Rock Classics – The Dreaming / Philip Lynott – Renegade / Ghosts – Journeys to Post Pop

Author:Peter Kearns / Alan Byrne / Matthew Restall

Perhaps not the most obvious choice from Kate’s back catalogue for this series, The Dreaming is one of her more difficult albums and as such is often overlooked in comparison to some of her other releases. Released in late 1982 with its Houdini pastiche artwork, it was a mixture of very disparate styles and influences, with no obvious singles, Sat In Your Lap being the closest to a hit. I think it has actually improved with age, and the likes of the title track and Pull Out The Pin sound better to me today than they did forty odd years ago, although some of the remaining songs are still quite slight, almost throwaway pieces. The book is certainly worth looking out for if you want to find out more about the writing and recording of this record, which I think it’s fair to say, still divides opinion.

Renegade is a revised and updated version of a book that was previously only published in Ireland. Since Lynott’s untimely death in 1986, his legend has continued to flourish, fueled by the plethora of reissues of the key albums in the Thin Lizzy canon. Obviously he was a troubled and tortured soul who lived (and died) the rock star dream, but at their height the band were one of the best around, although that peak was relatively short lived as his powers began to rapidly wane as his drug habit worsened. This is a really good read which also looks at his solo records, but I wish there had been much more detail on the albums themselves which are often rather too briefly skipped over.

Ghosts takes a look at the work of David Sylvian, Mark Hollis and Kate Bush and the influence these three music obsessed London teenagers were to have on the music scene and indeed on modern society as a whole. The book actually focuses far more on Sylvian, with the other two being relegated to slightly more minor roles in the story, but the author follows their careers from the early eighties all the way into the 2000’s, selecting key pieces of their music along the way, and using these to examine the impact on their respective careers and on the music culture of the time. At over two hundred pages long, the book has plenty of detail and insight, and if you’re particularly interested in these artists and the lasting influence their work had then this is well worth seeking out.

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

The work of these artists.

One thing you’ve learned

Some good ideas for stocking fillers in these series.

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