I was listening to this track again last night in quite an imbibed state, and maybe it's whats going on in the world right now, but I find that it's still one of the greatest rock n' roll jams ever put onto tape, still to this day. I find it even more incredible that the song, if not the album WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT, still stands as some sort of 'pornographic' form of rock. Here in Australia the album rarely gets played on radio, and is still sort of banned by our 'youth' station JJJ that supports 'alternative' music by they toilet-load.
But getting back to Sister Ray itself, on closer listening, it's actually quite a funky, rollicking one-chord jam, and I'm not sure if it was released before the Kinks 'you really got me', but there's some sort of influence in there..Despite it's 'surface' ramshackly 'sound' there interplay underneath is remarkable, especially Sterling Morrison's 'badass' guitar licks and runs, and Cales' keyboards are defintely coming from sort bizarre religious exalted state. But the lyrics of the song itself represents one of the purest interfaces of mod-urban-paganism ever put into a track in pop music, something the techno music couldn't do, coz it didin't really have lyrics...
But yep, SISTER RAY, what a jam, you can listen to Can and Television and Lil Louis or SOnic Youth for transcendent time-stopping moments in pop music, but if you can tell me any jams that are as transcendent AND 'dirty' as Sister Ray, I'll shout you the bar! Cheers
But getting back to Sister Ray itself, on closer listening, it's actually quite a funky, rollicking one-chord jam, and I'm not sure if it was released before the Kinks 'you really got me', but there's some sort of influence in there..Despite it's 'surface' ramshackly 'sound' there interplay underneath is remarkable, especially Sterling Morrison's 'badass' guitar licks and runs, and Cales' keyboards are defintely coming from sort bizarre religious exalted state. But the lyrics of the song itself represents one of the purest interfaces of mod-urban-paganism ever put into a track in pop music, something the techno music couldn't do, coz it didin't really have lyrics...
But yep, SISTER RAY, what a jam, you can listen to Can and Television and Lil Louis or SOnic Youth for transcendent time-stopping moments in pop music, but if you can tell me any jams that are as transcendent AND 'dirty' as Sister Ray, I'll shout you the bar! Cheers