Sporting Life

Diamanda Galas, John Paul Jones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 6, 1994)
• Original Release Date: September 6, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B000003Z6B
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,717 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerhouse of an album, May 1, 2001

By 

Mark Wieczorek (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sporting Life (Audio CD)

Let me qualify my review by saying I'm a bass player and come to this album because of John Paul Jones. I admire his attitude and musicianship, and love the sound of 8 string bass.

This album is a tour-de-fource of musicianship. I'll start from the bottom and build up. Pete Thomas' drumming is spot-on, heavy, and really rocks when you turn the volume up a bit. I hope you have good bass response! Pete Thomas comes to this album by way of his work with Elvis Costello. He's hard hitting, accurate, simple, subtle, comlex. Everything you would expect Bonzo's bass player to want in a drummer.

From what I understand, John Paul Jones wrote many of the riffs and brought them to Diamanda Galas to have her add the vocals to. This is evident in the way the vocals sometimes overlap the changes. The bass playing is superb, and more accessible than on his first solo album Zooma. Many of the riffs remind me of Zeppelin riffs - the opening track remind me of When the Levee breaks. The second track reminds me of a few songs - Nobody's Fault But Mine, Living Loving Maid, the outro to Black Dog.

Don't get me wrong, this is far from recycled Zeppelin. Far from it. Let me put it to you this way. Between Page/Plant and this album and Zooma you get a real sense of who did what in Zeppelin. How integral Jonesy was to their sound. In interviews people ask "Don't you think your recent work is a little Zeppelin influenced?" and he replies "Well, don't you think Zeppelin was a little John Paul Jones influenced?"

So while Page and Plant seem to be content reliving former glory, John Paul Jones is quietly pushing a few envelopes. As innovative and bombastic as Zeppelin ever was, this album challenges my ears, and simply rocks.

By the way, it's difficult to describe the sound of an 8 string bass... Think of what Pearl Jam's Jeremy might sound like if covered by PJ Harvey.

Now for the top. I heard Diamanda Galas won a guitar solo of the year award for her singing. Her range is impressive and intimidating - 8 octaves. In interviews Jonesy said that she simply blew him away. That they brought the tapes over for her to track vocals to, and she did these songs in one take. Obviously with lots of overdubs, the vocals are very much layered and textured.

That said, many of you are going to be turned off by her voice. Anyone who is already a fan of Diamanda's knows how shocking and powerful her music is. The imagery is dark. One song begins with the line "I don't like him. Let's kill him" and there's lots of cursing, and otherwise dark dark imagery. The world she creates is deeper, darker, more intimidating, and truer than the worlds PJ Harvey and Garbage create. I'm actually embarrased to make that comparison, because in fact I can think of nothing that compares. Maybe Dostoyevsky.

This is one of my top 10 albums of all time. All of my friends know it because I listen to it a lot. It's powerful, accurate, and like nothing else out there.

One more thing, these songs were recorded as they should be. In one take. As a musician I noticed one or two moments where things where not 110%, and wondered how they let it slip through. Then I heard that these tracks were recorded in 1 take, and rather wonder about their quality control, I marvelled at the quality of their musicianship. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING is spot on. The drums and the bass lock like nobody's business. The vocals soar to truly scary heights, and dip to profoundly deep lows.

You believe music courses through their veins, and thier music comes from who they are, not who they want you to think they are. In an interview (yeah, I read a lot) Jonesy said this album failed commercially - Diamanda Galas fans were turned off by her playing with this rock and roll icon, and Zeppelin fans were turned off by the avante garde singing. Jonesy's next effort - his first solo effort - has no vocals, which makes it even less accessible.

Rest assured, the are not doing this to make money, they are not doing this to further their careers. They are doing this to make music. A rare thing in today's world. Something we, as a society, need to nurture, and encourage. If you're looking for the cure to the MTV world of everything-sounds-the-same, this is a good place to start looking. If you have the courage.

For albums in a similar vein I would point to PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and Radiohead's OK Computer, Diamanda Galas and Led Zeppelin albums are also obvious choices.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars She's Evil, May 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sporting Life (Audio CD)

The Hell-voice of Miss Diamanda meets the Heavy Beat of Mr. Jones in this beautiful train wreck of an album. "Baby's Insane" captures its spirit - who can predict what will erupt from the mating of an avant-diva with a rock dionosaur? The bass gets turned to 10, the voice gets turned to 11, and we get a roller-coaster ride to the Inferno. You'll like it if you think you might.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the realm of the homicidal, April 25, 2004

By 

Allan MacInnis (Vancouver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sporting Life (Audio CD)

Diamanda sings an awful lot about murdering people on this album. Men, actually; in "Do you take this man," she seems to be murdering her husband, while justifying the action to him. "Baby's Insane" adopts a bit more distance but still suggests that one should hide the knives. On the title track, she appears to adopt the voices of three murderous hillbillies or such discussing what they should do with a male victim they're playing with -- it's an odd mix of Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, and Russ Meyer, or at least that's where I go with it -- FASTER, PUSSYCAT, EVISCERATE, EVISCERATE or such. I think part of why I am amused by it is that it gives me a nice political balancing point for all those Nick Cave/ Birthday Party songs I've heard about men murdering women; it is nice to know, in an odd way, that there are women out there (okay, well, one woman, really) who are equally as scary in their own sexuality, and willing to turn the tables. In fact, it troubles me a bit, because as Ms. D shrieks and gibbers and brandishes her weapon, I'm forced to admit that it all kinda turns me on. Yes: Diamanda sings about cutting up men with her knife -- the knife is a recurrent motif on this disc -- and it makes me wanna send her fan mail, thinkin' maybe I might get to meet her someday. This scares me about myself, but it makes the album a pretty interesting place to spend time. She seems to have a pretty good sense of humour about it all, too -- dig the cover pics. I think she and Nick should do an album together, where they sing about how they're gonna murder each other. Or everyone else. Or something. A homicidal battle of the sexes. Wouldn't that be fun?