Diamanda Galas
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Music General
ttriptoo — 9 years ago(January 05, 2017 03:51 PM)
There aren't too many performers that are completely lost on me, but Ms. Galas is one of them. I've tried and tried, and I just don't get the attraction. Am I missing something? I know music is always open to interpretation by a musician, but I have yet to find anything by her I honestly enjoy. And it's frustrating! Again, AM I MISSING SOMETHING? Maybe some of you can show me a different way to approach her work.
"The mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work if it's not open." - Frank Zappa -
petrolino — 9 years ago(January 05, 2017 04:17 PM)
I like the mood she creates on some of her work. She lent her voice to several horror productions. I'm not sure you're missing anything though. Personally speaking, I have to be in a certain kind of mood before I choose to spin a record.
"It's funny, Diamanda Galas said to me, that she'd done collaborations with composers and various people. And she just said, I realized one day that if I'm going to put this much effort into my music then I think it should be my own. And I took those words to heart. I figured I'd worked on everybody else's records since 1963. It's about time. And I'm fortunate to be in the position I'm in. I had my own studio. I don't have to work to eat. Maybe it's a mid-life crisis, who knows?
She got me playing steel guitar, so I could have a voice on stage. Cause I always used to play steel guitar in hotels. and she saw it in the studio and had never heard one before. So I started playing, and she immediately wrote a song. And we put it on the album. People were like, "Wow, this is new, different." I knew her from her work. I had one record by her at that time, 'Wild Women with Steak Knives', wonderfully titled. And the voice was just like, Whoa! A mutual friend said she'd be interested in doing a rock record and he thought that I'd work well together with her. I like the idea because I wasn't into normal songs. She called them homicidal love songs. It was a case not so much of, "My baby's left me, I'm going to throw myself out the window." It was, "My baby's left me, I'm going to throw him out the window." I found her whole approach quite refreshing. And we hit it off immediately. We've both done lounge gigs, believe it or not, in our time. We used to do 'The Lady is a Tramp' in soundcheck, which worried a few people. Nobody knew what to make of that. And we also found that we knew the entire Motown songbook. And we'd sit down and play 'Stop In The Name Of Love'. We had respect for each other as musicians."- John Paul Jones, 'Beyond Led Zeppelin'
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ttriptoo — 9 years ago(January 05, 2017 04:31 PM)
petrolino, I actually just listened to a cut from the album she did with John Paul Jones called "Sporting Life". The song, "Do You Take This Man", is actually pretty good! Her vocals remind me, on this cut anyway, of Grace Jones. Most of the stuff I've heard sounds like a cat in a blender. I guess I'll just have to pick my way through her recordings.
"The mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work if it's not open." - Frank Zappa -
petrolino — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 06:02 PM)
There used to be some good live footage of them together on youtube. I think JPJ became a solid anchor for her to work off during their collaborations, hitting some of those deep grooves he's famous for while she wailed aggressively lol.
The Great Manitas -
Darkness_Fish — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 01:12 AM)
Interesting person to open a topic on, I think she's generally kind of respected/feared, but there's not many I've encountered who would profess to being a huge fan. I'm glad she's out there, and sometimes I feel the need to listen to her. But not very often.
Rusty chains and armoured pillows stuffed with silver pins -
JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 04:38 AM)
There aren't too many performers that are completely lost on me, but Ms. Galas is one of them. I've tried and tried, and I just don't get the attraction.
Same here, really. I've checked out various tracks by her here and there over the years and I've thought it was interesting, but not attractivethat is, despite being interesting, nothing ever clicked/resonated with me. "On paper," she seems like the sort of artist I should dig, but she just hasn't done anything for me yet. -
ttriptoo — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 01:27 PM)
rowan, I get that vibe from her too. She verges on performance art. A lot of her work actually unnerves me a bit. Impressive voice, as far as range, projection, and all. But I feel like I'm being bludgeoned when I listen to her. A bit too "over the top" for my taste, so far anyway.
"The mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work if it's not open." - Frank Zappa -
!!!deleted!!! (22250229) — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 06:10 AM)
A friend recommended me
Plague Mass
recently. He said it's one of his favorite albums ever. It was interesting, and intense, and seemed hugely cathartic to her, probably, but it wasn't something I'd ever choose to wanna hear again.
You got the wrong guy, mang. I don't come off no banana boat. -
Nogbad_the_Bad — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 01:38 PM)
I find her unlistenable, but interestingly unlistenable, which is something, I suppose. Her book of something resembling poetry,
Sh!t Of God
(50p in Lothian Cat Rescue, yay), is readable, and mercifully short, if not actually good. Definitely easier on the ears, though.
No valley too deep, no mountain too high.