Fairport Convention - "Tale In a Hard Time"
In the liner notes to Fairport Convention's 1968 album, What We Did On Our Holidays, there is mention of the band's "Byrd-worshipping." And nowhere is the influence more apparent than on Richard Thompson's beautiful piece of psych-jangle, "Tale In a Hard Time." It would be easy to confuse this track for an early Byrds song if it wasn't for the left-channel guitar solo at 1:43 (a round relic of earlier rock, unlike the angular progressive psych solos favoured by the early Byrds (more like the primary solo, shared between both channels)).
All the best elements of jangle are here. The intertwining picked guitars. The thick melodic bass. Lush vocal harmonies. Tambourine on the high-hat. Is that a glockenspiel taking up the first guitar's melody? (Seriously, does anybody know what instrument is playing that part coming from behind my right ear?)
I remember Sean complaining about Fairport Convention's production as being too clean and "cheesy." But for me, the production is a window through which we can see (another window) the clarity of The Fairport Convention's densely interwoven melody. Cleanliness is therefore key. It would be all too easy to obscure with muddiness what is great about this song. [Buy]
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"Moonshake" is like a 1960's Japanese party movie set in the future.
Or like children line-dancing in tuxedos in a pure-white room painted with empty primary-coloured speech-bubbles.
Damo Suzuki sings like he's kidding (he most certainly is not). Like after every word comes out of his mouth he puts his finger to his mouth as if to say "shhh," and then gives suspicious sideways glances to his left and right before continuing, child-like, to bunny-hop alongside the tuxedoed children.
The krautrock repetitiveness of the guitars is overshadowed by the weirdness, the science and the loungy sax/guitar/croon. [Buy]
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Why no comments? You don't love music anymore? Or is it me who you have forsaken?