Joe Boyd - s/d

nick drake? fairport convention? sandy denny? kate & anna mcgarrigle?

bueler...

http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/unterberger2.html

one of my four heroes of the era. the others being: Norman Smith, Shel Talmy, & Mike Vernon.

and mike heron's smiling men with bad reputations, including elton john jamming with the brotherhood of breath horn section!!

And John Cale! And Keith Moon! And Pete Townshend! And Richard Thompson! And Ronnie Lane!

God, wasn't it just so much BETTER in 1971???!!!!???!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971

http://threedogblog.blogs.com/three_dog_blog/1971_6.jpg

http://www.redtrumpet.co.jp/album/4M%20113.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000ILMV.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

what was up with that julie covington single. was there a julie covington album?

and the wishing chair by 10k maniacs, from the same year.

"Only Women Bleed" is, even more bizarrely, the only UK Top 40 hit single with which John Cale has been involved in any way.

i recently heard a dismal cocktail-jazz cover of "the man with the child in his eyes."

however, they strongly resisted his attempts to rename the album Hott Butt Action ("What is this Wendell Gee? Is it relatable to the listener on a boy-girl level? Can't we call it Wendy, Gee! instead?").

That Van Dyke Parks - what a lovable scamp!

i tried to get van dyke parks to do an interview but he was 'busy'... DOING WHAT???

that graffiti is excellent!!!

("What's wrong with Wendy, Gee? then? Do you guys have a problem with ladies? Say, are you guys a bunch of stinking lousy COMMIE FAGGOTS?")

jeff wayne got her for war of the worlds because she was on the original cast recording of Evita!

i remember as a callow youth being seriously stimulated by julie covington coming on some obscure tv music programme and singing "bony maronie" without changing the gender (i.e. "i love her, she loves me"). cool!

"Busy Doin' Nothin'" - track 10 on "Friends". In reality however, travelling the world on the "Smile" gravy train, biggin' up himself and his contribution to Brian Wilson's genius while writing "Mike Love was here" and spraypainting big penises

and some other early the pink floyd sessions...then he lost them.

boyd was instrumental in the UFO club and that whole scene.

hes writing a book, or there is a book...grrr..all of that and more in the wire interview from somewhere in the last year.

http://www.brightonfestival.org/index.asp?id=1961

How 60s beat stirred baby boom youth
The first of the baby boomers - the generation now turning 60 - came of age in the 1960s. As part of a BBC series, record producer Joe Boyd looks back at a decade in which music provided the sound track for a social revolution.

Women in a mini-skirt and maxi-skirt (file picture, 1970)
Some blame the 60s for rebellion, drug use and the rise of short skirts

A good way to judge the legacy of the 60s is to observe how annoyed some people get when discussing it.

The decade is blamed for undisciplined classrooms, short skirts (and all that they imply) and widespread drug use, but its implications are far more profound.

Racial and sexual equality - and, in England, equality of birth and opportunity - were not widely accepted concepts in 1959.

A quaint and common assumption then was that authorities knew whereof they spoke and should be treated with respect.

The journey from the innocence of the 50s to the revolutionary chaos of 1968 was accompanied by a musical sound track that resonates today like the social and political changes for which it provided the downbeat.

'Jungle' beat

This revolution was born in the mid-50s with the discovery of black American rhythm & blues by white teenagers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Music business executives were caught unawares, unable to stop this "jungle" beat from sweeping up the charts for a few years before heavy investment in a clean-cut, watered-down version regained their control of mass tastes.

But once opened, that door would be hard to shut.

The American Civil Rights movement of the early 60s mobilised to the strum of folk guitars and protest songs, while in Britain the imitation-American pop stars were shadowed by a blues-obsessed underground of jazz clubs and coffee bars.

These trends alone, however, can't explain the explosion of creativity from 1962 to 1970; this is where history-altering personalities take centre-stage: The Beatles and Dylan.

Mass popularity and innovative brilliance have rarely combined to such effect as in the emergence of The Beatles.

The "guitar group" - inspired by Chicago blues bands - was dismissed by both America's elite folk singers and the vocal outfits confected in New York's Brill Building, but became the model for aspiring British musicians and simmered in the back of the most adventurous musical minds in America.

In 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan turned his back on the political commissars who had sponsored his emergence as a folk prophet and split the night air with a wild cry that took popular music in a new direction.

This combination of non-linear lyrics, rhythm & blues guitar licks, anti-showbiz dress and attitude and maximum volume was what we now call "rock music".

Having been led to that moment by The Beatles, Dylan returned the favour, handing them a joint in the back of a limo and showing them how to turn their genius in a far more subversive direction.

From that night to the end of the decade, new stars and startling recordings seemed to emerge monthly: Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sgt Pepper, Tommy, Beggars Banquet, Music from Big Pink, Pink Floyd, Cream, Otis Redding, James Brown... the list seems endless.

It was a time when things were not nailed down - the mechanics of dissemination were as fluid as the musical forms that passed through them, allowing wildly original music to reach far and wide.

Record companies learned how to relax and count the money.

Activism and hedonism

The music helped to inspire politically aware kids in the streets of Paris, Mexico City, Chicago - and even London.

Governments were forced to re-think how to control their rebellious youth. No more could the Pentagon wage war with an army of unwilling conscripts.

Mexico and France led the way in the violent suppression of student activism while Britain and America's responses were more subtle.

By the early 70s, excess had claimed the lives of many of music's pioneers and a constricted post-Oil-crisis economy had clamped down on the carefree hedonism of the mid-60s.

Today, the world is still having trouble coming to terms with the social and political changes born in the 60s.

In music, we are left with box-sets, reissues and sound-alike tribute bands.

Ponderous heavy-metal guitar solos mock Dylan's night in Newport and Oasis' pallid imitations do their best to sully the legacy of The Beatles.

"Underground" or "revolutionary" music now comes with a corporate sponsor and doesn't even try to lead its followers into the streets to protest government misdeeds.

History is cyclical. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long for the next '60s' decade.

Joe Boyd is a record producer and author of White Bicycles: making music in the 1960s

This is great: http://www.archive.org/details/robynhitchcock2011-03-12.RobynHitchcock_2011-03-12.chineseWhiteBicycles.aud.flac

I should've posted this earlier, but I hadn't looked into his new book until I attended Boyd's appearance at Villa Albertine tonight (the last NYC-area promotional event he has scheduled) and it's pretty great. I haven't come close to finishing it yet as it's over 900 pages, but it's quite a read and these promotional appearances play like a lecture from a college course I really wish I had. He's wonderful to listen to, and even with David Byrne there tonight to add some sharp observations, it was mostly Boyd doing the talking. (Still feels surreal to me how Byrne casually walked in through the front door of the French Embassy where the event was located while everyone was waiting in this tight foyer - he just wandered around, not knowing where to go, as he audibly told a staff member who helped him.)

If you have any interest in musicology as it relates to the world's cultural history (which unavoidably will mean engaging with the worst and most brutal aspects of humanity, like cultural genocide and slavery perpetuated by European imperialism and especially religious reactionaries, something that profoundly shaped how popular music would develop), this is probably an essential read. My hesitation only comes from the fact that I'm no scholar in the field, so I can't say whether there are other books that would stand as mightier accomplishments, but this one is definitely riveting.

Boyd reactivated his Facebook account and is using it to post updates, including info on the remaining upcoming appearances. (Would have loved to have seen the UK date with Brian Eno moderating.) D.C. and Chicago are next.

Sounds great, I loved White Bicycles, keen to check this one out

Thanks for the heads up on the book, that was an instant order for me.

You're welcome! I didn't see much word-of-mouth even with Byrne there, and I overheard an organizer mentioning his relief after some concern about turnout, so I figure I should spread the word.

Sounds great, I loved White Bicycles, keen to check this one out

I want to go to the dc appearance Saturday. I think it’s free and first come first serve w/ no reservations.

But the Joe Boyd appearance Saturday September 14 was just cancelled

But he did this interview with the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/09/13/roots-rhythm-remain-world-music-joe-boyd-interview/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0nM60MuyOD9Fz2wIy0biLUOERmSF3dx0j8Yxo9HXhduQw-Pa6Y5ddaXxw_aem_UMfTpb_MpfQGkPkwaL055Q

But the Washington Post contains potassium benzoate...

Seriously, that sucks, but it looks like they're hoping to reschedule.

Chicago's appearance is now postponed. Hope he's all right.

No explanation on his Facebook page for the postponed appearances.

He just posted an update in his latest Instagram story. He apologized for the two cancellations, which was a result of illness, and he says they're going to try and reschedule the DC and Chicago dates. Otherwise, the tour is back on and the next stop is Nashville.