Carrying no Cross

[maxondrums]

oh man....why post?

[uyauabing]

Jobson once said it was in 15/8, not 10/8

[garytunes]

Last Jan (2009) at Town Hall in NYC- Was sitting in front of the mains (they were stacked on stage) so unfortunately the sound is distorted- it was his one city world tour and there was only about 200 or so people there.

[RockbertoRocks]

Carrying No Cross is one of the Top 10 songs in the history of mankind.

[kevender04]

wat a shame,,,,,great vid poor audio,,,,wat a shame

[tobycat11]

Saw both incarnations of UK live, loved the Danger money show, but the 1st more surreal tour with Alan Holdsworth on guitar, and Bill Bruford on drums ate the Danger Money show for lunch.

[KrystofDreamJourney]

Too bad the sound is so distorted to almost prevent to hearing anything. Regardless of the sound quality i love this piece. It's actually one of the best examples of 10/8 time signature application of a constant symmetrical scale. It's amazing to see Jobson performing his parts live after almost 30 years absence from the stage performance. To me the whole "Danger Money" is one of the best writings in prog rock genre. It's timeless, perfect ! I love performing along with the whole entire album !

[eartopsy]

10/8? You sure about that? It doesn't even feel natural counting 10 eighths on top of that. I say 5/4. ;) I do agree with you on DM being great. The title track is killer & Thing She Needs is cool. Carrying No Cross is one of my favorite songs of all time. First UK record is good but I could do without all the jazz - fusion junk. Dm was straight forward hardcore progressive weirdness for it's day.

[KrystofDreamJourney]

Eartopsy ! in pieces like this one the common composer's tendency is to notate "combined rhythms" together in one bar. Classic example would be the "First Circle"- Pat Metheny Group, where 22/8 is the official Pat's notation ( even though you feel division 5-7-10).

[KrystofDreamJourney]

Rendezvous 6:02 from DM for example starts with 28/16 ( 4 "sub-bars" of 7/16 each). I was talking to Bozzio back in the 80's, and he told me, that later on in the piece where it goes to 4/4, the band still "thinks" in 16/16. In the solo section of Rendezvous the time signature goes to 10/8 ( two groups of 5/8 in one notated bar).

[KrystofDreamJourney]

Hollywood film composers ( for example Jerry Goldsmith) had tremendous influence on Zappa, Metheny, Jobson etc. They also always notated in "combined rhythms" in their action orchestral film scores. Whatever is better.

[KrystofDreamJourney]

If it works for You to "feel" Carrying No Cross as 5/4- it doesn't make any difference, as long as you can count the rest of the piece evenly for yourself, changing eight note to quarter note as basis for pulse. In my opinion as a pianist, and composer it's better to keep " inner pulsation" when performing the piece as eight note. Both Brufford, and Bozzio think the same way.

[MuttDeCustard2010]

@KrystofDreamJourney Sorry for the delayed response, but - 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a 5 and a - is how I've always felt it being a drummer, who is extensively into Bruford and Bozzio. I agree. It's like counting something in 12/8 with a main pulse of 4 - except in 5. I love this stuff!!

[Hopspop]

Agree on the lack of sound quality (I know the poster knows, nothing he could do)

I knew it was the instrumental section was in 10/8, but what's a "constant symmetrical scale"?

[KrystofDreamJourney]

Hopspop ! Constant symmetrical scales idea was defined by the 20th century composer Oliver Messiaen. He came with an idea of so called "Modi". You pick symmetrical cell within an interval that's less or equal triton, and use it as "building block" for entire section of the composition. In this case Jobson/Wetton picked also a scale.

[KrystofDreamJourney]

The whole entire section of "Carrying No Cross" is based on two symmetrical blocks. the first one is : C,C#,D#,E. The second one is: F,F#,G#,A. Both are within major third interval, and both are minor second apart. Both cover 8 notes out of 12 notes available. Jobson uses other notes sparringly as passing tones in his solos.

[KrystofDreamJourney]

Especially A# and B. That's why the overall sound for over 3 minutes of composition is so tense, and "unusual". Well... Not so much perhaps. Stravinsky for example used to cover several pages of his scores at a time using constant symmetrical scales ( in "Firebird" for example). I actually started to write a book called "Symmetry In Music". I will be thoroughly explaining" musical puzzles" like this one ! :-) Listen also to my "Halloween Horror Music Vol.1". Symmetry helps to create tension.

[JohnLRice]

I seriously think that the source of the distortion is the camera's inability to handle loud volumes. Either the mics or mic pres couldn't handle it, the record levels were set too high or AGC was being used but was over reacting to the low frequencies and causing the higher frequencies to modulate.

I'm betting that to the people who were there, they didn't hear this distortion and the balance was probably at least acceptable.

[unamacarana]

OMG!!!!

[benonemusic]

Awesome! You captured Eddie's intense performance of this song so well--it is like trying to take a picture of the sun with a digital camera!

[garytunes]

thanks! hopefully Eddie recorded his show-

[rumbatimba]

Second row right center. My face and mind got blown off. Great musicians nyc town hall 2009

[garytunes]

i saw the original UK in asbury park nj i guess around 1978- any one else see that? would love to chat about it-

[lpadilla4]

yes Isaw them at the palladium on oct 6, 1978 for $8.50 on a friday, it was holdsworth on guitar, wetton on bass, bruford on drums, and the all incredible Mr. EDDIE JOBSON. I still have my ticket stub. I wonder if it's worth something. also have the second concert ticket stub from friday march 23, 1979, but by that time it was UK the trio with terry bozzio on drums both shows were incredible.

[garytunes]

i was 1st row in front of jobson (1978- that lineup) and wasn't familiar with the band yet- i knew it would be good but holy shit- a life changer- they shared the bill with tom petty- after 2 petty songs i told my friend i had to leave-walked and looked at the ocean for a long time just taking in what i just saw-

btw- not sure who the majority of the crowd was there for but uk got a tremendous response.

[powell888]

Garytunes, I agree. The bass, in the words of a studio engineer and keyboardist, took a week to decay. I used musician ear plugs during the show and they helped. Still, too much for a small venue but I dug it! Real music for a change and yes, part of me is stuck in prog rock from this era.

[garytunes]

you can tell from this the lows from the jbl arrays made it somewhat difficult to hear nuances of Eddie's incredible playing-at least where i was sitting.

[Hopspop]

And that's really sad - I'm a bass player, but the low end should never eclipse the rest of the piece. I love Eddie, UK, and UKZ, but if you cannot hear the music, what's the point? I played in loud ProgRock bands (see Theatre1982 channel) and without balance it's all for naught, yeah?

Glad he's playing this piece - my UK favorite - god I hope it's below the pain threshold though! Walked out on Levin once in a small club, his rig was so oversized for the space...guys it's not about the volume

[lpadilla4]

this was all incredible "carrying no cross" I would've carried all their equipment to anotherow just to hear this song again

"magnificent" guys please make a live dvd of your future shows and come back to nyc......god bless UKZ