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Originally planned as a 10-song tribute featuring CHRIS CONNELLY’S versions of NICO songs, at the end of the recording, Connelly decided to write a parallel album of his own compositions spanning the life of one of the most unique, tragic and misunderstood female artists in the history of music. The result is the 24-track EULOGY TO CHRISTA: A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC & MYSTIQUE OF NICO, to be released on November 11th, 2022 (in the US by Shipwrecked Industries and in the UK by Easy Action).
Working again with producer CHRIS BRUCE, EULOGY TO CHRISTA sees Connelly purposefully adopting the personas of NICO, LOU REED, and JOHN CALE – even WARHOL makes a cameo! The album was inspired by the brilliant book, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU ARE ALONE by author JENNIFER OTTER BICKERDICKE, who contributed to the liner notes for the album. She writes, “This is a record to be played at full blast, all the way through, as a commemoration not just to Nico the person, the musician, but to art for art’s sake, for making something because it is important and needs to be done – an idea that is as rare and precious as Nico herself.”
Even the photos used of Nico in the album artwork have particular significance: the cover shot was taken by author ALASTAIR MACKAY from the audience at the Nite Club in Edinburgh in 1981, where a 15-year-old Connelly was also in attendance. The inside photo of Nico was taken in 1982 by Chicago photography legend HOWARD GOLDBLATT.The Nico material spans from her first Jimmy Page-composed single B-side through the Velvet Underground, to her intense and unique solo recordings up until she died. In song, Connelly follows her from Berlin to New York via Paris, Ibiza, and Rome, then back through Paris, London, Edinburgh, Manchester and up to her tragic and needless death in Ibiza.
This is a labour of love, empathy, sadness, acting, and channeling along with Chris’s adoration of the dark corner of rock inhabited by the Velvets and their peers.To celebrate the release of EULOGY TO CHRISTA, Connelly will be performing tracks from the album with the help of MATT WALKER, CAROLYN ENGELMANN, and other members of SONS OF THE SILENT
Tracklist
Disc One:
1: Ripcord, Ripcord
2: Via Margutta
3: The Last Mile
4: Union Square West
5: Andy, Incidentally
6: Femme Fatale
7: Eulogy To Lenny Bruce
8: Oh Jim Ii
9: Frozen Warnings
9: I Cannot Care For You
10: The Falconer Disc Two
Disc Two:
11: The Black Rooms Of Richelieu
12: Valley Of The Kings
13: Reims 12/74
14: A Slow Jones In New York
15: 80’s Beat Boys
16: Running Pure
17: Sixty Forty
18: Vegas
19: Draw From It (Like A Vampire)
20: Saeta
21: Tananore
22: Fa Massa Calor
23: Hanging Gardens Of Semiramis