Ben Harper - Both sides of the gun!
Woodstock69
Posts: 56
I just heard the album , and can't take it out of my player : the first CD is totally acoustic and only ballads but the second one is GREAT and very funky . my favourites are "Black rain" a song he wrote about what happened in new orleans , and "Don't talk about murder" is a rock blues country mixture and a geat slide solo! and the best song , one of the best in the Ben Harper catalogue is "Serve your soul" maybe a tribute to "Led Zeppelin" one of his influences , the song recalls one of their hits "No quarter" excelent album !!
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I found that to be a bit odd.
No it's comming out tommorow i think! I got a copy from a friend who's working in a Rock Magazine ! they recieved it last week for reviews !!!
I'll have to give it a listen.
After listening again, that tune is on one of the reg discs, too. The bonus is a live acoustic version. This is frustrating; I need my music loud and I'm stuck at work. Sucks to buy a new CD and not be able to really hear it right yet. Boo-hoo for Ott.
-Shakespeare
Anyway, I liked my first listen
I was pumped I got to hear it early too!!!!
"Sorry is the fool who trades his love for high-rise rent, Seems the more you make equals the loneliness you get"
.NJD.
Mansfield 98 x 2
Mansfield 00 x2
Mansfield 03 x 3
Boston 04 VFC x 2
Hartford 06
Boston 06 x 2
Hartford 08
Mansfield 08 x 2
EV Boston 08 x 2
Hartford 10
Boston 10
EV Providence 11
EV Boston 11
EV Hartford 11
Worcester 13 x 2
Hartford 13
Buffalo 13
Baltimore 13
Fenway 2016 x 2
Hot Stove 2017
Fenway 2018 x 2
I like the music on that disc, good stuff. It feels a lot like the majority of "Diamonds on the Inside" which is an album I love, so that is a good thing. Haven't listened to the entire other disc yet(the slower/love song one), but it sounds like it will be good.
They had a special edition with a 3rd disc, but it was double the price for just one extra disc(only 6 songs). Too bad, I would have liked to pick it up, but not at that price.
I bought the Special Edition with the bonus disc
I'm so excited !!!!
"Sorry is the fool who trades his love for high-rise rent, Seems the more you make equals the loneliness you get"
.NJD.
Some die just to live.
London 28/10/96, Las Vegas 11/7/98, London 29/5/00, Nurnburg 11/6/00, Prague 14/6/00, Salzburg 18/6/00, Verona 20/6/00, Milan 22/6/00, Zurich 23/6/00, New York 8-9/7/03, Boston 11/7/03, Reading Festival 27/8/06, Shepards Bush 11/8/09, Berlin 15/8/09, Manchester 17/8/09, London 18/8/09, Dublin 22/6/10, Belfast 23/6/10, London (HRC) 25/6/10, Alpine Valley (PJ20) 3-4/9/11, Manchester 20-21/6/12, Leeds 8/7/14, Milton Keynes 11/7/14 To be continued....
But I listened to the second disc of Ben's and it was like putting on music from yesteryear where nobody cared if the album sounded the same from song to song. Right on Mr. Harper!
I currently cannot get passed...
*Picture In A Frame
*Reason To Mourn
*Crying Won't Help You Now
I love this man! This album SHINES and I know it's only gonna get brighter and brighter with each listen.
"Lo√e, you know the word
...YOU invented it!" ~ E√
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤
...::STONE--YOU--OWN!::...
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I still like the rocking/funky/war/hate/black/whatever disc a little more right now. I love his style of rock and he gives 9 really good examples of it on that disc.
Good album overall, it beats my expectations so far.
Speaking of hearing other songs in some of the songs...I keep hearing You Shook me all night long ~ AC/DC in Engraved Invitation.
Better Way ~> L-O-L-A...LOLA
But his style really is all his own. There's so many layers to it! I'm loving the variety of sound in this gem!! Yeah, the way he set it up to flow like this too is brilliant! Makes you really appreciate that imo.
*sigh*
Ah Ben! You're beautiful.
"Lo√e, you know the word
...YOU invented it!" ~ E√
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤
...::STONE--YOU--OWN!::...
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
agree...great 3 disc set!
So is he?
When he was six he believed that the moon overhead followed him.
By nine he had deciphered the illusion trading magic for fact.
No tradebacks...
So this is what it's like to be an adult
If he only knew now what he knew then...
So far, I've heard the hard/rock disc from "Both Sides of the Gun". I like "Black Rain", "Better Way", "Gather Round the Stone", and "The Way You Found Me". "Please Don't Talk About..." is growing on me, though I've heard various others wearing their Stones' influences on their sleeves and sound far more energetic doing it. I appreciate "Get It Like You Like It", a Wallflowers-esque number, but the lyrics annoy me and I'm not even a Yankees fan. Of course, I don't like Fogerty's "Center Field" so my track record with baseball songs isn't good I guess. My take on the harder disc is that ultimately Ben is still a little too mellow for his own good. He's at his best with mid-tempo numbers, both musically and vocally, no matter what genre he's dabbling in. However, when he tries to go beyond that (and even sometimes when it's still just a mid-tempo number) to my ear it sounds like every facet of the song could use a real kick in the ass. Do you really ask Cat Stevens to crank it up to 11 though? For what it is I did like around 6 of 9 songs. That's not bad. Plus, I respect and agree with what he's saying in "Black Rain", "Better Way", and "Gather Round the Stone". That doesn't hurt.
Shows:
7/2/98 8/18/00 8/20/00 8/21/00 4/21/03(Home town) 4/25/00 - cancelled:( 6/19/03 6/22/03 10/2/04 10/6/04
Is anybody else having this problem? I just tried to rip a song from it to my computer and it works fine without any problems at all. Is mine defective or what? I got the standard version by the way.
That is exactly how I feel. I got into him from Live From Mars and I tried to go back into his older stuff, but it didn't work for me. The songs are much better on "Mars" than they are in the studio IMO. So I could never get into any studio albums pre-Diamonds on the Inside. I love Diamonds on the Inside though, my first new album I got to experience as a fan, really good stuff.
And I agree about what Ben is saying on the "rocking" disc. Whether or not you agree with his views, you have to respect that he is putting them out there in a completely to-the-point manner, almost all of those songs are obviously about politics. Many artists(Pearl Jam included) have strong views on these things, but only scatter one or two songs about them into their albums. Maybe that is a good thing, but I still respect Harper for coming out so strong on that disc and never letting up.
Same here, but I also like Burn to Shine. Both Sides of the Gun is my favorite album so far though
Some die just to live.
holy crap, I was and still am listening to Serve Your Soul as I read your post, great f'ing album, and Serve Your Soul is my fav on the second disc. the third disc is next with alternate versions, if you bought the special edition. Every song on the first disc is really deep, and the second disc is very funky like others have said. good stuff....
Stop by:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14678777351&ref=mf
More Than Sorry is really doing it for me, and this album is so special already
"Sorry is the fool who trades his love for high-rise rent, Seems the more you make equals the loneliness you get"
.NJD.
He pulled this off way better than the Foos. Excellent.
I just got it yesterday, I'm on my third time through now, liking it more and more each time