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Out of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones
Out of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones
1965 | Compilation
7.5 (4 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It is the British version of the album I am talking about [the US release would include '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'] and mostly because of the cover, which I think is probably my favourite ever picture of The Stones. If we are on that subject, it says quite a lot about Mick Jagger as a frontman that he was secure enough to be only third from the front on the cover of the early records. When you look at Out Of Our Heads it looks like Brian Jones' or Keith Richards' group. Mick is just peering in from the side. That's how cool Jagger was - most singers are always pushing people out of the way so they can be at the front. Out Of Our Heads is often entirely overlooked within The Stones' catalogue. I love it because before that, on the previous albums, they were attempting to recreate the music of their heroes in an almost academic manner, with only a certain amount of success. What gave those early records credibility was that they were aficionados and experts and that was something, besides The Beatles, which was exciting to British kids. However, they hadn't really put their own mark on their music. Out Of Our Heads moved away from blues into what then was called rhythm and blues. They were much better at appropriating that style, than they were pure blues music. There are more chords, less rootsy themes and [the songs are] more about 'finding a girl and losing a girl' and so Jagger is more believable on that album. Overall, musically, the songs just suited their style better. Out Of Our Heads is a band just about to hit their stride and about to turn into their own songwriting machine. There is almost no other record like it. I think you could argue that if you want to really discover what The Velvet Underground were inspired by, it is probably Out Of Our Heads. Not just in terms of how the band look, but the evidence is there in the version of Marvin Gaye's 'Hitch Hike', which obviously the Velvets chopped on 'There She Goes Again' - and I used on 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'. There was a point where I was into The Stones more than any other band on the planet. I found out everything there was to find out about them - about the band, about Andrew Oldham and how they made their records. That investigation was really good for me. When I formed The Smiths, they were probably the biggest influence in terms of the politics and the blueprint for a band, including the dynamic between the guitarist and the singer. When I was trying to get The Smiths together, I took the behaviour of Andrew Oldham and Brian Jones in their resourcefulness, desperation and ingenuity as the MO of The Stones as a working unit, as a source of inspiration - which was a pretty unusual thing to do in 1982."

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Son of a Witch
Son of a Witch
Gregory Maguire | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry
7
6.7 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
I saw the musical version of Wicked two or three years ago, and ADORED it. I'd been wanting to pick up this book for sometime, and finally found both it and the sequel at my local library. (I just learned there are two more books, A Lion Among Men and Out of Oz, so I'll be requesting those from the library soon!) I started the book knowing, from other reviewers, that it was very different from the musical. Unlike most of the reviews I read, that didn't make me not like it. Quite the contrary. I loved seeing the politics and social unrest hidden behind the scenes. The musical hints at the pogroms against Animals (the sentient ones) but doesn't go into the Whys and Hows like the book does. Wicked and its sequel are much grittier, much darker. At times they feel like political commentary. I loved them.

Wicked is the story of Elphaba, Oz's Wicked Witch of the West. Her story tells us about her birth, her childhood, her school years, and how she eventually came to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Throughout the course of the book we meet Glinda, the Good Witch (and Elphaba's college roommate), the Wicked Witch's flying monkeys, and the Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch, unsurprisingly, is not as evil as she's painted to be. Her sister, though...I might not call her wicked, but dictatorial? Yes. Wicked also introduces Liir, Elphaba's son. His story is the sequel, Son of a Witch.

In Son of a Witch, we watch Liir try to decide who he is and what he wants to do with his life. Is he really Elphaba's son? What does that mean for his future? Should he take up her mantle and her responsibilities? So many people seem to think it's his duty to do so, but he's not Elphaba. She never confided her dreams and goals to him, so he doesn't even really know what those duties are, much less if he wants to take them up. Son of a Witch is really the story of an identity crisis, but it's an identity crisis with the added pressure of entire tribes and races of peoples looking to Liir for help, or guidance, or simply answers that he does not have.

I very much enjoyed both books, and I'm excited to find out there are two more in the series. I definitely had some unanswered questions at the end of Son of a Witch, and was disappointed when I thought that was the end. I also plan to look up the author's other, similar books - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Cinderella), Mirror Mirror (Snow White), and many others not based on fairy tales. Or recognizable fairy tales, anyway.

Reading these two books has also made me want to re-read the Oz series - I read most of them years ago in middle school, but I think I may try to grab them from the library again. Oz is such an interesting world, and re-reading them after reading The Wicked Years might shine a whole new light on them.

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
  
Wicked
Wicked
Gregory Maguire | 2006 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.4 (35 Ratings)
Book Rating
I saw the musical version of Wicked two or three years ago, and ADORED it. I'd been wanting to pick up this book for sometime, and finally found both it and the sequel at my local library. (I just learned there are two more books, A Lion Among Men and Out of Oz, so I'll be requesting those from the library soon!) I started the book knowing, from other reviewers, that it was very different from the musical. Unlike most of the reviews I read, that didn't make me not like it. Quite the contrary. I loved seeing the politics and social unrest hidden behind the scenes. The musical hints at the pogroms against Animals (the sentient ones) but doesn't go into the Whys and Hows like the book does. Wicked and its sequel are much grittier, much darker. At times they feel like political commentary. I loved them.

Wicked is the story of Elphaba, Oz's Wicked Witch of the West. Her story tells us about her birth, her childhood, her school years, and how she eventually came to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Throughout the course of the book we meet Glinda, the Good Witch (and Elphaba's college roommate), the Wicked Witch's flying monkeys, and the Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch, unsurprisingly, is not as evil as she's painted to be. Her sister, though...I might not call her wicked, but dictatorial? Yes. Wicked also introduces Liir, Elphaba's son. His story is the sequel, Son of a Witch.

In Son of a Witch, we watch Liir try to decide who he is and what he wants to do with his life. Is he really Elphaba's son? What does that mean for his future? Should he take up her mantle and her responsibilities? So many people seem to think it's his duty to do so, but he's not Elphaba. She never confided her dreams and goals to him, so he doesn't even really know what those duties are, much less if he wants to take them up. Son of a Witch is really the story of an identity crisis, but it's an identity crisis with the added pressure of entire tribes and races of peoples looking to Liir for help, or guidance, or simply answers that he does not have.

I very much enjoyed both books, and I'm excited to find out there are two more in the series. I definitely had some unanswered questions at the end of Son of a Witch, and was disappointed when I thought that was the end. I also plan to look up the author's other, similar books - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Cinderella), Mirror Mirror (Snow White), and many others not based on fairy tales. Or recognizable fairy tales, anyway.

Reading these two books has also made me want to re-read the Oz series - I read most of them years ago in middle school, but I think I may try to grab them from the library again. Oz is such an interesting world, and re-reading them after reading The Wicked Years might shine a whole new light on them.

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com