Eno/Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1 Viewer)

[Jimmy Nugent]

I was very excited when I first read that this incredible work was being remastered. Now that it has been released I can say that I'm ecstatic!

The new mastering has allowed much more of the album's intricacies to shine through. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear an extended (by an additional 43 seconds) version of "The Carrier".

The icing on the cake, of course, is the inclusion of extra tracks culled, I'm assuming, from the original recording sessions. Wonderful stuff.

My enthusiasm for this reissue is only tempered by the fact that "Qu'ran" is MIA. This song was lost from the original issue on subsequent reprints due to indirect pressure from Muslims because the song features readings from the Qu'ran. I fortunately have an original cd that includes the song. One of my truly prized possessions...

Despite knowing this album forwards and backwards, I look forward to discovering it all over again!

Anyone else picked this up?

Jimmy

 

[CarlP]

Big demand for this title. I went to purchase this at Electric Fetus yesterday and they were sold out. I talked with one of the main guys who told me the sold 18 copies in one day!
Pretty ridiculous about the omission of Qur'ran. First Danish Newspapers, then poor Brian Eno!!!! Hopefully I can track down a used copy with this song. I remember this was a cool tune that was not on my British pressing.

 

[BrianB]

Actually, the other way around. The track was dropped from reprints a while back - it's not a new thing specific to this release.

 

[Doug Otte]

I knew better from previous pre-orders, but I pre-ordered it from Deep Discount CD. They haven't shipped yet. Oh, well. I waited about 2 months after release date before receiving Kate Bush's Aerial from them.



Every item I've read over the years stated that they removed Qu'ran voluntarily without any pressure from anyone. They felt it might offend Muslims and proactively did the polite thing. What is your source that they were pressured? Anyway, even when I get the remaster, I'll be keeping my original vinyl and CD so I'll have that track.

Regards,
Doug

 

[Jimmy Nugent]

Yes, you are correct. The song was removed voluntarily so as not to elicit a Fatwah, which were being issued seemingly left and right at the time against anyone who mentioned, suggested or hinted at anything to do with Allah or Muslims. Hence the "indirect" pressure to remove the song. In today's climate it probably would have been even riskier, though I honestly don't understand how a song qouting the Qu'ran can be perceived as blasphemous.

On a semi-related note- I'd like to suggest another album to anyone who appreciates "My Life...". It's a collaboration between unlikely artists that I've always admired individually and was astounded by what they accomplished as a team. They would be the Canadian multi-instrumentalist Micheal Brook and Pakistani Qwalli singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (recently deceased).

The album is "Night Song". Densly layered soundscapes with eerily beautiful vocals that always pack an emotional wallop for me. Then again, anything Nusrat has done has always effected me viscerally. Though in no way a religious person, his praises of devotion seem to me to evoke what a believer might consider an "epiphany". Truly beautiful stuff.

Jimmy

ps-Oddly enough, Nasrat's vocalizations on Night Song are not his typical praises to the "Almighty". He apparently considered it blasphemous to sing praises to a musical backing that wasn't traditional as on most of his solo work. So if I recall correctly, the singing on "Night Song" are just sounds for sounds sake, not neccessarily actual words. I may however be remembering this incorrectly...