Thursday, April 02, 2009

Song of the day

"Exposure", by Robert Fripp. What a remarkable song this is. I am coming at it from a distance of 25 years, possibly more, but I remember it very well from evenings listening to static-y AM signals from Sydney's 2JJ (who knew radio waves could travel so far?). If I had recognised Eno's voice reading out the letters of the song's title I would have been more excited than would have been good for me. (I got way too excited when I picked Eno's voice out of the backing vocals in U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" a few years later, and had to have a lie down.) If I had known it was co-written by Peter Gabriel I would have been a bit surprised (still am). If I had recognised how much, musically, it anticipated Byrne and Eno's "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" I would have been able to see the future (not, however, as in "I have seen the future of rock'n'roll and..."). Musically, also, of course, it echoes the kinds of sounds Fripp and Eno were coaxing out of the humble electric guitar on songs like "Wind On Water" a few years before. I have never been entirely comfortable with Terre Roche's screamings, but then I have never been comfortable with screaming in general (I think I worry for people who are able to let themselves go to that degree) and Terre Roche, in most other contexts, is to be unconditionally loved, so on that basis she, and they, get away with it.