The title 'Here Come The Warm Jets' is taken from an activity happening on the sleeveClue: it was also the inspiration behind another Eno title - 'Golden Hours'
We're starting something a bit diff' on the Bocca blog today, where one of The Wolfies handpicks a favourite uptempo thumper for the weekend, so punching the jukebox buttons today is - Wolfman Marco....
In the first of an irregular series of 'Trax That Made The Wolfmen What They Are Today' I have chosen the original version of 'Needle In The Camel's Eye' by Brian Eno - coz if you haven't heard it then you really should..
It's the opening track of Eno's 1973 album 'Here Come The Warm Jets', his first solo album after he found himself to be one Brian too many in Roxy Music, and had to leave. It's a Glam Rocking song with Velvet Underground guitar by Eno and Roxy guitarist Phil Manzernera, with a chord sequence that could have come from the 'Banana' album. Most people think I got my twangy guitar sound from Duane Eddy and Jet Harris, but this is the track it's really cribbed from.
When we covered this for The Wolfmen's first E.P I didn't change one note of Phil Manzernera's twangy Les Paul solo. I learnt it when I was 13, and it's one of the only guitar solos I ever bothered to work out in my bedroom with the traditional schoolboy beginners axe, the out of tune nylon strung acoustic.
In the days before becoming one of the worlds most overpaid producers Eno was full of quirky art school production ideas, on Needles the drums are double tracked and panned left and right, if you listen you can hear Paul Thompson go out of time with himself. Brian Eno later helped give the world Oblique Strategies, New Age music, and The Joshua Tree. He played oboe in the Portsmouth Sinfonia and for some reason appeared on the panel of 'Question Time', but this song comes from a time when he was just called Eno and wore purple eye shadow. its the best track from his best album and we present it here, for your pleasure.
Eno - Needles In The Camel's Eye
u made me dig out 'warm jets' for my 3hr drive this afternoon .. perfect start to the weekend dude!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, I was v impressed with hearing the original 'Needle' track.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing & seeing The Wolfmen in '09!
Wow! Thanks for posting that. I always loved that song. I'm a big Brian Eno fan. As a matter of fact, I'm a big fan of glam rock.
ReplyDeleteLuv it!
ReplyDeleteThe Wolfmen’s cover of this track is brilliant too…
I may post The Wolfmen's early (non album) version of Needles next week..
ReplyDeleteIts a blistering track, but i gotta say, i think the Wolfies version is BETTER....
ReplyDeleteGreat post idea too...
P
I absolutely love this track and the wolfmen version more than does it justice. I never get tired of hearing it. I'm no guitar boff but now i can really see where the inspiration for marcos guitar sound comes from. Nice one..!
ReplyDeleteGot a reet good Roxy feel to it 'n all. Mind you it would wouldn't it.
ReplyDeleteAhhh! Glam rock. Orange spikey hair and lightening down the face and my aunties knee boots sprayed silver a la Bowie. Walking through Oldham like that in '73 and not getting beaten up or arrested. Unreal.