Why did he go for this inane background muzak, I wonder? At the beginning its like a rant out of a Bergman film -- an 'orgasm of hate' -- over some thumping bit of faceless studio orchestra 'disco'. in 1978 he should have been collaborating with the young Adrian Sherwood: 'RD Laing in Dub'. Imagine that! The use of reverb and echo on his voice later in the piece hints at this possibility, although the way it repeatedly slips into total bathos is priceless, and definitely 'so bad its good'.
@celestialrailroad My understanding is that Ken Howard, who did the music along with his long-time associate Alan Blaikley, was a psychiatrist as well as being a successful songwriter and composer. So I think this collaboration came about via a professional connection on the psychiatric side.
@Ivoid2 It is worth visiting the 'About' and 'Scrapbook' pages of the website rdlaing-lifebeforedeath for accounts of how this extraordinary - and in my view stunning - album came about as well as to be able to hear it as a whole.
@celestialrailroad One man's meat is another man's poison. Far from being inane faceless studio muzak, the background score strikes me as witty, beautifully played, and at times very moving - totally suited to RDL's bravura performance. Listened to carefully, the Life Before Death album seems like a brilliantly well-judged coherent whole in which Laing and his collaborators produced something approaching a masterpiece.
@armoredcar3 "The music, though, is sadly not quite as wonderful as the arresting, macabre sleeve would suggest. It’s a vaudeville pastiche of styles: reggae, rock, pop, disco, music hall; no genre was safe from the drab dabbling of onetime West End musical arranger Nic Rowley (one of whose other clients was Dame Edna Everage)."
@celestialrailroad I have the same feeling. I play it most days. Sadly I don't have the whole album, and am reliant on these excerpts, but what we have here gives a picture of as man who was complex and just wanted others to be free and honest - the "congruence" of person-centred therapy taken to an extreme in the face of the politics of experience... Good to see more people are watching this... the Laing message is catching on, folks!
So bad it's good? No! So great it's godlike!
psykos448 2 weeks ago
Just love ir..........
maw160351 3 months ago
don't you have the other tracks?
Testecoeur 6 months ago
this is astonishingly good!
unstoppableachievers 7 months ago
Why did he go for this inane background muzak, I wonder? At the beginning its like a rant out of a Bergman film -- an 'orgasm of hate' -- over some thumping bit of faceless studio orchestra 'disco'. in 1978 he should have been collaborating with the young Adrian Sherwood: 'RD Laing in Dub'. Imagine that! The use of reverb and echo on his voice later in the piece hints at this possibility, although the way it repeatedly slips into total bathos is priceless, and definitely 'so bad its good'.
celestialrailroad 8 months ago
@celestialrailroad My understanding is that Ken Howard, who did the music along with his long-time associate Alan Blaikley, was a psychiatrist as well as being a successful songwriter and composer. So I think this collaboration came about via a professional connection on the psychiatric side.
Ivoid2 8 months ago
Comment removed
armoredcar3 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@Ivoid2 It is worth visiting the 'About' and 'Scrapbook' pages of the website rdlaing-lifebeforedeath for accounts of how this extraordinary - and in my view stunning - album came about as well as to be able to hear it as a whole.
armoredcar3 8 months ago
@celestialrailroad One man's meat is another man's poison. Far from being inane faceless studio muzak, the background score strikes me as witty, beautifully played, and at times very moving - totally suited to RDL's bravura performance. Listened to carefully, the Life Before Death album seems like a brilliantly well-judged coherent whole in which Laing and his collaborators produced something approaching a masterpiece.
armoredcar3 8 months ago
@armoredcar3 "The music, though, is sadly not quite as wonderful as the arresting, macabre sleeve would suggest. It’s a vaudeville pastiche of styles: reggae, rock, pop, disco, music hall; no genre was safe from the drab dabbling of onetime West End musical arranger Nic Rowley (one of whose other clients was Dame Edna Everage)."
celestialrailroad 8 months ago
I can't stop listening to it.
celestialrailroad 8 months ago
@celestialrailroad I have the same feeling. I play it most days. Sadly I don't have the whole album, and am reliant on these excerpts, but what we have here gives a picture of as man who was complex and just wanted others to be free and honest - the "congruence" of person-centred therapy taken to an extreme in the face of the politics of experience... Good to see more people are watching this... the Laing message is catching on, folks!
julesthemadman 8 months ago
@julesthemadman Website rdlaing-lifebeforedeath has the whole album in sequence.
armoredcar3 7 months ago
@armoredcar3 Cheers. Just found it.
julesthemadman 7 months ago
Some sort of hilarious car crash.
celestialrailroad 8 months ago
FUCKIN EPIC
LordShivasServant 10 months ago
The sequence of photos of a vulnerable Laing adds immeasurably to the words and music. Incredibly moving.
armoredcar3 1 year ago 3
Beautiful. The end makes me cry. Laing always comes across as a bit of a tough guy, but he has vulnerability. I dig this poem big time.
julesthemadman 1 year ago 11
Terrific.
polecatcontinuum 1 year ago 9