The Debut Albums

I am tagged by anfield devotee on five(5) most influential debut albums that I think is five most influential albums I consider great. They are as follows:


Debut Album: Mir Ist Kein Weg Zu Weit by Gilla

It was 1974 when we moved to Penang and I stayed with my untie. My cousin, Abang Salim worked as a bassist in a hotel. As Penang was/or still the tourism center, he had no choice but to keep up with the latest music. One day, he brought home this album.

Gilla played good running bass in a new kind of music which was initially known as German Beat or some went into the extreme and called it as Gilla's Beat. Two years later, Gilla's music gained popularity known as disco. The beat was phenomenal and was responsible ... sparking up a new business trend - The Disco. Unfortunately, Gilla was not that famous but some of her songs out of this album were converted into English and popularized by Boney M ... songs are Belfast, Sunny, and You Take The Heat of Me.

In 1977, Gilla converted one of the songs, "Ich brenne" into English titled "Help! Help!".

Disco music reached its height and sudden death right after the popularity of a movie, Saturday Night Fever.

Gilla at YouTube: Rasputin (German Version - From later album)
(Later on, Boney M popularized this song in English)

*I could not find the song Ich brenne in the net :((


Debut Album: Flowing Rivers by Andy Gibbs

I have to be a bit bias here because I am a big fan of Bee Gees. What is so unique about this album is that the Gibb brothers (Barry, Maurice and Robin) started to write songs for other artists and for the beginning, they did it for their own brother, Andy. This album turned out to be very successful with the song, I Wanna Be Your Everything became the world hit. Following this success, Bee Gees started to write many songs for other artists and the list is too lengthy to mention here.

According to BillBoard, Bee Gees has the most world hits BUT according to Rolling Stones, The Beatles has the most. I personally don't mind either one, The Beatles are from Liverpool. Thank you :-)

Andy Gibb at YouTube: I Just Wanna Be Your Everything


Debut Album: Terima Kasih by Alleycats

It was back in 1979 and I have got to admit, I had never bothered listening to malay songs especially the 70s as they sucked. Out of ordinary, a friend back in the hostel started to play this song, a malay version of I Was Made For Dancing by Leif Garrett titled 'Aku Terperangkap' and all the sudden I asked at him 'What is that?!'.

So he showed me the album (in tape) with a band named Alleycats.

This album is a classic! Alleycats have made all musical arrangement - bass, drums and percussions, keyboards, lead guitar and guitars so well balanced that they really cropped out as music. Then there were voices of so unique ... voices of something I've never heard of by David and Loga.

Malay music has never been the same. This album has changed everything! As far as I am concerned, the malay music industry owes a lot to these guys. Period.

Alleycats at YouTube: Senandung Semalam


Debut Album: Madonna by Madonna

This album was sensational. I've never heard of an artist who make it all the way so high by a debut. Five songs of this album hit World Top Ten - Lucky Star, Borderline, Burning Up, Holiday and Everybody.

Not only the songs are so great, the artist herself was revolutionary sparking trendy fashionable fusion dressing the whole world have ever seen.

The early 80s was a very confusing musical era where with many new musical genre emerged - metal, new wave, grunge, slow rock, latino hit ... and when everybody thought pop music is dying ... along came Madonna and proved the critics wrong. Madonna herself has something else to prove - It's not how she sings BUT how she looked when she sing. I'm yet to see a sexier belly button than hers :-)

Madonna at YouTube: Borderline


Debut Album: Acoustic Gestures by Az Samad

To explain why I have to choose this album is somewhat very difficult. I bet most people have never heard of Az Samad. I think, Az Samad is the best guitarist this country has ever produced.

Okay, it is about acoustic guitar playing which includes many different musical styles - Jazz, Latin, Classical, Rock, Pop, Funk, and Spanish which are played through a unique finger-tab playing. Az sells his albums while doing his gigs so I had no choice but to watch him play in Bangsar. I was in the front row and was asking myself, "How the **** does he do that?!"

I think Az did notice something ... maybe there was a big question mark above my head or something that when I was about to buy the album, he came to me and gave me a free copy!

Unfortunately, Az is not an influential musician in the entertainment industry BUT the local guitar training and lessons industry has changed drastically where guitar-tab playing is included and Az playing style has become the industry reference.

Az Samad at YouTube: Train to Ericland
(He dedicated this song to his teacher ... The Late Eric Roche)


I Am Tagging

Mrs. Top Monkey. - As tagging is quite troublesome, obviously, I'll pass the troubles to her. This is how us scousers treat each other ... haha.

I am suppose to tag another but am not to. This song is meant to be the substitution :-)

Song, Music and Lyric by Azer Mantessa
Vocals by Azer Mantessa
Imported Files and Flash Illustrations by Azer Mantessa



Never Meant To be

You and me are never meant to be
Nothing is right and you just can't see
I could never see us both as one
We both are done

I'm not wasting any of my time
Hope you see this is the end of line
I'm a human, I am not that tough
I've had enough

So I need you to go away
and let me rest my weary day

I am glad being alone
It's good to be back on my own

You'd thought I was too weak
I'm gone, get used to it
That you are out of my sight
It feels so right