TO WHERE I AM NOW

Being in Berlin all day yesterday I didn’t get to mention what else I was up to on the listening front and to tell you also about Noel’s record donation. Noel lives in England and has become one of the sessioneers. He plays guitar and writes and we’re working on realizing songs and more writing. Whilst talking Noel told me he had a record collection that he would like to donate to the archive and because he lives in England he could even bring it down to Cornwall. So he did just that and one weekend Noel visited and arrived with four of those old-fashioned plastic record carriers full of records. There were some records I had and some I didn’t, but having an archive is not just about one version of an album. There’s different pressings, different cover art, different labels and releases from different countries. There’s also condition to consider. I might have an original copy of Alice Cooper’s Schools Out, but what condition is it in? With the collection that Noel donated all the records were in perfect condition which brought me to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. I was telling Noel that I’d picked it to play – a copy in mint condition, played once. But then he reminded me that there was another copy of Wish You Were Here in the collection, half-speed mastered. This is a super high quality version of the album. So I played that one and again as it was in perfect condition and of such exceptionally high quality it sounded amazing on my stereo. Me, the archive, and Olivia (who loves Wish You Were Here) are forever grateful for the gift, so thank you again.

All you super informed music lovers out there are aware that the track Have A Cigar on Wish You Were Here is not sung by a member of Pink Floyd but by the irrepressible, godlike Roy Harper. If you didn’t know that and you are old enough to have heard his name before you might remember Hats Off To (Roy) Harper on Led Zep 3. Paul and Linda sang on his classic sprawling epic, One Of These Days, in England from Bullinamingvase (1977). Alvin Lee played guitar on it, Ronnie Lane played bass on it. Lane and Keith Moon played with him live for Flashes From The Archives Of Oblivion with its controversial cover that caused a strike amongst the women at EMI. Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins sang Another Day on This Mortal Coil’s first album, It’ll End In Tears – originally on Flat Baroque And Berserk (1970). Dave Gilmour and Kate Bush appeared on The Unknown Soldier (1980) and Once (1990). Jimmy Page appeared playing guitars uncredited due to contractual issues. So he had heavy friends, but the reason he did was because he was so great. I’ve seen him live a few times, spoken on the phone with him once and met him in person when he came to see All About Eve play and came backstage to say hello. So after Wish You Were Here I played one of his greatest albums, Stormcock (1971). He’s famous for his long, lyrical songs, his wry observations, his protestations and his melodic singing voice – this album has just four songs. I love a lot of his albums, this is as good a place to start as any. Johnny Marr called Stormcock “Hunky Dory’s big, badder brother”.

And then there’s Espers, my mate Boydy recently told me he has been on a mega Espers appreciation trip. I have three CDs by them called I (2003), ll (2005), and lll (2009). There’s also a covers album called The Weed Tree released after the first album that I don’t have (Boydy does). It might sound strange to say this but they are an American Psychedelic Folk band from Philadelphia – and why not? It’s really quite beautiful and interesting music and very well produced and recorded it seems by Greg Weeks, singer, guitarist and various other instrument player. It sounds lush and luxurious but has all kinds of odd noises I gather made from cellos and analog keyboards. The other members are Meg Baird on various instruments and vocals with Brooke Sietinsons on mainly guitar on the first album and with Otto Hauser and Helena Espvall on the following two, making all kinds of lovely sounds. All three albums are highly recommended. Where are they now? Well, Greg teaches English and makes solo albums, Meg sings and drums in Heron Oblivion, makes solo albums and has projects. All well worth an investigative afternoon whilst you are indoors, just ask Boydy.

We went out into the breezy day and you could actually feel the warmth of the sun on your face. The park is alive with animals, the exotic plants are beginning to grow, there are purple, white and yellow pansies exploding in the flower beds, budding trees and bushes, but where we stood there were no people – on a Thursday afternoon in a springtime park. It was like an episode of Star Trek – M class planet, a paradise away from Earth, but where are the inhabitants? In our case we are hiding from the virus, on Star Trek it would be that an ancient machine sends out a deafening pulse to deter humanoids from destroying the idyll as the planet revolves around the twin moons on its 37 hour day. I may have imagined this because we watched the pilot for the very first Star Trek episode tonight with Captain Pike, Kirk wasn’t the captain yet. On these walks around Penzance we sometimes find a nice location for a snap and today’s picture is a perfect example and in this case the picture dictated part of the music itinerary.

I was sitting next to Rob Hirst, the drummer from Midnight Oil, at the State Theatre in Sydney. We’d got free tickets for a concert there to see a rather famous singer-songwriter, one you might not imagine that Rob and I would be interested in seeing. Who was it? It was David Gates, the singer and main writer from Bread. Quite surprising, seventies purveyor of Soft Rock with a million hits and a billion sales that Punk happily sent to its grave, at least outside the US, although there we were in the 21st century in our plush red seats. So he came on stage and looked rather uncomfortable or should I say rather annoyed. As I remember the first thing he said was “Don’t go calling out for songs, we’ll get to them”. It wasn’t good-humoured it was like ‘all you peasants want are the hits and I’m making a lot of money playing them and I have to do it, but I really don’t have to put up with you morons shouting out for them’. Ha ha. He looked very stern, bored and serious as he said this, dwarfed by his stoopid oversized cowboy hat that looked really bad on this little guy. He played the set, we all sat there on our best behaviour and tried not to clap less for the lesser known songs than we would for the hits.

His songwriting is world famous, but did you know that in the sixties he worked with Captain Beefheart as a producer? How is that even possible? He was very active as a songwriter in the sixties using pseudonyms to release his songs. He worked with Elvis, Merle Haggard, Brian Wilson and many more. He wrote Saturday’s Child for The Monkees and was originally in a band called The Accents with Leon Russell. He is proficient on guitar, bass, violin and piano.

Oh yeah, then theres’ that small concern called Bread.

Formed in 1969 with Robb Royer and James Griffin (Royer later replaced with Larry Knetchel); after the first album Mike Botts joined as the permanent drummer. Bread went on to have 11 songs in the Billboard Top 100. Some of them major hits and some of them major hits again by other artists. The ones you definitely know if you are a certain age are Make It With You, If, Guitar Man, Everything I Own and Baby I’m A Want You. Kojak (Telly Savalas) took If to No.1 and the song was also covered by Frank Sinatra and Jack Jones. Ken Boothe had a Reggae hit with Everything I Own which was in turn covered in a Reggae version by Boy George. Something about his songs kept on being hits, but he was a moody old sod. Rob and I and a couple of others got taken backstage to meet him, he saw us and immediately turned and walked away.

In a mellow mood today one of my most Soft Rock songs might be How Can I Help It from Rhyme, fall asleep to it, I’d consider it an honour:

 

How Can I Help It

Chased through an everglade
Caught behind a window pane
Lay down captured gave in again
Can’t help it

Look I saw a stranger
He asked me in like danger
That’s what I needed then
Can’t help it

Should I let chance lie sleeping
If I had I wouldn’t be here now

How can I help it
When should I say yes or no
How can I help it
A moment’s blast and then the past has gone

Pawned in a silent shop
Only the ticking of the clock
I just went in to look around
Yes I touched but I didn’t buy
Can’t help it

You know I have to grow
And there is so much more

How can I help it
When should I say yes or no
How can I help it
A moment’s blast and then the past has gone

How can I help it
When should I say yes or no
When should I say yes or no
(Shadows)
When should I say yes or no
When should I say yes or no

(Willson-Piper)
Rhyme (1989)