We'll take a look at mainland Europe garage bands all this week. Here is our all time favorite song out of Holland. It is the original composition, Back Home, by Cuby + The Blizzards who make a second showing on these pages (the first was their earlier single, Your Body, Not Your Soul).
I said a ton about the band in the previous post so I'll stay quiet here other than to say that Eelco Gelling's guitar work on this song is inspirational.
reat example of early psych blues which has quickly grown on me (I'm still partial to Body Not Your Soul in a big way, and for that matter, Stumble and Fall). The beguiling guitar work here is fabulous, as you pointed out, and drives the song along it's seemingly open structure. It's hard to get what it's about lyrically though some of the lyrics ("This show, this show, this show we have to play is ridiculous in every way") lead me to guess it originated in a live setting. There's also a mention of the Nazz, perennial psych muse of the mid '60s. No one seems to talk about the Nazz anymore - why is that? What is it anyway? Also, any guesses to the instrument at the intro (!!) with the guitar? My guess is a clavichord.
ReplyDeleteThe clavichord is a very strong guess. I was going to say harpsichord. They may be the same thing. No? I imagine they would be pretty common in Holland.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics are vague at best. Muskee's use of English seems pretty strained in most of their songs. The "reedeekulis, reedeekulis in every way" line always makes me smirk. I hadn't picked up on the particular Nazz reference. Nazz is a reference from some English poem or story or something about Jesus of Nazareth. The Nazz being Nazareth. I think this song is just about men who work hard, often far from home, without the respect they deserve.
The guitar work by Gelling is absolutely stunning. His use of dead pick up switching is really remarkable and his timing is great. Better than the drummers (at the beginning) I might add. The guitar lead -- based almost entirely - is really something to behold. particularly the last 20 seconds of lead or so. Tone, melody and innovation.