Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy

Brian Eno

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 31, 1990)
• Original Release Date: November 1974
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: E.G. Records
• ASIN: B000003S0R
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,735 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Burning Airlines Give You So Much More

2. Back in Judy's Jungle

3. Fat Lady of Limbourg

4. Mother Whale Eyeless

5. Great Pretender

6. Third Uncle

7. Put a Straw Under Baby

8. True Wheel

9. China My China

10. Taking Tiger Mountain

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spy Games, April 4, 2003

By	Greg Cleary (Marquette, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amid all the discussion of Eno's innovations, people sometimes forget that he has the one quality that REALLY matters for a musician: personality. I can't vouch for his "ambient" works because I've never had the patience to listen to anything like that, but the four "song" albums he made in the 70s are loaded with personality. Eno could be weird and idiosyncratic, but there is also plenty of humor and even warmth in this music. And "Taking Tiger Mountain" was his greatest achievement, in my opinion.

There is something weird and mysterious going on in every one of these songs, many of which refer to some sort of quest. The overall feel is something like that of a child playing spy games, although often the imagery is disturbing or menacing in a way that no child could have imagined. Memorable phrases are constantly jumping out at you:

"Certain streets have certain corners
Sooner or later we'll turn yours."

"Sweet Regina's on the plane a Newsweek on her knees
While far below the curlews call from strangely stunted trees."

"Let me just point out discreetly though you never learn.
All those tawdry late night weepies I can make you weep more cheaply."

And then there's the sinister lullaby "Put a Straw Under Baby," which I've learned was inspired by Eno's Catholic upbringing and can be read as a child's misinterpretation of religious symbolism.

The music all has a weird texture, even though most of it was produced by traditional rock and roll instruments. "Third Uncle" and "The True Wheel" both contain some truly wicked, flipped-out lead guitar work by Phil Manzanera. The entire album is filled with catchy pop melodies and instrumental hooks that will draw you in immediately, and there is plenty of detail in both sound and words to keep you coming back time after time. This is one of the most treasured albums in my collection.

(Note to Eno fans: If you have not read Eric Tamm's book "Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound," you need to get ahold of a copy, whether at a library or on the Web. I believe it is out of print. It's one of the best books I've read about a musician or group.)

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiger Mountain...gives you so much more, November 12, 2001

By	Doug Anderson (Miami Beach, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Lyrically Eno plays little narrative games,"...and the opium farmers sell dreams to obscure fraternities...down in the orchard monkeys and uncles p-laying their games like it seems they always have done....China my China I wandered around for years and you're still here"(China my China).
Musically the sounds are a mix of the familiar Manzanera guitar and Mackay sax(his two old Roxy Music chums)but also unfamiliar Eno synthesizers which make some very appealing noise and various other unfamiliar aural delights from all manner of unidentifiable sources.
There are so many lyric devices and different sounds that this album feels like a catalogue or manual. Perhaps the Eno equivalent of the Little Red Book.
The beautiful synthesizer phrasings on the closing number Taking Tiger Mountain could easily fit on Another Green World.
Other songs are pure pop heaven though, when Eno sings "Looking for a certain ratio-o-o-o" you can hear that he has learned something from Bryan Ferry. A vocal style Talking Heads' David Byrne will also use.
Fat Lady of Limbourg is perhaps the star of the show but not by much as every song is a winning combination of odd verse and even odder backing noises. Though its experimental its also fun and listenable as any pop record if not more so. There is plenty here to challenge the playful mind that always is looking for something new, Enos sound terrains are always intriguing, and also there is humor, especially in the words, and a great sense of wandering into the unknown because logical thinking and music making patterns have been left behind. Although familiar things keep popping up, like references to Japan or China, and cold war spy apparatus like microcameras and spectrographs, they are merely there to add drama and a touch of reality c.1974, but only a touch. Tiger Mountain is not to be located on a map.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 30 years on-still fresh and interesting, February 9, 2005

By	susan petry (durham, nc USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy (Audio CD)

This CD has been on my list of all time favorites since it was released-on LP. The dense, intricate musicianship, the songwriting, the concept-all feel clever and hardly dated even after all these years. Tight guitar work from Phil Manzanera and the Portsmouth Sinfonia's violins pepper this recording with hidden surprises. Eno's lyrics convey just the right touch of world-weariness edged with sly humor. At the time of its release-Nixon's visit and the US' first glimpse of China-it matched up well with the image of China as a mysterious, somewhat inaccessible, ancient and strange land.

That Eno's recapitulation of the "wall of sound" took place well before the advent of the digital era-if I recall correctly his main tool was a pair of reel-to-reel tapedecks- is astonishing. Even more worth a listen on the cleaned up audio. About the only thing missing from the original LP version are the endless crickets at the end of "The Great Pretender" as the needle wound down around the plinth!