Born in Suffolk, Eno studied painting and experimental music at the art school of Ipswich Civic College in the mid 1960s, and then at Winchester School of Art. He joined glam rock group Roxy Music as synthesiser player in 1971. After recording two albums with Roxy Music, he departed in 1973 to record a number of solo albums, coining the term "ambient music" to describe his work on releases such as Another Green World (1975), Discreet Music (1975), and Music for Airports (1978). He also collaborated with artists such as Robert Fripp, Cluster, Harold Budd, David Bowie on his "Berlin Trilogy", and David Byrne, and produced albums by artists including John Cale, Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Talking Heads and Devo, and the no wave compilation No New York (1978).
Eno has continued to record solo albums and work with artists including U2, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, Slowdive, Coldplay, James Blake, and Damon Albarn. Dating back to his time as a student, he has also worked in media including sound installations and his mid-70s co-development of Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards featuring cryptic aphorisms intended to spur creative thinking. From the 1970s onwards, Eno's installations have included the sails of the Sydney Opera House in 2009 and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in 2016. An advocate of a range of humanitarian causes, Eno writes on a variety of subjects and is a founding member of the Long Now Foundation. In 2019, Eno was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.
Eno is frequently referred to as one of popular music's most influential artists. Producer and film composer Jon Brion has said: "I think he's the most influential artist since the Beatles." Critic Jason Ankeny at AllMusic argues that Eno "forever altered the ways in which music is approached, composed, performed, and perceived, and everything from punk to techno to new age bears his unmistakable influence." Eno has spread his techniques and theories primarily through his production; his distinctive style informed a number of projects in which he has been involved, including Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" (helping to popularize minimalism) and the albums he produced for Talking Heads (incorporating, on Eno's advice, African music and polyrhythms), Devo, and other groups. Eno's first collaboration with David Byrne, 1981's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, pioneered sampling techniques that would prove to be influential in hip-hop, and broke ground by incorporating world music into popular Western music forms. Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies have been used by many bands, and Eno's production style has proven influential in several general respects: "his recording techniques have helped change the way that modern musicians;– particularly electronic musicians;– view the studio. No longer is it just a passive medium through which they communicate their ideas but itself a new instrument with seemingly endless possibilities."
Whilst inspired by the ideas of minimalist composers including John Cage, Terry Riley and Erik Satie, Eno coined the term ambient music to describe his own work and defined the term. The Ambient Music Guide states that he has brought from "relative obscurity into the popular consciousness" fundamental ideas about ambient music, including "the idea of modern music as subtle atmosphere, as chill-out, as impressionistic, as something that creates space for quiet reflection or relaxation." His groundbreaking work in electronic music has been said to have brought widespread attention to and innovations in the role of electronic technology in recording. Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright said he "often eulogised" Eno's abilities.
Eno's "unconventional studio predilections", in common with those of Peter Gabriel, were an influence on the recording of "In the Air Tonight", the single which launched the solo career of Eno's former drummer Phil Collins. Collins said he "learned a lot" from working with Eno. Both Half Man Half Biscuit (in the song "Eno Collaboration" on the EP of the same name) and MGMT have written songs about Eno. LCD Soundsystem has frequently cited Eno as a key influence. The Icelandic singer Björk also credited Eno as a major influence.
Mora sti Fotia (Babies on Fire), one of the most influential Greek rock bands, was named after Eno's song "Baby's on Fire".
In 2011, Belgian academics from the Royal Museum for Central Africa named a species of Afrotropical spider Pseudocorinna brianeno in his honour.
Bottomliners
Brian Eno Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All bright and shiny
All through the ether
Some huge, some tiny
All through the ether
From France to China
Unite the people
Some brass, some paper
Some gold, some silver
Some full of promise
Some full of anger
In ranks of thousands
They fall and stumble
All bottomliners
We make the number
And in the future
New forms of romance
Grenade and land mine
In twilit silence
With hands that tremble
And lives that flounder
All bottomliners
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
The opening lines of Bottomliners refer to the widespread use of numerical data and the increasing prominence of financial patterns in modern society. The image of “Great lines of numbers / All bright and shiny” suggests a fascination with the spectacle of data, perhaps even an obsession, as these streams of information are ubiquitous “through the ether” – transmitted silently though wires and cables, and often absorbed without conscious thought.
The second verse expands on the enormity of this phenomenon: “From France to China / Unite the people / All bottomliners.” The idea of people united by their attachment to numerical data is paradoxical – the line between data and people blurs as financial transactions dominate our global interactions. This is emphasized by the third verse which describes the physicality of money: “Some brass, some paper / Some gold, some silver,” contrasting the material currency with the weightless digital transactions that have become so common.
The final verse is the most enigmatic of the song’s three, describing a dystopian future where violence and conflict are omnipresent. The “new forms of romance” alluded to suggest a world where war has replaced peace, where explosive devices have replaced flowers. The final repetition of “All undergrounders” leaves the listener with a feeling of uncertainty, hinting at an underground resistance or rebellion taking shape amongst the marginalized in the face of an oppressive system.
Line by Line Meaning
Great lines of numbers
Countless rows of digits
All bright and shiny
All are clean and new
All through the ether
All through the internet
Some huge, some tiny
Some numbers are big, some are small
From France to China
From one end of the world to the other
Unite the people
Bring people together
All bottomliners
Everyone is looking to make a profit
Some brass, some paper
Different types of currency
Some gold, some silver
Some more valuable than others
Some full of promise
Some are investments with great potential
Some full of anger
Some represent debts or losses
In ranks of thousands
Countless numbers of people
They fall and stumble
Some succeed, some fail
We make the number
Our actions determine the value
And in the future
Looking ahead
New forms of romance
New investments and opportunities
Grenade and land mine
Risky or volatile investments
In twilit silence
In uncertain times
With hands that tremble
With fear of loss
And lives that flounder
And unstable financial situations
All bottomliners
Everyone is searching for financial security
All undergrounders
All are struggling to stay afloat financially
All undergrounders
All are struggling to stay afloat financially
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BRIAN ENO, JAN PETER SCHWALM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
skatemetrix
This is the song that builds civilizations!
Norman Mole
such beautiful stuff. love the vocoder usage
Stuart Dow
such an apt pic 4 this toon ...thanx 4 uploading a majick track X X X
ebby aych
Tears in ma eyes
Gabe Kozak
Fantastic!
Claude Alain
Pour une fois que je prête attention au texte, je suis loin d'être déçu... C'est beau et simple, avec la juste part de métaphorique...
Lukas Gilius
reminds me a lot of LCD's new song Black Screen....
Sonia Rizzato
Great lines of numbers All bright and shiny All through the ether Some huge, some tiny All through the ether From France to China Unite the people All bottomliners Some brass, some paper Some gold, some silver Some full of promise Some full of anger In ranks of thousands They fall and stumble All bottomliners We make the number And in the future New forms of romance Grenade and land mine In twilit silence With hands that tremble And lives that flounder All bottomliners All undergrounders
Milky Wayan
<3
Gertrude S
thanks