| Before and after Science | |||||
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| Studio album by Brian Eno | |||||
| Released | December 1977 | ||||
| Recorded | Basing St Studios, London Conny's Studio, Cologne 1977 |
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| Genre | Art Rock, Ambient | ||||
| Length | 39:30 | ||||
| Label | E.G. Records | ||||
| Producer | Brian Eno & Rhett Davies |
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| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Brian Eno chronology | |||||
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Before and after Science is a 1977 album by Brian Eno. It is less experimental than its predecessor Another Green World, containing eight songs and just two instrumentals. The songs on the first side of the original album are more energetic, while those on the second side are languid and pastoral. In addition to the ten tracks, four offset prints from water colour paintings by the artist Peter Schmidt were included in the first edition of the LP and reproduced on the back cover of later pressings (and are reproduced below). (Hence, the album's subtitle, Fourteen Pictures.) Eno's liner notes state, "Apart from our collaboration on this record, Peter and I have been working together and comparing notes for some time. In 1975 we produced a boxed set or [sic] oracle cards called "Oblique Strategies", which were used extensively in the making of this record." The song "King's Lead Hat" was released as a single in January 1978; its B-side was a non-album track, "RAF".
Contents |
LP track listing
All songs written by Brian Eno, except where noted.
Side one
- "No One Receiving" – 3:51
- "Backwater" – 3:43
- "Kurt's Rejoinder" – 2:53
- "Energy Fools the Magician" (arr. Percy Jones/Eno) – 2:05
- "King's Lead Hat" – 3:53
Side two
- "Here He Comes" – 5:40
- "Julie With ..." – 6:20
- "By This River" (Eno, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Dieter Moebius) – 3:03
- "Through Hollow Lands" (arr. Fred Frith/Eno) – 3:54
- "Spider and I" – 4:08
Personnel
- Brian Eno – voices, synthesizers (Minimoog, EMS Synthi AKS, Yamaha CS-80), guitars, synthesized percussion, pianos, brass, vibes, metallics, bell
- Paul Rudolph – basses, rhythm guitar
- Phil Collins – drums
- Percy Jones – fretless bass, analogue delay bass
- Rhett Davies – agong-gong, stick
- Jaki Liebezeit – drums
- Dave Mattacks – drums
- Shirley Williams – brush timbales
- Kurt Schwitters – voice
- Fred Frith – guitars
- Andy Fraser – drums
- Phil Manzanera – guitars
- Robert Fripp - guitar
- Hans-Joachim Roedelius – piano
- Dieter Moebius – bass, piano
- Bill MacCormick – bass
- Brian Turrington – bass
Cover art
- Peter Schmidt - the pictures (back cover)
- Ritva Saarikko - cover photograph
- Brian Eno - cover design
- Cream - cover artwork
Miscellaneous
- The song "Kurt's Rejoinder" features a sample of Dada artist Kurt Schwitters performing his Ursonate.
- "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of Talking Heads, and the song is indeed a Talking Heads pastiche. Eno's intention was to record the song with members of the band but that could not be arranged. It was covered by Ultravox as a live B-side on the 12" version of their single "Passing Strangers" in 1980, and by The Dirtbombs as a limited-edition bonus track on their album Dangerous Magical Noise in 2003.
- "Through Hollow Lands" is dedicated to Harold Budd. Various internet sites, including Fred Frith's own discography page claim that co-musician 'Shirley Williams' on this track is a pseudonym of Robert Wyatt. In fact, Wyatt himself admitted to as much on 2003's BBC Radio 2 documentary "A Quantity of Stuff - The Brian Eno Story".
- The song "By This River" features in the Italian film The Son's Room and the Mexican film Y Tu Mama Tambien.
- Martin Gore of Depeche Mode covered "By This River" in his solo album Counterfeit² in 2003.
- Supposedly 109 tracks were recorded for the album, the majority of which remain unheard.
Prints by Peter Schmidt
 1. The Road to the Crater |
 2. Look at September, Look at October |
 3. The other House |
 4. Four Years |
Charts
USA
| Year | Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Pop Albums | #171 |
