23Jun / 2024

The Primitives — Bloom! The Full Story 1985-1992 (Disc 3)

Pure + Bonus Tracks
Cherry Red, 2020

THE OVERVIEW

Ah, the “difficult” sophomore album … following a batch of compelling songs as demos, refinements, and finally as their debut album, what do you do for a follow-up? Well, try to break the mold a bit while still relying on what you know you do damn well, apparently.

Released on New Year’s Day, 1989 — one year to the day after their debut album — Pure explores some different approaches, and expands their “jangly airy guitar pop” worldview a bit, but the best songs are the ones that would have sat comfortably on Lovely (and in one case, actually did).

It’s still guitar/bass/drum driven, with Tracy is trying on some new styles within her range, Paul is slowly expanding his songwriting scope, but it is recognizably the same band with — at its core — the same musical approach. Where they are changing things up is mostly to do with mood — embracing some of the darkness in style that one often finds in their lyrics.

Note, for example, the somber way Paul sings “Shine.” Or, for that matter, the world-weary tone Tracy adopts (appropriately) for “Sick Of It.” Despite these more dour choices, there’s still plenty of sunshine here for when the clouds clear away, and it’s all very good indeed.

Despite this record being so much fun to listen to, it didn’t do as well as the band’s debut. It did make into the Top 40 in the UK at number 38, but stalled at number 113 on the US charts (a year after release), and even that was solely due to college radio airplay — why this great record didn’t get mainstream radio spins at least during the summer months, fer cryin’ out loud, must have frustrated the band even more than it does me.

THE MUSIC

The album kicks off with the sing-songy “Outside,” using a simplistic riff and what seems to me like xylophone (!) and cymbal rather than their usual percussion. The floating guitar effects and plaintive singing make for a very low-key song compared to the material on Lovely, but then the ominous bass notes come in and you are served notice that this song isn’t going to suddenly “rock out.” For this band, it’s a bit depressing actually.

Luckily, the next track is what I’d call their most Cocteau Twins-like number, “Summer Rain” — a guitar bed with a lovely lead line, fresh lyrics, a catchy melody and another bit of second guitar while the percussion comes in. Tracy’s doubled vocal returns very effectively, and while the pace remains firmly at mid-tempo, the song builds to a chorus that really captures the spirit of the song.

Frankly, I think they may have outdone the Cocteau Twins on this one! It’s a perfect melding of the two bands.

“Sick of It” is about as close as this band is going to get to punk. The lyrics express their negative judgement on what I have to presume is Los Angeles (joke), while the band sets about rocking pretty hard. If the band grew on you from the first album, this one will be a hit with you.

Mimed on TOTP

Then, things take another turn with “Shine” — starting with Paul handling lead vocals, and the use of acoustic guitars. Despite the change of tone, it’s still another example of the band’s primary approach — catchy pop-rock married to ominous (or at least obscure) lyrics.

“Dizzy Heights” starts off with furious riffing and utilizing audio effects and both singers to full effect. This is a group that has a style, but really really wants to switch it up a bit to avoid being called “good, but all the songs are kinda samey.”

Paul returns to his “psychedelic” vocal style to jazz up “All the Way Down” in another catchy exercise that finally brings the bass back in fully. We then get back to Primitives basics and feel-good sunshine pop with “Secrets” — joyous workout with the band at its best. It reminds me of something the Jesus & Mary Chain might have done, especially with the faster tempo of the bonus “Beat Version,” which we’ll come back to shortly.

This is followed by another “typical” Primitives menace-shaded funfest, “Keep Me in Mind.” The melody wanders off from time to time, and the lyrics are again (like most of their songs) about not much in terms of concrete messages or story, but anything that keeps all four members busy for the duration of the number is what I’m here for.

“Lonely Streets” was a popular track on college radio, with its “ooh-ooh” cascades and driving tempo. It threatens to be another sing-songy number like “Outside,” but the tempo changes save it from being a twin to that first song.

Then we try something different again with “Can’t Bring Me Down.” Vocals right up front, with the band firmly behind her. Tracy’s “sassy” style here reminds me of the one-hit-wonder UK band Shampoo and their one hit “We’re in Trouble,” a 1994 UK single.

Following this, a surprise. A re-used song! This version of “Way Behind Me” is straight from the the later editions of the previous album, but to be fair it’s fabulous, and deserved a second spin. The mix here gives everything equal focus as it did on the last album, which hasn’t been the case for most of this album, but it works for this number, at least.

The album proper finishes up with “Never Tell,” another upbeat tune but this time with … gasp! … a carefree upbeat (and metaphorical) lyric with only the lightest touch of vagueness! What the …?

To sum up the album as simply as possible, the group was paying attention to what was going on around them musically (like the “shoegaze” style), and adapted some of their songwriting to bring expanded versatility and influences into their core skill set. The result is varied and excellent.

THE BONUS TRACKS

The original CD version of the album had four bonus tracks — “Noose,” a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” a “Beat Version” of “All the Way Down,” and a new song from Paul (at the time going by PJ Court), “I Almost Touched You.” The cassette (!) version of the album only included “Noose” as a bonus song.

Bloom!, on the other hand, includes as many bonus tracks as their were songs on the original album — a whopping 11 extra tracks, kicking off with the far-superior “Beat Version” of “All the Way Down,” which brings the tempo and energy up to the normal Primitives’ enthusiasm levels. This version sounds like something The House of Love (or indeed, many other bands of the very late 80s) would have loved to have covered, rather than the more morose album version.

The organ and handclaps added to the song here really bring it to life and transport it back to the psychedelic 60s, the band’s touchstone influence.

This is followed by an acoustic new version of “Way Behind Me,” similar to the album version but without the (missed) “bop-bop-be-doo” intro. I’ve said it before, but this has “hit” written all over it, and it was in fact on a single — paired (oddly) with the morose version of “All The Way Down,” and the a-side was the album version of the A-Side and the superior “Beat Version” of “All the Way Down.”

“Noose” was such a totally different number from the band that it makes an odd choice for the “lead” bonus track, but that’s not to say it’s bad. Alternating vocals from Paul and Tracy (coming together at points throughout) sound like they wrote and recorded the track immediately after viewing some old-school “spaghetti westerns” — particularly for the opening chords and beginning percussion.

As the song gets going properly, the mood then evolves into their idea for a soundtrack to the 60s Italian “high stakes caper” movie Danger Diabolik!, complete with synth strings! If you’re not familiar with John Phillip Law’s 1968 Italian action movie masterpiece, watch that first before you put this on — your enjoyment of it will be doubled!

The mash-up of vintage video works oddly well with this song.

Switching up the mood, the next track is that remake of the Velvets single I mentioned. The Primitives’ respectful version of “I’ll Be Your Mirror” is more upbeat and frankly better in most respects, and sounds very credibly like a cover single made around the same time by a girl group of the the original’s era. It’s hard to beat the groundbreaking original version and Nico’s striking vocal, but The Primitives manage to hold their own with an excellent choice of a song to cover.

Following that cover, we’re treated to another — the Rolling Stones’ classic ballad “As Tears Go By” — but rather than pay homage to the original, the band effortlessly turns the song into … a number you might have sworn The Primitives wrote themselves! This should have been put into the original album’s track list — the mood, style and arrangement give a whole new dimension to the song as one of the band’s own “upbeat music with downbeat lyrics” signature style.

The next track, “I Almost Touched You,” really tries hard to be a different sort of number, getting back to the bass dominance we haven’t heard for a while, married to a lyric about an (unsuccessful) creeper and his quest.

The next three tracks offer alternative versions of the album track “Secrets.” The first is the original demo, which grooves just as well, but lacks the nicer intro of the album version. Godlike producer and remixer Zeus B Held finally got his hands on a Primitives track, and his 12” inch keeps the original intents while bringing Paul’s backing vocals up in places, but otherwise keeps the original’s speedy, 60s style intact. He drops some instruments out periodically for showcasing effects, and breaks out some lyrics for repeating/highlighting, squeezing an extra 42 seconds in compared to the original.

The 12” Dub mix of the song gives the rest of us a chance to karaoke this fun number at our next groovy party. For best results, you’d better have your own harmonizing boy-and-girl singers to try and hold your own against the (completely absent) original vocals.

The bonus tracks draw to a close with another fabulous cover, this time the 1957 Lieber-Stroller number “You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care),” originally made famous by that Elvis Presley fellah. That bassline must have proven irresistable to new bassist (and producer) Paul Sampson, and he certainly brings the low notes to life. Tracy sometimes has to fight to be heard over the bass-and-guitar attack, but the song works well with her lower register and points back to the influences the band wears on their sleeve.

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18Jun / 2024

The Primitives – Bloom! The Full Story 1985-1992 (Disc 2)

Lovely, plus bonus tracks (Cherry Red, 2020)

A terrific album with absolutely awful art (front and back).

THE OVERVIEW

Finally, after doing all the right things a band that knows they are good should do, a Real Record Company put them back in the studio to make a proper album and proper singles on a proper label, and the result was its own one-word review: Lovely.

If you are reading this and somehow haven’t heard the band, it’s airy, jangly guitar pop with a 60’s influence, a girl singer, and — if you lean in and listen close — a hint of darkness in the lyrics you’re not really supposed to pay attention to. It’s the sort of stuff radio stations of the commercial variety should’ve played regularly, especially in the summertime, but never did really. Thank heavens for college radio.

You won’t find a full review of Lovely here — if you’re reading this, you very likely already have a copy (at least, you should have a copy). That said, we’ll compare the (many) songs on the official debut album to the various versions that appeared prior to this, and examine the included bonus tracks.

The band’s original, heavier “wall of (guitar)” sound has officially given way to a catchy “indie pop/jangle pop,” vibe, but that C86 influence still creeps in occasionally. The album was oddly overseen with an “executive producer” (their agent, Wayne Morris), but in fact it was produced largely by second guitarist Paul Sampson and engineer/producer Mark Wallis, working together.

Though not a member of The Primitives, Wallis has had an incredible career producing acts across a wide spectrum of 80s and later rock. Oddly, Lovely was his only credit with this band.

THE ALBUM

As you might expect, the gang put their best foot forward and kicked off Lovely with the single “Crash.” It’s fun to compare the original demo to this beautifully perfected single; the first version started off with a very Joy Division emphasis on bass, setting a dark mood for the song, which is (to be fair) about the breakup of a relationship.

By contrast, the lead off track on the album starts with wonderfully 60s-flavoured jangly guitar, with a harsh bass/second guitar note cutting the intro short with a “brake” effect, and getting into the song itself. A growly guitar bed of melody and counter-melody plus a rock-solid bassline marry themselves to an unstoppable beat, and echoed Tracy’s vocals (softly backed with Paul’s presence) hums along in what the a music press article called “the perfect single by the perfect band.”

“Spacehead” gets a big-beat sound on drums this time, and we can finally make out Tracy’s vocals clearly. Both versions have the lovely “sha-la-la-la-la” mantra to keep this psych-influenced number grounded in beach blanket bliss.

“Carry Me Home” is a re-recorded version that still features lead vocals by songwriter Paul Court. Tracy comes in on some backing vocals, but only occasionally (as with the ‘87 Album Sessions version). The album version ups the “pop” quotient and tempo a bit to make it a better number.

This brings us to “Shadow,” which gets a radical revamp on Lovely compared to the “Guitar Version” we got on Disc 1. This time, the band goes all-out on the Indian influence. After a short menacing guitar buzz (probably meant to emulate the hiss of a cobra), the tablas kick right in and instantly give the song a more hypnotic quality, complemented nicely by Tracey’s mysterious vocal. The lead guitar from the original version can be heard way in the background, but this version is just way better and more atmospheric in every way.

Next up is “Thru the Flowers,” which we have heard two previous versions of back on Disc 1. The first version was on a self-produced EP that almost but not quite drowned Tracy behind a waterfall of guitar, the second was the “new version” with considerably more restrained and melodic guitar and better vocals, recorded for a Lazy Records single, and now we get the official album version.

The new version is like a cross between the previous two — bringing back the “crunchy” guitar intro and sporadic reappearance that will remind you of the demo version, but apart from a bit more echo its quite similar to the “New Version,” with an extra guitar instrumental break and still better vocal production. All three versions flirt (to some degree) with psychedelia touches, but never quite get there.

“Dreamwalk Baby” gets a considerably snazzed-up version compared to the “1987 Version” from Disc 1. Both version rollick along, but the album cuts puts the guitars behind Tracy as it should do, but is otherwise quite similar. I do miss the synth touch on the original, however.

Another song redone from the 1987 sessions is “I’ll Stick With You.” The 1987 version still had the crunchier guitar, but thankfully as co-equal with the vocals. What’s interesting to me (at least) in comparing these versions is how little the songs themselves changed; just the arrangement and production is really different for the most part. The band knew they had solid material, even as often as the word “hey” is repeated in a lot of them.

Whoever put the packaging and liner notes together for Bloom! somehow overlooked the next track, the new song “Way Behind Me,” but nonetheless it is in fact there, as it was on the album. It’s a great song, and there’s not much more to say about that. By this point, The Primitives have a signature sound, and most songs are clever variations on that sound.

“Nothing Left” gets a hell of a great intro compared to the original demo, which just jumped right into the lyric. The album version tracks closely with the “1987 Version” (which was informed by the “Sounds Version”), but just lacks the propelling energy of the album version with its ticked-up tempo. Again, it’s fun to hear how the song matures.

Tracey sings the lead of the instrumental break, which was a genius idea, and puts more passion into the chorus. This is the best version of them all, and the slightly-rearranged lyric is the icing on this cake. Like “Crash,” it’s a perfect song, done perfectly.

Likewise, “Out of Reach” gets its energy from a urgent tempo. Paul’s accompaniment of Tracy at key points only adds to the enjoyment. Like most of their best songs, it marries a nihilist lyric with deliriously happy jangle pop. There is more Paul on backing vocals in the “1987 version,” and a different arrangement, but it’s still the same great song.

“Ocean Blue” is a great change of pace at this point in the album, a slower and dreamier number, and features touches of drone and gentle percussion here and there. It follows very closely the “London Astoria single” version, but was re-recorded for the album.

After the new song “Run Baby Run,” we get to the album version of “Don’t Want Anything to Change,” in a more restrained version that offers some piano (!) for the first and only time on the album. I actually prefer the “1987 Version” to the album version, for once.

Lovely closes with the fuzzy surf rocker, “Buzz Buzz Buzz,”which gets a quick snare intro before the buzzsaw guitars take over. As with the two previous versions, Paul Court takes lead with Tracy doubling him. Again, it’s a very close remake of the original album sessions.

THE BONUS TRACKS

We start with some of the b-sides from the “Crash” single. The A-side was of course the album version of “Crash,” but came with three b-sides — the album track of “I’ll Stick With You,” the “Crash” demo version, and an all-new song, “Things Get in Your Way,” which starts off kind of oddly but really grows on you. Only “Stick” and “Things” are here on Disc 2 as bonus tracks, since we’ve already gotten the demo verion of “Crash” on Disc 1.

A (slightly) alternative version, from a John Peel session.

The remainder of the tracks in the bonus section for Lovely consist of an amalgamation of the a- and b-sides of the “Out of Reach” single. The UK 12-inch versions contained the remixed (and sped-up slightly) 1’54” version of “Out of Reach,” the album version of the same song (20 seconds longer), and two live tracks: “Really Stupid” and “Crash.”

The 7” version of the UK single had the shorter version of “Out of Reach” and live versions of “Dreamwalk Baby,” “Really Stupid,” and “Crash.”

Of these, the big treat of the b-sides is to be found here and on the CD-single version: a b-side live cover of Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” which originally appeared nowhere else, but eventually turned up on the previous Primitives anthology CD sets. It sounds a lot like the earlier “wall of guitar” incarnation of the band, and of course if you’ve not heard a woman singing it, that’s kind of novel as well. It’s the final track on Disc 2, and a wrap on Lovely.

Next time: Pure delight!

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12Jun / 2024

The Primitives – Bloom! The Full Story 1985-1992 (Disc 1)

The Lazy Years (Cherry Red, 2020)

THE PREFACE

Okay, this one is an ambitious 5-CD undertaking, and needs a little bit of backstory before we can get into it properly. The Primitives kickstarted their career by recording singles on their own record label, Lazy Records. This lasted from 1985 to 1987. They achieved enough success to get signed by RCA in ‘87, which released their past and subsequent material until their (first) breakup in 1992.

Jump ahead to 2013, and Cherry Red released a two-CD compilation of that early material called Everything’s Shining Bright: The Lazy Recordings 1985-1987. That set covered all the singles and b-sides, some live demos, some previously-unreleased sessions from ‘87, one bonus track they cut for UK mag Sounds, and a 15-song concert at the Institute of Contemporary Arts called “Live at the ICA 15-Aug-87.”

The reason I mention this is that all of the material on Everything’s Shining Bright — except for the 15-track live gig — are also on Bloom!’s first CD of the box set, which has been dubbed “The Lazy Years.” The running order is slightly rearranged, but it’s the same material. If you’re an obsessive Primitives collector, you’ll want both ESB and Bloom. If you can live without the live gig, skip ESB and just buy Bloom.

THE MUSIC

Disc 1 kicks off with five demo tracks, three of which were re-done for Lovely: “Crash,” “Spacehead,” and “Nothing Left.” “Crash” is quite basic but still insanely catchy, and was improved to perfection for the eventual album version. The demos for “Across My Shoulder,” “Spacehead,” and “Really Stupid” are similarly basic, but the production quality steps up noticeably for the demo of “Nothing Left.”

The band then put out a four-track EP called Through the Flowers, and the improvement in production heard in the “Nothing Left” demo is heard in these tracks. Paul Court’s guitar lines are more dominant — equal to, rather than buried by, Steve Dulligan’s bass lines. Peter Tweedie’s drums weren’t quite so “thuddy” anymore, and Tracy Tracy’s (Tracy Cattell) vocal were were more prominent, though still playing second fiddle to the guitar and bass.

The EP kicked off with the catchy title track, Tracy doing her own backing vocals as well as lead. “Across My Shoulder” was also improved, but “She Don’t Need You” is a fairly forgettable entry — only notable by the first appearance of Court as backup singer.

Court went further on the final track “Lazy” by taking lead himself. Tracy backs him up only on the song’s final lyric.

On balance, it was a pretty strong recorded debut. At this stage of the game, the band can’t really be called “jangly guitar pop” as the might have be labeled further down the road; they sound much more like C86 contemporaries The Wedding Present or even a happier version of Joy Division, only with a pixieish female singer instead of those two bands’ more dour male vocalists.

A three-track single showcased the first “proper” version of “Really Stupid,” complete with a nice touch of echo on Tracy’s voice. The second “A-Side” of the single, “We Found a Way to the Sun” is the song where the band starts to sound like the RCA studio band they would become.

“Where the Wind Blows” joins the other two tracks in sounding like a fully-gelled combo that can’t stop writing and realizing great guitar-driven songs. It also caused the music press to sit up, take notice, and fall in love with the band.

The next three-track single lead off with “Stop Killing Me,” and continued the party with “Buzz Buzz Buzz,” which brought in a hyperactive bit of twang to the mix (!). The b-side, “Laughing Up My Sleeve” starts with a bit of studio noise and a count-in, with Court taking lead vocal once again, with Tracy duetting in parts, ending with a rave-up and guitar freak-out on the last line.

It’s pretty amazing to hear a band come together this well before they’d even been signed to a proper label, but the group could already do no wrong with the ever-fickle UK music press at the time, which — again — is kind of astonishing.

The next single, “Ocean Blue” b/w “Shadow (Guitar Version)” were, amazingly, given away to attendees at a gig at the London Astoria. The a-side is a languid wash of voice and music that actually does remind me a bit of the later band known by that moniker, which formed not long after the Primitives.

The b-side is exactly what it says on the tin — the vocals are there, but the guitar is the star of this show. Some nice whisper and echo effects on this version, and then … it goes all 60s Bollywood on us with sitar and such! Super cool. I can’t believe I’d never heard this version until I bought Everything’s Shining Bright!

The 1986 “Thru the Flowers” self-recorded single got a re-do in ‘87 with a “New Version,” which again strongly reflects their sound getting refined and production style defined — gone is the “wall of guitar,” and now all the elements play nicely together — with even a touch of (synth) strings (!) .

The b-side of the new single was “Everything Shining Bright,” and it shifted gears for a more driving sound, pushing Tracey back in the mix (with Frank on backing vocals), but we still get clear separation of the guitar tracks, with the bass and drums operating as a single unit.

In a promotional effort, the band recorded another version of “Nothing Left” for a vinyl EP put out by UK mag Sounds. This is a considerably better effort than the more crudely-recorded demo version, but there’s no way for this band to perform the song poorly, they know its a hit in the making, and they persued it.

Possibly inspired by the Sounds EP opportunity, the band opted to re-record seven of their songs as an self-produced “demo package” on their own label, Lazy Records. This included some all-new songs, and a new version of “Buzz Buzz Buzz” and yet another version of “Nothing Left.”

The effort paid off — they got signed to RCA on the polish of the material and the strength of their trade-paper praise.

The demo package (referred to here as “1987 version(s)” kicks off with the debut of “I’ll Stick with You,” which puts Tracy up front and properly mixes the bands instruments and backing vocals. Also debuting here is “Dreamwalk Baby” (notable for the return of synth string touches). Both have nice touches of vocals from Court and Tracy doubling herself here and there.

The new version of “Buzz Buzz Buzz” isn’t really new at all, though Court’s vocal is mixed more prominently (Tracy is just barely present). Sonically the mix is much clearer, but seems identical to the version we previously heard on this disc.

Not quite likewise, “Nothing Left” (‘87) is clearly a new version, with doubled Tracy vocals, and some nicer guitar strumming. It’s similar to, but distinct from, the Sounds version, and of course much improved from the original demo. It’s still lacking some magic though, which we’ll have wait until the version from Lovely to get.

Future hit “Out of Reach” gets its debut in this ‘87 package, and is still not quite what it could be but all the ingredients are there. It’s easy to see why RCA execs jumped on this band.

Also debuting here is “Carry Me Home,” with Paul on lead. At this point, the music being good is a given, and the difference between “pleasant album track” and “potential single” is solely in how well the lyrics fit the music. Likewise, new song “Don’t Want Anything to Change” has some elements going for it (like more piano than we’ve heard thus far), but it’s definitely not a single, and even ends on kind a confused chord, like a question mark asking “so are we signed or not?”

Thankfully for us all, the answer was “yes.”

Next time: Lovely plus bonus tracks!

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26May / 2024

Nits – Urk (Disc 2)

(Columbia Records, 1989)

THE PREFACE

In addition to reviewing this Nits live compendium, I’m also connecting this recorded live experience to my own recent live experience with Nits in Amsterdam, which I attended in April of 2024. Urk contains a total of 28 songs, while the concert I attended featured 25 songs, with nine of them also performed on Urk.

I’d like to think this suggests that the band are in fact still very fond of and proud of the strong repertoire they’ve amassed over the decades, but in truth the similarity of the lineup (four members back then, three members and three backup vocalists now) likely made them easy to recreate on stage, some even with similar arrangements.

It’s amazing to think that Nits songs from the 80s are still so beloved by the hometown audience and still routinely performed by the band. Some, like “Walter & Connie” and “A Touch of Henry Moore” were never singles.

Speaking of singles, the band has had an astonishing 72 singles issued as this is written in mid-2024, with only two of those being collaborations with other bands (and none of them are remixes or re-releases or live versions, to the best of my knowledge). There aren’t many bands — and even fewer still around — that could match that track record.

THE MUSIC

Disc 1 of Urk is mostly comprised of well-known, popular songs from the group, but the “deep cuts” start to surface for the last three songs on that CD. We kick off Disc 2 of Urk with the band exploring some of their most playful and musically adventurous songs.

Continuing with the less well-known numbers, Disc 2 kicks off with “Port of Amsterdam” from 1986’s Henk album — a delightfully oddball song that for me resembles various song fragments cleverly cobbled together. The live performance here relies heavily on live mic effects and a new arrangement compared to original version, which had fewer vocal effects (other than echo) and more instrumentation. Towards the end, it gets much more like the original version.

“Bike in Head” is another song from Henk that really shows off the talents of all four members: Hofsted’s singing and (in this case) gentle guitar, Stips’ synth, Kloet’s inventive and varied percussion (never to be confused with “rock drumming”), and Geraets’ understated but present acoustic bass playing.

Following this was “Mountain Jan” — I’ve always loved this In the Dutch Mountains track for its touch of (synth) orchestral classical whimsy. The audience on the disc clapped along with the the brief bits of semi-classical overture, which was just lovely.

While this concert was turning out to be full of surprises, I don’t think anything surprised me as much as the inclusion of “Walter & Connie,” an instrumental number. It’s got a great “travelin’ music” vibe, with a driving melody that’s really brought to life in the live performance. Not to repeat myself, but you can tell by how enthusiastically the song is performed that the musicians enjoy it, and really enjoy playing together.

What’s interesting (to me, at least) that this song debuted as “Walter and Conny” on the 1983 album Omsk. For the Urk release, the spelling got changed to “Water and Connie” because that was the original name of the show. I suspect Nits first heard of it from German TV, where the hostess’ name might have been spelled Conny as that’s more common there.

Just in case you’ve ever wondered, Omsk the third largest city in Siberia. Its religious buildings and related architecture are a tourist draw, I am told. At the right time of year, this would probably be a very interesting place to visit.

In any event, “Walter and Connie” was an early 1960s B&W show designed to help non-English speakers learn English. This live version plays around a bit with the original album arrangement of the instrumental.

A different and longer opening starts the next song, another favourite among fans — “A Touch of Henry Moore,” again from Omsk. This version is quite different than the album version — this time, the chorus is skipped entirely, which was surprising, and there’s no double-tracking of Henk’s lead vocal (which isn’t surprising in a live setting). As a result, the Urk version is substantially shorter and somewhat unsatisfying, since the title of the song is never uttered.

Thankfully, the 50th anniversary concert I attended use the three female vocalists, so we got the full version of the song (with Stips doubling Henk’s vocal and the chorus). The truncated “Moore” on Urk is my least favourite version, but the video is nonetheless interesting.

Next up was “The Bauhaus Chair” from Hat — another song based on memories, a song I’ve always loved, and I was thrilled to hear it at the Amsterdam show. The Urk version was sparser than the original version, as you might expect with only four musicians and no overdubbing, but you can’t perform this song poorly no matter what you do to it.

“Under a Canoe,” originally from Henk, is another exercise from the period where two (or sometimes more) musical styles are jammed together. As for the lyrics, abut half the song is a series of non-sequiters starting with “I roll up the sleeves,” while the other half is a gentler recitation of “Shirt’s waving in the meadow.” Not one of my favourites, but the audience seemed pleased that it was included.

The Nits’ formula of forging two song fragments together works better on Omsk’s “Shadow of a Doubt,” the next track, mostly because the main melody and lyric go so well together, and blend better with the “I’m undecided” lyric, which I am unsure counts as a verse, chorus, or just Henk’s mantra.

At long last, one of my favourite songs and one of the earliest one I ever heard from them appears: “Mask,” from Adieu, Sweet Bahnhof. The version on Urk is the usual way it is played live, with a protracted instrumental prologue (from the Amsterdam Saxophone Quartet, when available). It’s an angrier song about having to hide your true feelings, but offset (in the live version) but gentle, stately instrumentation that suggests an orchestral version is dying to be made.

The original single version had a video made for it, and it was that video that Canadian station MuchMusic* played, my friend Ron Kane (a big fan and friend of the band) recorded the video on Betamax (iirc) and sent it to the Post-Punk Monk, which is I think how I came to see it. I was very struck by it at the time, and my impression was that Henk sounded like Elvis Costello — not correct really, but not a million miles off either. It’s still a thrilling number to me, with some forceful emotion bubbling up in the performance.

*MuchMusic was, essentially, Canada’s successful attempt at aping early MTV.

From there, we proceed to “Home Before Dark,” originally from Henk. The lovely arrangement here features Stips on (synth) accordion, which is just perfect to accompany Henk’s gentle guitar, and superior in my opinion to the album version. Once again, he uses the technique of expressive lyrics married to a beautiful chorus, with Joke coming in on backing vocals for that.

The start of “The Panorama Man” gets the audience clapping in time for this In the Dutch Mountains song, and it’s a fun chance for the whole band (and extra vocalists) to move along sharply to a catchy, light-hearted song. Nobody’s doing any deep reflection or confronting their doubts on this one, for a change.

This proceeds straight into another fast-moving song, “Slip of the Tongue,” originally from 1981’s Work album. Reflecting that earlier period, it mixes a really lively, pull-out-the-stops arrangement and upbeat style with lyrics about how dangerous it is to speak your mind in a corporate environment. I have the sneaking suspicion this was based on a job one of the band members had where things didn’t work out, but it’s just as true as ever today.

A crude edit in the recording takes us back to a different concert’s finale, where the band played Dutch Mountains’ “An Eating House,” another swinging number about a man on a road trip with his family and the kids want to eat, so he remembers a restaurant he had been to in years past that was nearby.

The song takes a break to proclaim “I am an eating house” a few times, eliciting laughter from the audience, with a short history of the restaurant before getting back into the crowd-pleasing big beat and joyous performance. This being a Nits song, the fun takes a dark but humourous turn, a play on the term “eating house.”

The audience is very much with them at this point, and the penultimate song for the evening is “Red Tape,” the only other song from Work. It’s a song about the tough life of a working mother, but it is unquestionably the catchiest song on this topic this side of “9 to 5,” and far better as well, come to that.

The finale, with the audience still clapping along, is Omsk’s “Tons of Ink.” Another big-beat song, this time about journalism. What other band could get away with this? No other band. The rapturous applause at the end fades softly away, and two hours of great music is done.

THE BOTTOM LINE

For the record, the nine overlaps at the 50th anniversary concert I attended were: The House, Henry Moore, Nescio, Two Skaters, Walter & Connie, J.O.S. Days, Dutch Mountains, Adieu, and Sketches of Spain. The magnificent composition that is “Cars & Cars,” a deep favourite of mine, was the last song of the regular set.

The first of the two encores was “Ivory Boy,” played live for the first time since 2012, followed by “Dutch Mountains.” After a brief break, they came back to finish off the night with “Adieu” and wrapped up with “Sketches.”

Urk was the first live album from Nits, and for a long time it was the only official one. This changed in 2015 with the release of Hotel Europa, which I haven’t listened to as of this writing. The only real criticisms I can level at Urk are unfair ones: the setlist is too heavily dominated by what were at the time the most recent albums, and didn’t include what I consider to be their most thrilling single, the New Wave-influenced “The Young Reporter” from 1980.

Nits have a remarkable knack for coming up with certain songs that get stuck in my mind and won’t let go. Certainly not everything they do, but their singles and other tracks that resonate with me have been living in my head rent-free for many, many years, and are recalled often. Although Henk is the lead singer and primary songwriter, he knows it just wouldn’t work without the other two, especially at this stage of the game.

They are far too “gentle” a band to ever be rock, but too ingenious and artistic in their music to fit alongside the usual definition of “pop” or “soft rock,” so of course they have trouble finding an audience outside Europe. If you are ever find yourself looking for superbly poetic and well-crafted (and beautifully arranged and played) “art pop” I guess I’ll call it, Nits deliver those goods on a routine basis more than any other band still playing, at least in my view.

Next month: The Primitives!

BONUS TRACK! — a performance from the concert my friends and I attended (actually, the following night, but the performance is the same). “Month of May” is from the 2024 mini-album Tree House Fire.

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19May / 2024

Nits – Urk (Disc 1)

(1989, Columbia Records)

THE PREFACE

Some nitpickers would proclaim that Urk doesn’t fully qualify as a CD boxset, since it consists of only two CDs. However, I would point out that a) it was originally issued as a three-LP boxset; b) the CD version comes in one of those double-wide plastic CD cases popular at the time that could be made to hold up to four discs; and finally c) at the very least it truly qualifies as a bargain, since I paid only €3 for it (approximately US$3.25).

This particular copy (not my first of this album) was acquired on a recent trip to Amsterdam, and purchased at the 58th Mega Record & CD Fair in Brabanthallen. This image (captured by the promoters) does not really show the scale of this event, because there was a second adjoining “room” of the size seen here, with a sitting area, food vendors and a performance stage in the connecting area.

My friend The Post-Punk Monk (who’s blog is a must-read for postpunk/new wave music enthusiasts) and I spent the better part of the daylight hours going to, traversing, and crawling from this gargantuan show, sadly with surprisingly little for either of us (but a few treasures, Urk among them). The show overall had a higher representation of prog music enjoyed by the generation before us, as well as metal, neither of which are of much interest to the likes of we.

That said, we covered well over 90 percent of the event’s dealers, which was a real challenge. While we regret there wasn’t more for us to buy, our wallets thanked us — and what we did get, we were mighty pleased to have gotten.

This journey was prompted by an opportunity to see Nits in concert for the first time, after (cough) decades of following the band. That too was accomplished, and was the highlight of the Netherlands portion of the trip.

Readers may not be familiar with the band, since they are best-known in Europe. My go-to metaphor for the band’s sound is “imagine if The Beatles had started in 1974 instead of a decade earlier, influenced by the music of the 60s and 70s rather than the music of the 50s, and wrote relatively few outright love songs.”

Please do sample them on Spotify or Apple Music if that explanation intrigued you — by the late 70s you might say they were a full-on New Wave band, but really their sound has always been reflective of intelligent, artful pop songs influenced by culture, infused with truly incredible poetry, and living near the border of Western and Eastern Europe. If China Crisis and Nits ever toured together, I might die of sheer delight.

THE OVERVIEW

Urk consists of 29 songs spread out over two CDs, recorded live in various cities, from Amsterdam to Utrecht to Moscow, during the winter of 1988-89. Many if not all of the songs on Urk were popular or fan-favourite songs from across their most popular albums.

It would be fair to call it a live version of their “greatest hits” to that point, and the album itself ended up in the top 10 charts for The Netherlands. It was, for many years, their all-time best-selling album. Urk was originally released in the summer of ‘89.

By the time of this recording, Henk Hofstede (the lead singer, writer, and guitarist) and Rob Kloet (the drummer/percussionist), the two original members, had been joined by Robert Jan Stips (sometimes producer and full-time keyboard maestro, still with the group to this day) and bassist Joke Geraets. Geraets, shortly after these live recordings, had to quit the band due to her ongoing medical issues.

Nits (who had recently dropped the “The” from their name) were supplemented on the 1988-89 tour by the Amsterdam Saxophone Quartet on the Amsterdam portion of this tour. Seeing the band in Amsterdam this year, their only accompaniment was a trio of excellent background singers. For the bulk of the performances here, it is just the four-piece version of the band, with the members themselves handling backgroud vocals.

In addition to the spacious CD storage case, the package includes a full-colour booklet including tour photographs, credits, and track listings.

THE ALBUM

After a short bit of welcomingly warm audience applause, there is a cross-fade to a lovely classic from the band, “The Train,” which originally debuted on their 1988 album Hat. It’s a gorgeously melancholic song (and yet rather jaunty in tempo) about a lost love and the sadness, vulnerability, and self-examination that often follows such separations.

In the original version, the first set of verses is followed by a longish instrumental break, where the sound of a train arriving in the station comes to dominate all but the never-stopping sound of Kloet’s sharp tapping rhythm. The song then picks up again, repeating the lyrics in full until it ends with the narrator reflecting on himself in the mirror-like windows of the train, asking himself “Hey, whatcha doing with your life?”

The next song segues right in with no audience noise. “Adieu Sweet Bahnhof,” the title track of their 1984 album, starts off with a carnival-like organ opening, Henk describing riding for what seems like hours in a train (making this a clever lyrical transition from the previous song), presumably leaving from Amsterdam and passing through Brussells on his way to Paris.

Listening to this version for this review, the song struck an even deeper note with me, as I took this very same journey on my return from Amsterdam to see the Nits perform — reflecting on this trip, and time spent in Europe from my own past.

In the concert I attended, this song was the final encore of the evening, and as it began the Dutch audience, familiar with the song, again applauded it warmly. “My train of thoughts is leaving … tonight!” is such a great little lyric.

It is very Nits to have a song title that uses words in English, French, and German interchangeably — “bahnhof” meaning “station” in German. Who the heck writes a song wishing a train station a fond farewell?

It should be mentioned for those not familiar with Nits that the band themselves are Dutch but sing almost exclusively in English apart from the occasional non-English word or phrase.

The overall effect of the song is again centered around a person who is sorting out his thoughts around the changes in his life, again making for a fine pairing with the first song. The last verse is another fabulous construction of vivid imagery:

Now like an arrow we’re aimed at Gare du Nord
Between backs of the houses streets like fjords
And the night falls over Paris
So I’ve come back to the Hotel d’Angleterre
I lay down on a double bed and stare
At the ceiling – what a feeling (to be back)

Gare du Nord is the destination train station for Eurostar in Paris, and I also arrived there on my own journey back. As the song ended, the audience applause returned before a final flourish from Stips to enthusiastic applause.

As someone else once said, Hofstede and his bandmates have an unrivaled ability to write songs as “little emotional postcards.” Next, they went straight into one of their biggest hits, “J.O.S. Days,” from the autobiographical 1987 album In the Dutch Mountains, about Henk’s early days of school and athletics. The driving guitar line and some “wailing” synth sounds keeps the “train” motif going a bit longer, though the song has nothing to do with trains.

J.O.S. stands for “Jeugd Organisatie Sportclub,” with “Jeugd” meaning “Youth.” Henk’s grandfather Jakob helped found the group, and it was a “family tradition” for boys in the family to play. Henk’s nephews, “dumb but tall” starting “kicking the ball” in the womb. Henk, however, was cursed with flat feet and “weak knees,” and got booted from the team after his first practice game.

The song also touches on the dark after-effects of the Second World War on young Henk and the club. There was a memorial erected after the war between the football fields, with the names of team members who had died. He notes that “they thought they would win, like in their J.O.S. days.”

This leads to a song about war, 1983’s “Sketches of Spain,” from the Kilo EP. Again, the marriage of the sad lyrics and the superb musicianship makes for a compelling listen about a subject nobody wants to talk about. Accompanying Henk on vocals is an uncredited female vocalist, presumably Joke, adding a nice effect not present in the original version. Stips backs Hofstede on vocals in what passes for the chorus.

And we next swing round to the biggest hit the band ever had, practically a national anthem — “In the Dutch Mountains,” from the album of the same name. Remarkably, the arrangements of the live songs follow the record versions as closely as possible — a feat managed thanks to the band’s frequent habit of recording the songs live-in-studio as much as possible.

The official clip for the song

At the concert I attended, the audience “filled in” with the band on the spoken-word repetition of “Mountains” — clearly a long-time audience favourite.

The song is mostly joyous in nature, and funny — there are very few if any actual mountains in The Netherlands. There is one part, however, that suddenly turns quiet and still, right in the middle of the song:

I lost a button on my shirt today
It fell on the ground and it was rolling away
Like a trail leading me back
To the Dutch mountains

Poetry and visual imagery on this level is rare in pop music, but Nits are the masters of it.

From here we go to “The Dream,” a song very similar in style to “The Train,” and like the former, it’s from Hat — and similarly, it’s a described painting barely within a traditional pop song structure. The main lyrics are contemplative, while the chorus is joyous, and gives the musicians room to play. Stip’s flute-like synth touches are just … (chef’s kiss).

“The Swimmer” comes from In the Dutch Mountains. This one literally describes some other dreams, in shorter bursts and once again with sections where the musicians can throw different motifs in the mix, this time a bit of tango that goes awry before settling back down. Henk is again backed up on vocals by Joke.

Rob Kloet’s understated percussion thus far comes to the fore in the introduction to “The House,” again from Hat, hitting glasses to create the band’s now-trademark “ting” sound. Organ sounds come in as the tinging recedes. The slower, haunting vocal in a lower register (from Stips) is so effective against Henk’s haunting mantra: “Time’s slipping away.”

We revisit the Dutch Mountains album for “Two Skaters,” one of the band’s more surreal dream-inspired songs. A very understated number with shimmering guitars, but it would never in a million years be played on a soft-rock station.

I am always much bemused by the stanza: “Your sister in Canada/She’s sending an LP of the Velvet Underground/We’re steaming the walls of your brother’s old room/Peel slowly and listen.” Gee, I wonder which VU album that was? 🙂

Another big favourite of mine, “Cabins” comes from the 1986 Henk EP, and is a great song to sing from the bow of a boat. The synth-heavy original arrangement is altered and the pace quickened on this version, but the enthusiastic audience claps along, because it’s a happy little number and one of my all-time favourites.

Another hit, “Nescio,” starts off with a barely-accompanied piano and spoken-sung second verse before starting proper. Once the music kicks in, the audience applauds in recognition. Oddly, the song list printe on the CD and booklet list “Nescio,” but the last on the back card of the box mistakenly skips it.

Parts of the song are in Italian, with the title meaning “I don’t know.” So the first verse (pardon my weak grasp of Italian) runs like so:
I don’t know
This paradise
I don’t know
In the wolf’s mouth
I don’t know
The stranger is dead
I don’t know
This paradise

The furious acoustic guitar by Henk alongside the snares of Kloet and madcap piano of Stips is the band at its best. The last line in Italian, by the way, translates to “The painting is beautiful (Questo quadro e bello).”

“Pelican & Penguin,” from Dutch Mountains, features cocks’ crows, accordion, and a horn section, making for a very different sound. Lots of odd sounds and vocalized noises on this one.

The penultimate number on this disc is “Telephone Song,” a real rarity from the earliest days of the band, before even their first album. It’s a very quirky number (Joke is on lead vocal, for starters), and hasn’t appeared on any of their official releases apart from this one, to the best of my knowledge.

Similarly, “Dapperstreet” has only ever appeared on this album. It’s a slow, thoughtful number that wouldn’t have been out of place on Hat that shows off more sophisticated songwriting than “Telephone Song.”

Next time: Disc 2!

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28Apr / 2024

Steeleye Span – All Things Are Quite Silent [Disc 3]

[Cherry Tree, 2019]

Ten Man Mop, or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again (1971)

THE OVERVIEW

Following the new lineup’s first album together (recorded in late 1970) and its surprising chart success the following year, the final album of this box set and the third official Steeleye Span album was made in the fall of 1971. As with its predecessor, it continued to draw on the traditional folk music of England (saves a lot of time when you don’t have to write the material, I guess!).

The stability of the lineup was short-lived, however: founding member Ashley Hutchins would leave the band shortly after this was recorded, feeling that the group was relying too much on Irish folk music when his interest was in English folksong. He was also apparently reluctant to travel to the US, where the band had been invited to tour.

Once again, the cover art is pretty terrible, but once again the music is harmonious and well-performed. The band veers a bit more back into “pure” acoustic folk overall, but the electric instruments continue to make their presence felt right from the get-go, along with spoons, a tabor, organ, timpani, mandolin, fiddle, various banjos, and some dulcimer and various guitars for good measure.

Also again, there’s some terminology in the title that requires a bit of explanation. A “mop” in English slang for a job call, where unemployed men would gather to see if they could gain a day’s work — you might see the modern equivalent of a “mop” outside temp agencies, or construction sites, to this day. Some things never change.

As for the origin of Mr. Reservoir Butler, he was a real person, though unknown to the band — apparently he was the original performer of one of the songs on the record (it’s not mentioned which one, even in the extensive liner notes of the original gatefold vinyl album).

The version of the album on this box set copies the 2006 Castle Music CD reissue, including a smattering of bonus tracks (which we’ll get to), but sadly this collection omits the bonus live show that was included on that reissue’s bonus disc: a September 1971 performance on DJ John Peel’s “Sunday Concert” radio programme. It included a selection of tracks from across their career thus far, including a few songs not yet captured on the proper albums. I really must hunt that one down at some point.

THE ALBUM

The very first sounds one hears are electric, on the Christmas traditional “Gower Wassail,” with Tim on lead and the rest of the band contributing a splendid chorus. Tim Hart gives anything he sings a traditional, old-timey feel, but his vocal “instrument” is best used a bit more sparingly, rather than taking sole lead — at least in my view. It’s not clear when this particular wassail was written, but the standard (sung) version comes from the tradition of wassails from the 12th century, which have come to mean a type of song often accompanied by drinking, rather than “wassail”’s original meaning akin to a farewell greeting.

The band did well with a Chrismassy song on the last album, so why not do one again? And while we’re at it, the pair of jigs on the last album went down well, let’s do that again also! This time it’s Paddy Clancy’s Jig and Willie Clancey’s Fancy, a natural pairing if ever there was one. Dueling acoustic guitars and fiddle with a bit of spoon work is always a delightful thing, but here’s that Irish bent that got Ashley all “bent” out of shape.

The third cut features the funny, clever “Four Nights Drunk,” sung by Martin Carthy. It’s a song about a man who comes home so drunk he sees things that may or may not be there, questions his wife about them (who denies his vision), and begins to suspect that he is actually seeing his wife’s lover as her explanations become increasingly implausible.

Following a straight singing of the lyrics, the band breaks out the song into an instrumental for the last minute or so, and again they are very good at it.

We finally get Maddy Prior back on lead vocal, with “When I Was on Horseback.” It’s a traditional Irish folk song-cum-lament about a soldier and his unfortunate end, even though he brags “wasn’t I pretty/wasn’t I gay” (not like that 😜). Already, a pattern that has brought some criticism of this album is emerging — start a song, sing the lyrics, spotlight the instruments for a minute or so after the lyrics are done, and out.

Side 2 of the original vinyl version kicked off with “Marrowbones,” is a delightful traditional English/Irish song about a woman who loves her old husband, but “loves another man twice as well.” She decides to find a way to blind him so he can’t see she’s having an affair.

A local doctor tells her to feed him eggs and 16 marrowbones, which she does, but the old man knows of her plan and pretends to be blind. When walking near a river, the unfaithful wife decides to push her “blind” husband in, but he hears her running towards him and steps aside, and it is she who falls into the river.

As she cries for help, the husband reminds her that he “cannot see.” She eventually drowns, and the moral of the story is “if you want to murder your husband, make sure you poison him properly.” That’s the Irish for you …

This is followed by “Captain Coulson,” a tale of the war-hero title character and his passengers on a six-week sail across the Atlantic to “Amerikay.” One night, he spies a pirate ship in pursuit, and wants the sailors and men on board that it will soon catch up to them.

This story-song, sung by Maddy, is a nice change of pace from the tales of treacherous/cheating spouses, describes the battle as the pirates board the vessel and demand “your gold and precious loading.” A pitched battle ensues, with the captain and his passengers eventually successful in defeating the pirates, capturing their ship and bringing it with them as bounty with them to the New World.

The odd choice of having nearly every song end with an instrumental break, rather than putting it in the middle, becomes almost comically predictable and borderline annoying.

As with side one, a given song early on the given side of the vinyl is then followed by an instrumental track — either a group of jigs or a group of reels, and this case its the latter: a trio of them, “Dowd’s Favourite/£10 Float/The Morning Dew.” Only carefully listening to the chord changes would reveal to a listener when one part ends and other begins, as the instruments are seamlessly strung together.

This strange habit seems to be intended to showcase Peter Knight’s fiddle playing, and he’s excellent at it — but the repetition factor of the album is starting to really kick in.

Maddy returns to sing “Wee Weaver,” for once a song that has a happy ending rather than, you know, death. It’s a tale of of a weaver who loves a beautiful girl named Mary, much admired around the village. Willie proposes marriage, Mary accepts, and they lived happily ever after.

The Norfolk folk music index calls this song “a rarity,” allegedly written by home weavers … in Ireland. This puts Irish songs firmly in the lead compared to the English entries.

Tim sings the lead on the next track, “Skewball,” which also is an unconventional track for the band to do. This is a song about a horse race, and a fast horse (which can “talk”) named Skewball against another horse named Griselda. It’s an exciting tale, told well.

These two unconventional (for this band) songs would have done better being spaced further apart, but they nonetheless make a welcome change from the fairly repetitious choices presented to this point. That said, it closes the original album on a strong note.

We move on to the first of the “bonus tracks” presented here, “General Taylor (Studio Outtake).” This one also has Tim on lead, but duetting with the other band sings, which really makes Tim’s lead even more effective. The song, also known as “Carry Him to His Burying Ground,” is a fairly recent number for this group, hailing from the mid-19th century.

It’s done here in a “pump shanty” style, though technically it should be considered a “halyard” or perhaps a “capstan” style shanty. The subject concerns the defeat of Mexican general Santa Aña by the American general (and future president) Zachary Taylor in 1847.

The song was likely written by one of the surviving British soldiers who jumped ship to aid Aña in the West Indies. Traditionally, the victor of the battle is reversed to be Aña (as it is in this performance), likely due to British sailors serving with Mexicans at the time and not wanting to cause offense, but indeed it was Taylor who “won the day.”

This first bonus track, along with the start off track “Gower Wassail,” are the high points of the album as presented here. While the original album had fine playing and some strong group vocals, the song choices and arrangements were more repetitious than the previous album, and nothing other than “Gower” really stood out.

The rest of the “bonus” tracks here are various versions of “Rave On” — the original single version with a deliberate “Scratch” sound, which is my favourite of the versions because it must have really messed with the original listeners’ minds — and a “proper” two-verse and three-verse version.

The song is really out of step with the traditionals that accompany the album, as it’s a Buddy Holly song — and its presence “breaks the spell” of the band as wandering minstrels. It was originally recorded as a joke for Ashley’s benefit, and he liked it, but then it ended up as a “novelty” single for the band (and flopped).

To be fair, if you take it for what it is — a modern song done a capella, forgetting about the band’s regular motif — it’s very nice, including their strong harmonies. It’s just a bad choice to include on their Olde Tyme folk albums (and of course it originally wasn’t).

The “Peel Session” version, just for variety’s sake.

THE BOTTOM LINE

This third effort touches on a lot of what makes Steeleye Span interesting, but it’s less imaginative and varied than the previous two albums, with the song choices being more repetitive — though when they do break the pattern, they generally shine.

For me, Ten Man Mop leans too heavily on the lead singers, with the band’s strong group vocals too sparingly used. The arrangements seem less imaginative as well, with a few exceptions.

Knowing that Hutchins left the band after this was recorded, it would be interesting to revisit the fourth album to compare how that affected the group (spoiler: a lot), but that’s outside the scope of this box set review, so we’ll have to leave it there. (Second spoiler: the lineup changes very significantly yet again with the fourth album.)

Ten Man Mop is by no means a bad album, but the feeling that it’s a weaker offering than the two before it is hard to shake. The inclusion of very sparse “bonus tracks” is a mild disappointment, but as an opportunity to study more deeply the albums where I first became acquainted with the band, All Things are Quite Silent is an intriguing box set that I’m glad to have, as it does offer some absolutely stellar gems from the band’s early years.

Next time: Nits! (the Dutch band, not the other kind)

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22Apr / 2024

Steeleye Span – All Things Are Quite Silent (Disc 2)

[Cherry Tree, 2019]

Please to see the King

THE OVERVIEW

The second album from Steeleye Span is very much “more of the same,” and yet wildly different at the same time. Having found an audience that embraced their mix of modern, classic, and ancient instruments combined with mostly traditional English folk songs, they stuck to their unique “formula” of “traditional folk songs with some electric guitar and bass” doggedly.

So much so, in fact, that the first track on Please to see the King is a re-recorded version of “The Blacksmith” from their previous album! It’s hard to guess at the reasons why, but the new arrangement sets a tone of syncopation and other percussion in place of drums, and involves the reformulated band to a bigger degree vocally.

To the casual listener, this sounds very much like the previous album, with familiar vocalists Maddy Prior and Tim Hart and a similar musical mix of acoustic and electric instruments. The Woods, Gay and Terry, left the band before the group had even played its first live gig, and Gay’s presence in particular is missed.

However, this new lineup (adding friend of the band Martin Carthy, who had originally suggested the band’s name, and fiddler Peter Knight to replace the Woods) is widely considered the “definitive” early Steeleye lineup, with the first album personnel considered an excellent but “false start,” since the band would move into a heavier space with more male voices, percussion but no drums, and more group singing.

The cumulative effect is that this is something of a different band doing things a bit differently, but the additional backing harmonies and similar material helps cushion the changes. It helps that this same lineup stuck around long enough to record the follow-up album, Ten Man Mop, and even tour!

This album did pretty well, reaching #45 on the UK album charts, but died a death in the US on initial release. A later re-release of the album following the band signing to Chrysalis Records the following year sold far better in the US.

THE ALBUM

The title of the album refers to a tradition carried out on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26th), the “Cutty Wren” ceremony. A caged wren is paraded around in towns and villages as if it were the king.

This is directly referred to in the album by the penultimate song on the album, “The King.” The lads who would parade the Cutty Wren were referred to as “wren boys.”

“The King” is often sung around Christmastime, and the band sings it a cappella, which will remind listeners of the “Calling-On Song” from the first album and is every bit as charming as that one.

This album starts with notes from electric guitar and bass that begins with the new version of “The Blacksmith,” with another lovely lead vocal from Prior. The middle eight is an a capella la-la chorus from the whole band, an instrumental break, and then Prior returns accompanied by some backing vocals. Organ can be heard in the background, and another instrumental break finally debuts Knight’s fiddle before wrapping up with another a capella section.

“Cold Haily, Windy Night” is, to be blunt, a song about a soldier begging his lover to let him in to the house on the aforementioned night. After some persuading and the possible detection by her mother, the maiden does let him in and they end up making love.

The soldier turns out to be a cad who, having gotten what he wanted, exits stage left — leaving a angry girl and her furious mum. It’s sung by Tim Hart in his stylised “folk song” manner.

Next up: two instrumental jigs combined into one piece. “Bryan O’Lynn” was a character from Irish folk song who was quite the dandy, though none of the lyrics are sung here. “The Hag with the Money” (Cailleach An Airgid) is another traditional song with lyrics, sadly not sung (as the original song is rather amusing).

We get back to lyrics and Maddy on lead with “Princess Charlie Stuart,” a song about good old Bonnie Prince Charlie. It covers the rebellion led by Charlie to restore the House of Stuart to the throne at the Battle of Culloden in 1745. It was ultimately unsuccessful, and Stuart was exiled first to France, then to Spain, the latter of which is mentioned in the song.

It’s a typically beautiful and haunting Scottish ballad, sung from his love’s perspective and hailing both his physical stature as well as the willingness of 700 highlanders to die in battle for him.

“Boys of Bedlam” is a song that dates from 1618, and is one of the earliest folk songs that deals with mental illness and insanity. “Bedlam” is shorthand for St. Mary Bethlehem hospital in London, now known as Bethlem Royal Hospital, which was an insane asylum. The hospital funded itself, in part, by charging townsfolk a penny to come and gawk at the antics of the unsupervised inmates.

The song starts off as a minimalist duet with Maddy and Martin, with just the simplest percussion. This expands slowly with electric bass imitating a bell tolling, then the pace picks up with guitar, mandolin, and organ and the song becomes a bit more … jolly? Both the object of the song and the narrator describe visions that are fairly described as bonkers.

The song shifts again into its last verse with somber, wailing backing vocals, with the faster pace now seeming more … sinister. A touch of banjo rounds out the finale.

“False Knight on the Road” is another traditional, which might be considered the “original version” of the more well-known song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Both songs document a confrontation between a mortal and the Devil (the false knight), but in this case its a brave boy who stands his ground during the quizzing and riddles from Satan. Ultimately, the Devil gives up and concedes the contest.

This moves us back to Maddy singing, with “The Lark in the Morning,” which always reminds me of the “argument” about whether it is night or day that Romeo & Juliet have in their bed in the wee hours. The fiddle on this track enhances the sweetness of the melody.

“Female Drummer” also features Prior, singing about a young lass who disguises herself and becomes a drummer soldier in disguise. She maintains the ruse until another girl falls in love with her and “finds” that her soldier boy is a girl, reports the drummer to her superior, who “unbuttoned my red tunic and he found that it was true/‘It’s a shame,’ he says, ‘to lose a pretty drummer boy like you.”

We finally arrive to the finale of the album, consisting of the outstanding a capella song “The King,” and the climax of the entire album, “Lovely on the Water.” The blending of the band’s voices on “The King” is just fabulous.

Finally, the song that truly embodies the best of this incarnation of the band, a serpentine guitar line with rock-solid bass, and Prior’s story-song rendition of “Lovely on the Water.” It is yet another naval-wartime ballad, tells the tale of a couple where the man must leave, and their sad parting dialog.

The middle eight takes a forewarning turn, cleverly using the instruments to recreate the troubles and perils ahead, before he may someday return. Unlike most other songs of this nature, the lyrics do not foretell or reveal a tragic ending, leaving their fate open-ended.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you’re in for a penny with this band, then you’re in for a pound. While putting more emphasis on the electric side of their musical equation, these remain traditional English folk tunes in both style and subject matter, and are lovingly resurrected for a new generation and a wider audience here.

If you enjoyed the first album, you’ll almost certainly like this one as well, despite the shift towards more male voices; Martin and Tim shoulder most of that burden, and are distinct enough in their styles to add flavour to the stew, and clever overdubbing of Maddy doing background vocals to accompany her leads makes Gay Woods’ departure a little easier to overlook. Martin and fiddler Peter Knight add new sounds to the repertoire, nicely making up for Terry Woods’ departure as well.

The selection of material is also very strong, with one new version of an old favourite to start things off and ending on a tremendously strong wartime ballad, with a variety of tunes and subjects interspersed as they were on the previous album, with only the instrument jig break seeming a little out of step. Now that the Mk II Steeleye has gotten off the ground, we’ll see if they can keep it going for another record before the lineup evolves yet again.

Next time … Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again!

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06Apr / 2024

Steeleye Span – All Things are Quite Silent (Disc 1)

[Cherry Tree, 2019]
Hark! The Village Wait

As John Cleese has famously said, “and now for something completely different …”

THE OVERVIEW

I’m more of a dedicated Punk/New Wave/Ska type fan when it comes to rock music, but thanks to good exposure to other forms of music and music analysis, there are other genres of music I also appreciate. One of the oddest (to most people) is my fancy for groups that seek to emulate and put their own spin on other styles once popular in centuries past. Peter Schickele in his persona as PDQ Bach and others who poked fun at oh-so-serious classical, Chuck Jones and his operatic Bugs Buggy films, and for reasons I can’t quite articulate, folk music bands who explored traditional tunes, styles, and instruments.

Two prominent examples of the latter sub-genre I have actively enjoyed and collected include the traditionalist Amazing Blondel, and the more modernist Steeleye Span.

There’s a lot of backstory behind the formation of Steeleye Span, and it is nicely summarised in the accompanying booklet to this collection of their first three albums, completed over the course of just two years, 1970 and 1971.

If you’re not familiar with the band, you’re probably not reading this, but on the off chance someone wants to know more before diving in, Steeleye Span were and are a group that added electric guitar and bass, along and contemporary rock-style drumming to otherwise mostly-traditional songs as pastiches of traditional songs of English folk music, arranged for contemporary (70s) instruments including the banjo, but largely sung in traditional stylings.

Apart from this novel approach, they were also known for periodically having two female vocalists in the band (Maddy Prior and Gay Woods), something of a rarity at the time. A form of the group carries on touring to this day, with only Maddy Prior from the original grouping still involved.

THE ALBUM

Unlike the previous box sets I’ve recently reviewed, two of the three discs in this CD-sized set contain just the straight album with no bonus tracks. A handful of previously-unreleased material exists on the third disc, but we’ll discuss those when we get to that album.

This one was their 1970 debut, Hark! The Village Wait, a title I’ve pondered the meaning of for decades until now. It turns out that a “wait” in Ye Olde Englishe is a group of musicians, usually woodwind players, who would play in the village commons in Tudor times, especially around Christmas.

Most, but not all of the songs are traditionals, with the arrangements by the band themselves. The tone is set on the very first song, even though it’s the only a cappella track on this record. The lyrics for “A Calling-On Song” were written by founder Ashley Hutchings (formerly of Fairport Convention), based on a captain’s song of the Earsdon Sword Dance Team.

From the first notes, you know you are being transported back to the roots of English folk music with a song that acts as an invitation and calling-card to the rest of the album. It would in no way be out-of-place at a Renaissance Fair or SCA gathering. The two women and their respective partners, Tim Hart and Terry Woods’ voices blend well.

Traditional acapella songs of a similar nature were often used to attract an audience to a village-green performance, and the lyrics reflect this: I’ve included the first and last verse here:

Good people, pray heed our petition,
Your attention we beg and we crave.
And if you are inclined for to listen
An abundance of pastime we’ll have.

There’s one thing more needing mention:
The dances we’ve danced all in fun.
So now that you’ve heard our intention,
We’ll play on to the beat of the drum.

And that last verse leads directly into the drum into of track 2, “The Blacksmith,” a traditional song that brings in the musical instruments of guitar, bass, mandola, harmonium, and lovely singing from Maddy Prior. It’s a tale of a love betrayed, of course, but with a bit of a twist. Backing vocals from Gay Woods and choruses with Tim Hart and Terry Woods really take you back in time as much as the first song did, but with enough modern sounds (blended with lesser-heard instruments) to keep the hippies listening.

The next cut, “Fisherman’s Wife,” is as Scottish a traditional as ‘ere we’ll get, with lyrics written by the great Ewan MacColl (father of Kristy) in 1959, and sung by Gay Woods this time. An autoharp and 5-string banjo “enter the chat,” as the kids say these days, atop the electric bass and guitar and drums.

It’s about the hardship of life for a fisherman’s wife, but with a hint of pride in herself and her hardworking husband. The variety of the two female vocalist adds a great tonal quality to the singing. But speaking of variety …

“The Blackleg Miner” gives us a styled nasal and northern voice of Tim Hart on lead vocal. His performance here is tuneful, but absolutely not in harmony with modern rock vocal stylings, and indeed his career-long musical interest lay with old folk songs. Despite his voice being a bit of a jarring break from the previous women-led tracks, his acapella singing really captures the old-timey feel of a song about a scab “blackleg” coal miner. It was strangely relevant in the face of the UK miner strikes going on around that time.

With the next track, we’re back to the ladies, with Gay on lead, singing a beautiful traditional, “Dark-Eyed Sailor.” On my first hearing many years ago I was captivated by this story-song of the pains of loving a sailor who may or may not ever return from the sea, and years later the dusky-voiced June Tabor (who once formed a group with Prior) did a more rockin’ version of the song, and I fell in love with it once again.

A lovely 2000 performance featuring both Maddy Prior and Gay Woods

And not just me: the song was one of the standout tracks off this album, and though there were no singles from the record that I know of, it became a popular part of the repertoire as the band played live. It became more popular once this album finally made its way to the US, five years after its initial release.

Terry Woods also plays the concertina with Hart on electric dulcimer, and the instrumentation just couldn’t be more perfect for this type of folk ballad. It’s a marvel how this weird mix of old and newer instruments somehow makes for such a distinct and original sound.

Side one of the original vinyl closes with “Copshawholme Fair,” with Prior on lead vocals, and includes some mandolin and the sound of the bodhrán (an Irish frame drum), along with some recorded sounds of step dancing by Maddy and Gay, giving the song a even older and more acoustic feel.

Side two opens with a twist: Maddy and Gay singing an original short sea-based ballad of a couple separated by enforced service by one’s “true love” in the Navy, “All Things Are Quite Silent,” which lends its name to the boxset. Songs of sailors separated from their true loves are, as one quickly learns, a really common theme of these traditional songs, so Ashley, Terry, and Tim knocked one of their own up.

This is followed by “The Hills of Greenmore,” featuring Tim Woods on vocals, which is pleasant but unremarkable. The next track, “The Lowlands of Holland,” is a quintessential staple of the band’s repertoire, starting with some guitar noodling before getting into yet another naval press gang tale of separated lovers, this time from Scotland.

What distinguishes this one from the others is Gay Woods’ beautiful vocal, a wistfully beautiful melody, and a splendid arrangement that really works with this “rock style added to traditional songs” angle the band has adopted. Like “The Blacksmith” and “Dark Eyed Sailor,” this one easily rises above its roots and is given new life in this treatment, in part thanks to the addition of traditional fiddle.

Gay in particular sells the lyric of a heartbroken widow telling her daughter she will someday find a man, but “alas there’s none for me/I never had a love but one/and he’s drowned in the sea.”

This takes us to “Twa Corbies” (a Scottish variation on the English folk song “The Three Ravens”), a rare one where Hart joins Gay and Maddie for a nice change of sound. This English folk ballad from approximately 1611, or possibly earlier, takes a delightfully dark turn as the song is an imagined conversation between two ravens about where and what they will eat.

In the Scottish version, the ravens chance upon a newly-slain knight, and talk in detail about how they will make a meal of him, using his hair to feather their nests, and how his mistress has already taken another lover. This is the version the band have chosen here.

Other versions have softened the lyric, having the ravens be unable to get at the corpse because it is guarded by his loyal hawks and hounds. In this version, the knight’s lover comes to get the body, and buries him — so the ravens must move on.

The final song is “One Night as I Lay on My Bed,” with Prior handling the lead vocal accompanied by Gay Woods. It’s a simple song about a young man who has a dream of his lover, so he gets up and goes to her house to speak to her.

She worries that her parents will hear them speak, but the man reassures her they are asleep, and she lets him in. If you’ve ever dated someone whose parents might not approve of you, or tried to have a lover in the home of your parents, you can relate to this.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The novelty of these centuries-old folk songs redone, mixing traditional and electric instruments is the big selling point of the album. It caught the fancy of music fans to a sufficient degree that further albums were made with an ever-shifting lineup, and we’ll get to explore the band’s development in the next two of their albums.

As for me, some of these songs are much-beloved, as I had the good fortune to be exposed to some traditional English folk songs early in my life, so this album was a new take on a few old favourites and a chance to explore the style further. It is no accident that I came to Steeleye via my fandom for The Amazing Blondel. Speaking of them, now there’s a box set that’s begging to be made for this same select but enthusiastic audience.

Next time: Please to See the King

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31Mar / 2024

Journey Into Prehistory (Cesta do pravěku)

1955, dir. Karel Zeman

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There’s a song by the Norwegian band synth-pop band a-ha on their debut album, Hunting High and Low, called “Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale.” Karel Zeman’s remarkable second feature film, Journey Into Prehistory (US title: Journey to the Beginning of Time) is that phrase fleshed out in colour.

It uses the framework of a group of pre-teen and teen boys thirsty for knowledge and adventures as a vehicle to achieve Zeman’s own boyhood dreams, combining 2D and 3D models, animation, and live-action into a seamless Sci-fi fantasy film. While slow-moving by today’s standards, it is a perfect illustration of the kind of imaginative escapades you would have found in books and serialized magazine stories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For those not familiar with Zeman’s work, his films are some of the most effective combinations of live-action and animation ever done to that point — until a fan of his, Terry Gilliam, began his own filmmaking career. While I haven’t seen many Zeman films, the other two I have seen — the amazing 1962 Baron Munchausen and the jaw-droppingly incredible 1958 Invention for Destruction — are just mind-blowing masterpieces of imagination. Zeman combines his own filmic skills with whimsical tales and brings great stories into the visual world of movies.

*The boys encounter their first prehistoric creature — a curious wooly mammoth.*

In the film, the boys learn about the prehistoric creature the trilobite by examining the fossil of one. The youngest, Jirka (Vladimir Bejval), is disappointed that there are no living triobites left, so the older boys propose taking a trip back in time to find one — like you do — and take a boat up river into a cave that allows them to pass through it, and into progressively earlier eras of earth’s development as the continue upstream.

The oldest boy Petr (Josef Lukáš) narrates most of the film and does most of the rowing and planning, while the second-oldest Toník (Petr Herrmann) keeps a logbook. Jenda (Zdeněk Husták) and Jirka, the younger boys, help out as they can, with Jirka in particular running off to explore too eagerly, which causes the occasional misadventure.

*Jirka (left) is a bit of a jerk-a sometimes, deliberately ignoring safety warnings to explore.*

They indeed pass through the four main periods of prehistory (as defined in 1955) — from the Ice Age, to the Tertiary, the Mezozoic and the Paleozoic, and all the way back to Silurian age.

This film is more sparse on the effects compared to Zeman’s later ones, but importantly when special effects appear, they are as realistic as it was possible to make them. Some effects used puppetry, some used a very smooth form of stop-motion, but clever use of shot-matching allowed the actors to travel with beautiful backgrounds and “living” prehistoric creatures very smoothly integrated and fluidly animated.

Along their journey, they encounter and learn about progressively older examples of prehistoric creatures. Interestingly (at least to me), the film makes no attempt to get the boys back to their own time, even after tragedy befalls their original vessel. I don’t want to say more about the plot to avoid spoilers, but the film is both blatantly educational but also filled with moments of danger, suspense, and the single-minded energy of the young to sate their curiosity.

The Czech version runs 93 minutes, and while the pacing makes it sometimes hard to stay on board with the slowly-unfolding story, the promise of another effects sequence soon will hold most viewers, and also curiosity about how the story will be resolved.

*A life-size Stegasaurus model was built for this sequence.*

A US version was created later, using a new intro and outro where the boys (replaced by US actors shot only from the back of their heads in the opening and end sequences) imagine the whole adventure while visiting the Museum of Natural History, and stretches credibility pretty hard. The recut US version runs only 84 minutes, dropping some exposition to get to the effects more quickly.

The story is a mash-up of Jules Verne’s 1912 novel The Lost World and a Russian novel called Plutonia from 1915, both obviously influences on Zeman (he would go on to a brilliant and straight-up later film combining several Verne stories named after the primary story its based on, the novel Facing the Flag).

For many years, the existing prints of Journey Into Prehistory were of such low quality that the film almost passed into unseen obscurity, following its initial worldwide success. Thankfully, the film has since been digitally restored and repaired, so we can see it the way Zeman intended.

*A friendly creature from long before the dinosaurs*

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29Mar / 2024

Lene Lovich – Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 (Disc 4)

No Man’s Land + Bonus tracks

THE OVERVIEW

Sadly, we’re coming to the end of the Toy Box set with Lene’s final album for Stiff — No Man’s Land from 1982. As usual, it’s a another album choc-a-bloc with catchy tunes, including one of my favourites of hers. Unfortunately, as I wrote many years ago in a review for a newspaper, “it sounds like they didn’t really have enough material for a full album, so they threw in what should have been the b-sides to the five potential singles, and called it day.”

Kind of a brutal assessment, in retrospect, but not wrong. The album is thin on fully-fleshed-out songs and heavy with other tracks that are quite good musically but light on lyrics with much meaning. The “A” material here is pretty strong, particularly the two lead-off tracks — both of which were in fact singles that found some traction — “It’s You, It’s You (Mein Schmerz)” and “Blue Hotel.”

I also very much liked “Special Star,” “Sister Video,” and “Maria,” and I remember all three getting some college/indie radio airplay at the time. Most of the rest of the tracks, while catchy, seem seriously undercooked lyrically. This could have been papered over with more of those great “Slavic male chorus” bits that made the first record so entertaining, but after the original band broke up, we only ever get (double-tracked) Les handling that — and just him is kinda thin and too sparsely used.

Starting with the New Toy EP, most of the background vocals were done by Lene herself — which is not by itself a bad thing because she’s awesome — but the call-and-response you got on Stateless and to a lesser extent on Flex has gone, and the songs sound less varied as a result — even as the production work improves.

Speaking of production, the fact that this album has more engineers/studios listed (eight!!) than it does musicians adds to the inconsistency factor. The truth is that this record was cobbled together from the multiple smaller sessions with various producers and studios by order of Stiff Records’ Dave Robinson, who wanted another “hit” from Lene, which he eventually got in the two lead tracks — at least in the US.

This one also had the most “writers” on any of Lene’s 80s albums, with “It’s Only You” and “Sister Video” both being written by others, and “Blue Hotel” using a co-writer (Maruo Goldsand). While still equal parts hit and miss, No Man’s Land is still a better record than most acts at the time were putting out, but it misses the high bar Lene and Les set for themselves on the two previous albums, and is very symbolic of their deteriorating relationship with Stiff.

Lene writes about Stiff a lot in the booklet, and is generous with her thanks to Dave Robinson and the other people who worked there, but from her perspective Dave was growing increasingly disenchanted with the lack of UK hits (she did better in the US, particularly on this album), and eventually lost interest, making No Man’s Land the last album on Stiff.

It’s still an enjoyable album, make no mistake, but even the bonus tracks are (mostly) extended or remixed versions of the album tracks. Speaking of which, the legend that is Bob Clearmountain did the remixing on the album (with assists from Lene and Les and Dick Wingate), so from a high-fidelity perspective this is the best-sounding album to date.

THE BONUS TRACKS

Just for variety’s sake, we finally get the two “missing” tracks from the “New Toy” EP that was release prior to the album here: the original studio version of “Savages” and the original “Special Star,” which both ended up in extensively reworked (and superior) versions on the album. Likewise, the “Single Version” of Blue Hotel is a pretty different version to what ended up on the album, though it does actually have Les and Lene singing together on the chorus, which is nice.

We then move on to the “Remixed, Extended Version” of “It’s Only You,” which you might be forgiven for thinking is actually the “Instrumental Version” for the first 1:06 before Lene finally comes in. The vocal and Lene’s background vocal are the same, but quite differently mixed from the album version. This bonus version uses more of Lene’s own bv’s and so I kinda like it better, though the album version swings more.

This is followed by a wholly new song, “Blue,” (no hotel involved). It’s rather frantic, and will remind listeners of “old” Lene, even though the vocal is a bit sparse. It probably should have been on the album proper, but its a lightweight effort despite the speedy 50s overtones.

Next up, a very remixed and mostly instrumental “dub” version of “It’s Only You,” with Lene only providing bv’s and sound effects here and there. It’s not really suitable for your own karoke version, since it wanders off from the better-known version of the song, but for anyone who wants to hear Les’s isolated contribution to a given Lene song, this is a good example — and it runs nearly two full minutes longer than the album version, so there’s some great noodling going on here.

Oddly, this is followed by the “US Extended Dance Mix” version, which is nearly as long as the Instrumental Version at 5’39”, but hurrah, we have Lene’s vocal back in. The lengthening comes in the form of a long mid-song instrumental break that gets sparse at the beginning and end, but is very effective and makes you all the more thrilled when the vocals return, and we even get some extra vocals.

From there, we go on to a “US Dance Mix” of “Blue Hotel,” which adds a minute-and-a-half to the song more cleverly than it was with “It’s Only You,” by keeping the instrumental extensions, mostly quite short until the mid-point. These two “US” extended versions are the most successful of the bonus tracks, since they simply give us more of what we love in the respective songs … and by that of course I mean “more Les Chappell croaking like a frog.” Bonus points for the fake-out false ending before the real ending!

The album ends with a genuine B-side: “O Seasons, O Castles.” It’s a slow-moving but another colourful, well-performed theatrical number with a sudden ending.

THE WRAP-UP

If you like Lene Lovich’s work beyond just any singles you might have heard, you should pick this box set up (if you can find it — it has sold out from Cherry Red!). The remastering work really adds spit and polish to the sound of all three albums, and the plethora of bonus tracks get as close as anyone outside hardcore Lene artifact collectors are likely to come to “everything” she recorded for Stiff.

It’s clear that the “project manager” for this box set, Michael Robson, really cared about the material and getting the look of the set and booklet right. Scott Davies of Rubellen Remasters did a fabulous job of remastering, and the previously-unseen (by me, at least) photo taken in Boston in 1983 just perfectly showcases the amazing look and talent of Lene, alongside other rare photos within the booklet. Best of all from a collector perspective, the box is the same size as the CDs, making for easy storage (waves to fellow obsessive-compulsive collectors).

Lene’s written comments, supplemented by Robson and Davies, do a good but brief job of telling the story of the albums from her perspective as well as some historical background. The booklet also touches on some other things Lene did (including “Mata Hari” and her pre-Stiff musical escapades) and places those events into the timeline succinctly. Lene’s post-Stiff career and home life is also mentioned, which is nice.

Cherry Red have been a winning streak of late, and this is another gold star for them for getting this out. I hope they will continue to work with Robson and Davies on other projects that the pair are passionate about, since they love they have for Lene and Les shows through every aspect of the care evident in this package.

The only downside to Toy Box is that I am now hungry — nay, starving — for Super Deluxe Editions (SDEs) of March and Shadows and Dust, but in the meantime, get the single CDs of her later albums — they’re also great!

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24Mar / 2024

Lene Lovich — Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 (Disc 3)

Flex plus bonus tracks, and New Toy mini-LP

THE OVERVIEW

Lene’s second album is, in my view, just about as delightful as her first — more strong songs, even more great singing, and more of the great sound and mainstream-friendly yet angular pop music that charmed the listener with the last album. There’s still nothing quite like the formidable combination of Lene and Les and their original band lineup of Nick Plytas, Jeff Smith, Ron François, and Bobby Irwin.

There’s also little bit of further growth in the songwriting, performance and art direction, continuing to define goth before it was cool. Throw in another batch of similarly great tunes, even more professionally produced, and a smattering of big-time commercial success (more on that shortly), and you basically have the perfect sequel record.

THE ALBUM

Flex opens with a low-end sonic hum you could easily imagine Kraftwerk employing on one of their earlier albums, with just a hint of actual birdsong before Lene brings in her incredible birdsong call before launching into the song (called, of course, “Bird Song”) proper for the first verse. This is followed by the signature male chorus’ sonic wall over the lyrics of a spurned lover, and lovely “organ” to add to the Goth atmosphere. “Bird Song” would have been right at home on the first album, and closes with more of her incredible bird vocal.

One thing you notice immediately is the improved sound and more sophisticated production, which I’ll credit to Roger Bechirian and Alan Winstanley, both of whom were names frequently seen on many great New Wave records of the era, especially on Stiff and Sire. The pair really “get” what makes Lene and the band great, and plays up their strengths for maximum possible radio- and headphone-friendliness.

“What Will I Do Without You” continues the heroine-as-victim motif, this time, worrying what might happen if her love ever left her. The song replaces the organ with some piano and more of Lene doing more of her own bv’s, but that Slavic-style male chorus is still present. This is another contribution by Chris Judge Smith, and it has “single” written all over it. It really focuses on Lene’s performance, and throws in some strangely underrated (synth) horns here and there that probably should have been played up a bit more.

The first hit single for this album was “Angels,” and it keeps that Goth-y Eastern European vibe going but not focused on a specific lost love and yet still fixated on potential death. This of course contrasts with the uptempo, upbeat and generally danceable groove. This is where the band starts to branch out (a little, and I mean just a little). The contrast between Lene’s swooping vocals and softer, more vulnerable verse singing is quite seductive and effective.

“The Night” was a cover from other songwriters and a sleeper hit for Lene, not really coming into its full appreciation until years after release, with some help from a Marc Almond cover of the song, which refocused some attention on the original. There is also “US mix” of “The Night,” but we’ll come back to that later as it is included here as a bonus track. This one features a really great, short chorus that contrasts so well with the dark and eerie mood of the verses and sub-chorus.

In the hands of any other artist, the first four songs being about a love falling apart would have been repetitive. Lene manages to find different viewpoints to cover such similar topics, and with Les carefully giving each song a different feel with the same players really pays off. This one has some bells and sax to throw into the band’s bass-leading, synth-augmented sound.

That said, the fatalistic theme does start to wear a little on the fifth song, “You Can’t Kill Me,” again by Judge Smith, but it is buoyed by some funny lyrics and a more novel arrangement. The vocals and bv’s are really front and center on this one, and it also has a little nod to Japan — a second gesture to that country after the Japanese version of “I Think We’re Alone Now.”

The mortality subtext doesn’t let up on “Egghead,” with its very sing-song style, but the enthusiasm of the vocal style and upbeat music, as with many of the songs we’ve heard thus far, keep the listener entertained and holding despondency at bay.

Finally, on track 7, “Wonderful One” breaks the mold and finds Lene in a happy mood, sort of. This one features a more jaunty riffs, nice organ fills, and more birdsong-like Lene bv’s. It’s a close as Lene gets to a straightforward love song.

“Monkey Talk” follows in its official recorded version, which the live takes elsewhere in the box set follow closely. I’m still not sure what the song is actually about, except that she seems to be comparing mankind and monkeykind as closer cousins than even the Leakeys would have it. There’s plenty of “monkey chittering” from Lene, and a great Soviet-style “worker’s playtime” chorus.

This takes us to “Joan,” which keeps up the relentlessly catchy dance-tempo music even as Lene sings of the obsession and sacrifice of the historical subject of the song. “Like Joan of Arc, you must be brave/and listen to your heart/Imagination is essential to creative art” is a great twist on persuing your vision at all costs, though of course it didn’t pan out so well for Ms. d’Arc …

The album closes with “The Freeze,” which uses a sonic moonscape, and rather different two-tracked vocals from Lene in what is the spookiest and slowest song on the album. My joke about this when the album originally came out was that this could easily be the Soviet Union’s national anthem.

That said, if you’re old enough to remember the Soviet Union — and the threat of nuclear war that hung over the world in the closing decades of the last century (and now trying to stage a comeback …), you’ll get the vibe the band was going for on this one.

BONUS TRACKS — FLEX

“The Night (US mix)” — in addition to a slightly different mix, the record company (or someone) added ska horns to the sub-chorus, which works well.

“What Will I Do Without You (single version)” — the name implies that this is just a different mix of the album version. It’s not — it’s the demo (generally referred by this box set as the “original version,” but not in this case). Among the many differences is Lene’s singing (a half-octave lower!), very restrained bv’s, more reliance on synth, bass and drums, and generally a far more basic version.

“Bird Song (edit)” — by contrast, this single version of “Bird Song” is identical to the album track except it’s 30 seconds shorter. They cut the vocal birdsong intro and went straight into the song proper. It also fades out quicker then the album version, but keeps some of Lene’s haunting angry birdsong at the end.

“Details (Original Version)” — Having these demos scattered around the set is interesting, since they are usually located close to the finished versions, but two things come across very well in these cruder, less polished version: that Lene is an incredible vocal talent even without much in the way of polished production, and that Les and her bandmates can put together extremely good demos that communicate the design of the song very well. I love their use of occasional bits of stopping cold as a musical punctuation mark.

As for the song itself, its a jaunty number that misses out (in this version) on the trademark Slavic male supporting vocals. It features a dreamy lyric where Lene laments her fate and demands the “details” of the plan for her life.

“New Toy” — this was another song, this time from new (but sadly temporary) band member Thomas Dolby that was a popular (irresistible more like) single on original release, and the extended version we’ll get to in a minute was a solid club hit, and once again found a second life later when US retailer Target licensed it for a massive ad campaign and millions of people said “What is that song and how can I get a copy?!”.

This one is solid gold from the first note, focusing on a mostly-straightforward but perfectly-put vocal from Lene and incredibly solid bv’s from the boys (though less Slavic in style) and music from the band, including more excellent piano and synth work brought more to the fore by Dolby, who had joined up with the band for a brief time.

Flawlessly mimed version for UK TV (with Dolby on keyboards)

“Cats Away” — another energetic instrumental, but this time with some snazzy (synth) horn sounds to jazz it up.

“New Toy (Extended Version)” — The intro, first verse and chorus (sans vocal) serve as the “extension” before the vocals get underway. Thankfully they kept the saucy sound effects of the first lines (Les’ purr, and the whip sounds). The middle-eight gets and “breakdown” type selection of isolated instruments and bv’s are added before Dolby’s keys come back into play. An even longer version of the first and best song about conspicuous consumption and consumer capitalism run amok

NEW TOY (US MINI LP)

It’s quite peculiar that for this box set, the New Toy “Mini-LP” as they call it took the title track and put it among the Flex bonus tracks, leaving us without the title track to this EP here, where it belongs. Instead, we only get the second side of the original record, and slightly out of order to boot.

“Cats Away” — a gentler intro that ramps up to speed real quick and a punchier sound with real horns (played by Lene!), it’s still a heckuva swinging number, but an instrumental is a strange choice for the first track on this altered version of the US “mini-LP,” which Stiff/Epic issued to play for time while Les and Lene took a rest (losing the band in the process, regrettably). Lene writes in the booklet that they felt under pressure from Stiff, like some of the other artists, to come up with more “hit singles.” Lene says that they then did a lot of short sessions with different producers.

The lack of a regular band did result in Lene’s work getting some fresh new sounds, but sadly a lot of eclectism that characterized her previous work was reduced, though of course you can’t eliminate it entirely.

“Details” — The polished version of “Details” gets a glow-up from the demo, and makes for a nice change of subject matter. This is a far more polished production as you might expect, but still sticks pretty close to the original.

Boring video, but you get the song as it appeared on the EP

“Never Never Land” — a song from Jimmie O’Neill, but certainly Lene makes it her own (as she generally does with all her covers). It’s a lovely song, not single material but a well-chosen addition that also features stronger vocal contributions from Les.

Because the final two tracks of the five-track “New Toy (US mini-LP)” were just demos that got revamped later on, only the three songs from Side Two of the record were included on this disc, with the two “Side One” tracks saved for accompanying Disc 4, the No Man’s Land album, as bonus tracks.

Next time: The Wrap Up, and the breakdown of the Stiff relationship

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09Mar / 2024

Lene Lovich – Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 (Discs 1 & 2, part 2)

STATELESS – THE EXTRAS

Having directly compared the albums, let’s move on to the bonus tracks, which are different for each version of the album.

BONUS TRACKS (DISC 1)

“Lucky Number (Early Version)” — three things leap out at you immediately from the beginning notes of this:
a) holy crap these drums are terrible! Actually, the whole thing is pretty crudely done.
b) Lene’s performance is still great, but far more straightforward. Still, this has “hit” written all over it.
c) definitely cruder in most respects, with lots more background “humming.”

“I Think We’re Alone Now (Japanese Version)” — I’ve always loved this version, identical to the single version except for the vocal. I doubt it’s a direct translation, but I can’t imagine that this wasn’t a rare treat for Japanese fans of UK music, even if the title (only) is still spoken in English.

“Monkey Talk (Early Version)” — Compared to the demo of “Lucky Number,” here we start to get closer to “the full Lene” in terms of her unique vocal styling, including lots of “bird call” she would put to better use later. This being the demo version of this song, it’s heavier musically but similar to the studio version that appears on the Lucky Number/The Best Of album that came from Oval in 2005. One interesting difference — the bv’s are almost all Lene on the version here, which lays down a marker we’ll come back to later.

“Be Stiff” — The A and B side of this single are back-to-back here, with the A side being Lene’s version of the song, originally written by Devo. Practically everyone who was on Stiff Records at the time recorded a version, but in my opinion Lene’s is one of the truest and best. The B-side version includes “the entire ensemble” (ie every Stiff artist they could get in the room) live at Leeds University. This remastered version of the supergroup beats the crap out of the original single version, even if its from the exact same tapes. Hats off, Scott.

“Lene Lovich Speaks (1)” — part of an interview record sent out to radio stations where the live DJ was supposed to ask the question and then play the track with Lene’s answer. As I discovered when I acquired the interview disc, it’s disarming to hear Ms. Lovich speak in her original midwestern American accent. It’s a very short piece where she explains how to pronounce her name.

“Lucky Number (Instrumental)” — perfect for your next karaoke party, this includes some of the vocal “effects” from Lene, but no lead singing (well, a trace here and there — they didn’t do a perfect job removing her vocal, oddly enough). It’s also a great chance to study the construction of the song and it’s various components.

“One Lonely Heart/Big Bird” — a pair of non-LP songs where “One Lonely Heart” feels like an entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, while “Big Bird” is just a synth-based instrumental — perhaps originally intended as the music bed for a future full song. This feels like a bit of a “contractual obligation” release to meet a deadline, since it’s pretty obvious that it was just her and Les in the studio mucking about.

“Lene Lovich Speaks (2)” — Lene tells the story of creating “Lucky Number.”

“Lucky Number (Slavic Dance Version)” — It’s the same version of the song as the single version, except it has a new 1’20” instrumental section in the middle.

BONUS TRACKS (DISC 2)

“Trixi” — This is quite the oddity. Roger Bechirian’s sole producer credit with Lene during this period, it’s a lovely Victorian-era type instrumental with Lene doing various odd vocal muttering and other sounds that seem like singing along, but are indecipherable.

“The Fly” — A more interesting effort in the department of “lyric-less music with vocals,” in part due to the presence of both Lene and (presumably multi-tracked) Les — it’s another catchy mostly-instrumental with another great sax solo from Lene. This time, the word “yummy” can be deciphered, and some convincing “fly” noises as well, reminding us that Lene is incredibly varied in her vocal use.

Most of the live tracks that make up the rest of the bonus tracks are taken from a live promotional EP called 1980 Global Assault — Recorded Live in London and Boston, with the exception of “The Fall.”

“The Fall (live)” — this performance is from the Live at the Lyceum gig, which took place exactly 44 years ago as I write this on 02-March-2024. I mention this song specifically for three reasons: first, it was not included in the 1980 Global Assault album, most likely some kind of rights issue.

Secondly, it’s the first of at least three cover songs written by Judge Smith, an interesting artist in his own right, that Lene has committed to record over time (the other two are on the album Flex). “The Fall” first appeared on a three-song single taken from the Stateless album, but wasn’t included on the album or anywhere else until the German CD reissue of Stateless in 1991 as a bonus track, and of course Stateless … Plus, the European reissue from 1993.

Stateless … Plus was, quite possibly, the first CD I purchased that I got specifically because of unheard “bonus tracks.” The song was also included as a b-side from the extended “Angels” 12-inch single, which of course is taken from Flex.

And finally, because unlike the other tracks, they Lyceum performance of “The Fall” really doesn’t sound like a live recording at all — there’s no hint of audience noise throughout.

As for the song itself, it’s easy to see why Lene wanted to record it: it’s definitely not as upbeat and poppy as her own material, but does give her a chance to do something really dramatic in song. The tale told, of a battle raging and city falling in some bygone war, is rendered with the appropriate amount of agony and woe from Lene’s stunning vocal performance, which includes a dog barking near the end. It’s something different from her, and darker than she’s gone thus far.

Turning to the three tracks that make up the EP version’s A-side/Lyceum performances — “Monkey Talk,” “The Night,” and “Too Tender to Touch,” the audience sound is very limited to mostly just applause at the end of the songs. except for the clap-along at the start of the (bonus bonus!) “You Can’t Kill Me,” which wasn’t included on the vinyl version of Global Assault. As with the previous tracks, it certainly does show off how tight the band has gotten by this point. Live, Lene, Les and the band were a pop music machine that were clearly firing on all fronts.

The three songs from the Paradise Theatre in Boston (“Angels,” “Lucky Number,” and “Home”) also included here are considerably extended “jam” versions with long instrumental breaks. This may just be me, but that sort of practice is rarely exciting in my view, though I acknowledge it gives the singers a chance to relax a bit, and it sure sounds like everyone involved was having a great time.

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Journey Into Prehistory (Cesta do pravěku)

Lene Lovich – Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 (Disc 4)

Lene Lovich — Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 (Disc 3)

Lene Lovich – Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 (Discs 1 & 2, part 2)

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