BE-BOP DELUXE: AXE VICTIM (1974)
1) Axe Victim; 2) Love Is
Swift Arrows; 3) Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus; 4) Third Floor Heaven; 5)
Night Creatures; 6) Rocket Cathedrals; 7) Adventures In Yorkshire Landscape; 8)
Jets At Down; 9) No Trains To Heaven; 10) Darkness (L'Immoraliste).
Take any random opinion on Axe Victim today, about forty years away from its original synthesis,
and it is very likely that the
opinion will be judging the album from a Ziggy Stardust perspective: «Oh, it's
such a wannabe David Bowie project!»
This is not altogether unfounded, but, for some reason, most of these opinions
miss another connection, in my view, perhaps even better justified — Peter
Hammill. Naturally, many more people are familiar with classic Bowie than with
classic Van Der Graaf Generator or Peter's solo career, but still, I believe
that a description of the early Be-Bop Deluxe sound as a meticulously
engineered «cross» between Bowie and Hammill would be much more accurate than
simply branding Bill Nelson and his associates as a bunch of «Bowie copycats»,
for better or worse.
«Be-Bop Deluxe» was just a posh name for Bill
Nelson, who wrote all the songs, sang all the lead vocals, and played all the
guitar leads — well, okay, his backers on Axe
Victim include Ian Parkin on rhythm guitar, Robert Bryan on bass, and
Nicholas Chatterton-Dew on drums, but no one is supposed to memorize this info,
since already by the time of the second album Nelson had dissolved the band and
recruited a completely different line-up, and also because Nelson is, fair and
square, the only instrumentalist on the album to deserve serious attention: an
«axe victim» indeed, stuffing all possible and impossible bits of space with
his trills, drills, fills, and thrills. If it didn't work so well, it would be
suffocating. Strangely, it does work.
Despite the name, «Be-Bop Deluxe» never played
any be-bop, deluxe or not. Instead, Nelson had a thing for sprawling, glammy,
anthemic art-rock with a futuristic twist — hence the Bowie connection,
particularly well visible in his vocal style (he likes to combine starry-eyed
idealism and snub-nosed sarcasm within a single line) and his guitar playing,
which, of all possible comparisons, indeed, seems closest to Mick Ronson's
classic style — shrill, grand, frenetic playing, thick on high pitch, speedy
arpeggios, crescendos, echo effects, and everything else necessary to throw the
listener in overdrive, whatever it takes. But he does have plenty of real
technique, so it is not just a cheap show-off manoeuvre — nor do the songs ever
turn into interminable boring jams, caressing the player's ego until his
fingers start hurting.
On second thought, it's not that often that the
«songs» ever really turn into actual songs,
either, and this is where the Hammill comparison falls in place. Keeping up
with the rock theater spirit, Nelson does not hold much respect for
verse/chorus structures — his creations are spirited rhythmic rants, prone to
unexpected tonality and tempo changes whenever they feel like it, and to short
or long lead guitar intrusions whenever the lead guitar feels it. The title
track introduces the formula — the vocals enter on the first second, the first
lead line enters on the fourth, and from then on the two seem to be locked in a
death-fight. Will the singer outbawl the guitar player? Will the guitar player
bring the singer down in a lightning barrage? Oh wait, they're the same guy. Well
then, it's sort of obvious that they can't waste too much time on silly things like choruses, hooks, riffs, and any
of that «pop» drivel.
Consequently, it might take a bit of time to
get into the spirit of things — imagine, if you wish, a Ziggy Stardust with all of the obvious attention-grabbing twists
removed, and the operatic nature of it enhanced fiftyfold. What do you get?
Peter Hammill — a little more rock'n'roll-oriented, a little less gifted as a
singer, but a little more skilled at guitar fireworks. The question is: are you
ready to buy this, or is it all just one big, hollow, insubstantial put-on?
Does this guy have a heart of gold or is he made of straw and sawdust on the
inside? (I couldn't put this any other way, so excuse me the clichés).
Personally, I like this stuff. The way Nelson gets right down to business,
jumping into the spotlight with his big voice and bigger guitar from the very
first second, displays a stunning lack of fear at being branded «pretentious» —
and as his lyrics spin strange tales of vain stage glories, sci-fi escapism,
and ruined English countrysides, and his guitar throws out semi-improvised passages
that seem inspired by pop, rock, blues, jazz, and classical alike, depending on
the artist's mood, Axe Victim has
every chance of eventually placing you under an odd spell.
For those who really cannot imagine their life
without a catchy hook, it may be advisable to start out with ʽJet Silver And
The Dolls Of Venusʼ, which is probably the closest they got to a «glam-pop»
sound here (the song was actually released as a single) — it's a glorious mess
that is equal parts Cream's ʽAnyone For Tennisʼ, Kinks' ʽWaterloo Sunsetʼ, Bowie's
ʽStarmanʼ, and probably several other influences / quotations / inspirations I
missed, but fused into something completely different anyway — a spaceship
joyride that is actually believable, mainly due to Nelson's personal charisma.
Cool guitar, nice voice, right pitch, proper mood.
Other highlights would be ʽJets At Downʼ, a
seven-minute epic ballad with another bunch of lilting solos; the honestly
amazing, mostly instrumental rocker ʽNo Trains To Heavenʼ, all of it holding
together exclusively through Nelson's energy, sweat and blood on the axe;
and... well, just about everything else. Take it from me — normally, I would be
the first to condemn this sort of record, but sometimes all it takes is an
intelligent vocal style and a little demon hiding in one's fingers to turn
potential boredom into overall excitement. Axe
Victim may not be particularly deep, and it may not show a lot of
compositional genius, and it certainly does not break a lot of new ground, but
it takes good care of the old one, and it kicks serious ass — something that
«rock theater» à la early 1970s does
fairly rarely. Thumbs
up.
Check "Axe Victim" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Axe Victim" (MP3) on Amazon
On the other hand, Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus sounds like it inspired the melody for Northern Lights by Renaissance.
ReplyDeleteI'll take the relatively wealthy man's Ziggy or Van der Graaf over the destitute wastrel's Moody Blues any day!
ReplyDeleteOr, in other words, good riddance to Barclay James Harvest, my vote for very worst British band of their era!
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