Aug. 2008
Lake Worth, Florida
Black Finger Forever
Black Finger
www.blackfingermusic.com
Fellow Lake-Worth artiste Keith Michaud helps out with the vocals for the follow-on track, �Holidays�, a moody ballad with a lyrical theme of confinement in rehab.
One unusual aspect of the group�s songwriting setup is that most of their songs are written by Lovell in collaboration with lyricist Ben Cecil, who does not perform with the group. Cecil�s words stand out in particular on the acoustic-driven ballad �Sugar�, describing a woman most men would find intriguing:
�Have you seen my sugar/It was in a jar/�Bout five-foot eight/And pretty too/There is someone who makes it easy/To do the wrong things that you wanna do�
If anything, this CD�s weakness might be an over-reliance on the hyper-kinetic rave-up arrangement first heard in the opening track. This approach is reprised for both the tracks �One Week� as well as �Dixie Anthem�. This might have been fine to do for two out of six tracks, but for three it seems to be a bit of a stretch. Perhaps the CD would have been better served if one of those two tracks had been recorded as a midtempo number. But that�s not to say that these tracks aren�t without their engaging moments. �One Week� has a great coda in which the song slows down to acoustic-ballad pace before revving up again for its conclusion. And �Dixie Anthem� is one of three tracks previously recorded on �Contains Lead�, all of which sound better the second time around. In particular, the reverb vocal on this recording of �Anthem� sounds great when showcased in the breakdown section of the chorus.
The sole composition not written by the Cecil-Lovell partnership is the final track, �I Just Wanna�, a song composed by bassist Sean Fernandez. The track is a fun way to end the CD, with clever lyrics describing the kind of mopey girl that�s a fixture of the alternative scene: �I met her at the used-record store/She was only nineteen but she looked thirty-four/She was so depressed, it made me sad�. The chorus is slightly bawdy, but still makes for a great sing-along.
Overall, �Black Finger Forever� is more polished, more memorable and more fun than its predecessor, making this release seem more like a fresh start than a sophomore effort. Certainly this is the version of Black Finger we hope will last for a long time to come.
The months of August and September saw two more additions to the Great Gig In The Sky. On August 10th, soul legend Isaac Hayes died of a stroke at his home in Memphis; on September 15th, Rick Wright, keyboardist and one of the founding members of prog-rock giant Pink Floyd, succumbed to cancer. Here's a look at a signature tune each for both of these songwriters:
Theme for Shaft (1971) If Isaac Hayes were known for only one song, that would be a shame. But certainly this song is his best-known piece and deservedly so. Clocking in at a little over four and a half minutes, it nonetheless feels like a mini-symphony, given all the changes it goes through. Starting off with a steady hi-hat rhythm and wah-wah guitar, the song gradually adds bass, horns, flutes, string and other instruments throughout its lengthy intro. Then just before the three-minute mark, right when the song seems destined to remain an instrumental, a casual drum fill drops the listener into the famous call-and-response vocal section, a string-driven passage as breezy as the intro was tense. Isaac Hayes jousts with his background singers for a while, then it's back to the instrumental for the dramatic conclusion. Small wonder that this song was an Oscar winner, since it unfolds like an aural movie.
Us and Them (1973) Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright helped pen many of the songs for the group's long-lived classic The Dark Side of the Moon, including the previously-referenced instrumental The Great Gig in the Sky. This particular ballad, co-written with the group's main scribe Roger Waters, is a languidly gorgeous piece of music coupled with an effective examination of the differences that keep people apart.
April/May 2008
Feb./Mar. 08
Jan. 08
Aug./Sept 2007
June/July 2007
May 2007 [Inaugral Issue]