Fairport Convention: "Babbacombe" Lee - 1971

This was the first "folk rock opera" or "folk concept album" as such. Released in 1971, it threw Fairport Convention's fans somewhat in that it was a series of narrative songs detailing the life of John "Babbacombe" Lee, a Victorian murderer convicted to hang but reprieved because the gallows failed to work properly three times. 

It is a quite incredible story of good fortune for a man who was probably a pretty unsavoury character, yet it gains our sympathy throughout the album. Lee brutally murdered his landlady, yet bizarrely I find myself feeling sorry for him as his tale is narrated. 

The group is now all-male and the vocals are all strong, vibrant and harmonious, sung in that traditional English, rural real ale-drinking, bearded "folk" style. It is an atmospheric, interesting album and the instrumentation is lively and impressive on the fiddle-dominated, upbeat numbers such as the two parts of I Was Sixteen and the sailor's hornpipe jollity of St. Ninian's Isle which sounds very like the theme tune to sixties children's TV show Captain Pugwash. 

Sailor's Alphabet is another seafaring song. There is a lot of these type of songs, as Lee was a Devonian and had a navy background in his early life. It has a great fiddle solo on it near the end. John Lee features some electric guitar jangling riffage and proper rock drums. There is some fetching guitar on Breakfast In Mayfair. The old "side two" sees the "John Babbacombe Lee" refrain repeated a lot through the rocky Trial Song and there is a moving, plaintive song about Lee's incarceration, Cell Song, that features a lovely fiddle solo. 

The punchy The Time Is Near is powerful and haunting. Once again, some killer fiddle enhances the song. Dream Song has a sumptuous bass line and some Beatles-esque ethereal vocals. The final song Wake Up John (Hanging Song) has the by now ubiquitous fiddle virtuosity as we hear of Lee's remarkable survival. After the successes of Liege And Lief and Angel Delight, the album sold disappointingly. Obviously the concept did not take off. That is sort of understandable, although I quite like it and dig it out every year or so for a pleasant enough listen, like watching an old film every now and again.

Popular posts from this blog

The Ohio Players: Skin Tight - 1974

Image
The Ohio Players were a kick-ass brassy n' bassy funk band that peaked in the mid-seventies. They were also a hit with teenage boys such as myself back then due to their erotic album covers. Those were the days.  This was The Ohio Players' fifth album and it was the one that really brought them mainstream attention. Its production was slicker and smoother than on previous albums and the album's six tracks were all over five minutes in length. Extended, jazzy, brassy funk was becoming popular and this album led the way as many people got the funk. Groups like Tower Of Power, The Meters, Kool & The Gang and, of course, James Brown enjoyed similar success. It also influenced subsequent artists such as Rick James. Their over-the-top flamboyant image must have had an effect on Earth, Wind & Fire and The Isley Brothers too - soon, all funkers were donning the Elvis-style suits. They do look awfully dated now (even to me), almost like looking at Victorian sepia photos once...
View Full Post »

Roxy Music: Roxy Music - 1972

Image
"Is this a recording session or a cocktail party?" - Dr. Simon Puxley   For many people, Roxy Music mean  the Radio Two stalwarts of  Jealous Guy, Love Is The Drug, Avalon, Dance Away  and  Oh Yeah! , performed by Bryan Ferry in a white tuxedo and played in lounge bars throughout the land.  For others, however, it is the strikingly innovative band that exploded on the scene with the single  Virginia Plain  in the late summer of 1972 that floats our boat.  They are a band of two distinct halves, like Fleetwood Mac (actually they had three) - the pre 1975 incarnation and the post hiatus one of 1979 to 1983.  I like both of them, as it happens, but it will always be the early years, those five great albums and the singles that do it for me.  In 1973, along with David Bowie and Mott The Hoople, there was nothing my fourteen year-old self liked better. I found a danceable solution to teenage revolution..... Did anyone really know what h...
View Full Post »

Jr. Walker & The All-Stars: Rainbow Funk - 1971

Image
  The soulful quality continues unabated, this time with more added funk, on another excellent offering.   It begins with an instrumental version of the hit single  Way Back Home  (the vocal version would appear on the next album). It just sounds great - the saxophone and the general vibe is just sublime. I am running out of superlatives in writing these reviews!  Up next is another stone cold Jr. Walker corker in the stonking sax-laden soul/pop of  Take Me Girl I'm Ready  - the first Jr. Walker single I ever bought. It is a wonderful tune. Classic Motown. However, it doesn't always make "best of" Motown lists and it should make every single one.  The group's cover of  Traffic 's   Feelin' Alright   is bluesy and funky, as you would expect. There really isn't much that they can't cope with. This was 1971 and it was the beginning of the era of funky "message" protest songs from artists like  Marvin Gaye ,  The Temptations ...
View Full Post »

Tom Waits: Small Change - 1976

Image
  This was the album which saw the voice deepen and get more deliberately (seemingly) croaky and brought out many writers' gargling with concrete/razor blades/broken glass quotes. It certainly gave Waits an unforgettable, once heard, never forgotten character.  Backed here by a jazz trio of saxophone, bass and drums, along with some string orchestration, Waits' piano and whiskey paeans to night time street low life images and characters are reaching their first peak.  Just listen to the marvellous strains of  Tom Traubert's Blues  (later covered convincingly by Rod Stewart). I love the song and its multifarious images - I never, ever tire of it. Waits apparently wrote it after a night on the whiskey - it certainly did the job. What a song. A candidate for his best ever.  "Good night to the street sweepers, the night watchmen, the flame-keepers, and goodnight Matilda too."  My goodness, Waits could pen some lyrics. The old jazzy vibe is still there too ...
View Full Post »

Fleetwood Mac: Then Play On - 1969

Image
  This album, from September 1969, the last to feature  Peter Green  and barely featuring  Jeremy Spencer  saw  Fleetwood Mac  shift direction away from searing, guitar-driven, gritty blues to a slightly more psychedelic, laid-back, hippy style.  The blues is still there in a lot of the guitar sound, but there is definitely far more of a hippy dreaminess to the group's sound now. It is the beginning of the more gentle rock sound that featured on the series of albums that would take the band up to their huge sea change in 1975.   The sound on the album is ok, but it is not quite as good as on the previous albums. It could probably due with losing a couple of tracks as it is a bit sprawling, but that is nit-picking, really. The cover also gives a clue as to the future direction, as it has gone very proggy.  Two  Danny Kirwan  tracks from the  English Rose  album from earlier in the year appear again -  One Sun...
View Full Post »

Miles Davis: Sketches Of Spain - 1960

Image
This was an interesting project and makes for a satisfying listen, either in full, or dipping into it. Despite its obvious worth, I I have to admit to preferring Rodrigo's original Spanish guitar composition of the lead-off music, which was just so atmospheric. Davis's interpretation is undoubtedly a fine one too, I'm not disputing that in any way. This is a landmark, high stature album. There is still plenty to get enthused about on here, though, notably the flamenco meets jazz pastiche of Will O' The Wisp - building on A Kind Of Blue's Flamenco Sketches - and the very Spanish classical influences of The Pan Piper. Both of these are comparatively shorter numbers, but are nonetheless appealing for it. The second of the album's lengthy twin bookends - which began with the sixteen-minute Concierto D'Aranjuez - was Gil Evan's subtly grandiose Solea. Get a load of the infectiously rhythmic trumpet and drums bit around 2:17 onwards - seriously good music. I...
View Full Post »

ELTON JOHN: Intro & Quick Album Links

Image
  I first became aware of Elton John in the early seventies when he appeared on a light entertainment show as a guest - something like Morecambe & Wise or Mike Yarwood - and my father, who hated pop music, seemed not to object to him, liking his bespectacled, studious look.   As a fan of the rebellious Rolling Stones image, that instantly made me hate Elton John. Such contempt was soon blown away, however, as Elton soon became a platform-booted preposterous glam rocker and I lapped it up, all the way down the yellow brick road.  I bought lots of his singles, plus  Don't Shoot Me, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road  and  Captain Fantastic , also familiarising myself with  Honky Château  and  Tumbleweed Connection  via my friends' record collections. Even as a punk in 1978, I still couldn't help but warm to  A Single Man .  Elton became part of my DNA in the seventies and has remained so ever since, despite his elevation to the status...
View Full Post »

U2: Songs Of Innocence - 2014

Image
"We got some of the songs halfway up the hill, three-quarters of the way up the hill. A lot of times, we just couldn't get them up to the top of the hill" - Bono   Coming five years after their previous album ,  No Line On The Horizon , this album seriously ran the risk of being just "another U2 album". You almost got the impression that they felt they had to put something out to keep up their "best band in the world" reputation, but had sort of lost their mojo in creating it.  This album had a slight sense of trying too hard to come up something about it, but its is not without its good points, however.  The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)  is a big, muscular industrial chugger and nothing like The Ramones, of whom it is supposed to be a tribute to. It is quite dense with a few crashing guitar parts, but it is certainly no breakneck punker.  Every Breaking Wave  is an insistent, bassily beautiful slow burner, with a fine, tender, clear vocal from Bono. Th...
View Full Post »

BOB DYLAN: Intro & Quick Album Links

Image
My history with Bob Dylan begins  with only a vague knowledge of him in the 1960s. I was brought up largely on British chart pop, so Dylan sort of passed me by, unlike The Tremeloes or Manfred Mann.  I first became aware of him properly with the 1973 single  Knockin' On Heaven's Door  which I bought aged fourteen. Next up for me was  On A Night Like Thi s from  Planet Waves . Thus began an exploration into his back catalogue that found me seeking out the single releases of  Like A Rolling Stone  and  The Times They Are A-Changin' . I was hooked, line and sinker.   Lucky was I that Dylan's next release was  Blood On The Tracks . You can't ask for much better for my proper introduction into Dylan's albums.  Thereafter followed a wonderful journey into the great sixties albums, and  Desire ,  Street Legal  and  Slow Train Coming . Pretty soon I had everything he had released to date and subsequently bought...
View Full Post »

Phil Spector: Phil Spector's Greatest Hits

Image
An essential collection of early 60s rock 'n' roll Heaven here. No question about it.   The classics simply don’t stop.  Ronnie Spector ’s timeless voice on  Be My Baby   and  Baby I Love You   still sends shivers down my spine and always will. Then there is  Darlene Love ’s vocal on  He’s A Rebel  and  LaLa Brook s on  Da Doo Ron Ron  and  Then He Kissed Me .   The Righteous Brothers '  You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'  and  Unchained Melody .  The bottom line is that these are simply some of the best pure pop records you will ever hear. Is there a better intro than that on  Baby I Love You  - and when  Ronnie 's  "whoh-oh"  comes in, I am almost in tears every time. Not quite, but you know what I mean. Just wonderful. One of the best records ever made. Period.   There’s more -  Uptown ,  Not Too Young To Get Married ,  He’s Sure The Boy I Love , Do I Lo...
View Full Post »