made the
942
00:41:21,566 --> 00:41:24,433
tape recorder music out in California,
943
00:41:24,433 --> 00:41:26,400
experiments with multiple tape recorders
944
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,933
in sequence, and so forth.
945
00:41:28,933 --> 00:41:31,833
And Reich used tape recorders to make
946
00:41:31,833 --> 00:41:35,466
two significant pieces in the mid 60s
947
00:41:35,466 --> 00:41:39,066
called Come Out, and It's Gonna Rain,
948
00:41:39,066 --> 00:41:41,900
both using recordings of speeches.
949
00:41:43,100 --> 00:41:44,733
Editing them down into small cells
950
00:41:44,733 --> 00:41:48,400
of repetition and then running the tapes together
951
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:51,400
to gradually slowly separate the two
952
00:41:52,633 --> 00:41:56,000
recordings, and so you get this synchronized
953
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,033
stereophonic quality that gradually
954
00:41:59,033 --> 00:42:01,300
goes out of phase, and this was the first
955
00:42:01,300 --> 00:42:02,533
of the many phase experiments.
956
00:42:02,533 --> 00:42:05,866
♪ Come out to show them
957
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:24,366
The influence on Brian was obvious,
958
00:42:24,366 --> 00:42:25,900
it was you could use a tape recorder
959
00:42:25,900 --> 00:42:29,233
to make significant pieces of art music.
960
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:32,633
To have someone like Steve Reich, Terry Riley,
961
00:42:32,633 --> 00:42:34,733
these mysterious avant-garde figures
962
00:42:34,733 --> 00:42:37,000
from across the Atlantic making
963
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,933
legitimate music, they were composers,
964
00:42:39,933 --> 00:42:42,566
they weren't just dabblers, they were composers,
965
00:42:42,566 --> 00:42:44,533
but they'd chosen to use things like
966
00:42:44,533 --> 00:42:46,433
tape recorders to make
967
00:42:46,433 --> 00:42:48,566
avant-garde music, and together with
968
00:42:48,566 --> 00:42:51,000
the im-primitor of John Cage,
969
00:42:52,166 --> 00:42:54,833
this kind of I think just sort of
970
00:42:56,033 --> 00:42:59,733
emulsified in Eno as something he could do,
971
00:42:59,733 --> 00:43:04,200
and I think he went with some gusto after that.
972
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:06,000
- [Narrator] The influences he discovered
973
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:07,433
during his time at art school
974
00:43:07,433 --> 00:43:09,266
weren't simply musical however.
975
00:43:09,266 --> 00:43:11,233
Just had Tom Philips had introduced Eno
976
00:43:11,233 --> 00:43:13,366
to essential composers, the school head
977
00:43:13,366 --> 00:43:15,466
Roy Ascott exposed him to a new theoretical
978
00:43:15,466 --> 00:43:17,900
discipline called cybernetics.
979
00:43:17,900 --> 00:43:21,400
And this too would be key to Eno's artistic approach.
980
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,400
- I think that Eno derived a lot of
981
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,133
very powerful ideas, especially out of this
982
00:43:26,133 --> 00:43:29,500
one book by Stafford Beer called the Brain of the Firm.
983
00:43:29,500 --> 00:43:33,266
Cybernetics is away of kind of whole systems thinking,
984
00:43:33,266 --> 00:43:36,566
a way of conceptualizing the whole organism,
985
00:43:36,566 --> 00:43:40,133
and it can be applied to so many different fields
986
00:43:40,133 --> 00:43:42,966
so engineering, science, business,
987
00:43:44,733 --> 00:43:47,366
which is something that Stafford Beer did,
988
00:43:47,366 --> 00:43:49,633
he sort of applied it to management.
989
00:43:49,633 --> 00:43:50,933
Anything that you can conceptualize
990
00:43:50,933 --> 00:43:53,433
as a system, key to cybernetics is the
991
00:43:53,433 --> 00:43:56,833
idea of control and a feedback loop.
992
00:43:56,833 --> 00:43:59,200
These are ideas that can be pretty
993
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:00,933
readily applied to music.
994
00:44:00,933 --> 00:44:02,800
Especially to electronic music and the kind
995
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,433
of stuff that Brian Eno is really interested in.
996
00:44:06,433 --> 00:44:08,500
- What Eno recognized in cybernetics was
997
00:44:08,500 --> 00:44:12,333
a means whereby a system could be put in place
998
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:15,866
that despite the random elements
999
00:44:17,300 --> 00:44:20,300
was autonomous, and looked after itself.
1000
00:44:20,300 --> 00:44:21,833
In Brain of the Firm,
1001
00:44:21,833 --> 00:44:24,366
Stafford Beer writes about organizing
1002
00:44:24,366 --> 00:44:27,700
management processes for places of work.
1003
00:44:27,700 --> 00:44:29,633
And to Brian's credit, I think it's quite
1004
00:44:29,633 --> 00:44:31,900
a conceptual leap to say how do I apply
1005
00:44:31,900 --> 00:44:34,066
that to art and music.
1006
00:44:34,066 --> 00:44:36,766
- This whole idea of cybernetics would then
1007
00:44:36,766 --> 00:44:39,266
dominate Eno's life until now.
1008
00:44:40,300 --> 00:44:42,666
It's where everything comes from,
1009
00:44:42,666 --> 00:44:46,100
where the oracle cards, where the maxims honor
1010
00:44:46,100 --> 00:44:48,666
the hours, the hidden intentions.
1011
00:44:48,666 --> 00:44:50,533
Where the whole idea, and you set the process up,
1012
00:44:50,533 --> 00:44:52,400
allowed one cell, and the music,
1013
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,666
the whole idea of working with Bowie,
1014
00:44:54,666 --> 00:44:57,166
of working in his studios, and letting
1015
00:44:57,166 --> 00:44:58,733
things just happen, this kind of
1016
00:44:58,733 --> 00:45:00,766
still an anarchic thing.
1017
00:45:01,666 --> 00:45:04,166
I think it was because Eno
1018
00:45:04,166 --> 00:45:07,366
had really got into machines.
1019
00:45:07,366 --> 00:45:09,066
He wasn't really a musician,
1020
00:45:09,066 --> 00:45:10,700
but he could work a tape recorder,
1021
00:45:10,700 --> 00:45:12,266
he could fiddle with the electronics,
1022
00:45:12,266 --> 00:45:15,233
because he could actually interface with machines,
1023
00:45:15,233 --> 00:45:16,966
that any kind of machine kind of
1024
00:45:16,966 --> 00:45:19,533
philosophy would appeal to him.
1025
00:45:20,766 --> 00:45:22,600
- [Narrator] All these significant influences
1026
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,200
gathered during art school were then
1027
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:25,633
brought to the fore upon Eno's development
1028
00:45:25,633 --> 00:45:28,666
of his own career in mid-1973.
1029
00:45:28,666 --> 00:45:31,233
Yet before attempting a traditional solo record,
1030
00:45:31,233 --> 00:45:34,000
he returned to work he had begun the previous year
1031
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,466
whilst still a member of Roxy.
1032
00:45:36,466 --> 00:45:37,966
Recordings that drew heavily upon
1033
00:45:37,966 --> 00:45:40,633
the tape compositions of Steve Reich.
1034
00:45:40,633 --> 00:45:42,966
Through his social and musical escapades,
1035
00:45:42,966 --> 00:45:45,233
Eno had met Robert Fripp,
1036
00:45:45,233 --> 00:45:46,800
the guitarist and founding member of
1037
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:48,866
prog rock giants, King Crimson.
1038
00:45:48,866 --> 00:45:50,666
Together, the pair began working on
1039
00:45:50,666 --> 00:45:53,900
experimental recordings in September 1972,
1040
00:45:53,900 --> 00:45:57,466
yet these were shelved to their other commitments.
1041
00:45:57,466 --> 00:45:59,333
After his departure from Roxy Music,
1042
00:45:59,333 --> 00:46:01,600
Eno returned to these experiments.
1043
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:03,233
And found that Fripp had become similarly
1044
00:46:03,233 --> 00:46:05,633
disillusioned by his day job,
1045
00:46:05,633 --> 00:46:08,066
and was more than happy to participate.
1046
00:46:08,066 --> 00:46:11,166
- Fripp had had great difficulty with King Crimson.
1047
00:46:11,166 --> 00:46:12,833
The first King Crimson had imploded
1048
00:46:12,833 --> 00:46:14,800
after an American tour.
1049
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,333
The whole energy of the band that
1050
00:46:17,333 --> 00:46:18,800
had made it in the core,
1051
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:20,666
just dissipated into rancor, arguments,
1052
00:46:20,666 --> 00:46:22,233
and people walking out.
1053
00:46:22,233 --> 00:46:23,766
The most important being Greg Lake,
1054
00:46:23,766 --> 00:46:25,500
the bass player who then joined,
1055
00:46:25,500 --> 00:46:27,033
Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
1056
00:46:27,033 --> 00:46:29,433
And so Fripp was really at a loose end.
1057
00:46:29,433 --> 00:46:31,000
He wanted to make another record,
1058
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:33,166
but he didn't have a band really.
1059
00:46:33,166 --> 00:46:34,800
- Eno and Fripp were this really incredible
1060
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:36,166
working team.
1061
00:46:36,166 --> 00:46:37,800
They had a real intuition for each other,
1062
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:39,600
and in a certain way, they were like
1063
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,166
completely different people.
1064
00:46:41,166 --> 00:46:44,466
Fripp was very much more technical,
1065
00:46:44,466 --> 00:46:47,833
much more a real guitar virtuoso,
1066
00:46:47,833 --> 00:46:51,633
meanwhile Eno was calling himself a non-musician.
1067
00:46:51,633 --> 00:46:54,266
So they really bounced off each other
1068
00:46:54,266 --> 00:46:56,633
in a very special way.
1069
00:46:56,633 --> 00:46:58,766
They were like a perfect pair because
1070
00:46:58,766 --> 00:47:01,766
in a lot of ways they were so opposite to each other.
1071
00:47:01,766 --> 00:47:04,266
In other ways, Eno and Fripp were very similar
1072
00:47:04,266 --> 00:47:06,266
to each other, Fripp had sort of
1073
00:47:06,266 --> 00:47:09,400
fled King Crimson, Eno had left Roxy Music,
1074
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:11,800
they had both left these very successful bands
1075
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,433
to break off and do something new.
1076
00:47:14,433 --> 00:47:17,066
And they both were very interested in
1077
00:47:17,066 --> 00:47:21,233
sort of pushing the limits of the music of the time.
1078
00:47:22,766 --> 00:47:25,366
- [Narrator] The work completed in August 1973
1079
00:47:25,366 --> 00:47:27,166
relied heavily on the tape system
1080
00:47:27,166 --> 00:47:29,166
that Eno had developed, which through delay
1081
00:47:29,166 --> 00:47:31,333
created a multi-layered wash of repeated
1082
00:47:31,333 --> 00:47:33,466
and receding moments.
1083
00:47:33,466 --> 00:47:35,033
Although Steve Reich had been pivotal
1084
00:47:35,033 --> 00:47:37,466
in Eno's recognition of the potential
1085
00:47:37,466 --> 00:47:39,566
of the tape recorder, another towering figure
1086
00:47:39,566 --> 00:47:40,966
of the American avant-garde
1087
00:47:40,966 --> 00:47:42,433
was perhaps even more inspirational
1088
00:47:42,433 --> 00:47:44,333
on this experiment.
1089
00:47:44,333 --> 00:47:46,233
- While I think the more close
1090
00:47:46,233 --> 00:47:49,433
technological borrowing is Terry Riley.
1091
00:47:49,433 --> 00:47:51,733
Poppy No-Good and the Phantom Band
1092
00:47:51,733 --> 00:47:53,366
on side two of Rainbow and Curved Air,
1093
00:47:53,366 --> 00:47:55,033
was the first time I know of the
1094
00:47:55,033 --> 00:47:57,300
open tape loop improvising technique
1095
00:47:57,300 --> 00:48:01,166
which became the No-Pussyfooting kind of approach.
1096
00:48:01,166 --> 00:48:02,866
It was in the air, and everybody
1097
00:48:02,866 --> 00:48:05,333
was experimenting with these approaches of
1098
00:48:05,333 --> 00:48:07,900
pure tone, these approaches of
1099
00:48:07,900 --> 00:48:11,266
elongating the time based of music.
1100
00:48:11,266 --> 00:48:13,933
(ambient music)
1101
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:51,300
I think Fripp and Eno were expressing
1102
00:48:51,300 --> 00:48:53,333
their fascination with what was happening
1103
00:48:53,333 --> 00:48:54,900
in the avant-garde.
1104
00:48:54,900 --> 00:48:56,400
I don't see it as a side project,
1105
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,033
I think artists in general are curious people.
1106
00:48:59,033 --> 00:49:01,700
And they love exploring new avenues.
1107
00:49:01,700 --> 00:49:05,633
The fact that it was an avenue that was
1108
00:49:05,633 --> 00:49:07,500
referencing Terry Riley
1109
00:49:07,500 --> 00:49:10,966
is like we all do, a form of respect
1110
00:49:10,966 --> 00:49:13,966
and a form of influence and playfulness.
1111
00:49:13,966 --> 00:49:16,833
We like to explore other people's territories
1112
00:49:16,833 --> 00:49:20,100
from time to time, to enlarge our vocabulary.
1113
00:49:20,100 --> 00:49:21,900
- [Narrator] Released in November 1973,
1114
00:49:21,900 --> 00:49:24,333
No Pussyfooting unsurprisingly failed
1115
00:49:24,333 --> 00:49:26,666
to chart on either side of the Atlantic.
1116
00:49:26,666 --> 00:49:30,300
Yet sold respectably for such an idiosyncratic creation.
1117
00:49:30,300 --> 00:49:32,433
And although Island Records were opposed to the work
1118
00:49:32,433 --> 00:49:34,266
and only grudgingly issued it,
1119
00:49:34,266 --> 00:49:36,766
over time it would be acknowledged as a milestone
1120
00:49:36,766 --> 00:49:40,000
in the development of experimental music.
1121
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:42,233
- I think that No Pussyfooting was a landmark,
1122
00:49:42,233 --> 00:49:44,733
certainly in Eno's career, and in the career
1123
00:49:44,733 --> 00:49:46,400
of Robert Fripp.
1124
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:48,866
Eno comes to the fore as
1125
00:49:48,866 --> 00:49:51,900
a really great collaborator to work with,
1126
00:49:51,900 --> 00:49:53,733
and one that's very easy to work with,
1127
00:49:53,733 --> 00:49:55,533
and one that can in effect get
1128
00:49:55,533 --> 00:49:58,000
maximum originality and creativity
1129
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:01,500
from the people that he's working with.
1130
00:50:01,500 --> 00:50:04,166
(ambient music)
1131
00:50:29,833 --> 00:50:32,633
We see Eno early in his ambient career,
1132
00:50:32,633 --> 00:50:36,266
laying down the types of atmospheric sound beds
1133
00:50:36,266 --> 00:50:39,200
that would later become his real specialty.
1134
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:41,566
And you have Robert Fripp,
1135
00:50:41,566 --> 00:50:45,633
sometimes playing a solo on top of that.
1136
00:50:45,633 --> 00:50:48,533
And that's a solo that's going somewhere.
1137
00:50:48,533 --> 00:50:51,666
Directionally, developmentally.
1138
00:50:51,666 --> 00:50:54,666
The solo, which is more like speech,
1139
00:50:56,500 --> 00:50:58,100
it's more like a sentence,
1140
00:50:58,100 --> 00:50:59,400
it's more like something that's articulated,
1141
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,133
has a beginning, a middle and an end.
1142
00:51:02,133 --> 00:51:04,700
Robert Fripp's solo is sort of the more
1143
00:51:04,700 --> 00:51:07,266
conventional of those two elements, if you will.
1144
00:51:07,266 --> 00:51:10,533
The background tracks which are
1145
00:51:10,533 --> 00:51:12,633
eternally existing, in that sort of
1146
00:51:12,633 --> 00:51:15,466
minimalistic space, that's
1147
00:51:15,466 --> 00:51:19,466
the new direction that Eno is gonna take,
1148
00:51:19,466 --> 00:51:21,066
and develop into the ambient sound.
1149
00:51:21,066 --> 00:51:23,733
(ambient music)
1150
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:56,166
- The way No Pussyfooting works is that
1151
00:51:56,166 --> 00:51:59,666
Eno's austerity is very good for Fripp.
1152
00:51:59,666 --> 00:52:03,166
Stops him from getting too fancy.
1153
00:52:03,166 --> 00:52:05,666
Eno's austerity reigns him in.
1154
00:52:06,833 --> 00:52:10,133
Fripp is certainly smart enough to
1155
00:52:10,133 --> 00:52:11,600
understand what Eno wants to do,
1156
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:12,966
and he tries to do it,
1157
00:52:12,966 --> 00:52:14,233
and so Eno is essential to
1158
00:52:14,233 --> 00:52:16,833
Fripp's fancy pants tendencies.
1159
00:52:18,100 --> 00:52:21,800
But Fripp's content is even more essential
1160
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:23,366
to Eno's austerity.
1161
00:52:24,466 --> 00:52:26,333
I think that that's a record that
1162
00:52:26,333 --> 00:52:28,333
someone who's not inclined to like
1163
00:52:28,333 --> 00:52:30,933
that sort of thing, can learn to like anyway,
1164
00:52:30,933 --> 00:52:34,200
and with without much difficulty too.
1165
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:36,333
- [Narrator] Outside of his pioneering work with Fripp,
1166
00:52:36,333 --> 00:52:39,466
Eno appeared to be struggling for a new direction.
1167
00:52:39,466 --> 00:52:41,633
Ideas seemingly came thick and fast,
1168
00:52:41,633 --> 00:52:43,333
but led nowhere.
1169
00:52:43,333 --> 00:52:45,866
Recordings were made with Roxy Music's Andy Mackay,
1170
00:52:45,866 --> 00:52:47,266
only to be shelved.
1171
00:52:47,266 --> 00:52:49,266
Studio sessions were booked with a street busker
1172
00:52:49,266 --> 00:52:51,533
and the material went unreleased.
1173
00:52:51,533 --> 00:52:53,200
And a new band was announced,
1174
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,333
Luala and the Lizard Girls, which never materialized.
1175
00:52:56,333 --> 00:52:58,366
Yet despite all these false starts,
1176
00:52:58,366 --> 00:53:00,600
the month before No Pussyfooting was released,
1177
00:53:00,600 --> 00:53:02,833
Eno finally entered majestic studios
1178
00:53:02,833 --> 00:53:05,466
to record his debut solo album,
1179
00:53:05,466 --> 00:53:07,400
and in contrast to his later reputation
1180
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:10,200
as an artist whose work with formed in the studio,
1181
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:12,566
he came armed with self-penned material
1182
00:53:12,566 --> 00:53:13,933
that he had been working on since
1183
00:53:13,933 --> 00:53:15,733
his departure from Roxy.
1184
00:53:15,733 --> 00:53:17,133
- He had songs.
1185
00:53:17,133 --> 00:53:21,100
He wasn't quite so experimental as all that,
1186
00:53:21,100 --> 00:53:23,933
his songs were quite sort of
1187
00:53:23,933 --> 00:53:25,666
poppy and commercial, almost sort like
1188
00:53:25,666 --> 00:53:27,766
Beach Boys type of thing.
1189
00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:31,900
Which, we were quite surprised,
1190
00:53:31,900 --> 00:53:33,900
we didn't quite know, what sort
1191
00:53:33,900 --> 00:53:36,766
of music's Brian coming up with?
1192
00:53:36,766 --> 00:53:38,033
Because nobody knew at that time,
1193
00:53:38,033 --> 00:53:40,366
nobody had been exposed it to us at all.
1194
00:53:40,366 --> 00:53:43,766
But we went along and sure enough
1195
00:53:43,766 --> 00:53:45,733
there were some songs and
1196
00:53:45,733 --> 00:53:47,600
we knew immediately what to play
1197
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:49,866
as soon as we heard the songs, and
1198
00:53:49,866 --> 00:53:51,733
yeah, he had material.
1199
00:53:51,733 --> 00:53:53,166
- [Narrator] Eno assembled a collective of
1200
00:53:53,166 --> 00:53:55,266
familiar faces to record the album,
1201
00:53:55,266 --> 00:53:57,733
including Robert Fripp, ex-Roxy support musicians,
1202
00:53:57,733 --> 00:53:59,700
Chris Spedding and Lloyd Watson,
1203
00:53:59,700 --> 00:54:01,900
and every member of Roxy Music itself save Ferry.
1204
00:54:01,900 --> 00:54:05,066
He was conspicuous by his absence.
1205
00:54:05,066 --> 00:54:07,600
But he took on production duties himself,
1206
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:09,833
and despite his famously modest assessment
1207
00:54:09,833 --> 00:54:11,666
of his own musical abilities,
1208
00:54:11,666 --> 00:54:13,466
the non-musician got the best out of
1209
00:54:13,466 --> 00:54:16,333
his more technically accomplished allies.
1210
00:54:16,333 --> 00:54:18,700
- He was musical enough for us to relate to him,
1211
00:54:18,700 --> 00:54:20,900
he knew music, definitely he wasn't a
1212
00:54:20,900 --> 00:54:23,966
sort of guy that we couldn't relate
1213
00:54:23,966 --> 00:54:26,500
to musically, and he could relate to musicians,
1214
00:54:26,500 --> 00:54:29,100
obviously, he'd been in a rock bad.
1215
00:54:29,100 --> 00:54:32,000
Lots of rock musicians have got no musical
1216
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:34,266
background training.
1217
00:54:34,266 --> 00:54:36,400
They pick up an instrument and they're
1218
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:37,900
able to get a tune out of it,
1219
00:54:37,900 --> 00:54:39,600
and they have talent and ability.
1220
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:41,400
It's all you need.
1221
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:44,366
- He had a strong work ethic, and
1222
00:54:44,366 --> 00:54:46,866
although he was, as I say,
1223
00:54:46,866 --> 00:54:51,033
a non-musician, he had a very professional approach.
1224
00:54:52,633 --> 00:54:55,500
And in the studio, there wasn't
1225
00:54:55,500 --> 00:54:58,133
loads of Jack Daniels and coke and all that,
1226
00:54:58,133 --> 00:54:59,633
he was in to work.
1227
00:55:01,533 --> 00:55:03,533
And that's what we did.
1228
00:55:03,533 --> 00:55:06,200
- He didn't really say, oh Chris,
1229
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:08,100
can you play this part?
1230
00:55:08,100 --> 00:55:09,766
Or sing me something and you play.
1231
00:55:09,766 --> 00:55:11,866
And this part, and can you do this?
1232
00:55:11,866 --> 00:55:14,600
He would never do that.
1233
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:16,733
I dont know whether he ever did that later,
1234
00:55:16,733 --> 00:55:20,533
but I've come across the kind of producer that
1235
00:55:20,533 --> 00:55:23,200
Brian is, elsewhere in my career
1236
00:55:24,400 --> 00:55:28,033
and they tend not to be very controlling.
1237
00:55:28,033 --> 00:55:30,033
They tend to sort of put you in a situation
1238
00:55:30,033 --> 00:55:32,266
and let you do what you do, which is
1239
00:55:32,266 --> 00:55:34,233
a very agreeable way to work.
1240
00:55:34,233 --> 00:55:35,800
You wouldn't have been there if you
1241
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,033
couldn't play what you wanted.
1242
00:55:38,033 --> 00:55:40,100
- [Narrator] Released in January 1974,
1243
00:55:40,100 --> 00:55:41,966
no-one had really known what to expect
1244
00:55:41,966 --> 00:55:44,100
from Eno's first solo outing.
1245
00:55:44,100 --> 00:55:45,766
Here Come The Warm Jets was an album
1246
00:55:45,766 --> 00:55:48,866
that could either make or break his career.
1247
00:55:48,866 --> 00:55:51,900
- When he left Roxy Music, he was in terrible debt.
1248
00:55:51,900 --> 00:55:53,766
He was under tremendous pressure,
1249
00:55:53,766 --> 00:55:55,633
he was living in very sparse conditions.
1250
00:55:55,633 --> 00:55:58,033
And he had to make money,
1251
00:55:58,033 --> 00:56:00,266
and he had to make a record pretty quickly.
1252
00:56:00,266 --> 00:56:02,766
And that record was recorded with extraordinary
1253
00:56:02,766 --> 00:56:05,533
rapidity, I mean it was just a couple of weeks.
1254
00:56:05,533 --> 00:56:07,600
And I think what it did do
1255
00:56:07,600 --> 00:56:11,000
was reveal that mad professor side of Eno
1256
00:56:11,866 --> 00:56:13,966
where kind of everything went.
1257
00:56:13,966 --> 00:56:16,566
He was like the proverbial boy in a sweet shop.
1258
00:56:16,566 --> 00:56:19,866
It was so stylistically diverse as to be absurd,
1259
00:56:19,866 --> 00:56:21,700
even by Roxy's standards, I think it
1260
00:56:21,700 --> 00:56:23,566
was actually both more accessible,
1261
00:56:23,566 --> 00:56:27,666
and more stylistically diverse than Roxy.
1262
00:56:27,666 --> 00:56:30,600
♪ Those who know
1263
00:56:30,600 --> 00:56:34,133
♪ Don't let it show
1264
00:56:34,133 --> 00:56:38,300
♪ They just give you one long glance and you go ♪
1265
00:56:41,566 --> 00:56:44,133
♪ Goes to show
1266
00:56:45,266 --> 00:56:48,033
♪ How winds blow
1267
00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:52,066
♪ The weather's fine and I feel ♪
1268
00:56:52,066 --> 00:56:54,466
♪ So, so, so
1269
00:56:55,933 --> 00:56:58,800
Its stylistic diversity is staggering in once sense,
1270
00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:00,633
but it's also incredibly refreshing.
1271
00:57:00,633 --> 00:57:03,166
It does sound like a record made in the moment.
1272
00:57:03,166 --> 00:57:06,166
It captures Eno at that wonderful stage where
1273
00:57:06,166 --> 00:57:08,500
you can actually almost taste the freedom
1274
00:57:08,500 --> 00:57:10,533
that he feels from leaving Roxy Music.
1275
00:57:10,533 --> 00:57:12,100
But he also knows he's gotta make a statement,
1276
00:57:12,100 --> 00:57:13,366
he's gotta make it quickly,
1277
00:57:13,366 --> 00:57:16,533
he's gotta make some money if he can too.
1278
00:57:24,566 --> 00:57:26,366
- I liked it, I thought it was very
1279
00:57:26,366 --> 00:57:29,033
accessible and not at all sort of serious
1280
00:57:29,033 --> 00:57:32,733
and technical and avant-garde at all.
1281
00:57:32,733 --> 00:57:34,500
I like sort of pop music
1282
00:57:34,500 --> 00:57:37,466
sort of instant disposable pop,
1283
00:57:37,466 --> 00:57:39,800
I was kind of interested in that genre,
1284
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:42,966
as I went on to do my own pop records.
1285
00:57:44,066 --> 00:57:45,833
And I was agreeably surprised that
1286
00:57:45,833 --> 00:57:47,966
he seemed to fall into that genre.
1287
00:57:47,966 --> 00:57:49,600
- I think what is interesting about the songs
1288
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:52,166
is their sheer playfulness.
1289
00:57:52,166 --> 00:57:53,533
Eno's macabre sense of humor comes
1290
00:57:53,533 --> 00:57:56,100
very much through in the lyrics too.
1291
00:57:56,100 --> 00:57:58,900
The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch for example,
1292
00:57:58,900 --> 00:58:01,033
was supposedly inspired by
1293
00:58:01,033 --> 00:58:03,166
somebody in Paw Paw, Michigan who
1294
00:58:03,166 --> 00:58:06,533
breathed fire on his victims and killed them.
1295
00:58:06,533 --> 00:58:09,600
Eno obviously took that and made it into
1296
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:12,066
a slightly macabre song.
1297
00:58:12,066 --> 00:58:14,966
And there's even barbecued kittens I think
1298
00:58:14,966 --> 00:58:17,966
as well, followed by Baby's On Fire.
1299
00:58:19,533 --> 00:58:21,600
Which he wrote the day he left Roxy Music,
1300
00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:23,333
but it also fits in this whole
1301
00:58:23,333 --> 00:58:25,633
configuration thing and it's actually
1302
00:58:25,633 --> 00:58:27,300
quite macabre imagery, and there's a lot of
1303
00:58:27,300 --> 00:58:28,866
that on that record.
1304
00:58:28,866 --> 00:58:31,600
♪ Baby's on fire
1305
00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:36,633
♪ Better throw her in the water ♪
1306
00:58:36,633 --> 00:58:40,400
♪ Look at her laughing
1307
00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:44,700
♪ Like a heffer to the slaughter ♪
1308
00:58:44,700 --> 00:58:48,033
♪ Baby's on fire
1309
00:58:48,033 --> 00:58:52,566
♪ And all the laughing boys are bitching ♪
1310
00:58:52,566 --> 00:58:55,900
♪ Waiting for photos
1311
00:58:55,900 --> 00:59:00,633
♪ Oh the plot is so bewitching
1312
00:59:00,633 --> 00:59:03,200
♪ Rescuers row row
1313
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:05,466
- Initially, I was a little skeptical
1314
00:59:05,466 --> 00:59:09,033
that this weirdo was doing these songs.
1315
00:59:09,033 --> 00:59:11,700
Looking back however, one reason that record
1316
00:59:11,700 --> 00:59:13,266
was such a pleasure was that
1317
00:59:13,266 --> 00:59:15,900
we had enough humanism already.
1318
00:59:15,900 --> 00:59:16,733
You know?
1319
00:59:18,666 --> 00:59:20,833
He wasn't the Allman Brothers.
1320
00:59:20,833 --> 00:59:22,766
Fine, the Allman Brothers are fine but
1321
00:59:22,766 --> 00:59:24,133
we wanted something different and so
1322
00:59:24,133 --> 00:59:25,666
there was a skepticism and an irony,
1323
00:59:25,666 --> 00:59:29,733
a sarcasm, I mean Baby's on Fire is a very,
1324
00:59:29,733 --> 00:59:31,666
that's a terrific song.
1325
00:59:33,100 --> 00:59:35,866
Because the tone is so wonderful.
1326
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:38,666
I mean, no American rock band would
1327
00:59:38,666 --> 00:59:40,100
do anything with that kind of tone,
1328
00:59:40,100 --> 00:59:42,200
not in 1974, unthinkable.
1329
00:59:43,366 --> 00:59:45,933
And it was wonderful.
1330
00:59:45,933 --> 00:59:47,166
It was a tonic.
1331
01:00:03,700 --> 01:00:05,366
- It's an album with great tunes.
1332
01:00:05,366 --> 01:00:08,433
Baby's on Fire is incredibly catchy.
1333
01:00:08,433 --> 01:00:10,433
Here Come the Warm Jets is
1334
01:00:10,433 --> 01:00:13,300
an example of an attempt to make
1335
01:00:13,300 --> 01:00:14,900
a commercial record by somebody
1336
01:00:14,900 --> 01:00:16,666
who doesn't really have that much interest
1337
01:00:16,666 --> 01:00:19,233
in commercial rock music.
1338
01:00:19,233 --> 01:00:21,900
So you have a lovely kind of,
1339
01:00:21,900 --> 01:00:23,833
you have a lovely collision in a way
1340
01:00:23,833 --> 01:00:26,900
between these two impulses.
1341
01:00:26,900 --> 01:00:28,500
And really, Here Come the Warm Jets
1342
01:00:28,500 --> 01:00:30,000
is the first in a series of records
1343
01:00:30,000 --> 01:00:33,666
where Brian is slowly removing the foreground
1344
01:00:33,666 --> 01:00:36,266
of the traditional rock record.
1345
01:00:37,666 --> 01:00:39,733
On Some Faraway Beach is perhaps the first
1346
01:00:39,733 --> 01:00:42,066
intimation of ambient music,
1347
01:00:42,066 --> 01:00:43,633
aside from the things with Fripp,
1348
01:00:43,633 --> 01:00:46,000
where you have this kind of destructured
1349
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,866
rock music, decentered balladic form.
1350
01:00:49,866 --> 01:00:53,266
And it's very beautiful, but it's also rather
1351
01:00:53,266 --> 01:00:54,933
strange and mysterious.
1352
01:00:54,933 --> 01:00:58,000
(ambient rock music)
1353
01:01:19,433 --> 01:01:21,300
Whereas a lot of the record has this
1354
01:01:21,300 --> 01:01:23,266
pounding quality, and it's quirky,
1355
01:01:23,266 --> 01:01:25,866
and it's strange and it's idiosyncratic,
1356
01:01:25,866 --> 01:01:28,866
almost Dadaist, there are these moments,
1357
01:01:28,866 --> 01:01:30,766
these kinds of pools of lucidity
1358
01:01:30,766 --> 01:01:32,900
that exist within in the record,
1359
01:01:32,900 --> 01:01:35,666
which are definitely sign posts for the future.
1360
01:01:35,666 --> 01:01:36,933
- [Narrator] Here Come the Warm Jets
1361
01:01:36,933 --> 01:01:38,400
was a considerable success,
1362
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:39,933
reaching the top 30 in the UK,
1363
01:01:39,933 --> 01:01:41,333
and gaining favorable reviews from
1364
01:01:41,333 --> 01:01:43,733
the mainstream rock press on both sides
1365
01:01:43,733 --> 01:01:45,300
of the Atlantic.
1366
01:01:45,300 --> 01:01:47,366
Publicity however was problematic.
1367
01:01:47,366 --> 01:01:49,633
Although there was a planned trip to the US
1368
01:01:49,633 --> 01:01:51,533
to perform interviews, without a band
1369
01:01:51,533 --> 01:01:54,066
behind Eno, there could be no tour.
1370
01:01:54,066 --> 01:01:55,833
Yet one evening he happened to witness
1371
01:01:55,833 --> 01:01:58,400
a performance by pub rock regulars, The Winkies,
1372
01:01:58,400 --> 01:02:00,166
and impressed by their playing,
1373
01:02:00,166 --> 01:02:01,433
he offered them the chance to become
1374
01:02:01,433 --> 01:02:03,266
his live backing group.
1375
01:02:03,266 --> 01:02:04,866
- The Kensington was a very famous pub
1376
01:02:04,866 --> 01:02:08,100
in West London, most of the pub rock bands
1377
01:02:08,100 --> 01:02:11,100
played there, Dr Feelgood, Beats Mancanny,
1378
01:02:11,100 --> 01:02:13,233
Ducks Deluxe, us, blah blah blah,
1379
01:02:13,233 --> 01:02:16,533
and he was basically looking for a band.
1380
01:02:16,533 --> 01:02:19,200
I liked him, I thought he was on okay guy.
1381
01:02:19,200 --> 01:02:22,566
He did music that I'd never heard before.
1382
01:02:22,566 --> 01:02:23,400
I hadn't.
1383
01:02:24,666 --> 01:02:26,633
That was the buzz.
1384
01:02:26,633 --> 01:02:28,800
And I didn't know what to make of it,
1385
01:02:28,800 --> 01:02:32,033
I'm thinking, keep your mouth shut,
1386
01:02:32,033 --> 01:02:34,566
keep your ears open, be a good guy,
1387
01:02:34,566 --> 01:02:37,766
and just get on with it and see what happens.
1388
01:02:37,766 --> 01:02:40,733
And that was what I kept trying to tell myself.
1389
01:02:40,733 --> 01:02:42,633
We were given the album,
1390
01:02:42,633 --> 01:02:45,033
I went home and learned the bass parts,
1391
01:02:45,033 --> 01:02:46,666
and I'm assuming that Guy and Philip,
1392
01:02:46,666 --> 01:02:49,566
and Mike did the same sort of thing.
1393
01:02:49,566 --> 01:02:51,366
I felt sorry for Guy and Phil,
1394
01:02:51,366 --> 01:02:53,800
because the basslines
1395
01:02:53,800 --> 01:02:54,966
they're there.
1396
01:02:56,200 --> 01:02:58,733
You just simply, oh my God, that's what it is,
1397
01:02:58,733 --> 01:03:01,433
boom boom boom boom, learn it.
1398
01:03:01,433 --> 01:03:03,333
But when you got all this
1399
01:03:03,333 --> 01:03:05,733
Phil Spector stuff going on,
1400
01:03:05,733 --> 01:03:07,800
you think, how on Earth do interpret that
1401
01:03:07,800 --> 01:03:09,566
on a guitar?
1402
01:03:09,566 --> 01:03:10,733
What can I do?
1403
01:03:12,866 --> 01:03:14,666
And you're up a gumtree really because
1404
01:03:14,666 --> 01:03:15,700
it doesn't matter what you do,
1405
01:03:15,700 --> 01:03:17,200
it's never gonna sound like that,
1406
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:20,266
so you've gotta sort of meet it halfway somehow,
1407
01:03:20,266 --> 01:03:23,700
and again I thought Philip and Guy
1408
01:03:23,700 --> 01:03:25,666
did a really excellent job.
1409
01:03:25,666 --> 01:03:27,266
It wasn't easy.
1410
01:03:27,266 --> 01:03:29,666
Before Eno hit the road with The Winkies, however,
1411
01:03:29,666 --> 01:03:32,500
EG persuaded him that a single would be needed
1412
01:03:32,500 --> 01:03:33,933
to further promote the album.
1413
01:03:33,933 --> 01:03:36,033
Taking his new backing band into the studio
1414
01:03:36,033 --> 01:03:38,066
for their only official recording,
1415
01:03:38,066 --> 01:03:40,233
the result was an original composition,
1416
01:03:40,233 --> 01:03:43,566
The Seven Deadly Fins, released in March 1974,
1417
01:03:43,566 --> 01:03:47,700
the single failed to reach the UK Top 40.
1418
01:03:47,700 --> 01:03:49,500
- The most difficult thing
1419
01:03:49,500 --> 01:03:53,133
which when you listen to Seven Deadly Fins,
1420
01:03:53,133 --> 01:03:55,400
I think we gave it our best shot,
1421
01:03:55,400 --> 01:03:58,133
as a band, was interpreting stuff
1422
01:03:59,300 --> 01:04:02,333
to not make it sound like yet another
1423
01:04:02,333 --> 01:04:04,800
boring rock and roll band.
1424
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:07,900
Because that's not what Brian wanted.
1425
01:04:09,066 --> 01:04:11,666
It's difficult you see because
1426
01:04:11,666 --> 01:04:14,066
a guitar sounds like a guitar.
1427
01:04:14,066 --> 01:04:16,366
Unless you've got a guitar synth,
1428
01:04:16,366 --> 01:04:18,633
it's always gonna sound like a guitar,
1429
01:04:18,633 --> 01:04:20,766
it can't sound like anything else.
1430
01:04:20,766 --> 01:04:24,333
I suppose we were very sympathetic to the idea.
1431
01:04:24,333 --> 01:04:26,900
Brian treated Guy's guitar solo,
1432
01:04:26,900 --> 01:04:29,666
it starts off quite conventionally,
1433
01:04:29,666 --> 01:04:32,066
and then it goes off the wall.
1434
01:04:32,066 --> 01:04:36,133
Mike's drums are very interesting and quirky.
1435
01:04:36,133 --> 01:04:38,700
I just played rock and roll bass.
1436
01:04:38,700 --> 01:04:42,066
We did a good job, we gave it our best shot.
1437
01:04:42,066 --> 01:04:45,233
(rock and roll music)
1438
01:04:46,700 --> 01:04:50,166
♪ Oh the French girls with the strings of pearls ♪
1439
01:04:50,166 --> 01:04:53,466
♪ It's such a burning shame
1440
01:04:53,466 --> 01:04:56,333
♪ That the local boys with their country joys ♪
1441
01:04:56,333 --> 01:04:59,666
♪ Never make them daisy chains
1442
01:04:59,666 --> 01:05:02,333
♪ They're swapping disappointing incidents ♪
1443
01:05:02,333 --> 01:05:05,933
♪ While at the dogs another ship rolls in ♪
1444
01:05:05,933 --> 01:05:08,766
♪ And suddenly the door breaks down ♪
1445
01:05:08,766 --> 01:05:11,333
♪ It's the seven deadly fins
1446
01:05:11,333 --> 01:05:12,866
♪ Oh oh oh
1447
01:05:12,866 --> 01:05:14,566
- Seven Deadly Fins is an attempt
1448
01:05:14,566 --> 01:05:16,700
to make a hit single.
1449
01:05:16,700 --> 01:05:18,466
I dont know exactly where that comes from,
1450
01:05:18,466 --> 01:05:20,433
whose idea it was, but you can imagine
1451
01:05:20,433 --> 01:05:22,433
it probably came from either management,
1452
01:05:22,433 --> 01:05:25,200
record company, and I think Brian treats it
1453
01:05:25,200 --> 01:05:27,233
a little bit like an art project.
1454
01:05:27,233 --> 01:05:29,500
Okay, how do I turn what I'm doing
1455
01:05:29,500 --> 01:05:31,266
and in Here Come the Warm Jets,
1456
01:05:31,266 --> 01:05:34,100
into a palatable glam rock single?
1457
01:05:35,700 --> 01:05:37,533
♪ Ooh
1458
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:56,800
It wasn't a hit.
1459
01:05:56,800 --> 01:05:59,200
So it didn't work, but by the same token,
1460
01:05:59,200 --> 01:06:01,366
I think it's another example of Brian saying,
1461
01:06:01,366 --> 01:06:03,800
okay what are the parameters?
1462
01:06:03,800 --> 01:06:05,766
And how do I slot myself into that?
1463
01:06:05,766 --> 01:06:07,600
It doesn't sound incongruous in the same way
1464
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:09,500
that a couple of years later he released
1465
01:06:09,500 --> 01:06:12,100
a cover of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Wim Oh Wey.
1466
01:06:12,100 --> 01:06:15,700
Presumably with a similar purpose.
1467
01:06:15,700 --> 01:06:18,800
But also failed to chart, but somehow
1468
01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:21,333
he inhabits it, it doesn't sound like a novelty item
1469
01:06:21,333 --> 01:06:24,733
for novelty's sake, it's kind of de-gimmicked
1470
01:06:24,733 --> 01:06:26,966
somehow because he brings to it a,
1471
01:06:26,966 --> 01:06:29,266
I dont know a certain kind of joie de vivre,
1472
01:06:29,266 --> 01:06:32,100
or just, it kind of grins at you,
1473
01:06:32,100 --> 01:06:33,500
in a certain way.
1474
01:06:34,666 --> 01:06:35,900
- [Narrator] In the same month, Brian
1475
01:06:35,900 --> 01:06:37,800
and the Winkies began the UK tour.
1476
01:06:37,800 --> 01:06:39,633
Yet despite positive early reviews
1477
01:06:39,633 --> 01:06:41,400
for both the inexperienced front man's
1478
01:06:41,400 --> 01:06:44,033
vocal performances, and the abilities of his band,
1479
01:06:44,033 --> 01:06:46,900
soon into the shows, Eno was become uncomfortable
1480
01:06:46,900 --> 01:06:49,433
with being in the spotlight, and grew disillusioned
1481
01:06:49,433 --> 01:06:52,000
with the touring process.
1482
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:53,966
- Brian is not a front man.
1483
01:06:53,966 --> 01:06:57,066
He hasn't got that personality.
1484
01:06:57,066 --> 01:07:00,300
He did it, but I think he may have been
1485
01:07:00,300 --> 01:07:01,500
stressed by it.
1486
01:07:02,700 --> 01:07:04,600
There are certain people that can do
1487
01:07:04,600 --> 01:07:07,433
certain types of job, and Brian is
1488
01:07:09,333 --> 01:07:13,400
a creative musician, certainly creative
1489
01:07:13,400 --> 01:07:16,833
in the control room, very innovative,
1490
01:07:16,833 --> 01:07:19,666
off the wall, quirky, you name it.
1491
01:07:21,066 --> 01:07:24,366
But giving it the, no, it's not his personality.
1492
01:07:24,366 --> 01:07:25,633
To front a band
1493
01:07:26,966 --> 01:07:29,466
is one hell of a responsibility.
1494
01:07:29,466 --> 01:07:32,100
I don't think Brian actually wanted to do that.
1495
01:07:32,100 --> 01:07:34,200
Whether sometimes you are actually
1496
01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:37,800
put into that situation because you are
1497
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:41,800
forced into it, then that's another matter.
1498
01:07:41,800 --> 01:07:45,433
I think Brian was obliged to promote
1499
01:07:45,433 --> 01:07:47,433
Here Come the Warm Jets.
1500
01:07:49,133 --> 01:07:51,500
What are you gonna do with it?
1501
01:07:51,500 --> 01:07:53,100
And it got an audience, because he
1502
01:07:53,100 --> 01:07:54,900
just left Roxy Music, so what are you
1503
01:07:54,900 --> 01:07:56,100
gonna do with the thing?
1504
01:07:56,100 --> 01:07:57,000
Put in on a shelf and hope for the best?
1505
01:07:57,000 --> 01:07:58,033
No.
1506
01:07:58,033 --> 01:08:00,933
So he sort of had to do that.
1507
01:08:00,933 --> 01:08:02,400
- [Narrator] Despite his discomfort with
1508
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:04,800
the whole process, the tour was eventually canceled
1509
01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:07,466
due to more serious concerns.
1510
01:08:07,466 --> 01:08:10,600
Only five dates in, Eno began to suffer from chest pains,
1511
01:08:10,600 --> 01:08:12,833
and he was diagnosed with a collapsed lung.
1512
01:08:12,833 --> 01:08:15,266
He would later claim that despite the health scare,
1513
01:08:15,266 --> 01:08:17,433
he was relieved that something had pulled him out
1514
01:08:17,433 --> 01:08:19,866
of his commitment to tour.
1515
01:08:19,866 --> 01:08:21,266
- I think Brian's relationship with
1516
01:08:21,266 --> 01:08:23,400
the road was always one-sided.
1517
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:26,200
He didn't wanna be on it, basically.
1518
01:08:26,200 --> 01:08:28,500
I think with The Winkies, it's sort of,
1519
01:08:28,500 --> 01:08:31,733
it was an exercise in expediency I think.
1520
01:08:31,733 --> 01:08:33,733
There would be pressure from the management
1521
01:08:33,733 --> 01:08:35,500
and the record company to actually
1522
01:08:35,500 --> 01:08:37,366
promote this record, and to get,
1523
01:08:37,366 --> 01:08:38,966
find a way of getting Brian on the road,
1524
01:08:38,966 --> 01:08:41,366
so when he stumbled on to this pub rock band,
1525
01:08:41,366 --> 01:08:44,033
who were very good, and looked the part,
1526
01:08:44,033 --> 01:08:47,200
he thought, instant band, let's do it.
1527
01:08:48,366 --> 01:08:49,700
And I think again it was probably not
1528
01:08:49,700 --> 01:08:51,366
much more thought than that,
1529
01:08:51,366 --> 01:08:53,066
this could work, and they got on,
1530
01:08:53,066 --> 01:08:57,533
and they rehearsed, and off they set for the shires.
1531
01:08:57,533 --> 01:09:00,800
But it didn't work, he hated it.
1532
01:09:00,800 --> 01:09:02,266
Because I don't think he liked necessarily
1533
01:09:02,266 --> 01:09:04,300
being the center, completely the center of attention,
1534
01:09:04,300 --> 01:09:06,233
that was one thing, which he hadn't been before
1535
01:09:06,233 --> 01:09:09,666
on stage, he'd always been this kind of
1536
01:09:09,666 --> 01:09:12,166
second figurehead kind of thing,
1537
01:09:12,166 --> 01:09:14,033
and that's a nice position to be in
1538
01:09:14,033 --> 01:09:16,533
if you're essentially more oriented
1539
01:09:16,533 --> 01:09:19,100
towards the back room, which as a creative person
1540
01:09:19,100 --> 01:09:22,566
that's where he wanted to be, increasingly,
1541
01:09:22,566 --> 01:09:24,266
but he only lasted four or five dates,
1542
01:09:24,266 --> 01:09:26,166
and his lung collapsed.
1543
01:09:27,533 --> 01:09:31,000
Almost psychosomatically, if that's possible,
1544
01:09:31,000 --> 01:09:34,566
but a number of incidents in Brian Eno's life
1545
01:09:34,566 --> 01:09:37,333
where he's hospitalized or is bed-ridden,
1546
01:09:37,333 --> 01:09:41,000
and a sea change occurs because he
1547
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:43,033
has time just to lie there and think about
1548
01:09:43,033 --> 01:09:46,100
nothing but, what am I gonna do now?
1549
01:09:46,100 --> 01:09:49,066
And he didn't like touring, clearly,
1550
01:09:49,066 --> 01:09:51,400
and he lay there in bed recovering
1551
01:09:51,400 --> 01:09:55,133
from a collapsed young, saying to himself,
1552
01:09:55,133 --> 01:09:56,400
why do I need to tour?
1553
01:09:56,400 --> 01:09:57,800
That's not really what I enjoy doing,
1554
01:09:57,800 --> 01:09:59,066
why don't I do what I enjoy,
1555
01:09:59,066 --> 01:10:00,166
which is tinkering around in studios
1556
01:10:00,166 --> 01:10:02,433
making weird sounds happen?
1557
01:10:04,466 --> 01:10:06,533
And doing projects.
1558
01:10:06,533 --> 01:10:08,733
And so it's again back to this idea of art,
1559
01:10:08,733 --> 01:10:11,000
rolling out of bed in the morning and doing art,
1560
01:10:11,000 --> 01:10:12,766
not being a show pony
1561
01:10:14,066 --> 01:10:16,466
around the sticky-floored venues of
1562
01:10:16,466 --> 01:10:18,600
Great Britain and elsewhere.
1563
01:10:18,600 --> 01:10:20,133
- [Narrator] Yet Eno didn't turn his back on
1564
01:10:20,133 --> 01:10:21,866
live performance altogether.
1565
01:10:21,866 --> 01:10:24,766
In fact, within two months of the final Winkies shows,
1566
01:10:24,766 --> 01:10:26,800
he was back on stage with Gavin Bryars'
1567
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:29,066
anarchic Portsmouth Symphonia Ensemble
1568
01:10:29,066 --> 01:10:31,166
at the Royal Albert Hall, recordings of which
1569
01:10:31,166 --> 01:10:32,700
he would eventually produce for it
1570
01:10:32,700 --> 01:10:34,833
to release later in the year.
1571
01:10:34,833 --> 01:10:36,500
Elsewhere, Island Records had secured
1572
01:10:36,500 --> 01:10:38,733
the solo services of ex-Velvet Underground
1573
01:10:38,733 --> 01:10:41,133
artists John Cale and Nico.
1574
01:10:41,133 --> 01:10:42,700
And to promote the label's signing
1575
01:10:42,700 --> 01:10:44,566
of these icons, suggested a show
1576
01:10:44,566 --> 01:10:46,366
which would include ex-Soft Machine
1577
01:10:46,366 --> 01:10:49,900
guitarist Kevin Ayers, and Eno himself.
1578
01:10:49,900 --> 01:10:52,200
Despite his reluctance to appear live,
1579
01:10:52,200 --> 01:10:54,333
the Velvets had been one of Eno's key inspirations
1580
01:10:54,333 --> 01:10:56,300
while at art school.
1581
01:10:56,300 --> 01:10:59,333
A group that fused the avant-garde with pop aesthetic.
1582
01:10:59,333 --> 01:11:00,733
And he found the idea of playing with
1583
01:11:00,733 --> 01:11:03,900
his teenage idols too tempting to resist.
1584
01:11:03,900 --> 01:11:05,833
In June, the four very different artists
1585
01:11:05,833 --> 01:11:08,166
performed at London's Rainbow Theater.
1586
01:11:08,166 --> 01:11:10,533
Perhaps more important as a spectacle
1587
01:11:10,533 --> 01:11:13,133
than as a concert, its success nevertheless
1588
01:11:13,133 --> 01:11:14,966
allowed Eno to collaborate closely
1589
01:11:14,966 --> 01:11:17,633
with artists who had been such an influence upon him,
1590
01:11:17,633 --> 01:11:19,666
and in July and August, he worked both
1591
01:11:19,666 --> 01:11:24,033
on Cale's album Fear, and Nico's album The End.
1592
01:11:24,033 --> 01:11:26,000
Following further contributions to the new LP
1593
01:11:26,000 --> 01:11:27,933
by prog legends, Genesis,
1594
01:11:27,933 --> 01:11:29,900
in September he returned to the studio
1595
01:11:29,900 --> 01:11:33,000
to record the follow-up to Here Come the Warm Jets,
1596
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:35,600
with ex-Roxy Music cohort, Phil Manzanera,
1597
01:11:35,600 --> 01:11:38,366
now assisting him in the production of the record.
1598
01:11:38,366 --> 01:11:39,666
- With Taking Tiger Mountain,
1599
01:11:39,666 --> 01:11:42,566
you definitely see a kind of parallel
1600
01:11:42,566 --> 01:11:44,366
with Sergeant Pepper in a weird way.
1601
01:11:44,366 --> 01:11:46,533
Because Brian's come off the road
1602
01:11:46,533 --> 01:11:47,766
in the way that The Beatles had come
1603
01:11:47,766 --> 01:11:49,466
off the road in '66, and it's kind of
1604
01:11:49,466 --> 01:11:51,466
a tabular rasa moment, the
1605
01:11:51,466 --> 01:11:54,200
canvas is empty, what shall I do?
1606
01:11:55,800 --> 01:11:57,200
Rather than what can I,
1607
01:11:57,200 --> 01:11:59,333
no consideration of an afterlife
1608
01:11:59,333 --> 01:12:00,966
for the record, necessarily.
1609
01:12:00,966 --> 01:12:03,166
So for the first time he has this
1610
01:12:03,166 --> 01:12:06,400
clean slate to work on, and oddly
1611
01:12:06,400 --> 01:12:08,466
he just puts a band together rather than
1612
01:12:08,466 --> 01:12:11,066
just bringing disparate sort of players
1613
01:12:11,066 --> 01:12:14,066
in a curatorial role that he'd used before.
1614
01:12:14,066 --> 01:12:16,433
There's an element of that obviously in
1615
01:12:16,433 --> 01:12:18,400
assembling any band.
1616
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:20,900
But it is a kind of core band.
1617
01:12:20,900 --> 01:12:23,000
And this time he has a lot of fragments
1618
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:24,200
that he's already been working on
1619
01:12:24,200 --> 01:12:27,266
in the interim since the last record.
1620
01:12:27,266 --> 01:12:29,533
He spends a lot of time with Phil Manzanera
1621
01:12:29,533 --> 01:12:31,800
sorting the wheat from the chaff,
1622
01:12:31,800 --> 01:12:34,033
which could be, what could work with what?
1623
01:12:34,033 --> 01:12:35,633
And I think Manzanera had quite a big role
1624
01:12:35,633 --> 01:12:38,866
in sorting out what key went with what,
1625
01:12:40,633 --> 01:12:43,966
and if this section could work with that section.
1626
01:12:43,966 --> 01:12:47,066
So a number of the songs were begun that way.
1627
01:12:47,066 --> 01:12:49,700
So there was much more source material,
1628
01:12:49,700 --> 01:12:53,166
more firmly worked out than on the previous record.
1629
01:12:53,166 --> 01:12:54,466
- [Narrator] And amongst the core of the
1630
01:12:54,466 --> 01:12:56,033
four-piece band that Eno put together
1631
01:12:56,033 --> 01:12:58,133
to record the album was Winkies bassist,
1632
01:12:58,133 --> 01:13:00,666
Brian Turrington, a musician who he
1633
01:13:00,666 --> 01:13:02,033
had also drafted in on the sessions
1634
01:13:02,033 --> 01:13:04,566
for John Cale's Fear LP, and who had become
1635
01:13:04,566 --> 01:13:06,633
a trusted collaborator.
1636
01:13:06,633 --> 01:13:10,100
- Maybe he just liked me in the way that I played.
1637
01:13:10,100 --> 01:13:12,166
And I was very fortunate and honored
1638
01:13:12,166 --> 01:13:14,266
to have been involved.
1639
01:13:14,266 --> 01:13:17,100
I mean I was in for a day, out for a day,
1640
01:13:17,100 --> 01:13:19,400
in for a morning, out for a day and a half,
1641
01:13:19,400 --> 01:13:23,066
in for an afternoon, and it was fairly fast.
1642
01:13:24,366 --> 01:13:26,633
Money being blah blah blah,
1643
01:13:26,633 --> 01:13:30,700
but we were there to do a job and that's what we did.
1644
01:13:30,700 --> 01:13:33,133
Brian was definitely as it were, in control,
1645
01:13:33,133 --> 01:13:37,533
calling the shots, but I wasn't asked to do
1646
01:13:37,533 --> 01:13:41,900
any particular type of playing, I think I was
1647
01:13:41,900 --> 01:13:44,433
quite lucky, if that be the word,
1648
01:13:44,433 --> 01:13:47,700
to just basically get on with my style.
1649
01:13:47,700 --> 01:13:50,966
What I seemed to do, worked good enough,
1650
01:13:50,966 --> 01:13:53,566
in other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
1651
01:13:53,566 --> 01:13:55,033
Simple as that.
1652
01:13:55,033 --> 01:13:58,066
You have a very, very, very basic chord sequence,
1653
01:13:58,066 --> 01:14:01,266
it goes that chord, for that number of bars,
1654
01:14:01,266 --> 01:14:03,600
that chord, blah blah blah, that chord,
1655
01:14:03,600 --> 01:14:05,200
there you are, what you do with it,
1656
01:14:05,200 --> 01:14:07,233
have a good time.
1657
01:14:07,233 --> 01:14:09,833
I'm not gonna write notes down, I'm not gonna dictate,
1658
01:14:09,833 --> 01:14:11,366
I'm not gonna have a baton and that,
1659
01:14:11,366 --> 01:14:14,366
so people improvised and it was like
1660
01:14:15,333 --> 01:14:16,500
an experiment.
1661
01:14:19,100 --> 01:14:22,166
And on the title track, I played piano on it.
1662
01:14:22,166 --> 01:14:24,033
Now I was there as a bass player,
1663
01:14:24,033 --> 01:14:26,366
and I was downstairs with a piano,
1664
01:14:26,366 --> 01:14:28,200
and there was half a dozen people upstairs,
1665
01:14:28,200 --> 01:14:30,033
and they had done the title track,
1666
01:14:30,033 --> 01:14:31,500
and a set of headphones there,
1667
01:14:31,500 --> 01:14:33,900
and they were doing something, and it was coming through.
1668
01:14:33,900 --> 01:14:37,566
And I was sort of, oh, I'll just play along,
1669
01:14:38,633 --> 01:14:40,366
I wasn't doing anything, I was down here,
1670
01:14:40,366 --> 01:14:42,833
I'll play along with this (hums).
1671
01:14:42,833 --> 01:14:44,633
And they all looked at me and I thought,
1672
01:14:44,633 --> 01:14:45,900
oh my God, they heard it.
1673
01:14:45,900 --> 01:14:48,566
(ambient music)
1674
01:15:34,833 --> 01:15:37,133
And Brian thought it was really good,
1675
01:15:37,133 --> 01:15:39,100
cut a long story short, I went back there,
1676
01:15:39,100 --> 01:15:41,133
did it for real.
1677
01:15:41,133 --> 01:15:42,033
Didn't ask.
1678
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:44,566
Just did it.
1679
01:15:44,566 --> 01:15:46,000
And that's interesting.
1680
01:15:46,000 --> 01:15:48,233
Didn't even know that the microphone,
1681
01:15:48,233 --> 01:15:50,466
the piano was micced up into the control room,
1682
01:15:50,466 --> 01:15:52,866
didn't have a clue.
1683
01:15:52,866 --> 01:15:55,066
And that was really spontaneous.
1684
01:15:55,066 --> 01:15:56,466
And it's nice when those things happen.
1685
01:15:56,466 --> 01:15:59,800
Very rarely, but that's the way it went.
1686
01:16:02,300 --> 01:16:04,433
- [Narrator] Released in November 1974,
1687
01:16:04,433 --> 01:16:06,366
the album failed to chart both in the UK
1688
01:16:06,366 --> 01:16:07,900
and the US.
1689
01:16:07,900 --> 01:16:10,033
Yet the music press were far more receptive
1690
01:16:10,033 --> 01:16:11,666
and positive than they had been
1691
01:16:11,666 --> 01:16:13,466
for Here Come the Warm Jets.
1692
01:16:13,466 --> 01:16:14,533
And Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy
1693
01:16:14,533 --> 01:16:16,966
was roundly acknowledged as the work
1694
01:16:16,966 --> 01:16:20,533
of a unique voice in popular music.
1695
01:16:20,533 --> 01:16:22,066
- It wasn't so much that Taking Tiger Mountain
1696
01:16:22,066 --> 01:16:23,833
was a more conventional record
1697
01:16:23,833 --> 01:16:26,033
to Here Come the Warm Jets, and was therefore
1698
01:16:26,033 --> 01:16:29,100
better received, it was that we were used
1699
01:16:29,100 --> 01:16:30,900
to the fact that this guy could actually
1700
01:16:30,900 --> 01:16:32,833
be taken seriously as somebody who could make songs,
1701
01:16:32,833 --> 01:16:35,233
and so we were ready for it.
1702
01:16:35,233 --> 01:16:39,000
♪ In the haze of the morning
1703
01:16:40,166 --> 01:16:43,566
♪ China sits on eternity
1704
01:16:51,266 --> 01:16:55,000
♪ And the opium farmers sell
1705
01:16:56,133 --> 01:17:00,266
♪ Dreams to obscure fraternities ♪
1706
01:17:08,600 --> 01:17:11,933
♪ On the horizon the
1707
01:17:11,933 --> 01:17:15,166
♪ Curtains are closing
1708
01:17:18,866 --> 01:17:20,466
- Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy
1709
01:17:20,466 --> 01:17:21,766
is obviously a very different record
1710
01:17:21,766 --> 01:17:23,200
from Here Come the Warm Jets.
1711
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:24,900
It's actually a far more focused record.
1712
01:17:24,900 --> 01:17:26,400
The eclecticism that we see
1713
01:17:26,400 --> 01:17:31,100
on Here Come the Warm Jets isn't as present there,
1714
01:17:31,100 --> 01:17:33,166
and I think for one significant reason is
1715
01:17:33,166 --> 01:17:35,933
that he's actually got a band with him,
1716
01:17:35,933 --> 01:17:38,666
but more importantly that even having a band,
1717
01:17:38,666 --> 01:17:41,133
I think he's got Phil Manzanera there,
1718
01:17:41,133 --> 01:17:43,600
very much in the co-producer's role.
1719
01:17:43,600 --> 01:17:45,800
If you look at the songs themselves,
1720
01:17:45,800 --> 01:17:48,066
quite a number of them are structured
1721
01:17:48,066 --> 01:17:50,700
in such a way that the break does come
1722
01:17:50,700 --> 01:17:52,900
at the expected time, the sound what
1723
01:17:52,900 --> 01:17:55,433
is created in there might not be what you expect,
1724
01:17:55,433 --> 01:17:59,466
there's definitely a sense of organization in those songs
1725
01:17:59,466 --> 01:18:02,666
which is quite orthodox, in a sense.
1726
01:18:02,666 --> 01:18:03,700
- Again, I think there's a balance
1727
01:18:03,700 --> 01:18:06,233
being achieved between a kind of
1728
01:18:06,233 --> 01:18:09,466
avant-garde gesture and a rock gesture.
1729
01:18:13,800 --> 01:18:15,633
I think it perhaps tips one way and another
1730
01:18:15,633 --> 01:18:17,066
even within individual songs on the record,
1731
01:18:17,066 --> 01:18:19,300
I think Phil Manzanera did create
1732
01:18:19,300 --> 01:18:22,633
or help to create more rigid structures.
1733
01:18:23,733 --> 01:18:25,833
But within that, within those parameters,
1734
01:18:25,833 --> 01:18:29,000
you've got unorthodoxy of various kinds.
1735
01:18:29,000 --> 01:18:31,500
And so you have everything from sort of
1736
01:18:31,500 --> 01:18:35,033
hymns to proto-punk thrash music,
1737
01:18:35,033 --> 01:18:39,400
but it's still not a record you could compare.
1738
01:18:39,400 --> 01:18:41,400
If you compare with Country Life,
1739
01:18:41,400 --> 01:18:43,566
the Roxy Music record, or I think,
1740
01:18:43,566 --> 01:18:46,166
I think Country Life was relatively contemporaneous,
1741
01:18:46,166 --> 01:18:48,866
that sounds incredibly orthodox by comparison,
1742
01:18:48,866 --> 01:18:50,833
even some of the same players,
1743
01:18:50,833 --> 01:18:52,666
and it's interesting how the divergence
1744
01:18:52,666 --> 01:18:54,466
has very quickly separated towards
1745
01:18:54,466 --> 01:18:58,400
different polarities, even in so short a time.
1746
01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:01,266
- The most interesting track was Third Uncle.
1747
01:19:01,266 --> 01:19:04,366
'Cause it was just like something that I
1748
01:19:04,366 --> 01:19:06,800
got an arrangement credit for,
1749
01:19:06,800 --> 01:19:10,366
wrote the bassline, it went through a Revox tape machine,
1750
01:19:10,366 --> 01:19:14,733
and it just hurtles along at a rate of knots.
1751
01:19:14,733 --> 01:19:17,366
It's just bizarre, bizarre piece of music.
1752
01:19:17,366 --> 01:19:19,500
And I made a mistake on it, you see,
1753
01:19:19,500 --> 01:19:21,333
I'm going on record now.
1754
01:19:21,333 --> 01:19:24,500
It's thumping along into two or three chords,
1755
01:19:24,500 --> 01:19:26,033
and it goes up there and it goes back there,
1756
01:19:26,033 --> 01:19:27,866
and it goes up there and it goes back there,
1757
01:19:27,866 --> 01:19:30,133
and then when it went back there,
1758
01:19:30,133 --> 01:19:32,866
my finger slipped, and instead of playing a G,
1759
01:19:32,866 --> 01:19:34,466
I played a G sharp.
1760
01:19:35,633 --> 01:19:39,033
And that note thumps out, duff, duff, duff,
1761
01:19:40,533 --> 01:19:44,200
whatever, and when I did it, I think,
1762
01:19:44,200 --> 01:19:47,300
oh my God, what have you done?
1763
01:19:47,300 --> 01:19:48,800
And I didn't stop.
1764
01:20:11,066 --> 01:20:14,800
So I did it again, and I did it again,
1765
01:20:14,800 --> 01:20:16,833
and then we come to the end,
1766
01:20:16,833 --> 01:20:19,566
and I'm like this, I'm thinking, oh my God,
1767
01:20:19,566 --> 01:20:20,966
what have I done?
1768
01:20:22,333 --> 01:20:25,533
And I said to Brian, look I'm really so sorry.
1769
01:20:25,533 --> 01:20:27,466
I made a mistake there.
1770
01:20:28,700 --> 01:20:30,633
I said, I hit the wrong note.
1771
01:20:30,633 --> 01:20:32,766
He said, "But it's brilliant".
1772
01:20:32,766 --> 01:20:34,200
I thought, is it?
1773
01:20:45,166 --> 01:20:46,500
♪ There are sings there are blues ♪
1774
01:20:46,500 --> 01:20:47,800
♪ There are moves there are shoes ♪
1775
01:20:47,800 --> 01:20:49,166
♪ There are turks there are focus ♪
1776
01:20:49,166 --> 01:20:50,466
♪ Bearing knuckles bearing scooters ♪
1777
01:20:50,466 --> 01:20:52,966
♪ There is you
1778
01:20:52,966 --> 01:20:55,300
♪ Then there was you
1779
01:20:55,300 --> 01:20:56,833
♪ I'll put my fingers by toes
1780
01:20:56,833 --> 01:20:58,300
♪ By my uncle by this pose
1781
01:20:58,300 --> 01:21:00,433
♪ By these shoes coming at it
1782
01:21:00,433 --> 01:21:03,400
♪ Don't you call me does it feel by you ♪
1783
01:21:03,400 --> 01:21:07,433
♪ It looks tight on you
1784
01:21:07,433 --> 01:21:09,800
- With Third Uncle almost prophetically looks
1785
01:21:09,800 --> 01:21:11,900
towards his work with Talking Heads,
1786
01:21:11,900 --> 01:21:14,400
and it's very much like,
1787
01:21:14,400 --> 01:21:16,433
Love Ghost A Building On Fire,
1788
01:21:16,433 --> 01:21:18,500
or more songs about buildings and food.
1789
01:21:18,500 --> 01:21:19,966
Just listen to the rhythmic part,
1790
01:21:19,966 --> 01:21:22,633
the guitar, it's really weird,
1791
01:21:22,633 --> 01:21:24,933
it's so far ahead of its time in that sense.
1792
01:21:24,933 --> 01:21:26,733
It predates punk, and it predates Talking Heads
1793
01:21:26,733 --> 01:21:29,466
by so many years, and yet there is the sound there.
1794
01:21:29,466 --> 01:21:31,533
Crystallized in that one song.
1795
01:21:31,533 --> 01:21:34,066
- It's a very strange song, seemingly beamed in
1796
01:21:34,066 --> 01:21:36,266
from another time, and it's hard to know
1797
01:21:36,266 --> 01:21:37,933
exactly when that is because it
1798
01:21:37,933 --> 01:21:40,300
does allude to the sound of Talking Heads
1799
01:21:40,300 --> 01:21:43,533
who hadn't even been formed when it was recorded.
1800
01:21:43,533 --> 01:21:46,300
And punk and post-punk obviously,
1801
01:21:47,666 --> 01:21:50,066
I remember seeing Bauhaus do a cover version
1802
01:21:50,066 --> 01:21:54,166
in the early 80's, it was extraordinarily,
1803
01:21:54,166 --> 01:21:56,800
it sounds like they'd written it.
1804
01:21:56,800 --> 01:21:59,000
But yes, Third Uncle, I think
1805
01:21:59,000 --> 01:22:02,166
you have to sort of look at the way the lyrics
1806
01:22:02,166 --> 01:22:03,833
work on that song, and I think that's probably
1807
01:22:03,833 --> 01:22:06,000
of significance to Brian,
1808
01:22:06,000 --> 01:22:09,733
is creating this kind of Haiku-like lyric,
1809
01:22:09,733 --> 01:22:12,600
than perhaps the music itself.
1810
01:22:12,600 --> 01:22:14,733
I think it's just kind of a vehicle for this
1811
01:22:14,733 --> 01:22:16,766
almost tirade like,
1812
01:22:16,766 --> 01:22:20,633
well it's kind of haiku as a tirade, if that makes sense.
1813
01:22:20,633 --> 01:22:24,433
But it's a peculiar song, and it is an anomaly.
1814
01:22:24,433 --> 01:22:26,233
- [Narrator] During the recording of the album,
1815
01:22:26,233 --> 01:22:28,000
Eno had also introduced the new system
1816
01:22:28,000 --> 01:22:30,233
into his methodology.
1817
01:22:30,233 --> 01:22:32,266
Developed with the painter, Peter Shmidt,
1818
01:22:32,266 --> 01:22:34,066
a close friend and part of the loose
1819
01:22:34,066 --> 01:22:36,100
artistic collective Eno had been involved with
1820
01:22:36,100 --> 01:22:38,300
since the late 60's, the Oblique Strategies
1821
01:22:38,300 --> 01:22:41,133
would be a key device in the studio.
1822
01:22:41,133 --> 01:22:43,700
A set of 113 cards, each with a single
1823
01:22:43,700 --> 01:22:46,333
creative instruction or suggestion,
1824
01:22:46,333 --> 01:22:48,700
they both intrigued and amused a rock press
1825
01:22:48,700 --> 01:22:51,766
unused to such a radical practice.
1826
01:22:51,766 --> 01:22:53,066
Yet a similar system had previously
1827
01:22:53,066 --> 01:22:54,300
been adopted by John Cage, who had relied
1828
01:22:54,300 --> 01:22:56,800
upon the random intervention of the
1829
01:22:56,800 --> 01:23:01,300
ancient Chinese text, the I Ching, while composing.
1830
01:23:01,300 --> 01:23:03,433
The Oblique Strategies were
1831
01:23:03,433 --> 01:23:07,366
a set of cards, oracle cards that Eno produced
1832
01:23:07,366 --> 01:23:10,500
with his friend, the painter Peter Schmidt.
1833
01:23:10,500 --> 01:23:12,666
And it turned out that both of them
1834
01:23:12,666 --> 01:23:14,300
had been keeping a notebook
1835
01:23:14,300 --> 01:23:16,633
for some months, or maybe a couple of years,
1836
01:23:16,633 --> 01:23:18,866
just offering little observations about
1837
01:23:18,866 --> 01:23:21,066
the creative process.
1838
01:23:21,066 --> 01:23:23,600
Things that you could do when you got stuck.
1839
01:23:23,600 --> 01:23:26,333
Suggestions for ways to take things
1840
01:23:26,333 --> 01:23:28,633
in a different direction.
1841
01:23:28,633 --> 01:23:30,200
They discussed their notebooks together
1842
01:23:30,200 --> 01:23:32,466
and they decided to actually put one idea
1843
01:23:32,466 --> 01:23:34,966
per card, into a nicely produced
1844
01:23:34,966 --> 01:23:36,833
deck of cards just like this.
1845
01:23:36,833 --> 01:23:38,966
I'm gonna read a couple of them just at random
1846
01:23:38,966 --> 01:23:40,733
to see what they say.
1847
01:23:41,900 --> 01:23:44,900
This one here says, "accept advice".
1848
01:23:46,566 --> 01:23:48,166
"Discard an axiom".
1849
01:23:49,900 --> 01:23:52,966
Ah, "Repetition is a form of change".
1850
01:23:56,466 --> 01:23:59,433
"Humanize something free of error".
1851
01:23:59,433 --> 01:24:01,866
That's a little more abstract.
1852
01:24:01,866 --> 01:24:04,066
Oh, here's a good one, very direct.
1853
01:24:04,066 --> 01:24:06,433
"Do something boring". (laughs)
1854
01:24:06,433 --> 01:24:09,233
So these cards are meant to be used,
1855
01:24:09,233 --> 01:24:11,500
for example, in a recording studio
1856
01:24:11,500 --> 01:24:14,000
when you're stuck for an idea.
1857
01:24:15,133 --> 01:24:16,933
You've gone through all the coffee,
1858
01:24:16,933 --> 01:24:19,000
it's three in the morning and you're
1859
01:24:19,000 --> 01:24:21,133
up against the wall, and nobody
1860
01:24:21,133 --> 01:24:23,200
has a good idea for how to proceed.
1861
01:24:23,200 --> 01:24:25,300
Well, you know, we take out these cards,
1862
01:24:25,300 --> 01:24:29,566
pull out one at random, and work from there.
1863
01:24:29,566 --> 01:24:32,866
It's kind of a technique which is interesting
1864
01:24:32,866 --> 01:24:36,900
because you don't have to believe anything.
1865
01:24:36,900 --> 01:24:38,733
I call it an oracle deck,
1866
01:24:38,733 --> 01:24:40,333
in the sense of a I Ching,
1867
01:24:40,333 --> 01:24:43,200
with the I Ching there's some feeling
1868
01:24:43,200 --> 01:24:45,233
that what you do with the cards, or the coins,
1869
01:24:45,233 --> 01:24:46,733
it's almost magical.
1870
01:24:46,733 --> 01:24:49,133
The universe is somehow working its
1871
01:24:49,133 --> 01:24:51,133
way into those cards or coins.
1872
01:24:51,133 --> 01:24:53,900
Not really with this, you don't have to believe anything.
1873
01:24:53,900 --> 01:24:57,933
It's just, it's more of a psychological prompt.
1874
01:24:57,933 --> 01:24:59,333
- [Narrator] With no tour to promote
1875
01:24:59,333 --> 01:25:01,566
Taking Tiger Mountain, Eno divided his time
1876
01:25:01,566 --> 01:25:04,133
in early 1975 between the interview circuit
1877
01:25:04,133 --> 01:25:06,533
and studio work with other artists.
1878
01:25:06,533 --> 01:25:09,633
He again provided synthesizers for John Cale
1879
01:25:09,633 --> 01:25:11,800
on his album Slow Dazzle.
1880
01:25:11,800 --> 01:25:13,433
And joined a familiar cast of musicians
1881
01:25:13,433 --> 01:25:15,566
including Andy Mackay and Robert Wyatt
1882
01:25:15,566 --> 01:25:19,033
on Phil Manzaneea's debut LP, Diamond Head.
1883
01:25:19,033 --> 01:25:21,366
Such projects, not only satisfied Eno's
1884
01:25:21,366 --> 01:25:24,666
workaholic tendencies, but they also introduced him
1885
01:25:24,666 --> 01:25:27,033
to musicians who he would later call up
1886
01:25:27,033 --> 01:25:29,566
for his own creative ventures.
1887
01:25:29,566 --> 01:25:33,266
These future collaborators included bassists Percy Jones.
1888
01:25:33,266 --> 01:25:35,533
- I think it was the summer of 1975,
1889
01:25:35,533 --> 01:25:37,366
it was July or August,
1890
01:25:38,533 --> 01:25:40,533
kind of getting into the end of summer,
1891
01:25:40,533 --> 01:25:41,533
and I'd been
1892
01:25:43,600 --> 01:25:47,866
working on a concept album of Peter and the Wolf.
1893
01:25:47,866 --> 01:25:50,566
That album was being done by Robin Lumley
1894
01:25:50,566 --> 01:25:52,333
and Jack Lancaster.
1895
01:25:52,333 --> 01:25:53,866
Robin Lumley and myself were both in
1896
01:25:53,866 --> 01:25:55,266
a band called Brand X,
1897
01:25:55,266 --> 01:25:57,333
at the time which was a sort of
1898
01:25:57,333 --> 01:25:59,433
jazz, rock, crossover.
1899
01:25:59,433 --> 01:26:03,900
So they used the core of Brand X on this record.
1900
01:26:03,900 --> 01:26:05,900
The rhythm section, which was myself
1901
01:26:05,900 --> 01:26:09,300
and Phil Collins ended up doing a lot
1902
01:26:09,300 --> 01:26:11,800
of the backing tracks for Peter and the Wolf.
1903
01:26:11,800 --> 01:26:13,966
They had guests come in to overdub,
1904
01:26:13,966 --> 01:26:17,000
and Eno, Brian Eno was one of them,
1905
01:26:17,000 --> 01:26:18,700
and I think he was the wolf.
1906
01:26:18,700 --> 01:26:20,633
Because they all were characters
1907
01:26:20,633 --> 01:26:22,500
in a Pre-cof-iaf thing.
1908
01:26:22,500 --> 01:26:23,933
So he came in and
1909
01:26:26,166 --> 01:26:28,100
did a synthesizer part.
1910
01:26:29,266 --> 01:26:31,300
And I wasn't there at the time because
1911
01:26:31,300 --> 01:26:34,233
we tracked the backing tracks earlier,
1912
01:26:34,233 --> 01:26:36,800
but apparently he liked the rhythm section,
1913
01:26:36,800 --> 01:26:40,000
he wanted to know who they were.
1914
01:26:40,000 --> 01:26:43,466
And then subsequently, both Phil and myself
1915
01:26:43,466 --> 01:26:45,966
got a call from him,
1916
01:26:45,966 --> 01:26:47,966
could we come up to Island Studios
1917
01:26:47,966 --> 01:26:50,566
to work on some stuff with him?
1918
01:26:51,866 --> 01:26:54,933
So that was the introduction to Brian Eno.
1919
01:26:57,366 --> 01:26:59,133
And at the time, I didn't really know
1920
01:26:59,133 --> 01:27:01,300
what to expect, musically.
1921
01:27:03,066 --> 01:27:04,666
- [Narrator] There was no way that the
1922
01:27:04,666 --> 01:27:07,266
musicians invited to participate in Eno's new project,
1923
01:27:07,266 --> 01:27:09,800
Another Green World, could have known what to expect
1924
01:27:09,800 --> 01:27:12,433
as he essentially cast aside convention,
1925
01:27:12,433 --> 01:27:14,700
and brought John Cage's chants techniques
1926
01:27:14,700 --> 01:27:17,866
into the modern rock recording studio.
1927
01:27:17,866 --> 01:27:20,800
When the group of musicians assembled in June 1975,
1928
01:27:20,800 --> 01:27:24,433
including the Brand X duo of Jones and Phil Collins,
1929
01:27:24,433 --> 01:27:26,433
as well as John Cale and Robert Fripp,
1930
01:27:26,433 --> 01:27:28,833
there was only track already written.
1931
01:27:28,833 --> 01:27:31,366
Eno intended to use the studio as a tool,
1932
01:27:31,366 --> 01:27:33,600
and for controlled improvisations by the players
1933
01:27:33,600 --> 01:27:36,233
to gradually form the album's material.
1934
01:27:36,233 --> 01:27:38,933
Initially however, this was not as successful
1935
01:27:38,933 --> 01:27:42,000
as it would eventually become.
1936
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:43,666
- Another Green World is an example of a record
1937
01:27:43,666 --> 01:27:45,900
that is a complete tabula rasa,
1938
01:27:45,900 --> 01:27:48,766
going to the studio with nothing except
1939
01:27:48,766 --> 01:27:50,966
some Oblique Strategies cards,
1940
01:27:50,966 --> 01:27:53,400
and a few hired in instruments.
1941
01:27:53,400 --> 01:27:54,733
He was feeling the pressure because the initial
1942
01:27:54,733 --> 01:27:57,266
experiments where he set out the parameters
1943
01:27:57,266 --> 01:27:59,466
in an almost Cagean way, and just say
1944
01:27:59,466 --> 01:28:02,000
let's see what happens didn't produce anything.
1945
01:28:02,000 --> 01:28:04,600
It was kind of turning to sort of oral plasticity,
1946
01:28:04,600 --> 01:28:07,133
kind of the colorless ball of sound,
1947
01:28:07,133 --> 01:28:09,400
and he couldn't extract anything from it.
1948
01:28:09,400 --> 01:28:11,400
Which is always the downside of working that way
1949
01:28:11,400 --> 01:28:13,966
when you're being spontaneous.
1950
01:28:13,966 --> 01:28:15,766
And hopes, kind of hoping the chance,
1951
01:28:15,766 --> 01:28:18,233
this aleatory processes are gonna lead you somewhere,
1952
01:28:18,233 --> 01:28:20,400
and sometimes they lead you nowhere.
1953
01:28:20,400 --> 01:28:22,133
- He would sound extremely proud and very
1954
01:28:22,133 --> 01:28:25,333
confident in the press, and then he'd privately go home
1955
01:28:25,333 --> 01:28:27,933
and be in tears, he'd be crying.
1956
01:28:27,933 --> 01:28:30,333
He'd be like, the studio is so expensive.
1957
01:28:30,333 --> 01:28:31,933
It's not working at all.
1958
01:28:31,933 --> 01:28:33,566
You know, the first four days of work
1959
01:28:33,566 --> 01:28:36,466
on Another Green World, absolutely nothing came out.
1960
01:28:36,466 --> 01:28:38,900
Eno was using a very expensive studio,
1961
01:28:38,900 --> 01:28:40,833
Basing Street Studios in London,
1962
01:28:40,833 --> 01:28:42,666
and if it didn't work,
1963
01:28:45,133 --> 01:28:49,533
it was like 500 pounds a day to use the studio,
1964
01:28:49,533 --> 01:28:52,166
and so you're just kind of hemorrhaging
1965
01:28:52,166 --> 01:28:56,033
massive amounts of money to do this experiment,
1966
01:28:56,033 --> 01:29:00,200
so it was a very gutsy move by him to do that
1967
01:29:00,200 --> 01:29:02,466
with Another Green World.
1968
01:29:02,466 --> 01:29:04,600
- The very first session that we did,
1969
01:29:04,600 --> 01:29:07,566
I had no idea really what to expect.
1970
01:29:07,566 --> 01:29:09,500
I thought maybe it might have been
1971
01:29:09,500 --> 01:29:11,133
similar to Roxy Music or something,
1972
01:29:11,133 --> 01:29:13,666
because that was the only part of Brian Eno
1973
01:29:13,666 --> 01:29:15,866
that I knew about at the time.
1974
01:29:15,866 --> 01:29:17,700
This is one of the things about him that
1975
01:29:17,700 --> 01:29:20,533
I found so interesting is that his
1976
01:29:21,766 --> 01:29:25,733
starting points for pieces of music was,
1977
01:29:25,733 --> 01:29:29,200
were quite vague, well vague is not the right word,
1978
01:29:29,200 --> 01:29:31,100
but very open.
1979
01:29:31,100 --> 01:29:33,266
And I remember distinctly,
1980
01:29:34,433 --> 01:29:37,633
when we were doing Another Green World,
1981
01:29:39,166 --> 01:29:42,066
the starting point was Eno went over to,
1982
01:29:42,066 --> 01:29:44,033
it was a piano in the studio, acoustic piano,
1983
01:29:44,033 --> 01:29:46,400
he went over and he hit an A.
1984
01:29:46,400 --> 01:29:50,566
And he went (makes hitting noise).
1985
01:29:52,266 --> 01:29:53,833
And that was it.
1986
01:29:53,833 --> 01:29:56,333
And he said, play off of that.
1987
01:29:56,333 --> 01:30:00,333
So it sort of went into (hums).
1988
01:30:01,800 --> 01:30:04,333
I think it was four chords,
1989
01:30:04,333 --> 01:30:05,966
but with a lot of passing notes,
1990
01:30:05,966 --> 01:30:09,033
and major, minor thirds, so it was slightly altered.
1991
01:30:09,033 --> 01:30:10,733
I remember at the time it was,
1992
01:30:10,733 --> 01:30:12,333
it sounded like a really nice,
1993
01:30:12,333 --> 01:30:14,033
had a good feel to it.
1994
01:30:14,033 --> 01:30:16,700
So that was it for then.
1995
01:30:16,700 --> 01:30:19,633
I remember when I eventually heard the finished record,
1996
01:30:19,633 --> 01:30:22,666
Sky Saw and Over Fire Island
1997
01:30:22,666 --> 01:30:26,200
initially were just bass and drums.
1998
01:30:26,200 --> 01:30:28,400
So that was my recollection at that time
1999
01:30:28,400 --> 01:30:30,866
of those tracks, and then when I put the record on,
2000
01:30:30,866 --> 01:30:33,133
that was like, wow, this is
2001
01:30:33,133 --> 01:30:35,866
such cool stuff, because of everything
2002
01:30:35,866 --> 01:30:37,833
he'd done with it.
2003
01:30:37,833 --> 01:30:40,900
(ambient rock music)
2004
01:31:18,000 --> 01:31:20,500
Even though the starting points were often
2005
01:31:20,500 --> 01:31:23,066
very open and kind of vague,
2006
01:31:23,066 --> 01:31:24,966
the example I just gave it,
2007
01:31:24,966 --> 01:31:28,500
could have gone a million different ways.
2008
01:31:28,500 --> 01:31:31,100
And it just happened to go the way that it did.
2009
01:31:31,100 --> 01:31:35,833
But on the other hand, he could be very specific
2010
01:31:35,833 --> 01:31:36,733
in that you
2011
01:31:38,366 --> 01:31:41,100
sometimes record something,
2012
01:31:41,100 --> 01:31:44,500
and he'd pick out maybe two measures
2013
01:31:44,500 --> 01:31:45,900
of four measures.
2014
01:31:47,333 --> 01:31:49,033
And he'd say, "I like that, make something of that,
2015
01:31:49,033 --> 01:31:50,466
"sort of loop it".
2016
01:31:50,466 --> 01:31:52,900
In that respect he was very specific,
2017
01:31:52,900 --> 01:31:54,633
once the thing got rolling,
2018
01:31:54,633 --> 01:31:56,500
he seemed to know where to take it.
2019
01:31:56,500 --> 01:31:58,033
I found it very easy to work with him,
2020
01:31:58,033 --> 01:31:59,733
because he was very relaxed,
2021
01:31:59,733 --> 01:32:01,900
and kind of laid back and he
2022
01:32:01,900 --> 01:32:03,266
never seemed to get into a fluster
2023
01:32:03,266 --> 01:32:05,400
about anything really.
2024
01:32:05,400 --> 01:32:06,833
And I remember one day we were
2025
01:32:06,833 --> 01:32:09,600
working on an idea, we were having this discussion
2026
01:32:09,600 --> 01:32:12,133
about where it could go.
2027
01:32:12,133 --> 01:32:14,333
Just very intense debate,
2028
01:32:14,333 --> 01:32:16,566
and then he suddenly said,
2029
01:32:16,566 --> 01:32:18,500
"Let's have some cake".
2030
01:32:18,500 --> 01:32:20,900
And he went under the desk,
2031
01:32:20,900 --> 01:32:22,733
and he pulled out this big cake,
2032
01:32:22,733 --> 01:32:23,933
I think it was a fruit cake,
2033
01:32:23,933 --> 01:32:25,933
and he had some paper plates and stuff,
2034
01:32:25,933 --> 01:32:28,033
and he sliced it up, gave everybody
2035
01:32:28,033 --> 01:32:30,566
a piece of cake, so everything stopped,
2036
01:32:30,566 --> 01:32:32,833
so everybody's eating cake.
2037
01:32:34,233 --> 01:32:36,166
And then 10 minutes later, everybody finished their cake
2038
01:32:36,166 --> 01:32:38,633
and everybody had completely forgotten
2039
01:32:38,633 --> 01:32:41,033
what we were talking about.
2040
01:32:41,033 --> 01:32:43,366
To this day, it's just gone.
2041
01:33:04,500 --> 01:33:07,033
I think he got the best out of his musicians.
2042
01:33:07,033 --> 01:33:09,200
By making them feel involved,
2043
01:33:09,200 --> 01:33:11,633
because it was fun, we felt like we were
2044
01:33:11,633 --> 01:33:13,400
doing some new stuff.
2045
01:33:14,933 --> 01:33:18,100
And you could make suggestions, and he'd listen,
2046
01:33:18,100 --> 01:33:22,400
and I think that's how he got the best out of those guys.
2047
01:33:22,400 --> 01:33:24,633
Certainly, speaking for myself anyway.
2048
01:33:24,633 --> 01:33:28,300
And I remember going home from those sessions
2049
01:33:28,300 --> 01:33:30,833
and feeling good about it,
2050
01:33:30,833 --> 01:33:33,100
like I did something good today,
2051
01:33:33,100 --> 01:33:34,400
you know that kind of feeling?
2052
01:33:34,400 --> 01:33:36,600
Which is always very gratifying.
2053
01:33:36,600 --> 01:33:38,300
- [Narrator] The experiment paid off.
2054
01:33:38,300 --> 01:33:40,633
Released in September 1975, like similarly
2055
01:33:40,633 --> 01:33:43,133
ground-breaking records that had come before it,
2056
01:33:43,133 --> 01:33:45,233
Another Green World polarized audiences
2057
01:33:45,233 --> 01:33:47,200
and critics alike.
2058
01:33:47,200 --> 01:33:50,166
Where Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain
2059
01:33:50,166 --> 01:33:52,666
had still loosely fitted into the musical landscape
2060
01:33:52,666 --> 01:33:56,266
of the era, Eno was now exploring uncharted territory.
2061
01:33:56,266 --> 01:33:58,733
An album unlike any other to emerge from
2062
01:33:58,733 --> 01:34:00,700
the peripheries of the mainstream,
2063
01:34:00,700 --> 01:34:04,500
over time it would be hailed as a masterpiece.
2064
01:34:05,466 --> 01:34:07,033
- It's such a unique record.
2065
01:34:07,033 --> 01:34:09,466
It somehow defies categorization,
2066
01:34:09,466 --> 01:34:10,933
it's not ambient, but could be.
2067
01:34:10,933 --> 01:34:13,733
It's not classical, but could be.
2068
01:34:13,733 --> 01:34:15,766
It's not rock, but could be.
2069
01:34:15,766 --> 01:34:17,600
It's not ethnic, but could be,
2070
01:34:17,600 --> 01:34:20,333
it's all of these things but it's not any of them,
2071
01:34:20,333 --> 01:34:21,666
it's Eno, basically
2072
01:34:21,666 --> 01:34:25,100
♪ The passage of time
2073
01:34:25,100 --> 01:34:29,233
♪ Is flicking dimly upon the screen ♪
2074
01:34:29,233 --> 01:34:33,200
♪ I can't see the lines
2075
01:34:33,200 --> 01:34:38,000
♪ I used to think I could read between ♪
2076
01:34:38,000 --> 01:34:42,166
♪ Perhaps my brains have turned to sand ♪
2077
01:34:45,666 --> 01:34:48,233
♪ Owe me oh my
2078
01:34:48,233 --> 01:34:49,466
- Another Green World has a kind of
2079
01:34:49,466 --> 01:34:50,566
peculiar quality that it seems like
2080
01:34:50,566 --> 01:34:53,566
it's a kind of unorthodox rock record,
2081
01:34:53,566 --> 01:34:56,066
but actually it's not really a rock record at all.
2082
01:34:56,066 --> 01:34:58,533
There are only a smattering of songs,
2083
01:34:58,533 --> 01:35:00,600
but it feels like there are more.
2084
01:35:00,600 --> 01:35:01,933
It feels when you listen to the record
2085
01:35:01,933 --> 01:35:03,833
that it's half and half, but it isn't.
2086
01:35:03,833 --> 01:35:05,733
It's very carefully sequenced.
2087
01:35:05,733 --> 01:35:08,200
But also because the nature of the songs
2088
01:35:08,200 --> 01:35:10,766
is such that they fit together.
2089
01:35:13,033 --> 01:35:15,366
They're of a piece, the instrumentals feel like
2090
01:35:15,366 --> 01:35:18,000
comments on the songs, or vice versa.
2091
01:35:18,000 --> 01:35:20,833
And it's a very alluring record because
2092
01:35:20,833 --> 01:35:23,400
it's full of beautiful melodies,
2093
01:35:23,400 --> 01:35:26,566
again something that I think is overlooked in Eno.
2094
01:35:26,566 --> 01:35:30,733
♪ Perhaps my brains are old and scrambled ♪
2095
01:35:50,300 --> 01:35:52,600
- Why do I take Eno seriously?
2096
01:35:52,600 --> 01:35:54,100
Another Green World.
2097
01:35:54,100 --> 01:35:55,566
Another Green World is one of my favourite records
2098
01:35:55,566 --> 01:35:56,566
of all time.
2099
01:35:57,666 --> 01:35:59,566
It's a record,
2100
01:35:59,566 --> 01:36:01,266
it's a record I play.
2101
01:36:01,266 --> 01:36:03,833
It's a record when I was in Honduras
2102
01:36:03,833 --> 01:36:06,566
adopting my daughter, that was the
2103
01:36:06,566 --> 01:36:09,166
record we played for her to put her asleep.
2104
01:36:09,166 --> 01:36:11,800
It was a record that has really meant,
2105
01:36:11,800 --> 01:36:14,766
and that was nine years after it came out.
2106
01:36:14,766 --> 01:36:18,600
It was a big deal in my life, and it still is.
2107
01:36:18,600 --> 01:36:20,266
I love every minute of it.
2108
01:36:20,266 --> 01:36:22,200
The way it's sequenced, it's just a brilliant
2109
01:36:22,200 --> 01:36:24,033
piece of work.
2110
01:36:24,033 --> 01:36:25,366
It's my opinion,
2111
01:36:26,733 --> 01:36:29,233
it's as perfectly realized as an album can be.
2112
01:36:29,233 --> 01:36:31,900
(ambient music)
2113
01:36:54,833 --> 01:36:56,433
This is a masterpiece.
2114
01:36:56,433 --> 01:36:58,533
It comes like right in the beginning
2115
01:36:58,533 --> 01:37:00,400
of the punk explosion.
2116
01:37:00,400 --> 01:37:03,366
Serious change in the air, musically
2117
01:37:04,533 --> 01:37:06,900
but this record has nothing to do
2118
01:37:06,900 --> 01:37:11,066
on the surface, with what any of that change is about.
2119
01:37:12,066 --> 01:37:14,200
It's called Another Green World,
2120
01:37:14,200 --> 01:37:15,900
and people say, oh it's a technology record,
2121
01:37:15,900 --> 01:37:19,066
and yes, I suppose it is but
2122
01:37:19,066 --> 01:37:22,200
there's also something really pastoral.
2123
01:37:22,200 --> 01:37:24,433
I think I may have used the term technopastoral
2124
01:37:24,433 --> 01:37:27,466
when I reviewed it, if not, it'll do.
2125
01:37:27,466 --> 01:37:28,833
It's also a record that translates
2126
01:37:28,833 --> 01:37:30,833
perfectly well to CD.
2127
01:37:30,833 --> 01:37:32,766
Old records were made with sides then,
2128
01:37:32,766 --> 01:37:35,200
and sides mattered, really mattered sometimes.
2129
01:37:35,200 --> 01:37:37,166
Like on Before and After Science,
2130
01:37:37,166 --> 01:37:39,066
where the two sides are really rather different.
2131
01:37:39,066 --> 01:37:41,833
But in this case, it just flows,
2132
01:37:41,833 --> 01:37:43,233
beginning to end.
2133
01:38:18,866 --> 01:38:21,733
- Another Green World is one of my favourite Eno albums,
2134
01:38:21,733 --> 01:38:24,100
absolutely, it's a tour de force,
2135
01:38:24,100 --> 01:38:26,600
I don't think anybody would disagree.
2136
01:38:26,600 --> 01:38:29,200
There's a certain beautiful appreciation
2137
01:38:29,200 --> 01:38:31,766
of the role of the miniature,
2138
01:38:31,766 --> 01:38:34,000
which I think in influence,
2139
01:38:35,100 --> 01:38:36,933
the more melodic settee pieces,
2140
01:38:36,933 --> 01:38:40,000
Debussy, you almost look to the classical music
2141
01:38:40,000 --> 01:38:42,566
of late 19th century France, really,
2142
01:38:42,566 --> 01:38:46,233
and this sense of creating small moments,
2143
01:38:46,233 --> 01:38:48,733
and to me that's just perfect.
2144
01:38:50,366 --> 01:38:53,033
(ambient music)
2145
01:39:25,400 --> 01:39:27,366
- Eno at that point was making electronic music
2146
01:39:27,366 --> 01:39:30,000
that wasn't abrasive or any of the things
2147
01:39:30,000 --> 01:39:32,600
we'd associated with the 60's electronic
2148
01:39:32,600 --> 01:39:34,866
composes like Stockhausen, it was quite lullying,
2149
01:39:34,866 --> 01:39:37,200
quite sedative, and I think people,
2150
01:39:37,200 --> 01:39:38,733
a lot of people had a problem with that
2151
01:39:38,733 --> 01:39:41,866
before it was too tranquil, almost like muzak.
2152
01:39:41,866 --> 01:39:43,433
He's doing this music that's kind of
2153
01:39:43,433 --> 01:39:45,533
like just fading away into the sort
2154
01:39:45,533 --> 01:39:48,433
of twilight zone, and so it's very,
2155
01:39:49,700 --> 01:39:51,500
it's sort of coming out of psychedelia in a way,
2156
01:39:51,500 --> 01:39:54,266
like the more dreamy dejected side of psychedelia
2157
01:39:54,266 --> 01:39:56,366
that you get with certain Pink Floyd songs,
2158
01:39:56,366 --> 01:39:58,933
but it's also looking ahead to ambient music
2159
01:39:58,933 --> 01:40:02,433
which is very much about kind of surrender
2160
01:40:04,300 --> 01:40:08,233
and the individual blending into the environment
2161
01:40:08,233 --> 01:40:12,500
and sort of fading away, losing a sense of yourself.
2162
01:40:12,500 --> 01:40:15,733
So it's really radical record.
2163
01:40:15,733 --> 01:40:17,166
- [Narrator] During the same period,
2164
01:40:17,166 --> 01:40:18,866
Eno was also working on an equally radical
2165
01:40:18,866 --> 01:40:21,833
concept for a record label.
2166
01:40:21,833 --> 01:40:24,300
The release of Another Green World in September '75
2167
01:40:24,300 --> 01:40:26,466
was the first signal to his audience
2168
01:40:26,466 --> 01:40:28,266
that a new Eno was emerging,
2169
01:40:28,266 --> 01:40:29,966
one who would be moving even further
2170
01:40:29,966 --> 01:40:31,733
from the conventions of rock,
2171
01:40:31,733 --> 01:40:34,133
and attempting to take them with him.
2172
01:40:34,133 --> 01:40:35,733
His long haired androgynous appearance
2173
01:40:35,733 --> 01:40:38,033
of the Roxy days was morphing into a modest
2174
01:40:38,033 --> 01:40:41,900
and academic image more befitting an avant-garde composer.
2175
01:40:41,900 --> 01:40:43,733
And Obscure Records was the real evidence
2176
01:40:43,733 --> 01:40:47,466
that Eno's interests lay outside of the rock world.
2177
01:40:47,466 --> 01:40:48,966
A concept developed over time with his
2178
01:40:48,966 --> 01:40:51,600
Portsmouth Symphonia colleague, Gavin Bryars,
2179
01:40:51,600 --> 01:40:53,833
it was a label focused on promoting the work
2180
01:40:53,833 --> 01:40:55,900
of experimental composers, and would eventually
2181
01:40:55,900 --> 01:40:59,233
release 10 titles between 1975 and 1978.
2182
01:41:01,133 --> 01:41:02,966
Despite their initial reservations,
2183
01:41:02,966 --> 01:41:04,733
Island Records agreed to manufacture
2184
01:41:04,733 --> 01:41:08,300
and distribute the results of this experiment.
2185
01:41:08,300 --> 01:41:09,666
- The Obscure Label's significance is
2186
01:41:09,666 --> 01:41:11,566
completely underheralded.
2187
01:41:11,566 --> 01:41:14,033
It gave the first exposure to Gavin Bryars
2188
01:41:14,033 --> 01:41:17,533
on record to Michael Nyman, to Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
2189
01:41:17,533 --> 01:41:18,366
Et cetera.
2190
01:41:20,200 --> 01:41:23,133
And I think one of the things that Brian
2191
01:41:23,133 --> 01:41:24,966
says about it now is that he wanted
2192
01:41:24,966 --> 01:41:27,933
to set it up because he wanted to release
2193
01:41:27,933 --> 01:41:30,100
Sinking of the Titanic.
2194
01:41:30,100 --> 01:41:32,766
(ambient music)
2195
01:42:05,566 --> 01:42:07,266
- He went to see Gavin Bryars,
2196
01:42:07,266 --> 01:42:09,666
and he told him that I really gotta work on this
2197
01:42:09,666 --> 01:42:11,633
because of their friendship over the years,
2198
01:42:11,633 --> 01:42:14,166
and Eno find himself with the Sinking of the Titanic
2199
01:42:14,166 --> 01:42:17,633
was absolutely monumental piece of music,
2200
01:42:17,633 --> 01:42:21,500
and should be heard by the world in general.
2201
01:42:21,500 --> 01:42:25,266
The Obscure Album series of 10 records
2202
01:42:25,266 --> 01:42:28,900
that Eno persuaded either the records
2203
01:42:28,900 --> 01:42:31,266
to put out in the early '70s is possibly
2204
01:42:31,266 --> 01:42:33,333
the single most important thing he
2205
01:42:33,333 --> 01:42:36,133
did for the European and American avant-garde.
2206
01:42:36,133 --> 01:42:37,633
What he was doing was basically opening
2207
01:42:37,633 --> 01:42:41,900
the doors to hundreds of thousands of people
2208
01:42:41,900 --> 01:42:44,133
to the avant-garde, to this music that
2209
01:42:44,133 --> 01:42:47,600
had been struggling underneath the mainstream
2210
01:42:47,600 --> 01:42:50,500
for years and never been heard.
2211
01:42:50,500 --> 01:42:52,000
- [Narrator] Among the experimental composers
2212
01:42:52,000 --> 01:42:53,766
whose work had thus far been unheard
2213
01:42:53,766 --> 01:42:55,966
outside of the avant-garde underground
2214
01:42:55,966 --> 01:42:58,933
were John Adams, Michael Nyman and Harold Budd,
2215
01:42:58,933 --> 01:43:02,633
all of whom would become major names in modern composition.
2216
01:43:02,633 --> 01:43:05,300
Eno had a hand in the production of all of the LPs,
2217
01:43:05,300 --> 01:43:07,833
and was intent on finding suitable material,
2218
01:43:07,833 --> 01:43:10,200
and even relatively unknown artists within
2219
01:43:10,200 --> 01:43:12,766
the experimental field itself.
2220
01:43:12,766 --> 01:43:14,866
David Toop, whose work was captured
2221
01:43:14,866 --> 01:43:16,666
on the fourth Obscure Records release,
2222
01:43:16,666 --> 01:43:18,500
was one such composer.
2223
01:43:20,333 --> 01:43:21,600
- It was a big jump,
2224
01:43:21,600 --> 01:43:23,733
to suddenly be in Basing Street Studios.
2225
01:43:23,733 --> 01:43:27,733
(laughs) In this big studio and
2226
01:43:30,533 --> 01:43:33,200
given not much time, a few days,
2227
01:43:34,766 --> 01:43:38,500
but given some time in a studio like that
2228
01:43:38,500 --> 01:43:41,533
with an experienced producer, Brian,
2229
01:43:41,533 --> 01:43:43,800
and an experienced engineer, Rhett Davis,
2230
01:43:43,800 --> 01:43:46,133
and the opportunity to make some work
2231
01:43:46,133 --> 01:43:50,066
in that situation, yeah it was great of course.
2232
01:43:51,966 --> 01:43:55,366
Suddenly you had a position to work from.
2233
01:43:55,366 --> 01:43:57,966
The records were reviewed and
2234
01:43:57,966 --> 01:44:00,866
people were baffled by them or they liked them,
2235
01:44:00,866 --> 01:44:02,733
or they hated them, or whatever,
2236
01:44:02,733 --> 01:44:04,333
but there they were.
2237
01:44:04,333 --> 01:44:06,433
They weren't something that was just
2238
01:44:06,433 --> 01:44:08,366
a little gig somewhere that you could totally ignore
2239
01:44:08,366 --> 01:44:10,500
and say it was nothing to do with
2240
01:44:10,500 --> 01:44:12,233
the rest of the world.
2241
01:44:12,233 --> 01:44:15,500
And yeah, that was a great initiative.
2242
01:44:15,500 --> 01:44:18,166
(ambient music)
2243
01:44:45,300 --> 01:44:46,933
You could say that Brian really caught
2244
01:44:46,933 --> 01:44:50,366
the zeitgeist, and in some respects by accident.
2245
01:44:50,366 --> 01:44:52,666
He was getting advised of course,
2246
01:44:52,666 --> 01:44:55,400
but he was in a pivotal position.
2247
01:44:59,366 --> 01:45:02,700
He was in this world where he had power,
2248
01:45:04,033 --> 01:45:08,033
and let's face it, most of the artists,
2249
01:45:08,033 --> 01:45:11,400
all of the artists on Obscure had very little power
2250
01:45:11,400 --> 01:45:13,733
in that sense, at that time.
2251
01:45:14,900 --> 01:45:16,866
For all of us it presented our work
2252
01:45:16,866 --> 01:45:19,433
to a much bigger audience.
2253
01:45:19,433 --> 01:45:23,133
And I look back now and I think as A and R decision,
2254
01:45:23,133 --> 01:45:25,066
it was pretty solid.
2255
01:45:25,066 --> 01:45:27,833
That idea of channeling this very
2256
01:45:30,366 --> 01:45:33,733
yeah, obscure, sometimes difficult music
2257
01:45:33,733 --> 01:45:37,633
through the same channel that everybody else
2258
01:45:37,633 --> 01:45:41,800
who was very successful and famous was going through
2259
01:45:42,633 --> 01:45:44,633
was quite revolutionary.
2260
01:45:47,100 --> 01:45:49,000
- The fact that his name was on it,
2261
01:45:49,000 --> 01:45:51,500
I think allowed a lot of people who never
2262
01:45:51,500 --> 01:45:54,666
would have listened to this art music.
2263
01:45:54,666 --> 01:45:56,166
Gave them sort of permission to go out
2264
01:45:56,166 --> 01:45:58,566
and buy these albums, it made them curious.
2265
01:45:58,566 --> 01:45:59,833
They wouldn't have gone out and bought
2266
01:45:59,833 --> 01:46:01,100
non such album.
2267
01:46:02,400 --> 01:46:05,133
There were recordings being made
2268
01:46:05,133 --> 01:46:07,866
of some of these very composers, John Cage,
2269
01:46:07,866 --> 01:46:10,433
and others, but nobody was aware of them
2270
01:46:10,433 --> 01:46:13,866
except the obscure avant-garde music collectors.
2271
01:46:13,866 --> 01:46:16,100
So that crossing of bridges and using
2272
01:46:16,100 --> 01:46:19,333
his impomater to get these things made,
2273
01:46:19,333 --> 01:46:20,766
I'm sure that the only people who bought them
2274
01:46:20,766 --> 01:46:22,600
were other musicians really but (laughs)
2275
01:46:22,600 --> 01:46:24,900
or people who became other musicians.
2276
01:46:24,900 --> 01:46:27,566
I'm sure that a lot of people bought these albums.
2277
01:46:27,566 --> 01:46:30,266
A handful of people thought it was the first
2278
01:46:30,266 --> 01:46:32,833
beautiful note they'd ever heard in their life,
2279
01:46:32,833 --> 01:46:36,166
and other people were, what is this boring music?
2280
01:46:36,166 --> 01:46:39,700
I think that we need these wonderful windows
2281
01:46:39,700 --> 01:46:41,266
to discover things.
2282
01:46:42,433 --> 01:46:44,000
- [Narrator] And this window also gave Eno
2283
01:46:44,000 --> 01:46:46,033
the opportunity to release work of his own
2284
01:46:46,033 --> 01:46:49,400
that entirely fell outside of the domain of popular music.
2285
01:46:49,400 --> 01:46:52,466
Obscure's third release was Discreet Music,
2286
01:46:52,466 --> 01:46:54,466
an album on which he continued to develop
2287
01:46:54,466 --> 01:46:56,866
his unique artistic approach.
2288
01:46:56,866 --> 01:46:58,433
The second half of the LP was made up
2289
01:46:58,433 --> 01:47:01,800
of deconstructions of Pachelbel's Canon in D Major,
2290
01:47:01,800 --> 01:47:03,966
one of Eno's most beloved works.
2291
01:47:03,966 --> 01:47:07,000
Notated and conducted by Gavin Bryars.
2292
01:47:07,000 --> 01:47:08,966
Yet it was the A-side's title track
2293
01:47:08,966 --> 01:47:10,633
that spotlighted his singular vision
2294
01:47:10,633 --> 01:47:13,400
of the potential of technology and chance.
2295
01:47:13,400 --> 01:47:15,600
- Eno had set up these machines
2296
01:47:15,600 --> 01:47:17,933
to make music by themselves.
2297
01:47:19,333 --> 01:47:22,500
It was the fullest realization of Eno's
2298
01:47:22,500 --> 01:47:25,666
interest in cybernetics and systems.
2299
01:47:25,666 --> 01:47:29,366
He had actually built the system that made music.
2300
01:47:29,366 --> 01:47:33,800
And that made pretty interesting beautiful sounding music,
2301
01:47:33,800 --> 01:47:36,200
in a very kind of simple way.
2302
01:47:37,633 --> 01:47:39,666
You can actually look a the back of Discreet Music LP,
2303
01:47:39,666 --> 01:47:42,666
and make Discreet Music based on
2304
01:47:42,666 --> 01:47:45,266
the diagram that's on the back.
2305
01:47:46,900 --> 01:47:49,400
- It really is almost automatic music.
2306
01:47:49,400 --> 01:47:52,033
It's Eno setting a system in motion
2307
01:47:52,033 --> 01:47:54,833
and then standing back, and maybe adjust,
2308
01:47:54,833 --> 01:47:57,333
making a couple of little adjustments on the way,
2309
01:47:57,333 --> 01:47:59,200
on the fly, but for the most part,
2310
01:47:59,200 --> 01:48:01,600
just standing back.
2311
01:48:01,600 --> 01:48:03,866
It literally is a matter of
2312
01:48:05,066 --> 01:48:08,233
getting a tape loop going, and then
2313
01:48:08,233 --> 01:48:10,466
how many times are you gonna loop that?
2314
01:48:10,466 --> 01:48:13,666
How many times are you gonna let it play?
2315
01:48:13,666 --> 01:48:16,200
It was music played by machines.
2316
01:48:16,200 --> 01:48:18,866
(ambient music)
2317
01:48:48,266 --> 01:48:50,200
- It's funny though, I actually feel like
2318
01:48:50,200 --> 01:48:51,766
through almost all his stuff,
2319
01:48:51,766 --> 01:48:54,200
there's still this very strong sense of
2320
01:48:54,200 --> 01:48:56,366
it coming from a mind and a personality,
2321
01:48:56,366 --> 01:48:59,566
this attractive, inquisitive,
2322
01:48:59,566 --> 01:49:03,066
brilliant mind, there's a sort of serenity
2323
01:49:04,266 --> 01:49:06,666
and calmness to it, there just seems to
2324
01:49:06,666 --> 01:49:08,500
be part of his personality.
2325
01:49:08,500 --> 01:49:10,633
Even when there's no words, and there's no voice,
2326
01:49:10,633 --> 01:49:12,800
somehow in a funny sort of way, even though
2327
01:49:12,800 --> 01:49:15,400
it's meant to be emptying out his personality
2328
01:49:15,400 --> 01:49:18,466
and almost be this music without any author,
2329
01:49:18,466 --> 01:49:21,000
without any controlling self governing it,
2330
01:49:21,000 --> 01:49:23,300
it all feels like Eno.
2331
01:49:23,300 --> 01:49:25,966
(ambient music)
2332
01:49:45,866 --> 01:49:47,733
- In aleatoric music,
2333
01:49:47,733 --> 01:49:50,200
the choices made by the composer
2334
01:49:50,200 --> 01:49:51,900
reflect a lot more about the composer
2335
01:49:51,900 --> 01:49:54,433
than the composer would like people to think.
2336
01:49:54,433 --> 01:49:57,500
And these choices really reflect
2337
01:49:57,500 --> 01:50:00,900
decisions by the composer to create
2338
01:50:00,900 --> 01:50:02,300
a certain kind of experience.
2339
01:50:02,300 --> 01:50:04,700
Even though the experience is modulated
2340
01:50:04,700 --> 01:50:06,966
by this random intervention.
2341
01:50:06,966 --> 01:50:09,500
Eno, I think deep down he's sort of a romantic,
2342
01:50:09,500 --> 01:50:11,933
because you see underneath all of this
2343
01:50:11,933 --> 01:50:14,633
aleatoric process and generative processes,
2344
01:50:14,633 --> 01:50:16,466
you see decisions that are actually
2345
01:50:16,466 --> 01:50:18,466
quite humanistic and warm.
2346
01:50:18,466 --> 01:50:21,033
And so these intellectual decisions
2347
01:50:21,033 --> 01:50:23,800
are then informed by what I think
2348
01:50:23,800 --> 01:50:26,000
as we see over the years
2349
01:50:26,000 --> 01:50:29,066
a beautiful sense of melancholy melody.
2350
01:50:29,066 --> 01:50:32,233
And that permeates all of his best work.
2351
01:50:32,233 --> 01:50:35,633
A very quiet, specific kind of moodiness.
2352
01:50:37,700 --> 01:50:39,466
- [Narrator] The creative approach to
2353
01:50:39,466 --> 01:50:40,933
the first side of Discreet Music
2354
01:50:40,933 --> 01:50:43,066
was not the only innovation on the release.
2355
01:50:43,066 --> 01:50:46,133
As related in the sleeve notes accompanying the LP,
2356
01:50:46,133 --> 01:50:49,200
back in January 1975, Eno had been knocked down
2357
01:50:49,200 --> 01:50:51,700
by a taxi and rushed to hospital.
2358
01:50:51,700 --> 01:50:54,100
While recovering from his various injuries,
2359
01:50:54,100 --> 01:50:56,733
he was visited by ex-girlfriend, Judie Nylon,
2360
01:50:56,733 --> 01:51:00,333
who brought with her an album of harp music.
2361
01:51:00,333 --> 01:51:02,166
The resultant listening experience
2362
01:51:02,166 --> 01:51:04,333
while watching the winter rain against his window
2363
01:51:04,333 --> 01:51:06,633
would lead him to formulate a new concept.
2364
01:51:06,633 --> 01:51:10,966
And this concept he would term, ambient music.
2365
01:51:10,966 --> 01:51:12,466
- when he lies down he realizes that
2366
01:51:12,466 --> 01:51:14,166
he's put the record on such a low volume level
2367
01:51:14,166 --> 01:51:15,966
that he can hardly here it, and he decides
2368
01:51:15,966 --> 01:51:18,666
to just lie there and experience it at,
2369
01:51:18,666 --> 01:51:22,200
again, accidentally, as a new way of experiencing music.
2370
01:51:22,200 --> 01:51:24,433
Not only to experience it, but he
2371
01:51:24,433 --> 01:51:26,666
proceeds to make 45 records (laughs)
2372
01:51:26,666 --> 01:51:30,833
to be listened to under similar kinds of circumstance,
2373
01:51:32,533 --> 01:51:35,766
or not circumstance but a similar way,
2374
01:51:35,766 --> 01:51:38,500
to the extent that the volume of the music
2375
01:51:38,500 --> 01:51:40,800
you're listening to frequently falls
2376
01:51:40,800 --> 01:51:43,200
below the threshold of audibility.
2377
01:51:43,200 --> 01:51:45,733
- Sometimes a word can make a lot of difference,
2378
01:51:45,733 --> 01:51:49,733
and it suddenly lights up what the phenomenon is.
2379
01:51:49,733 --> 01:51:51,266
That phenomenon had been going on,
2380
01:51:51,266 --> 01:51:54,333
the phenomenon of music you walk into
2381
01:51:54,333 --> 01:51:56,400
and walk out of it.
2382
01:51:56,400 --> 01:51:58,900
LeMont was an example of that.
2383
01:51:58,900 --> 01:52:03,200
And the other so-called minimalists later, right?
2384
01:52:03,200 --> 01:52:05,200
Philip Glass and Steve Rich.
2385
01:52:05,200 --> 01:52:07,766
I think Brian, when he stamped it ambient,
2386
01:52:07,766 --> 01:52:10,533
then it suddenly lit up that idea
2387
01:52:11,900 --> 01:52:15,700
and explained in a simple way to other people,
2388
01:52:15,700 --> 01:52:18,366
it wasn't so esoteric, it was more like,
2389
01:52:18,366 --> 01:52:20,200
well hey, we have dinner parties,
2390
01:52:20,200 --> 01:52:22,166
and we put on music, and we're not listening
2391
01:52:22,166 --> 01:52:25,066
to it second by second, it's like
2392
01:52:25,066 --> 01:52:27,333
a kind of atmospheric.
2393
01:52:27,333 --> 01:52:30,333
So it was a good idea, an interesting idea
2394
01:52:30,333 --> 01:52:33,466
to put those atmospherics as,
2395
01:52:33,466 --> 01:52:35,666
hey, you're not supposed to be listening.
2396
01:52:35,666 --> 01:52:39,333
You can do whatever you want here.
2397
01:52:39,333 --> 01:52:41,000
- [Narrator] The concept was in fact far older
2398
01:52:41,000 --> 01:52:43,533
than the work of the American minimalists.
2399
01:52:43,533 --> 01:52:45,466
The French composer, Eric Satie,
2400
01:52:45,466 --> 01:52:47,466
had at the beginning of the 20th Century
2401
01:52:47,466 --> 01:52:49,433
developed a similar notion of mood-enhancing
2402
01:52:49,433 --> 01:52:53,933
background compositions, he had termed Furniture Music.
2403
01:52:53,933 --> 01:52:56,166
The concept and Satie's work had been revived
2404
01:52:56,166 --> 01:52:58,533
later in the century by Eno's great inspiration,
2405
01:52:58,533 --> 01:53:01,100
John Cage, who redefined even Satie's most
2406
01:53:01,100 --> 01:53:03,666
famous piano pieces, the Gymnopedies,
2407
01:53:03,666 --> 01:53:05,633
as furniture music, and a precursor
2408
01:53:05,633 --> 01:53:08,166
to his own experimental work.
2409
01:53:08,166 --> 01:53:10,333
Eno's concept of ambient music was a natural
2410
01:53:10,333 --> 01:53:12,533
progression of this model.
2411
01:53:12,533 --> 01:53:15,100
- Eno got an inspiration from Eric Satie
2412
01:53:15,100 --> 01:53:17,300
and the idea of furniture music,
2413
01:53:17,300 --> 01:53:19,733
the music that was just kind of decor
2414
01:53:19,733 --> 01:53:23,266
to your life, and it was something that kind of
2415
01:53:23,266 --> 01:53:27,100
tinted the mood in your home environment.
2416
01:53:27,100 --> 01:53:30,133
His idea was that it had to be
2417
01:53:30,133 --> 01:53:32,700
interesting enough that you could pay attention to it,
2418
01:53:32,700 --> 01:53:33,866
but ignorable,
2419
01:53:35,033 --> 01:53:37,433
it had to have that capacity to drift
2420
01:53:37,433 --> 01:53:39,333
back into the background.
2421
01:53:39,333 --> 01:53:41,100
And that's a very opposite to rock
2422
01:53:41,100 --> 01:53:43,200
kind of idea, rock is supposed to sort of
2423
01:53:43,200 --> 01:53:44,800
dominate your attention, it's supposed to
2424
01:53:44,800 --> 01:53:46,733
leap out of the radio, and
2425
01:53:46,733 --> 01:53:48,400
sort of jazz you up with energy,
2426
01:53:48,400 --> 01:53:50,133
and he was trying to look at all the
2427
01:53:50,133 --> 01:53:52,200
other things music can be, which is something that
2428
01:53:52,200 --> 01:53:54,333
calms you down, that sort of
2429
01:53:54,333 --> 01:53:58,133
just something you used to enhance your everyday life.
2430
01:53:58,133 --> 01:54:00,300
- Satie put it in terms of
2431
01:54:00,300 --> 01:54:03,133
music to have in the background in dinner
2432
01:54:03,133 --> 01:54:05,233
when the silence between friends would
2433
01:54:05,233 --> 01:54:06,833
kind of descend, and you'd need something
2434
01:54:06,833 --> 01:54:08,366
to fill in that uneasy gap.
2435
01:54:08,366 --> 01:54:10,566
(laughs) The ambient dinner music.
2436
01:54:10,566 --> 01:54:13,200
I think it's pretty much the same idea,
2437
01:54:13,200 --> 01:54:15,800
and it's the idea of, you want something
2438
01:54:15,800 --> 01:54:17,466
to tint the atmosphere, not to be
2439
01:54:17,466 --> 01:54:19,533
right in your face.
2440
01:54:19,533 --> 01:54:23,100
(peaceful classical music)
2441
01:55:00,966 --> 01:55:02,866
- None of his music is ambient.
2442
01:55:02,866 --> 01:55:06,166
It immediately hooks your attention.
2443
01:55:06,166 --> 01:55:09,766
It sounds simple, but it's not simple, is it?
2444
01:55:09,766 --> 01:55:13,000
It's grade A classical music, it's hard to play.
2445
01:55:13,000 --> 01:55:14,900
Where what Eno was looking for was
2446
01:55:14,900 --> 01:55:17,500
the simplicity of the creation,
2447
01:55:18,400 --> 01:55:20,400
the execution and the result.
2448
01:55:20,400 --> 01:55:22,933
Everything had to be absolutely simple.
2449
01:55:22,933 --> 01:55:25,233
So in many ways, Eno was stripping Satie
2450
01:55:25,233 --> 01:55:27,200
right down further.
2451
01:55:27,200 --> 01:55:29,733
And actually achieving what Satie never achieved,
2452
01:55:29,733 --> 01:55:31,400
because actually Satie used to play his
2453
01:55:31,400 --> 01:55:32,666
music to entertain people.
2454
01:55:32,666 --> 01:55:34,433
He used to make a living playing his music
2455
01:55:34,433 --> 01:55:36,100
in bars and clubs.
2456
01:55:36,100 --> 01:55:37,300
And people loved it.
2457
01:55:37,300 --> 01:55:39,733
As interludes between more raucous stuff
2458
01:55:39,733 --> 01:55:41,900
that will follow.
2459
01:55:41,900 --> 01:55:42,900
But his music will be listened to,
2460
01:55:42,900 --> 01:55:45,500
where Eno, Discreet Music is so
2461
01:55:46,933 --> 01:55:50,566
evanescent that you can put it on,
2462
01:55:50,566 --> 01:55:53,033
and you immediately do something else.
2463
01:55:53,033 --> 01:55:54,966
It doesn't arrest your attention.
2464
01:55:54,966 --> 01:55:57,533
What Eno achieved with ambient is actually
2465
01:55:57,533 --> 01:56:00,166
quite unique actually, it's more akin to John Cage.
2466
01:56:00,166 --> 01:56:02,466
I think as an idea, it might have something
2467
01:56:02,466 --> 01:56:05,900
to do with Satie, but in terms of music
2468
01:56:05,900 --> 01:56:09,300
it has very little do with Satie.
2469
01:56:09,300 --> 01:56:10,766
- [Narrator] Having established both the
2470
01:56:10,766 --> 01:56:13,500
Obscure Records label, and the concept of ambient music,
2471
01:56:13,500 --> 01:56:15,966
Eno immersed himself in collaborative work.
2472
01:56:15,966 --> 01:56:18,366
The end of 1975 had seen the release
2473
01:56:18,366 --> 01:56:21,400
of his second LP with Robert Fripp, Evening Star,
2474
01:56:21,400 --> 01:56:23,066
which continued their experiments with
2475
01:56:23,066 --> 01:56:25,900
tape delay and systems music.
2476
01:56:25,900 --> 01:56:28,333
Eno laid low for the first few months of 1976
2477
01:56:28,333 --> 01:56:31,333
before reemerging as part of a new ensemble.
2478
01:56:31,333 --> 01:56:32,866
The 801.
2479
01:56:32,866 --> 01:56:36,500
Formed by Phil Manzaneea as a short-term live outfit.
2480
01:56:36,500 --> 01:56:39,866
The band, which included old Roxy cohort, Lloyd Watson,
2481
01:56:39,866 --> 01:56:42,566
played two explosive shows at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
2482
01:56:42,566 --> 01:56:45,766
at the Reading Festival in the summer of 1976.
2483
01:56:45,766 --> 01:56:47,600
Performing not only cover versions of
2484
01:56:47,600 --> 01:56:49,900
The Beatles and The Kinks, but also material
2485
01:56:49,900 --> 01:56:52,566
from Eno's solo repertoire.
2486
01:56:52,566 --> 01:56:55,066
And although The 801 would bring Eno back to the stage
2487
01:56:55,066 --> 01:56:57,600
and to the more basic principles of rock and roll,
2488
01:56:57,600 --> 01:57:00,866
he was still intent on pushing the boundaries elsewhere.
2489
01:57:00,866 --> 01:57:03,700
And his next project would see him moving farther afield.
2490
01:57:03,700 --> 01:57:05,833
Where the punk rock explosion was set
2491
01:57:05,833 --> 01:57:09,066
to tear the music world apart later in 1976,
2492
01:57:09,066 --> 01:57:10,833
both the mainstream and its margins
2493
01:57:10,833 --> 01:57:13,000
had been conspicuously absent of experiment
2494
01:57:13,000 --> 01:57:15,433
since Eno had gone solo.
2495
01:57:15,433 --> 01:57:18,133
This was not the case however in Germany.
2496
01:57:18,133 --> 01:57:20,633
From the late 60's, a wave of bands had
2497
01:57:20,633 --> 01:57:22,266
emerged from the across the country
2498
01:57:22,266 --> 01:57:24,366
intent on revolutionizing music,
2499
01:57:24,366 --> 01:57:26,100
and finding their own distinctive voice
2500
01:57:26,100 --> 01:57:29,133
outside of the dominant American and English movements.
2501
01:57:29,133 --> 01:57:31,433
Like Eno, a number of these had been using
2502
01:57:31,433 --> 01:57:34,066
electronics to form a new musical vocabulary.
2503
01:57:34,066 --> 01:57:36,800
Most prominent were Kraftwerk,
2504
01:57:36,800 --> 01:57:40,366
the Dusseldorf duo whose proto-techno LP Autobahn
2505
01:57:40,366 --> 01:57:43,900
had charted in 1975 on both sides of the Atlantic.
2506
01:57:43,900 --> 01:57:47,000
Berlin acts who grew out of the legendary Zodiac Club
2507
01:57:47,000 --> 01:57:50,066
such as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schultze
2508
01:57:50,066 --> 01:57:51,900
had also won support in the UK
2509
01:57:51,900 --> 01:57:54,000
thanks to their deals with Richard Branson's
2510
01:57:54,000 --> 01:57:56,166
fledging Virgin Records.
2511
01:57:56,166 --> 01:57:58,500
Eno had long admired the movement's output,
2512
01:57:58,500 --> 01:58:00,566
and it was the industrial electronics band,
2513
01:58:00,566 --> 01:58:02,233
Cluster, to which he would eventually be
2514
01:58:02,233 --> 01:58:03,866
drawn into collaboration.
2515
01:58:03,866 --> 01:58:06,833
By 1973, this act, the duo of improvisors,
2516
01:58:06,833 --> 01:58:09,366
Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius
2517
01:58:09,366 --> 01:58:12,900
had become to work with guitarist Michael Rother
2518
01:58:12,900 --> 01:58:15,500
of Dusseldorf's Neu to form a new outfit
2519
01:58:15,500 --> 01:58:17,666
that move away from the severe soundscapes
2520
01:58:17,666 --> 01:58:19,533
of their earlier output.
2521
01:58:19,533 --> 01:58:21,333
- If you listen to Cluster '71, or Cluster,
2522
01:58:21,333 --> 01:58:24,500
or Cluster 2, the records are so cold.
2523
01:58:26,400 --> 01:58:29,900
They are so dissonant, they are so lacking
2524
01:58:32,066 --> 01:58:35,733
in melodic, they've got no melodic progression.
2525
01:58:35,733 --> 01:58:37,666
They are so astringent,
2526
01:58:38,833 --> 01:58:41,333
they feel like what was left in Berlin
2527
01:58:41,333 --> 01:58:45,033
after the Russian blew it to smithereens.
2528
01:58:45,033 --> 01:58:47,700
(ambient music)
2529
01:59:09,266 --> 01:59:11,866
They were very depressed,
2530
01:59:11,866 --> 01:59:16,233
and they said we're getting out of this whole scene.
2531
01:59:16,233 --> 01:59:17,866
We've had enough of Berlin,
2532
01:59:17,866 --> 01:59:20,100
we've had enough of the Zodiac Club
2533
01:59:20,100 --> 01:59:22,266
and all this rubbish, and all the records
2534
01:59:22,266 --> 01:59:24,166
we've made were out, we're going to first
2535
01:59:24,166 --> 01:59:25,900
in the country.
2536
01:59:25,900 --> 01:59:29,300
So they went to this old stone country house
2537
01:59:29,300 --> 01:59:33,000
in the middle of a forest, where they started again.
2538
01:59:33,000 --> 01:59:34,966
And this time they started to make
2539
01:59:34,966 --> 01:59:37,300
records that were different.
2540
01:59:38,733 --> 01:59:41,766
And they brought with them Michael Rother from Neu,
2541
01:59:41,766 --> 01:59:44,166
and they started to make records that
2542
01:59:44,166 --> 01:59:46,400
were completely different, there wasn't
2543
01:59:46,400 --> 01:59:48,966
this cold kind of just (moans)
2544
01:59:48,966 --> 01:59:52,333
like a drone or this, there were things with rhythm.
2545
01:59:52,333 --> 01:59:56,200
And they made their music from harmonia, they called it.
2546
01:59:56,200 --> 01:59:59,133
And this album was what Eno heard,
2547
01:59:59,133 --> 02:00:01,566
that was the one that he thought was
2548
02:00:01,566 --> 02:00:04,066
absolutely fantastic.
2549
02:00:04,066 --> 02:00:06,733
(ambient music)
2550
02:00:14,033 --> 02:00:16,300
- [Narrator] Released in January 1974,
2551
02:00:16,300 --> 02:00:18,933
the debut album of this new unit Harmonia,
2552
02:00:18,933 --> 02:00:21,133
was a relatively low key release.
2553
02:00:21,133 --> 02:00:22,933
Yet upon hearing it, Eno was so impressed
2554
02:00:22,933 --> 02:00:24,800
that he declared in interview
2555
02:00:24,800 --> 02:00:27,233
that they were the world's most important rock band.
2556
02:00:27,233 --> 02:00:28,933
Typically, this wasn't simply a statement
2557
02:00:28,933 --> 02:00:30,733
to prove his avant-garde credentials,
2558
02:00:30,733 --> 02:00:33,300
even before recording Another Green World,
2559
02:00:33,300 --> 02:00:37,333
Eno had made his way to Hamburg to watch the group play.
2560
02:00:37,333 --> 02:00:39,266
Not content with simply being a spectator,
2561
02:00:39,266 --> 02:00:41,833
he had decided to actively participate in the concert,
2562
02:00:41,833 --> 02:00:44,300
and join them on stage.
2563
02:00:44,300 --> 02:00:46,900
- We met him in person in 1974.
2564
02:00:48,433 --> 02:00:51,700
And before we knew about his music of course,
2565
02:00:51,700 --> 02:00:54,766
we knew what he did with Roxy Music,
2566
02:00:54,766 --> 02:00:57,566
we knew some of his solo stuff as well,
2567
02:00:57,566 --> 02:00:59,900
and we liked it, and we were quite happy
2568
02:00:59,900 --> 02:01:03,066
when he entered the stage and wanted to play with us.
2569
02:01:03,066 --> 02:01:05,633
There was a lot of machinery, organs and guitars
2570
02:01:05,633 --> 02:01:08,833
and little machines, hand-made machines
2571
02:01:08,833 --> 02:01:13,100
with knobs to turn, was easy to interfere,
2572
02:01:13,100 --> 02:01:17,366
and he was at least, he knew everything about tools,
2573
02:01:17,366 --> 02:01:19,700
so he was, for him it was easy to
2574
02:01:19,700 --> 02:01:22,966
play with us, and for us as well because
2575
02:01:22,966 --> 02:01:25,833
it was improvisation and we just listened to each other
2576
02:01:25,833 --> 02:01:28,933
and tried to do something relevant of course.
2577
02:01:28,933 --> 02:01:30,833
And then we spoke about a project,
2578
02:01:30,833 --> 02:01:34,566
not really, we just invited him to come to our place,
2579
02:01:34,566 --> 02:01:35,833
our rural place
2580
02:01:37,233 --> 02:01:40,900
in the middle of Germany, and he said he would like to,
2581
02:01:40,900 --> 02:01:43,633
and two years later, he came.
2582
02:01:43,633 --> 02:01:45,733
- [Narrator] It was the late summer of 1976
2583
02:01:45,733 --> 02:01:48,233
when Eno finally managed to work with Harmonia.
2584
02:01:48,233 --> 02:01:50,033
Arriving with the intention of producing
2585
02:01:50,033 --> 02:01:52,333
their third album, he found that limited time
2586
02:01:52,333 --> 02:01:54,333
and working with a group of musicians
2587
02:01:54,333 --> 02:01:56,300
unwilling to adapt to the more conventional
2588
02:01:56,300 --> 02:01:58,566
processes of composing and recording
2589
02:01:58,566 --> 02:02:00,933
meant that instead he simply became immersed
2590
02:02:00,933 --> 02:02:03,033
in their isolated world.
2591
02:02:03,033 --> 02:02:05,433
- We lived in a community when Brian came
2592
02:02:05,433 --> 02:02:07,900
and joined us, and what we did was,
2593
02:02:07,900 --> 02:02:10,200
everybody had his own track,
2594
02:02:10,200 --> 02:02:12,733
nobody, there was no overdubbing at all,
2595
02:02:12,733 --> 02:02:15,000
it was just making the sketch,
2596
02:02:15,000 --> 02:02:18,733
writing a sketchbook full of little sketches.
2597
02:02:18,733 --> 02:02:23,666
But more or less living together and doing work together,
2598
02:02:23,666 --> 02:02:25,866
going in the woods, collecting wood,
2599
02:02:25,866 --> 02:02:29,133
taking care of the baby, Brian took
2600
02:02:29,133 --> 02:02:31,266
care of our baby when he was there,
2601
02:02:31,266 --> 02:02:33,200
he liked it a lot.
2602
02:02:33,200 --> 02:02:35,200
And he came with us in the woods and
2603
02:02:35,200 --> 02:02:38,100
he came with us shopping and he cooked with us,
2604
02:02:38,100 --> 02:02:40,633
and I think he liked much more the
2605
02:02:40,633 --> 02:02:42,366
being in a community,
2606
02:02:43,300 --> 02:02:45,633
sitting with us in the kitchen,
2607
02:02:45,633 --> 02:02:48,233
eating with us, talking to us.
2608
02:02:48,233 --> 02:02:51,033
I think he came with the idea to produce
2609
02:02:51,033 --> 02:02:54,500
somehow what, produce us as Harmonia,
2610
02:02:54,500 --> 02:02:57,066
but this didn't work out at all because
2611
02:02:57,066 --> 02:02:59,966
we had no time to really take care of
2612
02:02:59,966 --> 02:03:01,733
the real studio work.
2613
02:03:05,633 --> 02:03:07,400
We had to go to work.
2614
02:03:08,466 --> 02:03:11,600
So at the end he was just member
2615
02:03:11,600 --> 02:03:15,500
of a four-people group, and he did his part,
2616
02:03:15,500 --> 02:03:17,166
and we did our part, it was
2617
02:03:17,166 --> 02:03:21,166
a matter of sympathy, for he liked the three of us,
2618
02:03:21,166 --> 02:03:23,200
even so we were very different.
2619
02:03:23,200 --> 02:03:25,066
He could cope with us,
2620
02:03:25,066 --> 02:03:27,166
and we liked him because he's a
2621
02:03:27,166 --> 02:03:29,600
very friendly and nice person.
2622
02:03:29,600 --> 02:03:31,100
And full of ideas.
2623
02:03:33,133 --> 02:03:36,866
Now he was, from the beginning he was a friend.
2624
02:03:36,866 --> 02:03:39,533
(ambient music)
2625
02:04:11,800 --> 02:04:14,600
When first it meant it came out, this stuff,
2626
02:04:14,600 --> 02:04:17,133
it was a sketchbook and nobody really thought
2627
02:04:17,133 --> 02:04:20,333
that some day it would be coming out.
2628
02:04:20,333 --> 02:04:24,800
I kept most of the material copy of the tapes,
2629
02:04:24,800 --> 02:04:28,266
Brian took three tapes when he left,
2630
02:04:28,266 --> 02:04:32,166
and after some time I said, what are we going to
2631
02:04:32,166 --> 02:04:34,000
do with this material?
2632
02:04:34,000 --> 02:04:36,433
Everybody said, oh it's bad.
2633
02:04:36,433 --> 02:04:40,100
The quality is bad, music is, we don't know.
2634
02:04:41,400 --> 02:04:43,133
Just forget about it.
2635
02:04:44,733 --> 02:04:46,766
- [Narrator] But Roedelius did not forget about
2636
02:04:46,766 --> 02:04:48,566
the recordings, and set about remastering them
2637
02:04:48,566 --> 02:04:50,733
once the technology was available.
2638
02:04:50,733 --> 02:04:55,000
Released in 1997, over 20 years after the original sessions,
2639
02:04:55,000 --> 02:04:57,366
Tracks and Traces was a vital artifact
2640
02:04:57,366 --> 02:04:59,766
of a unique collaboration.
2641
02:04:59,766 --> 02:05:01,000
- I think they had a lot of fun.
2642
02:05:01,000 --> 02:05:04,100
I think it was very relaxed.
2643
02:05:04,100 --> 02:05:06,433
There was no sense of it being a record necessarily.
2644
02:05:06,433 --> 02:05:10,100
So all of those prescriptive limitations
2645
02:05:10,100 --> 02:05:11,166
were removed.
2646
02:05:12,933 --> 02:05:16,866
And I think that enabled creation in a freedom of creation.
2647
02:05:16,866 --> 02:05:18,833
I think the music that resulted shows that,
2648
02:05:18,833 --> 02:05:20,400
because it's often,
2649
02:05:22,733 --> 02:05:26,133
while it has a certain structure
2650
02:05:26,133 --> 02:05:28,533
within that there are sequences on a couple of tracks,
2651
02:05:28,533 --> 02:05:31,833
and so forth, it is, there is a certain amount of
2652
02:05:31,833 --> 02:05:35,133
organization, it's all incredibly fluid,
2653
02:05:35,133 --> 02:05:36,900
and it's very organic, it's electronic music
2654
02:05:36,900 --> 02:05:40,533
as kind of, as flowing organic sound.
2655
02:05:40,533 --> 02:05:42,633
And things meld into each other, it's not
2656
02:05:42,633 --> 02:05:44,533
kind of Kraftwerk-ian electronica,
2657
02:05:44,533 --> 02:05:47,466
which is mechanical, robotic.
2658
02:05:47,466 --> 02:05:49,333
Brilliant in another way, but this
2659
02:05:49,333 --> 02:05:52,033
it's incredibly reflective of this rural environment
2660
02:05:52,033 --> 02:05:53,800
in which they were in almost.
2661
02:05:53,800 --> 02:05:56,200
By the river Wesser, I think it is which,
2662
02:05:56,200 --> 02:05:58,433
yeah, it has that fluidity,
2663
02:06:00,533 --> 02:06:02,066
a riverine kind of quality and
2664
02:06:02,066 --> 02:06:05,300
it's a very beautiful record.
2665
02:06:05,300 --> 02:06:07,966
(ambient music)
2666
02:06:40,300 --> 02:06:41,833
If they'd been blues musicians,
2667
02:06:41,833 --> 02:06:44,200
it would have been similarly organic, you imagine,
2668
02:06:44,200 --> 02:06:46,133
this laid back, in the country,
2669
02:06:46,133 --> 02:06:49,800
let's kick back and play some licks, almost.
2670
02:06:50,966 --> 02:06:53,466
But these licks of a rather alien kind,
2671
02:06:53,466 --> 02:06:56,233
this hadn't really been done before, I think.
2672
02:06:56,233 --> 02:06:58,700
So in that sense it's a very novel record as well,
2673
02:06:58,700 --> 02:07:01,200
and this has the spirit of
2674
02:07:01,200 --> 02:07:04,233
the sort of woodshed about it,
2675
02:07:04,233 --> 02:07:09,233
and yeah, I think it's quite timeless in that sense.
2676
02:07:09,233 --> 02:07:11,266
- [Narrator] Upon Eno's return to the UK,
2677
02:07:11,266 --> 02:07:13,766
he became involved in another electronic project.
2678
02:07:13,766 --> 02:07:17,066
John Fox, the founder of emerging New Wave band Ultravox
2679
02:07:17,066 --> 02:07:19,066
had been heavily influenced, not only
2680
02:07:19,066 --> 02:07:21,233
by Eno's work in Roxy Music, but also
2681
02:07:21,233 --> 02:07:23,733
by the bands of the German movement.
2682
02:07:23,733 --> 02:07:26,766
And convinced him to co-produce their debut album.
2683
02:07:26,766 --> 02:07:28,600
While in the studio, Eno took a phone call
2684
02:07:28,600 --> 02:07:31,833
that offered work on a far higher profile project.
2685
02:07:31,833 --> 02:07:34,166
David Bowie, who Roxy Music had supported
2686
02:07:34,166 --> 02:07:37,966
back in 1972 had long wanted to collaborate with Eno,
2687
02:07:37,966 --> 02:07:41,866
and his latest project had reached a creative standstill.
2688
02:07:41,866 --> 02:07:43,900
- Bowie was very impressed with Discreet Music,
2689
02:07:43,900 --> 02:07:45,200
that was the thing he really liked.
2690
02:07:45,200 --> 02:07:46,966
He played that a lot.
2691
02:07:46,966 --> 02:07:49,266
And he wanted to get some of that
2692
02:07:49,266 --> 02:07:52,233
initially on to the record he was producing for Iggy Pop,
2693
02:07:52,233 --> 02:07:53,766
which was The Idiot.
2694
02:07:53,766 --> 02:07:57,533
In the Chateau d'arivile, in the Northern Paris suburbs.
2695
02:07:57,533 --> 02:07:59,066
But it doesn't transpire in the end because
2696
02:07:59,066 --> 02:08:01,600
Iggy finishes the record too fast basically.
2697
02:08:01,600 --> 02:08:04,300
So Bowie's then kicking his heels in the Chateau,
2698
02:08:04,300 --> 02:08:05,533
with some time,
2699
02:08:06,700 --> 02:08:09,266
and so starts making tracks of his own.
2700
02:08:09,266 --> 02:08:11,633
He's been in a bit of an artistic lull himself,
2701
02:08:11,633 --> 02:08:13,700
and a slight writer's block.
2702
02:08:13,700 --> 02:08:17,300
Which he's come to Europe partly to overcome.
2703
02:08:17,300 --> 02:08:19,700
And so though he begins working on
2704
02:08:19,700 --> 02:08:22,333
what would come the tracks for Low,
2705
02:08:22,333 --> 02:08:24,866
towards the end of the process,
2706
02:08:24,866 --> 02:08:27,866
Bowie remembers Eno, and gives him a call.
2707
02:08:27,866 --> 02:08:29,833
He didn't produce it, Tony Visconti was
2708
02:08:29,833 --> 02:08:31,266
the producer, but Eno did come and he did
2709
02:08:31,266 --> 02:08:34,400
sprinkle his sonic magic on it.
2710
02:08:34,400 --> 02:08:37,566
Certainly the synthesizer textures are all his.
2711
02:08:37,566 --> 02:08:39,966
David Bowie was very impressed with Another Green World,
2712
02:08:39,966 --> 02:08:42,700
and the fact that he had these instrumentals and
2713
02:08:42,700 --> 02:08:45,033
songs on the same album and he wanted to do that,
2714
02:08:45,033 --> 02:08:47,133
and I think Eno was also instrumental
2715
02:08:47,133 --> 02:08:50,766
in convincing Visconti that this was a good idea,
2716
02:08:50,766 --> 02:08:52,200
they needed to fill out the rest of the album,
2717
02:08:52,200 --> 02:08:53,366
they didn't have enough tracks,
2718
02:08:53,366 --> 02:08:54,600
so they started making instrumentals.
2719
02:08:54,600 --> 02:08:57,233
This was very, very Eno-esque thing to do,
2720
02:08:57,233 --> 02:09:00,433
so that's why you get side two of Low.
2721
02:09:00,433 --> 02:09:03,900
It sounds a little bit like an Eno record.
2722
02:09:05,033 --> 02:09:07,233
- [Narrator] Released in January 1977,
2723
02:09:07,233 --> 02:09:10,633
Low reconfirmed that Bowie was a serous innovative artist,
2724
02:09:10,633 --> 02:09:13,633
and became a landmark in his eclectic canon.
2725
02:09:13,633 --> 02:09:15,533
Yet the initial response of both his record company
2726
02:09:15,533 --> 02:09:17,733
and in some quarters of the rock press,
2727
02:09:17,733 --> 02:09:19,500
had been resoundingly negative,
2728
02:09:19,500 --> 02:09:22,433
due in part to Eno's contributions.
2729
02:09:23,866 --> 02:09:26,533
(ambient music)
2730
02:09:30,700 --> 02:09:33,333
- RCA Records hated it, they didn't wanna release it.
2731
02:09:33,333 --> 02:09:35,333
It was the kind of record that
2732
02:09:35,333 --> 02:09:37,066
record labels generally sort of say,
2733
02:09:37,066 --> 02:09:38,566
go in and do us another one please.
2734
02:09:38,566 --> 02:09:42,300
And I'm sure Brian was the whipping boy for that,
2735
02:09:42,300 --> 02:09:43,833
because he'd gone in there with his
2736
02:09:43,833 --> 02:09:47,266
arty textures and, but of course Bowie loved it.
2737
02:09:47,266 --> 02:09:49,300
Bowie wanted some of that, Bowie
2738
02:09:49,300 --> 02:09:51,166
was trying to reinvent his artistry,
2739
02:09:51,166 --> 02:09:53,000
he was trying to find a new way,
2740
02:09:53,000 --> 02:09:55,400
post-cocaine binging, post-LA,
2741
02:09:55,400 --> 02:09:59,900
post-funk, et cetera to have a new creative spur.
2742
02:09:59,900 --> 02:10:02,200
He needed Eno to finish that record,
2743
02:10:02,200 --> 02:10:03,833
and also I think to just pull him through
2744
02:10:03,833 --> 02:10:08,500
into the next phase of, his next creative of life.
2745
02:10:08,500 --> 02:10:11,166
(ambient music)
2746
02:10:21,700 --> 02:10:24,866
- Side Two of Low, sounded to me a little bit like
2747
02:10:24,866 --> 02:10:28,533
Cluster, actually, but in a very good way.
2748
02:10:28,533 --> 02:10:29,733
And I loved it.
2749
02:10:29,733 --> 02:10:31,166
I mean, it's a very important album.
2750
02:10:31,166 --> 02:10:32,666
I think it's really one of,
2751
02:10:32,666 --> 02:10:35,166
that series with Eno are the three best Bowie albums,
2752
02:10:35,166 --> 02:10:37,833
I think most people would argue.
2753
02:10:39,000 --> 02:10:41,466
And I like the fact they are concise,
2754
02:10:41,466 --> 02:10:43,633
that they're song structures.
2755
02:10:43,633 --> 02:10:46,366
Which Discreet Music avoids and I think
2756
02:10:46,366 --> 02:10:48,633
those pieces on Low benefit
2757
02:10:48,633 --> 02:10:52,466
from the melodicism and again it's that
2758
02:10:52,466 --> 02:10:55,166
more approachable touch of the melody
2759
02:10:55,166 --> 02:10:58,300
and the conciseness I think.
2760
02:10:58,300 --> 02:11:00,966
(ambient music)
2761
02:11:40,033 --> 02:11:43,266
- Low was just this hugely influential record,
2762
02:11:43,266 --> 02:11:45,133
probably in terms of the music that came out
2763
02:11:45,133 --> 02:11:47,133
in the late '70s, it had more influence
2764
02:11:47,133 --> 02:11:48,333
than some of the more obvious punk landmarks.
2765
02:11:48,333 --> 02:11:51,266
Particularly the second side of the album
2766
02:11:51,266 --> 02:11:53,566
were these dreamy instrumentals,
2767
02:11:53,566 --> 02:11:56,300
that was very, very inspiring to a whole
2768
02:11:56,300 --> 02:11:58,833
load of post-punk musicians.
2769
02:11:58,833 --> 02:12:01,933
And I think although Eno, if you look
2770
02:12:01,933 --> 02:12:04,233
at the song credits, he doesn't get many credits on them,
2771
02:12:04,233 --> 02:12:05,966
and he's not actually the producer of the record,
2772
02:12:05,966 --> 02:12:08,166
he seems, just seems that he has such a
2773
02:12:08,166 --> 02:12:11,766
presence, and particularly on the second side of Low.
2774
02:12:11,766 --> 02:12:15,366
He's so much like a sort of right-hand man,
2775
02:12:15,366 --> 02:12:18,166
spiritual mentor to Bowie.
2776
02:12:18,166 --> 02:12:21,333
And Bowie talked about leaning on Eno,
2777
02:12:22,933 --> 02:12:25,733
because he needed, he wanted to express
2778
02:12:25,733 --> 02:12:27,900
what he wanted to express through textures,
2779
02:12:27,900 --> 02:12:30,566
he couldn't find the words to describe this
2780
02:12:30,566 --> 02:12:34,400
sort ethereal alienated state he was in.
2781
02:12:34,400 --> 02:12:38,566
And so that was Eno's province was sonic textures.
2782
02:12:39,733 --> 02:12:43,133
♪ Share my failing shall
2783
02:12:46,600 --> 02:12:50,333
♪ Kill thy kill thy kill thy
2784
02:12:53,066 --> 02:12:57,233
♪ Bribing the shelly shelly shelly on ♪
2785
02:13:00,133 --> 02:13:01,900
I think Eno has a lot to do with the
2786
02:13:01,900 --> 02:13:04,766
sort of landscape in which these songs take place,
2787
02:13:04,766 --> 02:13:07,366
and the atmosphere and the textures that
2788
02:13:07,366 --> 02:13:09,333
sort of create the mood.
2789
02:13:09,333 --> 02:13:11,666
So in that sense you've got things that
2790
02:13:11,666 --> 02:13:13,666
look ahead to ambient music but there's some
2791
02:13:13,666 --> 02:13:16,166
still something to latch on to for people,
2792
02:13:16,166 --> 02:13:17,866
and that's probably why it was a gateway
2793
02:13:17,866 --> 02:13:19,800
for a lot of people into that kind of
2794
02:13:19,800 --> 02:13:23,066
more atmospheric, completely unfocused,
2795
02:13:23,066 --> 02:13:26,800
unstructured music that Eno would do later.
2796
02:13:26,800 --> 02:13:28,633
- [Narrator] Following his stint with Bowie,
2797
02:13:28,633 --> 02:13:30,400
Eno returned to his own work and found
2798
02:13:30,400 --> 02:13:32,300
that the follow-up to Another Green World
2799
02:13:32,300 --> 02:13:33,700
was lacking focus.
2800
02:13:33,700 --> 02:13:35,033
Despite having written several songs
2801
02:13:35,033 --> 02:13:36,766
and producing numerous sessions,
2802
02:13:36,766 --> 02:13:40,000
the results lacked the cohesion he was looking for.
2803
02:13:40,000 --> 02:13:41,666
But a new breed of music was emerging
2804
02:13:41,666 --> 02:13:45,100
out of the embers of punk, and this he found inspiring.
2805
02:13:45,100 --> 02:13:47,300
He called the New York band, Talking Heads,
2806
02:13:47,300 --> 02:13:48,933
on their European tour.
2807
02:13:48,933 --> 02:13:50,733
And was both impressed by their performance,
2808
02:13:50,733 --> 02:13:53,000
and by front man David Byrne.
2809
02:13:53,000 --> 02:13:55,166
And the pair struck up a strong friendship.
2810
02:13:55,166 --> 02:13:57,033
During a trip to the US with Bowie,
2811
02:13:57,033 --> 02:13:58,833
he was also in the audience for a show by
2812
02:13:58,833 --> 02:14:01,266
kitsch surrealists, Devo, who successfully
2813
02:14:01,266 --> 02:14:03,600
merged punk with Kraftwerk.
2814
02:14:03,600 --> 02:14:05,933
And he agreed to produce their debut.
2815
02:14:05,933 --> 02:14:08,933
In June however, he returned to more familiar territory,
2816
02:14:08,933 --> 02:14:11,366
entering the studio of peerless German producer
2817
02:14:11,366 --> 02:14:13,433
Conny Plank, to work with Cluster on a
2818
02:14:13,433 --> 02:14:15,366
pair of albums that would once again
2819
02:14:15,366 --> 02:14:19,033
see him blending seamlessly with Moebius and Roedelius,
2820
02:14:19,033 --> 02:14:21,933
Cluster and Eno, and After the Heat.
2821
02:14:21,933 --> 02:14:25,266
- We got together and worked in his studio,
2822
02:14:25,266 --> 02:14:29,266
about a week, and did the two records in one week.
2823
02:14:29,266 --> 02:14:32,966
Cluster and Eno, it was more or less a Cluster record
2824
02:14:32,966 --> 02:14:36,000
with Eno, and the second was an Eno record
2825
02:14:36,000 --> 02:14:37,500
with Cluster.
2826
02:14:37,500 --> 02:14:39,500
Nothing was planned.
2827
02:14:39,500 --> 02:14:41,866
We didn't have any idea when we went in the studio,
2828
02:14:41,866 --> 02:14:43,366
we were like we were,
2829
02:14:43,366 --> 02:14:46,633
the abilities were, I was not much into
2830
02:14:50,066 --> 02:14:52,700
contemporary music, I listened a lot to
2831
02:14:52,700 --> 02:14:55,533
contemporary music but I couldn't,
2832
02:14:57,266 --> 02:14:59,900
I myself had to find my own turning which,
2833
02:14:59,900 --> 02:15:03,833
so I was always on the way to find out
2834
02:15:03,833 --> 02:15:06,666
what can I do, and which way can I
2835
02:15:08,000 --> 02:15:11,566
collaborate and put my little bits into it?
2836
02:15:13,233 --> 02:15:16,333
It was like living in the forest in the community,
2837
02:15:16,333 --> 02:15:19,266
Conny Plank's cooked all the food,
2838
02:15:19,266 --> 02:15:21,966
we were together, we slept in the same house,
2839
02:15:21,966 --> 02:15:23,533
we worked together.
2840
02:15:24,700 --> 02:15:27,066
It was, I think that was the reason why
2841
02:15:27,066 --> 02:15:29,933
Cluster and Eno was in the same
2842
02:15:29,933 --> 02:15:32,433
atmosphere like, Harmonia '76.
2843
02:15:34,566 --> 02:15:37,233
(ambient music)
2844
02:16:10,500 --> 02:16:12,266
- The Cluster and Eno album I think of
2845
02:16:12,266 --> 02:16:13,600
as a sort of partner to Another Green World
2846
02:16:13,600 --> 02:16:16,333
in many ways, it seems to share a kind of
2847
02:16:16,333 --> 02:16:19,233
vocabulary of atmosphere in a way that's
2848
02:16:19,233 --> 02:16:22,333
similar, and obviously the influence of Cluster
2849
02:16:22,333 --> 02:16:24,766
is there on Another Green World.
2850
02:16:24,766 --> 02:16:26,800
In a way I think we Cluster you have
2851
02:16:26,800 --> 02:16:29,933
the Another Green World approach, but you have Roedelius,
2852
02:16:29,933 --> 02:16:33,766
and his classical piano parts which are
2853
02:16:33,766 --> 02:16:37,866
in and of themselves, beautiful, vignette things.
2854
02:16:39,433 --> 02:16:41,866
And I think you get that sense that
2855
02:16:41,866 --> 02:16:43,866
he's got something to play off.
2856
02:16:43,866 --> 02:16:45,366
When you have someone like Roedelius
2857
02:16:45,366 --> 02:16:48,033
who can just play three chords and a counterpoint,
2858
02:16:48,033 --> 02:16:50,166
and give you this kind of, sort of genteel
2859
02:16:50,166 --> 02:16:53,266
sense of Teutonic heart land romance.
2860
02:16:54,466 --> 02:16:58,400
You have a lot to then throw your armory at,
2861
02:16:58,400 --> 02:17:01,100
and I think that's really what he did
2862
02:17:01,100 --> 02:17:03,366
and I think that, so it relates to Another Green World,
2863
02:17:03,366 --> 02:17:04,633
but it's also got its own flavor.
2864
02:17:04,633 --> 02:17:07,300
(ambient music)
2865
02:17:51,866 --> 02:17:53,266
- There's moments on the final albums
2866
02:17:53,266 --> 02:17:54,833
that are astonishing.
2867
02:17:54,833 --> 02:17:57,533
What I always liked about Cluster's collaboration
2868
02:17:57,533 --> 02:18:01,300
was that you have two almost opposite psyches,
2869
02:18:01,300 --> 02:18:03,366
you have such two different personalities.
2870
02:18:03,366 --> 02:18:06,866
Roedelius being very sweet, melodic l,
2871
02:18:06,866 --> 02:18:09,900
repetitive gentleness, and these
2872
02:18:09,900 --> 02:18:12,800
sorts of mischievous destruction by Mobi,
2873
02:18:12,800 --> 02:18:14,266
it just makes me laugh,
2874
02:18:14,266 --> 02:18:16,066
the two are fighting each other.
2875
02:18:16,066 --> 02:18:17,333
You know? (laughs)
2876
02:18:17,333 --> 02:18:20,100
And I think that by adding perhaps that
2877
02:18:20,100 --> 02:18:23,500
mediating factor, which Eno has been so good at doing
2878
02:18:23,500 --> 02:18:27,666
as a producer, he often just becomes a catalyst.
2879
02:18:27,666 --> 02:18:29,866
Perhaps he's not even making many of the sounds,
2880
02:18:29,866 --> 02:18:32,566
and he's simply creating an environment where
2881
02:18:32,566 --> 02:18:33,900
they're doing what they're doing
2882
02:18:33,900 --> 02:18:35,666
in a more productive way.
2883
02:18:35,666 --> 02:18:37,133
- [Narrator] The two albums not only confirmed
2884
02:18:37,133 --> 02:18:39,766
that Eno was an innovative musical collaborator,
2885
02:18:39,766 --> 02:18:42,833
but their success, like the Obscure Records releases,
2886
02:18:42,833 --> 02:18:45,566
once again proved that he was able to spotlight
2887
02:18:45,566 --> 02:18:47,866
and promote marginal artists.
2888
02:18:47,866 --> 02:18:49,700
Cluster were a relatively unknown act
2889
02:18:49,700 --> 02:18:51,766
outside of Germany, and these LPs
2890
02:18:51,766 --> 02:18:54,733
introduced them to a far larger audience.
2891
02:18:54,733 --> 02:18:56,666
- It brought us a lot of attention.
2892
02:18:56,666 --> 02:18:59,433
It made it so, we survived with it,
2893
02:18:59,433 --> 02:19:02,166
because these records sold a lot.
2894
02:19:02,166 --> 02:19:05,500
Not really in one short period,
2895
02:19:05,500 --> 02:19:07,100
but over the years.
2896
02:19:08,433 --> 02:19:10,833
And now it's still selling, it's still selling,
2897
02:19:10,833 --> 02:19:13,366
people like these records very much.
2898
02:19:13,366 --> 02:19:16,600
I mean, it's quality, it's just,
2899
02:19:16,600 --> 02:19:19,900
he knows what's, I think he obviously knows
2900
02:19:19,900 --> 02:19:24,433
when somebody's doing well and relevant stuff,
2901
02:19:24,433 --> 02:19:27,000
and he helps to bring them out.
2902
02:19:28,166 --> 02:19:30,766
I think it's his message, in a way.
2903
02:19:32,733 --> 02:19:34,466
Besides his own work.
2904
02:19:35,900 --> 02:19:37,233
- [Narrator] Eno's work as a musical collaborator
2905
02:19:37,233 --> 02:19:39,733
continued into July 1976,
2906
02:19:39,733 --> 02:19:42,000
as he entered Hanza Studios in Berlin
2907
02:19:42,000 --> 02:19:44,200
to work on the follow-up to Low.
2908
02:19:44,200 --> 02:19:45,800
This time, he was actively involved
2909
02:19:45,800 --> 02:19:47,700
in the compositions, and introduced Bowie
2910
02:19:47,700 --> 02:19:49,866
to the Oblique Strategies, which the singer
2911
02:19:49,866 --> 02:19:52,300
enthusiastically adopted to develop material
2912
02:19:52,300 --> 02:19:53,900
in the studio.
2913
02:19:53,900 --> 02:19:55,666
Yet the process of recording Heroes,
2914
02:19:55,666 --> 02:19:58,666
which would become one of Bowie's most successful LP's,
2915
02:19:58,666 --> 02:20:00,833
was not without struggle, and the recordings
2916
02:20:00,833 --> 02:20:02,866
required the assistance of one of Eno's
2917
02:20:02,866 --> 02:20:04,833
long-term collaborators before the various
2918
02:20:04,833 --> 02:20:07,733
pieces finally fell into place.
2919
02:20:07,733 --> 02:20:11,666
- Bowie hit a creative zero in the studio.
2920
02:20:11,666 --> 02:20:15,333
Even with Eno, they came to full stop, a dead stop,
2921
02:20:15,333 --> 02:20:18,466
where they couldn't get any further.
2922
02:20:18,466 --> 02:20:21,133
And Eno suggested, well why don't we bring in other people
2923
02:20:21,133 --> 02:20:22,733
into this scenario?
2924
02:20:23,866 --> 02:20:26,233
And Bowie said who?
2925
02:20:26,233 --> 02:20:28,800
Well Robert Fripp is free, he's not doing anything.
2926
02:20:28,800 --> 02:20:30,766
He's at home in England somewhere in his house,
2927
02:20:30,766 --> 02:20:33,333
and well, I'll give him a ring.
2928
02:20:33,333 --> 02:20:37,266
And Bowie said, "Great", and Bowie rang
2929
02:20:37,266 --> 02:20:40,566
Robert and Eno said "Robert, sit down,
2930
02:20:40,566 --> 02:20:43,166
"someone wants to speak to you, it's very important",
2931
02:20:43,166 --> 02:20:45,100
and he put Bowie on the phone, and he said,
2932
02:20:45,100 --> 02:20:47,866
"It's David here, David Bowie, can you come tonight?
2933
02:20:47,866 --> 02:20:50,933
"Fly to Germany, we want to record a track,
2934
02:20:50,933 --> 02:20:54,166
"we're recording an album, and we want you to be on it".
2935
02:20:54,166 --> 02:20:57,666
And he said, "What?", and he said "Yes, now",
2936
02:20:57,666 --> 02:20:59,733
so literally that's what happened.
2937
02:20:59,733 --> 02:21:02,366
Fripp was flown to Germany, came from the airport,
2938
02:21:02,366 --> 02:21:05,533
Berlin airport to the Hanza Berlin wall,
2939
02:21:05,533 --> 02:21:08,233
with his guitar case, Eno said "Okay, there you go,
2940
02:21:08,233 --> 02:21:10,733
"here's the track, start".
2941
02:21:10,733 --> 02:21:13,733
That was it, it was like instant.
2942
02:21:13,733 --> 02:21:15,166
And Heroes was born, that was it,
2943
02:21:15,166 --> 02:21:16,766
once that was started.
2944
02:21:16,766 --> 02:21:18,233
The album just went, swish.
2945
02:21:18,233 --> 02:21:21,500
(triumphant pop music)
2946
02:21:26,666 --> 02:21:28,333
♪ I
2947
02:21:29,800 --> 02:21:33,133
♪ I wish you could swim
2948
02:21:34,966 --> 02:21:38,033
♪ Like the dolphins
2949
02:21:38,033 --> 02:21:41,633
♪ Like dolphins could swim
2950
02:21:43,300 --> 02:21:46,033
♪ Though nothing
2951
02:21:46,033 --> 02:21:50,033
♪ Nothing will keep us together ♪
2952
02:21:51,666 --> 02:21:55,300
♪ We can beat them
2953
02:21:55,300 --> 02:21:58,233
♪ Forever and ever
2954
02:21:59,533 --> 02:22:02,433
♪ We can be heroes
2955
02:22:03,733 --> 02:22:06,633
♪ Just for one day
2956
02:22:09,366 --> 02:22:11,133
- Heroes I think is a more successful
2957
02:22:11,133 --> 02:22:13,600
record on some terms, than Low.
2958
02:22:13,600 --> 02:22:16,066
It works because it's a much
2959
02:22:16,066 --> 02:22:20,100
more of a partnership between Bowie and Eno sonically.
2960
02:22:20,100 --> 02:22:22,133
And Robert Fripp as well.
2961
02:22:22,133 --> 02:22:24,033
So you have a track like Heroes,
2962
02:22:24,033 --> 02:22:26,500
itself, the title track, famously
2963
02:22:26,500 --> 02:22:29,333
started out as this sort of Beach Boys chug,
2964
02:22:29,333 --> 02:22:32,766
keyboard chug, they gave the call to Robert Fripp,
2965
02:22:32,766 --> 02:22:36,100
who had been in monastic seclusion until that point,
2966
02:22:36,100 --> 02:22:39,500
and jetted into Berlin to play on the
2967
02:22:39,500 --> 02:22:42,000
first record he played on for, I dont know how long.
2968
02:22:42,000 --> 02:22:44,400
A couple of years I think, and that was Heroes.
2969
02:22:44,400 --> 02:22:46,266
They played it back, they played all three takes,
2970
02:22:46,266 --> 02:22:49,266
and famously Visconti had put in all three up
2971
02:22:49,266 --> 02:22:50,733
to see what they sounded like,
2972
02:22:50,733 --> 02:22:53,200
and Eno said, "Let's have all three, they sound great".
2973
02:22:53,200 --> 02:22:55,500
And in that sense, that was his, it was done very quickly.
2974
02:22:55,500 --> 02:22:56,933
But Brian's involvement in that record
2975
02:22:56,933 --> 02:22:59,300
ended before the vocals went down.
2976
02:22:59,300 --> 02:23:00,866
- The second side of the album
2977
02:23:00,866 --> 02:23:02,933
is definitely dominated by Eno.
2978
02:23:02,933 --> 02:23:04,900
There are tracks on the second side
2979
02:23:04,900 --> 02:23:08,100
which are like Moss Garden, which are just pure Eno.
2980
02:23:08,100 --> 02:23:09,900
It's got absolutely the trademark
2981
02:23:09,900 --> 02:23:13,500
of Eno's, these things going across the sky,
2982
02:23:13,500 --> 02:23:16,433
these amazing plane sounds, and of course
2983
02:23:16,433 --> 02:23:17,933
Bowie's on it playing a Koto,
2984
02:23:17,933 --> 02:23:21,366
but the dominance of the track is Eno.
2985
02:23:21,366 --> 02:23:24,033
(ambient music)
2986
02:23:59,033 --> 02:24:01,733
In a lot of ways it's a better record than Low.
2987
02:24:01,733 --> 02:24:03,300
Heroes is a much better record,
2988
02:24:03,300 --> 02:24:04,700
it's a much more positive record.
2989
02:24:04,700 --> 02:24:06,566
The song side is very strong,
2990
02:24:06,566 --> 02:24:08,866
it's as strong, V2 Schneider, all those songs,
2991
02:24:08,866 --> 02:24:11,766
the songs are stronger on side one,
2992
02:24:11,766 --> 02:24:13,566
the instrumental tracks are again much better.
2993
02:24:13,566 --> 02:24:17,433
It's definitely the best of the two records.
2994
02:24:17,433 --> 02:24:18,733
- [Narrator] With Heroes completed,
2995
02:24:18,733 --> 02:24:20,233
Eno finally set about finishing
2996
02:24:20,233 --> 02:24:23,466
his fourth solo album proper for Island Records.
2997
02:24:23,466 --> 02:24:25,900
With such a stop/start approach to the recordings,
2998
02:24:25,900 --> 02:24:27,633
he had collected dozens of tracks
2999
02:24:27,633 --> 02:24:29,766
with a large number of players,
3000
02:24:29,766 --> 02:24:31,466
and because the work was so sporadic,
3001
02:24:31,466 --> 02:24:34,533
he was struggling to form a coherent whole.
3002
02:24:34,533 --> 02:24:36,133
- Several sessions, several weeks,
3003
02:24:36,133 --> 02:24:37,800
months passed by.
3004
02:24:37,800 --> 02:24:40,000
He was just accumulating tracks
3005
02:24:40,000 --> 02:24:41,700
that were becoming more and more of a headache
3006
02:24:41,700 --> 02:24:43,500
to navigate his way through and
3007
02:24:43,500 --> 02:24:45,666
to find a way to edit.
3008
02:24:45,666 --> 02:24:48,500
And this process never really stopped.
3009
02:24:48,500 --> 02:24:50,400
It just ground on and on and on,
3010
02:24:50,400 --> 02:24:53,366
until he had enough tracks to make a record.
3011
02:24:53,366 --> 02:24:56,666
I think, I don't think I'm doing him a disservice
3012
02:24:56,666 --> 02:24:59,066
to say that in the end he had to say,
3013
02:24:59,066 --> 02:25:00,666
this record's never gonna be finished,
3014
02:25:00,666 --> 02:25:02,500
let's agree that it stops here and
3015
02:25:02,500 --> 02:25:03,400
put it out.
3016
02:25:04,800 --> 02:25:06,866
- [Narrator] And so in December 1977,
3017
02:25:06,866 --> 02:25:08,866
the LP was finally issued.
3018
02:25:08,866 --> 02:25:11,133
Eno himself had reservations,
3019
02:25:11,133 --> 02:25:13,000
concerned that an album culled from
3020
02:25:13,000 --> 02:25:15,433
such disparate sessions would be incoherent,
3021
02:25:15,433 --> 02:25:17,733
with certain tracks recorded in a recognizable
3022
02:25:17,733 --> 02:25:20,233
rock format, and others taken from his work
3023
02:25:20,233 --> 02:25:23,100
with Cluster, and his own ambient experiments.
3024
02:25:23,100 --> 02:25:25,733
Yet Before and After Science won widespread
3025
02:25:25,733 --> 02:25:27,433
acclaim upon its release.
3026
02:25:27,433 --> 02:25:29,733
And after Another Green World and Discreet Music,
3027
02:25:29,733 --> 02:25:31,600
the rock press in particular were glad
3028
02:25:31,600 --> 02:25:34,400
to see the return of Eno the songwriter.
3029
02:25:34,400 --> 02:25:36,066
- Before and After Science was
3030
02:25:36,066 --> 02:25:38,933
a really troublesome record to make.
3031
02:25:38,933 --> 02:25:41,333
Because having had a certain degree of
3032
02:25:41,333 --> 02:25:42,733
success with Another Green World
3033
02:25:42,733 --> 02:25:45,100
and the various collaborations that followed,
3034
02:25:45,100 --> 02:25:47,366
he kind of put off, what's my next thing gonna be?
3035
02:25:47,366 --> 02:25:50,633
'Cause for the first time, he hadn't had
3036
02:25:50,633 --> 02:25:53,300
a hospitalization where he was lying there thinking,
3037
02:25:53,300 --> 02:25:56,933
I've got the shining light of a new idea has occurred.
3038
02:25:56,933 --> 02:25:59,233
That didn't occur so they didn't have time
3039
02:25:59,233 --> 02:26:00,933
to have a thought really.
3040
02:26:00,933 --> 02:26:02,733
And lot of the ideas he'd had had
3041
02:26:02,733 --> 02:26:05,800
been played out in the collaborations.
3042
02:26:05,800 --> 02:26:07,733
In a way, the next logical record
3043
02:26:07,733 --> 02:26:09,000
would have been Music For Airports,
3044
02:26:09,000 --> 02:26:11,033
which came out in '78, which was the ambient
3045
02:26:11,033 --> 02:26:12,500
dawn record.
3046
02:26:12,500 --> 02:26:14,233
Whereby the whole process of removing
3047
02:26:14,233 --> 02:26:16,100
the foreground instruments that had begun
3048
02:26:16,100 --> 02:26:17,500
in the beginning of his solo career
3049
02:26:17,500 --> 02:26:20,966
had sort of found a logical Rothco-ian fruition.
3050
02:26:20,966 --> 02:26:22,700
Where as this record between,
3051
02:26:22,700 --> 02:26:25,000
Before and After Science is,
3052
02:26:25,000 --> 02:26:27,533
it's kind of awkward in that lineage,
3053
02:26:27,533 --> 02:26:28,366
and I think because it was awkward to make.
3054
02:26:28,366 --> 02:26:29,200
(fast rock music)
3055
02:26:29,200 --> 02:26:30,566
♪ Dark alley
3056
02:26:30,566 --> 02:26:32,066
♪ Black star
3057
02:26:32,066 --> 02:26:34,766
♪ Four turkies in a big black car ♪
3058
02:26:34,766 --> 02:26:36,400
♪ The road is shiny
3059
02:26:36,400 --> 02:26:37,900
♪ The wheels slide
3060
02:26:37,900 --> 02:26:40,933
♪ Four turkeys going for a dangerous ride ♪
3061
02:26:40,933 --> 02:26:42,533
♪ The lacquer crackles
3062
02:26:42,533 --> 02:26:44,066
♪ The engine roars
3063
02:26:44,066 --> 02:26:47,066
♪ The ship is turning broadside to the shore ♪
3064
02:26:47,066 --> 02:26:49,900
♪ Splish splash I was raking in the cash ♪
3065
02:26:49,900 --> 02:26:53,033
♪ With biology a purpose keeps my nose above the surface ♪
3066
02:26:53,033 --> 02:26:56,133
♪ Kings lead hat but the innocence inside her ♪
3067
02:26:56,133 --> 02:26:59,000
♪ It will come it will come it will surely come ♪
3068
02:26:59,000 --> 02:27:01,733
♪ King's made hat was a mother to desire ♪
3069
02:27:01,733 --> 02:27:05,900
♪ It will come it will come it will surely come ♪
3070
02:27:05,900 --> 02:27:08,233
- I love Before and After Science.
3071
02:27:08,233 --> 02:27:10,966
But it was more in the same direction
3072
02:27:10,966 --> 02:27:13,433
as Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.
3073
02:27:13,433 --> 02:27:15,666
It was interesting in that Another Green World
3074
02:27:15,666 --> 02:27:18,533
and Discreet Music, which both came out in 1975,
3075
02:27:18,533 --> 02:27:21,300
signified this very strong change
3076
02:27:22,666 --> 02:27:26,966
in the way that Eno's sails were sort of blowing.
3077
02:27:26,966 --> 02:27:29,900
But then you have, Before and After Science,
3078
02:27:29,900 --> 02:27:31,966
which is sort of more of a rock record.
3079
02:27:31,966 --> 02:27:33,566
I think there is some really incredible
3080
02:27:33,566 --> 02:27:37,233
beautiful songs on Before and After Science.
3081
02:27:38,600 --> 02:27:42,066
There are incredible spastic kind of rocking songs
3082
02:27:42,066 --> 02:27:43,866
like King's Lead Hat.
3083
02:27:43,866 --> 02:27:47,333
Then you have incredibly beautiful soft
3084
02:27:47,333 --> 02:27:50,733
sort of hushed lullabys like Spider and I.
3085
02:27:50,733 --> 02:27:53,633
Really, really beautiful songwriting
3086
02:27:53,633 --> 02:27:56,766
on Before and After Science.
3087
02:27:56,766 --> 02:27:58,400
- [Narrator] As had been done with the Bowie records,
3088
02:27:58,400 --> 02:28:01,266
Eno divided the album between an uptempo A-side,
3089
02:28:01,266 --> 02:28:04,533
and an downbeat, semi-ambient B.
3090
02:28:04,533 --> 02:28:06,433
- On all those records that subdivide the Bowie records
3091
02:28:06,433 --> 02:28:08,633
that he worked on before, the quieter stuff
3092
02:28:08,633 --> 02:28:10,133
always comes second.
3093
02:28:10,133 --> 02:28:12,933
That seems to be the hangover over the party, as it were.
3094
02:28:12,933 --> 02:28:15,400
And that this record's no different to that.
3095
02:28:15,400 --> 02:28:17,133
It's not the most cohesive record,
3096
02:28:17,133 --> 02:28:19,300
it doesn't really read in the way
3097
02:28:19,300 --> 02:28:21,033
that say Another Green World does.
3098
02:28:21,033 --> 02:28:23,200
That lovely kind of processional trip
3099
02:28:23,200 --> 02:28:24,933
that he takes.
3100
02:28:24,933 --> 02:28:28,200
It's much more isolated essays or vignettes almost,
3101
02:28:28,200 --> 02:28:29,700
but there's some beautiful things on it
3102
02:28:29,700 --> 02:28:32,633
and again it's that range,
3103
02:28:32,633 --> 02:28:37,333
it has a track that's co-authored by Roedelius,
3104
02:28:37,333 --> 02:28:40,533
which takes us back to the Cluster,
3105
02:28:40,533 --> 02:28:43,200
rural idyll, there's King's Lead Hat
3106
02:28:43,200 --> 02:28:46,966
which is a jokey Talking Heads mon-kay track,
3107
02:28:47,866 --> 02:28:50,900
and All Stations In Between.
3108
02:28:50,900 --> 02:28:53,833
♪ Here we are
3109
02:28:53,833 --> 02:28:57,166
♪ Stuck by this river
3110
02:28:57,166 --> 02:29:00,166
♪ You and I
3111
02:29:00,166 --> 02:29:04,300
♪ Underneath the sky that's ever falling down ♪
3112
02:29:05,600 --> 02:29:07,933
♪ Down down
3113
02:29:09,466 --> 02:29:12,466
♪ Ever falling down
3114
02:29:17,466 --> 02:29:19,266
- Before and After Science, my two favourite tracks
3115
02:29:19,266 --> 02:29:21,133
are on the B-side of Before and After Science,
3116
02:29:21,133 --> 02:29:23,366
By This River, and Julie With,
3117
02:29:23,366 --> 02:29:26,166
those two songs are so static,
3118
02:29:26,166 --> 02:29:29,000
they move so slowly, they're literally
3119
02:29:29,000 --> 02:29:30,633
sound painting on to tape,
3120
02:29:30,633 --> 02:29:34,100
you put them on, and by the end of them
3121
02:29:34,100 --> 02:29:35,300
you're in a different place,
3122
02:29:35,300 --> 02:29:38,833
you're brought into an environment.
3123
02:29:38,833 --> 02:29:41,166
And they have incredible beauty,
3124
02:29:41,166 --> 02:29:44,833
and almost religious, there's something very
3125
02:29:46,233 --> 02:29:47,633
sacred about that music.
3126
02:29:47,633 --> 02:29:51,666
Eno has finally found a complete mastery
3127
02:29:51,666 --> 02:29:54,900
of his own talent, his ability to sing,
3128
02:29:56,100 --> 02:29:58,566
to construct sound, to play instruments,
3129
02:29:58,566 --> 02:30:00,900
to make music, this is music now.
3130
02:30:00,900 --> 02:30:03,533
This is no longer experiment, this is truly music.
3131
02:30:03,533 --> 02:30:05,533
It's evolved into music.
3132
02:30:06,600 --> 02:30:09,266
(ambient music)
3133
02:30:21,433 --> 02:30:23,533
- On the second half of Before and After Science,
3134
02:30:23,533 --> 02:30:25,100
I think you have much more interesting
3135
02:30:25,100 --> 02:30:26,433
successful songs like
3136
02:30:26,433 --> 02:30:29,366
Julie With, By This River.
3137
02:30:29,366 --> 02:30:31,200
They have these characters that
3138
02:30:31,200 --> 02:30:33,166
we've never really seen in rock before
3139
02:30:33,166 --> 02:30:34,633
that are very kind of listless,
3140
02:30:34,633 --> 02:30:36,400
they've got no willpower, they've got no drive,
3141
02:30:36,400 --> 02:30:39,300
they're kind of marooned in some sense.
3142
02:30:39,300 --> 02:30:42,566
And I think that Eno was drawn to these
3143
02:30:44,000 --> 02:30:48,100
passive, serene, slightly, melancholy scenarios,
3144
02:30:48,100 --> 02:30:52,266
just because they were so different from rock music,
3145
02:30:53,800 --> 02:30:56,100
and also probably because it suits his personality.
3146
02:30:56,100 --> 02:30:58,033
He's not like a rock rebel.
3147
02:30:58,033 --> 02:30:59,666
And with his music, he was really kind of rebelling
3148
02:30:59,666 --> 02:31:01,900
against rebellion, the sort of ossified
3149
02:31:01,900 --> 02:31:04,533
notions of rebellion, exemplified by a band
3150
02:31:04,533 --> 02:31:07,333
like The Rolling Stones, which he didn't like at all.
3151
02:31:07,333 --> 02:31:09,566
And also by punk at that time was
3152
02:31:09,566 --> 02:31:12,000
kind of the opposite of what he was looking for.
3153
02:31:12,000 --> 02:31:14,033
- [Narrator] And as the music scene shifted around him,
3154
02:31:14,033 --> 02:31:16,066
Eno's next act of rebellion would be
3155
02:31:16,066 --> 02:31:18,900
to abolish song structures entirely in his own work.
3156
02:31:18,900 --> 02:31:21,033
Although he would go on to produce
3157
02:31:21,033 --> 02:31:23,100
more conventional albums by other artists,
3158
02:31:23,100 --> 02:31:26,100
Before and After Science was Eno's last vocal album
3159
02:31:26,100 --> 02:31:27,433
for two decades.
3160
02:31:28,566 --> 02:31:30,033
With hindsight, the clues were there
3161
02:31:30,033 --> 02:31:33,000
on the album's more downbeat abstract side.
3162
02:31:33,000 --> 02:31:35,500
- By the time of Before and After Science,
3163
02:31:35,500 --> 02:31:37,633
I mean, you can hear on the second side
3164
02:31:37,633 --> 02:31:40,533
he is moving off into the ether where
3165
02:31:40,533 --> 02:31:42,933
he has remained ever since.
3166
02:31:42,933 --> 02:31:45,766
King's Lead Hat ends the first side,
3167
02:31:45,766 --> 02:31:48,933
and then that second side, while that's okay,
3168
02:31:48,933 --> 02:31:52,533
he's definitely thinking about other things
3169
02:31:53,966 --> 02:31:56,233
besides writing good songs.
3170
02:31:57,600 --> 02:31:59,533
- If you look at The Beatles' most creative period,
3171
02:31:59,533 --> 02:32:02,033
let's just say between Help, Rubber Soul,
3172
02:32:02,033 --> 02:32:04,800
Revolver and Sergeant Pepper,
3173
02:32:04,800 --> 02:32:06,800
that's a four album sequence
3174
02:32:06,800 --> 02:32:08,366
that has some consequence.
3175
02:32:08,366 --> 02:32:10,566
Eno's sequence has a similar consequence,
3176
02:32:10,566 --> 02:32:12,466
but he emerges on the other end
3177
02:32:12,466 --> 02:32:14,900
not as The Beatles did with the White Album
3178
02:32:14,900 --> 02:32:16,400
where they threw out all the experimental stuff
3179
02:32:16,400 --> 02:32:18,366
and said, "Let's get back to basics".
3180
02:32:18,366 --> 02:32:20,766
Eno emerges on the other end of his development,
3181
02:32:20,766 --> 02:32:23,933
and really goes into the ambient style.
3182
02:32:23,933 --> 02:32:27,266
So this series of what in my book I call
3183
02:32:28,800 --> 02:32:32,300
Eno's progressive rock albums I see really as
3184
02:32:32,300 --> 02:32:35,133
stripping away the elements of rock and roll
3185
02:32:35,133 --> 02:32:38,000
one by one, until by those final tracks
3186
02:32:38,000 --> 02:32:40,300
on Before and After Science.
3187
02:32:40,300 --> 02:32:43,600
You are already in the ambient style.
3188
02:32:43,600 --> 02:32:45,333
- [Narrator] The album's release marked
3189
02:32:45,333 --> 02:32:47,500
a turning point in Eno's career.
3190
02:32:47,500 --> 02:32:49,666
1978 would see him moving to New York,
3191
02:32:49,666 --> 02:32:51,700
and forging new creative relationships
3192
02:32:51,700 --> 02:32:54,066
with the younger generation of musicians.
3193
02:32:54,066 --> 02:32:55,733
It would also see him further the concept
3194
02:32:55,733 --> 02:32:57,966
of Obscure Records to a new series of releases
3195
02:32:57,966 --> 02:32:59,733
that would draw him into collaboration
3196
02:32:59,733 --> 02:33:01,900
with more experimental artists,
3197
02:33:01,900 --> 02:33:05,066
and spotlight his concept of ambient music.
3198
02:33:05,066 --> 02:33:07,066
Yet his later achievements were only possible
3199
02:33:07,066 --> 02:33:09,400
due to this first period of his career
3200
02:33:09,400 --> 02:33:11,233
when he had emerged from one of the most
3201
02:33:11,233 --> 02:33:13,466
important rock acts of the era to establish himself
3202
02:33:13,466 --> 02:33:16,700
as a truly unique figure in music.
3203
02:33:16,700 --> 02:33:18,933
A fearless collaborator and sonic architect
3204
02:33:18,933 --> 02:33:21,233
who produced his own form of pop,
3205
02:33:21,233 --> 02:33:23,366
while at the same time bringing experimental music
3206
02:33:23,366 --> 02:33:27,400
closer to the mainstream than it had ever been.
3207
02:33:27,400 --> 02:33:29,400
- Brian Eno made the stuff sexy,
3208
02:33:29,400 --> 02:33:31,133
he made it interesting, he made it fun,
3209
02:33:31,133 --> 02:33:33,966
he made it fleshy and had life.
3210
02:33:33,966 --> 02:33:37,933
Part of the problem with a lot of this
3211
02:33:37,933 --> 02:33:40,633
kind of academic experimental music,
3212
02:33:40,633 --> 02:33:43,400
it's very kind of stiff and uptight
3213
02:33:43,400 --> 02:33:45,266
in a certain way.
3214
02:33:45,266 --> 02:33:49,000
Meanwhile, Eno was making it not so very serious,
3215
02:33:49,000 --> 02:33:51,733
but more rock and roll and more interesting
3216
02:33:51,733 --> 02:33:55,000
for your average listener to tune into.
3217
02:33:56,366 --> 02:33:57,733
- [Narrator] At the same time
3218
02:33:57,733 --> 02:33:59,366
the sheer level of activity during this period
3219
02:33:59,366 --> 02:34:01,433
of his career produced many of the seeds
3220
02:34:01,433 --> 02:34:04,633
that were allowed to bloom later.
3221
02:34:04,633 --> 02:34:06,166
For many, his early experiments,
3222
02:34:06,166 --> 02:34:09,300
his collaborations and his four vocal solo albums
3223
02:34:09,300 --> 02:34:12,333
released between 1973 and 1977
3224
02:34:12,333 --> 02:34:14,166
remain the most important works
3225
02:34:14,166 --> 02:34:16,100
in his extensive canon.
3226
02:34:17,366 --> 02:34:21,233
- It's only five years, put five years
3227
02:34:21,233 --> 02:34:24,666
where this individual has made more music
3228
02:34:25,766 --> 02:34:28,900
than 100 individuals in a lifetime.
3229
02:34:28,900 --> 02:34:30,300
In five years.
3230
02:34:30,300 --> 02:34:32,066
To start with Roxy Music and end with
3231
02:34:32,066 --> 02:34:33,966
Before and After Science, and Bowie,
3232
02:34:33,966 --> 02:34:37,666
it's just nothing could be better really
3233
02:34:37,666 --> 02:34:40,133
for an artist, to end on a high.
3234
02:34:40,133 --> 02:34:42,700
And then for the rest of his life now,
3235
02:34:42,700 --> 02:34:44,900
he had established himself as a producer,
3236
02:34:44,900 --> 02:34:47,366
as a composer, as a studio boffin,
3237
02:34:47,366 --> 02:34:50,266
as a theorist, he was set for life.
3238
02:34:51,600 --> 02:34:55,133
- Brian's creative life is incredibly
3239
02:34:55,133 --> 02:34:57,366
accelerated in this mid-70s period,
3240
02:34:57,366 --> 02:34:59,200
he's practically working on something
3241
02:34:59,200 --> 02:35:02,866
every time he's awake, he's working on something.
3242
02:35:02,866 --> 02:35:05,866
There was no one else like him in that sense.
3243
02:35:05,866 --> 02:35:08,866
You don't really see the newspapers
3244
02:35:08,866 --> 02:35:11,933
looking for the new Eno at any point
3245
02:35:11,933 --> 02:35:14,266
because he is a singularity.
3246
02:35:15,966 --> 02:35:17,633
He's the art school, he's the particular
3247
02:35:17,633 --> 02:35:20,066
kind of music, he's a kind of rock star,
3248
02:35:20,066 --> 02:35:23,000
he's a kind of producer, he's a kind of artist,
3249
02:35:23,000 --> 02:35:25,066
he's a kind of executive.
3250
02:35:25,066 --> 02:35:27,033
He's all these things and he's
3251
02:35:27,033 --> 02:35:29,700
either or a dilettante or a polymath,
3252
02:35:29,700 --> 02:35:31,933
in which side you come from.
3253
02:35:31,933 --> 02:35:34,200
Probably a mixture of both.
251724
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