The Beginning Of The End

Various Artists - The Beginning Of The End: The Existential Psychodrama In Country Music (1956-1972) (2018) {OMNI - 195}
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© 1956-72, 2018 The Omni Recording Corporation | OMNI - 195
Country / Folk / World Music / Hillbilly

A really great little collection – one that looks at the deeper, darker strands in country music during the 60s – that moody space that lie behind the Rubber Room of Porter Wagoner, and which may not have gotten much chart play at the time, but which makes for one of the most fascinating strands of the music! The collection follows a bit in the spirit of the Hillbillies In Hell collections – but there's maybe less humor here overall, as the depth of sorrow and bleakness of outlook really gives this one a very moody vibe – perfect for those who are always sick of the overplayed cliches of mainstream country, and always know there's something hipper to the music if you just know where to look.

The Comet Is Coming. Our saviours Danalogue The Conqueror, Betamax Killer and King Shabaka come bearing their debut album Channel The Spirits. A prophetic document. A celebration. The beginning of the end. Marvel! As it blazes a streak of phosphorescent beauty across the night sky. Listen! As a trailing meteor shower drops hot coals hissing into topographical oceans. Inhale! The burning funk of strange new flavours. The sound of the future… today.

Edward McGhee turned in mostly above-average performances on their first post-Lenny Williams release, but it was the beginning of the end. With funk losing its foothold among R&B audiences, they couldn't keep it together. McGhee was an energetic, exuberant vocalist who held his own on up-tempo tunes like "You Ought to Be Havin' Fun" and the title song, but lacked Williams' range or tonal quality on ballads. The group always had a weakness for ponderous message cuts, and "Can't Stand to See the Slaughter" and "While We Went to the Moon" were well-intentioned but clumsy tracks. This was almost the Tower of Power's swan song.

This 1956 record marked the beginning of the Modern Jazz Quartet's long and fruitful relationship with Atlantic Records and was one of their most inspired visits to a studio. While there had been excellent bands in the past that created a chamber-jazz genre, such as Red Norvo's trio, John Lewis's vision of a fusion of jazz and classical elements was distinctly original. It's apparent here in the controlled counterpoint of "Versailles," the extended first recording on "Fontessa," with Lewis's spare and precise piano perfectly complementing the looser swing of Milt Jackson's glistening vibraphone sound. The group mingles beautifully around Percy Heath's supple, melodic bass lines and Connie Kay's discrete and gently propulsive beat…

These distinguished, if not perfect, recordings made in 1984. They should be amongst everyone’s preferred renditions. They are brisk but not tense, dramatic and even playful when need be. Occasionally, but only at rare moments, such as the beginning of the “Prague” Symphony, I would like something a little fiercer. Mostly Marriner is right on, as in the transition between the darkish introduction to the first movement of the Symphony No. 39 and its exuberant main theme.

"The End Is the Beginning Is the End" is a Grammy Award-winning song by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It is the first full-band song released as a single by the Smashing Pumpkins in the aftermath of their 1995 album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness…