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Book Review: From Condoms to Cabbages
Deep Purple - Machine Head
***** 5 Star Rating In the eyes (and ears) of many, "Machine Head" is the quintessential Deep Purple album. When my peers start throwing ‘round labels like heavy metal pioneers and hard rock landmarks, Machine Head is, like it or not (the band themselves don’t), the one they cite to back up their claims. The fact that the album contains the perennial millstone ‘round the neck song and the band’s best known song, "Smoke On The Water" merely secures to further this train of thought. Now, nearly thirty years on, the songs sound just as super charged as they did then. Underpinned by a tight rhythm department, metallic riffing from that doyen of society, Ritchie Blackmore, just a touch of a classical tinge in the keyboard breaks and textbook ‘tongue in the cheek’, totally politically incorrect lyrics, all beautifully balanced with a clear modern sounding production job (engineered by a very young Eddie Offord), the album is still influential today. Music shops across the world constantly have to brace themselves for yet another generation of spotty strat-copy buyers eager to impress with their dodgy attempts at Machine Head licks on the object of their dreams. The songs themselves were to be the lynchpins of Deep Purple sets to the present day, seeing them through several lineups and reformations. In fact, Deep Purple’s last live album, "Total Abandon Live", contains four of the seven songs recorded here. The kick of "Highway Star" remains as powerful as ever. An opening shot few bands ever get close to emulating, is pushed on relentlessly by Ian Paice, some glorious bass work from that master of the dirty side of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Roger Glover, and Ian Gillan’s distinct screams, but it’s the work of Blackmore and Lord that really make everything tick (or should that be thud). Blackmore’s riffing is the best it has ever been, broken up by some oh so casual chord bashing. What is basically a very simple song structure is kept so busy that you hardly notice it as both Blackmore and Lord merge, the former throwing in a meticulous solo, which still thrills. Ian Paice, in turn, gives him the room to stretch for just so long before bashing back in as if to say, "Time’s Up!" To think that this song was written in the back of the transit van on the way to a gig and then performed that night makes it all the more remarkable. It has stayed in every set list since then, either opening or closing the show. There are no fillers on this album (in fact, the fantastic "When A Blind Man Cries", recorded at the Machine Head sessions, had to be left off, eventually emerging as a flip side), they are all rock standards now. "Lazy", with its dramatic organ introduction, was a logical extension of Lord’s on stage work. It drives Jon firmly back into the spotlight as he and Blackmore trade fun on a fast bluesy-based vehicle made for soloing. "Space Truckin’" closes the album and gets back to the heart of Deep Purple in its original version, before Deep Purple took it out onto the boards, and eventually dragging it out into a 30 minute explosion of pure, hard rocking brilliance. A lot of Deep Purple fans were turned on by the explosive live album "Made In Japan", issued less than a year later. Machine Head (which, as usual, provided the bulk of the songs) suffered in comparison. However, at the end of the day it’s always the originals that stay with you the longest. Musicians: Ian Paice - drums Track Listing
By Poppy
Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a lowborn 12th century squire whose only obstacle in jousting is the fact that only nobles are allowed to compete, and he’s a low-life. So he adopts the name Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein and fools everyone with a fake pedigree he gets from Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany), a gambling addict we first see as he walks naked down a country road, having lost all his clothes to his creditors. Thatcher is soon winning one joust after another with the help of his two fellow squire friends Wat and Roland (Alan Tudyk and Mark Addy). They’re in this for the money but William apparently has goals that we don’t learn about until later in the film. There is of course a romance with the noble maid, Jocelyn (Shanynn Sossamon), whom William seeks to woo despite her having the most ridiculous hair of the middle ages. After you get past the first one or two scenes, everything really grows on you. The humor is so bad at times (the Nike armor) but I still laughed. Chaucer was great, the villain was definitely evil, and the jousting/action scenes were very well done. Director: Brian Helgeland Cast: Heath Ledger - William Thatcher
Updated every Friday Updated by
Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk. |
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The
early chapters are devoted to giving the reader an understanding of Mechai’s
parental background. Both doctors of medicine, his father Dr. Samak
Viravaidya, a Thai who had studied in Edinburgh, Scotland, and his mother,
Dr. Ella Mackinnon Robertson, a strong and independent Scottish woman he
met as an undergraduate. There is a wonderful Scottish adjective called
"thrawn" which describes Mechai’s mother - someone who knows
where they are going and will doggedly head in that direction, no matter
what the obstacles or the opinions of others. Much of the remainder of the
book is spent showing similar qualities in her elder son Mechai, a man who
has shown his strong willed and doggedly determined nature on more than
one occasion.
Mott’s CD review:
by Mott the Dog
If you expect to see Braveheart or some other historical
epic forget it, as soon as I saw the fans singing and clapping to "We
Will Rock You" I knew this was going to be a historical movie with a
difference. So I sat and enjoyed a totally ‘wacky’ movie with a great
soundtrack.