Muhammad Ali
Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that every profession is great that is greatly pursued. Boxing in the early '60s, largely controlled by the Mob, was in a moribund state until Muhammad Ali — Cassius Clay, in those days — appeared on the scene. "Just when the sweet science appears to lie like a painted ship upon a painted ocean," wrote A.J. Liebling, "a new Hero...comes along like a Moran tug to pull it out of the ocean."
Though Ali won the gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960, at the time the experts didn't think much of his boxing skills. His head, eyes wide, seemed to float above the action. Rather than slip a punch, the traditional defensive move, it was his habit to sway back, bending at the waist — a tactic that appalled the experts. Lunacy.
Nor did they approve of his personal behavior: the self-promotions ("I am the greatest!"), his affiliation with the Muslims and giving up his "slave name" for Muhammad Ali ("I don't have to be what you want me to be; I'm free to be what I want"), the poetry (his ability to compose rhymes on the run could very well qualify him as the first rapper) or the quips ("If Ali says a mosquito can pull a plow, don't ask how. Hitch him up!"). At the press conferences, the reporters were sullen. Ali would turn on them. "Why ain't you taking notice?" or "Why ain't you laughing?"
It was odd that they weren't. He was an engaging combination of sass and sweetness and naivete. His girlfriend disclosed that the first time he was kissed, he fainted. Merriment always seemed to be bubbling just below the surface, even when the topics were somber. When reporters asked about his affiliation with Islam, he joked that he was going to have four wives: one to shine his shoes, one to feed him grapes, one to rub oil on his muscles and one named Peaches. In his boyhood he was ever the prankster and the practical joker. His idea of fun was to frighten his parents — putting a sheet over his head and jumping out at them from a closet, or tying a string to a bedroom curtain and making it move after his parents had gone to bed.
The public as well had a hard time accepting him. His fight for the heavyweight championship in Miami against Sonny Liston was sparsely attended. Indeed, public sentiment was for Liston, a Mob-controlled thug, to take care of the lippy upstart. Liston concurred, saying he was going to put his fist so far down his opponent's throat, he was going to have trouble removing it.
Then, of course, three years after Ali defended the championship, there came the public vilification for his refusal to join the Army during the Vietnam War — "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong" — one of the more telling remarks of the era. The government prosecuted him for draft dodging, and the boxing commissions took away his license. He was idle for 3 1/2 years at the peak of his career. In 1971 the Supreme Court ruled that the government had acted improperly. But Ali bore the commissions no ill will. There were no lawsuits to get his title back through the courts. No need, he said, to punish them for doing what they thought was right. Quite properly, in his mind, he won back the title in the ring, knocking out George Foreman in the eighth round of their fight in Zaire — the "Rumble in the Jungle."
Ali was asked on a television show what he would have done with his life, given a choice. After an awkward pause — a rare thing, indeed — he admitted he couldn't think of anything other than boxing. That is all he had ever wanted or wished for. He couldn't imagine anything else. He defended boxing as a sport: "You don't have to be hit in boxing. People don't understand that."
He was wrong. Joe Frazier, speaking of their fight, said he had hit Ali with punches that would have brought down a building. Coaxed into fights by his managers long after he should have retired, and perhaps because he loved the sport too much to leave it, Ali ended up being punished by the likes of Leon Spinks and Larry Holmes, who took little pleasure in what they were doing.
Oscar Wilde once suggested that you kill the thing you love. In Ali's case, it was the reverse: what he loved, in a sense, killed him. The man who was the most loquacious of athletes ("I am the onliest of boxing's poet laureates") now says almost nothing: he moves slowly through the crowds and signs autographs. He has probably signed more autographs than any other athlete ever, living or dead. It is his principal activity at home, working at his desk. He was once denied an autograph by his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson ("Hello, kid, how ya doin'? I ain't got time"), and vowed he would never turn anyone down. The volume of mail is enormous.
The ceremonial leave-taking of great athletes can impart indelible memories, even if one remembers them from the scratchy newsreels of time — Babe Ruth with the doffed cap at home plate, Lou Gehrig's voice echoing in the vast hollows of Yankee Stadium. Muhammad Ali's was not exactly a leave-taking, but it may have seemed so to the estimated 3 billion or so television viewers who saw him open the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Outfitted in a white gym suit that eerily made him seem to glisten against a dark night sky, he approached the unlit saucer with his flaming torch, his free arm trembling visibly from the effects of Parkinson's.
It was a kind of epiphany that those who watched realized how much they missed him and how much he had contributed to the world of sport. Students of boxing will pore over the trio of Ali-Frazier fights, which rank among the greatest in fistic history, as one might read three acts of a great drama. They would remember the shenanigans, the Ali Shuffle, the Rope-a-Dope, the fact that Ali had brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports. And they would marvel that through the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he had become the most famous athlete, indeed, the best-known personage in the world
Though Ali won the gold medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960, at the time the experts didn't think much of his boxing skills. His head, eyes wide, seemed to float above the action. Rather than slip a punch, the traditional defensive move, it was his habit to sway back, bending at the waist — a tactic that appalled the experts. Lunacy.
Nor did they approve of his personal behavior: the self-promotions ("I am the greatest!"), his affiliation with the Muslims and giving up his "slave name" for Muhammad Ali ("I don't have to be what you want me to be; I'm free to be what I want"), the poetry (his ability to compose rhymes on the run could very well qualify him as the first rapper) or the quips ("If Ali says a mosquito can pull a plow, don't ask how. Hitch him up!"). At the press conferences, the reporters were sullen. Ali would turn on them. "Why ain't you taking notice?" or "Why ain't you laughing?"
It was odd that they weren't. He was an engaging combination of sass and sweetness and naivete. His girlfriend disclosed that the first time he was kissed, he fainted. Merriment always seemed to be bubbling just below the surface, even when the topics were somber. When reporters asked about his affiliation with Islam, he joked that he was going to have four wives: one to shine his shoes, one to feed him grapes, one to rub oil on his muscles and one named Peaches. In his boyhood he was ever the prankster and the practical joker. His idea of fun was to frighten his parents — putting a sheet over his head and jumping out at them from a closet, or tying a string to a bedroom curtain and making it move after his parents had gone to bed.
The public as well had a hard time accepting him. His fight for the heavyweight championship in Miami against Sonny Liston was sparsely attended. Indeed, public sentiment was for Liston, a Mob-controlled thug, to take care of the lippy upstart. Liston concurred, saying he was going to put his fist so far down his opponent's throat, he was going to have trouble removing it.
Then, of course, three years after Ali defended the championship, there came the public vilification for his refusal to join the Army during the Vietnam War — "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong" — one of the more telling remarks of the era. The government prosecuted him for draft dodging, and the boxing commissions took away his license. He was idle for 3 1/2 years at the peak of his career. In 1971 the Supreme Court ruled that the government had acted improperly. But Ali bore the commissions no ill will. There were no lawsuits to get his title back through the courts. No need, he said, to punish them for doing what they thought was right. Quite properly, in his mind, he won back the title in the ring, knocking out George Foreman in the eighth round of their fight in Zaire — the "Rumble in the Jungle."
Ali was asked on a television show what he would have done with his life, given a choice. After an awkward pause — a rare thing, indeed — he admitted he couldn't think of anything other than boxing. That is all he had ever wanted or wished for. He couldn't imagine anything else. He defended boxing as a sport: "You don't have to be hit in boxing. People don't understand that."
He was wrong. Joe Frazier, speaking of their fight, said he had hit Ali with punches that would have brought down a building. Coaxed into fights by his managers long after he should have retired, and perhaps because he loved the sport too much to leave it, Ali ended up being punished by the likes of Leon Spinks and Larry Holmes, who took little pleasure in what they were doing.
Oscar Wilde once suggested that you kill the thing you love. In Ali's case, it was the reverse: what he loved, in a sense, killed him. The man who was the most loquacious of athletes ("I am the onliest of boxing's poet laureates") now says almost nothing: he moves slowly through the crowds and signs autographs. He has probably signed more autographs than any other athlete ever, living or dead. It is his principal activity at home, working at his desk. He was once denied an autograph by his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson ("Hello, kid, how ya doin'? I ain't got time"), and vowed he would never turn anyone down. The volume of mail is enormous.
The ceremonial leave-taking of great athletes can impart indelible memories, even if one remembers them from the scratchy newsreels of time — Babe Ruth with the doffed cap at home plate, Lou Gehrig's voice echoing in the vast hollows of Yankee Stadium. Muhammad Ali's was not exactly a leave-taking, but it may have seemed so to the estimated 3 billion or so television viewers who saw him open the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Outfitted in a white gym suit that eerily made him seem to glisten against a dark night sky, he approached the unlit saucer with his flaming torch, his free arm trembling visibly from the effects of Parkinson's.
It was a kind of epiphany that those who watched realized how much they missed him and how much he had contributed to the world of sport. Students of boxing will pore over the trio of Ali-Frazier fights, which rank among the greatest in fistic history, as one might read three acts of a great drama. They would remember the shenanigans, the Ali Shuffle, the Rope-a-Dope, the fact that Ali had brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports. And they would marvel that through the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he had become the most famous athlete, indeed, the best-known personage in the world
Rahasia Bulan Kelahiran
JANUARI
Bercita-cita tinggi dan orangnya serius, suka mendidik dan dididik.
Sangat mudah melihat kelemahan orang dan suka mengkritik.
Rajin dan setiap yang dibuat nampak keuntungan.
Suka pada kecantikan, kekemasan dan teratur.
Bersifat sensitif dan berfikiran mendalam.
Pandai mengambil hati orang lain.
Pendiam kecuali telah dirangsang.
Agak pemalu dan mempunyai daya tumpuan yang sangat tinggi.
Mudah mendisiplinkan diri sendiri.
Badannya sihat tetapi mudah diserang selsema.
Bersikap romantik tetapi tidak pandai memperlihatkannya.
Cukup sayang pada kanak-kanak.
Suka duduk di rumah.
Setia pada segala-galanya.
Perlu belajar kemahiran bersosial.
Sifat cemburu yang sangat tinggi
FEBRUARI
Berfikiran abstrak.
Sukakan benda yang realiti dan abstrak.
Bijak dan pintar
Berwatakan yang mudah berubah.
Mudah menawan orang lain.
Agak pendiam.
Pemalu dan rendah diri.
Jujur dan setia pada segalanya.
Keras hati untuk mencapai matlamat.
Tidak suka dikongkong.
Mudah memberontak apabila dikongkong.
Suka kegiatan yang lasak.
Emosinya mudah terluka dan sangat sensitif.
Mudah mempamerkan marahnya.
Tidak suka benda yang remeh-temeh.
Suka berkawan tapi kurang mempamerkannya.
Sangat berani dan suka memberontak.
Bercita-cita tinggi, suka berangan-angan dan ada harapan untuk merealisasikan impiannya.
Pemerhatian yang tajam.
Suka hiburan dan sukan.
Suka benda yang bersifat seni.
Sangat romantik pada dalaman tetapi tidak pada luaran.
Berkecenderungan pada benda yang tahyul.
Amat mudah dan boleh menjadi terlalu boros.
Belajar untuk mempamerkan emosi
MARET
Berkepribadian menarik dan menawan.
Mudah didampingi.
Sangat pemalu dan pemendam rasa.
Sangat baik secara semulajadi, jujur pemurah dan mudah simpati.
Sangat sensitif pada perkataan yang dituturkan dan alam persekitaran.
Suka pada kedamaian.
Sangat peka pada orang lain.
Sesuai dengan kerjaya yang memberi khidmat kepada orang lain.
Tidak cepat marah dan sangat amanah.
Tahu membalas dan mengenang budi.
Pemerhatian dan penilaian yang sangat tajam.
Kecenderungan untuk berdendam jika tidak dikawal.
Suka berangan-angan.
Suka melancong.
Sangat manja dan suka diberi perhatian yang sangat tinggi.
Kelam kabut dalam memilih pasangan.
Suka dengan hiasan rumahtangga.
Punya bakat seni dalalm bidang muzik.
Kecenderungan pada benda yang istimewa dan baik.
Jangan terlalu mengikut selera atau perasaan
APRIL
Sangat aktif dan dinamik.
Cepat bertindak membuat keputusan tetapi cepat menyesal.
Sangat menarik dan pandai menjaga diri.
Punya daya mental yang sangat kuat.
Suka diberi perhatian.
Sangat diplomatik (pandai memujuk ).
Berkawan dan pandai menyelesaikan masalah orang.
Sangat berani dan tiada perasaan takut.
Suka perkara yang mencabar, pengasih, penyayang, sopan santun dan pemurah.
Emosi cepat terusik.
Cuba kawal perasaan.
Kecenderungan bersifat pendendam.
Agresif dan kelam kabut dalam membuat keputusan.
Kuat daya ingatan.
Gerak hati yang sangat kuat.
Pandai mendorong diri sendiri dan memotivasikan orang lain.
Berpenyakit disekitar kepala dan dada.
Sangat cemburu dan terlalu cemburu
MEI
Keras hati & tegas.
Kuat semangat & bermotivasi tinggi.
Pemikiran yang tajam.
Mudah marah apabila tidak dikawal.
Pandai menarik hati & perhatian orang lain.
Perasaan yang amat mendalam.
Cantik dari segi mental & fizikal.
Tidak perlu dimotivasikan.
Tetap pendirian, tetapi mudah dipengaruhi oleh orang lain.
Mudah dipujuk.
Bersikap sistematik (otak kiri).
Suka berangan.
Kuat daya firasat memahami apa yang terlintas di hati orang lain tanpa diberitahu.
Bahagian telinga & leher mudah diserang penyakit.
Daya khayalan yang tinggi.
Permikiran yang tajam.
Pandai berdebat.
Fizikal yang baik.
Kelemahan sistem pernafasan.
Suka sastera, seni & muzik serta melancong.
Tidak berapa suka duduk di rumah.
Tidak boleh duduk diam.
Tidak punya ramai anak.
Rajin dan bersemangat tinggi.
Agak boros
JUNI
Berfikiran jauh & berwawasan.
Mudah ditawan kerana sikap baik.
Berperangai lemah lembut.
Mudah berubah sikap, perangai, idea dan mood.
Idea yang terlalu banyak di kepala.
Bersikap sensitif.
Mempunyai pemikiran yang aktif (sentiasa berfikir).
Sukar melakukan sesuatu dengan segera.
Bersikap suka menangguh-nangguh.
Bersikap terlalu memilih & mahukan yang terbaik.
Cepat marah & cepat sejuk.
Suka bercakap & berdebat.
Suka buat lawak & bergurau.
Otaknya cerdas berangan-angan.
Mudah berkawan & pandai berkawan.
Seorang yang sangat tertib.
Pandai mempamerkan sikap.
Mudah kecil hati.
Mudah kena selsema.
Suka berkemas.
Cepat rasa bosan.
Sikap terlalu memilih & cerewet.
Kurang mempamerkan perasaan.
Lambat untuk sembuh apabila terluka hati.
Suka pada barang yang berjenama.
Mudah menjadi eksekutif.
Kedegilan yang tidak terkawal.
Sesiapa yang memuji, dianggap musuh. Siapa yang menegur dianggap kawan.
JULI
Sangat suka didamping.
Banyak berahsia dan sukar dimengerti terutamanya lelaki.
Agak pendiam kecuali dirangsang.
Ada harga dan maruah diri.
Tak suka menyusahkan orang lain tapi tidak marah apabila disusahkan.
Mudah dipujuk dan bercakap lurus.
Sangat menjaga hati orang lain.
Sangat peramah.
Emosi sangat mendalam tapi mudah terluka hatinya.
Berjiwa sentimental.
Jarang berdendam.
Mudah memaafkan tapi sukar melupakan.
Tidak suka benda remeh-temeh.
Membimbing cara fizikal dan mental.
Sangat peka, mengambil berat dan mengasihi serta penyayang.
Layanan yang serupa terhadap semua orang.
Tinggi daya simpati.
Pemerhatian yang tajam.
Suka menilai orang lain melalui pemerhatian.
Mudah dan rajin belajar.
Suka muhasabah diri.
Suka mengenangkan peristiwa atau kawan lama.
Suka mendiamkan diri.
Suka duduk di rumah.
Suka tunggu kawan tapi tak cari kawan.
Tidak agresif kecuali terpaksa.
Lemah dari segi kesihatan perut.
Mudah gemuk kalau tak kawal diet.
Minta disayangi.
Mudah terluka hati tapi lambat pulih.
Terlalu mengambil berat.
Rajin dalam membuat kerja
AGUSTUS
Suka berlawak.
Mudah tertawan padanya.
Sopan santun dan mengambil berat terhadap orang lain.
Berani dan tidak tahu takut.
Orangnya agak tegas & bersikap kepimpinan.
Pandai memujuk orang lain.
Terlalu pemurah & bersikap ego.
Nilai harga diri yang sangat tinggi.
Dahagakan pujian.
Semangat juang yang luar biasa.
Cepat marah & mudah mengamuk.
Mudah marah apabila cakapnya dilawan.
Sangat cemburu.
Daya pemerhatian yang tajam & teliti.
Cepat berfikir.
Fikiran yang berdikari.
Suka memimpin & dipimpin.
Sifat suka berangan.
Berbakat dalam seni lukis, hiburan & silat.
Sangat sensitif tapi tidak mudah merajuk.
Cepat sembuh apabila ditimpa penyakit.
Belajar untuk bertenang.
Sikap kelam kabut.
Romantik, pengasih dan penyayang.
Suka mencari kawan
SEPTEMBER
Sangat bersopan santun & bertolak ansur.
Sangat cermat, teliti & teratur.
Suka menegur kesilapan orang lain & mengkritik.
Pendiam tapi pandai bercakap.
Sikap sangat cool, sangat baik & mudah simpati.
Sangat perihatin & terperinci, amanah, setia & jujur.
Kerja yang dilakukan sangat sempurna.
Sangat sensitif yang tidak diketahui.
Seorang yang banyak berfikir.
Daya pentaakulan yang baik.
Otak bijak & mudah belajar.
Suka mencari maklumat.
Kawal diri dari terlalu mengkritik.
Pandai mendorong diri sendiri.
Mudah memahami orang lain kerana banyak menyimpan rahsia.
Suka sukan, hiburan & melancong.
Kurang menunjukkan perasaannya.
Terluka hatinya sangat lama disimpan.
Terlalu memilih pasangan.
Sukakan benda yang luas.
Bersistematik
OKTOBER
Suka berbual.
Suka orang yang sayang padanya.
Suka ambil jln tengah.
Sangat menawan & sopan santun.
Kecantikan luar & dalam.
Tidak pandai berbohong & berpura-pura.
Mudah rasa simpati, baik dan mementingkan kawan.
Sentiasa berkawan.
Hatinya mudah terusik tetapi merajuknya tak lama.
Cepat marah.
Macam pentingkan diri sendiri.
Tidak menolong orang kecuali diminta.
Suka melihat dari perspektifnya sendiri.
Tidak suka terima pandangan orang lain.
Emosi yang mudah terusik.
Suka berangan & pandai bercakap.
Emosi yang kelam kabut.
Daya firasat yang sangat kuat (terutamanya perempuan).
Suka melancong, bidang sastera & seni.
Pengasih, penyayang & lemah lembut.
Romantik dalam percintaan.
Mudah terusik hati & cemburu.
Ambil berat tentang orang lain.
Suka kegiatan luar.
Seorang yang adil.
Boros & mudah dipengaruhi persekitaran.
Mudah patah semangat
NOVEMBER
Banyak idea dalam perkara.
Sukar untuk dimengertikan atau difahami sikapnya.
Berfikiran kehadapan.
Berfikiran unik dan bijak.
Penuh dengan idea-idea baru yang luarbiasa.
Pemikiran yang tajam.
Daya firasat yang sangat halus dan tinggi.
Sesuai jadi seorang doktor.
Cermat dan teliti.
Personaliti yang dinamik.
Sifat yang berahsia, pandai mencungkil dan mencari rahsia.
Banyak berfikir, kurang bercakap tetapi mesra.
Berani, pemurah setia dan banyak kesabaran.
Terlalu degil dan keras hati.
Apabila berkehendak sesuatu, akan diusahakan sehingga berjaya.
Tak suka marah kecuali digugat.
Mudah ambil berat terhadap orang lain.
Pandai muhasabah diri.
Cara berfikir yang lain dari orang lain.
Otak yang sangat tajam.
Pandai mendorong diri sendiri.
Tidak hargai pujian.
Kekuatan semangat dan daya juang yang sangat tinggi apabila berkehendak sesuatu.
Cuba sampai berjaya.
Badan yang sasa.
Kasih sayang dan emosi yang sangat mendalam dan romantik.
Tidak pasti dengan hubungan kasih sayang.
Suka duduk d irumah.
Sangat rajin dan berkemampuan tinggi.
Amanah, jujur, setia dan pandai berahsia.
Tidak berapa berjaya dalam mengawal emosi.
Bercita-cita tinggi.
Perangai tidak dapat diramal dan mudah berubah-ubah
DESEMBER
Sangat setia dan pemurah.
Bersifat patriotik.
Sangat aktif dalam permainan dan pergaulan.
Sikap kurang sabar dan tergesa-gesa.
Bercita-cita tinggi.
Suka menjadi orang yang berpengaruh dalam organisasi.
Seronok bila didampingi.
Suka bercampur dengan orang.
Suka dipuji, diberi perhatian dan dibelai.
Sangat jujur, amanah dan bertolak ansur.
Tidak pandai berpura-pura.
Cepat marah.
Perangai yang mudah berubah-ubah.
Tidak ego walaupun harga dirinya sangat tinggi.
Benci pada kongkongan.
Suka berlawak.
Pandai buat lawak dan berfikiran logik
Bercita-cita tinggi dan orangnya serius, suka mendidik dan dididik.
Sangat mudah melihat kelemahan orang dan suka mengkritik.
Rajin dan setiap yang dibuat nampak keuntungan.
Suka pada kecantikan, kekemasan dan teratur.
Bersifat sensitif dan berfikiran mendalam.
Pandai mengambil hati orang lain.
Pendiam kecuali telah dirangsang.
Agak pemalu dan mempunyai daya tumpuan yang sangat tinggi.
Mudah mendisiplinkan diri sendiri.
Badannya sihat tetapi mudah diserang selsema.
Bersikap romantik tetapi tidak pandai memperlihatkannya.
Cukup sayang pada kanak-kanak.
Suka duduk di rumah.
Setia pada segala-galanya.
Perlu belajar kemahiran bersosial.
Sifat cemburu yang sangat tinggi
FEBRUARI
Berfikiran abstrak.
Sukakan benda yang realiti dan abstrak.
Bijak dan pintar
Berwatakan yang mudah berubah.
Mudah menawan orang lain.
Agak pendiam.
Pemalu dan rendah diri.
Jujur dan setia pada segalanya.
Keras hati untuk mencapai matlamat.
Tidak suka dikongkong.
Mudah memberontak apabila dikongkong.
Suka kegiatan yang lasak.
Emosinya mudah terluka dan sangat sensitif.
Mudah mempamerkan marahnya.
Tidak suka benda yang remeh-temeh.
Suka berkawan tapi kurang mempamerkannya.
Sangat berani dan suka memberontak.
Bercita-cita tinggi, suka berangan-angan dan ada harapan untuk merealisasikan impiannya.
Pemerhatian yang tajam.
Suka hiburan dan sukan.
Suka benda yang bersifat seni.
Sangat romantik pada dalaman tetapi tidak pada luaran.
Berkecenderungan pada benda yang tahyul.
Amat mudah dan boleh menjadi terlalu boros.
Belajar untuk mempamerkan emosi
MARET
Berkepribadian menarik dan menawan.
Mudah didampingi.
Sangat pemalu dan pemendam rasa.
Sangat baik secara semulajadi, jujur pemurah dan mudah simpati.
Sangat sensitif pada perkataan yang dituturkan dan alam persekitaran.
Suka pada kedamaian.
Sangat peka pada orang lain.
Sesuai dengan kerjaya yang memberi khidmat kepada orang lain.
Tidak cepat marah dan sangat amanah.
Tahu membalas dan mengenang budi.
Pemerhatian dan penilaian yang sangat tajam.
Kecenderungan untuk berdendam jika tidak dikawal.
Suka berangan-angan.
Suka melancong.
Sangat manja dan suka diberi perhatian yang sangat tinggi.
Kelam kabut dalam memilih pasangan.
Suka dengan hiasan rumahtangga.
Punya bakat seni dalalm bidang muzik.
Kecenderungan pada benda yang istimewa dan baik.
Jangan terlalu mengikut selera atau perasaan
APRIL
Sangat aktif dan dinamik.
Cepat bertindak membuat keputusan tetapi cepat menyesal.
Sangat menarik dan pandai menjaga diri.
Punya daya mental yang sangat kuat.
Suka diberi perhatian.
Sangat diplomatik (pandai memujuk ).
Berkawan dan pandai menyelesaikan masalah orang.
Sangat berani dan tiada perasaan takut.
Suka perkara yang mencabar, pengasih, penyayang, sopan santun dan pemurah.
Emosi cepat terusik.
Cuba kawal perasaan.
Kecenderungan bersifat pendendam.
Agresif dan kelam kabut dalam membuat keputusan.
Kuat daya ingatan.
Gerak hati yang sangat kuat.
Pandai mendorong diri sendiri dan memotivasikan orang lain.
Berpenyakit disekitar kepala dan dada.
Sangat cemburu dan terlalu cemburu
MEI
Keras hati & tegas.
Kuat semangat & bermotivasi tinggi.
Pemikiran yang tajam.
Mudah marah apabila tidak dikawal.
Pandai menarik hati & perhatian orang lain.
Perasaan yang amat mendalam.
Cantik dari segi mental & fizikal.
Tidak perlu dimotivasikan.
Tetap pendirian, tetapi mudah dipengaruhi oleh orang lain.
Mudah dipujuk.
Bersikap sistematik (otak kiri).
Suka berangan.
Kuat daya firasat memahami apa yang terlintas di hati orang lain tanpa diberitahu.
Bahagian telinga & leher mudah diserang penyakit.
Daya khayalan yang tinggi.
Permikiran yang tajam.
Pandai berdebat.
Fizikal yang baik.
Kelemahan sistem pernafasan.
Suka sastera, seni & muzik serta melancong.
Tidak berapa suka duduk di rumah.
Tidak boleh duduk diam.
Tidak punya ramai anak.
Rajin dan bersemangat tinggi.
Agak boros
JUNI
Berfikiran jauh & berwawasan.
Mudah ditawan kerana sikap baik.
Berperangai lemah lembut.
Mudah berubah sikap, perangai, idea dan mood.
Idea yang terlalu banyak di kepala.
Bersikap sensitif.
Mempunyai pemikiran yang aktif (sentiasa berfikir).
Sukar melakukan sesuatu dengan segera.
Bersikap suka menangguh-nangguh.
Bersikap terlalu memilih & mahukan yang terbaik.
Cepat marah & cepat sejuk.
Suka bercakap & berdebat.
Suka buat lawak & bergurau.
Otaknya cerdas berangan-angan.
Mudah berkawan & pandai berkawan.
Seorang yang sangat tertib.
Pandai mempamerkan sikap.
Mudah kecil hati.
Mudah kena selsema.
Suka berkemas.
Cepat rasa bosan.
Sikap terlalu memilih & cerewet.
Kurang mempamerkan perasaan.
Lambat untuk sembuh apabila terluka hati.
Suka pada barang yang berjenama.
Mudah menjadi eksekutif.
Kedegilan yang tidak terkawal.
Sesiapa yang memuji, dianggap musuh. Siapa yang menegur dianggap kawan.
JULI
Sangat suka didamping.
Banyak berahsia dan sukar dimengerti terutamanya lelaki.
Agak pendiam kecuali dirangsang.
Ada harga dan maruah diri.
Tak suka menyusahkan orang lain tapi tidak marah apabila disusahkan.
Mudah dipujuk dan bercakap lurus.
Sangat menjaga hati orang lain.
Sangat peramah.
Emosi sangat mendalam tapi mudah terluka hatinya.
Berjiwa sentimental.
Jarang berdendam.
Mudah memaafkan tapi sukar melupakan.
Tidak suka benda remeh-temeh.
Membimbing cara fizikal dan mental.
Sangat peka, mengambil berat dan mengasihi serta penyayang.
Layanan yang serupa terhadap semua orang.
Tinggi daya simpati.
Pemerhatian yang tajam.
Suka menilai orang lain melalui pemerhatian.
Mudah dan rajin belajar.
Suka muhasabah diri.
Suka mengenangkan peristiwa atau kawan lama.
Suka mendiamkan diri.
Suka duduk di rumah.
Suka tunggu kawan tapi tak cari kawan.
Tidak agresif kecuali terpaksa.
Lemah dari segi kesihatan perut.
Mudah gemuk kalau tak kawal diet.
Minta disayangi.
Mudah terluka hati tapi lambat pulih.
Terlalu mengambil berat.
Rajin dalam membuat kerja
AGUSTUS
Suka berlawak.
Mudah tertawan padanya.
Sopan santun dan mengambil berat terhadap orang lain.
Berani dan tidak tahu takut.
Orangnya agak tegas & bersikap kepimpinan.
Pandai memujuk orang lain.
Terlalu pemurah & bersikap ego.
Nilai harga diri yang sangat tinggi.
Dahagakan pujian.
Semangat juang yang luar biasa.
Cepat marah & mudah mengamuk.
Mudah marah apabila cakapnya dilawan.
Sangat cemburu.
Daya pemerhatian yang tajam & teliti.
Cepat berfikir.
Fikiran yang berdikari.
Suka memimpin & dipimpin.
Sifat suka berangan.
Berbakat dalam seni lukis, hiburan & silat.
Sangat sensitif tapi tidak mudah merajuk.
Cepat sembuh apabila ditimpa penyakit.
Belajar untuk bertenang.
Sikap kelam kabut.
Romantik, pengasih dan penyayang.
Suka mencari kawan
SEPTEMBER
Sangat bersopan santun & bertolak ansur.
Sangat cermat, teliti & teratur.
Suka menegur kesilapan orang lain & mengkritik.
Pendiam tapi pandai bercakap.
Sikap sangat cool, sangat baik & mudah simpati.
Sangat perihatin & terperinci, amanah, setia & jujur.
Kerja yang dilakukan sangat sempurna.
Sangat sensitif yang tidak diketahui.
Seorang yang banyak berfikir.
Daya pentaakulan yang baik.
Otak bijak & mudah belajar.
Suka mencari maklumat.
Kawal diri dari terlalu mengkritik.
Pandai mendorong diri sendiri.
Mudah memahami orang lain kerana banyak menyimpan rahsia.
Suka sukan, hiburan & melancong.
Kurang menunjukkan perasaannya.
Terluka hatinya sangat lama disimpan.
Terlalu memilih pasangan.
Sukakan benda yang luas.
Bersistematik
OKTOBER
Suka berbual.
Suka orang yang sayang padanya.
Suka ambil jln tengah.
Sangat menawan & sopan santun.
Kecantikan luar & dalam.
Tidak pandai berbohong & berpura-pura.
Mudah rasa simpati, baik dan mementingkan kawan.
Sentiasa berkawan.
Hatinya mudah terusik tetapi merajuknya tak lama.
Cepat marah.
Macam pentingkan diri sendiri.
Tidak menolong orang kecuali diminta.
Suka melihat dari perspektifnya sendiri.
Tidak suka terima pandangan orang lain.
Emosi yang mudah terusik.
Suka berangan & pandai bercakap.
Emosi yang kelam kabut.
Daya firasat yang sangat kuat (terutamanya perempuan).
Suka melancong, bidang sastera & seni.
Pengasih, penyayang & lemah lembut.
Romantik dalam percintaan.
Mudah terusik hati & cemburu.
Ambil berat tentang orang lain.
Suka kegiatan luar.
Seorang yang adil.
Boros & mudah dipengaruhi persekitaran.
Mudah patah semangat
NOVEMBER
Banyak idea dalam perkara.
Sukar untuk dimengertikan atau difahami sikapnya.
Berfikiran kehadapan.
Berfikiran unik dan bijak.
Penuh dengan idea-idea baru yang luarbiasa.
Pemikiran yang tajam.
Daya firasat yang sangat halus dan tinggi.
Sesuai jadi seorang doktor.
Cermat dan teliti.
Personaliti yang dinamik.
Sifat yang berahsia, pandai mencungkil dan mencari rahsia.
Banyak berfikir, kurang bercakap tetapi mesra.
Berani, pemurah setia dan banyak kesabaran.
Terlalu degil dan keras hati.
Apabila berkehendak sesuatu, akan diusahakan sehingga berjaya.
Tak suka marah kecuali digugat.
Mudah ambil berat terhadap orang lain.
Pandai muhasabah diri.
Cara berfikir yang lain dari orang lain.
Otak yang sangat tajam.
Pandai mendorong diri sendiri.
Tidak hargai pujian.
Kekuatan semangat dan daya juang yang sangat tinggi apabila berkehendak sesuatu.
Cuba sampai berjaya.
Badan yang sasa.
Kasih sayang dan emosi yang sangat mendalam dan romantik.
Tidak pasti dengan hubungan kasih sayang.
Suka duduk d irumah.
Sangat rajin dan berkemampuan tinggi.
Amanah, jujur, setia dan pandai berahsia.
Tidak berapa berjaya dalam mengawal emosi.
Bercita-cita tinggi.
Perangai tidak dapat diramal dan mudah berubah-ubah
DESEMBER
Sangat setia dan pemurah.
Bersifat patriotik.
Sangat aktif dalam permainan dan pergaulan.
Sikap kurang sabar dan tergesa-gesa.
Bercita-cita tinggi.
Suka menjadi orang yang berpengaruh dalam organisasi.
Seronok bila didampingi.
Suka bercampur dengan orang.
Suka dipuji, diberi perhatian dan dibelai.
Sangat jujur, amanah dan bertolak ansur.
Tidak pandai berpura-pura.
Cepat marah.
Perangai yang mudah berubah-ubah.
Tidak ego walaupun harga dirinya sangat tinggi.
Benci pada kongkongan.
Suka berlawak.
Pandai buat lawak dan berfikiran logik
Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad became the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia on 16 July 1981.
Born on 20 December 1925 in Alor Setar, the capital of the State of Kedah, Tun Dr. Mahathir did his early and secondary education in his home town. In 1947, he gained admission into the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore.
Upon graduation, he joined the Malaysian government service as a Medical Officer. He left in 1957 to set up his own practice in Alor Setar.
Tun Dr. Mahathir has been active in politics since 1945. He has been a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) since its inception in 1946.
He was first elected as a Member of Parliament following the General Elections in 1964. However, he lost his seat in the subsequent General Election in 1969. Owing to his keen interest in the country's education, he was appointed Chairman of the first Higher Education Council in 1968, Member of the Higher Education Advisory Council in 1972, Member of the University Court and University of Malaya Council, and Chairman of the National University Council in 1974.
In 1973, Tun Dr. Mahathir was appointed a Senator. He relinquished this post in order to contest in the 1974 General Elections where he was returned unopposed. Following the elections, Tun Dr. Mahathir was appointed the Minister of Education.
In 1976, Tun Dr. Mahathir was made Deputy Prime Minister in addition to his Education portfolio. In a Cabinet reshuffle two years later, he relinquished the Education portfolio for that of Trade and Industry. As Minister of Trade and Industry, he led several investment promotion missions overseas. Tun Dr. Mahathir was elected as one of the three Vice Presidents of UMNO in 1975. In 1978, he won the Deputy President seat and in 1981, he was appointed President of the party. He was returned unopposed as President in 1984.
In the 1987 party elections, Tun Dr. Mahathir defeated his challenger to retain the Presidency and in 1990 and 1993, he was again returned unopposed as party President. Under his leadership, the ruling party Barisan Nasional (National Front) won landslide victories in the 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 and 1999 General Elections.
Tun Dr. Mahathir is married to a doctor, Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah bt Mohd Ali, and they have seven children Marina, Mirzan, Melinda, Mokhzani, Mukhriz, Maizura and Mazhar.
Tun Dr. Mahathir stepped down as Prime Minister on October 31st 2003.
Born on 20 December 1925 in Alor Setar, the capital of the State of Kedah, Tun Dr. Mahathir did his early and secondary education in his home town. In 1947, he gained admission into the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore.
Upon graduation, he joined the Malaysian government service as a Medical Officer. He left in 1957 to set up his own practice in Alor Setar.
Tun Dr. Mahathir has been active in politics since 1945. He has been a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) since its inception in 1946.
He was first elected as a Member of Parliament following the General Elections in 1964. However, he lost his seat in the subsequent General Election in 1969. Owing to his keen interest in the country's education, he was appointed Chairman of the first Higher Education Council in 1968, Member of the Higher Education Advisory Council in 1972, Member of the University Court and University of Malaya Council, and Chairman of the National University Council in 1974.
In 1973, Tun Dr. Mahathir was appointed a Senator. He relinquished this post in order to contest in the 1974 General Elections where he was returned unopposed. Following the elections, Tun Dr. Mahathir was appointed the Minister of Education.
In 1976, Tun Dr. Mahathir was made Deputy Prime Minister in addition to his Education portfolio. In a Cabinet reshuffle two years later, he relinquished the Education portfolio for that of Trade and Industry. As Minister of Trade and Industry, he led several investment promotion missions overseas. Tun Dr. Mahathir was elected as one of the three Vice Presidents of UMNO in 1975. In 1978, he won the Deputy President seat and in 1981, he was appointed President of the party. He was returned unopposed as President in 1984.
In the 1987 party elections, Tun Dr. Mahathir defeated his challenger to retain the Presidency and in 1990 and 1993, he was again returned unopposed as party President. Under his leadership, the ruling party Barisan Nasional (National Front) won landslide victories in the 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 and 1999 General Elections.
Tun Dr. Mahathir is married to a doctor, Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah bt Mohd Ali, and they have seven children Marina, Mirzan, Melinda, Mokhzani, Mukhriz, Maizura and Mazhar.
Tun Dr. Mahathir stepped down as Prime Minister on October 31st 2003.
System Of A Down Profile
SERJ TANKIAN | Vocals
SHAVO ODADJIAN | Bass
DARON MALAKIAN | Guitar
JOHN DOLMAYAN | Drums
Three years and eight months after the release of Toxicity, one of this decade’s most corrosively powerful, relevant and down-right important albums, System of a Down— guitarist/singer Daron Malakian, singer Serj Tankian, bass player Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan—unleashes Mezmerize /Hypnotize… Well, actually, what they’re doing is unleashing half of it—the Mezmerize half—with the understanding that attention spans aren’t what they used to be in the Too-Much-Information Age.
You can count on System, one of rock’s most daring and innovative bands, to do things in its own way, and with a level of commitment that’ll knock the wind right out of you. “This band’s what Public Enemy once was and what Rage Against the Machine never quite managed to be: the potent trifecta of credibility, sincerity and real danger,” pronounced Esquire on naming them “Best Agitators” in the magazine’s 2005 Esky Music Awards. If you were looking for the ultimate one-sentence summation of this extraordinary band, that’s pretty good. Malakian has his own take. “We’re really an honest band—that’s why people are listening to us,” he asserts. “We’re not bullshitting ourselves and we’re not bullshitting them.”
Tankian’s take is even more succinct. “Our music has always been urgent, critical and questioning, and that still remains,” he says.
“We’re artists for the sake of art,” Tankian continues. “And our expression is pure and natural in terms of where it comes from. I think that’s always better with art because, once you have something in mind and you try to achieve it, it becomes less pure in some ways. If you just let whatever expression there is come out—it might be socially viable, it might be political, romantic, humorous, a personal narrative, a philosophical thought, whatever it is—if it’s pure and it just comes out and you leave it that way, I think it’s more potent. I think it’s more real.”
Fate chose this group of Armenian Americans, two of whom were born in Lebanon, one in Armenia and another in Hollywood, as unknowing prophets. Toxicity, System’s second album, appeared on Sept. 4, 2001 and was at the top of the charts on Sept. 12, while America and the world were paralyzed with grief, shock and fear. Perhaps because the music of Toxicity was so uncompromising and yet so full of humanity at its extremes, it provided a suitably harrowing soundtrack for that unimaginable moment, striking a deep nerve. The album generated four Top 10 singles, including the #1 “Aerials,” and went on to sell 6 million copies, establishing System not as some prefab mainstream commercial entity but rather as an urgent voice in the uncharted wilderness that was heard—and believed—by a great many human beings.
Just over a year later, the band offered up Steal This Album!, made up of tracks that had been started during the Toxicity sessions but didn’t fit that album’s dedicated confrontational vibe—tracks that put a greater emphasis on melody and the two-part harmonies of Malakian and Tankian. With Steal!, System, which up to that point had pitched nothing but fastballs (although some were of the split-finger variety), showed that it had a command of all kinds of stuff, and potent stuff at that. Thus, Mezmerize /Hypnotize is both the long-awaited follow-up to Toxicity in big-picture terms and a natural progression from Steal This Album! in a musical sense.
“People ask, ‘How are you gonna compete with Toxicity?’” Malakian points out. “And the answer is: by not competing with it. By not being afraid to use the new ideas that we have. Some bands are afraid of their fans: ‘They’re not gonna like this and they’re not gonna like that.’ We don’t have that mindset. We’ve gotta impress ourselves before we impress the fans—you gotta love yourself first, you know? I’ve gotta feel like we have everything it takes to make a record that’s better than anything we’ve done.”
“I look at everything we do as a continuation because it’s the same band and the same four individuals,” says Dolmayan, “So Mezmerize /Hypnotize is still System of a Down, but definitely there’s a huge growth. It’s more melodic but at the same time more aggressive. Every album captures where you are at that moment, but almost instantly you’re in a new place, as soon as it’s recorded, so it’s just basically a window into where you’re going in the future. And how people want to look at that and understand it is really up to each individual.”
Malakian not only produced the band’s magnum opus with Rick Rubin, as he did with Toxicity and Steal This Album!, but also increased his already considerable song, arrangement and vocal contributions, stepping forward both as a lead vocalist and as one half of System’s distinctive harmonies. Malakian’s increased foreground presence poses no problems for Tankian. “It’s not hard for me because we’ve been working together for over 10 years,” Serj points out. “I don’t necessarily encompass his words when I sing them—I approach them from my perspective and what they make me feel.” This is the same sort of statement one might expect to hear from Mick Jagger in describing his relationship with Keith Richards, or Robert Plant on Jimmy Page.
Likewise, Tankian, who shared production chores on Toxicity, broadened his own contributions in terms of writing music and arranging. In addition to writing more than half of the lyrics for both Mezmerize and Hypnotize, he played acoustic guitars, pianos and synths on the new album, as well as handling the string arrangements, doing most of it in his well-appointed home studio. There’s a great deal of back and forth between them in the creation of material, as Malakian explains: “I might have a great chorus but I don’t think the verse is that great, so I’ll ask Serj, ‘Can you make the verse better?’ And he does the same thing with me on stuff that he writes.” Both artists, then, have stepped up and branched out as their band matures, but their interaction is ongoing. So many great rock & roll bands have been led by tandems, and System of a Down is no exception.
System of a Down wrote some 30 tracks for Mezmerize/Hypnotize and recorded them at Rubin's Laurel Canyon studio between June and November of 2004. The new songs are more complex, more progressive, more unorthodox and more experimental than ever, while retaining the idiosyncratic, ironic and schizophrenic qualities that make System of a Down so distinctive. Among the uncompromising songs contained on Mezmerize are “Cigaro,” “Violent Pornography,” “Sad Statue,” “Radio/Video” and “Revenga.”
According to Malakian, the ramping up of melody and vocal interaction between the two collaborators is “part of the band’s evolution.” His priorities in developing the material for Mezmerize/Hypnotize involved “just being honest as a writer—not being afraid to express different parts of my life and different parts of what I see around me. Some people kind of censor themselves; I don’t and this band doesn’t. It’s a crazy time in the world, and I just stay focused on being inspired, not only by the crazy times but also by everyday life. It all meshes together. You can look at these songs from the viewpoint of a normal Joe or you can look at it in a broader way, because there’s a world going on around this normal Joe.”
The new album’s character is encapsulated by the jaw-dropping first single, “B.Y.O.B.,” with its myriad shifts in tempo, tone and viewpoint. The track starts out with System’s signature teeth-baring ferocity, as Tankian howls like an opera singer on steroids about a world gone mad while his cohorts impersonate the RATATAT of an AK47. Then, just as abruptly, a second protagonist comes into the frame, this one a carefree dude cruising eastward on the San Bernardino Freeway en route to a party in the desert, the scene delivered via a delectable minor-key pop hook. Thereafter, like some chemically amplified fever dream, the settings keep shifting until they begin to overlap, and a voice—Malakian’s—screams, “Blast off / It’s party time / And where the fuck are you?,” setting up the bitter incantation, in yet a third distinct time signature, that sends the song—and the listener—over the edge: “Why don’t presidents fight the war? / Why do they always send the poor? / Why do they always send the poor?” The song is so epic that it seems much bigger than its 4:17 length, and when it’s over, the listener is spent, enraged and exhilarated, all at once. And that’s just the first track of an album that packs a world of compressed fury into its 37 minutes. But it isn’t gratuitous fury.
“Originally, there was, in my own performance—on the first album, for example—a lot more ferocity and rage and aggression in terms of how I expressed myself,” Serj points out. “Whereas, now, it’s almost like a way of shaking things up to raise my voice, to communicate on an intense-energy level—which I would say is as powerful as anger and rage, yet more focused and productive.”
The album ends—this half of Mezmerize/Hypnotize does, at any rate—just as thrillingly as it begins, with Malakian’s double-cheeseburger reflection on his ugly, beautiful and bizarre hometown, comprising the Spandex-style rocker “Old School Hollywood” (ironic, maybe, but bitchen for sure), inspired in part by his surreal experience on the field at Dodger Stadium for the 2003 celebrity game, segueing into “Lost in Hollywood,” a bittersweet journey back to “the streets where I grew up,” which has to be the most beautiful and haunting song this band has ever recorded. Admittedly, “bittersweet,” “beautiful” and “haunting” haven’t been used a whole lot in describing System of a Down up to now, but this band is endlessly surprising, and they refuse to be typecast. From moment to moment within any given track, they might be perceived as art rock, hard rock, Floydian prog-rock, psychedelia, politically charged hardcore, nu-metal, old metal or even Gilbert & Sullivan from some parallel universe, but in the end they’re System, period—unpredictable and indescribable.
“In terms of dichotomy and the dynamics of the songs, it just kind of comes naturally through Daron’s songwriting and my songwriting,” says Tankian. “We just go with it. To me, it’s always been interesting both musically and lyrically to put two things next to each other that don’t have a previous relationship and see what kind of relationship I can create out of them, because I think that’s creating something new. If you can make it work, it’s fun.”
The band has no overriding concept, meaning each of their albums is—just as Dolmayan says—essentially a representation of these particular individuals at a particular moment in time. Simple, right? Right. And also incredibly complex—as complex as human beings and the world they’re living in, a world seemingly without absolutes or easy answers.
“I don’t really have a side—I’m not red or blue,” says Malakian. “And since I did write a good part of the lyrics on this record, the songs tend to take a middle ground rather than being one-sided about it. I think that’s why my world and Serj’s come together so well lyrically, because he’s more politically motivated and I’m not, but some of his stuff makes mine more serious, and some of my stuff makes his stuff a little bit more human. As I was sequencing the records, I realized that if I went to a shrink and he hypnotized me, I would be singing some of these songs.”
“I don’t feel any particular responsibility in discussing social or political things,” Tankian explains. “It’s something that’s in my heart. I’ve always had a problem with injustice, whether it’s personal, national, international or universal. It’s just always bothered me to the point where I have to say or do something. I think action is worth a million words, though, as far as that’s concerned. But ultimately, if there’s one thing I’d like to do more than anything else, it’s to not take this life so seriously.”
There’s not a trace of arrogance in this band, despite the scope of its success. In its place is a disarming humility. “I didn’t find music—music found me,” Malakian says, clearly in awe of the part he feels destiny tapped him to play. Odadjian is similarly grateful to be where he is in life. “Every day that comes, I thank my Higher Power that I’m alive and doing what I do for a living, because I love it,” he says. “It’s something I’ve dreamt of doing, and I’ve worked my ass off to get where I’m at. I don’t take any of it for granted.”
They operate as a democracy, with each band member embracing his own particular role while contributing to System’s unorthodox but remarkably harmonious dynamic, which comprises intricate relationship vectors. Odadjian, for example, handles System’s stage production and is involved with the band’s videos as a director (Toxicity’s “Chop Suey” and “Aerials”) and editor (“B.Y.O.B.”) “We have our arguments,” Dolmayan acknowledges, “but in the end, if someone has a compelling argument, everyone else will listen, even if that person’s in the minority. So it’s a true democracy in that everyone’s voice is heard.” Dolmayan pauses for the punch line. “Some people talk more than others,” he quips.
And speaking of relationships, System has a deep connection with its audience. The band’s fans seem to receive the music precisely in the spirit in which it’s offered, making it the rarest of situations—particularly in the context of commercial art forms—and certainly the most rewarding. “The impact that we’ve had on people, artistically, socially and politically, is pretty amazing,” Tankian marvels. “It’s a huge compliment, and it’s a very special thing. I think System of a Down in itself is very special in that sense.
“It’s about the audience finding you, rather than you finding the audience,” Tankian offers. “A lot of bands are marketed by labels to certain demographics. With us it was just the opposite from Day One. We toured pretty heavily until we built up a certain amount of fans that bought our CDs and saw our shows before we approached radio or video in any way. So that set us apart. That’s the old-fashioned way, and it’s how bands should be broken. And that’s why I think—luckily—we’ve had a good long career, and one that’s perpetually increasing. We’re not an overnight-success kind of band.”
Remember, Mezmerize is only the first half of this serial double album, so expect another sheaf of surprises when Hypnotize sees the light of day later this year. “The end of Hypnotize will tie together Mezmerize,” Daron promises, “but it’s really tough to explain until you hear it. Individually, in my opinion, they both stand on their own, but until you hear the second one you won’t know how the two records come together as one. We’re not leavin’ you dry.”
Don’t expect these guys to ever follow any script but their own—they make it up as they go along, and yet it always turns out to be right on the nose.
“I think you do what you’re destined to do,” says Tankian, expressing what could serve as his band’s credo. “If you follow your heart and you follow your path, then you’ll always be safe with anything that you do, including art.”
SHAVO ODADJIAN | Bass
DARON MALAKIAN | Guitar
JOHN DOLMAYAN | Drums
Three years and eight months after the release of Toxicity, one of this decade’s most corrosively powerful, relevant and down-right important albums, System of a Down— guitarist/singer Daron Malakian, singer Serj Tankian, bass player Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan—unleashes Mezmerize /Hypnotize… Well, actually, what they’re doing is unleashing half of it—the Mezmerize half—with the understanding that attention spans aren’t what they used to be in the Too-Much-Information Age.
You can count on System, one of rock’s most daring and innovative bands, to do things in its own way, and with a level of commitment that’ll knock the wind right out of you. “This band’s what Public Enemy once was and what Rage Against the Machine never quite managed to be: the potent trifecta of credibility, sincerity and real danger,” pronounced Esquire on naming them “Best Agitators” in the magazine’s 2005 Esky Music Awards. If you were looking for the ultimate one-sentence summation of this extraordinary band, that’s pretty good. Malakian has his own take. “We’re really an honest band—that’s why people are listening to us,” he asserts. “We’re not bullshitting ourselves and we’re not bullshitting them.”
Tankian’s take is even more succinct. “Our music has always been urgent, critical and questioning, and that still remains,” he says.
“We’re artists for the sake of art,” Tankian continues. “And our expression is pure and natural in terms of where it comes from. I think that’s always better with art because, once you have something in mind and you try to achieve it, it becomes less pure in some ways. If you just let whatever expression there is come out—it might be socially viable, it might be political, romantic, humorous, a personal narrative, a philosophical thought, whatever it is—if it’s pure and it just comes out and you leave it that way, I think it’s more potent. I think it’s more real.”
Fate chose this group of Armenian Americans, two of whom were born in Lebanon, one in Armenia and another in Hollywood, as unknowing prophets. Toxicity, System’s second album, appeared on Sept. 4, 2001 and was at the top of the charts on Sept. 12, while America and the world were paralyzed with grief, shock and fear. Perhaps because the music of Toxicity was so uncompromising and yet so full of humanity at its extremes, it provided a suitably harrowing soundtrack for that unimaginable moment, striking a deep nerve. The album generated four Top 10 singles, including the #1 “Aerials,” and went on to sell 6 million copies, establishing System not as some prefab mainstream commercial entity but rather as an urgent voice in the uncharted wilderness that was heard—and believed—by a great many human beings.
Just over a year later, the band offered up Steal This Album!, made up of tracks that had been started during the Toxicity sessions but didn’t fit that album’s dedicated confrontational vibe—tracks that put a greater emphasis on melody and the two-part harmonies of Malakian and Tankian. With Steal!, System, which up to that point had pitched nothing but fastballs (although some were of the split-finger variety), showed that it had a command of all kinds of stuff, and potent stuff at that. Thus, Mezmerize /Hypnotize is both the long-awaited follow-up to Toxicity in big-picture terms and a natural progression from Steal This Album! in a musical sense.
“People ask, ‘How are you gonna compete with Toxicity?’” Malakian points out. “And the answer is: by not competing with it. By not being afraid to use the new ideas that we have. Some bands are afraid of their fans: ‘They’re not gonna like this and they’re not gonna like that.’ We don’t have that mindset. We’ve gotta impress ourselves before we impress the fans—you gotta love yourself first, you know? I’ve gotta feel like we have everything it takes to make a record that’s better than anything we’ve done.”
“I look at everything we do as a continuation because it’s the same band and the same four individuals,” says Dolmayan, “So Mezmerize /Hypnotize is still System of a Down, but definitely there’s a huge growth. It’s more melodic but at the same time more aggressive. Every album captures where you are at that moment, but almost instantly you’re in a new place, as soon as it’s recorded, so it’s just basically a window into where you’re going in the future. And how people want to look at that and understand it is really up to each individual.”
Malakian not only produced the band’s magnum opus with Rick Rubin, as he did with Toxicity and Steal This Album!, but also increased his already considerable song, arrangement and vocal contributions, stepping forward both as a lead vocalist and as one half of System’s distinctive harmonies. Malakian’s increased foreground presence poses no problems for Tankian. “It’s not hard for me because we’ve been working together for over 10 years,” Serj points out. “I don’t necessarily encompass his words when I sing them—I approach them from my perspective and what they make me feel.” This is the same sort of statement one might expect to hear from Mick Jagger in describing his relationship with Keith Richards, or Robert Plant on Jimmy Page.
Likewise, Tankian, who shared production chores on Toxicity, broadened his own contributions in terms of writing music and arranging. In addition to writing more than half of the lyrics for both Mezmerize and Hypnotize, he played acoustic guitars, pianos and synths on the new album, as well as handling the string arrangements, doing most of it in his well-appointed home studio. There’s a great deal of back and forth between them in the creation of material, as Malakian explains: “I might have a great chorus but I don’t think the verse is that great, so I’ll ask Serj, ‘Can you make the verse better?’ And he does the same thing with me on stuff that he writes.” Both artists, then, have stepped up and branched out as their band matures, but their interaction is ongoing. So many great rock & roll bands have been led by tandems, and System of a Down is no exception.
System of a Down wrote some 30 tracks for Mezmerize/Hypnotize and recorded them at Rubin's Laurel Canyon studio between June and November of 2004. The new songs are more complex, more progressive, more unorthodox and more experimental than ever, while retaining the idiosyncratic, ironic and schizophrenic qualities that make System of a Down so distinctive. Among the uncompromising songs contained on Mezmerize are “Cigaro,” “Violent Pornography,” “Sad Statue,” “Radio/Video” and “Revenga.”
According to Malakian, the ramping up of melody and vocal interaction between the two collaborators is “part of the band’s evolution.” His priorities in developing the material for Mezmerize/Hypnotize involved “just being honest as a writer—not being afraid to express different parts of my life and different parts of what I see around me. Some people kind of censor themselves; I don’t and this band doesn’t. It’s a crazy time in the world, and I just stay focused on being inspired, not only by the crazy times but also by everyday life. It all meshes together. You can look at these songs from the viewpoint of a normal Joe or you can look at it in a broader way, because there’s a world going on around this normal Joe.”
The new album’s character is encapsulated by the jaw-dropping first single, “B.Y.O.B.,” with its myriad shifts in tempo, tone and viewpoint. The track starts out with System’s signature teeth-baring ferocity, as Tankian howls like an opera singer on steroids about a world gone mad while his cohorts impersonate the RATATAT of an AK47. Then, just as abruptly, a second protagonist comes into the frame, this one a carefree dude cruising eastward on the San Bernardino Freeway en route to a party in the desert, the scene delivered via a delectable minor-key pop hook. Thereafter, like some chemically amplified fever dream, the settings keep shifting until they begin to overlap, and a voice—Malakian’s—screams, “Blast off / It’s party time / And where the fuck are you?,” setting up the bitter incantation, in yet a third distinct time signature, that sends the song—and the listener—over the edge: “Why don’t presidents fight the war? / Why do they always send the poor? / Why do they always send the poor?” The song is so epic that it seems much bigger than its 4:17 length, and when it’s over, the listener is spent, enraged and exhilarated, all at once. And that’s just the first track of an album that packs a world of compressed fury into its 37 minutes. But it isn’t gratuitous fury.
“Originally, there was, in my own performance—on the first album, for example—a lot more ferocity and rage and aggression in terms of how I expressed myself,” Serj points out. “Whereas, now, it’s almost like a way of shaking things up to raise my voice, to communicate on an intense-energy level—which I would say is as powerful as anger and rage, yet more focused and productive.”
The album ends—this half of Mezmerize/Hypnotize does, at any rate—just as thrillingly as it begins, with Malakian’s double-cheeseburger reflection on his ugly, beautiful and bizarre hometown, comprising the Spandex-style rocker “Old School Hollywood” (ironic, maybe, but bitchen for sure), inspired in part by his surreal experience on the field at Dodger Stadium for the 2003 celebrity game, segueing into “Lost in Hollywood,” a bittersweet journey back to “the streets where I grew up,” which has to be the most beautiful and haunting song this band has ever recorded. Admittedly, “bittersweet,” “beautiful” and “haunting” haven’t been used a whole lot in describing System of a Down up to now, but this band is endlessly surprising, and they refuse to be typecast. From moment to moment within any given track, they might be perceived as art rock, hard rock, Floydian prog-rock, psychedelia, politically charged hardcore, nu-metal, old metal or even Gilbert & Sullivan from some parallel universe, but in the end they’re System, period—unpredictable and indescribable.
“In terms of dichotomy and the dynamics of the songs, it just kind of comes naturally through Daron’s songwriting and my songwriting,” says Tankian. “We just go with it. To me, it’s always been interesting both musically and lyrically to put two things next to each other that don’t have a previous relationship and see what kind of relationship I can create out of them, because I think that’s creating something new. If you can make it work, it’s fun.”
The band has no overriding concept, meaning each of their albums is—just as Dolmayan says—essentially a representation of these particular individuals at a particular moment in time. Simple, right? Right. And also incredibly complex—as complex as human beings and the world they’re living in, a world seemingly without absolutes or easy answers.
“I don’t really have a side—I’m not red or blue,” says Malakian. “And since I did write a good part of the lyrics on this record, the songs tend to take a middle ground rather than being one-sided about it. I think that’s why my world and Serj’s come together so well lyrically, because he’s more politically motivated and I’m not, but some of his stuff makes mine more serious, and some of my stuff makes his stuff a little bit more human. As I was sequencing the records, I realized that if I went to a shrink and he hypnotized me, I would be singing some of these songs.”
“I don’t feel any particular responsibility in discussing social or political things,” Tankian explains. “It’s something that’s in my heart. I’ve always had a problem with injustice, whether it’s personal, national, international or universal. It’s just always bothered me to the point where I have to say or do something. I think action is worth a million words, though, as far as that’s concerned. But ultimately, if there’s one thing I’d like to do more than anything else, it’s to not take this life so seriously.”
There’s not a trace of arrogance in this band, despite the scope of its success. In its place is a disarming humility. “I didn’t find music—music found me,” Malakian says, clearly in awe of the part he feels destiny tapped him to play. Odadjian is similarly grateful to be where he is in life. “Every day that comes, I thank my Higher Power that I’m alive and doing what I do for a living, because I love it,” he says. “It’s something I’ve dreamt of doing, and I’ve worked my ass off to get where I’m at. I don’t take any of it for granted.”
They operate as a democracy, with each band member embracing his own particular role while contributing to System’s unorthodox but remarkably harmonious dynamic, which comprises intricate relationship vectors. Odadjian, for example, handles System’s stage production and is involved with the band’s videos as a director (Toxicity’s “Chop Suey” and “Aerials”) and editor (“B.Y.O.B.”) “We have our arguments,” Dolmayan acknowledges, “but in the end, if someone has a compelling argument, everyone else will listen, even if that person’s in the minority. So it’s a true democracy in that everyone’s voice is heard.” Dolmayan pauses for the punch line. “Some people talk more than others,” he quips.
And speaking of relationships, System has a deep connection with its audience. The band’s fans seem to receive the music precisely in the spirit in which it’s offered, making it the rarest of situations—particularly in the context of commercial art forms—and certainly the most rewarding. “The impact that we’ve had on people, artistically, socially and politically, is pretty amazing,” Tankian marvels. “It’s a huge compliment, and it’s a very special thing. I think System of a Down in itself is very special in that sense.
“It’s about the audience finding you, rather than you finding the audience,” Tankian offers. “A lot of bands are marketed by labels to certain demographics. With us it was just the opposite from Day One. We toured pretty heavily until we built up a certain amount of fans that bought our CDs and saw our shows before we approached radio or video in any way. So that set us apart. That’s the old-fashioned way, and it’s how bands should be broken. And that’s why I think—luckily—we’ve had a good long career, and one that’s perpetually increasing. We’re not an overnight-success kind of band.”
Remember, Mezmerize is only the first half of this serial double album, so expect another sheaf of surprises when Hypnotize sees the light of day later this year. “The end of Hypnotize will tie together Mezmerize,” Daron promises, “but it’s really tough to explain until you hear it. Individually, in my opinion, they both stand on their own, but until you hear the second one you won’t know how the two records come together as one. We’re not leavin’ you dry.”
Don’t expect these guys to ever follow any script but their own—they make it up as they go along, and yet it always turns out to be right on the nose.
“I think you do what you’re destined to do,” says Tankian, expressing what could serve as his band’s credo. “If you follow your heart and you follow your path, then you’ll always be safe with anything that you do, including art.”
RADIOHEAD
Radiohead was one of the few alternative bands of the early '90s to draw heavily from the grandiose arena rock that characterized U2's early albums. But the band internalized that epic sweep, turning it inside out to tell tortured, twisted tales of angst and alienation. Vocalist Thom Yorke's pained lyrics were brought to life by the group's three-guitar attack, which relied on texture -- borrowing as much from My Bloody Valentine and Pink Floyd as R.E.M. and Pixies -- instead of virtuosity. It took Radiohead awhile to formulate their signature sound. Their 1993 debut, Pablo Honey, only suggested their potential, and one of its songs, "Creep," became an unexpected international hit, its angst-ridden lyrics making it an alternative rock anthem. Many observers pigeonholed Radiohead as a one-hit wonder, but the group's second album, The Bends, was released to terrific reviews in the band's native Britain in early 1995, helping build a more stable fan base. Having demonstrated unexpected staying power, as well as increasing ambition, Radiohead next released OK Computer, a progressive, electronic-tinged masterpiece that became one of the most acclaimed albums of the '90s.
Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar), Ed O'Brien (guitar, vocals), Jonny Greenwood (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums) formed Radiohead as students at Oxford University in 1988. Initially called On a Friday, the band began pursuing a musical career in earnest in the early '90s, releasing the Drill EP in 1992. Shortly afterward, the group signed to EMI/Capitol and released the single "Creep," a fusion of R.E.M. and Nirvana highlighted by a noisy burst of feedback prior to the chorus. "Creep" was a moderate hit, and their next two singles, "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Pop Is Dead," built a small following, even as the British music press ignored the group. Pablo Honey, Radiohead's debut album, was released to mixed reviews in the spring of 1993. As the band launched a European supporting tour, "Creep" became a sudden smash hit in America, earning heavy airplay on modern rock radio and MTV. On the back of the single's success, Radiohead toured the U.S. extensively, opening for Belly and Tears for Fears. All the exposure helped Pablo Honey go gold, and "Creep" was re-released in the U.K. at the end of 1993. This time, the single became a Top Ten hit, and the band spent the following summer touring the world.
Although "Creep" made Radiohead a success, it also led many observers to peg the band as a one-hit wonder. Conscious of such thinking, the group entered the studio with producer John Leckie to record its second album, The Bends. Upon its spring 1995 release, The Bends was greeted with overwhelmingly enthusiastic reviews, all of which praised the group's deeper, more mature sound. However, positive reviews didn't sell albums, as Radiohead struggled to be heard during the U.K.'s summer of Britpop and as American radio programmers and MTV ignored the record. The band continued to tour as the opening act on R.E.M.'s prestigious Monster tour. By the end of the year, The Bends began to catch on, thanks not only to the band's constant touring but also to the stark, startling video for "Just." The album made many year-end best-of lists in the U.K., and early in 1996 the record re-entered the British Top Ten and climbed to gold status in the U.S., helped in the latter by the video for "Fake Plastic Trees." During the first half of 1996, Radiohead continued to tour before re-entering the studio that fall to record their third album, OK Computer, which was released in the summer of 1997. A devoted following of fans and a handful of enthusiastic critical supporters immediately embraced the album's majestic blend of unfettered prog rock, post-punk angst, eerie electronic textures, and assured songwriting. Since it skillfully teetered between rock classicism and futurism, it earned near-unanimous critical and popular support over the course of the year, which turned into unrestrained adoration in the final two years of the decade, even though its sales still hadn't climbed above gold status.
Expectations for Radiohead's fourth album were stratospheric, which placed additional pressure on the already perfectionist band, and led to several stumbling blocks along the way. An intense buzz of excitement among the band's still-growing following greeted the prerelease appearance of most of the album's tracks on the Internet in MP3 form; they displayed an all-out fascination with challenging, often minimalist electronica. Titled Kid A, the album was finally released in October 2000 and astonished many observers by debuting at number one on the U.S. album charts. While the band didn't release any singles or embark on a formal tour, the album met with a mixed critical response as the group was accused of creating a distant and radio-unfriendly record; however, it did remain a fan favorite. In June of 2001, Radiohead quickly released an album under the name Amnesiac that consisted of material that was recorded during the Kid A sessions. The band made it very clear, though, that it was not to be considered an outtakes album; rather, they insisted that the two albums were of clear and separate concept. Regardless, Amnesiac debuted at number one in the U.K. and number two on the U.S. chart (behind then-stronghold Staind), while outselling Kid A in week one by 25,000 copies. The singles Pyramid Song and Knives Out were culled from Amnesiac with a subsequent world tour. While planning I Might Be Wrong for a third single, the idea expanded into a live "mini-album" that was released in November of 2001. Making for their third release in 13 months, the tracks were collected from four different shows in Europe and included an unreleased song, "True Love Waits."
Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar), Ed O'Brien (guitar, vocals), Jonny Greenwood (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass), and Phil Selway (drums) formed Radiohead as students at Oxford University in 1988. Initially called On a Friday, the band began pursuing a musical career in earnest in the early '90s, releasing the Drill EP in 1992. Shortly afterward, the group signed to EMI/Capitol and released the single "Creep," a fusion of R.E.M. and Nirvana highlighted by a noisy burst of feedback prior to the chorus. "Creep" was a moderate hit, and their next two singles, "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Pop Is Dead," built a small following, even as the British music press ignored the group. Pablo Honey, Radiohead's debut album, was released to mixed reviews in the spring of 1993. As the band launched a European supporting tour, "Creep" became a sudden smash hit in America, earning heavy airplay on modern rock radio and MTV. On the back of the single's success, Radiohead toured the U.S. extensively, opening for Belly and Tears for Fears. All the exposure helped Pablo Honey go gold, and "Creep" was re-released in the U.K. at the end of 1993. This time, the single became a Top Ten hit, and the band spent the following summer touring the world.
Although "Creep" made Radiohead a success, it also led many observers to peg the band as a one-hit wonder. Conscious of such thinking, the group entered the studio with producer John Leckie to record its second album, The Bends. Upon its spring 1995 release, The Bends was greeted with overwhelmingly enthusiastic reviews, all of which praised the group's deeper, more mature sound. However, positive reviews didn't sell albums, as Radiohead struggled to be heard during the U.K.'s summer of Britpop and as American radio programmers and MTV ignored the record. The band continued to tour as the opening act on R.E.M.'s prestigious Monster tour. By the end of the year, The Bends began to catch on, thanks not only to the band's constant touring but also to the stark, startling video for "Just." The album made many year-end best-of lists in the U.K., and early in 1996 the record re-entered the British Top Ten and climbed to gold status in the U.S., helped in the latter by the video for "Fake Plastic Trees." During the first half of 1996, Radiohead continued to tour before re-entering the studio that fall to record their third album, OK Computer, which was released in the summer of 1997. A devoted following of fans and a handful of enthusiastic critical supporters immediately embraced the album's majestic blend of unfettered prog rock, post-punk angst, eerie electronic textures, and assured songwriting. Since it skillfully teetered between rock classicism and futurism, it earned near-unanimous critical and popular support over the course of the year, which turned into unrestrained adoration in the final two years of the decade, even though its sales still hadn't climbed above gold status.
Expectations for Radiohead's fourth album were stratospheric, which placed additional pressure on the already perfectionist band, and led to several stumbling blocks along the way. An intense buzz of excitement among the band's still-growing following greeted the prerelease appearance of most of the album's tracks on the Internet in MP3 form; they displayed an all-out fascination with challenging, often minimalist electronica. Titled Kid A, the album was finally released in October 2000 and astonished many observers by debuting at number one on the U.S. album charts. While the band didn't release any singles or embark on a formal tour, the album met with a mixed critical response as the group was accused of creating a distant and radio-unfriendly record; however, it did remain a fan favorite. In June of 2001, Radiohead quickly released an album under the name Amnesiac that consisted of material that was recorded during the Kid A sessions. The band made it very clear, though, that it was not to be considered an outtakes album; rather, they insisted that the two albums were of clear and separate concept. Regardless, Amnesiac debuted at number one in the U.K. and number two on the U.S. chart (behind then-stronghold Staind), while outselling Kid A in week one by 25,000 copies. The singles Pyramid Song and Knives Out were culled from Amnesiac with a subsequent world tour. While planning I Might Be Wrong for a third single, the idea expanded into a live "mini-album" that was released in November of 2001. Making for their third release in 13 months, the tracks were collected from four different shows in Europe and included an unreleased song, "True Love Waits."
MUSE
Muse adalah sebuah band rock asal
Inggris yang terbentuk di Teignmouth, Devon, tahun 1997. Band ini
terdiri dari Matthew Bellamy (vocal, gitar, keyboard), Chris
Wolstenholme (bas, gitar, keyboard, vocal) dan Dominic Howard (drum,
perkusi). Baru-baru ini, Morgan Nicholls ditampilkan pada posisi
gitar dan keyboard setiap kali Muse mengadakan konser album Black
Holes And Reve. Musik mereka merupakan gabungan dari rock
alternative, rock progresif, musik klasik, elektronika, rock indie,
dan heavy metal. Band ini terkenal dengan aksi panggung mereka yang
enerjik dan ketertarikan eksentrik Bellamy akan hal-hal yang berbau
konspirasi global, kehidupan luar jagat raya, teologi dan hal-hal
mengenai wahyu.
SEJARAH
Formasi Tahun-tahun Awal (1992-1997)
Personil Muse pada awalnya merupakan
anggota band-band yang berbeda pada Teignmouth Community College pada
awal 90-an. Formasi Muse diawali setelah Bellamy sukses melewati
audisi untuk posisi gitar pada band milik Dominic Howard. Mereka
mengalami kesulitan setelah gitaris mereka, Phys Vandit, memilih
untuk keluar, sehingga mereka meminta teman dekat mereka, Chris
Wolstenholme untuk mempelajari permainan gitar bas. Sebelum
mengadopsi nama Muse, nama band sendiri sering berganti sejalan
perjalanan waktu. Nama-nama band yang pernah digunakan adalah Gothic
Plague, Carnage Mahyem, Fixed Penalty, dan Rocket Baby Dolls
(kronologi nama-nama ini tidak jelas disebabkan oleh informasi yang
berbeda-beda yang diberikan Muse pada wawancara yang berbeda-beda).
Pada tahun 1994, dengan nama Rocekt Baby Dolls dan dengan image
gothic, grup ini memenangkan kontes Battle Of The Bands dan
melambungkan nama mereka (mereka dianggap satu-satunya ‘band rock
sejati’ pada kontes itu). Singkatnya, setelah kontes itu, mereka
memutuskan untuk tidak melanjutkan kuliah mereka dan lebih memilih
berkarir di bidang musik professional. Mereka mengubah nama mereka
menjadi Muse dan mulai mengadakan konser di kelab-kelab malam.
EP Pertama Dan Showbiz (1998-2000)
Setelah beberapa tahun membangun basis
fans di London, mereka mulai menancapkan tajinya di Manchester. Muse
bertemu dengan Dennis Smith, pemilik Sawmills, sebuah studio rekaman
di Cornwall, Barat Daya Inggris.
Pertemuan ini membawa mereka ke rekaman
pertama dan peluncuran album pertama, EP, yang mana cover depan album
ini didesain sendiri oleh sang drummer, Dominic, di studio pelabelan
Sawmill, Dangerous. EP mereka yang kedua, Muscle Museum EP,
mengundang perhatian jurnalis musik Inggris, Steve Lamacq dan
publikasi musik Inggris mingguan, NME. Muse kemudian dinaungi oleh
perusahaan produksi musik, Taste Media (Muse bergabung dengan
perusahaan ini pada tiga album pertama mereka). Hal ini sangat
menguntungkan Muse karena mereka dapat mengekspresikan musik dan
skill individual mereka secara bebas pada awal karir-karir mereka.
Origin Of Symmetry (2001-2002)
Album kedua mereka, Origin of Symmetry,
yang diproduksi oleh Leckie, menyajikan musik yang lebih keras, suara
rock yang lebih sangar, dengan permainan bas Wolstenholme, yang
terampil, berdistorsi atau bersintesis, yang kadang-kadang menggunkan
teknik klasik pada lagu seperti “Seperti Dementia”.
Band ini mencoba instrumentasi
non-ortodoks, seperti orjen gereja, Mellotron dan peti drum. Lebih
terasa garis vocal Bellamy yang tinggi, permainan gitar yang
arpegiasi dan permainan piano yang berbeda yang terinspirasi dari
karya pianis pada pergerakan Romantisisme, khususnya Rusia,
Rachmaninov dan Tchaikovsky. Juga influens musik minimalis yang jelas
seperti Philip Glass. Bellamy menyebutkan bahwa influens musiknya
adalah Ned (Atomic Dustbin) dan Tom Morello (Audioslave dan Race
Against The Machine) dan hal ini dibuktikan dengan lagu-lagu yang
berbasis urak-urakan pada Origin Of Symmetry dan penggunaan efek
pitch-shifting pada permainan solo Bellamy yang ekstensif. Album ini
juga menampilkan karya Anthony Newley dan Leslie Bricusse; “Feeling
Good” yang diaransemen kembali…
Inggris yang terbentuk di Teignmouth, Devon, tahun 1997. Band ini
terdiri dari Matthew Bellamy (vocal, gitar, keyboard), Chris
Wolstenholme (bas, gitar, keyboard, vocal) dan Dominic Howard (drum,
perkusi). Baru-baru ini, Morgan Nicholls ditampilkan pada posisi
gitar dan keyboard setiap kali Muse mengadakan konser album Black
Holes And Reve. Musik mereka merupakan gabungan dari rock
alternative, rock progresif, musik klasik, elektronika, rock indie,
dan heavy metal. Band ini terkenal dengan aksi panggung mereka yang
enerjik dan ketertarikan eksentrik Bellamy akan hal-hal yang berbau
konspirasi global, kehidupan luar jagat raya, teologi dan hal-hal
mengenai wahyu.
SEJARAH
Formasi Tahun-tahun Awal (1992-1997)
Personil Muse pada awalnya merupakan
anggota band-band yang berbeda pada Teignmouth Community College pada
awal 90-an. Formasi Muse diawali setelah Bellamy sukses melewati
audisi untuk posisi gitar pada band milik Dominic Howard. Mereka
mengalami kesulitan setelah gitaris mereka, Phys Vandit, memilih
untuk keluar, sehingga mereka meminta teman dekat mereka, Chris
Wolstenholme untuk mempelajari permainan gitar bas. Sebelum
mengadopsi nama Muse, nama band sendiri sering berganti sejalan
perjalanan waktu. Nama-nama band yang pernah digunakan adalah Gothic
Plague, Carnage Mahyem, Fixed Penalty, dan Rocket Baby Dolls
(kronologi nama-nama ini tidak jelas disebabkan oleh informasi yang
berbeda-beda yang diberikan Muse pada wawancara yang berbeda-beda).
Pada tahun 1994, dengan nama Rocekt Baby Dolls dan dengan image
gothic, grup ini memenangkan kontes Battle Of The Bands dan
melambungkan nama mereka (mereka dianggap satu-satunya ‘band rock
sejati’ pada kontes itu). Singkatnya, setelah kontes itu, mereka
memutuskan untuk tidak melanjutkan kuliah mereka dan lebih memilih
berkarir di bidang musik professional. Mereka mengubah nama mereka
menjadi Muse dan mulai mengadakan konser di kelab-kelab malam.
EP Pertama Dan Showbiz (1998-2000)
Setelah beberapa tahun membangun basis
fans di London, mereka mulai menancapkan tajinya di Manchester. Muse
bertemu dengan Dennis Smith, pemilik Sawmills, sebuah studio rekaman
di Cornwall, Barat Daya Inggris.
Pertemuan ini membawa mereka ke rekaman
pertama dan peluncuran album pertama, EP, yang mana cover depan album
ini didesain sendiri oleh sang drummer, Dominic, di studio pelabelan
Sawmill, Dangerous. EP mereka yang kedua, Muscle Museum EP,
mengundang perhatian jurnalis musik Inggris, Steve Lamacq dan
publikasi musik Inggris mingguan, NME. Muse kemudian dinaungi oleh
perusahaan produksi musik, Taste Media (Muse bergabung dengan
perusahaan ini pada tiga album pertama mereka). Hal ini sangat
menguntungkan Muse karena mereka dapat mengekspresikan musik dan
skill individual mereka secara bebas pada awal karir-karir mereka.
Origin Of Symmetry (2001-2002)
Album kedua mereka, Origin of Symmetry,
yang diproduksi oleh Leckie, menyajikan musik yang lebih keras, suara
rock yang lebih sangar, dengan permainan bas Wolstenholme, yang
terampil, berdistorsi atau bersintesis, yang kadang-kadang menggunkan
teknik klasik pada lagu seperti “Seperti Dementia”.
Band ini mencoba instrumentasi
non-ortodoks, seperti orjen gereja, Mellotron dan peti drum. Lebih
terasa garis vocal Bellamy yang tinggi, permainan gitar yang
arpegiasi dan permainan piano yang berbeda yang terinspirasi dari
karya pianis pada pergerakan Romantisisme, khususnya Rusia,
Rachmaninov dan Tchaikovsky. Juga influens musik minimalis yang jelas
seperti Philip Glass. Bellamy menyebutkan bahwa influens musiknya
adalah Ned (Atomic Dustbin) dan Tom Morello (Audioslave dan Race
Against The Machine) dan hal ini dibuktikan dengan lagu-lagu yang
berbasis urak-urakan pada Origin Of Symmetry dan penggunaan efek
pitch-shifting pada permainan solo Bellamy yang ekstensif. Album ini
juga menampilkan karya Anthony Newley dan Leslie Bricusse; “Feeling
Good” yang diaransemen kembali…
KATA - KATA MUTIARA
Smile is the shortest distance between two people.
Senyum adalah jarak yang terdekat antara dua manusia .
Real power does not hit hard , but straight to the point.
Kekuatan yang sesungguhnya tidak memukul dengan keras , tetapi tepat sasaran
You have to endure caterpillars if you want to see butterflies. (Antoine De Saint)
Anda harus tahan terhadap ulat jika ingin dapat melihat kupu-kupu. (Antoine De Saint)
Only the man who is in the truth is a free man.
Hanya orang yang berada dalam kebenaranlah orang yang bebas.
Every dark light is followed by a light morning.
Malam yang gelap selalu diikuti pagi yang tenang.
Laughing is healthy, especially if you laugh about yourself.
Tertawa itu sehat, lebih-lebih jika mentertawakan diri sendiri.
The danger of small mistakes is that those mistakes are not always small.
Bahayanya kesalahan-kesalahan kecil adalah bahwa kesalahan-kesalahan itu tidak selalu kecil.
Kesalahan kecil bisa mengakibatkan kesalahan yang lebih besar. Bersamaan dengan kesalahan itu, persoalannya bisa menjadi besar pula. Maka kesalahan kecil pun harus segera dibetulkan.
To be silent is the biggest art in a conversation.
Sikap diam adalah seni yang terhebat dalam suatu pembicaraan.
The worst in the business world is the situation of no decision. (Napoleon).
Yang terparah dalam dunia usaha adalah keadaan tidak ada keputusan. (Napoleon).
Dig a well before you become thirsty.
Galilah sumur sebelum Anda merasa haus.
Good manners consist of small sacrifices.
Sopan – santun yang baik yang terdiri dari pengorbanan –pengorbanan kecil.
IDEAS ARE ONLY SEEDS, TO PICK THE CROPS NEEDS PERSPIRATION.
GAGASAN-GAGASAN HANYALAH BIBIT, MENUAI HASILNYA MEMBUTUHKAN KERINGAT.
LAZINESS MAKES A MAN SO SLOW THAT POV ERTY SOON OVERTAKE HIM.
KEMALASAN MEMBUAT SESEORANG BEGITU LAMBAN SEHINGGA KEMISKINAN SEGERA MENYUSUL.
THOSE WHO ARE ABLE TO CONTROL THEIR RAGE CAN CONQUER THEIR MOST SERIOUS ENEMY.
SIAPA YANG DAPAT MENAHAN MARAHNYA MAMPU MENGALAHKAN MUSUHNYA YANG PALING BERBAHAYA.
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS ARE TOOLS, THE WORKMAN IS CHARACTER.
PENGETAHUAN DAN KETERAMPILAN ADALAH ALAT, YANG MENENTUKAN SUKSES ADALAH TABIAT.
A HEALTHY MAN HAS A HUNDRED WISHES, A SICK MAN HAS ONLY ONE.
ORANG YANG SEHAT MEMPUNYAI SERATUS KEINGINAN, ORANG YANG SAKIT HANYA PUNYA SATU KEINGINAN
A MEDICAL DOCTOR MAKES ONE HEALTHY, THE NATURE CREATES THE HEALTH. (Aristoteles)
SEORANG DOKTER MENYEMBUHKAN, DAN ALAM YANG MENCIPTAKAN KESEHATAN. (Aristoteles)
THE MAN WHO SAYS HE NEVER HAS TIME IS THE LAZIEST MAN.(Lichtenberg)
ORANG YANG MENGATAKAN TIDAK PUNYA WAKTU ADALAH ORANG YANG PEMALAS.(Lichterberg)
POLITENESS IS THE OIL WHICH REDUCES THE FRICTION AGAINST EACH OTHER. (Demokritus).
SOPAN-SANTU ADALAH IBARAT MINYAK YANG MENGURANGI GESEKAN SATU DENGAN YANG LAIN. (Demokritus).
A DROP OF INK CAN MOVE A MILLION PEOPLE TO THINK.
SETETES TINTA BISA MENGGERAKAN SEJUTA MANUSIA UNTUK BERFIKIR.
WE CAN TAKE FROM OUR LIFE UP TO WHAT WE PUT TO IT.
APA YANG BISA KITA DAPAT DARI KEHIDUPAN KITA TERGANTUNG DARI APA YANG KITA MASUKKAN KE SITU.
REAL POWER DOES NOT HIT HARD, BUT STRAIGHT TO THE POINT.
KEKUATAN YANG SESUNGGUHNYA TIDAK MEMUKUL DENGAN KERAS, TETAPI TEPAT SASARAN
IF YOU LEAVE EVERYTHING TO YOUR GOOD LUCK, THEN YOU MAKE YOUR LIFE A LOTTERY.
JIKA ANDA MENGANTUNGKAN DIRI PADA KEBERUNTUNGAN SAJA, ANDA MEMBUAT HIDUP ANDA SEPERTI LOTERE.
REAL POWER DOES NOT HIT HARD, BUT STRAIGHT TO THE POINT.
KEKUATAN YANG SESUNGGUHNYA TIDAK MEMUKUL DENGAN KERAS, TETAPI TEPAT SASARAN.
BEING CAREFUL IN JUDGING AN OPINION IS A SIGN OF WISDOM.
KEHATI-HATIAN DALAM MENILAI PENDAPAT ORANG ADALAH CIRI KEMATANGAN JIWA.
YOU RECOGNIZE BIRDS FROM THEIR SINGGING, YOU DO PEOPLE FROM THEIR TALKS.
BURUNG DIKENAL DARI NYANYIANNYA, MANUSIA DARI KATA-KATANYA.
ONE OUNCE OF PREVENT IS EQUAL TO ONE POUND OF MEDICINE.
SATU ONS PENCEGAHAN SAMA NILAINYA DENGAN SATU PON OBAT.
CINTA OH.... CINTA
Cinta tidak pernah meminta, ia sentiasa memberi, cinta membawa penderitaan, tetapi tidak pernah berdendam, tak pernah membalas dendam. Di mana ada cinta di situ ada kehidupan; manakala kebencian membawa kepada kemusnahan.~ Mahatma Ghandi
Tuhan memberi kita dua kaki untuk berjalan, dua tangan untuk memegang, dua telinga untuk mendengar dan dua mata untuk melihat. Tetapi mengapa Tuhan hanya menganugerahkan sekeping hati pada kita? Karena Tuhan telah memberikan sekeping lagi hati pada seseorang untuk kita mencarinya. Itulah namanya Cinta.
Ada 2 titis air mata mengalir di sebuah sungai. Satu titis air mata tu menyapa air mata yg satu lagi,” Saya air mata seorang gadis yang mencintai seorang lelaki tetapi telah kehilangannya. Siapa kamu pula?”. Jawab titis air mata kedua tu,” Saya air mata seorang lelaki yang menyesal membiarkan seorang gadis yang mencintai saya berlalu begitu sahaja.”
Cinta sejati adalah ketika dia mencintai orang lain, dan kamu masih mampu tersenyum, sambil berkata: aku turut bahagia untukmu.
Jika kita mencintai seseorang, kita akan sentiasa mendoakannya walaupun dia tidak berada disisi kita.
Jangan sesekali mengucapkan selamat tinggal jika kamu masih mau mencoba. Jangan sesekali menyerah jika kamu masih merasa sanggup. Jangan sesekali mengatakan kamu tidak mencintainya lagi jika kamu masih tidak dapat melupakannya.
Perasaan cinta itu dimulai dari mata, sedangkan rasa suka dimulai dari telinga. Jadi jika kamu mahu berhenti menyukai seseorang, cukup dengan menutup telinga. Tapi apabila kamu Coba menutup matamu dari orang yang kamu cintai, cinta itu berubah menjadi titisan air mata dan terus tinggal dihatimu dalam jarak waktu yang cukup lama.
Cinta datang kepada orang yang masih mempunyai harapan walaupun mereka telah dikecewakan. Kepada mereka yang masih percaya, walaupun mereka telah dikhianati. Kepada mereka yang masih ingin mencintai, walaupun mereka telah disakiti sebelumnya dan kepada mereka yang mempunyai keberanian dan keyakinan untuk membangunkan kembali kepercayaan.
Jangan simpan kata-kata cinta pada orang yang tersayang sehingga dia meninggal dunia , lantaran akhirnya kamu terpaksa catatkan kata-kata cinta itu pada pusaranya . Sebaliknya ucapkan kata-kata cinta yang tersimpan dibenakmu itu sekarang selagi ada hayatnya.
Mungkin Tuhan menginginkan kita bertemu dan bercinta dengan orang yang salah sebelum bertemu dengan orang yang tepat, kita harus mengerti bagaimana berterima kasih atas kurniaan itu.
Cinta bukan mengajar kita lemah, tetapi membangkitkan kekuatan. Cinta bukan mengajar kita menghinakan diri, tetapi menghembuskan kegagahan. Cinta bukan melemahkan semangat, tetapi membangkitkan semangat -Hamka
Cinta dapat mengubah pahit menjadi manis, debu beralih emas, keruh menjadi bening, sakit menjadi sembuh, penjara menjadi telaga, derita menjadi nikmat, dan kemarahan menjadi rahmat.
Sungguh menyakitkan mencintai seseorang yang tidak mencintaimu, tetapi lebih menyakitkan adalah mencintai seseorang dan kamu tidak pernah memiliki keberanian untuk menyatakan cintamu kepadanya.
Hal yang menyedihkan dalam hidup adalah ketika kamu bertemu seseorang yang sangat berarti bagimu. Hanya untuk menemukan bahawa pada akhirnya menjadi tidak bererti dan kamu harus membiarkannya pergi.
Kamu tahu bahwa kamu sangat merindukan seseorang, ketika kamu memikirkannya hatimu hancur berkeping.
Dan hanya dengan mendengar kata “Hai” darinya, dapat menyatukan kembali kepingan hati tersebut.
Tuhan ciptakan 100 bahagian kasih sayang. 99 disimpan disisinya dan hanya 1 bahagian diturunkan ke dunia. Dengan kasih sayang yang satu bahagian itulah, makhluk saling berkasih sayang sehingga kuda mengangkat kakinya kerana takut anaknya terpijak.
Kadangkala kamu tidak menghargai orang yang mencintai kamu sepenuh hati, sehinggalah kamu kehilangannya. Pada saat itu, tiada guna sesalan karena perginya tanpa berpatah lagi.
Jangan mencintai seseorang seperti bunga, kerana bunga mati kala musim berganti. Cintailah mereka seperti sungai, kerana sungai mengalir selamanya.
Cinta mampu melunakkan besi, menghancurkan batu, membangkitkan yang mati dan meniupkan kehidupan padanya serta membuat budak menjadi pemimpin. Inilah dasyatnya cinta !
Permulaan cinta adalah membiarkan orang yang kamu cintai menjadi dirinya sendiri, dan tidak merubahnya menjadi gambaran yang kamu inginkan. Jika tidak, kamu hanya mencintai pantulan diri sendiri yang kamu temukan di dalam dirinya.
Cinta itu adalah perasaan yang mesti ada pada tiap-tiap diri manusia, ia laksana setitis embun yang turun dari langit,bersih dan suci. Cuma tanahnyalah yang berlain-lainan menerimanya. Jika ia jatuh ke tanah yang tandus,tumbuhlah oleh kerana embun itu kedurjanaan, kedustaan, penipu, langkah serong dan lain-lain perkara yang tercela. Tetapi jika ia jatuh kepada tanah yang subur,di sana akan tumbuh kesuciaan hati, keikhlasan, setia budi pekerti yang tinggi dan lain-lain perangai yang terpuji.~ Hamka
Kata-kata cinta yang lahir hanya sekadar di bibir dan bukannya di hati mampu melumatkan seluruh jiwa raga, manakala kata-kata cinta yang lahir dari hati yang ikhlas mampu untuk mengubati segala luka di hati orang yang mendengarnya.
Kamu tidak pernah tahu bila kamu akan jatuh cinta. namun apabila sampai saatnya itu, raihlah dengan kedua tanganmu,dan jangan biarkan dia pergi dengan sejuta rasa tanda tanya dihatinya
Cinta bukanlah kata murah dan lumrah dituturkan dari mulut ke mulut tetapi cinta adalah anugerah Tuhan yang indah dan suci jika manusia dapat menilai kesuciannya.
Bukan laut namanya jika airnya tidak berombak. Bukan cinta namanya jika perasaan tidak pernah terluka. Bukan kekasih namanya jika hatinya tidak pernah merindu dan cemburu.
Bercinta memang mudah. Untuk dicintai juga memang mudah. Tapi untuk dicintai oleh orang yang kita cintai itulah yang sukar diperoleh.
Satu-satunya cara agar kita memperolehi kasih sayang, ialah jangan menuntut agar kita dicintai, tetapi mulailah memberi kasih sayang kepada orang lain tanpa mengharapkan balasan. (Dale Carnagie)
Led Zeppelin
Taking pot shots at the four-headed monolithic heavy rock beast that was Led Zeppelin is all too easy.
Musically, it was a lumbering leviathan, often playing three-hour sets that often comprised of seemingly endless, self-indulgent solos, including (horror of horrors) John Bonham bashing out a drum solo on 'Moby Dick'. And don't forget their wholesale pillaging of the blues which they sprinkled liberally throughout most of their songs and then cranked up the volume to an ear-splitting Spinal Tap level of 11. Lyrically, too, they could be appalling. When Robert Plant wasn't singing about some mystical mumbo-jumbo about Vikings or the Battle for Evermore his crotch took over, invariably imploring some woman to "squeeze my lemon 'till the juice runs down my legs" (the line was looted from Robert Johnson anyway).
Even off stage they were one big rock cliché, living the rock 'n' roll lifestyle to the hilt. The band consumed an endless supply of alcohol, drugs, televisions and hotel rooms – when they weren't flying around America in their own private jet. Jimmy Page, for a while, got obsessed with the occult, magick and Aleister Crowley. There was also a limitless supply of groupies. The stories of which have now gone into the realms of folklore. Separate incidents supposedly involved a Red Snapper and a redheaded groupie, the so-called “octopus incident” and whilst on their third tour of America, a groupie that liked her Great Dane to do certain things to her. In the "groupie" issue of Rolling Stone Page recounted a tale of being served up on a room service trolley by Bonham dressed as a waiter to the waiting women.
They were exactly the sort of rock dinosaurs punk came along to eradicate.
But they also had a radical edge to them. When they first signed to their record label the band managed to secure complete artistic control and then, later, set up their own record label, Swan Song. They also never sanctioned the release of singles in the UK. For most record labels, singles are largely seen as a loss-leader, put out solely as a means to promote the forthcoming album. Despite severe pressure to release 'Stairway to Heaven' in a 7-inch format the group still refused, probably losing themselves a great deal of lost income and exposure. They also shunned the usual record company marketing ploys and not only refused to give their fourth album a title but also refused to have their name on the cover. The band also took time and effort over the artwork on each album. Rather than shoving out a cover with a picture of the band, most albums came in a gatefold sleeve at least. 'Led Zeppelin III' came with a cardboard disc that could be spun around, changing the patterns on the cover (the idea came to Page from recollecting old gardening catalogues). 'In Through the Out Door' had six possible covers and the covers of the double album 'Physical Graffiti' slotted together to complete a picture of a tenement block. Even playing live they defied convention, refusing to accept a support band in favour of playing three hour slots themselves.
When, though, someone comes to write that great big thick book on rock mythology Led Zeppelin will be right up there as one of the great rock bands. They could veer from the hypnotic pounding of 'When the Levee Breaks', the intricate, exotic influences on 'Kashmir' as well as the straight-forward blast of 'Rock and Roll'. There was the loneliness of 'Tea for One', the reflective 'In My Time of Dying' and the spookiness of 'No Quarter'. And they also wrote a little ditty called 'Stairway to Heaven' which you may have heard of.
Not only were they musically way over the top but also financially. They were big business selling albums in vast quantities; their second album spent two and a half years in the US Top 40. In 1973 the Financial Times tipped the band to earn in excess of $30 million in the US alone. It's hard to think of a more commercially successful or archetypal rock band of the 70's. Along with The Beatles they are the only band to have five diamond albums (sales of more than 10 million each). Their fourth album has reportedly sold 22 million copies.
Not bad for a band that was originally conceived as the New Yardbirds.
After Jeff Beck left the Yardbirds and the band disintegrated in 1968 guitarist Jimmy Page was left with the name and an obligation to complete a tour of Scandinavia. Page initially linked-up with session bassist John Paul Jones, whom he had worked with on various sessions including those for Lulu, Dusty Springfield and Donovan. Teaming up with manager Peter Grant they set about putting a band together. Vocalist Robert Plant (who had been in Band of Joy along with a drummer called John Bonham) was recommended to them, who in turn suggested Bonham for the drumming position. And the New Yardbirds went off to fulfil their contractual obligations.
Talking to Mick Houghton, then writing for Circus magazine in 1976, Page said: "I knew exactly the style I was after and the sort of musicians I wanted to play with, the sort of powerhouse sound I was really going for."
The band returned, went into the studio to cut their first album, which was supposedly done in 37 hours at a cost of £1,750 (paid out of Page's life savings) and then took the name Led Zeppelin after a suggestion by Who drummer Keith Moon who, legend has it, quipped their sound was “so heavy they should go down like a lead zeppelin”.
'Led Zeppelin' was released in early 1969 after the band signed to Atlantic for a record-breaking $200,000 advance which included a "total artistic control" clause. The album, which was largely a studio version of their live set, mixed together a heavy-duty interpretation of the blues in the shape of covers of Willie Dixon's 'You Shook Me' and Otis Rush's 'Can't Quit You' with the folk of Bert Jansch (who remains a strong influence on Page: “He [Jansch] was the innovator of the time.”) via the acoustic instrumental 'Black Mountain Side' (Jansch's September 1966 album 'Jack Onion' contained 'Blackwater Side') and Anne Bredon's 'Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You' (which Joan Baez had covered) as well as their love of rhythm and blues in the epic 'Dazed and Confused'. It went Top 10 in both Britain and the US. Looking back in 1977 Page commented that "the first album has got the catalyst for so much."
"It was inevitable that the first LP had leftover ideas from the Yardbirds," Page told Houghton in Circus magazine. "Because that's what I'd been working on. It was original stuff that I'd developed myself."
Following in chronological order was 'Led Zeppelin II'. The album was an unashamed collection of rock songs, containing the classic 'Whole Lotta Love'. Released as a single in America, it was to give the band their only Top 10 hit in the US. Although the band thought it would be inappropriate to release the single in the UK it would later be covered by Alexis Korner's studio band CCS (standing for Collective Consciousness Society) and used as the theme tune for BBC1's chart show 'Top of the Pops'. Strangely, the song would also be covered by the London Symphony Orchestra as well as Tina Turner. Willie Dixon, though, thought the song bore a remarkable similarity to his song 'You Need Love' and brought a plagiarism suit against the band in 1987, which would eventually be settled out of court. At the time, Plant was reported to have said: “You only get caught when you're successful. That's the game.” Upon release the album went straight to number one on both sides of the Atlantic and had even notched up 400,000 advance orders before its late 1969 release. Along with 'Whole Lotta Love' songs like 'The Lemon Song', 'What Is and What Should Never Be' as well as 'Moby Dick' (which would later become a live favourite and feature Bonham's drum solo) ensured that the album would often feature in "best rock album" polls. "This is one fucking heavyweight of an album!" is how John Mendelssohn described it in his review for Rolling Stone in December 1969.
After a 27-date tour of America which grossed $800,000 Plant and Page (along with roadies Clive Coulson and Sandy Macgregor) hid themselves away in the remote eighteenth-century Welsh country cottage, Bron-yr-Aur (meaning "breast of gold"), in south Snowdonia to organise and prepare their third album, which would have the ingenious title of 'Led Zeppelin III'. The cottage was extremely basic with no bathroom, electricity or running water. Candles and gaslights were used, water had to be fetched from the nearby stream and the nearest town was two miles away down a mountain road. The area is steeped in ancient myth. The giant Idris Gawr has his seat on the mountain near by and legend has it that King Arthur fought his last battle in the Ochr-yr-Bwich pass. During their stay the songs 'Bron-yr-Aur', 'Bron-y-Aur Stomp', 'Misty Mountain Hop', 'Friends' and 'That's the Way' were written as well as the early stages of what would become their best known song, 'Stairway to Heaven'. Rough sketches of 'Over the Hills and Far Away', 'Down by the Seaside' and 'The Rover' were also drawn up. After playing the Bath Festival in 1970 and heading out on tours of Europe and the US the album was released towards the end of that year. Later, in 1973, Plant would return to the area, buying a sheep farm in the nearby Llyfnant Valley.
The latest album, released in October, still contained some hard-boiled rockers – in the shape of the thunderous 'Immigrant Song' (about the Viking invasions of England) complete with Plant's finest Wagnerian wailing and 'Celebration Day' – but the album largely emphasised the band's acoustic, folk and blues heritage with the mournful 'Since I've Been Loving You' and the traditional 'Gallows Pole' (which stemmed from a Leadbelly song) standing out. Along with the trademark riffs it mixed in the folk music of Pentangle, Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band, Celtic mythology (Plant had been studying the manuscripts of the ancient legends kept at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth) as well as the delta blues of Mississippi. In an interview at the time Page said: “The new album is totally different from the others and I see that it's obviously a new direction. Everybody in the band is going through some changes. There are changes in the playing and the lyrics. Robert is really getting involved in his lyric writing.” Despite critical misgivings - Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone thought: "Their music is as ephemeral as Marvel comics" comparing their "insensitive grossness" to a one of Cecil B DeMille's films. The fans still brought it though and the album topped the charts in both the UK and America. "Sitting around a log fire in Wales," commented Page in a defence of the album to Gig in 1977. "You don't put up a 200-watt Marshall set-up but you get your acoustic guitars. Consequently acoustic numbers came out." For Plant, it was a "time to step back, take stock and not get lost in it all."
While the band were doing their own Valhallic-style raiding in the US by cultivating their "wild boys on tour" image by their excessive consumption of drink, drugs, groupies and the trashing of hotel rooms they also had a darker side too largely thanks to Page's growing interest in the occult and particularly Aleister Crowley. Page's obsession even stretched to buying Crowley's Scottish mansion Boleskine House in 1970 and putting the quotes 'Do What Thou Wilt', and 'So Mote It Be' from the self-styled "Great Beast" on the run-out grooves of their third album. In 1976 he told Circus magazine that he had read 'Magic in Theory and in Practice' when he was about 11 and had done "quite extensive" reading of Crowley's work, particularly being attracted to Crowley's "system of self-liberation". In 1975 Page even opened his own occult bookshop off Kensington High Street called Equinox. When questioned about his interest in the subject though Page would be coy and hesitant to reveal too much.
Their untitled, and best known, fourth album was largely recorded on the Rolling Stones mobile recording studio at Headley Grange in Hampshire and was released in December 1971. The inside cover containing four runic symbols that represented each member of the group. It kicked-off with the thunderous boogie of 'Black Dog' which was followed by the self-explanatory 'Rock and Roll". The tempo was sedated by the mystical folk of 'The Battle of Evermore' (with former Fairport Convention singer Sandy Denny helping out on vocal duties) before the album's centrepiece, 'Stairway to Heaven'. Also seeped in mysticism (as well as obscure lyrics) it would become their best-known track and a perennial feature in concerts. The eight minute song slowly built from Plant's voice into a rousing, head-strong virtuoso guitar solo from Page. The song gestated over a long period. The early buds of the song started coming through whilst they were in their Welsh cottage but the actual recording of the song started in Basing Street in December 1970. Plant's lyrics came later when the band were at Headley Grange and Bonham and Jones had taken the night off to go to the Speakeasy. The guitar solo would also come later when the band returned to Basing Street, according to Richard Digby Smith, who was the tape operator on the album, Page got the solo down in three takes. For Page, the song "crystallised the essence of the band. It was milestone for us."
'Misty Mountain Hop' saw the band pay homage to the hippie era in San Francisco. It's really though the final track that really stands out. 'When the Levee Breaks' took a blues framework, put the drums way up in the mix as if Bonham had been bashing out the rhythm with concrete slabs and then had Plant wailing over the top. The drum sound was achieved by putting the drums in the huge open entrance hall which had a stairway going up to all three floors. A stereo mike was then put on the second floor. US rap group the Beastie Boys liked the track so much that they sampled it on the track 'Rhymin & Stealin' from their 1986 album 'Licensed to Ill.' Indie also-rans Chapterhouse also sampled Bonham's drumming on their single 'Pearl'. Zeppelin's untitled album got to number one in the UK but. despite the classic status now bestowed on it, it could only mange second place in the States evn though it went gold on its first day of release.
Their fifth album was actually given a proper title: 'Houses of the Holy', although the band obviously forgot to actually put that on the cover. Despite having its moments the spring 1973 album recorded at the Electric Ladyland and Olympics studios was patchy at best. Fans were not only offered up the likes of the ominous 'No Quarter' and 'The Song Remains the Same' as well as the rollicking reggae-tinged 'D'yer Mak'er' but also the appalling cod-funk of 'The Crunge' – a strong contender for the band's worst effort actually committed to vinyl - and the run-of-the-mill 'Dancing Days.' The album still managed to reach the top of both the UK and US charts.
After yet another tour of America the band had something of a hiatus, they stopped touring to work on their film/live album, form their own label Swan Song (launched in May 1974 it would sign acts like Bad Company and The Pretty Things) and write songs for the album that would become 'Physical Graffiti'.
Eventually released in 1975 the double album would contain some of the band's finest songs, most notably the majestic sweep of the nine-minute 'Kashmir', the unabashed 'The Rover' and the stunning blues of 'In My Time of Dying'. Sides three and four couldn't quite match the opening two but still managed to conjure something special with 'In the Light' and 'Night Flight'. It spent six weeks at the number one spot in the US charts and also hit the top over here, eventually becoming the band's biggest-selling recording.
A planned world tour had to be cancelled when disaster struck Plant and his wife when they were both badly injured in a car crash on the Greek island of Rhodes in the summer. Plant would not be able to walk unaided until the following year.
With boring predictability their next album, 'Presence', once again reached the top of the UK and US album charts in 1976. It's cover depicted a strange, black obelisk set in familial settings. The music varied wildly and marked something of a return to the band's hard rock of their early albums. Recorded in Munich in three weeks, it kicked-off with the gallop of 'Achilles Last Stand' before moving on to the rather workman like efforts of 'For Your Life' and 'Royal Orleans'. 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' upped the standard once again before falling back to the plain and ordinary 'Candy Store Rock' and 'Hoot's On for Nowhere'. The album closed though with the beautiful despair and heartache of 'Tea for One'. "Nothing was plotted out beforehand, remembered Page to Houghton. "There may have been a few ideas on cassette but that was all. Everything just came pouring out in the studio."
The long awaited double live album and film, 'The Song Remains the Same', finally saw the light of day in late 1976. Although it was a commercial success (and reached the number one spot in the USA and the UK) it was also a musical albatross; generally failing to capture the spirit of the band's marathon concerts. It was Led Zeppelin at their most bombastic and over-blown. Songs were drawn out, seemingly endless and usually filled with self-indulgent solos. Fans had to be super fit to last this endurance test of stamina. Along with the live footage shot at Madison Square Garden, spliced in-between the songs were "fantasy sequences" where each member of the band was meant to reveal their innermost soul. Plant saw himself as some sort of medieval hero excelling at horse riding, sailing and fighting baddies to save young damsels in distress. Raglan Castle between Monmouth and Abergavenny was used for the filming. Plant summed-up his feelings of the album to Mojo magazine in 1994: "I think 'The Song Remains the Same' is such a load of bollocks".
Tragedy struck again in July 1977 during a 51-date tour of America. Initially a security man got badly beaten up and then three days later Plant's son, Karac, died after suddenly contracting a stomach infection. The tour was abandoned immediately. It would prove to be the last time the band would tour the States.
The band retreated and nothing was heard from them for a year. Rumours started spreading that the band was jinxed in some way. Gossips pointed to Page's fascination with the work of Aleister Crowley and the occult in general as the cause. Some even thought that the band had gone to the crossroads to sell their souls in a Faustian-style pact with the devil - just like the legend that surrounded Robert Johnson. Any efforts to quell the whispers weren't helped when John Bonham broke two ribs in a car crash.
The band returned to the studio – in fact, Abba's studio in Sweden – in late 1978 to record their next album 'In Through the Out Door'. Certainly one of the group's weaker efforts it still had its moments and contains a diverse spread of styles which had largely been masterminded by Jones. Opener 'In the Evening' boogied along while 'All My Love' (supposedly written for Plant's son) showed a tender, if a little clichéd, side and the weary 'I'm Gonna Crawl' saw the band still finding their creative form but songs like 'South Bound Saurez' never had much going for it. Fans remained loyal though, once again buying enough copies to send the album to the top of the charts. It stayed at number one in the US charts for seven weeks.
A European tour was planned in 1980, acting as a warm up for a US tour afterwards but whilst rehearsals were underway Bonham was found dead at Page's house, having choked on his own vomit after a serious drinking binge in September.
After his death the band felt that they couldn't go on and announced their retirement soon afterwards.
Until recently the band's vaults hadn't been comprehensively raided. A compilation album of unissued tracks spanning the band's career, 'Coda', was released in 1982, largely for contractual reasons, and was aimed directly at the die-hard fans. Despite some flashes it didn't unearth any startling discoveries or forgotten gems.
Over the years though the label has cashed in on the popularity of their back catalogue releasing remastered box sets and compilations (such as the 'Remasters' albums and a 4-CD box set, which did contain some previously unreleased material) and although it improved the sound quality it usually meant selling fans something they already had.
The release of the band's BBC radio sessions in 1997 proved to be of most interest to fans, and even contained three previously unheard tracks.
In a spate of activity though a five hour DVD collecting various live performances - including the Royal Albert Hall in January 1970 and Knebworth in 1979 - and the triple live album 'How the West was Won' – taken from two shows on the west coast of America in June 1972 – has seen the light of day. Hopefully now, with the release of a decent live album the "bollocks" on 'The Song Remains the Same' will be consigned to the archives.
The appeal of the band to the latest crop of groups like the White Stripes and the Flaming Lips as well as older, hard rock bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith is perhaps best left up to Plant in an interview with Barney Hoskyns for 'Rock's Backpages' in May 2003. "The thing about the group was the extension of the instrumental parts, and that was in full fling by the time we even made our first record [...] It was what we feasted on to get riffs, to get organised, to become a big band with big riffs."
