Remember that Edwyn Collins song, A Girl Like You in post #5957? I said I'd thought I'd heard it before, or there was something there that triggered a memory. Well, here's that memory. It's 1-2-3 [Oh, That's So Elementary] from Len Barry. And it's from 1965. Listen to the production and the percussion. Direct influences there. Incidentally, I can give you the location of where I first heard it - standing in the Archer's Road End at The Dell, with the pre-match Tannoy blaring out the usual selection of records. I swear that the selection of music at that old stadium was one of my first major influences, because I never was and never have been since an avid listener to popular music radio. It's usually someone else's radio that I have no control over - the distant radio:
There’s an interesting story behind that song, because it was a direct ripoff of the Supremes’ Ask Any Girl, the B-side to Baby Love from 1964. Tamla Motown sued Len Barry and his co-writers on behalf of Holland-Dozier-Holland and eventually were awarded 15% of the songwriting royalties, with H-D-H being listed as co-writers. It just goes to show there’s nothing new under the sun!
Changing the pace of life for a few minutes of dream time ...... ..... and while on the subject of TV theme tracks .....
I think it is a moot point about synthesizer sounds and how they date. The technology has moved on remarkedly since the mid 1970s and the patches used find to come and go in fashion. The thing about Jean Michel Jarre is that I think there is a musical mind behind a lot of what he does but there are a lot of "effect" which really don't add much to the music although they are the things that I think some people will latch on to. It always amuses me how much the electronic era in popular music like Jarre has comparisons in "serious" composers like Steve Reich. There is a lot f use of ostinatos in this kind of music. The proof in the pudding for me is whether I would want to hear JArre's music performed with acoustic instruments.
I would imagine most people have seen this, but it still makes me feel full of hope that the world will turn out ok in the long run ..... people can be amazing.
I have always loved Oxygene IV. It was used for a TV programme called Where there's life in the early 80s
45 years ago today we lost this gentle genius. This is (IMO) one of THE greatest love songs of all time. Sadly, like most geniuses, he was never appreciated until many many years later
Bryter Layter is one of my favourite albums, as you say Nick was not widely appreciated until decades later. I really like this track, which I first heard on the "Garden State" soundtrack and led me to uncover everything else he'd done. On a side note, Garden State has a Brilliant soundtrack and is a pretty good movie too
One of my favourite Nick Drake songs is Cello Song, which, considering the instruments consist of an acoustic guitar, a cello, Danny Thompson on double bass, and congas, really rocks along. He was a genius as you say Dave, and was regarded as such by his peers in music at the time, such as Richard Thompson. John Martyn’s masterpiece Solid Air was written about Nick. There is still a lot of speculation about his death, most people who knew him believed the overdose of amitryptiline was accidental.
Yeah, one of mine too. I preferred Nick Drake's music when the production was simpler. And the music often got better, when he was on his own, or just with one or two other stringed instruments. Just my preference because it didn't mask his genius: I sort of find it slightly unbelieveable these days that I was hearing Nick Drake as a young teenager in some party locations, around the time, or shortly after he'd died [I didn't know at the time], and I was listening and waiting for the rockier stuff to be played from Pink Floyd or someone else. At the time I thought he was OK, but nothing special. Was that my naivety, or was that the level of quality and genuine creativity in the music that surrounded the time? Bit of both?
I think it’s just maturity, TSS. I was the same, listening for Tull, Sabbath, Purple, Floyd, etc ..... I came across Nick Drake on an island sampler (I think it was “Nice Enough To Eat”) and thought “yeah, that’s nice, but I love that Tull track .....). Only later, as I appreciated his genius along with John Martyn, Fairport and the like, did I really start listening to him. A friend of mine has a music blog in the US where he’s asked people to do a series of “my life in music” detailing how they grew into liking different genres and artists. It’s a lot of fun and I’d recommend giving it a go!
“Nice Enough To Eat” was a seminal moment in my musical life too. My brother gave it to me for Christmas in 1969 and I played it to death. I was just beginning to listen to music other than radio pop and that sampler, priced at a ridiculous 14/6 (that’s 72.5p for you young ‘uns) when most LP’s were about £3, was a great introduction to prog-rock, folk-rock, blues and singer-songwriters like Nick Drake. Here’s a YouTube playlist of all the tracks apart from the best of all, King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man. One of these days Bob Fripp will allow his music to be streamed, but hey ho. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBC80FA871E6F6BB4 Sorry, can’t work out how to embed a playlist!
Those “sampler” albums introduced me to a wealth of music. I still think the Tull track “We Used To Know” on here is one of their best and it was years later that I discovered that, interestingly, the chord progression is exactly the same as “Hotel California” just in a different time signature. Funny that. Especially as Tull and the Eagles were in time together just before that was written ..... I still have the LP of “Nice Enough ...” plus “Bumpers”, “El Pea”, “The Age of Atlantic” ...... wonderful stuff ...
