There's a riot goin' on

There's a riot goin' on

An iconic cover. Flag, no text:

That must be a near-impossible sell. Imagine the cover art people trying to convince the suits looking at the sales figures. High risk. Great when it comes off. White album. Four symbols. Dark Side of the Moon. Suns instead of stars on the flag.

I've listened to this a few times this week. Rough around the edges, in a good way. Art is good at extremes. There's some wonderful, so-polished-the-shine-almost-hurts-albums, like late Steely Dan, particularly 'Aja' for example. Then there's albums like this. Made under severe pressures (financial, record company, drug-related, band dysfunction, internal meltdowns), a lot like Love's 'Forever Changes', it's the one with 'Family Affair' and 'Runnin' Away', the one, that inspired Funkadelic, Parliament, George Clinton. Apparently, one of the most-sampled albums. Proof that sweetness and harmony does not always lead to the best results.

What's so good? The horns, the vocals (generally low in the mix to indistinct, playing their part, not dominating, just about where they ought to be more often), the bass. The dark subject matter, despite some cheerful grooves. The place in time. 60's optimism ending, 70's cynicism beginning. This was a two-year creative backlog blister popping. Sweetness and light makes for some great and uplifting music. Too often it makes for mainstream boredom, mediocrity, saccharine-injected drivel. As produced by any number of big selling, big radio playing, ultimately shallow, hollow, superficial and unrewarding industry as opposed to artistry, bands. Not this album. Moments of supreme beauty, great horn section hooks, and all those basslines. Those Cern, Hubble, theoretical physicists searching for dark matter, they just need to play this and listen to the bass. There's your hidden mass in the universe, that invisible dark matter, right there, boys.

The title's supposed to be a reply to Marvin Gaye's 'What's goin' on?', released a couple of months before.

Some writers and celebs have just had bit of a deadly feast, raising money for charity

Featuring sashimi puffer fish, almost all the poison bits cut away, but enough remaining to tease and tempt and leave that frisson of lucky to (still) be alive, and along with some dodgy nuts (extract of nuts = rocket fuel), mushrooms and other stuff making up their starters, pasta main, and puddings. Hats off to them. I suppose. They didn't like the snake-venom wine much, and truly, apart from the puffer fish there wasn't that much on the menu that was so potentially deadly. The nut crackling pudding stuff was made from nuts that you'd have to eat several lorry loads of before suffering even minor ill effects. Maybe meeting the letter of the law, but not satisfying the spirit of the enterprise. Not while so many die the MSG death by a hundred cuts in any case.

I'd sponsor Clarkson. To eat all the deadliest leftovers.