"Be Yourself; Everyone Else Is Already Taken" by Tosh Berman

 

Be Yourself; Everyone Else Is Already Taken by Tosh Berman

Book Musik: You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico- Discussion with author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike

 

Book Musik 053 – You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico – discussion with author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Book Musik

Tosh and Kimley discuss You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico with author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike. Nico is an icon best known for her otherworldly beauty and for her time hanging out at Andy Warhol’s Factory and singing a few tunes with The Velvet Underground but her real story extends far beyond the cool gaze from under those blonde bangs. She managed to leave behind the detritus of post-WWII Germany by remaking herself first into a hugely successful model then catching the eye of Federico Fellini and eventually making her way to New York to become a Superstar of Warhol’s Factory. But her real artistic output came after this celebrated time with her solo recordings and constant touring. Bickerdike fleshes out the mythology of this complicated, imperfect woman with a dense and fascinating narrative.

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Theme music: “Behind Our Efforts, Let There Be Found Our Efforts” by LG17

Book Musik · Book Musik 053-YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU ARE

Serge Gainsbourg's "Mister Melody: Les Interprètes de Serge Gainsbourg" CD Box Set Compilation, 2006

 

Where does one start with Serge Gainsbourg? I can see a listener being overwhelmed in choosing the album that introduces this brilliant figure's entire aesthetic in French 20th-century music. I decided on three pretty great compilations that go into his pop, Latin, and Jazz period in a previous post. I would also purchase "Mister Melody" CD Box Set, because its 4 CDs covers a lot of ground in the Gainsbourg world, and it's an excellent compilation. 

What makes this compilation so special is that it focuses on the recordings that Gainsbourg produced, wrote for other artists. He was an excellent collaborator or general in the recording booth. Here we have a very early (and before Velvet Underground) Nico, which I believe was her first recording, "Strip-Tease," As well as a young Marianne Faithfull. Also a series of recordings with Juliette Gréco, Philippe Clay, Catherine Sauvage, Petula Clark, and of course, the infamous records he made with Brigitte Bardot, France Gall, and Jane Birkin. Who are not the only actresses he worked with? Isabelle Aubret, Anna Karina, Catherine Deneuve, and actors' Serge Reggiani (who is fantastic)? Jean-Claude Brialy. The fact is, Gainsbourg, worked with every prominent music figure in France, and it's mind-boggling how many of these artists are on this set. 

The music quality is high. It comes with a 44-page book with interview excerpts and original art-work for all releases those tracks are taken from. I highly recommend the package. 

October 16, 2014

October 16, 2014

“I have a habit of leaving places at the wrong time, just when something big may have happened to me.” I love to escape and locate the source of my pain, which is a desire for my own personal version of anxiety. “Life is a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors.” My very reflection is a source of endless entertainment for me.  Everyone who knows me that “writing is my vacation from living.” So to be in a room that is endlessly reflecting yours truly, is a form of heaven that is man-made.  Or I should say Tosh-made.

I’m sort of like the elephant that left the jungle to visit the big city.  Tokyo is not exactly a big city, but more of a metropolis. It’s bigger than life, and the source of my work here is supposed to be bigger than life, which means bigger than Tokyo.  “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” With that in mind, I set out to take the world that is out there, and somehow make it mine.  The only way I can do this is to edit what I want, and not want, and place it on a blank page.  The problem is people have a tendency to pull me in a direction I don’t want to take.  They do it, because they’re concerned about my welfare, or even for egotistical purposes from the other party.  Once you have your mission, it is almost an art form to stay on the narrow path, and not let the unfamiliar noise remove you from that road.  It’s easy to get lost, and there are so many false street signs to tell you to go in that direction or “in that way,” when in fact, by instinct, you know you’re doing the right thing.  Even if you do cause a certain amount of destruction here and there. “To live is the rarest thing in the world.  Most people exist, that is all. ”

What I fear the most is missing the last train home.  To be stranded and knowing your existence second-by-second till the next train arrives, many hours later.  Or going to a lecture that is in Japanese, yet not knowing that language, but just sitting in the audience trying to figure out what can’t be understood at that moment and time.  Time is stopping.  Time is not moving.  Time there waits for no one.

I came from the jungle to be here, and I realize that one can’t fully leave the jungle, because it is home. And the characteristics of the home are terrible.  A famous philosopher wrote that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating!  So what!  We are interested in the mechanism that ensures that it really is a pudding we are eating and not a poached baby elephant, though we think we are eating our daily pudding!” To analyze the world in a sense is to cut yourself open with a sword and letting your intestines to fall out of your stomach on to the sidewalk.

As I write, I can hear the sound of wind running through the space between the buildings. It’s eerie, but the music is beautiful. It makes me sad that I will never write anything that is as beautiful as that sound.  Nevertheless I will never go back to the jungle.  Home is there, but here I tend to lose myself, and to be totally lost, is a blessing.

TamTam Books' Tribute to Immediate Records (Andrew Loog Oldham's label)

Small Faces with P.P. Arnold


Small Faces "itcycoo Park"


Small Faces "All or Nothing"


Billy Nicholls "Girl From New York (Audio only but a fantastic song backed by the Small Faces)


P.P. Arnold "First Cut is the Deepest"


P.P. Arnold "If You Think You Are Groovy"


The Nice "America" (with David O'List, who was in early Roxy Music before Phil Manzanera)


Little Andrew Loog Oldham documentary


"All I Want is My Baby" Oldham/Richards song. Recorded by Bobby Jameson and Mick Jagger


A very early Nico song (a year before the Velvets) produced by Jimmy Page for Immediate Records


The Poets "Now We're Thru"

And this is one of my favorite film footages ever of Swingin' London"