DAVID BOWIE & BING CROSBY - Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy 1982

 As it's Christmas I thought I'd do a little animation for this post instead of the usual photos.

I don't have this record, but a friend of mine does and I was able to photograph it recently and hopefully may get my hands on it one day.

Recorded in 1977 for a TV Christmas Special, 'Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas', this collaboration was only available as a bootleg for the first 5 years of it's life, released as a "partly unofficial" 45rpm by B&B Records in 1978 backed with Bowie's 'Heroes' from the same TV show.

RCA eventually issued a commercial release in 1982 in a couple of formats, the normal 7" single and this one, a 12" limited edition mono picture disc. Side 1 was the full unedited version of 'Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy' with the introductory dialogue. Side 2 was Bowie doing 'Fantastic Voyage'. Unusually the label was oversized, a full 7" label on the middle of the 12" disc. 

The reason the track is a combination of 2 different songs is because, to quote Bowie,  "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?" In a frantic effort to come up with something, musical supervisors Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman along with scriptwriter Alan Kohan huddled around a piano in the basement of the studio and wrote 'Peace on Earth' in an hour. Bowie sang that as a counterpoint to Bing.

There are stories of the weirdness of this whole TV show and recording, but in the spirit of Christmas I'll leave that for anyone to look up if you're interested. In the meantime, this is my wife Tracy's favourite Christmas song and so regardless of the circumstances, let's just be happy it exists.

BO HANSSON - Music Inspired By Lord Of The Rings 1972 (original Swedish 1970)

 

Thirty years before Howard Shore composed the musical score for Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy of movies, Bo Hansson had been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.

In the mid 70's I'd moved to New Zealand and was living in a house (almost a squat, but surprisingly legal) with many rooms and many people. At one point, 2 Swedish guys drifted through. Sitting at the kitchen table together having breakfast I noticed one of them was reading the Swedish language version of 'Lord of the Rings' - 'Sagan Om Ringen' - literally 'The Saga of the Ring'. I was reading the English version at the time so it piqued my interest.

I asked to look at his copy, turned to the chapter containing the songs of Tom Bombadil and even though the words were Swedish they still seemed to rhyme. Odd. My new friend then told me of a Swedish musician named Bo Hansson who had done a prog rock album based on his interpretation of the book(s). Being an avid collector of not only mainstream music but also the odd and obscure I had to find it. Fortunately after it's release the album was most popular in England and Australasia, so it had been marketed locally in NZ. Originally the Swedish version was titled the same as the book but when it was put out by Charisma, Tolkein and his publishers jumped in with a few conditions. They insisted the title be "inspired" by LOTR and they also squashed the idea of Hansson using voices on some tracks, forcing the whole album to be instrumental. 

The bottom line is that this is Prog Rock with a loose theme. If you can find any relationship between the music and the story you have better insight than I do, but as an album of the genre it fits right in. Bo played multiple instruments on the recording including organ, guitar, bass and Moog synthesizer. I suppose he may have set the scene for later works by people like Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson although some have said his music has a more 'jazz' feel to it, whereas others have likened it to Pink Floyds early stuff. 

The nearest thing to a single release from the album was a promo that Charisma issued of 'The Black Riders & Flight to the Ford'.

If you're used to the light whimsical strains of Howard Shore's music about 'The Shire' and 'Bag End' or the pageantry and almost Gregorian chants of 'Khazad-dûm' be warned - this is nothing like that ! 

The Black Riders & Flight to the Ford

SIMPLY RED - Picture Book 1985

From one ginger to another, like Mick Hucknell for most of my life I've been simply red. Because of the perversity of Australian humour where they nickname bald men 'Curly', throughout my time in the Australian Army my red hair prompted everyone to call me 'Bluey'. In Micks case, before he was Simply Red he was part of a punk outfit called Frantic Elevators. After they collapsed in 1984 Mick got together a band of sorts and started using his nickname of 'Red' in the groups name .. 'Red and the Dancing Dead' (not very catchy), 'Just Red' and eventually 'Simply Red'. One thing he did bring with him from the Frantic Elevators was a song he had written back around 1977 and recorded with them in 1982. 'Holding Back the Years' became one of the most successful and popular songs of this Simply Red debut album, "Picture Book". 

The story goes that Mick got the idea for the song from his early life - his mother left the family when he was only three years old - and that maybe accounts for the lyrics ..
"Strangled by the wishes of pater
hoping for the arms of mater"

Whatever the deep-seated meaning, it really is a great song. The writing credits are shared between Mick and Neil Moss, but Mick is quoted as saying Neil didn't co-write that song but was included because of all the other songs they did write together.

The music video clip of the Simply Red version of the song was set in and around Whitby and the North Yorkshire Moors.

8 out of the 10 tracks on the album were written or co-written by Mick. The two exceptions are 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' and 'Heaven'. The original 'Money's Too Tight ...' (sometimes stylised as "Money$") was done as a soul-disco-funk song in 1982 by The Valentine Brothers and was a minor hit in it's own right. It gained a whole new audience when Simply Red got hold of it. It was also one of five tracks released as singles from the album. 'Come To My Aid', 'Jericho' and 'Open The Red Box' were the others.  Oddly, one of my favourites from the album, 'Sad Old Red' just got lost on side one.

The other cover is the Talking Heads song 'Heaven' from their 1979 album 'Fear of Music'. Mick, in line with one of the descriptions of his style, gives the song much more "blue-eyed soul" than David Byrne did.

This is/was a very powerful debut album. It holds up well today, great vocals, incredible brass from Tim Kellett and guests Ian Dickson and Ronnie Ross and an unexpected sophistication from an ex-punk singer with a sensitive side. 

It's easy to reduce Simply Red to two or three songs, but take the time to sit and listen to this album from beginning to end. It's all still there.

Frantic Elevators - Holding Back The Years 1982

Simply Red - Money's Too Tight To Mention

HENRY FIOL - Creativo 1991

 

I don't expect anyone reading this to actually own this album. It's not my usual demographic. I've included it for a totally different reason - the family connection.

Tracy's uncle, Frank Gimpaya, is a photographer of some renown. Walking around the East Village in Manhattan recently he noticed an exhibition of Latino music albums. After a few minutes of wandering around the gallery, a glimmer of recognition crossed his face. Moving in for a closer look he realised that he had taken the photos of Henry Fiol that appeared on the front and back of this album sleeve.

After making it known to the staff that he was the photographer he was given celebrity status, the album was taken off the wall and Frank was allowed to reunite with his artwork 30 years after the event. As for Henry himself, here's a bit of info.

"Henry Fiol (born January 16, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader and painter. He is known for his traditional approach to son cubano and other Cuban music styles, and he is considered a "cult favorite" among Latin music fans. He studied fine arts at Hunter College and became a teacher before starting his career as a musician in 1969. During the LP era he painted all his record covers himself, developing a distinctive red-and-black visual style, both in clothing and in covers."

As noted, because of his own artistic background Henry created many of his own album covers, so that makes Franks contribution even more memorable.

This album is available in it's entirety on YouTube along with other examples of Henry's work.