Posts Tagged ‘fairport’

RARE BIRDS – Top Five Pioneers of “Rock” Violin…..# 2

Posted: November 7, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
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……# 2

David Swarbrick – Fairport Convention

David LaFlamme was America’s electric violin pioneer during the late sixties. In Britain, it was David Swarbrick.  ‘Swarb’ was already folk royalty in Britain when the call came to join Fairport Convention in their desperate attempt to retool and recover after a road accident that claimed the life of drummer Martin Lamble. Swarbrick took the gig just in time to feature on the band’s 1969 masterpiece, “Liege And Lief”. Suffering and conquering the agonies of stone-age electric violin technology, Swarbrick found his inner rocker and became a star attraction in the band. He even multi-tasked as Fairport’s lead singer after the departure of Sandy Denny. Eventually, ear problems and other health issues forced his retirement from the band and active touring. He’s cheated death twice. Once after a premature obituary was published in the “The Daily Telegraph” in 1999; and again after a risky, but successful double lung transplant in 2004.  A living legend and a huge influence on British music. 

For a brief time during the late sixties and early seventies, British Folk-Rock threatened to make a big splash on both sides of the Atlantic. It was old music played by young guns at high volume. This outdoor perfomance from 1971 is a period curio that captures the genre and Swarbrick at their peak.  This performace could also well be the precise time and place where the spirit of the sixties died…..

Rock & Roll Hall Of Shame (Part 2) More talents that deserve better

Posted: May 23, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
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Author: Dale Nickey

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame carries a stink. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner is also co-founder of the R&R Hall. And it is common knowledge that his personal musical taste dictates the nomination list. The list fails to include some of the more accomplished British and Canadian Bands or any artist he ‘don’t cotton to’.  He seems to have a particular distaste for British artists in the progressive wing of rock music.

JOHNNY WINTER:

Imagine the talent agent that first caught wind of Johnny Winter. “Wait, you’re tellin’ me that you got a snow white Texas albino who sings and plays the blues like a mother#$%*%#! and his name is WINTER?……Huh, what?!! Are you shitting me? He’s got a TWIN??!!”

Its unfair that Stevie Ray Vaughn is on the outside of the hall looking in. However, Johnny Winter has to go in first.  How many Texas blues rockers has he blazed the trail for?  ZZ Top, Stevie, The Fabulous Thunderbirds to name a few.  He’s one of the few blues players who can display staggering virtuosity without compromising the blues ethos.  Substance abuse and horrible management torpedoed his career.  He refused to sign a release allowing his Woodstock performance to be included in the film.  And, rumors persist that he shrugged off an offer to replace Duane Allman in the Allman Brothers.  No, matter. He was a trailblazer and a hell-raiser.  He produced three Grammy winning albums for Muddy Waters when the blues giant was kicked to the curb after Chess Records closed.  He’s already in the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. Let’s put things right next time around…while he’s still with us.     watchjohnny  

KISS:

100 million albums sold 

As much as it pains me, what’s right is right. KISS  should be in The Hall. Think of all the reasons you hate KISS.  Pretty much the same reasons our parents hated The Beatles. If you’re a 14 year old horny teenage boy….”Rock And Roll All Nite” is your anthem regardless of century. Sales aren’t everything but keee..ryst they sold 100 million!

They even had a lightweight MOR ballad “Beth” that went Top Ten (sung by their drummer no less).  Gene Simmons could gain admittance as a non-performer all by his lonesome.  He is the penultimate R&R huckster/empressario in the grand P.T. Barnum tradition. Kiss took Kabuki chic, English Glam and added a dollup of good old fashioned American blood and carnage.  Insane Clown Posse’ (among others) obviously took detailed notes. After KISS everything in rock had to be bigger and louder. They’ve  left a huge platform bootprint on the industry.

FAIRPORT CONVENTION:

What The Band is to America, Fairport Convention is to the British Isles.  Fairport Convention gave British traditional music it’s groove back with an electric make-over. Any band that spawns two  super-talents like Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny, earns their hall-pass for that reason alone. However, there are other reasons. They are universally credited as the inventing the genre of British Folk Rock. Their masterpiece “Liege And Lief” has taken permanent residence in every rock mags “Top 100 Albums” list.  From their musical loins sprang the great Steeleye Span and a host of other “Celtic Rock” bands. Of course,  they could also be held responsible for aiding and abetting later Celtic Pop phenomena Riverdance and The Celtic Women. However, we won’t hold that against them.Fairport

BRIAN EPSTEIN  (non-performer category):

Inconceivable that the point man for the greatest ‘Rock And Roll’ band in the history of the planet would still be in heaven waiting for his induction to the Hall. Had  The Beatles been left to their own devices, world history would be forever altered. It was Brian who cleaned and smartened them up. Brian sold the scruffy and unkempt Beatles on the importance of presentation, style, and being ernest. It was Brian who kept the flame of hope alive when major label Decca said ‘thanks but no thanks’. It was Brian who bluffed The Beatles into a private audition with their future producer, savior, and mentor George Martin.  Epstein was smart enough to allow the Beatles to be themselves musically. And in the end, the pressures of king-making and being a closeted gay man in a hostile era finally killed him at age 34.  Jann Wenner should be ashamed of himself.

JETHRO TULL:

60 million albums sold

The band that turned the long-haired, bearded, ugly guy into a Rock And Roll sex symbol. But they did more than that. They broke out of the British Blues pack in the late sixties and went mega; leading the way for Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown and others. Tull visionary Ian Anderson singlehandedly turned the flute into Rock And Roll phallic symbol.  And his technique and unorthodox approach made him the ‘Hendrix‘ of that instrument. They had hits along the way. “Bungle In The Jungle”, “Aqualung”, “Locomotive Breath”, etc….They were a devastating live act who stood shoulder to shoulder with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd during the early to mid-seventies.  To this day any group who uses flutes and mandolins suffer comparisons to Jethro Tull (just ask me).  But listen close,  their music possesses nuance and sophistication well beyond the abilities of mere mortal Rock bands.watchtull

Unbearable Lightness of Being – Guide to Nick Drake

Posted: March 26, 2012 by Dale Nickey in Band Spotlight
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Authored by Dale Nickey:

Nick Drake had the whole enchilada. Talent, leading man looks, loving supportive family, charm, intelligence and the opportunity of a Cambridge education in the liberal arts.  Island Records gave him carte’ blanch to make records how and when the spirit moved him.  Nick Drake died in his bed in his parent’s home, from an overdose of anti-depressants at the age of 26.  He died a failed recording artist.

Nick is poster boy for the beautiful, doomed and depressed poet in all of us.  His back story raises more questions than it answers.  He sold a pittance of records in his lifetime.  Yet, somehow in death he has become a cult sensation and a thriving cottage industry.  Nick Drake is the patron saint of earnest, self-absorbed, acoustic-guitar wielding emo-heads the world over.  We have still photos but no moving images of the man. And he gave only one brief newspaper interview in his life.  He refused to tour.  Nick Drake remains forever young; an exotic rainforest creature frozen in amber.

The real story of Nick Drake can only be told through his music.  He recorded three albums during his short life.  A tragic trilogy as perfect as any discography on the planet.

Here are those official releases:

Five Leaves Left (1969) – Island Records producer Joe Boyd took the plunge and produced Nick Drake after Nick shuffled into the office of Island Records, dropped a reel of tape on the desk, mumbled to the secretary and left…..The music speaks for itself. This is Nick’s most pastoral and optimistic album.  There is much sun and light in this album and the bright green record cover perfectly evokes this era of Nick’s life.  Growing up safe and supported in the (centuries old) rural hamlet of Tamworth In Arden.  An idylic community full of trees, parks, grass, flowers, churches and ghosts.  Five Leaves Left was the title of this record.  He would pass away in five years after it’s making.   Did he know?

Bryter Layter (1970) – This is his city album.   Saxophone, jazz piano and sultry female backup singers are added to the pallet of colors.  Nick is still the well mannered, gentile, rural bumpkin.  However, you get the distinct impression he is availing himself of the temptations of London’s urban jungle. Indeed the album cover shows Drake to be somewhat disheveled and shopworn. “Chime Of The City Clock” is a landscape composition; full of chilly, autumn, downtown twilight ambiance.  John Cale (ex-Velvet Underground)  appears on two songs and makes you wish he had stayed for more.

Pink Moon (1972) – Ironic that the musical jewel in Nick’s crown is the rawest set of tunes in his canon.  When Nick began this; his third and last album, he was an unkempt, depressed and borderline catatonic shadow of his former self.  He made the decision to record this album unadorned by other musicians.  Just solo voice and guitar. It was the right call.  Peripheral orchestrations and ornamentation would have only diluted the power of these tunes.  The production is clear, full and dry.  It sounds as if Nick is playing a private recital in your home.  Just Nick, parked in a chair with his guitar foretelling his untimely death at the age of 26.

If you have already fallen under Nick’s spell, then you must have these:

Family Tree (2007) – This anthology of private demos was released posthumously.  It is essential listening for anyone seeking the roots of Nick’s muse.  A top-notch remastering job insures this assortment of covers, blues standards, and embryonic sketches are all they can be.  Nick’s mom even contributes a solo track of one of her compositions on voice and piano.  A cut by Nick Drake’s mom is hardly essential to the casual listener.  But, those familiar with Nick Drake’s music will hear the familiar in terms of voice and harmonic structure; testimony to the power of maternal DNA.

Made To Love Magic (2004) – Another posthumous compilation of Nick outtakes, and songs not chosen for his three official releases.  The quality of the material does not flag and all the tracks are cleaned up and re-mastered to a high gloss finish.  String arrangements are added after the fact by Robert Kirby; Nick’s arranger of choice on his first two LP’s.  It also contains five unreleased tracks that would have been destined for Nick Drake’s follow up to Pink Moon.  Sadly this was never to be.

Nick Drake’s gravesite in Tamworth In Arden bears a quote on his headstone.  It is a lyric taken from his last song on his last album, Pink Moon

“ Now we rise,  And we are everywhere….”