Happy Birthday to Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, whose influence on rock and roll music and many tangents thereof are more extensive than his full name (he is better known as simply "Eno"). The guy has more brains than Mr. Peabody and Mr. Whoopee combined yet still manages to be cool as shit. His contribution to NPR's This I Believe was uplifiting.
Brian
Eno started in the music biz playing synthesizer and singing back
up with Roxy Music. A young Eno, behind his trusty VCS3 synthesizer, is most
prominent at the clip's end. I had forgotten that—despite effete glam
leanings—Roxy Music could really rock when they wanted to. This clip reminded me of that with Phil
Manzanera's ripping guitar leads, the meaty sax solo from Andy Mackay and a touch of gutsy harmonica, no less, from "don't muss my hair" Bryan
Ferry.
Done with Roxy Music by their second LP, Eno released his first solo effort Here Come the Warm Jets in '73. Songs such as Needle in the Camel's Eyes and the title track are outstanding, exciting original rock and roll songs. But when the Velvet Goldmine movie producers cast about for a definitive decadent glam rock song to add some zing to the flick, they did an injustice to Eno's brilliant Baby's On Fire from that LP. Listen to the original!
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