» Listings for 2023

1. 2023 Albums Thing 114 - Nick Drake “Bryter Later”

   Posted on 8:15am Monday 19th Jun 2023

   For Nick Drake’s second album producer Joe Boyd was aiming for a more upbeat, poppier sound. This was achieved by the introduction of an actual rhythm section and some lush orchestration. So we get appearances from the Fairport’s Dave’s Mattacks and Pegg on drums and bass with Richard Thompson again making an appearance on guitar. John Cale guests on a couple of tracks and Pat (aka PP of Small Faces fame) Arnold and Doris Troy (who had previously sung with the Stones and Pink Floyd) supply soulful backing vocals. That’s a heavyweight cast for an album that failed to sell !

   After the short instrumental “Introduction” first song proper “Hazey Jane II” is a bouncy, country blues/latin bopper, almost in the style of Love, most unlike anything from his debut album. What follows that is one of Nick Drake’s classics. “At The Chime Of A City Clock” is a superb song, heavily orchestrated and featuring some Jazzy saxophone barking by Ray Warleigh. David Hepworth wrote that the song was "the perfect soundtrack for the dispensing of a cup of tea in a poly-styrene cup, marrying sound and image in a way that made me unsure whether I was watching a commercial or actually in a commercial"

   Over on Side 2 we kick off with the title track, an instrumental, and then John Cale’s addition of Viola and various keyboards on “Fly” and “Northern Sky”, the former being as close as we get here to the atmosphere of “Five Leaves Left”. “Poor Boy” is gloriously lifted by the vocals of Ms. Arnold and Troy, their performance instantly conjuring the sound of “the coloured girls” in Lou Reed’s “Walk On the Wild Side” without them ever going "Doo do doo do doo do do doo…”.

   Overall “Bryter Layter” does have a Jazzy feel about it (think “Astral Weeks” jazzy) especially the songs featuring Ray Warleigh and Chris McGregor’s piano. Commercially the album was another flop. Reviews were mixed, Record Mirror lauded Drake as a "beautiful guitarist—clean and with perfect timing, accompanied by soft, beautiful arrangements”. Conversely Melody Maker branded the album  "an awkward mix of folk and cocktail jazz" which honestly isn’t unfair apart from the “awkward” bit. Joe Boyd succeeded in lightening up Drake’s sound but shortly after this he upped sticks and moved to America leaving Nick Drake without his mentor and slipping deeper into depression.

   Poor Boy - https://youtu.be/TLJFSj3b4q0

2. 2023 Albums Thing 113 - Nick Drake “Five Leaves Left”

   Posted on 8:40am Saturday 17th Jun 2023

   My route to Nick Drake started fairly recently, only when I opened the shop in fact. Almost as soon as we opened people started talking about and asking for “Pink Moon” (which we will come to presently) so I thought I’d better find out about him. Then someone offered me a 1st pressing of that record which was instantly snapped up by my friend Sally as a birthday present for her brother (lucky bro’). In the meantime I’d had a listen, I was smitten.

   If you don’t know of Nick Drake he was a singer-songwriter and gifted (acoustic) guitar player. Born in Burma but lived from the age of 2 in Tanworth-in-Arden just south of Birmingham. He made only 3 albums and sadly died from an overdose of a prescription anti-depressant at the age of just 26. The official verdict at his inquest was suicide and although some family and friends have disputed this there is a widely held belief that, whether his death was accidental or otherwise, due to his illness Nick Drake had "given up on life". A sad story indeed.

   “Five Leaves Left” (the legend imprinted on a certain brand of cigarette rolling papers when you had five leaves left) was recorded in 1968. It was produced by Joe Boyd (Fairport Convention) and features the Fairport’s Richard Thompson on guitar and Pentangle’s Danny Thompson on Bass. It’s a very intimate album. Drake’s playing and singing style give this mental image of a man wrapped around his guitar delivering breathy vocals into a microphone into which he is leaning closely, or at least it gives me that image. There’s an air of, not sadness, but something similar, melancholy perhaps, about the whole record. I’ve seen it described as Pastoral and Baroque but melancholy fits better for me. However, in that mental image of Nick playing it always feels like a little satisfied smile is just playing on his face.

   Nick Drake’s guitar playing is intricate and rhythmically hypnotic, but not flashy. His vocal style is quiet, gentle and breathy. Producer Joe Boyd thought recording Nick’s songs presented a challenge and if they could do it right then it would make a very special album. It’s a very sparse production, very dry, the focus is Nick’s playing, voice and of course the songs.

   The first two songs are as good an introduction to Nick Drake as I can think of. “Time Has Told Me” features the two Thompson’s we mentioned earlier, you absolutely know it’s Richard as soon as he starts playing, if you are in any way familiar with Fairport Convention it’s unmistakable, and Danny is Jazz-ing away in the back ground. “Riverman” is doused in that feeling of melancholy and Nick’s guitar is augmented with a beautiful, understated string arrangement. 

   Elsewhere, on “Way To Blue” Drake’s voice is so upfront in the mix it feels like he’s in the room with you. “Cello Song” features an hypnotically circular guitar part and a vocal melody that traps you in a headlock. “Man In A Shed” is about as “rocking” as this record gets and my love of the book “Men And Their Sheds” sold me on this one immediately. The closing “Saturday Sun” is just plain gorgeous and is enhanced by drummer Tristam Fry doubling on Vibraphone.

   “Five Leaves Left” is a beautiful, beautiful record made by a supremely talented man. Its lack of sales may well have been due to Drake’s reluctance to tour and consequently Island’s reluctance to promote it too heavily. His music wasn’t widely known while he was alive but Nick Drake’s star has risen in the years since his passing and he is now reverently cited by the likes of Kate Bush, Paul Weller, Beck and Robyn Hitchcock. 

   If you know you know and if you don’t, well, then you should.

    

   Time Has Told Me - https://youtu.be/G8SmkwS82u4

3. 2023 Albums Thing 112 - The Doors “The Best Of…”

   Posted on 9:20am Friday 16th Jun 2023

   An 18 track, double LP round-up of exactly what it says on the sleeve, “The Best Of The Doors”.

   There was a time in the 60’s in LA when on given nights on Sunset Boulevard you could go into a club like Ciro’s or the Whiskey A Go-Go and see The Byrds or Buffalo Springfield or Love or The Doors, what a time that must have been. 

   All their great singles are here “Light My Fire”, “Break On Through”, “Hello I Love You”, “Riders On The Storm” (in its full length form) but it’s the album tracks, longer pieces, that stand out. “The End”, used to incredible effect in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”, “When The Music’s Over” and the complete version of “Roadhouse Blues”. 

   As Best Of’s go this one covers everything you need.

    

   The End (edit from “Apocalypse Now”) - https://youtu.be/CIrvSJwwJUE