[Music] The Teardrop Explodes – Reward

Julian Cope popped into mind earlier today, and it got me thinking about how good his old band The Teardrop Explodes actually were.  Reward was their biggest hit, released in 1981.  It’s mind-blowing to think that this is nearly 40 years old now.

Lyrics
Bless my cotton socks, I’m in the news
The king sits on his face buttons all askew
All wrapped up the same (same)
All wrapped up the same (same)
They can’t have it
You can’t have it
I can’t have it too
Until I learn to accept my reward
Princes stand in queues they stand accused
Death in solitude like Howard Hughes
All wrapped up the same (same)
All wrapped up the same (same)
Silence has it
Arrogance has it
I can have it ooh
Until I learn to accept my reward
Suddenly it struck me very clear
Suddenly it struck me very clean
All wrapped up the same
All wrapped up the same
You can’t have it
I can’t have it too
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my reward
Until I learn to accept my
I learn to accept my
I learn to accept my reward!

[Music] Bruce Haack – Electric Lucifer


Canadian composer Bruce Haack is credited with being among the first electroacoustic composers to be influenced by psychedelic music with this Moog-heavy release, just reissued by Canadian record label Telephone Explosion.  From his Wikipedia page:

As the 1960s progressed and the musical climate became more receptive to his kind of whimsical innovation, Haack’s friend, collaborator, and business manager Chris Kachulis found mainstream applications for his music. This included scoring commercials for clients like Parker Brothers Games, Goodyear Tires, Kraft Cheese, and Lincoln Life Insurance; in the process, Haack won two awards for his work. He also continued to promote electronic music on television, demonstrating his homemade device encased in a suitcase on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968, where he sampled a song by the Rolling Stones entitled “Citadel”. He released The Way-Out Record for Children later that year.

Kachulis did another important favor for his friend by introducing Haack to psychedelic rock. Acid rock’s expansive nature was a perfect match for Haack’s style, and in 1969 he released his first rock-influenced work, The Electric Lucifer. A concept album about the earth being caught in the middle of a war between heaven and hell, The Electric Lucifer featured a heavy, driving sound complete with Moog synthesiser, Kachulis’ singing, and Haack’s homegrown electronics including a prototype vocoder and unique lyrics, which deal with “powerlove” — a force so strong and good that it will not only save mankind but Lucifer himself. Kachulis helped out once more by bringing Haack and Lucifer to the attention of Columbia Records, who released it as Haack’s major-label debut.

As the 1970s started, Haack’s musical horizons continued to expand. After the release of The Electric Lucifer, he continued on Lucifer’s rock-influenced musical approach with 1971’s Together, an electronic pop album that marked his return to Dimension 5. Perhaps in an attempt to differentiate this work from his children’s music, he released it under the name Jackpine Savage, the only time he used this pseudonym.

[Art] Paintings With Angels, by Arrington Dionysio and His Mother

Painting angels with mom, part three (my picture) - Arrington de Dionyso

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Arrington de Dionyso is a composer and musician whose work first caught my attention when he played with the band Old Time Relijun. He continues to produce amazing, eclectic music, but it seems his talent is inherited. He and his mother worked on these two gorgeous works of art, reminding one of the works on a more psychedelic Byzantine icon, or the religious works of Marc Chagall.

May both mother and son find comfort in these difficult days.