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--- How Did YOU Discover Terry Taylor? (http://www.danielamos.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=7591)
Posted by Berger Roy Al on 12-21-2004 at09:15:
| quote: |
| Wait. I'm Mo Tucker the drummer? THAT Mo Tucker? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAgGGGGgccxxkkk! I'm Mo Tucker! ... ... Why am I Mo Tucker? |
Posted by Eis on 12-21-2004 at10:07:
Praise 105
| quote: |
Originally posted by dennis
You heard DA on the radio?
What station??? 
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A local station in Hampton Roads, VA. It's a CCM Adult Contemporary station, but they used to have a Saturday night show where they played stuff that the "young persons" might like; most of it was pretty crappy too, but it was alternative rock stuff instead of Sandi Patti. Anyway, the DJ would play stuff that was requested and he actually started a segment called "lost oldie" of the week where he would play old Christian rock from the 70s and 80s.
One night, he played Ordinary-Extraordinary Day (not as a lost oldie, being new). The only time it was ever played, but I was there and heard it. Sometimes, I think maybe God engineered for it to be played that night, because it convinced me to go get MBD. Only time it ever played, and led me to become a TST fan...
Posted by PuP on 12-21-2004 at11:47:
RE: Praise 105
| quote: |
Originally posted by Eis
| quote: |
Originally posted by dennis
You heard DA on the radio?
What station???
|
A local station in Hampton Roads, VA. It's a CCM Adult Contemporary station, but they used to have a Saturday night show where they played stuff that the "young persons" might like; most of it was pretty crappy too, but it was alternative rock stuff instead of Sandi Patti. Anyway, the DJ would play stuff that was requested and he actually started a segment called "lost oldie" of the week where he would play old Christian rock from the 70s and 80s.
One night, he played Ordinary-Extraordinary Day (not as a lost oldie, being new). The only time it was ever played, but I was there and heard it. Sometimes, I think maybe God engineered for it to be played that night, because it convinced me to go get MBD. Only time it ever played, and led me to become a TST fan...
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Very cool!
Posted by dennis on 12-21-2004 at21:25:
RE: Praise 105
| quote: |
Originally posted by PuP
| quote: |
Originally posted by Eis
| quote: |
Originally posted by dennis
You heard DA on the radio?
What station???
|
A local station in Hampton Roads, VA. It's a CCM Adult Contemporary station, but they used to have a Saturday night show where they played stuff that the "young persons" might like; most of it was pretty crappy too, but it was alternative rock stuff instead of Sandi Patti. Anyway, the DJ would play stuff that was requested and he actually started a segment called "lost oldie" of the week where he would play old Christian rock from the 70s and 80s.
One night, he played Ordinary-Extraordinary Day (not as a lost oldie, being new). The only time it was ever played, but I was there and heard it. Sometimes, I think maybe God engineered for it to be played that night, because it convinced me to go get MBD. Only time it ever played, and led me to become a TST fan...
|
Very cool! |
Awesome story!
Posted by Dr Rich on 06-07-2005 at20:34:
| quote: |
Originally posted by dennis
I read the review published in HRS and was intrigued. This did not sound like any Christian music I had ever heard of before. It seemed the guy who write the review was having a tough time coming to grips with the record. A few months later I bought a cassette copy of it at the local Christian bookstore in Brainerd. (I also bought the Petra release "On Fire."
) It took me some time to get used to DFBB. I got into the Swirling Eddies for some time before I found out they were more or less DA. I also bought Scatred Few's Sin Disease record (on tape) and saw it was produced by Terry and he even wrote some liner notes for it. I got FS and then Vox Humana and Shotgun Angel along with Alarma, DG and the solo terry stuff. Bought Kalhoun when it came out and motorcyle and then was not into DA for a few years. I bought John Wayne and VH (on CD) and DA's greatest hits deal, that got me back into DA again. Been posting on the message board for about four years. |
Daniel Amos
Darn Floor-Big Bite
Harvest Rock Syndicate Winter 1987/88
5 points out of 5
by Mark Eischer
Darn Floor, Big Bite is an exercise in discovery a moody, magnificent album which defies easy description. Each listening brings new insights, impressions building up like the coats of lacquer on a Japanese jewel-box. Maybe this shouldn't even be called a 'review.' A review is after the fact, past-tense a summation. I'll be frank-I'm still in the process of absorbing Da's newest record. Chalk it up to the weakness of language, I guess.
Greg Flesch continues to amaze as Da’s resident mad scientist of Guitar and Attendant Technology. His innovative, angular guitar effects complement Terry Taylor's provocative lyrics. Tim Chandlers dissonant bass lines crawl like big lizards through the underbrush of engineer Doug Doyle's mixes. Ed McTaggart again contributes excellent artwork and of course, Big Drums.
The album's basic idea is that all human attempts to describe God fall short and fail. A thought Which - has probably never creased the brow of Chris Christian, it is basically just another variation on the "now we see as through a glass darkly" theme.
Taylor adds a new twist by relating humanity's futile attempts at grasping the Divine to the story of Koko the Gorilla, a primate some scientists taught to 'sign" simple words. The gorilla's best attempt at describing the experience of an earthquake came out as 'darn' floor, big bite.' Terry Taylor apparently read that line in National Geographic, a little light went "Sproing!" ' and the rest is history, as the animal kingdom provides its richest literary alussion since Lassie, Come Home.
Calling the Koko experiment "sign language” is itself a faulty description, as I discovered when I tried to explain the album to a friend of mine who works as an interpreter for the deaf. She didn't really see much humor in it in fact, she was rather offended by the whole Koko idea, as though it were somehow a putdown of deaf people. So it goes.
"The Unattainable Earth" continues the communication-as-distortion theme, propelled along by some of the album's most memorable hooks and- a looping guitar riff reminiscent of the Beafles' Revolver period.
Da fanatics looking for their newest cult Classic need look no further than the opening track, "Return of the Beat Menace." Terry Taylor takes on the Baton Rouge Bomber with this account of a backwoods ayatollah gone hog-wild. The song is not so much about rock-bashing, though, as about clashing cultures and media manipulation. At the downlink end of the televangelist's satellite network sits an eskimo "He buys a suit and tie/re-styles his hair like girls in Tupelo/and sings 'Sweet Bye and Bye." It's too real to be funny.
In "Strange Animals," Taylor applies the theme to human relationships: "If I were to give you/an animal's name/Could I keep you locked/in a (age in my brain?" Taylor will probably win few friends among Biblical Inerrantists, thanks to the implications of this albums theme. Yet, for all its dissonance and angularity, its tribalistic Techno-Primitive rage, Darn Floor, Big Bite is ultimately a prayer for deeper understanding. The title song sums it up: "Illuminate my muddled/Sweep the shadows from my mind/so I might imagine what you are like/and understand the great design.”
"The Shape of Air" seems to quote the melody of Amy Grant's 'I Can Fly. " Whether the reference is intentional or not, it helps create a sense of innocence and wonder which concludes the record.
Posted by Jad on 06-07-2005 at20:53:
I was lucky enough to have a very cool uncle. He gave me a tape that had "Vox Humana" on one side and In 3-D's "No Glasses Needed" on the other.
Strangely he copied Side 2 of Vox Humana before Side 1. Ever since it's been uncomfortable listening to it the right way around.
I hammered that orginal tape good.........
Posted by FreshIce on 06-09-2005 at11:44:
RE: How Did YOU Discover Terry Taylor?
When I was in 6th grade, my family moved to Pittsburgh PA (1983) and a christian radio station there gave two hours a week to rock music. I'm sure they did so reluctantly - they probably tucked the show away on Saturday nights so that the old ladies that listened to the station wouldn't have heart attacks. Anyway, the program had "Horrendous Disc" and the first couple of "Alarma" records in rotation. "I Love You #19" and "Hound of Heaven", though years old at the time, were leaps and bounds beyond most of the other stuff the station had in its playlist. Also getting airtime were "Central Theme", "New Car!", "Walls of Doubt", "Mall (All over the world)" ... the humor and the post-punk sound had me hooked. I was a DA fan.
As I dug into their back-catalogue, I was surprised to find that they started as a country rock band, but having listened to the Beatles growing up, there was a consistancy I recognized in their recordings and it made sense to me, even if their lyrics were sometimes a bit beyond me. That was cool though - Taylor forced me dig into his lyrics and educate myself. I feel like I got more out of those LPs than most youth group talks. As I went through high school, my youth leaders would push CCM that spoon-fed a lot of propoganda and followed trends. Meanwhile, I was trying to wrap my head around "Darn Floor Big Bite". All this to say, Terry Taylor was (and is) way ahead of his time. I may have missed out on the "touring days", but my faith has been enriched by the art of DA and Taylor.
Posted by BuckarooBanzai on 06-14-2005 at15:41:
Back in the '80s, I picked up Fearful Symmetry when it came out. This album was really an eye-opener, as the music was much more interesting and challenging than the typical teen-agey CCM. Then I got to take a road trip with the youth pastor to one of those "hide the beer" colleges. He has been a Terry Amos fan since the 70's, and I got to hear Vox Humana and a couple other albums while on the road.
When the Swirling Eddies arrived on the scene, I showed my pastor the full-page ad in CCM Magazine. He told me later that the Eddies were actually a mutation of DA. After hearing the album, I said, "No wonder they're using aliases."
Now almost twenty years later, high-school kids still listen to syrupy, easy-listening CCM, while I play the ancient DA, Alarm, etc. Hope I get a walker and a bottle of Geritol for Christmas. Also, having monitored this board for a while, it appears some of our Swriling Amos friends have lost what's left of their minds. But that really won't be a problem unless they dig up their spandex.
Posted by Scrimshaw Nick on 06-16-2005 at21:35:
A friend of mine let me listen to part of Vox Humana in tenth grade ('87) and I was hooked. Nothing like I'd heard in the Christian market. My mentor gave him copies of Fearful Symmetry along with VH. I was angry that Ian (our mentor) didn't give me the copies that he gave my friend. I searched the good Christian bookstore relentlessly. Since then, I've picked up everything I could on CD.
Also, I looked up who Billy Blake was from the song on Vox Humana. I fell in love also with his art and poetry. Finding so much so quickly was such an awakening for me. I began to stand out more awkwardly than I already did in high school. "What in the world are you reading? And what the hell is that "music" you're listening to?"
_______________
Be thankful regardless of a neglectful mentor on the Message Boards
Posted by luthien1121 on 06-17-2005 at01:10:
Outdoor Elvis
When I was in high school (late 80's/early 90's), one of the youth workers introduced me to lots of great stuff like Steve Taylor and the Swirling Eddies. He loaned me Meltdown and Outdoor Elvis, and I was hooked on both Taylors. It was only several years later ('94?) when I started working in a Christian bookstore where the music buyer knew everything there is to know about music that I realized there was more. I picked up FS and DFBB in the bargain bin on cassette and was hooked.
Posted by freak on 06-17-2005 at07:48:
Alarma - the cover blew me away.
Bought it never having heard of the band - in late fall '81 I believe.
Next was Horrendous Disc... the next week - the amazement continued.
Doppelganger the day it was released... never looked back... stayed in "touch" with the band with every release...
finally saw them in '90 live... for a "brawl on stage" in the late night buildings at Greyslake, IL - WOW!!! saw them again in '01 for MBD - FREAKin' amazing with Phil on organ - no Mr. Chandler that was very sad.
But it was good.
'02 at c-stone with Rob Watson back and Mr. Chandler was great - but no Greg... sad again.
DA and Terry are so inspiring... challenging... gracious... talented... and a part of the soundtrack that is my life.
~f
Posted by Dr Rich on 06-17-2005 at10:46:
| quote: |
Originally posted by freak
'02 at c-stone with Rob Watson back and Mr. Chandler was great - but no Greg... sad again.
~f |
I saw them about a week after you did then. Great Show!
Posted by jiminy on 06-17-2005 at11:14:
will there be another????
or was "that the one"
I saw terry for the first time (with Phil M ) on the AF tour...
and the fine Dr on the same night..jist didnt know Dennis- or anyone then.!
I was gutsy enough upon arriving bout an hour early to say to my son"Hey..I think thats him, in the baseball cap"- lounging in an oversize chair.
As he passed me to go to the "Dressing room" - I had AF already, and got bold enough for a lil one on one, told him I was a fan since Shotgun Angel -- he asked if I was a local- I said "Nah, we only drove 120 miles" - that brought a chuckle, and a personal autograph....
I got Gods Best-
Freak- I'll SUPER dit dit ditto-
DA and Terry are so inspiring... challenging... gracious... talented... and a part of the soundtrack that is my life. ALSO....
Posted by Dr Rich on 06-17-2005 at16:46:
| quote: |
Originally posted by jiminy
I saw terry for the first time (with Phil M ) on the AF tour...
and the fine Dr on the same night..jist didnt know Dennis- or anyone then.!
I was gutsy enough upon arriving bout an hour early to say to my son"Hey..I think thats him, in the baseball cap"- lounging in an oversize chair.
As he passed me to go to the "Dressing room" - I had AF already, and got bold enough for a lil one on one, told him I was a fan since Shotgun Angel -- he asked if I was a local- I said "Nah, we only drove 120 miles" - that brought a chuckle, and a personal autograph....
I got Gods Best-
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That night was the first time I saw Terry as well. Oddly enough I remember Jiminy asking for Terry's autograph, even though I had no idea who Jiminy was.
We even parked there at the same time and said "Hi" to each other and went our seperate ways... being strangers and all...
Posted by jiminy on 06-17-2005 at17:01:
no doubt..hes almost as cool as Uncle Terry.
and I remember the swappin howdies too!
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RE: How Did YOU Discover Terry Taylor?