I don’t know much about Andy, except that he is a poet, writer and musician from Northern Ireland. He also sings in his Ulster accent and also includes spoken word passages on his many albums, of which I only have a handful. He has recorded with Tim Finn of ‘Split Enz’ and Liam Ó Maonlaí of ‘Hothouse Flowers’ – as the one-off band ALT, a great record incidentally (apparently they shared a flat together once. Hence the collaboration). He now lives in Melbourne, Australia. On this, his third actually, I particularly like ‘In A Groovy Kind Of Way’, ‘Just Jumped Out Of A Tree’ and ‘The Guildford Four’. I really should get some more of his stuff.
The title is actually Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds. Wayne was an American composer of advertising jingles, TV themes and has scored a few films and musicals, but his fame rests almost entirely on this album, one of only two he has released, though he has made the most of War of the Worlds releasing cast versions of the live show and even a computer game. The album is a fairly accurate adaptation of H.G. Wells famous novel, written some eighty years earlier, and although it has been proven to be impossible by science, the story and fear of being invaded by aliens from Mars has gripped the human imagination ever since. Wayne wrote and produced the whole thing and chose English voices for this very English Victorian novel. His most inspired choice was using Richard Burton as ‘The Narrator’ but he also used David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, Chris Thompson and Julie Covington. These were all great choices for the songs – but actually it is the musical themes which really carry the album along. This album was a huge success reaching number five and eventually selling over fifteen million copies worldwide. It is still a really satisfying listen after almost 50 years. Best tracks are ‘Forever Autumn’, ‘The Eve Of The War’ where we first hear the chords of the theme. The album was personally driven by Wayne’s determination despite record company CBS’s nervousness; they doubted it would ever be a success and as recording costs mounted they threatened to pull the plug, only for Wayne to put his own money into the project. A superb achievement.
Roger Waters – The Pros and Cons Of Hitchhiking
(1984)
Roger was getting more and more political and the band were slowly breaking up; Rick Wright was famously moved to session player on one album. They finally split in ’85 but this album came out just before the final split and the acrimony which still seems to persist today. This album sounds very much like a Floyd album with Roger’s vocals dominating. I have never quite understood the album, simply enjoying the music with it’s mood changes and great guitar work. It is apparently a mid-life crisis presented as a dream…oh well. It is presented as in real time; each track preceeded by an accurate time of the song starting at 04.30 and continuing for 42 minutes. What can we say about Roger…a genius undoubtedly but misunderstood and some sort of perfectionist too. Only four albums in over 40 years? However his second album Radio Kaos is probably his best. He has toured, especially Pink Floyd albums ‘Dark Side’ and ‘The Wall’ extensively, which were brilliant. On this first solo album, best songs are the title track, ‘Arabs with Knives and West German Spies’ and ‘Every Strangers Eyes’
Not her first album, but the first I bought and my favourite. Jennifer was born in 1947 and was brought up in California and was a strong Catholic, even entering a convent for a short while. She was impressed by Joan Baez in the early Sixties and moved from Classical to folk singing. In 1971 she met Leonard Cohen and joined him on his tours, becoming vocal arranger and duetting with him on several albums. Her voice has an emotional depth and warmth and subtlety that seemed to perfectly complement the deep baritone of Cohens voice. She has only recorded albums sporadically but has sung on several film soundtracks and had a huge hit with Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song ‘Up Where We Belong’ with Joe Cocker. She also released an album of Cohen songs ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’. This album contains only three original compositions but she made the covers her own, even Dylan’s ‘Sign On The Window’ and the Bacharach David ‘Don’t Make Me Over’. Other favourites are the title track, ‘When The Feeling Comes Around’ and ‘I Know A Heartache When I See One’.
Although Clifford was from quite working class roots he was softly spoken without a trace of a West Midlands accent, and sung in perfectly enunciated English, where most Artists back then sung in Mid-Atlantic voices. He also sung gentle songs often with a literary background such as ‘Home Thoughts From Abroad’. In the early Sixties he wrote and sung in a couple of local bands but by 1967 s the band split he decided to become a teacher and after training he taught English at North Bromsgrove High School. He was married by now and continued writing in his spare time. This album came out on Dandelion Records owned by John Peel with an eclectic rosta of Artists, but the company went into liquidation just after this album was released and received no promotion. But he was picked up by Charisma who released his far more successful second album and singles. But Clifford disliked and shunned touring, partly because his wife and he were intent on caring for their daughter Debbie who was born with Cerebral Palsy. Then after several excellent albums which were only mildly successful he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He continued to write and record but his health was failing. He died in 2001. Quite a few of his demos have been released posthumously by various record companies and he has a dedicated fanbase. I have struggled to get copies of his official releases as they command quite high prices. Best on this debut are ‘A Dream’, ‘Circus Girl’, ‘Sidetracked’ and ‘Carrie’ – a truly original and underrated Artist.
Rufus Wainwright – Rufus Wainwright Born of quite famous and half-successful singers Loudun Wainwright III and Kate McGariggle, Rufus was born in 1973 and made his first album in 1998 so should really be considered a Twenty-First Century Artist; and in many ways he is. Openly gay and recording what and when he wants, seemingly shunning popularity to sing whatever he likes. His voice is quite unlike anyone else, he almost slurs his slightly nasal words but emphasises the emotion rather than following the music. I first bought his third album ‘Want’ which may be his first Masterpiece and worked my way back to this debut which had all his trademark vocal mannerisms. Best songs – ‘Foolish Love’, ‘Damned Ladies’ and ‘Imaginary Love’. You either love Rufus or hate his drawling vocals – I rather love him
The Velvet Undergound – The Velvet Underground
and Nico (1967)
The early Sixties were mostly filled with bands trying desperately to be the New Beatles, but in New York City a small group had formed intent on experimentation. They became the Velvet Undergound and were managed by avante-garde artist Andy Warhol who incorporated them in his multi media travelling show ‘The Exploding Plastic Inevitable’. They released the album to poor sales as it was years ahead of its time both in sound and lyrical content. Nico was a German model and singer who had drifted into Warhol’s orbit and occasionally sung with the band. Lou Reed was lead singer and guitarist was Sterling Morrison, John Cale was mostly keyboards and drums were Moe Tucker. Their sound was often brash or built on heavy grooves, but sometimes they could be very quiet and gentle. Nobody knew how to pigeon-hole them and they were a minority interest. But slowly as more and more musicians like Bowie quoted their influence and a couple of songs became well-known such as ‘I’m Waiting For My Man’ (a drug reference). I’m not sure where I heard about it but it must have been the early Seventies when I discovered Warhol and his influence. I loved the album with it’s banana sleeve – though by then you couldn’t peel the fruit as you could on first pressings. The record has sold well over the years and many of the tracks have featured in films and TV. The band were never really successful and broke up in the early Seventies. My favourite tracks are ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘Heroin’. In some ways this album was as influential in its influence as Sargeant Pepper.
An American folk-singer-songwriter who I always think of as quite recent, but in fact she has been around since 1985, which is 40years – more than half my life. She has released 10 albums, though I only have the first five. She is quite original, her songs sound like nobody else’s. Her singing voice is more conversational and often sung quite dead-pan; she lets the lyrics tell the story. This album seemed to creep out, the cover photo was quite unflattering and yet it sold well, more by word of mouth than by promotion. The first single ‘Marlena On The Wall’ was like many of her songs quirky and you felt there was far more behind the song that was unspoken, an air of mystery. The production was stripped back at a time of over-produced releases where more and more was thrown into the mix -and here we had a quiet voice allowed to come to the fore. Incidentally I have just looked at the musicians on this debut and there were quite a few, including the use of synths which you barley notice at all. Best songs – ‘Marlena’, ‘Small Blue Thing’ and ‘Cracking’. Her next release was her biggest seller and included ‘Tom’s Diner’ and ‘Luka’ – but I still like this quiet little debut.
I first heard the music sometime in the Summer of Love, but then I heard so much music back then that it was just one more American rock group. But something must have stuck, maybe the name, but I came across this album with it’s psychedelic cover in a record shop in the early Seventies. First thing I did, which we all did back then, was to turn the sleeve over and read the back cover. And I saw these song titles which I knew, including two Beatles songs and a memory came back of a song, maybe ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’ that I had heard a few years earlier – but it was slower and dreamy. They slowed down rock but kept it pretty heavy….and so I bought the record and, as they say, was blown away. It was a favourite for quite a time.
Ivan (Van the Man) Morrison is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter; in the late 50s and early 60s he was in several bands in Belfast before scoring a huge hit with Them and the song ‘Gloria’. Like many of the Artists to emerge in the Sixties he grew up listening to black singers, especially the blues of Muddy Waters and Leadbelly – but on hearing Lonnie Donegan singing ‘Rock Island Line’ he became a convert to Rock and Roll. In 1964 he joined four other Belfast musicians and formed a new group calling themselves ‘Them’. They had 3 hit singles, biggest of which was ‘Here Comes The Night – ‘Gloria’ was a ‘B’ side and a live favourite. The band broke up in ’66 and his then manager persuaded Van to go solo. He recorded a few songs – one of which ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ has gone on to be one of the most played songs on radio. But contractual difficulties meant he had difficulty getting a contract until Warner Brothers bought him out and he was given the space to write and release this great album. ‘Astral Weeks’ was a slow-burner and gradually achieved acclaim and is reckoned as among his best ever albums. The record is mostly acoustic and quite jazz infused. It is apparently a song-cycle, the lyrics are free-form poetry and at times listening you suddenly realise this is actually a different song though you were almost hypnotised by the flow of the voice and the music. For me the two really stand-out tracks are ‘Cypress Avenue’ and ‘Madame George’. I have never really understood what Van was singing about – but it doesn’t matter. The latter is nearly 10 minutes long but achieves a state of timelessness whenever I hear it. A remarkable album indeed, and miles ahead of it’s time.
