Trollheart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Rea
I've been a fan of Chris Rea ever since I heard “Nothing's happening by the sea” from his fifth album, Water Sign, and having bought that album I followed him not quite religiously, but did purchase his albums up to 1989, left off and picked up again in 1999, and more or less stopped listening to his new material from 2002 on, which is odd really, as that's when he released the epic double album Dancing Down the Stony Road. Then again, shortly afterwards I began downloading more albums than I could ever be realistically expected to listen to, and the idea of collecting further material from one of my favourite stars of my youth slowly receded. Well, I may have downloaded them but never listened to them.

As for his earlier material? I know of the four albums that come before Water Sign, but have only heard Tennis once, though I do own and love Deltics. But it all began with something of an inside joke...


Album title: Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?
Artiste: Chris Rea
Genre: Soft Rock, Pop
Year: 1978
Label: Magnet
Producer: Gus Dudgeon
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: Unknown
Singles: “Fool if you think it's over”, “Whatever happened to Benny Santini?”
Lineup:
Chris Rea: Vocals, guitar, keyboards, synth
Robert Ahwai/Eddie Guy/Paul Keogh: Guitars
Phil Curtis/Pat Donaldson/Dave Markie/Eoghan O'Neill: Bass
Rod Argent: Keyboards, electric piano
Pete Wingfield: Keyboards, piano
Max Middleton/Kevin Leach: Keyboards
Steve Gregory: Sax
Dave Mattacks/Norman Nosebait/Adrian Rea: Drums
Gus Dudgeon/Frank Ricotti/George Woodhead: Other percussion
Doreen Chanter/Stuart Epps/Irene Chanter: Backing vocals

Review begins

I used to think, when I would see this album in a record store and never have any interest in buying it (and I never did) that the title referred to some old sports legend - a baseball player, rugby or soccer icon, or maybe a cricket hero. But it turns out that when Rea signed for Magnet Records, they thought his name was too boring and uninteresting, and wanted to rename him, you guessed it, Benny Santini! Now that sounds baseball to me. That, or Italian Mafia! Anyway, it would appear Rea persevered and retained his old name, so the title is probably an irreverent finger to his label, which perhaps might have worked better had this album been more successful. Mind you, it did yield him his biggest hit, a signature song for him, although it too bombed in the UK, being only successful in the US of A. Nevertheless, as time went on Chris Rea would have other big hits and would become moreover a household name and a respected musician. Not sure Benny would have done as well.

It's a nice acoustic rocker that gets the album underway, and it is in fact the title track too. Sort of a Country feel to it, loping along nicely and you can hear right away that this is a new talent in the making as Rea's raspy voice, slightly reminiscent of a younger Rod Stewart, greets us. A catchy song, it's nothing terribly special but it does open the album well and features a fine sax solo from Steve Gregory. “Close as you get” is a kind of blues number with soul edges and some really nice piano from Pete Wingfield. It continues the rock nature of the album, and foreshadows the likes of “Hey you” on his later album with its basic “looking for a girl” idea in the lyric, while the first ballad comes in the shape of “Because of you”, but I have to admit it's pretty barf-inducing and nothing like the kind of thing he would later write. It's the first track on which he plays piano, so I guess there is that. Oh, there's a fantastic guitar solo too, though I think it's Eddie Guy and not Chris.

Back to blues rock for “Dancing with Charlie” and it's an okay song but again it doesn't quite stand out. There's something in the main guitar riff that reminds me of one of his later songs, though I can't place it. A really nice powerful organ surge brings in “Bows and bangles”, some lovely electric piano sprinkled across the tune, and it appears to be another ballad, sung in an almost folk style, with some really great vocal harmonies. Like many of his later songs, this one tells a story and is populated by characters whom we end up caring about. Things begin to take a serious upswing then with the song that is, apparently, credited with keeping him in the music biz. Depressed at the lack of attention his debut album was receiving, and thinking of quitting, Rea came home to find a cheque on his doormat for the royalties from the only single taken from the album. Written to help his sister get over a love affair and show her it wasn't the end of the world, “Fool (if you think it's over)” is sung from the standpoint of an older man, trying to explain to a younger girl that these things happen, worse is to come and she'd better be ready for it. It's a dour song really, sung quite downbeat for most of it, and with a sense of perhaps not quite mocking but pragmatism about it.

Running on a slow organ line and muted guitar, even the vocal is laconic as Rea stresses the unimportance, in the grand scheme of things, and compared to the rest of her life she has yet to lead, of her breakup when he sings “Save your tears, got years and years” and advises her “The pains of seventeen's unreal, they're only dreams.” It doesn't come across as a very comforting song, and I wonder what Rea's sister thought of his attempt to cheer her up, but it certainly cheered him up when he started receiving money for his efforts and could finally think of forgetting about jacking in the music career. It also provided later quite a hit for Canadian songstress Elkie Brooks. Rocking again then with “Three angels”, on which Rea shows his prowess on the guitar, while Pete Stanley (I assume no relation to the Kiss guitarist) adds some oddly appropriate banjo of all things.

Another great track then is “Just one of those days”, which almost takes the bassline and rhythm from songs like “Tie a yellow ribbon” and “Kisses for me”, and trots along really nicely. Short little song but very nice. Next we have a Gerry Raffertyesque “Standing in your doorway”, which again sounds like one of his later songs with what sounds like accordion (guess it's synthesised, as in the rather exhaustive credits list no accordion player is mentioned). It's a nice sort of semi-ballad and leads into the closer, a steaming blues rocker called “Fires of spring”. Great bassline chugging along and with a certain sense of ELO in it

TRACK LISTING AND RATINGS

Whatever happened to Benny Santini?
The closer you get
Because of you
Dancing with Charlie
Bows and bangles
Fool (if you think it's over)
Three angels
Just one of those days
Standing in your doorway
Fires of spring

Afterword: Really, in fairness, it's not a bad debut, and it's weird to think that had “Fool” not made it 'cross the pond Chris Rea may have never recorded another album. I guess it just takes that one shot of confidence to tell you that you're actually on the right track, and he has gone on to record over twenty albums and sold over thirty million units in his so-far thirty-five year career. So I guess you can say, fool if you thought it was over, it had just begun. Sorry.

Rating:

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Trollheart

Album title: The End of an Ear
Artiste: Robert Wyatt
Genre: Free Jazz
Year: 1970
Label: CBS
Producer: Robert Wyatt
Chronological position: Debut solo album
Notes: Robert Wyatt was a founder member of Soft Machine, one of the lynchpins of the Canterbury Scene in progressive rock during the sixties and seventies
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: None
Lineup: Robert Wyatt- Drums, Piano, Organ, keyboards, harmonica
Neville Whitehead- Bass
Mark Charig- Cornet
Elton Dean- Alto Saxophone, Saxello
Mark Ellidge - Piano
Cyrille Ayers - Assorted Percussion
David Sinclair- Organ

Well thank you indeed Plainview for recommending not only a free jazz artist, but an album of totally instrumental music. This will be fun. I wasn't totally blown away by the two Soft Machine albums I reviewed in the History of Prog journal, so I can't say I'm particularly looking forward to this, but let's just get it done.

Review begins

Opens just as I feared, more like a tune-up than any real music, with Wyatt doing some vocalise singing of some sort, sounds like a swarm of bees being chased by a ghost playing bongos. Sigh. There's a piano in there too, but it fades out to leave us with experimental sounds and some vocal histrionics. Man I hate this, and it's only the first track. Apparently it's called “Las Vegas tango part one”, though what it has to do with either is anyone's guess. “To mark everywhere” has at least more of what I would call structure to it, with a pounding drum and wailing sax, and now there's some sort of weird shimmery thing going on, like a UFO landing, with increasingly insistent percussion and then whistling brings in “To Saintly Bridget”, which has something of a rhythm to it at least. Oh, and there's more squealy sax, just to annoy me further.

It kind of transitions directly into the next track, with a fast running bass and wibbly sax. I really don't care any more. This is boring the hell out of me. It will be a long slog, that's for sure. And now a nine-minute track of what seems to me to be more or less the same disjointed melody, mostly carried on percussion and sax. Yawn. Some bassy piano joining in now, but I'm basically just enduring it and waiting (praying) for it to end. I bet Frownland loves this stuff. Not for me. Not by a long way. Oh my god, sounds like this might actually be a recognisable tune! “To Caravan and brother Jim” does have its mad, free jazz moments but I can follow the melody, most of which is driven by piano and organ. This is the first track I haven't hated: will it be the only one? Yep, it seems like we're back to the sound of a kazoo stuck up someone's arse. Sigh. Robotic sounds which I guess were innovative for the time, but just bore me.

The next one is short, a nice piece of piano music which doesn't set my teeth on edge, though he can't leave it alone and starts messing with the melody, ruining it for me. Still, it's better than a whole lot of this album has been. The final track is a whopping eleven minutes long, but at least it is the last one. In fairness, it's a little more settled than some of the earlier tracks, but it's still something of a struggle to get through it. Discordant melodies, dissonance, whistling and seemingly off-tune tones, none of this does anything for me but make me wish this was over. And now it is.

Track Listing and Ratings

1. Las Vegas Tango, part 1 (repeat)
2. To Mark everywhere
3. To Saintly Bridgid
4. To Oz Alien Daevid and Gilly
5. To Nick everyone
6. To Caravan and brother Jim
7. To the old world (Thank you for the use of your body, goodbye)
8. To Carla, Masha and Caroline (For making everything beautifuller)
9. Las Vegas Tango part 1

Afterword: Look, there was nobody expecting me to like this, was there? Once those two words popped up I was sunk. I don't like much jazz, and the little I can stomach does not include the word “free”, so while I try to keep an open mind whenever reviewing, I wasn't gambling on there being much here for me. And there wasn't. Which is not to say this is a bad album, or that Wyatt doesn't have talent, because obviously neither would be true. To those who can appreciate and enjoy this kind of thing, I'm sure it's amazing, transcendent and a lot of other praiseworthy adjectives. But to me, with my limited capacity to enjoy melody that is not pleasing to my ears, it is none of those things and I did not enjoy it. Apart from a track here or there.

Rating:

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Frownland

I gotta check that one out. The Wyatt album Rock Bottom is really nice and might be a little bit more up your alley. It is a bit noodly though.

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Trollheart

Yeah, from reading up on it I see he kind of disowned this one and the next one is more something that might be accessible to me. I reckon you'd love the bones off this first one though; would have assumed it was already in your collection.

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Trollheart

Album title:Rock Bottom
Artiste: Robert Wyatt
Genre: Folk
Year: 1974
Label: Virgin
Producer: Nick Mason
Chronological position: Second solo album
Notes: Between this and his previous, debut solo album, Wyatt suffered a terrible, life-changing accident that paralysed him. He subsequently began to think about his life and this album contains his reflections on same.
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: n/a
Lineup: Robert Wyatt– vocals, keyboards, percussion,slide guitar(2)
Mike Oldfield– guitar (6)
Gary Windo–bass clarinet,tenor sax(5)
Ivor Cutler– voice (3 and 6), baritone concertina,harmonium(6)
Alfreda Benge– voice (5)
Mongezi Feza– trumpets (3)
Fred Frith–viola(6)
Hugh Hopper– bass guitar (2, 4 and 5)
Richard Sinclair– bass guitar (1, 3 and 6)
Laurie Allan– drums (2 and 6)


Review begins

Much as I hated the previous album, it's in a way gratifying to see that Wyatt himself later dismissed it as “juvenilia”, this mostly I guess being due to his new way of seeing the world, due to the accident related above. So from his, and many of his fans' point of view, this is really his debut album, though in a more, real way, it isn't. You can hear much more of an attempt at serious music in the opener, “Sea song”; the noises and effects of the previous album are nowhere in sight, and this is more folk or even prog rock, probably more something fans of Soft Machine would have expected. The music still tends to be annoyingly discordant at times, but at least I can distinguish it as such this time around. The vocalise puts me off still though, but it's a hundred percent improvement on The End of an Ear. You can definitely hear more of the prog rock influence on “A last straw” though it's more kind of jazz/avant-garde for much of “Little Red Riding Hood hit the road”, with screeching horns and what sounds like loops (though I guess those weren't around in the seventies) but apparently are multi-tracked arrangements. There's a vocal halfway through, by Ivor Cutler. Does add something to the composition, though I'm not quite sure what. He sounds a bit like Bowie. Okay, now he's just talking.

“Alifib” on the other hand features some beautiful classical guitar, is a nice little laidback piece, quite pastoral and relaxing, and it kind of continues on into “Alife”, which introduces some little effects, piping horns and acquires a darker texture. The closer then, and the companion piece to “Little Red Riding Hood hit the road” is called “Little Red Robin Hood hit the road”, driven mostly by a droning synth, screeching guitar and a repetitive vocal. Halfway through we get a recitation by Cutler of some nonsensical poem. Apparently, his vocal work here and on the first part gained him a recording deal. Go figure, huh? Violin coming in now over a harmonium (it says here; I would have said uileann or bagpipes, but there you go) setting up a kind of Celtic feel to the end part.

Track listing and Ratings

Sea song
A last straw
Little Red Riding Hood hit the road
Alifib
Alife
Little Red Robin Hood hit the road


Afterword: Yeah. Better by miles than the previous effort, but it's still a little freaky for me. Some nice moments, some decent music and some clever ideas, but nothing here that makes me want to hear more. Though as part of this overarching project, I have no choice but to do exactly that.

Rating:

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Frownland

Re: loops. They've been available ever since we've been recording music and they really took off once tape came into action.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Trollheart

Album title:Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard
Artiste: Robert Wyatt
Genre: Porgressive Rock
Year: 1975
Label: Virgin
Producer: Robert Wyatt
Chronological position: Third album
Notes:
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: n/a
Lineup: Robert Wyatt– vocals, piano, imitation electric piano (Ri4), organ (Ri2), drums (Ru2, Ri2)
Brian Eno– guitar (Ri4),synthesizer(Ri4), direct inject anti-jazz ray gun (Ru3)
Gary Windo–bass clarinet(Ri2, Ru2),tenor saxophone(Ri4, Ru1, Ru3, Ru4),alto saxophone(Ri4, Ru2, Ru4)
Nisar Ahmad "George" Khan– tenor saxophone (Ri4, Ru4),baritone saxophone(Ru1, Ru4)
Mongezi Feza–trumpet(Ru2)
Fred Frith– piano (Ri1, Ri3, Ri5)
Bill MacCormick– bass guitar (Ri2, Ri4, Ru1, Ru3, Ru4)
John Greaves– bass guitar (Ru2)
Laurie Allan– drums (Ri4, Ru1, Ru3, Ru4)

For his third solo album, Wyatt chose to interpret songs written by his friends, or people he had been influenced by. There's a mention of “a return to the style of The End of an Ear”, which is not good news for me, but to be fair, I haven't really liked anything I've heard from this guy so far, so it's probably not going to make all that much of a difference.


Review begins

A bright but slow piano accompanies a falsetto vocal which varies between childish (as in, it sounds like a child singing) and annoying, but lasts less than a minute, then some nice sax takes in “Solar flares”, and I realise that for some reason Spotify seems to have transposed side one and side two of the album, but I'm just going to go with the way it comes at me, so I guess we're doing side two first. Seems oddly appropriate, given what I've heard so far about the guy. This is actually quite a nice lounge style instrumental, like something you would hear playing in the background of a bar or something. Oh, okay: it's not instrumental; there are some vocals coming in now, it's just it was only music for so long I assumed it was. Kind of a crooning effect to the singing. Nice. The short opener (as it were) was called “Muddy mouse (a)”, and now we have another, equally silly one called “Muddy mouse(b)” then a rather nice arrangement of Offenbach's Barcarolle under the title “5 black notes and 1 white note”, on piano and horn. Very stately and grand, and mournful. We then end on one more “Muddy mouse”, this one being also subtitled, “(c) (Which in turn leads to Muddy mouth”) - um, yeah – and is far longer at over six minutes, in fact the longest piece on the entire album, bar one. It actually develops into quite a nice piano ballad with normal vocals. Very nice.

What should then be side one, but according to Spotify ends up as side two, opens with “Soup song”, a breezy, cheerful upbeat song with elements of jazz and some really cool piano. “Sonia” is pretty funky, a real shuffle with a super-addictive bassline and some nice horns (ooer!) while “Team spirit” is the longest song on the album, just shy of nine minutes, probably the most progressive rock sounding on an album which Wiki purports to be prog rock but I don't really see for most of it. The horns on this get a little wild, but it's not bad, and the album, according to Spotify, ends on Charlie Haden's “Song for Che”, which kind of works better as a closer, in my opinion, than the original arrangement of the album.

Track listing and Ratings (As arranged by Spotify and as I heard them)

Muddy mouse (a)
Solar flares
Muddy mouse (b)
5 black notes and 1 white note
Muddy mouse (c) (Which leads to muddy mouth)
Soup song
Sonia
Team spirit
Song for Che

Afterword: I guess I have to admit, the more I hear of Wyatt the better his albums get. I still would not be a fan, but this is the best yet.

Rating:

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Trollheart

Well, the great Dice have spoken (or rather, the Random Number Generator has) and decreed that this guy is up next.

My lack of love towards Captain Beefheart is now almost legendary, and required reading for any new member who joins () but I am slowly (slowly) coming around, it would seem. On my second listen to TMR I didn't quite hate it as much as I had originally, which is saying something, and way back in 2015 I reviewed three more of his albums, as you'll see from the colour scheme below, none of which I hated at all. So there may be some hope.

All that notwithstanding, it's time to tackle those albums I have yet to hear, so let's get going with the first of those, which happens to be his second.

Album title: Strictly Personal
Artiste: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Genre: Psych rock/blues
Year: 1968
Label: Blue Thumb
Producer: Bob Krasnow
Chronological position: Second album
Notes:
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: n/a
Lineup: Don Van Vliet –vocals,harmonica
Alex St. Clair–guitar
Jeff Cotton– guitar
Jerry Handley –bass
John French–drums


Review begins

Starts off almost acapella then develops into a kind of folk/blues tune, uptempo and not at all bad, then “Safe as milk” is more guitar-oriented and with a vocal chorus, oddly enough the track is not on the previous album from which it gets its title. Turns into something of an instrumental jam with added sound effects in the third minute, though I'm informed those effects were added without his knowledge by his producer. I can see why he didn't want them there; they don't do anything for the song except make it a little confusing for the listener. Pointless, really. “Trust us” is another guitar-driven piece with a screeched vocal which Waits would later copy; always sounds a little tortured. Some very good guitar riffs here though. Gets quite psychedelic, though it also gets quite repetitive for such a long song, running for just over eight minutes. Turns almost into a separate little blues song in the last minute or so.

“Son of mirror man – mere man” starts out as, again, a pretty repetitive bouncy blues tune, but then descends into some sort of effects nonsense, though there's some good harmonica in there, while “On tomorrow” is kinda formless to me and again there's a lot of repetition. The next one goes by without making any sort of impression on me – couldn't even tell you what it's like other than the cheeky little line from “Strawberry fields forever” at the end - then more harmonica as we head back into the blues arena for “Gimme dat harp boy”, which is pretty good, very catchy and works well. Really like this actually, probably the best on the album for me. Nah, no probably about it. We end then on “Kandy korn”, with some good guitar but it doesn't do much for me.

Track listing and ratings

Ah feel like acid
Safe as milk
Trust us
Son of Mirror Man – Mere Man
On tomorrow
Beatle bones 'n smokin' stones
Gimme dat harp boy
Kandy korn

Afterword:
Well I tried to like it but it just wouldn't click with me. In previous instances I've gone into Beefheart albums expecting – intending – to hate them and have been quite surprised. This was the reverse: I had hoped I would enjoy it but I have to say it bored the hell out of me. Obviously, this is an earlier album and the ones I reviewed (other than the debut) are later, so maybe that's the way in for me, if there is one. Or maybe I just hated it because of all the fiddly effects. Hey, at least nothing was marked in red, which is an improvement from me!
Rating:

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Frownland

I was just listening to that yesterday and I think it's poorly produced and tried to implement new production ideas that just seem dated now. There's a different version of Trust Us (I think it's take 9) that's much better than the one here and the vocals on that version of Safe As Milk sound like Beefheart sang them without listening to the music (as he allegedly did on some TMR tracks. I also prefer On Tomorrow as an instrumental.

Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin Stones is one of his best tracks though.

Is Beefheart one of the discographies that you're doing? It's also funny that you decided to review him on his birthday.

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Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

has TH heard Safe as Milk yet? probably Beefheart's best, at least going off of the few albums by him that I've heard.

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