先日 Mitch Ryder がらみで記事を書いたばかりだというのに、驚いたことに今度は Was (Not Was) の新譜リリースの情報を知った。判っているのは、タイトルとジャケ絵だけ。タイトルは「Hey King Kong: Pick of the Litter 1980-2010」で「Pick of the Litter」というのは「Pick of the Bunch」と同じで「寄り抜き」という意味だろうから「1980-2010」とグループ結成の年から来年までと来ると、これはきっと間違いなくベストアルバムに違いなくて、少しがっくり。ただ Was の場合、オリジナル曲を Remix し倒して何枚ものシングルやリミックス曲のコンピアルバムをリリースしてきたグループだから、たとえベストアルバムでも一筋縄にはいかないのだろう。新しいリミックスを期待してしまう。(そろそろZEレーベルのリミックス集も紙ジャケで再発になっているはず!!) 少なくとも「Hey King Kong」という楽しそうな新曲は聞けるのだろう。
ジャケ絵の方は、幼児が描いたキングコングだろうか？(それとも大人の描いたヘタウマかな？) 蜥蜴のようなキングコングがエンパイア・ステート・ビルに上り、それを銃か大砲で攻撃しているように見える。単に男児が蜥蜴におしっこをかけているようにも見えるのだけれど...そういえばグループ名の Was (Not Was) とは Don Was の幼い息子が呟いた幼児語から採ったという話を聞いたことがある。David Was の作る捩れた詩は、幼児の視点が原点にあるのかもしれない。
来月に ZE レーベルの一枚として再リリースが予定されている Was のセカンド・アルバム「Born To Laugh At Tornados」の中に「Man vs. The Empire Brain Building」という変てこな曲が収められている。代表曲とは言い難いが、ジャケ絵と関係するのだろうか？ 詩というかコーラスは↓こんなだ。なんたって repeat chorus forever だからね。
「Man vs. The Empire Brain Building」
Chorus:
In my life
There's just three things:
Man vs. nature
Man vs. woman
and man
vs.
The Empire Brain Building
Pontiac
Pontiac
Drive your car across the sky
I walked the line
With Johnny Cash*
I walked the line
With Johnny Cash
(repeat chorus forever)
*
映画にもなったけど Johnny Cash の曲「I Walk the Line」のことでしょう
(追加情報:
PR-inside.com によると「Hey King Kong」は19曲収録。発売は2010年２月23日のようです。こうして収録曲を見ると目新しいのは「Hello Operator」の Rehearsal Version くらいでちとがっかり。それから12月２日には、「Zevolution: ZE Records Re-Worked」なる最新リエディット曲のコンピがリリースされており、Greg Wilson による「Tell Me That I'm Dreaming」が収められているよう)
WAS (NOT WAS) TO RELEASE THREE-DECADE RETROSPECTIVE SET, 'PICK OF THE LITTER (1980-2010),' ON FEBRUARY 23, 2010
2009-12-03 01:38:04 - 19-song compilation features Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens, Wayne Kramer, Booker T. Jones, Iggy Pop, Al Kooper, Doug Fieger, Marcus Miller and more
LOS ANGELES, Calif. ― Was (Not Was), dubbed “the funkier art-funk band” by The New York Times, have spanned three decades with their mutant mix of jazz, rock, R&B and funk. On February 23, 2010, Micro Werks will release Pick of the Litter (1980-2010), a 19-song disc that opens with the ZE/Antilles 12” single “Wheel Me Out” and closes with a trio of tracks from later years which featured Mel Torm醇P, Leonard Cohen, Kim Basinger and Ozzy Osbourne. The compilation contains the band’s hits and cult hits, among them “Knocked Down, Made Small “Tell Me That I’m Dreaming “Walk the Dinosaur “Spy in the House of Love” and “I Feel Better Than James Brown
Spearheaded by producer/bassist Don Was (Fagenson) and lyricist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist David Was (Weiss), the collective was rooted in the Motor City of Motown, the MC5, the Stooges and George Clinton. According to Brian J. Bowe, the Michigan writer who annotated the Pick of the Litter (1980-2010) collection, “the Motor City was burning, baby, and these two had creativity to burn
“Don and I started recording in the Pleistocene Era, with Fred Flintstone producing, which in those days meant the guy who pushed the vulture's beak down on the hardened wooly mammoth pucky says David Was. “Fidelity was crap, but at least we were able to record our earliest rantings for posterity
Was (Not Was) released their first record ― a 12” dance record for ZE Records ― in 1980. (The band’s name was inspired by Fagenson’s son Anthony, who was known to contradict nearly exclamation with a “Not.) The first album was the eponymous Was (Not Was), a hybrid of rock, disco, beat poetry, political-social commentary and jazz, featuring vocalists “Sweet Pea” Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowens and guest players Doug Fieger (the Knack), Wayne Kramer (MC5) and jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. 1983’s Born to Laugh at Tornadoes enlisted guests Ozzy Osbourne, Detroit homie Mitch Ryder and Mel Torm醇P. The group’s biggest hits emerged from 1988’s What Up Dog?, which featured the singles “Walk the Dinosaur” and “Spy in the House of Love For the next few years, the Was Brothers worked separately as producers, film scorers and music supervisors.
Are You Okay? followed in 1990 with a hit cover of the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone Guests included Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen, the Roches and Syd Straw. The band went on hold for more individual projects, reuniting in 2004 for a club tour, and in 2008 for their first studio album in 16 years, Boo! Guests this time included Kris Kristofferson, Wayne Kramer, Marcus Miller and Booker T. Jones.
In 2010, Was (Not Was) will present a long overdue “best of” with Pick of the Litter (1980-2010).
David Was continues: “And now the kindly gentlemen at Micro Werks have decided to pluck a few handfuls of our humble oeuvre and hoodwink a gullible world into repurchasing that which their forbears shoplifted during the Great Manic Depression, a crime for which they got a slap on the wrist and a prescription for Blowzac.
“Those were the good old days. Relive them now with the magnesium sound of Was (Not Was), which Eddie Money once called ‘Was (To Was� a name which I frankly prefer, and which describes the small world Don and I always lived in. If it made us smile, laugh or cringe, we thought we were on to something. All aboard the last train to Wasville
01. Wheel Me Out (1980)
02. Out Come the Freaks (7”Version) (1981)
03. Tell Me That I'm Dreaming (1981)
04. The Sky’s Ablaze (1981)
05. Should I Wait – Sweet Pea Atkinson (1982)
06. Knocked Down, Made Small (Treated Like a Rubber Ball) (1983)
07. Walk the Dinosaur (1988)
08. Spy in the House of Love (7”Version) (1988)
09. Dad I'm in Jail (1988)
10. Somewhere in America There's a Street Named After My Dad (1988)
11. Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (Promo Edit Single) (1990)
12. I Feel Better Than James Brown (1990)
13. I Blew Up the United States (1990)
14. Semi-Interesting Week (2008)
15. From the Head to the Heart (2008)
16. Hello Operator . . . I Mean Dad . . .I Can't Even Remember Who I Am (Rehearsal Version) (1989)
17. Shake Your Head (Steve“Silk”Hurley Remix) featuring Kim Basinger and Ozzy Osbourne (1992)
18. Elvis' Rolls Royce featuring Leonard Cohen (1990)
19. Zaz Turned Blue featuring Mel Tormé (1983)
で、「Newsweek」の選んだ100人の中に、この庭を作庭した人が出ていたのですが、予想に反して塩田武雄という日本人でした。塩田は、1881年千葉県夷隅郡大多喜町の裕福な農家に生まれ、独学で造園について学びますが、国内では評価されなかったようです。彼は1907年に世界最高の庭を作るべく新天地を求めて渡米します。当時の米国では、日本庭園を造ることは一種のブームで、塩田は最初にニューヨーク図書館のために日本の風景のミニチュア模型を作り、この仕事で評価を得てブルックリン公園の日本庭園の仕事を任されます。1915年に完成したこの庭園こそが、アメリカの公園における初めての日本庭園だったそうです。塩田は成功して、米国人の妻を迎え、ニューヨーク５番街に造園会社を構えますが、第二次世界大戦勃発により日系人収容所に入り、1943年12月３日に収容所内で亡くなっています。
