Customer Reviews

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reissues don't get much better than this.

First, the sound quality is much improved over the first CD reissue, warmer and more balanced, with slightly better definition.

Second, three of the tracks are actually longer than on the original release. "Mea culpa" is almost a minute and a half longer. "Regiment" is about 15 seconds longer, thanks to an extended intro. "The carrier" is 43 seconds longer, including an extra vocal in the middle that, upon comparison, was clearly excised from the original version. (In addition, "Moonlight in glory" takes a bit longer to fade out, though it does not otherwise seem to differ from the original.)

Third, the rather thick booklet actually has liner notes, with essays by David Byrne and Brian Eno (though theirs seem to be mostly David Byrne) and David Toop. You don't see liner notes much anymore, so this is a real treat.

Fourth, the new cover art on the slipcase perfectly illustrates the nature of the contents of the package. The image is actually that of the original album cover, only updated using current technology.

Fifth, according to the official web site created for this reissue, "David Byrne has personally overseen the tracklisting and remastering". I have seen too many artist catalogs remastered and reissued without the participation of the artists themselves, and the results are usually lacking in some respect. This is not the case here.

Finally, the video for "Mea culpa" is included. And at a decent resolution, too.

I have only two real complaints about this remastered edition. One is the omission of the track "Qu'ran", though I realize that particular choice was made back in the late eighties, when the first UK edition of the CD was released. It also would have been nice if the liner notes had included a mention of this track and the reasons for its absence, even if only in passing. In any event, if this track is a must-have for you, I recommend tracking down a used copy of the first US CD edition (Sire Records, 6093-2). The other is the omission of the credits identifying the voices used. David Toop mentions one of the sources in his essay, but none of the others are specifically mentioned anywhere.

Highly recommended.

I got my copy of this CD the day it was released, as I had been waiting for this reissue for years. My 17-year-old daughter is very music-savvy. We were out driving in the car, and I played "Mea Culpa" and "Regimen" for her.

I asked her "When do you think this was recorded?" She told me "Probably sometime in the last ten years, maybe in the late 1990's." When I told her that David Byrne and Brian Eno recorded "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" in 1979-80 without the use of computers or digital equipment, she was stunned!

A lot of music that is now 25 years old has not stood the test of time; it sounds dated, cliched, dull. Not the music on this disc! It sounds as fresh, as scary, as exciting to me as it did when it was first released. The explosive percussion, the shimmering, chattering keyboards, the strange yet perfect "found" vocals... it's all here, in all its innovative glory. Six bonus tracks have been added, and although I feel they don't make the original album better, they add some insights into the music. Extensive liner notes serve to put this work into perspective as the true landmark that it is.

A masterpiece 25 years ago, it is still a masterpiece today and I suspect it still will be considered such 25 years from now. Run, don't walk, to wherever this disc is sold, and BUY IT. You will not be disappointed.

Not since the Beatles reissues has a remastering provided such a dramatic improvement. Although it doesn't say so, I'd suspect engineer Greg Calbi (who mastered the original album) went back to the original 24-track masters, meticulously cleaned up each individual track, then recombined them digitally for maximum clarity. These don't sound like no safety masters! Vocals, synth lines, percussion and bass all stand out in fresh relief. Comparing this issue to the 1990 Sire CD (or even the 1980 LP) is like the Claritin ad, lifting a haze you didn't even know was there.

The track layout follows the 1981 re-issue, which replaced the track "Qu'ran" with the single B-side "Very Very Hungry" after the Islamic Council of Great Britain complained. Interesting that 25 years later (in these days of Danish cartoons) we still can't afford to offend.

The seven bonus tracks are mostly familiar. "Pitch to Voltage" is called "On The Road to Zagora" on the widely-circulated bootleg of outtakes "Ghosts," "Two Against Three" is "The Friends of Amos Tutola" and "Number 8 Mix" is "Les Hommes Ne Le Sauront Jamais." "Defiant" is a radically remixed "Qu'ran" with a different vocal. "New Feet" showed up on Eno's 1980 KPFA interview (as untitled). "Vocal Outtakes" is 0:36 of exactly that and "Solo Guitar with Tin Foil" sounds like Byrne testing a long delay. Still these tracks make a nice adjunct, and needless to say, sound WAY better than on the bootleg.

The only tracks missing are the real "Qu'ran" and "Into The Spirit Womb" ("The Jezebel Spirit" with the original Kathryn Kuhlman vocals, which her estate still refuses to license.)

I haven't mentioned the music yet. Somehow, if you're reading this, I doubt I need to.

Albums like this one are what makes me grit my teeth when people talk about how vapid 1980's music was. If only they knew how much they missed that was brewing below the surface (The early Butthole Surfers and Big Black, for example).

Anyway, I have loved this album since the day it was released on vinyl. Along with Holger Czuckay, Gregory Whitehead, Derek Bailey, Giorgi Ligetti and other experimental audio artists of lesser or greater extremes, this collaboration between Eno and Byrne came out with little fanfare and seemed to be overlooked for years afterwards (and in Gregory Whitehead's case...still). Back then the internet wasn't around to make it so easy for us to find such music and the music industry didn't see a lot of profit in it, so they gave us Boy George instead. Bush of Ghosts was one of those albums you would get wide-eyed to discover in someone else's record collection. It was a shocker to find someone else who had ever heard of it, let alone actually listened to it.

This album is a great combination of intelligence mixed with soul. I can't tell how many converts it has won over through me alone. No matter how your exploration of music led you to this page in Amazon I hope you'll buy this CD and see where it takes you next. Hopefully that journey will have nothing to do with Billy Idol......or American Idol for that matter.

In spite of the disappointing exclusion of the song Qu'ran (for obviously politically correct reasons), and disregarding Rolling Stone magazine's completely negative review - I still think this re-issue is worth it.

Some of the newly released songs are good and add to the experimental spirit in which this album was recorded. Track 16, 'Defiant' sounds like an early verion of what became Jezebel Spirit, using a similar bass line although sounding very busy with the different vocals used. While these new tracks do little to enhance the already exceptional tracklist of the original, they do serve to illuminate the working process with which this album was recorded - all pre-sampling, and pure, simple studio experimentation.

More importantly though, the sound quality is very much improved. There are sounds and vocal snippets I hadn't heard previously, particularly with the second half of the album. In fact, Track 8 'The Carrier' practically sounds brand new compared to the original issue.

All in all this re-issue is defintely worth purchasing, If you loved the original release you probably already have this. However, for those who haven't yet heard this album - this re-issue is worth getting if only to hear a recording that has influenced so much music of various genre's produced to this day - particularly, Rap, Industrial, and even more so with Electronica and House music.

I was surprised to see a review of this reissue in "Rolling Stone" of all places. The review's writer seemed somewhat at sea. (I hesitate to describe him as a "reviewer" or "critic" since, as we will shortly see, the discipline he applies to developing his opinions are severely limited). Apparently this chap was unable to twig on to what's happening here and gave the effort a less than three-star rating based on -- get this -- his keenly articulated insight that MLITBOG "wasn't rockin' enough". I guess if you believe that "rockin'" is the single criterion for anything and everything then those guiding lights of Commerce trumps Culture, who know the measure of everything, will eventually let you have your very own copy of "ROCKIN'! --The Industry's Guide to What Matters in Music, Entertainment, Food and Fashion, Etc. -- One Word Edition". But only if you take an oath to Obey.

Of course for the rest of us so far removed from the towers of Stone, there's always a bit of an issue in evaluating any form of expression because it requires some effort to determine both the intention and the result -- and then measure the gap between the two. It's also nice to have some context bigger than last week to consider. I'm going out on what I imagine to be a rather thick and well-developed limb, not far off the ground and in complete confidence to be working without a supporting ladder, rope, parachute or big fluffy cushions to break a potential fall, when I say that it seems unlikely that "rockin'" was one of the primary goals here.

For example, we first hear Eno's use of this "found object" technique on "Before and After Science". On "Kurt's Rejoinder" during which Percy Jones' bass meets up with Dave Mattacks' drums, Eno uses a recording of Kurt Schwitters -- an original member of the Dada movement -- as the vocal in what can only be termed an audio "readymade". "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" takes this aesthetic to new levels of sophistication and deliberate manipulation, and is in fact kin to many art and art music traditions of the 20th Century geared at times to encouraging non-linear processes, trusting an unforeseen outcome and even placing the artist's personality at some remove from utterly dominating all aspects of the created work. Its heuristic tendencies don't derive from a rock sensibility and the importance of a rock sensibility here is at best minimal. In effect, many of the rigidly compartmentalized rhythmic components seem designed to be the absolute antithesis of typical rock forms. So, in addition to some remarkable music, the record's value also lies in bringing this perspective within the reach of a more egalitarian audience.

Rolling Stone's critical arrogance aside, "Ghosts" was and is a singularly winning experiment and these remasters are a huge help in clearing up the sound and structure -- there are even a few spots where voices are revealed which were not evident on the original. It's also great to have the single included ("Very, Very Hungry" which here replaces "Qu'ran" -- no offense! spellcheck tells me it should be Qur'an) as well as the other tracks, some of which have surfaced Here There and Everywhere over the years. Needless to add, a disc well worth having and well worth thinking about here in Century 21.

I'm so glad I picked up this re-issue. It sounds sharp, clean, and fresh. There's much greater clarity than the vinyl and earlier cd release I have. And, as one person already noted, some of the mixes are a bit different from the originals. Track 3, "Regiment," for instance has an extended intro, which I love. HOWEVER, at 55 seconds into that song there is a skip, some kind of glitch that jumps the beat. As a drummer, I noticed this immediately and it really bugs me. Does anyone else out there notice this? Or did I somehow get a defective cd? Check it out! Listen carefully to the beat and you'll hear what I'm talking about (unless I happen to have a defective disc somehow).

By the way, "The Jezebel Spirit" still gives me chills and creeps me out (younger people would not know that this came out a few years after the huge popularity in the 70s of The Exorcist movie). Also to put this album in context, you need to listen to Byrne's music for The Catherine Wheel, especially the stuff with John Miller Chernoff, author of "African Rhythm and African Sensibility," a book I still find worthwhile. Oh, and you must read the book by Amos Tutuola, "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," for a truly remarkable, terrifying, and beautiful story--kind of like an African Alice in Wonderland, but with grotesque, surrealistic absurdity.

This is a favorite of mine, but of course, I am disappointed that "Qu'ran" has been left out. It seems an overly PC move that is not necessary, as this track is especially compelling.

The bulk of the CD featuring the old tracks sound better than ever, but the addition of extra tracks seem like afterthoughts. One can hear some predecessors of Byrne's The Catherine Wheel on this disc. Altogether, it's nice to have My Life in such nice packaging and sounding so good.

I have loved this avant-rock album since its release in 1981. It was very influential on music that was yet to come. This is a worthy re-issue, sounds GREAT and the bonus tracks are OK to Good to Spooky. Some versions of songs ("Regiment" is one)are longer than the 1981 versions, as a previously reviewer has noted. Anyone who is a fan of this seminal, brilliant collaboration of Eno and Byrne should have this CD, which expands it. My only complaint is that it doesn't include the track "Qu'ran" from the original album, so its not quite complete. Luckily, I already had the original version on CD. But I still highly recommend it. If you haven't heard this one yet, you're in for a treat.

The original album was a masterpiece. Though not widely heard of in its day, it was an outstanding work of art and indirectly influenced more popular music. The "sampling" and overall production were an influence on Hank Shocklee by his own account, who produced Public Enemy.

I love the record and am awed by the way Eno and Byrne made these intricate, flavorful creations out of simple ingrediants. Eno's most startling acheivements were generally done in collaboration with others and this is one of them.

All that said, taking a track - and a good one at that - out of the original running order ("Qu'ran") - is a flaming shame. History is available here only in a revised form.