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TJSAbass
Fourth Love
USA
139 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2009 : 05:36:35
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| So the Uncut essay is by Ian MacDonald? I love his book on the Beatles, but I don't find much here. There are several mistakes also. Funny how he seemed to be practically inside John Lennon's head, yet he really (to me) missed it on Love and the Stones. |
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scully
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
217 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 07:45:14
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| It's a review of the 2001 FC reissue by Ian MacDonald. |
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John E
Fifth Love
United Kingdom
322 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 10:21:33
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I have to join in here, since Nick is so dear to my heart. I'm one of the few who actually saw Nick play live in his lifetime. I went to the concert that took place at the Royal Festival Hall in March 1970, which also featured Fotheringay and the Humblebums (Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly), and still have the programme. Ironically, I wasn't particularly into Nick when at the time...I had heard "Time Has Told Me" on "Nice Enough to Eat" and quite liked it, but no more. At the concert Nick just ambled on, in his usual black attire, and with head hung low mumbled a few songs into the mike. I found him rather dreary, and think I most enjoyed the Humblebums, that night! A year later, I was working in Soho Records in Compton Street and I was converted to "Bryter Layter" by a co-worker. It rapidly became one of my favourite albums of all-time and has remained so. I then bought "Pink Moon" on the day that it was released. I also had a letter published in Disc & Music Echo, when Nick died.
Among the other albums that Nick liked that haven't been mentioned here yet, were the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds", "Songs of Leonard Cohen" and the first Tim Buckley album (Tim's song "Wings" seems to be the prototype for "Thoughts of Mary Jane").
I thought that both Patrick Humphries' and Trevor Dann's books on Nick were excellent in their own way. Though I too thought that Ian MacDonald's essay was the best thing on Nick that I'd ever read. Sadly, it seems that Ian over-indentifed with Nick, and took his own life, in a similar way.
One last story that I find any excuse to tell is the following: In late 1969 or thereabouts, having recently left school, I was in a car with a work colleague (I was in insurance for a year) and two hippie guys that he knew. We were driving through Belsize Park, and one of the hippies said "we've got to drop something off (a small silver packet!) to this guy who lives on Haverstock Hill". He continued "you'll like this guy...he plays guitar and has a great record collection. There's just one weird thing about him...he hardly ever speaks!". We went to this house on the corner of a street on Haverstock Hill and a tall guy with long dark hair opened the door. I remember him shaking my hand as we entered, which was unusual, at the time. We entered a flat where the curtains were drawn, and while the deal was being done, I looked though his record collection. I pulled out a record by the Moody Blues and said I thought it was a great record. The tall guy just gave me a bemused smile.
I didn't remember this event until many years after it happened, but one day something suddenly clicked. I had heard that Nick lived in Hampstead, but I imagined he lived in a house that looked out across some sweeping wide green vista. When I read the exact location where Nick had lived in Trevor Dann's book, I decided to check it out. When I arrived there, I will swear it was exactly the same place that I visited with my friends nearly 40 years ago! Though sadly, I have no way of proving or even knowing it was Nick that I met. I've looked through my old diaries but could find nothing (a soul with no footprint, indeed)!
Love to all, John E
P.S. I love Jimmy Webb's 70s music - especially "And So On". He's playing at the Lyceum and Union Chapel in November.
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Edited by - John E on 11/08/2009 10:53:43 |
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rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 14:43:51
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| scully..thx for the review...If you ask me, I think both Arthur and Nick dovetail together a bit in their lives. They experienced similar things primarily lack of publicity which resulted in lack of record sales and a tendency to make a different kind of music that most couldn't get a hold of. Love was allegedly a "psychedelic" band but I dont' think FC was made like other psychedlic records at the time. Much different. In a way the writer was right about that shrieking Gibson guitar on 'Live and Let Live'..it was kind of out of place. And Drake's music. His wasn't easy to fathom with complicated time structures and all. As they said most of the music buying public wasn't ready for his kind of music. And also Drake never "marketed" himself sort of shades of Arthur hanging out only in LA. |
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kdion11
Old Love
USA
552 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 19:53:30
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[quote]Originally posted by John E
I didn't remember this event until many years after it happened, but one day something suddenly clicked. I had heard that Nick lived in Hampstead, but I imagined he lived in a house that looked out across some sweeping wide green vista. When I read the exact location where Nick had lived in Trevor Dann's book, I decided to check it out. When I arrived there, I will swear it was exactly the same place that I visited with my friends nearly 40 years ago! Though sadly, I have no way of proving or even knowing it was Nick that I met. I've looked through my old diaries but could find nothing (a soul with no footprint, indeed)!
Love to all, John E
KD: Hey John. Great story - not only having seen Nick Drake play,
but actually having been in his house and have met him. Very, cool.
Free the ICONS ! |
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scully
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
217 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 21:30:18
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John -- that's a wonderful story, very cool.
Rocker -- agree completely that FC wasn't like the other 'pyschedelic' records of the time. Or any other time really. And like Nick Drake it seems of it's time and out of all time at the same time. If you see what I mean... |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2009 : 22:24:02
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Just going back to Ian Macdonald's work for a moment.....I've always regarded Revolution In The Head as one of the most intelligent and perceptive insights into the work of The Beatles and I dip into whenever I want to look into a particular track. But there is one line (that is actually a footnote to his coverage of Strawberry Fields)that I find uncharacteristically blunt and inaccurate. In the following quotation, he is speaking of Bob Dylan post 1966:
"His career never recovered its impetus and the quality of his work went into permanent decline"
For the most enjoyable writing on the Fab Four, I always turn to the Hunter Davies biography that appeared in a brand new edition in 2003. He of course had known the group well. |
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sometimesmylifeissoeerie
Fourth Love
198 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 01:12:41
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John E- Cool stories. I bet that programme is worth a lot of money to some ND fans.
ND was also heavily into jazz. He played clarinet, alto sax, and piano in a jazz band, and listened to a lot of jazz LPs and would go out to clubs to hear any American jazz musicians who were in town.
I didn't know IM committed suicide- I feel like I should apologize for those "scathing" comments.
Where can I read his piece on ND? |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 01:39:00
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Did Tim Buckley do any altered tunings - I'll have to look into that. "Thoughts of Mary Jane" is clearly a favorite of mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRzOipX47TM
when did Forever Changes see a UK release, before Five Leaves Left (1969) I assume. I had known that Nick had it in his collection (from what I understand Nicks room was kept as it was for a LONG time. Until the house was sold I imagine)
thought Ravel was an influence on Five Leaves Left. I'll have to check my old issues of Pynk Moon for an answer!  |
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John E
Fifth Love
United Kingdom
322 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 01:53:48
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Thanks everyone for your comments! I wish I could really confirm that it was Nick that I met. I'm sure there were several guys of a similar ilk living in the Belsize Park area, at the time. However, my encounter did seem to meet all the right criteria, and I later read that Nick liked the Moody Blues music. I even remember the shape of the room in the flat, and hope to discuss this with someone who knew
Nick, as and when I get the chance.
I do seem to have some uncanny connection with Nick, because I ran into Gabrielle Drake in St. Martin's Lane in the late 80s, and had a chat with her. I also wrote to Nick and Gabrielle's mother Molly, in the early 80s, and received a nice hand-written letter from her. She told me to drop by if ever I was in the Tanworth-in Arden area, and it's one of my great regrets that I never took up her offer.
It has occurred to me that the programme with Nick's picture in it must be highly collectible. Another of my regrets is that I had an
original pink Island copy of "Five Leaves Left", but swapped it for a later one when I worked in a record store, as it was slightly warped
(since then, I've seen the original going for £400).
As far as I know, it was never officially confirmed that Ian MacDonald took his own life. Though tactfully worded obituaries seemed to strongly hint at this.
The Ian MacDonald article is in the book "The People's Music". Here's the Amazon link.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peoples-Music-Ian-MacDonald/dp/1844130932
Love to all, John E
P.S. Joe - I believe "Forever Changes" was released in the UK at the beginning of 1968. The studio version of Tim Buckley's "Wings" has a beautiful orchestral arrangement that is very similar in style to the one used on "Thoughts of Mary Jane". It's also one of his most melodic and moving songs. |
Edited by - John E on 12/08/2009 01:59:08 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 02:14:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Joe Morris
Did Tim Buckley do any altered tunings - I'll have to look into that. "Thoughts of Mary Jane" is clearly a favorite of mine:
r!
Tim Buckley always used altered chords. He injured the pointer finger used to create bar chords. He therefore could not execute a proper bar chord on his twelve string. He had to create his own chords, and tunings I would guess, and thereby was a very inventive, original guitar player. I'm guessing the Lee Underwood bio of Tim talks about that....and Lee speaks of it on the "Fleeting House" DVD. During his free form jazz period he most likely used all kinds of odd tunings.
Speaking of alternate tunings...the Anne Briggs LP The Time Has Come is notable in that she describes the alternate tunings--eg. "the bottom E string dropped to D"--- for each track (which is different on most of them) on the liner notes.
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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity;
and I'm not sure about the universe. --Albert Einstein |
Edited by - lemonade kid on 12/08/2009 03:25:26 |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 03:12:22
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"Just like a buzzin fly.."
As seen on the Monkees!  |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 03:19:17
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You wouldn't have taped any live Nick would you? I'm surprised that at none of the headliners he opened for (the wonderful John Martyn, Fairport & etc) that noone ran a tape off the board
I'd LOVE (so to speak) to see a scan of that programme. Man, what a trip. It must've been an impressive show to have saved the programme
I think Nick would've been knocked out by Love. He had impeccable taste - into seeing Spencer Davis live, played classical. Heck! even played the clarinet!
Speaking of Bryan (as we weren't! 
his Intra Muros is really growing on me. I can understand why its not played on the radio much (or at all in fact) though - who wants to hear someone rabbiting on about their faith and what God means to them and so forth. Its not commercial, and you can't see a video for "Now it has begun" on the telly, with dancing girls and bare breasts and so forth. Never gonna happen
I still don't listen to Candy's Waltz too much, which saddens me cos I REALLY loved ifyoubelievein. That seems to be his strongest collection of songs. I believe some were even singles (for other California bands - wasn't "People" (aka the Dumbell song) covered by the Beachcombers or someone long before it saw release on ifyoubelievein |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9873 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2009 : 03:33:35
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Lucky man, John E-- to have seen Drake by chance so to speak since I'm guessing you went to see the headliners. A memory indeed!!
I can just see Nick standing there greeting you (if that was him) all in black. Don't suppose there is anyone that would be able to confirm your memory...he is so much like someone I knew way back when....such a down to earth guy...that may be why we all feel rather like we knew him and feel a connection-- as much to the man as to his music.
One more question.....did you "meet" him before or after the live show?
I think the only artist the I saw (in 1970) that could compare to what I would feel to have seen Nick Drake would be when I saw Laura Nyro....
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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity;
and I'm not sure about the universe. --Albert Einstein |
Edited by - lemonade kid on 12/08/2009 04:35:41 |
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scully
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
217 Posts |
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Nick Drake Dug FC!
