It’s weird to wake up to a morning where John Isner and Nicolas Mahut aren’t playing tennis. But their marathon Wimbledon showdown ended yesterday after Isner finally retired his opponent 70-68 after five sets stretched over three days of struggle. Gotta tell ya: I was riveted, and I don’t follow sports.
FANTÔMAS, “DELÌRIUM CÒRDIA” (74:17)
Leave it to Mike Patton to flirt with the limits. In 2004 his experimental side project (one of 3,012 as of June 25) issued the funereal-hued “Delìrium Còrdia,” which contained only the hair-whitening main track, subtitled “Surgical Sound Specimens from the Museum of Skin.” I suggest you pass the time while listening with the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe — less horrific than the disc’s actual booklet, fat with vivid photographs from Max Aguilera’s “The Sacred Heart: An Atlas of the Body Seen Through Invasive Surgery.” Fantômas guitarist Buzz Osborne loves these endurance tests: his main band, the Melvins, wracked even the steeliest nerves with an untitled 59-minute shiv o’ white noise on 2001’s “Colossus of Destiny.”
MIKE OLDFIELD, “AMAROK” (60:02)
This album-length tornado can best be described as an extended middle finger to Oldfield’s label, Virgin. In fact, amidst all of this mesmerizing chaos is an embedded message to honcho Richard Branson, that dashing zillionaire entrepreneur: “F**K OFF RB,” in Morse code. (Suck on THOSE tubular bells, Dickie!) “I am told that when men hear its voice,” the liner notes claim of the title beast, “it stays in their ears, they cannot be rid of it.” You said it, Mike.
JETHRO TULL, “THICK AS A BRICK” (43:28) & “A PASSION PLAY” (48:13)
Head Tull Ian Anderson was so perturbed by critical appraisals of “Aqualung” (1971) as a “concept album” that his band released only two songs over the next two years. That they each took up an entire record is beside the point. “Thick” clocks in at an efficient 43-and-a-half minutes while the four-act “Passion” claws its way 50. Audiences didn’t seem to mind the length of either, though: both discs went to #1.
PINK FLOYD, “ECHOES” (23:29)
The Floyd were more reasonable than their proggy peers. Honestly, who needed two full sides to manage what could be accomplished on one? After braving the hound-dog moan of “Seamus,” purveyors of 1971’s “Meddle” flipped the LP for a groove that clipped the edges of a full half-hour. Yet it flows so well that the time passes quickly. “Echoes” was also simple to execute in concert; if you’ve got a minute, watch the boys handle it in “Live at Pompeii” (1972).
GRATEFUL DEAD, “DARK STAR” (times vary)
A 1968 single version pooped out at 2 minutes and 44 seconds, but in a live setting, “Dark Star” was breathtakingly flexible, unfolding toward horizons in spectacular bloom. Depending on the night, the song could run anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Personally, I’ll take Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir trading wicked licks over a couple of sweat machines swatting at projectiles. Those Wimbledon crowds are way uptight.
YES, “RITUAL (NOUS SOMMES DU SOLEIL)” (21:37)
True, Yes had longer songs, but, damn, that whole “Tales from Topographic Oceans” album was the ultimate in prog-rock hubris: four tracks over four sides (that’s one per, for you math fiends), with “Ritual” buttressing the whole meaty mess. “Side four was us trying to drive the whole thing home on a biggie,” guitarist Steve Howe explained. Most critics demanded that the band’s creative license be revoked.
~Cory Frye
Tags: FANTÔMAS, grateful dead, JETHRO TULL, MIKE OLDFIELD, PINK FLOYD, Wimbledon, YES
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