Thursday, June 22, 2023

An Early Clue to the New Direction: Special "Quick, Henry -- The Flit!" Edition

From 1970, and their eponymous debut album, please enjoy the original four-man lineup of Brinsley Schwarz performing Nick Lowe's uncharacteristically non-ironic "Mayfly."

This, of course, verges on the dreaded prog-rock territory (specifically early Yes) but what saves it is the fact that the song itself is quite pretty (in a folkish sort of way) and, more important, the lyrical organ playing of Bob Andrews; if you ever saw the band I toiled in on keyboards (after the demise of The Floor Models), you would have noticed that I pretty much stole everything I ever played from Andrews' work on this one song. Just gorgeous.

In any case, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded to the first reader who gleans its relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.

16 comments:

Allan Rosenberg said...

Songs about band members organs!

;-)

Captain Al

steve simels said...

Nobody likes a wisseass, Captain Al.

Gummo said...

Songs referencing insects.

Anonymous said...

All right. Rock & roll with great organ solos.

Or rock and rollers with great organs! Yeah like Garth Hudson. Yeah that’s what I mean.

;-)

Captain Al

M_Sharp said...

Band names that you never thought would be a person's actual name

or... Bands named after insects

or... Songs about irritating pests ...which would probably be more appropriate when the political campaigns intensify

Alzo said...

Songs featuring the Hammond B3?

Anonymous said...

Bands that never did a proper tour of the USA.

They only ever played a weekend at Fillmore East as a 3rd bill band to Van Morrison and Quicksilver. It was part of a pay-to-play hype gone haywire generated by their management. They didn't even have a US record deal at the time, though the S/T LP was already out in England.

I remember them getting airplay in L.A. on KPPC and KMET late 1970 for about month. This was after the US debut was released in the Fall.

Also, a few years later, there was a perfect segue involving Brinsley on the radio. One I'll never forget. I was having a post afterglow du Maurier with a special guy in a hotel with an FM in the TV. KMET jock, Richard Kimball, played Waylon & Jessi's "Under Your Spell Again," followed by "Surrender To the Rhythm." FM sure was great back them. And we did.

VR

Anonymous said...

Favorite Pub-Rock bands or songs?

VR

steve simels said...

Sorry folks, this was me kinda misdirecting you on the clue

Honorary No-Prizes to all.😎

pete said...

YOU get a no-prize! YOU get a no-prize!

getawaygoober said...

I have their first 2 albums... always liked them.
Clue may be their association with Dave Edmunds... Love Sculpture, Rockpile, etc.
The Love Sculpture albums (Blues Helping "tombstone" cover, Forms & Feelings w/ Sabre Dance) were classics.

Anonymous said...

The Greasy Truckers Party 2-LP import had some nice Brinsley Schwarz live stuff on it. Also, the import double 10", Christmas at the Patti, had some great Edmunds material.

Bought the 2nd Love Sculpture before the first. "Farandole" was nuts. 1st effort was more bluesy. Someone, an asshole I nicknamed Fuzzy, stole my first 2 Brinsley LP's and a lot more. I got a couple of guys from the Hessians MC to fuck him up. He was so terrified that he moved to another state after getting out of the hospital.:) Fuckin' worm. In 1978 I bought the twofer gatefold of the first LP's to make up for it.

VR

getawaygoober said...

To Anonymous - VR,
When I was in the barracks and building up my album stash, I started putting my name on the album back cover. Nothing was ever stolen but it ruined the "collectible" status. Wish I never did that.
Then again, I'll probably die before I start trying to sell some. They're alphabetized, so my heirs can neatly stack them at the curb for garbage collection.

Anonymous said...

That's funny. The only album that I have with my name on the back upper left corner is The Dave Clark Five-American Tour. My mom did it. I was just a kid, but I didn't like it. A lot of my girlfriends wrote their names on the back too. But the phonographs we were playing them on ground them down anyway. I replaced most of my OG mid sixties stuff with clean mono and stereo original pressings. Hang onto the vinyl. They've remastered and remixed the fuck out of everything to the point that it doesn't sound like you remember. It ain't right. IMO the Stones post-London/ABKCO 2009 remasters done by Universal are shitty. Some more than others. It's like fucking with a Rembrandt. Why? And if they can't help themselves, at least throw the original mix on a second disc so you can compare. I think it's rather strange that they celebrate a classic album by by having some fader happy engineer remix and tweek it. A minor beef.


VR

Anonymous said...

Steve:
May I quote you for the cover of my upcoming autobiography.

Captain Al

GLLinMO said...

When I was made aware of Nick Lowe, I bought this album out of the cut out bin. Hmmmm. Certainly not the power pop I was expecting, as experienced by later Brinsley albums. Stiil, it found occasional play on the turntable when in a more mellow mood.

And agree that Bob Andrews was a great keyboardist. Was he a part of the GP and the rumour? I need to check into that. Will say that Andrews made the Rumour’s Mess with Love off of Max a song I still que up to this day.

Finally- no way can I listen to this first Brinsley album and think “ they should have been huge”. No matter the organ.