The Ghoulies' Dogged by Dogma from 1982 [FLAC limited time only]

 

This one is very similar to 64 Spoons.  That was a very popular post, and I'm happy to see many were not familiar with that sadly neglected album.

The story goes:

The Ghoulies was a short-lived project masterminded by Charlie Summers [NB no other albums from him] and featuring no less than Dave Stewart and Pip Pyle (both ex cult band Hatfield And The North) alongside a host of anonymous Welsh session musicians. Summers got in touch with Dave Stewart through mutual acquaintance Green Gartside (Scritti Politti's vocalist, whom Stewart had approached to sing on his debut solo single What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted). With his regular drummer Nigel Harris having moved to London, Summers also managed to get Pyle involved, and recording sessions took place in Cardiff sometime in 1981. He then founded his own label, Lounging Records, ultimately selling around 3000 copies, which unfortunately was not enough (in spite of John Peel's support) to envision doing more projects under the Ghoulies banner.

It's really quite stunningly good too.  The mix of fusion and songwriting is superb.  It's endlessly interesting, and the lyrics are well worth paying attention to, eg: "listening to my neighbors, singing songs and dropping bombs..."

What a riff that opens up the hilarious paean to / homage to / satire of Social Workers:

A track called CS's [Custard Slices ?] is really remarkable for its sheer originality, note the descending chromatic chord change in the verse:

Not long ago I was reading a news article about how a popular (current) melody was plagiarized and the argument for the defense was, 'there are only 12 notes in music therefore purely by random chance, a melody will be the same as another' which just made me throw up and laugh-- simultaneously.  First of all, these cases are common and for ex. even happened with Stairway to Heaven, it's generally agreed the phenomenon here is cryptomnesia (you don't realize you're remembering something you heard long ago, and think it's your own creation, considered an honest mistake.)  

But there are so many problems with the 'random assortment of 12 notes' argument, which on mathematical grounds of course, sounds convincing-- starting with the fact a melody is not 'just' 12 notes, it could have two octaves (24 notes) for ex., it could repeat notes several times, it could be 12 notes long or 144 notes long.  But what about timing, and chord changes?  The melody has to involve rhythm, which can be quite intricate, plus there are numerous lengths to a given note, etc.  What about chords?  Well, as I've mentioned so many times before on this blog, sometimes artists use the same dumb chord progressions and sometimes as in this song, they come up with a sequence that is totally original, unique, and I guarantee, has never been heard before in recorded music by its sheer oddness.  Let's put those elements together, is there really a finite number of songs? You are now combining three different things that have therefore an exponential increase in the combinatorial possibilities.  What about classical music, where there might not even be a melody or chords, as in the best Stravinsky?  Could you say there's a finite number of Bach fugues? Mozart sonatas?  I think that's ridiculous based on the fact these are a lot more intricate than pop songs.  What about jazz, where improvisation is always by definition unique and never imitated note for note?  What about an infinite song that lasts forever, or until there is any kind of termination to the cosmos or listeners? you could change one or a few notes anywhere on this melody and you'd have a new infinite song, obviously, like Cantor's diagonal argument).

In short, this argument was ridiculous although it was presented in court (by a statistician!), and any actual musician or songwriter, guaranteed, would laugh at the idea there's a finite number of songs to write. Think about other arts--what about novels, or poems? Surely we can imagine the number of these must be infinite too.  You could make the argument if there are an infinite number of universes you could put one song in each--but that's absurd, not only is our universe finite so far, every time I read the news today I'm made painfully aware our species' lifespan is quite finite too.

In the meantime enjoy this album...