From: Level42-request @ worldmachine.com (Level42 Digest) Subject: Level42 Digest V97 #129 _ ____ _ ____ _ _ ___ // //__ // / //__ // /__// __// //__ //__ \\_/ //__ //__ // /__ D I G E S T Level42 Digest Volume 97 : Issue 129 500 subscribers Today's topics: New Level 42 Midi file!! - almost available Sean D. Green My bar Pat Flanagan Viva Las... Winman42 Spice Presence Daniel James Music Theory 799R matthew rice Winston's the man and anybody wanna trade? LOOOVE SLAVE The Introduction Of TLR...Level 42 Fan! Thomas Richmond Dave Adams Connection Discoverd! DonZipf Political 42?, Mark's influence, Wally & Marcus Doug Ross At long last... Rich speaks! Richard J. Reddick ------------------------------ Subject: New Level 42 Midi file!! - almost available From: "Sean D. Green" Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 08:27:21 -0500 Hey all, Well, in hopes of grabbing a lot of attention, I am announcing a new Level 42 file that will be available on my site soon. (drum roll.....) And the title is...... "Love in a Peaceful World -- OLD SKOOL MIX" YEAH!!!!! Can you believe it!?!? One of my alltime fave level mixes in a wonderful midi format just begging to be heard in its new form. Now, here's the deal. I am charging $50.00 for each download of this file -- HA!! bet that made your heart flutter a bit! Nope, as a matter of fact, it will be FREE!! Download it once, twice, as many times as you like, but wait until it is up on the page! I should have it available, God willing, on my website by this Sunday. I am doing the finishing work on it now. It sounds pretty nice too, so I would appreciate any comments by you good folks. Be seeing you, ~Sean "I am not a number...I am a human being!" - The Prisoner (No. 6) -- *********** "The MIDI Extreme" *********** * http://www.flash.net/~questps/midi.htm * *** For the best MIDI files on the net!*** ****************************************** ------------------------------ Subject: My bar From: Pat Flanagan Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 09:11:04 -0400 > Pat-I knew there was something about that name...then it hit me (not > literally). There's a bar near my office where we would go whenenver > someone left the company (department). Used to go there a lot.-not as > many leaving the company now...:) Anyway, it's called Pat F's. I'll > send you one of their napkins :> That would be extremely cool (send to the address in my sig), as I've run out of my supply. You see, I actually DO own that bar. And, to show this post has a Level 42-relevance, Mark King got the idea for opening Joe DaFlo's from me. Pat Flanagan Publishing & Design PO Box 281, Granger, IN 46530-0281 email: pfpd @ pfpd.com website: http://www.pfpd.com TOTALMEDIA PUBLISHING: Print * Disk * Interactive * CDROM * Internet ------------------------------ Subject: Viva Las... From: Winman42 @ aol.com Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 10:33:21 -0400 (EDT) Hey Bruce, maybe you should contact 'Liberty travel'. I have my deal throught them and it's only $350.00. The price you were quoted seems very, very inflated. You can get them in Boston at (617) 859-8377 or 426-7007. They have loads of sites in Massachusetts. (go for the cheap hotel like I did) Also, if anyone needs to share a room, drop me a line. A few people may be travelling alone, and a double occupancy room will bring the costs down quite a bit!! Here is an updated list of people 'confirmed' for the Vegas Levelfest taking place June20 - June 22nd. 22 people confirmed so far!! As of May 9th: Angel (California) Bill Wilson (Seattle) Brad Beyers (Vegas) Bruce Conrad (Boston) Byrdman (Colorado) Carl Mueller (California) Daniel James (Seattle) Jeff Grous (California) 98% Jennifer Reddin Jerry Rehn (Texas) Katie Livingston Kara T. (California) Lisa LaRue Lolita Jackson (New York) Lyle Bosley (Vegas) Mike Payne - maybe, just maybe. (Texas) Randall Collins Tampachuck (Florida) Tim Guesman (Vegas) Winston Walker (New York) Zak Nilsson (California) Zaphod That's it so far, keep sending me the confirmations!! Winston ------------------------------ Subject: Spice Presence From: Daniel James Organization: Mathsoft, Seattle Division Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 11:18:42 -0700 > One last thing, this may have been mentioned before but I can't remember > the answer if it has...why is the track 'Physical Presence' not on the > album of that name? The live album was recorded a bit before World machine. > heard a couple of adds in the NY/NJ area giving away tickets to this > year's Prince's trust concert (the SPICE Girls are singing), wondering > if Mark will have any do in the concert I doubt it, but wouldn't it be cool watching Mark slap and pop to "Wannabe" (hehe). not. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel James - Database Administrator djames @ statsci.com DAPD Div of MathSoft (formerly StatSci) (206) 283-8802 x284 ------------------------------ Subject: Music Theory 799R From: matthew rice Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 14:11:04 -0600 [WARNING!!! LONG POST AHEAD - LONG BORING MUSIC THEORY STUFF] > I don't think L42 (yeah, that's Level 42, Steve!) :) used > a lot of modulation. You need to go back and do some listening. I would guess that at least 1 out of every 2 songs contains some kind of modulation. Perhaps we should privately discuss what the word modulation means. > I think a better and more prominent analyzation of Levelmusic > would be musical format (binary, tercery, sonata, rondo, etc). Form & Analysis textbooks don't use the word 'tercery'. The word is 'ternary' -- a three part musical construct of the form aba or aba'. I thought I would correct you for your use of the word in previous digest postings (3/11 & 3/13), but the third time is the charm. Not trying to be a punk about this, it just doesn't feel right to be corrected musically be someone who is in the same sentence making a terminological faux pas. > I don't see what a formal music education has to do with using > complex modulations. I must be missing something. A formal music education is one of the only places to learn complex modulations and complicated theory. How many of your fellow musicians can tell you what a common chord modulation is and demonstrate one for you? Mike Lindup or Howard Jones could. I doubt that Mark King could - no disrespect intended - I'm sure Mike Lindup could never thump a bass like Mark, and he certainly never had a course in it at the Guildhall School of Music. > I'm sure the boys didn't compose their music with certain harmonic > and melodic theories in mind. Go back and listen to 'The Chinese Way' [ I hear many digesters yelling and screaming NO!!!!!!!!!!]. Mike starts the song with a series of chords introducing the title phrase from the melody line. These chords are based on two musical structures associated by western societies as being typically asian. The first is the dominance of the perfect fourth and fifth (especially in open form) in chord structures as opposed to the triad, which is the basis of classical western harmonization. The second typically asian element is the pentatonic scale--demonstrated by playing only the black keys on the piano. Mike's keyboard chords are based on these two elements. Also, when Mark King starts singing Boon starts a guitar riff based exclusively on the pentatonic scale. Now if I believed your comment, I would have to assume that the boys sat down and decided to write a song about China, and picked (by chance) the only scale westerners associate exclusively with asian music. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that their choice of musical scale/form matched perfectly with the theme of the song. Of course they were thinking about musical theory when they wrote the song! Also, listen to Kouyate again. Using the lyrics as a frame of reference, listen to the scales that the saxaphonist (Krys Mach?) uses. They are variations of minor scales sometimes called exotic minor scales that are constructed by raising and lowering the second and seventh scale tones from their normal positions. This makes the scale sound exotic, which I believe is intentional in an effort match the theme of the song about a lost love in a foriegn land. Most of Mike's keyboard riffs in the song are also based on exotic minor scales. These are two of many examples where there has been an apparent effort to write a song using a particular element of musical theory. I would go on and on with other examples, but everyone is asleep already... > Beethoven had virtually no music education yet scholars look at the > structure of his works and say, "Look how he uses these scales", or, > "these chord structures are textbook perfect." Beethoven had an extensive music education, primarily through the private instruction of the most prominent organist/composer in his region, Christian Gottlob Neefe. Beethoven studied music formally from the time he was a child. His father & grandfather were both professional, gainfully employed musicians who participated in his education and instruction. In Beethoven's day, the standard university music education was rare. Most of the well known composers attached themselves formally to a mentor of sorts who would give personal instruction and education is performance, theory, etc. . . see http://rhf.bradley.edu/~bjerwin/beethoven.html for a concise bibliography of Beethoven - along with cool .wav files to listen to. THAT'S ALL FOR NOW . . . . sorry to be long winded. ______________________________________________________________ | Matthew T. Rice | | | Graduate Research Assistant | || | | Mail Stop D462 | || | | Los Alamos National Laboratory | |||| | | Los Alamos, NM 87545 | ----/ \---- | | | -------| @ @ |------- | | phone: 505-665-3610 | -------| \__/ |------- | | fax: 505-665-3285 | ----\ /---- | | organization: EES-13 | |||| | | location: TA-3 Bldg 1516 Room 106 | || | | e-mail: mrice @ lanl.gov | || | |_____________________________________|________________________| ------------------------------ Subject: Winston's the man and anybody wanna trade? From: "LOOOVE SLAVE" Date: Fri, 9 May 97 14:02:09 PDT Hey Kids, I was conversing with Winston (who is the MAN by the way) via email and telling him how much I appreciated the tapes he made for me, 5 tapes of remixes, early stuff and Mark's & Mike's solo albums. I have listened to the first Remixes tape and must say that Whiskey A Go Go is really damn good. I tried listening to Remixes # 2 last night, but there was too many distractions to give it a good listen. However, the things I really listened to were really good, I think the Sisa Remix (from Leaving Me Now?) is super dooper and what little snippets of the other stuff I heard is phenomenal, also. At any rate, I was lamenting the fact that I had nothing to offer to anyone that might enrich the group in some way, but Winston said to persevere and maybe I'll find something. Well, back in February I wrote that my sis was gonna go by the Virgin megastore in S.F. and track some stuff down for me. Well, she finally got around to it and got me "Level 42", "The Remix Collection" and Lenny White's "Renderers of Spirit" & "Present Tense". I recall that someone had recommended him (although I forget why) and I guess I told her that those were what I wanted. However, since then I've gotten "The Remix Collection" and have some other stuff that people might like. So here's the deal: I would like to make some trades with people if anyone out there is interested. I would be willing to trade either "The Remix Collection" (which came without shrink wrapping to me) or Bob James & Kirk Whalum "Joined at the Hip" (I have 2 copies and the one I'll trade is still shrink wrapped), plus for you people who like Flim and the BBs I have 2 copies of "New Pants" or whatever the heck its called (I'm not a Flim fan myself). So, what I'd like to do is trade for something interesting, such as the UK version of "World Machine" or the RCA version of "Forever Now" or anything else that we might talk about. What say all of you? I am not interested in making any money, so let's just make each other happy. I figure all the good stuff that I've gotten from the digest members I can now make someone else happy. So what do you say? Doug P.S. Winston.....you are the MAN (hee hee) To: LEVEL42 @ WORLDMACHINE.COM ------------------------------ Subject: The Introduction Of TLR...Level 42 Fan! From: Thomas Richmond Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 17:26:12 -0500 ** High Priority ** ** Reply Requested When Convenient ** Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this forum. I hope my history and preferences do not bore fellow readers - as yours does not cause me to page down. I also hope you don't find this verbose; I get carried away when discussing topics of extreme interest. Well here goes! I first heard Level 42 while waiting in the car for my mother about 12 years ago in Nashville, TN. I was listening to a college radio station at the time when this reggae infected groove caused my hand to be irresistibly drawn to the volume knob. I began to jam away to *A Physical Presence* while my mom performed some mundane task of everyday life of which I didn't want to experience and to which now, upon reflection, I humbly thank; because Level 42's music would not have become an integral part of my life if it hadn't of been so. At the time I was awaiting entry in to US Air Force and, due to the special ambiance of the period, I could easily chalk the indelibility of hearing the song to it, but history proved otherwise. Level 42's catalog was nowhere to be found - in Nashville, San Antonio, or Biloxi. I shouldn't have even attempted looking in Biloxi! (I did however find and discover Prefab Sprout there though. Go Figure!) I arrived in Hameln, Germany almost two years later. During my first trip to town I almost spent my entire measly salary on CDs. (I had CDs before I had a CD player! Sort of like owning tires before you actually own a car.) I purchased Standing In The Light, True Colors, The Pursuit of Accidents, and World Machine along with CDs by other artists. I grew addicted to Level 42; my dorm mate grew to hate them. *Out Of Sight and Out Of Mind* blew me away!! I say Goddamn!!! That is the song! I played it over and over the first time I head it. Could this have been the cause of my roommate's apathy and disgust? Nah! The song was, in context, (figure it out), very appropriate and, forever the romantic, I got married to a *girl with smiling eyes.* I have since divorced and gotten remarried. Nuff' said. I became very involved with the local gentry and made many lasting friendships; one of which was a Greek-German chap by the name of Gabriel. I found out I had known his brother several months before him. (His brother, Nico, and I were the popular local disco's Denny Tarrio and Jeffrey Daniels. He being Denny Tarrio of course.) We both shared a love of music and, of course, Level 42. He was a bass player such as I, and emulated Mark King. He found out by accident that I was a fairly decent singer and asked me to audition for his band. They weren't that great. He could play, but the rest were very limited. Very! Anyway, the first song they wanted me to sing was *Love Games!* We blew it away.....they had obviously been practicing this one for sometime. We played a couple of gigs and I soon became distinctly aware of why they didn't have lead singer. They had the bourgeois, pretentious crowd behind them but, ultimately, I felt unfulfilled and uncomfortable and departed. He went on to play bass with Wendy and Lisa, (of TAFKAP fame.) I had the pleasure of seeing Level 42 once during my five years in Europe. In Dortmund and I purchased tickets to see them in Frankfurt but had to go on a last minute trip and I reluctantly *gave* them to a friend who became a Level 42 fan after seeing them. I guess they were put to good use. Just before I left in January of *92 I visited one of the many CD houses in Germany. Guaranteed had just been released so I took a listen. (I don't know why. I normally would have purchased it outright.) I didn't like it. I didn't buy it. I thought that was the end of Level 42, (that with Boon and Phil leaving and the death of Murphy), and resigned to live life contentedly with their back catalog. I recently, (almost five years later), gave it another try. It stuck; although I still felt it wasn't up to caliber and, on top of it all I found, much to my surprise and dismay, Forever Now!: almost two years after it had been released! Didn't even know about it! America bites in this respect. I believe this is their most "technically" perfect album and well recorded to boot. (I have always felt their albums to be lacking somewhat in the engineering department.) But, continuing in the big letdown department, after my initial excitement of the *Resurgence* I soon found out, on the Internet of all places, that they had finally decided to put *bliss?* to rest and throw in the towel. Such a pity! Why does everything have to revolve around money? Making it in America? The next Dire Straits!?! Bah!! Ultimately Level 42's downfall was being gullible along with Polydor's dorks and believing that mass consumption, hyped, Americans would like them when they were promoting Staring At The Sun. Level 42 are way to sophisticated and *competent* for mass Americas' taste and they should have known better. Level 42's music transcends radio play and billboard ratings. It takes you to another place: whether its bliss, (listen to the last 45 seconds of *Children Say!* I simply adore minor chords!), or powerful political anarchy (*The Chant Has Begun*), or mysticism (*Hours By The Window*), or pure sadness (*Why Are You Leaving* and *It's Over*) for example; let alone the nostalgia. I'll bet every Level 42 fan can tell me what they were doing when they heard at least one of their songs. It is that indelible. Rarely can I say that a song was meant to be created like *Something About You.* It's as if the song has always been here among us. But where has it been? Where did it come from? Have we all heard it before in some other time? In some other place? Or is it in each individual's soul waiting to be realized? I think it is the latter because it moves that air inside you. You all know what I'm talking about. (Another song that immediately comes to mind is Seal's *A Kiss From A Rose.*) This is the true measure of a song; and, here's the rub, at least 85 percent of Level 42's songs have that effect on me. That's what it's about! It's really a shame. Why can't artists be content with a their present fan base. Are we disposable? Level 42 had a large fan base at home and abroad and, I feel, could have lived comfortably with that. A very telling aspect is that *Forever Now* was, as I said, technically better that their past albums, (beginning with Staring At The Sun), and is over 70 minutes long! We got *more* for our money without major record company involvement. Gary Numan, (which I am also fan of), has been doing this for years, but he too is actively seeking a record deal and yet, since he hasn't had one, quality and quantity have been the norm. Level 42 could have done well without the greedy middle man in the picture; especially with their built in fan base. I guess it's just too hard to keep both ends of the candles lit. All we can do as kindred music lovers is enjoy it while it lasts. (And if we are lucky enough to find it!) At least we have the permanence of the media to fall back on, but we can't take that with us either. In the end all we have is chemical brain storage; which is what *matters,* (Ha Ha), anyway. Imbuement. Memories. Sometimes its good; sometimes it's bad. Thanks for the forum in which to place this treatise and I look forward to receiving your responses, if any, very soon. Be cool and *Take Care Of Yourself* Peace! Sincerely, thomas! ~:-{) <-- it's me! thomas.richmond @ wcom.com or zardoz1 @ ionet.net PS - Thirteen is my favorite number...that's why I have 13 albums with which to be buried. Name: Thomas Lowell Richmond Age: 30 Birthday: 7 Sept, 1966 Height: 5' 10* Weight: 193 lb. Race: Mutt/Human Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Sex: Isn't it obvious. Occupation: Telecommunications Circuit Design Engineer/Installation and Maintenance Technician Aspiration: Independent Film Maker/Novelist Home: Tulsa, OK Born: Memphis, TN Level Personal FAVS: OOS - OOM, Love Games, Physical Presence, Floating Life, Children Say, Staring At The Sun, YCBLouis, 7 Days, Kouyate, It's Over. Level FAV Album: True Colours Albums I Want to Be Buried With: Philippe Saisse/Valerian, Miles Davis/Kind of Blue, Steve Jansen&Richard Barberi/Stories Across Borders, Pink Floyd/Dark Side of The Moon, N. F. Ali Kahn&Micheal Brook/Lament, Gary Numan/Dance, Herb Alpert/Rise, Sade/Love Deluxe, Steve Tibbetts/Safe Journey, Tom Waits/Swordfishtrombones, Ryuchi Sakamoto/Sheltering Sky Soundtrack, David Sylvian/Brilliant Trees, Steve Tibbetts/Safe Journey Artists, Pioneers, and Bands Who Consistently Inspire Me: Sade, David Sylvian/Japan crew, Tom Waits, Cocteau Twins, XTC, Gary Numan, Paul Weller/S. Council/Jam, David Bryne/T. Heads, Seal, David Bowie, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Orbital, Steve Tibbetts, Jon Hassel, Kazumi Watanabe, Prefab Sprout, Bob Marley, Black Uhruh, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Dead Can Dance, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Eric Dolphy, Led Zepplin, Peter Gabriel, The Ohio Players, Todd Rundgren, Arvo Part, Monsieur de St. Colombe, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, J. S. Bach, Marin Marais, Andreas Vollenweider, Pat Metheny, Kip Hanrahan, Depeche M., Stevie Wonder, Simply Red, Brian Eno, Prince (before D and P), Nina Simone, & Level 42 (of course!). Favorite Bassists: 1. Abraham Laboriel, 2. Mark King, 3. Mick Karn, 4. Pino Palladino, 5. Les Claypool. Best Bassists: 1. Abraham Laboriel, 2. Milt Hinton, 3. Jaco Pastorious, 4. Stanley Clarke, 5. Robbie Shakespeare (for the groove). Favorite Movies: Zardoz, A Clockwork Orange, Persona, The Sheltering Sky, Bladerunner, Blow Up, Fellini Satyricon, Citizen Kane, Cries and Whispers, Buckeroo Banzai, Ferris Buellers Day Off, Man Bites Dog, Fahrenheit 451, Bout du Souffle (Breathless), La Doice Vita, The Double Life of Veronique, Alien, Slipstream, London Kills Me, Exotica, Far Away So Close, The Exorcist, SE7EN, Barry Lyndon, Amadeaus, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Lady Killers, Lolita, Kafka, O'Lucky Man. Favorite TV Shows: 60 Minutes, Sienfeld, Nova, Jeopardy, Beavis & Butthead, Howard Stern (E!), Dr. Who, Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith Show. Favorite/Best Actors: Robert De Niro, Sidney Portier, John Malkovich, Christopher Walken, Jeremy Irons, Gary Oldman, Daniel Day Lewis. Favorite/Best Actresses: Glen Close, Juliette Binoche, Julie Christie, Betty Davis, Grace Kelly, Juliette Lewis, Charlotte Rampling. My Favorite Things: MUSIC!, Women!, Ferraris, Aston Martins, thunderstorms, fog, Top Ramen (Tom's special), wrist watches, poppies, Analog!, pizza, fruit juices, dawn, mushrooms, cheese, quiche, Italian food, Chinese food, cheesecake, astronomy, butterscotch, sconce, George Orwell, 75 degree days w/winds 5 - 10 mph, E. E. Cummings, Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies, Vermeer, roast beef w/Yorkshire Pudding, Yeager Schnitzel, twilight, Spetzler, nice fat cheeseburgers, night, water, platinum, blue. ------------------------------ Subject: Dave Adams Connection Discoverd! From: DonZipf @ aol.com Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 20:07:23 -0400 (EDT) Hey, Levelheads: I just made a delightful discovery, totally unexepected, and it probably won't mean a thing to any of you...unless you remember an Elektra artist from the early/mid eighties by the name of Dave Adams (or his earlier band with MCA, Glassmoon). And if anyone does remember these names, please let me hear about it. Here's why.... Dave Adams was a keyboardist/singer/songwriter from North Carolina who happened to be a serious Anglophile. He even moved to London for a while, and came back speaking with an English accent, as if he were from there originally (depending on his mood, he could be English Dave or American Dave - you never knew). Anyway, Dave's band, Glassmoon, played Yes covers, etc. and got signed to A&M (I think), and had a low-level hit with "Telegraph Song (In the Rain and the Snow)" and a very-low-level hit with a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Salisbury Steak"...um...."Salisbury Hill"...sorry. Then they went to MCA and had a nice album called Sympathetic Vibrations, which did absolutely nothing. The band split, Dave went solo with Elektra and, in 1986 actually managed to squeak into the Top 40 on the Adult Contemporary chart with a great song called "Dancing in My Sleep" - which Levelheads would really like, hence my thinking some of you might know it. At the time, I was a deejay at a station in Wilmington NC, and I enjoyed playing that record as often as I could get away with. About a year or two later, after switching from radio stations to recording studios, I would meet Dave a few times. Anyway, I was just digging around trying, to no avail, to find my HoJo 12" TCOGB and stumbled across the Dancing In My Sleep album. Guess who played saxophone? You're correct, Gary Barnacle - he's all over everywhere! The record was tracked mostly at London studios, such as Sarm West, and some right here in Raleigh NC...at the CMC Company-owned studio where I used to work. CMC was Dave's managers' company, who also managed Prince's (sorry, The Artist's) sister, Tyka Nelson, with whom I was working as an engineer when I met Dave. He kept his instruments in the studio all the time, even when he wasn't around, a Roland Jupiter Six and MSQ-something sequencer (that first one), TR-707 drum machine (I think) and a DX7. So I am just thrilled to have made a connection, however tenuous, between my own meager recording career and Level 42. I just knew I could if I tried hard enough! Seriously, if anyone remembers Dave, it would just warm my heart. I don't know what became of him - perhaps, at least I like to think, he's living somewhere in Merry Olde England! And speaking with a phony accent!!! :o) "In the rain and the snow, I'm cryin' for you..." - Glassmoon Don Z. (And Tori Amos is another one - a Carolina gal who speaks with a phony Engish accent. Must be something in the water here!) ------------------------------ Subject: Political 42?, Mark's influence, Wally & Marcus From: Doug Ross Organization: Shikoku Gakuin University Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 11:45:00 +0900 As much as I loathe to discuss politics, I can't resist putting in my two cents on the issue of political music. I completely share Arjan Meijer's distaste for songs with a political agenda, and am pleased to see that others on the digest also apparently feel the same. There is, in my opinion, something sinister about any performing artist exploiting his or her celebrity for the purpose of charming people into agreement with a particular political point of view. And that's about the most political statement you'll get out of me! The few times that I have agreed to play political gigs, I've always come away feeling sick to my stomach (regardless of whether I was playing for conservatives or liberals), and I finally vowed last year that I would never accept a political gig again! O.K., off my soapbox... I must, however, sadly disagree with Mr. Pink and others who suggest that Level 42 hasn't really indulged in politics. Certainly, many other popular artists have taken much more outspoken political positions, but I think that some songs like "Over There", "I Want Eyes" and (especially) "The Chant Has Begun" cross the line into political preaching (though admittedly I'm a little touchy on this subject). Any other opinions on Level 42's politics? On the subject of other bass players who have mentioned Mark as an influence, I know that Bill Dickens is a big Mark King fan--he even mentions Mark in one of his instructional videos. By the way, has anyone else noticed that Wally Badarou's "Mambo" is sampled (and Wally is credited as a co-writer) on the song "I'll Be There For You" on Marcus Miller's new CD (at least on the Japanese version--is this song on the American version?)? -Doug ------------------------------ Subject: At long last... Rich speaks! From: "Richard J. Reddick" Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 00:56:27 -0500 (CDT) Evening, all, Well, finally, I've decided to jump on the bandwidth and add my $.02. I've been on the digest for an age, probably about 2 years with a break in the middle. My name's Rich Reddick, and I actually grew up in the UK (though I'm a teacher in Houston, Texas now). My earliest L42 memory would be hearing "The Chinese Way" while visiting Leamington Spa in the early 80s. I thought (as I do now) that the song was lyrically twee, but the music and singing was brill! Shortly after (or was it before?) I heard a rumour that the guys were joining EW&F, then an announcement that they weren't. I got into the band during the World Machine album, after I saw the "LMN" video on the Chart Show (remember that, kids?). I bought it on vinyl in '85, then of course was blown away with "LIL." When I came to the States in '87, I got RITF and remember seeing the Montreaux Rock Festival featuring our boys in these ridiculous lobsterback outfits. LIL got a lot of video play, too. I found SATS in '88 by chance and instantly fell in love with it, especially Alan Murphy's incredible playing (solo in "Man"). A mate of mine then told me that someone in Level 42 died of AIDS--I assumed it was Mike, for no apparent reason. I went into an intense shock and grief. It wasn't until I got a copy of LB that it became clear that we had lost Al Murphy. I loved Guaranteed, thought that Holdsworth was great, esp. on "IYWM." On a trip back to Blighty in '95 I got FN, very nice, but not my favorite (man, I need guitars!). I hate the title track lyric, "Holy grail, holy cow..." So I've got all of the boys' stuff post-WM, and I had L42 'til someone nicked it. When are they going to re-release the catalogue? My SATS is almost ruined from over-playing. Here's my faves: Album: SATS (never noticed the sound quality issue). Esp. HIMH, TAL, THC, Man. Song: Man, with ATGD, One Love, TSGD somewhere near the top. Remix: TAL, HIMH (T. Lord Alge's) Video: Haven't seen many, but SAY is cool. Video effects in LIL are kinda crummy. On the Phil/Gazza debate: yes it was odd hearing the drum track at the start of HIMH, but he did a great job. He tore down the house with "IYWM" on Guaranteed. Phil's incredible too--TSGD is a great example. I always thought Mark was a brilliant bassist--but when I got hold of both of the Remix collections, I was floored. The man is so damn expressive on the simplest lines! Have a listen to the THC and TAL remixes. There's no-one in pop music doing what Mark does/did. Questions: how amicable was the post-RITF breakup? Most songs on SATS are penned by the usual boys. I wonder how "Man" and HIMH would have sounded with Boon and Phil playing? BTW, I don't know how many of y'all are into Go West, but it's a great fix for Al Murphy fans! God, I miss him! Did you know that he was the oldest L42 member (unless you count Holdworth, who I'm sure, is older)? Alright, that's the ice broken. Sorry to ramble on so, but everyone on the list seems really cool. I just wanna be down! **Last "funny" note:** Whilst thumbing through a record review book, I saw an article on our lads. The reviewer said that WM and RITF were the band's high points, while SATS got the gutter!!! I'm sorry, it's a sonically brilliant LP, cut in less than a month, with 50% of the band brand-new! Thanks, and let's talk more! Rich.