TO WHERE I AM NOW

Liverpool umbrella, I love you, you were so the perfect size for today. But like screwdrivers, one might need a selection of different umbrellas for different circumstances. There’s windy days that need a stronger core and different kinds of rain that need a wider protection span, then there’s emergency umbrellas that fit in your pocket and what about homing umbrellas that tell you where you left them? Parasols for sunny days, different coloured umbrellas for different moods. I suppose there are Beatles umbrellas but are there Hawkwind umbrellas? Here’s a quick history of the umbrella:

It seems that the first umbrellas are what we call parasols. They were designed not to protect from the rain but to shield from the sun. It seems the Chinese were the first to use them for rain, waxing their parasols to make them waterproof. They first appear more than 4,000 years ago. The umbrella comes from the Latin root “umbra” meaning shade. Originally the umbrella was often called the Hanway after a London resident, Jonas Hanway (1712-1786). The umbrella was originally an accessory for women but Hanway popularised it for men. The first umbrella shop, James Smith and Son, opened in 1830 in London and is still there. In 1852 Samuel Fox, the steel magnate, is said to have invented the steel ribs in umbrellas out of excess ‘farthingale stays’, the ribbing from women’s corsets. The collapsable pocket umbrella was invented by Hans Haupt in 1928.

Did spies really use umbrellas to kill adversaries at tube stations? It seems they did. This from Wikipedia: “Georgi Markov was assassinated on a London street via a micro-engineered pellet containing ricin, fired into his leg from an umbrella wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian Secret Service”.

So today in the non-music section, I’m looking at umbrellas in music. Perhaps the most famous umbrella scene is that of Gene Kelly in Singin’ In The Rain (1952), it always brings a smile to your face.

Then there’s Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (1963), although I couldn’t find any umbrellas in the short time I had to look for them.

In the British series, The Avengers, didn’t Steed’s umbrella double as a gun or was it a sword? Then there’s The Hollies’ Bus Stop, written by Graham Gouldman with that lovely image of the couple under the umbrella.

 

Bus Stop (The Hollies)

Bus stop, wet day
She’s there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stops, bus goes
She stays, love grows
Under my umbrella
All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella we employed it
By August she was mine

Every morning I would see her
Waiting at the stop
Sometimes she’d shop
And she would show me what she’d bought
Other people stared
As if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers
Are going to be the same

That’s the way the whole thing started
Silly but it’s true
Thinking of our sweet romance
Beginning in a queue
Came the sun
The ice was melting
No more sheltering now
Nice to think that that umbrella
Led me to a vow

Every morning I would see her
Waiting at the stop
Sometimes she’d shop
And she would show me what she’d bought

Rihanna is the most famous of the modern umbrella lovers. This is the Orange Version ft. JAY-Z (just at the front).

One last thought on the umbrella, does anybody know what a kazbrella is?

Music today continues in the vein of artists that time forgot. Today it’s David Bromberg and his storytelling self-titled debut album from 1972. He’s kinda folky, kinda jazzy, kinda bluesy and countryish and seems to have no place in anyone’s head. There are some mellow live and studio tracks on the record. He’s more famous for playing with people who are more famous than him (Ringo, Tom Paxton, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Eric Andersen, Al Kooper, Carly Simon, Jorma Kaukonen, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan…you get the picture). So perhaps he’s seen more as a sideman but he’s made a lot of records. He has a clever fingerpicking style that he doesn’t overuse and that’s because of the eclecticism of his songs. He’s one of those artists that I always used to see in the cheap bin and one day I decided to buy him without having heard him. It’s surprising what you can find down there on the floor. This album has Bob Dylan playing harmonica on Sammy’s Tune and George Harrison playing and co-writing the song The Hold Up.

You might also be interested to know that Bromberg played bass and rhythm guitar with Rusty Evans in The Deep (no, not In Deep). This album, Psychedelic Moods (1966), is allegedly the first album to use ‘Psychedelic’ in its title. The Blues Magoos and The 13th Floor Elevators coming later. It’s on Spotify if you’re too scared to buy it without hearing it.

In 1967 Eric Andersen released ‘bout Changes ‘n’ Things Take 2. The album contained Thirsty Boots that Dylan recorded for Self Portrait but it didn’t make the cut but it did eventually see the light of day on The Bootleg Series Vol 10, Another Self Portrait. Can you imagine Dylan records your song and then it doesn’t make it to the album (tragic)? Gordon Lightfoot and Paul Simon had better luck. Other unfortunate events included Brian Epstein was about to become his manager when he died. In 1972 he released his most commercially successful album, Blue River, the follow-up, Stages, was finished and ready to go but Columbia lost the tapes, the setback took its toll. Sixteen years later they found the tapes. Andersen had been part of the Greenwich Village scene in the sixties and by 1969 had made six albums including three in that year. He has an appealing voice, storyteller and protest lyrics, songs of love, hope and despair. In 1988 he released the critically acclaimed Ghosts Upon The Road. There’s a lot to investigate with Eric Andersen, good luck. A documentary film, The Song Poet, is in production.

Phil Ochs was one of the great protest singers and you hear very little of him anymore. His first album All The News That’s Fit To Sing (1964) has as many scathing attacks on the hypocrisy of democracy as on any dictator or attack on freedom itself. The title comes from the New York Times motto “All The News That’s Fit To Print”. The founder of the New York Times Adolph Ochs was no relation. Thoughtful records of conscience that seem out of date and forgotten as they reflect the times in which they were written. But really, the message never goes out of date and neither does the struggle. One could write all night about Phil Ochs, his life, his songs, his friendship with Victor Jara, his decline, and finally his suicide, but as this is simply a daily blog, someone has already done that for us in more detail here.

Gordon Lightfoot released his first album Lightfoot in 1966. Famous for his rich voice, his 12 string guitar and his prolific songwriting, he was a major contributor to the rise of the singer-songwriter as a genre. The album boasts Early Mornin’ Rain, one of the songs that did get recorded and released by Dylan on Self Portrait. Another classic, The Way I Feel. Where do you start with a man that has been releasing albums for over 50 years, I suppose at the beginning. It’s not that Gordon Lightfoot is forgotten, one just wonders if he is ever discovered.

Song Of The Day is Rain by The Beatles from Revolver (1966):