So here at Runout Record Club, we felt it was finally time to salute one of music’s most prolific and exceptional talents, from his humble beginnings in The Black Aces to his breakout with Roxy Music, to becoming one of ambient music’s earliest talents, while not forgetting his art pop solo start. He has countless production credits to his name and we have for our subscriber’s delectation this April Brian Eno and his solo debut album Here Come the Warm Jets.
Brian Eno was born in Suffolk in 1948 and his career has been one which is best defined as that of an artist, encompassing not just music, but also film, writing, and sound installations to name a few. Probably best known for his time in Roxy Music and being the creator of ambient music as a genre in itself, he has always been keen to introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music.
The relationship with Roxy Music was symbiotic and initially, Eno acted as a sound engineer and band member, he later moved from the engineer's position, where he sang backing vocals and managed effects, to the stage. Eno was not shy of showmanship on stage and was best known for his vivacious costumes and makeup, partly upstaging lead singer Bryan Ferry, which was a catalyst for his departure as he felt stifled by Ferry and his commandeering of the group's musical direction. So in 1973 when he left Roxy Music after recording the first two albums, in which he played synthesizer, as well as tape effects, backing vocals, and co-producing the records Eno embarked on his solo career.
Almost immediately after leaving Roxy Music Eno started recording his debut solo album, and under a year after the release of the last Roxy album he released not only his solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets, but also collaborated with Robert Fripp, the man behind King Crimson forerunners of the progressive rock genre, on the prog-rock album, No Pussyfooting.
This polymath-type recording continued alongside Eno’s solo career throughout the 1970s and included collaborations with komische giants Cluster and Harmonia, David Bowie, John Cale, and Talking Heads David Byrne. Eno has since the 1970s collaborated with a plethora of artists and musicians as well as embarked on a solo career which I'm sure will lead us to another of his albums on our journey here at Runout, so now let's move to the album we have chosen for this month.
Released by Island Records in February 1973, making the album 50 years old this year, Here Come the Warm Jets, is Brian Eno’s solo debut and was recorded at Majestic studios in London in 12 days, and mixed at Air and Olympic studios. The album combines glam rock and art pop styles wrapped in Eno’s avant-garde approach to music at the time.
At the time of recording Eno was very much in favour of defining himself as a non-musician, but anyone who listens to the album can tell this was certainly a way to deter from perhaps his insecurities, very much in the way he had created a persona for himself while with Roxy Music. Also, anyone who isn’t a musician wouldn’t have had the ability to call a supporting cast for the album which included musicians like Robert Fripp, Phil Manzanera, Busta (Michael) Jones, Paul Thompson, Chris Spedding, Simon King, John Wetton, and Paul Rudolph, (oh and if you don’t know those names do a google search on them as they are a whose who of 70s rock scene).
The album starts with the gigantic tone-bending riff of “Needles in the Camel’s Eye.” A startlingly simple song with a guitar solo which is essentially the major scale you learn at your first lesson transformed by Eno’s uncompromising attention to detail, and accompanied by his one-of-a-kind voice, precise and potent, creating a glam, rockin’ and almost poppy track.
Track 3 on the album is “Baby’s On Fire” which is mostly a guitar solo, bookended by verses and no chorus, but what solos they are, one performed by Fripp and the other by Rudolph. Fripp’s solo is not just any guitar solo, but the most face-melting guitar solo ever. Fripp keeps up the aggressive pressure for three minutes while Eno keeps the song's energy flowing beneath the guitar's torrent like an underground river.
“Blank Frank” is a cool, catchy and almost Bo Diddleyesqe number, the drum beat is stolen from Diddley’s track “Who Do You Love?”. There’s a section in the later verses on the track when a pipe organ comes in, it fades up and down opposing the vocals, it has an experimental even amateurish feel to it, but works incredibly and creates an inspiring and fun feel to the song. There is a rumour that the song did inspire Pixies frontman Charles Thompson to change his name to Black Francis aka Frank Black, just a rumour, but a cool one.
Brian Eno has had a very analytical approach to not only music but sound as well. His sense of how sound and noise hit the ears and get processed by our brains is unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Eno has always attempted to boil sound down to its essential elements and use it like he has full control over it, this was simply revolutionary for the classic rock era. Eno has always looked to explore minimalistic textures and ambient soundscapes, and every single electronic musician in the last 50 years, whether they know it or not, was heavily inspired by his vision and his music.
So it is with great pleasure that we offer our subscribers, on the 50th anniversary of its release, Brian Eno’s debut solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets, for your audio enjoyment. Whether you subscribe to the idea that the album title is about urination, or that the final track, which is where the album gets its name, is the inspiration as the guitar sound is like a warm jet engine, you will ultimately be enjoying an album brimming with confident energy, wild yet simple ideas, fantastic songs with a range of moods, and above all, an album which embodies everything good about the short-lived glam era of the 1970s.
Rock on…
Stu
RRC
PS - If you are one of our double album subscribers then this April we celebrate Tupac Shakur, aka 2Pac, and his 3rd studio album 1995s Me Against The World as our classic album, we hope you enjoy it.
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