By the end of the ’60s, pop had undergone several all-consuming metamorphoses. Rock music and youth culture at large were changing by the minute, and there were more landmark albums that represented universal shifts in the way music was composed, produced, conceptualized, and consumed. For every Pet Sounds, Revolver, Forever Changes, or Axis: Bold as Love, there were less visible ripples throughout all of music, as psychedelic thinking and a softly adventurous spirit overtook bands and artists who were stuck in their by-the-numbers garage rock ways before this enlightenment. Safe in My Garden: American Pop in the Shadows 1967-1972 takes a look at some of the best, strangest, and most interesting examples of lesser-known purveyors of…
Tag Archive: Bob Stanley
What happens after the spotlight is directed towards another target? In the case of Liverpool and the Merseybeat boom – which, in terms of chart success, peaked in 1963 – the question is addressed by Liverpool Sunset: The City After Merseybeat 1964–1969. The city’s musicians carried on, despite record labels looking elsewhere for the next big thing, and despite the Liverpool tag no longer ensuring an automatic interest.
The final (identifiably) Merseybeat bands to debut on the charts were The Escorts, with “The One to Cry” in July 1964, The Undertakers, with “Just a Little Bit” in April 1964, and The Mojos, with “Everything’s Alright” in March 1964. None of these were debut singles, but that was it for burgeoning Merseybeat contenders and…
“Forest and the Shore” by Keith Christmas is remarkable. In his essay for Gather in the Mushrooms, compiler, author and Saint Etienne member Bob Stanley says it is “as evocative as its title. The song has a deeply wooded sound, like a cross between Serge Gainsbourg’s “Ballade de Melody Nelson” and Ralph Vaughan Williams.” To this can be added the brooding, dramatic melancholy of Scott Walker’s “The Seventh Seal.”
Despite the grandeur of “Forest and the Shore” – and the astounding Richard Thompson-esque, Tom Verlaine-predicting guitar solo taking it to its close – Gather in the Mushrooms: The British Folk Underground 1969-1975 is ostensibly an 18-track collection of British folk recordings. Or, more accurately, folk-rooted or…