* (restored)
You might ask —
Who is Annette Peacock —
Perhaps I’ve never heard of her —
What is it that she did —
does, —
has yet to do —
Where can she be found?
And I say —
Annette Peacock is over there, ahead, in the distance —
Not quite out of reach —
Not quite waiting —
And also —
That she had me from the first line —
She had me at ‘obsequious holograms’.
“Just For The Kick”, with Coldcut (2003)
This was the first thing of Annette’s that I heard —
Because Marcello Carlin had reviewed Sound Mirrors —
He had said something like “how the HELL did they get her??” —
He had written something else —
About her 1972 album, I’m The One —
Made it sound like a missing link, a martyred prototype —
Altogether too good for this world —
And it was hard to find —
But I got my hands on it somehow —
And he was right —
But there was more:
“My Momma Never Taught Me How To Cook” (1978)
I don’t have much to say about Annette Peacock —
Much that’s particularly intelligent, anyhow —
I’ve written a lot about Annette Peacock —
And it’s all been dreadful —
Not just ‘Dreadful’ but dreadful —
Crap, in fact —
All of it! —
Crap!
Pages and pages of crap —
While attempting to navigate Annette Peacock —
Only to find myself writing about myself —
Weight and revenge —
Male sexual frustration —
Status anxiety —
‘Real and defined androgens’ —
Which isn’t the point of it —
Not even the way her music makes me feel —
Like telling someone about a dream you had —
Or a boyfriend —
Even with diagrams —
It isn’t it —
It just ISN’T THE POINT.
I came to realise —
That if you can’t get to this —
If it doesn’t transfix you with horror —
Longing —
Hunger —
Glee —
Sympathetic conjunctivitis —
Animation of the most penetrating kind —
Nothing I can say will be able to help you —
So I will let it speak for itself.
“young,” (2006)
Treatment for a documentary film —
To be directed by anyone —
Perhaps Werner Herzog —
Annette Peacock leads an expedition —
Carefully selected volunteers —
Fulsome provisions —
No GPS —
A beautiful pea-green boat.
Where are they sailing?
Into the ocean —
No particular ocean —
And when the sun hits the ocean —
Just right —
They disembark —
Onto the shore —
Through the darkened village —
And look up —
Up to Mount Analogue.
“Daddy’s Boat” (1971)
They —
Paul Bley and Annette Peacock —
Had acquired an early Moog —
Acquired it from Moog himself —
Practically a prototype —
“What the fuck is that thing?” —
Said Gary —
But no switching on Bach for Annette —
She began using it in anger —
To transform instruments —
Cymbals, vibraphone, clarinet.
To transform HER VOICE —
1969 —
You can hear it on “Daddy’s Boat” —
And all over I’m The One —
Busily becoming another kind of instrument —
Electricity in the throat —
In the tongue and the lips —
That beautiful voice —
Crackling with threat —
Itself no more.
“I’m The One” (1972)
Many of Annette’s records are hard to find —
Or out of print —
Or both.
The albums recorded with Paul Bley are unobtainable —
I’m The One is out of print —
Which makes no sense at all —
There is a nine disc box set of The Eagles —
In addition to the 29 million copies of Their Greatest Hits —
But no I’m The One.
Sanctuary released a compilation in 2004 —
My Momma Never Taught Me How To Cook —
It combines x-dreams and The Perfect Release —
Also out of print —
It was deleted in 2007 —
But by some distance may be the easiest thing to find.
During the 1980s —
Annette set up her own label —
IRONIC RECORDS —
Her publishing company is called VICIOUS MUSIC —
I Have No Feelings and abstract contact are still available —
From CDBaby —
abstract contact contains ‘Happy With My Hand’ —
& you’ll believe her —
Also available from CDBaby is the 2006 album —
31:31 —
You can preview or purchase them here.
There is a 2000 album recorded for ECM —
an acrobat’s heart —
Annette plays piano and sings —
With the Cikada String Quartet —
From Norway.
An album of Annette’s music was also released in 1997 —
Nothing ever was, anyway —
Marilyn Crispell on piano, with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian —
Just one track with vocals —
Super desolate ballads —
Really fucking good.
More knowledgeable and articulate people than I —
There are a few —
Have written about Annette.
I would encourage you to read their pieces —
Destination OUT wrote about Revenge —
Marcello Carlin wrote about Coldcut and wrote about I’m The One —
And you can read some of Annette’s interviews here —
Fascinating interviews.
Annette Peacock’s official website
Annette Peacock’s CDBaby page.
Annette Peacock’s page at Discogs.com.
Annette Peacock’s Wikipedia page
My picks:
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p.s. Hey. My apologies for the interruption yesterday. After spending a ton of time with a tech guy from my hosting site, I’m assured that everything should work well around here now. Maybe some of the blog’s ongoing bugs coincidentally got fixed in the process. We’ll see. ** Shane Christmass, Hi, Shane. Let me check and see if there are any old AR-G posts that I haven’t already restored. Or I guess I could make a new one, couldn’t I? I’ll try to do something one way or another. Thanks for the suggestion/alert, man. I think all of the old True Detective Magazines I used to buy incessantly and use for research and collaging have crumbled into yellow dust by now. At least the US ones used the cheapest paper ever. Thanks about the podcast, and, obviously, I hope you get re-freed to some pleasurable degree ASAP. ** Milk, Hi, Milk. Yes, O’Hara’s poems are killer. Happy to have occasioned your brain’s and his work’s hopefully passionate affair. ** G, Aw, thanks, pal. Yeah, I should query some presses about a ‘Weaklings XL’ reprint. I’m not sure what the rights situation is. Things are fairly blissful. My visiting friend and I are going to the big annual fun fair in the Tuileries today, so that should work, even though we’re supposedly getting a quick 24-hour return of the heatwave today. And you? Fun galore, I hope? ** Misanthrope, Well, like I said, his fiction books are all out of print, although it’s possible you could snag one or more for a bargain somewhere. His bios are very good. Those are still out there. Gotcha on the difficult/easy front. For better or worse, I seem to be ever more drawn to art that doesn’t fit my preexisting way of seeing things for some reason. I’m still chasing the stars. But, yes, variety is, ugh, the spice of life, albeit what a boring if well-meaning and not entirely incorrect homily. ** David Ehrenstein, Brad’s great, writer-wise and personally. You probably know that ‘The Golden Age of Promiscuity’ was intended to be the first of a two novel ‘cycle’ followed by a novel titled ‘The Silver Age of Death’, but ‘TGAoP’ didn’t sell well, and the second book got cancelled. ** _Black_Acrylic, That is big. Some kind of congrats are in order, it would seem, especially since moves are never permanent unless you want them to be. So you’re a … Leedsian? I suppose that’s not a term. That is one beautiful empty room right there. ** DC, Thanks for letting the people know, bud. ** Right. Here’s a very old, formerly deceased post made the legendary and too long MIA d.l. The Dreadful Flying Glove about the estimable music artist and composer Annette Peacock. Know her work? Well, if not, now you can. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
*
Yeah we’ll be up and about soon. Cases are decreasing here, albeit slowly.
Just been reading the first three chapters of ‘Coin Locker Babies’ – I think I ordered it months ago after reading your interview with him in ‘Smothered in Hugs’ – now that’s an interview/article.
And yes, would be great to have Weaklings XL back in print. Did a deep dive on the internet yesterday to see if I could find G a copy somewhere.
Spent today listening to that Wake Island Podcast. Listened to the Thomas Moore and BR Yeager ones. I got to get ‘Alone’ – P&H to Australia is a Killer. But both ‘In Their Arms’ and ‘A Certain kind of Light’ are two of my favourite books. Diarmund has also been on that podcast. I think it’s relatively new.
Would be great to see a AR-B post of some descript.
Speak soon – btw you seen the movie adaptation of ‘My Friend Dahmer’? Wasn’t expecting much, but they did a good solid adaptation.
Dennis, Hahaha, right?
I think I’m kind of at this point in my life (MY life, not life in general) where I’ve been doing difficult and doom and gloom for so long, I just want/need some easy and bright and light sometimes. I do think easier and brighter and lighter can actually be good art, too. I think it’s probably harder to do it well and have it be good, but I think it’s possible. (Shit, probably talking about my novel there, hoping that, while it’s not my usual stuff, it’s still “good.” Know what I mean?)
But yes, I’m on board with challenging too. Always will be.
Our party for the weekend got canceled. Because of COVID. No, no one has it, and it’s a long story, but essentially, my friend who was sort of the guest of honor (she’s finally back from Misawa, Japan, where her husband was stationed for 2 years) is currently living with her sister until their house is ready to move into. The sister is worried she’ll catch COVID at our 90-degree all-outside party and bring it back and infect her daughter who’s going off to college in a little over a week. (Btw, this sister is usually difficult about everything anyway, so not really unexpected.) Thing is, her daughter probably has a greater chance of catching it at college than she ever will from any one of us (who don’t have it). Oh, well.
That was kind of bummer for me last night and got me down because I was really looking forward to it. But I got a good night’s sleep and feel better now. Onward and upward, as we say. 😀
I didn’t know that about “The Silver Age of Death.” I hope Brad gets around to writing it because the AIDS era is fast disappearing from public consciousness — which is needless to say fickle and easily distracted. Still.
PLEASE contact me about the DVDs, CDs and Books I have for sale ASAP, people.
Hi David! I’m potentially interested. Could you please provide a list of the DVDs and books? 🙂
I was introduced to Annette Peacock’s music through the David Bowie planet. “I’m The One” is an amazing album, and I was shocked to hear her music through Mick Ronson’s first two solo albums. And there is something on Bowie’s late album “Hours” where he takes a bit of her music as well. Bowie never abandons his music influences, he sort of filed-it-away and use it later type of artist. Thanks for the re-introduction of her and music.
Annette Peacock sounds incredible! Listening to her album X-Dreams now…. Great surname also. Awful Bliss by GBV has become an integral part of my everyday playlist too, so thank you for your great music recommendations.
Yes, I’ve had a truly lovely day! Went for a delightful walk and afternoon tea in Hampstead Heath with friends and had some beautiful conversations about literature, including Closer and The Sluts.
Oh, a reprint of The Weakling XL would certainly beautify the poetry scene. And it is much needed. I really hope you’ll get to sort out the rights situations and find a way to get it out in the world again (I hope I’m not coming across as a bit too persistent or something.)
Hope you had the most joyous time at the fun fair! Xxx
DFG is sorely missed, and this Annette Peacock post is up to his usual standards. Essential study right here.
Just did a thing for my writing group, a task to create a story based on an object used in battle. My text is based on the crown of King Penda, who was killed on the fields around here in Leeds back in 650 AD. A fighter is dying and hallucinates a vision of the future, where he sees a few rowdy drinkers in the Cock Beck pub up the road.
Re: ongoing bugs, I was able to see the comments when I opened this page today, so that seems like a big improvement. I hope other people who had the same issue are experiencing it.
I’m not that familiar with Peacock’s work because most of it has been difficult to find. Light in the Attic reissued I’M THE ONE but someone who worked with her told me that she didn’t want to allow it to do any further re-releases. But her use of electronics, especially as a means to distort her voice, was really ahead of its time.
I’ve set up a Bandcamp page for my music, since I’m quickly running out of free space on SoundCloud: callinamagician.bandcamp.com. There are only 3 songs up on it now, but I plan to update it over the next week.
Tomorrow I’m seeing my eye doctor for my 2nd follow-up visit. Unfortunately, my eyes have felt sticky and itchy lately, as though I have conjunctivitis. They look OK in the mirror, though, and my doctor says this can be a normal phase of recovery.
My interview with OTHER MUSIC directors Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller is up at Trouser Press: https://trouserpress.com/other-music-in-a-different-kitchen/
Awesome to see this post again! Wonder what the Glove is up to these days? “I Have No Feelings” is one of my all-time favorite albums. I love how the intimate personal and abstract elements engage in her songs. I transcribed a couple of her songs when I was in a major down period; wonder if I still have the scores.
And great to see the Zombie00 day. A couple years ago I read it on your recommendation. I enjoyed its odd, deadpan narration, and couldn’t quite explain why. I’m also a fan of Gooch’s memoir Smash Cuts.
I mentioned The God in Hackney a few days ago, then suddenly their new album is out!
https://thegodinhackney.bandcamp.com/album/small-country-eclipse
I’m sure you’ve been reading about our wildfires, on top of everything else. The air quality has some smoky moments, but is still much better than Fall 2018’s gruesome smog. And at least we’re already wearing our facemasks this time, haha.
Hope the followup visit goes well, Steve!
Bill