Pop’s much revered favourite boffin was born in Suffolk and signed his art school application Brian Peter George St John Le Baptiste De La Salle Eno. I guess that gives some idea class wise of where he was coming from. Not that I was bothered about such things. I knew him from Roxy Music, posing in make-up and feather boa as Bryan Ferry’s sleazy, evil twin, burping and farting on a Heath Newton synth. But, as everyone knows, he went onto mean much more than that.
He may have invented a brand new genre with ambient music, even if it was a bit dreary, but Eno’s main source of fame undoubtedly came from his Bowie and Byrne collaborations and his production duties with U2. Yet to my ears there was something far more addictive about his dalliance with the simple pop song.
Despite an obvious rather superior intelligence, clever clever strategies, concepts, theories and intricate working methods, Eno’s first two solo LP’s were absolutely essential listening for late glam pre punk hipster teens. With most of his artful pretence yet to surface, they were his most accessible work by some distance while three years later, with remarkable insight, Before And After Science provided a handy route map for post punk just as punk was dying on its feet.
1. Needle In The Camels Eye / Here Come The Warm Jets LP January 1974
2. Dead Finks Don’t Talk / Here Come The Warm Jets LP January 1974
3. Third Uncle / Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy LP November 1974
4. The True Wheel / Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy LP November 1974
5. St Elmo’s Fire / Another Green World LP September 1975
6. I’ll Come Running / Another Green World LP September 1975
7. Another Green World / Another Green World LP September 1975
8. French Catalogues / Discreet Music LP November 1975
9. Evensong (Fripp And Eno) / Evening Star LP December 1975
10. King’s Lead Hat / Before And After Science LP December 1977
11. By This River / Before And After Science LP December 1977
12. 1-1 / Ambient 1 : Music For Airports LP March 1979
13. Regiment (Brian Eno And David Byrne) / My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts LP February 1981
14. America Is Waiting (Brian Eno And David Byrne) / My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts LP February 1981
15. A Clearing / Ambient 4 : On Land LP March 1982
16. Deep Blue Day / Apollo : Atmospheres And Soundtracks LP July 1983
17. One Word (Brian Eno And John Cale) / Wrong Way Up LP October 1990
18. What Actually Happened? / Nerve Net LP September 1992
19. Slug (Passengers) / Original Soundtracks 1 LP November 1995
