Bookended by Cats: June 2025

Friday, June 20, 2025

Friday 80s Flashback for June 20, 2025

[Jazz in a Half Shell] -- In early 1984, The Police called it quits. Breaking up a popular rock band at the height of their commercial success, and shortly after a colossal tour, probably didn't seem all that logical. I'm guessing that trading rock'n'roll stardom for a jazzier sound was even less logical. However, forty years ago this week – June 17, 1985 – Police bassist and vocalist, Sting, did just that when he released his debut solo studio album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Perhaps those surprised fans did not realize, or recall, that all three members of The Police had jazz backgrounds. In fact, Stewart Copeland has explained that he first saw Sting when the latter was performing with a jazz fusion outfit in Newcastle.

But Sting didn't want to necessarily make a jazz record as his first big solo outing. No, his "intention was to use musicians who had the finesse of playing jazz, but to make music without that label" (UCR, June 2015). And so, he recruited a brilliant set of musicians -- Branford Marsalis (saxophone), Kenny Kirkland (keyboards), Omar Hakim (drums) and Darryl Jones (bass) -- to create an album that was not stifled by what he viewed as the restrictive format of pop or rock. If the multiple singles, handful of Grammy nominations (Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, and Best Engineered Recording), and being a top 10 album around the world (including peaking at #3 in the UK and #2 on the US Billboard 200) are any indication, Sting succeeded. So, let's revisit this record and celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Track order in the embedded playlist (* indicates a single):

Side one
1. "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" *
2. "Love Is the Seventh Wave" *
3. "Russians" *
4. "Children's Crusade"
5. "Shadows in the Rain"

Side two
6. "We Work the Black Seam" *
7. "Consider Me Gone"
8. "The Dream of the Blue Turtles"
9. "Moon over Bourbon Street" *
10. "Fortress Around Your Heart" *

Flashback: The Dream of the Blue Turtles (June 1985)

And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

See you in seven!

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

The Meta in Metamorpho

There's a one-two punch of meta goodness in Metamorpho: The Element Man:

Simon Stagg's "Metamorpho file" is the Metamorpho entry (page 14) from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Volume XV.
Stagg's dialog makes a jab at the "genius" of using verbal prompts to make something in AI.

It's all on page 7 of Metamorpho: The Element Man #4:

Friday, June 13, 2025

Friday 80s Flashback for June 13, 2025

[Fabled Underground] -- There are a whole bunch of great albums that came out in June 1985. Well, maybe some of them are not so much great as fondly remembered, at least by me. So, as you might expect, I'm pulling another twofer this week, and the next few weeks will likely feature multiple releases as well. And while I did find a record that was released on June 13, 1985, I decided to focus on two releases from earlier in the week. One jazz and the other college rock. And what stellar records they are!

Black Codes – 40 years ago this week (June 9, 1985), Wynton Marsalis released Black Codes (From the Underground). This was Marsalis' fourth studio album as a band leader, and it might be his best recording from this period of his catalog. Black Codes won two Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Jazz Performance and Individual or Group and Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist. Wynton Marsalis wrote all but one of the tracks, with many of them influenced by his engagement in injustice and American race relations. And the record is something of a family affair with Wynton's brother, Branford, pulling double duty by contributing both tenor and soprano saxophone. Whatever verb you like to use for classic jazz applies to Wynton's band on this outing: they cook, they swing, and they grab you by your lapels and shake you thoroughly before letting you down somewhat gently. "Black Codes marks the time in young Wynton’s career when he moved from being a Blakey/Hancock prodigy and started to stake out his own ground" (Jazzwise, 100 Albums That Shook the World).

Fables of the Reconstruction – Also 40 years ago this week (June 10, 1985), Athens, GA, darlings R.E.M. dropped their third studio album, Fables of the Reconstruction. Packaging, particularly as far as the LP is concerned, is unclear as to whether the album is actually titled Fables of the Reconstruction or Reconstruction of the Fables. Perhaps, side A is Fables of the Reconstruction and side two, which is labeled "another side," is Reconstruction of the Fables (per the display on each side). Anyway, both contemporary and retrospective reviews of Fables are largely favorable. And while there is an impression that the band members dislike the record, that does not necessarily appear to be the case. There were three singles – "Can't Get There from Here", "Driver 8", and "Wendell Gee" – to varying, but not stunning, chart success. Fables peaked at #28 on the Billboard 200, and #35 on the UK Albums Chart, the band's first time breaking the top 40 in the UK.

Which album will you be spinning on this NO KINGS weekend?

Flashback #1: Black Codes (From the Underground) (June 9, 1985)

Flashback #2: Fables of the Reconstruction (June 10, 1985)

See you in seven!

Friday, June 6, 2025

Friday 80s Flashback for June 6, 2025

[Summer Shop] -- This week's Flashback album is Our Favorite Shop. According to Wikipedia, it was released June 8, 1985. However, there are other sources citing either May 9 or May 13 of 1985 as the release date. Also of note, the US version of this record was released under the title, Internationalists, with a different track listing. Whatever the date, album title, or song order, this album hits the 40 year mark as of this weekend, so it's fair game for my theme.

Our Favorite Shop was the second album by the English sophisti-pop band called The Style Council. This band was a joint project from Mick Talbot (keyboards) and Paul Weller (vocals), the latter of whom had been the lead vocalist, principal songwriter and guitarist of the Jam. Both Talbot and Weller were interested in exploring artier, jazzier directions, and The Style Council was their vehicle for that exploration. Our Favorite Shop was their most commercially successful album with three of its singles peaking in UK's top 40 charts. It also reached the #1 position on UK's album charts, but only squeaked into the US Billboard 200 at #123.

"Walls Come Tumbling Down!", "Come to Milton Keynes", and "The Lodgers" were all top 40 singles in the UK, with "Walls Come Tumbling Down!" actually peaking at #6. None of them charted in the US, but they did have some success in other countries, notably Ireland and New Zealand. One of my favorite songs on this album is "Homebreakers", probably because of memories associated with singing along to it with friends in North Halls at PSU. "All Gone Away", "A Stones Throw Away", and "The Stand Up Comic's Instructions" are also non-single standouts in my opinion.

Flashback: Our Favorite Shop (June 1985)

See you in seven!