Gulf Shores - Palace Music

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holy shit!!! this has so many elements---funny, beautiful amazing interesting lyrics, subtley very very sad and also real. will oldham actually IS good. this and the horses video has me sorta reconsidering him again. anything else this good? i have a lot of his stuff, but its hard to get through it...i only discovered this randomly. i find most of his stuff too simple on the melody side like if his voice weren't quavering and someone playing off key, you'd find out it was just some predictable and simple but melody...kinda like what Greatest Palace revealed (though i like Horses - yet i think Mekons wrote that). also, i think at heart he's a vocalist..another suprise.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

i think at heart he's a vocalist..another suprise.

i think his voice is his achilles heel. but i'll check this out.

― jody l'anti-vierge (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

i never noticed it till recently, and in past work i think only rarely was he using it right ("Gulf Shore" is an example), but his voice is TOTALLY appropriately subtly perfectly expressive at times and now its become very beautiful as well. check out the video of "Horses"... his voice is amazing on that and his performance adds to the audio experience somehow.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

Will Oldham is wonderful, I recommend checking out everything he's ever done, but you can start with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I See a Darkness.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

link?

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

try this ... if it doesn't work i think there is another

http://www.truckstopmedia.com

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

also..

www.dominorecordco.com choose "audio/video", search for bonnie prince billy, then click on Greatest Palace Music icon, find "see Horses video here"

ugh, difficult but worth it!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:36 (twenty years ago)

Now that's more like it, thanks. the first link didn't work for me. let me know if interested in that bonnie prince billy record.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:45 (twenty years ago)

what did you think. i actually had i see a darkness but accidentally ran over it. i'm going to get a new copy tho. what's best tunes on that .. i remember not benig that into it before the "accident".

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:49 (twenty years ago)

I think that if truckers really did listen to Will Oldham, the world would be a much better place.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

As per your second query, I love these songs:

Nomadic Revery (All Around)

I See a Darkness

Death to Everyone

Madeleine-Mary

The first and last songs on Master and Everyone are killer too.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 18 June 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

thx..I've had master and everyone but haven't listened to it at all yet. i like these vocal parts on "Horses" even though the song gets tired:

I would ride the range and never worry
I would dissappear into the night.
and...

make those horses jump through hopes and flames
they won't kick and they won't scream
make the good lord do the driving

I can smell the camp fires burning
But I'll go out walking on my own
By day and night the world keeps turning
Frightened people hiding their homes (bones?)

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 June 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

Susan, have you ever heard the original version of "Horses" as released on Lost Blues and Other Songs?

http://s14.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1EJG4MS6LFNGI0KEKVU0R3AY30

The guitar solo at the end is paramount.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 18 June 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

That is one astonishingly unexpected solo innit. Even all these years later.

"Gulf Shores" and that other one that came with it... *checks* ... "West Palm Beach," both make my heart ache.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Saturday, 18 June 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

Oldham didn't write Horses, it's a cover of a song by Sally Timms

― Andrew exL, Sunday, 19 June 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I was going to say that the West Palm Beach / Gulf Shores single is one of the best things he's done.
The 'O How I Enjoy the Light / Marriage (which was released right before the W.Palm Beach) single is really fine, as is Patience / Take However Long You want (as Will Oldham). The run of records from the 2nd Palace Brothers album (aka Days in the Wake)to 'Viva Last Blues' is pretty impeccable.
'Don't Be Shy' off of Joya has a great vocal performance that I don't think people mention too much. That song's crazy funky.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Sunday, 19 June 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

i'm going to have to dig up vinyl of Joya later tonite. Jena i'm not really feeling the original of Horses (I thought was written by more than one Mekons member) but there is a lot of good neil stuff going on with the guitars on that whole album, which I like. i'm attracted to west Palm Beach and O How I Enjoy the Light too.. but not as much as Gulf Shores...i think, but hope not, this might be my apex of love for him. I'm also enjoying, however, "End of Traveling". And on Master he sounds like a cross between Paul Simon, Will Oldham, and Sufjan Stevens...I'm sorta getting into that slowly.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 20 June 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

oh, dont get me started on Will Oldham...hes amazing.

my favorite is still "Master and Everyone"; the entire album is perfect. "I See a Darkness" is also great...

check out his latest release with Matt Sweeny-- they formed a group called Superwolf and just put out a record that came out a few months back...you'll totally fall in love.

― shh! (wide-eyed), Monday, 20 June 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

i was just thinking the other day about Kramer's productions in the mid-90's, and how they really encapsulated the time. of course, "Gulf Shores"/ "West Palm Beach" is the pinnacle, but then you add Royal Trux's nostalgic, woozy "Back to School" single, not to mention UO's "Girl..." and it seemed for a split second that he could do no wrong in the producer's chair.

― Beta (abeta), Monday, 20 June 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

That "Horses" guitar solo is amazing. The version of the song on "Lost Blues" is my second favorite Palace jam, the first being, of course, "New Partner."

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, 20 June 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

i'm thinking the solo on horses is done by neil hagerty - can anyone confirm this/shoot me down?

― marac, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:58 (twenty years ago)

pajo

― Beta (abeta), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 16:08 (twenty years ago)

i don't think it's either of those two. i can't tell you for sure, but i'm thinking it was someone not so obvious.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

could be totally wrong on this one but i'm thinking one of the stith brothers.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

According to this page, Dave Pajo, Ned Oldham and maybe Brian McMahan played guitar on Horses.
I would guess Pajo took the solo, though.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Still not totally convinced based on my fuzzy memory of the insert for that single and more significantly that it "sounds" neither like Pajo or McMahan, yet "sounding" more within Aram Stith's kooky repertoire of gonzo hammer-ons and faux-wailing. I think I still have this at home, I'll see if I can remember to look at it tonight.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

I'd like to second the recommendation for the new album; "Beast for Thee" is just amazingly beautiful.

also, another great solo on a Will Oldham record is "Just to See My Holly Home", which I think is done by Pajo as well.

― Uncledoj, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

stith isn't on it. the single insert is just the lyrics to stable will. on the label, it lists mcmahan, pajo, ned, and tod brashear.

― Beta (abeta), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:38 (twenty years ago)

Still not convinced, do you have a sledgehammer and an anvil for me to lay my head on?

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:41 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

the west palm beach/gulf shores 7" is still the best thing he's done. the bpb remake of gulf shores is quite beautiful, though the west palm beach remake is a bit of a misfire i think.

― amateurist, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 11:00 (seventeen years ago)

weird, gulf shores popped up on my ipod yesterday and i was struck by how gorgeous it was.

― Brolotov Cocktail (n/h) (M@tt He1ges0n), Tuesday, 19 May 2009 15:22 (seventeen years ago)

I always liked "Horses" most on Lost Blues, until I listened properly to the second half of the record and discovered those two tracks. They are brilliant.

― zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Tuesday, 19 May 2009 15:31 (seventeen years ago)

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