Subject: Level 42 Digest, #368 ===================== * LEVEL 42 DIGEST * ===================== Digest 368 Saturday, 04/22/95 147 subscribers Today's messages: Caribbean , here I come. Forever Now CD Underlying Meanings Me'Shell NdegeOcello Re: Level 42 Digest, #367 PalmerUreKing Want _Forever Now_ ? Re: Level 42 Digest, #367 Opening for Madonna Midge Ure, etc. Re: MeShell and Marcus Digest #367-New Levelhead Bruce Springsteen vs. Level42 Band, Tour ------------------------------ From: dcrowson @ amoco.com (David Crowson) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 95 13:53:39 BST Subject: Caribbean , here I come. >From: EasyE1 @ aol.com >Was "Forever Now" ever released in the US? If not, what's the best wat to get >a hold of it? Nope, and I'm afriad you'll have to get it imported. Try CD Connection, or Pastel blue...... http://www.demon.co.uk/pastel/index.html >From: jtheal @ julian.uwo.ca (Jeremy Theal) >Subject: Marcus Miller et al. > >I haven't heard Marcus' album, "The Sun Don't Lie", but I know that he >produces and plays on some of David Sanborn's albums. Sanborn's latest >couple of albums, "Hearsay", and "Upfront", are wicked! Marcus Miller plays >some rippin' riffs on these albums, definitely worth a glance or two from >you funkybassline fans out there! I also saw Sanborn live in Toronto last I've just aquired the MM 'Sun Don't Lie' album, and quite frankly it's top stuff... ...Can I have it back now please Mike ;-) I'll take up on your advise and scoot out and buy these albums you mention, when my next pay check arrives :) We've all talked about bands with good sounds here abouts , and thanks to those recommendations my CD collection is getting rather large ...Incognito..Marcus Miller. Freakpower..to name some of the new ones, but there is one album in particular that I would say first grabbed my attention regarding slap bass playing and that album is the first Al Jarreau (sp) album. The bass on it is very funky, Ooh, it hurts so good :). 'She's a Super Lady' being my particular favouriteoff that album. It's more of a soul album (bit slushy), than a jazz funk thang, but it's definitely worth a listen. Check it out , if you can find it. (Anyone care to tell the name of the bass player concerned ?) >From: eric (Eric J. Hansen) >Subject: Who is Carl Palmer? > >About this King/Ure/Palmer trio... who is Carl Palmer? At first I thought that >this was the same guy that played drums on Electronic (and also with The The), >but that's David Palmer... As to why Ure never "joined" Level 42: >From the legendary progressive rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer. (or ELP to the anoraks:) >From: Michael BROOKS >Favourite album - Physical presence, fave studio album - Pursuit Of Accidents , Agree, Agree....good call Mike. >fave track - Heaven In My Hands Disagree, has to be Follow Me...considering what's happened to the band it's quite appropriate, and I love that groove thang. (But then I am a sentimentalist;-) YMMV. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Crowson Freelance Oracle Consultant (since 1983) igotan @ ombomb.demon.co.uk/weirdguy @ cix.compulink.co.uk/dcrowson @ amoco.com "Follow Me, To the end of the Earth, Follow Me, before it all breaks down" ------------------------------ From: "AFUA PRESTON" Organization: New York University Libraries Date: 21 Apr 95 09:27:06 EST Subject: Forever Now CD I don't think Forever Now was released in the US. I had to special order it in an import store in New York City's Greenwich Village. In fact I never would have known it was released if I hadn't been reading Billboard magazine. I always check the HITS AROUND THE WORLD section. ------------------------------ From: "Friesen, Alex" Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 10:59:01 -0500 Subject: Underlying Meanings Mikey, how can you hear the lyrics "I read the papers, every word, my only access to the outside world" etc. (Kansas City Milkman) and not think there's some meaning below the surface? They're talking about living in a closed in world, unaware of anything outside, never finding truth about the "big picture" out there. Well, that's what I hear, anyway. I find many of their songs are like this. How 'bout "I've seen your face in the sky, twenty-five stories high"? I think they're trying to make a point here. What that point is, is not particularly clear, but that just adds to the interest factor of the band in general. Endless "baby baby I love you baby" lyrics make for a boring band, even if there are killer grooves happening. Just my humble opinion, of course. ...Alex... ------------------------------ From: Kim Ivey Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 09:15:45 -0600 (MDT) Subject: Me'Shell NdegeOcello Not as if anyone really cares, but I need to redeem myself. Yesterday I made some comments about Me'Shell NdegeOcello, and I completely butchered the poor womans name. Well, above is the correct spelling, and the title of her current album is "Plantation Lullabies", not "Plantation Lullaby". Also, I forgot to mention that her music also has a heavy hip-hop feel to it ( she does quite a bit of "melodic rapping"). Still funky though, and on the song "Dreadlocks", you get a good indication of Marks influence on her bass playing. Kim ------------------------------ From: "Ryan Taylor" Date: 21 Apr 1995 09:08:04 -0800 Subject: Re: Level 42 Digest, #367 Well, even though I have subscribed to this list for a while, I have never formally introduced myself. My name is Ryan and I'm 25 and I've been a Levelfreak for 10 years. The first Level song I heard was "Something about you" in 1985. I fell in love with the song and immediately bought the album. I bought the British release which had a different track list then the US version, noticably "Hot Water" is missing. I've been hooked every since. Favorite L42 song: "Running in the Family" pure pop funk. Phil Gould is one helluva great drummer with incredible feel. Even after he left in 1987, I liked Staring at the Sun. The songs were still full power-funk-pop that Leel were best known for. It's ashame the album flopped. Oh well, gotta go. Enjoy! [PLEASE cut out all *unneeded* included text!!!!!! -- I stripped out an entire digest that was included in this msg -Eric] ------------------------------ From: John Edward Martin Shuford Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 11:08:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: PalmerUreKing Eric: Carl Palmer is from Emerson, Lake & Palmer, one of the 70's big art-rock groups. As for Midge, I know the whole ultravox thing, but wasn't u-vox done (or at least he had parted ways with them) by the time The Gift came out? I know that Midge was a big success in his own right and that L42 wasn't his band. I just meant that he and Mark have been good friends for a number of years, and I wondered why Midge never stood in on guitar on tour or on an album, or why he never contributed lyrics. I mean, who would have thought Allan Holdsworth and Level 42???? But stranger things have happened. ------------------------------ From: Peter Hadley Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 19:25:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Want _Forever Now_ ? This morning I spotted 3 copies of FN here in this silly town of Boston, $24 (that's including tax) = a couple bucks for padded envelope and postage and there yours...anyone? Let me know, --jay ------------------------------ From: ALOUIS1 @ aol.com Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 19:27:53 -0400 Subject: Re: Level 42 Digest, #367 > About this King/Ure/Palmer trio... who is Carl Palmer? At first I thought > that this was the same guy that played drums on Electronic (and also with The > The), but that's David Palmer... Carl Palmer is the "Palmer" in Emerson, Lake and Palmer. He also played drums for the early 80's group Asia. ------------------------------ From: PFlanagan1 @ aol.com Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 21:53:33 -0400 Subject: Opening for Madonna (whoops, sorry, that Subject: sounds kind of sick, now that I think of it) :D Kim, you're right. The boys opened for Madonna on her True Blue tour. Unfortunately, they were SUPPOSED to open for Thompson Twins at Poplar Creek (Illinois), which was the show I had tickets for. I was all whipped up to see both groups, and, while waiting for the opening act, trembling with anticipation, an announcer comes on and says "Level 42 will not be opening our show tonight. Instead, we will have Chris Isaak." I was bummed, but I thought, hey, let's see who this Chris Isaak guy is (he was unknown at the time). 20 minutes later (after at least 100 people had LEFT, BTW, obvious LevelHeads), the announcer says "Chris Isaak has the flu and will not be able to open" and then he announced the name of these two losers who got up on stage and sang acapella. They sucked. Hope y'all enjoyed my little concert tale. Take Care of Yourself, Pat ------------------------------ From: PFlanagan1 @ aol.com Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 21:53:38 -0400 Subject: Midge Ure, etc. > I haven't heard his third album (it is reportedly *really* bad), but The > Gift and Answers to Nothing are both pretty good. I kinda liked his third album, though the name escapes me. The first two were WAY better, though. ----------- x ------------- Favorite Album/Track -- Wow, that's a tough one. I guess, since I've been listening to it constantly for the past two weeks, Forever Now is my CURRENT favorite, with Love In A Peaceful World and All Over You (great guitar/bass work on that bridge) tied. Of their other albums, I'd have to say World Machine's my favorite, with a hard-to-bust four-way tie between World Machine/Something About You/Leaving Me Now/Good Man In A Storm. (I know, I'm cheating badly on this.) My favorites change from month to month. Right now, though, I guess I'd have to say my true favorite is Take A Look. It's stuck in my head like Kim's proverbial tumor. Other favorite tracks in whatever order they pop into my head (bigtime favorites in capitals): Turn It On, Why Are You Leaving, DUNE TUNE, Shapeshifter, Foundation & Empire (another good science fiction reference), Mr. Pink, 43, 88, Pursuit of Accidents, STANDING IN THE LIGHT, Out of Sight Out of Mind, The Machine Stops, People, KANSAS CITY MILKMAN, True Believers, Hot Water (the original version from True Colors, not the single version -- better intro), Hours By The Window, Lying Still, Physical Presence, Coup D'Etat, CHILDREN SAY, Fashion Fever, Heaven In My Hands, Two Hearts Collide, MAN, I Don't Know Why, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF (always a favorite), Overtime, SEVEN YEARS, If You Were Mine, and pretty much the whole Forever Now album, with the exceptions of One In A Million (kind of simpy) and the B-Sides Play Me (waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long) and Heart On The Line (just a weak song, IMHO). So, there you go. (Oh yeah, the instrumental part in the middle of Weave Your Spell is pretty cuttin' too.) ---------- x ------------- Political Lyrics -- So far, all the posts have missed Coup D'Etat which, if I'm reading between, around, and through the lyrics right, is about Thatcher (?). As for overtly political, Chant Has Begun MUST be the one, with World Machine in there, too, though not as upfront about it, more oblique. Oblique is a great word to describe a lot of their lyrics. There are so many songs, old and new, that you can read millions of things into, whether the writer(s) meant it or not. That's one of the things I like about Level 42 -- you can attach a personal meaning to a song, and it then means something to you that maybe only you know about. Try doing that with "Cotton Eyed Joe," or some of the other crap floating around in the US top 40 today (especially the overrun of four-guy pseudo-R&B tinny-harmony appealing-to-the-preteen-girls singing-the-same-old-s impy-frothy-lovey-dovey-songs irritating-as-a-boil-on-your-butt groups we're plagued with right now). I'm done venting now. :) Take Care of Yourselfs, Pat Flanagan ------------------------------ From: DigDog @ aol.com Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 23:40:19 -0400 Subject: Re: MeShell and Marcus Couple of bass playin' notes: Marcus Miller is indeed a musical genius. If you're interested, he produced and played on Luther Vandross' best album "The Night I Fell In Love" (IMHO, the best slap bass sound on any record I've heard - sorry Mark!), Miles Davis' "Tutu," the Jamaica Boys, "J-Boys," David Sanborn's "Hearsay" - all are chock full of great bass playing, funky grooves and stellar musicianship. BTW - it's spelled MeShell NdegeOcello... ------------------------------ From: Rack1SPC @ aol.com Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 23:59:34 -0400 Subject: L42 Digest #367-New Levelhead Hey fellow Levelheads, I'm brand new to this so please be patient on some of my questions. You've heard them before, but here in Cincinnati we don't hear anything on one of the best bands in the world. Briefly, what happened with the band? Just burned out? Any talk of future recordings? Michael Brooks, I agree with your enthusiasm for Murphy's guitar playing on "Heaven in My Hands", one of the strongest of the "guitar based" songs of L42. However, I thought "If you were mine" on Guaranteed was strong guitar wise as well. In fact when Guaranteed came out I felt it had much more guitar influence on it than we've heard from previous LPs. I've always enjoyed the basslines King puts out. His playing reminds me of Louis Johnson of the "Brothers Johnson" fame. For those of you scratching your heads, the Bros' J were a funk/soul/some rock band comprised of George and Louis Johnson from the 70's. Louis was well known as thunder thumbs for his studio wizardry on the bass. On L42's "Dune Tune" some King's best bass can be found. ------------------------------ From: Vugt Date: Sat, 22 Apr 1995 07:33:26 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Bruce Springsteen vs. Level42 Hi levelfans You might wonder what "The Boss" is doing on the Level Digest? Let me explain it. Yesterday I heard Bruce's new single "Secret Garden" and I could not help it but it sounded very familiar. The first seconds of "Secret Garden" sound almost exactly the same as "Take a Look" the part were Mike starts to sing. Did anyone also heard it? Just wanted to share this with you. Take care Adrian ------------------------------ From: jryder @ easynet.co.uk (james ryder) Date: Sat, 22 Apr 95 10:24:19 GMT Subject: Band, Tour Please can you tell me what the band are doing now, or as individual members and also, are they doing a British tour this year / Thanking you James Ryder