Search - Terry Riley :: You're No Good

Essential if you are not faint of heart

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 06/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You're No Good is a piece Terry Riley performed in 1967 but it did not get released until 2000. Before I review it, here is how it works.



The composition starts with heavy white noise, porbably from an early moog synthasizer. This increases in volume over the next few minutes. Suddenly, Riley pops into You're No Good, a latin soul song Harvey Averne released on Atlantic that same year on a LP called Viva Soul. (You should get a hold of this, too. Lots of vibraphone and sexy female back-up singers, you'll love it. )



Riley runs the song on two reel to reel decks. These tape recorders are moving at slighly different speeds, so, eventually, one begins to trail behind.



This creates an eccho effect, which increases, and the whole song disintagrates into noise. I am not sure how planned this was. Perhaps the tape decks were geared up, and then allowed to run their course.



Riley then adds a little feedback, and ends You're No Good by going back to the moog.



This is hypnotic, funny, absurd and fun to listen to. The song is in itself great and the deconsturction is fasinating, because Riely's choice of source material seems so random. It is musical and non-musical at once.



Trust me on this one. Buy it."