White Bicycles ~ Making Music In the 1960s
Recorded between 1966-1971
This CD issued on Fledg'ling Records FLED 3061 in June 2006
This CD, basically a companion piece to Joe Boyd's book of the same name, contains key selections of the bands he produced / managed. Joe Boyd was an American who helped shape the careers of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, Pink Floyd and others by being a great producer and even greater manger with enough understanding about the music biz and the musicians under his Witchseason Productions company.
This 23-song compilation is sure to attract the attention of Richard Thompson fanatics, who will be drawn to the presence of the previously unissued "Church Mouse" by Dudu Pukwana & Spear; Thompson and Simon Nicol played with the African alto saxman on what was to be a major single release, but one that only made it out in South Africa, and only in partly finished form, as far as Boyd and the artist were concerned. Of course, those who love great guitar playing may also want to give a close listen to "Spanish Ladies Medley" by Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy, and Diz Disley, where the plucked instruments run thick and rich and reach into Django Reinhardt territory (and why does one get the feeling, listening to this, that if Reinhardt had lived Boyd would have gotten him in on this?). This is also the second major anthology release of 2006 to feature Vashti Bunyan, which must say something about her prominence in the pantheon of British folk artists of the 1960s, putting her alongside the Incredible String Band, Fotheringay, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins, Nick Drake et al. -- not bad for a singer whose most visible and easily accessible piece of music 15 years ago was a fragment of an unreleased Immediate track on the soundtrack of the documentary Tonight Let's All Make Love in London. Not that this is remotely an all-folk collection -- it opens with the 1966-vintage recording of "Crossroads" by Eric Clapton & the Powerhouse, and also includes tracks by Pink Floyd ("Arnold Layne"), Soft Machine ("She's Gone"), and Nico ("Afraid").
Boyd co-produced this collection, which touches on some of the key points of his career from several angles -- Pink Floyd's debut single, the recording of which got Boyd squeezed out of the business end of their success and off of their subsequent records, even though it was a hit; his venture into jug band music with the Purple Gang's "Granny Takes a Trip"; and the debut single by Fairport Convention, "If I Had a Ribbon Bow," to demonstrate how he and the band accommodated each other's differing approaches to music. From Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking album -- they had truly started working on all cylinders at this point but the album's material was obliterated from their stage work by the road accident that killed their drummer soon after its completion -- comes the trauma of "Autopsy," followed by "The Deserter," representing the band's new peak achieved on Liege & Lief. The blind alleys and not fully realized pieces are also worth hearing, and not just because they're previously unissued. "I Don't Mind" by Ed Carter and Mike Kowalski -- two members of the Beach Boys' touring band who chose to stay behind in England after a tour there -- is a good example of bluesy, folky progressive guitar-dominated rock with some powerful jazz elements; one wonders, if they'd been able to muster a full album, what these guys might have done both in and to music in 1969-1970. "Church Mouse" by Dudu Pukwana & Spear is worth it, whatever the producer's reservations, Thompson and Nicol's guitars adding some charming embellishment to the sax and trumpet. It all ends on a nicely, zanily bizarre note with the Geoff & Maria Muldaur recording of "Brazil," the old musical chestnut best known for its use in a pair of movies, 1943's The Gang's All Here (in which it first appeared) and Terry Gilliam's Brazil in 1985. The sound is superb throughout, and the annotation by Boyd is nicely personal and enlightening.
01. Eric Clapton & the Powerhouse Crossroads 2:20
02. The Incredible String Band Way Back In The 1960s 3:12
03. Johnny Handle Because It Wouldn't Pay 1:46
04. Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy & Diz Disley Spanish Ladies Medley 1:37
05. The Pink Floyd Arnold Layne 2:56
06. The Purple Gang Granny Takes A Trip 2:37
07. Soft Machine She's Gone 2:31
08. Fairport Convention If I Had A Ribbon Bow 2:43
09. Shirley Collins Seven Yellow Gypsies 1:46
10. The Incredible String Band Chinese White 3:40
11. Fairport Convention Autopsy 4:23
12. Fairport Convention The Deserter 4:25
13. Nick Drake Poor Boy 6:08
14. Fotheringay The Sea 5:32
15. Mike Heron Flowers of the Forest 5:46
16. Vashti Bunyan Come Wind Come Rain 2:08
17. John & Beverley Martyn Primrose Hill 2:56
18. The New Nadir I Don't Mind 4:15
19. Dudu Pukwana & Spear Church Mouse 2:47
20. Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath Andromeda 4:08
21. Nico Afraid 3:30
22. Nick Drake Way To Blue 3:10
23. Geoff & Maria Muldaur Brazil 3:32
When Muddy Waters came to London at the start of the 60s, a kid from Boston called Joe Boyd was his tour manager; when Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Festival, Joe Boyd was plugging in his guitar; when the summer of love got going, Joe Boyd was running the coolest club in London, the UFO; when a bunch of club regulars called Pink Floyd recorded their first single, Joe Boyd was the producer; when a young songwriter named Nick Drake wanted to give his demo tape to someone, he chose Joe Boyd. When, 35 years after it was recorded, "Just Another Diamond Day" by Vashti Bunyan came to the publics attention it was found that he had produced it.
Record and film producer Joe Boyd was born in Boston in 1942 and graduated from Harvard in 1964. He went on to produce Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, R.E.M. and many others. He produced the documentary Jimi Hendrix[/i] and the film Scandal. In 1980 he started Hannibal Records and ran it for 20 years. Boyd lives in London where he writes for The Guardian and Independent.
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