Taking sides: Tim Buckley vs Pentangle

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They both mixed folk & jazz. They both did versions of 'Sally Go Round the Roses'. They both, at times, had Danny Thompson on bass.
'Strange Feeling' is perhaps a steal from 'I Got a Feeling'.
But whereas TB is the cool, troubled troubadour, the 'tangle evoke real ale festivals & Open University seminars. An injustice?

― bham, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE

I couldn't live without either of them, honestly.

― Masked Gazza, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:47 (twenty years ago)

fuck i need to hear pentangle. buckley is like my teen hero.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:48 (twenty years ago)

Tim was a good singer, nobody in Pentangle was. Though I don't see that they have anything in common at all.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:48 (twenty years ago)

What does "good singer" mean?

― Masked Gazza, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:51 (twenty years ago)

If I like them they're good, any other definition is too complex for me to be bothered with this morning

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

the 'tangle evoke real ale festivals & Open University seminars.

Chillingly accurate. Therefore the 'tangle win.

Also: songs about "fair maidens" > songs about "my woman"

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

xpost
ok, well for me, shee, jansch and renbourn are all great singers, none of them have a voice like buckley of course

― Masked Gazza, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

Funnily enough Pentangle don't really evoke real ale festivals - they struck me more as guest stars on the Julie Felix show than yer actual Fairport/Steeleye folk festival types. Sitting down to play? Hmmmmmmmmmm.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:02 (twenty years ago)

I don't mind Jansch and Renbourn's voices in a we-can't-sing kind of way it's Jacqui McShee I can't abide

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

Then again Pentangle did have a hit single, which Buckley didn't.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:09 (twenty years ago)

Tim Buckley by a mile. Can't even think of one song that Pentangle did that even approaches stuff like 'Pleasant Street'. And I'm no fan of Jacqui McShee's voice either, it just sounds too proper to me. Maybe Buckley vs Martyn would have been a fairer contest.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

buckley vs martyn would've fcked me good n shure. my TWO teen heroes.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:12 (twenty years ago)

Tim Buckley vs Tim Brooke-Taylor would have been a more interesting contest. That plaintive psychedelic vocal on "Cricklewood" takes some beating.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:13 (twenty years ago)

pk, well for me, shee, jansch and renbourn are all great singers, none of them have a voice like buckley of course

Which is why Pentangle wins it for me, though solo Jansch trumps Pentangle.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

Pentangle are emminently more listenable (although McShee can get awful shrill.) I have to be in the mood to listen to Buckley, and then I'll likely go for the free scree of Starsailor, or Lorca.
OTM that solo Jansch trumps Pentangle. S/T and Rosemary Lane are amongst my favorite albums of all time.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

"Rosemary Lane" is the one, for sure

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

Tim Buckley when you're in the mood > Instrumental Pentangle > Tim Buckley most of the time > Pentangle with McShee singing.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

Which is why Pentangle wins it for me, though solo Jansch trumps Pentangle.

Ah, but I still prefer Pentangle's sidelong "Jack Orion" (on Cruel Sister) to Jansch's original solo version, if only for the acid folk drench that kicks in around the 11 minute mark. Vibes and fuzz guitar layered on an acoustic groove = pure bliss. I don't think they ever again ventured into this area, but would be happily corrected.

― doug watson (solid air), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 23:22 (twenty years ago)

A few years ago I was listening to Pentangle, particular all the jazzy intricate guitar stuff like "Bells" and thinking, how come this stuff was never mined by the jazzier drum'n'bass crews. Imagine a remix of Bells.

People keep trying to sell me Buckly, and I have Lorca, but it doesn't do much for me (possibly because I'm not hung up on good / bad singers) I'll choose Pentangle any day.

― phil jones (interstar), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 13:17 (twenty years ago)

Somebody recommend for me a good instrumental Pentangle CD. I have Basket of Light, which is nice but whose vocals make it sound a little like a Christmas album.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

I don't think there are any instrumental albums but I could be wrong. It's more that there are some instrumental tracks on all of the albums. Actually I just googled "pentangle instrumentals" and found a mention of an instrumental compilation:

"After The Dance - Historic Collaborations (Shanachie 8/1992) is essentially a compilation of various Jansch/Renbourn/Pentangle instrumentals but draws both its sleeve design and nine of its 15 tracks from Bert And John. Bert And John (Wooded Hill 1996) retains the original packaging but enhances this very short original album with six stylistically similar tracks, including the two Nicola outtakes first heard on Transatlantic’s Box Of Love (1972) compilation and two yet more obscure edited versions of the Pentangle instrumentals ‘Bells’ and ‘Hole In The Coal’ only previously available on Transatlantic’s The Contemporary Guitar Sampler Vol. 2 (1970)."

So maybe you should just pick up this Bert and John reissue.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

Thanks — that and the AMG review make that comp sound interesting.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

They'd both leave big holes in my collection if they didn't exist, but I gotta say Buckley. Pentangle were ususally great & never less than pleasant, but kinda monochromatic. Buckley I always consider a folkie version of Captain Beefheart, with an album-by-album career path matching that of his occasional Straight Records labelmate, right down to the pair of 1974-75 dogs, after which he OD'd. And just like Beefheart, Buckley had an amazing voice and wasn't afraid to push it past uncomfortable levels, risking (sometimes attaining) sheer painful unlistenability even while upping the ante musically by seemingly banishing melody entirely, and jeezus, I'm prattling like a pompous blowhard again. All I meant to say was that Pentangle largely stuck with the acoustic guitars, while Buckley added vibes and horn soloists and electricity and eventually L.A. session pros, by turns. In conclusion, Pentangle, great; Tim Buckley, greater! Sorry for rambling. Now to finish off that bottle of Rosato Bambino...

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

"eventually L.A. session pros"? Did Buckley's albums ever feature anything but?

A Buckley fronted Pentangle would have been amazing.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 14 April 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

When I'm in the appropriate mood nothing in the universe sounds better than HappySad but 9 days out of 10 I'll take Jansch solo over either one of those in the thread title.

― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 08:37 (seventeen years ago)

i never really got the pentangle even tho i like british folkrock. tim buckley's greetings from l.a. is massive

― velko, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 08:44 (seventeen years ago)

i just remembered i saw jansch/renbourn open up for june tabor once long time ago. it was kinda snoozy for me tho i might dig it more now. i do remember some guitar nerd types in the audience being really into it.

― velko, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 08:55 (seventeen years ago)

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