Catch The Wind - Album Appreciation

[Spud]

Agree with you about Leonard Cohen. I just watched a video of him singing Hallelujah. What a disgusting voice he has, no offence. Yet I love the song.

May 13, 2008 14:49:14 GMT 10 Smiley said:

May 13, 2008 11:44:38 GMT 10 olddantucker said:

waaaaaaahaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaa

What's wrong with Peter Paul & Mary? Or the Seekers? Both huge artists in their day.

I'd rather listen to them than Bob Dylan. He wrote good songs but .... same with Leonard Cohen.

[olddantucker]

Just to get back to the Dylan debate, there are times when having a great voice like Damien's can count against you. Imagine the Sex Pistols snearing about Anarchy in the UK with lovely lilting voices - it just wouldn't work. I'm no Dylan lover, and find his voice slightly painful most of the time, but the way Dylan sings some of his earlier work is more to do with atittude than pitch. The defiant tone when he sings The Times They Are A Changing suits the message of the song perfectly, and on Masters of War he just spits the words out - you can feel the contempt and anger.

If you don't know Masters of War the lyrics are superb and the last couple of verses go:

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Can you imagine Damien singing that? Every note being pitch perfect and beautiful doesn't work for a song like that - it would detract from the derision being expressed by the words.

[olddantucker]

May 13, 2008 16:16:39 GMT 10 Spud said:

Agree with you about Leonard Cohen. I just watched a video of him singing Hallelujah. What a disgusting voice he has, no offence. Yet I love the song.

May 13, 2008 14:49:14 GMT 10 Smiley said:

What's wrong with Peter Paul & Mary? Or the Seekers? Both huge artists in their day.

I'd rather listen to them than Bob Dylan. He wrote good songs but .... same with Leonard Cohen.

Go listen to Leonard Cohen singing First We'll Take Manhattan. Now that's cool. Sorta like Johnny Cash doing rock, and what a sinister laugh half way through.

[Trilly]

aaaah, ODT. A man after my own heart. You are so right about Dylan and Cohen. Attitude that matches the lyrics plays a huge part in their recorded peformances.
That being said, I think D chose incredibly wisely when he did Blowin In The Wind and The Times They Are A Changin. These are two songs he pulls off really well, especially the former.

[chrism]

"Suzanne", "Sisters of Mercy" , "So Long, Marianne", "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" , "Bird on a Wire", "Hallelujah" etc. all great Leonard Cohen classics. His voice has always had a limited range and he's something like 73 y/o now so his voice is bound to be showing signs of wear, but he is a great song writer and interpreter.

[Spud]

They are talking about Music With A Message on 20 to 1 tonight. They haven't talked about any of the songs on CTW yet but there was another Dylan song (Hurricane). Will update this post if they say anything interesting about any of the songs on CTW.

I just realised that Glenn A. Baker is that old guy they have on 20 to 1 every week. I must have seen his name at the bottom of the screen a hundred times before, but when I saw his name inside CTW I had no idea who it was. I'm a bit slow. According to my sister, they also talk to Glenn A. Baker on Aussie Idol every year. I don't remember that ever happening.

Anyway, that's pretty cool that he's listened to Damien's album and wrote all that interesting stuff about it.

EDIT: The show's finished now. No CTW songs but the no. 1 song was Imagine. Love that song. It would be so awesome to hear Damien sing it.

[hyperrune]

May 13, 2008 16:17:18 GMT 10 olddantucker said:

Just to get back to the Dylan debate, there are times when having a great voice like Damien's can count against you. Imagine the Sex Pistols snearing about Anarchy in the UK with lovely lilting voices - it just wouldn't work. I'm no Dylan lover, and find his voice slightly painful most of the time, but the way Dylan sings some of his earlier work is more to do with atittude than pitch. The defiant tone when he sings The Times They Are A Changing suits the message of the song perfectly, and on Masters of War he just spits the words out - you can feel the contempt and anger.

If you don't know Masters of War the lyrics are superb and the last couple of verses go:

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Can you imagine Damien singing that? Every note being pitch perfect and beautiful doesn't work for a song like that - it would detract from the derision being expressed by the words.

I'm not sure too many people would want to sing that, ODT. Don't get me wrong, I like the lyrics, it's very powerful. I think it's just a very confronting thing that not many people could pull off. Then again, Damien comes from a heavy-metal background, so perhaps we all underestimate him

The way singers act as shock-jocks and sell through controversy these days, actually, they might queue up to sing that song

And I saw 20 to 1 tonight, and I want Damien to sing Imagine

[astrokath]

You learn something every day - I know the song Masters of War, but didn't know it was Dylan's. The version I know is by The Flying Pickets, a great a capella band from working class English backgrounds.

[rivers]

another feel good album from Damien!!! well done. its a bit addictive though. i have my cd travel through the rooms of the house. and then on ipod.

some of the songs seem so short but perhaps thats a feature of songs of that time.

he does sound so different on this album. his versatility is remarkable

cant wait to hear Damien live on tour real soon now!

[zeeta]

I love all the songs on this album but I think Only Love Can Break Your Heart is my favorite, I love what he does with his voice in the second part of the song. Also Longer is so beautiful.

[Trilly]

This is a minor, quirky thing but I kinda like the scratchy sound between tracks. Obviously, it is meant to be reminiscent of the sound made by a needle on a vinyl album. It shocks and saddens me that I'm old enough to remember it! bwhhaha..but it helps the illusion that this CD could have come from the 60s-70s. Some may find it irritating. I find it kinda comforting.

However cds will never replace the tactile, artistic joy of vinyl with an amazing cover ...*siiigh*

and on that note, ummm, just a minor crit, but if this album was aimed at a slightly older market, why make the sleeve notes impossible to read without a magnifying glass?

[shimmery]

This post jumps around a bit lol, I'm joining in a few convos here

I think Damien would really deliver those sorts of powerful impact songs, because he can translate a mood very well and gets right into what he's singing. Like Hyp said, the fact he used to sing heavy metal really smashes out the boundaries. I love the fact that on a few occasions on CTW he lets his voice crack and become raw, it expresses the story of the song so well at those points.

Those of us who heard him singing "Everybody Here Wants You" at the Jeff Buckey tribute night saw Damien in a totally different mood to what we have seen on stage before. Not a political song of course, but my point is that we saw him perform in another unexpected dimension, wow he got into it, it was very raw and powerful (probably no doubt an emotional night too considering Jagger had just been born that week). He really seemed to go to another place and let go of his control. I still look back on that one as one of his really special performances. Damien's got a lot of versatility, I love it when he comes out of the blue with something like that we haven't seen him do before.

Spud, yes that's Glenn A Baker. He's an incredible guy, a font of musical knowledge. I like to listen to a show he does once a week on the radio where he goes right through the whole history of one particular song for about half an hour. When I saw that he had done Damien's sleeve notes I was so thrilled, what a great essay he added to it and such wonderful things to say about Damien as well. Wow, now that takes me back to the days of vinyl when you'd get awesome essays about the music on the sleeve, what a great tradition to renew for this album

There's only really one Bob Dylan song I can think of that I particularly enjoy hearing him himself singing, which is Subterranean Homesick Blues.

btw I used to love the Seekers growing up, as my parents loved them and would play the old records around the house and I'd hear them that way.

I can dig Cohen, but much prefer Buckley's and Damien's versions of Hallelujah.

[rivers]

After the Gaels concert I decided to have a Catch the Wind/Damien break as i was getting a little obsessive... anyway i just broke the drought and listened to the album again whilst i worked on my computer.

omg omg omg Im obsessed again.

Such a beautiful voice, such a wonderful Damienization of Dylan, Denver, Stevens etc ... thank you Damien for bringing your music to us all.

[SJ]

I gave CTW to my best friend (the one who met D with me) today for her birthday. She likes Damien but she's not really a fan. She has a similar taste in music to me and she knew most of the songs and artists on the album. She just texted me to say that she was listening to it and her opinion....

"IT'S AMAZING!"

I replied "Of course it is - it's Damien! ;D"
I think she has been converted

[Smiley]

Of Course! sj ...but it's always great to hear good work!

And rivers...I'm that way with Where We Land as well...go back to it after a while and go WOW! and fall in love with it all over again. Haven't left CTW yet- I play it everyday.