Friday, August 22, 2014

"Needles in the Camel's Eye" (Brian Eno)

"Needles in the Camel's Eye" is a song about nothing.  Really.  Brian Eno strung a bunch of words together because he liked the way their vowels sounded.
For anyone looking for deeper meaning, Eno had this to say: "I regard [the song] as an instrumental with singing on it."  (FYI: That quote's pulled from Eric Tamm's 1995 book Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound.  It's one of the most academic, utterly boring books about a rock musician I've ever encountered.  So, if you're having trouble sleeping...)
Sonically, it's an electronic tidal wave of noise that rocks like a Carl Perkins song as reimagined by a Martian garage band.  The guitars crank away, creating a metallic mist.  Synths sizzle and hum in the background.  And the drumming is like a junior high marching band trying desperately to count to "four."
In other words, gloriously sloppy and invigorating as hell.




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